June 2014

The Supreme Court is being called to weigh in on a years-long Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) asked the high court to decide whether the Obama administration should hand over a secret memo allowing the FBI to obtain phone records without any judicial process.

"The public has a fundamental right to know how the federal government is interpreting surveillance and privacy laws," EFF senior counsel David Sobel said. "If the [Justice Department’s] Office of Legal Counsel has interpreted away federal privacy protections in secret, the public absolutely needs access to that analysis. There is no way for the public to intelligently advocate for reforms when we're intentionally kept in the dark," he added.

The disputed memo first came to light in a 2010 report from the department’s inspector general.

A coalition of media advocacy groups is pressing lawmakers to investigate the billing practices of cable and satellite companies. “Industry-wide practices, such as erroneous overbilling, equipment rental fees and inflated or unnecessary ‘extra’ charges, are the result of an uncompetitive market structure and all contribute to rising monthly cable and satellite TV bills,” the groups wrote to lawmakers.

The letters -- signed by broadcast advocacy group TVFreedom along with Media Alliance and the Hispanic Institute, which advocate for media diversity -- were sent to the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Commerce Committee and Subcommittee on Communications and the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Subcommittee on Communications.

Lawmakers should examine the lack of competition in the television marketplace, which allows cable and satellite companies to charge high prices for television programming through difficult-to-understand bills loaded with unexpected charges, the groups said.

“The marketplace has failed to adequately address significant annual increases in consumers’ monthly pay-TV bills,” the letters said. “As a result, consumer choice for video service across the country remains limited and family budgets must bear the heavy financial burden of ever-escalating monthly pay-TV bills.”

[Commentary] Moore, Oklahoma. Joplin, Missouri. New Orleans, Louisiana. The names of these cities are crystallized in the minds of Americans as the sites of catastrophic destruction and loss of life due to natural disasters.

However, in the dark cloud that hangs over the memory of these incidents, there is a silver lining: Many lives were saved because of the diligence, service, and sacrifice of local news stations in the face of dire circumstances. When Americans seek breaking news developments and real-time updates during times of crisis and emergency, they instinctively turn to their local broadcasters. They are a first line of defense for families, friends and neighbors when potentially life-changing weather events threaten their communities.

Today, millions of Americans rely on cable TV’s lifeline “basic service tier” to access broadcast channels for their news, weather updates and emergency alerts. Currently, pay-TV providers are required to place broadcast networks on this basic tier, so that all subscribers -- regardless of how much they pay for a particular package -- will have access to their local news.

However, pay-TV wants to strip this requirement in the reauthorization of a satellite TV bill -- a move that would force America’s cable TV subscribers into paying higher prices to access those same broadcast stations on more expensive, premium packages. This may leave some families without cable TV because they simply no longer will be able to afford it.

Given the important role of local TV broadcasters as front-line reporters in emergencies and the reliance of TV viewers on those live emergency updates, alerts and warnings, Congress should do all it can to defend and preserve the lifeline basic service tier on cable TV systems for all Americans.

[Kenny is the director of public affairs for TVfreedom.org, a coalition of local broadcasters, community advocates, network TV affiliate associations]