From AP, Jan. 28

Bush administration won't appeal rules blocking ownership of newspaper, TV in same market to Supreme Court. 

The Bush administration says it won't appeal a court decision that blocks proposed regulations aimed at loosening limits on media ownership.

The Federal Communications Commission had until Monday, Jan. 31, to decide whether to appeal the ruling by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. The Justice Department, in consultation with the FCC, decided against taking the matter to the Supreme Court, said FCC spokeswoman Rebecca Fisher.

The proposed FCC rule changes would have allowed a single company to own TV stations and a newspaper in the same area, and to own more TV and radio stations in a single market. Critics, including many in Congress, said that would encourage mergers and stifle diversity in news and entertainment.

FCC Chairman Michael Powell, who is leaving the commission in March, was at a conference in Switzerland on Thursday, Jan. 27 and unavailable to comment.

The commission's two Democratic members, Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps, had voted against the rule changes. Both praised the Bush administration's decision.

Big media companies wanted the changes and are not giving up the fight. The National Association of Broadcasters and an official with Tribune Co. said they still plan to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Shaun Sheehan, Tribune's Washington lobbyist, said the revisions are necessary because the decades-old ownership regulations hinder the companies' ability to grow and compete in a market altered by cable television, satellite broadcasting and the Internet.

But he acknowledged the odds of the Supreme Court taking the case are longer without the government's participation.

The Republican-dominated FCC completed two years of review and voted 3-2 along party lines in 2003 to ease ownership restrictions.

Last June the appeals court blocked the changes, writing that the FCC "has not sufficiently justified its particular chosen numerical limits for local television ownership, local radio ownership, or cross-ownership of media within local markets."

Fisher said the FCC could submit new rules for the court's approval, as many critics have demanded; or it could provide new arguments to try to curry favor with the appeals court.