By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-5-20 Marking the halfway point in its Airband rural broadband initiative, Microsoft said it is now in 25 states and one territory and is on track to meet its goal of 3 million more rural Americans with broadband access. Airband is Microsoft's promotion of unlicensed wireless in the [...]
Participated in a letter (with the Reporters Committee and other media groups) sent to the Supreme Court of California regarding the case Becerra v. Superior Court. The letter urges the court to depublish Part D of the California Court of Appeal’s decision in this case because it is contrary to the legislature’s purpose and [...]
Participated in a letter (with the Reporters Committee and other media groups) sent to Judge Denny Chin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit regarding the case United States v. Madoff. The letter asks that the court make available to the public any letters or communications from victims submitted in conjunction [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in La Liberte v. Reid. In this case, Roslyn La Liberte appeals the trial court’s dismissal of a defamation action she brought against journalist Joy Reid. The amicus brief focuses solely [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 2-5-20 The Federal Trade Commission has launched a lookback at some of the smaller past acquisitions by some of the largest tech companies. The FTC said Tuesday it has issued "special orders" to Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, which require them to provide info on [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 2-5-20 A district court judge's decision upholding the Justice Department and FCC approval of the Sprint-T-Mobile merger drew immediate reaction from Washington. Both the FCC and Justice had argued the deal would help speed the 5G rollout, with conditions that would ultimately create a new, facilities-based, competitor, helping [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the Indiana Court of Appeals in Carroll County E911 v. Hasnie. The appeal concerns an Indiana Access to Public Records Act request by Ms. Aishah Hasnie, a TV reporter at the time of her request, to Carroll County E911 for the [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Parekh v. CBS, a case concerning the applicability of the Florida anti-SLAPP statute’s fee-shifting provision in federal court. The district court granted CBS’s motion to dismiss Parekh’s defamation action and [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the California Court of Appeal Fourth Appellate District in M.G. v. Hestrin. This case concerns a retired California Highway Patrol officer who was the target of a wiretap in Riverside County in 2015. He sought access to the wiretap materials [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 1-31-20 State broadcast associations this week added their weight to the National Association of Broadcasters petition for changes to the FCC's guidance on political ad disclosures. NAB joined with Hearst Television, Graham Media Group, Nexstar, Fox, Tegna, and Scripps to ask the FCC to narrow its definition of [...]