June 2017

House Appropriators Move on Trump’s FCC Budget Cut Request

The House Appropriations Committee June 28 released a draft measure that would cut the Federal Communications Commission’s budget to the level sought by the White House. The committee proposed in its draft fiscal 2018 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill to make $322 million available to the FCC for fiscal 2018. That’s the funding level President Donald Trump requested in May, down 5.2 percent from fiscal 2017. Under the stripped-down budget, the FCC envisions cutting over 100 agency jobs.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a June 20 Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing that the cuts will drive greater efficiency and reduce regulatory costs for the industries the agency oversees. The FCC raises the money for its congressionally set budget by collecting fees. Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said in the hearing that the staffing and resource cuts could compromise the FCC’s “core mission of protecting consumers, advancing competition, and ensuring the reliability and resiliency of public safety communications.”

FBI Declines to Investigate FCC Cyberattack

The FBI will not investigate a cyberattack that crashed the Federal Communications Commission’s website during an influx of comments on an agency plan to reverse network neutrality.

Agency chief Ajit Pai said the FBI declined to investigate the FCC cyberattack that followed a “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” segment in May, when Oliver called on viewers to submit comments opposing Pai’s plan to scale back net neutrality rules. “In speaking with the FBI, the conclusion was reached that, given the facts currently known, the attack did not appear to rise to the level of a major incident that would trigger further FBI involvement,” Pai wrote to a pair of Senate Democrats, who were skeptical of the attack. “The FCC and FBI agreed to have further discussions if additional events or the discovery of additional evidence warrant consultation.”

FCC Commissioner Clyburn Watch

The term of Federal Communications Commission member Mignon Clyburn technically expires June 30, although she can stay on through 2018. But she was quick to say she has no immediate plans to depart when asked in an interview for C-SPAN's “The Communicators.” “I have not heard, and I have not made any plans. I haven’t turned in any paperwork. I haven’t even talked to ethics about my series of next steps," Commissioner Clyburn said. "I am here to serve. I am pleased that I have the opportunity to do so, and I will continue to be an advocate of those who don’t have a voice." The interview also touches on mergers, prison phone calls and broadband privacy.

Broadband Speed Fight

A battle is brewing at the Federal Communications Commission between cable and telecom industry groups and state attorneys general over broadband speed investigations. Citing state complaints alleging false advertising of internet speeds, USTelecom and NCTA have asked the FCC for a ruling confirming internet service proviers are following federal transparency rules by posting online their average performance during times of peak usage, as evaluated by the Measuring Broadband America program. But a bipartisan group of 35 attorneys general told the agency the petition “represents nothing more than the industry’s effort to shield itself from state law enforcement.”

One of the AGs involved, New York’s Eric Schneiderman, accused Charter in February of misleading customers by advertising internet speeds the company hasn’t delivered. The industry groups say the Charter complaint relies on unofficial speed measurement tools. The deadline for reply comments to the FCC is July 3.

Chattanooga, The Surprising City That Rates Highest For TV, Broadband Services

A regional power company in Tennessee has emerged as Consumer Reports’ top-rated TV provider, edging out Google Fiber by one point. The company, identified as EPB Fiber in the August issue of Consumer Reports, is the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga (TN), owned by that city. In terms of the homes to which it provides TV, EPB Fiber is tiny compared to cable TV giants such as Comcast, which has an estimated 30 million subscriber households. The power company serves 170,000 homes and businesses in its 600-square mile service area. In the August Consumer Reports, EPB's Internet service was ranked fourth, behind Google Fiber (No. 1), Consolidated Fiber (No. 2) and Armstrong Cable (No. 3).

Goodbye Nonpartisan Journalism. And Good Riddance.

[Commentary] We don’t yet know to what extent Donald Trump will succeed in remaking the United States, but his candidacy and presidency are already remaking American journalism. It is not just that the ranting and raving on talk radio, on cable news, on websites, on Twitter have grown, if anything, louder. What’s more significant is how the political world’s encounter with President Trump is changing our most respected journalism organizations—including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the network evening newscasts and CNN.

The big news in American journalism today has been that reporters, editors and producers at legacy journalism organizations have become so eager to dispute the more questionable pronouncements and proposals of the Trump administration. Increasingly, they are prepared to label the president’s wilder statements and tweets “falsehoods” or even “lies.” The big news is that many of our best journalists seem, in news coverage, not just opinion pieces, to be moving away from balance and nonpartisanship.

[Mitchell Stephens is a professor of journalism at New York University]