Potential FCC Actions Against “Fake News”: The News Distortion Policy and the Broadcast Hoax Rule

President Donald Trump has threatened to revoke broadcasters’ licenses for airing what he calls “fake news.” While many dismissed his threat as empty, the FCC does have a news distortion policy and a broadcast hoax rule, either of which might be used to target fake news stories. Both the policy and the rule require elements in addition to the falsity of a story for a violation to have occurred, which narrow their applicability and help limit any chilling effect they might have. These narrowing elements also make it likely the policy and rule would both survive First Amendment scrutiny, but also make it unlikely they could be used to target the types of stories Trump complains about the most.     

Defining A Product Market for Spanish-Language Broadcast Media: Lessons from United States v. Univision Communications,Inc. and Hispanic Broadcasting

In 2003, a media merger with dramatic content and policy implications went largely unnoticed. Little attention was paid to the transaction because it did not affect the majority; it affected the largest minority population in the United States: Hispanics. Although up to 65% of Hispanics prefer Spanish-language media, most broadcast media now come from one corporation, Univision. In approving the consolidation of Univision and Hispanic Broadcasting, the FCC ignored product market findings by the Department of Justice as well as its own policy precedent, which includes numerous exceptions for Spanish programming to promote content and ownership diversity. Consistent with the FCC's mandate to protect the public interest, a demand-side analysis is undertaken, positioning the audience as consumer. Industry evidence, product market thresholds, and ownership rules are applied to United States v. Univision, Inc. and Hispanic Broadcasting, with the conclusion that a separate product market must exist for Spanish language broadcast media.     

An Analysis of Policy‐Based Congressional Responses to the U.S. Supreme Court's Constitutional Decisions

While Congress can attempt to overrule constitutional decisions of the Supreme Court by initiating the constitutional amendment process, an amendment is rarely a practicable option. Instead, Congress regularly tries to modify the impact of constitutional decisions with ordinary legislation. I analyze policy‐based responses to the Supreme Court's constitutional decisions that were initiated in Congress between 1995 and 2010. For each responsive proposal, I consider the relationship between the proposed legislation and the Court's legal holding and the relationship between the proposal and the public policy associated with the Court's decision. I find that Congress enjoys considerable success in reversing the policy impacts of the Court's decisions but is limited in its ability to overcome the Court's legal rules.     

列宁新闻思想简论

本文略述了列宁在无产阶级革命活动和党政领导事务中,所从事的报刊实践;概括和论述了他根据无产阶级革命和俄国当时实际的需要,对新闻工作所做的指示以及对无产阶级新闻宣传事业所做的理论思考。文章通过具体论著总结了列宁的无产阶级新闻思想。列宁新闻思想上继马克思、恩格斯新闻思想,下启中国党的三代领导核心的新闻思想。我们党历来强调的新闻的指导方针、新闻的党性原则、新闻的组织功能、新闻的舆论导向、新闻的宣传作用、新闻的群众路线、新闻的服务意识以及新闻工作与党在一定时期的目标一致性、新闻工作要为反映和指导经济建设服务的方针、新闻宣传必须具有群众喜闻乐见的新闻文风等等,都源于列宁新闻思想的精髓。列宁新闻思想是马克思主义新闻观最为重要的内容之一,其蕴涵的当代价值有着巨大的生命力,对21世纪的无产阶级新闻传播事业仍然具有指路明灯的作用。     

Explaining the Role of Restrictive Rules in the Postreform House

Abstract Four competing explanations have emerged regarding restrictive rules in Congress. Informational theory claims that rules reduce information costs and facilitate committee specialization. The distributional perspective suggests that rules enforce legislative bargains and help members achieve gains‐from‐trade. Another claim is that rules increase the Rules Committee's independent influence over policy. Lastly, partisan theory asserts that rules are used to increase the majority party's influence over policy. Abstract This analysis tests these claims during the 97th, 98th, 104th, and 105th Congresses. The findings demonstrate that theoretical constructs developed in earlier analyses of special rules are not robust over time and across legislative contexts. The results refute majoritarian assertions that rules are used as informational devices. Similarly, little evidence supports the claim that Rules Committee preferences independently affect rule assignment. Instead, a partisan principal‐agent framework emerges as the most useful construct to explain procedural choice in the postreform House.     

The Representation of Two Competing Visions on the Fundamentals of Copyright: A Content Analysis of Associated Press News Coverage on Copyright, 2004–2009

The importance of the public's understanding of copyright has increased in the digital age, and mainstream media play a significant role in informing the public of copyright law and policy. This study identifies two competing visions on the fundamentals of copyright—the private property vision and the public policy vision—and examines which vision is more predominantly covered by mainstream news media via a quantitative content analysis of Associated Press wire service stories on copyright. The findings suggest that, although the number of sources favoring copyright users’ rights has somewhat increased in the most recent two years, overall the private property vision has been more dominantly covered than the public policy vision in the AP news stories. The study concludes that the mainstream media coverage on copyright needs to move toward a more balanced point where both sides of the debate have an equal chance to present their views.     

UK government's Open Standards Consultation – A step in the wrong direction?

This paper comments on UK government's Open Standards Consultation which opened on 7 February 2012. It questions the UK government's mandating of open standards defined as standards which include patents licensed on a royalty free basis. The paper suggests that instead of promoting a level playing field, the government's policy will actually restrict competition and hinder interoperability. This policy is contrary to EU policy in a number of different fields which have all accepted, despite significant in-depth debate on this issue, that the best way to ensure the most effective competition, innovation and interoperability is to allow both royalty free patents and royalty bearing patents to compete provided the latter are licensed on FRAND terms. Lastly the paper suggests that the public procurement rules are not the place to apply industrial policy, instead a full market analysis should be conducted involving other government departments such as BIS and the IPO.     

Presidential Support in the Russian State Duma

Recent comparative research on presidential systems has analyzed the ways in which presidents build majorities for their legislative agendas. Through an analysis of roll‐call votes from the 2000‐03 Russian State Duma on a set of issues reflecting President Putin's legislative agenda, I examine the impact of parliamentary party affiliation, policy preferences, issue type, and electoral mandate type on structuring floor support for the president. I also assess the implications of a mixed electoral system for building legislative coalitions in multiparty legislatures. Further, my findings shed light on Putin's recent reforms of the Duma's rules and procedures and the country's electoral system.     

Government‐operated public broadcast stations and candidates' access to political debates

Under the Communications Act's equal opportunity requirement and FCC interpretations of that provision, licensees can choose which political candidates to include in a broadcast debate. However, a 1994 decision by a federal appellate court has clouded the ability of public broadcast stations licensed to government entities to exclude particular candidates. According to the court, such stations, as a form of state action, generate a limited First Amendment right on the part of candidates to demand inclusion in a broadcast debate. This article examines the unique constitutional questions raised by the court's decision. An assessment of the competing rights and interests of candidates, stations licensed to government entities and the public indicates that such stations should provide access to political debates.     

Health news and the American public, 1996-2002

The Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health Health News Index, a series of 39 surveys with a total of over 42,000 respondents from 1996 through 2002, measures how closely Americans follow major health stories in the news and what they understand about the issues covered in those stories. On average, four in ten adults reported following health news stories closely. The public reports paying the most attention to stories about public health, followed by health policy and disease-related stories. While knowledge about health news varies, individuals who follow health news stories closely are significantly more likely to give the correct answer to knowledge questions about those stories.     

Beyond Cynicism: A Review of the FCC's Reasoning for Modifying the Newspaper/Broadcast Cross-Ownership Rule

In 1975, the FCC established the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule prohibiting common ownership of a daily newspaper and a full-power broadcast station that serve the same city. Unpopular among owners of media conglomerates since its inception, the rule has remained at the heart of the contentious debate over media ownership consolidation. More than three years after its failed attempt to justify modification in Prometheus Radio v. FCC, the FCC has again voted to change the rule. This article reviews the Report & Order, assessing the Commission's central arguments used to justify its position and posits that these arguments are largely unsubstantiated. The Commission clings to contestable assertions and stakeholder comments, while ignoring extensive empirical data that refute each claim. The lack of empirical evidence presented to justify such a major (and unpopular) decision suggests that the FCC might have been motivated by a neo-liberal agenda and/or influenced by the corporate media lobby.     

The European Union's approach to online behavioural advertising: Protecting individuals or restricting business?

The European Union (EU) has firmly set its stall out to protect individuals' data and privacy and has demonstrated this through the rejection of the old opt-out regime and the introduction of the new opt-in rules. These require businesses to obtain individual's prior and informed consent before their data are collected, stored and used for the purposes of online behavioural advertising (OBA). Individuals in the EU are afforded protection from the apparent dangers relating to data privacy and misuse that is associated with OBA, which is beyond the expectation of most Internet users. However, there are some criticisms levelled at the law that the EU has produced. Is simply gaining informed consent sufficient for protecting all types of information? Do certain types of information require a higher level of consent than others? Does the law fulfil its aim of protecting data subject's privacy and data? Is the current law restrictive to business? Do individuals know or care that their information is being collected for the purposes of targeted advertising and is there a better way to ensure that they do? Finally, will proposed new law to be found in the EU Data Protection Regulation solve any of these problems? This article will assess whether, as a policy decision, the EU's current approach has been too cautious in its attempts to protect individuals or restrict business.     

Secrecy and Seclusion: Developments in Privacy Insurance Law

Privacy has become big news. Our society has an epidemic of identity theft, loss of personal data, blast faxing, and data mining. The wave of new privacy litigation has led to a wave of privacy insurance litigation, particularly with respect to coverage for blast faxes—unsolicited and unwanted facsimiles which bombard businesses and individuals. The main debate results from the fact that while the advertising injury section of the general liability policy provides some coverage for invasion of privacy, the new privacy causes of action do not necessarily fit the insurance policy's coverage. For example, while blast faxes invade the recipient's privacy or seclusion, insurers assert that the faxes do not involve the publication of secret material. To meet this problem, insurers are writing new tech or cyber policies that provide far more expansive coverage for privacy.     

The Cost of Majority‐Party Bias: Amending Activity under Structured Rules

All major legislation in the House necessitates a special rule from the Rules Committee before it can be brought to the chamber floor. These rules often strictly limit floor amendments to bills considered by the House. Scholars of political parties have argued that the House majority party can bias policy output away from the floor median through its usage of restrictive rules. In this article, we argue that in order to secure the passage of restrictive rules, the majority often makes concessions to centrist legislators through the amending process. We examine this theory using a newly collected data set that includes all amendments considered by the Rules Committee during the construction of structured rules in the 109th, 110th, and 111th Congresses (2005–2010). Our results are mixed, but they do suggest that moderate members of the majority party often receive concessions via amendments for their support of the majority party's agenda‐setting regime.     

法院地国家国内法中的冲突规则与国际条约的关系

法院地国家国内法中的冲突规则和已对该国生效的国际条约中的冲突规则同属该国国际私法的渊源。多数国家的国际私法制定法均有优先适用国际条约中的冲突规则的规定,但其国际私法分则对国际条约中的冲突规则的处理方式则主要有三种不同的立法模式。在裁判涉外民事案件的实践中,实体法解决办法有别于冲突法解决办法,仅在案件不符合国际统一实体私法条约的适用条件的情形下,才能依法院地国家国内法的冲突规则确定准据法。涉外合同的双方当事人选择已对法院地国家和其他缔约国生效的国际条约并不等于选择了合同准据法。而如果涉外合同的双方当事人选择了尚未对法院地国家生效、但已对两个或两个以上其他国家生效的国际条约,则只能视为对无法律约束力的“非国家规则” 的选择。由于“程序问题适用法院地法”,涉外民事案件的程序事项既不适用冲突规则,也不适用实体私法规则。法院地国家国内法的冲突规则不会同国际条约中的国际民事程序法规则发生抵触。     

The Human Rights Clause in the European Union's External Trade and Development Agreements

Abstract: Since 1992, the European Union (EU) has included in all its agreements with third countries a clause defining respect for human rights and democracy as an ‘essential element’ of its external relationship. A Council decision of May 1995 spells out the basic modalities of this clause, with the aim of ensuring consistency in the text used and its application. The human rights clause is unique to the EU's bilateral agreements, and now applies to over 120 countries. It represents a new model for EU external relations as well as for international cooperation. The EU plays a leading role in the WTO and international economic relations. The human rights clause will have implications for the development of international rules concerning trade‐related human rights policy.     

Free Speech,Crime, and the Challenge of Advancing Technology

Speech technology has developed rapidly and has taken many different forms. One form of this technology, the internet, poses a difficult challenge for society because of the way that it provides children with easy access to various forms of 'indecent' material. US courts have struggled with the problem of how to reconcile the internet, and other more advanced technologies, with traditional First Amendment free speech doctrine. For many years, US courts distinguished between so-called 'traditional forms' of technology, and other forms of technology, in particular broadcast technology. While the courts have always provided strong protections for traditional forms of technology, they have provided less protection to broadcast technology. Importantly, the internet challenges the dichotomy between 'traditional' technology and broadcast technology, and has forced the US Supreme Court to reconsider its precedents relating to technology. This reconsideration has made it more difficult to regulate the internet for the 'health, welfare and morals' of society. This paper analyses the scope of government authority in light of recent precedent.     

Information Conduits or Content Developers? Determining Whether News Portals Should Enjoy Blanket Immunity from Defamation Suits

News portals should be held to the same standard of liability for defamation as other news media. Internet service providers (ISPs) enjoy blanket immunity from liability for defamation under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, while information content providers (ICPs) might not. Some courts have indicated, however, that a defendant who participates in developing third-party content should be classified as an ICP and thus be held liable. Confusion over the difference between an ISP and an ICP is applied to the case of news portals. This study investigates to what extent news portals should enjoy immunity from liability for defamation. To determine a news portal's exposure to liability, a continuum of involvement is proposed as a standard in which liability is based on a defendant's actions and not on the medium employed. A defendant's involvement with third-party content can be classified under the four levels of the continuum, which can guide courts in deciding whether a defendant is liable. Congress should amend Section 230 to incorporate the continuum and allow courts discretion in determining whether a defendant is immune from liability.     

The Log in Your Eye: Is Europe's External Promotion of Religious Freedom Consistent With its Internal Practice?

The commitment of the EU to the external promotion of the respect for human rights allegedly distinguishes its foreign policy from that of traditional powers. Yet there is the perception that EU's statements are not always consistent with internal practices. This article analyses one set of EU's inconsistencies that has not been sufficiently studied: the discrepancy between internal and external human rights standards. The article focuses on the promotion and protection of freedom of religion or belief, which has become a priority of the EU's foreign policy. It is submitted that the EU's external position generally reflects values common to the Member States, but is sometimes contradicted by the practice of domestic authorities. The human rights standards identified in the EU's foreign policy may arguably serve as a reference for legal reform and the interpretation of fundamental rights in Europe.