BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2016
INTERNET/BROADBAND
The Internet May Be as Segregated as a City
“Access From AT&T” Not Available To 1.5 Mbps Households - NDIA
AT&T lets customers stream AT&T-owned DirecTV with zero data cost [links to Benton summary]
Tales from Comcast’s data cap nation: Can the meter be trusted? [links to Ars Technica]
How (and How Not) to Measure Market Power Over Business Data Services - Phoenix Center analysis [links to Benton summary]
CenturyLink broadband availability is uneven, with rural markets suffering, report shows [links to Benton summary]
An Obscure Peter Gabriel Benefit Concert Helped Bring the Internet to the World [links to Vice]
ELECTIONS 2016
FBI report: Clinton had limited knowledge of classified data procedures
Clinton vs. Trump: Comparing the Candidates' Positions on Technology and Innovation - ITIF analysis
Clinton vs. Trump: Comparing the Candidates' Positions on Technology and Innovation - ITIF analysis
US investigating potential covert Russian plan to disrupt November elections [links to Benton summary]
Map: See the Markets Where Clinton, Trump and Johnson Are Spending on TV, Radio Ads [links to AdAge]
Slow Presidential Spending Reducing Political Forecast for Broadcast TV [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
Donald Trump doesn’t have much of an opinion on this new-fangled ‘cyber’ thing [links to Benton summary]
OWNERSHIP
Fox Settles With Gretchen Carlson Over Roger Ailes Sex Harassment Claims
Rieder: What happens next at Fox News? [links to USAToday]
TELEVISION
FCC’s Wheeler to Intensify Push to Break Cable’s Grip on Set-Top Boxes
AT&T lets customers stream AT&T-owned DirecTV with zero data cost [links to Benton summary]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
New Docs Show How the NSA Used the Iraq War to Build its Surveillance Apparatus [links to Vice]
GAO: DOD Needs to Identify National Guard's Cyber Capabilities and Address Challenges in Its Exercises [links to Government Accountability Office]
Ninth Circuit Rules All Common Carriers Beyond Reach of FTC’s Consumer Protection Authority - David Wright Tremaine analysis [links to Benton summary]
FCC Announces The Sixth Meeting Of The Communications Security, Reliability, And Interoperability Council Scheduled For September 14 [links to Federal Communications Commission]
Companies hesitant to join U.S.-EU data program [links to Hill, The]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Former wireless group lobbyist sets up shop with AT&T, Verizon as clients [links to Benton summary]
ACCESSIBILITY
FCC Announces Anticipated Renewal of Its Disability Advisory Committee and Solicits Applications for Membership - public notice [links to Benton summary]
CONTENT
Warner Bros. flags own site for piracy, orders Google to censor pages [links to Ars Technica]
Smartphone Apps Are Now 50% of All U.S. Digital Media Time Spent [links to comScore]
Facebook's Key to Conquering the World: Beating the Ad Blockers [links to AdWeek]
From protests to powerhouse: Facebook News Feed turns 10 [links to USAToday]
Free Olympic Channel is fun and Games all year [links to USAToday]
ADVERTISING
65% of Listeners Are Likely to Buy a Product After Hearing an Ad in a Podcast [links to AdWeek]
Fact is, kids are seeing fewer TV ads these days: The reason? They're watching more content on streaming services. [links to Media life]
DIVERSITY
Study finds 'pervasive and systematic' issues of inequality in Hollywood
Transgender people find flexibility, barriers in tech [links to USAToday]
JOURNALISM
How Community Media Can Fill Local News Gaps - Free Press [links to Benton summary]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Cuba government filtering mobile text messages, dissidents say [links to Reuters]
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
THE INTERNET MAY BE AS SEGREGATED AS A CITY
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Kaveh Waddell]
In a city or town, a quick look around will tell you the racial makeup of the community you're in. But on a webpage, there’s no easy way of telling who else is visiting. Some sites make it clear that they’re geared toward members of a certain race: The Root, for example, describes itself as a destination for “black news, opinions, politics, and culture.” Elsewhere, visitors have to guess a site’s target audience based on its content—or they may conclude that race doesn’t matter on most of the Internet. But that latter idea is one that a group of academic researchers who study race and the Internet have been pushing back against for decades. With training in different backgrounds—sociology, media studies, Unternet culture—they contend that the Internet is far from raceless; in fact, they say, most of the Internet is targeted at one demographic in particular. Because of its history as a product of technology companies that are staffed overwhelmingly by white employees, the Internet is largely made by, and for, white people, the researchers argue. “Those with the most access and capital are more likely to control the culture of the Internet and reproduce it in their interests,” said Safiya Noble, a professor of information studies at UCLA who has published research about examining the role of race in social media and search engines. “The web is a white space and its sensibility otherizes non-whites.” Internet scholars have been kicking around this idea since the early days of the World Wide Web, but it’s a particularly difficult one to test experimentally. Unlike studies that catalog how discrimination leads to generations of segregation in physical spaces—redlining in major American cities, for example—it’s not as easy to detect similar patterns on the web.
benton.org/headlines/internet-may-be-segregated-city | Atlantic, The
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"ACCESS FROM AT&T" NOT AVAILABLE TO 1.05 MBPS HOUSEHOLDS
[SOURCE: National Digital Inclusion Alliance, AUTHOR: Angela Siefer]
AT&T has declined to make its new low-cost Internet program available to many thousands of eligible households who have the bad luck to live at an address where the company's maximum download speed for new residential accounts is below 3 mbps. Here’s the story. “Access From AT&T” is a low-cost broadband service that was a Federal Communications Commission condition of AT&T's merger with DirectTV. Launched in most AT&T markets in April, the program is supposed to enable any user of the Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to purchase AT&T high speed home Internet service for either $10 or $5 a month, depending on the download speed “technically available” at the user's address – 10 Mbps for $10/mo, 5 Mbps for $10/mo or 3 Mbps for $5 (plus tax). As some National Digital Inclusion Alliance affiliates in AT&T's service area geared up to help SNAP participants apply for Access in May and June, they found that a significant number were being told the program was unavailable at their addresses. Some of those households had recent histories of AT&T Internet service or had next door neighbors with current accounts. So, why were they being told AT&T did not serve their addresses? The problem: The threshold for Access From AT&T is a download speed of 3 Mbps. If the fastest speed available at a particular address is less than 3 mbps, an otherwise eligible SNAP recipient at that address can't sign up for Access – though they can pay full price for lower speeds.
benton.org/headlines/access-att-not-available-15-mbps-households | National Digital Inclusion Alliance
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ELECTIONS 2016
FBI REPORT: CLINTON HAD LIMITED KNOWLEDGE OF CLASSIFIED DATA PROCEDURES
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Sean Gallagher]
On Sept 2, the Federal Bureau of Investigations published a 58-page redacted memorandum on the investigation of the mishandling of classified information by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The memo includes details from Clinton's interview with the FBI and a summary of other interviews the FBI conducted during the yearlong investigation. During her three-and-a-half-hour interview with FBI investigators, Hillary Clinton said that she had used a personal e-mail account "out of convenience" because she only wanted to carry a single mobile device—and the State Department would not allow her to connect a work device to her personal e-mail. She said she had no recollection of anyone voicing concerns over the arrangement. But the FBI investigation found records of an exchange with former Secretary of State Colin Powell on the topic, where he warned her of the risks and told her how he had "gotten around it." The FBI report shows that Clinton generally allowed others to make decisions about how to support her Blackberry habit and that the private mail server she used was run largely at the direction of former President Bill Clinton's staff. And while the FBI did not find that Clinton did anything criminal, the investigation revealed a generally lax approach to security overall by the State Department, Clinton's staff, and Clinton herself. Clinton told the FBI that she "did not pay attention to the level of classification of information and took all classified information seriously," the FBI memo reports. But she was unable to identify the meaning of "(C)" (Confidential) content markings in an e-mail, speculating in the interview that it had something to do with paragraphs that were supposed to be in alphabetical order. She demonstrated a limited understanding of procedures for classification of information—even though she was designated as an Original Classification Authority, someone authorized to set the level of classification on information.
benton.org/headlines/fbi-report-clinton-had-limited-knowledge-classified-data-procedures | Ars Technica
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CLINTON VS TRUMP: COMPARING POSITIONS ON TECH AND INNOVATION
[SOURCE: Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Republicans all too often focus on limiting or denying government’s contributions to bolstering US innovation and competitiveness, while Democrats often seem more interested in shackling rather than harnessing the power of American enterprise. Each side argues that if the country would just pursue the menu items in their respective agendas, then US competitiveness and innovation will be restored and all will be well. But there are two major problems with these perspectives. First, because neither side wants the other to receive credit for their items, little gets done. Second, even if one side would acquiesce to the other to get some things done, it would not be enough. We need a wide array of policy reforms. Each side ultimately must bend if we are to restore or maintain US economic greatness. In general, the left needs to accept the fact that successful companies that innovate and compete globally are not the enemy, and that public policy should help companies succeed in creating new products, services, and jobs domestically. For its part, the right should abandon its opposition to government’s role in promoting competitiveness. All the tax cuts and regulatory relief in the world will not enable the United States and its enterprises to succeed in global competition if the country lacks a robust national innovation policy that includes partnerships with the private sector.
benton.org/headlines/clinton-vs-trump-comparing-candidates-positions-technology-and-innovation | Information Technology and Innovation Foundation | Summary
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CAN OBAMA STOP THE STALLING ON CLINTON APPOINTEES
[SOURCE: Tales of the Sausage Factory, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] As we end 2016, we have an unusually large number of vacancies in both the executive branch and the judiciary. As anyone not living under a rock knows, that’s no accident. Getting President Barack Obama appointments approved by the Senate was always a hard slog, and became virtually impossible after the Republicans took over the Senate in 2015. This doesn’t merely impact the waning days of the Obama Administration. If Hillary Clinton wins the White House, it means that the Administration will start with a large number of important holes. Even if the Democrats also retake the Senate, it will take months to bring the Executive branch up to functioning, never mind the judiciary. If Clinton wins and Republicans keep the Senate, we are looking at continuing gridlock and dysfunction until at least 2018 and possibly beyond.
benton.org/headlines/can-obama-stop-stalling-clinton-appointees-or-its-raining-progressives-hallelujah | Tales of the Sausage Factory
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OWNERSHIP
CARLSON-FOX SETTLEMENT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: John Koblin, Michael Grynbaum]
The parent company of Fox News said that it had settled a lawsuit with its former anchor Gretchen Carlson, who said that Roger Ailes had sexually harassed her when he was chairman of the network. A 21st Century Fox Corporation news release did not specify a settlement amount, but a person briefed on the settlement said that it amounted to $20 million, and that Ailes was responsible for a portion of the payment. The person also said Fox News was in settlement talks with other women at the network. The company apologized for the behavior, saying, “We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve.”
benton.org/headlines/fox-settles-gretchen-carlson-over-roger-ailes-sex-harassment-claims | New York Times
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TELEVISION
WHEELER TO INTENSIFY PUSH TO BREAK CABLE'S GRIP ON SET-TOP BOXES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: John McKinnon]
The nation’s top television regulator is preparing a major push to win support for a compromise version of his proposal to open up the market for television set-top boxes, apparently. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has made a priority in 2016 of breaking the cable industry’s longtime grip on the lucrative market for those boxes. The devices have long been used to translate cable signals into TV programs, but several companies see a market for devices or services that offer integrated access to both cable TV and independent video-streaming services like Netflix Inc. or Hulu LLC. Chairman Wheeler’s plan would require cable companies to make their feeds available to other device makers through apps. Regulators hope the increased competition will help drive down prices. Proponents also say it would give a major boost to internet-based media. By some estimates, the set-top-box business brings in $21 billion a year in rental fees for cable and other pay-TV providers, which dominate the market. Consumer advocates estimate that customers overall pay $6 billion to $14 billion more for the boxes than they would if there were greater competition. But Chairman Wheeler remains at risk of being blocked by objections from cable and media companies, say several people familiar with the matter, despite extensive concessions to the cable industry and others that condemned the original plan. Big media companies worry that the new generation of devices that Chairman Wheeler’s plan would foster might pose a long-term threat to their business model, such as by offering unlicensed internet versions of their content. They are expected to file detailed comments with the agency early this week. Some cable companies, meanwhile, worry about the potential for what they view as unaccustomed FCC meddling in their complex deals with their program suppliers.
benton.org/headlines/fccs-wheeler-intensify-push-break-cables-grip-set-top-boxes | Wall Street Journal
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DIVERSITY
HOLLYWOOD DIVERSITY
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
Despite widespread attention over diversity in the movie business, a new study finds that little is changing in Hollywood for women, minorities, LGBT people and others who continue to find themselves on the outside of an industry where researchers say inequality is “the norm.” A report to be by the Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism offers a stark portrait of Hollywood's feeble to nonexistent progress in eradicating what researchers call “pervasive and systematic” problems in inclusiveness in front of and behind the camera. For example, 31.4% of speaking characters in the analyzed films were female in 2015 — roughly the same number as in 2007. That's a ratio of 2.2 men for every single woman. Characters identified as lesbian, gay or transgender accounted for less than 1% of all speaking parts, or 32 out of 4,370 characters studied. That was a slight increase from 19 portrayals in 2014. After finding zero transgender characters in 2014, researchers could pinpoint one in 2015. From 2007 to 2015, the study finds no significant change in the percentage of black (12.2%), Latino (5.3%) or Asian (3.9%) characters in the most popular films. Off screen, of the 107 directors of 2015 films, four were black or African American and six were Asian or Asian American. Just eight were women, still the most since 2008.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-diversity-...
Women Less Than One Third of Speaking Roles in Top Films, New Study Finds – Again (The Wrap)
benton.org/headlines/study-finds-pervasive-and-systematic-issues-inequality-hollywood | Associated Press | The Wrap
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