After an 8-year legal battle that began in 2003, the "relaxation" of media ownership rules proposed by FCC Chairs Colin Powell and then Kevin Martin, has been thrown out by the courts.

 In 2003, a coalition of public interest media groups including Media Alliance, filed Prometheus vs. FCC, which sought to prevent media ownership rules (already way too generous) from being "relaxed" by then FCC-Chairman Michael Powell. After hundreds of thousands of people wrote to the FCC, the courts granted a stay until the proposed rule changes were refined.

A similarly pernicious, although somewhat scaled-down relaxation proposal by the succeeding FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, was similarly stayed by Prometheus vs FCC from December 2007 to mid-2010.

After that stay expired, we returned to the courts, and received news of the final rejection of the latest rule change proposal on July 7, 2011. 

With eternal gratitude to the marvelous attorneys at the Institute for Public Representation, Media Access Project and Coriell Wright, and our co-plaintiffs Prometheus Radio Project, the UCC, Benton Foundation, Professor Carolyn Byerly and many others.