Court Says FCC Ignored Hard Data in Rush to Help Media Monopolies

guest · Sep 24, 2019

Court Says FCC Ignored Hard Data in Rush to Help Media Monopolies
The court found the FCC failed to consider the negative impact pandering to media monopolies has on the broader public
September 24, 2019
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/...ed-hard-data-in-rush-to-help-media-monopolies

The FCC’s multi-year effort to kill media consolidation rules at the behest of giants like Sinclair Broadcasting has been rejected by the courts, who ruled the agency failed to seriously consider the negative impact unchecked media monopolies have on the public at large.

In a 2-1 new ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit forced the FCC to go back to the drawing board in its quest to make life easier for media giants, arguing the agency “did not adequately consider the effect its sweeping rule changes will have on ownership of broadcast media by women and racial minorities."
[...] FCC analysis justifying its decision was “so insubstantial that it would receive a failing grade in any introductory statistics class.”

“At first glance, this is a huge victory for the listening and viewing public," Andrew Schwartzman, one of the lawyers battling the FCC told Motherboard in a statement.
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Christopher Terry, a professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Minnesota, told Motherboard that this is the fourth time in the last fifteen years the FCC has had its wrist slapped by the courts in the media consolidation debate.

“This represents the 4th time the FCC has lost on the same basic issue,” he said. “There is no empirical evidence to support what the agency has done on media ownership since 1996.”
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Court Says FCC Ignored Hard Data in Rush to Help Media Monopolies

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