Free Republic

Customers have been calling on Time Warner Cable and CBS Corp. to resolve their ongoing carriage dispute that has resulted in channels going dark in several markets including Los Angeles and New York. Now politicians are demanding an end to the blackout. Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who recently won John F. Kerry's Senate seat, on Tuesday asked the Federal Communications Commission to step in and restart negotiations.

It seems that most of the television media is owned by liberals. Is this a coincidence or can it be that Democrats have controlled the FCC for years and have given licenses to liberals while rejecting conservatives?

Regulators are extending the comment period on a controversial proposal to ease restrictions on cursing and “nonsexual nudity” over public airwaves. The action drew fire Monday from opponents of the idea, who have called upon the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to scrap the plan and salvage the final vestiges of family-friendly broadcasting. Back in April, the FCC put out a call for feedback on a plan to focus on the most egregious cases of indecency. If adopted, the less stringent regulations would reflect a shift from George W. Bush-era policies of pursuing penalties for isolated infractions on broadcast television. The...

The Obama administration is urging companies to thoroughly check a person's eligibility before providing cellphone service that is subsidized by the government.

The news of the past week has rightly been dominated by allegations of abuse in the Exempt Office (EO) of the Internal Revenue Service. The EO is in charge of processing applications for tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, which authorizes these exemptions for “civic leagues or organizations not organized for profit but operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare.” Some 3,357 applications for tax-exempt status were filed in 2012, an election year, which was a 50 percent increase from the 2,265 applications filed in w 2011. The criteria for Section 501(c)(4) organizations are open-ended....

In 2008, Julius Genachowski served as candidate Barack Obama’s Chairperson of the Technology. Upon winning the Presidency, Obama thanked the lawyer by appointing him to serve as Chairman of the nation’s Federal Communications Commission. In September 2012, Genachowski instructed Commission staff to begin reviewing the Commission’s broadcast indecency policies and enforcement, arguing that present day indecency laws may not be in step with “First Amendment principles.”.....

April 23, 2013 New Congressional Quest: End Prison Phone Call Price Gouging Bridget Johnson The Congressional Black Caucus Working Group on Prison Telecomm Reform is protesting high call costs for phone-homers behind bars. The CBC group will hold a press conference with former inmates and family members “to expose the often exorbitant rates that prisoners and their families are being charged for telephone calls and to announce the CBC response to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to resolve the issue after more than a decade of delay,” according to D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton’s (D)...

As Obama daily utilizes the federal government to destroy the fabric of American society. Here's the assault of the day... (video)

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering whether to loosen restrictions for obscenity on broadcast television and radio. This rule change would allow brief “non-sexual-nudity” and isolated expletives in prime time, while children are still awake and watching TV. The FCC claims that it will consider the public’s sentiment as its members make a decision and has given Americans the month of April to file their comments. Outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski previously had to order the Enforcement Bureau only to tackle “egregious cases” because of the “backlog” of reported obscenity cases. In the last 6 months, the FCC’s caseload...

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 4, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The FCC is seeking comments from the public as they consider relaxing their obscenity standards for broadcast television and radio. If adopted the new, lower standards would allow brief “non-sexual” nudity and isolated expletives even during prime time, when most families are typically watching with their children. Currently, broadcasters face heavy fines for violations of the indecency policy, which bans strong curse words and most nudity. But as media culture grows coarser, the backlog of reported offenses has grown unmanageable for the FCC, leading Chairman Julius Genachowski to order the Enforcement Bureau to...

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski this morning announced that he will leave his post, just two days after Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell announced that he also will resign in the coming weeks. Genachowski made the announcement during a meeting with all FCC staff members that was webcast. Like McDowell, Genachowski said that he will “step down in the coming weeks” and will continuing working at the FCC until that time. {snip} When Genachowski and McDowell make their departures, the FCC will have three commissioners: Democrats Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, as well as Republican Ajit Pai. {snip} No potential replacements for...

Judges Have Issues with Statute of Limitations on Carriage Complaint, First Amendment Implications of Remedy A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals heard the case of Comcast vs. the FCC on Monday, challenging the FCC's first-ever finding in favor of a program carriage complaint and its imposition of a carriage remedy. While the judges usually wield a gavel, in this case is was more like a hammer, with the FCC mostly on the receiving end. Between the serious First Amendment issues with the FCC's carriage remedy expressed by Judge Brett Kavanaugh and the contract issues on which Judge...

The FCC is moving forward with a controversial plan to entice broadcasters to give up their airwaves so they can later be auctioned off to carriers who need more spectrum to deliver mobile broadband. FCC officials expect the auction in 2014. Chairman Julius Genachowski The Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission plans to share his thinking around how the agency will conduct an auction that would take airwaves from TV broadcasters and make them available for mobile broadband. The plan to entice TV broadcasters who are currently using airwaves to give them up to the FCC, which then auctions those...

I hope I have posted in the right category. I am just curious about Mignon Clyburn FCC Commissioner (D) Does anyone know if she is related to (D) James Clyburn U.S. Rep South Carolina 6th Dist. I just watched a few minutes of C-Span's series titled The Communicators and she is not a very good one watching for just a few minutes It was very easy to see she is completely unqualified for any position which has oversight over technology. Thoughts and info please?

Martha Raddatz is the moderator of tonight’s vice presidential debate. In 1991, Barack Obama attended her wedding. A year later, her then-husband, now a high level administration appointee and a personal friend of the president, attended the Obamas’ wedding. Irrelevant information? Put it this way: If Raddatz were a judge, she’d likely have to recuse herself from cases pertaining to the Obamas. We’re not arguing that Raddatz will slant tonight’s debate in the Obama campaign’s favor —any more than a member of Congress would automatically vote for an appropriation simply because it helps a campaign contributor. We are arguing that...

The Commission on Presidential Debates is downplaying a new report by the conservative website 'The Daily Caller' about President Barack Obama's ties to Martha Raddatz, the moderator of tomorrow night's vice presidential debate. The article, currently atop Drudge Report, notes that Obama worked on the Harvard Law Review with Julius Genachowski, whom Obama would later appoint chair of the Federal Communications Commission, and was a guest at his 1991 wedding to Raddatz -- raising accusations that Raddatz has a conflict of interest heading into tomorrow's debate, despite the fact that Raddatz has long-since divorced Genachowski and remarried. (Also on POLITICO:...

Posted By Bryan Preston On October 10, 2012 @ 8:29 am In media,Politics | 52 Comments The Daily Caller has a disturbing story up today. The outline goes like this: The moderator of Thursday's vice presidential debate is Martha Raddatz of ABC News. She is the network's senior foreign correspondent, and she is the sole moderator of the veep debate, which will center on foreign policy.Raddatz has a connection with Barack Obama going all the way back to their days at Harvard. They worked on the Harvard Law Review together, and Obama attended her 1991 wedding. Fast forward to the...

ABC News told the Daily Caller Wednesday that vice presidential debate moderator and ABC News senior foreign correspondent Martha Raddatz was not at President Barack Obama’s wedding to Michelle in 1992. The news outlet, however, did not deny that Raddatz was invited to the Obama wedding when asked. Raddatz’s then husband, Julius Genachowski, was in attendance..An earlier investigation by TheDC revealed that Obama attended Raddatz’s wedding the year prior when she married Genachowski

Barack Obama was a guest at the 1991 wedding of ABC senior foreign correspondent and vice presidential debate moderator Martha Raddatz, The Daily Caller has learned. Obama and groom Julius Genachowski, whom Obama would later tap to head the Federal Communications Commission, were Harvard Law School classmates at the time and members of the Harvard Law Review. After TheDC made preliminary inquiries Monday to confirm Obama’s attendance at the wedding, ABC leaked a pre-emptive statement to liberal-leaning news outlets including Politico and The Daily Beast Tuesday, revealing what may have been internal network pressure felt just days before Raddatz was...

The origins of the ‘Obama phone’ A viral video flying around the Internet in the last week of September introduced America to the “Obama Phone Lady,” an angry woman with a shrill voice who turned up at an Ohio rally for the Republican presidential candidate and snarled, “Romney sucks!” Asked why she supported Obama, she rattled off a list of benefits, including: “Everybody in Cleveland minorities got Obama phones! Keep Obama in President, you know? He gave us a phone!”Her in-your-face determination to hang on to government benefits rankled taxpaying Americans. But the most widespread immediate response to the video...