commentary

NAB’s Patrick McFadden: T-Mobile “has a small problem with accuracy, or what some might call the truth. Let’s not forget that T-Mobile is the company that went to absurd lengths in stomping its magenta sneakers about the need for the FCC to set aside spectrum in the incentive auction for everyone not named AT&T and Verizon, going so far as to come up with the world’s most pathetic superhero movie to try to make its point.”

Alan Pergament: “My new favorite TV channel is … Twitter. Through links sent by followers, it allows me to see things that I forget to DVR and to go to bed early to see things that haven’t aired yet.”

Howard Homonoff: “After years of hopeful whispers and crossing of fingers about “advanced” TV, signs of it were everywhere at the National Association of Broadcasters annual convention in Las Vegas last week. Despite my disappointment at having to leave Vegas without seeing Ice Cube (he plays the Strip this week), I did come away with several important takeaways about the broadcasting business and the relevance of the venerable NAB convention, all in some fashion related to the evolution of the TV business.”

People no longer need to watch newscasts for stories about crime, traffic accidents and fires — the things that not long ago were a TV station’s bread and butter. Users are getting it first hand in real time. Some police departments have more folks dedicated to digital than do TV stations in the market. It’s clear: local TV news needs to move beyond the police blotter or fire department calls of the day. Station and news managers need to come up with a deep, viewer-focused content strategy.

Story and content and truth are what’s important and what we should focus on. Journalism that is compelling and meaningful to the audience. Having a conversation with the audience, however it was that they got to the newscast in the first place. Young millennials hardly even own TVs anymore. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be part of the news conversation, it just means we have to think of new ways to draw them in. And it’s not just the young adults, it’s becoming all adults.

David Zurawik: “A lot of things puzzle me about the presidency of Donald Trump. But none quite so much as how he went from being one of the most effective media candidates in modern history to one of the most inept media presidents.”

Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler says legislation now headed for the President’s desk “not only gives cable companies and wireless providers free rein to do what they like with your browsing history, shopping habits, your location and other information gleaned from your online activity, but it would also prevent the [FCC] from ever again establishing similar consumer privacy protections.”

Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen once promised that he would meet all the broadband needs of consumers with the billions of dollars of wireless spectrum he was accumulating. Five years later, Dish Network has a contract to repair Samsung’s exploding washing machines, but no articulated plan for putting all that spectrum to work. This column originally appeared as the “Scherman’s Notebook” column in the March 1 Satellite Business News FaxUPDATE.

The media landscape has changed since the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was chartered, says board member Howard Husock, who claims public media has outlived its original mission.

Commissioner Michael O’Rielly: “One of Chairman Pai’s most welcomed, yet least noted, process reforms has been his unequivocal direction that staff should be completely up front with all commissioners, not just the chairman. Add this one to the list of reforms for which Chairman Pai should be congratulated. It is also one that needs to be memorialized in a complete update of the commission’s internal rulebook so the next commission follows the same improvements.”

The Media Institute’s Patrick Maines: “PBS and NPR are again the subject of a contentious debate about their taxpayer funding. For years, Republicans and conservatives have accused NPR and PBS of ideological and political bias. Defenders of public broadcasting are on firmer ground when they extol the virtues of the cultural and educational programming found on NPR and PBS. Perhaps Congress would consider legislation that eliminates government support of public broadcasting’s news and public affairs programming, but preserves its support for cultural and educational programs.”

As cord-cutting and changing viewing habits disrupt traditional TV, columnist Benjamin Spiegel explains why better content discovery is essential for the future of the medium.

It’s no secret why broadcast and cable networks alike pile so many of their good shows on Sunday nights. Sunday has the highest HUT levels (that’s TV speak for households using television) of the week, and so a Sunday show has a chance to attract the most eyeballs. But of late, you may have noticed, Sunday nights are increasingly impossible for the TV enthusiast, especially those handcuffed by a stone age, two-tuner DVR.

Jim Rutenberg: It’s time for other Republicans to take a stand: The journalism that President  Trump and his aides seek to delegitimize today could be the legitimate research they need to use tomorrow.

Paul Waldman: “The news media is where Trump looks for validation, and where he learns what he should care about or be angered by. For all his tweets about “fake news” and his attacks on the very idea of a free press that exists to do something other than sing his praises, Trump is the most media-obsessed president we’ve ever seen. And that’s not going to change.”

Ellen Gray: “Lately, I tune in to CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to take democracy’s pulse. If Colbert is still there, skewering President Trump and his administration, then all may not be right in the world. But it’s still a world I recognize, one where comedians can take pokes at the powerful without losing their livelihoods or their freedom.”

James K. Glassman: “In a digital age, local broadcast TV is the great sleeper medium, and it’s waking up nicely. The quality of local news broadcasts on national topics varies, but some broadcast chains are putting significant resources into tailoring national news to a local audience.”

Journalism models are changing rapidly. But don’t make the mistake of thinking the craft is dying, says media veteran Mark Effron. At J-schools, students demonstrate the “desire to find out what’s really going on,” and the fact they are anxious “to communicate that through vivid language and strong images, gives me hope for their future, and the future of journalism.”

President Donald Trump managed to avoid questions about hot-button issues facing the White House — such as the future of national security adviser Michael Flynn and a North Korean missile launch — in a news conference Monday with Canadian Prime MInister Justin Trudeau.

FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly: “For commission rules and procedures to be truly effective, everyone needs to know with a certain level of confidence what will happen if applicable deadlines are missed.  Not only does this not exist today, but the commission’s inconsistency with how it responds to late filings borders on arbitrary and capricious. To rectify, I suggest it is time to establish a universally-applied policy that, from now on, everyone is expected to either comply with all applicable deadlines or face the consequences.”

Adonis Hoffman: “For most of his tenure, former FCC chief Tom Wheeler was at war with the broadcast industry. New chairman, Ajit Pai, is rolling out the red carpet for broadcasters, throwing his weight behind ATSC 3.0, a cutting-edge technology that is expected to give life and value to broadcast spectrum.”

RTDNA’s Mike Cavender: “President Trump’s latest charge against the media is that we’re covering up terror attacks around the world by not reporting or under-reporting some of them. Trump’s accusations are just another in a long list of attacks on the news media; attacks which have no basis in fact. The president’s war on the press has reached a point of being ridiculous and even damaging to our system of a free and open press.”

Margaret Sullivan: This year, the White House correspondents’ bash is worse than embarrassing. It’s poised to tip over into journalistic self-abasement. It’s time to stick a silver-plated fork in it.

Melissa Luck, assistant news director at KXLY Spokane, Wash.: “A “rant” I posted Sunday night has taken on a life of its own, shared on Facebook (and, Twitter. And, LinkedIn) by journalists and other supporters of our industry. It has resonated, it seems, with journalists nationwide who are clearly trying to send a message to their family and friends: not all media is the same and we’re not part of a vast conspiracy to promote one candidate or political view or another.”

Margaret Sullivan: “Most mainstream organizations don’t want their reporters or editors carrying pickets signs — whether at a protest against the immigrant travel ban or at the antiabortion March for Life. The conflicts often play out on social media, and editors find themselves acting as the Twitter police for their staffs. From BuzzFeed to The New York Times, top editors repeatedly have told their reporters that impartiality matters and to cut the snark.”

Relations between presidents and the press have often been contentious, but even in the worst of times there is scant evidence of the White House using the FCC to punish its media adversaries.

In years past, you could get a pretty good idea of what new syndicated offerings will be airing this fall and which won’t at NATPE and the days immediately following. Not this year. Eleven days after the show ended, there is still no word on clearances for the handful of new shows and a couple of year-old ones on the bubble.

E.J. Dionne Jr.: “When confronted with untruths, all journalists have one and only one choice: to call them what they are. They cannot, without misleading the public, pretend that there are two sides to a purely factual question. Further, they need to avoid vague language about facts being “in dispute” when there is absolutely no question about what the facts are. Partisans might well emphasize some facts over others. But facts themselves aren’t partisan.”

The former CNN White House correspondent: “At its best, CNN is a journalistic enterprise with unparalleled reach and resources, connecting its viewers with people and conflicts half a mile or half a world away. That’s why I believe that as a condition of Time Warner’s bid to merge with AT&T, CNN should be sold to a new independent entity. This sale would also include CNN international, Headline News and its digital and related properties.”

Michael Ausiello: “Each day brings with it an even scarier headline that brings into sharper focus Trump’s plans for this country, and Oprah’s not around to help calm the feelings of uncertainty and fear that are curdling my insides by reminding me of how much good remains in the world. So, Oprah, if you’re reading this, here’s what I’m proposing: Revive The Oprah Winfrey Show on OWN … on a five- or four-day-a-week basis.”

Donald J. Trump embellished his Apprentice ratings and the number of floors in Trump Tower. As president, he has continued using suspect math.

The media’s fragmentation, competitiveness, and increasing partisanship have sapped it of much of the collective political power it held during Watergate. Add in a hyperpolarized environment in Washington, on the internet, and across the country, and the Trump Administration may usher in one of the most challenging environments for the Washington press corps over the past century.

When Donald Trump takes the oath of office Friday, becoming the 45th president, two factors will have helped in a big — no, huge — way. He had one dominant message and one dominant messenger. A new Pew Research study shows that Trump voters coalesced around a single primary news source: Fox News.