A group of 103 members of Congress have filed an amicus brief in support of Mozilla et al.’s challenge to the FCC’s network neutrality reg rollback. Many of those are also opposing the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court because of his views on FCC net neutrality regulation and authority.
The FCC’s attorney general, its internal watchdog, cleared the agency’s Republican chairman, Ajit Pai, of showing any favoritism toward Sinclair Broadcasting Group in the review of its now-abandoned merger plans.
Hollywood and Wall Street has long wondered how much Sumner Redstone really knows about what is being done and said in his name. Now, thanks to an irate filing Tuesday by lawyers for the rarely seen 95-year old media mogul and the legal tenacity of his former companion Manula Herzer, by the end of the week we might know if we are finally going to get a glimpse at the real capacity of the elder Redstone
More Than Seven Dirty Words will feature interviews with FCC officials and staff and others to share untold stories, explain important policy issues and more.
Allegations of sexual misconduct against CBS chairman Leslie Moonves have now hit a courtroom as one CBS shareholder on Monday filed a putative class action against the company.
Exclusives
Repack Reimbursement Comments Due Sept. 26
In Monday’s Federal Register, publication is scheduled for the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on reimbursing LPTV stations, TV translators and FM radio stations for costs they incur because of the TV incentive auction and the resulting repacking of the TV spectrum. The publication in the Federal Register means that comments on the FCC proposals are due Sept. 26, and reply comments on Oct. 26.
The ousted anchor can’t force PBS to hand over internal documents dating back decades and two of his claims have been dismissed.
McCain’s Maverick Ways Extended To Broadcast
As he did on many things, Arizona Senator John McCain, who died over the weekend, went his own way on broadcasting policy during his days as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee in the 1990s and the aughts. Untethered to any regulatory orthodoxy, he helped broadcasters stave off new public interest obligations, but at the same time he opposed their second-channel plans for the analog-to-digital transition and championed free air time for candidates.
Jessell | Worried About Ad Collusion? Blame The FCC
While stations are cautioned not to share too much information to avoid charges of price fixing, the FCC requires them to post the rates they charge political advertisers, from which smart rival broadcasters can deduce their entire pricing stategy.
The Senate on Thursday passed a measure to provide funding to require drug advertisements to disclose the price of the drug after a last-minute push. The move marks a rare moment where Congress took some action aimed at high drug prices, a contentious issue that has been a recent target of Democrats and the Trump administration.
A Boston woman is suing celebrity chef and former host of ABC’s The Chew and Iron Chef America regular, claiming he groped her at a bar. At least seven women have already accused Batali of alleged inappropriate touching in public, causing him to lose his television jobs.
According to two sources briefed on the Cohen investigation, prosecutors granted immunity to David Pecker, chairman of The National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc., and A.M.I.’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, so they would describe Trump’s involvement in Cohen’s payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal during the 2016 campaign.
The U.S. Department of Justice is urging a federal judge to reject the company’s bid to dismiss a civil lawsuit accusing it of violating housing laws by facilitating ads that discriminate against women and families with children.
CBS Corp. chairman-CEO Leslie Moonves has hired powerhouse litigator Daniel Petrocelli to represent him in CBS’s internal probe into sexual misconduct allegations reported late last month by the New Yorker. CBS declined to comment.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors has updated its brand. The board, which oversees government-backed international programming services including the Voice of America, is now the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
NJ Dems Want License Renewal Study
In a letter to the General Accountability Office, Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker, citing Fox O&O WWOR New York, which is licensed to their state, claim the FCC hasn’t held it to its “special obligations to serve New Jersey.” In their letter, the senators ask a series of questions that amount to a call for specific and concrete license renewal criteria, which the broadcasting industry has long opposed.
KSHB Reporter Says She Was ‘Suspended’ For Facebook Post
FCC Proposes Repack Funds Distribution Rules
The commission proposed rules governing which stations are eligible for reimbursement following the post-incentive auction repacking of TV stations, and what kinds of expenses can be reimbursed, as well as the procedures eligible stations must use to receive funds. Here’s the skinny on LPTV and TV translator stations.
Broadcasters Need To Prep For EAS Test
The FCC and FEMA have established Sept. 20 as the date for the next nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System. The nationwide test is designed to study the effectiveness of the EAS and to monitor the performance of EAS participants. The Wireless Emergency Alert system will be tested immediately prior to the test of the EAS. While the test itself is a month away, all EAS participants must file their Form One with the FCC by Aug. 27 in preparation for the test.
A federal appeals court on Monday revived a lawsuit accusing CBS Corp. and CBS Radio of copyright infringement for playing digitally remastered songs recorded before 1972 by Al Green, the Everly Brothers, Jackie Wilson and others on radio stations and online.
Ranking Energy & Commerce Committee member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) has asked FCC Inspector General David Hunt to investigate what he said was FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s failure to disclose a conversation he had with White House General Counsel Don McGahn about the Sinclair-Tribune merger, suggesting it could have been a “coverup.” An FCC spokesperson says partisan Democrats are trying to beat a dead horse.
FCC OK Is Vital For Corporate Changes
Three consent decrees entered into by public companies in recent months for, without prior FCC approval, moving station licenses among wholly-owned subsidiaries as part of corporate reorganizations, remind broadcasters that if they are making any change in their ownership where the chain of control changes, even if actual control remains the same, they still need prior FCC approval.
President Trump said meetings with executives prompted him to ask the SEC to study letting public companies file financial reports every six months instead of every quarter.
The National Association of Broadcasters says more work needs to be done on the FCC’s system for identifying where incumbent TV station spectrum users and fixed unlicensed white spaces devices are before using it to allow unlicensed wireless (broadband) use in those so-called “white spaces” between channels.
Ajit Pai says he doubted claims the FCC’s comment system had been taken down by a cyberattack, but was asked to keep quiet until a full report was made public.
Facebook has been hit with a lawsuit accusing it of bilking advertisers by inflating the number of people its ads could reach. “Based on publicly available research and plaintiffs’ own analysis, Facebook overstates the potential reach of its advertisements,” business owner Danielle Singer alleges in a class-action complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
NEW YORK (AP) — Newspapers from Maine to Hawaii pushed back against President Donald Trump’s attacks on “fake news” with a coordinated series of editorials in defense of a free […]
