Trump FCC kills TV ownership cap, claiming authority over limit set by Congress
Trump FCC kills TV ownership cap, claiming authority over limit set by Congress
特朗普治下的 FCC 取消电视所有权上限，声称拥有国会设定的限制管辖权
The Federal Communications Commission voted 2–1 today to eliminate the National Television Ownership Rule, claiming authority to repeal a limit that was set by Congress over 20 years ago. The rule prohibits any single broadcast station owner from reaching more than 39 percent of all TV households in the US. 美国联邦通信委员会（FCC）今日以 2 比 1 的投票结果通过决议，废除了“全国电视所有权规则”，并声称其有权废除一项由国会在 20 多年前设定的限制。该规则此前禁止任何单一广播电台所有者覆盖全美超过 39% 的电视家庭。
Under Chairman Brendan Carr, the FCC is replacing the rule with a “case-by-case review” of each proposed merger. “This will empower the FCC to approve deals that promote the public interest while allowing the agency to reject any deals that do not meet that standard,” Carr’s office said in a press release today. 在主席布伦丹·卡尔（Brendan Carr）的领导下，FCC 将以“逐案审查”的方式取代该规则，对每一项拟议的合并进行评估。卡尔的办公室在今日的新闻稿中表示：“这将使 FCC 有权批准符合公共利益的交易，同时也允许该机构拒绝任何不符合该标准的交易。”
Without the 39 percent rule, broadcasters will be better able to compete against streaming companies that don’t face similar limits, Carr’s office said. The change, if not stopped by courts, will make it easier for Carr to allow broadcast mergers that result in more favorable news coverage for President Trump. 卡尔的办公室称，取消 39% 的上限后，广播公司将能更好地与不受此类限制的流媒体公司竞争。如果该变更未被法院叫停，将使卡尔更容易批准那些能为特朗普总统带来更有利新闻报道的广播合并案。
Carr has consistently threatened to revoke licenses from broadcasters who have drawn Trump’s ire, including by ordering an early license review of all ABC-owned stations. Carr said local broadcast TV stations are becoming “undifferentiated passthroughs of national programming produced in Hollywood and New York,” and he justified repealing the ownership rule by arguing it will help the stations invest in local news. 卡尔一贯威胁要吊销那些激怒特朗普的广播公司的执照，包括下令对所有 ABC 旗下的电台进行提前执照审查。卡尔声称，地方广播电视台正逐渐变成“好莱坞和纽约制作的全国性节目的无差别中转站”，他为废除所有权规则辩护称，这将有助于电台投资于本地新闻。
“Repealing the national cap will provide essential relief for local broadcasters by restoring a healthy counterbalance to the growing leverage of national programmers,” Carr said at today’s meeting. “Increased scale will enable broadcasters to attract the capital and advertising revenue needed to sustain and produce trusted and community-focused news and programming.” “废除全国性上限将为地方广播公司提供必要的救济，通过恢复对全国性节目制作商日益增长的影响力的健康制衡，”卡尔在今天的会议上表示。“规模的扩大将使广播公司能够吸引维持和制作值得信赖的、以社区为中心的新闻和节目所需的资本与广告收入。”
For courts, the main question will be whether the FCC can change the cap at all. Congress directed the FCC to set the cap at 39 percent in 2004, overriding a 2003 FCC decision to raise the limit from 35 to 45 percent. The 2004 law change also said the FCC cannot repeal or modify the cap during its quadrennial reviews of media rules. 对于法院而言，核心问题在于 FCC 是否有权更改这一上限。国会在 2004 年指示 FCC 将上限设定为 39%，推翻了 FCC 在 2003 年将限制从 35% 提高到 45% 的决定。2004 年的法律变更还规定，FCC 在进行四年一度的媒体规则审查期间，不得废除或修改该上限。
Media advocacy group Free Press said it will sue the FCC in an attempt to block the change. “Changing this limit requires congressional action, but Carr doesn’t care,” Free Press General Counsel Matt Wood said. “He’ll do whatever it takes to clear the way for Trump-aligned billionaires to swallow up stations wherever and whenever they please. The result would be just one or two dominant broadcasters in every market, deep job cuts for journalists, and an influx of bargain-basement content disguised as local news.” 媒体倡导组织“自由新闻”（Free Press）表示将起诉 FCC，试图阻止这一变更。“更改此限制需要国会采取行动，但卡尔根本不在乎，”自由新闻总法律顾问马特·伍德（Matt Wood）表示。“他会不惜一切代价为特朗普阵营的亿万富翁扫清障碍，让他们随心所欲地吞并电台。其结果将是每个市场只剩下寥寥一两家主导型广播公司，记者面临大规模裁员，以及大量伪装成地方新闻的廉价内容涌入。”
Carr previously waived the TV ownership rule when the FCC approved Nexstar Media Group’s purchase of Tegna that let it reach over half of TV households, and the merger is being challenged in court. A federal judge ordered the companies to stop integrating their assets and operations while an antitrust lawsuit filed by DirecTV proceeds. Nexstar sided with Carr last year when he threatened ABC station licenses and urged stations to stop carrying Jimmy Kimmel’s show. 卡尔此前曾在 FCC 批准 Nexstar 媒体集团收购 Tegna 时豁免了电视所有权规则，该收购使其覆盖了超过一半的电视家庭，目前该合并案正面临法律挑战。一名联邦法官已下令两家公司在 DirecTV 提起的反垄断诉讼进行期间，停止整合其资产和业务。去年，当卡尔威胁 ABC 电台执照并敦促电台停止播放吉米·坎摩尔（Jimmy Kimmel）的节目时，Nexstar 站在了卡尔一边。
Carr is hoping courts will decide that the FCC can eliminate the cap if it does so outside the quadrennial review process. Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez voted against the decision today and said only Congress can change the cap. 卡尔希望法院能裁定，只要 FCC 在四年一度的审查程序之外进行操作，就有权取消该上限。民主党籍 FCC 委员安娜·戈麦斯（Anna Gomez）今日投票反对该决定，并表示只有国会才有权更改上限。
“It’s worth noting that Republicans with deep firsthand knowledge of this issue also agree the commission cannot do what it is attempting today,” Gomez said. “Former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly has been unequivocal that the FCC lacks authority to change the cap. Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who negotiated the 39 percent compromise, has stressed that Congress intentionally wrote the cap into law to prevent FCC revision. And Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz has said he is ‘skeptical a change can be made absent an act of Congress.’ Their consensus reinforces a simple point: Congress set the cap, and only Congress can change it.” “值得注意的是，对这一问题有深刻直接了解的共和党人也同意，委员会不能做它今天试图做的事情，”戈麦斯说。“前 FCC 委员迈克·奥里利（Mike O’Rielly）明确表示，FCC 缺乏更改上限的权力。曾参与 39% 妥协方案谈判的前众议院多数党领袖汤姆·迪莱（Tom DeLay）强调，国会是有意将上限写入法律，以防止 FCC 进行修订。参议院商务委员会主席泰德·克鲁兹（Ted Cruz）也曾表示，他‘怀疑在没有国会法案的情况下能否做出改变’。他们的共识强化了一个简单的观点：上限是国会设定的，只有国会才能更改它。”
In his statement at today’s meeting, Carr said that “the DC Circuit has already rejected the argument that Congress’s decision to pass a statute directing the FCC to set the cap at a specific percentage prevents the FCC from later modifying the cap. The court stated that Congress’s statutory instruction to the Commission to set the cap at a specific percentage determined ‘only the starting point from which the Commission was to assess the need for further change.’” 卡尔在今天会议的声明中表示，“哥伦比亚特区巡回上诉法院已经驳回了这样一种论点，即国会通过法规指示 FCC 将上限设定为特定百分比的决定，会阻止 FCC 随后修改该上限。法院指出，国会关于将上限设定为特定百分比的法定指示，‘仅确定了委员会评估是否需要进一步变更的起点’。”
Carr left out some details. He was referring to a 2002 DC Circuit appeals court decision in which judges wrote that Congress’s 1996 “choice of 35 percent rather than any other number determined only the starting point from which the Commission was to assess the need for further change.” That 2002 ruling was issued before Congress set the cap at 39 percent and imposed limits on the FCC’s ability to change it. 卡尔遗漏了一些细节。他所指的是 2002 年哥伦比亚特区巡回上诉法院的一项裁决，法官在裁决中写道，国会在 1996 年“选择 35% 而非其他数字，仅确定了委员会评估是否需要进一步变更的起点”。那项 2002 年的裁决是在国会将上限设定为 39% 并对 FCC 的更改能力施加限制之前做出的。
Another problem for Carr is the 2024 Supreme Court ruling that overturned the 40-year-old Chevron precedent, which gave federal agencies leeway to interpret ambiguous laws as long as the agency’s conclusion was理性. Without Chevron, courts have more power to decide what Congress meant in a statute and don’t have to give deference to a regulatory agency’s judgment. 卡尔面临的另一个问题是 2024 年最高法院的裁决，该裁决推翻了已有 40 年历史的“雪佛龙尊重”（Chevron deference）先例。该先例曾赋予联邦机构在法律模糊时进行解释的余地，只要机构的结论是合理的。在没有“雪佛龙尊重”的情况下，法院拥有更大的权力来决定国会在法规中的意图，而不必再对监管机构的判断给予尊重。
Both Democratic and Republican FCC leaders have claimed authority to change the cap as long as the FCC doesn’t do so during the quadrennial review. Under Democratic Chairman Tom Wheeler, the FCC asserted authority to change any aspect of the cap. The Wheeler FCC tried to make the cap stricter by eliminating an exception that counts only half of the households reached by UHF stations. The change didn’t last long because Republican Chairman Ajit Pai led a vote to reinstate the UHF exception the next year. 民主党和共和党籍的 FCC 领导人都曾声称，只要 FCC 不在四年一度的审查期间进行操作，就有权更改上限。在民主党主席汤姆·惠勒（Tom Wheeler）任内，FCC 声称有权更改上限的任何方面。惠勒领导下的 FCC 曾试图通过取消一项仅计算 UHF 电台覆盖家庭数一半的例外条款，来使上限变得更严格。但这一变更并未持续太久，因为共和党主席阿吉特·派（Ajit Pai）在次年领导投票恢复了该 UHF 例外条款。