American Public Media

A Q&A with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai. 

On the topic of the Federal Trade Commission handling enforcement of open Internet rules, the following exchange took place:

Kai Ryssdal: "[The] Federal Trade Commission, while they’re lovely people and hard-serving civil servants and we appreciate all they do, they are overworked, they focus not solely on telecommunications and the injury has to happen first and then they can fix it after the fact".

What's the news that's getting buried by the news? A lot, actually. We're taking a look at one major story: media consolidation. This week, Kai Ryssdal and Molly Wood chat with Zeynep Tufekci, associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, about how one media deal will transform how you consume media. Marketplace's Adriene Hill helps us get smarter about how the television industry keeps making money despite digital competition. Plus, Annabelle Gurwitch, an actor and writer, shares stories about life in TV.

"Who is the focus of these laws? Is it about protecting us, and giving us all the information we need and allowing us to make informed choices?" asked Molly Wood. "Or is it about allowing Comcast to keep up with Google and Facebook when it comes to business models that rely on your personal data? I think that is a tension that's part of being American."

That's more or less true, according to experts we talked with. Especially as new regulations spread through the European Union, privacy laws abroad are generally more comprehensive, easy to understand and consumer-friendly than the laws in the U.S. "[They have] this idea that privacy is something that's quite central, that it could be thought of in terms of if property rights," said Indiana University associate professor Scott Shackelford, who teaches cybersecurity law. "Having privacy be the starting point and carving out free speech."

The prison phone industry is strange.

Calls from inside state and federal prisons are run by a handful of companies, like Pay Tel Communications, ICSolutions and GTL (formerly Global Tel*Link). Those corporations win monopolies within prisons by offering a portion of their revenue to the state. These commissions can run above 90 percent in some places. This system can stick the actual customers — that is, the incarcerated and their families — with huge bills. A 15-minute local call could cost up to $25. A week can add up to around $1,000 a year. Studies have shown prisoners who communicate with loved ones are less likely to commit more crimes after they get out, but the push and pull between security and rehabilitation further complicates the economic relationship between prison, inmate and phone company. Automated security systems drop calls frequently, and users need to pay a new surcharge to get connected. That's lead to investigations and sketchy charges around the country.

The Federal Communications Commission voted on new rules to cap charges in 2015, bringing the cost of a 15-minute call down to about $1.65 in most places. The phone companies sued, giving way to a lengthy legal battle and a stay on the cap. So inmates and families are still paying high prices as a federal appeals court tries to sort out arguments from phone companies, states, inmate advocates and, until last week, the FCC.