Regulation

With high profile primaries in numerous states and similar elections last week, and more coming over the next few months in preparation for the November election, broadcasters are dealing with the legal issues that arise with on-air advertising that either promotes or attacks candidates and which addresses other important matters that will be decided in the election — including ballot issues in a number of states. Now there are efforts underway to bring FCC-like regulation to the world of online political advertising.

The Supreme Court today ruled 6-3 to strike down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. The 1992 law barred state-authorized sports gambling with some exceptions. It made Nevada the only state where a person could wager on the results of a single game. One research firm estimated before the ruling that if the Supreme Court were to strike down the law, 32 states would likely offer sports betting within five years.

CBS today filed a lawsuit in Delaware Court of Chancery. The suit alleges breaches of fiduciary duty by National Amusements, the controlling entity of CBS and Viacom. Shari Redstone, who runs National Amusements, has been locked in a struggle with CBS chief Leslie Moonves over the company’s merger talks with Viacom, which is also controlled by National Amusements. National Amusements later issued a statement saying it is “outraged” by CBS’s lawsuit and the allegations of heavy-handed tactics by Redstone — including the threat of reconstituting the network’s board of directors to force a merger with corporate sibling Viacom.

DOJ signaled Friday there would be announcements out of its Civil Rights division, the Criminal division, the Deputy Attorney General’s office, the National Security division and the Tax Division, but nothing out of the Antitrust division, which is reviewing the proposed merger. It will still be weeks before there’s any FCC decision on the deal.

Hiring President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, was a “big mistake,” AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson said in an employee memo.

Senate Democrats are still defending 10 states that President Trump won in 2016, but six months out from Election Day, the most vulnerable senator remains a Republican, Nevada’s Dean Heller no longer faces a primary threat, but he’s the only Republican up for re-election in a state Hillary Clinton won, and in this national environment that’s a tricky place to be.

Landmark U.S. “net neutrality” rules will expire on June 11, and new regulations handing providers broad new power over how consumers can access the internet will take effect, the FCC said on Thursday in setting the date.

Soon after President Trump took office, AT&T agreed to pay $600,000 to his attorney Michael Cohen for help on issues pending before the federal government, including the proposed Time Warner deal, according to internal documents.

The FCC has unanimously approved a notice of proposed rulemaking looking into opening up the 2.5-GHz band for wireless broadband, but not without pushback from some educational broadband services that use the band.

Because the vast majority of the information contained on broadcast licenses is now available through the commission’s electronic databases, it wants opinions on whether regulations requiring broadcast licenses and related authorizations to be physically posted are outdated and no longer necessary.   

President Trump has mused privately during his nearly 16 months in office about revoking reporters’ press credentials, according to multiple people familiar with his comments. On Wednesday, he brought it up publicly, tweeting “take away credentials?” as a question.

Starting June 1, 2020, the next broadcast TV license renewal cycle will begin. Every eight years, stations have to seek the renewal of their licenses by the FCC by demonstrating their continuing qualifications to be a licensee, including showing that they have not had a history of FCC violations and that they have otherwise served the public interest. Stations should be reviewing the contents of their online public files now to be sure that they are ready for the scrutiny that they will receive in the upcoming renewal cycle.

Eric Schneiderman has raised his profile as a voice against sexual misconduct. Now, after suing Harvey Weinstein, he faces a #MeToo reckoning of his own. Four women accuse him having subjected them to nonconsensual physical violence. Three hours after the publication of this story, Schneiderman resigned from his position. “While these allegations are unrelated to my professional conduct or the operations of the office, they will effectively prevent me from leading the office’s work at this critical time,” he said in a statement. “I therefore resign my office, effective at the close of business on May 8, 2018.”

With the first phase of the post-incentive auction repack rapidly approaching, licensees of full power and Class A television stations should be mindful of upcoming deadlines for notifications to multichannel video programming distributors, medical facilities and viewers. The requirements apply both to stations that submitted a successful bid to change bands and to stations that are changing channels due to the repack.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has called on the Federal Trade Commission to stop tracking users across websites after they have logged out of Facebook accounts, and to suspend facial recognition tools pending the FTC’s completion of an investigation into Facebook’s compliance with an existing consent decree.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) plans to file a discharge petition on Wednesday to force a vote on a bill that would nullify the FCC’s December decision to kill the rules, which mandated that internet service providers treat all traffic equally.

In reviewing station deals for their impact on competition in the local ad marketplace, the Justice Department has been stubbornly refusing to factor in the $6 billion that cable operators take out of local markets. That makes it tough to merge two top-four stations. Broadcasters’ best strategy might be to manuever Justice into having to defend its stingy analysis in court.

Three women filed a sexual harassment lawsuit today against former CBS News television anchor Charlie Rose, accusing the prominent journalist of touching them inappropriately and making offensive comments.

NEW YORK (AP) — Authorities expect to make more arrests in the sex-trafficking investigation of a self-help group that’s already resulted in charges against former “Smallville” actress Allison Mack and […]

Fox News today appointed Lily Fu Claffee general counsel, effective Monday, May 7. She will be based in New York. Dianne Brandi, executive vice president of legal and business affairs, will […]

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts is eyeing the 21st Century Fox assets that are being purchased by Disney. While it remains unclear whether the proposed $85 billion deal between AT&T and Time Warner will go through because of potential antitrust law violations, Roberts believes if the Department of Justice loses the trial, he can make a higher bid for the Fox assets, sources on Wall Street say.

Donald Trump, under the auspices of his reelection campaign committee and the Republican National Committee, has released yet another “accountability” survey slamming the media and calling on the American people to “challenge” what his campaign calls the “liberal propaganda machines.”

KINGSTON, N.Y.  (AP) — New York will see another female celebrity with political hopes campaigning this fall: Former Law & Order actress Diane Neal is seeking a new gig as representative of a […]

A lawyer for Summer Zervos, a former contestant on the show who is suing Donald Trump, has subpoenaed any Apprentice material that features Zervos or Trump talking about her or discussing other female contestants in a sexual or inappropriate way. Also subpoenaed are records from the Beverly Hills Hotel, where the lawyer says Trump made unwelcome advances in 2007.

The FCC yesterday issued a Declaratory Ruling approving the acquisition by a company owned by two Mexican citizens of 100% of the ownership interest of a company that owns two radio stations in California and Arizona. Through yesterday’s decision, together with a case last year approving 100% ownership of broadcast stations in Alaska and Texas by Australian citizens, the FCC has demonstrated that it is serious about, in the right circumstances, approving foreign ownership of US broadcast stations.

Approximately 100 women — current and former employees of NBC — have signed a statement carefully worded so as not to dispute the accusations against Tom Brokaw of Linda Vester, a former correspondent and anchor at NBC News and MSNBC. “We all signed the letter knowing that more women could come forward. If more women come forward we’re going to revisit this,” says an insider.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel has wrapped up its investigation of FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly’s statements at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 23 and concluded he violated the Hatch Act prohibition on certain political activities by federal branch employees. He was issued a warning letter that a repeat of such statements could incur more than a warning.