Lawmakers and others are accusing the FCC of being involved in corruption and seeking to chill free speech after the agency’s approval of Skydance's $8 billion purchase of Paramount Global and the commission's retention of an open news distortion proceeding against CBS.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announces retirements: Tia Cromwell from the Office of Media Relations; Stacy Weiss, Enforcement Bureau; and Ben Bartolome, Office of General Counsel ...
A mobile billboard truck condemning Dish Network as being “woke” was parked near FCC headquarters Thursday morning in the hours before the agency’s open meeting. Conservative group Consumers’ Research was labeled as the billboard’s sponsor. “Woke Alert. Dish Network is Pushing a Woke Agenda while Asking Conservatives for Favors,” the sign read, directing readers to WokeDishNetwork.com. The URL goes to a page on Consumers’ Research’s website, where it condemns Dish for the company’s diversity policies and CEO Charlie Ergen’s donations to Democratic Party campaigns. The FCC is currently investigating Dish’s parent company EchoStar over its use of spectrum and failure to fulfill buildout promises to the agency. In June, President Donald Trump reportedly interceded with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Ergen’s behalf (see 2506160039). Asked about the investigation Thursday, Carr said he “is still open-minded on a path forward” but the status quo is “unacceptable.” Dish is “sitting on” a “tremendous amount of spectrum” that isn’t being effectively utilized, Carr said. Consumers’ Research is known for litigating for conservative causes and has repeatedly challenged the legality of the FCC’s USF fund. The organization doesn’t disclose its donors, but DonorsTrust in 2022 named Consumers’ Research as among recipients of its grants totaling $242 million. DonorsTrust is a donor-advised funding provider that supports conservative groups. “We share your commitment to protecting our nation’s constitutional liberties and strengthening civil society through private institutions rather than with government programs,” said its website.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said any approval of Skydance Media’s purchase of Paramount Global should be done at the full commission level. Speaking Thursday with reporters after the agency's July meeting, Gomez said Chairman Brendan Carr “is quite cognizant of my request to do so.” The chairman’s office didn’t comment.
The FCC's 2022 quadrennial review will be "inspired" by the 8th U.S. Court of Appeals decision on the 2018 QR (see 2507230063), said FCC Chairman Brendan Carr in a news conference Thursday. Carr pointed to the court's analysis of statutory language as informing the FCC's review. The 8th Circuit ruled that the language requiring FCC quadrennial reviews allows the agency only to loosen rules that are no longer in the public interest, not expand existing rules. The decision's elimination of the top-four prohibition means the agency's QR inquiry can be narrower, he said. The agency "obviously has to move forward with the quad," Carr said.
The FCC’s efforts on the White House’s AI Action plan will involve a “team” principally run out of the Office of General Counsel, said Chairman Brendan Carr in a news conference Thursday. The agency will look at its authority to preempt state laws and proceed with “an open mind,” he added. The agency’s role will be “looking at ways that we can streamline or accelerate or potentially address barriers that may be in the way of the buildout of AI infrastructure.” Commissioner Anna Gomez said during her news conference Thursday that the Communications Act doesn't give the FCC authority over AI, and that the administration's actions against subsidizing the buildout of high-capacity fiber infrastructure will undermine the proliferation of AI. "What this administration is doing with the BEAD program is antithetical to the goals of this administration on AI," she said.
The FCC Wireless Bureau on Thursday reminded operators of autonomous vessels (AVs) to obtain a maritime mobile service identity, a nine-digit number that identifies radio stations in the maritime mobile service. The notice cited the “proliferation in recent years” of AVs. The vessels can make use of automatic identification system technology but to do so need to register for the nine-digit identity number, the bureau said.
GCI filed additional data at the FCC on its request for modification or waiver of the Alaska population-distribution model (see 2504140020). Much of the data was redacted from the filing, posted Thursday in docket 16-271. “The Commission has good cause to grant the Waiver Petition,” GCI said. “The availability of the Fabric -- which can improve estimates of the location of eligible population -- is a special circumstance that warrants deviation from the Model as initially adopted.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr told reporters Thursday he wasn’t surprised by DOJ's analysis of T-Mobile’s buy of UScellular wireless assets (see 2507110045). Gail Slater, Antitrust Division chief, raised concerns about the loss of UScellular as a competitor and the overall competitiveness of the U.S. wireless sector. “The stark facts of today merit our immediate attention: together, the Big 3 account for more than 90 percent of the roughly 335 million mobile subscriptions in the United States,” Slater said.
Executives from Transaction Network Services spoke with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on call analytics technologies, call labeling and branded calling systems used to combat robocalls. “TNS described how its analytics work, the types of inputs that power it, and its accuracy,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 17-59. The executives explained “that the TNS algorithm which drives blocking and labeling is highly sophisticated, self-correcting, and relies on nearly two dozen features (some static and some dynamic) to determine scores and labels.” The algorithm is also “constantly being evaluated against the ‘ground truth’ and updated or adjusted on a regular basis,” the filing said.