Wednesday’s hearings in Washington with social media executives did not devolve into ham-handed apologies. Instead, they showed a political system wrestling with issues that have no easy answers.
STATION ADVISORY
FCC Reminds C-Band Users To Register
The FCC has issued a reminder to all operators “of fixed-satellite service (FSS) earth stations in the 3.7-4.2 GHz band that were constructed and operational as of April 19, 2018, that the filing window to license or register such earth stations closes on Oct. 17, 2018.” This frequency band is commonly referred to as the C-Band, and many of the FSS earth stations are satellite dishes that receive programming used by both radio and TV stations.
With the lowest unit charge window for the November elections going into effect today (Sept. 7), here’s a review of the basic FCC rules and policies affecting those charges.
The former CBS News and PBS journalist late Thursday filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit by the former employees. He’s joining co-defendant CBS, which is also seeking to get the case thrown out of New York state court. Rose was fired by CBS and PBS last year for sexual misconduct.
BRAND CONNECTIONS
Paramount Pictures and former Paramount Television president Amy Powell have reached a settlement to head off litigation in connection with her abrupt firing in July after nearly 15 years with the studio. Powell was dismissed following allegations that she made racially insensitive remarks during a work-related conference call. Powell vehemently denied saying anything inflammatory.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh says he will keep an open mind about allowing cameras or microphones into the Supreme Court, but signaled he might be more receptive to televising the reading of decisions than oral arguments.
STATION ADVISORY
FCC Annual Regulatory Fees Due Sept. 25
Last week, the FCC released its order setting the amounts for the annual regulatory fees paid by all of those regulated by the FCC. Those fees are due by Sept. 25. On Friday, the FCC released a Fact Sheet detailing the fees for broadcast and other licensees regulated by the Media Bureau and how those fees should be paid.
Exclusives
Sacha Baron Cohen, CBS Corp. and Showtime Networks were sued by former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who claims the satirist tricked him into appearing on his Who Is America? show and then made him look like a pedophile and sex offender. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in federal court in Washington with claims of defamation and fraud. It seeks $95 million in damages.
NEWS ANALYSIS
What Was Learned From Dorsey, Sandberg
Just weeks before the fall TV season starts, the bitter legal battle between CBS and National Amusements over corporate control and a possible merger with Viacom may be coming to an end. The Les Moonves-led company, which fired the first shot with its May 14 breach of fiduciary duty suit, and the Redstone family-dominated holding company are in settlements talks.
Google began restricting third-party tech support service ads worldwide and plans to introduce a verification system in the coming months, but some believe the search company is leaning too hard on some industries and not enough on others.
The $17.7 billion acquisition of Cablevision by France-based telecom giant Altice marked the end of an era for the New York media world in 2016. But the Dolans are not ready to go gentle into that good night, apparently. In a lawsuit filed today in Delaware Chancery Court, the family says Altice violated the merger agreement and also committed fraud, principally for allegedly starving the hyper-local News 12 Networks of resources.
An FCC spokesman confirmed Tuesday afternoon that the proposals for modifying the cap will not be voted on at the Sept. 26 meeting and declined comment on when they might appear.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is calling for greater oversight of major technology companies as Congress prepares to grill executives from Facebook and Twitter this week. Pai said in blog post published Tuesday that he’s concerned about how much power the internet platform companies wield, combined with allegations that the industry is biased against conservatives.
The FCC says it won’t cancel the licenses of TV and radio stations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands that have not been able to get back on the air after the devastation of hurricane’s Irma and Maria.
On Tuesday morning, President Trump slammed NBC News for its handling of Ronan Farrow’s Harvey Weinstein story and suggests that it could be grounds for taking a look at the company’s broadcast licenses.
In a Manhattan Supreme Court filing, the network’s news division asked to be dismissed from a suit filed by three women who claim Charlie Rose, the former CBS This Morning co-host, subjected them to “blatant and repeated sexual harassment.”
DMA 73: CHARLESTON, WV
WSAZ Forecaster Accused Of Assaulting Colleague
With new attacks by President Trump, high-stakes testimony next week on Capitol Hill, and a midterm election vulnerable to online manipulation, tech’s giants are bracing themselves for two months after Labor Day that could decide whether and how much the government regulates them.
President Trump on Thursday evening railed against the news media as he spoke at a rally in support of Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun, who is seeking to unseat Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) in November. Trump attacked CNN and NBC during the rally in Evansville, Ind., calling NBC “worse than CNN.” He also went after a New York Times reporter over coverage of his past crowd size, saying the reporter “doesn’t have a clue.”
“These are just dishonest, terrible people,” he said.
On Thursday, Sen. Orrin Hatch, the Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, asked the Federal Trade Commission to examine potential antitrust developments in Google’s search and digital advertising.
The FCC has approved its schedule for collecting $322,035,000 in regulatory fees — over a third of which ($113.22 million) it will be collecting from cable, satellite and broadcast licensees — and it includes another increase for DBS and a new calculation method for TV stations.
A Los Angeles man was arrested by the FBI Thursday for allegedly making death threats against employees of the Boston Globe, calling the outlet the “the enemy of the people,” which President Trump says about journalists on a routine basis.
President Donald Trump set aside his complaints about tech companies and foreign leaders, at least for the moment, to return to his comfort zone of blasting the TV news business. In three morning tweets the president said the “hatred and extreme bias of me by @CNN has clouded their thinking and made them unable to function.” He also ripped into NBC News, anchor Lester Holt and president Andy Lack.
What can you do if your station’s news report is used in an incomplete or misleading way by an organization or candidate with an agenda? Unfortunately, the answer may be “not much.”
The Senate intelligence committee said on Wednesday it would hold a hearing next week to look at how social media companies are responding to foreign influence operations, with testimony expected from top executives of Twitter, Facebook and Alphabet.
Antitrust restrictions placed on Comcast Corp. after its takeover of NBCUniversal are due to expire in a few days. But that doesn’t mean the Justice Department is done scrutinizing the company. The department’s antitrust division wrote a letter to Comcast this month warning that it would continue to monitor developments in how the company handles TV programming and distribution. It also asked for notice by Wednesday of any changes that the cable giant plans to make when the decree runs out on Sept. 1, according to the Aug. 14 letter.
Following the collapsed merger and $1 billion lawsuit Tribune filed against Sinclair, Sinclair filed a countersuit, claiming that “Tribune, through its meritless lawsuit, is seeking to capitalize on an unfavorable and unexpected reaction from the [FCC] to capture a windfall for Tribune.”
