An Open Letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr An unsolicited plea for dignity, from a former FCC Chief Counsel.

Damn. No punches getting pulled here.

chkbal.substack.com/p/an-open-le...

The Federal Government Used Jawboning to Censor ICE Transparency Initiatives--Rosado v. Bondi blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/202...

Ouch.

FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez issued the following statement today after the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California issued a preliminary injunction halting the unlawful Nexstar-TEGNA merger

🚨 NEWS: A federal court issued a preliminary injunction halting the unlawful Nexstar-TEGNA merger.

This is an important step toward ensuring that decisions of this magnitude are made with consumers in mind, not billion-dollar companies cutting backroom deals out of public view. 🧵

FCC Commissioner @agomezfcc.bsky.social releases a statement on the Nexstar-Tegna Court Ruling that stalls the merger.

docs.fcc.gov/public/attac...

Nexstar-Tegna Deal Blocked Amid DirecTV, AGs' Challenge www.law360.com/california/a...

A tweet from Pope Leo XIV that reads: “When simulation becomes the norm, it weakens the human capacity for discernment. As a result, our social bonds close in upon themselves, forming self-referential circuits that no longer expose us to reality. We thus come to live within bubbles, impermeable to one another. Feeling threatened by anyone who is different, we grow unaccustomed to encounter and dialogue. In this way, polarization, conflict, fear and violence spread. What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth.”

Apparently the Pope has read Baudrillard.

The regular law people I interact with are here for the most part, although there are a few stragglers over at the dark place.

In my case, I find @FCC policy people who agree with Carr there now, but there's still some First Amendment people hanging onto their Bluecheck.

I think it would be hard to even assemble an unbiased jury for a criminal trial in Minnesota in ICE, DHS or CBP cases, especially pulling from the Twin Cities metro.

Everyone was impacted or knew someone who was.

Amazing summary.

Kudos to @emptywheel.bsky.social for pulling these documents and assembling this.

FCC releases guidance document on Lowest Unit Charge and §315 provisions ahead of election year.

There's no significant changes, despite the agency and Carr's actions on the bona fide news exception elements of §315 earlier this year.

docs.fcc.gov/public/attac...

Umm...this one is not tough.

Transcript: Senators Press FTC Members on Independence from Trump at Hearing Senate Democrats pressed Trump's FTC on maintaining independence from Trump at an oversight hearing in Washington, DC.

Senate Democrats pressed Republicans on the Federal Trade Commission on to what extent their enforcement has been independent from President Trump at an oversight hearing this week. Here are the key moments and a transcript from the session.

Judge sides with creators of banned ICE trackers who allege DHS and DOJ violated their First Amendment rights The Trump administration coerced platforms into removing ICE monitoring projects such as ICE Sightings - Chicagoland and the Eyes Up app, the lawsuit alleges.

👀

Anthropic Code Crisis Creates Copyright Contradiction For publishers, authors, and other creators, the schadenfreude might feel well-earned, writes James Ball. But is it justified?

Anthropic has been scrambling to prevent unauthorised copies of its code circulating online being used to improve rivals' AI models.

That's quite the irony, given its own use of pirated books to train its own early models. I dug into it for @techpolicypress.bsky.social:

@corbinkbarthold.bsky.social is an amazing writer and his argument about why AI output must be treated as speech is persuasive.

“Above all, both conservatives and liberals should recoil at the idea of a government controlled by their political opponents dictating what AI can and cannot say.”

Tremendous good news for American consumers, local TV journalists and also much-needed pushback against FCC Chairman Carr’s abuse-of-power.

#NexstarTEGNA

h/t @thedesk.net

Oh Look, The MAGA FTC Built The Censorship Industrial Complex It Was Screaming About We’ve been covering the Trump administration’s escalating campaign against NewsGuard for a while now. It started with the House Oversight Committee’s absurd investigation of the c…

One of the best pieces I’ve seen on the omnishambles of the FTC, by @masnick.com

www.techdirt.com/2026/04/16/o...

The ABA received 47 comments asking it to retain or strengthen its law school diversity rule and only two comments supporting a repeal during a 30-day public comment period. The rule requires law schools to demonstrate their commitment to diversity reut.rs/4cz7PXR

Bar chart showing how teens who use TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram assess each platform's effect on their sleep, productivity, mental health and friendships. The chart is based on a fall 2025 Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17.

Teens who use TikTok say it's more hurtful than helpful for their sleep and productivity, but more helpful than hurtful for their mental health and friendships. www.pewresearch.org/internet/202...

Chocolate rations are up.

Build the windmill.

All animals are equal but some animals are more equal.

Oceania was always at war with Eurasia.

High gas prices are necessary...citizen!

Brendan Carr Cooking Up New Sham Investigation Of Jimmy Kimmel

As the boss of the country's media and telecom regulators, there's plenty of corporate malfeasance and corrupt shenanigans Brendan Carr could be targeting on any given day at the country's biggest media and telecom companies. But…

Broadband Shorts April 2026 The following are topics I found to be interesting but which didn’t justify an entire blog: Update on the Telecom Act? Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), Chairman of the House Committee on En…

Broadband Shorts April 2026 potsandpansbyccg.com/2026/04/17/b...

What parents say about their teen’s uses of social media | Pew Research Center About this research This study is Pew Research Center’s latest effort to explore the landscape of teens and technology today. It focuses on social media and how the views and…

What parents say about their teen’s uses of social media

www.pewresearch.org/internet/202...

Citizens Group Says 27 States Are Eyeing AI Chatbot Laws www.law360.com/classaction/...

Nvidia Fights Uphill For Big Trim Of Authors' AI Copyright Suit www.law360.com/classaction/...

AI Music Generator Can't Duck DMCA Claim www.law360.com/ip/articles/...

AGs' Win Over Live Nation Leaves DOJ Watching From The Side www.law360.com/trials/artic...

The Right Wing Origins Age Verification Laws Don’t Disappear Just Because They’re Going Bipartisan. I think it’s important to understand that, despite claims to the contrary, age verification is, inherently, a right-wing effort. While it’s currently true that age verification laws are…

"All 26 states that enacted porn age-verification laws as of 2026 voted Republican in the 2024 presidential election, indicating a strong geographic overlap with red states. While I do hold that this doesn’t suggest strong ideological clustering, it shows a strong partisan alignment."

Would you want Brendan Carr to be the arbiter of FD complaints? If so, please unfollow me. If not, you see the risk.

The FD only required that stations carried discussions of public issues, and when those issues could be seen as controversial that the station permitted more than one viewpoint.