CONCURRING STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER MICHAEL J. COPPS
Re: Paxson Management Corporation and Lowell W. Paxson and CIG Media LLC.
Today’s transaction involves the transfer of 60 full-service television broadcast licenses to a 
purchaser about which the Commission knows precious little.  We do not know the identity of the 
investors in this particular fund, and we do not know how this fund has treated other companies it has 
owned in recent years.  Though we know that the fund does not own other media properties, we do not 
know whether our attribution rules adequately capture the real distribution of power within this new 
corporate owner.  Indeed, we are not even sure what type of entity we are dealing with here:  Most press 
reports refer to it as a “hedge fund,” our own Order refers to it as a “private equity fund,” while the 
company’s own website describes it as “one of the world’s most sophisticated alternative investment 
institutions.”1  
In short, we don’t have anywhere near the information or context necessary to know whether this 
change in control will harm viewers in the 60 communities that the company is licensed to serve.  This is 
an especially urgent question because the stations at issue here—roughly 3% of the total TV stations in 
the United States—represent some of the only outlets for independent broadcast programming available 
today.  So while it is certainly a good omen that the new owners will retain the network’s existing 
management, I do not believe the Commission has enough information before it right now to say, with 
confidence, that the network’s commitment to programming diversity on the public airwaves will endure 
under the new ownership structure.  I, for one, will be watching closely to see that it does. 
At some level, the Commission’s fundamental lack of curiosity about the identity of our new 
licensees is hardly a surprise.  Even as private equity firms have begun to acquire substantial numbers of 
broadcast stations (witness the Univision and Clear Channel acquisitions just this year), the Commission 
has been content to emulate the figures in the famous “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” carving.  
This in stark contrast to other branches of our government—like the President’s Working Group on 
Financial Markets and the Securities and Exchange Commission—which have shown far greater interest 
in attempting to understand the regulatory implications of hedge funds and similar financial creations.  
Accordingly, I must concur in today’s Order and renew my call for a general Commission inquiry into 
the impact of private equity, hedge funds, and other related investment vehicles on our ability to protect, 
serve, and sustain the public interest in our broadcast media.
  
1 See Marcia Vickers, “A Hedge Fund Superstar,” Fortune (April 3, 2007); “Citadel Investment Group, LLC: About 
Us,” available at http://www.citadelgroup.com/ (last visited 12/28/07).