Again, for the uninitiated, there have been rumors for a while that the state's biggest newspaper, the Gannett-owned Argus Leader, might buy the state's dominant television station, KELO-Land. Now note this from The New York Times:
ASHINGTON, Jan. 27 - Media companies hoping to expand their television station holdings and to own both TV stations and newspapers in the same markets suffered a setback yesterday when the Bush administration decided to abandon its challenge to a ruling that blocked the relaxation of ownership rules.
The Justice Department will not ask the Supreme Court to consider a decision last year by a federal appeals court in Philadelphia that sharply criticized the move toward deregulation and ordered the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider its action. The decision is a final slap to Michael K. Powell, the departing chairman of the F.C.C., who had advocated the changes. ...
Relaxation of the rules had been advanced by most of the broadcast television networks and many large media companies, including the News Corporation, Tribune, the Gannett Company and The New York Times Company. ...
Big media companies want to expand the number of markets in which they can own both newspapers and TV and radio stations. In the last few days, some of those media companies, most notably Tribune, pressed the Justice Department to challenge the appeals court ruling, lawyers involved in the case said.
If this move does anything to scotch a possible Gannett/Argus purchase of KELO-Land I'm all for it. More on Gannett's efforts to buy up its competitors here, along with the Department of Justice's efforts to scrutinize them. Has the Argus Leader reported on any these happenings so its readers know about the effects of these rulings/decisions/investigations? Of course not.
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