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Comcast recently announced plans to spin off its entertainment businesses. The newly created NBCUniversal will include the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, Bravo, Peacock, the European media business Sky, along with theme parks and other businesses. The Peacock subsidiary has been actively buying rights to sporting events. Comcast had begun the spinoff of entertainment subsidiaries early this year when it spun off cable networks, including MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, E!, Syfy, Oxygen, the Golf Channels, and digital brands like Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes into the Versant Media Group. A Comcast shareholder will get a share of each new business. Comcast says it will retain a 19.9% share in NBCUniversal for at least a year. The post-split Comcast will retain the core broadband, cellular, and cable TV business lines
On July 15, 2026, Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a decision that could revive a federal grant program the President declared dead more than a year ago. In National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) v. Trump (Civil Action No. 25-3606), the court held that the Digital Equity Act of 2021 contains an unconstitutional racial classification, but that this single flaw does not doom the law. The court concluded that the relevant provision, which directs consideration of “individuals who are members of a racial or ethnic minority group” in awarding grants, can be ignored without impairing the operation of the rest of the statute (in legal parlance, “severed”). Thus, NDIA's claim to otherwise restore the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program survives, minus any consideration of the race or ethnicity of the people the grant projects serve. Most importantly for the cities, nonprofits, and digital inclusion practitioners who applied for—and in some cases won—Competitive Grant Program funds: the court relied upon the government’s submission that it would "now commit[] to restoring the Competitive Grant Program upon receiving this judicial determination." This is a ruling on the government's motion to dismiss the entire case, not a final judgment. The court has not ordered the program restored; it has held that the remaining aspects of NDIA's challenge may go forward. However, the resolution of the constitutional question essentially addresses the government's stated reason for ending the program.
Today’s blog is about a report titled The Blueprint for Equitable Digital Participation that was sponsored by Public Knowledge, UnidosUS, and NDIA. It’s a lengthy report that takes a deep dive into issues related to digital inclusion and digital equity and looks at the problems experienced by homes that don’t have or can’t afford broadband.
Twelve state attorneys general have sued to block the corrupt and illegal merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery. Here’s what will happen next. On July 13, 12 state attorneys general sued to block the proposed $111 billion merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery. California Attorney General Rob Bonta led the multistate lawsuit, joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington. “The unlawful merger of these two entertainment behemoths would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for film and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and ultimately, audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the U.S.,” Bonta said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. How we got here Free Press has worked with incredible allies to drive opposition to this merger, which would create a media colossus with CBS, CNN, HBO, Nickelodeon and the Warner Bros. and Paramount film studios — among other major media properties — all under one roof. We’ve helped steward a broad coalition of First Amendment advocates, unions, consumer-rights groups, and Hollywood actors and directors.
Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison and his tech billionaire dad Larry Ellison have been sued by a Paramount shareholder who alleges they cut an "illegal" deal with President Donald Trump to secure U.S. governmental approval for the takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The U.S. Supreme Court June 29 ruling upholding President Trump’s authority to fire Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) let loose a barrage of doom-and-gloom warnings: The president would be even more powerful. Chaos would ensue, businesses would be crippled and the economy might collapse with this supposed expansion of presidential power. That is disappointing nonsense. There are not now, and never have been, independent government regulators. The balance of power will be unchanged. The Court’s ruling, and the reactions to it, are built around a mythical legislative construct that has never in practice really existed — the “independent agency,” and that said agency and structure needed to be preserved to prevent major catastrophes. The original sin was the Interstate Commerce Commission, created in 1887 to regulate railroad rates, with a five-member panel, one of whom was a former railroad executive. The mythology took off in the Progressive Era bill creating the FTC in 1914, and continued as the New Deal in the 1930s established similar agencies, like the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
When it comes to broadcast news, our country could do with a little less Hollywood and a little more local reporting from communities across the country. The FCC’s plan to switch from a national ownership cap to a case-by-case review allows exactly that.
Accepting tickets to the Kennedy Center honors gala compromised the commissioners’ impartiality, ethics experts told ProPublica. FCC Chair Brendan Carr has been gifted at least $63,000 worth of tickets by CBS or its parent company. Five months earlier, Federal Communications Commissioner Olivia Trusty cast a decisive vote approving Paramount’s historic $8 billion merger with Skydance Media. Now, the commissioner and a guest enjoyed the star-studded celebration thanks to tickets gifted to her by Paramount worth more than $12,000, according to ethics disclosure records obtained by ProPublica. The other commissioner who approved the merger watched from a prized perch. FCC Chair Brendan Carr and his wife sat in a private skybox with Paramount CEO David Ellison and other executives from Paramount and CBS. Such seats sold for $125,000 a ticket, according to Kennedy Center guidelines.
The Paramount-Warner merger challenge looks odd, but that's only because all the other cops are bought off. Here are the arguments for and against the deal, and the process going forward. Yesterday, 12 states, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, filed a complaint asking a Federal judge to stop the $110 billion merger of Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery, which would otherwise be the largest combination of Hollywood studios in history. The states alleged this deal would put too much power in the hands of the billionaire Ellison family. Then today, another shoe dropped. The Writer’s Guild East and the Writer’s Guild West filed another case opposing the deal, this one on grounds that it would give the Ellison’s too much power over workers in Hollywood. The complaint from the writers unions included statements from well-known creative power players in the tv and movie business, the people behind The Office, Spiderman, Stepbrothers, and so forth. And that’s not all. The states also filed for an emergency injunction to pause the deal, with the first hearing on Friday morning at 10am. More action could be coming. In this piece, I’m going to explain what is happening, the arguments involved, and next steps. But make no mistake, this legal case is the most significant fight over corporate power and media we may see in this Trump term.
A telecom executive urges Congress not to block FCC review of a spectrum proposal meant to give America a backup to GPS. Commercial pilots flying near conflict zones watched their instruments report positions miles from where they knew their airplanes actually were, while also navigating ground proximity alarms triggering unexpectedly. In parts of the Middle East, consumers are struggling with food delivery, ride-sharing, and countless other apps that depend on accurate location data. In Finland, soldiers are relearning how to navigate with paper maps.
The culprit is Global Positioning System (GPS) jamming and spoofing, a disruption of the satellite signals that are foundational to modern life. Except this threat isn’t just confined to far-off war zones. Airports in Dallas, Denver, and New Jersey have each experienced high-profile GPS disruptions. Solar storms have impacted GPS signals, affecting farming from Minnesota to Nebraska at the height of planting season. In America, GPS underpins everything from emergency response and critical infrastructure to finance, energy, logistics, and the smartphones we carry every day, and we are incredibly reliant on it.
DERBY — Derby and Holland are the latest Northeast Kingdom communities to gain access to high-speed fiber internet and home telephone service through NEK Broadband. The eastern portion of Derby now has service, with additional areas under construction. In Holland, where residents have lacked telephone and internet upgrades for decades, 75 percent of addresses now have access to speeds up to 2 gigabits per second for both uploads and downloads through NEK Broadband’s Ultra service tier.
Abbott previously outlined a broad regulatory framework around data centers amid backlash from rural communities around their impact on residential neighborhoods. Gov. Greg Abbott called for blocking new data center development in rural parts of the state during a campaign stop in East Texas on Tuesday. “We must prohibit them from building AI data centers in rural Texas neighborhoods,” Abbott said at the Bullard event, which primarily discussed his plan to cut property taxes, adding that this issue “dovetails right into fighting for East Texas values.” Abbott’s push for a prohibition in rural neighborhoods appears to go further than a sweeping regulatory framework he unveiled earlier this month, which called for data centers to add new power generation to the grid, pay for their own infrastructure costs, reuse their own water and implement measures such as setbacks, among other proposals aimed at limiting their impact on residential communities.
Twenty-three years ago, a scandal emerged on Wall Street. Henry Blodget, an equity research analyst who’d become well-known for his bullish coverage of some of the world’s hottest internet stocks during the dot-com boom, turned out to be privately bearish. In emails to colleagues Blodget described many of the stocks he’d publicly recommended as “crap,” “dogs,” and “POS.” After the bubble popped and valuations tanked, Blodget was charged with securities fraud, and the SEC banned him from the securities industry for life. Blodget was the posterchild, but he wasn’t alone. At Salomon Smith Barney, another analyst who’d publicly rated one company as a “buy” was discovered to have called that same company a “pig” in private. Another analyst at Lehman Brothers admitted in an email that “ratings and price targets are fairly meaningless anyway,” and that the “little guy” might get misled. “Such is the nature of my business,” he wrote. It was an epidemic: By the year 2000, three-quarters of all stocks carried buy recommendations, and only two percent carried sell recommendations. I don’t need to tell you what happened next. Why would Wall Street analysts recommend stocks they knew to be junk? One word: incentives. Since IPOs and equity offerings are important sources of revenue for investment banks, analysts are incentivized to publish glowing research about companies in order to win deals and generate fees. This conflict of interest was summarized well by a Merrill Lynch employee in 2002, who lamented to a colleague that “John and Mary Smith are losing their retirement because we don’t want [an investment banking client] to be mad at us.” After the bubble popped, the SEC realized it’d better do something about this.
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Every few years, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) tells Congress and the public what it intends to do with its authority. The agency's strategic plan is not a rulemaking and creates no legal obligations, but it is the framework around which the FCC builds its annual performance plan and budget request to Congress. The strategic plan also serves as the yardstick against which the agency's own annual performance reports—and outside overseers like the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)—measure whether the FCC did what it said it would do. The FCC's Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2026–2030, issued July 6, 2026, deserves a close read alongside the plan it replaces—the Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2022–2026, which has been pulled down from the FCC's website. Read side by side, the two documents describe two very different agencies.
A decade ago, I predicted the rise of intelligent applications. Today they are ubiquitous. The next decade’s work is harder and matters more: harnessing the capabilities of AI reasoning systems to continuously deliver economic and societal value; the ROI of AI. Getting there will take three harnesses working together: technological, economic, and political. I’d argue this is the defining challenge of the Reasoning Revolution. Right now, most of us are using a sliver of what these systems can do.
We are 'deeply concerned about some providers' ability to carry out their commitments,' said CWA in a letter urging NTIA to release BEAD performance tests. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is adding its voice to those calling on the NTIA to release BEAD winners' performance testing results to the public, with a stated concern that "some providers" may not be able to meet their commitments. The labor union's request came in the form of a letter to Arielle Roth, NTIA chief administrator, dated Tuesday, July 14. In addition to CWA, the letter was signed by representatives from public interest groups including Public Knowledge, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, National Digital Inclusion Alliance, and Open Technology Institute at New America, among others.
The question nobody can answer yet. Every serious conversation about AI's future eventually arrives at the same fork, asked two different ways. The first: does AI stay obedient to the humans who built it, or does it eventually act on its own terms? The second: who ends up holding the leash — everyone, or a handful of companies and governments? These are not the same question, and treating them as one is how most coverage of AI risk goes wrong. An AI system can stay perfectly obedient and still concentrate unprecedented power in very few hands. An AI system can be governed by nobody in particular and still turn out fine. The four combinations of those two axes are where this report lives. HOW TO READ THIS REPORT This report does not predict which future happens. Every credible expert who studies this disagrees on the odds. What follows is a map of where the roads actually lead — built from the testimony, research, and incidents already on the record in 2026.
Unregulated AI data centers will not, surprisingly, turn your struggling rural West Virginia town into a modern techno-Utopia. I really "enjoyed" (read: didn't enjoy at all) this recent piece in The Atlantic (non-paywalled archive link) proclaiming that the backlash to AI data centers is "overblown." It's part of a broader effort by our affluent brunchlord press to dismiss the massive bipartisan opposition to AI data centers as a sort of inauthentic hysteria or un-American foreign influence op.
One lie that companies have been telling local municipalities is that if they greenlight a massive local AI data center, it will immediately bring a flood of savvy innovators to your podunk-ass town.
The Atlantic piece introduces the lie this way:
The FCC announced it wants to eliminate the 39% national television ownership cap, the same law we’ve been fighting to enforce in filings at the FCC and in our case against the Nexstar/TEGNA merger. We filed a 143-page petition to block that deal, took the FCC to court, and although the court just concluded the FCC decision could not be reviewed at this time, a separate federal judge agreed that the merger must be stopped while its legality is considered. Now, the FCC wants to wipe that law off the books. Commissioner Gomez is right that this is unlawful. Congress wrote the 39% number into federal law in 2004. The FCC can’t erase it because the broadcast industry wants it gone. Nexstar and the National Association of Broadcasters put out celebratory statements within hours. They’ve been lobbying for this for decades.
“Crap Wireless”; a technical term which means the Company takes No Responsibility for Reliability: - “AT&T makes no warranty that AT&T Phone Service is appropriate for or capable of use with monitored burglar or fire alarms or medical monitoring systems or devices. Use of such systems is at your own risk”
- “Advanced Service of the limitations of 911 service. AT&T makes no warranty that access to 911 will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free. 911 service is available only at your…”
- AT&T is not responsible for any losses incurred because of an inability to dial 911 or to access emergency service personnel for any reason.
- “AT&T strongly recommends that you maintain an alternative means of accessing 911 services, such as a cellular phone, at all times”.
- “Signal strength may vary in different parts of your home, so you may need to check multiple locations in your home for the strongest signal. If you don’t see two or more green bars of signal strength move the AP-A to a higher floor (and/or closer to a window)”.
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AT&T’s California Legal Actions and their filing at the FCC states:
After a four-year hiatus, the FCC recently held a spectrum auction of 200 licenses for AWS-3 spectrum in the 1695-1710 MHz, 1755-1780 MHz, and 2155-2180 MHz bands. The last FCC auction was in 2022 for 2.5 GHz spectrum. The FCC lost the ability to hold spectrum auctions when its Congressional authority lapsed and was not renewed. This spectrum was touted by the FCC as being 5G-grade. The license areas included in the auction covered over 100 million people across 48 states and two US territories, and included major markets like New York, Chicago, Boston, Tampa, and Charlotte. The FCC announced before the auction that much of the proceeds will be used to continue to fund the rip-and-replace of Chinese electronics from Huawei and ZTE.
July 14, 2026 - The lead official at the FCC is one of several policy officials and lawmakers expected to participate in the one-day summit . The summit, scheduled for Wednesday in Washington, will feature interviews and panel discussions with members of President Donald Trump’s administration, congressional leaders from both parties and senior government officials.
A humble suggestion for governors:
New York’s Executive Order on AI data centers is going to generate strong reactions. But before we criticize it, I think it’s worth recognizing what it does well:
It starts the conversation every governor is going to have to have.
If I were gov today, I wouldn’t issue an Executive Order that simply said “yes” to AI data centers. But I wouldn’t say “no,” either. I’d say this:
AI data centers are welcome ONLY IF they leave the people of our state better off than they found them.
That EO would establish clear conditions:
July 13, 2026 (DENVER) – Attorney General Phil Weiser today joined a coalition of 12 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit challenging the $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. by Paramount Skydance Corporation. The proposed merger would combine two of Hollywood’s five major film distributors and two of the five major basic cable companies. The combined company would eliminate competition between Paramount and Warner Bros., and inflict substantial harm on movie theaters, basic cable distributors and, ultimately, audiences nationwide. In the U.S. alone, if allowed to merge, the combined titan would control nearly one-third of theatrical motion pictures, and nearly one-third of basic cable programming. The coalition has asked Warner Bros. and Paramount not to close the merger until after the judicial process concludes, and if they do not agree, the coalition will request that the court issue a temporary restraining order. “More concentration in motion picture production and in the cable network sectors threatens harm to consumers and to a robust marketplace of ideas,” said Attorney General Weiser. “As Colorado welcomes the Sundance Film Festival next year, we are acutely aware that preserving competition in the motion picture industry will help ensure the distribution of a wide variety of the best films to movie theatres. And as reflected by our challenge to the Nexstar/Tegna merger, we are also committed to ensuring that cable and satellite platforms can offer consumers the best possible packages of basic service by preserving competition in the basic cable TV environment.”
This analysis will be filed at the FCC as Adverse Comment 2, discussed below. Read Adverse Comment 1: AT&T is now shutting off the copper -based business services. AT&T is suing California, claiming that it has the right to shut off the copper wires and no longer be required to offer service, or has any Carrier of Last Resort obligations. Moreover, AT&T has asked the FCC to enforce their new regulations and make California comply by getting rid of any requirements on AT&T California, formerly Pac Bell. AT&T’s case includes this statement —Notice anything odd? “The copper wires…now serve just three percent of Californian households in AT&T’s service territory, … Yet California’s outdated regulations persist, requiring AT&T to spend $1 billion a year to maintain the copper infrastructure”. Answer: It is only “residential”, voice basic copper based voice service and no data or business lines, — and a billion dollars is claimed for 3% of residential households, which comes to $5,300 dollars a line. We will go through the filed information shortly. Here’s our position. IRREGULATORS Position: Show Us ALL Lines, and Show Us the Money.
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