Ownership

[Commentary] I have longtime friends who believe that the public interest requires the Federal Communications Commission to strictly limit the ownership of multiple TV stations. I genuinely understand and respect their opinions. But, my personal experience over 40 years in the industry suggests that TV ownership limits intended to enhance diversity may, in fact, prevent the creation of meaningfully diverse competitors.

Some of my longtime friends seem to oppose repeal of the TV station ownership rules because one beneficiary of repeal might be Sinclair Broadcasting Company, a company widely believed to have conservative views. But these same friends would be the first to insist that Federal licensing decisions cannot — must not — be based on political views. I have not always been on the same page with Sinclair, particularly during a business dispute over the first round of Fox affiliation renewals. But, Sinclair has emerged as a genuine television industry leader, especially on technology issues. And, for all we know, the next beneficiary of deregulation could be Tegna, Scripps, George Soros or Tom Steyer. And that is what free markets, competition and diversity are all about. My real world experience with the television ownership rules leaves no doubt that consumers will be well served by their repeal.

[Preston Padden is the former president of the ABC Television Network and EVP of parent, the Walt Disney Company.]

Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Ranking Member, is demanding answers on the speed with which the Federal Trade Commission approved Amazon’s $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods. Sen Klobuchar said she was concerned that the FTC “did not fully review” the deal before signing off on it Aug 23. “Amazon's increased access to data on consumers and their behavior, and its dominance in internet retail sales, raises questions about whether this merger harms consumers and suppresses competition,” she said. “Examining such complicated issues is the FTC's primary responsibility, and I will be calling on the FTC to provide an explanation for why they made such a quick decision regarding this merger.”

[Commentary] I found that most of Sinclair’s news-producing stations were as mainstream as the Mississippi River. And if you believe that mainstream is synonymous with liberal (I don’t), then Sinclair will be, upon closing of the Tribune deal, the nation’s leading purveyor of liberal news and views in broadcast television. In my diligent research, I found many damning news reports about President Donald Trump, his populist agenda and his apparent collusion with the Russians during the campaign. On top of that, I found biting satire aimed at Trump and the GOP leadership just about every day in late night and heaps of scripted entertainment programming that make a mockery of traditional family values. Many of these stations, I would note, are not in blue states where the out-of-touch elites dwell, but in solidly red states that generally back Republicans and supply Trump with his he-can-do-no-wrong supporters.

I believe that Sinclair’s national news is much more conservative than the networks’ are liberal. But, for the foreseeable future, the networks will be pumping out far more national news than Sinclair is. As Sinclair said in its filing, the Big Three “dominate the national broadcast news offerings in most local markets.” Right now, it all kind of evens out. So, the next time you hear someone say that Sinclair will destroy America by broadcasting politically driven news, you should ask: What news — ABC, CBS or NBC?

There are times when FreedomPop founder Stephen Stokols would get better coverage or service using a competing cellular carrier. Like when he got booted from his own provider after getting tripped up by confusing settings. But Stokols — along with his 2 million customers — has been willing to suffer occasional headaches in exchange for an unbeatable deal. Half the people using FreedomPop pay nothing for cellphone service, including mobile Internet access. There are limits on monthly usage (500 megabytes in the U.S.) and caps on calling and texting (three hours and 500 messages). Finding a shop, reaching a customer service agent or buying a phone from FreedomPop can be complicated. And users need a credit card.

Stokols contends, though, that many should find the trade-offs attractive because he pegs median mobile data usage in the U.S. at about 700 megabytes per month. FreedomPop can afford to slash prices thanks to its departures from industry conventions, including accepting lower profit margins. FreedomPop’s investors say that the company is special because its marketing costs, about $10 per customer, are lower than anyone else’s. Free offers tend to get noticed with little spending on advertising. That lets FreedomPop charge customers less.

Gerard Baker, the editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal, has faced unease and frustration in his newsroom over his stewardship of the newspaper’s coverage of President Donald Trump, which some journalists there say has lacked toughness and verve. Some staff members expressed similar concerns on Aug 23 after Baker, in a series of blunt late-night e-mails, criticized his staff over their coverage of President Trump’s rally in Phoenix, describing their reporting as overly opinionated.

“Sorry. This is commentary dressed up as news reporting,” Baker wrote at 12:01 a.m. on Aug 23 to a group of Journal reporters and editors, in response to a draft of the rally article that was intended for the newspaper’s final edition. He added in a follow-up, “Could we please just stick to reporting what he said rather than packaging it in exegesis and selective criticism?” Several phrases about President Trump that appeared in the draft of the article reviewed by Baker were not included in the final version published on The Journal’s website.

The Federal Trade Commission has formally allowed Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods to go forward. According to a statement released Aug 23 by acting FTC director Bruce Hoffman, "Based on our investigation, we have decided not to pursue this matter further. Of course, the FTC always has the ability to investigate anticompetitive conduct should such action be warranted."

Former undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson is looking to raise enough money to buy Twitter so President Donald Trump can't use it. Wilson launched the crowdfunding campaign last week, tweeting: “If @Twitter executives won't shut down Trump's violence and hate, then it's up to us. #BuyTwitter #BanTrump.” The GoFundMe page says Trump's tweets “damage the country and put people in harm's way.” As of Aug 23, she had raised about $9,000 of the $1-billion goal. In an e-mailed statement, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the low total shows that the American people like Trump's use of Twitter.

Major home Internet providers in the US don't typically expand into each other's territory, but this week, AT&T said it is launching high-speed Internet in parts of New York City and other major metro areas outside of its traditional wireline footprint. The new service is for apartment and condominium buildings, so don't expect to get it if you live in a single-family house. It's also only available in cases where AT&T has gotten access into buildings, which is often a problem for competing ISPs because of exclusive arrangements between providers and landlords. But for some consumers, the new AT&T launch could provide some much-needed competition.

AT&T's new deployment uses G.fast, a technology that relies on fiber deployments into neighborhoods and copper wires to make the connection inside each building. But instead of old phone lines, AT&T said it is using coaxial cables to make the final connection to consumers. "G.fast provides Internet access to apartment and condo units over existing coaxial cables," AT&T said. "This can minimize disruption for current residents because there's no need to place new wiring in each residence."

A law firm representing James Damore, who was fired from Google earlier in Aug for writing a controversial internal memo, is asking other former and current employees to come forward with “illegal employment practices” at Google. A blog post from Damore's firm specifically solicited those who had been reprimanded for “refusing to comply with the political orthodoxy at the company” or had faced retaliation over their political views or whistleblowing. “On behalf of current firm clients, Dhillon Law Group is investigating Google’s employment discrimination against employees on the basis of their political views and other protected characteristics, as well as retaliation against employees for complaining about these violations of labor laws,” the firm wrote in a blog post on its website.

President Donald Trump, stung by days of criticism that he sowed racial division in the United States after deadly clashes in Charlottesville (VA), accused the news media on Aug 22 of misrepresenting what he insisted was his prompt, unequivocal condemnation of bigotry and hatred. Removing his earlier statements about the Charlottesville violence from his jacket pocket, President Trump glibly ticked off a list of racist groups that he had been urged to explicitly denounce, and ultimately did two days after the clashes. But he said the news media quoted him selectively, accused him of responding too late and ignored his message of unity. “I hit ’em with neo-Nazi. I hit them with everything. I got the white supremacists, the neo-Nazi. I got them all in there. Let’s see. KKK, we have KKK,” President Trump said sardonically of his rebuke to Charlottesville racists, after being faulted for failing to condemn those groups in his initial response on the day of the clashes.

In an angry, unbridled and unscripted performance that rivaled the most sulfurous rallies of his presidential campaign, President Trump sought to deflect the anger toward him against the news media, suggesting that they, not he, were responsible for deepening divisions in the country. “It’s time to expose the crooked media deceptions,” President Trump said. He added, “They’re very dishonest people.” “The only people giving a platform to these hate groups is the media itself and the fake news,” he said. President Trump also derided the media for focusing on his tweets, which are his preferred form of communication. Pointing repeatedly to the cameras in the middle of a cavernous convention center, President Trump whipped the crowd into fevered chants of “CNN Sucks.” Members of the audience shouted epithets at reporters, some demanding that the news media stop tormenting the president with questions about his ties to Russia.