In many respects, it’s good not to be the king anymore.

Freed from the shackles of chief-executive life and now sitting on the board of directors, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings seemingly feels free to weigh in on controversial political matters. 

And the frequent donor to Democratic causes and candidates is messaging President Joe Biden to abandon his fraught re-election campaign. 

“Biden needs to step aside to allow a vigorous Democratic leader to beat Trump and keep us safe and prosperous,” Hastings said in an email to The New York Times. 

Hastings’ involvement in Democratic causes does extend back to his time as CEO of Netflix. 

He and his wife, Patty Quillin, have donated more than $20 million to Democratic party constituents over the last several years, including $1.5 million directly to Biden for his successful 2020 presidential campaign. 

Hastings’ message contributes to a growing chorus of Democratic backers and operatives who are asking the 81-year-old president and candidate to step aside, following his disastrous debate performance on June 27. 

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will meet Thursday at 9 p.m. ET in the first debate of the 2024 presidential general-election cycle, with a number of cable networks, broadcast networks and streamers carrying a simulcast of CNN’s live presentation.

CNN will offer the debate, the earliest schedule presidential debate in U.S. history, live on its main U.S. channel as well as CNN International and CNN en Español, and will stream it on CNN.com and CNN Max. CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate the debate from Atlanta.

CNN is making a feed of the debate available for other networks to simulcast, with the caveat that the CNN logo remain on-screen at all times. Broadcasters ABC, NBC, Fox, Telemundo, PBS and CBS will air the simulcast, along with cable networks Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, MSNBC, C-SPAN, NewsNation, Scripps News and Newsmax, according to published reports.

The debate will also be available on streaming platforms including Peacock, Fox Nation, Hulu and theGrio. 

A second presidential debate is set for September 10 on ABC. 

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have agreed to debates, set for June 27 on CNN and September 10 on ABC. 

CNN Worldwide chairman and CEO Mark Thompson shared that both Biden and Trump had agreed to his network’s event at the Warner Bros. Discovery upfront presentation in New York May 16. That debate will happen in Atlanta. 

CNN reported that Dana Bash, anchor and CNN chief political correspondent, and Jake Tapper, anchor and chief Washington correspondent, will moderate its debate, and David Muir, anchor of World News Tonight, and Linsey Davis, anchor of World News Tonight Sunday, will do so for the ABC News debate.

The Commission on Presidential Debates is not hosting either debate, as it traditionally does. The commission had scheduled debates for September 16, October 1 and October 9. The Biden and Trump camps are dealing directly with the networks.  

The Biden camp wants the debates to happen earlier, The New York Times reported, and wants them conducted in a TV studio with no audience and with microphones that turn off when a speaker’s time limit elapses. 

Trump said on Truth Social he agreed to a Fox News debate October 2, but the Biden camp said the president will take part only in the CNN and ABC News debates. 

ABC News said it will make the September 10 debate available to simulcast on other networks. 

ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, Fox News and NewsNation have prepared a joint letter urging President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump to participate in televised debates. The letter had not been sent at deadline. 

“We, the undersigned national news organizations, urge the presumptive presidential nominees to publicly commit to participating in general election debates before November’s election,” the letter reads, according to a draft obtained by The New York Times, which said the networks are looking to get more media partners on board.

The Commission on Presidential Debates oversees the debates. Three are scheduled: September 16 in San Marcos, Texas, October 1 in Petersburg, Virginia, and October 9 in Salt Lake City. Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has not yet committed to appear, amidst concern about Trump following the debate’s rules. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has said he will take part. 

In every election since 1976, there has been at least one live televised presidential debate. 

The letter notes the “rich tradition” debates have played in the American democracy. 

“If there is one thing Americans can agree on, during this polarized time, it is that the stakes of this election are exceptionally high,” the letter reads. “There is simply no substitute for the candidates debating with each other, and before the American people, their visions for the future of the nation.”

Biden and Trump debated twice in 2020. The first one drew over 73 million viewers and the second had 63 million. A third was canceled due to Trump having Covid. 

The state of the union is hopelessly divided and nearly paralyzed by rancor and bitterness. But as this is an election year, the state of spending on political advertising — even in a media world that is increasingly fragmented — has gone from robust to record-shattering. 

Perry Sook, chairman and CEO of Nexstar Media Group, projected “a record level of political spending” on a fourth-quarter earnings call. Fox Television Stations has created a political unit in its advertising sales division to meet the rising demand.

Steve Lanzano, president and CEO of the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB), the broadcast industry trade association, projected political campaigns would deliver a $10.2 billion infusion into the media economy, more than 10% higher than the last presidential cycle.

Mitchell West, director of CMAG (Campaign Media Analysis Group) at the ad-intelligence platform Vivvix, predicted the cycle’s “massive spend” would reach $11.6 billion. BIA Advisory Services put out a recent forecast calling for $11.1 billion in political ad spending this year, up $2.2 billion (24%) over 2022 and up $1.5 billion (15.5%) over 2020, the last presidential year. Broadcast TV again is the biggest spending category with $4.6 billion, per BIA. EMarketer pegs this year's political ad-spending at more than $12.3 billion.

The primary season in 2024 was modest, with both major candidates locked in from the beginning, but the presidential grudge match started early. President Joe Biden recently launched a $30 million ad spend in battleground states, in part to offset his faltering popularity and in part, West said, because he might spend less time on the trail shaking hands and kissing babies than past (younger) candidates. “They may just blanket the entire country with ads.” 

West said campaigns typically spend 60 cents of every dollar raised on advertising, but Biden might up that spend to 65-70 cents. Plus, outside groups have pledged to spend more than $1 billion in ad support. 

Former President Donald Trump loves campaigning, but Lanzano said he’ll need to spend more since his earned media has declined since 2016, not counting the focus on his multiple criminal trials. “They’re going to have to balance out that message on the airwaves,” West agreed. 

While the pie is growing, it is changing, too. “There’s more and more spending but the media landscape and viewership are evolving,” Madhive senior VP, sales Kristin Wnuk said. “Local broadcast television is still the powerhouse, but CTV is absolutely taking a larger share.” 

West said that while broadcast stations’ share will climb, reaching $5 billion, its share of money spent will dip as connected TV soars well beyond $1 billion from “almost nothing” a few election cycles ago. Much of CTV’s growth is coming out of digital this time, Lanzano noted, with radio remaining relatively flat and cable spending “taking a bit of a hit.”

Madhive’s data analysis lets politicians use CTV to target ads more efficiently than an old-fashioned broadcast TV ad, Wnuk said, aiming at just, say, Democrats or Republicans or independents, or voters within specific ZIP codes. “It’s a different buying model and there are different levels you can pull,” she said.

West said the shift is slow because political groups “are always a little late to the game with new technologies so they’re just beginning to harness the power.” For now, most CTV ads are just broadcast TV ads, achieving reach but not using the more precise targeting possible with OTT. “When that gets embraced by politicians, it will become a really huge tool for them,” he said. 

The shift is slow also because voters, like broadcast viewers, tend to be older, Sook noted. That favors broadcast and with its local viewership share, it remains “the medium of choice for campaigns and PACs.” 

Big Down-Ballot Spending

This year’s battles for control of both the Senate and House will fuel extra spending, Lanzano said. That growth is now fueled by an inversion of Tip O’Neill’s adage that “all politics is local.” 

“Politics has become kind of almost like the national sport — campaigns openly solicit money by advertising out of their state and then money flies all over the country,” West said.

West pointed to the $56 million poured into a race for a Wisconsin State Supreme Court seat last year, while Lanzano said spending on races below the presidential level is skyrocketing. “We’re seeing more money spent where once there was hardly any,” the TVB CEO said. “There are hundreds of millions of dollars spent on races for attorney general because people see the power there now.”

West said that since the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned abortion-rights protections, and with numerous public battles over redistricting, the public has focused more on ballot initiatives and state legislature races. “Those contests used to fly under the radar more,” he said. “Now you are seeing unprecedented amounts of money going to local races. Both sides are fired up over a woman’s right to choose.”

Lanzano and West both said the spending spigots should remain open in future elections, allowing broadcast stations to build those dollars into their budgets at a time when overall TV ad spending is not doing that well. 

And, of course, soon enough it’ll be time for another presidential cycle — the first one with two contested primaries in over a decade — meaning another year when spending records will likely fall. 

Fox News won the State of the Union ratings race Thursday, March 7, in terms of total viewers, while NBC won the demo battle. Anchored by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, Fox News Channel had 5.64 million total viewers, while ABC had 5.024 million, NBC posted 4.33 million, MSNBC had 4.20 million, CBS tallied 3.94 million, CNN had 2.51 million, Fox broadcast had 1.71 million, Fox Business averaged 240,000 and CNBC had 112,000, according to Nielsen's fast nationals. 

In the 25-54 demo, NBC, with Lester Holt and Savannah Guthrie anchoring, was tops with 1.11 million, just ahead of ABC’s 1.07 million. Fox News had 1.03 million, CBS tallied 824,054, CNN posted 646,000 and MSNBC had 611,000. Fox broadcast scored 516,738, Fox Business had 40,000 and CNBC tallied 35,000 in the demo. 

The ratings reflect viewership from 9:15 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. ET. President Joe Biden spoke for 68 minutes at the Capitol, and the Republican response, from Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), followed. “My purpose tonight is to wake up the Congress and alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment,” he began. “Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault at home as they are today.”

The New York Times called it “one of the most confrontational speeches that any president has offered from the House rostrum, met by equally fractious heckling from his Republican opponents.”

Citing liberal “misinformation” monitor Media Matters for America, President Joe Biden’s campaign is accusing broadcast and cable networks of giving Republican front-runner Donald Trump “a pass” on his extremist statements and age while hammering the incumbent over his age and gaffes. 

That came in an email to reporters email early Tuesday (Nov. 7) from the campaign that ticked off citations from Media Matters of the extremist views it, and by reference, candidate Biden, are saying network and cable news outlets are not reporting, or giving “scant coverage to.”

The Biden campaign said in the email: “When Trump stated that 'liberal Jews' were voting to ‘destroy America & Israel’ in a Truth Social post during the Rosh Hashana holiday — which advocate groups called out as incendiary and playing into antisemitic tropes — broadcast news failed to mention the statement in the following two weeks. MSNBC covered Trump’s post for 9 minutes, CNN for just over 3 minutes, and Fox ignored it."

When Trump said the terrorist group Hezbollah was “very smart” only days after the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, the campaign said, “[t]he comment received just over 1 minute of coverage combined on broadcast channels ABC and NBC, with CBS failing to mention it. CNN devoted 14 minutes to the comment, Fox News 17 minutes, and MSNBC about 28 minutes (more than half of which came from Morning Joe).”

As to Biden’s age, the campaign said that while cable news provides “ample time” to coverage of the president’s age, it “largely ignores Trump’s.” Biden is 80; Trump is 77.

The campaign said that as the 2024 race heats up, “TV news outlets must highlight Trump’s extremism and inform viewers of the Republican front-runner’s unpopular beliefs.” 

Scott Pelley, 60 Minutes correspondent, sits with President Joe Biden on the program Sunday, October 15. Pelley and the president discuss the attack on Israel and resulting assault on Gaza. They also discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine, and Pelley asks President Biden about America’s role in both conflicts. 

President Biden told Pelley that the families of missing Americans in Israel "have to know that the president of the United States of America cares deeply about what's happened to them.” 

Biden will meet virtually October 13 with the families of American hostages believed to be held by Hamas militants. “This is not human behavior,” Biden told Pelley of the Hamas attack. “It’s pure barbarism.”

Also on October 15, correspondent Lesley Stahl is in Israel, reporting on the heroic rescue effort at one kibbutz, which was attacked by Hamas militants. 

Season 56 of 60 Minutes premiered last month on CBS. 

The program has introduced 90-minute episodes this season, which will happen a half dozen times. The first ran October 8, with the usual three stories in an hour, then a two-part story built for the final 30 minutes. The October 15 episode runs for 60 minutes. 

“People are excited to be able to take a swing at the two-part stories,” executive producer Bill Owens told B+C. 

The Biden-Harris campaign has placed its first ad in an NFL game. The spot, ”Got to Work,“ will air during the NFL season opener Thursday night (September 7) between the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Detroit Lions.

The ad argues that the president has “defied the odds” to “avoid economic catastrophe” while at the same time “lowering costs, bringing back manufacturing, and creating good-paying jobs for the American people.”

The spot is part of a 16-week, $25 million, flight that will run on broadcast — the Chiefs-Lions game is on NBC — in Phoenix, Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, North Carolina, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee, and on cable on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.

A new Wall Street Journal poll suggests the campaign, which highlights Biden policy wins, could be important given that a third of voters have said the drumbeat of allegations against son Hunter Biden makes them less likely to vote for the president, and more than half said they thought he was too old to run for a second term. The president will be 81 in November 2023.

Among the major broadcast and cable news outlets, only Fox News Channel gave live coverage Wednesday (May 10) to a press conference called by Republican leadership of the House Oversight Committee to allege that President Joe Biden’s family enriched themselves via an influence-peddling scheme when Biden was vice president and which they say the vice president must have known about.

The White House has branded that House Committee probe “investigation-free” and filled with “absurd innuendo.”

Fox covered the press conference as breaking news, with live coverage of the entire conference and some preconference reporting on the issue and post-conference analysis.

Also Read: Former President Trump Lined Up for CNN Town Hall

CNN and MSNBC provided no live coverage of the conference, instead reporting on the aftermath of former President Donald Trump’s conviction of battery and defamation in a civil suit and the charges of wire fraud and more filed Tuesday by the Justice Department against Republican Rep. George Santos.

Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said that no one watching the press conference on C-SPAN or other networks would believe that the President did not know about the alleged money funneling.

In fact, while the Republican reps asserted that it was “a very, very important issue to the country” and “Pulitzer” material for reporters in the audience if they just followed the facts in the bank records the committee has received, none of C-SPAN’s three TV channels covered the press conference live, nor did any of the broadcast network news operations, instead sticking with their usual lineups of local or national morning shows.

Comer accused media outlets of not doing their jobs as investigative reporters by not pressing the president on the issue of his family receiving money from foreign interests, an allegation Biden has repeatedly denied.

The Biden administration appears to be in no hurry to withdraw the nomination of Gigi Sohn, its first choice for the third Democratic seat on the five-member FCC, or perhaps it was caught somewhat off guard by the need to find a new candidate if it wants to start pursuing a non-bipartisan agenda, one that prominently includes the restoration of network-neutrality rules.

It has been more than two weeks since the embattled Federal Commuications Commission nominee informed the White House she was bowing out. She made that decision after weathering almost two years of withering criticism from conservatives and a campaign by some industry players to keep the progressive Democrat out of that key position.

Also: Sohn to Hill: Industry Should Not Pick Its Regulator

But according to Congress.gov, which tracks all actions on presidential nominees, at deadline Tuesday (March 21) the most recent action was the February 14 hearing for Sohn’s second nomination to the post. Her first nomination expired when she failed to get a Senate vote in the previous Congress.

The Biden administration will need a third Democrat on the FCC if the commission is to tackle partisan issues like restoring network neutrality rules, re-regulating broadcasters, or reforming the Universal Service Fund that subsidizes advanced communications to needy populations.

In a note to financial types, former top FCC official Blair Levin, now a media analyst, said a growing list of people apparently interested in the open seat suggests  it would be a fair assumption that the White House did not have a plan B. “It may be sometime before it selects a new nominee, further delaying the moment when the Democrats obtain an FCC majority,” Levin said.

Given that it took the administration some four months after Sohn was vetted to pull the trigger on her initial nomination, according to someone familiar with that process, it could just be that the bureaucratic wheels are turning with their usual all deliberate speed.

In exiting the field, Sohn said she hoped the president would move swiftly on a new nominee. “[I]t is ironic that the 2-2 FCC will remain sidelined at the most consequential opportunity for broadband in our lifetimes,” she wrote in a statement at the time. “This means that your broadband will be more expensive for lack of competition, minority and underrepresented voices will be marginalized, and your private information will continue to be used and sold at the whim of your broadband provider.” ■

President Joe Biden turns up on The Daily Show March 13. Kal Penn is the guest host. Comedy Central promises “an in-depth interview.”

The show runs at 11 p.m. ET/PT. 

It is Biden’s first interview on The Daily Show since becoming president. Biden and Penn discuss same-sex marriage, among other topics. The president shares his “epiphany” on the topic, dating back to high school, when he saw two men kiss as his father dropped him off at school, and his father said, “Joey, it’s simple — they love each other.”

Penn, whose credits include the Harold & Kumar movie franchise and TV shows House and Designated Survivor, worked in the White House during the Obama administration as associate director of the White House office of public engagement. 

Penn the guest host on the show this week. Also lined up as guest hosts are Al Franken and John Leguizamo. Marlon Wayans, Chelsea Handler, Wanda Sykes, Sarah Silverman and D.L. Hughley have also been guest hosts on The Daily Show since Trevor Noah stepped down at the end of 2022. 

Noah took over as Daily Show host in fall 2015. ■

President Joe Biden’s just-released budget takes a shot at internet service providers in the intro to the document, where the administration talks up the results it says it has already delivered, including under the heading “promoting competition and entrepreneurship.”

Among the actions it says it has taken to “crack down” on “unfair hidden junk fees” are new Federal Communications Commission rules, which go into effect next year, requiring ‘broadband nutrition labels” so consumers can get “key information’ on internet service options.

Also: ISPs Seek Label Clarification

Actually, the FCC has been promoting such voluntary labeling for a half-dozen years and it was Congress that mandated them, though it was indeed at the administration’s prompting as part of its massive infrastructure bill with its billions for broadband buildouts.

The label must be on ISP websites, ads and in other marketing materials and at the point of purchase, but it does not have to be on monthly bills.

The president’s budget, which was submitted to Congress Thursday (March 9), actually adds to that total with $400 million more for the ReConnect program that provides subsidies for rural broadband buildouts, including Tribal lands.

In 2021, the Agriculture Department made $1.15 billion in federal loans and grants available to expand high-speed internet access in rural communities across the country through the ReConnect Program, part of Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. ■

Now that Gigi Sohn has withdrawn her nomination for the open seat on the Federal Communications Commission, the musical chairs game of guess the new nominee begins.

The White House has yet to transmit the withdrawal to the Senate, according to congress.gov, but that should happen within a day or two, and the speculation has already begun.

One name that has surfaced as a possible, confirmable candidate is a familiar one — Anna Gomez. Her resume includes a stint as head of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, the FCC’s opposite number overseeing government-controlled spectrum, as well as experience at the FCC as onetime head of the International Bureau. She also has experience on Capitol Hill and at the White House, and was a partner at communications firm Wiley, which has accounted for a number of FCC commissioners and chairs, including name partner Dick Wiley.

Gomez was one of the names that surfaced back in 2021 before the president tapped Sohn, a veteran public-interest activist and former FCC adviser.

A former top FCC official speaking on background said that a Gomez pick makes sense given she has already gone through a vetting process and security clearance for her State Department job — she is currently senior adviser for international information and communications policy.

Also back in 2021, another name that surfaced was Edward “Smitty” Smith, a partner at law firm DLA Piper who has experience with overseeing multibillion-dollar broadband subsidies at the National Telecommunications & Information Administration and at the FCC, as an adviser to the Broadcast Incentive Auction Task Force.

Smith also was on the four-person Biden FCC transition review team and raised money for the candidate. One D.C. veteran said that if any profile fit a presidential FCC pick, it is Smith’s.

Someone on the staff of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) could also be in line for the post. Jobs as staffers to powerful senators and relevant committees is another route to an FCC chair.

For example, current chair and former commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel is onetime senior communications counsel for the Senate Commerce Committee.

And while Sohn arguably lost her bid due to opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Rosenworcel’s bid for commissioner was successful in part because her fan club included her then-boss, Senate Commerce Chair and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller.

In the meantime, the FCC remains at a political tie 2-2, able to tackle only various noncontroversial items. There will almost certainly be no broadcast reregulation, Universal Service Fund reform or net-neutrality rule reinstatement until Biden can nominate a new candidate, who will then need to have a nomination hearing, a successful vote out of committee, then a full Senate vote. ■

President Joe Biden took Big Tech to task, and got in a shot at cable fees, in his State of the Union speech Tuesday night (February 7), with Big Tech getting the brunt of the criticism.

“The idea that cable, internet and cellphone companies can charge you $200 or more if you decide to switch to another provider — give me a break,” he said during the part of his speech when he hammered various industries — “big pharma,” airlines — over what he called “junk fees.”

He said those “hidden surcharges” add up to hundreds of dollars a month. The Biden administration has proposed the Junk Fee Prevention Act, which would include those cable early-termination fees.

Biden also called for Congress to pass legislation banning noncompete agreements and strengthening antitrust enforcement to prevent “big online platforms” from advantaging their own products.

Toward the end of the speech, Biden said social media had to be held accountable for “experimenting with children for profit” and called for legislation to stop Big Tech from collecting personal information about children and teenagers, impose stricter limits on data collected on adults and ban targeted advertising to children.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association pointed out that while Biden’s speech cited economic progress, the president then essentially bit the hand that fed that economic engine. “Digital services in the connected economy help combat inflation with lower prices, and U.S. tech leadership produced $684 billion in digitally-enabled exports in 2021 alone,” CCIA said.

The Connected Commerce Council, which emphasizes the impact of legislation and regulation on small business but whose name “partners” prominently include Google and Amazon, was not pleased. 

“President Biden's call to rein in America's leading technology companies is the latest misguided attack against America’s digitally empowered small businesses,” said council executive director Rob Retzlaff. "Forcibly changing how the digital economy works would cost small businesses $500 billion over five years, an absurd price for American small businesses to pay.” 

The Interactive Advertising Bureau stood up for the targeted advertising the president was targeting in his speech. “Punishing bad actors is a must, and IAB supports stronger laws to protect kids, but blaming data and technology for complex problems, and restricting or eliminating digital advertising, could severely diminish the benefits of the internet for everyone,“ IAB said.

The argument goes that it is the targeted nature of online advertising that supports the free content model.

House Energy & Commerce Committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) said the president had left out that his administration had “colluded with Big Tech companies to censor Americans” and was now intimidating  Big Tech into policing content online.

Republicans argue that efforts by Democrats to weed out disinformation or hate speech are instead efforts to pressure edge providers into censoring conservative voices, actions they call an attack on the First Amendment. 

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), for one, signaled he was ready to follow his leader into the Big Tech regulatory fray.

“Our agenda must prioritize holding big corporations accountable,” he said following the speech, including by “reining in Big Tech companies that track our children’s data and target them with manipulative ads.”

Markey has made children's exposure to media a signature issue since his days as a House leader on communications oversight, including the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and the Children's Television Act of 1990. ▪️

President Joe Biden delivers his second State of the Union address at the Capitol Tuesday, February 7 at 9 p.m. ET. ABC, CNN, CBS, Fox, Fox News Channel, MSNBC and NBC will be among the networks airing the presentation. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders gives the Republican response. 

ABC News goes live at 9 p.m. and wraps coverage at 11 p.m. World News Tonight anchor David Muir leads news gathering from Washington, with ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis, chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl and chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz among those pitching in. 

CBS News Streaming Network starts the coverage at 5 p.m., and CBS has it at 8 p.m. Norah O’Donnell, CBS Evening News anchor, anchors from Washington. CBS News chief political analyst John Dickerson, Face the Nation moderator and chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan and chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett are among those covering the speech and response.

Fox goes live at 9 p.m., with Shannon Bream, Fox News Sunday host, anchoring, and Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram contributing. 

Fox News Channel covers the State of the Union at 9 p.m. too, with chief political anchor Bret Baier anchoring alongside The Story anchor Martha MacCallum.

NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt and Today co-anchor/NBC News chief legal correspondent Savannah Guthrie lead NBC News’s coverage from Washington, starting at 9 p.m. Chuck Todd, NBC News political director, will contribute as well, as will Kristen Welker, NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent, and others. 

NBC News Now streams coverage from 8 p.m. to midnight with Tom Llamas, Hallie Jackson, Todd and Welker anchoring. 

MSNBC has the SOTU preview at 8 p.m., the address 9 to 11 p.m., and an analysis at 11 p.m. 

CNN goes live at 9 p.m. 

C-SPAN is live at 8 p.m., with Peter Slen and Greta Brawner hosting.

NewsNation starts coverage at 9 p.m. Anchor Leland Vittert hosts from Washington, with senior political contributor George Will and political editor Chris Stirewalt among those pitching in. 

The White House offers the speech at WH.gov/SOTU and on YouTube. ■

Imagine if the family cars of 16 million American households suddenly vanished — transportation to work, school, doctors and stores suddenly cut off. For many, such a devastating loss would jeopardize their employment, education, healthcare and everyday family needs. 

Now imagine if home broadband for 16 million American households enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) abruptly disappeared: Loss of an internet connection would have many of the same repercussions. If our nation’s next federal budget doesn’t include dollars to extend the ACP, this modern-day nightmare could become reality for millions of Americans as soon as next year.

The Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA) is investing $42.5 billion toward broadband infrastructure to help people in every corner of America maintain high-speed internet at home. This is smart policy, as the past three years clearly demonstrated the criticality of internet access in modern American life.

The IIJA passed the Senate by a resounding 69-30 vote. Broadband availability is the all-too-rare policy issue backed by both progressives and conservatives, and logically so. Progressives note the consistent overlap between digital divides and social divides, with internet have-nots more frequently among communities of color or more vulnerable populations. Conservatives recognize that high-speed internet is critical to education and employment and that people who can work and children who can learn contribute more to, and need less from, the government in their lifetimes.

 But broadband affordability is an even bigger issue than availability.

Rural Americans, in particular, benefit from financial assistance that the ACP provides. In fact, the states with the highest program participation rates are red and rural, and two of the four states that have broken the million mark in total number of households enrolled in the ACP are Republican-led. Struggling farmers need broadband just as much as striving students in the inner city.

 A 2019 study estimated that better adoption of online tools and digital services by businesses outside metropolitan areas could create 360,000 new full-time jobs in rural areas and add more than $140 billion to the U.S. economy over the subsequent three years. Permanently solving the broadband affordability challenge, in addition to closing the availability gaps, would ensure that 30 million rural citizens and thousands of small businesses have access to the network that unleashes innovation in education, retail, entertainment, and many other industries.

What’s more, the Affordable Connectivity Program enables participants to shop among broadband providers, which increases competition in the marketplace. This competitive pressure keeps pricing in check and benefits consumers by significantly expanding their provider and plan choices. Rather than a one-size-fits-all plan, these families in need can select the level of service that best suits their needs, pushing providers to keep their offerings competitive across the board.

America can expect a good return on its investment to make broadband affordable for every household. Research shows a high correlation between increased broadband penetration and GDP growth, with some studies even suggesting a causal relationship. The World Bank estimated that a 10 percentage point increase in broadband penetration can lead to a 1.2% jump in real per capita GDP growth in developed economies.

In addition to economic gains, the social benefits of home broadband are immeasurable. Today, meaningful participation in society depends on being connected. From doing homework to seeing pictures of friends and family, the value of ensuring that all Americans can afford broadband can’t be overstated.

President Joe Biden should include a fully funded Affordable Connectivity Program in the budget that he’ll soon submit to Congress, and Republicans should quickly embrace this item, as the data confirms that their constituents are reaping the benefits of broadband. Rather than creating a nightmare for millions of people chasing the American dream, our leaders can help them achieve it. ■

President Joe Biden took to the pages of The Wall Street Journal to launch a sweeping attack on Big Tech, saying the government needs to step in.

In his op-ed for the newspaper, the president took aim at “some” Big Tech players — he did not name names — saying they “exploit our most personal data, deepen extremism and polarization in our country, tilt our economy’s playing field, violate the civil rights of women and minorities, and even put our children at risk.”

Biden said social-media companies have to be held accountable "for the experiment they are running on our children for profit.”

His predecessor, Donald Trump, also wanted to crack down on social media and reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the provision that makes users of social-media platforms immune from civil liability for third-party content, but that was primarily over what he saw as its bias against him and censorship of conservative speech.

Also: Trump Preps Social Media Executive Order

Biden blamed the internet for allowing “abusive and even criminal conduct, like cyberstalking, child sexual exploitation, nonconsensual pornography and sales of dangerous drugs.”

As for their business practices, he said Big Tech had “elbowed mom-and-pop businesses out from their platforms, disadvantaged them, or charged them outlandish prices, making it harder for them to compete and grow, and thereby stifling innovation.”

The president outlined a three-pronged approach to reform: 1) federal privacy protections, including the government preventing some kinds of data collection; 2) reforming Section 230; and 3) preventing Big Tech companies from getting too big.

Biden called for bipartisan congressional action. “It’s time to walk the walk and get something done.”

At least on the issues of federal privacy legislation and Section 230 reform, the president had a supporter in new House Energy & Commerce Committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), though she suggested a previous executive order on the Big Tech issue was out of bounds.

In a statement responding to Biden’s op-ed, she said: “President Biden is correct to acknowledge the risks posed by Big Tech for Americans. Rather than trying to address these harms unilaterally through executive action and contorting authority, the administration needs to work with Congress to enact comprehensive privacy protections through one national privacy standard that protects all Americans, especially our kids.”

McMorris Rodgers also said she would continue to look for a way to reform Section 230 to “ensure Big Tech is encouraging more free speech on their platforms, not less.” ■

HBO debuts the documentary Year One: A Political Odyssey, about President Joe Biden's first year on the job, Wednesday, October 19. John Maggio directs.

"Bookended by Inauguration Day 2021 and the State of the Union speech of March 2022, Year One: A Political Odyssey is a front-seat account of the Biden administration's tense first year, marked by security threats both at home and abroad," said HBO. "Assuming office only two weeks after the January 6th attack on the Capitol, Biden's presidency entered the maelstrom of an ongoing global pandemic, renewed conflicts with Russia and China, and America’s international standing in decline."

The film follows the president's inner circle, taking viewers inside the White House, the State Department, the CIA, and the Pentagon, and looking at historical events, including the pandemic, January 6, the withdrawal from Afghanistan and adversarial relations with Russia and China. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February gets an examination too. 

Participants in the film include Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Central Intelligence Agency director William Burns, White House chief of staff Ron Klain, special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry and former White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

Ark Media produced the film. The producers are Caroline Cannon and Caroline Pahl and the executive producers are John Maggio and David E. Sanger, with Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller on behalf of HBO. ■

President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order implementing a United States-European Union agreement on new cross-border data privacy protections, protections that have been on shifting sands since an international court threw out a previous agreement.

The Executive Order on Enhancing Safeguards for United States Signals Intelligence Activities (E.O.) outlines the steps the U.S. is taking under the new EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. The framework is essentially a data protection safe harbor for companies that agree to comply with it.

Those steps include providing companies with greater legal certainty by creating an independent and binding process for individuals who believe their personal data was collected in violation of U.S. law. It also mandates handling requirements for personal information and requires U.S. intelligence agencies to update their policies and procedures in line with those new protections.

Allowing digital goods to flow freely across borders is worth $7.1 trillion in commerce between the EU and the U.S., the White House said, and is key to American companies participating in a world economy.

A new agreement was needed after the EU’s Court of Justice ruled the U.S. couldn't live up to its part of agreement to protect data privacy. Concluding that it did not sufficiently protect data transferred from the EU to the U.S. — particularly involving U.S. government intelligence agency access — the Court of Justice in July 2020 invalidated the so-called privacy shield, prompting the EU and U.S. to get to work on a successor agreement that would pass court muster.

Among those welcoming some of that greater certainty when it comes to how data is protected comes from the computer companies vital to those flows.

“Since that EU court ruling, the two economies have been without clear guidelines for data transfers on the most trafficked route on the globe — impacting transactions such as travel reservations, social media communications, and insurance claims that implicate trillions of dollars of annual economic activity," the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) said.

“We appreciate President Biden’s action to keep data flowing between the U.S. and EU, underpinning one of our deepest and most mutually beneficial trading relationships," CCIA president Matt Schruers said. “Data transfers are at the heart of the transatlantic relationship, fueling the trade that keeps both of our economies running and brings benefits to consumers and businesses of all sizes who need legal clarity on mechanisms to transfer data.”

Online advertisers, who rely on free flows of information in which to place their messages, were also pleased with the order.

“Today, the Biden administration has taken a big step forward, announcing stronger protections for data transferred to the U.S. and setting the stage for a final agreement with our allies,” Interactive Advertising Bureau executive VP of public policy Lartease Tiffith said. “Data flows are crucial for the mutual development of medical, cybersecurity and other technologies, as well as media, advertising and consumer goods. With so many disruptions to commerce during the last few years, IAB is excited about this new development to ensure secure cross-border data flows. IAB looks forward to working with the EU and U.S. to fully implement the new agreement.”

BBB National Programs certainly saw a better digital business climate on the horizon.

“At BBB National Programs, we commend the White House, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and their counterparts in the European Commission for lifting the cloud of uncertainty that has been hanging over Privacy Shield for more than two years,” the organization said in a statement. “As the longest-running Independent Recourse Mechanism (IRM) provider, the first recognized under Privacy Shield, trusted for more than 20 years by businesses of all sizes, we view this formal commitment to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework as a huge milestone for the $7 trillion trans-Atlantic economy.”

Jason Oxman, president and CEO of tech trade group the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), said: “Today’s actions will help restore business certainty and safeguard continuity of key business operations as data moves across the Atlantic, while also upholding European citizens’ fundamental rights, and the security and public safety interests of the U.S., EU, and other qualified states. We appreciate the Biden Administration’s attention to this critical issue and look forward to working with the European Union to implement the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework over the coming months.” ■

Latino voters still prefer Democrats over Republicans to control Congress, and by a wide margin — 54% to 33% — but that is down significantly over the last few polls conducted by NBC News and co-owned Telemundo.

Another troubling sign for Democrats is that the top issue facing the country according to those Latino voters is the cost of living, while the poll found that a majority of Latino voters — 54% — disapprove of the way the top Democrat — President Joe Biden — is handling the economy, with 38% saying they thought Republicans in general did a better job of handling the economy than Democrats.

While Latino voters preferred Democratic control by 21 percentage points, that was down from 26 points in 2020, 34 points in 2018 and 38 points in 2016.

Following the economy, the issues most important to Latino voters polled were "threats to democracy" and jobs.

Latino voters gave Democrats higher marks than Republicans promoting tolerance and respect, handling the abortion issue and having the right approach to gun laws. ■

Scott Pelley, correspondent on 60 Minutes, sits with President Joe Biden in the season premiere of the program, which happens Sunday, September 18. Pelley spoke with the president at the White House and in Detroit. Biden discussed inflation, Russia's war on Ukraine, U.S.-China tensions and the midterm elections. President Biden also shared that the U.S. avoided a “real economic crisis” by averting a national railroad strike. 

60 Minutes airs on CBS. It is Biden’s first 60 Minutes interview since becoming president.  

The season premiere will also see correspondent Lesley Stahl interview Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at the presidential complex in Tehran.

It is season 55 of 60 Minutes. ■

President Joe Biden on Tuesday (August 10) marked this week’s 10th anniversary of journalist Austin Tice’s abduction in Syria by calling on that government to end his imprisonment now.

“[H]e is an investigative journalist who put the truth above himself and traveled to Syria to show the world the real cost of war,“ Biden said. ”We know with certainty that he has been held by the Syrian regime.

“There is no higher priority in my Administration than the recovery and return of Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad,“ he said. “We must name them, keep them in our hearts and our minds, and make their recovery and return a priority. That is a pledge I have made to the American people and to Austin’s parents, and it is one that I am determined to uphold.“

Tice is a freelance journalist who has been held in Syria since August 2012.

Tice, a Marine as well as a veteran journalist, had filed on the Syrian conflict for a number of news outlets, including The Washington Post, CBS, the BBC, NPR and Al-Jazeera English. He has been unaccounted for since then. 

Syria regularly makes the Committee to Protect Journalists’ list of countries most dangerous for journalists. ■

House Republicans may be pushing back on President Joe Biden’s nominee for a third Democrat on the Federal Communications Commission, but they are pushing him to nominate an inspector general for the agency as it hands out billions of dollars in broadband subsidies.

That came in a letter to the president signed by Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), House Energy & Commerce Committee ranking member; Robert Latta (R-Ohio), House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology ranking member; and Bill Johnson (R-Ohio).

The RAY BAUM's Act of 2018 made the FCC IG a presidential appointee, which means the Senate must sign off on the pick. But since then, the lawmakers said, the presidentially appointed position has remained vacant. The current unappointed IG remains in place, but that has been for moe than a year and a half, the lawmakers said.

Also: GOP Slams FCC Over EBB Subsidy Abuse

They noted that the current IG — David Hunt — issued an advisory about fraud and abuse in broadband subsidy programs, but given the “unprecedented” funding involved they want a nomination to the post expedited.

Back in March, Hunt put out an advisory to users and providers of the FCC's Lifeline, Emergency Broadband Benefit and Affordable Connectivity Program subsidies of “improper and abusive enrollment practices that are part of some providers’ online enrollment processes.”

Republicans have long questioned the independence of the FCC IG. ■

A $1.6 billion defamation suit brought by a voting machine company against Fox News last year regarding claims by the network of widespread voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election is moving forward after a Delaware judge said the network’s parent company, Fox Corp., could be included in the suit, just days before Fox hired a veteran trial lawyer to take over the case.

Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox News in March 2021, claiming the network defamed it in reports that the technology company was behind alleged and unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud during the election, in which President Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump. Dominion has also filed similar lawsuits against two other networks — OAN and Newsmax — while another voter tech company, SmartMatic, sued Fox in February 2021 for defamation around its election coverage. that suit also appears to be still pending. 

In a ruling in Delaware Superior Court on June 21, judge Eric Davis said Dominion “adequately pleaded” that Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch and chairman Rupert Murdoch played “a central and public role in the management and oversight of Fox News” and could be included in the suit. 

“Limiting the ability of the press to report freely on the American election process stands in stark contrast to the liberties on which this nation was founded and we are confident we will prevail in this case as the First Amendment is the foundation of our democracy and freedom of the press must be protected,” Fox News Media said in a statement on the Delaware Court ruling.

Shortly after that ruling, on June 30, Fox hired Dan Webb, executive chairman of Chicago-based law firm Winston & Strawn and a seasoned trial lawyer, to head up the case, which some news outlets took as an indication that Fox plans to go to trial. Fox has denied that Webb’s hiring had anything to do with the earlier ruling. 

In a statement, Fox News Media said Webb’s appointment adds depth to its legal team “ensuring the protection of the First Amendment and the fundamental right to a free press remain intact.” 

According to the Los Angeles Times, which first reported on his hiring, Webb is a seasoned trial lawyer and has taken on several high-profile cases over the years. Most recently, he was special prosecutor for Cook County, Illinois in its case against former Empire actor Jussie Smollett, who was convicted of hiring two men to stage a hate crime against him in 2019. Webb also has tried several First Amendment cases, which the paper said would jibe with Fox’s anticipated defense strategy in the case. Citing sources familiar with the network, the Times said Fox plans to argue that its reporting on claims of voter fraud by Trump and other pundits is protected speech. 

Dominion has claimed that despite evidence to the contrary, Fox News continued to push the voter fraud narrative in an effort to boost ratings. Throughout election day, Trump and his allies continuously criticized Fox for reporting that Trump’s lead in certain states was slipping. But the last straw apparently came after the channel called the key state of Arizona for Biden prior to midnight, infuriating Trump and his team. Although the prediction was correct, Trump and his followers continued on a path alleging the election was tainted by widespread voter fraud.

According to the suit, Fox began connecting Dominion to voter fraud claims on November 8, and “in the weeks and months that followed, Fox News made Dominion the focus of the conversation.” 

Although Fox News journalists had reported that there was no evidence of fraud that could sway the election, Dominion has claimed that several network program hosts helped perpetuate claims the election was stolen by allowing Trump allies to continue to push that theory and promote claims that Dominion played a role in rigging results on air. Subsequently, the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency failed to find any evidence that voting systems used in the 2020 election were tampered with.  

The tech company alleges that in order to boost ratings, Fox News and its executives provided a platform for guests that its hosts knew would make false statements, agreed with those statements on air, and published those statements as facts. 

“Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch allegedly made a ‘business calculation’ to spread former President Trump’s narrative through Fox News even though they did not personally believe it,“ Dominion claimed in the suit. “Thus, Fox Corporation’s employees and officers allegedly had ‘direct responsibility’ for airing the statements about Dominion.” ▪️

White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield is leaving the White House later this month.

(For fans of West Wing, Bedingfield was President Joe Biden's Toby Ziegler).

The reason the Administration gave for her departure was that she wanted to spend more time with her husband and children after three years in the challenging post and even more in previous roles.

Bedingfield was also communications director for then Vice President Joe Biden and subsequently deputy campaign manager and communications director for his 2020 presidential run.

The White House gave her credit for her role in prepping the candidate for debates and interviews, helping Biden become the first nominee to defeat an incumbent president -- Donald Trump -- in almost 30 years. Bill Clinton beat incumbent George Bush in 1992.

Also: Biden Names Communications Director

“Without Kate Bedingfield’s talent and tenacity, Donald Trump might still be in the White House, the Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Law might still be unrealized goals, and Ketanji Brown Jackson might not be sitting on the Supreme Court,” said White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain in a statement.

He also suggested Bedingfield was still going to be a player. "She will continue to remain a critical player in moving the Biden agenda forward from the outside," Klain said.

Bedingfield was tapped to be then-Vice President Joe Biden’s communications director in August 2015, coming to that post after several years as VP of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), where she was chief spokesperson for the then-MPA chairman and former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, who himself had a campaign role helping Biden.

After Biden left office and decided against a 2016 run for president, Bedingfield moved to Monumental Sports and Entertainment, the media company of former AOL executive Ted Leonsis, as vice president of communications. ▪️

White House communications director Kate Bedingfield and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre are among the highest-paid Biden administration staffers at $180,000 per year, according to the White House’s just-released 2022 Annual Report.

Since 1995, the White House been required to report its staff salaries to Congress; President Joe Biden has made that information public.

Together, the press and communications teams represent a multimillion-dollar payroll, with top salaries just below only that of Stephanie Sykes, director of intergovernmental affairs for infrastructure implementation, at $183,100.

No. 2 on the press payroll is assistant press secretary Alexandra Lamann at $153,434.

Also on the press side of the ledger is Lucas Acosta, director of broadcast media, at $100,000. He is responsible for the White House’s broadcast media strategy, which includes booking administration members on cable news shows and other media outlets as well as broadcast.

Deputy press secretaries Andrew Bates and Christopher Meagher come in at $110,000, which is matched by Michael Larosa, press secretary to First Lady Jill Biden, followed by Brianne Moore, director of presidential press advance, with $100,000, and Abdulla Hassan and Kevin Munoz, assistant press secretaries, at $80,000.

There are also a handful of press assistants who make $62,500 apiece.

On the communications side, after Bedingfield comes Rachel Thomas, senior communications adviser for policy, at $163,333; followed by Elizabeth Alexander, communications director for the First Lady, at $155,000.

Next comes Dorinda Salcido, director for strategic communications and external engagement for the COVID-19 response, at $130,000. Katherine Berner, special deputy director of communications, comes in at $110,000, the same as Subhan Cheem, deputy director for external engagement and strategic communications for the COVID-19 response.

Zev Karlin-Neumann, speechwriter and communications adviser to the Domestic Policy Council, makes $100,000, while Kelsey Donohue, deputy communications director; Matthew Hill, senior association communications director; and Rykia Dorsey, senior regional communications director, all made $80,000 per year. ■

The NewsGuild-CWA is asking President Joe Biden to urge the FCC to block the purchase of Tegna TV stations by investment fund Standard General and Apollo Global Management.

The guild, the nation's largest union representing journalists, told the president in an open letter circulated widely Thursday (June 2) that the deal “would kill journalism jobs, undermine local news and raise prices for American families.”

NewsGuild-CWA has already asked the Federal Communications Commission to collect more data on the deal before making a decision on whether it is in the public interest.

Also: Tegna Deal Critics Say FCC Needs More Data

In the meantime, it wants Biden to give the commission some direction, though that by definition would have to be short of marching orders.

“Mr. President, you can do something to protect workers, journalists, local news, and hard-working families,“ the guild said. “Please urge the FCC to reject the Apollo/Standard General/Tegna deal.”

The FCC is an independent agency and is charged with making its public interest calls on mergers based on the facts before it. But there is plenty of precedent for Presidents making their feelings known, including President Barack Obama, who called on the FCC to adopt net neutrality rules based on a Title II classification of internet access, and President Trump, who called for regulating edge providers to prevent what he said was anti-conservative bias.

Tegna owns 64 television stations in 51 U.S. markets. It also owns multicast networks True Crime Network, Twist and Quest and advanced-advertising company Premion. ■

President Joe Biden is staying in-house to replace departing Press Secretary Jenn Psaki.

Karine Jean-Pierre, currently principal deputy press secretary and assistant to the president, will be the new chief White House spokesperson. Psaki will leave May 13, according to the White House and is expected to join MSNBC.

“Karine not only brings the experience, talent and integrity needed for this difficult job, but she will continue to lead the way in communicating about the work of the Biden-Harris Administration on behalf of the American people,” Biden said. He also thanked Psaki, saying she set the standard for “returning decency, respect and decorum to the White House Briefing Room,” a not-too-veiled reference to the contentious tenure of a series of press secretaries to President Donald Trump, which included pulling the plug on daily briefings altogether.

Jean-Pierre’s resume also includes chief public affairs officer for liberal group MoveOn.org and analyst for MSNBC and NBC. She will reportedly be the first African-American and openly LGBTQ press secretary.

In a related move, Anita Dunn, who had been a senior adviser to the president on communications and legislative strategy, will return in that post.

She is a partner and founding member of Democrat-focused communications firm SKDK, whose messaging includes work on social justice and vaccines, as well as helping elect Democrats to public office. ▪️

In a move likely to draw fire from Big Government-bashing Republicans, the Biden administration has established a network of government officials — the Rural Partners Network (RPN) — it plans to embed in rural communities to make sure they can access infrastructure spending in the American Rescue Plan, including the billions for rural broadband going to states and principally overseen by the Department of Commerce.

The administration has said it wants to prioritize municipal broadband buildouts and will now place federal staffers in more than two dozen rural communities to “help local leaders navigate and access the federal resources they need to build a strong and vibrant economy,” including through the “once-in-a-generation investment in affordable high-speed internet,” as well as money for water, electricity, roads and bridges.

The Commerce Department will be one of the participating agencies in the RPN, which will be principally funded by the Department of Agriculture.

Also: NTIA Says Broadband Grants Aren't One Size Fits All

“Just making resources available is not enough — the federal government must better serve rural communities, so that they can take full advantage of these unprecedented opportunities,” the White House said Wednesday (April 20), adding that RPN will also “also identify challenges preventing rural communities from accessing federal support.”

Alan Davidson, head of Commerce’s National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA), has already said his agency is taking a customer-service approach to overseeing the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) initiative going to the states for broadband buildouts. That includes an NTIA point person to help apply for the money. ■

President Joe Biden’s 2023 budget, released Monday (March 28), includes more than a half-billion additional dollars in direct broadband aid, as well as billions in discretionary spending billed as, in part, a complement to the $65 billion already allocated for closing the digital divide in the White House-backed Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The additional, direct funding is in the form of a proposed $600 million in additional spending on the ReConnect program, supplementing an original $1.15 billion in federal loans and grants through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expand high-speed internet access — or, in this case, build it in the first place — in rural and particularly in tribal communities as part of the president's Build Back Better agenda.

Also: NTIA, Rural Utilities Service Team Up

To be eligible for ReConnect Program funding, applicants must serve an area without broadband service at speeds of 100 megabits per second downstream and 20 Mbps upstream, and commit to building facilities capable of providing broadband service at speeds of 100 Mbps (downstream and upstream) to every location in its proposed service area.

There is also $25 million in direct funding for rural telecom cooperatives to refinance their Rural Utilities Service debt and upgrade broadband facilities. RUS is one of the USDA’s broadband grant/loan programs.

But in addition to that, the budget provides for $28.5 billion for USDA, which the budget says is meant to “complement” broadband deployment funding in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, as well as conservation and forest management.

Likewise, the Commerce Department, which is handing out the bulk of the $65 billion broadband infrastructure spending, will get $11.7 billion in discretionary funding to “complement major investments in broadband Internet access and climate resilience.”

"I applaud President Biden’s call for additional investments to support domestic manufacturing, secure our supply chains, and bridge the digital divide," said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), chairman of the powerful House Energy & Commerce Committee, which has primary jurisdiction over broadband issues.  ■

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen will be among the guests in First Lady Jill Biden’s box for the State of the Union speech Tuesday night (March 1), giving credence to reports President Joe Biden plans to address Big Tech-related issues in the speech, specifically online child protection.

Also: SOTU to Include Call for Banning Certain Child-Targetted Online Ads

“Each of these individuals, with their resilience, innovation, service, and courage, were chosen by the White House because they represent policies or themes to be addressed by the president in his speech,” the White House said in releasing the list of attendees.

Haugen created quite a stir last November on Capitol Hill with testimony in which she revealed internal Facebook research showing the company knew its Instagram platform could be harmful to some teens. Facebook countered that the research also showed that most teens said it was helpful and that the information on those who said otherwise was useful feedback for potential changes to the platform to address that concern.

Legislators were unconvinced and have pushed various bills to rein in Big Tech. ■

President Joe Biden is expected Tuesday (March 1) to call for a ban on online ads targeted to children and other measures billed as meant to better protect children online.

That‘s according to the office of Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who has been pushing for those protections, and comes on the same day the House Energy & Commerce Committee is holding its third hearing on holding Big Tech accountable, which includes consideration of a bill that would generally ban certain types of targeted online advertising.

That expectation appeared to be confirmed after the White House announced that Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen was named as a guest in the First Lady's box for the State of the Union speech in which the President is expected to make that call out.

Also: Senators Call on FTC to Protect Kids Online

The caveat is that the president’s speech was being recrafted Tuesday to center more on Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine, according to various reports. The bulk of the speech, though, is still expected to be about “bread and butter” issues, according to CNN, including broadband issues, given the administration's push for closing the digital divide and getting the internet into every home.

According to Markey‘s office, Biden’s address is expected to include a call to Congress to “strengthen privacy protections, ban targeted advertising to children, demand technology companies stop collecting personal data on our children and stop discriminatory algorithmic decision-making for young people.”

That basically tracks with Markey’s proposed update of his Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Currently, COPPA, which Markey motormanned, prohibits websites from collecting personal information from anyone 12 and under without consent. The new bill, the Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act, would extend that protection to teens 13-15.

It would also create the “eraser button” that Markey has been pushing for years, requiring online companies to allow users to eliminate personal information from a child or teen.

In addition to banning advertising targeted to children (as distinguished from contextual advertising in content targeted to children), the legislative update aslo creates a “digital marketing bill of rights,” which limits the collection of personal information from teens for marketing purposes. And to make sure that the limits are respected, it creates a Youth Privacy and Marketing Division at the Federal Trade Commission.

In addition, the bill would:

1.) Change COPPA’s “actual knowledge” standard to a “constructive knowledge” standard, which means websites “should reasonably know” children are on their sites and they need to get consent to collect data.

2.) Require online companies to explain what personal information is being collected, how it is being used and to disclose their collection policies.

3.) Require that internet-connected devices for kids have robust cybersecurity.

4.) Require manufacturers of connected devices targetd to kids and minors to include on their packaging disclosures of how information is collected, transmitted, retained, used and protected. ■

President Joe Biden will tap Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, according to multiple news reports. Brown sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which is the principal court for appeals for Federal Communications Commission decisions.

The D.C. Circuit has been the launching pad for a number of Supreme Court nominees, most recently Brett Kavanaugh, and prior to that President Barack Obama's failed attempt to seat Merrick Garland. Biden last year made Garland the attorney general, with Jackson replacing him on the D.C. Circuit.

Also coming from the D.C. Circuit were current Chief Justice John Roberts and the late Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia.

Jackson, who has been in the conversation for the open Supreme Court seat since before Biden promised to name the first Black woman to the court, is the former vice chair of the U.S. Sentencing Committee and most recently served on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She also clerked for the justice who stepped down to create the vacancy, Justice Stephen Breyer.

Jackson is a Harvard Law School graduate, where she was a supervising editor on the Harvard Law Review.

She is a member of the Judicial Conference Committee on Defender Services, the Harvard University Board of Overseers and the Council of the American Law Institute. She is also a board member of the D.C. Circuit Historical Society and the United States Supreme Court Fellows Commission. ■

High tech communications technology exports to Russia is one of the categories subject to controls under newly imposed U.S. sanctions due to Russia's invasion of the Ukraine.

President Joe Biden announced the sanctions Thursday in a speech to the nation. The White House said the sanctions would impose "devastating costs" on Russia.

"The unprecedented export control measures will cut off more than half of Russia’s high-tech imports, restricting Russia’s access to vital technological inputs, atrophying its industrial base, and undercutting Russia’s strategic ambitions to exert influence on the world stage," the White House said.

In addition to the restrictions on U.S. made telecom equipment, the sanctions package imposes "Russia-wide restrictions on sensitive U.S. technologies produced in foreign countries using U.S.-origin software, technology, or equipment, including on "semiconductors and telecommunications."

Also: CPJ Offers Advice for Journalists Covering Russian Attacks

The White House said that Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, and the United Kingdom have also pledged to take similar actions to isolate Russia from cutting-edge technology, saying: "The impact of these measures will be significantly magnified due to historical multilateral cooperation with a wide range of Allies and partners who are mirroring our actions..."

The Administration made clear that the sanctions are no short-term response. "The United States and our Allies and partners are unified and will continue to impose costs, forcing Putin to look to other countries that cannot replicate the financial and technology strengths of Western markets." ■

President Joe Biden was caught on a hot mic Monday disparaging Fox News White House reporter Peter Doocy for a question shouted at the end of a White House event to which the press was admitted.

That came following the president's meeting with the Competition Council about how the administration was fighting inflation.

"Do you think inflation is a political liability ahead of the midterms," he asked as reporters fired various questions at the president as they were exiting the room. Biden didn't answer any of them, but could be heard saying of Doocy's question: "No, it's a great asset. More inflation," apparently unaware the mic was still hot. Then the cameras returned to the President, showing him with mouth closed but clearly adding loudly under his breath as an aside: "What a stupid son of a bitch."

The president later reached out to Doocy to "clear the air," according to the rpeorter.

Also: Doocy Named White House Correspondent

Within minutes of Biden's hot mic comment, stories about the exchange began appearing on outlets from Politico to CNBC.

Biden has made no secret of his disdain for some of the questioning from Doocy in the past. Just last week, in his first solo press conference in months and only the second of his presidency, Biden took a question from Doocy, but joked that historically Doocy's questions did not make much sense to him.

Fox was leading its website with a story on the incident headlined: "Raging Biden curses out Fox News' Peter Doocy as he takes his bitterness towards press to a new level."

Doocy addressed the President's comment on Special Report at 6 p.m.

Bret Baier: "Peter, tell us about that colorful exchange with the president a short time before this show. You asked a question earlier this evening."

Peter Doocy: "He didn't want to take any questions off-topic. He was at an event about inflation. I asked about inflation. Now wait to see if the white house has to bleep that on the transcript."

There was no "bleeping," according to the copy of the transcript sent to NextTV:

[Doocy] "Will you take questions on inflation then? Do you think inflation is a political liability ahead of the midterms?   

THE PRESIDENT:  "No, it's a great asset. More inflation. What a stupid son of a bitch."

“[T]here may be people who are Biden partisans and some others, friendly media people who might like hearing the president say that but it doesn't reflect well on any president to engage in these nasty disputes with journalists," said Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume. "It's punching down. He is the president of the United States. Most powerful person on Earth arguably, for him to be insulting journalists is not a good look."

Appearing later on Hannity, Doocy said Biden had called him to "clear the air" and that the President said it was nothing personal. Doocy told the president that he would always be asking about "different topics" than others in the press. ■

President Joe Biden said during his press conference Wednesday (January 19) that his administration “doesn’t deal with 5G,” by which he appeared to mean indirectly, since he has also signaled the administration has been a key player in a key 5G issue.

The president was asked what he has done to restore the public’s faith in the competence of his administration on issues including 5G and the potential that the rollout of the technology by AT&T and Verizon in C-band spectrum adjacent to aviation systems could cause harmful interference to radio altimeters that planes use in bad-weather takeoffs and landings.

Biden said as to “whether or not there is competence in dealing with 5G,” the fact was that the issue was between two “private enterprises” — one promoting 5G in the wireless industry and the airlines — though he conceded both are regulated by the government.

Also: Biden: Cable Looks Like It‘s ’Going South‘

He said his role was to push as hard as he could for a delay in the 5G rollout that was requested by the airlines so they could “modernize.” Wireless carriers have said the airlines have already had a couple of years to do so.

But as to his administration not dealing with 5G, Biden has issued statements coinciding with the two voluntary rollout delays by Verizon and AT&T, as well as their decision to provide airport buffer zones, at least for the time being.

In the president’s January 18 statement, issued after the agreement on the buffer zones, the administration for all appearances seemed definitely to be dealing with the issue.

“My team has been engaging nonstop with the wireless carriers, airlines, and aviation equipment manufacturers to chart a path forward for 5G deployment and aviation to safely coexist,” he said, “and, at my direction, they will continue to do so until we close the remaining gap and reach a permanent, workable solution around these key airports.”

The president said “he gets” that anything that happens that is consequential is supposed to be government’s responsibility. ■

President Joe Biden took some time during his press conference Wednesday (January 19), one of only a handful of solo outings with the White House press corps, to suggest that media coverage has become polarized, much as the two political parties have been.

He also ventured into some cord-cutting speculation that cable was “going south” in terms of viewership.

Also: Not All D.C. TV Stations Broadcast President Biden Press Conference

The president veered off into media speculation as he was talking about the reporting on his poll numbers, whose own southward turn has gotten a lot of ink and airtime.

He said that reporting one poll that had his approval rating in the low 30s missed the fact that the average was in the mid-40s, about on par with other recent presidents in their first two years in office.

He said the public was trying to "sift their way through what's real and what's fake."

He said he had never seen a time where the choice of what political coverage people turn to impacted as much on what they believed, “whether it's MSNBC or its Fox.”

He said he found “fascinating” and something that “will impact on how things move” was that “a lot of the speculation and the polling data shows that the cables are heading south; they're losing viewership,“ he said. “Fox is OK for a while, but a lot of the rest are predicted to be not very much in the mix in the next four to five years,” though he added he was not sure whether that was true.

But he said he did know that people had “put themselves in certain alleys.” He asked how many people who watched MSNBC also watch Fox News Channel. Conceding he was not an expert, Biden said what gets covered now is different from what got covered in the past.

The nature of the way things get covered has changed, he said, because of the internet and “the self-identified perspectives based on what channel you turn on.” ■

Hometown TV stations were a mixed bag when it came to broadcasting President Joe Biden's press conference Wednesday from the White House, one of few such extensive solo media availabilities the President has provided during his presidency so far.

They did all stream it on their websites, however.

While the cable news nets -- CNN, Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC -- all carried the press conference, among the Big Four TV station affiliates, only CBS affiliate WUSA-TV and Fox affiliate WTTG-TV broke from regular programming -- Dr. Phil on WUSA-TV and local news on WTTG-TV -- to carry the news conference live on their air.

ABC affiliate WJLA-TV and NBC's WRC-TV stuck with local news.

WUSA-TV and WTTG-TV did cut out at 5 p.m., before the conference ended, for their local news. WUSA-TV pointed out that it was continuing to stream the press conference on its website, as did WTTG, as well as WJLA and WRC-TV.

ABC had previously announced it would be supplying its affiliates with special report coverage of the news conference, hosted by World News Tonight anchor David Muir with reporting from chief White House correspondent Cecilia Vega, chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl, senior White House correspondent Mary Bruce and congressional correspondent Rachel Scott.

Among some of the pieces of news out of the conference were that the President says he will probably have to break up his massive Build Back Better social spending package to get some of it done now, and more later; that he thinks Vladimir Putin will probably make some move into Ukraine--"My guess is he [Putin] will move in," the President said, adding: "He has to do something"; and that Vice President Kamala Harris would be on the ticket if he ran again in 2024. He also said that his administration has done a good job with handling the pandemic and that there was a potential that the 2022 election could be illegitimate.

"How many more hours am I doing this," the President asked, before answering a question from Fox's Peter Doocy, whose questions Biden joked historically did not make much sense to him. He then pointed out it had been an hour and 20 minutes and that he would go another 20 minutes.

Most of the questions were pointed given the rise in inflation, the COVID-19 spike, the inability to secure congressional passage of voting rights legislation or his Build Back Better package, and his dropping poll numbers, eliciting sometimes defensive and combative responses from the President. He repeatedly said Republicans, intimidated by former President Donald Trump, were bent on obstructing anything he tried to do that might make him look good in advance of the midterms next year. ■

In his speech marking the anniversary of the Capitol insurrection, President Joe Biden talked Thursday about a statue of Clio, the Greek muse of history, looking down over the door to the rotunda and recording the ransacking of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. With apologies to Clio, it was in fact the cameras of broadcast and cable and C-SPAN and surveillance cameras and the video streams from cellphones that captured the attack on the Capitol and the rule of law.

Just as the cable and broadcast networks and streaming services covered speeches marking the anniversary by the president and Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday.

The president, speaking from the Capitol's Statuary Hall, made the point about the nation being witness to that troubling history when he said “[Y]ou and I and the whole world saw with our own eyes” the truth of what happened that day, which he said was rioters rampaging and trying to rip the country apart.

Also: The Capitol Siege: Images That Linger

Taking the gloves off, Biden said former President Donald Trump had rallied the mob to attack, then sat in a private dining room off the Oval Office and watched it on television. Former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham said on CNN Thursday the then-president had watched, and rewatched, the footage — even as he was being asked to quell the violence of a crowd he had earlier urged to fight to have the election overturned. As Trump watched the TV, Biden said, he “did nothing for hours and hours” as police were assaulted and the Capitol besieged by an armed insurrection.

Earlier, Harris had said, “We all saw what our nation would look like if the forces who seek to dismantle our democracy are successful.”

It was journalists who chronicled the truth of that day and in doing so helped face down the violent mob by recording its ugly face for the world to see, and at some personal risk — rioters in the crowd trashed equipment and some talked about killing the journalists covering the insurrection.

Biden included reporters in talking about all who were “living with the trauma of that day.”

From the president’s speech about a stolen election that rallied a crowd to march to the Capitol, successfully breaching the building and disrupting the counting of electoral votes, reporters — who some in the crowd openly threatened to hunt down and kill one by one — kept reporting.

The president talked about a choice between living in the “light of truth” or the “shadow of lies.” Journalists have a critical role in shining that light, and a responsibility not to join, for ratings or political purposes, those throwing shade on that truth.

In a pro forma session that lasted only a few minutes but was carried by broadcast and cable networks, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called for a moment of silence in honor of the police officers who lost their lives following the attack.

According to CNN, the only Republican in the chamber for that moment of silence was Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), a member of the special committee investigating the insurrection, accompanied by her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney. C-SPAN's cameras, though controlled by the Congress, clearly showed the Republican side virtually empty, pretty much ensuring there would be silence from that side of the chamber during the moment of remembrance. ■

President Joe Biden on Tuesday (January 4) praised stakeholders — including FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel — for the agreement by AT&T and Verizon Communications to delay their rollout of 5G wireless service in the C-band spectrum from January 5 to January 19. 

But he also suggested there could still be some air traffic disruptions when 5G does launch in that slice of bandwidth. Biden’s transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, had requested the extra two weeks.

That two-week extension will also give the FCC more time to weigh in on the aviation industry petition to stay its two-year-old decision to allow 5G in the C-Band, though FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's reaction suggested that stay would no longer be necessary. 

“Last night’s agreement provides the framework and the certainty needed to achieve our shared goal of deploying 5G swiftly while ensuring air safety," she said. "It was made possible by the FCC, DOT, FAA, the wireless companies, and the aviation industry working together to share data, bring together technical experts, and collaborate in good faith to ensure the coexistence of wireless and aviation technologies.” 

The wireless companies — the top two bidders in the C-band spectrum auction — had already delayed the rollout from December over concerns by the Federal Aviation Administration and the airline industry that 5G uses could interfere with critical aviation systems in the adjacent band.

Also: Aviation Groups Try to Block 5G in C-Band

AT&T and Verizon had initially signaled there would be no further delay, but both agreed late Tuesday to a two-week extension.

"My administration is committed to rapid 5G deployment, while minimizing disruptions to air operations and continuing to maintain the world’s safest airspace," Biden said in a statement. The president said all involved were working toward the safe co-existence of 5G and aviation systems — specifically altimeters that tell a plane its orientation to the ground — but he signaled they might not be all the way there when 5G launches.

“This agreement ensures that there will be no disruptions to air operations over the next two weeks, and puts us on track to substantially reduce disruptions to air operations when AT&T and Verizon launch 5G on January 19,” he said.

Already experiencing COVID-19-related — and later weather-related — cancellations, the airline industry had painted a doomsday scenario for January 5. Airlines said the launch of 5G in the C-band could cost the industry $1 billion and delay shipments of COVID-19 vaccines and tests.

The FCC voted unanimously to open the C-band to 5G and said its engineers had determined the two uses could safely co-exist.

The president's full statement is below:

"My Administration is committed to rapid 5G deployment, while minimizing disruptions to air operations and continuing to maintain the world’s safest airspace. Last night’s agreement is a significant step in the right direction, and we’re grateful to all parties for their cooperation and good faith. This agreement ensures that there will be no disruptions to air operations over the next two weeks and puts us on track to substantially reduce disruptions to air operations when AT&T and Verizon launch 5G on January 19th. 

 "For the last few months, my Administration has been convening technical experts at the FAA, the FCC, and from the wireless and aviation industries to discuss a solution that allows the expansion of 5G and aviation to safely co-exist, and I am pleased those efforts helped produce yesterday’s agreement.  I want to thank Secretary Buttigieg, FAA Administrator Dickson, and FCC Chair Rosenworcel, as well as AT&T and Verizon and airline industry leaders, for their tireless work to ensure that the expansion of 5G and aviation can safely co-exist."  ■

Republican congressional leaders have reached out to key Biden administration agencies to make sure the billions of dollars in various broadband subsidy programs created by Congress goes to areas unserved by broadband, particularly rural areas, rather than to “duplicative and wasteful subsidized overbuilding.”

The definition of “access" is key, as Republicans generally define access as the availability of  “any” high-speed broadband service — definitions differ, but speeds of 25 Megabits per second downstream and 2 Mbps upstream are considered the low end. The Biden Administration, though, has suggested that price and competition can also be factored into the access equation, which would allow for upgrades where there is already service.

Republican lawmakers sent letters to the Federal Communications Commission, the National Telecommunications & Information Administration and the departments of Treasury, Agriculture and Education, making clear where they thought the money should go. They also requested an accounting of where any of the money from the CARES Act, American Rescue Plan Act and Consolidated Appropriations Act has gone.

Also: Commerce Says CARES Act Includes $1.5 Billion for Broadband

Signing on to the letters were Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), ranking member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee;  James Comer (R-Texas), ranking member of the Oversight and Reform Committee; and Kay Granger (R-Texas), ranking member of the Appropriations Committee.

The NTIA is the lead agency on most of the Infrastructure Act grants, overseeing the distribution of almost $1.5 billion for access for unserved areas, tribal lands and minority communities; $42.45 billion for broadband deployment; $2.75 billion for “digital equity” grants and $1 billion for middle-mile infrastructure.  

“As you work to allocate grants pursuant to these laws, we urge you to prioritize funding for unserved communities that lack access to any broadband connection rather than funding duplicative or upgraded service in areas that already have broadband access,” the lawmakers wrote.

Also: ISPs Team to Track Biden's Broadband Billions

The legislators want answers by Jan. 14.

Anong the questions they want the FCC to answer are how it is preventing duplication with other subsidy programs — including the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), which is giving out its own billions for broadband in rural areas — and how the commission is preventing the overbuilding of existing service.

In a speech Tuesday (Dec. 21) carried on the Big Four major broadcast and cable news networks, President Joe Biden blamed vaccine resistance in part on dangerous misinformation on cable TV and social media.

While he said the vaccine decision is personal, he also said “purveyors of lies and misinformation“ about vaccines were “wrong and immoral” and called on them to “stop it, now.”

The Centers for Disease Control defines misinformation as “false information shared by people who do not intend to mislead others” and disinformation as that same false information “deliberately created and disseminated with malicious intent.”

The CDC has created a primer for stakeholders on how to monitor social media and traditional media for misinformation and disinformation.

The platforms it suggests monitoring are Twitter, Facebook/Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp and Google Trends.

Dr. Jerome Adams, former surgeon general, said on CNN that the media could certainly be doing more to put out positive messages, asking where all the PSAs were about how vaccines don't cause infertility or how people should get vaccinated even if they have had COVID-19. He said pushing for accurate information would be better than simply pointing fingers.

Dr. Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine agreed. He said that the Biden administration was indeed pointing fingers at Facebook and conservative media, which was understandable, but that it did not have the appetite to actually go after the groups purveying that disinformation.

“The President’s remarks echo what our research has been exposing in this year of disinformation, with its devastating and deadly consequences," said Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). "President Biden is right to call out the scions of Big Tech who profit from the spread of vaccine misinformation on their platforms."

ACA Connects and the NTCA-the Rural Broadband Association have teamed up to track the billions of dollars in broadband subsidies flowing from President Biden's infrastructure package.

The largest outlay in the $65 billion for broadband deployment and adoption is the $42.5 billion in state grants in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) initiative being overseen by the National Telecommunications & Information Administration.

Since both associations represent smaller, often rural, ISPs, they stand to be big beneficiaries of the program.

To make sure their members can draw a bead on that big and potentially lucrative target, NTCA and ACA Connects are teaming up on a state-by-state tracking project as the states begin to roll out their respective programs next year, including deadlines for application and challenge processes for whether a location is served or underserved, to make sure that the money is not being spent to overbuild existing systems.

The tracking project will be available only to members of the associations.

"At the end of the day, making sure you are well-armed with information will help you seize the BEAD Program’s opportunities and reduce any harms," said NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield. ■

Veteran media and tech exec and Big Tech billionaire Meg Whitman is being been nominated for a top diplomatic post.

President Biden Wednesday (Dec. 8) announced his intention to nominate Whitman as ambassador to the Republic of Kenya, a nomination which will be submitted to the Senate for its approval.

Whitman is the former CEO of eBay, Hewlett-Packard and more recently Quibi, the shuttered short-form mobile subscription video app. She was also a strategic planning executive for Disney back in the 1980s.

Whitman had been a Republican fund-raiser when the rise of Donald Trump pushed her to support Democrat Hillary Clinton for president.

She then streamed her support for then-presidential candidate Biden at the Democratic National Convention. ■

The House on Friday (Nov. 19) passed President Joe Biden’s $1.85 trillion Build Back Better Act, whose investments in “better” include more broadband-related subsidy funding, help for local journalism and bulking up the Federal Trade Commission with a new privacy-targeted arm.

The party-line House vote was 220 to 213, but the bill faces a tougher crowd in the 50-50 Senate, where Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), chairman of the Republican Conference, said it would meet “a buzzsaw of resistance.” Not mincing words, Barrasso said in a statement emailed to Next TV: “Senate Republicans are united in our efforts to plunge a stake through the heart of this Democrat disaster.”

Currently it is two moderate Democrats, Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who probably hold the keys to its passage. The principal broadband funding boost came from the just-passed infrastructure bill and its $65 billion, but the Build Back Better Act does have another about $1 billion in additional broadband-related funding.

Connect Americans Now praised the inclusion of $475 million in funding for a broadband Connected Device Grant Program, another $300 million for the Emergency Connectivity Fund, $285 million for public-private partnerships to get broadband to historically underserved communities, and another $100 million to educate the public about the availability of various broadband subsidy programs.

The bill also incorporated the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, which provides tax credits for broadcast and online media outlets and newspapers to incentivize them to hire and keep journalists.

“The Local Journalism Sustainability Act will provide meaningful incentives for local broadcast stations to hire and retain the news-gatherers who keep our communities informed, connected and engaged,” said National Association of Broadcasters president and CEO Gordon Smith, who has pushed for the provision. “Local broadcast news is consistently ranked among the most trusted sources of news and information, and this bill would allow radio and television stations to employ additional journalists to report on the events, issues and emergencies affecting our nation.”

Michael Lee, executive director of the LPTV Broadcasters Association, was also pleased. “We have actively supported the Local Journalism Sustainability Act from the beginning and the principle of investing to maintain and develop trusted local community news coverage," he said. "The payroll tax credit should mean this is straightforward to implement, benefit from and track." He also praised FCC acting Chairwoman for this week coming out in support of the credit.

“We are pleased to see the House passage of the payroll tax credit for local journalists as part of the Build Back Better legislative package,” said Nadine Farid Johnson, Washington director of PEN America (https://pen.org/). “This provision will provide a crucial lifeline to local news outlets, bolstering the breadth and durability of community coverage and civic discourse. We urge the Senate to retain the payroll tax credit as it moves toward final consideration.”

Also Read: Journalists Get Build Back Better Help

Consumer Reports was praising the bill's $500 million over 10 years to fund an FTC office focused on policing privacy and data violations, as well giving the FTC civil penalty authority for the first time.

“We applaud the House of Representatives for taking action to empower the FTC to hold bad actors accountable,” CR senior policy analyst Maureen Maloney said. “We call on the Senate to approve the measure, so that the FTC can redouble its efforts to protect consumer privacy, advance civil rights, and address inappropriate uses of data.”

Not surprising in a bill this massive, not everything was to the media/tech industry's licensing.

“While the Build Back Better Act as passed by the U.S. House of Representatives supports companies' ability to keep their intellectual property in the U.S., invest in research and development, and accelerate semiconductor production, its international tax provisions would still hamper the overall competitiveness of globally-engaged U.S. employers," said Jason Oxman, president of tech association ITI. "Certain provisions would impose new worldwide interest limitations and discourage expansion, increase the base erosion and anti-abuse tax rate, and put the U.S. at a disadvantage by increasing its minimum rate before other countries adopt similar rules. As negotiations continue, it is imperative that lawmakers consider the essential role the U.S. international tax system plays in supporting the ability of the U.S. to compete on a global stage and promote innovation. We look forward to continuing to work with U.S. Congress on these provisions.”

Republicans are officially challenged President Biden's executive order mandating that all companies above a certain size, which includes many media operations, must either require that their employees be fully vaccinated or submit to weekly testing by the beginning of next year.

That's according to Sen. Mike Braun, the junior senator from Indiana and ranking member of the Senate Health Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety, who said all 49 Republicans will be filing a formal resolution of disapproval to the President's vaccine/test mandate under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which allows Congress to overturn some agency decisions or actions--as the Republicans did with the FCC's online privacy decision, which it was able to overturn when they had a majority. It will be tougher this time since they need some Democratic or independent help.

Media companies with more than 100 employees (along with other companies of that size) must ensure that all their employees have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing by Jan. 4, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said earlier this month, making clear that mandate pre-empts any state laws that say differently. 

Braun said the CRA challenge is guaranteed a vote in the Senate as early as early December.

"Republicans are united against President Biden’s vaccine-or-test mandate for businesses, but this federal overreach is not a partisan issue, and the consequences of this mandate are affecting Americans in all 50 states," said Braun.

Media companies have already been starting to prepare their employees for the vaccine or test mandate. ■

The White House has established a task force to implement the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure package that includes $65 billion for broadband. The president is scheduled to sign the infrastructure legislation Monday afternoon (Nov. 15). 

The task force will be headed by National Economic Council director Brian Deese and the new White House infrastructure implementation coordinator, former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu.

The Task Force was created by executive order, so it could not mandate participation from the independent Federal Communications Commission, though someone from the agency could have participated voluntarily. There is no FCC representative, though there are representatives from the Office of Management and Budget, Domestic Policy Council and the Climate Policy Office in the White House, as well as the secretaries of Transportation, Interior, Energy, Commerce, Labor and Agriculture, as well as the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency and Office of Personnel Management.

The president’s order also lays out the guiding priorities for the infrastructure spending:

1.) “Invest public dollars efficiently, avoid waste, and focus on measurable outcomes for the American people;

2.) “Buy American and increase the competitiveness of the U.S. economy, including through implementing the Act’s Made-in-America requirements and bolstering domestic manufacturing and manufacturing supply chains;

3.) “Create good-paying job opportunities for millions of Americans by focusing on high labor standards for these jobs, including prevailing wages and the free and fair chance to join a union;

4.) “Invest public dollars equitably, including through the Justice40 Initiative, which is a Government-wide effort toward a goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits from Federal investments in climate and clean energy flow to disadvantaged communities;

5.) “Build resilient infrastructure that can withstand the impacts of climate change and that helps combat the climate crisis; and

6.) “Effectively coordinate with state, local, tribal and territorial governments in implementing these critical investments.”

Broadband fans were bringing out the pom-poms Monday (Nov. 15) in anticipation of President Joe Biden’s scheduled 3 p.m. (ET) signing of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package that passed the Congress last week.

C-SPAN will be carrying the event live. 

Also: House Passes Infrastructure Bill with Broadband Billions

One thing to look out for is the prominence of Vice President Kamala Harris, who was deputized to head up the universal broadband initiative, in Monday's signing ceremony. The White House has been pushing back on a story Sunday night by CNN suggesting her staff feels she is not getting enough visibility.

Late Sunday, the president named former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu to oversee the infrastructure buildout, including broadband.

The bill includes about $65 billion for broadband deployment and uptake, including for rural and diverse communities, to go along with the billions of dollars more the Federal Communications Commission has already been handing out via previous COVID-19 relief legislation targeting schools, libraries, lower-income residents and telehealth providers.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has said that investment should be enough to provide the universal, affordable and equitable high-speed broadband service that Biden has promised, though wireless operators — the infrastructure money is targeted at fiber broadband — say it will take a lot more investment in mobile wireless broadband to truly close the divide.

The legislation also mandates a broadband “nutrition label” of sorts, so consumers can know what speed and quality of service they are getting at which price with what fees attached.

While the FCC has been the lead in previous broadband subsidy programs via its Universal Service Fund, the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications & Information Administration will oversee the vast majority ($48 billion) of the new funding. Unlike the FCC, NTIA is not an independent agency but instead the President's chief telecom policy adviser.

“This is a big deal,” said Joshua Stager, deputy director of New America's Open Technology Institute. “Today’s law is the strongest action to close the digital divide that Congress has ever taken. … Importantly, the law embraces a comprehensive understanding of the digital divide by investing in broadband access, affordability, and adoption. This approach is both historic and holistic.

“We are especially grateful that the law mandates the creation of a broadband nutrition label, which OTI first proposed in 2009,” he added.

Stager took a shot at some broadband providers while putting in a plug for confirming FCC Democratic nominees. 

“[T]he work isn’t over,” he said. “This law must now be implemented in a smart way, without the loopholes that companies like AT&T and Comcast are so adept at driving trucks through. This gargantuan, years-long task is the responsibility of two agencies — the FCC and NTIA — that still lack Senate-confirmed leadership. The Senate must confirm Jessica Rosenworcel, Gigi Sohn and Alan Davidson immediately. It won’t be ‘infrastructure week’ until all three of these leaders are in office.”

President Joe Biden has named former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu to oversee the administration‘s massive infrastructure plan, including the $65 billion investment in broadband.

Landrieu will be senior adviser and infrastructure coordinator, comprising historic investments in universal high speed internet access, as well as money for roads, bridges, rail, ports, airports, climate “resilience” and more.

The White House cited his leadership of New Orleans in the midst of its recovery from Hurricane Katrina as well as Landrieu's own build back better project, where he oversaw over 100 projects and billions of dollars in federal funding for critical infrastructure, calling the city one the the nation's great comeback stories.

Also: Commerce Outlines Pivotal Role in Broadband Funding

Landrieu was also chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and lieutenant governor of Louisiana. The White House said that experience will help him deal with governors and state officials.

The White House also cited his relationships with business and labor, which will be key to infrastructure investments that the administration says will result in millions of high-paying union jobs.

“I am thankful to the president and honored to be tasked with coordinating the largest infrastructure investment in generations,” Landrieu said in a statement. He said he would make sure that the infrastructure investments will both help combat climate change and advance equity.

On the equity front, the White House cited his “powerful” decision to take down four Confederate statues.

Landrieu is the son of former New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu and the brother of former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, onetime board member of CenturyLink.

While Vice President Kamala Harris was tasked by the President early on to oversee the administration's universal broadband initiative, it was not clear how she would dovetail with Landrieu's oversight. She has not been included in recent White House communications on the need for universal broadband connected to the infrastructure package's $65 billion investment.

In fact, in a fact sheet issued on the equity issues related to infrastructure, a sheet issued by the "Biden Harris" administration as the White House has called it, there was not even any mention of broadband or its connection to educational or economic equity.

“We wish to congratulate Mitch Landrieu on being selected by President Biden to lead the implementation of the bipartisan Infrastructure Act,” said Mignon Clyburn, co-chair of INCOMPAS‘s BroadLand broadband advocacy campaign and former acting FCC chair. “A local expert, with a national reputation for vision, courage and getting the job done, Landrieu will have the opportunity to help rebuild and renew America’s urban centers and rural communities as we prepare for the jobs of the future. From connected transportation to telemedicine, every job, and every dollar spent under the Infrastructure Act depends on faster, better, more affordable broadband solutions. We look forward to working with Mayor Landrieu to ensure competition and innovation drive the infrastructure implementation to help make ‘internet for all’ a reality.”