The FCC ruled that there are substantial and material questions as to whether Sinclair is qualified to be a broadcast licensee. There is only one way to resolve these questions in a transparent manner that allows public participation: a hearing on the renewal of Sinclair’s broadcast television licenses.

It is impossible to overstate the importance of maintaining public confidence in the FCC’s administration of broadcast license renewals. Because of Sinclair’s size and broad national footprint, there is an especially compelling public interest that the FCC employ a prompt and highly transparent process to adjudicate the company’s qualifications to remain a licensee. Sinclair has been given exclusive access to scarce publicly-owned spectrum, essentially free of charge, conditioned on its agreement to place the public’s interest ahead of its own pecuniary interests. Sinclair is, quite literally, an integral part of the electoral process, charged with making sure it provides non-discriminatory access to candidates for public office and that it charges them no more than the price paid by its best advertising customers.

The viewing public and Sinclair’s competitors incur harm every day that an unqualified party is allowed to continue operating a broadcast station. 

Through a series of interviews with Native media practitioners and experts, Jodi Rave of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance reports on the major trends and challenges for American Indian media today:

• Like other media sectors, Native print media has had a significant downturn. In 1998, there were some 700 media sources serving Indian Country, today there are about 200 media sources ranging from tribe-owned newspapers to freelancers.
• Radio is a bright spot for Native media. Radio stations serving American Indian listeners have increased from 30 to 59 during the last 20 years.
• Prospective Native journalists face challenges in building careers with a dearth of degree programs in journalism at tribal college and universities.
• Press freedom for tribe-owned media is a key challenge faced by Native American media. Tribal governments remain the largest media owners and control an estimated 72 percent of newspapers and radio stations.

The study also found tribal government ownership of media outlets created conflicts of interest and “unique press freedom challenges” for journalists. Those challenges include a lack of openness and intimidation when covering tribal issues. Collaboration between mainstream newspaper reporters and Native journalists, the creation of fellowships for Native journalists and engagement across communities related to freedom of the press were some of the recommendations offered to strengthen the state of Native American media outlets.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) submitted a formal challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's Mobility Fund Phase II initial eligible areas map, the only lawmaker to do so. He argued the map does not accurately show broadband coverage in West Virginia. “Rural areas were getting screwed, and all of West Virginia was getting screwed because these big-time carriers were showing, ‘Oh, this is our area. We’ve got it taken care of, don’t worry,'” he said. “They’re only going to go into areas where they know that they’re going to have a return on an investment. It’s no different than electricity back in the 1930s.”

Bots spreading misinformation are using more sophisticated techniques, like going after specific human influencers and targeting misleading information within the first few seconds of it being posted, according to new studies.

1. Focus on speed: Bots amplify questionable content in the early spreading moments before it goes viral, like the first few seconds after an article is first published on Twitter.
2. Using specific targets: Bots increase exposure to negative and inflammatory content on social media in part by targeting specific people.
3. Elevating human content: Bots aim to exploit human-generated content, because it is more prone to polarization.
4. Targeting original posts, not replies: Bots spread low-credibility content that is created through an initial tweet or posting.

“Something has to be done,” President Donald Trump tweeted Nov 26. Frustrated by CNN, with which he has an ongoing beef, President Trump suggested that the United States create its own “worldwide network to show the World the way we really are — GREAT!” Despite the proposal’s origin in conflict with the press, it’s a really good idea. So good, in fact, that under another president’s watch — Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942 — it happened. Seventy-six years ago, the world was a dark place. The radio broadcast that eventually became Voice of America was created to give people trapped behind Nazi lines accurate, truthful news about the war, in contrast with Nazi propaganda.

So what is Voice of America? From that single World War II radio broadcast we grew into a multimedia global television, radio and digital network. We broadcast in 46 languages to more than 60 countries. Just-released figures show it grew 16 percent in 2017 to 275.2 million weekly viewers, listeners and users. Yet what is most important isn’t the size of our audience. It’s their trust: Eighty-five percent of our global audience say they trust us. Why? We think our credibility is rooted in the interpretation of the second half of Trump’s proposal. We, too, think our job is to show our country as it really is — through journalism based on fact. We export the First Amendment. For a big chunk of the world, we are the free press. For more than three-quarters of a century, we’ve worked to deserve that role.

[Amanda Bennett is director of Voice of America.]

If the American people and Congress are looking to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for leadership in the protection of personal privacy, they should prepare for disappointment. In a recent filing with the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the FTC walked away from giving consumers meaningful control of their private information. The bromides they espoused sound remarkably similar to the arguments of the companies that routinely exploit our privacy. The FTC followed the typical Trump Administration tactic of sounding like it stands for something before ultimately standing down. “Giving consumers the ability to exercise meaningful control over the collection and use of data about them is beneficial,” the filing states before ending the sentence with the gutting qualifier, “in some cases.” The agency that so many in Congress look to as the institution to protect consumer privacy then warned, “certain controls can be costly to implement and may have unintended consequences.”

[Tom Wheeler is a visiting fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings. He was Chairman of the Federal Communication Commission from 2013 to 2017.]

Joe McNamara is heading to the Virginia House of Delegates with the promises of a red-blooded Republican, from reining in spending to avoiding tax increases. But the former Roanoke County supervisor is also a supporter of municipal broadband, where taxpayer funds are used to subsidize a government-owned internet service provider that competes directly with private companies like Comcast and Verizon. “It’s definitely, definitely something that whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, independent it really makes no difference,” McNamara said. “Everybody kind of has coalesced behind the need really to view broadband as another utility.”

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) announced the promotion of Crystal Tully, who previously served as policy director and counsel for communications and technology, to deputy staff director of the full Commerce Committee. “As we head into the closing days of the current congress, I’ve asked Crystal to play a larger role in helping us finish strong and laying groundwork for the committee’s next chapter,” said Chairman Thune. “With passage of the MOBILE NOW Act and other telecommunications legislation, as well as important oversight of the technology industry, we’ve had quite a year of accomplishment for digital consumers as well as other areas of our jurisdiction. Crystal has been an invaluable contributor to this success.” Tully has worked on the Commerce Committee’s communications and technology policy team since March 2017. She served previously in the offices of Sens Roger Wicker (R-MS) and John Sununu (R-NH). She has also worked in the private sector with key communications stakeholders, and held legal clerkships with the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, agencies under the committee’s jurisdiction.

A new report from Cisco forecasts an alarmingly slow internet traffic growth rate for Latin America, especially when compared to the other lagging regions, like the Middle East and Africa. When it comes to internet speed, Latin America is far behind all other regions and will continue to lag over the next five years, per the report.

• Broadband: By 2022, the global average speed of broadband internet will be 75.4 Mbps. While Asia Pacific and North America are expected to greatly exceed the global average, with 98.8 Mbps and 94 Mbps respectively, Latin America and the Middle East are expected to clock in at 28.1 Mbps and 20 Mbps respectively.
• Wi-Fi: By 2022, the global average speed of Wi-Fi internet will be 54.2 Mbps. While Asia Pacific and North America are expected to greatly exceed the global average, with 63.3 Mbps and 83.8 Mbps respectively, Latin America and the Middle East are expected to clock in at 16.8 Mbps and 11.2 Mbps, respectively.