September 2012

DIVERSITY

JACKSON PAYS TRIBUTE TO PARKER LEGACY
[SOURCE: United Church of Christ, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, asserted that “communications issues are the civil rights issues of today” as he delivered the 30th Annual Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture in Washington. Paying tribute to Rev. Everett Parker's "tenacious" pursuit of justice, Jackson described the media system as critical, because the media are the means "our society uses to tell our stories--the stories we use to communicate our values and morals--the media is our window to the world." He detailed several areas where lack of media access remains a concern:
The growing digital divide into first class citizens, the digital "haves" and the second-class digital "have nots" Jackson noted that even though use of mobile devices is growing among young African-Americans, the devices can be used for playing "angry birds" but can’t be used “for research papers or filling out college applications,” and that many low income people do not have access to the Internet.
The "exploitive" system of predatory telephone rates that prisoners often must pay to stay in touch with their families. These rates, he said, "harm the least" among us. He exhorted the Federal Communications Commission to address the 10-year-old petition to address the issue;
Broadcast ownership rates for women and minorities that still lag well behind the share of the population those persons represent, and consolidation of radio broadcasting that removes studios and their employees from the markets that they serve. He suggested resurrecting policies that helped underserved communities acquire media licenses.
The failure of several mainstream media networks to cover the plight of two Gambian-Americans who were among those threatened with death by the president of that African country. Jackson recently succeeded in winning the prisoners’ release.
The gathering also honored two other media justice advocates:
Charles Benton, chairman of the board of Benton Foundation, received the Everett C. Parker Award in recognition of his many years of leadership and support for promoting the public interest in digital and traditional media.
S. Jenell Trigg, chair of the Intellectual Property and New Media and technology Practice Group of Lerman Senter PLLC, received the Donald H. McGannon Award for her work to promote opportunities in telecommunications media for women and people of color.
benton.org/node/135447 | United Church of Christ
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

GENACHOWSKI BROADBAND VISION
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: TC Sottek]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski reiterated the agency's vision for broadband in the United States, and defended its role in preserving and promoting free markets. The chairman's message is a familiar one: he's been pushing the National Broadband Plan for some time, which aims to bring fast and affordable internet to all Americans. Chairman Genachowski says that while the US has come a long way in recent years to deploy fast and affordable broadband, the country faces real challenges in meeting its goals and staying competitive globally. So the question remains: how will the FCC take action on its well-known plans? Chairman Genachowski highlighted the need for "capacity, ubiquity," and "speed" in broadband markets, emphasizing their effects on innovation and the role of the US as an international leader — but he says there's still work to be done in keeping the US competitive.
benton.org/node/135414 | Verge, The | Chairman Genachowski | B&C
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A NEW BROADBAND MATH?
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
In a speech Sept 25, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski did what I’m beginning to think of as the “Julius shuffle”, where he takes two steps forward calling for innovation, competition and better broadband and then fails to deliver with policies that might enrage the major wireline and wireless Internet service providers. But the fundamental question to ask after his speech and ahead of the close of a comment period on how the FCC measures broadband in the U.S. is: what will the new broadband math look like? Chairman Genachowski seemed to admit that the National Broadband Plan’s goal to cover 100 million homes with speeds of 100 Mbps or more by 2020 is a pretty low bar. Now he is calling for faster speeds because when compared with the rest of the world 100 Mbps is fairly middle of the road. He called for faster broadband and lauded the creation of faster gigabit networks being built in Kansas City by Google and the creation of an all fiber-to-the-home network in Chattanooga (TN). But because he’s still doing the “Julius shuffle” he stopped short of calling on cable companies and telcos to deploy gigabit networks. He also called for higher-capacity pipes so everyone in a multi-person home could download video or partake of high speed internet services, but didn’t mention issues like data caps which could stifle such household use of HD video. Finally he called for ubiquitous broadband that would incorporate mobile and wireline access.
benton.org/node/135433 | GigaOm | Chairman Genachowski | B&C
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FCC AND FACETIME
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: TC Sottek]
The Federal Communications Commission has yet to comment on AT&T's decision to limit FaceTime over cellular connections, but FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski suggested that the agency would review complaints about the service. He said that he couldn't comment specifically on AT&T at this time, but that if a good-faith effort to resolve the issue "doesn't lead to a resolution and a complaint is filed, we will exercise our responsibilities and we will act." But the FCC shouldn't be waiting long to receive a formal complaint: Internet and network neutrality advocates responded swiftly to AT&T's actions, claiming that the FCC's Open Internet rules clearly prohibit arbitrarily limiting a service like FaceTime over specific networks. And recently, several of these groups notified AT&T of their intent to file a formal complaint with the FCC over FaceTime blocking — they say AT&T's actions harm its customers, especially for those with disabilities and families overseas.
benton.org/node/135413 | Verge, The
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BROADBAND SPEED MATTERS LESS AND LESS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Leslie Ellis]
For those of us who remember such things as a 1200-baud data connection over a hissy, dial-up phone line, this may be hard to digest, but here it is: The “high-speed” part of “high-speed data” hardly matters anymore. What matters is capacity and throughput. Fast is fast, and fast is nearly ubiquitous in North America. When was the last time you complained about a slow connection (hotel rooms excluded)? When was the last time a reboot of the modem didn’t fix it? The marketing of data services, from the days of the dial-up telephone modem to now, uses speed as the basis for greatness. 1200 baud, 2400 baud, 9600 baud, all the way up to today’s offerings of 100 Gigabits per second and higher. But there comes a time when the speed gains just aren’t noticeable anymore. At some point — let’s say 50 Mbps, like several operators now offer as a high-end tier — it’s difficult to discern whether that Web page really loaded any faster.
benton.org/node/135411 | Multichannel News
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LOFGREN INTERNET FREEDOM BILLS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) unveiled a pair of bills aimed at protecting innovation, digital privacy and freedom of expression online. She hopes to get feedback on the two bills in the coming weeks and plans on introducing them during the next session of Congress. With several tech companies headquartered in her district, Rep Lofgren has long advocated for policies that would bolster the tech industry. She hopes her most recent legislation will prevent a sequel to the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
The first bill would update measures in the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act to adapt to the current landscape of new social networking and email services. Lofgren's bill, called ECPA 2.0, would establish standards that law enforcement would have to follow before collecting information about a person's location or gaining access to their emails and other online communications. The standards included in the bill would be consistent with Fourth Amendment principles. For instance, the measure states that law enforcement would have to obtain a warrant before tracking the location of a person's wireless device or procuring their emails, Facebook messages and other online communications from a service provider.
Lofgren's second bill, the Global Free Internet Act, would prevent measures like SOPA and its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act (PIPA), from resurfacing. It proposes to create a task force composed of public and private sector representatives that would identify and respond to policies by the U.S. and foreign government that threaten "to deny fair market access to Internet-related goods and services, or that threaten the technical operation, security, and the free flow of global Internet communications,"
benton.org/node/135446 | Hill, The
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CALIFORNIA TELECOM LAW
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) has until September 30 to veto a bill that would eliminate all regulatory oversight of Internet phone service in California - and could eliminate nearly all telephone regulation in the state, according to consumer groups. The sooner he says no, the better. Last month, the state legislature approved SB1161, authored by state Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Pacoima. The bill is purportedly about ensuring that the California Public Utilities Commission doesn't regulate innovative new Internet calling services like Skype or Google Voice. The fact that the commission hasn't regulated these products seems to have gone unnoticed by the Legislature. It hasn't gone unnoticed by consumer groups, who note that there's little need to pre-emptively prohibit the commission from regulating the new service - particularly when the new service might be making its way to a landline near you.
benton.org/node/135455 | San Francisco Chronicle
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

FCC CONSIDERS NEW SPECTRUM LIMITS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Edward Wyatt]
The Federal Communications Commission has long set limits on how much of the airwaves one company can control. Now, pushed by small and medium-size telecommunications companies, the government plans to begin setting new rules to govern how much of the airwaves, or spectrum, a single carrier can hold. A big goal for those small companies, which compete with the behemoths Verizon and AT&T, is a measure that would give greater importance to so-called beachfront spectrum. Those are the highly sought-after airwaves that travel farther between antennas and pass more easily through buildings, making them especially attractive in urban areas where the largest, most profitable clusters of mobile device users congregate. After years of limiting companies to no more than one-third of the available airwaves in a given territory, the FCC on Sept 28 will begin the rule-making process on whether new technologies require limits to be redrawn, recalibrated or perhaps removed.
benton.org/node/135463 | New York Times
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LAWMAKERS WARN FCC TO DO NO HARM
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Three groups representing black, Hispanic, and Asian-Pacific Americans in Congress are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to ensure that a proposal aimed at freeing up spectrum from broadcasters for use by wireless carriers will not affect consumers' access to over-the-air television. The heads of the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus wrote FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski about the commission's efforts to implement legislation, passed by Congress in February, that authorizes "incentive auctions." These new auctions are aimed at enticing TV broadcasters to give up some of their spectrum for use by wireless operators, who say they need more spectrum to meet their customers' growing demand for wireless broadband technologies. The FCC is expected to vote on a proposed rulemaking Friday that would begin the process of setting up the incentive auctions. The lawmakers urged the FCC to ensure that broadcasters that decide to stay in business are not harmed in the relocation process that will be required to clear swaths of spectrum to auction from TV stations that choose to give up their airwaves. The lawmakers echoed a message from broadcasters, who pushed Congress to include protections in the incentive auction legislation for stations that decide not to participate.
benton.org/node/135410 | National Journal | The Hill | B&C | TVNewsCheck
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VERIZON’S UNLOCKED IPHONE
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Chris Ziegler]
As the largest wireless provider in the United States, Verizon isn't exactly known for championing the principles of an "open" network. So when speculation arose this week that Verizon's GSM-unlocked iPhone 5 was forced by Federal Communications Commission rules surrounding the 700MHz spectrum that it uses for its LTE service, the notion made sense: by all accounts, allowing subscribers to use the phone with any GSM carrier in the world is not something that Verizon would encourage of its own accord. Verizon, like other American carriers, has agreements in place with specific operators worldwide that lock its subscribers into profitable global roaming plans; customers in good standing can typically call to have their phones fully unlocked after some period of time. The reality has barely moved the "open" needle, however. Because the rules only apply to a single block of spectrum in a complicated mishmash of bands (and blocks within bands) employed by Verizon and other US carriers, its potency as an enforceable policy has often been called into question. So the question remains: if Verizon isn't being compelled by a healthy fear of the FCC, why is its iPhone 5 unlocked? "They're not going to lose anyone to AT&T," notes The Verge's Nilay Patel. "I think Verizon just doesn't [care]." And without consistent government enforcement of what was once seen as groundbreaking regulation, it's hard to see what might make them care in the future.
benton.org/node/135436 | Verge, The
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CELLPHONES EATING BUDGETS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Anton Troianovski]
More than half of all U.S. cellphone owners carry a device like the iPhone, a shift that has unsettled household budgets across the country. Government data show people have spent more on phone bills over the past four years, even as they have dialed back on dining out, clothes and entertainment -- cutbacks that have been keenly felt in the restaurant, apparel and film industries. The tug of war is only going to get more intense. Wireless carriers are betting they can pull bills even higher by offering faster speeds on expensive new networks and new usage-based data plans. The effort will test the limits of consumer spending as the draw of new technology competes with cellphone owners' more rudimentary needs and desires. So far, telecom is winning. Labor Department data show spending on phone services rose more than 4% last year, the fastest rate since 2005. During and after the recession, consumers cut back broadly on their spending. But as more people paid up for $200 smartphones and bills that run around $100 a month, the average household's annual spending on telephone services rose to $1,226 in 2011 from $1,110 in 2007, when Apple's iPhone first appeared.
benton.org/node/135459 | Wall Street Journal
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

CAMPAIGN 2012 COVERAGE
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, AUTHOR: ]
There is no public consensus when it comes to how the presidential candidates are being covered by the news media. Nearly half (46%) say the coverage of Romney has been fair, while among those who see a bias as many say the press has been too easy on the GOP nominee (20%) as too tough on him (21%). The same percentage (46%) says coverage of Obama has also been fair. However, nearly twice as many say press coverage of the president has been too easy (28%) than too tough (15%). Republicans generally are more critical of the press than are Democrats: 45% of Republicans think the press has been too tough on Mitt Romney – almost identical to the 44% who said this about coverage of McCain in October 2008. By comparison, 26% of Democrats think the press is too tough on Obama, though this has increased substantially from only 9% four years ago. Four years ago, there was a larger disparity in impressions of how the press was covering the candidates. In October 2008 more thought the press was being too tough on McCain (23%) than too easy (15%). Nearly a third (31%) said the press was being too easy on Obama, while just 7% said it was being too tough. At that time, just 38% said coverage of Sarah Palin was fair; as many (38%) said coverage was too tough.
benton.org/node/135379 | Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
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DEBATE COVERAGE INFLUENCES VIEWERS
[SOURCE: Phys.org, AUTHOR: Jeff Grabmeier]
The presidential debates offer viewers a lot of substance about the issues of the campaign—but post-debate media coverage can undermine the value they have for voters, a new study suggests. Results showed that post-debate coverage that focused on the debate as a competition led viewers to think less about policy issues. By comparison, coverage that focused on the substance of the discussion increased the likelihood that viewers would come away with specific thoughts about candidates' policy proposals. The researchers conducted two different studies in which young Americans viewed actual clips from the 2004 and 2008 presidential debates and then read media coverage of the debate. Afterward, the researchers asked the viewers to describe the debate as they would to a friend. From these descriptions, the researchers were able to tell how the media coverage affected what viewers chose to focus on in reflecting back on the debates. "With the level of substance in the debates, there is some hope that this could be a positive moment in which people really engage in the important questions of policy," said Ray Pingree, lead author of the study and assistant professor of communication at Ohio State University. But whether viewers actually did that depended a lot on the media coverage. "The media have a strong influence on whether viewers think of the debate in terms of a discussion of the issues or simply as a competition between the candidates," he said.
benton.org/node/135384 | Phys.org
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PRIVACY

HOW MUCH DATA CAN FACEBOOK COLLECT?
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Rebecca Greenfield]
Q&A with University of Washington law professor Ryan Calo. Facebook has defended its new in-store tracking partnership with Datalogix, which gives Facebook access to our offline shopping habits via our rewards cards, by explaining that it doesn't violate any Federal Trade Commission regulations. Facebook says it will anonymize the data and is only interested in showing advertisers how their ads are converting to new sales. But it led us to ask what exactly the FTC does protect in the data collection department. According to the social network, the hard-to-find opt-out link, which is located all the way over on the Datalogix website, clears the company of any privacy violations that might get the federal consumer protection agency involved. Calo says "There is no overarching law in the U.S. that says you have to do XYZ as a privacy matter."
benton.org/node/135390 | Atlantic, The
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DO-NOT-TRACK
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Steve Friess]
Microsoft has enjoyed months of great press for its promise to make Do Not Track the default setting on its forthcoming iteration of Internet Explorer, but it has left out one important detail: Users will still be tracked. That also goes for users of Chrome, whose parent Google announced last week to fanfare — and praise from Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz — that it will provide a prominent DNT privacy setting option as well. Users of Mozilla’s Firefox, too, aren’t getting what they think when they click on the existing option not to be tracked. The reason: There’s nothing to force ad networks to honor it, as the browser companies well know. “It’s an option that doesn’t do anything,” said former FTC Chief Privacy Officer Marc Groman, now executive director of the Network Advertising Initiative, a trade group. “That totally provides users with a false sense of security.”
benton.org/node/135454 | Politico
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HEALTH

ABUSE OF ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The Obama administration has issued a strong and much-needed warning to hospitals and doctors about the fraudulent use of electronic medical records to illegally inflate their billings to Medicare. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. and the health and human services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, cited “troubling indications” that some providers are billing for services never provided and vowed to prosecute. They sent a letter to five major hospital trade associations after an article in The Times described in detail how greater use of electronic records might be making it easier for hospitals and doctors to submit erroneous payment claims. The administration is taking a properly forceful approach. It has stepped up its monitoring and prosecutions for fraud. It should also move more quickly to set up national guidelines on how to bill properly for services. Electronic health records have great potential to track patient care and prevent costly duplicate services. It is important that they not be undermined by abuses during the phase-in period.
benton.org/node/135465 | New York Times
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TELEVISION

NBC UNPACKS DATA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Amy Chozick]
During the London Olympic Games this past summer, Comcast’s NBCUniversal unit conducted studies as part of its so-called Billion Dollar Research Lab. The research did not cost $1 billion, but NBCUniversal paid more than four times that sum in 2011 to broadcast the Olympics through 2020. As part of that giant tab, the media company gets an exceptional opportunity to study viewers’ behavior. The findings of the studies revealed vast shifts in the way people watched the Games this year compared with the Olympics in Vancouver in 2010 and in Beijing in 2008, and they offered insight into how television will further evolve into a multiplatform experience. Think of it as the world’s largest “sandbox” in which media researchers can play, said Alan Wurtzel, president of research and media development at NBCUniversal. “It gives us a glimpse into the future.” That sandbox showed that eight million people downloaded NBC’s mobile apps for streaming video, and there were two billion page views across all of NBC’s Web sites and apps. Forty-six percent of 18- to 54-year-olds surveyed said they “followed the Olympics during my breaks at work,” and 73 percent said they “stayed up later than normal” to watch, according to a survey of about 800 viewers by the market research firm uSamp. Forty-six percent said they “delayed doing laundry and other household chores” to catch events.
benton.org/node/135462 | New York Times
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S UN SPEECH
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Helene Cooper]
President Barack Obama used his last major address on a global stage before the November election to deliver a strong defense of America’s belief in freedom of speech, challenging fledgling Arab and North African democracies to ensure that right even in the face of violence. In a 30-minute address, he affirmed what he said “are not simply American values or Western values — they are universal values.” He vowed to protect the enduring ability of Americans to say what they think. He promised that the United States “will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.” And he asserted that the flare-up of violence over a video that ridicules the Prophet Muhammad would not set off a retreat from his support of the Arab democracy movement. President Obama appeared to relish the larger canvas of the United Nations and his subject, freedom of speech and why in the United States, even making “a crude and disgusting video” is a right of all citizens. “As president of our country, and commander in chief of our military, I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day,” President Obama said. “And I will defend their right to do so.” For that, he received cheers in the cavernous hall.
benton.org/node/135468 | New York Times | LATimes
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OBAMA’S DEFENSE OF FREE SPEECH
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] When anti-American demonstrations spread around the world this month, the Obama administration focused much of its public response on denouncing the anti-Muslim video that had provoked outrage and provided a pretext for extremists. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton rightly distanced the U.S. government from the video and stressed the American system of religious tolerance; more disturbingly, the White House asked Google to consider removing the offending video from its YouTube Web site. So it was heartening to hear President Obama, in his address to the U.N. General Assembly, deliver a vigorous defense of freedom of speech, including the right of individuals to “blasphemy against our most sacred beliefs.” “Americans have fought and died around the globe to protect the right of all people to express their views — even views that we disagree with,” the President said. Without such freedom, he said, individuals might be stopped from practicing their own faith; “efforts to restrict speech can become a tool to silence critics or oppress minorities.” He concluded: “Given the power of faith in our lives and the passion that religious differences can inflame, the strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression, it is more speech.” President Obama went on to denounce violence as a response to speech, and to insist that other leaders speak out against extremism — including “those who — even when not resorting to violence — use hatred of America, or the West, or Israel as a central principle of politics.”
benton.org/node/135466 | Washington Post | NYTimes
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

BBC UPROAR
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Sarah Lyall]
Succumbing to what appears to have been a disastrous urge to brag about his super-important connections, a BBC correspondent unexpectedly declared in a radio interview that Queen Elizabeth II had once told him she was “pretty upset” about the presence of a radical Islamist cleric in North London. It is considered a shocking breach of etiquette to reveal what, if anything, the queen tells you, especially when it comes to political views, which she is technically not supposed to have. The BBC immediately issued an abject apology, saying that the correspondent, Frank Gardner, was completely out of line. “The conversation should have remained private, and the BBC and Frank deeply regret this breach of confidence,” the broadcaster said in a statement. “It was wholly inappropriate. Frank is extremely sorry for the embarrassment caused and has apologized to the palace.”
benton.org/node/135453 | New York Times | Financial Times
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Benton

Daily Digest

Analysis

September 2012

September 26, 2012 (Obama: Democracies Need Free Speech)

President Obama Tells UN New Democracies Need Free Speech

Obama’s refreshing defense of free speech

Abuse of Electronic Health Records

New Limits Considered in Airwaves

NBC Unpacks Trove of Data From Olympics

Private Schools in U.S. and Abroad Offer Web-Based Classes Through New Venture

Cellphones Are Eating the Family Budget