Editorial staff

[Commentary] In the days ahead, The Los Angeles Times editorial board will look more closely at President Donald Trump, with a special attention to three troubling traits:

1) Trump’s shocking lack of respect for those fundamental rules and institutions on which our government is based. He has lashed out at journalists, declaring them “enemies of the people,” rather than defending the importance of a critical, independent free press. His contempt for the rule of law and the norms of government are palpable.
2) His utter lack of regard for truth.
3) His scary willingness to repeat alt-right conspiracy theories.

[Commentary] If Americans are unsure which President Donald Trump they have — the Machiavellian negotiator who lies to manipulate simpler minds, or one of those simpler minds himself — does it really matter? In either case he puts the nation in danger by undermining the role of truth in public discourse and policymaking, as well as the notion of truth being verifiable and mutually intelligible. Our civilization is defined in part by the disciplines — science, law, journalism — that have developed systematic methods to arrive at the truth. Citizenship brings with it the obligation to engage in a similar process. Good citizens test assumptions, question leaders, argue details, research claims. Investigate. Read. Write. Listen. Speak. Think. Be wary of those who disparage the investigators, the readers, the writers, the listeners, the speakers and the thinkers. Be suspicious of those who confuse reality with reality TV, and those who repeat falsehoods while insisting, against all evidence, that they are true. To defend freedom, demand fact.

[Commentary] Republicans just made clear how little they care about protecting the privacy of Americans by letting companies like Verizon and Comcast sell advertisers the internet browsing histories and other personal data of their customers without getting permission. The move could bolster the profits of the telecommunications industry by billions of dollars.

Telecom companies know a lot about what people do online because they are the gatekeepers through which people connect to the internet. And as people link household devices like thermostats, light bulbs and security cameras to the internet, these companies will have even more intimate knowledge about their customers. By comparison, people can more easily evade tracking by businesses like Google and Facebook by not using those services or by deleting the cookies those websites leave on their computers and phones. In the absence of strong privacy rules, people will have to rely on encryption to prevent service providers from tracking them. But broadband companies would still know what websites people visit. And the companies would be able to see all of the communications between users and websites that do not use encryption. Sophisticated users might increasingly rely on virtual private networks, which are used by corporations to let their employees log into secure systems remotely, and other tools to mask their activities, but most Americans are unlikely to be conversant with such tricks of the trade.

President Trump promised voters during the campaign that he would protect the working class. But now he and his party are moving quickly to do the bidding of a very different interest group: Big Telecom.

[Commentary] If President Donald Trump announces that North Korea launched a missile that landed within 100 miles of Hawaii, would most Americans believe him? Would the rest of the world? We’re not sure, which speaks to the damage that President Trump is doing to his Presidency with his seemingly endless stream of exaggerations, evidence-free accusations, implausible denials and other falsehoods.

The latest example is President Trump’s refusal to back off his tweet of three weeks ago that he had “found out that [Barack] Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory” on Election Day. He has offered no evidence for his claim, and a parade of intelligence officials, senior Republicans and Democrats have since said they have seen no such evidence. Two months into his Presidency, Gallup has President Trump’s approval rating at 39%. No doubt President Trump considers that fake news, but if he doesn’t show more respect for the truth most Americans may conclude he’s a fake President.

[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai extolled the importance of bridging the digital divide. Soon after, he opened another gap, this time between his words and his actions.

The FCC removed nine companies from the roster of its Lifeline program for low-income broadband consumers, and it retracted four reports — two directly related to the digital divide — from its record. The FCC offered no immediate explanation for either change. The revocation of the reports — one of the four focused on expanding WiFi networks in primary and secondary schools and libraries, and another on improving the nation’s digital infrastructure — only lends credence to concerns about Pai’s stated commitment to closing the digital divide. It certainly throws cold water on his claims to transparency. And these aren’t the only reasons to fear the FCC is headed in a disturbing direction. Chairman Pai has also expressed eagerness to roll back other Obama-era changes to the agency that make for a freer and fairer Internet. That’s one area where we can hope that, once again, he does not mean what he says.

[Commentary] As President Trump rushes to dismantle Obama-era rules that protect Americans, he has an energetic helper over at the Federal Communications Commission. Its new Republican chairman has started undoing policies of his predecessor that were intended to make phone, cable and internet service more fair and more affordable.

Ajit Pai, who was a commissioner before he became chairman, is trying to wipe away network neutrality rules put in place by Tom Wheeler, the former chairman, to prevent broadband companies from creating fast and slow lanes on the internet. Chairman Pai has scrapped a proposal to let people buy cable-TV boxes instead of renting them at inflated prices from companies like Comcast. Many of Pai’s moves would hurt the people who have the least power. For instance, he has backed away from rules to lower the exorbitant rates for prison phone calls. And he has suspended nine companies from providing discounted internet service to poor people through a program known as Lifeline.

Congress created the FCC to help all Americans obtain access to communication services without discrimination and at fair prices. Pai’s approach does exactly the opposite.

[Commentary] Senate Democrats found time for a press conference haranguing Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai for the high sin of opposing “net neutrality,” which is their euphemism for government regulation of the internet. Less noticed is that Chairman Pai is restoring bipartisanship and political accountability to an agency that desperately needs it.

Most headlines on the FCC have accused Chairman Pai of confiscating phones from poor people in a program called Lifeline. The reality is that the commission is reconsidering marginal changes to the program that the Obama Administration tried to ram through on its way out the door. Pai’s alleged net neutrality violation is closing an investigation on telecoms that offer free data plans, which are popular with consumers. The Obama Administration ran the FCC as an extension of the White House, even ordering the agency in a YouTube video to classify the internet as a public utility. For all the invented panic over Republican rule in Washington, note that Chairman Pai is divesting himself of authority and making the agency more responsive to the consumers who pay his salary.

[Commentary] If Congress and the president won’t take up the pressing need for an online consumer bill of rights, the California Legislature should. Lawmakers have to provide a road map for striking a proper balance between the public’s right to information and individuals’ right to privacy. Ideally, the laws would foster free expression but also provide privacy for individuals and businesses where it is merited. (And yes, ‘merit’ is the concept to be defined.) The lack of a legal guide leaves Silicon Valley giants like Google and Facebook struggling to deal with a legal quagmire. The United States needs to join other advanced nations and establish an online consumer bill of rights. It will help the courts, the tech industry and individuals struggling to make sense of challenges unimaginable in the day of Thomas Jefferson.

[Commentary] Like the running of electricity and phone lines to farms a century or more ago, connecting rural America to broadband and to reliable high-speed internet has become as basic and as necessary an undertaking as building passable highways and continuing to find clean water sources. Encouragingly in Minnesota, the push continues to push broadband deeper into our forests and farm.

Northland lawmakers recently announced a bill calling for another $100 million in spending for rural broadband projects statewide. Gov Mark Dayton (D-MN), in his state budget proposed $60 million over two years for rural broadband. Minnesotans deserve online access whether they live in urban or rural areas. However, while 97 percent of Twin Cities-urban Anoka County has high-speed internet access, only 44 percent of northern-rural Cook County does, as Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) pointed out. It's a disparity Minnesota lawmakers are chipping away at — and can continue to this session.

[Commentary] Not so long ago, the Internet represented a force for subversion, and Wired’s list of the most dangerous people on the internet mostly consisted of rebellious individuals using the online world’s disruptive potential to take on the world’s power structures. But as the internet has entered every facet of our lives, and governments and political figures have learned to exploit it, the most dangerous people on the internet today often are the most powerful people. List includes: Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, James Comey, ISIS, Milo Yiannopoulos, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Julian Assange, and Peter Thiel.