FCC Blogs Are Informal Advice, Not Definitive Word, OGC Says
The FCC's blogs can be useful in such areas as explaining new rules or providing advice, but industry should rely on commission rules and orders for definitive word, General Counsel Tom Johnson and Office of General Counsel lawyer Michael Carlson…
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blogged Thursday in what they said was a return of the OGC blog after an eight-year hiatus. Blog posts don't "carry the same force of law" as rules and orders, and "cannot serve as a sword or a shield in litigation [or] supersede or alter the laws it is attempting to explain," it said. That a blog carries a byline makes clear it doesn't bind the agency and isn't an authoritative pronouncement, even if it comes from the bureau chief or chairman, the OGC officials said. They said there hasn't been case law specifically about whether blog posts are binding on an agency, but "ample authority" makes clear informal staff advice isn't, such as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's 1991 Malkan FM Associates case about what an official mentioned at an FCC-sponsored seminar.