FCC vote lifting cross-ownership ban shows agency still doesn’t get it

For Immediate Release
Dec. 18, 2007

Contact: Mary Boyle
(202) 736-5770

FCC vote lifting cross-ownership ban shows agency still doesn’t get it

WASHINGTON -- Today, the Federal Communications Commission voted to remove the longstanding "newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership" ban that prohibits a local newspaper from owning a broadcast station in the same market.

Common Cause President Bob Edgar made the following comment:

“The FCC still doesn’t seem to get it: Media consolidation is bad for America,” said Bob Edgar, president of Common Cause. “Today’s vote to allow greater media consolidation is merely a handout to big business at the expense of the public. For Americans to get the information they need to participate in our democracy, we need more diverse sources of information – not fewer.”

Common Cause on Monday released a report in collaboration with the Media Access Project and Econometric Research and Analysis highlighting process problems at the FCC and offering recommendations to the FCC on being more responsive to the public interest. The report is available at www.commoncause.org/PainlessFCCReforms.

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Jon Bartholomew

Media Reform Campaign Coordinator

Common Cause

jbartholomew@commoncause.org

207-878-4126