July 13, 2009 (Wiretapping of Limited Value)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY JULY 13, 2009
Broadband Competition Policy: After the Stimulus and in the Shadow of the DOJ -- a light conversation to kick off a summer week. See http://benton.org/calendar/2009-07-12--P1W for more events.
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
US Wiretapping of Limited Value, Officials Report
Bush Anti-Terror Policies Get Reluctant Revisit
The Media and the First Amendment
Helping Iran Target Iranians
Senate Spending Bill Funds Web Freedom Work
Locke Pays 'Serious Attention' To ICANN
POLICYMAKERS
Copps: DTV Not Done
Telecom Analyst Zufolo Joins USDA
In West Wing: Grueling Schedules, Bleary Eyes
Qwest Rejoins US Telecom Association
JOURNALISM
Study Measures the Chatter of the News Cycle
How the Media Wrestle With the Web
When a Blogger Voices Approval, a Sponsor May Be Lurking
MORE ONLINE
Accurately Locating Where Wireless Respondents Live Requires More Than A Phone Number
Understanding International Broadband Comparisons
Big media seek 21st century business models
Swiss Postal Service Is Moving Some Mail Online
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
US WIRETAPPING OF LIMITED USE, OFFICIALS REPORT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Lichtblau, James Risen]
While the Bush administration had defended its program of wiretapping without warrants as a vital tool that saved lives, a new government review released Friday said the program's effectiveness in fighting terrorism was unclear. The report, mandated by Congress last year and produced by the inspectors general of five federal agencies, found that other intelligence tools used in assessing security threats posed by terrorists provided more timely and detailed information. Most intelligence officials interviewed "had difficulty citing specific instances" when the National Security Agency's wiretapping program contributed to successes against terrorists, the report said. While the program obtained information that "had value in some counterterrorism investigations, it generally played a limited role in the FBI's overall counterterrorism efforts," the report concluded. The Central Intelligence Agency and other intelligence branches also viewed the program, which allowed eavesdropping without warrants on the international communications of Americans, as a useful tool but could not link it directly to counterterrorism successes, presumably arrests or thwarted plots. The report also hinted at political pressure in preparing the so-called threat assessments that helped form the legal basis for continuing the classified program, whose disclosure in 2005 provoked fierce debate about its legality. The initial authorization of the wiretapping program came after a senior CIA official took a threat evaluation, prepared by analysts who knew nothing of the program, and inserted a paragraph provided by a senior White House official that spoke of the prospect of future attacks against the United States.
http://benton.org/node/26424
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BUST ANTI-TERROR POLICIES GET RELUCTANT REVISIT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Carrie Johnson, Joby Warrick]
After trying for months to shake off the legacy of their predecessors and focus on their own priorities, Obama administration officials have begun to concede that they cannot leave the fight against terrorism unexhumed and are reluctantly moving to examine some of the most controversial and clandestine episodes. The acknowledgment came amid fresh disclosures about CIA activity that had been hidden from Congress for seven years, the secrecy surrounding a little-understood electronic surveillance program that operated without court approval, and word that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. favors naming a criminal prosecutor to examine whether U.S. interrogators tortured terrorism suspects. The way ahead for an administration grappling with severe economic trouble and health-care reform is all but certain to prove controversial, and perhaps difficult to control, for leaders who have foundered in their approach to national security policy. Fears expressed by President Obama and his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, that looking back at the Bush administration would force the country into divisive arguments won new footing yesterday as conservative lawmakers challenged even small steps that Obama and his attorney general appear on the verge of taking.
http://benton.org/node/26435
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THE MEDIA AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Bert Gall, Steve Simpson]
[Commentary] Media corporations have always had the privilege of influencing politics without the restrictions -- like campaign finance laws -- that other corporations face. So while the Washington Post salon episode has been treated as a scandal of journalistic ethics, it is really about double standards. When other business corporations attempt to influence politics -- by running political ads during elections -- editorial boards rush to condemn the corporations for "buying" elections or "unduly" influencing candidates. We should be concerned, the boards say, because those corporations have too much influence over the political debate. The public needs strict campaign finance laws to protect it from that influence. But if excessive influence is a reason to censor the speech of every other kind of corporation, then it is also a reason to censor the speech of media corporations. After all, the media spend millions of dollars each year on news stories about candidates and editorials endorsing them. This press is worth a lot. The press remains one of the most important bulwarks against tyranny. The solution is to protect free speech on principle, regardless of the identity of the speaker. Banning a corporation from spending its own money for political advocacy is censorship, plain and simple. The sooner the press understands this, the safer its rights -- and ours -- will be.
http://benton.org/node/26434
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HELPING IRAN TARGET IRANIANS
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Timothy Karr]
[Commentary] What more can be said about the Internet's role in the popular uprising that has shaken the Iranian regime since its widely contested election? The power of open social networks is undisputed. The Internet's three favorite offspring -- Twitter, Facebook and YouTube -- have been heralded by mainstream media as flag-bearers for a new era of citizen journalism and activism. But the open Internet's power cuts both ways: The tools that connect, organize and empower people can also be used to hunt them down. The companies that profit from sales of this technology need to be held to a higher standard. Of particular concern is the use -- and easy abuse -- of Deep Packet Inspection. DPI is a content-filtering technology that allows network managers to inspect, track and target content from users of the Internet and mobile phones, as it passes through routers on the information superhighway.
http://benton.org/node/26423
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SENATE SPENDING BILL FUNDS WEB FREEDOM WORK
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
The Senate's version of the State Department's fiscal year 2010 spending bill includes $30 million to promote Internet freedom. The money would promote widespread, secure Internet use by individuals residing in countries practicing repressive Internet monitoring, censorship and control. The bill awaits a floor vote in the Senate. The House version of the bill, passed Thursday, does not include Web freedom funding.
http://benton.org/node/26422
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LOCKE PAYS 'SERIOUS ATTENTION' TO ICANN
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
Back in May, Sens Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) wrote Commerce Secretary Gary Locke urging Commerce and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to help find "a permanent accountability mechanism to replace the oversight that has historically been provided by the department." The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers's formal relationship with the U.S. government is slated to expire in September, which has prompted calls for greater scrutiny of the California-based nonprofit on Capitol Hill. In late June. Sec Locke wrote an answer to the senators saying he is giving "serious attention to the critical responsibilities" of his department's role with respect to the ICANN.
http://benton.org/node/26421
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POLICYMAKERS
COPPS: DTV NOT DONE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
A Q&A with Federal Communications Commission member Michael Copps. He oversaw the final months of the transition to digital television. Asked to sum up the entire transition he said: "A huge transition with significant impact on consumers that was not until the last moment adequately planned for or coordinated. [It was] a transition that led to problems that were largely predictable and one that we moved measurably forward from January to June to the benefit of many, many consumers. But it's not a closed book. It is ongoing. There are still problems out there, lessons to be learned and a document to write." Commissioner Copps said, "There has to be in any society a keen interest in making sure the media serve the public interest." And so, he is very interested in what happens as media companies migrate to the Internet. He also reiterates the "underpinnings of the public-interest standards" -- localism, competition and diversity.
http://benton.org/node/26418
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TELECOM ANALYST ZUFOLO JOINS USDA
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
Telecom analyst Jessica Zufolo has left Medley Global Advisors to join the Obama administration as deputy administrator for the Agriculture Department's Rural Utilities Service, which will be run by former Federal Communications Commission member Jonathan Adelstein. Before Medley, Zufolo was legislative director for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners where she was responsible for developing and executing national legislative strategy and policy on Capitol Hill. Earlier, she worked for the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY); then-Rep. Charles Schumer (D-NY); and Rep. Peter Defazio (D-OR). Zufolo said her first day at USDA is Monday and noted that Medley would fill her position soon to maintain its presence in the telecom sector.
http://benton.org/node/26420
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IN WEST WING: GRUELING SCHEDULES, BLEARY EYES
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Michael Shear]
In a city where work can border on obsession, the Obama staffers stand out. They are not quite the walking dead, but their eyes are frequently ringed with the bags that accompany exhaustion.
http://benton.org/node/26429
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QWEST REJOINS US TELECOM ASSOCIATION
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
Qwest, the Denver-based telecommunications firm which provides local telephone service in 14 western states, has rejoined the US Telecom Association, a lobbying group. Qwest left USTA eight years ago. At the time, the Washington Post reported: "Depending on whom you talk to, USTA either suspended [Qwest] for not paying its rather hefty dues or the company quit the group after growing apart." At the time, Qwest's annual dues were nearly $800,000, but the company had negotiated a 25 percent reduction.
http://benton.org/node/26419
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JOURNALISM
STUDY MEASURES THE CHATTER OF THE NEWS CYCLE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Steve Lohr]
For the most part, the traditional news outlets lead and the blogs follow, typically by 2.5 hours, according to a new computer analysis of news articles and commentary on the Web during the last three months of the 2008 presidential campaign. The finding was one of several in a study that Internet experts say is the first time the Web has been used to track — and try to measure — the news cycle, the process by which information becomes news, competes for attention and fades. Researchers at Cornell, using powerful computers and clever algorithms, studied the news cycle by looking for repeated phrases and tracking their appearances on 1.6 million mainstream media sites and blogs. Some 90 million articles and blog posts, which appeared from August through October, were scrutinized with their phrase-finding software. Frequently repeated short phrases, according to the researchers, are the equivalent of "genetic signatures" for ideas, or memes, and story lines.
http://benton.org/node/26433
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HOW THE MEDIA WRESTLE WITH THE WEB
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Noam Cohen]
The Iranian protests, as globally significant as they are, lack foreign reporters — if standards are to be bent, better to do it there, one could argue, where there is a need for news, any news. Of necessity, Twitter and YouTube became tools for coverage of the Iranian protests, whether on the Lede blog of The New York Times or CNN's iReport Web site. And it may be hard to turn back. The Iranian protests may turn out to be the gateway crisis that introduced traditional news outlets to the thrill of harnessing the Internet during breaking news, whether serious or celebrity. Indeed, the Iranian hostage standoff 30 years ago was the gateway crisis that led to incessant TV coverage of news, first on ABC's Nightline and later CNN and the rest of the cable news networks.
http://benton.org/node/26432
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WHEN A BLOGGER VOICES APPROVAL, A SPONSOR MAY BE LURKING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Pradnya Joshi]
Marketing companies are keen to get their products into the hands of so-called influencers who have loyal online followings because the opinions of such consumers help products stand out amid the clutter, particularly in social media. The proliferation of paid sponsorships online has not been without controversy. Some in the online world deride the actions as kickbacks. Others also question the legitimacy of bloggers' opinions, even when the commercial relationships are clearly outlined to readers. And the Federal Trade Commission is taking a hard look at such practices and may soon require online media to comply with disclosure rules under its truth-in-advertising guidelines. A draft of the new rules was posted for public comments this year and the staff is to make a formal recommendation to be presented to the commissioners for a vote, perhaps by early fall.
http://benton.org/node/26431
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