May 2017

Brad Grey, Former Chairman of Paramount Pictures

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, MAY 16, 2017

Cybersecurity Framework Workshop 2017 https://www.benton.org/calendar/2017-05-16

SECURITY
   President Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador
   See also: Trump’s back-stop against the classified information story: His base doesn’t trust the media [links to Washington Post]
   See also: Proving the media wrong is part of Trump’s brand. He just proved the media right. [links to Washington Post]
   In Computer Attacks, Clues Point to Frequent Culprit: North Korea [links to New York Times]
   Cybersecurity Experts Try to Understand How Ransomware Invaded Networks [links to Wall Street Journal]
   The Fallout From a Global Cyberattack: ‘A Battle We’re Fighting Every Day’ [links to New York Times]
   Op-ed: The World Is Getting Hacked. Why Don’t We Do More to Stop It? [links to New York Times]
   Editorial -- The ‘WannaCry’ Cyber Warning: The NSA followed protocol but it still wasn’t enough. [links to Wall Street Journal]
   Web Defenders Detect Russian Hand in Iranians’ Hacking Attempt [links to New York Times]
   Your computer’s security updates may be annoying, but they’re crucial [links to American Public Media]

COMMUNICATIONS AND DEMOCRACY
   This is what it looks like when the media gives President Trump exactly what he wants
   How President Trump gets his fake news
   ACLU files FOIA for records on Comey firing [links to Hill, The]
   Three sentences worth contemplating [links to Washington Post]
   A Republican congressman warned a bank one of its employees is an anti-Trump “ringleader.” She left the job shortly after. [links to Vox]
   Think the Trump-Russia story is a media creation? People said the same about Watergate. [links to Washington Post]
   President Trump gets cozy with the jailers of journalists [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
   I was arrested for asking Tom Price a question. I was just doing my job. [links to Washington Post]
   Jennifer Rubin: Fox News undermines a free, independent press [links to Washington Post]
   Liberals and conservatives are similarly motivated to avoid exposure to one another's opinions - research
   Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online - research [links to Benton summary]

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
   Help, John Oliver: How the FCC Is Trying to Trick Us About Net Neutrality
   Flooded with thoughtful net neutrality comments, FCC highlights “mean tweets”
   FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Reads Mean Tweets on Net Neutrality [links to Independent Journal Review]
   Internet Democracy Is Great … in Theory. Just Ask the FCC
   John Oliver urges net neutrality supporters to tone down FCC comments
   Net Neutrality 101: What you need to know to survive the next 6+ months of debate - Gigi Sohn op-ed

INTERNET/BROADBAND/TELECOMMUNICATIONS
   Digital Inclusion and Outcomes-Based Evaluation - research
   It’s Working: How the Internet Access and Online Video Markets Are Thriving in the Title II Era - research
   Regulators threaten startups and an open internet - op-ed
   At the Edges of the National Digital Platform
   Study: Ohio Statewide Broadband Office, Investment Fund Could Help Boost Rural Access
   Lifeline Coalition Connects with Pai’s Staff on Broadband, Net Neutrality
   Lists of Counties where Lower Speed TDM-Based Business Data Services are Deemed Competitive, Non-Competitive, or Grandfathered [links to Federal Communications Commission]
   Internet of Things: Status and implications of an increasingly connected world [links to Government Accountability Office]
   President Trump to unveil $1 trillion infrastructure plan in ‘several weeks’ [links to Hill, The]
   How historic would a $1 trillion infrastructure program be? [links to Brookings]

BROADCASTING
   FCC’s Colbert Investigation Has Consequences
   What the $3.9B Sinclair Acquisition of Tribune Media Means for Viewers Like You [links to TV Insider]

JOURNALISM
   Chicago Tribune Owner in Talks to Buy Rival Sun-Times, Sparking Antitrust Investigation [links to Wrap, The]
   Justice Department Announces Investigation of Possible Acquisition of Chicago Sun-Times by Owner of Chicago Tribune [links to Department of Justice]
   Coda Study: Viewers Trust, Believe Local TV News [links to Benton summary]
   The imminent conservative takeover of local TV news, explained [links to Vox]

CONTENT
   Facebook promised to tackle fake news. But the evidence shows it's not working [links to Guardian, The]
   All About Bitcoin, the Mysterious Digital Currency [links to New York Times]

POLICYMAKERS
   ‘I need to take a shower,’ Kellyanne Conway said after defending candidate Trump, according to ‘Morning Joe’ [links to Washington Post]
   Former FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy Returns to Wilkinson Barker Knauer [links to Wilkinson Barker Knauer]

COMPANY NEWS
   Ting: Google Fiber’s realignment won’t have a material impact [links to Benton summary]
   Globalstar reportedly shopping around for spectrum worth more than $2 billion [links to Fierce]
   Q&A: Social Capital chief on the cost of spectrum [links to Axios]

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SECURITY

PRESIDENT TRUMP REVEALS CLASSIFIED INFORMATION
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Greg Miller, Greg Jaffe]
President Donald Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting, according to current and former US officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State. The information the President relayed had been provided by a US partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government, officials said. The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia, and officials said Trump’s decision to do so endangers cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State. After Trump’s meeting, senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and the National Security Agency. “This is code-word information,” said a US official familiar with the matter, using terminology that refers to one of the highest classification levels used by American spy agencies. President Trump “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.”
benton.org/headlines/president-trump-revealed-highly-classified-information-russian-foreign-minister-and | Washington Post
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COMMUNICATIONS AND DEMOCRACY

TRUMP AND THE MEDIA PART 4,578
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Alyssa Rosenberg]
Lester Holt’s interview with President Donald Trump made huge, splashy headlines when the President confirmed that he always intended to fire FBI Director James Comey, and that he was thinking of the investigation into Russia’s influence on the 2016 election when he did it. Holt’s wasn’t the only interview with Trump that aired during the week. Trump’s conversation with Fox News’s Jeanine Pirro was less explosive, but from a Trump watcher’s perspective, it was more revealing. The interview was a near-perfect example of what President Trump would like his relationship with the media to be. And it was proof of why no respectable news organization can give it to him. Making Trump comfortable means allowing him to seal any cracks or flaws in his facade, rather than eliciting any revelations or new insights from him. Trump wants the press to perform public relations, not journalism. And as long as people like Pirro are willing to flatter him, Trump will never understand why real journalists can’t give him what he wants without losing who we are.
benton.org/headlines/what-it-looks-when-media-gives-president-trump-exactly-what-he-wants | Washington Post
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HOW TRUMP GETS HIS FAKE NEWS
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Shane Goldmacher]
White House chief of staff Reince Priebus issued a stern warning at a recent senior staff meeting: Quit trying to secretly slip stuff to President Doanld Trump. Just days earlier, KT McFarland, the deputy national security adviser, had given Trump a printout of two Time magazine covers. One, supposedly from the 1970s, warned of a coming ice age; the other, from 2008, about surviving global warming, according to four White House officials familiar with the matter. President Trump quickly got lathered up about the media’s hypocrisy. But there was a problem. The 1970s cover was fake, part of an Internet hoax that’s circulated for years. Staff chased down the truth and intervened before Trump tweeted or talked publicly about it. The episode illustrates the impossible mission of managing a White House led by an impetuous president who has resisted structure and strictures his entire adult life.
benton.org/headlines/how-president-trump-gets-his-fake-news | Politico | The Hill
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LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES MOTIVATED TO AVOID EXPOSURE
[SOURCE: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, AUTHOR: Jeremy Frimer, Linda Skitka, Matt Motyl]
Ideologically committed people are similarly motivated to avoid ideologically crosscutting information. Although some previous research has found that political conservatives may be more prone to selective exposure than liberals are, we find similar selective exposure motives on the political left and right across a variety of issues. The majority of people on both sides of the same-sex marriage debate willingly gave up a chance to win money to avoid hearing from the other side
benton.org/headlines/liberals-and-conservatives-are-similarly-motivated-avoid-exposure-one-anothers-opinions | Journal of Experimental Social Psychology | Vox
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CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

FCC TRICKING PEOPLE ABOUT NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: The Wrap, AUTHOR: Susan Seager]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has a pretty savvy publicity team. The only problem? It isn’t exactly telling you the truth. Net neutrality is an Obama-era policy designed to ensure that everyone has pretty much the same access to the internet — and that no company can pull strings to gain advantage over its competitors. The FCC points to public comments to suggest there is broad support for its plan to lift net neutrality restrictions — creating an unfettered free market in which providers could set whatever speeds they like — perhaps giving preferential treatment to companies that pay for it. But a closer look reveals the FCC’s plan is meeting stiff opposition by the same sectors cited by the FCC — the public and Silicon Valley. Matthew Berry, chief of staff to Chairman Pai, recently sent out a series of tweets about broad support for Pai’s proposed “Restoring Internet Freedom” plan, which would dump net neutrality rules and allow ISPs like Comcast and AT&T to choke off traffic for some smaller websites in favor of large business partners. On May 11, Berry tweeted, “New @MorningConsult poll: 78% of Americans favor either light-touch Internet regulation or no regulation at all.” But Berry was a little selective in his choices about what elements of the poll to cite in his tweets. Though he didn’t say so, the poll also reveals that most of the people questioned lacked knowledge about “regulating internet access as a utility” – the legal underpinning of net neutrality. Sixty-four percent said they had knew “not much” or “nothing at all” about net neutrality. Once pollsters informed the voters that net neutrality “is a set of rules which say Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as Comcast, Time Warner [now Spectrum], AT&T and Verizon cannot block, throttle, or prioritize certain content on the Internet,” nearly two thirds of the voters – 61 percent – said they “strongly support (24 percent) or “somewhat support” (37 percent) net neutrality.
benton.org/headlines/help-john-oliver-how-fcc-trying-trick-us-about-net-neutrality | Wrap, The
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FCC FLOODED WITH COMMENTS
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
Widespread support for strong network neutrality rules continues, both from individuals who use the Internet and companies that offer websites and applications over the Internet. But Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has made a point of trumpeting anti-net neutrality sentiment as the FCC begins the process of reclassifying Internet service providers and eliminating net neutrality rules. The sentiment in favor of net neutrality from individuals and website operators is a repeat from 2014, when most of the 4 million public comments supported strong net neutrality rules. In that case, a Democratic-led commission decided to strengthen its initial proposal and reclassify ISPs while outlawing blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization in 2015.
benton.org/headlines/flooded-thoughtful-net-neutrality-comments-fcc-highlights-mean-tweets | Ars Technica
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INTERNET DEMOCRACY
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Klint Finley]
The Federal Communications Commission says it wants to hear from you about the future of net neutrality. But in opening its virtual doors to the public, it’s also opened them to spammers and trolls, some of whom might have even managed to knock the FCC’s site offline this past week. On the one hand, these problems are mere hassles: The FCC’s site was only down for a few hours, and the flood of spam was easy to identify. On the other hand, they show just how hard it is to turn the web into a platform for democratic participation. Just look at any comments section on the internet.
benton.org/headlines/internet-democracy-great-theory-just-ask-fcc | Wired
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NET NEUTRALITY COMMENTS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Harper Neidig]
HBO comedian John Oliver acknowledged in a Youtube video that there were racist comments filed in support of net neutrality and had a simple message for any of his viewers who may have written them: “Stop it. Do not f---ing do that.” “Writing racist things on the internet is not how you win the net neutrality debate,” Oliver said. “It’s how you win the presidency.” The late-night host urged his audience to “comment in a clear, civil fashion” in support of net neutrality. The Internet Association, a Silicon Valley trade group that supports the net neutrality rules, also condemned racist comments against Chairman Pai. “Hateful or threatening speech in any form is counter to our mission and values,” said Michael Beckerman, the group’s CEO. “The merits of net neutrality can be articulated with both passion and respect. We stand with the millions of people who advocate for a free and open internet but also strongly denounce the use of hateful or threatening language to achieve this goal."
benton.org/headlines/john-oliver-urges-net-neutrality-supporters-tone-down-fcc-comments | Hill, The
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NET NEUTRALITY 101
[SOURCE: Mashable, AUTHOR: Gigi Sohn]
On May 18, the Trump Federal Communications Commission will vote to adopt a final “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” (NPRM) that will officially begin the effort to repeal the 2015 network neutrality rules and the legal authority upon which they are based — Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. Title II says that broadband Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Comcast and AT&T are essential “telecommunications services,” and as such, can be prohibited from discriminating against or favoring certain Internet traffic. Anticipating a huge outcry, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai opened a “docket” for the public to submit comments, and it has — over one million comments have already been submitted. The final NPRM will start the official period for comments and reply comments on the proposal to repeal the rules (comments are currently due on July 17; replies on August 16). After the reply comment period is over, the FCC will draft its decision. Depending on the length and complexity of an issue, it usually takes anywhere from 2 to 6 months to draft a final decision. But Pai has made it clear that he already knows what the decision will say. He and his supporters are in a rush — the longer this proceeding goes, the more likely it will become a major issue in the 2018 election (based on the fundraising emails I’m getting, I’d say it already has).
benton.org/headlines/net-neutrality-101-what-you-need-know-survive-next-6-months-debate | Mashable
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INTERNET/BROADBAND/TELECOMMUNICATIONS

DIGITAL INCLUSION AND OUTCOMES-BASED EVALUATION
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Colin Rhinesmith, Angela Siefer]
In recent years, government agencies, private foundations, and community-based organizations have increasingly sought to understand how programs that promote digital inclusion lead to social and economic outcomes for individuals, programs, and communities. This push to measure outcomes has been driven, in part, by a larger trend to ensure that dollars are being used efficiently to improve lives rather than simply to deliver services. A new report, published by Benton Foundation, describes the challenges facing community-based organizations and other key stakeholders in using outcomes-based evaluation to measure the success of their digital inclusion programs and offers recommendations toward addressing these shared barriers. This new research builds off Dr. Colin Rhinesmith’s Digital Inclusion and Meaningful Broadband Adoption Initiatives, released in early 2016. That report identified the core offerings of digital inclusion organizations – from providing low-cost broadband, and the devices to connect to it, while helping new broadband adopters gain the skills they need to navigate the Internet and online services. In this national study of digital inclusion organizations, Dr. Rhinesmith also noted that most of the digital inclusion organizations that participated in this study did not have outcomes-based evaluation frameworks. However, all recognized the importance of having them. This finding led us to conduct this deeper research on the challenges surrounding outcomes-based evaluation. Twenty-some years ago community technology centers offered training and public access to computers (a few with Internet access). Today we have digital inclusion programs provided by community-based organizations, libraries, and local government. The purpose twenty years ago was not the technology but what one could do with it. The same is true today. The difference is that we are now trying to clearly define the outcomes of access and use of the technology. What we do with the technology and the outcomes will continue to evolve as the technology evolves.
https://www.benton.org/blog/digital-inclusion-and-outcomes-based-evaluation
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INTERNET ACCESS THRIVING UNDER TITLE II
[SOURCE: Free Press, AUTHOR: Derek Turner]
Financial and marketplace evidence demonstrates that the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order is an absolute success, accomplishing its stated goal of preserving and promoting the online ecosystem’s “virtuous cycle of investment.” ISP investments accelerated following the vote (e.g., aggregate capital expenditures by publicly traded ISPs have risen by more than 5 percent during the two-year period since the FCC’s February 2015 vote; investments in core network technology at cable companies during that same time period are up by more than 48 percent). Investments in the edge, including those by online video providers and edge computing firms, are up as well (e.g., capital expenditures by firms in the U.S. data-processing sector increased 26 percent in the year following the FCC’s order while there was just 4 percent growth in the year prior). More new U.S. “over-the-top” video services launched in the two years following the vote than in the seven years prior. Furthermore, the certainty the FCC’s action created spurred the entry of numerous pay-TV full replacement providers, with vertical carriers such as AT&T now distributing (and others poised to distribute) their pay-TV services via other ISPs’ last mile networks. In sum, the 2015 Open Internet Order and accompanying legal classification decision settled the prior uncertainty about open, nondiscriminatory broadband telecom service access. What followed that decision was a historic period of U.S. investment and innovation.
benton.org/headlines/its-working-how-internet-access-and-online-video-markets-are-thriving-title-ii-era | Free Press
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REGULATORS THREATEN STARTUPS AND AN OPEN INTERNET
[SOURCE: Kansas City Star, AUTHOR: David Cohen]
[Commentary] For several years, Kansas City has been at the forefront of a movement in the Midwest. The region was an early leader of the Silicon Prairie, showing firsthand that a thriving startup ecosystem is not the exclusive purview of the coasts. But federal regulators are about to hurt the open internet and put this growth at risk. These startups’ successes are dependent on an open internet. The rise of digital technologies has eroded boundaries: Anyone can participate, start a business and reach a global audience. Thanks to the way the internet was designed, it’s one of the most open, competitive markets we’ve ever known. Consumers can reach any site they want, without interference from the big telecom and wireless companies that provide access to the internet. This is often called “net neutrality.” But many of the incumbent internet access providers have long wanted to change the way the internet works. This sort of behavior has been kept in check because of net neutrality rules enforced by the Federal Communications Commission, but new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai plans to do away with the existing legal protections. Without net neutrality, the incumbents who provide access to the internet would be able to pick winners or losers in the market. They could impede traffic from startups’ services in order to favor their own services or established competitors. They could also impose new fees on startups, inhibiting consumer choice.
benton.org/headlines/regulators-threaten-startups-and-open-internet | Kansas City Star
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NATIONAL DIGITAL PLATFORM
[SOURCE: D-Lib Magazine, AUTHOR: Sharon Strover, Brian Whitacre, Colin Rhinesmith, Alexis Schrubbe]
Libraries straddle the information needs of the 21st century. The wifi, computers and now mobile hotspots that some libraries provide their patrons are gateways to a broad, important, and sometimes essential information resources. The research summarized here examines how rural libraries negotiate telecommunications environments, and how mobile hotspots might extend libraries' digital significance in marginalized and often resource-poor regions. The Internet has grown tremendously in terms of its centrality to information and entertainment resources of all sorts, but the ability to access the Internet in rural areas typically lags that experienced in urban areas. Not only are networks less available in rural areas, they also often are of lower quality and somewhat more expensive; even mobile phone-based data plans — assuming there are acceptable signals available — may be economically out of reach for people in these areas. With older, lower income and less digitally skilled populations typically living in rural areas, the role of the library and its freely available resources may be especially useful. This research examines libraries' experiences with providing free, mobile hotspot-based access to the Internet in rural areas of Maine and Kansas.
benton.org/headlines/edges-national-digital-platform | D-Lib Magazine
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OHIO BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: Theo Douglas]
A recent study by Ohio State University (OSU) researchers found broadband access severely lacking in the state’s rural areas, a deficit they reported could yield significant economic growth if corrected — but if resolved could also lead to other, unintended consequences. Connecting the Dots of Ohio’s Broadband Policy found that 76 percent of Ohio households had broadband subscriptions in 2015, a share that led neighboring states and lagged just 1 percent behind the national average of 77 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey. More troublingly, the report from OSU’s Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics highlighted a disparity between urban Ohio areas, where fixed broadband access is “near universal” and adoption in metro areas ranges from less than 60 percent to more than 90 percent; and rural communities where 31 percent of the population lacks access to fixed broadband — and lives in areas where extending service is “prohibitively expensive.” Overall, the report found more than 1 million Ohioans still lack access to fixed broadband service.
benton.org/headlines/study-ohio-statewide-broadband-office-investment-fund-could-help-boost-rural-access | Government Technology
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LIFELINE AND NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: Lifeline Connects Coalition, AUTHOR: John Heitmann, Joshua Guyan]
The Lifeline Connects Coalition met with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s Wireline Legal Advisor, Dr Jay Schwarz, on May 11, 2017, to discuss the draft Open Internet NPRM and the Commission’s commitment to support broadband services through the Lifeline program. It also discussed the upcoming increase in the Lifeline minimum service standards and current barriers to entry and industry consolidation in the Lifeline program.
benton.org/headlines/lifeline-coalition-connects-pais-staff-broadband-net-neutrality | Lifeline Connects Coalition
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BROADCASTING

COLBERT INVESTIGATION HAS CONSEQUENCES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Stephen Colbert’s late-night jabs at President Donald Trump have drawn plenty of heat, with talk of Federal Communications Commission investigations and threats to creative content. But while the FCC is highly unlikely to take any action, there is still a cost to the regulatory overhang of a government investigation regardless of the eventual outcome. Even complaints that are eventually dismissed have costs, says John Crigler, a partner with Garvey Schubert Barer in Washington, who has defended broadcasters against indecency and even obscenity claims. “The complaint can be the punishment,” he said, and have real consequences that can include holding up license renewals or transfers — the complaint would be against any CBS affiliate where there is a complaint from a viewer in that market (FCC complaints are against stations, not networks). A pending complaint is also something that a station has to report to its auditors. A complaint could also prompt a settlement with the FCC to get out from under the cloud of an investigation that can drag on, particularly if there is a pending merger with license transfers that need approving. “Sometimes it is worth it to pay the piper and march on,” Crigler said.
benton.org/headlines/fccs-colbert-investigation-has-consequences | Broadcasting&Cable
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