July 25, 2017 ("I Did Not Collude")
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, JULY 25, 2017
Today's Main Event - Oversight and Reauthorization of the FCC -- https://www.benton.org/calendar/2017-07-25
NET NEUTRALITY
A Review of the Internet Association’s Empirical Study on Network Neutrality and Investment - Phoenix Center analysis [links to Benton summary]
Title II Fans Launch Phase II of Protest [links to Benton summary]
TELECOM
AT&T, Verizon say 90 days is enough for copper retirement notices [links to Benton summary]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Rural Groups Challenge Microsoft's Spectrum Push [links to Benton summary]
OWNERSHIP
AT&T in Early Talks With DOJ for Time Warner Approval
Democrats call out AT&T-Time Warner deal in new messaging campaign
Independent Programmers Slam Sinclair/Tribune [links to Benton summary]
Congressional Democrats Promise a ‘Better Deal’ for American Workers
Editorial: The Democrats’ Agenda, and the Art of the Possible [links to New York Times]
KKR to Buy WebMD and Take Majority Stake in Nature’s Bounty [links to New York Times]
CONTENT
Democrats more likely than Republicans to say online harassment is a major problem - research
We’re moving toward a cashless society, and lots of people are going to be left behind [links to Vox]
eMarket report: One Third Of World Will Access Social Nets At Least Once A Month [links to MediaPost]
Snopes, in Heated Legal Battle, Asks Readers for Money to Survive [links to New York Times]
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
Nationwide Test of the Emergency Alert System Scheduled for Sept. 27 [links to Federal Communications Commission]
FirstNet is Developing An Applications Ecosystem With Public Safety [links to FirstNet]
JOURNALISM
New York Times Asks Fox for Apology After ‘Inaccurate Segment’ [links to Benton summary]
Op-Ed: Resistance to change in TV newsrooms [links to Radio Television Digital News Association]
King Of The 'Hill': There has never been a better time to cover politics [links to MediaPost]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
Sen Wyden Seeks Info on E-mail Intel Collection [links to Benton summary]
OPEN GOVERNMENT
On Trump, transparency and democracy - Sunlight Foundation analysis
ELECTIONS
Judge Clears Way for Trump’s Voter Fraud Panel to Collect Data [links to New York Times]
‘I Did Not Collude,’ Kushner Says After Meeting With Senate Investigators [links to New York Times]
Editorial: Keep political campaigns out of the churches [links to Los Angeles Times]
COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY
House Judiciary Members Host Bipartisan Forum on Press Freedom - press release [links to Benton summary]
President Trump accuses Washington Post of being 'lobbyist weapon' for Amazon [links to Hill, The]
President Trump does not understand what the role of the press is [links to Washington Post]
President Trump: Why aren't 'beleaguered AG,' investigators looking at Hillary Clinton? [links to Hill, The]
The War on the Freedom of Information Act [links to Benton summary]
FCC REFORM
FCC Reauthorization Would End Media Cross-ownership Ban
POLICYMAKERS
Meet Sarah Huckabee Sanders, President Trump's New Press Sec [links to Newsweek]
Scaramucci is slicker than Spicer. But no better. [links to Washington Post]
COMPANY NEWS
CenturyLink’s Post said company is cooperating with Minnesota AG’s internet pricing investigation [links to Fierce]
CenturyLink, Frontier, Windstream suffer worst 3 quarters in history [links to Fierce]
Google CEO Sundar Pichai is joining Alphabet’s board [links to Vox]
Alphabet earnings: even with massive EU fine, Google keeps minting money [links to Verge, The]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
How Law Enforcement Should Access Data Across Borders [links to Information Technology and Innovation Foundation]
German media accused of one-sided coverage of refugee crisis [links to Financial Times]
OWNERSHIP
ATT IN EARLY TALKS WITH DOJ FOR TIME WARNER APPROVAL
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: David McLaughlin, Gerry Smith, Scott Moritz]
Apparently, US antitrust officials have started talking to representatives from AT&T and Time Warner about possible conditions that could secure approval of their $85.4 billion tie-up. The early-stage discussions suggest that government lawyers have nearly finished their months-long look at how AT&T, the biggest pay-TV distributor, would reshape the media landscape with its bid for the owner of CNN and HBO -- and shows that the sides have moved on to talking about how they can make the merger work without harming rivals. US antitrust officials, who have blocked many tie-ups between direct competitors, rarely step in to stop vertical deals like this one. But the Justice Department is under pressure not to wave this merger through. Apparently, media and pay-TV competitors have told department lawyers they fear AT&T would favor the in-house programming that it would acquire.
benton.org/headlines/att-early-talks-doj-time-warner-approval | Bloomberg
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DEMS CALL OUT ATT-TIME WARNER
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Harper Neidig]
Democrats singled out the AT&T-Time Warner merger in their new messaging campaign on July 24, signaling a tougher stance on policing corporate consolidation. In a set of documents posted by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the Democrats laid out their “Better Deal” vision of cracking down on “extensive concentration of power” in a number of industries, including the cable and telecom fields. “Consolidation in the telecommunications is not just between cable or phone providers; increasingly, large firms are trying to buy up content providers,” the document reads. “Currently, AT&T is trying to buy Time Warner. If AT&T succeeds in this deal, it will have more power to restrict the content access of its 135 million wireless and 25.5 million pay-TV subscribers. “This will only enable the resulting behemoths to promote their own programming, unfairly discriminate against other distributers [sic] and their ability to offer highly desired content, and further restrict small businesses from successfully competing in the market.”
benton.org/headlines/democrats-call-out-att-time-warner-deal-new-messaging-campaign | Hill, The
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A BETTER DEAL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Binyamin Appelbaum]
The Democratic Party wants to pick a fight with corporate America to win back Congress. The big ideas in the economic agenda that congressional Democrats unveiled are aimed at reclaiming the party’s populist mantle from President Trump. The party’s proposal to reduce the cost of living was its freshest set of ideas. That part embraces an emerging concern among liberal economists and activists that corporate concentration is damaging the American economy. Since the early 1980s, the federal government has intervened to prevent mergers only when there was clear evidence that consumers would be harmed, giving consolidation the benefit of the doubt. That has allowed a few giant companies to dominate industries including air travel, cable television and the eyeglasses business. The pace of corporate mergers reached a peak in 2015. The next year, the Obama administration published a report arguing that the economy was suffering from a dearth of competition. Other studies found that consolidation is not only driving up prices but also causing other problems, including reduced investment in innovation. The Democrats proposed changing the merger rules, instructing regulators to presume that consolidation is bad for consumers. They suggested the creation of a federal office, a “consumer competition advocate,” that would report problems to regulators.
benton.org/headlines/congressional-democrats-promise-better-deal-american-workers | New York Times
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CONTENT
DEMS MORE LIKELY THAN REPUBLICANS TO SAY ONLINE HARASSMENT A MAJOR PROBLEM
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center, AUTHOR: Monica Anderson]
Some 14% of US adults say they have been targeted for online harassment or abuse because of their political views, according to a new report from Pew Research Center. And while Republicans and Democrats are about equally likely to have been harassed online because of their political views (15% vs. 13%), there are some notable partisan differences in their views of the issue. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say they have heard a great deal about the topic of online harassment (38% vs. 25%). In addition, a larger share of Democrats than Republicans (69% vs. 54%) consider online harassment to be a major problem. Regardless of political affiliation, women in both parties are more likely than their male counterparts to view online harassment as a major problem, to think offensive content online isn’t taken seriously enough and to prioritize safe spaces over people being able to express themselves freely online.
benton.org/headlines/democrats-more-likely-republicans-say-online-harassment-major-problem | Pew Research Center
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OPEN GOVERNMENT
TRUMP, TRANSPARENCY, AND DEMOCRACY
[SOURCE: Sunlight Foundation, AUTHOR: ]
Over the first six months of this young presidency, President Donald Trump’s approach to the office has been characterized by self-interest, defiance of basic democratic norms, and often incoherent or self-contradictory communications and priorities. In the face of historic lows in public trust in government and an increasingly polarized electorate, we’ve seen a regression to secrecy in both Congress and the White House. The change has not gone unnoticed around the globe, as our nation’s standing to defend democracy and our government’s ability to advocate for anti-corruption efforts has been precipitously eroded. In this report, we offer a comprehensive but not exhaustive accounting of the Trump administration’s record on open government to date. More than seven months after we first considered what Trump would mean for open government, the questions we sent to the White House were never formally answered. The actions of this administration, however, speak for themselves. Whatever transparency the President of the United States is demonstrating by speaking directly to the public on Twitter is outweighed by his refusal to disclose and divest, undermined by the opacity of their authorship, and weighted down by false claims and misleading assertions. This president publicly accused his predecessor of wiretapping his campaign with no evidence. If that’s transparency, the word itself has been devalued. Our conclusion on the Trump administration’s record on open government at six months is inescapable: this is a secretive administration, allergic to transparency, ethically compromised, and hostile to the essential role that journalism plays in a democracy.
benton.org/headlines/trump-transparency-and-democracy | Sunlight Foundation
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FCC REFORM
FCC REAUTHORIZATION WOULD END MEDIA CROSS-OWNERSHIP BAN
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Republican representatives, who have been trying to excise the media cross-ownership ban from the Federal Communications Commission's regulatory playbook, are making that part of the draft legislation reauthorizing the FCC, according to a GOP staff memo for July 25's FCC oversight hearing. In December 2016, House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and Rep John Yarmuth (D-KY) introduced a bill to repeal the ban, which applies to daily newspapers and broadcast outlets, which the pair called "disco-era" regulations. The FCC, under then-Chairman Tom Wheeler, declined to scrap the ban in the most recent quadrennial ownership rule review, despite suggestions on both sides of the political spectrum that it had outlived its usefulness. The rule dates from 1975 and prevents TV and radio stations from owning a daily newspaper in the same market. In 2003, the FCC, under then-chairman Michael Powell, found the rule no longer in the public interest, but that decision was challenged in court and has remained on the books. The reauthorization draft, in addition to eliminating the ban, includes process reforms like making public items circulated for a FCC vote, something current FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has been doing, but which could change under a new chairman unless it were codified. It would also mandate cost-benefit analysis for proposed rules with potentially significant economic impact. It would allow the FCC more flexibility in assessing regulatory fees—the FCC is self-supporting, paying for its ongoing operations through fees on regulated entities. It also raises the status and profile of the chief information officer and FCC inspector general.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-reauthorization-would-end-media-cross-ownership-ban | Broadcasting&Cable
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