BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2016 (4)
Today's Events --
AGENDA
FCC Changes Oct 27 Meeting from 9:30am to 10:30am EST [links to Federal Communications Commission]
AT&T/TIME WARNER
AT&T Set to Lobby for Merger With Deep Pockets and a Big Network
Why a Media Merger That Should Go Through Might Not
The AT&T-Time Warner Merger: What Are The Pros And Cons For Consumers?
AT&T CEO: Prices will not rise for consumers
AT&T and Time Warner: lower prices not part of the bargain [links to Benton summary]
AT&T, Time Warner Execs Knock Trump, Kaine for ‘Uninformed’ Merger Comments
The AT&T/Time Warner merger has a big political problem on its hands - Vox analysis [links to Benton summary]
Why the strongest case for AT&T's merger with Time Warner is also the case against it - Vox analysis [links to Benton summary]
AT&T’s web TV plan will have more than 100 channels, but CBS isn’t on board yet [links to Revere Digital]
Vuja De All Over Again - Morning Consult op-ed [links to Benton summary]
5 reasons the AT&T-Time Warner merger should make you very worried [links to Benton summary]
HBO Chief ‘Agnostic’ Where Content Goes Following AT&T-Time Warner Deal [links to Wall Street Journal]
Verizon CEO praises AT&T’s Time Warner deal, says buying Yahoo still makes sense [links to Venture Beat]
Netflix’s Reed Hastings conditionally backs AT&T-Time Warner deal [links to Hill, The]
Mark Cuban says Washington should approve the AT&T/Time Warner deal [links to Vox]
Comcast offers a model for AT&T-Time Warner deal scrutiny [links to Benton summary]
Sen Sanders: ‘We must do everything possible’ to press Clinton on AT&T-Time Warner [links to Washington Post]
Time Warner ruined AOL, says ex-AOL exec Ted Leonsis [links to Vox]
Editorial: What the AT&T-Time Warner merger promises — and what it threatens [links to Los Angeles Times]
Holman Jenkins Jr: The Big Media Bogeyman -- AT&T’s deal will be a test of Silicon Valley’s strategic silence on Obama regulation [links to Wall Street Journal]
ELECTIONS 2016
Where Clinton and Trump stand on top US telecom issues [links to Benton summary]
White House: President Obama gave 'entirely factual' answer about Clinton e-mail server
In emails, aide stressed need to ‘clean up’ Obama’s comments on Clinton’s email [links to Benton summary]
Trump: President Obama has to be ‘investigated’ over Hillary Clinton’s email server [links to Washington Post]
The Political Environment on Social Media - Pew research
Op-ed: TV is becoming more like the Internet: an echo chamber where people go to get their political opinions affirmed [links to MediaPost]
Fearing Trump, Bar Association Stifles Report Calling Him a ‘Libel Bully’
Complaints allege House Democrats’ Trump ads break campaign finance law [links to Politico]
Yes, Donald Trump has been good for the media business [links to Benton summary]
Trump halts big-money fundraising, cutting off cash to the party [links to Washington Post]
Trump: ‘I have no interest in Trump TV’ [links to Benton summary]
How conservative TV could change after Election Day [links to Benton summary]
Breitbart coordinated with liberal activist and organizer who disrupted GOP primary campaign events [links to Benton summary]
CNN's Wolf Blitzer Presses Trump Campaign Manager To Stop Attacks Against Journalists And Free Press [links to Media Matters for America]
Comcast gets boost from US election drama [links to Financial Times]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
Sen Warner: FCC Should Clarify ISP Power to Combat Hacks
How the Broadband Industry Could Challenge FCC’s Privacy Rules
FCC’s Idea of a Broadband Privacy ‘Compromise’ Involves Few Compromises - US Chamber of Commerce press release [links to Benton summary]
Data Breach Response: A Guide for Business - press release [links to Benton summary]
President Obama says the US government still doesn't know who shut down the Internet on Oct 21 [links to Benton summary]
How one rent-a-botnet army of cameras, DVRs caused Internet chaos [links to Ars Technica]
Defenseless internet 'paying the price' for ignoring security [links to CNNMoney]
Google's Enhanced Ad Targeting Reignites Privacy Concerns [links to MediaPost]
Can we secure the internet of things in time to prevent another cyber-attack? [links to Guardian, The]
How Can ICT Standards Help Align Privacy and Security? [links to International Telecommunication Union]
SURVEILLANCE
US courts: Electronic surveillance up 500 percent in DC-area since 2011, almost all sealed cases
AT&T Is Spying on Americans for Profit
ACCESSIBILITY
Internet is becoming unreadable because of a trend towards lighter, thinner fonts [links to Benton summary]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
CWA Members Pan FCC BDS Proposal [links to Benton summary]
Chairman Wheeler's Response to Rep. Titus Regarding Business Data Services [links to Federal Communications Commission]
Shut Down the Internet, and the Economy Goes With It [links to Benton summary]
Spirit Communications, partners launch GigUp South Carolina initiative [links to Benton summary]
The Authoritarian Internet Power Grab - Robert McDowell, Gordon Goldstein op-ed [links to Benton summary]
TELEVISION
Comment Deadlines Set for Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Relating to Diverse and Independent Programming [links to Federal Communications Commission]
TELECOM
Wireline Competition Bureau Posts Budget Control Mechanism Calculations for First Half 2017 [links to Federal Communications Commission]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Stage 3 of Incentive Auction to Begin November 1 [links to Federal Communications Commission]
Chairman Wheeler's Response to Members of Congress Regarding Mobility Fund Phase II [links to Federal Communications Commission]
FCC Seeks Comment on Recommendations Approved by the World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee [links to Federal Communications Commission]
CONTENT
US court rules for music companies in MP3tunes copyright case [links to Benton summary]
Fantasy sports websites reach $12M settlement with NY state [links to Hill, The]
How smartphone cameras took over the world [links to Verge, The]
ADVERTISING
Google's Enhanced Ad Targeting Reignites Privacy Concerns [links to MediaPost]
JOURNALISM
Not Fit To Print? When Politicians Talk Dirty, Media Scramble To Sanitize [links to National Public Radio]
LABOR
Connecting Economies for Growth: Secretary Pritzker on Why the TPP Matters [links to Department of Commerce]
EDUCATION
A New 21st-Century Job: The Media Mentor -- Two books out this fall help to define this new type of educator [links to New America]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
FCC Furthers Consumer Engagement Efforts with Consumer Help Center Enhancements
Records & Research on the House of Representatives History, Art & Archives Website [links to Library of Congress]
Gig economy companies like Uber are helping the Feds spread the word about Obamacare [links to Vox]
Fact checking the FCC: Is consumer protection in its DNA? - AEI op-ed [links to Benton summary]
The Important Role of the Digital Attache in a New Trade Economy [links to Department of Commerce]
POLICYMAKERS
One Last Growl for FCC’s Sharp-Toothed Watchdog, Tom Wheeler
What’s Next for FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn?
Pallante Resigns [links to Benton summary]
COMPANY NEWS
Google Curbs Expansion of Fiber Optic Network, Cutting Jobs
Facebook Leaders Call It a Tech Company, Not Media Company [links to Wall Street Journal]
Activate’s Michael Wolf Predicts What’s Next for Tech and Media in 2017 [links to Wall Street Journal]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Morocco reverses app ban after internet shutdowns report [links to Brookings]
Ofcom fines Vodafone £4.6m for ‘serious’ customer service failings [links to Financial Times]
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AT&T/TIME WARNER
ATT SET TO LOBBY FOR MERGER WITH DEEP POCKETS AND A BIG NETWORK
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang, Eric Lipton]
AT&T, in addition to its billions of dollars of capital, has another arsenal at its disposal: one of the most formidable lobbying operations in Washington. The company’s list of nearly 100 registered lobbyists already on retainer in 2016 includes former members of Congress. AT&T is the biggest donor to federal lawmakers and their causes among cable and cellular telecommunications firms, with its employees and political action committee sending money to 374 of the House’s 435 members and 85 of the Senate’s 100 members this election cycle. That adds up to more than $11.3 million in donations since 2015, four times as much as Verizon Communications, according to a tally by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit research group. AT&T has also spent decades building a national alliance of local government officials and nonprofit groups — particularly from black and Hispanic communities — that it will certainly be asking to weigh in again in Washington, as it tries to get the merger approved. “We have seen our fair share of deals,” said AT&T’s general counsel, David R. McAtee II. “Our job is informing consumers what a good development this is for them.” But navigating this transaction will be a test of just how much influence AT&T has in Washington these days. That is particularly the case as AT&T’s lobbying team undergoes a transition after losing its longtime leader, James W. Cicconi, a former aide to President George H. W. Bush.
benton.org/headlines/att-set-lobby-merger-deep-pockets-and-big-network | New York Times
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WHY A MEDIA MERGER THAT SHOULD GO THROUGH MIGHT NOT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: James Stewart]
Opponents of the proposed AT&T purchase of Time Warner don’t want to just block the $84.5 billion deal: They want to overturn decades of antitrust policy and case law. Until recently, that would have been all but unthinkable. But in today’s superheated and politically charged environment, they may just succeed. Politicians were piling on recently to criticize the deal, including Donald Trump and Sen Tim Kaine (D-VA), the Democratic nominee for vice president. “Over the last 40 to 50 years, antitrust law has evolved to be almost completely indifferent to vertical mergers,” said Tim Wu, an antitrust and internet expert at Columbia Law School who coined the phrase “net neutrality” and recently wrote “The Attention Merchants” on the advertising business. In vertical mergers, a company buys a supplier; in horizontal mergers, direct competitors combine. But the new generation harks back to the original trustbusters of the early 20th century, who were most concerned about preventing corporations from gaining too much power. “The antitrust system as it stands is focused on prices to consumers, innovation and efficiencies,” Wu said. “That reflects the triumph of the University of Chicago school of economics. But there’s an older tradition, embodied by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, that says a concentration of too much power in too few hands is bad for democracy and bad for consumers.”
benton.org/headlines/why-media-merger-should-go-through-might-not | New York Times
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PROS AND CONS FOR CONSUMERS
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Alina Selyukh]
The top question on many consumers' minds: What does this merger mean for me? Pros: 1) The promise of new kind of content and 2) Potential competitor to cable. Cons: 1) Potential risk of exclusivity or self-dealing and 2) Consolidation and risk of higher prices.
benton.org/headlines/att-time-warner-merger-what-are-pros-and-cons-consumers | National Public Radio | The Verge
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ATT CEO: PRICES WILL NOT RISE FOR CONSUMERS
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Jefferson Graham]
The proposed merger of wireless giant AT&T and media powerhouse Time Warner isn’t about raising prices for consumers, but lowering them, AT&T’s CEO said. Noting a new DirecTV package of 100 channels priced at $35 monthly aimed at cord cutters will bow in Nov, “this is a way to drive down prices,” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said. AT&T looks to take on cable as a major competitor, both with its DirecTV subsidiary, and having Time Warner (CNN, HBO, Warner Bros. studio) under the corporate umbrella. “This deal was about how can we change the game in this ecosystem,” Stephenson said. “If there was ever an environment begging for a change, this is it.” He cited 20 million people who have cut the cord from cable TV. ”How do you begin to access that segment of the market?” he asked. Looking toward the future, Stephenson waxed on about the possibilities of the next stage of mobile delivery from super-fast 5G networks, which he said would begin deployment from AT&T in 2018. In a joint talk with Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, the two said TW products will not be offered as exclusives to AT&T customers.
benton.org/headlines/att-ceo-prices-will-not-rise-consumers | USAToday | WSJ
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UNINFORMED MERGER COMMENTS
[SOURCE: Morning Consult, AUTHOR: Brendan Bordelon]
AT&T and Time Warner chief executives Randall Stephenson and Jeffrey Bewkes are pushing back against “uninformed comments” from top politicians attacking the pending $85 billion deal to combine their companies. The two business leaders also announced a new, $35-a-month streaming content service called DirecTV Now, which will likely include Time Warner content among 100 “premium” channels and will compete nationally with pricier cable plans. A spokesman for AT&T said the company does not expect the merger with Time Warner to be approved before the planned late-November launch of DirecTV Now. The launch of the new service is just the “tip of the iceberg” in terms of its collaboration with Time Warner. “These are uninformed comments,” the AT&T executive said, stressing the $35 monthly price point of AT&T’s new DirecTV Now streaming service. “Anybody who characterizes this as a means to raise prices is ignoring the basic premise of what we’re trying to do here.” Stephenson also pointed out that the merger was a classic case of “vertical integration,” where two companies occupying different stages of production in an industry come together. “Vertical integrations are rarely a means for raising prices,” said Stephenson. “You’re not changing the market structure in any way, shape or form.” He added that while he’s sure regulators “will have some concerns with this,” the federal government has historically approved vertical integrations.
benton.org/headlines/att-time-warner-execs-knock-trump-kaine-uninformed-merger-comments | Morning Consult
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ELECTIONS 2016
WH: OBAMA GAVE 'ENTIRELY FACTUAL' ANSWER ABOUT CLINTON E-MAIL SERVER
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jordan Fabian]
President Barack Obama gave an “entirely factual” response when asked in 2015 about how he discovered Hillary Clinton used a private e-mail server as Secretary of State, his top spokesman said. President Obama’s claim that he first learned about Clinton’s server “through news reports” was called into question again after an e-mail chain released Oct 25 by WikiLeaks showed a top Clinton aide expressing concern in March 2015 that the president might be accused of lying. "What the president said was an entirely factual response,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. "I recognize that some of the president’s critics have attempted to construct some type of conspiracy about the communication between the president and the secretary of state,” Earnest continued. “But they’ve failed to put forward a conspiracy that withstands any scrutiny, so I guess they are back to recycling thoroughly debunked conspiracies." The White House has repeatedly insisted that President Obama did not have knowledge of Clinton’s unusual e-mail server, even though the two did communicate by e-mail during her time at the State Department. But Clinton’s allies privately expressed concern about President Obama’s claim during a March 2015 CBS News interview that he first learned through media reports that the secretary of State used an e-mail system “outside the U.S. government for official business,” as reporter Bill Plante described it while questioning the President. “[L]ooks like POTUS just said he found out HRC was using her personal email when he saw it in the news,” Clinton spokesman Josh Schwerin told other allies in a March 7, 2015, email published by WikiLeaks. “[W]e need to clean this up - he has emails from her - they do not say state.gov,” responded former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills. At a White House press briefing two days after the email exchange, Earnest said that Obama knew about Clinton’s email address because he sent messages to it. But he said the president was unaware of the exact nature of the server or the extent to which she used it.
benton.org/headlines/white-house-president-obama-gave-entirely-factual-answer-about-clinton-e-mail-server | Hill, The
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POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA
[SOURCE: Pew Internet Science and Tech, AUTHOR: Maeve Duggan, Aaron Smith]
In a political environment defined by widespread polarization and partisan animosity, even simple conversations can go awry when the subject turns to politics. In their in-person interactions, Americans can (and often do) attempt to steer clear of those with whom they strongly disagree. But online social media environments present new challenges. In these spaces, users can encounter statements they might consider highly contentious or extremely offensive – even when they make no effort to actively seek out this material. Similarly, political arguments can encroach into users’ lives when comment streams on otherwise unrelated topics devolve into flame wars or partisan bickering. Navigating these interactions can be particularly fraught in light of the complex mix of close friends, family members, distant acquaintances, professional connections and public figures that make up many users’ online networks. A new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults finds that political debate and discussion is indeed a regular fact of digital life for many social media users, and some politically active users enjoy the heated discussions and opportunities for engagement that this mix of social media and politics facilitates. But a larger share expresses annoyance and aggravation at the tone and content of the political interactions they witness on these platforms. Among the key findings of this survey:
More than one-third of social media users are worn out by the amount of political content they encounter, and more than half describe their online interactions with those they disagree with politically as stressful and frustrating
Many users view the tone of political discussions on social media as uniquely angry and disrespectful – although a sizeable share feels that these discussions simply reflect the broader political climate
Most users try to ignore political arguments on social media as best they can; when that fails, they take steps to curate their feeds and avoid the most offensive types of content
Despite these annoyances, some users – especially those with high levels of political engagement – enjoy talking, debating and posting about political issues on social media
Frustration over politically oriented social media discussions is a bipartisan phenomenon
Political content is as prevalent on Facebook (where users mostly follow people they know personally) as it is on Twitter (where users tend to follow a wider mix of connections)
benton.org/headlines/political-environment-social-media | Pew Internet Science and Tech
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FEARING TRUMP, BAR ASSOCIATION STIFLES REPORT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Adam Liptak]
Alarmed by Donald Trump’s record of filing lawsuits to punish and silence his critics, a committee of media lawyers at the American Bar Association commissioned a report on Trump’s litigation history. The report concluded that Trump was a “libel bully” who had filed many meritless suits attacking his opponents and had never won in court. But the bar association refused to publish the report, citing “the risk of the ABA being sued by Mr. Trump.” David J. Bodney, a former chairman of the media-law committee, said he was baffled by the bar association’s interference in the committee’s journal. “It is more than a little ironic,” he said, “that a publication dedicated to the exploration of First Amendment issues is subjected to censorship when it seeks to publish an article about threats to free speech.” In internal communications, the bar association’s leadership, including its general counsel’s office and public relations staff, did not appear to dispute the report’s conclusions. But James Dimos, the association’s deputy executive director, objected to the term “libel bully” and other sharp language in the report, saying in an Oct. 19 email that the changes were needed to address “the legitimately held views of ABA staff who are charged with managing the reputational and financial risk to the association.”
benton.org/headlines/fearing-trump-bar-association-stifles-report-calling-him-libel-bully | New York Times
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SECURITY/PRIVACY
SEN WARNER: FCC SHOULD CLARIFY ISP POWER TO COMBAT HACKS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Sen Mark Warner (D-VA) has written the Federal Communications Commission and other agencies asking what tools there are and what tools there need to be to combat crippling cyber attacks, and in the case of the FCC, how the Open Internet rules affect what Internet service providers (ISPs) can do about them. Sen Warner, a former wireless net executive, is co-chair and co-founder of the bipartisan Senate Cybersecurity Caucus. Among the answers he wants is what network management practices ISPs can use to respond to those threats and whether the FCC's Open Internet order's suggestion that ISPs could only take steps to address “traffic that constitutes a denial-of-service attack on specific network infrastructure elements” applied to a recent hack and warranted a response from ISPs. In his letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Sen Warner signaled the FCC needed to clarify what ISPs could do and when. "Under the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) Open Internet rules, ISPs cannot prohibit the attachment of 'non-harmful devices' to their networks," he wrote. "It seems entirely reasonable to conclude under the present circumstances, however, that devices with certain insecure attributes could be deemed harmful to the 'network'—whether the ISP’s own network or the networks to which it is connected. While remaining vigilant to ensure that such prohibitions do not serve as a pretext for anticompetitive or exclusionary behavior, I would encourage regulators to provide greater clarity to internet service providers in this area."
benton.org/headlines/sen-warner-fcc-should-clarify-isp-power-combat-hacks | Broadcasting&Cable
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HOW TO CHALLENGE PRIVACY RULES
[SOURCE: Morning Consult, AUTHOR: Amir Nasr]
The Federal Communications Commission is expected to pass privacy rules. Once approved, the rules would require explicit consent from customers before companies can use many forms of data for marketing purposes. The agency is permitted to regulate internet service providers as it does phone companies as a result of a 2015 network neutrality rule that reclassified ISPs as common carriers. While the net neutrality rule gives the regulator solid legal standing to issue rules for ISPs, industry giants such as AT&T have argued that the privacy rules still might not align with the FCC’s authority to regulate privacy under the 1996 Telecommunications Act. If broadband providers decide to sue, that argument will likely be the one that they use, an industry source said. The law prohibits phone carries from using a customer’s “proprietary” information, which includes the location, time, date, duration of phone calls, the type of network a consumer subscribes to, as well as any other information that a provider could obtain from a customer’s phone bill. In a regulatory filing with the FCC, AT&T argued data such as web browsing and app usage can’t be proprietary if other web entities have access to it.
benton.org/headlines/how-broadband-industry-could-challenge-fccs-privacy-rules | Morning Consult
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SURVEILLANCE
ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Spencer Hsu, Rachel Weiner]
Secret law enforcement requests to conduct electronic surveillance in domestic criminal cases have surged in federal courts for Northern Virginia and the District, but only one in a thousand of the applications ever becomes public, newly released data show. The bare-bones release by the courts leaves unanswered how long, in what ways and for what crimes federal investigators tracked individuals’ data and whether long-running investigations result in charges. Yet the listings of how often law enforcement applied to judges to conduct covert electronic surveillance — a list that itself is usually sealed — underscore the exponential growth in the use of a 1986 law to collect data about users’ telephone, email and other Internet communications.
benton.org/headlines/us-courts-electronic-surveillance-500-percent-dc-area-2011-almost-all-sealed-cases | Washington Post
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AT&T’S PROJECT HEMISPHERE
[SOURCE: Daily Beast, AUTHOR: Kenneth Lipp]
Project Hemisphere is a secretive program run by AT&T that searches trillions of call records and analyzes cellular data to determine where a target is located, with whom he speaks, and potentially why. In 2013, Hemisphere was revealed by The New York Times and described only within a Powerpoint presentation made by the Drug Enforcement Administration. The Times described it as a “partnership” between AT&T and the US government; the Justice Department said it was an essential, and prudently deployed, counter-narcotics tool. However, AT&T’s own documentation shows Hemisphere was used far beyond the war on drugs to include everything from investigations of homicide to Medicaid fraud. Hemisphere isn’t a “partnership” but rather a product AT&T developed, marketed, and sold at a cost of millions of dollars per year to taxpayers. No warrant is required to make use of the company’s massive trove of data, according to AT&T documents, only a promise from law enforcement to not disclose Hemisphere if an investigation using it becomes public.
benton.org/headlines/att-spying-americans-profit | Daily Beast
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
TELL YOUR STORY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Alison Kutler]
A core component of the Federal Communications Commission’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau’s mission is to empower consumers in the telecommunications marketplace. True empowerment requires that consumers be active participants in the FCC’s processes. That is why, in January 2015, the FCC launched the Consumer Help Center. Through the Help Center, the FCC not only modernized and revitalized the consumer complaint intake process, these improvements also introduced new resources for educating consumers and sharing complaint data. Since the Help Center’s launch, we have made concerted efforts to continue to improve the quality of visitors’ experience, increase transparency around the complaint data we collect, and develop new ways to engage consumers. Our latest enhancements to the Consumer Help Center is the “Tell Your Story” feature that gives consumers a new way to share with us their concerns and observations about a provider, a policy, or an issue affecting them or their communities generally. The redesigned Help Center webpage also provides easier access to all of the FCC’s consumer guides as well as the latest updates to consumer-related information on FCC.gov. When you “Tell Your Story,” your comments will not be formally served on your provider as is our practice with complaints about service and billing. Instead, they will be used by Commission staff to inform policy making and identify practices that may be ripe for potential enforcement action. This differentiation will better allow the agency to focus its complaint resolution resources on those types of issues while maintaining and enhancing consumers’ ability to give voice to other concerns and thoughts.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-furthers-consumer-engagement-efforts-consumer-help-center-enhancements | Federal Communications Commission
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POLICYMAKERS
TOM WHEELER
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
As Tom Wheeler enters his last few months as head of the Federal Communications Commission during the Obama Administration — the next President is expected to name a new chairman — he has turned early supporters into foes and invited an expensive lobbying battle that may stymie a last-ditch pursuit of regulations that starts on Oct 27, including voting on a proposal for broadband privacy protections. Wheeler’s last act as chairman could be overseeing the review of AT&T’s $85 billion bid for Time Warner, a mega-media deal that has already elicited protests from some politicians and consumer advocacy groups. AT&T and Time Warner will most likely try to avoid an FCC review by selling off the small number of broadcast television assets owned by Time Warner. Yet some say that even if Chairman Wheeler does not directly review the deal, his regulations have created new restrictions for AT&T and other broadband companies at a time when they are trying to find new growth beyond their internet businesses.
benton.org/headlines/one-last-growl-fccs-sharp-toothed-watchdog-tom-wheeler | New York Times
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WHAT'S NEXT FOR FCC COMMISSIONER MIGNON CLYBURN?
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Alex Byers]
Federal Communications Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s summer pursuits are fueling speculation about whether she's eyeing an eventual run for her father's seat in Congress. Her just-completed cross-country tour and policy conference in DC have the trappings of someone looking to set the stage for a bigger role, and many expect that her 7-year stint at the FCC is nearing its end. Rep Jim Clyburn (D-SC) has shown little sign he's getting ready to step down. But key South Carolina Democrats who know Commissioner Mignon say the congressional role is squarely on her radar -- and state Democratic powerbroker Dick Harpootlian says she would immediately be the front-runner. DC folks in her orbit, however, are less convinced she will go the Capitol Hill route -- and they have their own thoughts on what she might pursue after the FCC.
benton.org/headlines/whats-next-fcc-commissioner-mignon-clyburn | Politico
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COMPANY NEWS
GOOGLE FIBER CURBS EXPANSION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Daisuke Wakabayashi]
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is signaling a strategy shift for one of its most ambitious and costly efforts: bringing blazing-fast web connections to homes across America. The company is curbing the expansion of its high-speed fiber optic internet network and reducing staff in the unit responsible for the work. Alphabet did not provide an exact number for the jobs that will be cut. Craig Barratt, chief executive of Access, the Alphabet division containing Google Fiber, also said he planned to step down because the company was shifting to new technologies and methods of deploying high-speed internet. No replacement was announced. Barratt, an Alphabet senior vice president, said he would remain an adviser to the company. The company’s fiber optic internet and television are currently available in eight metro areas, including Kansas City, Atlanta, Nashville and Salt Lake City.
benton.org/headlines/google-curbs-expansion-fiber-optic-network-cutting-jobs | New York Times | Google Fiber | WSJ | FT | Recode
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