Ownership

For years, the self-appointed leaders of Silicon Valley were young people — mostly men — with age-appropriate behavior. Their successes were cheered, and their sins were shrugged off as the cost of innovation. There’s a lot of growing up happening in today’s tech industry, where former whiz kids made their fortunes and are now settling down, starting families and starting to think about their legacies. 

By Fox News's own admission, a retracted report in May about the deceased Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was bad journalism. Nevertheless, the network is well-positioned to fend off a lawsuit brought by Rich's family that alleges “intentional infliction of emotional distress,” according to legal experts.  The Rich family would have to demonstrate that Fox News's actions were “outrageous,” which sounds colloquial but is actually a technical term and “a fairly high standard,” according to Doris Brogan, a law professor at Villanova University.

Sinclair Broadcast Group's new plan to help it win federal approval to become the nation's largest broadcaster is pretty brazen, critics say. The Maryland-based company recently proposed selling two major TV stations to satisfy the government's ownership limit and secure its deal to buy Tribune Media for $3.9 billion. The problem with the arrangement, critics say, is that the stations' prospective buyers have close ties to Sinclair's executive chairman.

AT&T's proposed purchase of Time Warner would raise the total amount Americans pay for TV service by $436 million a year, the US Department of Justice alleges in its lawsuit attempting to block the merger. AT&T scoffed at the government's calculations, disputing the methodology and saying that even if the DOJ is correct, the average customer bill would rise by only 45 cents a month.

[Commentary] Building on our previous research through the Tow Center and a workshop we held in August 2017 on strengthening storytelling networks and civic engagement in this region of Kentucky, over the past few months we embarked on a series of experiments with the Bratcher brothers in what we’ve coined a “rural journalism innovation lab.”  Our work explored a range of approaches—around promotion, news products, and community engagement—aimed at driving residents into a deeper relationship with The Ohio County Monitor and supporting the outlet’s move to a $5-monthly subscription model, s

US District Judge Richard Leon has rejected a Justice Department motion to limit evidence AT&T can present in its defense of its proposed purchase of Time Warner. As a result of the ruling, AT&T gets to keep one key element of its argument for the deal, after previously losing another significant fight over its planned defense. The government had asked the court to exclude evidence of a November 2017 offer from Turner (a division of Time Warner that includes CNN, TBS, and TNT) to distributors including cable and satellite companies.

[Commentary] The proposed acquisition of Tribune Media by the Sinclair Broadcast Group is under consideration by the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department. Approval would likely trigger a hemorrhage in local reporting and voices and a sharp decline across much of the nation in balanced coverage of politics and government.

[Research] Why the government’s case against the AT&T-Time Warner merger is both warranted and consistent with past enforcement practices. The case is necessary to prevent possible coordination among dominant firms that would likely thwart the development and expansion of innovative online video platforms as well as cheaper alternatives to traditional cable and satellite services.

Comments from experts and tech leaders at 2018's South by Southwest festival were a reminder that Europe's aggressive competition enforcement policies are viewed very differently on either side of the Atlantic. "The Europeans go after big successful companies... using very ambiguous anti-competitive laws," said Consumer Technology Association chief Gary Shapiro during a panel. "There’s nothing wrong with being large," said Julie Brill, Microsoft deputy general counsel and former Commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission, during a different panel.

China is to abolish the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) and is expected to set up a new media body answerable to the Cabinet, further tightening the Communist government’s control of media and entertainment. SAPPRFT, the regulatory body which currently oversees the media and entertainment sector, would be replaced by a new state radio and television administration attached to the State Council, or Cabinet. The proposal is being put to China’s ongoing national legislative session for deliberation.