RBR+TVBR OBSERVATION
On Thursday (1/2), USA TODAY posted to its website — and, presumably, that day’s print edition — an editorial penned by Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley and former FCC Commissioner Michael Copps.
Dayton has seen much tragedy in the last 12 months, with a devastating series of twisters destroying a swath of the northside over Memorial Day weekend and a mass shooting on August 4 at Ned Peppers in the Oregon District gaining international attention.
Whaley and Copps argue that the Dayton Daily News was a key source of local news during and after these events. Thus, the pending “shrinking” of the Cox Media Group-owned newspaper following its Apollo Global Management privatization effort is a travesty, they argue — blaming the FCC for allowing it to happen.
Huh?? The FCC, thanks to the leadership of Chairman Ajit Pai and “modernization” championed by Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, tried to save the newspaper industry.
It is the Third Circuit that should be the target of Whaley and Copps’ ire, as it is the court of appeals’ idiotic remand of grossly antiquated cross-ownership rules that created the very situation Whaley and Copps are so worked up about.
