By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 1-30-20 Microsoft president Brad Smith is calling for more regulation of tech companies. He said those businesses need to step up and provide more self regulation, but "we do think we need more regulation of technology." Smith, who has co-written a new book, Tools and Weapons, was appearing [...]
By Tony Romm, washingtonpost.com, 1-17-20 Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google took a public lashing at a congressional hearing in Boulder, Colo., on Friday, where some of their smaller rivals, including Sonos and Tile, pleaded with federal lawmakers to take swift action against Big Tech. Democrats and Republicans at times appeared stunned as they heard tales [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee, SPJ, and other amici) filed with the Indiana Supreme Court in Indiana Dept. of Corrections v. Toomey. The case arises out of an Indiana Access to Public Records Act request for records related to lethal injection drugs in Indiana. While legal proceedings were in progress, [...]
Participated in a letter (with the Reporters Committee and other news media organizations) sent to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer. The letter opposes restrictions to be placed on the press during the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump. The reported restrictions on the use of electronic devices [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Karem v. Trump. The case involves Brian Karem, a White House correspondent whose security credentials (“hard pass”) were suspended by the White House press secretary for an alleged violation of [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 1-8-20 Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) used an informational hearing on deep fakes and other online manipulation to hammer Big Tech in general and Facebook in particular, while Republicans found more to like on the edge. The hearing, "Americans at Risk: Manipulation and Deception in the Digital Age," in [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 1-8-20 Given the almost daily news about a new security breach, it is impossible to conclude that the tech industry is doing enough to protect privacy. That was the message from Democratic Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter at a Chief Privacy Officer roundtable at CES 2020 in [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 1-8-20 TEGNA, which owns 62 TV stations in 51 markets across the country, is teaming up with global nonprofit First Draft to train all its journalists in identifying disinformation online and helping viewers do the same. TEGNA is also expanding its Verify fact-checking initiative, adding regional fact-checkers to [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 1-3-20 Microsoft is telling the FCC that wireless Internet providers have been able to boost their throughput tenfold using the TV white spaces Microsoft wants more of, and said the FCC should act on its proposal seeking tweaks to the current white spaces regime. That came in a [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 1-2-20 Cable operators are on the same page as broadcasters when it comes to the FCC's approach to political ad disclosures. The National Association of Broadcasters joined with Hearst Television, Graham Media Group, Nexstar, Fox, Tegna and Scripps, to ask the FCC to narrow its definition of non-candidate [...]