The Media and Democracy Project has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FCC for any records of Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington communicating with Fox and the Heritage Foundation or that mention Project 2025 or the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, among other things. MAD has opposed the license renewal of Fox’s WTXF Philadelphia (see 2407250056), and filed the FOIA in the docket on that proceeding Monday, docket 23-292. A number of prominent officials, including former FCC Commissioner Ervin Duggan, former FCC Chairman Alfred Sikes and former Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol, co-signed the MAD FOIA request. The request should be granted because the policy positions of a future Trump administration are “matters of extreme interest for members of the public who wish to ensure that the Commission impartially applies its policies” to MAD’s petition and the matter of station licensing, it said. “It is obvious that candidate and former President Trump would oppose the MAD Petition, even though he has suggested that content- and viewpoint-based station licensing decisions are appropriate,” MAD said, noting Trump’s recent statements about ABC (see 2409230022). Simington dealt a blow to the FCC’s credibility when he “prejudged” the MAD petition in a recent letter to lawmakers (see 2409130062), MAD said. In addition, MAD said, Carr's and Simington’s involvement in Project 2025 (see 2407050015) also calls the agency’s objectivity into question. “It is essential that the FCC’s ethical integrity be confirmed through full disclosure of Commissioners’ official and personal communications related to the MAD petition and standards for station licensing, so there is no suspicion that any Commissioner has been influenced with respect to these important issues by partisan political interests or by partisan efforts to staff an upcoming administration,” the FOIA filing said. Fox, Carr and Simington didn’t comment.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should reject broadcaster arguments that collection and disclosure of demographic data violates the U.S. Constitution, said the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and a host of other civil rights groups in an amicus brief filed Monday supporting the FCC’s equal employment opportunity data collection order. “Petitioners seek to shield the collected information from public scrutiny despite the importance of accurate demographic data to the federal government, investors, the general public, and the industry’s various stakeholders,” said the joint amicus filing, in which the Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the Office of Communications for the National Church of Christ, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and other groups joined the NAACP. “By promoting, rather than restricting, the flow of information, Form 395-B promotes the First Amendment goal of the discovery of truth and contributes to the efficiency of the ‘marketplace of ideas.’” Disclosing a broadcaster’s workforce diversity data is comparable to other legal disclosures such as cigarette warning labels and stock buyback rationales, the filing added. “Data about workforce composition is uncontroversial and factual." The National Religious Broadcasters, Texas Association of Broadcasters and American Family Association filed a petition for review against the EEO order.
The Georgia Department of Corrections indicated in a Monday filing at the FCC that its system designed to enable correctional facilities to disable contraband wireless devices appears to be working as hoped. During the quarter ending Sept. 30, “there were (0) erroneously disabled devices requiring reversal as the result of a disabling request submitted” by the department, said a filing in docket 13-111.
At the request of T-Mobile, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Friday delayed the dates for filing briefs in the carrier’s appeal of the FCC's 3-2 April decision (see 2404290044) fining the carrier for allegedly not safeguarding data on customers' real-time locations (see 2407090019). T-Mobile’s initial brief was due Monday (docket 24-1224). Under a revised schedule, the initial brief is now due Nov. 25, respondent’s brief Dec. 26 and petitioner’s reply brief Jan. 16.
The Cybersecurity Coalition urged the FCC to include stand-alone domain name system (DNS) and dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) services on the list of eligible services for E-rate funding recipients, per an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 13-184. The coalition asked Wireline Bureau staff to place the services under category 1 and category 2. DNS and DHCP are "foundational to function connectivity and resilience for schools and libraries," the group said (see 2409110053).
House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington and 40 other Republicans pressed FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Monday about why the commission approved radio broadcaster Audacy’s request for a temporary waiver of foreign-ownership requirements to complete a bankruptcy restructuring that includes George Soros-affiliated entities purchasing its stock. The FCC voted 3-2 to approve the waiver, with both Republican commissioners claiming the agency deviated from normal procedure (see 2409300046). “It is highly concerning," Rodgers and other GOP lawmakers said in a letter to Rosenworcel, "that the FCC did not follow regular order for a transaction of this magnitude.” The timing of the FCC’s approval “just before a Presidential election … seems suspect” given Soros is a “Democrat mega-donor.” Licensees “and investors need certainty that the FCC will follow its rules and procedures when approving transactions so that the broadcast industry can have the resources it needs to continue serving the public,” the Republican lawmakers said. They seek a briefing by Oct. 18 “to understand the FCC’s process for granting waivers of the foreign ownership rule, and the decision to grant Audacy’s request, in particular.” The lawmakers in part want to know why the FCC voted on the Audacy waiver at the full commission level. Rosenworcel has said the full vote was taken because of pressure from Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas (see 2408150047). An FCC spokesperson referred us to Rosenworcel’s statement on the Audacy decision, in which she said claims that the broadcaster received special treatment are “cynical and wrong.” House Oversight Committee Republicans launched a probe of the Audacy matter in late September (see 2409270053).
Consumer, financial and other groups largely supported a draft FCC order on robotexts and robocalls that was pulled from a vote at the September FCC open meeting (see 2409240068). They reported on a meeting with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “The Organizations joined together for this meeting because they are united in their commitment to combating criminals who attempt to defraud consumers by impersonating legitimate businesses through illegally spoofed calls and text messages,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 17-59. Among the groups at the meeting were the National Consumer Law Center, the American Bankers Association, America’s Credit Unions, ACA International, the Bank Policy Institute, the Mortgage Bankers Association and Edison Electric Institute. Bank impersonation texts were the most common form of text scam reported to the FTC in 2022, they noted. A community bank located in the Midwest with less than $500 million in assets was a target of a mass texting campaign two weeks ago, the filing said. “A criminal sent a fake fraud alert to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the bank’s customers,” the groups said: “If the customer replied to the fraud alert, the criminal called the customer, displaying the bank’s phone number on the customer’s Caller ID (i.e., an illegally spoofed call) and claiming to be from the bank. The criminal then used social engineering (i.e., publicly available information about the customer) to persuade the customer to reveal their banking log-in credentials.” The bank fielded approximately 600 calls from customers and others targeted by the scam.
The U.S. Supreme Court will take up early in its new term whether reimbursement requests submitted to the Universal Service Administrative Co.-administered E-rate program are “claims” under the False Claims Act (FCA). On Nov. 4, justices will hear Wisconsin Bell v. U.S., a case from the 7th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court (see 2405220039).
The Heritage Foundation argued the FCC should abandon rules that let schools and libraries use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services. Its position was made in comments on a Further NPRM. Commissioners approved the FNPRM 3-2 in July (see 2407180024). Other commenters supported the order, urging tweaks that could make the program more effective. Comments were due Friday, with most posted Monday in docket 21-31.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel visited Asheville, North Carolina, on Friday and met communications providers and emergency response officials in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Relief efforts at the FCC and communications companies continue, even as Florida is preparing for a second storm. “I saw firsthand how the public sector and private sector are working together to help with recovery,” said Rosenworcel in a news release Monday. “We must use [Hurricane Helene] to understand ways we can make this infrastructure more resilient and more accessible in the future.”