May 2015

Officials in Washington (DC) said that they had suspended all issue-oriented advertising in the public transit system because of fears that granting a request to display a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad would make the region’s buses and trains “a target.”

The ban, which will remain in effect through the end of the year, came a month after New York officials put a similar prohibition in place. Both transit systems acted after ads were submitted by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, a pro-Israel group that has placed provocative ads critical of Islam on buses and trains across the country. The ad that the group sought to display in Washington featured a cartoon originally drawn for a contest in Garland (TX) where two gunmen were shot and killed after opening fire on the police. The image shows a cartoonist drawing a sword-brandishing Muhammad who says, “You can’t draw me!” “That’s why I draw you,” the cartoonist responds. The words “support free speech” are written in red block letters at the top of the ad.

The entire Greek news media is obsessed with Germany. (The German media is fascinated with Greece, too.) This is not surprising, given that Greece is staring at default on its debt and economic disaster, possibly as early as June, unless it can reach a deal with creditors — and Germany is its biggest creditor and the most immovable objector to concessions.

So every blunt utterance from Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, can dominate the news, as can the typically more opaque remarks from Chancellor Angela Merkel. Even backbench German lawmakers — whose views might be ignored in their own country’s news media — can merit airtime in Greece by tossing a rhetorical grenade about the bailout. How the mutual media fascination might influence the delicate bailout negotiations is its own point of discussion. Some analysts and politicians have sharply criticized the news coverage, even as politicians or their proxies have frequently leaked information from the negotiating room, often with strategic intent.

After a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission has approved final orders resolving the Commission’s complaints against TES Franchising, LLC and American International Mailing, Inc., for deceiving consumers about their participation in international privacy frameworks. The settlements were first announced in April. In its complaints, the FTC alleged that the companies’ websites indicated they were currently certified under the US-European Union Safe Harbor Framework and, in the case of TES Franchising, the US-Swiss Safe Harbor Framework, when in fact their certifications had lapsed years earlier.

In addition, the FTC alleged that TES Franchising deceived consumers about the nature of its dispute resolution policies. Under the terms of the orders, the companies are prohibited from misrepresenting the extent to which they participate in any privacy or data security program sponsored by the government or any other self-regulatory or standard-setting organization. The settlement with TES further prohibits the company from misrepresenting its participation in or the terms of any alternative dispute resolution process or service. The Commission votes to approve the final orders were 5-0.

Gene Kimmelman, president of Public Knowledge, says he does not think the proposed Charter/Time Warner Cable merger has "the same problems" that the Comcast/Time Warner Cable proposed merger had in terms of competition issues, but says it has some that will need inspecting. A former antitrust official with Justice in the Obama Administration, Kimmelman emphasized that the merger would almost double the size of Time Warner Cable, and said for that reason it was going to get a "very serious review" by law enforcement officials. "They are a pure transmission play, so it will be a very different transaction under review." But he said a big difference between this deal and Comcast/TWC was that it was a combination of companies that don't own content (outside of a few regional sports nets). Kimmelman said the big question in the deal is the impact on cable bills and whether the result of the deal will be better speeds and new services. Charter is arguing it will do just that.