The FCC’s expedited review of Audacy’s bankruptcy restructuring and quick acceptance of applications for Skydance’s proposed buy of Paramount Global highlight “the disparate treatment” of Standard General in its failed purchase of Tegna, Standard said in a filing in U.S. District Court for the D.C. Circuit Friday. Standard’s filing argued that the court should deny motions to dismiss its lawsuit against the FCC, Allen Media CEO Byron Allen and several unions and public interest groups. Standard has argued those entities conspired to block its purchase of Tegna. The Media Bureau accepted applications from Skydance to buy Paramount Global in eight days, while it took 48 to accept Standard’s initial filings to buy Tegna, the motion said. The Paramount transaction involves private equity, similar to Standard’s deal, and is widely expected to prompt job cuts, the filing said. “The straw objectors from the Standard General-TEGNA proceedings have not objected to the Paramount deal,” the filing said. The FCC didn’t require Audacy to show that its transaction wouldn’t lead to job cuts, while it highlighted possible newsroom cuts in Standard/Tegna, the filing said. “The FCC’s recent approval of the license transfers in the Audacy matter confirms to me that the FCC is applying its rules arbitrarily and unlawfully, leaving me with even less confidence that I will be treated fairly and lawfully when I next appear before the FCC,” said Standard founder Soohyung Kim in a declaration filed with the court. “Seeing the different treatment between that matter and the Standard General-TEGNA transaction review has left me to believe that FCC review turns more on who the owner is than on the nature of the transaction.”

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, whose connection with President-elect Donald Trump may result in him leading a government efficiency effort (see 2411080033), said Tuesday the federal government should consider ending funding for NPR. Top GOP lawmakers raised concerns earlier this year about continued federal NPR funding in response to claims of pro-Democratic bias at the broadcast network (see 2405070044). Musk’s defunding call cited a 2021 video clip of now-NPR CEO Katherine Maher saying “our reverence for the truth might have become a bit of a distraction that is preventing us from finding consensus and getting important things done.” Maher didn’t become NPR CEO until March this year. Musk asked “should your tax dollars really be paying for an organization run by people who think the truth is a ‘distraction’?”

A federal court denied the preliminary injunction sought by an abortion rights group against Florida to protect TV stations airing abortion rights ads from prosecution by the state’s Department of Health (see 2411050026). Though U.S. District Court for Northern Florida Chief Judge Mark Walker previously granted a restraining order that protected the stations from DOH, he ruled Wednesday that Floridians Protecting Florida didn’t show that it faced likely prosecution with the end of the ad campaign on Election Day. The record supported a limited temporary restraining order to prevent the DOH “from unconstitutionally coercing broadcasters” in the run-up to voting, but FPF “has identified no evidence in this record demonstrating that television broadcasters will continue to be unconstitutionally coerced,” Walker wrote. “Unsurprisingly, the Department of Health has recognized that it is aware of no actual harm resulting from Plaintiff’s political advertisement,” and “the mere possibility of some future enforcement action premised upon an unknown future harm” isn’t enough justification for a preliminary injunction, Walker said. Along with denying the injunction, the order also dissolves the restraining order. FPF and the Florida DOH didn’t comment.

The Florida Department of Health could still prosecute abortion-rights group Floridians Protecting Freedom or stations airing its ads after Election Day, so a preliminary injunction is needed, the group told the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Florida in supplemental filings Tuesday (see 2410290028). The court last week requested supplemental briefs from both sides on whether an injunction would be needed after Election Day and whether the case is now moot because Florida voters that day would be deciding the fate of the amendment that FPF’s "Caroline" advertisement supported. “Even if FPF no longer actively airs ‘Caroline’ via broadcast stations, ‘Caroline’ will continue to be available to the public online; FPF cannot put that speech back in a box,” FPF said. However, “The risk of post-election enforcement appears quite unlikely,” said the Florida Department of Health. The Florida DOH has said it isn’t planning to prosecute TV stations airing the ad, and would do so only if it finds that the ad's message harmed a Florida citizen. The ad says that abortions aren’t available in Florida to save the life of the mother. “FPF raises the specter that the presence of its advertisement online might somehow trigger a belated enforcement action,” the Florida DOH said. “But such a fear is misplaced.” Television “is unique in its ability to reach a captive audience,” the state said. Florida “has never taken the position that it would consider mere publication of the ‘Caroline’ commercial online a sanitary nuisance in Florida,” the state said. “The context and circumstances are entirely different.” In addition, Florida said the case isn’t moot while the ads air on TV but will become so after the election. “It is no answer to suggest that there is some lingering possibility of enforcement in a different, future context,” the state said. “Any risk of enforcement-related harm is highly speculative.” After the election but before the current temporary restraining order against the state expires Nov. 12, Florida will file supplemental materials with the court on whether it has found harms that would trigger prosecution, the state said. FPF said that Florida continuing to “defend the Department’s ability to enforce sanitary nuisance laws as applied to FPF’s speech is itself reason to conclude that this case is not moot.”

Florida Surgeon General John Ladapo and Floridians Protecting Freedom must each file supplemental briefs on whether a preliminary injunction against the state will be needed after Election Day, said an order in U.S. District Court for Northern Florida Tuesday. The injunction, which FPF requested, would bar the state from taking legal action against TV stations running FPF’s campaign ad, which supports a state constitutional amendment limiting Florida from restricting abortions (see 2410290028). At Tuesday’s hearing, FPF said it would cease running the ad after the election, while the state said that it doesn’t plan to bring an enforcement action against stations now but it could later if it finds the ad harmed a Florida resident. Tuesday's order calls for Florida to file a supplemental brief on whether FPF’s claim is now moot, and for FPF to file a supplemental briefing showing that it would still face irreparable harm without an injunction. Both briefs are due Friday, and each side has until Monday to respond to the opposition’s brief, the order said.

Audacy filed a petition for a declaratory ruling asking that the FCC permit foreign ownership of up to 49.99% of the company’s equity and voting interests and specifically approve an investor group of non-U.S. entities that would own more than 5% of the broadcaster. The Sept. 30 FCC order, (see 2409300046) granting Audacy permission to complete its bankruptcy restructuring before going through the agency’s foreign-ownership process, required that Audacy file its foreign-ownership petition within 30 days. A petition for reconsideration of that order was filed Tuesday (see 2410290054). The American company, Laurel Tree Opportunities, would remain Audacy’s single majority shareholder, according to Audacy’s petition. Funds associated with George Soros own Laurel Tree, which drew attention to Audacy’s initial foreign-ownership filing. “For avoidance of doubt, the group of non-U.S. equity holders for which specific approval is sought is entirely unrelated to Laurel Tree; Laurel Tree does not have any foreign ownership,” the petition said. After FCC approval of the foreign-ownership request, “foreign individuals and entities are expected to hold in the aggregate approximately 27.2 percent of the equity and approximately 31.4 percent of the voting interests in Audacy,” the petition said. “Reducing barriers to further investment in Audacy, including by allowing the company to pursue additional capital from non-U.S. investors, will enable it to allocate additional resources to programming and other initiatives.” The foreign ownership of Audacy “is held by several unrelated investors” who won’t have an attributable interest in Audacy and “as such would not be in a position to influence the company’s programming, access personal data, or play an active role in any of its station or related operations.”

The FCC identified tentative selectees in three groups of mutually exclusive applications for noncommercial educational FM construction permits from the November 2021 NCE window, according to an order approved Monday. The order was approved 4-0. Commissioner Anna Gomez recused herself from the item, her office told us. New Beginnings Movement was selected for a permit in Seymour, Indiana, Vida Ministry for a permit in Texas, and Optima Enrichment and Waterloo Christian Radio to enter a time-sharing agreement for a permit in Wisconsin.

A temporary restraining order barring the state of Florida from threatening TV stations over campaign ads related to abortion has been extended for 14 days, said an order Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for Northern Florida (see 2410180050). The restraining order was set to expire Tuesday, the same day as the hearing for a preliminary injunction that would similarly bar the Florida Department of Health (DOH) from acting against TV stations running the ads. The group behind the ads, Floridians Protecting Freedom, requested both the restraining order and the preliminary injunction. The ads support an amendment to Florida’s constitution that would bar the state from limiting abortions, but DOH has argued that they pose a health nuisance by spreading inaccurate information about the state’s abortion policies. Chief Judge Mark Walker extended the restraining order to allow more time for him to rule on the preliminary injunction, Tuesday’s order said. “The parties’ briefing and the arguments raised at the hearing on the motion for preliminary injunction identified new issues with respect to Plaintiff’s claims, which this Court must consider before ruling on the pending motion,” the order said. Neither the state nor Floridians Protecting Freedoms objected to the extension, the order said. The TRO will now expire Nov. 12 or when the court rules on the preliminary injunction, whichever is sooner, said Tuesday’s order.

The FCC should reconsider the foreign-ownership waiver Audacy was granted, said the Media Research Center in a petition posted Tuesday. Previously, MRC filed a petition seeking denial of Audacy's request (see 2404230054). The agency didn't show the order was in the public interest and Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel "falsely asserted that her actions were backed up by precedent," said the MRC petition. Though the FCC has granted similar foreign-ownership requests linked to bankruptcies several times, MRC said those proceedings were different because not all of them involved waivers and none included a full commission vote. MRC's petition echoes Commissioner Brendan Carr's argument that bureau-level decisions don't set FCC precedent, making the Audacy order "unprecedented" even though the agency has taken similar actions several times since Carr became a commissioner. The FCC "should reconsider its grant of a waiver that creates a special [George] Soros shortcut for the takeover of Audacy, which owns the second-largest number of broadcast radio stations in the country," the petition said.

The FCC handled the review of Audacy's foreign-ownership request differently from other media rulemakings, said Commissioner Nathan Simington in an email responding to a recent letter to lawmakers from Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2410250034). The Audacy process “was a sharply accelerated bureau review culminating in an order with a paragraph or two about public interest, which stands in contrast to the seemingly interminable, opaque, and quixotic ‘public interest’ reasoning that has otherwise characterized Commission action on media M&A and rulemaking of late,” Simington said in the email. The Media Bureau has approved a number of similar foreign-ownership requests associated with bankruptcy restructurings in the current and previous administrations without drawing protests. In her letter, Rosenworcel said the FCC’s Republican commissioners delayed the order when they waited 40 days before voting and that their stance was motivated by the involvement of funds associated with George Soros in the Audacy transactions. In his email, Simington conceded the 40-day wait but faulted the FCC for taking 147 days after the Audacy petition was submitted before informing him that the item would be approved at the bureau level. Simington said he was informed that his “perspective on the transaction as a sitting Commissioner was unnecessary and unwelcome,” Simington said. "The Constitution protects the rights of every American to speak his or her mind, even those with whom FCC staff disagree or dislike." But it “does not guarantee anyone whomsoever the right to a peremptory grant of the transfer of hundreds of broadcast licenses on what amounts to zero public interest or foreign ownership review” without an FCC vote, he added. Rosenworcel told lawmakers that granting Audacy’s request doesn’t preempt foreign-ownership review but delays it until the company emerges from bankruptcy. In all previous grants of similar waivers, companies went through the foreign-ownership review process. The FCC has granted every broadcast foreign-ownership request to go before it since the rules were clarified in 2013, an agency spokesperson told us.