Unions Ask FCC to Strike Standard/Tegna Application for Review
The FCC should strike the Standard/Tegna application for review for being procedurally improper and add “abuse of process” to the matters being considered in the deal’s hearing proceeding, said the Communications Workers of America's NewsGuild and National Association of Broadcast…
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Engineers and Technicians sectors in a motion filed Wednesday (see 2303210049). “Applicants are attempting to bully the Commission into jettisoning its process and granting their Applications without due consideration or resolution of substantial and material questions of fact,” said the motion. FCC precedent puts a “heavy burden” on parties seeking waivers of the rules, and the broadcasters haven’t met that standard, the motion said. “Their self-imposed deadline by no means justifies the radical departure from the orderly Commission process Applicants demand,” the filing says. The broadcasters’ warnings about a possible court battle leading to the FCC’s ALJ being ruled unconstitutional is an empty threat, because FCC rules allow hearing proceedings to be conducted by the commission itself or one or more commissioners, the motion said (see 2009140063). The FCC was right to block the deal because Standard’s Managing Partner Soohyung Kim has a history of “gutting” companies, the motion said, citing Radio Shack, American Apparel and other companies involved with Standard and Kim as evidence. Tegna raised similar arguments against Kim and Standard during multiple unsuccessful proxy fights (see 2105060069) over the makeup of Tegna’s board. Standard cited its history of increased staffing at its broadcast stations and repeatedly promised not to cut jobs at Tegna in past filings. The company is a turnaround investor that seeks to improve failing companies, a person close to Standard told us. Standard declined to comment on Wednesday’s motion, but in a Newsweek opinion piece that day, Kim said the FCC Media Bureau is arbitrarily defining the public interest and “effectively made itself judge and jury.” “How confident can anyone be that other agencies won't similarly find ways to interfere in their respective markets?” Kim wrote. If the FCC commissioners aren’t given the chance to vote on the deal, “no one can say they weren't warned when another bureaucracy in this or a future administration breaks with its precedents to grab unaccountable power when and where it can,” he said. The FCC didn’t comment.