June 2017

Fewer think news media is biased, survey finds

More than half of Americans think the US media reports news with a bias. The good news? The press gets a better grade today than in recent years, according to a new survey.

The 20th annual State of the First Amendment survey, out from The First Amendment Center at the Newseum Institute in Washington (DC), found 57% of Americans who participated in the survey said that the news media reports with bias. Even at a time when the Trump Administration is clashing with the mainstream media, this response is better than in 2016 when 77% of Americans said the media was biased. A similar response was found in 2015, when 76% answered that way. Respondents thought more favorably of the press in 2013 and 2014, when 54% and 59% said they thought the media was biased Perhaps fueling the lack of trust in the media is the vacuum in which many people get their news. More than half (53%) of the 1,009 adults, surveyed in May 2017, said they preferred to get news from outlets aligned with their political views. The center's executive director Lata Nott called that finding "both obvious and disheartening" and "one of the factors that keeps us so divided," in an essay accompanying the report.

Chairman Pai to speak at Koch-backed event

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is set to speak at an event in August put on by Americans for Prosperity, a group backed by GOP mega-donors Charles and David Koch. Chairman Pai will give remarks at the organization’s annual "Defending the Dream" summit in Richmond (VA) on Aug 19, which its website bills as a “conference is the chance for activists, staff and free market leaders to come together and learn how to be more effective advocates for freedom.” Americans for Prosperity’s free market and conservative ideology squares up with Chairman Pai’s. The FCC chairman has called for reducing regulation at the commission in favor of letting the market forces make decisions instead. Americans for Prosperity has praised the chairman’s plan.

For The New York Times, Trump is a sparring partner with benefits

A version of the the New York Times’s Trump bump has materialized across the media landscape, as readers have been galvanized by a man who may well be the most polarizing president in American history. But the boon carries significant risks, especially for the Times. And it highlights some business-model vulnerabilities for a newspaper that is struggling mightily to wade through a brutal media climate: Not only is the company becoming increasingly dependent on Trump for its core subscription revenue, but its print readers are subsidizing the rest of the operation through repeated, and often opaque, price increases—a practice that at some point will have to ease.

New York Times staff to stage protest over job cuts

Editorial staffers at The New York Times will stage a walk-out from the newsroom on June 29 to protest potential layoffs and staff reductions, according to an announcement from their union. "New York Times editors, reporters and staff will come together to leave the newsroom and their offices in protest of management’s elimination of copy editors," reads the NewsGuild of New York announcement. "After a year and a half of uncertainty about their futures, New York Times editors and staff have expressed feelings of betrayal by management. The staff has been offered buyouts and if a certain number of buyouts is not reached, layoffs will ensue for the editorial staff and potentially reporters as well." Recently, NewsGuild President Grant Glickson penned an open letter to New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet to share how the union feels about the layoffs, calling it a "humiliating process" and noting that the number of editors being let go "dumbfoundingly unrealistic."

Rep Doyle Draft of Bill Would Promote 5G

Rep Mike Doyle (D-PA) has circulated a discussion draft of a bill to accelerate the rollout of 5G wireless. The 5G Acceleration Act would mandate action items and deadlines for the Federal Communications Commission. They include: Auctioning 200 MHz of new spectrum below 7 GHz, with the auction required to begin by July 1, 2025; submitting a plan in coordination with the National Telecommunications & Information Administration by Jan. 1, 2024, to balance licensed and unlicensed spectrum; submitting a report to Congress by Jan. 1, 2018 identifying 300 MHz of different below-7 GHz spectrum. And in the near term, the FCC must issue a Notice of Inquiry on making spectrum available below 12 GHz.

Privacy Legislation Falls Short of Providing Consumers With Comprehensive Online Privacy Protections

Ever since Congress repealed the Federal Communication Commission’s broadband privacy rules, consumers have expressed outrage over their lack of privacy protections when accessing broadband networks. In response to the public outcry, members of Congress have introduced legislation to enhance consumers’ online privacy protections.

Thus far, Sens Ed Markey (D-MA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Reps Jerry McNerney (D-CA), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) have all introduced online privacy legislation. Each bill has strong components that provide various levels of online privacy protections for consumers. However, the three bills all have limitations that must be addressed to provide Americans all the privacy protections they deserve. Fortunately, the bills at least open the door to a discussion on what true comprehensive online privacy legislation should look like and what protections consumers expect when it comes to their online privacy.

A new internet safety bill would ban swatting, doxxing, and sextortion all at once

Rep Katherine Clark (D-MA) has proposed legislation to specifically outlaw internet harassment-based crimes like swatting and devote $24 million a year to stopping them. The Online Safety Modernization Act of 2017 collects several of Clark’s earlier bills, with sponsorship from Rep Susan Brooks (R-IN) and Patrick Meehan (R-PA).

It imposes penalties on several relatively new forms of abuse that may be only indirectly covered under other laws, while funding research and investigation into internet safety issues. The bill includes six sections, all addressing “cybercrimes against individuals” — as opposed to attacks on businesses or government infrastructure, which are a higher priority in most cybercrime policy. Three of the sections outline punishments for “sextorting” sexual imagery from people through blackmail, falsely reporting an emergency to provoke a swat team response, and “doxxing” people by disclosing personal information to cause harm.

Sen Cruz Delays Redl’s NTIA Confirmation Vote

Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) is slowing down the Senate Commerce Committee vote on National Telecommunications and Information Administration nominee David Redl, apparently because the senator is seeking assurances related to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition that took place in 2016. While the transition itself has already happened, Sen Cruz continues to have questions about NTIA’s approach to internet governance.

Redl fielded a series of queries from Sen Cruz on this very issue during his confirmation hearing, and noted that it’s “difficult to put the genie back in the bottle,” when asked if he thought the transition had been “wise and prudent.” Redl had his confirmation hearing alongside National Transportation Safety Board nominee Robert Sumwalt and Department of Transportation nominee Derek Kan, both of whom are slated for a vote during the Commerce Committee markup June 29. Redl’s vote is now slated for July, according to an aide for the committee. Cruz’s office declined to comment on the matter.

Verizon wants to borrow T-Mobile and Vodafone's consumer data to take on Facebook and Google

Verizon Communications wants to challenge Google and Facebook. So it's reaching out to some of its biggest rivals in the wireless industry for help. Now that the telecommunications company has completed its acquisition of Yahoo and rolled out Oath, a division which includes a wide collection of digital advertising assets, it is looking to ramp up its ability to challenge Google and Facebook in the sector.

The wireless giant is exploring building a data partnership with other top wireless players, including T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone and Telefónica, apparently. Specifically, Verizon wants to pool together more wireless consumer data that can be used for ad targeting. A big reason Google and Facebook are so dominant in digital advertising – besides the fact that their platforms reach huge audiences –is that they have powerful, accurate data sets on millions of consumers that can be used by advertisers to target people with more relevant ads.