UPDATED AND BUMPED: See below.

I just spoke with James Gattuso, a Heritage Foundation expert on regulatory policy, about the Murdoch-Dow Jones offer. Specifically, I asked Gattuso what we might expect left-wing activists to do to fight the deal.

According to Gattuso, their focus will be getting the FCC involved, possibly by arguing that the deal violates cross-ownership rules pertaining to newspaper and TV stations (PDF). In order for a corporation to own both a newspaper and a TV station in the same locality, they have to be grandfathered in (that is, they have to have owned both before the regulation took effect in 1975) or they have to get a waiver, as Murdoch did for the New York Post in 1993.

Dow Jones owns 16 newspapers in eight states, and News Corp. owns 33 licensed TV stations in 22 states — no doubt there’s some overlap there. But the more interesting question Gattuso raised is whether liberals and anti-media-consolidation activists will try to argue that owning the Wall Street Journal, a national paper, is like having a paper in every locality.

Anything that gives the FCC an excuse to get involved could spell trouble for the deal — assuming, of course, that the Bancroft family, which owns WSJ, accepts Murdoch’s offer.

UPDATE: Gattuso e-mails:

This was in the notes to the regulations. It looks like the rule DOES apply nationally, assuming the “community of publication” is national.
(1) For radio/newspaper combinations, the Cross-Media Limit is triggered when the newspaper’s community of publication is completely encompassed by: (i) for AM radio stations, the predicted or measured 2mV/m contour computed in accordance with § 73.183 or § 73.186 of the Commission’s rules; (ii) for FM stations, the predicted 1 mV/m contour computed in accordance with § 73.313 of the Commission’s rules; and (2) for television/newspaper combinations, the Cross-Media Limit is triggered when the newspaper’s community of publication is located within the same Nielsen Designated Market Area to which the television station is assigned.

Will this provide opponents of the deal an opportunity to block it?