Media Bureau Inconsistent in NBCO Waivers, Say Rainbow PUSH, UCC

The FCC Media Bureau’s rejection of the pending quadrennial review order as a reason to grant a waiver of the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule requested by a Fredericksburg, Virginia, newspaper owner is inconsistent with a previous waiver granted to Fox and shows why the Fox waiver should be reversed, said the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and United Church of Christ in an ex parte filing posted in docket 07-260 Wednesday. The bureau said the pending media ownership proceeding didn’t constitute justification for a waiver to let Free Lance-Star License own a paper and a radio station in the same city, UCC and RPC said. The licensee was granted a temporary 12-month waiver that the bureau said would likely not be renewed, UCC and RPC said. The bureau has said the Fox request has unique circumstances that don’t apply in the Fredericksburg case, but UCC and RPC disagreed. “Fox’s permanent waiver request had been pending through ten years and two court remands of the relevant standard,” the bureau said in the order on the Fredricksburg waiver request. “The Bureau has applied post-hoc justifications for treating Fox differently that do not appear anywhere in the order granting Fox’s indefinite waiver,” said the ex parte filing. “We ask that the Commission act promptly to reverse the Media Bureau’s decision.”