The Parents Television Council has applauded the Federal Communications Commission's decision to adopt a hearing designation order for the proposed Sinclair Broadcasting-Tribune Media merger, the organization said in a statement Thursday.
On Wednesday, the FCC voted unanimously to reject Sinclair's last-minute effort to get approval for its proposed $3.9 billion merger with Tribune Media, instead opting to send the deal to an administrative law judge for hearings.
Sinclair had sought in its initial proposal to expand its reach from 39 percent of U.S. homes to more than 70 percent, which would have broken the long-held ownership limitation cap for major TV networks.
"We applaud the bold and positive statement of a unanimous FCC to adopt a hearing designation order for this transaction," PTC president Tim Winter said in the council's statement. "As we have stated from the outset of the FCC's review, our opposition to the merger has absolutely nothing to do with a partisan political angle.
"Quite the contrary, the PTC believes that there is an urgent need for greater political balance; but the transaction proposed by Sinclair would have put in place a media ownership structure that would achieve quite the opposite. Greater local ownership and control of local community broadcast outlets leads to increased public accountability," Winter continued.
The council joined other organizations, including Newsmax, in opposing the deal that many argued would limit local control of news media outlets.
"The FCC under Ajit Pai acted with courage and fairness," Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said in a statement. "It is clear they gave Sinclair every benefit of the doubt in an unusually long process and they simply would not comply with the rules that should be applied equally to all companies."
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