Do you check your Twitter feed to get the latest news? Monitor trending topics on your Facebook page to see what’s making headlines? Set news alerts on Google News? Read blogs analyzing the latest at the White House? Watch breaking news on cable networks or YouTube channels?

No doubt most of you do some or all of these things. But none of these information sources exist in the regulatory world of the Federal Communications Commission, where core media ownership rules presume the marketplace for news is defined entirely by pulp, rabbit ears and transistor radios. In this archaic world, Americans get their news only from newspapers and broadcast television and radio stations, and the internet doesn’t exist.

For over four decades, the F.C.C. has restricted the ability of broadcast media outlets to also own newspapers, and vice versa, in the same market, under what is known as the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule.

This rule was established in 1975 with the stated purpose of preserving and promoting a diversity of viewpoints. Arguably, it made sense at the time. But with the internet now dominating the news landscape, the rule is no longer needed, and may actually be undermining the diversity of viewpoints it was intended to foster.