John Eggerton

UltraViolet Action, a women's advocacy organization fighting sexism, says it has collected over 115,000 signatures on its own petition demanding that MGM and NBC release tapes of the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on reality show The Apprentice. The petition was launched Oct 10—MoveOn has launched a similar petition—and, according to the group, had 30,000 signatures in less than four hours.

UltraViolet Action cited a Huffington Post story featuring alleged transcripts from The Apprentice in 2010 where Trump is commenting on a music star's makeover and saying insulting things about her skin quality, suggesting he is a "skin man." Trump has been on the defensive since last week, when The Washington Post reported on tapes of his misogynistic conversation with then Access Hollywood's Billy Bush. Trump has said he was not proud of the comments but repeatedly dismissed them as "locker-room" talk rather than actual conduct.

The National Association of Broadcasters has joined with a number of diversity groups in asking the Federal Communications Commission not to wait until after the incentive auction is over, which is likely a couple months away at least and perhaps more, to act on the Nexstar/Media General merger request. NAB said that given that the Justice Department has already approved the deal subject to some station spin-offs including to a minority owner, which would boost diverse ownership, and the fact that the FCC has exceeded the 180-day informal shot clock for the deals, it told the FCC it needed to "fulfill its duty to process the transaction immediately."

The FCC said it would not act on license transfers sought by stations participating in the auction unless the transaction were filed by a date certain, which Nexstar and Media General missed by only a few days. Since Media General had indicated it would be participating in the auction—it was allowed by the FCC to signal, and did signal, that it was applying to be eligible—-FCC action on the transfer could provide more specific information about the auction, which is potentially in violation of the FCC’s rule against public disclosures. Nexstar and Media General sought a waiver of that Prohibited Communications Rule in hopes the deal approval would not have to wait until the end of the auction for a decision.

Charter Communications has filed suit against the city of Louisville (KY) over what it says are materially more burdensome regulations and franchise obligations it is subject to relative to video competitors Google Fiber and AT&T's U-verse. Wearing its First Amendment hat, Charter said that the government "may not favor one similarly situated member of the press or other speaker over another without special justification," which it said Louisville Metro lacked.

Given that the city refused to lighten Charter subsidiary Insight Kentucky Partners's regulatory load to bring it in line with its competitors, Charter said it had no choice but to head to court. (Charter acquired the Louisville market in 2016 after merging with Time Warner Cable.) The suit was filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. Charter's main points are that it is simply asking for the equal treatment state and federal law allows; that consumers will suffer if competitors can move its wires around without telling Charter and that treating competitors differently hurts, rather than promotes, cable competition.

When asked by reporters about reports from state Emergency Alert System (EAS) coordinators that some of the emergency alerts sent out during the recent national test of the EAS system did not go through in Spanish, Admiral David Simpson, chief of the Federal Communications Commission's Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau, said that illustrated the value of the test. The FCC was conducting the test in coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), with a focus on FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) that disseminates the alerts to the various participants. "That's exactly the kind of thing we wanted to test," Simpson told reporters following the test. "We believe this will give us the data necessary to refine the transmission of that second-language version of the same alert."

Asked whether he thought the test was more successful than one in 2011, Simpson said it was hard to compare given the work it took to achieve that first test. But he did say that the recent test had "built upon" that foundation. "We were in a better place to capture results, not just from broadcasters themselves but from disability rights organizations as well as communities in general." He said if it was better, it was only because the previous test had laid the table for them. Simpson said that over 22,000 stations had reported back with info on the test (as required), and the FCC was massaging the data along with FEMA, stakeholders and state commissions.

In a petition to the Federal Communications Commission, 19 civil rights groups including the NAACP, National Action Network, and the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) have asked that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler lift the "sunshine rule" restrictions on outside parties contacting FCC decisionmakers about the set-top box revamp. Chairman Wheeler pulled the item from a planned public meeting vote last week and placed it on circulation—where it could be voted outside a public meeting—but invoked sunshine prohibitions on outside contacts as work continued on the item. The groups pointed out that sunshine restrictions are usually lifted when an item is pulled.

The same groups also want the FCC to release the text of the latest proposal and allow for further public comment and included that in their petition. "Chairman Wheeler’s refusal to release the new plan for public comment makes a mockery of the process and violates the most basic principles of transparency," said National Urban League president Marc Morial. "And his decision to impose rules that silence our voices, while decisions impacting our communities are settled behind closed doors, is unacceptable. The FCC must ‘unlock the plan’ and allow for meaningful feedback.”

Sen Dean Heller (R-NV) has called on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler to delay his planned Sept 29 vote on proposed new set-top box rules. Most of the Hill pushback on Chairman Wheeler's proposal has centered on copyright and app licensing issues, but Sen Heller is pulling out a different stop, saying his main sticking point is consumer privacy, that and the FCC process that produced the plan.

"I have concerns about how the FCC’s proposal requiring this approach will impact my constituents’ privacy and whether it is technology neutral," said Sen Heller in a letter to Chairman Wheeler. The FCC is said to be planning to require device manufacturers to have to comply with cable privacy regulations to get access to pay-TV user data, since the FCC does not have authority over device privacy, but that bifurcated privacy oversight does not appear to sit well with Sen Heller. "[T]his rule will result in [multichannel video programming distributors] handing over consumers’ personal information to third-party developers using their own platforms without addressing how that information can be utilized and what recourse consumers have if there is a data breach of third-party developers," said Sen Heller. "This is not technology neutral and not beneficial to consumers. That is why I request that you delay voting on this proposal until these privacy concerns are resolved." He also has problems with the process. "These issues also stem from the lack of transparency in the process leading up to the final proposal, the text of which has not been released to stakeholders, Congress, and the American public prior to a vote," he opined. There were calls from both sides of the aisle to publish the text before the vote, including in a further notice of proposed rulemaking, which would have had the effect of delaying the vote for weeks if not months.

Apparently, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler's apps-based set-top box/navigation device proposal is getting a major tweak to get programmers on board. While the proposal was to have had the FCC backstop an app licensing body to make sure agreements were reasonable and not anti-competitive, industry sources said the FCC will no longer have that explicit oversight role and, instead, would review the app standards process after a couple of years and step in then, if necessary.

For the Hollywood studios, having the FCC potentially change the terms of contracts is a nonstarter, as it was for various Hill Democrats, especially on the Justice committees that deal with copyright. The item is still in flux, apparently, but it was moving toward that major adjustment. Chairman Wheeler signaled two weeks ago there would be further stakeholder talks and that he was willing to tweak his proposal to address concerns about the licensing body and copyrights.

Sens Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) have introduced a bill to boost rural broadband in rural and tribal areas. The Broadband Connections for Rural Opportunities Program Act is meant to close the rural digital divide by providing new federal grants for high-speed broadband buildouts to supplement the money already available through the USDA's Rural Utilities Service. It would also double the RUS broadband program funding to $50 million.

Sens Capito and Gillibrand cited Federal Communications Commission stats saying that 40 percent of rural and tribal areas do not have access to broadband, but also suggested their bill was about competition, not just providing access where none existed. "When high-speed broadband is available, consumers often have only one choice for service and pay more for high-speed plans than consumers in some other advanced countries," they said in a joint release announcing the bill. Internet service providers have long argued that government funds should be targeted to areas without service first, not where government money underwrites competition to existing privacy investment and service.

Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez says she has assurances that as part of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler's set-top rule plan, device makers will be held to the same privacy requirements the FCC can impose on Internet service providers. That came in an FTC oversight hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee.

Sen Jerry Moran (R-KS) pointed out that the FCC did not have jurisdiction over device manufacturers and had said the FTC would be able to enforce device privacy on the third parties beyond the FCC's reach. The FCC does not have authority over edge providers or device makers. Sen Moran pointed out that Chairman Wheeler had told the committee that he had worked with the FTC in writing the set-top rules and that they would require manufacturers to comply with privacy rules that the FTC could enforce. He wanted confirmation of that. Chairwoman Ramirez pointed out that in comments to the FCC on the set-top proposal, it had recommended that those third parties be required to make a "consumer-facing statement" pledge that they would comply with the same privacy rules the FCC can impose on cable companies, which would allow the FTC to take action where necessary. That is because the FTC can go after violations of that pledge under its authority over unfair and deceptive practices. Chairwoman Ramirez said Chairman Wheeler had indeed indicated his intent to make such a pledge a part of the rules.

The Open Debate Coalition said that ABC and CNN have agreed to consider the top questions submitted to its PresidentialOpenQuestions.com for the Oct 9 presidential town hall debate at Washington University in St. Louis (MO), the second of three scheduled presidential debates. ABC's Martha Raddatz and CNN's Anderson Cooper are co-moderating the town hall. The coalition said that the agreement came after discussions with ABC and CNN debate producers. The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) is requiring moderators to ask questions based on input from the Internet.

"The commission was watching closely as the Open Debate Coalition tested out their innovative bottom-up question submission and voting platform in the primaries this year, and we were impressed with the results,” said Mike McCurry, co-chair of the CPD. “2016's presidential debate moderators will have a rich pool of voter-submitted questions they can draw on that carry greater weight because they are backed by votes from the American people." The CPD is also teaming with Twitter to boost social media involvement around the debates. Coalition members include Americans for Tax Reform, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, FreedomWorks, NARAL, the National Organization for Women, Color Of Change, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.