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The Hill

GOP Leader Rips Into FCC’s Updated Media Ownership Rules

Aug 26, 2016  •  Post A Comment

A top GOP lawmaker tore into the Federal Communications Commission over its update this week of its media ownership rules.

“The FCC’s rules, released Wednesday, dictate that entities cannot own both a newspaper and broadcast station in the same market,” The Hill reports. “The requirement isn’t new, but the FCC decided this month to keep the regulation in place after a review.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., responded harshly. “In a statement, Goodlatte said the FCC had ‘overreacted’ and that it was ‘likely to harm the objectives of smaller media outlets eager to compete,'” The Hill reports.

Goodlatte is quoted in the report saying: “Today, the FCC continues its recent tradition of advancing unnecessary and burdensome regulations on a partisan basis while ignoring new technologies and market realities, with the likely outcome of harming competition.”

The National Association of Broadcasters also expressed disappointment in a letter to the FCC, and submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the agency to obtain documents related to the ruling, the report notes.

In a statement, FCC Commissioner Mignon L. Clyburn defended the decision, saying: “We are on the cusp of seeing major changes to the television landscape. There will be fewer broadcast television stations on the air post-auction. Relaxing the Commission’s media ownership rules at this time, will neither increase the number of diverse stations nor will it create additional local voices.”

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