FCC...making sense?

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 30 Aug 2004 at 17:22, Sid Schweiger wrote:

> Attempting to reverse consolidation would probably result in court cases
> dragging on much longer than his presidency would last.

Depends on what specific measures are adopted.  I don't think consolidation can be reversed 
in the short term, but further consolidation can be curtailed.  And the rules that the FCC put 
into effect in the 1960s to encourage diversity can be re-instituted in some fashion.

Back in the 1960s, the FCC decided that the AM-FM-TV-newspaper combos were a bad 
thing.  They didn't require any divestiture, but they prevented further acquisitions and required 
that when co-owned stations were sold, they had to be sold separately.  I doubt that 
anything more drastic than that could be accomplished, short of a Democratic landslide of 
Roosevelt proportions, and I just don't see that happening any time soon, much as I'd like to 
see it.

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
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