Reject Fox NBCO Permanent Waiver, Free Press, Common Cause, UCC Ask FCC

Reject Fox’s call for a permanent waiver from the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule for WWOR-TV Secaucus, New Jersey (see 2011240063), said Free Press, the United Church of Christ Office of Communication and Common Cause in joint comments to the FCC posted Wednesday in docket 20-378. Don't rule on such a waiver when the White House and FCC are about to change hands and the NBCO faces Supreme Court review, they said. “If the Commission were to accept Fox’s utterly circular argument, basing the necessity of any waiver grant on little more than the applicants’ own self-serving opinion of its necessity, then it would render the agency’s own rules useless,” they said. “Fox’s string of temporary waivers does not create a precedent to support granting it a permanent waiver.” Examine "WWOR’s history and whether it is currently meeting its public interest obligations and serving New Jerseyans," the filing said.