Watchdog Praises Huge Win for Media Competition at Supreme Court

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: MacKenzie A. Morales | 615/512-3936

Washington, D.C. – Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is celebrating an unanimous victory for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on the issue of media ownership in the case of FCC v. Prometheus. Under the leadership of former Chairman Ajit Pai, the FCC scrapped onerous and outdated rules regarding the common ownership of local media assets such as newspapers and broadcasters. Activist judges on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals had repeatedly blocked the FCC’s attempts to modernize these rules for the digital age. We applaud the Supreme Court for reversing the Third Circuit and clearing the way. 

TPA Vice President of Policy Patrick Hedger offered the following statement:

“Outdated rules barring the common ownership of local media assets accelerated the demise of local media in the face of online competition. These firms desperately needed the ability to invest in one another to achieve advertising economics of scale to compete with tech companies and preserve the important institution of local news. This unanimous Supreme Court decision brings this much needed relief for businesses and consumers. 

“There is lots of big, blustery talk about competition and concentrated markets in Washington these days. This win is what serious action should look like: government getting out of the way by scrapping needless regulations that inhibit the ability of firms to better compete. 

“This is a huge win for consumers and for the legacy of former Chairman Ajit Pai and his fellow Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and former Commissioner Michael O’Rielly. The FCC under the Biden administration would be wise to seize this victory.”

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Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.