A few days ago, two of the four voting members of the FCC were far from Washington, D.C. Chairman Ajit Pai was speaking at a conference in Panama; Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel was at a placid New England lake.
On Wednesday afternoon, they joined Commissioners Brendan Carr and Mike O’Reilly inside the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill for a long-awaited FCC Oversight Hearing at which leading House Energy & Commerce Committee Democrats assailed President Trump for a late-night Tweet on Tuesday that slammed the FCC for having an Administrative Law Judge consider Sinclair Broadcast Group‘s proposed merger with Tribune Media instead of moving forward with the deal’s approval.
All four voting members of the Commission were asked if they agreed with Trump’s Tweet.
The mention of Trump’s tweet was perhaps the most headline-grabbing of the statements made by House E&C Committee leadership, and of the Commissioners in opening statements that took up more than half of the hearing’s first hour.
On Tuesday evening, the President took to his favorite social media sounding post to deliver the following missive to Pai, Rosenworcel, Carr and O’Rielly:
House E&C Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Ranking Member Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania, a frequent critic of the President, slammed Trump for interjecting his opinion into the Sinclair-Tribune merger and expressed his hope that the Commissioners would not be swayed by the White House and act to vote on a merger and scrub the ALJ hearings that may doom the deal.
On Twitter, Rosenworcel responded to Trump with one word: Disagree.
Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone of New Jersey commented on the Trump Tweet in comments made one hour into the hearing.
“The only thing I find disgraceful is that the president is still trying to undermine the integrity of dedicated journalists by blatantly trying to enrich his friends and amplify his message at the expense of local news across the country,” Pallone said.
He then turned to the four voting members of the FCC and asked, “Do you agree with the president’s Tweet?”
“Congressman, I stand by our decison,” Pai responded.
O’Rielly did not answer. “That issue has been referred,” he explained in not offering a response to Pallone.
Carr explained that the Hearing Designation Order lays out “the facts and the law as applied, in our view.” Rosenworcel reiterated her one-word comment made on Twitter, saying, “I do not agree with that.”
Pallone then returned to questioning Pai, asking if, given the president’s politicization of the Sinclair-Tribune merger, he would commit to a comprehensive and thorough review of the proposed transaction by the ALJ “insulated” from the president or anyone purporting to speak on his behalf. Pai explained that the HDO has already been issued and affirmed this would occur.
In his opening comments, Pallone noted he was dismayed by other actions under consideration by “the Trump FCC.” This includes an effort, Pallone said, “to roll back rules that limit advertising to children and require stations to air educational programming for kids.” Speaking about the FCC’s proposed revisions to its children’s television programming, or “KidVid,” rules, which saw the July 12 approval of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on “modernization” of these rules, Pallone noted, “If the agency was serious about focusing on consumers, it would want to help parents searching for quality educational programming and shield children, not make them easier targets for big business.”
Pallone also took a swipe at the Sinclair-Tribune deal’s fate by noting, “While the Commission rightfully acknowledged that Sinclair’s proposed merger and related divestures may violate the law, the rollback of the media ownership rules opens the door for the next Sinclair.”
NINE MONTHS LATER
Wednesday’s FCC Oversight Hearing came seven weeks after Pallone and Doyle asked the House E&C Committee’s Republican leadership to reschedule a hearing originally scheduled for February 16.
Rosenworcel was pleased to be on Capitol Hill. “Nine months is a long time,” she said in her opening remarks. “It’s the equivalent of a school year.”
She offered a equivalent of a quick year-end report, one that focused on the topics that largely dominated the hearing: rural broadband and closing the digital divide, along with 5G rollout.
Rosenworcel also offered a quick thought of her own on the Sinclair-Tribune proposed deal.
“When I last appeared before you nine months ago, I alone expressed concern about how the agency had bent and twisted so many of its media policies to serve the business plans of this one company,” she said. “This changed last week when the agency adopted an order designating the proposed Sinclair-Tribune transaction for hearing. I want thank my colleagues—and the Chairman in particular—for the effort to reach consensus on this matter.”
In his opening statement, Chairman Pai spoke of the RAY BAUM’s Act, which includes a provision which “corrected a technical problem” involving deposits for spectrum auctions that prevented the Commission from moving forward with large auctions, and thanked the Committee for its efforts to sign off on the legislation.
He also spoke about 5G technology, and of how the FCC “returned to the successful light-touch regulatory framework under which the Internet flourished in the United States from 1996 to 2015.”
With that, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R.-Tenn.), who chairs the Subcommittee on Technology and Communications, called for a recess due to a floor vote for House Members.
Once resumed, the discussion was expected to weave toward such topics as the enhancement of public safety technologies and alerts, and the strengthening of U.S. national security.
