Politics isn’t the only giant news story in our nation’s capital. In recent days, the newsrooms were all over the $6 billion sale of the NFL’s Washington Commanders. It’s been a bleak period for the D.C. sports teams, including the underperforming Commanders, Nationals, Capitals and Wizards, but the locals hope the new Commanders owner will shake things up for the better. 

“Maybe the sale will reinvigorate the Commanders,” said Patrick Paolini, WTTG-WDCA senior VP/general manager. “Having a strong NFL team in the market certainly helps.”

Also Read: Check Out Our Local News Close-Up Profiles on Dozens of U.S. Markets

Besides covering the news, the D.C. stations are making some news. NBC station WRC and Telemundo sister WZDC debuted new studios in March. The stations’ building in the Upper Northwest neighborhood is being renovated, which sees staffers moving around a bit until their end of the edifice is completed. The project should be completed by next spring. 

“We like to say we’re changing the tires as we’re rolling down the road,” Jackie Bradford, WRC-WZDC president and general manager, said.  

In September, WTTG launched LION Lunch Hour in the 11 a.m. slot. A spinoff of Like It Or Not (LION), the weekday show features a chef cooking a meal, and the hosts, Marissa Mitchell and Erin Como, discussing the issues of the day while sampling the victuals. “It’s trending topics and different issues around food,” said Paolini. “It is authentic and fun, and it has exceeded expectations.” 

WJLA, for its part, celebrates 75 years on the air in the fall. The station has a new partnership with WTOP, providing weather to the D.C. news radio powerhouse every 10 minutes. “It’s a great opportunity for us to enhance our brand,” said Todd Bernstein, WJLA VP and general manager. 

NBCUniversal Local owns WRC and WZDC. Fox Television Stations holds WTTG and MyNetworkTV station WDCA. Sinclair Broadcast Group has ABC affiliate WJLA and cable channel 24/7 News. Tegna owns CBS affiliate WUSA. Nexstar Media Group has The CW station WDCW and independent outlet WDVM. Univision owns WFDC. 

Washington is Nielsen’s No. 8 market. The major pay TV operator is Comcast. 

The ratings race is a hot one. In March, WRC won the 6-7 a.m. household race, according to Nielsen, and WTTG took the 25-54 contest. WRC was tops at 5 and 6 p.m. in both households and 25-54. At 11 p.m. in March, WRC averaged 53,000 households, while WTTG had 29,000, WUSA scored 28,000 and WJLA had 22,000. In the 25-54 race at 11, WTTG scored 17,000, WRC had 16,000, and both WJLA and WUSA had 9,000. 

Anchor Arrivals

Known as News4, WRC thrives on capital J journalism, anchors with local roots and a robust investigative team. “We have people with really strong ties to Washington, D.C.,” said Bradford. “We continue to do strong journalism day in and day out.”

WRC has had major changes in the anchor team. Wendy Rieger died of cancer a year ago, Doreen Gentzler retired in November and Pat Lawson Muse retired in March, wrapping up 40 years at WRC. Shawn Yancy arrived at WRC after a long run at WTTG and Tony Perkins, a veteran of WTTG and Good Morning America, joined the station earlier this year. 

LION Lunch Hour isn’t the only new show on WTTG, known as Fox 5. DMV Zone, a cross between TMZ and a newscast, according to Paolini, launched in October, and holds down the 3-4 p.m. weekday slot. DMV is short for D.C,., Maryland and Virginia. 

Paolini mentioned nearly 90 hours a week of original programming, including an 8 p.m. news, among other newscasts, on WDCA, known as Fox 5 Plus. 

“There are very few gaps where we are not producing original content,” he said. 

Paolini hosts the weekly podcast The Paolini Perspective, with Sarah Fraser his co-host, as they break down the major issues of the week. In the fall, Fox 5 debuts a digital-only newscast at 1-3 p.m. 

Shomari Stone, formerly a correspondent at The News with Shepard Smith, joins Fox 5 as a reporter and anchor May 1. 

Bernstein was named WJLA general manager in January. He’s been at the station over 18 years, in sales leadership positions and then as station manager, before his latest promotion.  

WJLA has a 7 News On Your Side branding and swears by the motto. “We aim to hold people, both consumers and those in the government, accountable,” Bernstein said. “We live and breathe this brand.”

Veronica Johnson was named chief meteorologist in December. She’s the first woman to hold the position at WJLA. 

Last fall, lifestyle show Good Morning Washington shifted from Sinclair’s 24/7 News to WJLA. “It has become a fixture in our lineup,” Bernstein said. 

Richard Dyer is WUSA president and general manager. It’s the fourth stint at the station for the Washington native, who initially joined WJLA as an account executive back in 1983. 

WDCW Washington and WDVM in Hagerstown (MD) brand themselves as DC News Now, and Ben Dobson is news director. Both stations operate from a DC newsroom that opened last year, with bureaus around the market. In July 2022, WDCW launched a nightly 10 p.m. newscast. Also in July, WDVM launched a weekday 9 p.m. newscast, expanded its morning news another hour, and added a sports highlight show at 11 p.m.

Noticias on Multiple Platforms

Both WZDC and WFDC offer Spanish-language news at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. Washington’s Telemundo station has T44 on Top at 5:30 p.m. on linear, and streaming on OTT platforms. “We’re always looking at the best way to tell our journalism stories in new forms and formats,” Vince Lattanzio, director of digital media, WRC-WZDC, said. “Streaming is the future for our business.”

WRC and WZDC share a newsroom and an assignment desk. “Having a Telemundo station has become a differentiator,” Matt Glassman, assistant news director, said. “We have access to stories we wouldn’t have had before.”

The station leaders said Washington’s economic footing is solid, and ad categories, including auto and tourism, are picking back up. As the pandemic dominated news stories and conversations in recent years, and politics continues to relentlessly pop up in both, Paolini believes the nation’s media epicenter has shifted from New York down to D.C. “I firmly believe D.C. is the media capital of the world and certainly the media capital of the United States,” he said. 

The D.C. station chiefs mentioned a smart and engaged audience in and around the District that eagerly consumes news. Washington is unique in that it features stories that are street-level, national and even global. “Doing local news in Washington, D.C., is the best of both worlds,” Bradford said. “What is local here is national.” 

Grant Spellmeyer knows that he has some pretty big shoes to fill. 

Named CEO of ACA Connects in May, taking the helm from retiring CEO Matt Polka, Spellmeyer has extensive experience lobbying for the telecom industry: He comes from U.S. Cellular, the mobile arm of ACA member TDS Telecom. 

Polka officially ends his 25-year tenure representing smaller, independent cable operators at ACA Connects this month, culminating in The Independent Show July 24-27 in Orlando, Florida. In the meantime, Spellmeyer has been busy making the rounds, meeting with individual ACAC members and companies, as well as National Cable Television Cooperative CEO Lou Borrelli, learning more about the cable business and listening to what his members feel is most important to the industry. 

Spellmeyer took some time out earlier this week to speak with Multichannel News senior content producer – finance Mike Farrell. Here's an edited transcript of that conversation.  

MCN: What drew you to this job?

Grant Spellmeyer: There are a couple of factors. First, personally for me, it was a good time in my life to make a switch. But more importantly, I have always held ACA in the highest regard as the premier communications association for what I’ll call non-national providers. Many of them have their roots on the cable side, some of them from the telephone side, some from the cooperative side, some from municipalities. And it is certainly a changing industry. I’ve had the opportunity to know Matt Polka and to work with him quite a bit during the last 15 or 16 years that I’ve been active in the telecom scene in Washington. I’ve watched what Matt and the team have done, they’ve certainly had a long series of wins along the way. I came from U.S. Cellular, which [is] a non-national wireless carrier, midsized — they operate in 21 states — kind of a scrappy competitor. That’s what ACA is full of, a lot of small and medium-sized communications providers who are a little bit of the underdog in the world of Washington, D.C. It was a nice fit from who I get to represent at ACA Connects and the fact that they’re just really good at what they do. They’ve got a good team and I’m excited to be here.

Also: NCTC CEO Lou Borrelli Talks Connectivity Exchange MVNO Deals and the New Name 

MCN: It seems like a lot of the issues that are important to telecom companies are important to cable companies — broadband wireless and the like. So it seems that this job is right in your wheelhouse. 

GS: I think it is. I don’t come with an extensive cable background, although I’ve been busy learning and there are no concerns that I can’t get up to speed on those issues pretty quickly. At least right now, and for the next few years, this is all about broadband. That’s issue No. 1 and I have certainly spent a lot of the last 15 years working on broadband issues, universal service issues, government funding of the provision of broadband in hard-to-reach areas. Issues like mapping I was all over on the wireless side, so I’m pretty fluent in those things. The broadband guys want to get into the wireless business and the wireless guys want to get into the broadband business, and so I see it as a good opportunity to help the association navigate whatever is going to come in Washington and around the states in the coming years. 

ACA is working well. I’m not here to fix anything that is broken. I’m here to carry forward the legacy of success that Matt Polka has put in place over the past 25 years. I don’t think I’ll be lucky enough to break his longevity streak. But I certainly hope to take what he’s built and continue it and adapt it as the industry changes and the regulation landscape in Washington changes. Matt and I are friends, he’s been very gracious to me in the onboarding process, helping me get up to speed with learning the members and learning the issues. And of course, we have our show coming up next week, so that’ll be a new opportunity to go down and experience that. I’ve been to Kansas City to meet with Lou Borrelli and the team at NCTC. Those were good discussions and we’ve got our joint show, and I’m looking forward to what the future has to hold there.     

MCN: In your travels to meet the membership, what are the biggest issues on their minds?

GS: In terms of issues, there are a couple of things I have heard. Broadband would be the most important. There are concerns about how governors and federal agencies will distribute money both from an offensive and defensive perspective. Some members want to get a hold of money, other members are very concerned about being overbuilt in areas that already have coverage that meets the standards under the law. We’re going to be working with NTIA and the FCC and the governors and the state broadband authorities about that. 

The second thing I would flag is the issue of the broadband data collection maps that are due to the FCC by September 1. There was a lot of concern over the FCC requirement that a professional engineer certify the maps. We, along with some other associations, were pushing the FCC to produce some clarity to that and to relax the requirement that everybody go out and engage a certified professional engineer in the state, because in many states they’re not there and certified engineers don’t have the skill sets that are necessarily required for telecommunications. The FCC issued a bureau-level order clarifying that provision and we were very pleased with that, our members were very pleased with it. 

And thirdly, there is retransmission consent. It comes up everywhere I go. I don’t think that’s the No. 1 issue right out of the chute in the next couple of months at the FCC, but they do have some proceedings underway that are looking at certain issues related to retrans. 

MCN: Are you optimistic that you’ll get some traction on the retrans side after all these years?

GS: I think it's more of a long-term play. I think as the cable industry continues to evolve, there are going to be a lot of reasons for the FCC and potentially for Congress to revisit the rules associated with it.

MCN: Going into the show, what’s your take on the industry? Obviously things have changed a lot. 

GS: Keeping in mind that I am still learning the industry and I certainly haven’t talked in depth with a good number of the majority of members — although I have talked to companies that represent a majority of members — I think they have adapted well. They were fortuitous enough to see some of this coming and shift focus to broadband. I expect that to continue. Traditional video cable subscribership is dropping and is likely to continue for a while, but I think folks have adapted really well to it and we will see where it goes over the course of the next decade. But nobody has come to me and said “Grant, you’ve really got to fix this for us because we’re all going under otherwise.” 

People are optimistic, people are very excited to be coming together for the first time — this is the first time since 2019 that we’ve done The Independent Show in-person — so there is a lot of pent-up demand, and I think a lot of my members enjoy the opportunities to visit Orlando with their families. I think everybody is going to have a good time, and hopefully learn something about the state landscape at the moment. And we’re going to celebrate a little bit. It’s a farewell for Matt, and a lot of folks have spent the past 20, 25 years working with Matt, so it’s going to be special from that perspective.

Hopefully they will come away [from the show] going “that Spellmeyer guy seems like he’ll do a good job and let’s charge forward to the future.”

MCN: Is this your first Independent Show? One thing that has struck me about this show, in particular, is that there still seems to be a fair amount of business going on, and members see this as an opportunity to share ideas with other operators.  

GS: It will be my first one. I don't have the frame of reference that I wish I did. ACA used to do a Summit in Washington that was more Hill-oriented, and I’ve been to that a couple of times, but this will be my first time at the Independent Show. From everything I’ve heard, it’s a nice size, not as big as the Consumer Electronics Show, where you’ve got 100,000 people running around Las Vegas. I’ve been to 5,000-person and 10,000-person  trade shows and those are challenging to get any real business done because you can’t find anybody. This is different because it’s one hotel, it's a good size and if you want to track somebody down within the course of 48 hours it’s pretty easy to do so. And that facilitates lots of dialogue and I think that’s what Lou Borrelli and I are after, in terms of where we want to take this show in the future. There is a value to it that is significant, part of it is meeting with vendors and part of it is talking with other members and I think a lot of both of those will be going on. 

MCN: At the same time you’ve got to keep your eye on the historical issues in the industry, like retrans and there is talk of another net neutrality bill on the horizon. 

GS: We’re going to keep our eye on that and there are lots of potential changes coming to Washington after the elections this fall, one way or the other. There are a lot of members not seeking re-election, so I expect a new landscape there. I’ve spent a lot of time on Hill-related matters, and I’m not going to take my eye off that or the retrans ball. I’ve got a good team and we’re going to do good things with it. 

MCN: NCTC hired a new CEO in May 2021 [Borrelli], and you started this May. Do you see the relationship between ACA changing as leadership has changed? How do you see it evolving?

GS: I have spent time with Lou and he seems to be a very, very skilled industry veteran. I think he was the right choice to run NCTC. He’s got a 40-year background in the cable industry that I don’t and I think he is doing and will continue to do really good things at NCTC. We have talked about things like ways to work together additionally amongst our significantly-shared membership, educational opportunities, regional meetings. 

We’ve kind of agreed to get through the show in Orlando and have a more fulsome discussion about what 2023 looks like. But I am all in favor of finding ways to collaborate and they serve the members a whole lot from an operational purchasing perspective and I think we do a really good job on the educational policy side. It’s a good team. We’re going to have some fun together next week. ■

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting the week of Feb. 3 to Feb. 9 on cable networks and streaming services (for some videos, viewer discretion is advised):

Feb. 11 -- Cherish The Day (drama) -- OWN

Feb. 13 -- Narcos: Mexico (drama) -- Netflix

Feb. 13 -- Stuck On You (drama) -- UMC

Feb. 14 -- High Fidelity (dramedy) -- Hulu

Feb. 14 -- Utopia Falls (drama/musical) -- Hulu

Feb. 14 -- Visible: Out on Television (documentary series) -- Apple TV+

Feb. 14 -- Zombies 2 (movie) -- Disney

Feb. 16 -- Outlander (drama) -- Starz

Feb. 16 -- War of the Worlds (drama) -- Epix

Feb. 16 -- Washington (documentary) -- History

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting the week of Feb. 3 to Feb. 9 on cable networks and streaming services (for some videos, viewer discretion is advised):

Feb. 11 -- Cherish The Day (drama) -- OWN

Feb. 13 -- Narcos: Mexico (drama) -- Netflix

Feb. 13 -- Stuck With You (drama) -- UMC

Feb. 14 -- High Fidelity (dramedy) -- Hulu

Feb. 14 -- Utopia Falls (drama/musical) -- Hulu

Feb. 14 -- Visible: Out on Television (documentary series) -- Apple TV+

Feb. 14 -- Zombies 2 (movie) -- Disney

Feb. 16 -- Outlander (drama) -- Starz

Feb. 16 -- War of the Worlds (drama) -- Epix

Feb. 16 -- Washington (documentary) -- History

History will air a miniseries focused on George Washington launching on President’s Day, the network announced Saturday at the Television Critics Association press tour.

The three-night miniseries, narrated by Jeff Daniels, will debut Feb. 16 and will chronicle the bronzed and marbled image of America’s first President and bring to life the man whose name is known to all, but whose story is understood by few, according to History.

Complete Coverage: TCA Winter Press Tour

The network also announced that it will team with NBA Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on a special that honors African-American heroes who fought on the front lines of the Revolutionary War. Black Patriots will debut Feb. 19 and traces the arc of the Revolutionary War through the eyes of the African Americans who put their lives on the line, said the network.

History will also commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschowitz with a two-hour documentary, Auschwitz Untold, debuting Jan. 26. The documentary, narrated by Ben Kingsley, depicts the story of the Nazi persecution and extermination of European Jews by combining newly colorized footage from the Holocaust and rare, first person interviews with survivors, said History. 

Chicago -- Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer urged small cable operators to keep up the pressure on Washington legislators on key issues facing the industry, telling an audience at The Independent Show that their continued activism is key to their success.

“If you’re not involved, you’re going to lose,” Fleischer said in a Q&A with ACA Connects president and CEO Matt Polka, adding that particularly with complicated issues like net neutrality, few members in the House and Senate fully understand the issues that are weighing on the industry. “The only way they will believe in you is if they see you, they hear you and they feel you. Activism is at the heart of what you have to do.”

Earlier, Fleischer gave his take on the successful campaign of President Donald Trump -- he said that unlike Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton, Trump appealed to blue-collar workers who believed they were being ignored by Washington -- and predicted that the 2020 presidential election will have record turnout.

Fleischer went to bat for small cable operators who have endured criticism that they shouldn’t be trusted with something as vital as the internet, adding that the actions of smaller operators speak louder than words.

“If ever there was an issue where the attacks on your position were exaggerated, it’s this one,” Fleischer said of the net neutrality debate. “As if the FCC’s ruling destroyed the internet? I do think you have history on your side to show that the opposition was wrong. That’s a good starting point.”

Fleischer suggested that cable operators continue to make the case of providing what consumers want, stressing that “superb” customer service is essential.

“If people call you the local hometown provider and they think they are falling into the same type of consumer responsiveness that they get from the giant cable providers, then you haven't differentiated yourself. If you believe in your small town, in touch, local community base, the people who answer your phone and help your customers have got to provide that service, otherwise it rings hollow,” he said.

Fleischer, who had his own disagreements with reporters during his White House tenure, touched on some of President Trump’s criticisms of the press, adding that his assertion that the press is an “enemy of the people” is unwarranted.

“No, the press is not the enemy of the people,” Fleischer said. “Every President needs to have their feet held to the fire. ...They are often liberal reporters who make mistakes. President Trump has proved something, that he can push back, he can fight back in a way that [former Republican Presidential candidates] John McCain and Mitt Romney did not. But I also believe that there are bounds and there must be civility in how we carry out our arguments in the White House and as Americans. I’ll just say that they’re liberals and they’re wrong. I won’t say they are enemies of the people. ”

Fleischer also decried the absence of White House briefings, but said reporters shouldn’t miss them because they have something better -- access to the President.

“I give tremendous credit to President Trump for going out there and being his own press secretary,” Fleischer said. “He takes questions every day. That’s a reporter’s dream come true. As much as reporters complain, as much as they hate the President and the President hates them, and there’s this terrible hostility, he gives them the No. 1 most important thing they need and that is access to him to ask whatever is on their mind.”

Earlier, Fleischer said he would bring back the briefings, but not put them on TV.

“It shouldn’t be a TV show,” Fleischer said. “The briefing should be a normal conveyance of governmental information to reporters with questions so that reporters don’t posture and argue back and stand their ground so they can become famous and get Twitter followers. Take it off the TV and just make it a good old fashioned briefing.” 

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch refused to be drawn into a debate about dark money and disclosure of political ads during questioning by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island).

Whitehouse pointed to a $10 million ad campaign being mounted by supporters of his nomination, but whose actual backers had not been disclosed. The senator asked Gorsuch if there is a public interest in knowing who was contributing to that campaign.

The veteran U.S. appeals court judge responded that if Congress wanted there to more ad disclosure, it had "robust authority" to do so, but that he was not going to be drawn into politics and that it was not his fault if Congress had not passed such a law requiring the disclosure of so-called dark money.

Various Democratic legislative attempts to boost disclosure since the Citizens United decision have failed to gain traction, including with enough Democrats.

Gorsuch did say that that there was a value in anonymous speech, which the Supreme Court had found in a case where it concluded that disclosure could be a weapon to help silence people.

Whitehouse said that the Supreme Court had gotten into politics through the Citizens United decision — which allowed corporate funding of political ads — but Gorsuch said he saw it as judges presented with a case doing their best to decide it on the facts and the law.

He said judges make half the people unhappy 100% of the time and he did not question their motives. Whitehouse said in the case of Citizens United, it was more like making 90% of the people unhappy.

Whitehouse pressed the judge on whether the $10 million campaign pushing his nomination was of concern.

A slightly testy Gorsuch said there were a number of things he regretted about the nomination process, including the fact that Byron White's confirmation hearing took 90 minutes and he was allowed to smoke during it, as well as the fact that Gorsuch was putting his family through it. But he said that Congress made the laws, and if they wanted to pass a disclosure law, they could.

ESPN scored an impressive primetime ratings win for the final week of 2016, blowing out the field with its coverage of college football playoff games.

ESPN averaged a whopping 8.6 million viewers during the week of Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, easily defeating second place Fox News’ average 1.8 million viewers for the week, according to Nielsen.

ESPN was paced by its coverage of the college football playoffs semi-final games, as well as its Dec. 26 Monday Night Football game between the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions. Overall, ESPN programs represented all top 10 most watched shows for the week, led by the Dec. 31 Washington Huskies/Alabama Crimson Tide game and the Ohio State Buckeyes/Clemson Tigers college football playoff games, which both drew 18.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

The games compared favorably to last year’s college football semi-final games on ESPN, which generated a combined 34.1 million viewers.

Hallmark completed its two month run of original holiday films by finishing third for the week with 1.7 million viewers, followed by USA’s 1.5 million watchers and HGTV’s 1.4 million viewers. Discovery Channel (1.3 million viewers), History (1.2 million), FX (1.1 million) and Investigation Discovery, Disney Channel and Freeform (all tied with 1.1 million) rounded out the top 10 most watched shows for the week.

"What kind of joke is that?"  I asked incredulously.

In the lobby of the Comedy Central offices, a little after 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, we were in a happy mood. So when the VP we were to meet came out and said, "They just blew up the World Trade Center," reality didn't register. My colleagues and I thought we had stumbled into some dark jokes at the humor headquarters near Columbus Circle.

Our host just pointed to the TV monitor in the lobby, and we watched the flaming, smoking towers.

For the rest of the morning.

Like you and people around the world, we became spectators at an event we'll never forget.

My colleagues and I had been walking up Broadway during the critical moments, and saw some speeding police cars with sirens blaring just after 9 a.m. What's so unusual about that around Times Square in Manhattan?

But the chaos of the next few hours -- and weeks and months -- gave us our first glimpse of the new world order. At Comedy Central HQ, there was confusion about how to handle the situation. At the time, Comedy Central was co-owned by Viacom and Time Warner Inc. One of the parent companies had locked down and required all employees to stay inside until they knew what was happening around New York; the other company sent employees home right away. Where we sat, people were not sure which policy to follow.

Just a few hours earlier, I had been having breakfast with another cable pal at his Midtown Manhattan club. He saw a familiar face a few tables over: the then-president of Time Warner Cable of Manhattan. We exchanged a few pleasantries, and then I thought about him throughout the day as I knew his team was tending to the local cable facilities to keep people connected and informed. I saw him interviewed later in the week, describing his team's heroic efforts to keep communications flowing.

Like you, I have countless memories of the personal and professional aftermath of that horrendous day. The only rare experience I had is that I was one of the relatively few people who was in both New York and Washington on that tragic day. I had arrived in Manhattan on Monday night and I eventually got to Penn Station and caught a train back to my D.C.-area home by Tuesday evening. Among my indelible memories: the smoky plumes of lower Manhattan as seen from a Metroliner in New Jersey.

Needless to say, no business was conducted between my colleagues -- Israeli producers pitching a game show -- and Comedy Central that day. Perhaps the most memorable words I heard were from the chief of the Israeli team, who said, "This is much worse than anything we've faced, but now you know what we go through all the time."

A decade-and-a-half later, against the background of tributes and memorials, the terrorism conversation that ramped up in the autumn of 2001 continues unabated and has grown more volatile. With new media platforms that have fed our ability to obsess over live news, we're more connected -- if not more informed -- than ever. As I look ahead to what the next wave of technology, information and ideas will bring us -- digitally and instantaneously -- we need more of the dedicated commitment that we saw on 9/11 of 2001.

(Pictured: Gary Arlen's copy of the 9-17-2001 issue of Multichannel News)

Google spent a record $16.83 million on lobbying last year, barely edging out Comcast's $16.8 million, in efforts to influence policy decisions, based on records filed with the Clerk of the House, according to the nonpartisan public interest group Consumer Watchdog.

Google and Comcast topped the list of the 15 technology and communications companies that spent the most money on lobbying efforts, Consumer Watchdog said. Facebook, Apple and Amazon also spent record amounts last year. Taken together, the top 15 spent a total of $116.62 million on lobbying in 2014, a 3% decrease from 2013's total of  $120.28 million.

While six of the companies increased spending from 2013 levels -- Facebook (up 45% to $9.34 million from $6.43 million), Amazon (up 35% to $4.74 million from $3.46 million), Apple (up 22% to $4.11 million from $3.37 million), Google (up 20% from $14.06 million), Sprint (up 9% to $2.99 million from $2.75 million) and Yahoo (up 6% to $2.94 million from $2.78 million) -- the other nine companies showed decreased outlays, according to the Clerk of the House’s Lobbying Disclosure database, Consumer Watchdog said.

Notably, Comcast and Time Warner Cable were among those with decreased spending, despite waiting on approval for their pending merger. Comcast's $16.8 million expenditure was down 10% from 2013's $18.71 million, while TWC's $7.83 million was down 6% from its $8.29 million in 2013.

Rounding out the top 15 spenders in the tech/communications sector were AT&T ($14.56 million), Verizon ($11.22 million), Microsoft ($8.33 million), Oracle ($5.83 million), IBM ($4.95 million), Intel ($3.8 million) and Cisco ($2.35 million).

“It’s important to understand just how much money these companies are throwing around in Washington to buy the policies they want,” John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project director, said. “Policymaking is now all about big bucks, not big ideas.”