Federal Communications Commission Chairperson Ajit Pai seems set on eliminating most broadcast regulations by the time his term is over. On Nov. 9, The New York Times printed an op-ed that Pai wrote advocating that the FCC repeal its rule preventing local broadcasters from also owning a daily newspaper, or a radio or television station, in the same area. If Pai gets his way -- and with a Republican majority on the FCC now because the GOP controls the White House there's no reason to expect he won't -- broadcasters could own two television stations, an unknown amount of radio stations, and a local newspaper in the same market. Take Albany, New York, for instance. Sinclair Broadcasting already owns two stations, the CBS affiliate and the CW affiliate, on which they air national "news" that some say is closer to propaganda, often from recent Trump administration officials. If Pai's proposal is approved, The Albany Times Union could be purchased by Sinclair, and, maybe, several local radio stations too. Sinclair could have the power to change or control the public dialogue in Albany, quashing stories it does not like, and promoting others. Certainly, there would be fewer journalists working in Albany, as Sinclair would combine newsrooms to save money. The FCC is on the verge now of approving Sinclair's purchase of Tribune Media, which will change the number of stations they own from 173 to 215, with programming in 70 percent of American households. Slate reports, "In March the owner of [Sinclair] ordered its affiliates to double the amount of air time it gives to segments by its chief political analyst Boris Epshteyn, a former Donald Trump aide who slavishly parrots the administration’s line." Pai writes that if Facebook can own a newspaper and a television station in the same market, why can't Sinclair? Perhaps acknowledging that online media outlets need to play by the same rules as over-the-air stations could be a new regulation. But, there is little hope of that from the current lawmakers in Washington D.C., Instead, Pai says the FCC will vote on the proposal to deregulate the broadcast media at its Nov. 16 meeting. Expect it to be approved 3-2, then expect more journalists laid off, and less coverage of local issues. Pai has already jammed through similar proposals. Last month

Steven Overly reports in Politico that the Justice Department may be pressuring AT&T and Time Warner to sell off CNN to get the Trump administration's approval of their $85 billion merger. According to the report, on Nov. 6 Justice Department officials, "presented the companies with an ultimatum" to sell off Turner Broadcasting, which includes CNN, TBS, and TNT, or jettison DirecTV. One source said "the real sticking point" was selling off the news network that President Donald Trump often criticizes. "The only reason you would divest CNN would be to kowtow to the president because he doesn't like the coverage," the source said. "It would send a chilling message to every news organization in the country." Justice Department officials later it was Time-Warner's idea to sell CNN. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson denied that was true. "Throughout this process, I have never offered to sell CNN and have no intention of doing so," he said in a statement. AT&T and Time Warner lawyers say the Justice Department should not require them to sell off anything to approve the merger, and both sides are gearing up for a lawsuit. President Trump's call of “fake news” is most often linked to CNN. In July The New York Times reported that White House advisers discussed using the merger as “a potential point of leverage over their adversary” CNN. The companies had set an Oct. 22 deadline for the merger, which was announced last year. AT&T Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said at a conference Nov. 8 that when the timing of the merger is "now uncertain."

Susan Ashworth in Radio Today reports that Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai was in Puerto Rico Nov. 6 where at least half of the communications systems are down over six weeks after Hurricane Maria wiped out the American island. As of Nov. 6, 33 FM stations and 33 AM stations are either confirmed or are suspected to be off the air. Another 31 FM stations and one AM station, "have an unconfirmed status." Just 47 FM radio stations and 40 AM stations are on the air. The FCC also reports 47.8 percent of Puerto Rico's cell sites are still out of service. What's being done? A month ago, the FCC approved up to $77 million to restore cell phone networks on the island. The National Association of Broadcasters just distributed 10,000 battery-operated radios to folks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to help them receive those static signals. AT&T just deployed its Flying COW (Cell on Wings) radio-controlled drone to temporarily provide data, voice and text services to Puerto Rico. This is the first use of the AT&T drone, which hovers 200 to 400 feet above the ground to provide wireless connectivity to a 40-square-mile area. Google also has stratospheric balloons flying over parts of the island, bringing Internet service to residents below with AT&T. The FCC also plans a Public Notice seeking input on what communications continuity and restoration plans worked and what did not after the hurricanes. Pai, asked recently how long it was going to take to restore communications, could not answer, saying, “One way or the other, I think the FCC is going to be in the mix, so to speak, for some time.” Click here to play or download an audio version of this report.

Jon Brodkin reports in Ars Technica that anyone who hopes the Federal Communications Commission will leave the net neutrality rules are probably not going to be happy with the FCC's Dec. 14 vote. Last week, Comcast officials met with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's staff to prevent states from issuing their own net neutrality rules. Net Neutrality is the basic principle that prohibits internet service providers from speeding up, slowing down, or blocking any content, applications, or websites. It is supposed to give customers an even playing field, instead of having to pay more for services such as streaming audio. But while Pai is doing everything he can to eliminate those rules at the federal level, his Chief of Staff Matthew Berry and Senior Counsel Nicholas Degani met with Comcast Senior VP Frank Buono and a Comcast attorney last week to make sure states cannot make their own net neutrality rules. An ex parte filing about the meeting says the Comcast officials, "also emphasized that the Commission's order in this proceeding should include a clear, affirmative ruling that expressly confirms the primacy of federal law with respect to BIAS [Broadband Internet Access Service] as an interstate information service, and that preempts state and local efforts to regulate BIAS either directly or indirectly." Comcast is telling the public it supports net neutrality, but wants the FCC to do it in the way they tried in 2010. Those rules were thrown out by a court. So Comcast is saying one thing, but asking for another. Expect your internet service to become more costly and slower after the Dec. 14 vote.

SpaceWeather.com reports that on Nov. 6, the Earth crosses a part of interplanetary space separating regions of opposite magnetic polarity. This "solar sector boundary crossing" could trigger geomagnetic activity around Earth's poles. This could mean bright northern lights, visible farther south than normal if skies are clear. Then, the next day, a high-speed solar wind stream will blow across the planet. "NOAA forecasters say there is a 45 percent chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms on Nov. 7 [and Nov. 8] when the emerging wind reaches Earth. That means faint auroras, or northern lights, may be seen in the northernmost United States.

Today @FCC changes way agency has reviewed mergers for decades. No warning. Just quietly eases the way for the next transaction. Watch this. pic.twitter.com/vBPlukkGfs

— Jessica Rosenworcel (@JRosenworcel) October 30, 2017

David Shepardson at Reuters reports that the Federal Communications Commission approved a deal for telecommunications provider CenturyLink Inc to buy Level 3 Communications Inc on Oct. 30. That does not seem too controversial, as both Republicans and Democrats on the FCC approved the $24 billion merger that will allow the company to compete with AT&T and Verizon. What may be more important was that, "the FCC outlined a new standard by which the agency will review future mergers -- a shift that could make it easier for other large media and telecommunications mergers to win approval," according to Reuters. Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel voted for the merger, but vigorously disagreed with the new way the FCC approved the deal. "I believe the Commission's review has a serious flaw," she said in a statement. "Instead of using the agency's decades-old merger review standard, it arbitrarily introduces a new one. This departure from the traditional merger balancing test should properly be the subject of public notice and comment. Our failure to do so is at odds with the most basic principles of administrative law. Moreover, I worry that our capricious disregard for precedent is simply part of a larger effort to speed the way for the next billion-dollar transaction before us." The FCC is expected to allow the Sinclair Broadcast Group to buy Tribune Media this month, and let the conservative-leaning broadcast group to exceed the current limits on number of stations owned by one company.

CNN reports that roughly 126 million Americans were exposed between June 2015 and August 2017 to Facebook content created by the Russian government-linked troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency. Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch wrote to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism saying 29 million people got direct links from the Russian troll farm, and those Americans shared it with about half the U.S. voting population. The Internet Research Agency also ads seen by 11.4 million Americans between 2015 and 2017. Representatives from Facebook, Twitter, and Google will testify at public hearings before a Senate Judiciary subcommmittee and the Senate and House Intelligence Committees later this week about how Russia attempted to manipulate the 2016 American election. Twitter found a total of 36,746 accounts that generated automated, election-related content last year, with 288 million impressions. "Most of the ads appear to focus on divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum, touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights," Stretch wrote to the subcommittee. "A number of the ads encourage people to follow Pages on these issues, which in turn produced posts on similarly charged subjects."

Business Insider reports that Twitter announced Oct. 26 that it was banning advertisements from the Russian news agencies RT and Sputnik. "This decision was based on the retrospective work we've been doing around the 2016 U.S. election and the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that both RT and Sputnik attempted to interfere with the election on behalf of the Russian government," the company wrote on a blog post. RT, or Russia Today, responded by publishing what it called the “full,” “multi-million dollar advertising proposal” from Twitter ahead of the election last year. RT says it turned down that pitch. In September, Twitter said RT spent $274,100 on 1,823 promoted tweets that targeted the U.S. in 2016. Twitter said it would take the estimated $1.9 million that RT paid for advertising since 2011 and use it to, “support external research into the use of Twitter in civic engagement and elections, including use of malicious automation and misinformation, with an initial focus on elections and automation.” In related news, on Oct. 28, Twitter permanently banned longtime Donald Trump adviser and self-proclaimed political “agent provocateur” Roger Stone after a series of messages threatening CNN journalists the night before. Now Stone, who has been banned temporarily before for other insensitive remarks, told Politico, that he had spoken with “prominent telecommunication attorneys” and that “the battle against free speech has just begun.” Twitter has not banned others who have made malicious remarks on the social media service, including the president of the United States.

The Associated Press reports that the Federal Communications Commission will vote in November on proposals to roll back ownership rules, allowing the Sinclair Broadcast Group to buy Tribune Media, and exceed the current limits on number of stations owned by one company. The ultra-conservative Sinclair company would then reach more than 70 percent of all American households. “We need to strengthen local voices and increase viewpoint diversity, not surrender our airwaves to an ever-smaller group of giant conglomerates,” said Craig Aaron of the public advocacy group Free Press. Sinclair owns WRGB and WCWN, the CBS and CW affiliates in Albany, often airing opinion segments from former Trump administration officials, and other conservative commentators during the local news. Now Bill O'Reilly, the former Fox News anchor who has been accused of multiple incidents of sexual harassment, is negotiating with Sinclair, two sources told NBC News. Last week, The New York Times reported that O’Reilly settled a $32 million sexual harassment suit against him by a former legal analyst, Lis Wiehl. A spokesperson for Sinclair denied that the company was negotiating with O'Reilly, but we'll see if he comes to the Albany airwaves soon.

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce committee held an oversight hearing for the Federal Communications Commission Oct. 25. Representatives asked the commissioners about President Donald Trump's threats to pull licences of broadcasters he disagrees with, among other issues. Click here to hear a report about the hearing.

The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 on party lines Oct. 24 to eliminate the main studio rule for AM, FM, and television stations, which mandated a broadcast licensee maintain a studio in its broadcast area. Republicans argued that anyone in a broadcast area can now communicate with a broadcast outlet through e-mail or telephone. FCC Commissioner Michael O'Reilly argued it would make things better. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD. Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel had a different story. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD. The full Oct. 2017 FCC Open Meeting is available at https://www.fcc.gov/news-events/events/2017/10/october-2017-open-commission-meeting.

The Guardian reports that on Oct. 23 the deputy editor of the Ekho Moskvy radio station, Tatyana Felgenhauer, was stabbed in the neck in the station’s studios in central Moscow. Felgenhauer is expected to survive and is in a Russian hospital. The attacker was Boris Grits, a 48-year-old with dual Russian and Israeli citizenship who wrote online that the radio host was “following” him in his mind. "Russian media also showed leaked footage, apparently from the interrogation of Grits, in which he said he had never met Felgenhauer but she had made telepathic contact with him over the past five years," The Guardian reported. But Alexei Venediktov, the station’s editor-in-chief, said it might not just be the attack of a mentally ill person. “He knew things he shouldn’t have known. How did he know Tanya would still be here? By the time of the attack, she would normally have left. There are many questions,” Venediktov said. Earlier this month, Russian state television said Ekho Moskvy and Felgenhauer were working to advance foreign interests in Russia before presidential elections next March. Read the full story in The Guardian.

Reuters reports that the Federal Communications Commission is ending rules on telegraphs Nov. 20. In the United States, the final Western Union telegram was delivered in 2006, and the FCC stopped enforcing telegram rules in 2013. India's telegram service, the last in the world, shut down in 2013. The FCC said it was removing “outmoded regulations” on telegraphs to, “further our goals of reducing regulatory burdens, eliminating unnecessary rule provisions, and making the agency as efficient and effective as possible.” Next week, the FCC will vote to end a 1939 requirement that each AM, FM, and television broadcast station maintain a main studio located in or near its community of license. This will allow more computerized programming from afar, and less public access to the public airwaves. The rule was to, “ensure that stations would be accessible and responsive to their communities. However, a local main studio is no longer needed to fulfill these purposes,” the FCC now says.

The Albany Times Union reports that NASA will work with an alliance of radio-controlled drone researchers on a drone testing facility in central New York. The plans call for a 50-mile (80-kilometer) air test corridor between Syracuse and Rome. Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration has already spent $40 million on drone-related projects. Read the full story in the Albany Times Union.

The New York Times reports that on May 31 a federal judge ruled that the sound the Long Range Acoustic Devices used by New York City police against protesters emits a form of force. In effect, Judge Robert Sweet of the Federal District Court in Manhattan ruled that the LRADs are weapons as well as communication devices. Police use them sometimes as loudspeakers, to make announcements to protesters. But at 1 a.m. on Dec. 5, 2014, the police used a 100X Long Range Acoustic Device to make a series of sharp, piercing beeps directed at the Black Lives Matter protest in Manhattan. Use of the device, “as a projector of powerfully amplified sound is no different than other tools in law enforcement’s arsenal that have the potential to be used either safely or harmfully, one example being distraction devices — items like stun grenade, flash bang, or concussion grenades,” Judge Robert Sweet of Federal District Court in Manhattan wrote, adding, “It can be plausibly inferred that the use of a high-powered sound magnifier in ‘close proximity’ to plaintiffs was not appropriate.” The judge did agree with New York City's lawyers that the use of the device did not violate First and Fourth Amendment rights. Instead the judge said the protesters had a “cognizable claim” that the excessive use of force violated their 14th Amendment rights, so their suit against the city and two members of the Police Department’s Disorder Control Unit will continue.