FCC commissioner requests inquiry into News Corp. acquisition of Dow Jones

Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps is asking the chairman to open an inquiry into News Corp.’s $5.6 billion proposed acquisition of Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, Marketwatch and Barron’s, writes John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable.

Eggerton wrote, “Saying this was unprecedented in the history of the FCC, Copps proposed opening a proceeding to determine ‘whether approval of this transaction accords without public-interest responsibilities’ and, taking the opportunity to make a subtle pitch for regulation, posed the question of whether ‘our existing media-ownership rules and precedents are adequate to deal with this proposed transaction.’

“Martin is even now considering scrapping the cross-ownership rule, so Copps’ letter attempts to swing the pendulum the other way.

“The FCC is not reviewing the News Corp.-WSJ transaction because as a ‘national newspaper,’ the Journal does not run afoul of the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban, which applies to local papers and stations in the same market. But Copps said that precedent should not preclude the FCC from analyzing the merger in the broader context of its responsibility to consider the public-interest implications for localism, diversity and competition.”

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