July 2017

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, JULY 17, 2017

Events this week https://www.benton.org/calendar/2017-07-16--P1W

NETWORK NEUTRALITY
   Cracks in Democrat wall on net neutrality?
   Why you should care about Net Neutrality - op-ed [links to Benton summary]
   The net neutrality fight is also about protecting your privacy online - Free Press op-ed [links to Benton summary]
   Free State Does Math on Broadband Investment
   NY State AG Eric Schneiderman: Without Net Neutrality, You Could Be Saying Goodbye to “Master of None” [links to Medium]
   The Net Neutrality “Protest” Isn’t a Protest -- Tech companies are afraid to disrupt the user experience to incite political action [links to Ringer, The]
   Chris Riley: My personal story on net neutrality [links to Medium]
   Do Your FCC Comments Matter?
   Why quality will trump quantity in the net neutrality debate [links to R Street]

MORE INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Why Hampton Roads residents could be seeing cheaper, faster internet in the future [links to Virginian-Pilot]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   Book Review: In regulating radio, the FCC enacted rules nominally in the public interest, but which actually enriched specific interest groups. [links to Wall Street Journal]

ELECTION 2016
   The data and digital director for Donald Trump's presidential campaign will speak before the House Intelligence Committee as part of its ongoing investigation into Russian election interference [links to Hill, The]

PRIVACY/SECURITY
   House Appropriations Committee unanimously agrees to raise the bar for government access to emails, texts and data stored in the cloud [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
   Tim Wu: Please Prove You’re Not a Robot [links to New York Times]

OWNERSHIP
   Rep David Cicilline Calls for Hearing on Amazon’s Acquisition of Whole Foods Market [links to House of Representatives]
   Shareholder files lawsuit to block Tribune Media's sale to Sinclair [links to Benton summary]
   AT&T CEO to Separate Telecom, Media Businesses After Time Warner Merger [links to Benton summary]
   FCC releases Protective Order to govern production of Confidential and Highly Confidential material in Sinclair/Tribune transaction [links to Federal Communications Commission]

LABOR
   SAG-AFTRA Announces Deal With NPR to Avoid Strike [links to Wrap, The]
   The Labor Department just lost a battle with Google over its alleged gender pay gap [links to Washington Post]

CONTENT
   Men, women experience and view online harassment differently [links to Pew Research Center]
   After Stumbling in Online Video, Publishers Embrace Facebook, TV Licensing [links to Wall Street Journal]
   Behind the Velvet Ropes of Facebook’s Private Groups [links to New York Times]

EDUCATION
   Students are Better Off without a Laptop in the Classroom [links to Scientific American]

GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE
   Startup That Got a Seat at White House Roundtable Is Part-Owned by Kushner Family

COMMUNICATIONS AND DEMOCRACY
   Editorial: Trump blocking people on Twitter is childish, but it's hardly a 1st Amendment violation [links to Los Angeles Times]
   Jonah Goldberg -- There's a word for Trump's relationship with the media: Co-dependence [links to Los Angeles Times]
   Video: Every Russia story Trump said was ‘fake news’ or a ‘witch hunt’ [links to Washington Post]
   President Trump speaks to White House reporters off the record, then wonders why it wasn’t published [links to Washington Post]
   President Trump spoke with reporters for an hour, but it was off-the-record... or was it? [links to CNN]
   Rep. Dave Brat to CNN on CNN: You collude with Democrats [links to Washington Post]

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   US senators are using the equivalent of carrier pigeons to deliver their campaign finance reports [links to Vox]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Liu Xiaobo’s Death Pushes China’s Censors Into Overdrive [links to New York Times]
   San Marino set to become first country upgraded to 5G nationwide [links to Financial Times]

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NETWORK NEUTRALITY

CRACKS IN DEMOCRAT WALL ON NET NEUTRALITY?
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Ashley Gold, Steven Overly]
Key tech industry leaders are expressing openness to having Congress step in to legislate net neutrality — putting pressure on Democrats who've been adamantly opposed to such a move. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg said they’re willing to work with lawmakers on the issue, and Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian expressed a similar view. That flies in the face of the resistance many Democrats and activists have shown to working with Republicans on enshrining open internet protections into law. Democrats have been focused on stopping the GOP-led FCC from rolling back the current net neutrality rules, and fear their Republican colleagues want to pass weaker standards than what the FCC has already put in place.
benton.org/headlines/cracks-democrat-wall-net-neutrality | Politico
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DO YOUR FCC COMMENTS MATTER?
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Li Zhou]
The Day of Action on network neutrality generated some 2 million comments to the Federal Communications Commission, according to Fight for the Future Campaign Director Evan Greer, who added that figure doesn’t include comments submitted via the Internet Association’s page, which was promoted by a host of tech companies. The comments are still being entered into the FCC’s docket, which at last check had more than 7 million filings. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the sheer number of comments won't dictate the outcome of the proceeding. “The raw number is not as important as the substantive comments that are in the record,” said Chairman Pai. “We want to weigh all comments and make sure that we take a full view of the record and again make the appropriate judgment based on those facts and the law as it applies.” But FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn cautioned against discounting comments simply because they aren’t written like legal briefs. “To ignore the voices of individuals who take the time in their own way to express their feelings about something that is so critical as an open internet … that’s short-sighted,” Commissioner Clyburn said. “There is a reason why people have a low opinion of government and government employees, because they think they ignore what they say.”
benton.org/headlines/do-your-fcc-comments-matter | Politico
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FREE STATE BROADBAND MATH
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
As part of Federal Communications Commission Cgairman Ajit Pai's proposal to roll back Title II and review network neutrality regulations, the agency is proposing to use a "multiplier" to calculate the amount, if any, of lost investment from Title II, beyond the immediate investment to the total impact of that lost investment, say on construction workers not getting paid because of buildouts not being built out -- something like counting the number of other dominoes that fall rather than just counting the first one. The Free State Foundation, in comments to the FCC, submitted an assessment of such a cost-benefit analysis by senior fellow Theodore Bolema that suggested it would be reasonable to multiply lost investment assessments by between 1.25 and 1.75, which would mean Free State's own estimate of a $5.6 billion reduction in what would have been invested between 2015 and 2016 were Title II not in place would translate to more like between $7 billion and $9.8 billion. "If the current investment trend were to continue," said Free State president Randolph May in the FCC submission, "the negative economic impact resulting from the Open Internet Order regulatory regime will only become greater over time.”
benton.org/headlines/free-state-does-math-broadband-investment | Multichannel News
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GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE

KUSHNER FAMILY TIES
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jean Eaglesham, Lisa Schwartz]
Prominent technology-industry leaders and venture capitalists gathered in the White House’s state dining room in June 2017 to discuss tech policy with President Donald Trump in an event that Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, helped organize. Seated at the rectangular table alongside the corporate luminaries, university presidents and senior White House officials was a less-prominent figure: Zachary Bookman, the 37-year-old CEO of a small startup called OpenGov. Kushner’s brother, through a venture-capital firm, is a part owner of OpenGov, according to government disclosures and data from Dow Jones VentureSource. Until earlier this year, Kushner owned stakes in the venture-capital firm that he sold to his brother, according to a person familiar with the matter. Kushner’s connection to OpenGov isn’t widely known. Many senior Trump administration officials hail from the business world, triggering concerns about potential conflicts between their private interests and public duties. The OpenGov situation—in which a top White House official helped organize a prestigious event where one of the participants was financially connected to his family—is an example of how such potential conflicts can play out.
benton.org/headlines/startup-got-seat-white-house-roundtable-part-owned-kushner-family | Washington Post
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