Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.
- The federal government shutdown continues for its sixth week, and most FCC employees are not working. There have been some signs that the political parties in Washington are looking for way to resolve the current impasse, so if you have applications that could not be filed because of the shutdown, be watching developments closely to see when it may be possible to submit those applications. Broadcasters also need to be ready to update their online public inspection files with documents that were due during the shutdown, which in many states will include many political file documents relating to this past Tuesday’s elections. These will be due the day after the day that the FCC reopens. See our special update posted on our Broadcast Law Blog for a discussion of some of the issues that may arise once the FCC reopens.
- In an SEC filing, Tegna revealed that the US Department of Justice has issued a “second request” for documents about its proposed sale to Nexstar. A second request signals that the DOJ has additional questions about the antitrust issues raised by the proposed combination of these two television operators. These second requests usually entail significant document production and written responses to DOJ questions, thus slowing DOJ action on its review of the transaction. While a second request is not unusual, many if not most large acquisitions and mergers are approved based on the initial filings.
- Some Democrats suggested that the FCC should conduct a review of last weekend’s 60 Minutes interview of President Trump suggesting that, if there are issues about “news distortion” from the 60 Minutes editing of the interview with then Vice President Harris just before last year’s Presidential election, the editing of the interview with President Trump raised similar issues. We provided information here, here, here, and here in notes about the still-pending news distortion complaints about the Harris interview
On our Broadcast Law Blog, we published our regular look ahead at regulatory dates and deadlines for broadcasters in the upcoming month – though noting that dates in November and early December could be affected should the government shutdown continue.
