By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-31-17 The National Legal and Policy Center has fired the latest shot in the battle over net neutrality comments filed with the FCC, saying that if its analysis is correct, it will ask Congress to investigate. Most of the pushback has come from Title II fans saying the other [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-23-17 Not surprisingly, the FCC has closed its review into the indecency complaints against Stephen Colbert's colorful criticisms of President Donald Trump. Though the speed with which it reached that conclusion was noteworthy. "The FCC received thousands of complaints about the May 1 broadcast of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Consistent [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-23-17 The FCC's 2018 budget features cuts in staff and budget according to the administration's final budget, released Tuesday. The FCC said it was pleased to present its request for funds to repack and reimburse broadcasters, help close the digital divide, eliminate unnecessary regulations and regulatory "burdens." The [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-17-17 House Democrats used a hearing on emergency alerts to raise red flags on the FCC Republican majority's plan to roll back classification of ISPs as Title II common carriers, which is scheduled to be voted May 18. The House Communications Subcommittee was looking into the future of [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-16-17 Some leading Democratic members of the House Energy & Commerce Committee have called on the Republican leadership of the committee and Communications Subcommittee to look into the proposed $3.9-billion purchase of Tribune by Sinclair Broadcasting. That is unlikely to happen. A spokesperson for the majority had no [...]
By All Access Online, 5-10-17 Some 124 members of Congress have voiced their opposition to changes in the tax deductibility treatment of advertising as expenses. The legislators sent a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), with Reps. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) as leading signatories, asking [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-9-17 Net neutrality activist group Fight for the Future says it is "extremely skeptical" about the FCC's claims of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack Sunday night. The FCC said the attack happened at midnight, which would be just after comedian John Oliver's Last Week Tonight segment calling on viewers to flood the FCC [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-9-17 Open MIC, which uses shareholder engagement to bring changes to media and tech companies, is trying to pressure social media sites to do more to combat fake news and hate speech. The group has released a report based on data and comments from researchers and technologists that it said [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-2-17 Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and some prominent Senate Republicans have introduced a bill, the Restoring Internet Freedom Act, that would nullify the FCC's 2015 Open Internet order and prevent the FCC from issuing similar rules in the future. If that sounds familiar, it's because it would mirror [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-1-17 Washington was quick to weigh in on the latest news in the multi-front debate/battle over Open Internet rules – that was the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision not to review a three-judge panel of that court's decision that the FCC was within its authority to [...]