Prometheus 6

FCC won t appeal media ownership decision
WASHINGTON, Jan 27 (Reuters)

The US Federal Communications Commission has decided against appealing to the Supreme Court a ruling that put on hold regulations that would have allowed media conglomerates to grow even bigger, an agency official said on Thursday.

The FCC had tried to ease media ownership restrictions. But the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said the agency failed to sufficiently justify the limits it set.

Newspapers planned to challenge whether the rules were constitutional, the FCC official said, and thus the agency did not want to join in that effort and potentially undermine all of its regulations limiting media ownership.