Sean Gallagher at Ars Technica revisits the still-unsolved Nov. 22, 1987 pirate television hijacking of the signal of two Chicago television stations. A man in a Max Headroom mask broadcast a taped message interrupting a prime-time news broadcast on Chicago's WGN, and a broadcast of "Dr. Who" on the Chicago public television station WTTW. Whoever was responsible for the most famous pirate broadcast in United States history has never been identified by authorities. The pirate overpowered the signals sent by the television studios to a transmitter and antenna atop the John Hancock building in Chicago, replacing the scheduled programming with their own. WGN engineers were able to to switch frequencies on the studio-to-transmitter link to quickly take back the broadcast signal. The WTTW takeover lasted 90 seconds, with the audio audible. Gallagher reports a similar signal hijacking took place in England in 1977. An ITV Southern Television broadcast showed an alien representative of an "Intergalactic Association" with the message, "All your weapons of evil must be removed… You have but a short time to learn to live together in peace." There are also reports that in 1986, supporters of the Polish labor movement Solidarność took over state television stations with "printed anti-government messages," and other reports of state television stations in the Soviet Union frequently being taken over by pirate transmissions around the same time. More recently, an HDTV broadcast of a Washington D.C. ABC affiliate was taken over in 2007, with a morning news broadcast replaced by a black and white photo of a man and woman. Radio station signals get hijacked more often. Earlier this year several U.S. radio stations lost their signals, with a profane song about the current president replacing regularly scheduled programming.

Politico outlines the various parts of Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai's proposal to dismantle net neutrality. Internet service providers now be able to charge different amounts for various services. So there might be a basic fee for sending email, and consumers can pay a little more to use the internet, a little more to use an audio service such as Spotify, and a little more to watch video streams, or live webcasts. At the FCC's Dec. 14 meeting, the Republican commissioners will win a 3-2 vote that also will get rid of the so-called general conduct standard, which allows the FCC authority to police behavior by internet service providers. And the FCC will let the Federal Trade Commission decide whether internet service providers are acting in an anti-competitive manner. Earlier this month, the FCC allowed broadcasters to own more media companies such as other radio or television stations and a daily newspaper in towns around the country. When the Obama administration had a 3-2 majority on the FCC and passed the net neutrality rules in 2015, AT&T, USTelecom, and other industry trade groups took them to court. This time net neutrality advocates will take the FCC to court, after the inevitable Dec. 14 vote.

CNN and many other news outlets are reporting that the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit in federal court Nov. 20 to block AT&T's $85 billion deal to buy Time Warner, the parent company of CNN. The DOJ claims the deal, "would result in fewer innovative offerings and higher bills for American families." Later in the week, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to unveil its proposal to eliminate net neutrality, which would result in fewer innovative offerings and higher bills for American families. In the merger deal, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said, "The rule of law is at issue here." President Trump's attacks constant attacks on CNN are said to be part of the reason the Department of Justice is fighting the merger. "There's been a lot of reporting and speculation whether this is all about CNN, and frankly I don't know," Stephenson said. "But nobody should be surprised that the question keeps coming up because we've been witnessing such an abrupt change in the application of antitrust law here." Just last week, Trump tweeted, "While in the Philippines I was forced to watch @CNN, which I have not done in months, and again realized how bad, and FAKE, it is. Loser!" This, and many other anti-CNN tweets are expected to be evidence in the lawsuit. If Trump is behind the lawsuit, he is siding with liberals who are generally against large media corporations getting larger, and in favor of anti-trust measures.

Slate, and many other news outlets, report that the Republicans who lead the Federal Communications Commission will release a new set of rules to end net neutrality just before Thanksgiving, and then vote on those rules Dec. 14, ending the law that makes the internet a level playing field. Announcing the rules on the day before a major holiday is what the new FCC does. Earlier in the year, when the FCC received 22 million comments about ending net neutrality, computer bots, or dead people, wrote most of the comments in favor, and living human beings wrote most of the comments against. When comedian John Oliver devoted most of his "Last Week Tonight" show on HBO to the issue, the FCC's website suspiciously froze, due to an alleged computer hacking attack. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, says, “I’ve got concerns.... There were some procedural problems with the way this all came together.” The Slate story says, "the Government Accountability Office is now investigating that DDoS attack because the FCC’s description of what happened raised some red flags, including questions as to whether or not the attack actually happened, since, according to a letter from two congress members who called for the investigation, the FCC hasn’t 'released any records or documentation that would allow for confirmation that an attack occurred.'" If current net neutrality rules are discarded, and new rules put in place expect internet companies to raise rates for those who can afford so-called fast-lane speeds, and everyone else will pay the same or more for slower internet speeds.

Susan Ashworth in Radio World backs up the Federal Communications Commission's claim that it is doing much work to stop the scourge of pirate radio in a Nov. 15 story. The headline says, "In One Day, FCC Snares 10 Alleged Pirates." "Snares," though, actually means "sends a letter to" and the number ten seems more like the number three. The Radio World article only lists three specific pirate radio operations: John Pierre on Albemarle Road in Brooklyn on 93.7 MHz. Victor Miller's unlicensed FM station on 90.1 MHz, "possibly from a residence on Byron Ave." in Brooklyn; and in Pennsylvania, World Hype Radio operated by Ray Daniels on 100.9 MHz in Stroudsburg. The day before, in a separate story, Ashworth reported about four different stations in Stamford (106.5-FM), Hartford (93.3-FM), Bridgeport (106.5-FM), and Waterbury (106.3-FM) in Connecticut operated by Oraine Ennis. The FCC also sent a letter to an unrelated pirate station in East Hartford, on 107.5-FM with the signal coming from the Power Tabernacle Ministries church. The FCC has cut much of its enforcement division, and even before at full strength, just sends warning letters when it is first notified of unlicensed activity on the dial.

Television station WKRG in Alabama reports that at least one person in the station's viewing area received an obviously fake robocall that could be deemed anti-Semitic from someone claiming to be a Washington Post reporter seeking more damaging information about Senate candidate Roy Moore. Here is the text of that voicemail message received by Pastor Al Moore in Creola. The call said, "Hi, this is Bernie Bernstein, I’m a reporter for the Washington Post calling to find out if anyone at this address is a female between the ages of 54 to 57 years old willing to make damaging remarks about candidate Roy Moore for a reward of between 5,000 and 7,000 dollars. We will not be fully investigating these claims, however, we will make a written report. I can be reached by email at albernstein@washingtonpost.com, thank you." The email address is not functional, and the newspaper has no such reporter. Washington Post Executive Editor, Marty Baron released this statement: “The Post has just learned that at least one person in Alabama has received a call from someone falsely claiming to be from The Washington Post. The call’s description of our reporting methods bears no relationship to reality. We are shocked and appalled that anyone would stoop to this level to discredit real journalism.” John Rogers with the Roy Moore campaign said they knew nothing about the call. A Washington Post story recently reported that four women accused the candidate of sexual misconduct. In one case, the woman making the charges was 14-years-old at the time of the incident.

Dan Seifert reports in The Verge that researchers at China's Zheijiang University have found that it is possible to use inaudible ultrasound commands to control Siri, Alexa, and other voice-activated computer programs. The ultrasound commands use frequencies greater than 20 kHz, the type that dolphins and bats can hear. Google’s Chromecast and Amazon’s Dash Buttons also use those frequencies to link to cell phones, and advertisers also broadcast ultrasonic codes in TV commercials to follow a user’s activity across devices. The researchers tested 16 voice control systems, including Siri, Google Now, Samsung S Voice, Cortana, Alexa, and several in-car interfaces. They were successful in, “activating Siri to initiate a FaceTime call on iPhone, activating Google Now to switch the phone to the airplane mode, and even manipulating the navigation system in an Audi automobile.” The researchers could also cut up syllables and rearrange them for voice command systems that respond to only one person’s voice. That's the bad news. The good news is that to use ultrasound voice command hacking, one has to be no more than a few feet away from the device to be hacked. And it has to be quiet -- asking, "Siri to turn on airplane mode was 100 percent successful in an office; 80 percent successful in a cafe; and just 30 percent successful in the street," according to The Verge. And they need a particular type of speaker, and sometimes needed multiple attempts to locate the exact frequency that worked on the device in question. So, at this point in history, ultrasound voice command hacking is not very practical, or something to be worried about. But that may change as technology evolves.

Chas Danner reports in New York Magazine that on Nov. 11, President Donald Trump claimed that he has nothing to do with the Justice Department’s handling of the $85.4 billion AT&T–Time Warner merger. Several reports recently have said that to get the deal approved, Time Warner would have to sell off Turner Broadcasting, the parent company of his news nemesis CNN. “I didn’t make that decision,” Trump said on Air Force One, “it was made by a man who’s a very respected person — a very, very respected person.” The president was probably referring to DOJ antitrust chief Makan Delrahim, who informed AT&T last week that the government would sue to block the merger unless Time Warner sold off some assets due to anti-competition concerns. Trump has been an ongoing critic of CNN and said near the end of last year’s presidential campaign that the merger was, “a deal we will not approve in my administration because it’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few” and that it was “an example of the power structure I’m fighting.” In January, Bloomberg reported that a Trump source said he was against the merger, in part, because of his frustration with CNN’s coverage of him. “I did make a comment as to what I think,” Trump said Nov. 11, and “you should have as many news outlets as you can — especially since so many are fake.... I didn’t make a statement on it, but I made that statement long before at the very early part. So we’ll see how that — it will probably end up being maybe litigation, maybe not. We’ll see how it all plays out.” The Wall Street Journal reported that senior White House adviser Jared Kushner and Trump son-in-law, met a top executive at Time Warner earlier this year to complain about CNN’s coverage of the Trump campaign. Last year Delrahim said that he didn’t see the merger, “as a major antitrust problem.” In July, a senior Trump official told The New York Times that White House advisers had discussed using the merger as leverage to pressure CNN for more favorable coverage.

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.