BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2017
Next week's events https://www.benton.org/calendar/2017-02-12--P1W
COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY
Conway may have broken key ethics rule by touting Ivanka Trump’s products, experts say
Rep Cummings calls for ethics review of Conway promoting Ivanka’s brand [links to Hill, The]
Trump Shifts White House Media Attack To Brand, Uses @POTUS To Slam Nordstrom [links to MediaPost]
Here’s how to cover President Trump’s tweets [links to Poynter]
Why no one wants to be the Trump White House communications director - WaPo [links to Benton summary]
It’s not impossible that Trump orchestrated the whole Gorsuch leak episode - WaPo [links to Benton summary]
Trump’s attacks on judges and courts test strength of measures to check power of the president [links to Financial Times]
Gorsuch’s criticism of President Trump may be winning him Democratic support [links to Washington Post]
Neil Gorsuch’s Criticism Wasn’t Aimed at President Trump, Aides Say in Reversal [links to New York Times]
Interest in ‘fascism’ surges in the Trump era [links to Washington Post]
PR flacks may be the media’s secret weapon against Trump [links to Columia Journalism Review]
Jefferson vs. Orwell on the fake news problem [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
‘Fake news’ has now lost all meaning - WaPo analysis [links to Benton summary]
CNN's Chris Cuomo: 'Fake news' label 'the equivalent of the N-word for journalists' [links to Hill, The]
CNN’s Chris Cuomo apologizes for comparing ‘fake news’ insult to ‘the n-word’ [links to Politico]
Spicer: Equating WH briefings to Trump tweets 'silliest thing I've ever heard' [links to Hill, The]
Is Trump's Press Secretary A Joke? Late-Night TV Thinks So [links to MediaPost]
It Took CNN Just Seconds To Debunk Donald Trump’s Latest False Claim [links to Huffington Post]
Commentary: Fox News cements its standing as Trump TV [links to Washington Post]
Fox News host Tucker Carlson: at least Steve Bannon isn’t ISIS [links to Vox]
How online resources are fueling the Trump resistance [links to CNN]
INTERNET/BROADBAND/TELECOM
Defending the Indefensible: Chairman Pai’s Lifeline Reversal Will Widen the Digital Divide -- Gigi Sohn
Lifeline Providers Contest Order Revoking Lifeline Broadband Provider ETC Status
Navajo Nation Expresses Concern With Timeframe for Subscribers to Provide Lifeline Documentation - press release
Cities and broadband, next administration edition - Blair Levin
“Broadband death star bill” blown up by municipal Internet advocates
Angie Communications Wants to Finish What Google Fiber Started And More With Ambitious Gigabit Plan [links to Benton summary]
Net Neutrality Is FCC's Third Busiest Docket [links to Benton summary]
The strange case of prison phone calls
FCC REFORM/TELECOM ACT
Is This What Transparency Looks Like? - analysis
The FCC’s New Life of Pai - editorial
Statement of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Announcing Process Reform Measure on "Editorial Privileges" - press release
A law for the next 21 years - The Hill op-ed [links to Benton summary]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
FBI’s Top Lawyer Urges Congressional Action on Encryption [links to Benton summary]
Newly discovered flaw undermines HTTPS connections for almost 1,000 sites [links to Ars Technica]
How to stop data collection on your smart television [links to Washington Post]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
FCC Commissioner O'Rielly Letter to House on Agency Spectrum Fees - press release [links to Benton summary]
FCC Finalizes Catalog of Reimbursement Expenses for Broadcasters - public notice [links to Benton summary]
Sinclair to Walk Away From Spectrum Auction With $313 Million [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
TELEVISION
Sen McCaskill Pushes Chairman Pai for Action on Cable Contracts [links to Benton summary]
JOURNALISM
How Americans Encounter, Recall and Act Upon Digital News - Pew research
OWNERSHIP
Meet the rightwing power players lurking beneath Silicon Valley's liberal façade
AT&T execs stuck in middle of Trump-CNN feud [links to Benton summary]
Thomas Lenard: What will US antitrust policy look like under Trump? [links to Hill, The]
LABOR
AT&T Union Votes to Strike, Invoking Trump Jobs Pledge [links to Bloomberg]
CONTENT
This 100-Year-Old Dutch Movement Shaped Web Design Today [links to Medium]
CHILDREN & MEDIA
Rethinking Children's Advertising Policies for the Digital Age - research
DIVERSITY
Being black in tech can cost you $10k a year [links to USAToday]
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
CBO Scores Securing Access to Networks in Disasters Act of 2017 - CBO research [links to Benton summary]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
President Trump Forces Cable News To Use Government Feed To Cover Sessions' Swearing-In [links to Media Matters for America]
GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE
Dan Farber: Courts should kill Trump's pricey '2-for-1' deregulation order [links to Hill, The]
CenturyLink to Protect FCC Online Complaints [links to Benton summary]
POLICYMAKERS
Free Press: We Will Fight Jeff Sessions Every Step of the Way [links to Free Press]
AGENDA
Senate to hold FCC oversight hearing March 8
Sen Hatch meets with major tech firms, will release ‘innovation agenda’ [links to Hill, The]
COMPANY NEWS
Twitter only grew by two million users during Trump mania — Facebook grew by 72 million [links to Vox]
Even Trump isn't enough to fix Twitter's problems [links to CNN]
Straight Path gets new financing to help pay off initial FCC obligations [links to Fierce]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Concerns Loom Over a Data-Sharing Pact to Protect Privacy of Europeans [links to Wall Street Journal]
UK sets timetable for launch of 5G networks [links to Financial Times]
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COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY
CONWAY MAY HAVE BROKEN KEY ETHICS RULE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Drew Harwell, Tom Hamburger, Rosalind Helderman]
Presidential Advisor Kellyanne Conway may have broken a key ethics rule when she told TV audiences to “go buy Ivanka’s stuff.” Federal law bans employees from using their public office to endorse products. Conway, speaking to “Fox & Friends” viewers from the White House briefing room, was responding to boycotts of Ivanka Trump merchandise and Nordstrom’s discontinuation of stocking her clothing and shoe lines, which the retailer said was in response to low sales and which the President assailed as unfair. “I’m going to give it a free commercial here,” Conway said of the president’s daughter’s merchandise brand. “Go buy it today.” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that Conway “has been counseled,” but offered no other comment.
benton.org/headlines/conway-may-have-broken-key-ethics-rule-touting-ivanka-trumps-products-experts-say | Washington Post | Los Angeles Times | The Hill | The Hill
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Gigi Sohn]
[Commentary] To my great surprise and delight, the recent move by the Federal Communications Commission's new majority to revoke the designations of nine companies as Lifeline providers has provoked a firestorm in the press, on social media, and on the Hill. The furor has been so intense that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai felt moved to defend the decision on Medium this week. But the Chairman doth protest too much. His thin arguments fail to mask two clear truths:
1) His actions will make the market for Lifeline broadband services less competitive, limiting choice and keeping prices high. As a result, fewer low income Americans will be able to afford broadband; and
2) He, and fellow FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, fundamentally disagree with the structure and goals of the Lifeline program and will seek to undermine it in word and deed.
[Gigi Sohn is an internationally-known communications attorney and former Counselor to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Currently, she is an Open Society Foundations Leadership in Government Fellow. In the coming months, Ms Sohn will be writing articles for The Digital Beat examining the importance of open, democratic, accessible, and affordable communications networks.]
benton.org/headlines/defending-indefensible-chairman-pais-lifeline-reversal-will-widen-digital-divide | Benton Foundation
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LIFELINE PROVIDERS CONTEST REVERSAL
[SOURCE: NECA, AUTHOR: ]
FreedomPop met with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s Senior Counsel on February 3, 2017, to contest the order revoking all previously-granted Lifeline broadband provider designations, including the one granted to FreedomPop. FreedomPop asserted the order is flawed and that, at minimum, this matter deserved further consideration so the FCC could provide a transparent and timely path forward for willing service providers looking to bring innovative and competitive broadband services to eligible Lifeline consumers. Boomerang Wireless and KonaTel also met with Chairman Pai’s Counsel and expressed the same concerns regarding revocation of their designations.
benton.org/headlines/lifeline-providers-contest-order-revoking-lifeline-broadband-provider-etc-status | NECA
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NAVAJO NATION EXPRESSES CONCERN
[SOURCE: NECA, AUTHOR: ]
The Navajo Nation sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai on February 3, 2017 to express concern with the recent Universal Service Administrative Company decision to require Navajo Nation Lifeline subscribers to provide documents verifying their identity within 45 days. The Navajo Nation said many subscribers live in remote areas with no mail service, and asked the FCC to direct USAC to work with the carriers and the Navajo Nation Telecommunications Regulatory Commission to resolve the issue in a way that will not jeopardize subscribers’ safety.
benton.org/headlines/navajo-nation-expresses-concern-timeframe-subscribers-provide-lifeline-documentation | NECA
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CITIES AND BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Brookings, AUTHOR: Blair Levin]
[Commentary] The federal government has often played a major role in the country’s infrastructure development. With a President who promised federal support for improving infrastructure, we will soon see how the new administration proposes to do so. Based on their approaches to markets broadly, the new administration’s broadband policies are likely to lead to significant deregulation, tax changes, and merger activity that will affect the private sector’s appetite for infrastructure-related investment. Still, infrastructure deployment is largely dependent on the efforts and policies of cities. In the early part of the last century, cities were the gravitational center for efforts to create the electrical, water, sewer, transportation, and lighting infrastructure required for economic growth and social progress in that time. Subsequently, while telephone service was largely addressed at the state and federal level, cities dealt with the deployment of cable networks and the cellular towers. In the last decade cities have been at the cutting edge of creating a more hospitable environment for deploying gigabit capable networks.
[is the third in a trilogy of blogs discussing the state of broadband policy as a new administration and Congress begins.]
benton.org/headlines/cities-and-broadband-next-administration-edition | Brookings
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BROADBAND DEATH STAR BILL BLOWN UP
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
The "Virginia Broadband Deployment Act" that would have made it far more difficult for municipalities to offer Internet service has been dramatically watered down after running into heavy opposition. Instead of preventing cities and towns from offering broadband, a new version of the bill passed by the Virginia House this week merely imposes new record-keeping requirements. The original bill favored by cable lobbyists (and called the "Broadband death star bill" by one opponent) would have prohibited municipal broadband deployments except in very limited circumstances. If it had passed, localities wouldn't have been allowed to offer Internet service if an existing network already provided 10Mbps download and 1Mbps upload speeds to 90 percent of potential customers. The bill also would have made it difficult for localities to offer lower rates than private ISPs. Gov Terry McAuliffe (D-VA) in Jan promised to veto the bill if it was passed by the state legislature. The proposal also drew opposition from local governments, broadband advocacy groups, and companies such as Google and Netflix. The opposition was successful, as House Republicans replaced the bill with another called the "Virginia Wireless Services Act" and approved it Tuesday by a 72-24 vote. It has now gone to the Senate for consideration.
benton.org/headlines/broadband-death-star-bill-blown-municipal-internet-advocates | Ars Technica
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PRISON PHONE CALLS
[SOURCE: American Public Media, AUTHOR: Tony Wagner]
The prison phone industry is strange. Calls from inside state and federal prisons are run by a handful of companies, like Pay Tel Communications, ICSolutions and GTL (formerly Global Tel*Link). Those corporations win monopolies within prisons by offering a portion of their revenue to the state. These commissions can run above 90 percent in some places. This system can stick the actual customers — that is, the incarcerated and their families — with huge bills. A 15-minute local call could cost up to $25. A week can add up to around $1,000 a year. Studies have shown prisoners who communicate with loved ones are less likely to commit more crimes after they get out, but the push and pull between security and rehabilitation further complicates the economic relationship between prison, inmate and phone company. Automated security systems drop calls frequently, and users need to pay a new surcharge to get connected. That's lead to investigations and sketchy charges around the country. The Federal Communications Commission voted on new rules to cap charges in 2015, bringing the cost of a 15-minute call down to about $1.65 in most places. The phone companies sued, giving way to a lengthy legal battle and a stay on the cap. So inmates and families are still paying high prices as a federal appeals court tries to sort out arguments from phone companies, states, inmate advocates and, until last week, the FCC.
benton.org/headlines/strange-case-prison-phone-calls | American Public Media
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FCC REFORM/TELECOM ACT
IS THIS WHAT TRANSPARENCY LOOKS LIKE?
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Robbie McBeath]
[Commentary] On February 2, new Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said, "I want this Commission to be as open and accessible as possible to the American people. I want us to do a better job of communicating with those we are here to serve" while announcing a new effort to make the agency more transparent. [We covered the news.] The next day, in what some call a “Friday News Dump,” Chairman Pai decided to rescind and hide facts previously released by the Commission. Cecilia Kang wrote in the New York Times, “In total, as the chairman of the FCC, Pai released about a dozen actions in the last week, many buried in the agency’s website and not publicly announced, stunning consumer advocacy groups and telecom analysts.”
https://www.benton.org/blog/what-transparency-looks
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THE FCC’S NEW LIFE OF PAI
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Senate Democrats found time for a press conference haranguing Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai for the high sin of opposing “net neutrality,” which is their euphemism for government regulation of the internet. Less noticed is that Chairman Pai is restoring bipartisanship and political accountability to an agency that desperately needs it. Most headlines on the FCC have accused Chairman Pai of confiscating phones from poor people in a program called Lifeline. The reality is that the commission is reconsidering marginal changes to the program that the Obama Administration tried to ram through on its way out the door. Pai’s alleged net neutrality violation is closing an investigation on telecoms that offer free data plans, which are popular with consumers. The Obama Administration ran the FCC as an extension of the White House, even ordering the agency in a YouTube video to classify the internet as a public utility. For all the invented panic over Republican rule in Washington, note that Chairman Pai is divesting himself of authority and making the agency more responsive to the consumers who pay his salary.
benton.org/headlines/fccs-new-life-pai | Wall Street Journal
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EDITORIAL PRIVILEGES
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai]
Each month, the Federal Communications Commission holds a monthly meeting at which Commissioners vote on proposals and orders drafted by the agency’s various Bureaus and Offices. Routinely after each vote in which an item is adopted, the Commission votes to grant the staff of the relevant Bureaus and Offices “editorial privileges”—that is, the power to make changes to the documents that the Commissioners have just voted upon. Two years ago, Commissioner O’Rielly began raising concerns about the process of granting editorial privileges. Specifically, he has suggested that such privileges currently are too broad, insofar as they extend to substantive edits. Filling in a citation in a document is one thing; changing the meaning of that document is another. I believe that Commissioner O’Rielly’s view has merit. Accordingly, we are going to make changes to the process. Specifically, beginning at this month’s FCC meeting on February 23, editorial privileges granted to Bureaus and Offices will extend only to technical and conforming edits to items. Any substantive changes made to items following a meeting must be proposed by a Commissioner. Moreover, substantive changes to items should only be made in cases in which they are required, pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, as a response to new arguments made in a Commissioner’s dissenting statement. I thank Commissioner O’Rielly for his hard work on the issue of process reform and look forward to implementing more of his suggestions going forward.
benton.org/headlines/statement-fcc-chairman-ajit-pai-announcing-process-reform-measure-editorial-privileges | Federal Communications Commission | O'Rielly Statement | B&C
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JOURNALISM
HOW AMERICANS RECALL DIGITAL NEWS
[SOURCE: Pew Journalism and Media, AUTHOR: Amy Mitchell, Jeffrey Gottfried, Elisa Shearer, Kristine Lu]
Anyone who wants to understand today’s news environment faces a challenge: How to discern the nuances of digital news habits when Americans’ attention spans are fractured, human memory is naturally limited and news comes at them every which way. To tackle this complex question, Pew Research Center, in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, took on the unusual task of staying in touch with more than 2,000 U.S. adults who get at least some news online over the course of a week. The study also sheds light on whether people are actually aware of the sources of news they consume – a question all the more relevant in light of the prevalence of fabricated news stories during the final weeks of the 2016 election. It reveals that when consumers click on a link to get to news, they can often recall the news source’s name. Individuals who said they followed a link to a news story were asked if they could write down the name of the news outlet they landed on. On average, they provided a name 56% of the time. But they were far more able to do so when that link came directly from a news organization – such as through an email or text alert from the news organization itself – than when it came from social media or an email or text from a friend. It was also the case that 10% of consumers, when asked to name the source of the news, wrote in “Facebook” as a specific news outlet.
benton.org/headlines/how-americans-encounter-recall-and-act-upon-digital-news | Pew Journalism and Media | CJR
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OWNERSHIP
RIGHTWING SILICON VALLEY
[SOURCE: The Guardian, AUTHOR: Julia Carrie Wong]
The tech industry has long had a substantial rightwing streak. And outside of the spotlight, a cadre of powerful and well-connected industry figures with ties to Peter Thiel and some of tech’s most prominent companies are embedding themselves in the Trump administration. Thiel’s unusual support for Trump’s candidacy made him seem like the loneliest man in Silicon Valley during the 2016 campaign, but like any industry that accumulates massive amounts of capital in the hands of a select few, tech has its fair share of old-school Republicans. But none of them embraced Trump’s brand of conservatism the way Thiel did, and now the idiosyncratic billionaire is poised to exert significant influence on the government.
benton.org/headlines/meet-rightwing-power-players-lurking-beneath-silicon-valleys-liberal-facade | Guardian, The
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CHILDREN & MEDIA
CHILDREN’S ADVERTISING POLICIES
[SOURCE: Georgetown University, AUTHOR: Angela Campbell]
This article describes major changes in how video content and advertising is delivered to consumers. Digital technologies such as broadband allow consumers to stream or download programming. Smart phones and tablets allow consumers to view screen content virtually anywhere at any time. Advertising has become personalized and integrated with other content. Despite these major changes in the media markets, the framework for regulating advertising to children has not changed very much since the 1990s. This article argues that the existing regulatory framework must be reinvented to protect children in the digital age. It uses Google’s recently introduced YouTube Kids app (“YTK”), which is designed for use by children aged 5 and under, to illustrate a range of unfair or deceptive marketing practices – such as unboxing videos, brand channels, and influencer videos. Many of the videos available on the YTK app, would violate the FCC’s children’s television rules if they were shown on broadcast or cable television. The article describes the relative roles and effectiveness of the FCC and FTC in preventing advertising that takes advantage of children, who because their cognitive abilities are still developing, do not distinguish advertising from other content or understand the purpose of advertising. It identifies the traditional rationales for limiting advertising to children and finds that the same or greater concerns exist today. Finally, it discusses the prospects for updating protections for children in the digital age.
benton.org/headlines/rethinking-childrens-advertising-policies-digital-age | Georgetown University
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AGENDA
SENATE TO HOLD FCC OVERSIGHT HEARING MARCH 8
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Harper Neidig]
The Senate Commerce Committee announced that it will hold the next oversight hearing for the Federal Communications Commission on March 8. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) used the announcement to praise FCC Chairman Ajit Pai for steering the commission in a more conservative direction since he took over in January. “Under Chairman Pai’s leadership, the FCC has the opportunity to chart a path away from heavy-handed intervention in competitive markets and work collaboratively with Congress to create a modern regulatory agency that better meets the needs of consumers,” Chairman Thune said. "The FCC has already taken steps towards increased transparency under Chairman Pai and I would like to see that continue. At our hearing, committee members will have a forum to ask the commissioners about issues facing the FCC that impact Americans.”
benton.org/headlines/senate-hold-fcc-oversight-hearing-march-8 | Hill, The | Hearing Details
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