FCC Chair Does Not Expect Commission to Be Involved in News Corp. Hacking Inquiry

By John Eggerton
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Tuesday that he was
not going to answer hypotheticals about News Corp. TV station license renewals
in the wake of the growing phone hacking scandal involving its British tabloid,
but indicated he did not see the FCC becoming involved in that issue.

"Obviously there is a process going on in the U.K.,"
he said, "and that is a U.K. process and I don't expect we will be
involved with that." That came in a press conference following the FCC's
monthly meeting Tuesday (July 12).

Asked a second time about the impact of the News Corp.
scandal and whether it could call News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch's fitness
as a licensee into question, Genachowski said it was the same question.
"There is a process going on in the U.K. that is not a process that we
expect to get involved with or interfere with." But he did add that:
"The Mass Media Bureau here will do its job if any issues arise."

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.