www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/19/tech/main589655.shtml
The arbitration was to alleviate concerns that Fox would pull its network programming, which includes pro baseball and football, off cable systems to encourage viewers to subscribe to DirecTV.
Some consumer groups, who said that it would further reduce competition by shrinking the number of media companies, and would drive up the price of cable and satellite services, opposed the deal. Given Rupert Murdochs Fox Corporations already bloated holdings in over-the-air TV and cable programming, the FCC should have rejected this deal, said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a media watchdog group. At the very least, they should have imposed stringent safeguards that would have ensured unfettered opportunities for new and competing programmers on DirecTV.
Although freedom of the press is guaranteed in the First Amendment, to what extent that right is protected has been battled in court and debated in public opinion for more than 200 years.
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