COMMENTARY
WHAT WILL THE "STANDARD OF REVIEW"
IN THE COURT OF APPEALS
BE FOR LPTV AND TV TRANSLATOR LEGAL CASES RELATED TO THE AUCTION?
- QUESTIONS OF LAW?
- QUESTIONS OF FACTS?
- ABUSE OF DISCRETION?
- ARBITRARY AND CAPRICIOUS?
- SUBSTANTIAL EVIDENCE?
- REASONABLENESS?
- ALL OF THE ABOVE?
- NONE OF THE ABOVE?
Now just to be clear, I am not a communications attorney, nor a member of the Federal Communications Bar Association (
FCBA
). The only legal knowledge I have is what I have learned via direct experience and a constant tutoring by those attorneys who specialize in communications law,
US Court of Appeals
litigation, and those with experience litigating within the Administrative Procedures Act (
APA
).
About twenty-five attorneys representing LPTV and TV translators have been schooling me about all of this, and I have for the last year jousted with more than forty FCC attorneys in various meetings. So like most LPTV and translator operators, I am not part of the club, do not really speak the language, do not know the legal terms of art, or can string together an entire paragraph of legal reasoning. And those experienced licensees, which have been through many of the significant phases of the past thirty years of Part's 73 & 74 rule making, they too have been schooling me on what they learned, through the school of hard knocks, and large legal bills. I also have been schooled by the engineers, equipment vendors, content networks, public interest advocates, and Wall Street. But let's forget about them right now, this is a legal discussion.
So let's go on a short journey and look closely at what all of this means to the communications attorneys. This is all under what is called the "Standard of Review".
Go to this page, read it, and then take our survey.
And a public notice to all of the communications attorney's at the FCC.
If you attempt to challenge LPTV and TV translator broadcasters "expectation of license renewal",
YOU will be responsible for slowing the auction down for a year or more.
So do not try to blame us when it happens!
And a special note to the financial community and broadcast investors. If the FCC attempts to rescind LPTV and TV translator license renewal rights, it will spill over into ALL broadcasters, and ALL FCC spectrum license holders! This will mean that ALL financial instruments, debt, equity, and collateral, could be invalid!!!!!!
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