This week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) accepted a license deal that gave leftist billionaire George Soros power over 200 Audacy radio stations. Some commissioners were against it, calling it “unprecedented.”
According to Breitbart News, the FCC’s Democratic majority “fast-tracked” a deal last week that would let Soros buy more than 200 radio stations, even though Republicans were against it.
Soros apparently used money from outside the country to make his bid for the 200 Audacy radio stations, which cover 40 media markets. He also asked the commission to skip the normal review process.
According to reports, this is the first time that the commission has approved a fast-tracked deal without going through the normal national security review process, which could take up to a year or more.
Jessica Rosenworcel, Chair of the FCC, said in a letter on Monday:
“This ruling allows the new Audacy to take over the licenses that Audacy had while it was in bankruptcy proceedings. This will allow the company to emerge from bankruptcy processes. We use the same process to make this license transfer possible that the agency used recently when Cumulus Media, iHeart Media, Liberman Television, Fusion Connect, Windstream Holdings, America-CV Station Group, and Alpha Media all went bankrupt in 2018–2019. This example makes it clear that saying otherwise is selfish and wrong. Our goal in this case and the ones before it is to help a company that has a license under the Communications Act come out of bankruptcy quickly and in an orderly way.”
Republican-nominated FCC commissioners were angry about the decision to speed up the order because they thought it didn’t take into account the need to review the deal for national security reasons.
The FCC’s Brendan Carr said in a written statement:
“Today’s ruling by the Commission is the first of its kind. The Commission has never decided to allow the transfer of a broadcast license without following the steps and standards set out in federal law. This includes approving the transfer of broadcast licenses for more than 200 radio stations in more than 40 markets. Not once. But the Commission is breaking new ground today without asking the public for feedback on changing our existing rules, without actually changing the rules that are already in place, and without asking other government agencies with important equities for their thoughts.”
