If media continues to consolidate, it will be without FCC help

Published: 2004-07-02

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Federal Communications Commission received a stinging rebuke in late June when a federal court threw out the rules the commission had established a year ago that would have permitted greater media consolidation. The FCC's consolidation moves of 2003 would have permitted ownership of a greater number of media outlets by the same company, allowed greater concentration of ownership within cities, and given a green light to greater ownership across different forms of media. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was just one in a sea of voices, both institutional and individual, decrying the FCC actions. Both houses of Congress, having heard the outcry, had acted to rein in the FCC action until a late-in-the-year compromise nudged the television station ownership limits upward, leaving most of the other rules intact. But when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit struck down the rules -- which had been backed by most of the media giants -- it was back to the drawing board for the FCC.

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