The Powell Rules.

On a party line vote, the FCC eases ownership rules, paving the way for another wave of media consolidation over the nation’s airwaves. With Chairman Michael Powell now playing kingmaker for the likes of Rupert Murdoch, the Commission has come a long way from low power FM in two short years.

Media Blackout.

The networks stay mum on media consolidation as the Powell FCC prepares to lift cross-ownership caps in local and regional markets. Not surprisingly, it looks like the FCC vote will be party-line, with the three Republicans voting as a bloc to facilitate Rupert Murdoch’s ambitions and enlist free-market ideology in order to kill free-thinking media outlets. We’ll always have the web, I guess.