In the name of helping broadcasters better compete with Big Tech, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has introduced a bill that comprises a broadcaster wish list of deregulatory moves.

But unless Republicans can take over both houses of Congress in the midterm election, the bill is unlikely to get traction.

The Local News and Broadcast Media Preservation Act of 2022 would invalidate the FCC's current multiple station ownership limits and prevent the FCC from restoring the prohibition on common ownership of broadcast properties and newspapers.

In November 2017, a politically divided FCC voted to eliminate the newspaper-broadcast and the radio-TV cross-ownership rules, but if the FCC ever gets a Democratic majority -- currently it is tied 2-2 -- Republicans fear that prohibition could return.

Paul's bill would also mandate that mergers among broadcasters not be considered to lessen competition or create a monopoly, or as Paul put it in a press release, "would allow local broadcast companies to merge without government interference to allow those broadcasters to better compete against these tech giants."

The bill would also incorporate an ongoing effort, Paul was co-sponsor of the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), to give broadcasters an antitrust exemption to collectively negotiate with online content distributors for compensation for the online use of broadcasters' valuable local news content. ■

Yet another front has opened in the tug-of-war among computer companies, Congress and the Obama Administration over cybersecurity versus privacy.

Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) were feeling the love from tech companies and others Thursday (May 19) for introducing the Stopping Mass Hack Act, which is targeted not at shady offshore Web denizens but U.S. law enforcement.

The senators introduced the bill to block recently approved changes to government surveillance rules that would allow the government, with a single warrant, to "hack an unlimited number of computers" if those computers had been "affected by criminals," even without letting the computer owners know the government was accessing their computers. Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) are original co-sponsors of the bill.

The senators say those changes should have been debated by Congress. They go into effect Dec. 1 unless Congress steps in.

The Justice Department requested the change to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which the Supreme Court approved. The main changes, according to the Senators, are the single warrant for multiple -- potentially millions -- of searches, and allowing remote searches when law enforcement doesn't know the location of a device.

“The government hacking proposal that will automatically go into effect unless Congress passes the Stopping Mass Hacking Act represents a serious expansion of law enforcement powers," said Kevin Bankston, director of New America’s Open Technology Institute, "yet Congress has never had a chance to consider the complex issues raised by such a significant change to the law. Unless Congress acts now, these new government hacking rules will grant the Justice Department dangerous and unprecedented authority to hack millions of Americans, many of whom may only be guilty of being the victim of a malicious cyber attack themselves.”

Ross Schulman, Open Technology Institute senior counsel, added, “We thank Senators Wyden and Paul for introducing this important bill." New America funders include Google, Netflix, Comcast and Dish.

“We welcome Senators Wyden and Paul’s efforts to prevent this highly controversial rule change from taking effect," said Computer and Communications Industry Association president Ed Black. "They recognize that the far-reaching implications of the government’s proposed changes merit the full attention of their colleagues in Congress. There are constitutional, international, and technological questions that ought to be addressed transparently before such a broad rule change.

CCIA's members, in addition to Google, Netflix and Dish, include Amazon, Yahoo, eBay, Microsoft, and Sprint.

Fox Business Network anchors moderating the early GOP presidential debate Thursday said of Sen. Rand Paul that “it’s his loss” if he in fact opts out of the event, as he has said he will.

“It’s his loss, really, when you think about the many millions of Americans that are tuning in on Thursday night and want to hear these substantive policy issues discussed,” Trish Regan told Multichannel News on Tuesday, speaking by phone from the event venue in North Charleston, S.C. “By him not participating he’s losing out on a huge number of people that could have heard his message.”

Sandra Smith, her co-moderator for the 6 p.m. preliminary-round debate that precedes the main event at 9 p.m., said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie scored points in the undercard event on Nov. 10, the first time FBN hosted debates. Since then Christie, while still trailing several other candidates in the race, has gained enough in the polls that he is in the leaders’ debate on Thursday. “That first debate is still key for these candidates to be in a position to make a big move if they want to,” Smith said. “There’s less people in that first debate. They clearly can get their message across if they choose to.” 

Paul, the Kentucky senator, balked after FBN on Monday set the slates for the main GOP presidential debate, which includes top-seven poll leaders Donald Trump; Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio; Dr. Ben Carson; Christie; Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. FBN's Neil Cavuto and Maria Bartiromo will moderate the main event.

Paul, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum would appear in the undercard.

"I don’t think the media should have the power to predetermine elections," Paul told CNN Monday (Jan. 11). He said he thought FBN made a mistake by "pre-deciding to exclude certain people from the stage,” and that he would make that point in protest over the next couple of days.

"I won't participate in anything that wasn't first-tier because we have a first-tier campaign," he said of the undercard event.

Smith and Regan said it was too early to count out any GOP candidate, ahead of the first voting contest, the Iowa caucuses, and the first state primary, in New Hampshire. Regan said she was born and raised in New Hampshire and knows that voters there wait until the last minute to decide, sometimes changing their minds several times before deciding. 

“I think anything can still happen,” Regan said.

While the Nov. 10 FBN debates were focused mainly on economic issues, domestic and international issues are more on the table this time around. Voters’ interests have changed, too since Nov. 10, when the economy was probably their top concern. Now, the moderators said, terrorism is top on voters’ minds. The economy is still huge though, especially with the stock market gyrations in recent weeks. 

“It’s not tough to come up with good questions,” Smith said Tuesday afternoon. “Right now we are finely tuning the ones we have.” They planned to go over them again today following last night’s final State of the Union address by President Obama. While Gerald Seib of The Wall Street Journal had joined them in moderating the Nov. 10 undercard, the Journal is not co-sponsoring Thursday's debate so the moderating falls on Smith and Regan alone.

John Eggerton contributed to this report.