Give 'em Zell! ... While You Still Can, etc.

Matt Welch | December 18, 2007

The good news: The FCC will now allow big-market media companies to own both a newspaper and broadcast station; at least as long as the market is one of the biggest 20 in the country, and any television station would be no bigger than the fifth-most popular.

The bad news: Why the F*CC are we even talking about this in 2007?

The worse news: If a Democrat wins the presidency, Democrats will run a majority on the FCC board. And here's the kind of nonsense Commission Democrats are saying:

"The FCC has never attempted such a brazen act of defiance against Congress," said [Jerome] Adelstein, in his comments. "Like the Titanic, we are steaming at full speed despite repeated warnings of danger ahead. We should have slowed down rather than put everything at risk."

"Today's story is a majority decision unconnected to good policy and not even incidentally concerned with encouraging media to make our democracy stronger," said [Michael] Copps[.]

In 2004, reason interviewed then-FCC Chair Michael Powell, and contributor Ben Compaine demolished the hoary myth of the "media monopoly." Also check out this FCC/ownership two-fer by Jesse Walker from 2003.