WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — A member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) raised concerns over the agency’s expedited approval of a deal in which far-left activist financier George Soros will acquire more than 200 stations spanning 40 markets at once.
As LifeSiteNews covered in February, Soros purchased $400 million of the debt of Audacy, the second largest radio station owner (behind iHeartMedia) in the nation. Soros invested in the company after it filed for bankruptcy the month before with nearly $2 billion in debts. The investment comes with a yield of 50 cents on the dollar after the company emerges from bankruptcy, pending approval by a bankruptcy court of the company’s restructuring plan.
Audacy stations carry several mainstays of conservative punditry, including Sean Hannity, Dana Loesch, Ben Shapiro, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, and Erick Erickson.
Last week, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr testified before the House Oversight Committee that “the FCC is not following its normal process for reviewing transactions that it has established over a number of years. It seems to me the FCC is poised, for the first time, to create an entirely new shortcut.”
According to the FCC, Section 310 of the Federal Communications Act of 1934 “requires the Commission to review foreign investment in radio station licenses,” and includes “specific restrictions on who may hold certain types of radio station licenses,” including that “foreign individuals, governments, and corporations” may not own “more than 20 percent of the capital stock of a broadcast, common carrier, or aeronautical radio station licensee,” and a “25 percent benchmark for investment by foreign individuals, governments, and corporations in U.S.-organized entities that directly or indirectly control a U.S. broadcast, common carrier, or aeronautical radio station licensee.”
The FCC is permitted to grant exemptions upon request of up to 100% of the stock of an entity with such a controlling interest, but there is a review process that Carr maintains was not observed in this case.
“What we usually do is require people to file a petition with us, bring in the National Security Agency to review the foreign ownership – it’s probably no big deal here – but we review that foreign ownership and then we vote,” he explained. “Here, they’re trying to do something that’s never been done before at a commission level.”
“Looking at the facts, it seems the administration is giving a left-wing billionaire, who is a major donor, a close ally, one of the chief funders of all of their efforts and their dark money, a free pass to take control of hundreds of local radio stations, flooding the airwaves with leftist propaganda and I think it’s blatant,” Republican U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy of New York said.
The New York Post added that Carr told them “the Democrats in FCC leadership cut a secret, backroom deal – one that kept the Republican FCC Commissioners and perhaps others completely in the dark – and then hustled it out the door on a Friday afternoon” in a 3-2 party-line vote.
“No decision is final until the Commission releases it, which we have not,” an FCC spokesperson responded to Fox News. “The Commission has a long-standing process for reviewing transactions that involve emergence from bankruptcy.”
The move is alarming as the latest display of Soros’ willingness to use his vast wealth to influence American politics. A small sampling of the causes the billionaire has financed includes promoting legal abortion-on-demand worldwide under the guise of “reproductive health care,” supporting the election of district attorneys friendly to his politics in localities across the United States, pushing a “racial justice” agenda including the narrative that America is systemically racist and promoting policies such as reparations for slavery, subsidizing “fact-checking” enterprises that attempt to discredit conservative media outlets under false pretenses, and funding Democrat political candidates.
Last year, local news outlet Maine Public reported that the Soros-backed National Trust had gained control of Maine’s largest network of newspapers, acquiring five daily papers and 17 weekly publications. The National Trust received funding from Soros’ Open Society Foundation and left-wing Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss for the purchase of the media network.