Promoting the Public Interest Through Media Ownership Limits
While the Federal Appeals Court for the District of Columbia has issued decisions instructing the FCC to provide better justification for its rules, it has clearly stated that public policies to promote a more diverse media landscape are constitutional, even if they reduce economic efficiency. The notion that the courts have demanded that the FCC get rid of or substantially relax media ownership rules is simply wrong. The fact that the Court of Appeals has demanded a coherent analytic framework based on empirical facts does not necessarily indicate a relaxation of the limits on ownership is warranted. To the contrary, the court recognized that the limits could go be loosened or tightened.
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