That FCC inspector general investigation in to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and whether he has been "improperly coordinating" with Sinclair Broadcasting on the conglomerate's efforts to buy Tribune Media looks like just the beginning of Pai's ethical problems. The guy's a corrupt little bastard. That includes showing up at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last week, not something government officials should be doing.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was given the National Rifle Association's Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award at CPAC Friday. Accepting the award is almost certainly a violation of government ethics rules, according to Walter Shaub, who was director of the US Office of Government Ethics from 2013 to 2017. Pai has not publicly responded to the accusation.
It's actually Pai's problem with Sinclair, however, that's likely to be his big problem. Because, as Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel attests "All of our media policy decisions have one thing in common: They are all custom built for the business plans of Sinclair Broadcasting." And in reality, all of the major media policy votes they have taken directly benefit Sinclair.
They have voted to the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) discount that broadcasters used to get. UHF stations have largely disappeared since everything has become digital, and the FCC got rid of this discount in 2016. Pai's FCC reinstated it. Not at all coincidentally, Sinclair owns a mess of UHF stations. "It makes no technical sense," says Rosenworcel. "It benefits Sinclair Broadcasting."
In the old days, one company couldn't even own both a television station and a newspaper in the same city, but that's changed. Last November, the FCC voted to change ownership rules so that a single company can own two of the top four stations in any and every given market. Which means Sinclair already has or is in the process of getting two stations in the Des Moines, Seattle, Richmond, Salt Lake City, and other markets. In a related change, in December they got rid of a rule that a single company couldn't own TV stations that reached more than 39 percent of the U.S. population. That cap is gone, and the FCC may or may not impose a different cap. Also related, the requirement that a company maintain a commitment to its community by keeping studios in a city where it is licensed is now gone.
The FCC loosened rules governing companies’ responsibilities in mergers, meaning Sinclair or other companies would have to share less of the costs in mergers. The real windfall could come to Sinclair in the FCC's advancement of a new broadcast standard, ATSC 3.0 or Next Gen TV. It's a broadcast transmission standard that will allow TV stations to do video on demand and other interactive services using a broadband return path, and guess who has "key patents related to the new format." Yep, Sinclair. The new standard, if widely adopted, could make current television sets obsolete, one of Rosenworcel's major concerns. That and the fact that Sinclair will not only have a consolidated market across the country, but own and profit from the technology they're broadcasting their right-wing message on.
That's six votes. But the collective impact is profound. "Every element of our media policy is custom-built for the business plan of Sinclair Broadcasting," says Rosenworcel. "That is stunning, it is striking, and it looks like something's wrong. And I'm not the only one to think that. We're burning down the values of media policy in this agency in order to service this company."
Pai is sure doing Sinclair, essentially a Trump propaganda network, a solid! All of this will be something for the FCC IG to consider as they investigate just how closely Pai has been coordinating with Sinclair. While the investigation was opened to look into just the company's takeover of Tribune Media, it doesn't necessarily mean its scope will be that limited.