The FCC rejected a Nov. 2005 plea to block license renewals of 20...
The FCC rejected a Nov. 2005 plea to block license renewals of 20 TV stations in and around Chicago and Milwaukee attacked by local media advocacy groups for inadequately covering political news in those cities. The petitions to deny…
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renewals gave no evidence the broadcasters “exercised their editorial discretion in bad faith” by devoting less than 1% of news to local political issues in the runup to the 2004 elections, said the Media Bureau: “Quantity is not necessarily an accurate measure of the overall responsiveness of a licensee’s programming” to the community. The FCC is limited in its ability to second-guess broadcast news content under the First Amendment, said the Bureau. The FCC was expected to deny the bid to block the renewals on constitutional grounds (CD Dec 28 p5). The groups whose petitions were denied may ask the full Commission to review their cases, said Media Access Project Pres. Andrew Schwartzman, who represents them.