Trump's FCC is on the verge of allowing the return of local media monopolies

Ajit Pai.
(Image credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

The Federal Communications Commission is prepared to vote next month on trimming or eliminating regulations that limit the ownership of multiple TV stations or newspapers in a single market, The Wall Street Journal reports. The President Trump-appointed FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, has framed the decision as being a 21st-century brush-up to national media rules, some of which have gone unchanged since the 1970s.

"Local station owners and some big media companies have complained that federal rules — originally enacted in part to ensure a diversity of views — have hindered their efforts to grow and compete at a time when online competitors have made major inroads," The Wall Street Journal writes.

Other major changes are also afoot. On Tuesday, the FCC voted to scrap a longstanding rule that required local TV and radio stations to have a physical studio in the region they serve. "Technology allows broadcast stations to produce local news even without a nearby studio," Pai explained. On the other hand, Variety writes that "critics say [the change] will help media companies further consolidate their operations and even be a boost to the ambitions of Sinclair Broadcast Group," a conservative company that has been branded by progressive publications like Mother Jones as "Trump TV."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.