Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit overturned the Federal Communications Commission’s attempt to weaken its ownership rules and allow big media companies to buy up even more local outlets.
In 2007, the FCC ignored letters and calls from millions of Americans and tried to change its media ownership rules to allow companies to own both newspapers and broadcast stations in the same market. This change would have given individual companies enormous – and unacceptable – control over your local media in print, on TV, on the radio and even online.
Free Press and a coalition of public interest organizations challenged the FCC in court, and today the court agreed that the FCC was wrong. The court also upheld all other media consolidation restrictions and told the FCC it needed to do better to support and foster diverse voices in the media – two crucial decisions in the fight to build better media. With very few exceptions, the court squarely rejected the big media companies’ arguments.
At a time when corporate control of our media and our democracy is spinning out of control, this decision is a vital win.
Below are some highlights of the decision (which you can read here):
On One Company Owning Local Newspapers and Broadcast Stations: The Court rejected the FCC’s decision to gut the broadcast/newspaper cross-ownership ban. Back in 2007, Free Press used the FCC’s own data to show that this change would lead to less local news and unevenly impact minority media owners. However, this ruling doesn’t take the cross-ownership issue off the table for future consideration by the FCC, so we may see future attempts to weaken this important rule.
On Media Consolidation Broadly: The court affirmed the FCC’s decision to maintain all other media ownership rules, which broadcasters tried very hard to get thrown out. Free Press and its allies argued that the rules should be maintained or strengthened. The Court affirmed that the media ownership rules are not only constitutional, but that there is evidence that the rules remain necessary to promote competition and diversity in the digital age.
On Media Diversity: The court found that the FCC failed to explain or justify how its proposed policies would promote ownership by women and people of color. The Court cited Free Press comments and research showing that the FCC’s female and minority ownership data was in shambles and said that the FCC “did not address proposals offering race- and gender-neutral means to increase opportunities for minority and female ownership put forward by UCC and Free Press.” The court added that “the Commission referenced no data on television ownership by minorities or women and no data regarding commercial radio ownership by women. This is because, as the Commission has since conceded, it has no accurate data to cite.”
But, this victory does not belong just to Free Press and our allies. We work with hundreds of thousands of Americans to hold our public servants accountable for fostering a media that works for the public, not just corporations. In fact, the court pointed to public comments from local citizens as a key factor in overturning the FCC’s attempt to change its rules. This decision makes it clear: Citizens’ voices matter.
The fight is far from over. This summer the FCC is reviewing its media ownership rules once again. This court decision should be a wake-up call to the agency that it must listen to the public and protect the public interest.
While this court case upholds some vital media consolidation protections, it might not be enough. Right now around the country, local stations are using loopholes and backroom deals to get around current media ownership rules. We have found at least 200 stations in 80 communities that are currently consolidating all or part of their newsroom, putting more and more media in the hands of fewer and fewer people. While the courts may uphold the FCC’s current rules, we need the FCC to go even further. Click here to tell the FCC to stop this covert media consolidation.