News Briefings by FCC Staff, Chairman and Others Still Fewer as Pandemic Continues

Since it began holding commissioners’ gatherings via teleconference March 31, the FCC reduced news briefings it holds after monthly meetings. Eighth-floor officials suggested logistical and technical concerns could be factors. Republican commissioners have held all of the few post-meeting media briefings, while Democratic commissioners and bureaus held none. Chairman Ajit Pai held one.

Commissioner Geoffrey Starks’ office is staying engaged with reporters through email instead of news conferences, said aide Austin Bonner. “We continue to hear from members of the press, we’ve continued with being in touch with reporters the morning of the meeting.” A spokesperson for the agency and chairman’s office declined to comment Friday. Experts say that real-time interactions with journalists that are on the record are the best way to educate the media and hence the public about regulatory activities. The commission sometimes has staff speak with groups of journalists on condition the officials not be identified nor quoted verbatim, which has raised hackles (see 1511200019).

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel’s office said it maintained contact with journalists despite holding no news conferences. “After each of these meetings, Commissioner Rosenworcel has taken questions from the press over email and over the phone,” an aide emailed. “During these unprecedented times, the FCC’s work is more important than ever and so it’s important that the agency’s operations be transparent and open.” Rosenworcel’s office has emailed reporters ahead of the meetings, soliciting questions.

Only Commissioner Mike O’Rielly held a virtual news conference after all three teleconferenced open meetings. Commissioner Brendan Carr did one after the April and May meetings, while Pai held one briefing after the April meeting. O’Rielly’s news conferences used Zoom, while Carr and Pai used conference call lines. Carr didn’t comment for this story.

O'Rielly's "view is that one of the responsibilities of a public official is to be as accessible and open to interested press as possible. It’s one reason then-Commissioner Pai and I initiated our live press availability after Open Meetings," O'Rielly emailed. "Obviously, this has been harder to do given the current circumstances, but video conferencing has been a decent fill-in. While not perfect, I’ll continue to do this as long as there is an interest. Maybe it can serve as a model for others.”

Bonner said one reason Starks didn't hold such live briefings is because the format of the COVID-19-era meetings has changed each time, with details announced a short time beforehand. “We don’t have any information about the June meeting,” she said Tuesday. That meeting is set for June 9.

Aides note the chairman’s office and other eighth-floor offices haven’t been communicating or coordinating about news briefings. After the April meeting, Pai's and O’Rielly’s briefings overlapped. Other announcements during COVID-19 also haven't been coordinated. FCC officials said the agency’s Democrats first learned of Pai’s Keeping Americans Connected pledge from news reports. As a commissioner, Pai frequently criticized then-Chairman Tom Wheeler for not sharing information about FCC actions with Republican commissioners.

Transparency in Crisis

Some observers think the FCC can do better.

Since government agencies are functioning during the pandemic, it behooves them to be transparent, said Project on Government Oversight policy analyst Tim Stretton. News conferences can be one of the few ways the public gets insight into how an agency operates, he said. Many government entities increased their journalist briefings during the crisis, Stretton said, noting the once-daily COVID-19 White House briefings and the updates by governors such as New York’s Andrew Cuomo (D). “You’ve generally seen federal, state and local governments trying to do a better job of communicating,” Stretton said. It's “disappointing” the FCC isn’t doing the same, he said.

The increased importance of communications during the pandemic is a reason the FCC should be more rather than less transparent, said Common Cause Media and Democracy Program Director Yosef Getachew. The commission should issue daily updates on the status of U.S. communications networks, similar to the information it compiles during hurricanes, he said.

While understandably there are limits on physical access right now, "we hope that lawmakers and agencies find alternate ways for reporters to be able to ask questions as they would if meetings were being held in-person," emailed Journalism Institute President Angela Greiling Keane. "And we strongly support returning to the access journalists, as representatives of all news consumers and the general public, have had once normal order can resume." Keane is a journalist for Politico and wasn’t speaking on the publication’s behalf.

Communications attorneys said they watch and follow FCC news conferences to get useful additional tidbits of information about policies. “The press conferences are the best part of the meeting, because the rest is very scripted,” said former FCC Chairman Richard Wiley. As FCC chairman in the 1970s, Wiley didn’t hold news conferences, but reporters had more access to FCC personnel then. Broadcast lawyer David O’Neil, of Rini O’Neil, said the importance of FCC news conferences has diminished since the agency began releasing the text of items before meetings. News conferences are most valuable now for getting insight into broader FCC policies, rather than the nuts and bolts of specific rules, he said.

Other Agencies

At least anecdotally, it appears most agencies have moved to online for meetings and in doing so effectively restricted the news conferences and other press availability they once had, said Duke University telecom and administrative law professor Stuart Benjamin.

We found one agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, where monthly meetings mirrored the FCC's in structure. FERC similarly has been somewhat less accessible during the pandemic. FERC's regular monthly meeting is followed by a news conference with the chairman and on-background background briefing with staff if reporters have specific questions about items voted on at the meeting, it told us. Commissioners also talk with reporters on the sidelines after the meeting before the chairman's news conference, it said. FERC's March 19 open meeting was canceled, but Chairman Neil Chatterjee held a phone press briefing that day, it said. Its April and May meetings were via phone, with the public able to listen in on a FERC live webcast provided by George Mason University. After the meetings, Chatterjee did a news conference via phone, but there was no staff background meeting.

The Federal Election Commission said it traditionally hasn't had press availability or news conferences. The FEC noted reporters can buttonhole the commissioners after open monthly meetings, and request interviews with or comment from commissioners. It said it hasn't held open meetings, even online, in recent months because it has lacked a quorum since September. The Federal Maritime Commission said it also doesn't have formal media availability arrangements like the FCC's, though reporters can approach a commissioner before or after a public meeting.

Jim Kuhnhenn, press freedom fellow at the National Press Club's Journalism Institute, emailed that the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee has met three times in the past three months -- twice in March and once in April. As is the custom at the Fed, Chairman Jerome Powell held news conferences after the meetings, Kuhnhenn said. The last two were virtual news conferences, with reporters asking their questions remotely in real time, he said.