FCC Gives Up Ownership Ruling Appeal, Effectively Accepts Loss

Posted by Mitchell - January 27, 2005 (entry 274)

To add injury to insult, not only does Michael Powell leave his pockmarked tenure as FCC chair, but word comes down that the Solicitor General will refuse to appeal the media ownership rule case, thus effectively leaving intact the Philadelphia decision which upended the FCC's attempts to overturn the media ownership rules.

Translation: The Bush administration and the FCC will not bother to use the courts to get what it wants. It looks like the option of going to court to get the media ownership rules upended is now very much locked out. Good news. This buys us time before the corporate freaks try to get what they want directly by forcing a rewrite of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Also: Reuters has reported on the case. And even though the odds are stacked against them, the Tribune Company and friends are going to file a Supreme Court appeal anyway.

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