Digital Beat Blog

This month, we’ve seen lots of opinion and analysis of President Barack Obama’s decision to nominate Tom Wheeler to be the next chairman of the FCC. In a San Francisco Chronicle op-ed this week, Blair Levin, instead of joining the arguments over Wheeler’s qualifications, identifies the key question for the next FCC chair: what kinds of networks will our communities - our innovators, entrepreneurs and businesses - need to be competitive in the global economy? Levin's message is that the North Star for policy ought to be faster, cheaper, better broadband.

Two weeks ago, the U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing, “The Lifeline Fund: Money Well Spent?” It is impossible to read the testimony from that hearing and deny that the program is contributing importantly to the central goal of the Telecommunications Act: to bring affordable and advanced telecommunications services to every American. More than ever our success as individuals, and as a nation, depends upon everyone being connected to the communications infrastructure of the Twenty-first century. Indeed, it is not going too far to equate such access with a civil right, because the doors of opportunity are closed and locked for those without it. Red-lining low-income citizens by denying them access to these necessary telecommunications services would constitute a clear-and-present public danger as well as a blatant denial of equal opportunity in the Internet Age.

Last week’s Congressional oversight hearing on the Lifeline program vacillated between fact and fiction.

Patriot’s Day, for baseball fans, means an early start for the Red Sox game. For runners, it means the Boston marathon. The meaning of the holiday -- the commemoration of the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775 -- may have been lost by many of us. But after this past Monday, April 15, 2013 will take on a new, horrific meaning. The Benton Foundation joins the world in condemning the cowardly act that killed and injured scores of people in Boston and we salute the brave people who responded to the explosions with acts of heroism. Sadly, it was just a couple of months ago that we wrote about the connections between media, telecommunications and the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, this week we look at the role of communications in the wake of the Boston marathon bombings.

On April 10, President Barack Obama sent Congress a budget proposal for fiscal year 2014. The President’s $3.77 trillion budget, with a mix of deficit reduction through spending cuts and tax increases and new spending to spur the economy, projects a $744 billion deficit for the 2014 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. That is down from the $973 billion shortfall projected for this fiscal year, after four years of post-recession deficits exceeding $1 trillion. Although much of the coverage of the proposal focuses on cuts to Medicare and Social Security, we take a quick look at the budget proposals for the Federal Communications and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the two key agencies for federal telecommunications policymaking. Why spend so much time looking at numbers that may not be part of a final budget – even if one is passed? Well, ss Vice President Joe Biden says, "Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value." And, as Benton Foundation Chairman Charles Benton often reminds us here in the home office, “Money is policy.” Budgets – even budget proposals – remain instructive indicators of what policymakers see as important initiatives. It remains up to us to let them know if they are right – and to hold them accountable.

Today marks the beginning of a major campaign to bridge the digital divide.

Just a month ago, we focused on a new executive order aimed at strengthening U.S. cyber defenses, increasing information sharing, and developing standards to protect national security, jobs, and privacy. Before the ink was dry on President Barack Obama’s signature, the White House was calling on Congress to act as well to give our government a greater capacity to secure our networks and deter attacks. In the past week or so, we’ve seen a great deal of discussion in Washington about cybersecurity -- most aimed at getting Congress to act on the issue.

To further explore the current state of nonprofit media, The Knight Foundation and the Council on Foundations joined forces to create a working group tasked to dig into regulatory obstacles. I was honored to participate on this working group and am pleased that our report, “The IRS and Nonprofit Media: Toward Creating a More Informed Public,” is being released on March 4th.

At first blush it sounds so silly. The first topic of conversation at just about every communications lobbyist lunch these days is: “So, what are you hearing about who will be the next Chair of the FCC?” The same list of rumored candidates is then tossed on the table and dissected, with sometimes a brand new name thrown in just to spice things up. The follow-up question is usually: “When is Chairman Genachowski going to leave?” The pros and cons of various departure dates are then analyzed, even though the current Chairman has shared no hint of his intentions. Handicapping possible successors, while interesting, doesn’t get us very far. Is it all just silly speculation? Is this nothing more than one more expense-deductible meal while we all wait breathlessly for white smoke to belch forth from the Oval Office chimney? I think not. It’s a question of focus.