{"id":886,"date":"2018-02-15T21:52:55","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T02:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=886"},"modified":"2018-04-02T21:54:54","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T01:54:54","slug":"f-c-c-watchdog-looks-into-changes-that-benefited-sinclair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=886","title":{"rendered":"F.C.C. Watchdog Looks Into Changes That Benefited Sinclair"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By\u00a0CECILIA KANG\u00a0<\/span><\/a>

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Ajit Pai, the F.C.C. chairman, has moved aggressively to relax media ownership rules.<\/span>Credit<\/span>Tom Brenner\/The New York Times<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Last April, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, led the charge for his agency to approve rules allowing television broadcasters to greatly increase the number of stations they own. A few weeks later, Sinclair Broadcasting announced a blockbuster $3.9 billion deal to buy Tribune Media \u2014 a deal those new rules made possible.<\/p>\n

By the end of the year, in a previously undisclosed move, the top internal watchdog for the F.C.C. opened an investigation into whether Mr. Pai and his aides had improperly pushed for the rule changes and whether they had timed them to benefit Sinclair, according to Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey and two congressional aides.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor months I have been trying to get to the bottom of the allegations about Chairman Pai\u2019s relationship with Sinclair Broadcasting,\u201d Mr. Pallone, the top Democrat on the committee that oversees the F.C.C., said in the statement to The New York Times. \u201cI am grateful to the F.C.C.\u2019s inspector general that he has decided to take up this important investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was unclear the extent of the inspector general\u2019s investigation or when it might conclude, but the inquiry puts a spotlight on Mr. Pai\u2019s decisions and whether there had been coordination with the company. It may also force him to answer questions that he has so far avoided addressing in public.<\/p>\n

The inquiry could also add ammunition to arguments against the Sinclair-Tribune deal.\u00a0Public interest<\/a>\u00a0groups<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Democratic lawmakers<\/a>, including Mr. Pallone, are strongly opposed to the deal, arguing that it would reduce the number of voices in media and diminish coverage of local news.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Sinclair\u2019s chief executive, Chris Ripley, has called Mr. Pai\u2019s relaxation of media ownership rules a \u201clandmark\u201d development for his company and the industry. A union of Sinclair and Tribune would create the nation\u2019s biggest television broadcaster, reaching seven out of 10 American homes. The F.C.C. and Justice Department are widely expected to approve the merger in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

The office of F.C.C. inspector general, which is a nonpartisan role that reports to the agency and regularly updates Congress on some investigations, said it would \u201cnot comment on the existence or the nonexistence of an investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Pai\u2019s office and Sinclair declined to comment. When the legislators called for an investigation in November, a spokesman for the F.C.C., representing Mr. Pai, said the allegations of favoritism were \u201cbaseless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many years, Chairman Pai has called on the F.C.C. to update its media ownership regulations,\u201d the F.C.C. spokesman said. \u201cThe chairman is sticking to his long-held views, and given the strong case for modernizing these rules, it\u2019s not surprising that those who disagree with him would prefer to do whatever they can to distract from the merits of his proposals.\u201d<\/p>\n

A New York Times\u00a0investigation<\/a>\u00a0published in August found that Mr. Pai and his staff members had met and corresponded with Sinclair executives several times. One meeting, with Sinclair\u2019s executive chairman, took place days before Mr. Pai, who was appointed by President Trump, took over as F.C.C. chairman.<\/p>\n

Sinclair\u2019s top lobbyist, a former F.C.C. official, also communicated frequently with former agency colleagues and pushed for the relaxation of media ownership rules. And language the lobbyist used about loosening rules has tracked closely to analysis and language used by Mr. Pai in speeches favoring such changes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In November,\u00a0several Democrats in Congress<\/a>, including Mr. Pallone,\u00a0called on the inspector general\u2019s office<\/a>\u00a0to explore all communications \u2014 including personal emails, social media accounts, text messages and phone calls \u2014 between Sinclair and Mr. Pai and his staff.<\/p>\n

The lawmakers also asked for communications between Mr. Pai\u2019s office and the White House. They pointed to a\u00a0report<\/a>in March 2017 from The New York Post, in which Mr. Trump is said to have met with Sinclair\u2019s executive chairman, David Smith, and discussed F.C.C. rules.<\/p>\n

Some members of Congress have asked Mr. Pai for such communications, but he has not responded.<\/p>\n

The F.C.C. inspector general, David L. Hunt, and other officials in his office met with aides in the House and Senate, including those for Mr. Pallone, in December. The F.C.C. officials told the aides that they would open an investigation, according to four people with knowledge of the meetings.<\/p>\n

In later conversations, F.C.C. officials said that an investigation was underway, according to two other aides.<\/p>\n

The aides, all of whom work for Democratic lawmakers, would speak only on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is private.<\/p>\n

The investigation could put the F.C.C. inspector general\u2019s office in a high-profile situation.<\/p>\n

Mr. Hunt was promoted to lead the office in 2011 by Julius Genachowski, a Democrat and the F.C.C.\u2019s then-chairman, after working in the agency for about five years. The office investigates potential violations of civil and criminal laws by agency staff members and companies that receive money from the agency. On Wednesday, the inspector general for veterans affairs, a similar position,\u00a0released a scathing report<\/a>\u00a0about travel spending by the department\u2019s secretary, David J. Shulkin.<\/p>\n

The F.C.C.\u2019s inspector general does not make public all of its investigations. But details of some investigations have been disclosed through Freedom of Information Act requests and through the office\u2019s reports to Congress.<\/p>\n

In 2015, the inspector general\u2019s office looked into possible coordination between the Obama administration and the F.C.C. chairman at the time, Tom Wheeler, on the creation of so-called net neutrality rules. The rules prevented broadband providers from blocking or slowing traffic to consumers. The inspector general said its investigation could not find clear improper conduct.<\/p>\n

Antitrust experts said this new investigation may complicate the reviews of the Sinclair-Tribune deal by the F.C.C. and the Justice Department. Even if the deal were approved, they said, any conclusions of improper conduct by Mr. Pai could give fuel to critics to challenge the review in courts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn investigation could cast a cloud over the whole process,\u201d said Andrew Schwartzman, a senior fellow at Georgetown Law Center\u2019s Institute for Public Representation. \u201cFor the review, knowledge of an investigation could generate caution and even delay completion of the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n