John Eggerton

Public broadcasters are supporting Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's weed-whacking of some of what they see as outmoded regulations, including having to provide the FCC with lists of programs or issues and having to run educational/informational (E/I) on-screen bugs.

In the latest in a legislative flurry of broadband-related items, a bipartisan bill has been introduced in both the House and Senate to promote rural broadband deployment and identify fallow broadband fields in key agricultural sectors.

Some Democratic members of the House Commerce Committee have asked the Government Accountability Office to "review" the Federal Communications Commission's efforts to deploy the Lifeline National Verifier, which is meant to be a more efficient way to monitor who gets the Lifeline Universal Service Fund subsidies and make sure they are eligible for the money.

Prometheus Radio Project has filed suit against the Federal Communications Commission's recent decision to eliminate the newspaper-broadcast crossownership and loosen other broadcast regulations, saying the FCC "ignores evidence in the record, misinterprets evidence, and fails to consider important aspects of the record." Joined by the Media Mobilizing Project, Prometheus wants the court to reverse the decision and require the FCC to "fully comply" with the courts direction in remanding a previous Quadrennial decision after Prometheus challenged it. Prometheus argues that the Pai FCC also f

The Senate Commerce Committee has narrowly--14 to 13-- FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr for a full, five-year, term on the Federal Communications Commission. Carr is currently serving out the unexpired term of former chair Tom Wheeler, which expires in June. His nomination, which was sent to the committee the week of Jan 8, now goes to the full Senate for a vote. If Carr is confirmed by a Senate floor vote, his full five-year term will begin on July 1.

Cable operators want to make sure that the Federal Communications Commission makes rules allowing "overlashing" part of its overall plan to speed the deployment of broadband to all Americans. That is the practice of piggybacking new plant on utility poles (say fiber) on existing plant (fiber) that has already been approved by the pole owner.

A Federal Communications Commission spokesperson confirmed that a handful of indecency complaints have been registered with the FCC over the alleged "shithole" comment by President Donald Trump that some broadcasters were repeating verbatim (there was no audio or video) in their news coverage. The term is among those FCC indecency regulations disallow on broadcast TV--there are no cable indecency rules--between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

The White House took steps to protect access to the media and speech in Iran. Those were part of a series of moves meant to signal that, while the President was again waiving nuclear-related sanctions--the U.S. still had lots of issues with that country, including that it is the leading state sponsor of terrorism and oppresses, tortures and silences its people.

There was a second speech Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai canceled this week, apparently related to the ongoing threat level tied to his Restoring Internet Freedom order vote to roll back network neutrality. Apparently, Jay Schwarz, wireline advisor to Chairman Pai, was dispatched to the CEO Close-Up Conference of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) in Palm Desert (CA) Jan 8. On Dec. 4, NRECA announced that Chairman Pai would be the keynote speaker at the conference's opening general session, but Schwarz spoke instead.

Demand Progress, which strongly opposes Sinclair's proposed purchase of Tribune, wants the Federal Communications Commission inspector general (IG) to investigate FCC Chairman Ajit Pai over what it suggests are decisions meant to favor the broadcaster. "From the beginning, chairman Pai has been eager to roll out the red carpet for Sinclair and grease the wheels to enable this merger to happen," Demand Progress said in launching the petition.