Following a concerted effort this week by all Republican Senators to stop the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from encroaching on newsrooms’ editorial decisions, the FCC announced today that it will not move forward with the controversial Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs (CIN Study), which posed highly inappropriate questions of news editors about how they select stories, station bias, and even about their “news philosophy.”

The FCC’s announcement today comes after U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) and all of his Republican Senate colleagues sent a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler calling on him to explain the FCC’s efforts to impact newsrooms’ editorial decisions. To read the letter, please see below or click here.

“This study was a blatant intrusion by the government into the editorial decisions in newsrooms across America,” said Blunt. “I’m glad the FCC has backed away from this controversial survey, which would stifle free speech nationwide.”