The chair of the FCC’s new Communications Equity and Diversity Council will be Heather Gate, formerly vice chair of council predecessor the Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Inclusion, said a release Wednesday. Gate is Connected Nation vice president-digital inclusion. The ACDDE’s former chair, Wiley Rein partner Anna Gomez, was designated chair emeritus, and will continue to serve on the CEDC. The CEDC’s new vice chairs will also be ACDDE veterans -- Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Nicol Turner Lee and Susan Au Allen, U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation CEO. Turner Lee was chair of the ACDDE’s Diversity in the Tech Sector Working Group, and Allen was on the ACDDE’s Digital Empowerment and Inclusion WG. The council’s first meeting is Nov. 3, and the rest of the group’s membership “will be announced at a later date,” along with the composition of the council’s new WGs: Innovation and Access, Digital Empowerment and Inclusion, and Diversity and Equity.
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Unless President Joe Biden makes nominations soon and the Senate acts (see 2110080043), in just three months the once nearly unthinkable could happen -- a 2-1 majority-GOP FCC with Geoffrey Starks the acting chairman and sole Democrat. Industry observers said if that happens it will probably mean a continuation of the current FCC under acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. Starks will set the agenda but can seek votes only on items where there's Republican buy-in. Contentious issues like rewriting net neutrality rules would be pushed to a time when Democrats have a majority. Rosenworcel and Starks didn't comment.
Ohio should be firm but fair with businesses on privacy, Republican sponsors of a comprehensive state bill said Tuesday. Ohio House Government Oversight Committee members questioned sponsors but didn’t vote at HB-376’s first hearing. Lt. Gov. Jon Husted (R) unveiled the bill in July that would apply to businesses with at least $25 million revenue in the state (see 2107130049). Consumer Reports (CR) raised concerns the bill won’t adequately protect users. Minnesota also weighed privacy legislation this week.
Lawrence Wiley “Larry” Secrest III, 76, a former senior partner at Wiley Rein and a top aide at the FCC to then-Chairman Dick Wiley, died Sept. 10 after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. Born in Alexandria, Virginia, Secrest graduated from American University and received a law degree from George Washington University before joining the U.S. Marine Corps and serving in Vietnam. He joined the FCC under Wiley and eventually was deputy general counsel. After leaving the FCC, Secrest worked at Kirkland and Ellis before leaving for Wiley Rein, where he eventually retired as a senior partner. Secrest is survived by his wife Christinne, his children Samantha Secrest Barnes, Lawrence Wiley (Lance) Secrest IV, Muriel Secrest Croston, and Matthew Lawrence Secrest, and his brother Jeff, daughter-by-heart Joy Villar, and eight grandchildren, plus nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that any charitable donations be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research in honor of Larry Secrest.
The FCC Media Bureau’s latest report on broadcast ownership, based on data from 2019, shows little change in minority and female ownership from the previous version, which was based on 2017 data but released in 2020 (see 2002140048). "It is essential that we identify ways we can encourage more diversity in this market, including reinstatement of the Minority Tax Certificate Program," said Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a release Friday. "Today's results from the FCC media ownership report scream that we need to reinstate the diversity tax certificate program." emailed Nicol Turner-Lee, of the Brookings Institution. Eight former FCC chairs echoed her.
Former FCC chairs said addressing the digital divide won’t be easy, even with infrastructure legislation before Congress, during a Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council webinar Monday. A pending bipartisan proposal includes $65 billion for broadband (see 2107150046).
President Joe Biden to nominate House Commerce Committee Chief Counsel-Communications and Consumer Protection Alexander Hoehn-Saric for chair, Consumer Product Safety Commission ... Ballard Spahr hires litigator Tracy Rane, ex-Kasowitz Benson, as of counsel; she works on copyright and trademark infringement, right of privacy, and other matters and has media and entertainment clients ... At ViacomCBS, Johnny Green advances to president-general manager, CBS News and Television Stations’ local businesses in the New York market, including WCBS-TV New York, WLNY-TV Riverhead, CBSN New York and CBSNewYork.com.
The flood of full-power TV channel substitution requests into the FCC Media Bureau since November showed pent-up demand that's likely to continue, broadcasters and broadcast attorneys told us. As channel swap requests continue, more low-power stations could find themselves facing being bumped from their channels, said Smithwick & Belendiuk broadcast attorney Mark Denbo, who represents low-power broadcaster King Kong. “I think there’s going to be more and more,” Denbo said. “With ATSC 3.0, more full powers want to get on UHF.”
Media Bureau approval of a channel 6 TV station’s request for special temporary authority for what some deem Franken FMs could signal to similar stations that the FCC will let them stay on air in analog audio if they follow an ATSC 3.0-based template. The requirement all low-power TVs cease analog broadcasts by July 13 was considered a threat to the stations that are primarily on audio receivable by FM radios (see 2104300063). Wiley's Ari Meltzer, who represents STA applicant Venture Technologies, said in an interview Thursday’s STA gives at least a temporary nod to a solution.
ISPs’ lawsuit against New York’s broadband affordability law raises similar preemption issues to cases industry lost in other venues, but law experts disagreed in interviews which side would win. Plaintiffs at U.S. District Court for Eastern New York (case 21-cv-2389) make the same arguments that failed in Maine ISP privacy and California net neutrality cases, which are “structurally almost identical” to the New York case, argued Stanford Law School professor Barbara van Schewick. Former FCC General Counsel Thomas Johnson countered that 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals case law gives ISP plaintiffs an “additional arrow in their quiver.”