Pai Creamed

Although a virtual lack of media attention on the Internet neutrality issue these days would have you believe that the Internet deregulation sought and won by Federal Commutations Commission  (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai is a done deal, pushback against Pai is gaining steam . . . even within the FCC itself.   And not just for the FCC's repeal of the neutrality regulation.

It seems that Uncle Charlie's own inspector general is looking into Pai's dealings with Sinclair Broadcasting Group, a conservative media company that owns several local TV stations across the country - many of which are network affiliates, meaning that Sinclair stations in numerous markets can pre-empt any national network program they do not like in favor of, say, a locally produced cooking show.  Or a documentary against single-payer health insurance. According to the New York Times, Pai may have had improper contacts with Sinclair before he became FCC chairman and may have committed improper acts to facilitate Sinclair's takeover of Chicago-based Tribune Media, which owns the Chicago Tribune and several television stations across the country.

FreePress.net reports that Sinclair, already the largest owner of TV stations in the United States, had a close relationship with Donald Trump throughout the 2016 campaign and that that Trump even brokered a deal for favorable news coverage from the company's various newscasts. "Since his appointment as FCC chairman," FreePress.net says, "Pai has worked overtime to clear the decks for Sinclair’s purchase of Tribune: He’s reduced the agency’s longstanding media-ownership limits and overturned rules that required broadcasters to maintain physical studios wherever they broadcast."

Tribune Media, by the way, owns WPIX-TV, broadcasting on Channel 11, in New York.  If Sinclair gets its hands on this station, Yankees home baseball games may be the only New  York-based programming you see on it.  

Meanwhile, thanks to the efforts of Senator Susan Collins of Maine - a Republican - fifty senators have endorsing a resolution that would reverse the FCC's repeal of Net neutrality; if one more senator signs on, and it will pass in that chamber.  Momentum to reverse the repeal is gaining in the House, and even though Trump could easily ignore or block the repeal, the growing hostility against Pai cannot be denied.

And as if that weren't enough, New Jersey's new governor, Phil Murphy, just signed an executive order that requires Internet service providers doing business in New Jersey to recognize Net neutrality principles in order to do business with the state government, making New Jersey the third state that requires Internet service providers "adhere to the principles of net neutrality" if they want a contract to do business with the state.  New Jersey also became the twenty-second state to join a lawsuit against the repeal. 

I'm pleased to report that I have had no Web site access issues with my Internet service provider.  Access to my e-mail, on the other hand, has been a different story - its e-mail server keeps going down.  Maybe I should make my Yahoo e-mail account my primary one . . . 

Okay, I guess I can go back to the Winter Olympics now . . .