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 NEWS  Federal  Communications  Commission  445  12  th  Street,  S.  W.  Washington,  D.  C.  20554  This  is  an  unofficial  announcement  of  Commission  action.  Release  of  the  full  text  of  a  Commission  order  constitutes  official  action.  See  MCI  v.  FCC.  515  F  2d  385  (D.  C.  Circ  1974).  News  Media  Information  202  /  418-  0500  Internet:  http://  www.  fcc.  gov  TTY:  1-  888-  835-  5322 
 FOR  IMMEDIATE  RELEASE  NEWS  MEDIA  CONTACT:  June  24,  2004  David  Fiske,  202-  418-  0513 
 Richard  Diamond,  202-  418-  0506 
 FCC  Chairman  Michael  Powell  Reacts  to  Third  Circuit  Media  Ownership  Decision 
 Today's  decision  perversely  may  make  it  dramatically  more  difficult  for  the  Commission  to  protect  against  greater  media  consolidation.  It  sets  near  impossible  standards  for  justifying 
 bright-  line  ownership  limits.  The  fear  is  realized  in  the  opinion  itself.  The  court  rejected  the  Commission’s  effort  to  limit  further  radio  consolidation.  It  also  upheld  the  elimination  of  the 
 newspaper  cross-  ownership  rule,  while  rejecting  our  efforts  to  place  reasonable  limits  on  those  combinations.  This  is  deeply  troubling  and  hampers  the  flexibility  of  the  agency  to  protect  the 
 American  public,  as  this  agency  is  charged  to  do. 
 This  is  the  second  time  a  court  has  put  aside  exhaustive  efforts  by  the  expert  agency  to  set  numerical  limits.  This  has  created  a  clouded  and  confused  state  of  media  law.  The  chaotic 
 results  demonstrate  the  wisdom  of  Chief  Judge  Scirica's  nearly  100  page  dissent,  where  he  says  that  "the  Court  has  substituted  its  own  policy  judgment  for  that  of  the  FCC  and  upset  the  ongoing 
 review  of  broadcast  media  regulation  mandated  by  Congress…." 
 We  will  thoroughly  study  this  voluminous  opinion  and  consider  carefully  our  next  steps. 
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