November 12, 2013 (11.12.13...)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2013

Today's agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2013-11-12/


GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   White House considers civilian for NSA chief
   Congress could see power to confirm NSA chief
   Spying Breaks Telemarketing Rules - analysis
   GOP lawmaker: Europe can help curb NSA [links to web]
   Will the global NSA backlash break the Internet? - analysis [links to web]
   Surveillance Leaves Writers Wary
   NSA revelations unleash flood of new customers for privacy products [links to web]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Looks like Comcast is quietly pushing a 300 GB cap and overage charges
   NTCA Files Report Critical of Satellite Broadband with FCC
   Google's Project Loon struggles to maintain power in stratospheric cold [links to web]

SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
   FCC Crowdsources Mobile Broadband Research With Android App
   Confused about the spectrum debate? These two commercials will help.
   The Mobile Phone Market Just Officially Became the Smartphone Market
   Facebook joins GSMA, promises to be an 'active' member of wireless trade group
   Apple v. Samsung: The patent retrial of the century starts Nov 12
   Google hails white space broadband success as it wraps up Cape Town trial [links to web]

CONTENT
   The New York Times endorsed a secretive trade agreement that the public can’t read - analysis
   Gun Violence in American Movies Is Rising, Study Finds
   New traffic data shows: Netflix and YouTube rule online video, Hulu and Amazon barely register [links to web]
   Netflix’s new pitch for Open Connect: it sucks less during prime time [links to web]
   MPAA backs anti-piracy curriculum for elementary school students [links to web]
   Marrying Companies and Content - analysis [links to web]
   Google and Nielsen Partner on Online Campaign Ratings [links to web]

JOURNALISM
   At newspapers, photographers feel the brunt of job cuts [links to web]
   Why Chicago newspaper workers are even more worried lately [links to web]

PRIVACY
   FTC wading into 'Internet of things'
   Privacy Group Can Finally Start Work as Facebook Beacon Suit Ends

CHILDREN AND MEDIA
   Same Time, Same Channel? TV Woos Kids Who Can’t Wait

EDUCATION
   Los Angeles schools slow rollout of iPads amid security concerns [links to web]
   Valuable advice from tech coordinators [links to web]

TELEVISION
   FCC: Fewer loud commercial complaints
   FCC Approves Media General-Young Merger
   Media General shareholders approve merger with New Young Broadcasting [links to web]
   Sports Programming Dominates the Living Room - op-ed [links to web]
   Fox Sports Teams With Big East to Sell Conference’s Sponsorships [links to web]
   LPTV Group Wants Own FCC Forum [links to web]

HEALTH
   How Mobile Apps Could Transform Rural Health Care [links to web]

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
   FEC to allow bitcoin donations to political campaigns [links to web]

LABOR
   Telecom unions push for 'Press One For America' bill [links to web]
   At newspapers, photographers feel the brunt of job cuts [links to web]
   Why Chicago newspaper workers are even more worried lately [links to web]

GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE
   Chairman Issa subpoenas Obama's tech chief
   Experts slam Chairman Issa for forcing tech chief to testify
   A Few Places Where Government Tech Procurement Works [links to web]
   White House's $14 Billion Cyber Spending Claim Is Squishy [links to web]

LOBBYING
   TechAmerica sues rival ITI after lobbyist shuffle [links to web]

POLICYMAKERS
   “Hello, Mr. Wheeler” - analysis
   Sizing Up Wheeler By The Folks He's Hired - op-ed
   The FCC should strive for irrelevance - op-ed [links to web]
   Nobody's Home at Homeland Security - op-ed [links to web]

COMPANY NEWS
   Amazon to deliver on Sundays using Postal Service fleet [links to web]
   After 50 years, Comcast still looks forward [links to web]
   Facebook joins GSMA, promises to be an 'active' member of wireless trade group
   T-Mobile to Sell $1.8 Billion in Stock to Buy Airwaves [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Brazil sparks furor over Internet privacy bill
   China’s One-Day Shopping Spree Sets Record in Online Sales [links to web]

MORE ONLINE
   Texting Can Be Good for Relationships But Also Really Bad [links to web]
   Weinstein holds court at White House [links to web]

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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

WHITE HOUSE CONSIDERS CIVILIAN FOR NSA CHIEF
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
The White House is considering whether to name a civilian to lead the National Security Agency for the first time ever. No decision has been made yet, but officials have drafted a list of possible civilian candidates for the post, a former administration official said. The current head of the NSA, Keith Alexander, a four-star Army general, plans to step down in the spring. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said having a civilian director of the NSA is a "significant proposal." "It sends a message that the NSA needs a better, non-military form of oversight," Rotenberg said. "With the other questions now being raised benton.org/node/167155 | Hill, The
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CONGRESS COULD SEE POWER TO CONFIRM NSA CHIEF
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
Frustration with the National Security Agency’s spying and the impending departure of its longtime director have fueled a congressional push to put its future leaders through the potentially grueling process of Senate confirmation -- a scenario the White House has warned in the past could harm intelligence efforts. The idea -- backed by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), one of the NSA’s top allies in Congress -- is among the more prominent agency reforms percolating on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are rethinking the agency’s expansive surveillance authorities. Some believe Senate confirmation for the director could bring sweeping change and more accountability to the ultrasecretive NSA. But it also threatens to subject the agency to public political showdowns and delays -- which the Obama Administration has said it wants to avoid. Sen Feinstein’s new surveillance reform bill -- widely panned by civil-liberties advocates as weak -- contains a provision ensuring that future NSA directors obtain the Senate’s so-called advice and consent. That requirement has even drawn the backing of her bill’s opponents, including Sen Mark Udall (D-CO), whose spokesman said that Senate confirmation of NSA directors is a “long overdue measure.” benton.org/node/167142 | Politico
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SPYING BREAKS TELEMARKETING RULES
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] According to the New York Times, The CIA is paying AT&T more than $10 million a year to assist with overseas counterterrorism investigations by exploiting the company’s vast database of phone records, which includes Americans’ international calls, according to government officials. Because federal law prevents the CIA from spying inside the United States, the CIA could not legally get info on calls terminating in the US. But, of course, calls from suspected foreign terrorists (aka “anyone outside the United States”) that terminate in the United States are the most interesting to the CIA. So when a call originated or terminated in the United States, AT&T would “mask” the person’s identity by revealing only some of the digits of their phone number. The CIA could then refer this information to the FBI, which can get a court order and require AT&T to provide the rest of the phone number and all other relevant identifying information. Then the FBI can kick that information back to the CIA. The fact that AT&T did not fully disclose the full phone number or the name of the subscriber associated with the call does not make it any less of a violation. Under the law, AT&T violates the customer proprietary network information (CPNI) rules just by looking at any records associated with the phone number for any purpose other than actually providing service, billing, 9-1-1, or other exemptions found in the statute. The phone company doesn’t even have to disclose the information to anyone else (which, of course, it did, and which, of course, is also illegal) to violate the law. The same logic as applied in 2007 when the DC Circuit Court affirmed the FCC’s decision that this violated the CPNI rules applies here. AT&T is accessing the US subscriber’s call information for pure commercial gain utterly unrelated to providing phone service, and without the customer’s consent. Remember, this is not a law enforcement or security investigation that falls into one of the exceptions to the law. This is a voluntary commercial contract with the CIA.
benton.org/node/167112 | Public Knowledge | New York Times
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SURVEILLANCE LEAVES WRITERS WARY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Noam Cohen]
A survey by the writers’ organization PEN American Center has found that a large majority of its members are deeply concerned about recent revelations regarding the extent of government surveillance of email and phone records, with more than a quarter saying that they have avoided, or are seriously considering avoiding, controversial topics in their work. The findings show that writers consider freedom of expression under threat in the United States, with 73 percent of respondents saying they have “never been as worried about privacy rights and freedom of the press as they are today.” The survey was conducted online with 528 PEN members from a membership of more than 6,000 fiction and nonfiction writers, editors, translators and agents. Smaller percentages of those surveyed described already changing their day-to-day behavior: 28 percent said they had “curtailed or avoided activities on social media,” with another 12 percent saying they had seriously considered doing it; similar percentages said they had steered clear of certain topics in phone calls or email (24 percent had done so; 9 percent had seriously considered it). Sixteen percent reported that they had avoided writing or speaking on a particular topic, with another 11 percent saying that they had seriously considered doing so.
benton.org/node/167211 | New York Times
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

LOOKS LIKE COMCAST IS QUIETLY PUSHING A 300 GB CAP AND OVERAGE CHARGES
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
We may be living in an era of growing gigabit connections, but Comcast will not go gently into that dark night of broadband-only subscriptions replacing its lucrative triple play. Comcast wants to charge 20 cents per gigabyte when it comes to overage fees, which translates roughly into 40 cents per hour of HD television streamed via the Internet. That might not be enough to stop you from watching Netflix, but at least Comcast makes a little more off the transaction. Basically what Comcast is doing here is threefold:
it’s adding another revenue-generating option,
it’s opening the door for usage-based broadband pricing; and
it’s trying to protect its pay TV business from the threat of cord-cutting.
benton.org/node/167118 | GigaOm
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NTCA FILES REPORT CRITICAL OF SATELLITE BROADBAND WITH FCC
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
Satellite broadband service is inferior to landline broadband offerings, according to a new report from Vantage Point Solutions. NTCA -- The Rural Broadband Association filed the report with the Federal Communications Commission -- a move that appears aimed at protecting the interests of the association’s rural telephone company members. The FCC has previously stated that as it transitions today’s voice-focused Universal Service Fund to focus instead on broadband, it envisions that homes in the areas that are most expensive to serve would receive broadband from a satellite (or possibly broadband wireless) provider. And depending how far the FCC is able to stretch its limited pool of USF dollars, it wouldn’t be surprising for the FCC to consider expanding the number of homes targeted for satellite service -- a move that eventually could leave some NTCA members without USF funding. Two satellite providers compete in the US against landline broadband -- Hughes Network Systems and ViaSat, previously known as Wild Blue, which offers service under the Exede brand. Both of those companies have launched new satellites and kicked off new service offerings that provide higher speeds than they offered previously. In addition, both companies’ new satellites provide greater total capacity than earlier-generation satellites. Despite the greater total capacity of the new satellites, however, the new services have data caps ranging from 10 gigabytes to 40 gigabytes per month. Customers may be able to purchase additional capacity for an additional fee. The Vantage Point report sees the satellite data caps as a major drawback to satellite services. “Data intensive applications such as streaming content, online back-ups, videoconferencing and downloading of large files can cause subscribers to quickly exceed these monthly capacity limits,” the report states. “Other applications that are extremely data intensive, such as telepresence and some medical and educational applications are not even practical.”
benton.org/node/167110 | telecompetitor
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

FCC CROWDSOURCES MOBILE BROADBAND RESEARCH
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
Most smartphone users know data speeds can vary widely. But how do the different carriers stack up against each other? The Federal Communications Commission is hoping the public can help figure that out, using a new app it will preview soon. The FCC said that the agenda for the next open meeting, the first under new Chairman Tom Wheeler, will feature a presentation on a new Android smartphone app that will be used to crowdsource measurements of mobile broadband speeds. The official name of the app will be “Mobile Measuring Broadband America (mMBA).” It works only on Android for now -- no word on when an iPhone version might be available. While the app has been in the works for a long time, its elevation to this month’s agenda reaffirms something Chairman Wheeler said. He repeatedly emphasized his desire to “make decisions based on facts.” Given the paucity of information on mobile broadband availability and prices, this type of data collection seems like the first step toward evaluating whether Americans are getting what they pay for from their carriers in terms of mobile data speeds.
benton.org/node/167134 | Wall Street Journal | The Hill | B&C
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CONFUSED ABOUT THE SPECTRUM DEBATE? THESE COMMERCIALS WILL HELP.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Timothy Lee]
One of the most important questions about the incentive auction process is whether AT&T and Verizon, the nation's leading wireless companies, will be allowed to win the bulk of the auctioned spectrum. These companies have the deepest pockets and many observers believe that they would submit the highest bids. But some observers, including the Department of Justice, have warned that letting them win would represent a huge missed opportunity to increase competition in the wireless market. T-Mobile, the nation's fourth-largest wireless carrier, argues that AT&T and Verizon's goal in acquiring spectrum would be less to expand their own networks than to prevent rivals such as T-Mobile from expanding theirs. But Verizon's supporters have a clever retort. Leslie Marx, an economist at Duke University, produced a Verizon-sponsored white paper on the issue. And she points out that while T-Mobile's lobbying arm has been complaining about a shortage of spectrum, the company's television commercials have been portraying things very differently: "While overcrowded networks can slow your data, our network has the room to let data flow freely," the voiceover says. The narrator touts T-Mobile's "nationwide network with 50 percent more bandwidth per customer than other carriers." So while T-Mobile's lobbyists argue that the company needs more spectrum to compete effectively, its commercials are bragging about much capacity its network has.
benton.org/node/167190 | Washington Post
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THE MOBILE PHONE MARKET JUST OFFICIALLY BECAME THE SMARTPHONE MARKET
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ina Fried]
Already accounting for the bulk of mobile-phone sales in the US, smartphones accounted for 55 percent of all new cellphone subscriptions globally, up from just 40 percent a year ago, according to a new report from Ericsson. Globally, mobile broadband subscriptions (those on 3G and 4G networks) are expected to reach two billion in 2013, and more than quadruple again by 2019. High-speed LTE connections, still just in their infancy globally, grew by 25 million subscribers in the third quarter, bringing the estimated worldwide total to 150 million. The number of LTE subscribers is seen hitting 2.6 billion by the end of 2019, with 85 percent of subscribers in North America having LTE capability.
benton.org/node/167161 | Wall Street Journal
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FACEBOOK JOINS GSMA
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Phil Goldstein]
Social networking giant Facebook joined the GSMA, an association of mobile operators and related companies, signaling its intentions to become more deeply enmeshed in not only mobile devices but the standards and policy issues facing wireless carriers and vendors. GSMA spokeswoman Claire Cranton said, "Facebook is obviously a significant player in the mobile ecosystem, so a relationship with Facebook is important as the GSMA strives to deliver programs on behalf of our mobile operator members." Facebook spokesman Derick Mains said the biggest benefit of joining GSMA "is it ensures our continued tight alignment with operators worldwide and the issues they care most about. The broad reach of GSMA and its members along with the wide organizational footprint are also benefits to Facebook. Understanding the issues facing operators (and the industry as a whole) across regions is not only important to Facebook but to the efforts of Internet.org."
benton.org/node/167168 | Fierce
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APPLE V. SAMSUNG: THE PATENT RETRIAL OF THE CENTURY STARTS TUESDAY
[SOURCE: Fortune, AUTHOR: Philip Elmer-DeWitt]
If you thought that the one billion dollars a jury awarded Apple in 2012 had been cut nearly in half, you may be forgiven. That's how most of the business press reported it. What actually happened is that Judge Lucy Koh, who presided over the big Apple v. Samsung patent infringement trial last August 2013, "vacated" $400 million of that award six months later. Responding to Samsung's complaints, she ruled in March that the jury had made such a hash of some of the damages calculations that they couldn't be sorted out without a new trial. That trial is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, Nov 12. A third trial, covering some of the products Samsung has introduced in the two and a half years since Apple filed its original suit -- including the Galaxy S3 (but not the S4) -- is scheduled to begin in March 2014.
benton.org/node/167106 | Fortune
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CONTENT

THE NEW YORK TIMES ENDORSED A SECRETIVE TRADE AGREEMENT THAT THE PUBLIC CAN’T READ
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Andrea Peterson]
The Obama Administration is secretly negotiating a treaty that could have significant effects on domestic law. Officially, it's a "free trade" treaty among Pacific rim countries, but a section of the draft agreement leaked in 2011 suggested that it will require signers, including the United States, to make significant changes to copyright law and enforcement measures. Strangely, the Administration seems to be encouraging the public to have a debate on the treaty before they know what's in it. The Office of the United States Trade Representative has solicited comments about the treaty on its website, but there is no particularly detailed information about the content of the agreement, or a draft of the current version of the proposal. Now, as Maira Sutton at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) notes, the New York Times editorial board has endorsed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). While the editorial acknowledges that some are "worried about provisions on intellectual property that could restrict the availability of generic medicines and grant longer copyright protections to big media companies," it nevertheless argues that a "good deal" would "not only help individual countries but set an example for global trade talks." The TPP is seen as a way around the stalled World Trade Organization talks, which have been under way since 2001. So, too, are the recently started trade negotiations between the United States and the European Union. The hope among some American officials is that by completing deals with Europe and Pacific nations, Washington will set an example for the rest of the world to follow.
benton.org/node/167128 | Washington Post | read the NYTimes editorial
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[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael Cieply]
A study set for publication in the December issue of Pediatrics confirms what some of Hollywood’s sharpest critics have suspected: The level of gun violence in the top-selling PG-13 movies has been rising, and it now exceeds that in the most popular R-rated films. Violent encounters with guns occur, on average, more than twice an hour in the best sellers in both ratings categories, according to researchers, who worked with support from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In all, the researchers examined 945 movies, counting the appearances of overall violence in each five-minute segment of a sampling of films that ranked among the top 30 at the domestic box office from 1950 to 2012. Perhaps not surprisingly, the results -- reported by Brad J. Bushman of Ohio State University, and Patrick E. Jamieson, Ilana Weitz and Daniel Romer of the Annenberg center -- showed that violence in American films had more than doubled in that time. But the authors also found that episodes of gun violence in PG-13 rated films had been rising since the rating was introduced in the mid-1980s, and it now surpasses the violence in R-rated films, which are technically not open to young viewers unless they are accompanied by an adult. Romer, one of the authors, acknowledged that the study, by focusing only on the top-selling movies each year, said as much about audience behavior as about the level of violence in Hollywood’s output. “Violence sells,” he said. “We recognize that, and the movie industry realizes it.”
benton.org/node/167182 | New York Times
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PRIVACY

FTC AND THE INTERNET OF THINGS
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Erin Mershon]
As an array of everyday objects such as thermostats, toasters and even sneakers gets connected to the Internet, the Federal Trade Commission is taking a first stab at examining this vast and emerging area of technology, sparking concern from trade groups that fear regulation could harm innovation. The FTC is due to hold a workshop on the so-called Internet of Things next week as it begins to sort out how existing privacy and security laws apply to next-generation devices that collect streams of data on users. The daylong event is widely seen as the agency’s effort to establish a foothold in this largely unregulated piece of the Internet economy that is transforming a wide variety of industries. Industry groups, like the Consumer Electronics Association, the Direct Marketing Association and the Software & Information Industry Association, are already lining up to warn the agency against taking any action that could stifle technology advances that serve consumers.
benton.org/node/167206 | Politico
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DIGITAL TRUST FOUNDATION
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Kate Kaye]
Following more than three and a half years in limbo, a group established as a result of the Facebook Beacon settlement to promote online privacy and security can finally start meeting. The Digital Trust Foundation was formed as part of Facebook's 2010 settlement in a class action suit against the firm's brazen Beacon ad offering. A small number of consumers objected to the settlement, however, arguing that the foundation was an unproven entity and that Facebook should pay more than the $9.5 million agreed. But the US Supreme Court rejected their appeal, leaving intact the settlement. An initial task will be to develop grant-making guidelines for organizations seeking DTF funds.
benton.org/node/167138 | AdAge
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CHILDREN AND MEDIA

SAME TIME, SAME CHANNEL? TV WOOS KIDS WHO CAN’T WAIT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter]
Netflix, Amazon and other streaming video services are competing ferociously for children’s programming. And networks that cater to children are starting to show programs online before they appear on old-fashioned television. “Kids today don’t know a world where they had to wait for a program,” said Tara Sorensen, the head of original programming at Amazon Studios. As Sorensen’s title indicates, Amazon and rivals are commissioning shows, including, they hope, the next big hits for children, while bidding handsomely for rights to repeats of shows like “SpongeBob SquarePants.” New business models are being tried all the time: “Sesame Street,” while still available free over the public airwaves, can now also be seen for $4 a month on YouTube. Disney, Netflix and other companies are being driven in part by studies that show children -- at least those in middle- and upper-class families -- are gravitating toward tablets and phones, and away from the big-screen television. A study by Common Sense Media released in October found that “the average amount of time children spend using mobile devices has tripled” since 2011, from five minutes a day to 15. The average time spent in front of the TV is still much greater -- about 75 minutes a day -- but the group said it was “down substantially” from 2011. Children are increasingly choosing a personal (and malleable) touch screen over a TV. Disney and others also are influenced by the fact that children are natural binge viewers, but with a twist. When children are enamored of a show (or, more specifically, a character) they want to watch the same episode over and over and learn every detail. Instead of binge viewing as their parents do, they déjà view.
benton.org/node/167165 | New York Times
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TELEVISION

FCC: FEWER LOUD COMMERCIAL COMPLAINTS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR Kate Tummarello]
The Federal Communications Commission said it is getting fewer complaints about loud TV commercials. The FCC enforces the Commercial Advertising Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, which requires TV commercials be the same average volume as regular programming. The FCC received 3,501 complaints about loud commercials between June 1 and Sept. 30 of 2013, a 53 percent decrease from the previous four months, the agency said in a quarterly report to Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) who introduced the volume-mitigating law with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). “Fewer complaints suggest that fewer TV commercials are airing at volume levels inconsistent with the programming around them,” Rep. Eshoo said. “For consumers, this means they’re finally getting relief from the earsplitting volumes of the past.” The agency is analyzing two-thirds of the complaints to determine if it needs to take enforcement action, the letter said. The remaining complaints are being reviewed or were incomplete. The FCC told Rep. Eshoo it is investigating one “entity” for potential violations of the act based on complaints the agency has received.
benton.org/node/167122 | Hill, The | Broadcasting&Cable
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FCC APPROVES MEDIA GENERAL-YOUNG MERGER
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Michael Malone]
The Federal Communications Commission has approved of the planned Media General-Young Broadcasting merger. Media General expects to close on the transaction November 12. Media General shareholders approved the merger, announced in June, Nov. 7, 2013. George L. Mahoney, president and chief executive of Media General, called it "the last step in the approval process." "I spent much of the third quarter visiting the Young television stations," he added. "What I found further confirms that both Young and Media General approach their markets in the same ways. That shared broadcast vision will further animate and strengthen the smooth integration that we expect. And that, in turn, means we'll be in a position to capitalize even more quickly on our new, combined strength." The FCC denied Informal Objections filed by Spartan-TV and Dish Network. "We conclude that the applicants are fully qualified and that grant of the transfer of control of Young and Media General from its current shareholders to Post-Merger Media General will serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity," the FCC's Media Bureau said in granting the deal, which was not reviewed on the commissioner level.
benton.org/node/167132 | Broadcasting&Cable
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GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE

CHAIRMAN ISSA SUBPOENAS TODD PARK
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Rebecca Shabad]
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa subpoenaed Chief Technology Officer Todd Park to testify before his committee on the ObamaCare rollout. “Given your continued unwillingness to appear voluntarily next week, I am left with no choice but to compel your appearance. Please find attached to this letter a subpoena for your testimony before the Committee next Wednesday, November 13, 2013,” Chairman Issa wrote in a letter to Park. The oversight committee organized the hearing on the HealthCare.gov issues. Chairman Issa threatened to subpoena Park. Park’s office, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, has responded to Issa's request: "OSTP is left to wonder why you would demand Mr. Park appear on November 13, knowing that doing so is more likely to hurt rather than help the goal of fixing the website as soon as possible.”
benton.org/node/167153 | Hill, The
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EXPERTS SLAM CHAIRMAN ISSA
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Three technology experts with ties to the White House are blasting House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) for forcing President Barack Obama's top technology expert to testify before Congress. The group created a website, called "Let Todd Work," arguing that Chairman Issa is wasting the time of US Chief Technology Officer Todd Park and distracting him from trying to fix HealthCare.gov. "Now, instead of continuing to fix Healthcare.gov (a mess he did not make), Mr. Park has to spend his hours preparing for his testimony," the group wrote. Visitors can sign an online petition to "stand with Todd" and call for Chairman Issa to withdraw the subpoena. "No matter what side of the aisle you sit on, Todd is one of the good guys. Let him do his job," the tech experts wrote. Park helped create the original version of HealthCare.gov when he was the chief technology officer at the Health and Human Services Department. His role in the botched roll-out of the recent ObamaCare exchanges is unclear, but he has been focusing on trying to fix the site recently. The White House declined Chairman Issa's initial request for Park to testify voluntarily, saying he is too busy working on the troubled website.
benton.org/node/167151 | Hill, The
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POLICYMAKERS

“HELLO, MR. WHEELER”
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] Tom Wheeler was sworn in as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission this week. But this isn’t his first rodeo. “I have been in and out of the offices of the FCC for over 35 years,” he reminded us in a November 5 blog post. Even before getting his new FCC badge, he was a well-recognized, frequent visitor at the Commission. And since he’s now in control of the agenda at the government agency entrusted with preserving and promoting the public interest in communications, it is time the public got to know him as well as the FCC staff. Here’s a look at the new chairman based not so much on what people are saying about him, but what he’s been saying and doing in his first few days in office.
http://benton.org/node/166911
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CHAIRMAN WHEELER’S STAFF
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Kenneth Robinson]
[Commentary] Three of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Wheeler's new staff are blue-ribbon, card-carrying members of the FCC club. Chief-of-Staff Ruth Milkman has worked in the Common Carrier, International, and now Wireless bureaus, and also served on two chairmen's staff. "Counselor" Phil Verveer has headed more FCC bureaus than anyone -- this was during the Ferris chairmanship, during the Carter Administration -- and he's also worked at the Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission and, most recently, Department of State. "Special Counsel" Diane Cornell has worked for several commissioners (on common carrier and wireless issues), and also worked in the International and Wireless bureaus. All these people know what they're doing -- and, how the FCC and government work. Or, don't. In addition to these three super-class appointees, Chairman Wheeler has named two individuals who are certainly well-informed and quite talented -- but also fall in the category of significantly partisan folks -- "true believers," as it were. Gigi Sohn is a career public interest lawyer, and she shares one characteristic of Chairman Wheeler. That is, the older she gets the more liberal and interventionist she seems to become. Sohn is said to be both very Democratic, and to be the proverbial "bring back the rack"-style regulator as well.
[Robinson is a Washington communications lawyer and former FCC staffer]
benton.org/node/167150 | TVNewsCheck
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

PRIVACY BILL IN BRAZIL
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Joe Leahy]
A Brazilian draft bill that was originally aimed at enshrining basic rights for internet users has sparked a furor after President Dilma Rousseff added a requirement that online information concerning citizens be kept physically within the country. Brazil’s Congress could approve as early as this week legislation known as the Marco Civil that was drawn up to protect freedom of expression and privacy on the web. However, its remit was extended after the revelations by Edward Snowden, former US National Security Agency contractor, that the US spied extensively on Brazil, including on the personal communications of President Rousseff and her staff. The additional measure would require companies active in Brazil to duplicate infrastructure offshore by setting up huge data centers in the country. It was immediately attacked by media and internet companies and experts, who said it would be so impractical and expensive to implement that international companies would deny Brazilians many of their services to avoid the requirement of onshore storage.
benton.org/node/167203 | Financial Times
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