Republican FCC Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O’Rielly are the lone dissenters on what is now known as a 3-2 decision to largely keep the Commission’s 41-year-old broadcast cross-ownership rules intact.
The release of the nearly 200-page Second Report and Order on August 25 revealed one new detail: “Minor modifications” were made to the rules, making it now permissible for a single company to own a broadcast station or newspaper in a given market if either media property “is failed or failing.”
“Viewpoint diversity” was perhaps the key consideration in how the FCC reviewed its rules, and how Commissioners ultimately voted.
