Jimmy Kimmel waded into politics again and misled his viewers along the way
“The actual FCC item itself isn’t that interesting; it doesn’t actually change the informal complaint process. The firestorm around it is based on a misunderstanding that started with the letter from some Congressional Dems to the FCC,” Joe Kane, a technology policy fellow with the R Street Institute, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Lots of news sites (starting with the now-updated Verge piece, I think) seized on that letter’s misunderstanding that consumers would have to pay $225 for a complaint. It basically just became a thing for reporters who already don’t like the Chairman to paint him as anti-consumer. But again, that’s really not what’s happening,” Kane said. (RELATED: Chuck Schumer Coached Jimmy Kimmel Behind The Scenes On How To Oppose Obamacare Repeal)
He continued:
The issue in question is footnote 14 of the report and order that talks about the change in the FCC’s complain process. There is currently a process for informal complaints which, even before this change, were basically just forwarded to the company you have a complaint about. If the company obviously resolves it, then the matter is done. If they don’t, then you move to the formal complaint process. The old language says that the escalation to formal complaint can happen if the person making the complaint is unhappy with how the company or the Commission has resolved the issue. The change is to cut the language about the Commission resolving the issue because the FCC doesn’t do the resolving of informal complaints.
“The long and short of it is both the old and new rules say you can file an informal complaint, and if you don’t like how it turns out, you can file a formal complaint. Nothing that substantive is changing,” Kane concluded. “There might be good reason for the FCC to clarify their footnote and the language in the updated reg to resolve some of this confusion, but it definitely doesn’t warrant the outcry that some people are making about it.”
