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May 2017

Why a Dedicated High Speed Broadband Network to Connect the Unconnected is a Game Changer

[Commentary] Recently, DigitalC launched the Connect the Unconnected program. Here I offer details on the technical design, the solution architecture, and our hopes for America's first, dedicated gigabit network designed specifically to support the unserved and underserved members of our community. The Connect the Unconnected network aspires to connect the 50% of Cleveland residents with no wired broadband access. Designing and launching a reference architecture for a dedicated high speed broadband network and all the attendant wrap around services and support is my definition of civic technology. Connect the Unconnected is about making a small contribution to a simple idea. When history is written, our ability to extend access to the digital economy and all of its opportunities is the surest way to bet on a future of prosperity for all of us. Connecting the Unconnected is the promise of supporting those unserved and underserved to restart their dreams and hopes for a better tomorrow.

[Gonickis is Chief Executive of DigitalC, a civic tech collaboration that partners with the community to design technology-driven programs and services]

Georgetown Law’s New Institute for Technology Law & Policy Announces Appointment of Gigi Sohn as Distinguished Fellow

Georgetown Law’s Institute for Technology Law & Policy today announced the appointment of Gigi Sohn as a Distinguished Fellow. A renowned public interest lawyer who has worked in communications and technology policy for nearly 30 years, Sohn recently concluded three years of service as counselor to then-Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Tom Wheeler. During that time, Sohn played a central role as the agency formulated and adopted key policies relating to net neutrality, broadband privacy, broadband access and other matters. Sohn’s work at Georgetown Law’s Tech Institute will focus on the vital role of open, democratic, accessible and affordable communications networks, media and technology. During her appointment, Sohn will publish articles, convene public events and contribute to Georgetown’s academic community.

Kids can handle the truth

[Commentary] On May 13, The New York Times ran a special kid-focused news section that included a full page of “truths” about children. What a shame that the editors didn’t believe in their own statement. They would have given kids the news insights they deserved, rather than a condescending Fun Pages. There was no actual news in the section, nor any age-appropriate analysis of serious events in the world. Young people certainly worry about these things, having seen and heard about them in adult print, television and digital spaces. To be sure, the features were fun and interesting, especially a series of pieces on professions dubbed “How I Became a…” It was, however, disrespectful and showed a lack of trust in young people to give them chocolate pizza recipes and not cover an administration trying to return junk food to schools; or to suggest that they illustrate newspaper photos, but also show them kids their age living in refugee camps. With commitment and collaboration, we all can create balanced and nutritious feasts—not just chocolate pizza.

National Digital Inclusion Alliance Names the NTIA’s Emy Tseng the 2017 Charles Benton Digital Equity Champion

Submitted by benton on Wed, 05/17/2017 - 11:00

CONTACT:
Angela Siefer
National Digital Inclusion Alliance
614-537-3057

National Digital Inclusion Alliance Names the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s
Emy Tseng the 2017 Charles Benton Digital Equity Champion

May 17, 2017 (Obstructing Justice)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2017

Today’s busy calendar https://www.benton.org/calendar/2017-05-17

White House Turmoil Puts the GOP Agenda at Risk


COMMUNICATIONS AND DEMOCRACY
   Comey Memo Says President Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation
   Legal analysts: President Trump might have obstructed justice, if Comey’s allegation is true [links to Washington Post]
   U.S. lawmakers respond to reports that Trump asked Comey to end Flynn inquiry [links to Los Angeles Times]
   Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press rips President Trump for suggesting Comey jail reporters [links to Hill, The]
   House Oversight Committee Chairman Chaffetz ready to issue subpoena for Comey memo [links to Hill, The]
   White House Fights a Familiar Enemy: The Press
   US officials urged news outlets to limit reporting on intel discussed by President Trump [links to Hill, The]
   When the government asks a newspaper not to publish [links to Washington Post]
   White House offers shifting explanations of Trump’s disclosures to Russians [links to Washington Post]
   Can a president share classified information? [links to Washington Post]
   It’s become a familiar scenario in the crisis-prone Trump White House, where big news breaks fast and the aides paid to respond seem perpetually caught off-guard. [links to Associated Press]
   Gingrich urges President Trump to shut down White House press room [links to Politico]
   Who Needs the Daily Press Briefing? - Joshua Spivak op-ed [links to Benton summary]
   When Trump signs bills into law, he objects to scores of provisions. Here’s what that means. - op-ed

NET NEUTRALITY
   FCC's Clyburn: Only Silence Will Kill Net Neutrality
   Net Neutrality, Reclassification and Investment: A Further Analysis - research
   The FCC Gets Set to Free Wireless - Robert McDowell op-ed
   FCC Seeks Paperwork Reduction Comments Concerning Formal Complaint Procedures, Preserving the Open Internet and Broadband Industry Practices [links to Federal Communications Commission]
   Net neutrality 2.0: Perspectives on FCC regulation of internet service providers - Stuart Brotman analysis [links to Benton summary]
   Net Neutrality Starter Pack: 5 Essential Things to Know [links to Wrap, The]

MORE INTERNET/BROADBAND
   RUS Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program Applications Due July 17 [links to Department of Agriculture]

SECURITY
   NSA officials worried about the day its potent hacking tool would get loose. Then it did. [links to Washington Post]
   Malware Case Is Major Blow for the NSA [links to New York Times]

JOURNALISM
   Paying for news: Why people subscribe and what it says about the future of journalism [links to American Press Institute]
   What Nonprofit Newsrooms Can Teach Charities About Attracting Online Supporters [links to Chronicle of Philanthropy]
   What toppled Bill O’Reilly? [links to Columbia Journalism Review]

OWNERSHIP
   As Sinclair-Tribune megamerger looms, groups ask FCC to block return of UHF discount
   House Dems call for hearing on Sinclair-Tribune deal [links to Hill, The]
   Filter Failure: What's the news that's getting buried by the news? [links to Benton summary]

PRIVACY
   Protecting Privacy in a Postsecondary Student Data System [links to New America]
   Personal data is collected on kids at school all the time. Here’s help for parents to protect children’s privacy. [links to Washington Post]

ADVERTISING
   Counting television viewers outside their homes [links to American Public Media]

ECONOMY
   The tech sector is leaving the rest of the US economy in its dust [links to Verge, The]
   You could be paying more sales tax online if states get their way [links to American Public Media]

GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE
   FCC Seeks Paperwork Reduction Comments Concerning Formal Complaint Procedures, Preserving the Open Internet and Broadband Industry Practices [links to Federal Communications Commission]
   FCC Seeks Paperwork Reduction Comments Concerning Local Telephone Competition and Broadband Reporting [links to Federal Communications Commission]
   FCC Seeks Paperwork Reduction Comments Concerning Telecommunications Carriers Eligible for Universal Service Support [links to Federal Communications Commission]

POLICYMAKERS
   FCC Announces the Membership of Two Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee Working Groups: Competitive Access to Broadband Infrastructure and Removing State and Local Regulatory Barriers - public notice [links to Benton summary]
   White House counselor Kellyanne Conway: The notion that I am serving for ‘the money’ or a ‘paycheck’ is absurd [links to Hill, The]

COMPANY NEWS
   As Fox Pitches Sports to Advertisers, Specter of News Scandal Lingers [links to New York Times]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   France fines Facebook over data practices [links to Hill, The]

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COMMUNICATIONS AND DEMOCRACY

PRESIDENT TRUMP ASKED FBI TO END FLYNN INVESTIGATION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael Schmidt]
President Donald Trump asked FBI Director James Comey to shut down the federal investigation into Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, in an Oval Office meeting in February 2017, according to a memo Comey wrote shortly after the meeting. “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” President Trump told Comey, according to the memo. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” President Trump told Comey that Flynn had done nothing wrong, according to the memo. Comey did not say anything to Trump about curtailing the investigation, only replying: “I agree he is a good guy.” In a statement, the White House denied the version of events in the memo. The existence of Trump’s request is the clearest evidence that the President has tried to directly influence the Justice Department and FBI investigation into links between Trump’s associates and Russia. Comey wrote the memo detailing his conversation with the President immediately after the meeting, which took place the day after Flynn resigned, according to two people who read the memo. The memo was part of a paper trail Comey created documenting what he perceived as the President’s improper efforts to influence a continuing investigation. An FBI agent’s contemporaneous notes are widely held up in court as credible evidence of conversations.
benton.org/headlines/comey-memo-says-president-trump-asked-him-end-flynn-investigation | New York Times | Washington Post
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FAMILIAR ENEMY: THE PRESS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael Grynbaum]
As the White House reeled on May 16 from a chaotic 24 hours, bookended by a pair of bombshell scoops raising serious questions about President Trump’s comportment in the Oval Office, the administration and its surrogates quickly settled on a blunt message: Blame the press. Doing battle with journalists has become a frequent tactic of the Trump White House. But the conflict has been heightened this week, as aides to the president — and their supporters in the right-wing press — seek to shift focus onto questions about the use of confidential sources and the credibility of the news media, and away from concerns about Trump’s behavior.
benton.org/headlines/white-house-fights-familiar-enemy-press | New York Times
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SIGNING STATEMENTS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Kevin Evans, Bryan Marshall]
Many presidents issue signing statements. If Trump’s statement is different from his predecessors’ in any way, it’s that he’s returning to a pattern set by President George W. Bush that had been set aside by President Barack Obama. Our research into signing statements from FDR forward indicates that they serve many purposes. Signing statements are used to:
get the attention of the press and the public,
shape views about legislative accomplishments and who deserves credit,
influence the courts by offering the president’s interpretation and understanding of various provisions,
instruct and guide bureaucrats, and
highlight provisions the president feels are constitutionally problematic.
[Evans is assistant professor and director of undergraduate studies in the department of politics and international relations at Florida International University. Marshall is professor and assistant chair of the department of political science at Miami University.]
benton.org/headlines/when-trump-signs-bills-law-he-objects-scores-provisions-heres-what-means | Washington Post
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NET NEUTRALITY

ONLY SILENCE WILL KILL NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commission member Mignon Clyburn told a crowd of Title II fans that network neutrality is dead unless they make themselves heard, no matter what the vote on the upcoming Title II rollback is. Commissioner Clyburn is currently the lone Democrat under the new Republican Administration, so she cannot stop the reversal of Title II but could delay it if she does not show up for the May 18 meeting and denies the chairman the necessary quorum. That does not sound likely since she said she did not know what the FCC would be launching this week, but she would vote "in the opposite way" from the Republicans. She said net neutrality is dead if "we are silent," no matter how the vote goes. Devin Coldewey of TechCrunch asked whether public comments matter and pointed to identical pro-Title II comments that had been filed. Commissioner Clyburn said that the comments will not be officially part of the record until the FCC votes the rulemaking and said commenters should keep weighing in. She said that was the only way to defend net neutrality. Commissioner Clyburn said the FCC has the technical tools to deal with the duplicates or get rid of the comments where "there is a little something going on."
benton.org/headlines/fccs-clyburn-only-silence-will-kill-net-neutrality | Broadcasting&Cable
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A FURTHER ANALYSIS
[SOURCE: Phoenix Center, AUTHOR: George Ford]
Central to the debate over the Federal Communications Commission's reclassification of broadband as a "common carrier" telecommunications service under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 is the effect on broadband network investment. In April 2017, the Phoenix Center released its first statistical analysis of the investment question and found that between 2011 and 2015, telecommunications investment differed from expectations by between 20 percent and 30 percent, or about $30 to $40 billion annually. That is, over the interval 2011 to 2015, another $150-$200 billion in additional investment would have been made "but for" Title II reclassification. In this paper I expand my statistical analysis, restricting the analysis to investments in property and equipment (thereby excluding investment in intellectual property), altering the control group, and evaluating other modifications to the statistical model. My prior results are confirmed in this updated analysis, again finding "that investment in total fixed assets would have been about $30 billion more annually" and "[i]nvestment in equipment and property would have been $20 billion more 'but for' reclassification."
benton.org/headlines/net-neutrality-reclassification-and-investment-further-analysis | Phoenix Center
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FCC TO FREE WIRELESS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Robert McDowell]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission is launching initiatives that will shape the fate of America’s wireless industry. It started to examine competition in the market, and it will propose taking Depression-era utility regulations off mobile broadband networks while protecting an open internet. This is only the beginning. The FCC is acting on a rare opportunity to correct its recent mistakes and restore the Clinton-era light-touch regulatory framework that will drive economic growth and job creation. The FCC should begin by liberating wireless from the heavy-handed rules of a 1934 law called Title II, which was created when phones were held in two hands. This antiquated law imposes powerful economic regulations on the internet, chilling investment in broadband. The FCC will propose to unshackle the net from this millstone of a law. This would restore the bipartisan light-touch policies that nurtured the burgeoning internet Americans enjoy today. The FCC can take a few other discrete steps. It would accelerate the mobile revolution if it streamlined rules that slow the construction of wireless infrastructure—and deprive consumers of the benefits of next-gen technologies. The agency should also update rules that dictate how much of a particular radio frequency a carrier can own in a market. America’s brilliant wireless engineers are inventing new ways to turn yesterday’s junk frequencies into tomorrow’s gold, rendering current regulations obsolete.
[Robert McDowell is a partner at Cooley LLP and chief public policy adviser to Mobile Future; he served as a FCC Commissioner 2006-13.]
benton.org/headlines/fcc-gets-set-free-wireless | Wall Street Journal
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OWNERSHIP

UHF DISCOUNT
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Ben Munson]
With the prospect of the Sinclair-Tribune megamerger on the horizon, groups are urging the Federal Communications Commission to block the return of the UHF discount in order to slow broadcast industry consolidation. In a joint filing to the FCC, Free Press, United Church of Christ, Prometheus Radio Project, Media Mobilizing Project, Media Alliance, National Hispanic Media Coalition and Common Cause requested a stay of the reinstatement of the UHF discount, which would allow broadcasters to once again count UHF stations as 50 percent toward the national broadcast ownership cap. The groups argued that the technical logic for the UHF discount is no longer valid. “It is arbitrary and capricious to adopt a provision that lacks any independent technical or policy support, and which contravenes the statutory limit on national television ownership,” the groups wrote in the filing. The groups also argued that news of the reinstatement is effectively triggering a new wave of broadcast industry mergers and acquisitions and allowing deals like Sinclair’s $3.9 billion bid for Tribune to move forward. The groups also said that a stay will benefit the public interest by maintaining more diversity in broadcasting. “Maintaining a diversity of voices goes to the heart of the Commission’s mission to promote competition and diversity, and all Americans will benefit from the grant of a stay,” the groups wrote.
benton.org/headlines/sinclair-tribune-megamerger-looms-groups-ask-fcc-block-return-uhf-discount | Fierce
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White House Fights a Familiar Enemy: The Press

As the White House reeled on May 16 from a chaotic 24 hours, bookended by a pair of bombshell scoops raising serious questions about President Trump’s comportment in the Oval Office, the administration and its surrogates quickly settled on a blunt message: Blame the press.

Doing battle with journalists has become a frequent tactic of the Trump White House. But the conflict has been heightened this week, as aides to the president — and their supporters in the right-wing press — seek to shift focus onto questions about the use of confidential sources and the credibility of the news media, and away from concerns about Trump’s behavior.

Who Needs the Daily Press Briefing?

[Commentary] Every new administration complains that the daily briefing is a charade that allows the media to batter the White House’s policy. Yet no matter how badly the press secretary is doing, no president has gone so far as to cancel it. The reason is that the briefing is a powerful weapon against the opposition and Congress.

Since President Donald Trump is willing to serve as his own unfiltered spokesman, giving interviews and pecking out late-night tweets, he doesn’t need the briefing to inform the world about the ever-changing presidential agenda. But the briefing still offers the White House a chance to control the political conversation and play out its chosen narrative: that unfair reporters are trying to bully an administration they don’t like. What’s in it for the press? Under President Trump the briefings have become ratings dynamite, as journalists try to one-up each other and catch the White House in any contradiction. Still, there’s no reason the media should make them such major events.

The big stories aren’t going to be broken in the briefing room, through an official statement or at a scheduled time. Instead of being stuck for an hour trying to ask a single pointed question to a harried and seemingly ill-informed spokesman, the White House press corps would be better off going out and looking for stories. For the country as a whole, ending the briefing would be a positive step. It would help break the public’s presidential obsession and free the press corps to pursue other stories. Without the distraction of a daily performance by the press secretary, Americans might learn more about what’s happening in Washington beyond the briefing room.

[Spivak is a public relations executive and a senior fellow at Wagner College’s Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform]

When Trump signs bills into law, he objects to scores of provisions. Here’s what that means.

Many presidents issue signing statements. If Trump’s statement is different from his predecessors’ in any way, it’s that he’s returning to a pattern set by President George W. Bush that had been set aside by President Barack Obama. Our research into signing statements from FDR forward indicates that they serve many purposes. Signing statements are used to:

  • get the attention of the press and the public,
  • shape views about legislative accomplishments and who deserves credit,
  • influence the courts by offering the president’s interpretation and understanding of various provisions,
  • instruct and guide bureaucrats, and
  • highlight provisions the president feels are constitutionally problematic.

[Evans is assistant professor and director of undergraduate studies in the department of politics and international relations at Florida International University. Marshall is professor and assistant chair of the department of political science at Miami University.]

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