May 2012

Botnets are networks of compromised computers that are remotely controlled by malicious agents. They represent a threat to security and trust in online environments. Internet Service Providers (ISPs), by virtue of their ownership of the physical networks and consumer-facing position, are well placed to respond proactively to botnets. This report analyses initiatives in a number of countries through which end-users are notified by ISPs when their computer is identified as being compromised by malicious software and encouraged to take action to mitigate the problem. It reviews the core dimensions of these initiatives and provides high-level guidance for future policy development.

Fox News chief Roger Ailes offered more than a few words of advice in a room filled mostly with young journalists, starting with a recommendation that elicited at least a few eye rolls: “I think you ought to change your major.”

Too many aspiring journalists want to affect politics or are on a mission to “change the world or save the world,” the chairman and chief executive officer said, speaking before a few hundred people in UNC’s Carroll Hall. The talk was part of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s Roy H. Park Distinguished Lecture Series. “If you want to bring world peace or save starving children – both very noble goals – the way to affect that as a journalist is to investigate why the United Nations is so ineffective at doing either of those even though they get 22 percent of their budget from the American taxpayers,” Ailes said. “They seem to have trouble bringing peace, and they seem to have trouble feeding people, so we need to question that.” He defended Fox News, often a target of criticism for what some see as a conservative bent, countering that while many of the talk shows that appear on the channel feature conservative-minded hosts, the “hard journalism” is unbiased. Those who have qualms with Fox News, he said, are often satisfied with the reporting from outlets like CNN, NPR and the New York Times, which he suggested have a liberal slant.

[Commentary] Los Angeles Times editor Davan Maharaj announced that his paper, once a profit engine for multi-billion dollar corporate owners and still one of the most powerful news organizations in the country, will receive a $1 million grant from the Ford Foundation, and thus join the growing ranks of journalism outlets funded in part by major philanthropy. To be clear, $1.04 million over two years (the terms of the grant), represents only a tiny fraction of the LAT editorial budget, but the hiring of grant-funded reporters by the country’s fourth largest newspaper has meaning beyond the symbolic.

In his article on the deal, LAT media reporter James Rainey cited precedent such as the for-profit New York Times’s partnerships with nonprofit outlets in various states to produce local editions. It’s a noteworthy comparison, but The Texas Tribune and other nonprofits that partner with the NYT (1) are news outlets in their own right that produce a great deal of work beyond what the NYT reprints and (2) are paid by the NYT for their work. ProPublica is another nonprofit that works closely with for-profit media throughout the country, but it operates collaboratively with existing staff at partner organizations. A foundation giving money directly to a for-profit to supplement its reporting may simply be the logical extension of such partnerships, but its unprecedented as far as I know. There’s much to celebrate about for-profit/ nonprofit collaboration in general, and much to celebrate about the Ford/ LAT deal in specific. Thanks to the grant, the LAT—which laid off another seven journalists just this month—will be able to hire five new reporters to cover important beats including immigrant communities, the California prison system, and the Southwest border region. These beats—which deal broadly with issues of inequality and injustice, as per Ford’s goals for the grant—have long been under-covered by even the most financially successful newspapers (see the fifth season of The Wire).