Local News Departments

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 19 Nov 2006 at 2:35, Don A. wrote:

> I have heard that the reason the FCC persisted with this case to the
> degree that they did, was because Tip O'Neil had an ax to grind with
> General Tire/Rubbah.  (I understand this was only the 2nd time in
> History that a TV station lost it's licence, the first being the old
> WHDH-TV Ch 5.)
 
I hadn't heard that about Tip O' Neill before, but I was wondering if 
there were political overtones in that action.

There may well have been political overtones in the loss of the WHDH-
TV license by the Herald Traveler.  The H-T was the voice of the 
Republican Party in Massachusetts at the time, and the Globe was the 
leading Democratic paper with some affinity for the Kennedys.  The 
Globe had major objections to the Herald-Traveler having, in addition 
to its newspaper interests, an AM and FM radio station and a 
television station.  

The "ex-party contact" consisted of the Herald-Traveler publisher 
having lunch one day with the chairman of the FCC.  There is no 
evidence that the pending TV license was even mentioned by either of 
them.  This, however, was given as the reason to set aside the award 
of the TV license to the Herald-Traveler.

Then, because the award of the license was set aside, the proceeding 
which followed was not a licence-renewal proceeding, but an original 
award proceeding, with a comparative analysis of the various 
applicants.  And because of the character of the proceeding, WHDH-TV 
was not treated as an incumbent licensee and therefore got no credit 
for its record of public service, as an incumbent licensee would.

All of this seems perfectly legal, but I've always wondered what role 
politics played in the long battle.  The original award of the TV 
license to the H-T was made by a Republican-dominated FCC, appointed 
by Eisenhower.  The setting-aside of the award was done by a Kennedy-
appointed FCC, and the award of the channel to someone other than the 
H-T was done by an FCC appointed by Kennedy and Johnson.

It then went to the courts.  The ability of courts to overturn 
administrative decisions is limited to finding legal error in the 
record.  I don't know whether different judges might have found legal 
error, but I'm sure that by the time the case got to the courts, 
Nixon had not yet appointed very many judges.

Now, maybe I'm wrong, and maybe this was just a legal battle, but the 
appearance of political motivation is there.

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
 15 Court Square, Suite 210                 Fax 617.742.7581
Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         http://www.attorneyross.com