so i want to applaud the f.c.c f.c.c.'s decision and president trump for pursuing a tough course of action against china and its rapacious trading policies. the president is exactly right about china. it seeks to take advantage of the united states in innumerable ways by undercutting our products, stealing our intellectual property, and denying american companies market access. so i strongly encourage the f.c.c. to finalize this measure and encourage president trump to stick with his tougher posture towards china. finally, mr. president, a note on floor action this week. the republicans are pushing in succession legislation that hurts labor rights and working people, consumers, the environment, and communities of color. president trump during his campaign would often wonder aloud about what these folks had to lose by voting for him. now we know. the republican majority seems intent on putting forward heavily partisan bills that have no chance of passing or little practical impact but are simply designed to be divisive. tha

but the f.c.c. the f.c.c. while they have not chosen to investigate sinclair there are some members of congress who want to different investigation of the actual chair of the f.c.c. what's that about well and it's going forward there are two democratic members of congress frank pallone from new jersey and elijah cummings from maryland who want chairman investigated apropos this sinclair tribune merger because they're wondering if the recent regulation he put has. through is tailor made for this merger and i'll try not to get into the weeds with this but there were two aspects they're concerned with what was called the newspaper cross ownership should they relax the rules to let a t.v. station and a newspaper be cohen doing one town again the argument that with the internet and all that there are many voices and maybe that's an arcane rule curiously the chairman also took away what was called the u.h.f. discount and in olden times when v.h.f. was the big brother t.v. station and we fumbled with the tuner on u.h

the us broadcast regulator and given the f.c.c. as recent track record since donald trump put chairman in the job last year the regulator is not likely to stand in the company's way and cheat pie it was appointed as chair of the f.c.c. by the trump administration and in less than a year he has absolutely gutted the remaining media ownership rules that the f.c.c. had in place and has made it more possible for large broadcasters like sinclair to buy up almost every media outlet in your community all of that has been done specifically to grease the wheels for this merger between sinclair and tribune which before chair. pi's chairmanship would have been absolutely impossible to approve because it violated so many of these at c c n n the f.c.c. was developed back in the thirty's the core concept was diverse ownership you wanted a lot of different owners in a lot of different places there was a vision that it goes back a very very long way this is salt salvation it basically says you know you know one good old group of people sitting in

media ownership rules that the f.c.c. had in place and has made it more possible for large broadcasters like sinclair to buy up almost every media outlet in your community all of that has been done specifically to grease the wheels for this merger between sinclair and tribune which before chairman pi's chairmanship would have been absolutely impossible to approve because it violated so many of these at c c rules when the f.c.c. was developed back in the thirty's the core concept was diverse ownership you wanted a lot of different owners in a lot of different places there was a vision that it goes back a very very long way this is salt selfish it basically says you know if one good old group of people sit in an office someplace and they decide what's being discussed all across the country. having been drawn out of the shadows it's heavy handed editorial methods exposed and ridiculed sinclair has come out swinging it responded to questions put to it by new york magazine by saying that print media is so left wing as to be me

category of seriousness i guess well i would i would worry about the f.c.c. a little bit more no offense to see i would worry about things but as to what you said about his job nature and the regulators that are at least you know. trying to show that they're you know they have an open mind to this because as you know there's a lot of talent that is moving out there's a great exodus from the united states to warmer climes you know favorable jurisdictions. just in terms of seriousness i would i would kind of worry about all of them but look look there's nothing against cooperation without putting your clients information or their livelihood or their freedom refused had. prisoner's dilemma it costs nothing to be nice and to have a conversation because there's certainly like really intelligent ways of blowing up ballots. be ended and even sometimes through just education up ok what the client is actually doing so the real versus the perceived risks addressing that directly what how much of a chill has all this had on the industry how much less a chill chilling effect if any i mean how much i

i thought of you when i saw this story because suppose instead of trading commissioner you were an f.c.c. commissioner would you be wary of the sinclair syndrome. ib hundred percent where i mean twenty two is a big deal with senators they can cause your problems but it's not fifty one rus non-majority so they definitely need to take it into consideration but by so i would tap the brakes maybe not hard on the brakes we thank you for being with us your show the note another new edition coming up what are we talking about tonight on the big picture we have a record number of women running for congress this time and you will be intrigued and i predict amused by two that will introduce you to tonight and we're going to talk about boycotts economic boycotts against radio and t.v. talk host and more recently against starbucks and we have a couple of schoolteachers from this mammoth job action going on in arizona so that's all in the big picture tonight seven ten thirty eastern on r t america ten eastern are around the world on r t international hollin cook we thank you i am already intrigued wo

the f.c.c. . the big new york new york another of my favorite orchestras lives here in the house of. the big fifteen six floors of the time warner building columbus circle in central park and dedicated solely to jobs in the book. here in the house of swing some of the biggest jazz legends of all time or a member of. the bunch of marsalis one of the best known jazz musicians in the world is the managing director artistic director and also the band leader of the resident jobs at lincoln center and now we're going to take a train. for. the but. the but. the but. the but. the but. the but . the be. from new york back here to the berlin film morning for another fantastic orchestra the john wilson orchestra concert was an absolute highlight here and it's perfect to finish off our program today see you next time on sara's music by. shawn wilson and his orchestra specialize in paying tribute to the music of the golden era of hollywood and broadway many of the songs from the m.g.m. so musicals have become

media regulator we do have the f.c.c. they did play an important role in the formation. t.v. and radio stations with a couple of key laws in the late twenty's and early thirty's there was the communications act of thirty four. there the federal radio commission actually twenty seven also had some things to say about what radio station should be but for the most part there is no regulator for print media and the. acacias regulator is a very very weak one in the united states which for most of us in the press we've long considered to be a good thing that the government mostly stays out of our business. you know for it to take the step of forcing our teats or register as a foreign agent under star opens the door for an incredible. amount of abuse that could be directed at almost any kind of foreign news agency in the future and i think that's a. huge mistake. and i'm not thrilled with the decision to to retaliate against or to britain either i think this is similar to a decision that they made with the olympics and nine hundred eighty you if you have a political issue with a cou

given that the head of the f.c.c. is agit pai who seems to be perfectly content to advance president trump's agenda i do expect they will he's under investigation so maybe something would come out of that that sidetracks the merger or maybe congress steps in but that would seem to be also unlikely at least until after midterm elections and we'd see what happens there but my guess is if i was wagering money the merger will be approved and go through prior to midterms and what does this tell us about independent reporting in the u.s. you know here in europe we we scratch our heads and ask how can independent news be owned and operated by a commercial giant i mean have you been co-opted in the us. it increases the need for media literacy in the u.s. we have lots of commercial giants i've worked for many of them and sinclair is unique the other large station groups do have a true commitment to local journalism because they realize that good local journalism is also good business so while the model is somewhat unique you d

technology going forward and really is a push now to get the federal communications commission the f.c.c. to implement a basically a policy where regulation where they can do cell blocking technology on the reason they can now is because it's illegal under our c.c. regulations but there's a renewed push in the state of south carolina to make that happen and i know the speaking of the f.c.c. the pie dough who's rather infamous for his interesting promotional tactic celebrating the new trial that he actually visibly and was advocating against cell phones in prison why is oggi possibly getting involved in this is it because of another example of follow the money. or you know i think it probably is i think the news in your reporting investigating done to see what kind of types of communications online lobbying and that sort of thing that a company like secure us and its allies in that industry are doing but it wouldn't surprise me at all if that's the case and it doesn't surprise me at all like you said that i did go visit this particular facility like i said south carolina is really a tippi

i thought of you when i saw this story because suppose instead of trading commissioner you were an f.c.c. commissioner would you be wary of the sinclair syndrome. ib hundred percent where i mean twenty two is a big deal with senators they can cause your problems but it's not fifty one rus non-majority so they definitely need to take it into consideration but by so i would tap the brakes maybe not hard on the brakes we thank you for being with us your show the note another new edition coming up what are we talking about tonight on the big picture we have a record number of women running for congress this time and you will be intrigued and i predict amused by two that will introduce you to tonight and we're going to talk about boycotts economic boycotts against radio and t.v. talk host and more recently against starbucks and we have a couple of school teachers from this mammoth job action going on in arizona so that's all in the big picture tonight seven and ten thirty eastern on r t america ten eastern are around the world on r t international holon cook we thank you i am already intrigue

currently, the f.c.c. defines broadband coverage as 25 megabits per second download and 3 megabits per second upload. my amendment would set the baseline -- this same baseline for which the rural utilities service says in their acceptable standard of service for broadband coverage by matching the f.c.c.'s definition. my amendment would not limit he usda's secretary ability to set a higher standard of service but merely sets a floor. all of these efforts to bring quality broadband for america would not be for the investment. and they need to report back to congress on ways to incentivize private investment via the telecommunications loan guarantee program. we want to encourage the utilization of the loan guarantee program and get private lenders involved to accelerate broadband deployment. i was pleased to see my language from h.r. 5213, the expanding rural access to broadband act, included in the base text of the farm bill which will require the r.u.s. to issue broadband loan guarantees. the more we -- pri

look on the bright side they didn't have the public comments like the f.c.c. did. something with the. corporations are no longer rigging the public comments they're just ignoring. and grabbing every last resource without caring what the public wants it's kind of kind of like how our political parties used to say they weren't rigging the elections but then later claimed in court they just had the rights to rig the election. that's progress and so refreshing to be done with the days when our politicians pretended they weren't bought by corporations in other words it was all very exhausting it was all the song and dance and they a big banner behind them that said we care about the people. now they met him for a gun know that they dropped the banner they put up one that just says your phrase . was called. the comfy right. but that's not to say people aren't still standing up teachers are striking across the country they're there they're just walking out of school there's a storm in capitol hill they are making their voices heard they're rightfully furious that our fede

word sinclair is trying to control new stations in seventy two percent of american homes killed the f.c.c stop the sinclair merger the friendly our democracy physics really think. you are a misleading ad you just saw focused on a brief promotional message that simply said we are a source for truthful news ignore thousands of hours of local news we produce each year to keep you informed the ad was purchased by a group known for its little bias and we hope you will buy into the hysteria and hype. there you go hysteria and hype sinclair is also using money to make a point last week the national press photographers association published a letter criticizing sinclair's manipulation of t.v. anchors to push a political agenda the next day sinclair withdrew a twenty five thousand dollars donation to these as the ancient or this did not intimidate the deans of thirteen major journalism schools in the us they have published an open letter condemning sinclair accusing it of treating local news like programming for trump t.v. in their letter they write we believe that a line was crossed it sinclair s

were adderall david simpson the former chief of public safety and homeland security bureau of the f.c.c. said it could be very concerning to citizens but certainly to emergency management professionals now while the emergency alert system for hawaii and dallas are under federal signal corp san francisco uses a.t.r. systems systems is one of the biggest manufacturers for alert systems they have systems in place in several military bases as well as new york's revitalized rolled trade center over the phone the c.e.o. of a.t.a.i. systems said since pustules announcement upgrades have been made to the system in the bay area and he also confirmed their military clients use a more sophisticated system compared to what is set up in cities like san fran. it's killed in los angeles and not just leeds. so let's dream to beat the drums of war and. pound on our chests and challenge the world. but let's not actually have security like safety systems in place that would like better inform the public if something bad happens like a bomb or other things dropping on them. yeah. that's right we've all gon

the $26 billion all-stock deal will be heavily scrutinized by anti-trust regulators and the f.c.c.regulators have raised concerns about potential higher prices for consumers. t mobile said in an official ansuncement that u-s consum will see lower prices and better quality. >> thompson: join us again nexte end when we will go inside the world's largest cyber- defense war game. we'll also report om maine, where work requirements are being utilized in an effort to reform social safety net programs. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i'm megan thompson. thanks for watching. have a good night. caioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. asuedgar wachenheim, iii. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. the anderson family fund.sa nd p. walter rbarbara hope zucg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- ing customized individu and group retirement products. that's why we're your retireme

it needs to be balanced you can't just call everything a security that's ridiculous so you know the f.c.c. exists for a reason but they need to also be conscious of you know the market ok so the token on century doing air drops every day of tokens for people's contributions so based on your percent contribution to community and engagement that's the percent daily rewards you get of our pool ok so that is like steam and to a degree because there's a certain amount of steam it that's kind of released on a regular basis and then people are creating content for some of that. steam there is more allocated in regards to voting power of an individual so how are you have that's not really how it works on mine some minds based on where the raw metrics and engagement you're getting from the whole community everyone's vote is more equal on our system ok so who handles the economics another woman chief economy officer we are definitely talking with big crypto consultants to figure out all the token economics we should have a conversation about and that's what we're doing in the sense that we haven't

those algorithms to the public so we've actually consulted for the federal trade commission and the f.c.c. about this issue because facebook should imagine that you know it when you go to facebook and you have these different dials on different interest that you cared about and you can see more about sports and less about you know politics or whatever it might be imagine you could do that kind of balancing facebook doesn't want to open that up because that just creates a whole can of worms imagine right these these senators are having trouble even understand the basics of what an ad driven economy looks like imagine if you expose the algorithm right imagine what that does to. between facebook apple amazon all the other players that are competing in the data space they don't want that. i was struck by a comment that mr zuckerberg made yesterday when he was talking about the the russian threat to democracy around the world but particularly to the twenty sixteen u.s. presidential election and he said that the russians are constantly improving especially their bots and the threat level is alw

react under a trumpet ministration the president not known for favoring foreign companies and the f.c.c. under his direction and also the justice department could hold decisions that are not that favorable but when you look at the face of it yes together they will be more powerful and they will have many more customers and perhaps a little bit more price authority in this very interesting but also very competitive market but they will still be only number three in the u.s. market and a t. and t. and verizon will still be bigger so where is the problem is what i say looking at it from the outside the market is a little bit skeptical of it too that's always a good seismograph of how people in the know react to this kind of news that telecom itself which is another company is doing better than the other two shares that your telecom is going up a little sprint which was up way up at the beginning of trading now going down and t. mobile us that share is flat so not that much enthusiasm at the moment as we speak about this deal on the story for us thank you very much. that's all for business

it could stop the merger if that's the opinion of the us authorities the f.c.c. and the justice department which have to weigh in on this in a trumpet ministration and i repeat trump administration that could be a deciding factor and putting the no ok a green light on this with as we just heard two foreign companies being the owners of these are merger candidates but you know we just heard that their number three and four and even with that many customers together they'll be only number three so as a layman i'm not a telecoms expert but it seems funny to me that there should be a danger from a number three company visa v. the number one in two companies a t. and t. and verizon in the united states and the two can make that point that together they'll have more money to invest to bring better technology to their customers and thus provide a beneficial impulse for the u.s. economy as a whole sounds good to me but now let's talk about combining the two companies because we know that is always a tricky task how easy will it be to combine and to bring together t. mobi

we've seen states come out and try to ban it and we've seen regulatory initiatives you say in the f.c.c. we've seen the a c f t c so what do you think is the next six to twelve months what do you see coming down the pike well i think that trip to currencies will exist in ten with traditional fee at currencies and at the end of the day humans are lazy and so if you make the traditional system work and it's convenient and people can use it they have no desire to try something new look in china right they have which i pay anywhere in china from a taxi cab to a person selling you a piece of fruit on the street everyone uses this mobile app and this mobile money and it's so convenient it's way better than anything i've else in any other country i've ever been to so if i have which i pay why do i need to go out and try to figure out what a big quite well it is or bonaire or any of the these currencies i have a system that actually works for my daily needs and so i think that's where we're going to go if you're going to see financial services actually start responding to what people in this da