By B.N. Frank

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is supposed protect the public by regulating the Telecom Industry. It is NOT a health or environmental agency even though its decisions affect public health and the environment.  Unfortunately, employees have a long history of not protecting the public and the “Race for 5G” has made this more dangerous (see 1, 2, 3, 4).  The Telecom Industry has provided NO scientific evidence that 5G is safe.  Many experts say it isn’t (see 1, 2, 3) and for a variety of reasons.

Businesses, communities, and organizations have filed lawsuits against the FCC because of forced 4G and 5G small cell installation (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).  There have been lawsuits filed against the FCC for other unscrupulous actions as well.  Thanks to Scientists 4 Wired Tech for highlighting the FCC’s court losing streak:

FCC repeal of media ownership limits ignored impact on women and minorities.

​By Jon Brodkin, Sept 24, 2019 | Original Ars Technica article here.

Federal judges yesterday issued a stinging rebuke to the Federal Communications Commission, saying the agency’s justification for eliminating media-ownership limits “would receive a failing grade in any introductory statistics class.”

The FCC’s 2017 decision to eliminate newspaper/broadcast and television/radio cross-ownership rules could allow more media mergers. But the FCC order was vacated in a 2-1 vote by a panel of judges at the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Judges wrote that the FCC “did not adequately consider the effect its sweeping rule changes will have on ownership of broadcast media by women and racial minorities.”

Further Reading

Ajit Pai submits plan to allow more media consolidation

The FCC’s 2017 order had to consider instructions from previous Third Circuit decisions that went against the commission. But the FCC did not comply with the court’s instructions, the judges’ ruling said.

The “most glaring” problem in the FCC analysis is that it “cited no evidence whatsoever regarding gender diversity,” the judges wrote. The FCC claimed in a court filing that “no data on female ownership was available” yet also “purport[ed] to have complied with our instructions to consider both racial and gender diversity, repeatedly framing its conclusion in terms that encompass both areas,” judges wrote.

The FCC’s failure to seriously address the impact on female ownership would be “enough to justify remand” on its own, judges said. But the FCC also failed to properly examine the evidence on minority ownership, they said. The FCC’s analysis of evidence on ownership by racial minorities “is so insubstantial that it would receive a failing grade in any introductory statistics class,” the judges’ ruling said.

The FCC mistake goes back to a 2016 decision issued when Tom Wheeler was chairman. The 2016 decision made only minor changes to the cross-ownership rules, but the evidence cited in that decision would later be used by Chairman Ajit Pai to eliminate the rules entirely in 2017, judges wrote.

The article includes much more admonishing of the FCC.  Of course, the agency plans to appeal the ruling.  These employees must never sleep – here’s another link with additional lawsuits filed against them.

So many lawsuits!  It begs the question – does anyone like the FCC besides the Telecom Industry?