Broadcasters Granted Extension to Petition for Certiorari on Prometheus
NAB and several broadcasters received an extension -- after the FCC's extension -- until March 19 to file a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, appealing the Prometheus IV decision, according to letters (in Pacer) that showed up in the…
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case’s 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals docket Wednesday (see 2002140048). In their granted extension request, the broadcasters said the 3rd Circuit panel “replaced Congress’s command to focus on competition with non-statutory policy considerations about media ownership diversity” in deciding Prometheus IV. “This error, if left to stand, will continue to prevent the FCC from making necessary changes to its media ownership rules and will distort every future quadrennial review of those rules.” The 3rd Circuit’s 15 years of retaining jurisdiction over the case compounds that problem, the broadcasters said. The broadcast parties -- which include Sinclair, Fox and Nexstar -- also said the court erred by vacating the FCC’s media ownership rules: “The Third Circuit’s wholesale vacatur conflicts with remedial approaches taken by seven other circuits, all of which remand without vacatur.” Justice Samuel Alito in granting the extension requests “indicates at least some interest in hearing the case,” said Christopher Terry, University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication assistant media law professor. “Although the court remanded most of the ownership structure to the agency, the lack of a coherent policy to promote diversity through ownership by women and minorities has sent the FCC back to the drawing board,” he said.