By Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN Online, 4-27-17 Judging from the talk about the University of California, Berkeley lately, you'd think the campus was filled with hypersensitive snowflakes covering their ears to block out ideas they don't like. The school's latest free-speech controversy came this week when student groups bailed on a planned Thursday speech by right-wing commentator Ann [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News Online, 4-26-17 FCC chair Ajit Pai has begun the process of reversing the classification of Internet service providers as Title II common carrier services and plans to vote on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to that effect at the May meeting. And while opponents have pledged to man and woman the [...]
By Paul Farhi, www.washingtonpost.com, 4-26-17 The United States' ranking for press freedom declined last year, driven in part by Donald Trump’s attacks on the news media, which also triggered a decline in other democracies, an international media organization said Wednesday. Reporters Without Borders, which compiles the World Press Freedom Index based on its assessment of the legal environment and [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-24-17 FCC chairman Ajit Pai has pledged to roll back regulations he believes are wasteful or will cause unnecessary hardship, including rules that keep broadcasters from competing more aggressively in a world of media choice. Pai, a Republican FCC commissioner since 2012 who was named chairman by [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-24-17 Only a "working" day after the FCC's new Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee held its first meeting (April 21), FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he is creating a new Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment. "Every American should have the opportunity to participate in the communications marketplace, [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-24-17 President Donald Trump attacked ABC and NBC polls as fake news and "totally wrong in general" Monday morning, quoting from parts of an ABC News/Washington Post poll that said 53% said Trump was a strong leader and saying new polls were "very good considering that much of the media [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-17-17 President Donald Trump may be trying to finesse his media attacks a bit – or maybe not. In a tweet Monday morning, the President's latest attack was that "The Fake Media (not Real Media) has gotten even worse since the election. Every story is badly slanted. We have to [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-14-17 Lariat.net, which bills itself as the first WISP (wireless internet service provider) – it launched in 1992, has told the FCC, or at least the staff of lone Democrat Mignon Clyburn, that the proposed broadband business data service (BDS) deregulation order on tap to be voted April 20 needs [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-14-17 There was plenty of praise for the FCC's official conclusion of the broadcast incentive spectrum auction Thursday with a public notice full of stats relayed by FCC officials, but FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly was focused on what happens next for broadcasters. The FCC also announced the new channel assignments [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-12-17 An association representing edge provider powerhouses met with FCC chairman Ajit Pai Tuesday to argue for preserving the FCC's Title II-based Open Internet order. That comes as Pai is pondering how to roll back Title II, including by potentially having ISPs sign on to voluntary Open Internet principles that [...]