Ajit Pai Rushes To Weaken Media Ownership Cap To Aid Sinclair... While Under Investigation For Being Too Cozy With Sinclair

from the ill-communication dept

We've discussed for a while now how FCC boss Ajit Pai is busy gutting decades old media consolidation rules simply to help Sinclair Broadcast Group complete its $4 billion acquisition of Tribune. Many of these rules traditionally enjoy bipartisan support, since they protect local news organizations and free speech from being crushed by any one, major broadcaster. And Sinclair's merger, which would allow it to reach nearly 72% of the country with its facts-optional and monolithic programming (as that recent viral Deadspin video attests), has been routinely under fire by groups on both sides of the partisan aisle.

As Sinclair moved to acquire Tribune, it kept running into FCC rules. Rules Ajit Pai was more than happy to systematically remove at every step in perfect synchronicity with Sinclair's ambition. And while Pai's allies on the commission claim this timing is all just quirky happenstance, the allegations have resulted in the FCC's nonpartisan inspector general launching an investigation into possible corruption and coordination between the FCC and the broadcaster. Pai's fellow Commissioners like Jessica Rosenworcel have publicly stated the Trump FCC is little more than a rubber stamp for Sinclair:

As I have said before, the @FCC’s big media policy decisions all seem custom built for the business plans of Sinclair Broadcasting. This is not right. https://t.co/Pt4np64bIe — Jessica Rosenworcel (@JRosenworcel) June 14, 2018

To specifically help Sinclair's merger squeeze in under the media ownership cap, Pai's FCC restored an irrelevant bit of 1980's regulatory guidance known as the UHF Discount. Built in the 1980's as a mechanism to adjust for the lesser quality and reach of UHF stations, the rule was eliminated a few years ago for being the sort of outdated regulatory red tape Pai's FCC routinely pretends to be waging war against. But Pai's FCC suddenly and quickly restored the rule just a few weeks before Sinclair announced its merger, conveniently allowing Sinclair to under-state the company's real ownership reach.

That, in turn, has resulted in a looming legal challenge driven largely by consumer groups (but again enjoying bipartisan support from Conservatives like Newsmax CEO and Trump ally Chris Ruddy):

"A panel of appellate judges questioned why the FCC reinstated a rule that allows media companies to amass a greater number of stations and still fall within ownership limits...The three judges on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals panel raised some concerns about the rationale behind the FCC’s decision in April, 2017, to reinstate the UHF discount after abolishing it a year earlier... Chris Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax, who has been highly critical of the FCC’s action, as well as of the Sinclair-Tribune merger, said in a statement that “the judges on the DC Circuit reviewing the FCC’s UHF discount were left scratching their heads wondering why the rule was re-instated when everyone — Republicans and Democrats alike — agree that the discount is an analog relic and makes no sense in a digital world.

Undaunted by an ongoing corruption investigation, Pai is rushing forward with a July 12 vote to further erode a rule prohibiting any one broadcaster from reaching more than 39% of the national audience. The hope, clearly, is to formalize a higher overall ownership cap before the courts can challenge the FCC's previous rule changes. However, there's ample question as to whether the FCC has the authority to modify this cap (even some of Pai's allied Commissioners have acknowledged they may not), and such a ruling will absolutely be quickly appealed.

Sinclair, meanwhile, is busy trying to burrow over and under what media ownership rules remain, in part by promising to offload some stations to shell companies or companies that still have a relationship with Sinclair.

All told, it's just another example of how Trump's "populist" rhetoric is about as deep as a mud-puddle and authentic as a wild west movie set. Between efforts to hamstring competition, neuter regulatory oversight, and gut net neutrality and rubber stamp major media mergers (from Sinclair to the looming tie up between Sprint and T-Mobile), Ajit Pai's FCC is pursuing a very specific idea of what they want the future of the internet and media to look like, with healthy competition, consumers and small business welfare being a very, very distant afterthought.

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Filed Under: ajit pai, fcc, investigations, media ownership

Companies: sinclair