All posts by Midnightschildren

Media Ownership

Blackstone Group Subsidiary Files To Block KCSM-TV Sale

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On October 24, LocusPoint Networks, a subsidiary of the Blackstone Group, the largest hedge firm in the world, filed an injunction to block the sale of KCSM-TV to North Bay Public Media after KCSM owner, the San Mateo College Community District, was ejected from the FCC spectrum auction for failing to file a bid.

Locuspoint had been subsidizing the operations of the television station by paying the school district $900,000 a year since 2013 in exchange for 36.5% of the spectrum sale proceeds, which were estimated to be as much as $114 million dollars in total. Continue reading Blackstone Group Subsidiary Files To Block KCSM-TV Sale →

Internet Freedom, Press Room

OTI Publishes Model State Legislation to Help States Protect Broadband Privacy

Today, New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI), with the support of 12 consumer advocacy and privacy organizations listed below, published model legislation to aid state legislatures in improving privacy protections for broadband customers. Continue reading OTI Publishes Model State Legislation to Help States Protect Broadband Privacy →

Media Ownership, Press Room

Radio Group Alleges FCC Main Studio Vote Threatens Public Safety

 

Common Frequency, which performs engineering and regulatory assistance for educational radio stations across the Western US, says the pending decision to eliminate the main studio rule is an “egregious” oversight that disregards that only 16% of Puerto Rico’s 3.34 million residents have regained electricity, more than three weeks after Hurricane Maria ripped through the island.

Continue reading Radio Group Alleges FCC Main Studio Vote Threatens Public Safety →

Surveillance

4 Dozen Civil Rights Groups Demand Warrants for Section 702 Searches

 

On October 14,  almost 4 dozen civil rights organizations (including Media Alliance) wrote to the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte and John Conyers about pending reform to Section 702  of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Continue reading 4 Dozen Civil Rights Groups Demand Warrants for Section 702 Searches →

Press Room

Who Will Pay For KCSM In The End?

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originally printed in the AFT Advocate

By Tracy Rosenberg, Executive Director of Media Alliance

(The Media Alliance, at media-alliance.org, is a Bay Area democratic communications advocate. Tracy fought a lonely war to save KCSM-TV between 2011 and 2013.)

When we last left off the story of KCSM-TV (see article in May 2017 Advocate), the 53-year-old public television station’s fate had become the subject of dueling lawsuits between the San Mateo Community College District, its owner and holder of the broadcasting license, and Locuspoint Networks LLC, a subsidiary of the Blackstone Group, the largest hedge firm in the world.

Board made deal with investment firm to sell KCSM’s spectrum to wireless companies Continue reading Who Will Pay For KCSM In The End? →

Accountability and Representation, Press Room, Surveillance

Sanctuary Journalism: ICE’s Data Broker Thomson Reuters

 

Originally published at Huffington Post

by Tracy Rosenberg

U.S. media outlets have done a fairly good job outlining the injustices and cruelties of the broken immigration system and the rogue federal agency that enforces it: ICE. Abuses ranging from the blatantly illegal to the simply inhumane have been highlighted including the detention and attempted deportation of US citizens, removing brain tumor patients from the hospital, paying Motel 6 hotel desk clerks to turn in hotel guests, arresting parents while their infant children are undergoing emergency surgery, chasing domestic violence victims into court houses and trying to destroy records of in-custody deaths and rapes at detention centers.

Continue reading Sanctuary Journalism: ICE’s Data Broker Thomson Reuters →