Daily Digest 8/29/2018 (Net Neutrality; Rural Broadband; Attacking Google)

Benton Foundation
Table of Contents

Broadband/Internet

Sen Markey and Rep Eshoo Lead Members of Congress in Amicus Brief Challenging the FCC’s Net Neutrality Repeal  |  Read below  |  Press Release  |  US Senate
Verizon California Throttling Mistake Shows How Radical Pai’s Repeal Order Really Was  |  Read below  |  Harold Feld  |  Analysis  |  Tales of the Sausage Factory
AT&T-backed robocalls tell seniors net neutrality raises phone bills by $30  |  Read below  |  Jon Brodkin  |  Ars Technica
CAF Phase II Auction Closes, Allocates $1.488 Billion to Close the Digital Divide  |  Read below  |  Public Notice  |  Federal Communications Commission
Federal Appeals Court Upholds FCC Business Data Services Remake  |  Read below  |  John Eggerton  |  Multichannel News
Estimation of the Net Benefits of Indiana Statewide Adoption of Rural Broadband  |  Read below  |  Alison Grant, Wallace Tyner, Larry Deboer  |  Research  |  Purdue University
Electric Cooperative Gigabit Gains Traction  |  Read below  |  Joan Engebretson  |  telecompetitor
Dear RUS: How to Prove a Negative  |  Conexon
3 years in, many Nashvillians still waiting for Google Fiber  |  Read below  |  Jamie McGee  |  Nashville Tennessean
Oxnard (CA) sees high-speed internet expansion as an economic development tool  |  Ventura County Star
Erie (CO) to Ask Voters for Freedom from State Broadband Rules  |  Daily Camera
JP Morgan to underwrite Loveland's (CO) broadband utility  |  Reporter-Herald

Wireless

Small Cell Wireless Technology in Cities  |  Read below  |  Research  |  National League of Cities
Will 5G and Smart Cities Go Hand-in-Hand?  |  Read below  |  Joan Engebretson  |  telecompetitor

Ownership

Few Rivals Speak Out Against Sprint, T-Mobile Merger  |  Read below  |  Drew FitzGerald  |  Wall Street Journal
  • Alitce: FCC Needs to Protect Sprint Mobile Virtual Network Operator  |  Broadcasting&Cable
Requirements that will govern the radio ownership incubator program  |  Federal Communications Commission

Privacy

Yahoo, Bucking Industry, Scans Emails for Data to Sell Advertisers  |  Read below  |  Douglas MacMillan, Sarah Krouse, Keach Hagey  |  Wall Street Journal

Platforms

President Trump broadens attack on Silicon Valley companies  |  Read below  |  Ali Breland  |  Hill, The
  • President Trump’s economic adviser: ‘We’re taking a look’ at whether Google searches should be regulated  |  Read below  |  Isaac Stanley-Becker, Brian Fung, Tony Romm  |  Washington Post
  • Google responds to President Trump: Denies favoring ideologies in search results  |  Read below  |  Harper Neidig  |  Hill, The
  • Op-ed: President Trump wouldn’t be the first GOP president to try to make the media ‘fair'  |  Washington Post
  • Floyd Abrams: Keep the government out of Google searches  |  Washington Post
  • Why Google is the Perfect Target for Trump  |  Wired
  • Here’s what we know about Google’s mysterious search engine  |  Washington Post
Dozens at Facebook Unite to Challenge Its ‘Intolerant’ Liberal Culture  |  Read below  |  Kate Conger, Sheera Frenkel  |  New York Times
Instagram rolls out new measures to combat ‘fake news’  |  Instagram
Big Tech braces for hostile DC in Sept 5 Hearings  |  Read below  |  Sara Fischer  |  Axios

Journalism

President Trump, Musk and the journalistic battle against online trolls  |  Read below  |  James Ball  |  Op-Ed  |  Columbia Journalism Review
The public and the press  |  Read below  |  Emily Bell  |  Editorial  |  Columbia Journalism Review
Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark Makes $1 Million Gift to Mother Jones  |  Mother Jones
David Pecker, CEO Of National Enquirer, Resigns From Postmedia Boards  |  Huffington Post
Bloomberg News reassigned reporter after Wells Fargo CEO called to complain  |  CNN

Surveillance

Sen Wyden Confirms Cell-Site Simulators Disrupt Emergency Calls  |  Read below  |  Cooper Quintin  |  Electronic Frontier Foundation
HotspotShield, the most important mobile app you've never heard of  |  Axios

Security

New America op-ed: US government hackers will now have greater latitude to deter and answer attacks  |  Wall Street Journal

Labor

What Does Technological Innovation and the Digital Divide Mean for the Workforce?  |  Read below  |  Demetra Smith Nightingale, Lauren Eyster, Maureen Conway, Jordana Barton  |  Research  |  Federal Reserve System

Content

Excerpt: The Internet of Garbage -- The Intersection of Copyright and Harassment  |  Vox
What You Might Not Know About E-sports, a $620 Million Industry  |  New York Times

Policymakers

 
Cameron Kerry: It’s time for the Senate to act on Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board nominations  |  Brookings Institution
How Trump relies on his cable news Cabinet as much as the real one  |  Washington Post
Today's Top Stories

Internet/Broadband

Sen Markey and Rep Eshoo Lead Members of Congress in Amicus Brief Challenging the FCC’s Net Neutrality Repeal

Press Release  |  US Senate

Sen Ed Markey (D-MA), Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA), 27 senators, and 76 representatives filed an Amicus Brief with the DC Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the Federal Communication Commission’s December 2017 decision to eliminate network neutrality rules. The FCC’s decision repealed the 2015 Open Internet rules, which categorized broadband internet access as a telecommunications service and prohibited Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from engaging in discriminatory practices, such as blocking or throttling online content and establishing internet fast and slow lanes.   

“In sum, the FCC’s reclassification decision in its 2017 Order is based entirely in the misuse of language,” write the members of Congress in their brief. “It is divorced from the practical realities that supported the FCC’s 2015 classification decision. And it leads immediately to absurd results. It is an abuse of discretion which this Court should overturn.”  

“Both the plain language and Congressional intent behind the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that Congresswoman Eshoo and I helped author make clear that today, broadband access to the internet is a telecommunications service,” said Sen Markey. “But Chairman Pai and his Republican FCC colleagues ignored the statute, our intent, and consumer perception when it reclassified broadband back to an information service and eviscerated net neutrality rules. They are on the wrong side of history. Whether in the halls of Congress or the halls of the courts, the fight for net neutrality is the fight for our online future, and we will prevail.”

Verizon California Throttling Mistake Shows How Radical Pai’s Repeal Order Really Was

Harold Feld  |  Analysis  |  Tales of the Sausage Factory

Congress created the Federal Communications Commission in order to ensure we would have working communications infrastructure for, among other things, handling public safety. So you would think that when Verizon throttled the Santa Clara (CA) Fire Department’s mobile broadband connection for coordinating response to the Mendocino Complex Fire — the largest wildfire in California history — that the FCC would naturally be all over it. The vast and mighty silence you hear is the utter lack of response by the FCC — for the simple reason that last December the FCC utterly, completely and totally divested itself of all authority over broadband. This was, as I and others pointed out at the time, utterly, completely and totally unprecedented. Regardless of classification, every single FCC chairman prior to Ajit Pai asserted authority over broadband to prevent exactly this kind of disaster. Under Michael Powell and Kevin Martin it would be under Title I ancillary authority. Under Julius Genachowski and Tom Wheeler (prior to reclassifying broadband as Title II in February 2015), it would have been under Section 706. Under Ajit Pai — bupkis.

Which leaves us with a major problem. How the heck do we stop this (and other potential failures of our broadband infrastructure) from happening again when the agency Congress actually directed to handle this has decided to abdicate its responsibility entirely? I have been preaching for nearly 10 years now that Title II authority over broadband is absolutely necessary to protect and manage our critical communications infrastructure. As I keep saying, this goes way beyond net neutrality. As broadband becomes integrated into everything in our lives – including public safety – there needs to be someone other than a group of unaccountable private companies looking out for the public interest. Happily, we have an easy answer to the question of “how do we make sure someone is responsible from preventing these kinds of screw ups going forward.” Congress needs to vote the CRA and force the FCC to take back authority for broadband. Or, if you’re California and don’t like seeing your state literally go up in flames while on hold with customer support, then you need to pass SB 822 — the California net neutrality bill. Anything else is literally fiddling around while California burns.

AT&T-backed robocalls tell seniors net neutrality raises phone bills by $30

Jon Brodkin  |  Ars Technica

A campaign to stop network neutrality rules in California is targeting senior citizens with robocalls claiming that the rules will raise cell phone bills by $30 a month and slow down their data. The robocalls cite no evidence supporting the claim that net neutrality rules will raise cell phone bills and slow down Internet service. The bill in question would impose net neutrality rules in California that are nearly identical to the ones the Federal Communications Commission had on the books between 2015 and 2018. Since the federal version of the rules did not raise cell phone bills by $30 or slow down Internet speeds, there's no reason to believe that imposing similar rules in California would have that effect. The calls are being made on behalf of the Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC) and the Congress of California Seniors (CCS). CCS is backed by AT&T and Verizon, but it's not clear what CJAC's interest in the bill is. Verizon said that it is not involved in the robocall campaign. The robocall effort comes as the California State Assembly prepares to vote the week of Aug 27 on the state's net neutrality bill. "We're now dealing with a straight-up misinformation campaign on our #NetNeutrality bill, #SB822: industry robo-calls to seniors falsely telling them that protecting net neutrality will increase their phone bills by $30," bill author CA state sen Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) wrote in a tweet. "Scaring seniors w lies about their financial security? Gross."

CAF Phase II Auction Closes, Allocates $1.488 Billion to Close the Digital Divide

Public Notice  |  Federal Communications Commission

Bidding in the Connect America Fund Phase II auction concluded on August 21, 2018. There were 103 winning bidders in the auction, with the 10-year support amount totaling $1.488 billion and covering 713,176 locations in 45 states. Of the 974,223 locations in the 30,033 eligible census block groups (CBGs), approximately 73 percent of the locations are covered by winning bids. While winning bids are for a range of performance tiers, winning bids for downstream speeds of at least 100 megabits per second (Mbps) cover 53 percent of these locations. And over 99.7 percent of these locations will receive at least 25 Mbps downstream speeds, more than twice the 10 Mbps minimum standard for the Connect America Fund program.  Winning bidders are required to submit a post-auction application for support (FCC Form 683) no later than October 15, 2018. Winning bidders that wish to assign some or all of their winning bids to related entities must do so by September 14, 2018. 

Several publicly held companies – including Verizon, Frontier, Cincinnati Bell, Otelco  and Hawaiian Telcom – won no more than $18 million apiece. Other winners included rural local exchange carriers, wireless internet service providers and others, according to telecompetitor.

Federal Appeals Court Upholds FCC Business Data Services Remake

John Eggerton  |  Multichannel News

A federal appeals court has upheld the majority of the Federal Communications Commission's 2017 Business Data Services (BDS) revamp. The NCTA--The Internet & Television Association had backed the BDS remake under FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who had not supported the previous approach adopted under Chairman Tom Wheeler. In a party-line vote, the FCC Republican Majority on April 20, 2017, adopted a BDS Report and Order, under new chairman Pai, declaring the BDS market generally competitive—a distinct departure from Wheeler's more regulatory proposal, which had concluded the market was insufficiently competitive. The Pai BDS approach deregulated the rates incumbent providers can charge for services like wireless backhaul, credit card readers, ATMs and institutional hookups to schools and libraries. The FCC had argued that its new policy of releasing drafts of item three weeks before a vote allowed sufficient time for comment, but the court said that was not the case and remanded that portion of the decision back to the FCC. "The court did identify a narrow procedural issue that the Commission needs to address," said Pai, "and I look forward to working with my colleagues to do just that as soon as possible." But the court left intact the FCC deregulatory changes, which was a victory for ISPs who had sought more flexibility to deliver business broadband. 

“Today’s court decision is a win for consumers and another important step toward modernizing the delivery of broadband services and incentivizing new investment in the most efficient and effective way," said Jonathan Spalter, president of USTelecom. "While the transport issue was vacated on procedural grounds, we are confident that upon remand, the FCC will find that transport services are fully competitive and not subject to pricing regulation."

Chairman Pai Statement on Eight Circuit Decision Upholding Core Actions on BDS

Press Release  |  Federal Communications Commission

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai issued the following statement regarding Aug 28's ruling from the Eighth Circuit, which upheld the FCC’s decision to remove onerous regulations on certain business data services in competitive markets: "It’s a good day for forward-thinking regulation. Here’s why: Last year, based on a thorough analysis of a massive amount of data, the Commission adopted a ‘competitive market test’ to determine where regulation of business data services was still needed and where it would impede investment, innovation, and competition. I’m pleased that the Eighth Circuit upheld that test and the detariffing and deregulation of last-mile business data services that the test suggested. Indeed, the court recognized that the Commission had proposed ‘large scale deregulation’ and repeatedly affirmed the Commission’s policy judgments as reasonable. The court did identify a narrow procedural issue that the Commission needs to address, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to do just that as soon as possible."

Estimation of the Net Benefits of Indiana Statewide Adoption of Rural Broadband

Alison Grant, Wallace Tyner, Larry Deboer  |  Research  |  Purdue University

This paper projects the statewide net benefits that could be obtained from installation of rural broadband in all of the areas served by Rural Electric Member Cooperatives (REMC) in the state of Indiana. This analysis draws heavily upon an initial analysis that was done for the Tipmont Cooperative. Then six additional Indiana REMCs were added, although with somewhat less precision than the original Tipmont analysis. Then the benefit-cost results of these seven REMCs were extrapolated to the state of Indiana.  The benefit-cost ratios range from 2.97 to 4.09 for the seven REMCs. From a societal perspective, the rural broadband investment is clearly quite attractive. However, the anticipated revenue from customers would not be adequate to cover the total system costs, so some form of external assistance would be needed to incentivize the investments.

The sum of net present value of benefits for the seven cooperatives is $2,252,600,453. There are 92,726 members in these co-ops, so the net benefit per member is $24,293 (weighted average) for the seven cooperatives. Extrapolating the net benefits for these seven REMCs to the state, the total for the state of Indiana would be $11,976,222,899. In other words, the state of Indiana would receive about $12 billion in net benefits if the broadband investment were made statewide. That translates to $1 billion per year annuitized over 20 years at six percent interest rate.

Electric Cooperative Gigabit Gains Traction

Joan Engebretson  |  telecompetitor

Electric cooperative gigabit is becoming more commonplace, as news from Aug 28 about four electric cooperative gigabit deployments illustrates. The four cooperatives include two Tennessee companies (Sequachee Valley Electric Cooperative and Meriwether Lewis Electric Cooperative), along with two Alabama cooperatives (North Alabama Electric Cooperative and Tombigbee Electric Cooperative.) All four companies said they would work with engineering service provider FiberRise and equipment provider Adtran on their gigabit deployments. The state of Tennessee has seen a rise in electric cooperative fiber deployments in the last year or so, since legislators voted to allow electric cooperatives to offer retail broadband services. In addition to Sequachee Valley Electric Cooperative and Meriwether Lewis Electric Cooperative, another Tennessee company that made the news this week was Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation, which said it would work with United Communications, a neighboring rural telecom provider, on a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) project.

3 years in, many Nashvillians still waiting for Google Fiber

Jamie McGee  |  Nashville Tennessean

Residents across Nashville (TN) have been waiting for the highly anticipated Google Fiber internet service since Google announced its expansion to Nashville three and a half years ago. While parts of several neighborhoods and apartment buildings have access to Google Fiber, many Nashvillians continue to renew contracts with existing providers they pledged to drop when the city rolled out its red carpet to Google. Since it began installation in 2016, Google Fiber has connected 52 Nashville apartment buildings and single-family homes, and the company declined to offer specific adoption numbers.

Deployment challenges that Nashville Google Fiber Manager Martha Ivester has discussed stem from a contentious legal battle over access to utility poles. Google proposed an alternative "One Touch Make Ready" process that would allow independent contractors to move all existing cables in one session, accelerating the installation process and reducing disruption to streets. It was met with staunch opposition from Comcast and AT&T, which owns 20 percent of Nashville poles. Nashville Electric Service owns the remaining 80 percent. After weeks of contentious meetings debating whether to approve One Touch Make ready, Metro Council sided with Google Fiber. The council vote quickly prompted lawsuits from AT&T and Comcast that claimed Metro lacked the authority to regulate utility poles. After the city spent roughly $140,000 on legal fees to argue the case, a federal judge in Nov sided with AT&T and Comcast, ruling that only the Federal Communications Commission could regulate poles owned by AT&T. A separate judge ruled in January that the city did not have the authority to allow One Touch Make Ready on poles owned by Nashville Electric Service. The FCC issued an order in August allowing One Touch Make Ready, but the ruling does not apply to NES poles in Nashville, according to the FCC. It is up to NES to determine if it will allow One Touch Make Ready in Nashville and the municipally-owned power provider indicated that it will stick with the status quo process of moving each line separately, without elaborating on its reasons for doing so. 

Wireless

Small Cell Wireless Technology in Cities

Research  |  National League of Cities

With the seismic shift toward smart cities and the internet of things (IoT), reliance on wireless and wireline broadband infrastructure is becoming greater and greater. As various wireless providers maintain that the roll out of 5G internet service is approaching, and the IoT proliferates with the connection of millions of new smart devices to the internet, cities must face the reality that to meet the increasing demands of residents, more wireless facilities and infrastructure must be deployed. With that reality, city officials must also face a number of policy, public safety, land-use and right-of-way considerations. As cities navigate this rapidly-changing policy issue with both wireless and infrastructure providers and community residents, a number of considerations for the different stakeholders begin to emerge. This action guide from the National League of Cities (NLC) provides an overview of small cell technology, as well as guidance on how local governments can plan for, develop policy and processes around, and manage the deployment of, small cell wireless infrastructure. It will also provide city leaders with strategies for proactively engaging with wireless providers and residents to plan for small cell networks in their communities.

Additionally, NLC and the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) have released model code for municipalities, intended as a roadmap to assist local governments in adopting their own ordinances governing use of the rights of way by communications providers.

Will 5G and Smart Cities Go Hand-in-Hand?

Joan Engebretson  |  telecompetitor

5G and smart cities could have a lot of synergies, as research firm Kagan explains in a new research note. Researchers drew on Verizon’s experience in the first four markets where the carrier will deploy fixed 5G wireless, but their observations could apply to mobile 5G as well. “Between tearing up streets to lay fiber and installing small cells on municipal infrastructure, city cooperation is essential for 5G deployment – and that is the most prominent similarity between the four cities chosen by Verizon for its initial 5G launches,” wrote Kagan, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence.  Kagan researchers pointed to Verizon’s agreement with the city of Sacramento (CA) as an example of the kind of 5G and smart cities synergies that we may be seeing more of. Verizon agreed to invest $100 million to support the city’s smart grid initiatives in exchange for being able to use city conduit for fiber deployment, for discounted utility pole attachment fees and for small cell lease terms that were favorable to the carrier. “Whereas Sacramento and other cities typically issue a request for proposal for services and then pick a bidder from the bunch, Verizon approached Sacramento directly and offered a nonexclusive partnership,” Kagan noted.

Ownership

Few Rivals Speak Out Against Sprint, T-Mobile Merger

Drew FitzGerald  |  Wall Street Journal

If America’s tech and telecom giants have an opinion about T-Mobile US’s plan to reshape the wireless industry by taking over Sprint , most are keeping it to themselves.Few large companies have gone on record to back or oppose the roughly $26 billion merger, which would combine the country’s No. 3 and No. 4 carriers. Fewer still are using their lobbying prowess to fight the deal behind the scenes. “I don’t think you’re going to have any entity that has motive and means to oppose this deal” among big business, said Blair Levin, an industry analyst at New Street Research. A lack of organized opposition favors the companies as they seek approval from the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice to close the deal. Representatives of Sprint and T-Mobile have met with FCC and Justice Department lawyers several times to sell the deal and don’t expect to be able to close it until 2019. 

Privacy

Yahoo, Bucking Industry, Scans Emails for Data to Sell Advertisers

Douglas MacMillan, Sarah Krouse, Keach Hagey  |  Wall Street Journal

The tech industry has largely declared it is off limits to scan emails for information to sell to advertisers. Yahoo still sees the practice as a potential gold mine. Yahoo’s owner, the Oath unit of Verizon Communications has been pitching a service to advertisers that analyzes more than 200 million Yahoo Mail inboxes and the rich user data they contain, searching for clues about what products those users might buy, said people who have attended Oath’s presentations as well as current and former employees of the company. Oath said the practice extends to AOL Mail, which it also owns. Together, they constitute the only major US email provider that scans user inboxes for marketing purposes. Yahoo’s practice began more than a decade ago and expanded over the years

Platforms

President Trump broadens attack on Silicon Valley companies

Ali Breland  |  Hill, The

President Donald Trump escalated a brewing battle with various technology companies, issuing a warning to Facebook and Twitter after blasting Google earlier in the day. "Google and Twitter and Facebook, they’re really treading on very, very troubled territory," President Trump cautioned during an event at the White House. "If you look at what is going on with Twitter and if you look at what’s going on in Facebook, they better be careful because you can’t do that to people," he added. The president did not provide specifics to clarify his remarks. “I think Google is really taking advantage of a lot of people. And I think that is a very serious thing and it is a very serious charge,” he said. President Trump also claimed that “thousands of complaints” had come to the White House about the technology companies, though it's unclear where these complaints were filed. 

President Trump’s economic adviser: ‘We’re taking a look’ at whether Google searches should be regulated

Isaac Stanley-Becker, Brian Fung, Tony Romm  |  Washington Post

The Trump administration is “taking a look” at whether Google and its search engine should be regulated by the government, said Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s economic adviser. “We’ll let you know,” Kudlow said. “We’re taking a look at it.” The announcement puts the search giant squarely in the White House’s crosshairs amid wider allegations against the tech industry that it systematically discriminates against conservatives on social media and other platforms.

Google responds to President Trump: Denies favoring ideologies in search results

Harper Neidig  |  Hill, The

Google responded to President Donald Trump, denying that its algorithms favor liberal media outlets over right-wing ones.

"When users type queries into the Google Search bar, our goal is to make sure they receive the most relevant answers in a matter of seconds. Search is not used to set a political agenda and we don't bias our results toward any political ideology. Every year, we issue hundreds of improvements to our algorithms to ensure they surface high-quality content in response to users' queries. We continually work to improve Google Search and we never rank search results to manipulate political sentiment."

Dozens at Facebook Unite to Challenge Its ‘Intolerant’ Liberal Culture

Kate Conger, Sheera Frenkel  |  New York Times

More than 100 Facebook employees have joined Mr. Amerige to form an online group called FB’ers for Political Diversity. The aim of the initiative is to create a space for ideological diversity within the company. The new group has upset other Facebook employees, who said its online posts were offensive to minorities. One engineer, who declined to be identified for fear of retaliation, said several people had lodged complaints with their managers about FB’ers for Political Diversity and were told that it had not broken any company rules. Another employee said the group appeared to be constructive and inclusive of different political viewpoints. 

The activity is a rare sign of organized dissent within Facebook over the company’s largely liberal workplace culture. While the new group is just a sliver of Facebook’s work force of more than 25,000, the company’s workers have in the past appeared less inclined than their peers at other tech companies to challenge leadership, and most have been loyalists to its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg.

Back to Table of Contents


Big Tech braces for hostile DC in Sept 5 Hearings

Sara Fischer  |  Axios

The Facebook/Google/Twitter trio are better prepared for this upcoming round of Congressional testimony on Sept. 5. Almost a year after the three companies first testified together in front of Congress for Russian meddling, the three social media giants will be returning to Capitol Hill to talk about censorship and election interference. Many recall CEO Mark Zuckerberg's positive performance during televised Facebook hearings in April following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but the last time these three companies faced Congress together, the reviews were brutal. In anticipation of the hearings, the companies are also making greater efforts to work together on some of these issues. These companies will be more buttoned up and prepared than the first time they sat before Congress together. But that might not be enough to reverse the tide against them in the legislature.


Journalism

President Trump, Musk and the journalistic battle against online trolls

James Ball  |  Op-Ed  |  Columbia Journalism Review

President Donald Trump's "The Art of the Deal" tells the tale of how some newspaper stories get written. When Trump Tower was under construction, Trump, according to the book, called up a gossip reporter to claim that Prince Charles and Princess Diana were about to buy an apartment in the building. Buckingham Palace, as a matter of policy, never comments for this type of story—meaning that for a certain kind of reporter keen on a certain kind of story, the tip is a tempting one even if they suspect it’s almost certainly not true. When people tweet, they often do so with their own political, financial, or corporate motivations—just as people often do when they’re calling a reporter on the phone to talk about the royals moving into their apartment building. Elon Musk is both a CEO and a troll. In going directly to the public via social media, and saying ridiculous things, he’s able to shape the online conversation, circumvent some internal checks on his power—like his board and lawyers—and know that there’s an eager chorus of online fans online to support his position.

The internet, and especially social media, are full of savvy operators who are using it – and us – to spread messages with their own agendas. And journalists fall into their trap, time and time again; something about online messaging turns off our reporting instincts. Yes, journalists are being played online. But journalists have been played for generations, and we’re not passive pawns in this game. We just need to remember that the game is on, and respond appropriately, like we always have.

[James Ball is a journalist and author based in London, UK.]

The public and the press

Emily Bell  |  Editorial  |  Columbia Journalism Review

There are few more sought-after politicians in the United States at the moment than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In June, at 28 years old, by making a play from the left, she pulled off a stunning primary victory over Joe Crowley, who had represented New York in Congress since 1999—first from the 7th district, then the 14th. Wherever she goes, Ocasio-Cortez brings a media deluge.  A couple weeks ago, feeling mobbed by reporters, she decided to make two “listening tour” stops—one in the the Bronx and another in Queens, open to the public but not to the press. The press ban, her campaign team said, was meant “to help create a space where community members felt comfortable and open to express themselves without the distraction of cameras and press.” 

Even if press-free events are an anomaly, it is worrying for journalism that a politician with the support and profile of Ocasio-Cortez frames the presence of press at her meetings as being a hindrance to productive dialogue. Research suggests that, in the kinds of communities she is addressing—urban, poor, non-white—citizens might feel the same way.

Changes in technology transform the way people both consume news and view reporters. As the press becomes walled off from the rest of the public, it’s the responsibility of journalists to make a compelling case for themselves by modifying their behavior. Engaging with subjects as community members may not always seem to be a practical solution, but with access under strain during the coming election season, it is more urgent than ever.

[Emily Bell is Director at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School.]

Surveillance

Sen Wyden Confirms Cell-Site Simulators Disrupt Emergency Calls

Cooper Quintin  |  Electronic Frontier Foundation

Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) has sent a letter to the Department of Justice concerning disruptions to 911 emergency services caused by law enforcement’s use of cell-site simulators (CSS, also known as IMSI catchers or Stingrays). In the letter, Sen Wyden states that: "Senior officials from the Harris Corporation—the manufacturer of the cell-site simulators used most frequently by U.S. law enforcement agencies—have confirmed to my office that Harris’ cell-site simulators completely disrupt the communications of targeted phones for as long as the surveillance is ongoing. According to Harris, targeted phones cannot make or receive calls, send or receive text messages, or send or receive any data over the Internet. Moreover, while the company claims its cell-site simulators include a feature that detects and permits the delivery of emergency calls to 9-1-1, its officials admitted to my office that this feature has not been independently tested as part of the Federal Communication Commission’s certification process, nor were they able to confirm this feature is capable of detecting and passing-through 9-1-1 emergency communications made by people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech disabled using Real-Time Text technology."

Labor

What Does Technological Innovation and the Digital Divide Mean for the Workforce?

Demetra Smith Nightingale, Lauren Eyster, Maureen Conway, Jordana Barton  |  Research  |  Federal Reserve System

This book aims to reframe workforce development efforts as investments that can result in better economic outcomes for individuals, businesses, and regions. The book is divided into three volumes: Investing in Workers, Investing in Work, and Investing in Systems for Employment Opportunity. Within each volume are discrete sections made up of chapters that identify specific workforce development programs and policies that provide positive returns to society, to employers, and to job seekers.

 


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Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org) and Robbie McBeath (rmcbeath AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.


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