January 2016

That’s a nice TV host you have there. It’d be a shame if anything happened to her. According to Fox News Channel, this is basically the message Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s campaign delivered, as Trump tried to bully the network into removing Megyn Kelly as a moderator of the candidates' debate in Des Moines (IA).

Here’s Fox’s version of events: Capitulating to politicians’ ultimatums about a debate moderator violates all journalistic standards, as do threats, including the one leveled by Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, toward Megyn Kelly. In a call with a Fox News executive, Lewandowski stated that Megyn had a “rough couple of days after that last debate” and he “would hate to have her go through that again.” Lewandowski was warned not to level any more threats, but he continued to do so. We can’t give in to terrorizations toward any of our employees. This behind-the-scenes threat is Exhibit No. 738 of Trump’s stepping over the line. And yet … I guarantee his supporters will back him up on it. They’ll say it shows what a tough negotiator he is, what a shrewd deal-maker he is — exactly what we need in the White House. And when the ratings for the debate drop, they'll say Fox made the wrong call. The reality is that this was never about business acumen. It was a power struggle, and Trump apparently thought he could win by acting like some kind of 1920s New York gangster.

[Commentary] On January 28, the Federal Communications Commission will consider an annual report mandated by Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The usual suspects will complain that the FCC has “rigged the game” or “moved the goal post” or whatever sports metaphor comes to mind to accuse the FCC of diddling the numbers for the express purpose to come up with a negative finding, i.e. that “advanced telecommunications capability” (broadband) is not being deployed in a timely fashion to all Americans.

Because between 1998 and 2008 the FCC left the definition of “broadband” untouched at 200 kbps, Congress directed the FCC in the Broadband Data Improvement Act of 2008 (BDIA) (signed by President G.W. Bush, btw) to actually do some work, raise the numbers to reflect changing needs, and take into account international comparisons so as to keep us competitive with the world and stuff. This is why, contrary to what some folks seem to think, it is much more relevant that the European Union has set a goal of 100% subscription of 30 mbps down or better by 2020 than what is the minimum speed to get Netflix. Also, the idea that the FCC needs a negative finding to regulate broadband flies in the face of reality. Under the Verizon v. FCC decision finding that Section 706 is an independent source of FCC authority to regulate broadband, the FCC gets to regulate under Section 706(a) (general duty to encourage broadband deployment) without making a negative finding under Section 706(b).