Anyone with a transaction before the FCC should "move with all deliberate speed" to identify and end "any invidious forms" of diversity, equity and inclusion discrimination at their company, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a Policyband interview published Monday. Asked about the Department of Government Efficiency auditing the FCC, Carr said the agency is "doing a soup-to-nuts review" of its multimillion-dollar contracts. "I'm confident there is a lot of fat at the FCC that we'll be able to trim." Carr said the FCC is "somewhat differently situated" from some other regulatory agencies -- the Communications Act doesn't include for-cause removal protection of FCC commissioners -- and it's "aligned with the policies" in the executive order directing the FCC and other federal agencies to submit for review all proposed and final regulatory actions to the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs before they appear in the Federal Register (see 2502180069).
An FCC advisory opinion on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act would be “a fool's errand” and should be “DOA,” Commissioner Anna Gomez said Sunday in a thread on X responding to a New York Post report that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is planning to act on 230 soon. “The FCC should not be in the business of controlling online speech,” Gomez said. “Congress and the courts must quickly step in to stop this unlawful power grab.”
Public broadcasting is facing the “most significant” funding challenge it has seen in 30 years, America's Public Television Stations President Kate Riley said Monday at the APTS 2025 Public Media Summit in Washington. Congressional efforts to defund public media are “predictable threats” but grant-freezing executive orders and the FCC's investigation of NPR and PBS stations are “unpredictable threats,” Riley told the “fly-in” gathering of PBS station managers.
Boeing adds Jeff Shockey, formerly RTX, to its executive council as executive vice president-government operations, global public policy and corporate strategy … Greenberg Traurig adds Kathryne Dickerson, ex-Wiley, as shareholder in its telecommunications group.
The DOJ will no longer defend removal protections for administrative law judges, said Chad Mizelle, its chief of staff, in a release Thursday. The FCC has one administrative law judge, Jane Halprin. “Unelected and constitutionally unaccountable ALJs have exercised immense power for far too long,” Mizelle said. “In accordance with Supreme Court precedent, the Department is restoring constitutional accountability so that Executive Branch officials answer to the President and to the people.” The FCC has said in court filings (see 2304140058) that if its ALJ were declared unconstitutional, its ability to hold hearings wouldn’t be affected because FCC rules allow commissioners to preside over them. Standard General raised arguments that the FCC ALJ is unconstitutional during the hearing proceeding over its blocked purchase of Tegna in 2023.
The outlook is uncertain about whether President Donald Trump will attempt to fire Democratic members of the FCC, as the administration asserts its authority over “so-called independent” agencies (see 2502190073). It’s unclear whether the FCC and its Democratic members, Anna Gomez and Geoffrey Starks, are in Trump’s sights, but no one is taking anything for granted from the current administration, industry experts said. Gomez is emerging as the more outspoken critic of the regime under Chairman Brendan Carr, especially on media items (see 2502200023).
Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition appoints Joseph Wender, ex-Treasury, executive director, succeeding John Windhausen … Tubi Media Group expands role of CEO Paul Cheesbrough to include chairman-Red Seat Ventures, new post ... Morgan Lewis adds Heather Egan and Hannah Levin, both ex-Orrick, as partners-cybersecurity, incident response, privacy and information management practice... NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free retires.
Carrier executives are managing their networks using AI, but progress is slow, with nearly 60% saying that only 20% or less is now managed by AI, according to a new Mobile World Live survey. Just 10% said AI systems are already managing more than 50% percent of their networks. Traffic prediction and anomaly detection were the top uses for AI, at 47% each, the survey found, followed by predictive maintenance (33%) and energy consumption (25%). Slice management came in at 16%, digital twinning 13%. Among the reasons for slow deployment, 50% cited skill gaps, 49% said data and model security concerns, and 39% said cost. Asked which AI tools they would deploy first, the largest portion of respondents, 49%, said network troubleshooting. Customer engagement pilots came in second at 42%.
The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition announced Thursday that Joseph Wender, who led the Capital Projects Fund at the Treasury Department, has been named executive director. Wender replaces John Windhausen, who announced in December he was leaving after 16 years (see 2412130048). Wender is also a former staffer to Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. “This is a crucial moment in our nation’s efforts to promote broadband deployment and adoption,” Wender said in a statement. “Connectivity is the foundation of modern education, healthcare, and economic opportunity for kids, families, and communities.”
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez condemned the FCC investigations of broadcast networks as "weaponization" of the FCC's authority, while the Center for American Rights called for the agency to investigate diversity initiatives at CBS.