It is already hard enough to find out who really owns your local media outlets, although it is a good bet that it is some combination of huge conglomerates such as General Electric or Clear Channel.

Get ready for it to get a lot tougher.

Private equity firms have fallen in love with publicly-owned media properties and are busily snatching up every one they can. That's a big problem because private equity firms tend to be, well, private.

The Federal Communications Commission has specific rules limiting the number and type of local media outlets that a single company or individual can own. The FCC is supposed to keep careful track of who owns what to make sure those rules aren't violated.

With publicly-owned media companies, the calculations are fairly straightforward. The FCC generally holds that anyone who holds more than 5 percent of the voting stock qualifies as an owner for the purposes of enforcing the media ownership rules. Same goes for officers and directors.

But in limited partnerships or limited liability companies -- the corporate structures favored by most private equity funds -- all partners and/or members is considered an owner by the FCC. That can be a huge headache for the big and active investors who populate the private equity world, who regularly team up with many partners to buy and sell things.

Not to worry, says the Wilmer Hale law firm.

The law firm has just issued a new advice sheet (PDF) for private equity fund managers and investors on how to avoid being classified as the actual owners of media outlets. Basically, it offers up a list of provisions that can be adopted by a fund to ensure that a partner or member "is exempt from ownership attribution" by the FCC.

In essence, this will toss an additional veil of secrecy over the ownership trail of your local media outlets. That trail is already difficult enough to follow, even with publicly-owned companies, which are subject to much more vigorous disclosure requirements than private equity funds.

In an ideal world, media outlets would voluntarily provide detailed, straightforward information on their ownership. We are smart enough to realize that will happen when pigs start flying to Hell to go skiing, however.

With the buying binge of private equity firms in full swing and showing no signs of abating, we think it might be time for the FCC to consider tougher ownership disclosure rules.