The head of the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations (NaFFAA) has written the FCC to say it should approve the merger of Standard General with Tegna’s broadcast group.
It has long been time to change that and increase minority media ownership. Unfortunately, an acquisition currently under review before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that would do just that — and in a major way — is being held up by disingenuous actors using racial undertones that are sending the wrong signal to would-be minority media investors.
Standard General is led by Soo Kim, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Korea. Standard General is proposing to buy TEGNA, which owns more than 60 TV stations, in a deal that would be the largest such purchase by a minority ever.
The acquisition is meeting an escalating amount of opposition, which is common for deals of this kind. However, what is out of the ordinary is the unprecedented manner in which the FCC continues to delay the deal by extending its review process by granting opposition requests for additional information based on disproven and irrelevant claims. All that despite Kim’s long-standing record of buying and operating successful television stations.
DC Journal | by Frank Washington