Disgraced media mogul Les Moonves is threatening to sue CBS over recent leaks of lurid details about his alleged sexual misconduct. In what’s expected to amount to a breach of contract suit, Moonves’ lawyers are preparing to allege that leaks to the New York Times last week about CBS’s pending investigation into Moonves broke a confidentiality agreement and sullied the exec’s reputation, sources close to Moonves said.
Jessell | Sook & Nexstar Sound The Right Note For Tribune
Despite all the shots I have taken at Sinclair’s David Smith for his top-down meddling in news and for souring the regulatory climate in Washington, I like the idea of his owning Tribune. However, I think I like the idea of Nexstar’s Perry Sook owning Tribune even more. He can better make the case in Washington that mega-station groups are good for the country; he will be a better steward of Tribune’s news operations and will be just as committed as Smith in advancing ATSC 3.0 datacasting.
Draft legislation that aims to provide federal oversight to sports betting surfaced out of retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch’s office this week. The 37-page untitled discussion draft, obtained by ESPN, is viewed as an initial step in what’s expected to be a long, tedious process that will play out as legal sportsbooks pop up in an increasing amount of states.
Jane Hinckley Halprin, FCC assistant general counsel for ethics, is tapped to replace Richard Sippel, who retired on Dec. 1.
Thursday morning, the FCC started to email notices to numerous radio stations throughout the country, notifying them that there are issues with their online public inspection files. Clearly, this is a warning to stations that the FCC is watching their public files, and that compliance problems will bring issues, and possibly fines, if the files are not complete by license renewal time.
Judges probing arguments for and against the AT&T-Time Warner merger attacked the Department of Justice’s argument that a lower court judge exhibited clear error in allowing the deal to go through and rejecting the government’s economic analysis that the combined company would use its leverage to raise retail prices anticompetitively. Judges sometimes play devil’s advocate, but DOJ clearly got the tougher — and much longer — end of the grilling.
Exclusives
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is acknowledging that Russia-linked email addresses weighed in during the public comment process ahead of the FCC’s net neutrality repeal last year. Pai wrote in a court filing this week that it is a “fact” that a half-million comments were submitted from Russian email addresses during the public comment period, adding that most of those comments were in favor of net neutrality.
CNN V. Trump Might Be Over, But…
… the dangers are just beginning. New White House rules governing the press corps threaten the First Amendment.
As expected, the American Cable Association has called on the government to cast a critical eye on the proposed $6.4 billion merger of Nextar with Tribune and says that without tough conditions and or divestitures, the deal should be blocked.
The FCC’s internal watchdog found no evidence of a “concealment or cover-up” by Chairman Ajit Pai on interactions with the White House related to the failed Sinclair-Tribune merger.
In a blow to web monitoring service TVEyes, the Supreme Court has refused to review a lower court ruling that requires the company to stop offering video clips from Fox News programs.
Over the objections of AT&T and Time Warner, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has decided to permit 27 antitrust scholars to speak up at a hearing later this week.
On Friday, Nov. 30, broadcasters in the first of a 10-phase post incentive auction repack must have completed their move to new channels and ceased broadcasting on their pre-transition channels. Phase two begins Dec. 1. According to the FCC, more than 140 TV stations in over 20 markets will have moved frequencies when phase one is over.
A pair of Republican senators have asked the FCC to resolve interference issues with TV white spaces (TVWS) use by unlicensed devices, come up with final guidance, and allow for the expansion of TVWS use. They say the technology is key to closing the rural broadband divide because it is an affordable connectivity answer for rural and tribal communities.
Ex-WSMV Anchor Sues, Charging Gender Bias
Linda Vester, a former NBC News correspondent who accused Tom Brokaw of sexual assault earlier this year, is calling on the Comcast board of directors to do a thorough investigation of harassment at NBC. Vester took out an ad in Thursday’s New York Times, calling on the board to end non-disclosure agreements and forced arbitration in sexual harassment cases.
The group says that in light of the commission raising questions over the group owner’s fitness to be a licensee following the failed Tribune merger, the FCC needs to “resolve the serious charges it leveled against Sinclair as soon as possible.”
Ronald Reagan had a similar idea while he was the sitting president and tapped his friend and head of the U.S. Information Agency Charles Z. Wick to launch WorldNet TV in 1983 … which sent TV programming by satellite globally.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Resort developer Genting Malaysia has filed a lawsuit in California seeking at least $1 billion in damages from Walt Disney Co. and Fox Entertainment Group […]
The president said via Twitter on Monday that CNN “has a powerful voice portraying the United States in an unfair and false way. Something has to be done,” suggesting starting “our own Worldwide Network.” It wasn’t immediately clear what he meant. The U.S. government already operates Voice of America, which last year reached some 275 million people worldwide.
December Regulatory Dates For Broadcasters
While the holidays may be upon us, there is no rest in the broadcast regulatory world. Dec. 1 brings routine EEO public file report obligations for radio and television station employment units with five or more fulltime employees for stations in Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Vermont.
President Trump on Sunday blasted CBS’s 60 Minutes over an evening report about his administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, which resulted in the separation of thousands of children from their parents at the southern border.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Bill Shine got $8.4 million in severance pay from 21st Century Fox after he left in May 2017. He’ll also receive bonus and options payments in 2018 and 2019 amounting to $7 million for the two years combined. The agreement is set to expire May 1, 2019.
As expected, the FCC on Dec. 12 will officially launch its latest congressionally mandated “Quadrennial” review of broadcast ownership rules. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai did the unveiling Tuesday in his monthly blog post on the items the FCC plans to vote on at its next public meeting, which he does when the tentative agenda is released 21 days before the meeting.
NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd on Tuesday criticized the White House’s new rules for reporters at presidential news conferences, calling them “absurd” and predicting that journalists won’t follow them.
The White House on Monday abruptly dropped its effort to bar CNN reporter Jim Acosta from the White House. However, it said going forward, reporters would be permitted one question each if called upon at news conferences and allowed follow-ups only at the discretion of the president. CNN said that, as a result, it has dropped its lawsuit against the White House filed on Acosta’s behalf.
A federal appeals court cleared the way for Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios Networks to pursue civil rights suits against two of the nation’s biggest cable operators, Charter Communications and Comcast. These lawsuits seek sizable damages — $20 billion against Comcast and $10 billion against Charter — for alleged violations of the Civil Rights Act.
