Wetmachine

Happy Saint Urho’s Day to all who celebrate. And an extra-special shout-out to Finno-Irish Americans like myself, to whom the Saint Urho / Saint Patrick feast-day diphthong is doubly-sacred —...

https://wetmachine.com/general-exception/attention-must-be-paid/

I suppose it says something that I am rushing to get something written before the end of the year to mark the 20th Anniversary of Tales of the Sausage Factory (my first blog post was December 10,...

https://wetmachine.com/tales-of-the-sausage-factory/twenty-years-of-sausage-factory-and-wetmachine-so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish/

Two developments happened since I posted my Insanely Long Field Guide to the Fox29 license renewal challenge that potentially bear on the challenge. The first is Rupert Murdoch’s retirement ann...

https://wetmachine.com/tales-of-the-sausage-factory/quick-update-on-fox29-license-challenge-license-renewal-challenge/

In July, the Media and Democracy Project filed a Petition to Deny the license renewal of Fox29 (WTFX-TV) in Philadelphia. The Petition rests on a particular feature of Federal Communications Comm...

https://wetmachine.com/tales-of-the-sausage-factory/my-insanely-long-field-guide-to-the-fox29-philadelphia-wtfx-tv-license-renewal-challenge/

Back at the end of June, Canada passed C-18, aka “The Online News Act,” a law designed to make Google and Facebook negotiate with news providers for linking to news. In theory, C-18 is based ...

https://wetmachine.com/tales-of-the-sausage-factory/why-canadas-c-18-isnt-working-out-as-expected/

There are two types of public events here in DC. Those designed to actually educate people and those designed so that folks can display their talking points like dancing peacocks displaying their...

https://wetmachine.com/tales-of-the-sausage-factory/what-is-the-fccs-role-in-artificial-intelligence/

We have been debating, on and off, about the issues around artificial intelligence and AI governance for some time now. Here at Public Knowledge, we published our first white paper on the subje...

https://wetmachine.com/tales-of-the-sausage-factory/ai-policy-and-the-uncanny-valley-freakout/

Every now and then, I do some legislative drafting. I tend to get pushback on my habit of including a bunch of legislative findings and statements of policy, and what some consider my over-detail...

https://wetmachine.com/tales-of-the-sausage-factory/gonzales-v-google-validates-my-theory-of-legislative-drafting-be-really-really-detailed-and-longwinded/

Economist/NYT opinion writer Paul Krugman coined the term “Zombie idea” to describe an idea that, despite being repeatedly refuted with evidence, keeps coming back. Not surprisingly, zombie i...

https://wetmachine.com/tales-of-the-sausage-factory/s-korea-sender-pays-is-a-warning-not-a-model-or-why-almost-everyone-keeps-telling-the-eu-this-is-a-very-bad-idea/

(The original version of this appeared on the blog of my employer, Public Knowledge.)   At Public Knowledge, we’ve talked a lot about the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) and...

https://wetmachine.com/tales-of-the-sausage-factory/the-jcpa-does-more-to-help-big-media-then-local-journalism-this-is-my-shocked-face/