This is from a few months ago, but the algorithm just gave it to me and so I now give it to you. I was in the room this day, when @schatz.bsky.social gave a masterclass in demolishing FCC chair Brendan Carr, Trump's Censorship Czar.
#FirstAmendment #1A #SenateCommerce
www.youtube.com/shorts/1c1hJ...
I got way behind on live-posting, but have to jump ahead to say it is AMAZING & gratifying to see Chairman Cruz basically using the Free Press hypothetical here: could the FCC have changed the national cap the day after Congress set it in 2004? Cruz embarrasses and demolishes LeGeyt. #SenateCommerce
Senator Cantwell credited lobbyist arguments that broadcasters are "getting eaten alive" by "big tech."
Meanwhile, broadcast conglomerate CEOs laugh all the way to the bank, bragging to Wall Street about how good their business is. #SenateCommerce
Nexstar's CEO, quoted by @freepress.bsky.social:
Ugh. 🤦♂️
Senator Cantwell said that she was looking at arguments on "this hand, and on that hand."
She pivoted to concerns about big tech power.
And Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy had to steer the ranking Democrat back to concerns about local news monopolies. Remarkable.
#SenateCommerce
Cantwell noted Carr's apparent bias towards approving deals, without specifying that Carr is retweeting the president's cheerleading for mergers still in process before his agency. But @timkarr.bsky.social had the receipts at @freepress.bsky.social.
#SenateCommerce
www.freepress.net/blog/trump-a...
Ruddy agreed with Cruz that the FCC should have a full commission vote on any national cap change -- especially if it subverts a congressional pronouncement! Ruddy cites Pai and Rosenworcel (and could cite O'Rielly) against claims of supposed bipartisan support for FCC tinkering. #SenateCommerce
Ruddy said he felt like he must be in a different universe than NAB. Broadcasters are doing well, and projecting even bigger fortunes after the next Nexstar merger. Local news duopolies eliminate newsrooms, and that's where $135 million in Nexstar "synergies" would come from. #SenateCommerce
What NAB doesn't say is that of course it can "compete" online with streaming & social media; but when it comes to broadcast, it has special advantages with exclusive licenses to speak; and it has a distinct product market in which it crows about its continued dominance to investors. #SenateCommerce
NAB continues to say, like Nexstar does in its merger, that "big tech" has "siphoned away" broadcast advertising revenues. There continues to be this notion that broadcasters are owed something, and that tech companies are stealing it away like gasoline being siphoned out of a car. #SenateCommerce
To see Senator Cruz call out an industry lobbyist for refusing to answer questions about his corporate conglomerates members' market power is a remarkable and welcome sight. #SenateCommerce
This video is a must watch for all those at today's #SenateCommerce hearing who argue that increasing the scale of a broadcast conglomerates' station holdings will result in beefed up of local newsrooms and increased viewpoint diversity.
How'd that work for Sinclair? ...
youtu.be/_fHfgU8oMSo?...
Ruddy was an effective advocate against video consumers being forced to pay for channels they don't want. NAB says we don't have market power because Netflix is big. Such lousy whataboutism -- as LeGeyt admits he doesn't know NewsNation's carriage fees and can't explain them. #SenateCommerce
Ruddy: Nexstar has market power and market leverage because it has 200 TV stations today (even before this merger) that it can withhold from cable providers if those cable cos. don't pay-up for little watched cable networks. Disney and Fox do it too. #SenateCommerce
Senator Cruz opened questioning with Ruddy, who confirms that Nexstar's NewsNation gets higher carriage fees than Newsmax. Newsmax has 5x more viewers, but Nexstar can literally command higher payments by tying it's smaller cable news network to its must-have broadcast content. #SenateCommerce
At least Waldman said that the lens and metric here should be to look at the number of local reporters on the beat, not just the sheer number iof hours that local broadcasters air, and repeat, and duplicate, and repeat, and repeat.... #SenateCommerce
It was utterly remarkable, and disappointing, to hear the witness called by the Senate Democrats for **this hearing** on the broadcast national cap say that his organization has not taken a position on the central legal issue on the table today, but he has sympathy for both sides. #SenateCommerce
Testimony ended with @rebuildlocalnews.bsky.social's Waldman, opening his remarks with the plight of local newspapers closing: the loss of civic info, and the polarizing social media that replaces it. Private equity consolidation leads to shuttering of newsrooms and layoffs. #SenateCommerce
Johnson closed saying antitrust would still prevent "bad deals" in the absence of the national cap at the FCC, but let through the good mergers that increase competition. Orwellian as always: The only way to improve competition, per industry lobbyists, is to eliminate competitors! #SenateCommerce
Johnson ridiculously argues lifting the national cap would help "conservative and moderate" content against those evil woke corporations in New York & Hollywood.
That's offensive to the #FirstAmendment, but also just silly.
Broadcast conglomerates are national giants, not mom & pop. #SenateCommerce
Johnson: broadcasters have one advantage -- they deliver free and unpoliticized news.
Ha! Someone tell Sinclair. Broadcasters editorialize all the time, as is their right. #FirstAmendment.
But meanwhile, let's not talk about the advantage conveyed by an exclusive spectrum license. 🙄 #SenateCommerce
Johnson doubles down on this notion that broadcasters can't reach more than 39 percent of the country, while "Hulu, Netflix, and Facebook" can.
Someone please tell me what prevents a broadcaster website or app from reaching 100 percent, the same way that those comnpanies do online? #SenateCommerce
It's remarkable to hear Scalia's name thrown around by rock-ribbed Federalist Society lawyers to suggest that because Congress didn't pass some other potential statutes, administrative agencies are free to modify congressional enactments whenever the fancy strikes them. #SenateCommerce
Johnson wildly cites Scalia & Thomas for some sort of failed originalist appeal, and claims that because Congress didn't explicitly eliminate FCC discretion to "modify its rules" then the agency is free to change the numerical limit of 39 percent that Congress set whenever it likes. #SenateCommerce
Former FCC lawyer Tom Johnson is here to tell us the FCC is free to ignore congressional pronouncements if it feels like it. Congress must not be a co-equal branch anymore. The president (and even his erstwhile independent agencies) can set aside laws they are forbidden to waive. #SenateCommerce
NAB closes with a very unusual broadside directed right at fellow witness Ruddy. That's uncommon and quite remarkable. They also call him a "single" voice opposing consolidation, when a broad swath of companies, unions, and civil society groups have all opposed it. #SenateCommerce
NAB claims broadcasters' "modest" consolidation meant more newscasts and hours of local news.
Okay: how many of those additional timeslots are nothing more than repeats and duplication? Having the same newscast 6 times a day is not viewpoint diversity or journalistic competition. #SenateCommerce
LeGeyt thenclaims some local broadcasters just cant't afford to do news anymnore -- immediately undermining his case that broadcast is special because of this content. He ignores Ruddy's devastatingly accurate prortrayal of how lucrative consolidation is for the giant TV chains. #SenateCommerce
We should re-examine the First Amendment implications of granting exclusive rights to speak on portions of the radio spectrum if broadcast is just like every online outlet. #SenateCommerce
It's wild to hear LeGeyt say again and again that ownership limits apply "only" to broadcasters without noting that *only* broadcasters have exclusive licenses to speak on the public channels we give them. #SenateCommerce
LeGeyt claims regulations distort the video market and disadvantage broadcasters in advertising.
Someone should have told that to his members before they went to Wall Street to brag about how great and how differentiated their broadcast local advertising market is!
#SenateCommerce
