Sanders Wants Media M&A Moratorium, More Tech Antitrust Scrutiny; Free Press Cheers
2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., pledged to “institute an immediate moratorium on approving mergers [and acquisitions] of major media corporations,” drawing Free Press praise. He's a frequent critic of M&A, including AT&T/Time Warner and Comcast's failed bid…
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for Fox's nonbroadcast assets (see 1807120049). “We are not going to rubber stamp proposals” like CBS/Viacom (see 1908130050), Sanders said in a Columbia Journalism Review opinion piece Monday. He pledged to appoint FCC commissioners who will “reverse” changes to media ownership rules made during Chairman Ajit Pai's leadership. A Sanders administration would “reinstate and strengthen media ownership rules, and we will limit the number of stations that large broadcasting corporations can own,” he said. “We will also direct federal agencies to study the impact of consolidation in print, television, and digital media to determine whether further antitrust action is necessary.” Sanders pledged to appoint an attorney general and FTC commissioners “who more stringently enforce antitrust laws against tech giants like Facebook and Google, to prevent them from using their enormous market power to cannibalize, bilk, and defund news organizations.” Sanders backed a Free Press proposal to tax revenue from targeted online ads and use the money to fund noncommercial journalism in an "effort to substantially increase funding for programs that support public media’s news-gathering operations at the local level. Free Press CEO Craig Aaron said Tuesday, “These are exactly the kinds of issues that presidential candidates should debate.”