Media Bureau Grants Rincon/Sinclair Deal, Doesn't Sanction Belendiuk
The Media Bureau has approved Sinclair’s sale of five stations to Rincon Broadcasting and waived a limit on common ownership of top-four stations in the same market, said an order Tuesday. The bureau also rejected a petition to deny the deal from recently formed public interest group Frequency Forward (see 2504150056). The group’s “allegations concerning Sinclair’s character qualifications have repeatedly been considered and rejected,” the order said.
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Although Sinclair requested that Frequency Forward’s counsel, Arthur Belendiuk of Smithwick & Belendiuk, be sanctioned for abusing FCC processes, the bureau didn’t do so. “While we decline to impose any sanctions at this time ... we remind all parties before the Commission that its process and procedures should not be abused for any purpose,” the order said. Sinclair has argued that Belendiuk files repetitive pleadings while representing “pretextual clients” to harass Sinclair.
Belendiuk has represented numerous clients in challenges against FCC actions involving the broadcaster, including a recently dismissed petition to deny renewals (see 2506300064) and litigation involving a records request related to Sinclair’s failed buy of Tribune. Belendiuk also represents the Media and Democracy Project in their challenge of the FCC’s dismissal of MAD’s petition to deny the license renewal of Fox’s WTXF Philadelphia. “They want to sanction me for pointing out what these guys are doing? I double-dog-dare them to sanction me,” Belendiuk said. He plans to appeal the Media Bureau order but doesn’t expect the full FCC to take up the matter, he said.
The Rincon sale involves WVTV Milwaukee; KTVO Kirksville, Missouri; WICD Champaign, Illinois; KHQA Hannibal, Missouri; and WICS Springfield, Illinois. KHQA carries both ABC and CBS affiliations in the Quincy-Hannibal-Keokuk designated market area, while KTVO carries both ABC and CBS affiliations in the Ottumwa-Kirksville DMA. Permitting Rincon to keep the existing top-four combinations “makes it more likely that Rincon would continue the service that Sinclair currently provides” in those markets, the order said. The evidence in the record demonstrates that the markets likely wouldn’t support single stand-alone top-four network-affiliated streams, it said.