FCC’s second attempt to open door
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Scott Jagow: The Federal Communications Commission might be in the mood to relax media ownership rules. The FCC could decide tomorrow whether to allow one company to own a newspaper and a TV station in the same city. More now from John Dimsdale.
John Dimsdale: The FCC’s first try at loosening ownership restrictions was thrown out by the courts as too sweeping. This second, more modest attempt would still allow one company to own both a newspaper and a TV station in any one of the country’s top 20 markets.
Consumer Reports’ Gene Kimmelman says fewer media mean fewer sources of information.
Gene Kimmelman: Allowing a monopoly local newspaper to combine with one of the largest broadcasters in a market reduces the amount of competition and diversity of viewpoints about local news.
But broadcasters and newspapers say the business has changed and even for local news, there are now blogs and websites, podcasts and cable channels offering plenty of news.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is asking the FCC to delay its vote for at least six months to try for a compromise.
In Washington, I’m John Dimsdale for Marketplace.
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