Random Notes! Catching Up on All of the Media News "Fit" to Print…

The upcoming November 3rd election has made once-feared worries about political meddling in media a reality as the President is working full time to render the vote meaningless.

After surviving the not-ready-for-primetime impeachment, the President and his consigliere Attorney and Postmaster Generals are methodically attempting to pressure the levers of government to shamelessly and specifically tilt only one way.

First, the retraction of the once routine re-nomination of a sitting Federal Communications Commissioner simply because he followed the letter of the law demonstrates the President's tentative relationship with the concept of the Constitutional law itself.

Secondly, that's being compounded now as a President who is scared silly that he'll lose anything resembling a fair and open election is putting his thumb on more and more parts of "his" government. The Attorney General will unveil the results of "his" investigations finding that while Russia really, really didn't intervene in 2016 and certainly not in 2020, it did in fact really try to do so for his opponent. And, by the way, the former President will be indicted by the Attorney General for having had the temerity to wonder if all of those Trump campaign interactions with Russians were even worthy of investigations … so he'll be charged with, well, something they'll make up!

Thirdly, that Postmaster General and major donor is systematically hollowing out the United States Postal Service. Hauling mailboxes and mail sorting machines away to make mailing anything more difficult. Holding back actually delivering the mail causing veterans dependent upon the mail for prescriptions to be late. Making anyone on Social Security afraid the checks won't come on time. And, all magazine mailing rates will be quadrupled because, well, they can be!

The United States is a republic … if we can keep it. Time to stand tall and resist this BS.

Pandemics Update: Stay safe! Meanwhile, chill. My state is still in a shelter at home world reliant on takeout, social distancing, and the internet infrastructure. I'm a subscribing customer of Wave Broadband … which works, sort of. It's the curse of the rural customer. Density works better. In the meantime, some ISPs are going the extra mile to help struggling customers with children handle the upcoming not-ready-for-primetime school year by investing in upgrades, doubling down on helping families stay connected and making certain schools are connected.

Among the companies, in no particular order, doing yeoman work are Sparklight (Cable One), Spectrum (Charter), Ritter, ALLO, Service Electric, Cedar Falls Utilities, Armstrong, Liberty Media, Atlantic Broadband, TDS Fiber, Mediacom and Xfinity (Comcast).

The broader connection industry could, of course, do better. While the NCTA, ACA Connects and other industry groups are lending a hand, given the realities of the labor market, the lack of a growing economy and a likely move to more lockdowns before this is all over, perhaps it is time for a broader industry to double down on its efforts.

Meanwhile, Net Neutrality Is Still Alive and Kicking! No kidding. It just won't go away. California (remember?) and a couple of other states passed some laws years ago attempting to override the Trump FCC's killing of the Tom Wheeler rules regulating the internet. For its part, California agreed not to attempt to enforce anything until court cases challenging the FCC's 2018 Restoring Freedom Order were litigated. That time passed last month.

So ACA Connects, CTIA, NCTA and US Telecom filed a joint complaint to pre-empt any state from attempting to challenge the FCC's Federal stance. A sort of modern version of state's rights arguments.

Fixed Wireless Developments: Cable One made investments in a couple of fixed wireless companies (Wisper Internet and Nextlink) in order to help deliver broadband beyond their wired footprint. A pretty good idea and maybe the start of a trend?

Fee Adjustments? Don't hold your breath, but some subscriber fee adjustments are on the way as sports leagues struggle to put anyone on a field and not enough games are being played so not so many telecasts.

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The opinions expressed here are the author's views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.com/MyersBizNet.