FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 2, 2003
Contact:
Liz Rose, (202) 329-1167 or
(202) 462-6262 x1119
Consumers Union
Washington, DC – We are extremely disappointed with the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) final Report and Order on media ownership, released today. As anticipated, the Commission has paved the way for increased consolidation by our nation’s largest media conglomerates. This decision will likely result in the expansion of the biggest media corporations into local communities through the purchase of the most popular local broadcast stations and dominant local newspapers across the country.
The Commission has twisted itself into a pretzel to ensure that the media giants can own more local broadcast stations and newspapers using a logic that is not supported by the facts.
Given the danger of media companies moving quickly to swap popular local broadcast outlets and newspapers, we will continue to ask Congress to prevent such consolidation from occurring. We also intend to seek court review of the FCC decision given that the Commission has applied inconsistent reasoning to benefit large media owners. We believe the court will find the FCC’s actions incompatible with regulatory fact-finding and will reject the Commission’s reasoning.