January 2017

COMMUNICATIONS AND DEMOCRACY

TRUMP’S MEDIA WAR
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] In a democracy, the key role for citizens is to participate in public life. Voting, of course, is a key aspect of this participation, but, in a vital democracy, citizens’ participation is not limited to occasional trips to the voting booth: they are well-informed about public issues, watch carefully how their political leaders and representatives use their powers, and express their own opinions and interests. To be well-informed, many citizens must rely on journalists who can attend public events, question public officials, and report back to the general public. So important is this function in our democracy, citizens demanded protections for a free press and mass communication in the Bill of Rights. Since President Donald Trump’s Inauguration on January 20, 2017, many people are anxiously looking for clues as to how the Administration will interact with the press. Trump’s first week in office demonstrates that the relationship will be combative. Will the people be the losers in this fight?
https://www.benton.org/blog/first-causality-truth-trumps-running-war-media
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TRUMP’S UNREALITY SHOW
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Barstow]
As a businessman, Donald J. Trump was a serial fabulist whose biggest-best boasts about everything he touched routinely crumbled under the slightest scrutiny. As a candidate, Trump was a magical realist who made fantastical claims punctuated by his favorite verbal tic: “Believe me.” Yet even jaded connoisseurs of Oval Office dissembling were astonished by the torrent of bogus claims that gushed from President Trump during his first days in office. “We’ve never seen anything this bizarre in our lifetimes, where up is down and down is up and everything is in question and nothing is real,” said Charles Lewis, the founder of the Center for Public Integrity. It was not just Trump’s debunked claim about how many people attended his inauguration, or his insistence (contradicted by his own Twitter posts) that he had not feuded with the intelligence community, or his audacious and evidence-free claim that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote only because millions of people voted for her illegally. But for students of Trump’s long business career, there was much about President Trump’s truth-mangling ways that was familiar: the mystifying false statements about seemingly trivial details, the rewriting of history to airbrush unwanted facts, the branding as liars those who point out his untruths, the deft conversion of demonstrably false claims into a semantic mush of unverifiable “beliefs.” Trump’s falsehoods have long been viewed as a reflexive extension of his vanity, or as his method of compensating for deep-seated insecurities. But throughout his business career, Trump’s most noteworthy deceptions often did double duty, serving not just his ego but also important strategic goals.
benton.org/headlines/down-trumps-unreality-show-echoes-his-business-past | New York Times
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POLICYMAKERS

THE SELLING OF AJIT PAI
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Robbie McBeath]
On January 23, Ajit Pai thanked President Donald Trump for naming Pai the next Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Many believe Chairman Pai is qualified to run the agency, but there is concern in the public interest community that his appointment will mean the end of network neutrality. Conservative policy insiders, on the other hand, paint a different picture of Chairman Pai. In a Presidential transition marked by the President’s promise to “drain the swamp” and challenge the Washington establishment, some have tried to sell Washington insider Ajit Pai as something else.
benton.org/headlines/selling-ajit-pai-fcc-chairman-and-folk-hero | Benton Foundation
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

FCC REPUBLICANS VOTE TO EXTEND TRANSPARENCY WAIVER
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has circulated an order waiving the FCC's Open Internet order's enhanced transparency requirements for smaller Internet service providers for five years and upping the trigger for that waiver to 250,000 subscribers or fewer. Not only that, but he already has two votes for the item in a three-person commission, which means it has effectively been approved pending casting of the third vote. That squares with legislation that passed in the House recently, as well as what then-Commissioner Pai reportedly pushed for when then FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler had circulated an item extending the waiver but leaving the trigger at 100,000 subs for fewer. The waiver expired in December, when the enhanced transparency requirement kicked in for all ISPs.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-republicans-vote-extend-transparency-waiver | Broadcasting&Cable | Pai Statement | The Verge
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

FCC OUTLINES POST INCENTIVE AUCTION TRANSITION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission has released its procedures public notice for repacking TV stations after the broadcast incentive auction, which is currently wrapping up. According to the FCC's Media Bureau, the notice provides "detailed information, instructions, and projected deadlines for filing applications related to the post-incentive auction broadcast transition." That includes about filing for new construction permits for post-auction channels and procedures for winning bidders relinquishing their rights to spectrum—an FCC official said that fall is the soonest that winning stations that are exiting the business would be going dark. It also establishes the process by which eligible stations and pay-TV providers can seek reimbursement for transition costs. The FCC will release a separate notice on how winning auction bidders can file for their payments. The notice is only targeted to full-power and Class A stations that were eligible for the auction. The item notes: "LPTV, TV translator, and digital replacement translator stations were not eligible to participate in the incentive auction, are not protected in the repacking process, are not eligible for reimbursement, and are not included in the phased transition schedule."
benton.org/headlines/fcc-outlines-post-incentive-auction-transition | Broadcasting&Cable |
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SECURITY/PRIVACY

ISP PRIVACY PRINCIPLES
[SOURCE: NCTA – The Internet and Television Association, AUTHOR: Press release]
Trade associations representing virtually all of the leading US internet service providers (ISPs) filed a petition asking the Federal Communications Commission to stay broadband privacy rules recently adopted by the FCC, while at the same time releasing detailed and comprehensive principles reiterating ISPs’ commitment to protecting their customers’ privacy online. The stay filed by CTIA, NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, USTelecom, ACA, CTA, CCA, ITTA, NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association, WISPA, and WTA asks the FCC to halt privacy rules while it resolves multiple pending motions for their reconsideration. If granted, the combination of the ISPs’ privacy principles and applicable laws would protect consumers’ privacy without subjecting them to flawed and confusing regulations that would undermine the safe and consistent treatment of their data online. The ISP privacy principles are:
Transparency. ISPs will continue to provide their broadband customers with a clear, comprehensible, accurate, and continuously-available privacy notice that describes the customer information we collect, how we will use that information, and when we will share that information with third parties.
Consumer Choice. ISPs will continue to give broadband customers easy-to-understand privacy choices based on the sensitivity of their personal data and how it will be used or disclosed, consistent with the FTC’s privacy framework. In particular, ISPs will continue to: (i) follow the FTC’s guidance regarding opt-in consent for the use and sharing of sensitive information as defined by the FTC; (ii) offer an opt-out choice to use non-sensitive customer information for personalized third-party marketing; and (iii) rely on implied consent to use customer information in activities like service fulfillment and support, fraud prevention, market research, product development, network management and security, compliance with law, and first-party marketing. This is the same flexible choice approach used across the Internet ecosystem and is very familiar to consumers.
Data Security. ISPs will continue to take reasonable measures to protect customer information we collect from unauthorized use, disclosure, or access. Consistent with the FTC’s framework, precedent, and guidance, these measures will take into account the nature and scope of the ISP’s activities, the sensitivity of the data, the size of the ISP, and technical feasibility.
Data Breach Notifications. ISPs will continue to notify consumers of data breaches as appropriate, including complying with all applicable state data breach laws, which contain robust requirements to notify affected customers, regulators, law enforcement, and others, without unreasonable delay, when an unauthorized person acquires the customers’ sensitive personal information as defined in these laws.
benton.org/headlines/internet-companies-reaffirm-consumer-privacy-principles-fcc-reviews-flawed-wheeler-era | NCTA – The Internet and Television Association | Verizon | ATT
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TRUMP TO CALL FOR SWEEPING REVIEW OF CYBERSECURITY IN EXEC ORDER
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Joe Uchill]
President Donald Trump is preparing an executive order calling for a large-scale review of national cybersecurity “Free and secure use of cyberspace is essential to advancing US national interests. The Internet is a vital national resource. Cyberspace must be an environment that fosters efficiency, innovation communication, and economic prosperity without disruption, fraud, theft or invasion of privacy," the order reportedly reads. The White House could not confirm whether the report was authentic or whether it resembled draft or finalized executive orders currently pending. The Washington Post published a document it said was a draft of the order. According to the document, President Trump will task a team headed by the secretary of Defense — and including the heads of the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — with generating reports on the security of defense systems and critical infrastructure. They would have 60 days to complete it. The same group would assemble a report on the "principle cyber adversaries" on the same timeline, with National Intelligence taking the lead. The reported order also includes a review of operational capabilities and workforce readiness in the face of an anticipated cybersecurity skills shortage, as well as look at private sector incentive programs to encourage better security practices.
benton.org/headlines/trump-call-sweeping-review-cybersecurity-exec-order | Hill, The | Washington Post
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January 2017

Online Security Survey: Six in Ten Americans are Data Breach Victims

It’s time for journalists to stop pretending ‘objective’ means ‘mindless’

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Benton Editorial

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January 30, 2017 (The First Casualty is the Truth)

Wayne Barrett: A Muckraker Who Was Eulogized Even by His Targets

Byron Dobell, Whose Editing Helped Change Journalism

Most of Trump’s executive orders aren’t actually executive orders. Here’s why that matters.

Bannon Seizes a Security Role From Generals