July 25, 2013 (House Defeats Effort to Rein In NSA Data Gathering)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2013
A busy, busy day in wonkland http://benton.org/calendar/2013-07-25/
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
House Defeats Effort to Rein In NSA Data Gathering
Why Rep. John Conyers wants to defund NSA’s phone snooping [links to web]
The Vote on NSA Spying Is Vital, Whether It Succeeds or Not - analysis
PRISM casts a new light on the tech industry
INTERNET/TELECOM
Five Fundamentals for the Phone Network Transition - research
The End of the (Wire)Line
FTTH Council Calls on FCC to Create “Gigabit Communities Race to the Top” Program - press release
What Verizon's Op-Eds Won't Tell You About America's Slow, Costly Internet Access - op-ed
AT&T is Crushing Cable: Is Super Fast Broadband Really Necessary? - analysis
Report Slams Universal Service Fund Cap Methodology
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
FCC targets additional spectrum ahead of incentive auction
House Members Urge FCC to Move on 5 GHz Wi-Fi
FTC Finalizes Settlement in Google Motorola Mobility Case - press release [links to web]
The One Last Thread Holding Apple and Google Together
OWNERSHIP
Free Press, Others Ask FCC To Deny Some Gannett/Belo Transfers
ACA, DirecTV, TWC Ask FCC to Block Part of Gannett/Belo Deal
Made in America 2.0: behind Google and Apple's sudden patriotism - analysis
FTC Finalizes Settlement in Google Motorola Mobility Case - press release [links to web]
The One Last Thread Holding Apple and Google Together
TELEVISION
Federal Court Won't Block Dish's Hopper
Court says skipping ads doesn’t violate copyright. That’s a big deal. [links to web]
Spanish or English? The dilemma of the booming Hispanic TV market
CBS, Time Warner Cable Agree to New Extension in Retrans Standoff
Free Press, Others Ask FCC To Deny Some Gannett/Belo Transfers
ACA, DirecTV, TWC Ask FCC to Block Part of Gannett/Belo Deal
It takes a 'war room' to launch Netflix's series
Diginets Growing With Old Shows and New Ideas
Sports Fans Slowly Move From TV to the Internet [links to web]
EDUCATION
Rebooting online education - editorial
FCC REFORM
FCC Reform: Return to the Rule of Law - op-ed
PRIVACY
Initiative protests passwords and demands better ways to log in [links to web]
JOURNALISM
Was Newspaper Decline Inevitable? Veterans Conclude That Yes, It Was [links to web]
Orange County Register defies industry wisdom to stay alive – and prospers [links to web]
Nate Silver, Data, and Storytelling - analysis [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
HOUSE DEFEATS EFFORT TO REIN IN NSA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jonathan Weisman]
A deeply divided House defeated legislation that would have blocked the National Security Agency from collecting vast amounts of phone records, handing the Obama Administration a hard-fought victory in the first Congressional showdown over the NSA’s surveillance activities since Edward J. Snowden’s security breaches last month. The 205-to-217 vote was far closer than expected and came after a brief but impassioned debate over citizens’ right to privacy and the steps the government must take to protect national security. It was a rare instance in which a classified intelligence program was openly discussed on the House floor, and disagreements over the program led to some unusual coalitions. Conservative Republicans leery of what they see as Obama Administration abuses of power teamed up with liberal Democrats long opposed to intrusive intelligence programs. The Obama Administration made common cause with the House Republican leadership to try to block it. House members pressing to rein in the NSA vowed afterward that the outrage unleashed by Snowden’s disclosures would eventually put a brake on the agency’s activities. Rep Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), a longtime critic of post-Sept. 11 counterterrorism efforts, said lawmakers would keep coming back with legislation to curtail the dragnets for “metadata,” whether through phone records or Internet surveillance.
benton.org/node/156509 | New York Times | AP | WSJ | LA Times
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NSA VOTE
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Conor Friedersdorf]
Do you know what your Congressional representative thinks about NSA spying? You're about to find out. The House of Representatives is expected to vote as soon as today on an amendment that would block the NSA's ability to collect records about every phone call made in the U.S. -- a significant, potentially history-altering effort to rein in the surveillance state built in secret by the executive branch. Rep. Justin Amash, a Michigan Republican, is the congressman pushing the effort, which would be considered as part of a larger bill by the Senate if it passes. He says he is optimistic. The Obama Administration has urged Congress to scrap the amendment, releasing a statement that may be the least self-aware thing I've seen this year: "This blunt approach is not the product of an informed, open, or deliberative process," the White House stated, referring to a public vote on the House floor that would help end a secret policy approved by a secret court. Why does this vote matter so much? Whether it fails or succeeds, America will have every member of the House on record either supporting or opposing the surveillance state's collection of customer data on all phone calls.
benton.org/node/156460 | Atlantic, The
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PRISM AND THE TECH INDUSTRY
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Michelle Quinn]
Tech companies, floored by the initial revelations about their part in the National Security Agency’s surveillance program, responded by denying specific details in carefully worded statements — and pushing for more government transparency about national security requests. Now, the seven companies named in leaked documents remain on the edge of their seats as they wait for the next chapters in the PRISM story. Plenty is still unresolved, and what happens next may affect the industry for years to come. Here’s a look at five big questions for tech.
Are further revelations coming?
Will the government concede on transparency?
Will companies press Congress to curb PRISM?
Will there be a global backlash?
Will PRISM hit companies’ bottom line?
benton.org/node/156505 | Politico
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INTERNET/TELECOM
FIVE FUNDAMENTALS FOR THE PHONE NETWORK TRANSITION
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Harold Feld, Jodie Griffin]
Public Knowledge released its first white paper on America's phone transition titled, "Five Fundamentals for the Phone Network Transition." The paper looks at the transition from a copper based infrastructure to an Internet Protocol (IP) based network. The paper explains how the phone network is transitioning into new technologies, but that does not change the needs of Americans nor does it change the responsibilities of carriers. This paper gives important background information on the history of the phone network and the policies that were enacted to bring a phone to every farm and electricity to every home. Public Knowledge's white paper shows that adhering to basic fundamental values we take for granted, could ensure that our next phone system meets the needs of American's. The basic five fundamentals discussed in the paper are:
Service to All Americans
Competition and Interconnection
Consumer Protection
Reliability
Public Safety
benton.org/node/156473 | Public Knowledge | PK blog
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THE END OF WIRELINE
[SOURCE: Public Affairs Television, AUTHOR: Tom Casciato, Laura Macomber]
If you’re an American who lives in the middle of nowhere and you want phone and Internet service, you can pretty much have them, albeit in their least sexy form. That’s right, we’re talking about old-fashioned landlines for the phone and (shudder!) dial-up for the Internet. Hyper-wired, connected citizens have long since relegated those services to the dustbin of tech history. But for people living in remote areas (or some low-income neighborhoods), landlines and dial-up are still the lifeblood of telecommunications. Take them away, and you’re sending people back to the Stone Age of telecommunications. But taking them away is effectively what big telecom companies — companies like AT&T to be specific — may well end up doing if they have their way. AT&T filed a petition last year with the Federal Communications Commission asking to get out from under regulations and lay its wireline services to rest. But the federal petition is but the most visible part of the strategy. AT&T has been playing a long game, flying under the radar at the state level. How? With the help of ALEC — the American Legislative Exchange Council — of which AT&T appears to be a devoted member. (Not only does an AT&T representative sit on the group’s Private Enterprise Advisory Board, AT&T sponsored ALEC’s most recent conference, the Spring Task Force Summit in Oklahoma City.) Published on ALEC’s website are at least four model bills and statements echoing AT&T’s position on telecommunications regulations — briefly, that there should be little to none.
benton.org/node/156452 | Public Affairs Television
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GIGABITS COMMUNITIES RACE TO THE TOP
[SOURCE: Fiber to the Home Council, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Fiber to the Home Council Americas (FTTH Council) challenged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to establish a Gigabit Communities Race to the Top program, which would demonstrate new models for communications investment and jumpstart the development of ultra-high speed applications so critical to economic growth and social interaction. Modeled on the Obama Administration’s successful Race to the Top education initiative, the FTTH Council petition sets forth a competitive program of matching grants of up to $10 million for projects in Tier II and Tier III markets where communities working with service providers develop innovative proposals for bringing symmetric gigabit connections to community anchor institutions and their neighboring communities. Elements of the Gigabit Race To the Top Program:
The FCC would hold annual competitions in which facilities and service providers, working with local governments and community anchor institutions like schools, hospitals and libraries would present proposals to deploy gigabit networks and provide services at discounted rates to anchor institutions and surrounding neighborhoods.
The facilities and service providers could be either private or public entities.
The Commission would select the most meritorious proposals and provide winning applicants with up to $10 Million in funds, to be matched by state and private sources, to support the proposals.
The program would be funded by unused support in the current Connect America Fund programs targeting areas serviced by price cap local exchange carriers and would be distributed each year for 5 years beginning in 2014.
Applications would have to describe in detail a proposed project to provide (symmetric) gigabit service to anchor community institutions and neighboring areas in a given area, including a description of which anchor institutions would be served, the nature of the institutions, what links between anchor institutions would be created, the existing and contemplated level of broadband services in the surrounding communities to be served and how the project would serve as a catalyst to drive new applications, additional network builds and community development.
Projects will be favored if they serve a broad range of anchor community institutions – and interactivity among those anchor institutions – as well as the surrounding neighborhoods. Projects that are selected should be transformational and drive urban and civic improvements and economic growth and innovation and job creation in a way existing programs have not.
benton.org/node/156456 | Fiber to the Home Council | telecompetitor
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US BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Roosevelt Institute, AUTHOR: Susan Crawford]
[Commentary] Recently, the incumbent communication companies in America arranged for the publication in The New York Times of two op-eds (in a single week) claiming that America was doing just fine when it comes to high-speed Internet access. But they are trying to confuse you. They are hoping that Americans don't notice that they're focusing on the wrong definition of high-speed Internet access and blurring two separate markets - mobile wireless and fixed connections. First, the relevant market for everyone is (or should be) high-capacity, low-latency, symmetrical fiber connections to homes and businesses of at least 100Mbps. Second, mobile wireless access sold (at healthy margins) by Verizon and AT&T is a complementary product that isn't substitutable for a high-capacity, low-latency wire at home. Many Americans are not rich enough to afford the total cost of satisfying their needs for voice and Internet connectivity as well as access to video (or other high-capacity applications) and mobility. And so they choose wireless as the option that satisfies some of their needs at a cost they can afford. But this situation, in which some Americans rely on smartphone access sold by wireless carriers because that's all they can afford, is merely amplifying and cementing existing inequalities in American society. It's a bug, not a feature. You can't cost-effectively enter a classroom virtually using a smartphone, or have a visit with your doctor online, or do many other things that require first-class, very-high-capacity, reasonably-priced access. This problem is about to get much worse as gigabit applications come online.
benton.org/node/156458 | Roosevelt Institute
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AT&T VS CABLE
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Bernie Arnason]
If you take a look at broadband subscriber metrics over the past year, AT&T is outperforming all of the cable operators -- by a long shot. AT&T is first to report 2Q13 numbers, during which they added 641,000 net broadband subscribers. If 2Q13 compares in any way to the previous three quarters, AT&T is crushing their faster cable competitors. For the past three quarters, AT&T has more broadband net adds than three of the top five cable companies -- Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Charter – combined. Most, if not all, of those net adds are U-Verse broadband, considering AT&T (and Verizon) lose considerable legacy DSL subscribers every quarter. AT&T’s best U-Verse offer is 24 Mbps, for now anyway. That compares with DOCSIS 3.0 offers from their cable competitors that can range from 50 Mbps to 305 Mbps, on the high end. If higher speed broadband tiers are so important, how is it AT&T is adding more broadband subscribers than three of the top five cable MSOs combined?
benton.org/node/156471 | telecompetitor
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USF CAP STUDY
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
In a study titled “An Economic Analysis of the FCC’s Modifications to the High-Cost Local Loop Support Mechanism,” University of Southern California professor and former Federal Communications Commission Chief Economist Simon Wilke finds that US carrier investment in broadband infrastructure has decreased as a result of caps imposed on high-cost Universal Service support. The methodology employed by the FCC cannot be predicted in advance, making it difficult for an individual company to determine whether it is in danger of exceeding the cap. As a result, carriers are delaying or canceling planned network upgrades, Wilke said. As an alternative to the current methodology, Wilke and representatives of the three telecom association research sponsors recommended that the FCC use caps as a trigger for a further review. The research was commissioned by rural broadband association NTCA, U.S. Telecom Association and the Western Telecommunications Alliance.
benton.org/node/156469 | telecompetitor
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
FCC TARGETS ADDITIONAL SPECTRUM
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
The Federal Communications Commission is proposing to auction off four bands of wireless frequencies, including one currently used by the military. The additional spectrum will help wireless carriers meet their customers' skyrocketing demand for data, and the revenue from the auction could help the government pay for a nationwide communications network for first responders. The auction is separate from the FCC's broadcast incentive auction, in which the agency will buyback the licenses of TV stations. But the revenue from auctioning the four bands, collectively called "AWS-3," could give the FCC more flexibility in how it structures the incentive auctions.
benton.org/node/156501 | Hill, The
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SPECTRUM LETTER
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Doris Matsui (D-CA), Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Bob Latta (R-OH) sent a letter to Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn urging the FCC to move swiftly to free up 195 MHz of spectrum in the 5 GHz band for unlicensed use. (That is the band cable operators already use to deliver Wi-Fi hotspots to their customers on the go.) "Given the immediate economic and consumer benefits of expanding Wi-Fi in the 5 GHz band," they wrote, "we believe the FCC should proceed expeditiously with collaborative testing of promising spectrum sharing solutions involving both incumbents and the Wi-Fi industry."
benton.org/node/156475 | Broadcasting&Cable
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OWNERSHIP
PUBLIC INTEREST VS GANNETT/BELO
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Free Press, NABET-CWA, The Newspaper Guild-CWA, National Hispanic Media Coalition, Common Cause, and Office of Communication, Inc., of the United Church of Christ don't want the Federal Communications Commission to approve Gannett's plan to spin off some stations as part of its $2.2 billion purchase of Belo's TV stations. The groups cited stations in five markets -- Phoenix; Louisville; Tucson; Portland (OR); and St. Louis --that would violate the FCC's newspaper/broadcast crossownership and local ownership cap rules if Gannett were not turning around and selling them to operating companies headed by former Belo group chief Jack Sander, and Ben Tucker, former head of the Fisher station group. The petitioners call those third-party "shell" companies that mask the "true intent" of the deal, which they say is to allow Gannett "to simultaneously influence and control multiple media outlet in the same local market in a way that is contrary to the public interest and otherwise prohibited by the Commission's rules....Even if they do not outright violate the rules, such sharing arrangements are not in the public interest because they reduce the diversity of viewpoints and reduce competition in the provision of local news and the sale of advertising." They want the FCC to deny those transfers, or at least designate them for hearing.
benton.org/node/156499 | Broadcasting&Cable
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PAY-TV VS GANNETT/BELO DEAL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Pay-TV providers large and small asked the Federal Communications Commission to deny the transfer of the licenses of Belo's KMOV St. Louis; KTVK and KASW, both Phoenix; and KMSB and KTTU, both Tucson, or at least condition the transfer on disallowing coordinated carriage negotiations. Those stations are part of Gannett's $2.2 billion (cash and debt) deal to buy Belo's broadcast holdings. But because they are in markets where Gannett already owns stations and could not own more without violating FCC local ownership limits, Gannett is spinning them off to new owners. Those are Jack Sander, former Belo group chief, and Ben Tucker, former head of the Fisher station group. But Gannett is still identifying those stations as part of a new Gannett Super Group, and plans to get credit from Wall Street by consolidating their performance into Gannett financial results.
benton.org/node/156497 | Broadcasting&Cable
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MADE IN AMERICA 2.0
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Carl Franzen]
The Moto X purports to be the first smartphone assembled in the US. But Google and Motorola are hardly the only big-name brands in tech using patriotism to move product these days. Apple CEO Tim Cook made headlines last December when he announced that Apple would be making a product in the US this year. That product turned out to be the bold, new, trashcan-shaped Mac Pro, first unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in June. Clearly, something is driving some of the most important companies in consumer tech to promote their affiliations with the US more today than they have in decades. But what? "There’s no doubt that ‘Made in America’ advertising is effective," said Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), a nonprofit trade group founded in 2007 to represent steelworkers and other US industrial laborers. "It’s not limited to tech gadgets." To his point, a recent survey by the Boston Consulting Group found that 80 percent of 5,000 consumers were willing to pay more for products made in America, including electronics. The same study found Chinese consumers were also willing to pay more for American-made products. Two other trends in the US are also making it into a more attractive electronics manufacturing hub: a depressed labor market and faltering worker wages.
benton.org/node/156450 | Verge, The
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LOW LEVEL VIRTUAL MACHINE
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Cade Metz]
Once so close, Apple and Google are now as far apart as anyone in the high-stakes tech game. And yet, there’s one thing they still have in common, one last piece of technological brilliance they freely share with each another. Chances are, you’ve never heard of it. But nowadays, it’s an integral part every new Apple iPhone — and every new Android phone. It’s not an app or a web service or some sort of hardware contraption. It’s more important than that. It’s a tool that’s changing the way we build and run computer software — any computer software. This tool is known as LLVM, short for low level virtual machine. But don’t let that throw you. The acronym isn’t even an accurate description of what the thing does. It’s just a name. The thing to realize is that LLVM underpins so much of the work at both Apple and Google, helping create not only smartphone software, but operating systems and browsers and web services. Created by a team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, LLVM is a way of building software compilers — those contraptions that receive raw code from the world’s programmers and convert it into real, live software applications. But it’s more than that. It’s also a better way of executing software applications on PCs and smartphones and tablets and other hardware. It lets you run programs on machines and microprocessors they weren’t explicitly written for.
benton.org/node/156491 | Wired
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TELEVISION
COURT WON’T BLOCK HOPPER
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
A federal appeals court has declined to block Dish Network's Hopper AutoHop ad-skipping DVR function, upholding a district court's denial of a preliminary injunction. Fox, which sued for breach of contract and copyright infringement, claims the Hopper violates copyright law and Dish's contract with the broadcaster. Fox had asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse a California District Court's refusal to grant a preliminary injunction while the underlying suit is being decided. A three-judge panel of Ninth Circuit held that "the district court did not abuse its discretion in holding that the broadcaster failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on its copyright infringement and breach of contract claims regarding the television provider's implementation of the commercial-skipping products." The decision was not on the merits of the case, but the court did provide some language both Dish and Fox can point to. In language that squares with Dish's and the District court's assertion that the Cablevision decision -- the ruling that remote DVR functionality was not a performance subject to copyright -- applied here.
benton.org/node/156487 | Broadcasting&Cable
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UNIVISION AND TELEMUNDO
[SOURCE: Miami Herald, AUTHOR: Fernando Peinado]
Since the 1980s, Univision and Telemundo — based in Miami — have been the dominant players in U.S.-based Spanish-language broadcast, battling for the top positions (currently held by Univision.) And with the U.S. Hispanic population projected to double from 53.3 million in 2012 to 128.8 million in 2060, or one-in-three Americans, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, advertising revenue is expected to far exceed the $6.3 billion currently spent on advertising to Hispanics. The predicted burst has kicked up the stakes, pushing players like Time Warner and News Corp into the field with the introduction, respectively, of CNN Latino and MundoFox. Meanwhile, Univision and Telemundo have refocused their strategies to be sure they retain — and even grow — their market share. Both stalwart networks will continue to rely on telenovelas and live variety shows as programming staples. But the two networks are aiming at different targets in one key aspect: language.
benton.org/node/156462 | Miami Herald
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CBS-TWC EXTENSION
[SOURCE: The Wrap, AUTHOR: Tim Kenneally]
CBS and Time Warner Cable have agreed to take a little more time to hammer out an agreement in the retransmission dispute that threatens to remove CBS and Showtime from homes in Los Angeles, New York and Texas. The two parties have agreed to extend their negotiations through July 29 at 5 p.m. ET. In previous standoffs between networks and cable companies over compensation for station signals, extensions have generally meant neither side wants to push the dispute to the point where cable customers lose access to channels. The negotiations initially had a deadline of July 24, but that deadline was extended until 9 a.m. ET July 25, due to Federal Communications Commission rules that bar cable providers from dropping a network during sweeps periods. The potential blackout would affect 3.5 million homes, approximately 29 percent of Time Warner Cable's video subscriptions.
benton.org/node/156493 | Wrap, The | NY Times
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NETFLIX LAUNCH
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Michael Liedtke]
Netflix invited The Associated Press to its Los Gatos (CA) headquarters for an unprecedented glimpse at the technical preparations that go into the release of its original programming. "This is Silicon Valley's equivalent of a midnight movie premiere in Hollywood," says Chris Jaffe, Netflix's vice president of product innovation. Engineers are flanked by seven flat-screen televisions on one side of the room and two giant screens on the other. One big screen is scrolling through Twitter to highlight tweets mentioning "Orange Is The New Black," an offbeat drama set in a women's prison. The other screen is listing some of Netflix's most closely guarded information — the rankings of videos that are attracting the most viewers on an hourly basis. If all goes well, the pizza and snacks that Netflix's bleary-eyed workers have been munching will be washed down with a champagne celebration after the show starts streaming.
benton.org/node/156494 | Associated Press
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DIGINETS
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Kevin Downey]
After years of experimentation and occasional flops, the business of broadcasting specialty networks on digital subchannels is starting to draw viewers and revenue in amounts that really matter. Nearly two dozen diginets, several with U.S. household coverage of more than 60% (see chart at bottom of story), now vie with cable networks for advertising dollars, particularly the direct response (DR) variety. Some peg the annual spend at more than $200 million. David Brenner is a partner at Marathon Ventures, a rep firm that sells ad time for a wide range of programs and networks, including NBCUniversal's Cozi and the independently owned African-American network Bounce TV. “My best estimate for combined national and local ad sales in this business in 2009 was $10 million,” Brenner says. “By 2014, it should be doing between $250 million and $300 million.” The most widely distributed diginets are Weigel’s Me-TV (84% of TV homes), MGM Television’s This TV (76%), ABC’s Live Well Network (66%), Bounce TV (61%) and Tribune’s Antenna TV (61%), according to a recent estimate by consulting firm Across Platforms.
benton.org/node/156481 | TVNewsCheck
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EDUCATION
REBOOTING ONLINE EDUCATION
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The disappointing results from San Jose State's experiment with online courses shouldn't be interpreted to mean that such courses can't help students. But the classes the university offered in collaboration with online provider Udacity were practically a model of how to do online education badly: rushed into existence and sloppily overseen. No one was even aware that some students who had signed up for the classes lacked reliable access to computers. The one thing the college did well was monitor the results of the three pilot courses and call a timeout when failure rates proved unacceptably high. Online courses should be developed thoughtfully, from within the colleges, not as a result of top-down directives from the governor. The subjects that are offered should be based on student demand and faculty analysis of which would work best online. The preferences of even the best-intentioned billionaires should not be part of the equation. Nor should online courses be viewed as major money-savers, as Brown has pitched them. It still takes well-educated people, interacting with those who need an education, to provide high-quality courses, whether that's via the Internet or in a classroom.
benton.org/node/156503 | Los Angeles Times
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FCC REFORM
FCC REFORM
[SOURCE: Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, AUTHOR: Deborah Taylor Tate]
[Commentary] Rep Greg Walden (R-OR) should be applauded for doggedly holding a Congressional hearing on the much needed review, reform, and reinventing of Federal Communications Commission procedure and process. He is expected to introduce legislation similar to the FCC Process Reform Act and FCC Consolidated Reporting Act that passed the House of Representatives last year, only to die in the Senate. In the meantime, the FCC should not wait for legislation to pass to adopt some simple, common sense reforms of their own. In fact, first they just need to return to the “rule of law,” not the “rule of man” (With two female Commissioners, I suppose this will have to be the “Rule of Women” now!). Too often the personality of the agency leadership has resulted in expansion – broad expansion in some cases – of the specific legal authority granted by Congress to the FCC. The office of FCC Chairman has been expanded far beyond the letter of the law. It needs to be curtailed by self-control, aside from whether a new law is passed.
[Deborah Taylor Tate is a former FCC commissioner]
benton.org/node/156454 | Minority Media and Telecommunications Council
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