HFU HF Underground
General Category => General Radio Discussion => Topic started by: John Poet on July 09, 2017, 0544 UTC
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The Federal Communications Commission on Friday (6-30) quietly approved the transfer of seven major television station licenses owned by Bluestone Television/Bonten Media to Sinclair Broadcast Group -- without informing the agency's sole Democratic commissioner, Mignon Clyburn. Current FCC boss Ajit Pai spent a lot of time complaining about transparency at the FCC when he was a regular commissioner under former FCC boss Tom Wheeler. Yet much like his professed dedication to bridging the digital divide, this dedication to transparency appears to only be skin deep.
Clyburn stated on Twitter that the FCC appears to have tried to bury the news of the approval ahead of the July 4 weekend, and didn't even inform her of the decision. She wound up learning about the decision from her own agency via news reports.
Pai has long opposed media ownership and consolidation limits, and unsurprisingly has made letting these companies grow immensely larger his top agency priority. That has involved attempts to restore the so-called UHF discount, which would let major media companies exceed previous restrictions on the number of stations that they can own.
The efforts have been consistently criticized as damaging to local media outlets and regional reporting. Comedian John Oliver took aim at Sinclair in a segment on his program, Last Week Tonight, but didn't really focus too much on how the current FCC is busy making this possible.
https://www.dslreports.com/shownews/FCC-Boss-Tries-to-Hide-His-Latest-Gift-to-Sinclair-Broadcasting-139887
That big-broadcasting capitalist scum....
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I'm guessing her nickname is "Filet".
Lol, admit it, that was funny.
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^ I chuckled. And now I'm hungry...