Ownership

Sprint Executive Chairman Marcelo Claure tweeted that Sprint will build "one of the best networks in the world" even if it isn't allowed to merge with rival T-Mobile USA. "Merger or no merger, Sprint presses ahead with KC network buildout. Kansas City will have one of the best networks in the world," Claure tweeted. So why does Sprint need to merge with T-Mobile?

Washington and Silicon Valley are united at the moment in trying to get a better handle on how, exactly, Justice Department antitrust chief Makan Delrahim will handle the American tech industry and its iconic companies, from Amazon to Google. May 31 they'll have another chance, with a DOJ roundtable meant to shed light on the relationship between regulation and competition.

Sinclair Broadcast Group is selling off nearly two dozen TV stations to comply with federal ownership rules — but that may not stop the company from reaching millions of those stations' viewers with its conservative programming. Four of the sales include provisions that would leave the giant broadcaster with a role in the stations' programming, finances and operations, even when it no longer owns them. Sinclair has made these kinds of arrangements before as it has sold off some of its outlets.

Very few Americans have enjoyed steadily rising pay beyond inflation over the last couple of decades, a shift from prior years in which the working and middle classes enjoyed broad-based wage gains as the economy expanded. Now, executives of big US companies suggest that the days of most people getting a pay raise are over, and that they also plan to reduce their work forces further. John Stephens, chief financial officer at AT&T, said 20% of the company's employees are call-center workers. He said he doesn't need that many.

A Q&A with AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. 

If politicians in the US make the mistake of over-regulating big tech, Chinese competitors could easily take over the market, according to Sen Mark Warner (D-VA). When asked if tech giants should be broken up under antitrust laws, Sen Warner said regulators need to be careful not to be too “heavy-handed” because breaking up those companies could create an opening for Chinese competitors. 

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is calling out social media and technology giants over what he sees as anti-conservative bias. Majority Leader McCarthy, a leading candidate to replace retiring House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), tweeted a video from a speech in which he lashes out at Amazon, Facebook and Twitter, accusing them of trying to censor conservatives. “Social media is being rigged to censor conservative voices. We will not be silenced,” Majority Leader McCarthy wrote in the tweet.
 

ABC abruptly canceled “Roseanne” hours after Roseanne Barr, the show’s star and co-creator, posted a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, an African-American woman who was a senior adviser to Barack Obama throughout his presidency and considered one of his most influential aides. Barr wrote if the “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj." Barr later apologized, but it was too late.

Some high-profile broadcast groups have been telling the Federal Communications Commission they would be OK with moving the 39% national ownership cap to 50% from 39%, rather than eliminating it altogether.  In filings at the FCC, Hearst Television, Scripps Media, Raycom Media, Gray Television, Graham Media, Quincy Media, Dispatch Broadcast Group and Morgan Murphy Media told the FCC they can support both a cap at 50% and eliminating the UHF discount for future broadcast groups, so long as current groups that would be over that 50% cap without the discount are grandfathered.  They say that "

Pirate TV boxes that falsely display the Federal Communications Commission logo should be removed from Amazon and eBay, said FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly.  Commissioner O'Rielly wrote a letter to the Amazon and eBay CEOs asking them to crack down on set-top boxes that violate FCC rules. Amazon quickly responded, saying that it already takes steps to prevent sale of these products but that it is willing to step up enforcement if any such devices are still for sale on Amazon.