Source: United States Senator for New Jersey Bob Menendez
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker (both D-N.J.) and Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr. (N.J.-09) today introduced new legislation to enforce WWOR-TV’s legal obligation to provide New Jerseyans with New Jersey-specific local news, and to give the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) more tools to hold the station accountable should it continue to fail local residents.
In accordance with a 1982 federal law, the FCC stipulated that any license holder for WWOR-TV “devote itself to meeting the special needs of its new community (and the needs of the Northern New Jersey area in general).” But the Fox-owned station shut down its entire Secaucus, N.J.-based news operation in 2013, and currently offers zero local news programming and only one half-hour a week of public affairs. By comparison, broadcast stations in the overlapping New York City and Philadelphia media markets broadcast an average of 56 hours of weekly news and public affairs.
The Section 331 Obligation Clarification Act would require Section 331 licensee holders, like WWOR-TV, to broadcast local news programming, consult with local leaders, and make it easier for the public to participate in the license renewal process.
“Holding an FCC broadcast license is a privilege—not a right—but one that in turn requires the television station holding that license to provide meaningful local news coverage. WWOR has failed at every turn to deliver for New Jerseyans and at a time when residents are starved for local news as more and more newspapers and other media outlets downsize or shutter,” said Sen. Menendez. “Ensuring a well-informed citizenry is a prerequisite for any healthy democracy. Our bill gives the FCC more teeth to go after stations, like WWOR, force them to live up to their obligations, and hold them accountable to the people and communities they are licensed to serve.”
“Local news coverage isn’t merely optional; it’s essential to meeting the needs of a strong and vibrant democracy,” said Sen. Booker. “As WWOR-TV continues to eliminate local affairs programming dedicated to New Jersey, this legislation will help ensure that communities are able to directly advocate their concerns with TV license holders and that the FCC has the means to hold stations accountable to their public obligations.”
“Perhaps no other state’s residents suffer from a lack of local news coverage more than New Jerseyans,” said Rep. Pascrell. “A broadcast license is public property and a public trust. For decades, WWOR has broken that trust by refusing to cover the Garden State with the attention it desperately needs. Our state deserves better. At long last, our legislation will give the FCC sharp tools to force WWOR and other derelict stations to fulfill their public responsibilities. For years, our friend, the late Senator Frank Lautenberg, pursued this issue on behalf of news-starved New Jerseyans. I am proud we are keeping up his fight.”
WWOR-TV currently does not carry or produce a daily local newscast. When the station shut down its news operation eight years ago, it initially replaced its local newscast with “Chasing New Jersey,” a half-hour-long, TMZ-style program produced by an outside company. It later rebranded itself “Chasing News,” stripping New Jersey from its name, and then subsequently ceased operation in June 2020.
The Section 331 Obligations Clarification Act would require licensee holders under this section to:
· Broadcast at least 14 hours of localized programming during primetime hours;
· File with the FCC a quarterly disclosure of all local programming, including a separate list of particularized local content;
· Consult with local leaders in the market served by the station; and it
· Orders the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to issue a report that examines the process by which the FCC renews broadcast television licenses, and specifically to determine if that process adequately holds Section 331 broadcast television stations accountable to their statutory or license obligations.
The bill builds upon legislation Sens. Menendez and Booker previously introduced, and represents just the latest step in their ongoing effort to ensure WWOR-TV lives up to its obligations to the people of New Jersey whom it is licensed to serve.
In December, the senators applauded the FCC for denying Fox Corporation’s request for a permanent ownership waiver that would have allowed WWOR-TV to continue to operate without any accountability for its failure to provide New Jerseyans local news and information, as it is required by law. Sens. Menendez and Booker had objected to Fox, WWOR’s parent company, seeking a permanent waiver of the Newspaper-Broadcast Cross-Ownership (NBCO) rule—a measure designed to promote independence in news reporting—that permits the common ownership of WWOR-TV and the New York Post in the same media market, citing the station’s gutting of substantive news coverage in recent years, including ceasing its operational and physical presence in New Jersey when the station’s Secaucus studios were sold and then demolished in 2019.
Before its license renewal in 2018, Sens. Menendez and Booker urged the FCC to consider WWOR-TV’s failure to abide by its legal obligations to serve the people of New Jersey. After the FCC’s decision to renew WWOR’s license, the senators requested the Government Accountability Office (GAO) examine the process by which the FCC renews broadcast television licenses.
Sen. Menendez also submitted written testimony before a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing in June 2019 outlining WWOR-TV’s failure to provide New Jerseyans with meaningful local, news programming.
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