NAB Seeks Revised Sohn Ethics Agreement Over Locast Role, Before Hearing
NAB and board member Byron Allen appeared to be partially at odds Monday on FCC nominee Gigi Sohn, before her Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee confirmation hearing (see 2111230066). NAB wants Sohn to submit an amended ethics agreement with more information on her association with broadcast programming streaming service Locast, but Allen declared his strong support for her confirmation. Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy and a group of five Republican current and former elected officials said Monday they support Sohn, whose nomination has already drawn strong GOP pushback (see 2111170071). Sohn and NTIA administrator nominee Alan Davidson, who’s also to appear before the Senate Commerce panel, highlighted improving U.S. broadband access and affordability, in responses to prehearing questionnaires.
NAB “does not currently oppose” Sohn’s FCC nomination, but the group has “serious concerns about her involvement” with Locast as a board member for operator Sports Fans Coalition, CEO Gordon Smith said. Locast proposed a $32 million settlement in October of media networks’ lawsuit, which would permanently enjoin SFC and co-operator David Goodfriend from operating the service or anything similar in the future (see 2110280039). Center for Security Policy senior fellow Victoria Coates, who was deputy national security adviser-Middle East and North Africa under former President Donald Trump, separately noted in a Washington Times opinion piece her misgivings about Sohn’s “outright hostility to intellectual property.”
“NAB is confident that these concerns can be resolved,” but “the ethics agreement” Sohn submitted to the Senate “does not adequately address the inherent conflict presented by” her Locast work and “her potential role as an FCC commissioner,” Smith said. The group is “actively working” with Senate Commerce members and the Biden administration “to address this conflict and requests” that Sohn submit “an amended ethics agreement that meaningfully and effectively address” the disparity. Sohn, Senate Commerce and the White House didn’t comment.
Sohn pledged in her ethics agreement to resign from SFC and other current roles upon her confirmation. She committed to "not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter involving" SFC and other entities she's currently affiliated with for one year "unless I am first authorized to participate." Sohn's questionnaire response briefly addresses her Locast role, though only as a legal matter and not in a section on “potential conflicts of interest.” If confirmed, “any potential conflicts of interest will be resolved in accordance with the terms of the ethics agreement that I have entered into with” the FCC’s designated ethics official, she said.
Sohn said she was an SFC board member at the time of the lawsuit against Locast over its claim to operate “under a statutory copyright exemption for non-profits.” Her resume said she remains on the board. The lawsuit is now “settled” and the U.S. District Court in New York “determined that the exemption did not apply,” Sohn said. She also noted a former Public Knowledge staff member filed a since-dismissed age discrimination complaint with the Washington Office of Human Rights in 2014 after being “terminated for poor performance, refusal to abide by the terms of a Performance Improvement Plan, and insubordination.” Sohn was no longer PK CEO at the time of the complaint.
Allen, CEO of Allen Media, said he’s backing Sohn because she’s “a champion against” the current lack of a “truly diverse media landscape.” Over “many years, she has worked nonstop to promote greater competition and more minority ownership in broadcasting,” Allen said. “As a commissioner, she would have the tools to improve ownership diversity among FCC licensees. As the first openly LGBTQ person in history nominated to the FCC, Gigi truly understands on a personal level why diversity and inclusion for all Americans matters.” Sohn “will help protect our rights as American citizens,” including “fighting for an open Internet” and “for the free speech rights of conservatives with whom she disagrees,” Allen said. He noted some other conservatives’ recent public support for Sohn (see 2111100078) because “they have seen her fight tirelessly for diversity and freedom of speech.”
NAB’s Locast concerns aren’t likely to pose a real threat to Sohn’s confirmation chances, an industry official told us: It may represent an industry shift away from trying to block the nomination, and toward seeking concessions for possible future proceedings. Broadcast attorneys have said Sohn’s prior advocacy on retransmission consent and membership on Locast’s board could mean she should recuse herself from related proceedings as an FCC commissioner (see 2110260076).
Ruddy said he found both Sohn and FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, whose reconfirmation is up for a Senate Commerce vote Wednesday, “to be fair-minded persons of strong integrity.” While “I don’t always agree with the nominees on many policy matters, Newsmax fully supports the Commission’s mandate to promote diversity, localism, and competition in the marketplace,” Ruddy said. “Newsmax believes both nominees are committed to that mandate,” which is important because it and other “independently operated cable news channels … are being sidelined in favor of a small number of mega-corporations who dominate the channel line-ups, forcing upon consumers expensive and little-watched networks.”
Former Agriculture Department Rural Utilities Service Administrator Chad Rupe and Incompas CEO former Rep. Chip Pickering of Mississippi are among the five Republicans who jointly wrote Senate Commerce leaders Monday to support Sohn. “Although we don’t agree with Gigi on every communications policy matter, she is a thoughtful and pragmatic leader who is willing to work across the aisle and across the ideological spectrum to make progress to ensure that all US households have robust broadband,” the Republicans said. The other Republicans signing the letter: West Virginia House of Delegates Technology Committee Chairman Daniel Linville, former RUS Administrator Hilda Gay Legg and former Georgia State Sen. Judson Hill.
Nominees' Responses
The FCC’s “top challenge is ensuring that every” U.S. household “has affordable and robust broadband” access,” Sohn said in her prehearing response. “The FCC has many tools at its disposal to connect the unconnected, but they must be deployed wisely and effectively. Moreover, achieving the goal of universal and affordable broadband Internet access will take an 'all-hands-on-deck' approach,” with all stakeholders “working together to build and execute a blueprint for universal broadband.” Sohn pointed to a need for “an oversight regime that requires network providers to determine” cybersecurity and resiliency “best practices, subject to regulatory oversight” because “the interconnected broadband networks that underpin our digital economy are among our most vulnerable attack conduits.”
NTIA “has a critical role to responsibly administer” its existing broadband grant programs, and it will be “essential” for the agency to also oversee the about $48 billion in new grants and other broadband funds the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is tasking it to disburse “in compliance with the law and with the greatest of integrity,” Davidson said in his response. “NTIA will be at the center of a once-in-a-generation opportunity to close the digital divide, increase broadband access and adoption, and connect all Americans. This will be my top priority in the coming years.” He expects to “work closely with legal counsel and budget officials at NTIA and the Commerce Department, to ensure grant-making has appropriate accounting controls in place and is done with the highest ethical standards.”
Davidson and Sohn emphasized the importance of NTIA and the FCC in dealing with spectrum. “NTIA has a central role to play in a broad coordinated, national approach to spectrum use and planning, to meet the demand for spectrum now and in the future,” Davidson said. The FCC must develop “spectrum policy with its federal government colleagues that will balance making significant amounts of spectrum for 5G mobile broadband service (and making that spectrum available to a wide variety of users) with also making significant amounts of spectrum available for innovative unlicensed uses,” Sohn said. “Sound spectrum policy is only possible with close coordination between the FCC and other government agencies, including state and local” entities.