The top US telecom regulator is the object of an internal watchdog probe into the handling of rule changes that benefitted a politically sensitive merger of two major broadcast operators, a lawmaker said Thursday.
A spokesman for Representative Frank Pallone, a Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the inspector general’s probe is on the actions of Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai.
Pallone’s spokesman confirmed a report in the New York Times, which first reported the FCC inspector general’s probe into Pai’s actions on rules affecting the proposed deal in which Sinclair Broadcasting, the largest US broadcast television group, is seeking to buy Tribune Media Co.
