After 350 American newspapers published editorials condemning increasing attacks on a free press, President Donald Trump attacked the initiative. Trump tweets: “There is nothing that I would want more for our Country than true FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The fact is that the Press is FREE to write and say anything it wants, but much of what it says is FAKE NEWS, pushing a political agenda or just plain trying to hurt people. HONESTY WINS!”
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told a Senate panel Thursday that Don McGahn, the White House counsel, called for a “status update” on the agency’s action on the deal on July 16 ot 17. Tribune scrapped the deal on Aug. 9.
Ex-Staffer Files Harassment Suit Against WLNS
According to a lawsuit, former Assignment Editor Cheryl Fritze is suing Nexstar and its Lansing, Mich., CBS affiliate WLNS for sexual harassment.
Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) has signaled he will use some of his time questioning FCC Chairman Ajit Pai at a Thursday FCC oversight hearing to make sure he has journalists’ backs. That is the same day journalist organizations are getting together to push back on President Donald Trump’s attacks on mainstream media as fake news outlets in league with his Democrat opponents to undermine his presidency and policies.
USTIN, Texas (AP) — The Federal Communications Commission has shut down a pirate radio station that served as the flagship outlet for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. The Austin American-Statesman reports the […]
President Trump’s relationship with Omarosa Manigault Newman goes back to their days on The Apprentice, but has turned sour with her tell-all book and White House tapes.
Exclusives
A group of Tinder co-founders and current and former employees is suing IAC and Match Group over the valuation of the popular dating app. Former CEO Sean Rad alleges that Tinder’s parent companies intentionally undervalued the popular dating app to deny early employees billions in stock options.
The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau says it has no issue with the FCC’s administrative law judge terminating a hearing into Sinclair’s representations about the now-imploded Tribune deal, though that apparently has not happened yet. An FCC spokesperson confirmed the decision to cancel the hearing would have to come from the ALJ.
The now Vince Sadusky run Univision may be trying to trim costs and staff to stay competitive but the purchase and possible sale of The Onion could result in a whole new set of tears for the Spanish-language media company. That would be at least $2 million dollar’s worth of tears to be specific in a lawsuit filed against Univision and the news satire outlet late last week by financial specialists GCA Advisors.
Democratic lawmakers are putting heat on FCC Chairman Ajit Pai over a recent inspector general report that found the agency falsely claimed it had suffered a cyberattack that briefly took down its electronic comment system amid the backlash over its repeal of net neutrality.
Now’s The Time To Register C-Band Downlinks
The Real Danger Of Trump’s Media War
Fox News political analyst Juan Williams: “In many ways, Trump is the white Marion Barry. They share a willingness to play racial politics, an authoritarian bent and an open hostility towards journalists. There is one important difference: Trump is doing his damage at the national level.”
The former Fox News executive, who was formally brought into the White House last month as deputy chief of staff for communications, has yet to move into a permanent office or bring on his own staff. But he is already putting his mark on the West Wing, clashing with reporters, improving the production quality of White House events and trying to shape the message of an administration whose communication strategy has always seemed haphazardly dictated by tweet.
Identifying Digital/Social Media Asset Owners
Media companies should be making clear by contract or otherwise who owns the podcasts, webpages, blogs and social media accounts that their employees and independent contractors have created.
Jessell: Tribune Starts Over, Sinclair Digs Out
Following the spectacular collapse of their merger, Tribune and Sinclair have to go back to work. For Tribune, that means putting up the “For Sale” sign again, with plenty of interested buyers out there. For Sinclair, things are ominous. First it must settle Tribune’s billion-dollar lawsuit, and then find a way back into the FCC’s good graces. That could prove costly, too.
It says Sinclair broke its merger agreement by proposing “extremely risky and highly controversial divestitures to buyers that were specifically disfavored by the FCC staff,” deliberately omitted material facts from FCC applications and generally antagonizing “the regulators at both DOJ and the FCC while seeking their approval.”
EAS, WEA National Tests Scheduled For Sept. 20
At the same time as it ends the $3.9 billion deal, it files a lawsuit seeking compensation “for all losses incurred as a result of Sinclair’s material breaches of the merger agreement.” It also releases its second quarter earnings results that included Television and Entertainment segment revenues of $486.4 million, up 4% from $466.1 million in 2Q 2017.
The Wall Street Journal reports that a Delaware judge said he had concerns about the medical condition of 95-year-old media mogul Sumner Redstone and declined to order that he be deposed in the legal battle between his family’s holding company, National Amusements Inc., and CBS Corp. Journal subscribers can read the full story here.
In a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai sent Tuesday, Reps. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), the top Democrats on the House committee overseeing the FCC, said that the commission should look into the possibility that Sinclair had conspired with Tribune Media, which it’s trying to acquire.
National Amusements Inc. and CBS Corp. are fighting over the admissibility of a recent video of Sumner Redstone as part of the larger legal fight over control of CBS. The video purportedly supports CBS’ contention that CBS and Viacom chairman emeritus Sumner Redstone is no longer mentally competent and that his daughter, Shari Redstone, has been improperly calling the shots at his National Amusements holding company, which controls Viacom and CBS.
The FCC on Monday said that a cyberattack on its comment system that it claimed had taken place last year never actually happened. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai issued a statement saying the agency’s former CIO provided “inaccurate information about this incident to me, my office, Congress and the American people.”
The judge who refused to block AT&T’s merger with Time Warner ignored “fundamental principles of economics and common sense,” the Department of Justice writes in court papers filed Monday with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Donald Trump has not contacted the FCC about its lack of approval for Sinclair Broadcast Group’s proposed deal to buy Tribune Media, which Trump has called “disgraceful” on Twitter, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says.
Sinclair Broadcast Group hired a group of Republican lobbyists last month as the F CC put its proposed merger with Tribune Media in jeopardy, according to disclosure forms released this week. The filings show that Sinclair tapped the lobbyists to advocate for the embattled merger on June 19, three days after FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he had “serious concerns” about the deal and would be referring it to an onerous administrative law proceeding.
Free Speech Is On A Slippery Slope
Rich people have free speech rights. Do the corporations they run? That question is destroying democracy.
