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FCC's O'Rielly Calls For Clearing 'Regulatory Underbrush'
June 20, 2014 at 4:41 AM (PT)
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In a speech to the MEDIA INSTITUTE on THURSDAY (6/19), FCC Commissioner MIKE O'RIELLY called for the FCC to stop "desperately clinging to existing rules -- rules that were written prior to the digital revolution, prior to Wi-Fi, and prior to the Internet" and "clear out the regulatory underbrush," including ownership rules.
Chastising his own agency for failing to complete its quadrennial ownership rules reviews, O'RIELLY said that he is "not aware of any precedent that allows a federal department or agency to decline to meet a statutory deadline simply because it doesn’t want to comply."
On cross-ownership, he told the group, "I would challenge anyone to look in the mirror and with a straight face say that we need to tighten the media ownership rules, especially for the struggling newspaper industry."
And he called on the Commission to revisit the 25% cap on foreign ownership, saying, "We need to go further and consider ways to expand the foreign ownership rule to attract more investment in broadcasting. Encouraging foreign ownership will not only benefit domestic broadcasters, it will also open doors for U.S. investors abroad."

