Court Finally Squashes 2007 FCC Cross Ownership Rule

Aleading media group called Free Press is cheering the decision rightfully so (see headline link) , but it's not over yet folks and it's more complicated than ever (see the New York Times more tempered article).  among other things, the court said that the fcc didn't give enough time for public comment (and for toyally ticked-off Democratic FCC Commissioners Adelstein and Copps) to consider the 2007 vote that killed the cross-ownership ban. The ban prevented newspapers from owning radio or TV stations in the same market, to prevent further ownership-power concentration of media.  So, the cross-ownership ban remains in effect while the matter basically gets thrown back to the FCC to deal with again. You'd think the ban would be safe with a Democratically controlled FCC and a Democratic President who had a strong anti-media consolidation stance while a candidate... but President Obama likes the status quo just fine now that he doesn't want to piss-off the media powers-that-be. His FCC chief actually has defended the killing of the ban...  Hopefully the FCC will drag its feet and let things lie until Obama's second term when perhaps his spine will regrow.