Public Interest Groups Support Draft Quadrennial Order, Condemn Lack of Studies

Public interest groups support the FCC plan to leave media ownership rules largely intact but are “disappointed” in the FCC's failure to study broadcast ownership diversity, said a joint filing Monday by groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, Free Press, Common Cause, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Asian Americans Advancing Justice and the United Church of Christ Communications Office (UCC). The public interest advocates and NAB are battling via ex parte filings over proposed changes to the newspaper/broadcast ownership rule, though a majority of commissioners already voted on the draft quadrennial review order and the final order is expected to be released by next week (see 1607140069). “Eliminating the newspaper broadcast rule will aid neither small broadcasters or newspapers, nor such outlets owned by women and people of color,” said the public interest groups' filing. “Retaining a rule that deters investment by broadcasters in the struggling print newspaper industry certainly cannot serve the public interest,” NAB said in a filing Tuesday.

Avowing their support for the FCC draft media ownership order, the public interest groups condemned the agency's lack of ownership studies and data collection on media ownership. “The FCC has done nothing of consequence to further policies that would increase ownership by women and people of color,” the groups said. The agency didn't do “a single study that would justify rules to increase ownership diversity,” the groups said. Aside from expressing “disappointment” over the studies, the groups were largely complimentary of the FCC's plans. The FCC didn't comment.

Several public interest groups -- including the UCC -- have jointly asked the FCC to reject recent filings by NAB in the media ownership docket 14-50 as late filed, because most of the commissioners had already voted on the item. An extensive NAB filing disputing the FCC's eight-voices test is “a last-minute sneak attack” submitted “far too late in the Commission’s deliberative process to be considered in connection with this proceeding,” the UCC filing said. Since the NAB filing was submitted last week, a week after it was announced that three commissioners had voted the item, it should be “dismissed without consideration,” the UCC filing said. If the FCC responds to the UCC's challenge of the NAB filing, it likely will do so within the eventual media ownership order, Georgetown Law Institute for Public Representation Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman told us.

Meanwhile, parties to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals case on the quadrennial review are participating in court-ordered mediation to decide on a definition of an eligible entity. That mediation -- which includes Prometheus Radio Project and the FCC -- was supposed to have been completed Monday, but last week the court granted a request from the parties to extend the deadline 30 days to Aug. 24. “We anticipate that with this brief extension we will be able to report to the Court more definitively the timetable for the agency to take final agency action,” said the letter from Prometheus Radio Project and the FCC.

Though FCC officials said the draft orders as they were voted don't lift the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rules, NAB argued in its filing Tuesday that the rules should be changed. “The only result that can rationally be expected from the continued prohibition is to hasten the demise of print newspapers,” NAB said. Officials on both the broadcast and public interest sides of the media ownership rules have said further legal challenges to the FCC rules from the two sides are a near certainty (see 1606280056).