FCC's Pai: Retaining Cross-Ownership Rule A Mistake

“A newspaper purchasing a single AM radio station in rural Kansas? That’s where the commission decides to put its foot down!”

That’s Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai, speaking Monday to the Kansas Association of Broadcasters Convention in Wichita. RadioWorld reports he was marveling at the FCC’s recent decision to retain its newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule. Pai characterized that as a “profound” mistake.

The FCC posted a copy of his remarks as prepared for delivery: “Put simply,” he told the KAB, “it makes no sense for the federal government to discourage investment in the newspaper industry. But that’s precisely what the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule does.”

He said the outcome is particularly unfortunate because broadcasters “are well-situated to partner with newspapers. The reason is simple. Investments in newsgathering are more likely to be profitable when a company can distribute information over multiple platforms.” Pai said the decision “had nothing to do with the facts, nothing to do the law, and nothing to do with common sense. Instead, it was all about politics. And I fear that at the rate we’re going, the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule will outlive newspapers themselves, absent judicial intervention.”

The commissioner grew up in Kansas.