Regulation

FCC Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn announced plans to step down from the agency today, ending an eight-year tenure focused on the needs of low-income and minority communities. Clyburn, an Obama nominee who joined the FCC in 2009, made the announcement at an FCC meeting. She did not say what she plans to do next but said she would depart the commission before its next scheduled meeting on May 10.

A U.S. federal judge ruled on Monday that Facebook Inc must face a class action lawsuit alleging that the social network unlawfully used a facial recognition process on photos without user permission. The ruling adds to the privacy woes that have been mounting against Facebook for weeks.

The disclosure that President Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen had also done legal work for Fox News host Sean Hannity came as a New York judge disappointed a lawyer for Trump by letting prosecutors proceed with the cataloguing of evidence including multiple electronic devices that were seized in raids while a system is set up to ensure that records protected by attorney-client privilege aren’t disclosed to investigators.

Broadcasters have asked the FCC to dismiss cable operator petitions to reconsider parts of its framework for allowing broadcasters to roll out the new ATSC 3.0 transmission standard, saying cable ops are simply rehashing rejected positions in order to get different results.

As promised, the FCC has released the second tranche of post-incentive auction repack funding, which is almost all of the original money allocated by Congress. It is allocating an additional $742 million (or 92.5% of total costs), with a tad left over for ($8 million), eventually, for “trueing up” those payments–the payments are based on broadcaster cost estimates that are something of a moving target.

On Friday, the FCC publicly released a Report and Order eliminating TV stations’ annual obligation to report whether they have provided feeable ancillary or supplementary services on their spectrum during the past year unless they have actually provided such services. The order was originally slated for discussion and a vote at this week’s FCC Open Meeting, but the commission wound up adopting this widely supported change early, unanimously voting for it on circulation.

In March 2018, the FCC proposed eliminating the Equal Employment Opportunity Mid-Term Report (also known as Form 397) and now those wishing to voice their opinions can do so until April 30 with reply comments due by May 15.

Steve Harvey and his talk show producers are being accused of tarting up a hardworking single mom, who also happens to be a fitness model … according to a lawsuit. The “Steve Harvey” episode aired in April 2016, and the woman, Dominique Collier, says she showed up for the taping in a conservative outfit -— a long-sleeved blouse and pencil skirt — but producers put her in a halter top and form-fitting skirt … according to the suit.

In a public notice issued Feb. 9, the FCC’s Media Bureau and Incentive Auction Task Force said the “special displacement window” for LPTV and translator stations filing applications for channels opened April 10 and closes May 15. But LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition Director Michael Gravino says the FCC just changed its guidance on how those should be filed and his members need another two weeks to digest the change and respond accordingly.

A dozen senators wrote to the FCC today to urge the agency to investigate Sinclair Broadcast Group and pause its proposed merger with Tribune Media.

The Justice Department’s antitrust case against AT&T reached a crescendo Wednesday as government lawyers asked an economist to explain how the telecom giant’s proposed $85 billion merger with Time Warner would lead to higher cable bills for consumers.

Netflix executives were awarded sham bonuses in order to take advantage of tax law loopholes, according to a lawsuit filed by the City of Birmingham Relief and Retirement System, a company shareholder. The federal lawsuit, filed in US District Court in San Francisco, alleges Netflix gave “multi-million dollar windfalls” to certain executives.

The FBI agents who raided the office and hotel of President Trump’s lawyer on Monday were seeking all records related to the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump was heard making vulgar comments about women, according to three people who have been briefed on the contents of a federal search warrant.

The case revolves around the key question of whether 20th Century Fox, or any studio, can hold its employees to fixed-term contracts. Two Fox employees left for jobs with the streaming giant in 2016. It is not uncommon for employees to leave before their contracts are up, but Fox chose to sue Netflix to combat what it saw as poaching. Netflix has countered that Fox’s contracts illegally bind employees to the company in a practice akin to slavery.

The London offices of 21st Century Fox’s Fox Networks Group were raided by European Commission investigators Tuesday as part of a wider probe into possible anticompetitive practices regarding the distribution of sports rights in the region.

During some five hours of Senate questioning Tuesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized several times for his company’s privacy failures, disclosed that his company was “working with” special counsel Robert Mueller in the federal probe of Russian election interference and said it was working hard to change its own operations after the harvesting of users’ private data by a data-mining company affiliated with Donald Trump’s campaign. (AP photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The FCC chairman says his approach to broadcast regulations is “You either believe in scrapping outdated regulations or you don’t. We do.” And he thanks broadcasters for their support, especially during the controversy over net neutrality which resulted in death threats.

FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly is spearheading a review of the FCC’s children’s television requirements that he hopes to launch in the summer and complete by year’s end.

Although Fox Broadcasting isn’t exactly known for leading the charge against sexual harassment, the company has gained an advantage in court against former executive Cliff Pozner in a case that could heighten the liability for those who engage in sexual misconduct in the workplace.

Read carefully through the fine print of YouTube’s terms of service and you might notice that you’ve affirmed you are old enough to watch it. “If you are under 13 […]

The Department of Homeland Security wants to track the comings and goings of journalists, bloggers and other “media influencers” through a database. The DHS’s “Media Monitoring” plan would give the contracting company “24/7 access to a password protected, media influencer database, including journalists, editors, correspondents, social media influencers, bloggers etc.” in order to “identify any and all media coverage related to the Department of Homeland Security or a particular event.”