July 27, 2012 (Senate advances cybersecurity bill debate)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, JULY 27, 2012

Next week’s events http://benton.org/calendar/2012-07-29--P1W/

CYBERSECURITY
   Senate advances bill to bolster cybersecurity defenses in 84-11 vote
   Cybersecurity Bill Moving Forward in Senate [links to web]
   Defense Officials: Sequestration Cuts Would Be 'Devastating' for Cybersecurity
   Rise Is Seen in Cyberattacks Targeting U.S. Infrastructure
   Backdoors expose systems to cyber attacks
   Justice Department trains prosecutors to combat cyber espionage
   London Olympics officials prepare for cyber attacks [links to web]

INTERNET/BROADBAAND
   State Dept. Says It Will Fight For Internet Freedom At U.N. Telecom Conference
   FCC Releases New, Interactive Map Illustrating States Set to Receive 'Connect America Fund' Support - press release
   Verizon, AT&T Decline Broadband Connect America Funding
   FCC Seeks Comment on Proposed Urban Rates Survey - public notice
   Super fast fiber for Kansas City from Google - press release
   The Economics of Google Fiber and What it Means for US Broadband - analysis
   Why is Verizon in bed with Time Warner and Comcast? - analysis
   How to Tackle Broadband Adoption by the Nation’s Underserved population
   Broadband Cherry-Picking - analysis

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
   NBC's Chuck Todd rants on Romney
   More Than $100 Million In Attack Ads Fails To Move Voters
   Ad Rates Spiking as Candidates, Groups Scurry to Get On Air
   Mitt Romney's Fake Twitter Follower Problem

JOURNALISM
   New News in New Orleans
   Bad News About the News - analysis [links to web]
   Washington Post editors back writer who made changes to story at subjects’ request [links to web]
   Ohio News Network to cease operations Aug. 31 [links to web]
   News Objectivity and Political Conversation: An Experimental Study of Mad Cow Disease and Candlelight Protest - research [links to web]

OWNERSHIP
   Public Radio International acquired by Boston public broadcaster WGBH - press release [links to web]
   News Corp. Buys Stake In Web Video Player Roku [links to web]
   Google Move Buoys Chicago Tech Hub

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Skype makes chats and user data more available to police

PRIVACY
   Lawmaker Invites Internet Users to Craft Privacy Legislation
   Acting U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank Announces U.S. Participation in APEC's Cross Border Privacy Rules System - press release [links to web]
   Which do you trust less with your data, the U.S. government or Google? [links to web]

TELEVISION/RADIO
   Sports Fan Coalition Pitches Two-Year Sunset of Sports Blackout Rule [links to web]
   Dish Tweaks Hopper Ad-Skipping Feature Amid Lawsuit: Report [links to web]
   Clear Channel/Big Machine Deal Is Step In Right Direction, But Not Far Enough - op-ed [links to web]

POLICYMAKERS
Antirust Nominee Pressed on Monitoring Google's Behavior

STORIES FROM ABROAD
Brazil tees up billion dollar telecom bonanza
Olympics Test Network As IPhone-Toting Visitors Clog UK [links to web]

MORE ONLINE
   As patent wars escalate, business booms for those who can predict the odds [links to web]
   @ThisIsVt, Vermonters Taking Turns on Twitter [links to web]
   Xfinity? Comcast Sets Out to Explain Bundled Service [links to web]

back to top

CYBERSECURITY

SENATE ADVANCES CYBERSECURITY BILL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez, Ramsey Cox]
The Senate agreed to move forward with Sen. Joe Lieberman's (I-CT) cybersecurity bill after months of contentious negotiations. The motion to proceed to the Cybersecurity Act was approved 84-11 after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) agreed to an open amendment process. Although the bill cleared this test vote, it faces an uphill battle to reach the finish line. While senators are meeting to try and reach a final agreement, disagreements remain. Republicans voting against the motion to proceed to the bill were Sens. Mike Johanns (NE), Rand Paul (KY), Ron Johnson (WI), Marco Rubio (FL), Dean Heller (NV), Pat Roberts (KS), Mike Enzi (WY), John Barrasso (WY) and Jerry Moran (KS). Democrats opposing the motion to proceed were Sens. Jon Tester (MT) and Max Baucus (MT).
A number of senators already have announced plans to put forward a series of amendments. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) said the co-sponsors of the Secure It Act plan to offer the competing cybersecurity bill as an amendment in the nature of a substitute in a speech on the Senate floor. Sen Hutchison said the Senate should take up Secure It over Lieberman's bill because it had a greater chance of passing both chambers. Sens. Al Franken (D-MN), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Chris Coons (D-DE) said they plan to introduce amendments aimed at beefing up the privacy protections in the bill. Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) also plans to introduce an amendment that would create a chief privacy officer in the Office of Management and Budget, which Sen Blumenthal is expected to support.
benton.org/node/130785 | Hill, The | B&C | The Hill – amendments | The Verge
Recommend this Headline
back to top

SEQUESTRATION AND CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Josh Smith]
Potential budget cuts under sequestration would take a major toll on efforts to fight cyberthreats, top officers from each of the military branches warned a House Armed Services subcommittee.
“It would be devastating,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Suzanne Vautrinot told the House Armed Services Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee. Not only would current efforts to boost military cybercapabilities falter, but past advancements could be undone, she said. “We would actually lose ground in this important area.” Vautrinot’s fears were echoed by Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Richard Mills, who said that across-the-board cuts, which would happen if Congress doesn’t agree on budget measures, could undermine efforts to retain and train enough people to handle cybersecurity operations. In addition, the speed at which various military cyber programs have to acquire new technology, such as software, means that any cuts could disproportionately hurt cybersecurity, he said.
benton.org/node/130782 | National Journal
Recommend this Headline
back to top

CYBERSECURITY AND CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Sanger, Eric Schmitt]
The top American military official responsible for defending the United States against cyberattacks said that there had been a 17-fold increase in computer attacks on American infrastructure between 2009 and 2011, initiated by criminal gangs, hackers and other nations. The assessment by Gen. Keith B. Alexander, who heads the National Security Agency and also the newly created United States Cyber Command, appears to be the government’s first official acknowledgment of the pace at which America’s electricity grids, water supplies, computer and cellphone networks and other infrastructure are coming under attack. Those attacks are considered potentially far more serious than computer espionage or financial crimes. General Alexander, who rarely speaks publicly, did not say how many attacks had occurred in that period. General Alexander said that what concerned him about the increase in foreign cyberattacks on the United States was that a growing number were aimed at “critical infrastructure,” and that the United States remained unprepared to ward off a major attack.
benton.org/node/130814 | New York Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top

BACKDOORS AND CYBERATTACKS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Richard Waters]
The smart systems that lie behind many aspects of modern life, controlling everything from power grids and water treatment plants to hotel lifts and home heating systems, could be facing an onslaught of cyber attacks. But they are as poorly defended as corporate information systems were before computer security first became a critical issue. This is the message from experts in the field, who warn that the weaknesses could lead to everything from the shutting down of critical infrastructure to the unnoticed infiltration of home networks to steal information. “The industrial control community is 5-10 years behind” when it comes to guarding against even the most basic cyber attacks, said Sean McGurk, who until last month oversaw the US Department of Homeland Security’s activities in this area. The extent of the security crisis sweeping through the industrial controls landscape has been on display this week at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, an annual event where security researchers come to show off their coding prowess, usually by demonstrating how to hack into all kinds of supposedly secure systems.
benton.org/node/130812 | Financial Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top

JUSTICE AND CYBER ESPIONAGE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Sari Horwitz]
Confronting a growing threat to national security, the Justice Department has begun training hundreds of prosecutors to combat and prosecute cyber espionage and related crimes, according to senior department officials. The new training is part of a major overhaul following an internal review that pinpointed gaps in the department’s ability to identify and respond to potential terrorist attacks over the Internet and to the rapidly growing crime of cyber espionage, the officials said, describing it for the first time. Justice lawyers are grappling with two distinct categories of national security threats from the Internet. One danger is from terrorists plotting full-scale cyber attacks and the other comes from hackers, cyber criminals and foreign governments stealing trade secrets from the private sector and sensitive classified information from the military and government agencies.
benton.org/node/130780 | Washington Post
Recommend this Headline
back to top

INTERNET/BROADBAAND

STATE DEPT AND INTERNET FREEDOM
[SOURCE: Talking Points Memo, AUTHOR: Carl Franzen]
The State Department will advocate on behalf of Internet freedom, and oppose proposed plans by other nations to control the flow of content or turn more control of Internet technology standards to the United Nations at an upcoming U.N. conference, said U.S. ambassador Philip Verveer. “We recognize that this is a very important conference,” Verveer said, referring to the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), a summit to be held in Dubai in December that will involve all 193 member nations of the United Nations with the aim of revising global telecom regulations, last agreed to in a 1988 treaty, well before the full commercialization and adoption of the Internet. “We’re obviously particularly averse to seeing anything significant about [Internet] content being included,” in the updates to the 1988 regulations, Verveer explained. More specifically, Verveer said that the State Department would file its own proposals for updating the international telecommunications regulations on August 3. “We don’t want to see, by any means, advertent or inadvertent outcomes to impair the Internet as we’ve come to know it, and the freedom of expression and flow of information,” Verveer said. Further, the State Department said that the questions raised by lawmakers and advocacy groups about the proposals and the WCIT-12 conference itself are “entirely congruent” with the State Department’s own approach going into the conference.
benton.org/node/130777 | Talking Points Memo
Recommend this Headline
back to top

FCC RELEASES NEW, INTERACTIVE MAP ILLUSTRATING STATES SET TO RECEIVE ‘CONNECT AMERICA FUND’ SUPPORT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Communications Commission announced that nearly 400,000 residents and small business owners in 37 states will gain access to high-speed Internet within three years, as a result of the first phase of the ‘Connect America Fund.’ The FCC released a new, data-driven, interactive map developed to help illustrate areas in the U.S. that will receive broadband infrastructure build-out within three years through the Connect America Fund phase-one roll out. This interactive map shows the 37 states where new broadband will be deployed as a result of the first phase of the Connect America Fund. The number of homes, businesses, and anchor institution locations that will gain access to new broadband are displayed, along with the number of residents in each state that currently lack access to broadband.
The new map is part of the Commission’s Data Innovation Initiative to modernize and streamline how the agency collects, uses, and disseminates data. The map builds on the government-leading work by the Commission using next-generation mapping tools to make geographic data more accessible.
benton.org/node/130776 | Federal Communications Commission
Recommend this Headline
back to top

VERIZON-AT&T DECLINE CONNECT AMERICA FUND
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
July 24 was the deadline for the nation’s largest price cap carriers to advise the Federal Communications Commission whether they planned to accept funding offered to them to cover some of the costs of deploying broadband to high-cost rural areas where the service is not currently available. But as much as $185 million or more of the $300 million offered to the carriers in the first phase of the Connect America Fund program will not be accepted. Just under $80 million of that amount was rejected outright, with carriers agreeing to accept an additional $106.3 million only if certain waivers are granted. Ten of the nation’s largest carriers were invited to participate in the program, which will pay carriers $775 per broadband line deployed to an unserved home within its territory up to a specific dollar level, which varies from one carrier to another. Seven of the 10 carriers were offered allotments exceeding $1 million. Two of those carriers – AT&T and Verizon –declined all of the funding they had been offered. In a letter to the, AT&T — which was offered $47.8 million — said it is “optimistic” about its ability to get more broadband into rural areas, “particularly as the technology continues to advance.” But the company said it could not commit to participate in the program until it finalizes that strategy. Verizon, which operates largely in the densely populated Northeast, was offered $19.7 million. The company’s letter to the FCC did not cite a specific reason for the decision, other than noting that the amount of money involved was “relatively small.” Verizon also said it “fully supports” Universal Service reforms.
benton.org/node/130774 | telecompetitor
Recommend this Headline
back to top

FCC SEEKS COMMENT ON PROPOSED URBAN RATES SURVEY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
In this Public Notice, the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau seeks comment on a proposed survey of urban rates for fixed voice and fixed broadband residential services. The Bureau also seeks comment concerning how, using data from the urban rates survey, to determine the local voice rate floor and the reasonable comparability benchmarks for fixed voice and fixed broadband services. The rate survey, conducted once each year, will be used to establish a rate floor that carriers receiving high-cost loop support (HCLS) or high-cost model support must meet in order to receive their full support amounts, beginning in 2014. In addition, the rate survey will be used to develop reasonable comparability benchmarks for voice and broadband rates that carriers will annually certify their rates do not exceed, with the first certification due July 1, 2013.
[WC Docket No. 10-90]
benton.org/node/130772 | Federal Communications Commission
Recommend this Headline
back to top

GOOGLE FIBER LAUNCH
[SOURCE: Google, AUTHOR: Milo Medin]
Google launched Google Fiber in Kansas City, Kansas and Missouri. Google Fiber is 100 times faster than today’s average broadband. No more buffering. No more loading. No more waiting. Gigabit speeds will get rid of these pesky, archaic problems and open up new opportunities for the web. Imagine: instantaneous sharing; truly global education; medical appointments with 3D imaging; even new industries that we haven’t even dreamed of, powered by a gig. Kansas Citians will choose where we install and when. We’ve divided Kansas City into small communities we call “fiberhoods.” To get service, each fiberhood needs a critical mass of their residents to pre-register. The fiberhoods with the highest pre-registration percentage will get Google Fiber first. Households in Kansas City can pre-register for the next six weeks, and they can rally their neighbors to pre-register, too. Once the pre-registration period is over, residents of the qualified fiberhoods will be able to choose between three different packages (including TV):
Gigabit + Google Fiber TV: What’s better than a gig of Internet? A gig plus TV, designed for how you watch today and how you’ll watch tomorrow. Google Fiber TV carries hundreds of channels (including your local favorites) and tens of thousands of shows on demand in crystal clear HD. With eight tuners and 2TB of DVR storage, you’ll never have to miss a show again. You’ll also get a brand new Nexus 7 tablet that you can use as your remote control. Gigabit + Google Fiber TV will cost $120 per month, and we’ll waive the $300 construction fee.
Gigabit Internet: With a gig, you can do everything you love on the web at speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans enjoy today. This package will include a gigabit-enabled network box with advanced Wi-Fi and 1TB of cloud storage on Google Drive. Gigabit Internet will cost $70 per month, and we’ll waive the $300 construction fee.
Free Internet: We know that not everyone is ready to commit to a gig just yet. But we want to make sure you have the opportunity to upgrade when you’re ready. So if you pre-register and your fiberhood gets installed, you’ll have the option to get a 5 megabit per second (Mbps) connection for zero monthly charge, and your home will be wired and ready for the switch. The Free Internet option will cost $0 per month, although you will have to pay a $300 construction fee (which can either be paid at once, or in $25 monthly installments).
benton.org/node/130771 | Google | How to Get It | You Choose | AP | WSJ | NYTimes
Recommend this Headline
back to top

THE ECONOMICS OF GOOGLE FIBER
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
For Google, delivering gigabit internet access over fiber for $70 a month (and even free 5 Mbps fiber) is a business that will not only help advance Google’s consumer goals, but also make it money. “There’s no sense selling a product at a loss,” said Google CFO Patrick Pichette. “But it’s not only about profits, it’s about changing the access costs.” His goal and Google’s goal is to bring the same efficiencies that have helped create cheaper, smaller and more powerful computers and create a cost and improvement curve for broadband access. And Google may have a found a way to do that — both in terms of constructing and operating a fiber to the home network — by using its engineering team, existing consumer technologies such as QR codes and social engineering to influence how users sign up for access. Existing ISPs should take note — what Google has done here has fundamentally lowered the cost of building and deploying a network. It was cagey about if and when it would take its fiber-to-the-home show on the road, but if it does, it will pummel existing ISPs on price and service, have repercussions throughout the carrier equipment industry and entice a lot of end consumers to take on a more active role in marketing Google’s broadband.
benton.org/node/130769 | GigaOm
Recommend this Headline
back to top

VERIZON, TWC AND COMCAST
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: David Lazarus]
[Commentary] Stop by a Verizon Wireless store in California and about two dozen other states, and you may encounter a sales pitch not for Verizon's own land-line phone, Internet and TV services but for those of a competitor such as Time Warner Cable or Comcast. You may be hard-pressed to even know that parent company Verizon Communications offers such services. The three telecom heavyweights involved call this a mere marketing partnership and say it has no relationship to Verizon Wireless' pending $3.6-billion purchase of wireless spectrum from the cable industry. They also say the competitiveness of the marketplace won't be affected by rival service providers cozying up to one another and that consumers won't be disadvantaged in any way. Sure. Because any time a market is dominated by only a handful of companies, and they all climb into bed together, that can only mean consumers will benefit. How could it be otherwise? "The question is whether this is good or bad," said Jeff Kagan, a telecom industry analyst. "All I see is bad."
benton.org/node/130767 | Los Angeles Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top

BROADBAND ADOPTION
[SOURCE: BroadbandBreakfast.com, AUTHOR: Chris Naoum]
While physical access to broadband connections remains a major concern for adoption, a Broadband Breakfast Club panel focused most of its attention on the other prongs of adoption which involve cost education and relevance. Efforts to subsidize cost of service cost of hardware along with digital literacy efforts were the primary concern of the panelists. Amina Fazullah, Policy Counsel of The Benton Foundation, Cheryl Leanza, President of A Learned Hand, Sonja Murray, Executive VP and Chief Program Officer at Connect2Compete, Bret Perkins, Vice President of External and Government Affairs at Comcast, Rick Schadelbauer, Economist at the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA) and Jason Whittet, Deputy Director of the Massachusetts broadband Institute made up the panel of experts for the discussion.
Fazullah began the discussion with an update of some of the most recent changes made to the Lifeline program at the FCC, including a number of proposed cost saving measures, updates to the eligibility and verification processes and changes to the way low income consumers can participate. She specifically cited the clarification of the one subsidy per household with the same address issue which had previously prevented those living in group homes, homeless shelters and senior facilities from participating in the program. The FCC has launched their Lifeline and Link Up Pilot projects for broadband which propose to change the program from a voice subsidy to a broadband subsidy. Fazullah said that all the applications for the Pilot Project were received by the Commission as of last Monday and over half the country is represented in the applications. She references a mix of rural and urban applications that all seem to have a combination of support for providing broadband service, as well as partnering with community organizations to provide equipment and digital literacy training.
benton.org/node/130755 | BroadbandBreakfast.com
Recommend this Headline
back to top

BROADBAND CHERRY-PICKING
[SOURCE: Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, AUTHOR: Richard Bennett]
[Commentary] Since 2008, the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute has published papers arguing that American broadband service is inferior to services in the rest of the world. They blame this alleged state of affairs on our reliance on facilities-based competition (cable vs. DSL and FTTH vs. wireless) instead of mandated wholesale access to our various networks at prices set by regulatory fiat. They also want more facilities-based competition as long as it’s from government-owned or funded networks, using TV White Spaces, fiber-to-the-home, and various other technologies. Their position stems in part from a particularly quirky reading of a provision of the 1996 Telecom Act that was meant to create a market for competitive telephone services over the lines owned by the phone companies that were created by the break-up of Ma Bell. They also have tremendous confidence in the ability of small towns to operate their own broadband networks. The latest installment of NAF’s ongoing broadband critique, ”The Cost of Connectivity”, adds some new wrinkles to the story that are particularly misleading. It seeks to compare the costs of triple-play bundles of TV, phone, and Internet service around the world which go considerably beyond simple connectivity. It also purports to compare worldwide broadband services at the $35/month level, an especially intriguing price point. Finally, it tries to identify the fastest Internet services available in selected cities worldwide.
benton.org/node/130742 | Information Technology & Innovation Foundation
Recommend this Headline
back to top

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

ROMNEY AND THE PRESS
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Dylan Byers]
Mitt Romney took questions from the press in London July 26 -- but only from British reporters, not American ones. The move has NBC's Chuck Todd and company mad as hell at the Romney campaign, and they're not going to take it anymore. "Every president in the modern era has decided to pick up on some aspect of limiting media access to the President from their predecessor. The public never cares, because most of them distrust at least half of the press corps. But folks, it’s a slippery slope."
benton.org/node/130751 | Politico
Recommend this Headline
back to top

ADS NOT MOVING VOTERS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: John McCormick]
After spending more than $100 million airing mostly negative ads in the last three months, President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney and their allies haven’t been able to move the public-opinion needle in the states most likely to determine the general election. In seven battleground states the candidates are either statistically tied or Obama holds a slight advantage, polls show. The deadlock comes as the campaign moves into a more critical phase that includes the presumptive Republican nominee’s foreign trip and running-mate selection and the two national conventions in late August and early September. The Obama campaign ran more than 136,000 spots in his top seven battleground states during the past 90 days, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of data from New York-based Kantar Media’s CMAG, a company that tracks advertising. The Romney campaign ran almost 60,000 ads in those states during that period. Three Republican groups backing his candidacy leveled the field some by airing 55,136 commercials attacking the president, while a pro-Obama group ran 11,377 ads. Still, the blitz isn’t persuading voters in part because so few of them -- about 5 percent in most surveys -- are undecided. “These guys are not worrying about efficiency,” said Ken Goldstein, CMAG’s president. “It is a blunt club and it is going to have very small effects on a very small group of people. There are very few undecided voters and they are very hard to reach, but one way to reach them is through local TV.”
benton.org/node/130765 | Bloomberg
Recommend this Headline
back to top

AD RATES SPIKING
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Reid Wilson]
Pity the poor car dealer in Norfolk (VA). Advertising his business has become a lot more expensive in recent months, thanks to presidential campaigns and outside political groups that have poured millions into television advertising there -- and in dozens of other ad markets around the country. The cost of running a single television advertisement has jumped in key markets across the country as candidates, party committees, and independent groups race to get their advertisements on the airwaves. Because the television market is finite and supply does not increase along with demand, prices spike as inventory shrinks. And that's starting to happen: In Norfolk earlier this year, a single gross ratings point -- the measure of how much of the population sees an advertisement -- cost $95; now, it's spiked to $250, according to some estimates. That's because presidential contenders and outside groups have spent more than $7.2 million in that market alone -- a market that reaches just 21 percent of the state's voters. Prices in Richmond, Va., have more than doubled; costs in Tampa, Las Vegas, Cleveland, and elsewhere have jumped 30 percent or more. At the height of a campaign's advertising blitz, running 1,000 to 2,000 points is considered sufficient to reach everyone in a district enough to allow a message to sink in. President Obama, Mitt Romney and, in some cases, even Senate campaigns are already hitting those marks.
benton.org/node/130764 | National Journal
Recommend this Headline
back to top

FAKE TWITTER FOLLOWERS?
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Will Oremus]
As of July 20, Mitt Romney’s Twitter account had about 690,000 followers. That’s more than you or me (oh, hush, John Dickerson), but it’s a paltry number compared to that of Romney’s opponent: @BarackObama boasts some 18 million. On a typical day in the past month, Romney’s Twitter account has gained 3,000 to 4,000 new followers, according to Zach Green, whose blog 140elect.com tracks campaign-related Twitter trends. So when Romney’s follower count began growing by the thousands on Friday evening, Green took notice. In a post titled, “Is Mitt Romney Buying Twitter Followers?”, Green pointed out that Romney’s account added over 100,000 followers over the weekend, for no apparent reason. Liberals on Twitter jumped on the case, noting that many of Mitt’s new fans appeared to be fake—spambots, pornbots, and accounts set up purely to inflate other accounts’ follower count. One of the more amusing finds: At least five of Romney’s newfound followers shared the same profile picture, which turned out to be that of an Internet marketer named Ben Sarma. Was Romney’s campaign buying Twitter followers? It’s not inconceivable, but it seems unlikely.
benton.org/node/130744 | Slate
Recommend this Headline
back to top

JOURNALISM

NEWORLEANSREPORTER
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Cameron McWhirter, Keach Hagey]
National Public Radio, the University of New Orleans, and a group of business and community leaders will announce the creation of a nonprofit newsroom to compete against the city's for-profit newspaper, the Times-Picayune. The planned operation, funded annually by $1 million to $2 million in memberships, donations and sponsorships, will have a staff of 10 to 20 producing news for the Web, mobile devices and radio. NewOrleansReporter.org will be operated by WWNO, a local NPR affiliate owned by the University of New Orleans, a state university. NPR plans to provide technical and journalistic expertise for the new operation—part of a broader national effort by NPR to build up affiliate news operations. WWNO already switched to a heavier news format.
benton.org/node/130805 | Wall Street Journal
Recommend this Headline
back to top

OWNERSHIP

GOOGLE MOVES MOTOROLA TO CHICAGO
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Douglas Belkin]
Google is shifting 3,000 jobs from its newly acquired Motorola Mobility unit to downtown Chicago in a move Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) hopes will anchor a burgeoning tech sector in the nation's third largest city. The jobs were based in Libertyville, a suburb an hour outside of Chicago, but will be relocated next summer following Google's purchase of the company for $12.5 billion in May. Mayor Emanuel said he hoped Google's presence would attract start-up technology companies and stem the Midwestern brain drain. "I think this offers Chicago an opportunity to be a game changer, to be a digital Mecca for the Midwest," Mayor Emanuel said. The Motorola relocation is a coup for Mayor Emanuel, who has weathered a tough summer addressing a sharp uptick in homicides and battling the city's public-school teachers' union, which is threatening to strike. Google already has office space in Chicago, but it isn't nearly large enough for Motorola, so it is investing $300 million into the move and will take over 600,000 square feet on the top four floors of the Merchandise Mart downtown. A few floors below is a recently opened 50,000 square foot innovation center for digital technology partially funded by the state of Illinois.
benton.org/node/130811 | Wall Street Journal | Chicago Tribune
Recommend this Headline
back to top

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

SKYPE AND SURVELIIANCE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Craig Timberg, Ellen Nakashima]
Skype, the online phone service long favored by political dissidents, criminals and others eager to communicate beyond the reach of governments, has expanded its cooperation with law enforcement authorities to make online chats and other user information available to police, said industry and government officials familiar with the changes. Surveillance of the audio and video feeds remains impractical — even when courts issue warrants, say industry officials with direct knowledge of the matter. But that barrier could eventually vanish as Skype becomes one of the world’s most popular forms of telecommunication. The changes to online chats, which are written messages conveyed almost instantaneously between users, result in part from technical upgrades to Skype that were instituted to address outages and other stability issues since Microsoft bought the company last year. Officials of the United States and other countries have long pushed to expand their access to newer forms of communications to resolve an issue that the FBI calls the “going dark” problem.
benton.org/node/130761 | Washington Post
Recommend this Headline
back to top

PRIVACY

APPRIGHTS
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
Congress got the message. Don't mess with new Internet laws without involving the Internet community unless you want a repeat of the great Internet blackout in January over SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act. Keeping that lesson in mind, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), a member of the House Judiciary Committee that eventually killed SOPA, launched a Web-based project to enlist Internet users in crafting legislation to protect consumer privacy on mobile devices. Equally telling, he launched AppRights.us on Reddit, one of the leaders of the Internet blackout. "Congress has tried to shove Internet-related legislation down the public's throat, and we've failed," Rep Johnson said. "There's an emerging consensus that the law should protect Americans' rights when we share our data with apps and app developers. How that law should be written is a question for the American people. Let's have an open conversation about it." Consumers can submit their ideas on the website, or via Twitter (@AppRightsUS) and Facebook.
benton.org/node/130808 | AdWeek
Recommend this Headline
back to top

POLICYMAKERS

HEARING ON BILL BAER’S NOMINATION
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI) questioned Bill Baer, the Obama Administration's nominee to head the Justice Department's antitrust division, whether he would continue to monitor Google's activities to ensure it doesn't abuse its dominance in the Internet search market. Chairman Kohl noted the panel's concerns about whether Google is using its dominant position in Internet search to favor its own products and services. The Federal Trade Commission is currently investigating such allegations against Google. "I recognize the FTC is investigating the search bias issue but Justice has and will likely continue to scrutinize many issues affecting Google. With this in mind, how will you continue to scrutinize allegations of anti-competitive behavior by Google in the Internet sector in the future and do you believe it has the capability to gain a stranglehold over this market," Chairman Kohl quizzed Baer. Baer did not directly answer the question. Instead, he said any dominant player requires close scrutiny from antitrust regulators. "Being vigilant whether its Microsoft or Alcoa Aluminum about firms that are successful, and we don't want to penalize success but to make sure it's not improperly translated into unfair advantage in other markets, is really a key part of what antitrust is all about," he said.
benton.org/node/130807 | National Journal
Recommend this Headline
back to top

STORIES FROM ABROAD

BRAZIL TELECOM BONANZA
[SOURCE: EE Times, AUTHOR: Rick Merritt]
A ruling by Brazil’s telecom officials is expected to tee up a multi-billion bonanza in capital spending on telecom networks. Anatel, Brazil’s equivalent of the Federal Communications Commission, barred all but one of the nation’s service providers from adding new subscribers until they showed plans to boost spending on their networks. The ruling came in the wake of extended network outages in many cities, lasting as long as a week in some cases. One carrier, TIM Brazil, was quick to publically pledge it will double its capex spending to US$221 million through 2014, according to a Reuters report. A Brazilian regulator estimated the ruling will boost total annual telecom spending in the country to about US$12 billion, up from about US$8.5 billion today.
benton.org/node/130739 | EE Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top

Email this page