FCC Should Promote Transparency in Ownership Waivers, Say Rainbow PUSH and UCC
A waiver granted to Fox Television Stations to let it to own WWOR-TV Secaucus, New Jersey, and The New York Post is "unprecedented relief" because it allows Fox to extend the duration of the waiver so long as it requests…
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a new waiver after the FCC acts on its 2014 quadrennial review, said the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and United Church of Christ in an ex parte filing posted in docket 07-260 Tuesday. Since FCC proposals for the quadrennial review don't include allowing common ownership of two TV stations and a daily newspaper, "it is a near certainty that Fox will have to request a new waiver, thereby effectively extending Fox’s conditional waiver beyond the end of the 2014 Quadrennial Review," the groups said. The FCC should "hold the Media Bureau accountable" and promote greater transparency for waivers of rules, the filing said. To do so, the bureau could release a list of all outstanding ownership waivers online, and put out public notices when licensees seek new waivers or extensions, the groups said. "Enacting these suggestions would reinforce the Commission’s current efforts in tightening compliance with the ownership rules."