U.S. Court Grants Murdoch Stay, Lifting Deadline on N.Y. Post Sale

WASHINGTON â€”  A federal appeals court on Monday granted a stay to publisher Rupert Murdoch that will give him a temporary reprieve from having to sell the New York Post by March 6.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said that Murdoch would not have to comply with media cross-ownership rules for 45 days after the court issues a final ruling, said Richard Bozzelli, a lawyer for the Federal Communications Commission.

Murdoch went to court last week to appeal the FCC’s dismissal of his request for an extension of waivers of the commission’s newspaper-TV cross-ownership rules. Oral arguments were set for Feb. 11.

Meanwhile, a White House aide speaking on condition of anonymity said President Reagan planned to ask Congress in the legislative message accompanying his State of the Union address to repeal a law aimed at forcing Murdoch to sell media properties in New York and Boston.

The President wants legislators to repeal an amendment inserted into a $600-billion federal spending bill last month by Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.).

The amendment bars further waivers of FCC rules prohibiting common ownership of television and newspaper properties in the same city. Murdoch holds the only such waivers, which have allowed him to own the New York Post and WNYW-TV in New York and the Boston Herald and WFXT-TV in that city