The courtship of NBC by the Hearld-Traveler

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 22 Jun 2009 at 8:31, Kevin Vahey wrote:

> At the bitter end even the FCC wanted to reopen the case but the
> Supreme Court was most likely fed up that the case had dragged for 15
> years and at the time was the longest matter in Federal civil court
> history which now belongs to the Exxon Alaska oil spill.

Since this was largely a partisan battle between the Republican-
oriented Herald Traveler and the Democratic-oriented Globe, I'm not 
surprised the FCC wanted to reopen the case.  Nixon was in office at 
that time, and the Commission had a Republican majority.
 
> One can 'what if' to death how things would have played out had
> WHDH-TV survived. Most likely the Record-American would have been the
> newspaper that died instead of the H-T. One could surmise that Hearst
> may have ended up with Channel 5 anyways and perhaps the paper as well
> if a waiver could be granted.

Maybe, or maybe not.  The Record-American was showing a profit or at 
least breaking even.  The  H-T was already a dying paper being kept 
alive by the television profits.  
 
> It never should have happened.

I'll agree with that.  The doctrine of greater diversity which was in 
vogue at the time was not served by killing off the Herald Traveler.  


--
 A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                            617.367.0468  92 
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