By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-13-19 Broadcasters and movie studios rate the TV content ratings/guideline system as working quite well, pointing to "public surveys" over a decade that show lots of folks are using the guidelines and that the ratings get "consistently high marks for accuracy." They also say the ratings oversight board [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-13-19 There was some bipartisan talk out of the Hill after all this week amidst the partisan – and policy-driven – rancor. At about the same time House Communications Subcommittee members seemed far apart on a bill that would restore FCC net neutrality rules, including some non-starter elements [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with other amici) filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Croce v. New York Times Co. The case involved a defamation claim brought by cancer researcher and professor Carlo M. Croce, M.D., against the New York Times. The amicus brief focused on the “balanced [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-4-19 The FCC has set comment dates on issues teed up in the 2018 Quadrennial Regulatory Review. Comments are due April 29 and reply comments May 29. The FCC is mandated by Congress to look at its broadcast ownership rules every four years to see if they remain [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-4-19 The Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that with a few exceptions, a party can't sue for copyright infringement until the copyright has been registered, not starting when the proper paperwork for registration has been filed. An author gets exclusive rights to their work as soon as it [...]
InsideRadio.com, 2-25-19 On a voice vote without any debate, a bill that would raise fines on unlicensed radio station operations to as much as $2 million has cleared its first hurdle in Congress. The House on Monday unanimously approved the Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement or PIRATE Act (H.R. 583). The House passed a [...]
InsideRadio.com, 2-20-19 The Marlboro Man may no longer ride on radio and television airwaves but his modern day equivalent, e-cigarette manufacturers, largely have free rein to place their commercials on broadcast stations. Now one member of the Federal Communications Commission thinks the time has come for the agency and its federal counterparts to update the [...]
By Robert Barnes, washingtonpost.com, 2-19-19 Justice Clarence Thomas called Tuesday for reconsidering the Supreme Court’s landmark decision making it more difficult for public officials to claim defamation as the court turned down a request from an accuser of Bill Cosby. The court declined to take the case of Kathrine McKee, who accused Cosby of raping [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 2-7-19 Republicans signaled Thursday (Feb. 7) that they are offering up at least three versions of legislation that would reimpose network neutrality rules, but without doing so under Title II common carrier regs they argue are a relic of the monopoly (dial-less, black) phone based Title II common [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 2-7-19 Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) are demanding answers from Facebook on its research project that incentivized teens and others to give up info (Project Atlas) and calling on Apple and Google to "do more to protect their customers from intrusive monitoring [...]