Who May Own a Newspaper
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
At 10 a.m. today on C-SPAN3, New Yorkers will be able to watch the Senate Commerce Committee grill the five members of the Federal Communications Commission. Senator Inouye will chair the hearing. Much of the discussion will focus on who may own a newspaper. Even a casual reading of the First Amendment would leave most high school students wondering how the federal government could limit newspaper ownership, but writing such restrictions is a time-honored sport in Washington. In the 1970s, the Washington Post Company under Katharine Graham was purchasing both newspapers and broadcast stations. The FCC sought to punish the Washington Post for revealing the Watergate story by prohibiting the joint ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations in the same market. This dubious form of regulatory retribution remains on the books today.
Even in the 1970s, the FCC did not force divestitures of most broadcast stations affiliated with newspaper companies. Under a grandfathering exception, the Tribune Company and its affiliates, for example, were allowed to keep both the Daily News and WPIX here in New York. Perhaps because the newspaper ownership rule is so dubious, the FCC has not rigidly enforced it. Thus News Corporation was permitted to acquire both a newspaper, the New York Post, and broadcast stations in New York. For the past decade, investors, reasonably assuming that the FCC’s newspaper ownership rule was about to expire, have acquired both newspapers and broadcast stations in several markets around the country.
At least some senators this morning will tell the FCC that those investors were wrong. Those senators will ask the FCC to enforce the newspaper rule vigorously and not expand exceptions. Thinking that a little lipstick and rouge can mask a pig, other senators will ask the FCC to keep the newspaper regulation but modify it around the edges. Even with modifications to the rule, some owners may be forced to choose to divest either newspapers or broadcast stations. This would be a tragic outcome in industries already financially challenged.
The newspaper ownership rule is simply unredeemable. Under it, Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, or dozens of other major corporations are permitted to purchase any newspaper or broadcast station in the country, including those here in New York. On the other hand, Access.1 Communications Corporation, a small business which owns the WWRL radio station, or any other owner of a local broadcast station, cannot buy any newspaper in the metropolitan area.
More troubling, if Washington can lawfully punish political enemies by deciding who may not own newspapers and who may not own broadcast stations, the mischief has no end. The Tribune Company, which owns newspapers and broadcast stations around the country, was recently sold to a private investor, Samuel Zell. The FCC approved the transaction but reinforced the newspaper ownership rule by granting merely temporary waivers to its enforcement in Los Angeles and other cities. The Tribune Company then challenged the temporary waivers in court, arguing that the waivers mean that the company will ultimately be forced to divest assets.
The Tribune case may take years for a court to resolve. Meanwhile, the Senate will sit on the matter this morning. It will probably be too much to hope that at least one senator or commissioner will read for the record the following: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”