Regulation

The Department of Labor’s crackdown on businesses illegally failing to pay their interns began in 2010, with the DOL applying a rigid six-part test to determine whether an intern must be paid at least minimum wage for time spent working. This caused a lot of consternation in media companies, with many electing to just drop internship programs. For those media companies, and the students that faced a suddenly diminished number of available internships, an announcement this past week from the Department of Labor will be welcome news.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai: “The commission has made it a top priority to assist with the recovery from last year’s devastating hurricanes. Today, we’re taking another important step to expedite the restoration of vital communications services.

For many years, we have posted guidelines about engaging in or accepting advertising or promotions that directly or indirectly allude to the Super Bowl without a license from the NFL. We are at that time of year again, so here is an updated version of our prior posts.

TiVo Corp. has again sued Comcast, charging the cable operator of using its patented interactive programing technology without authorization, the latest salvo in the companies’ long-running royalty dispute.

At its next open meeting to be held on January 30, the FCC will consider two more proposals in its Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative. The first is a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking suggesting the elimination of requirements that broadcast licensees file paper copies of certain contracts with the FCC. The second is an order deleting certain rule sections that explicitly deal with the operations of full-power analog television stations — stations that no longer exist.

President Trump on Wednesday repeated a pledge to change the nation’s libel laws in a way that would make it easier for people to sue news organizations and publishers for defamation, another salvo from a president who has expressed hostility toward longstanding press freedoms.

As a journalist, you have a right to report truthful information, except where private. That’s where things get tricky. It sounds simple, but it isn’t always easy to discern what’s considered public and what is private.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai: “It’s one week into 2018, and thanks to the Kansas City Chiefs, my New Year’s resolution to minimize sports-related verbal outbursts is already shot. But fortunately, the FCC is poised to make good on one of my top resolutions from last year: prioritizing high-quality economic and data analysis at the agency.”

U.S. Senate Democrats said today they will force a vote later this year on the FCC’s reversal of landmark Obama administration net neutrality rules and will try to make it a key issue in the 2018 congressional elections. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the issue will be a major motivating factor for young voters the party is courting.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai had kind words today for fellow Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr who was nominated for a full five-year term by President Trump. “I congratulate Brendan on his nomination to serve a full five-year term at the FCC,” Pai said. “He is a distinguished public servant who has hit the ground running during his first months as a Commissioner, including by leading the FCC’s efforts to expedite the deployment of wireless infrastructure.  I look forward to continuing to work with him in the months and years to come.”

Published today in the Federal Register were two notices from the FCC implementing November’s decision on the FCC’s ownership rules. Changes included, among other things, the elimination of the rule that required that there be eight  independent owners of TV stations in a market before any party can own two TV stations, elimination of ownership attribution for JSAs between stations in the same market, and a plan to review proposals to combine two of the top 4 stations in any market on a case-by-case basis. These rule changes become effective Feb. 7. Also, comments on Incubator programs to foster diversity in broadcast ownership are due March 9

Oprah Winfrey is “actively thinking” about running for president, two of her close friends told CNN Monday. The two friends, who requested anonymity in order to speak freely, talked in the wake of Winfrey’s extraordinary speech at the Golden Globes Sunday night, which spurred chatter about a 2020 run.

A $750 million defamation lawsuit by Burke Ramsey against the CBS Corp. over a 2016 documentary about the murder of his sister, JonBenet Ramsey, will go forward after a judge’s ruling Friday that the complaint should not be dismissed.

A Senate bill that would reverse the FCC’s decision to repeal net neutrality received its 30th co-sponsor on Monday, ensuring it will receive a vote on the Senate floor. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) announced her support for the bill on Twitter, putting it over the top of a procedural requirement to bypass committee approval.

Yesterday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a one-page memo advising federal prosecutors to use their discretion in pursuing marijuana prosecutions — even in states where state law has made marijuana legal for either medical or recreational use. Yesterday’s action by the DOJ, essentially repealing guidance given to federal prosecutors not to pursue marijuana cases where there was no abusive conduct  does nothing to lessen the risk to broadcasters of running such ads, and in fact likely ups those risks.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai canceled his scheduled appearance at the major upcoming tech industry trade show after receiving death threats, two agency sources told Recode on Thursday. It’s the second known incident in which Pai’s safety may have been at risk, after a bomb threat abruptly forced the chairman to halt his controversial vote to scrap the U.S. government’s net neutrality rules in December 2017.

The fiercest advocates for net neutrality are readying a new war in the nation’s capital, hoping to restore the rules that the Trump administration just eliminated — and galvanize a new generation of younger, web-savvy voters in the process. Not even a month after the FCC voted to scrap its requirement that internet providers treat all web traffic equally, an armada of tech startups, consumer activists and state attorneys general are preparing to take the agency to court.

While some might think that the business of deregulation is easy, that usually is not the case, as comments on the FCC’s proposals to modify the public notice requirements for broadcast applications make clear. While this proposal seems very straightforward, and many of the comments took the sides that one would expect, there were numerous comments that didn’t. Here’s a look at some.

Following a controversial vote to end Obama-era net neutrality protections, the agency’s chairman calls off plans to be a panelist at the tech industry’s annual trade show.

When the FCC adopted its Report and Order authorizing the next-generation TV standard ATSC 3.0, it did not resolve all issues, instead leaving a few for further public comment. Notice of the issues raised in the Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was published in the Federal Register just before Christmas, setting Feb. 20 as the deadline for initial comments on the outstanding issues, and March 20 as the deadline for reply comments.

Freedom of information requests are an important tool for any reporter, not just for investigative teams. Requesting public documents is one of the best ways to keep government agencies accountable.

On Dec.14, the FCC released a public notice unveiling a draft program comment that will supposedly resolve the longstanding issues surrounding collocating equipment on so-called “Twilight Towers.”

Google urges a judge to throw out a lawsuit over restricted videos on YouTube filed by radio talkshow host Dennis Prager, who in October filed a lawsuit against Google alleging censorship of conservatives. Now, Prager demands a preliminary injunction that would prohibit YouTube from restricting viewer access to its videos absent evidence of graphic nudity, violence, profanity, obscene material, hate speech, or anything that would be considered “objectively” offensive.

No doubt anticipating more blow-back in his general direction at Sundays sure-to-be-highly-charged Golden Globe Awards, President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday evening that, the day after the awards ceremony, he will announce winners of his new “MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR.” All-caps are his. Trump’s ceremony is set for 5 PM, he tweeted, presumably meaning Eastern Time.

The holidays are over, and while the regulation never stops, it is time to once again buckle down and look at what is on the horizon for broadcasters. While, in the next few days, we will have our typical look ahead at the broadcast regulatory agenda in Washington for the New Year, we also need to look at more immediate deadlines in the month of January.

Decisions made in courtrooms and boardrooms alike are poised to have lasting implications on the long-term direction of the cable industry. Here’s a look back at some of the biggest cable/media stories of 2017 (in no particular order) and their impact heading into 2018.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) on New Year’s Day called for a revival of “shared facts” in politics and the media. Sasse released a video saying that the country’s system of government “will not work” without a shared understanding of the value of the First Amendment.

The Copyright Office is reviewing the reporting obligations of cable and satellite television systems related to the statutory license that permits those systems to carry the programming of local television stations. The Copyright Office has just announced that it is extending the comment period in the proceeding. Comments are now due March 16, with replies due on April 6, 2018.