BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2016
Today's Events:
OWNERSHIP
FCC Tightens TV-Station Ownership Curb by Cutting Discount
Is Starbucks A Media Company? [links to Huffington Post]
Sen Elizabeth Warren op-ed : What Apple Teaches Us About Taxes [links to New York Times]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
House GOP on Oversight Committee Release Report on Year-Long Investigation into OPM Data Breaches - press release
House GOP Oversight Chairman promises to investigate cellphone trackers
Advocates push back on exemption in federal privacy rules
Sounding the Alarm on Predictive Policing - press release
Hackers just leaked a new batch of 100 million email addresses and passwords [links to Quartz]
DNI James Clapper: "Russians hack our systems all the time" [links to Hill, The]
Court May Have Ushered in Uncertainty on Privacy Rules - Miriam Gottfried/WSJ analysis [links to Benton summary]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Google Fiber's Nashville proposal clears key vote
Tackling the 'Homework Gap': Maryland County to Expand FiberNet Infrastructure, Forge Public-Private Partnerships
Wisconsin Governor Announces State Broadband Savings Agreement [links to Benton summary]
Cities can't just ignore federal law on utility poles - The Hill op-ed [links to Benton summary]
ELECTIONS 2016
Trump campaign ends media blacklist
Donald Trump Is King Of Earned Media [links to Benton summary]
Soledad O'Brien: Donald Trump coverage has normalized white supremacy in America [links to Vox]
Longtime Listener, First-Time Candidate - Medium op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Hillary Clinton Is Burying Donald Trump On TV In Battleground States [links to NPR]
How the media grades Donald Trump on a curve [links to Washington Post]
How Phyllis Schlafly — grassroots activist, media innovator — remade the Republican Party [links to Vox]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Remarks of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, CTIA Super Mobility Show 2016, Las Vegas - speech
Enhancing Experimentation and Innovation for 5G and Beyond - Julius Knapp, FCC [links to Benton summary]
Report: Government Mobility Spending Lags Behind Private Sector [links to Benton summary]
TELEVISION
5 stages of regulation grief — FCC style - The Hill op-ed [links to Benton summary]
TiVo is working on a network DVR that'll broadcast to your non-TVs [links to Verge, The]
Study: Broadcast TV Still Consumers' No. 1 Choice [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
Liberty Media Buys Formula One for $4.4 Billion [links to New York Times]
CONTENT
Alphabet Is Using Google's Ad Technology To Take On ISIS [links to Fast Company]
Free Speech is Now a Brutal War on the Internet - Medium op-ed [links to Benton summary]
EDUCATION TECH
Op-Ed: Kids Don’t Always Love Technology [links to EdSurge]
JOURNALISM
Lawsuits against the media aren’t new. But Thiel blueprint sets a disturbing precedent [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
Jim VandeHei, co-founder of Politico, raises $10 million for media venture [links to USAToday]
What a Kansas professor learned after interviewing a ‘lost generation’ of journalists [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
Gigaom founder Om Malik: My heart attack ‘was the best thing that happened to me.’ ‘It forced me to prioritize what was important.’ - podcast [links to Revere Digital]
ENERGY
The Real Energy Impact Of Your Phone [links to Vice]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
FCC Issues 'What You Owe' Fees for 6 Categories [links to Benton summary]
September 27 Is the Deadline for 2016 Regulatory Fees [links to CommLawCenter]
U.S. Census Bureau Unveils New Statistics in Schools Program: New Website Provides Data, Tools for K-12 Educators [links to Department of Commerce]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
European Union seeks to spur fast broadband roll-out with telecoms reform
Sony wins battle over preinstalled Windows in Europe’s top court [links to Ars Technica]
Canadian Telecoms Will Try to Justify Their ‘Ripoff' TV Plans Today [links to Vice]
Venezuela clamps down on critical media. Journalists detained as dissent rises over socialist government [links to Financial Times]
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OWNERSHIP
FCC TIGHTENS TV-STATION OWNERSHIP CURB BY CUTTING DISCOUNT
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Todd Shields]
Federal regulators tightened limits on owning television stations by eliminating the practice of only counting part of some stations’ audience, a move opposed by broadcasters including 21st Century Fox Inc. and Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. The Federal Communications Commission in a 3-to-2 Democratic-led party-line vote on Sept 7 abolished the 30-year-old UHF discount. Under the eliminated discount, the agency counted only half of households in a TV station’s local area, when judging ownership against the limit of reaching 39 percent of US TV households. Groups that exceed the limit as a result of the change needn’t sell stations, but must comply in future transactions, meaning future deals could result in sales to conform with the regulation. Companies over the limit without the discount include Tribune Media Co., Ion Media Networks Inc. and Univision Communications Inc., the FCC said. The FCC in August voted to preserve other TV and radio station ownership restrictions, including a ban on owning both a daily newspaper and a nearby broadcast station. The live audience for broadcast TV has been shrinking for years, and broadcasters have said they need to be freed of “antiquated and unreasonable” rules to vie with digital competitors. Tribune, with 42 stations in cities including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, where it is located, in an annual filing told investors that abolishing the UHF discount would affect its ability to acquire additional stations. Gary Weitman, a spokesman, in an e-mail said the FCC decision is a “non-issue” since company holdings comply with the rules.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-tightens-tv-station-ownership-curb-cutting-discount | Bloomberg | Report and Order | Pai statement | O'Rielly statement
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SECURITY/PRIVACY
HOUSE GOP RELEASES REPORT ON YEAR-LONG INVESTIGATION INTO OPM DATA BREACHES
[SOURCE: Hose Oversight Committee, AUTHOR: Rep Jason Chaffetz (R-UT)
House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) released a staff report titled, The OPM Data Breach: How the Government Jeopardized Our National Security for More than a Generation, chronicling the Committee’s year-long investigation into how highly personal, highly sensitive data of millions of Americans was compromised by a foreign adversary in 2015. The report outlines findings and recommendations to help the federal government better acquire, deploy, maintain, and monitor its information technology. As a result of one the Committee’s findings, Chairman Chaffetz sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting an opinion on whether the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) violated the Anti-Deficiency Act (ADA) when it accepted services from a company without payment. Key Findings:
The OPM data breach was preventable.
OPM leadership failed to heed repeated recommendations from its Inspector General, failed to sufficiently respond to growing threats of sophisticated cyber attacks, and failed to prioritize resources for cybersecurity.
Data breaches in 2014 were likely connected and possibly coordinated to the 2015 data breach.
OPM misled the public on the extent of the damage of the breach and made false statements to Congress
Key Recommendations:
Reprioritize federal information security efforts toward zero trust.
Ensure agency CIOs are empowered, accountable, and competent.
Reduce use of social security numbers by federal agencies.
Modernize existing legacy federal information technology assets.
Improve federal recruitment, training, and retention of federal cybersecurity specialists
benton.org/headlines/house-gop-oversight-committee-release-report-year-long-investigation-opm-data-breaches | Hose Oversight Committee | Read the report | Washington Post | The Guardian
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GOP CHAIRMAN PROMISES TO INVESTIGATE CELLPHONE TRACKERS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Ali Breland]
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) tore into government surveillance methods, saying his committee will investigate one in particular — Stingray scanners. Stingrays are cellphone trackers that can be used to gain location data from phone users. The trackers have recently come under scrutiny from civil rights groups. "You will be shocked at what the federal government is doing to collect your personal information," Chairman Chaffetz said. "And they can't keep it secure, that's the point." Chairman Chaffetz last November introduced the Stingray Privacy Act, a bill aimed at curtailing the implementation of the cell tracking technology. “The abuse of Stingrays and other cell-site simulators by individuals, including law enforcement, could enable gross violations of privacy,” he said at the time. Chairman Chaffetz’s comments come after the House Oversight Committee’s release of a scathing 241-page report on the Office of Personnel Management data breach.
benton.org/headlines/house-gop-oversight-chairman-promises-investigate-cellphone-trackers | Hill, The
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ADVOCATES PUSH BACK ON EXEMPTION IN FEDERAL PRIVACY RULES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: David McCabe]
39 consumer advocate groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Free Press, said that placing an exemption in looming federal privacy rules for broadband providers that covers data divorced from an individual customer would be ill-advised and illegal. The Federal Communications Commission is in the process of crafting rules that, under a proposal from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, would make it harder for Internet providers to use their customers' data for most purposes. Privacy and consumer groups said in a Sept 7 letter to Chairman Wheeler that the commission shouldn’t make an exception for data that has been stripped of information that could identify the customer to whom it belongs. “We urge the Commission to resist some parties’ request for the creation of a special carve-out for ‘de-identified’ customer information,” the groups said. “There is no room in the statute to accommodate that request.” “Even if there were, it would be harmful to consumers to allow ISPs to make an end-run around privacy rules simply by removing certain identifiers from data, while leaving vast swaths of customer details largely intact,” they added. The groups argued that it would be easy to re-connect the data with a user. “It is often trivial to re-identify data that has supposedly been de-identified," they said in the latest salvo in the battle over the rules.
benton.org/headlines/advocates-push-back-exemption-federal-privacy-rules | Hill, The | Broadcasting&Cable
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SOUNDING THE ALARM ON PREDICTIVE POLICING
[SOURCE: Free Press, AUTHOR: Amy Kroin]
[Commentary] “Predictive policing” sounds good on paper. After all, what could go wrong with a data-based approach to law enforcement? It turns out: plenty. That’s why Free Press joined a broad coalition of civil rights, privacy and technology groups in sounding the alarm about how predictive policing reinforces racial bias. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights mobilized the coalition, which counts the ACLU, the Brennan Center for Justice, Color Of Change and the NAACP among the 17 signers. The statement released last Wednesday notes that “the data driving predictive enforcement activities — such as the location and timing of previously reported crimes, or patterns of community- and officer-initiated 911 calls — is profoundly limited and biased.” Indeed, a damning report from the tech consulting group Upturn, which surveyed the nation’s 50 largest police forces, confirms this view. Upturn found “little evidence” that predictive policing works — and “significant reason to fear that [it] may reinforce disproportionate and discriminatory policing practices.” While the idea of using data to direct police resources sounds like an effort to remove human bias from the equation, that isn’t how it works in practice. In fact, predictive policing embeds police bias in an algorithm that then has the appearance of being neutral. The police response to low-income communities — in particular communities of color — is completely different from the response to wealthy white communities.
benton.org/headlines/sounding-alarm-predictive-policing | Free Press
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
GOOGLE FIBER'S NASHVILLE PROPOSAL CLEARS KEY VOTE
[SOURCE: The Tennessean, AUTHOR: Joey Garrison, Jamie McGee]
In the face of a legal threat and opposition from Nashville’s (TN) two largest internet providers, the Metro Council on Sept 6 gave preliminary approval of legislation that Google Fiber says is critical for its broadband rollout into Nashville. The council voted by a wide 32-7 margin to advance Google Fiber-backed legislation dubbed One Touch Make Ready that would change the city's policy regarding utility poles and help expedite Google Fiber's entry into the Nashville market. The vote was the second of three required to pass the ordinance. The council's action was a big win for Google Fiber and came after the council voted 20-19 to defeat an effort opposed by Google Fiber to delay consideration of the ordinance until December. "This is an extremely big step forward, an extremely big net positive for Nashville, for internet competition," said Councilman Jeremy Elrod, one of the bill's co-sponsors. "It increases competition, increases telecom and internet investment for we as a city and our citizens as a whole." At issue is a process of attaching new lines to utility poles. Google Fiber says the current system could be improved by allowing one contractor to move all lines at once to make a pole ready for a new provider. New companies must currently wait on each existing provider to move their lines, a process that can take a few months per line and that delays internet installation.
benton.org/headlines/google-fibers-nashville-proposal-clears-key-vote | Tennessean, The | ars technica
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MARYLAND COUNTY TO EXPAND FIBERNET INFRASTRUCTURE
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: Adam Stone]
In Montgomery County (MD), public officials are assembling an arsenal of technology fixes to address the “homework gap,” the technology deficit that leaves some kids lacking the network access and devices they need to complete their schoolwork. “The Internet and broadband and cloud communications are integral to our society — our businesses, our neighborhoods, our personal lives," said Mitsuko R. Herrera, director of the ultraMontgomery Program in the county’s Department of Technology Services. "So the schools are developing curricula that are heavily Internet-based.” Citing research that shows some 70 percent of teachers assign homework that requires access to broadband, Herrera said not all students have an equal ability to tackle such assignments. “Some students have a robust Internet connection and a computer, but other students either have no connection at home, or they may be relying on a sibling’s smartphone, or they may do their homework at McDonald’s,” she said. “The county wants to ensure that all children have access to the Internet in order to further their education.” The county is chasing that goal with a number of different means, forging partnerships with private industry while also leveraging its own existing fiber backbone. The county’s FiberNet infrastructure connects all public schools, libraries and government buildings — over 560 sites in all — making it the front line of broadband delivery for students who can’t access the Internet for schoolwork at home.
benton.org/headlines/tackling-homework-gap-maryland-county-expand-fibernet-infrastructure-forge-public-private | Government Technology
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ELECTIONS 2016
TRUMP CAMPAIGN ENDS MEDIA BLACKLIST
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Hadas Gold]
Donald Trump's presidential campaign is ending its blacklist of news outlets, the campaign has confirmed. The blacklist has been in effect at the Trump campaign for nearly a year, with media outlets left out of official events for perceived slights in how they reported on his campaign. The banned outlets at times included Politico, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and the Des Moines Register. Sometimes journalists for the outlets would be able to attend campaign events as members of the general public, but in several cases they were still removed from the venue when security realized they were press. A Washington Post reporter was once patted down at a Mike Pence event to make sure he did not have a cell phone or laptop on him at an event.
benton.org/headlines/trump-campaign-ends-media-blacklist | Politico | Washington Post
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
REMARKS OF CHAIRMAN WHEELER AT CTIA SUPER MOBILITY SHOW
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler]
“What do we need to do seize the 5G opportunity?” The answer, of course, starts with competition. With four nationwide carriers, the US wireless industry continues to invest in faster, better networks with $33 billion invested in 2015 and nearly $100 billion invested over the past 3 years. That’s over and above the investment of billions in spectrum acquisition. New services and applications are constantly being introduced and consumer demand seems insatiable. Wireless data use more than doubled from 2014 to 2015, and continued growth is projected for the foreseeable future. There are three keys for what the Commission can do to help unlock the 5G opportunity: 1) ensuring ample availability of spectrum to a range of competitors; 2) taking all steps to foster competitive provision of infrastructure; and 3) removing unnecessary hurdles to siting. In all these areas, the Federal Communications Commission has activities underway. Yet, let’s be realistic, there is more to be done if 5G is to realize its promise.
benton.org/headlines/remarks-fcc-chairman-tom-wheeler-ctia-super-mobility-show-2016-las-vegas | Federal Communications Commission | Multichannel News
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
EU SEEKS TO SPUR FAST BROADBAND ROLL-OUT WITH TELECOMS REFORM
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Julia Fioretti]
The European Union aims to spur the roll-out of fast broadband across the 28-nation bloc by relaxing rules that force telecommunication companies to open up their networks to competitors. Under planned reforms of the sector, national telecoms regulators will be required to take into account existing commercial agreements between operators when deciding whether to force them to allow competitors access to their networks. Fostering investment in new fiber-optic networks, to meet rising demand for data services, is a major plank of the European Commission's reform of its 15-year-old telecoms laws. National regulators will also have to weigh up the range of retail choices available to users to ensure that regulation is not more of a burden than necessary on operators' decisions to invest. The costs of running optic fiber - which can deliver speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second - into households are high. Telecoms operators such as Orange, Deutsche Telekom and Telecom Italia have long complained that the current rules forcing them to open up their networks to competitors at regulated prices do not allow them get a decent return on investment. According to the Commission's figures, 68 percent of homes in the EU have access to broadband with speeds of at least 30 megabits per second.
benton.org/headlines/european-union-seeks-spur-fast-broadband-roll-out-telecoms-reform | Reuters
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