By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 11-21-17 In a sweeping decision, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is proposing to essentially wipe the slate clean of most net-neutrality regulations adopted under the Title II-based 2015 Open Internet Order by the then Tom Wheeler-led FCC. The Restoring Internet Freedom Draft Order circulated earlier today (Nov. 21) [...]
By Robert Corn-Revere… As usual, the story began with some unhinged tweets from the president: “With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!” Lest he be misunderstood, Trump followed his first volley with this: “Network news has [...]
By Kurt Wimmer... Since the advent of publishing on the Internet, media companies have been concerned about the reach of international jurisdiction over U.S. publishers. Repeatedly, media companies with few contacts outside of the United States have been subjected to the jurisdiction of distant courts in countries from Australia to Zimbabwe applying their own domestic [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 10-25-17 FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he has circulated a media ownership item for a vote at the November meeting that would achieve major broadcast deregulation. It would eliminate the newspaper-broadcast crossownership rules; the radio-TV crossownership rule, eliminate the eight-voices test for duopolies; allow for case-by case [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 10-24-17 The Justice Department has backed the challenge to a college speech policy that allegedly confined that speech to a 616-square-foot "Free Speech Area" and has "unpublished" rules governing speech that students aren't apprised of unless they apply for a permit. That came in a "statement of [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 10-24-17 The FCC has proposed to reduce some more broadcasters paperwork burdens. At its public meeting Tuesday (Oct. 24), the FCC proposed no longer requiring broadcasters who use spectrum for ancillary services like subscription video or data transmission to file annual reports unless they actually earn revenue [...]
By Abigail Hauslohner and Susan Svrluga, washingtonpost.com, 10-20-17 SAN FRANCISCO – When the posters went up a third time, it happened in broad daylight, midmorning on a Thursday. Rabab Abdulhadi saw the move as increasingly bold and deeply unsettling. There was her face, and the names of her students, again plastered all over campus [...]
Will Feature Articles by Constitutional Scholars, Attorneys, Experts FOR RELEASE: October 20, 2017 Contact: Richard T. Kaplar The Media Institute 703-243-5700 Arlington, Va., October 20, 2017 – The Media Institute today launched a new online publication titled “First Amendment Trends” that will feature articles on timely developments related to free speech and free press. [...]
By Laurence H. Winer... A Sunday “Peanuts” comic strip (from a bygone era) begins with Charlie Brown and friends on the baseball diamond. The character “Rerun,” too small to play, sits dejected on the sidelines. But when the ball bounces his way, Rerun scoops up his “souvenir” and scampers off with it. The gang immediately [...]
By Rod Smolla... Is It the Medium or the Message? “The medium is the message,” wrote the American philosopher Marshall McLuhan.[1] From the inception of the Internet, American law has been vexed by whether to follow McLuhan’s dictum, or instead insist on its opposite. In fashioning the constitutional, common-law, and statutory doctrines that govern liability [...]