John Eggerton

Ion, Trinity and Univision have weighed in at the Federal Communications Commission with supplemental evidence for what they argue is the need to roll back the FCC's 39 percent cap on a TV station group's national audience reach, and preferably all the way rather than raising it once again. That came in a supplemental comment, which featured the economic analysis of Dr. Harold Furchtgott-Roth, an economist, law professor and former Republican FCC commissioner. He was analyzing a BIA report on the state of the marketplace that provided its own analysis for raising it to 50 percent. 

Judicial transparency group Fix the Court continues to try to get info on Brett Kavanaugh's time at the White House and working on the Starr Report. Kavanaugh, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, was nominated this week to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. Kennedy is exiting at the end of July.

The House Commerce Committee has favorably, and unanimously, reported a trio of broadband-related bills to the full House for a vote, as well as a pirate radio bill that attempts to keep ad dollars out of pockets of those broadcast brigands.

House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Doyle (D-PA) want the General Accountability Office to look into the impact of various local broadcaster sharing agreements on competition, localism, and diversity.

The full House Commerce Committee has scheduled a markup for more than a dozen bills July 12, including two broadband-related bills -- H.R. 3994, the Advancing Critical Connectivity Expands Service, Small Businesses Resources, Opportunities, Access, and Data Based on Assessed Need and Demand (ACCESS BROADBAND) Act, and H.R. 4881, the Precision Agriculture Connectivity Act of 2018.

The Communications Workers of America said DC Appeals Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh should not be allowed to join the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh, a judicial conservative who has participated in numerous cases involving communications issues, was tapped by President Donald Trump on July 9 to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is exiting at the end of July.

As the Federal Communications Commission prepares to vote July 12 on opening up the C-Band for wireless broadband, House Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Tom Cole (R-LA) is calling for care and handling of noncommercial broadcasting. Chairman Cole has written FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to advise caution as the FCC ponders remaking the band to allow wireless use, either by dividing up the band or allowing for sharing.

The Communications Workers of America has joined the Freedom from Facebook coalition and is backing the effort to get the Federal Trade Commission to break up Facebook. “We should all be deeply concerned by Facebook’s power over our lives and democracy," said CWA strategist Brian Thorn in a statement. "It’s time for the FTC to hold Facebook accountable, impose strong privacy rules on the platform, and break up the monopoly.

Sinclair was vigorously defending its proposal to buy Tribune's stations against all comers July 5, responding to critics by telling the Federal Communications Commission that it is being asked to make decisions based on subjective disagreements over Sinclair content or views of a marketplace that no longer exists.

ACT: The App Association, which represents more than 5,000 app developers and device makers, said the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) should be the one collecting and compiling data on broadband availability, not the Federal Communications Commission. "[T]he technology administration [NTIA] is more at home working across government agencies to put together an unbiased report," said ACT senior policy director Graham Dufault.