By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 11-15-19 Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly said that the FCC's outstanding proposal to classify over-the-top (OTT) platforms as MVPDs is the sort of "zombie" proceeding the FCC should finally kill off. O'Rielly made that proposal in a speech to the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association Thursday (Nov. 14). The FCC [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 11-14-19 Microsoft told the FCC this week it has issues with broadcasters' effort to extend their TV signals via distributed transmission systems (DTS). It's not the use of DTS, which the computer giant said definitely has upsides, but how broadcasters might be able to use it. The National [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 11-5-19 A pair of House Democrats have introduced a bill, H.H. 4978, the Online Privacy Act, that would create a privacy bill of rights and a new government agency to enforce those rights. Among those rights are the so-called "right to be forgotten," the right to no sharing [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 11-5-19 The FCC has issued the text of its decision approving the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint. That came in the form of a Memorandum Opinion and Order, Declaratory Ruling, and Order of Proposed Modification. The FCC modified some build-out requirements on Dish spectrum as part of the [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 10-30-19 Twitter is banning political ads on the platform, a move that has drawn a lot of attention, not all of it laudatory. Edge providers are under pressure inside the Beltway to prevent a repeat of the kind of 2016 foreign election meddling that exploited social media platforms [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 10-23-19 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company will not launch its Libra digital currency payment system anywhere in the world unless and until it gets a sign-off from U.S. regulators. That came in prepared testimony for a Senate Financial Services Committee hearing Wednesday (Oct. 23) on Facebook's [...]
Daunting Challenges Facing Journalists Cited During Free Speech Week FOR RELEASE: October 22, 2019 Contact: Richard T. Kaplar The Media Institute 703-243-5700 Arlington, Va., October 22, 2019 – “America has always set the standard for press freedom around the world. Sadly, that is no longer the case.” This chilling assessment came today from Frederick J. [...]
Annual Celebration Promotes Free Speech and Free Press FOR RELEASE: October 18, 2019 Contact: Richard T. Kaplar The Media Institute 703-243-5700 Arlington, Va., October 18, 2019 – Free Speech Week (FSW) begins Monday, Oct. 21, and will continue through Sunday, Oct. 27. This national event will be an opportunity for media groups, schools, universities, and [...]
By Jessica Campisi and Chris Mills Rodrigo, The Hill, 10-17-19 Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Oct. 17 defended his company’s controversial decision of allowing politicians to post political ads with misleading or false claims on its platform, saying it’s “something we have to live with.” “People worry, and I worry deeply, too, about [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org. The brief concurred with the Eleventh Circuit that Georgia cannot copyright its official code, and by extension, the annotations to that code. The brief argued that the government edicts doctrine at issue [...]