CBS again faced controversy Monday over its editing of a 60 Minutes interview, this time with President Donald Trump, leaving FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and Democrats at odds over whether the changes constituted a violation of the commission’s news distortion rules. The volley of barbs compared the removal of pieces of Trump's interview -- at his request -- to 60 Minutes’ controversial October 2024 editing of an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris (see 2410100050). Harris' campaign didn't seek edits to her 60 Minutes interview, which is itself the subject of an ongoing FCC news distortion probe and a lawsuit from Trump that CBS settled in July (see 2507020053).
The Pennsylvania Senate Communications and Technology Committee voted 6-5 on Tuesday to adopt SB-491, which would eliminate a variety of state regulations on wireline phone service. Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill (R), who introduced the bill, said wireline companies represent fewer than 10% of voice subscriptions in the state but are at a competitive disadvantage to other types of providers due to a strict, archaic legacy regulatory framework.
More consolidation among local broadcast stations is a must for survival, but beyond a change in ownership, it will also bring a change in how stations operate, station group owners said Wednesday at NAB’s annual New York City show. They also said the ATSC 3.0 transition needs a deadline for exiting 1.0 that the FCC will support.
The FCC was right to eliminate programs that provided school bus Wi-Fi and internet hot spots to schools and libraries because they went beyond the agency's authority, wrote Daniel Lyons, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, in a blog post Thursday. Supporters of the programs say that on a practical level, halting the programs puts schools and libraries in a financial bind (see 2510150047).
The advent of AI means that everything is changing for the telecom industry, Qualcomm Chief Information Officer Atilla Tinic said Wednesday at the Mobile World Congress in Las Vegas. AI was again the main topic of keynote discussions on the second day of the conference (see 2510140041), which is co-sponsored by CTIA and GSMA.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is proving to be “a very consequential chairman,” New Street’s Blair Levin said in a new webcast with former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, part of a series for the Free State Foundation. Levin also said he doesn’t view President Donald Trump as a true advocate of free markets.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s use of agency threats against Disney, ABC and local broadcasters on Wednesday led to Jimmy Kimmel Live! being pulled from the air within hours, and Carr is widely expected to keep repeating the tactic, academics and attorneys said in interviews Thursday.
Competitive Carriers Association membership is shrinking, but the remainder are hopeful about future spectrum auctions and policy calls that could mean the difference between life and death for many small players, CEO Tim Donovan said in an interview Thursday.
Cox Communications didn't do anything affirmative to further online piracy by its broadband subscribers, and holding it liable for contributory copyright infringement flouts decades of U.S. Supreme Court case law, the cable ISP told SCOTUS on Friday. In a docket 24-171 petitioners' brief, Cox said the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals "defies common law and common sense" in its finding that ISPs are liable when they continue offering service after getting notifications accusing an unknown user of infringing copyright. Cox is challenging the 4th Circuit upholding a lower court's copyright infringement finding against Cox for piracy by some of its internet subscribers (see 2408160034).
The Department of Commerce's Office of Inspector General (OIG) released summaries of two reports Thursday that were sharply critical of actions by the FirstNet Authority. One found that some FirstNet officials worked to block an OIG investigation, while the second found incidents of retaliation against a FirstNet employee who cooperated with OIG.