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FCC Chairman Ajit Pai appears to have a very cozy working relationship with Sinclair Broadcasting Group, the massive conservative broadcaster that has come under intense criticism for mandating that its 173 stations in 80 broadcast markets run a promo attacking other journalists as "fake news" and running pre-packaged "news" reports from Trump associates. Pai is so close to Sinclair, the inspector general for the commission is investigating him over his coordination with the broadcasting group on its issues before the FCC.
He just had a chance to give at least the appearance of doing his job of overseeing and regulating the company, when Democratic lawmakers wrote to him to review their broadcast license over "concerns that Sinclair has violated the public interest obligation inherent in holding broadcast licenses" and that it "may have violated the FCC's longstanding policy against broadcast licensees deliberately distorting news by staging, slanting, or falsifying information." They sent that letter on Wednesday. On Thursday he blew them off.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai shot the request down, telling Democrats that he will stand up for First Amendment press freedoms and that the FCC doesn't have the authority to revoke licenses based on the content of newscasts. […]
Pai's staff repeatedly promoted Pai's rebuke of Democrats on Twitter today. "Many Senate Democrats wrote a letter to the FCC yesterday asking us to go after a broadcaster's licenses because they don't like its news coverage," FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry tweeted. "But we're not going to do that. Instead, we will protect the First Amendment and freedom of the press!"
He didn't even take a few days to pretend like he was considering their request, he just shot it down within the hour.
Ars Technica notes that when popular vote loser Donald Trump demanded the FCC consider revoking NBC licenses because of "fake news" in October 2017, Pai "avoided making any statement in response to Trump, despite repeated requests from journalists and lawmakers." It took him a week to finally make a public statement that the FCC "does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on the content of a particular newscast." And he only said that because he was in a public forum and couldn't dodge the question.
It's absolutely clear that Pai has no intention of blocking anything Sinclair wants, and what it wants is to take over Tribune Media company and get another 42 local TV stations, which would extend its reach into 72 percent of American homes.