Mergers, diversity of ownership, and multiple perspectives.
Long-running litigation about the media ownership rules which control how many media outlets may be owned by the same entity has ended up at the Supreme Court of the United States – and so have we.
Here’s a look at our brief that was filed on December 16, 2020.
Continue reading SCOTUS: Prometheus vs FCC
Congresswoman Lee has responded to our letter and relocated her event from the Oakland Marriot. Urban Shield has announced the 2015 show will not be held at the Marriot next year. Thank you, Barbara Lee!
The BA-CLC has sent a letter to Congressperson Barbara Lee asking her to reschedule her fundraising event at the Marriot Hotel during the police militarization expo Urban Shield Continue reading Barbara Lee Relocates Fundraising Event from Oakland Marriot During Urban Shield
New America’s Open Technology Institute released this report examining the use of data caps on wired and mobile broadband service in the United States. The report analyzes the financial incentives that major Internet service providers have to implement these usage limits and research that demonstrates the behavioral effect of these policies on consumers.
Verizon responded to a NY consumer Freedom of Information Act request with 300 Blacked-out Pages on Voice Link Deployments
“You are telling me that among the 300 pages nothing was made available?” Robert Freeman, executive director of the Committee On Open Government, asked incredulously” Continue reading Verizon’s Version of Freedom of Information: 300 Blacked-Out Pages
Originally published at Truthout.org
The future of democratic media may come down to a bunch of lawyers.
Twenty-five years after pirate radio aficionados and media activists pushed for and eventually won the Low Power Community Radio Act, the fate of hundreds of radio licenses is up in the air.
Continue reading A Thousand New Radio Stations: Whose Will They Be?
San Mateo – On Wednesday May 15th, three San Mateo Community College board trustees approved an unseen contract with Locuspoint Networks, a 99%-owned subsidiary of hedge firm The Blackstone Group, to liquidate the 48-year-old noncommercial TV station KCSM in a spectrum auction. Continue reading SMCCD Board Liquidates KCSM-TV
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
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The United States Federal Communications Commission will vote to roll back media ownership regulations that prohibit organizations from owning a television station and newspaper in the same market and will make it easier to acquire media outlets.
The announcement of the vote was made by Chairman Ajit Pai while he and the other four commissioners were testifying at an oversight hearing before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Communications and Technology. Continue reading IBT: Ajit Pai: FCC Voting To Remove Media Ownership Rules
