Regulation

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.): “As a former radio station owner in rural Oregon, I know well that our local broadcasters are often Americans’ primary source of local news, particularly in rural areas. To ensure every American has an opportunity to be served content relevant for all identities, Congress must act to bring our media ownership laws into the 21st century, create policies to incentivize new entrants into the marketplace, and help lift voices of underrepresented individuals by promoting diversity where it matters most: ownership.”

Stations are required to undertake a variety of activities to educate the public about broadcast employment opportunities and to train their employees to advance in their careers beyond their current positions. These outreach efforts must be undertaken even when stations don’t have job openings. The commission has not said that these obligations are suspended during the pandemic.  In fact, it has been conducting EEO audits throughout the course of the pandemic

The Federal Trade Commission’s staff have made a recommendation to the agency’s commissioners on whether to file an antitrust complaint against Facebook, three people familiar with the agency’s probe said Thursday — a potential new milestone in Washington’s fight to rein in Silicon Valley. The FTC’s five commissioners met to discuss a potential case Thursday afternoon, though a final decision isn’t expected for several weeks.

A bill that would limit the president — of either party’s — ability to “shut down the internet” has been introduced. The bill, from Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), would limit the president’s power to “control or shut down communications networks, including the internet.”

A good working relationship between the media and the FAA should serve both parties well as specifications are developed. There’s no question that both groups are committed to and concerned for aviation safety. “Given the news media’s support of the overall adoption of a remote ID regime, it is highly likely that the parties will be able to come to accommodations in the final rules,” says attorney M. Anne Swanson.

Even as the Justice Department filed an antitrust suit against Google on Tuesday for unlawfully maintaining a monopoly in search and search advertising, a growing number of legal experts and economists have started questioning whether traditional antitrust is up to the task of addressing the competitive concerns raised by today’s digital behemoths. Further help, they said, is needed.

FCC General Counsel Tom Johnson took to the FCC blog Wednesday to defend the conclusion that the FCC has the authority to clarify ambiguities in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, including limiting it if the commission votes to do so.

Panelists at TVNewsCheck’s virtual TV2025 conference this afternoon said a change in the presidency could help temper the anti-press sentiment that’s grown over the past four years. Allen Media CEO Byron Allen said a Biden administration would be “great for broadcasting. Anything to stop the craziness we are all experiencing now. I don’t think we have ever seen this kind of attack against journalists. This is an all-out war.”

The lawsuit marks the government’s most significant attempt to protect competition since its groundbreaking case against Microsoft more than 20 years ago. It could be an opening salvo ahead of other major government antitrust actions, given ongoing investigations of major tech companies including Apple, Amazon and Facebook at both the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission.

House Democrats blasted FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on Monday over his announcement that the commission would move forward with the Trump administration’s petition to clarify the meaning of a law that grants tech companies a legal liability shield over content posted on their websites by third parties. Democratic leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee accused Pai of attempting to help a “flailing President Trump” through his decision to move forward with the administration’s push to clarify Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has signaled he plans to follow President Trump’s lead and “clarify” Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. He also says he has been assured by FCC lawyers that the FCC has the authority to do so. ““As elected officials consider whether to change the law, the question remains: What does Section 230 currently mean?,” Pai said in a statement. “[M]any advance an overly broad interpretation that in some cases shields social media companies from consumer protection laws in a way that has no basis in the text of Section 230. The commission’s General Counsel has informed me that the FCC has the legal authority to interpret Section 230.  Consistent with this advice, I intend to move forward with a rulemaking to clarify its meaning.”

It looks like Senate Republicans are going to try and get Nathan Simington confirmed to the FCC before the end of the year and the exit of Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, who he will be replacing. The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled his confirmation hearing for Nov. 10.

The FCC says it has officially moved its headquarters from The Portals at 445 12th St. SW in Washington to 45 L St. NE. The new address is closer to Congress and the headquarters of NCTA-The Internet & Television Association and almost next door to NPR, though the move was about saving money not sidling up to the Hill. It is mostly a mailing and delivery address change for the near term since most FCC staffers continue to work from home during the pandemic.

Charlie Ergen’s dream of merging his Dish Network with AT&T’s DirecTV has been squashed by the Department of Justice — yet again. Regulators with the DOJ’s antitrust division recently informed executives of AT&T that a marriage between DirecTV and Dish would likely have to wait until faster 5G wireless service is more widely available in rural markets, two sourc­es close to the situation said.

Reps. Michael Burgess (Texas), a doctor and the most senior Republican on the panel, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.) are viewed as the frontrunners to fill the seat held by retiring Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), according to multiple GOP lawmakers. Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio) is also pursuing the top post, but he is seen as the dark horse in the race, the sources said.

Former FCC Commissioner and acting chair Mignon Clyburn made a case for the “public-private” partnership of regulator-industry as the blueprint for advancing a more diverse and inclusive media landscape. Clyburn was delivering her virtual acceptance speech at the Media Institute’s First Amendment awards ceremony.

The FCC is inclined to allow KGW-TV Portland, Ore., to change from a VHF to a UHF, but is seeking input on that inclination. It has given commenters until 25 days after publication of Wednesday’s (Oct. 14) petition for rulemaking in the Federal Register, which usually takes a couple of weeks. There has been a freeze on such changes for almost a decade, dating from when the FCC first started to prepare for the 2016 broadcast incentive auction.

President Donald Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett said on Wednesday she was open to at least one sweeping change for the nation’s top judicial body — allowing cameras into the chamber for the first time in its 230-year history.

Prosecutors for the Justice Department and state attorney general offices are discussing ways of curbing the search giant’s market power as they prepare to sue the company.

Broadcasters would welcome reformation of the outdated newspaper-TV crossownership rule, but the Supreme Court’s decision to hear an appeal of the Third Circuit decision doesn’t solve all the industry’s COVID-induced woes. The FCC still needs to eliminate the Top 4 rule and online video distributors need to be classified as MVPDs.

As we reported last week, the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear appeals by the FCC and the NAB of a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that overturned a 2017 decision by the FCC attempting to relax its media ownership rules. So, what does this actually mean for the FCC’s ownership rules and the broadcast industry? Not surprisingly based on the history of this proceeding, the answer is not entirely clear.

Broadcasters have scored a victory in the debate with Microsoft over how the FCC should allow for more unlicensed broadband in the so-called white spaces between TV channels.

The federal government on Thursday appealed a judge’s ruling that prevented the Trump administration from imposing a ban on TikTok, the viral video app owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.

An extended back-and-forth between the campaigns threw the presidential debate schedule into chaos Thursday, raising the question: Will there even be another debate? In addition to safety concerns, there is also a political standoff between the two campaigns, with a fight over the dates and settings of the two remaining debates.

The country’s top court has taken up a major case about media ownership rules that will have a far-reaching impact on M&A and broadcast regulation.

A grand jury in Tyler County, Texas, has indicted Netflix on charges of “disseminating lewd material” for distributing the French film Cuties. The indictment, which specifically names company co-CEOs Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos, accuses the Netflix of “the lewd exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child who was younger than 18 years of age, which appeals to the prurient interest in sex and has no serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

The case before the justices Wednesday has to do with Google’s creation of the Android operating system now used on the vast majority of smartphones worldwide. Google says that to create Android, which was released in 2007, it wrote millions of lines of new computer code. But it also used 11,330 lines of code and an organization that’s part of Oracle’s Java platform.