December 2012

It seemed like a startling and politically powerful story. I was looking through campaign finance disclosures, and came upon a striking chart compiled by the respected watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics. The graphic ranked US Senators based on how fully they had disclosed required information about high dollar donors to their 2012 campaigns. The two least transparent members of the upcoming Senate, it appeared, were its fiercest critics of shadowy political largesse by the 1 percent: Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. But when I followed up, what appeared to be a story about political hypocrisy quickly turned into something else.

The Sanders campaign reviewed records and found that retirees that were not being counted as having properly disclosed their occupation and employers. Sanders’ apparently secretive donors, he said, were in fact elderly retirees. A double-check found that Warren had disclosed the employment information of a sterling 98 percent of her contributors.

[Commentary] Personally and professionally, this year has been one for the books. In September, the United Church of Christ, Office of Communications, Inc., honored me with the Everett C. Parker Award in recognition of what they described as my “many years of leadership and support for promoting the public interest in traditional and digital media.” This recognition has special meaning for me, as Rev Parker truly is both a personal hero and an inspiration to all of us who fight for a just, democratic society. The Benton Foundation and our colleagues in the public interest community are all guided by the spirit of Rev. Parker as we work to ensure that everyone is able to enjoy the benefits made possible by 21st century telecommunications. Also in September, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said that we need to connect the hardest-to-reach areas of the country and the least-advantaged consumers to the benefits of affordable, high-speed, high-capacity broadband.

Samsung faces a European Union antitrust complaint over its use of standard- essential patents in legal disputes with Apple, the EU’s competition commissioner said.

“We will adopt the statement of objections very soon,” said Joaquin Almunia, the bloc’s antitrust chief. He said the formal notice listing antitrust concerns could be sent as soon as the end of the year. The EU is probing whether Samsung violated agreements to license key patents to other mobile-phone manufacturers on fair terms. “We are dissatisfied every time that we see the launching of injunctions” involving standard-essential patents,” Almunia told reporters at a press conference in Brussels. “The injunctions in the Apple-Samsung case were launched; it was not only a threat.”

The Federal Communications Commission wants television broadcasters to know that they can file anonymous comments on the commission's proposed framework for incentive spectrum auctions. In a public notice, the FCC told broadcasters that its rules allow for anonymous comment so long as they have an attorney of record, and even without one they can seek a waiver of that requirement.

The legislation creating the auctions recognized that, for business reasons, broadcasters might not want to signal they were interested in selling some or all of their spectrum, and so required the FCC not to identify the bidders publicly. In that spirit, the FCC recognized that some commenters might not want to be associated with the issues or questions they raise. "We want to encourage those broadcasters interested in auction participation to raise issues of specific concern to them regarding the incentive auction process so that we may develop a robust record to assist us in devising auction-related rule," the FCC said in the notice for those providing comment. "At the same time, we recognize that broadcasters may have legitimate reasons for not wanting to disclose their potential interest in reverse auction participation."