On Thursday, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee launched an investigation into the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over its unusually quick approval of a deal to let far-left billionaire George Soros purchase over 200 radio stations in the United States.
As reported by Just The News, the probe was announced by Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Congressman Nick Langworthy (R-N.Y.), after FCC Commissioner Brendon Carr told Congress last week that the FCC’s review of the massive purchase of the radio network Audacy by Soros would be taking a “shortcut.”
“The FCC appears to be bypassing standard processes and procedures in an unprecedented way to benefit a Democrat megadonor acquiring a major equity stake in hundreds of local radio stations across the country,” Comer and Langworthy wrote in a letter. They went on to denounce Soros as a “financier of organizations advocating for speech restrictions and censorship of conservatives online.”
“By all appearances, the FCC majority isn’t just expediting, but is bypassing an established process to do a favor for George Soros and facilitate his influence over hundreds of radio stations before the November election,” the letter continued.
Carr issued a statement last week denying that the FCC committed any wrongdoing with the rapidly-expedited approval.
“The FCC is not following its normal process for reviewing a transaction,” said Carr’s statement. “We have established over a number of years one way in which you can get approval from the FCC when you have an excess of 25 percent foreign ownership, which this transaction does. It seems to me that the FCC is poised to create, for the first time, an entirely new shortcut.”
Soros had announced earlier this year that he intended to purchase Audacy by paying off its $415 million debt, after the group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January. With over 200 radio stations, Audacy is the second-largest radio network in the country, only behind iHeartRadio.
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