SCOTUS to hear petitions on media ownership

 

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Oct. 2 that it will hear petitions filed by the Federal Communications Commission and a group of industry stakeholders seeking to reinstate the FCC’s steps to modernize the country’s media ownership rules, including the repeal of a 1970s-era rule that prohibits common ownership of a newspaper and a TV or radio station in the same market. The FCC’s changes were overturned last year by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on procedural grounds.

The News Media Alliance was among the stakeholders mentioned above. “We commend the Supreme Court for deciding to hear these important cases,” said News Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern in a statement on the organization’s website. “The media cross ownership rule is derived from a bygone era that no longer exists in today’s diverse media landscape.”

The appeals court panel that preserved the cross-ownership rule is the same one that agreed with the FCC in 2003 that the ban was no longer in the public interest and in 2017 admonished the FCC for failing to act to revise it, says the News Media Alliance.

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