August 2017
August 10, 2017 (Orwellian)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 2017
“What makes Trump different is that he’s systematically trying to delegitimize the news as an institution because they won’t cover him the way he wants to be covered. That’s what’s different here.”
-- Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute
Today's Event -- Low Income Devices and Connectivity, Blandin Community Broadband Program -- https://www.benton.org/node/261641
COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY
FBI conducted predawn raid of former Trump campaign chairman Manafort’s home
Media scholar on Trump TV: “This is Orwellian, and it’s happening right now, right here”
The real issue in the campus speech debate: The university is under assault - WaPo op-ed
Op-ed: Freedom of Speech Is Not Enough -- Colleges should also teach students how to debate respectfully. [links to Wall Street Journal]
Watchdog files complaint alleging DNC worked with Ukraine [links to Benton summary]
White House slams NYT article on 'suppressed' climate report already made public [links to Benton summary]
Video: Are the news media enemies of the people or defenders of democracy? Here’s what the founders thought. [links to Washington Post]
President Trump tweets just as often when he's on vacation, but the tweets start later [links to Vox]
President Trump gets a folder full of positive news about himself twice a day [links to Vice]
Trump's media obsession extends to TV chyrons about himself [links to CNN]
In a new poll, half of Republicans say they would support postponing the 2020 election if President Trump proposed it [links to Washington Post]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Maybe Americans don’t need fast home Internet service, FCC suggests
One broadband choice still counts as “competition” after court decision on Business Data Services
FCC Asks for Help Fixing Faulty Broadband Provider Data [links to Benton summary]
How the Internet Cartel Won the Internet and The Internet Competition Myth [links to Scott Cleland]
NET NEUTRALITY
As net neutrality dies, one man wants to make Verizon pay for its sins
Demand That Congress Fight for Net Neutrality [links to The Nation editorial]
Dominated by the Digital Elite - Roslyn Layton op-ed [links to Benton summary]
The Digital Divide and Other Economic Considerations for Network Neutrality. Net Neutrality Special Issue Blog #7 - TPI analysis [links to Benton summary]
Lawrence Spiwak: Let's encourage capital investment by rolling back net neutrality [links to Hill, The]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
ACLU: Absent warrant standard, police could monitor anyone via location data
How Palantir, Peter Thiel's Secretive Data Company, Pushed into Policing [links to Benton summary]
OWNERSHIP
French telecom giant Altice weighing bid for Charter in what could be $200 billion deal
Tribune: We're on Track to Close Sinclair Deal [links to Benton summary]
Media Watchdogs Are Suddenly Worried About Sinclair - MediaPost op-ed [links to Benton summary]
The New Copycats: How Facebook Squashes Competition From Startups [links to Benton summary]
Most tech investors think the industry’s companies are about to grow even more valuable [links to Vox]
JOURNALISM
Mozilla launches new effort to counter fake news
How PBS is filling the local void left by other major networks [links to Benton summary]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
FCC OKs More Forward Auction Spectrum Applications [links to Benton summary]
T-Mobile executive sees low-band spectrum as great equalizer with Verizon, AT&T [links to Fierce]
CONTENT
Inside The Partisan Fight For Your News Feed [links to BuzzFeed]
Op-Ed: TV is moving to the internet faster than you probably think [links to Vox]
Cable companies don’t mind if customers watch more streamed TV [links to American Public Media]
Will ESPN streaming service be a game changer for the sports juggernaut? [links to Los Angeles Times]
Technology is changing our relationship with nature as we know it [links to Quartz]
“Alexa, Understand Me” [links to Benton summary]
DIVERSITY
The Alt-Right Finds a New Enemy in Silicon Valley [links to New York Times]
Read YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki’s Response to the Controversial Google Anti-Diversity Memo [links to Fortune]
Google is in court fighting over how it pays women [links to CNN]
Fired Google employee says his gender memo was a reaction to diversity training [links to Los Angeles Times]
Op-Ed -- Memo to the Google memo writer: Women were foundational to the field of computing [links to Washington Post]
Fired Google memo writer gives first big interviews to rightwing YouTubers [links to Guardian, The]
How the tech industry wrote women out of history [links to Guardian, The]
LABOR
U.S. companies aren’t trying to hire as many foreign tech workers since Trump’s election [links to Vox]
PATENTS
US trade authorities to investigate Apple imports [links to Hill, The]
POLICYMAKERS
President Trump pushes back on Sen McConnell's assertion he has ‘excessive expectations’ for Congress [links to Politico]
Just Months Later, Another Press Secretary Profile [links to Benton summary]
Rep Niki Tsongas (D-MA) to retire from Congress, not seek 2018 reelection [links to Hill, The]
Chairman Pai Seeks Nominations for North American Numbering Council [links to Federal Communications Commission]
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Names New President, Cinematographer John Bailey [links to New York Times]
COMPANY NEWS
Amazon and Tencent Back Smartphone Maker Essential [links to Wall Street Journal]
Comedy streaming service SeeSo is shutting down [links to Verge, The]
Netflix CEO criticized Peter Thiel for his Trump support [links to Hill, The]
Eric Bolling initiates lawsuit against reporter behind sexting story [links to Politico]
Facing libel lawsuit, Techdirt takes large donations to broaden coverage [links to Benton summary]
Techdirt gets more than $250,000 to better cover free-speech issues [links to Washington Post]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Editorial: China and Russia go further in squelching Internet freedom [links to Washington Post]
Russia Wants Innovation, but It’s Arresting Its Innovators [links to New York Times]
TalkTalk fined £100,000 for failing to protect customer data [links to Financial Times]
Facebook Builds Out Staff to Delete Hate-Speech in Germany [links to Bloomberg]
COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY
FBI CONDUCTED PREDAWN RAID OF FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN MANFORT'S HOME
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Carol Leonnig, Tom Hamburger, Rosalind Helderman]
FBI agents raided the Alexandria (VA) home of President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman late in July, using a search warrant to seize documents and other materials, according to people familiar with the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Federal agents appeared at Paul Manafort’s home without advance warning in the predawn hours of July 26, the day after he met voluntarily with the staff for the Senate Intelligence Committee. The search warrant was wide-ranging and FBI agents working with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III departed the home with various records. Jason Maloni, a spokesman for Manafort, confirmed that agents executed a warrant at one of the political consultant’s homes and that Manafort cooperated with the search. Manafort has been voluntarily producing documents to congressional committees investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. The search warrant indicates investigators may have argued to a federal judge they had reason to believe Manafort could not be trusted to turn over all records in response to a grand jury subpoena. It could also have been intended to send a message to President Trump’s former campaign chairman that he should not expect gentle treatment or legal courtesies from Mueller’s team.
benton.org/headlines/fbi-conducted-predawn-raid-former-trump-campaign-chairman-manaforts-home | Washington Post
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
MEDIA SCHOLAR ON TRUMP TV
[SOURCE: Vox, AUTHOR: Sean Illing]
A Q&A with Tom Rosenstiel, an author, researcher, media critic, and the current executive director of the American Press Institute.
“What makes Trump different,” Rosenstiel said, “is that he’s systematically trying to delegitimize the news as an institution because they won’t cover him the way he wants to be covered. That’s what’s different here.”
Asked, "Is this the future of political media in this country? Where candidates circumnavigate the press and peddle their own propaganda via social media?" Rosenstiel said, "I hope not. The current pattern is more media. There are more and more channels, more and more sites, more and more voices; we're more segmented than ever. The traditional press has not disappeared, but it's competing with more and more alternatives. I think the risk here is that everyone is in their own narrow reality and we don't have a common set of facts and a common ground on which to govern — to the degree that an independent press that is committed to facts and verification diminishes, that encourages this pseudo-reality in which everyone is operating with a set of facts that are self-serving and self-fulfilling but completely unreal. So the risk of losing an independent press, even if that press is very heterogeneous, is that you lose an institution that is dedicated to getting the facts right. Whether they're partisan or not, they're at least dedicated to getting the facts right. If we lose that, we're in a very dangerous place."
benton.org/headlines/media-scholar-trump-tv-orwellian-and-its-happening-right-now-right-here | Vox
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
REAL ISSUE OF CAMPUS SPEECH: UNIVERSITY IS UNDER ASSAULT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Nicholas Dirks]
[Commentary] There is no doubt that public concern about the vitality of free speech and political debate on American college campuses has legitimate causes. However, the current round of attacks – from the extreme right and left — is a pretext. It is part of a broader assault on the idea of the university itself: on its social functions, on the fundamental importance of advanced knowledge and enlightened debate, on the critical role of science and expertise in public policy and on the significance of intellectuals and serious thought leaders more generally. The time has come to defend the university vigorously, even as we insist on seeking to open it up further: to new ideas, to even more vigorous debate, to more students who have never had the opportunity for advanced education, to engagement with the world, and to the public more generally for whom the idea that college is a public good needs stressing, and demonstrating, today more than ever.
[Nicholas B. Dirks is former chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley.]
benton.org/headlines/real-issue-campus-speech-debate-university-under-assault | Washington Post
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
INTERNET/BROADBAND
MAYBE AMERICANS DONT NEED FAST HOME INTERNET SERVICE, FCC SUGGESTS
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
Americans might not need a fast home Internet connection, the Federal Communications Commission suggests in a new document. Instead, mobile Internet via a smartphone might be all people need. The suggestion comes in the FCC's annual inquiry into broadband availability. Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act requires the FCC to determine whether broadband (or more formally, "advanced telecommunications capability") is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion. During the Obama administration, the FCC determined repeatedly that broadband isn't reaching Americans fast enough, pointing in particular to lagging deployment in rural areas. These analyses did not consider mobile broadband to be a full replacement for a home (or "fixed") Internet connection via cable, fiber, or some other technology. But with Republican Ajit Pai now in charge, the FCC seems poised to change that policy by declaring that mobile broadband with speeds of 10Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream is all one needs. In doing so, the FCC could conclude that broadband is already being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion, and thus the organization would take fewer steps to promote deployment and competition.
benton.org/headlines/maybe-americans-dont-need-fast-home-internet-service-fcc-suggests | Ars Technica
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
ONE BROADBAND CHOICE STILL COUNTS AS 'COMPETITION'
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
A Federal Communications Commission decision to eliminate price caps in much of the business broadband market can remain in place after a federal judge denied a petition to halt the FCC order. The FCC's Republican majority in April imposed a new standard that deems certain local markets competitive even when they have only one broadband provider. In those markets, incumbent phone companies like AT&T, Verizon, and CenturyLink will be able to charge higher prices for business data services that are delivered over copper-based TDM networks. Companies that will have to pay higher prices sued the FCC. They asked for a stay that would halt the elimination of price caps pending the outcome of the case. But Aug 7, the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit denied the motion for stay. The order provided no explanation for the denial. The FCC's decision eliminates price caps in a county if 50 percent of potential customers "are within a half-mile of a location served by a competitive provider." A county is now also considered competitive if 75 percent of Census blocks have a cable provider. (There are no price caps for cable-based business data services.)
benton.org/headlines/one-broadband-choice-still-counts-competition-after-court-decision-business-data-services | Ars Technica
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
NET NEUTRALITY
AS NN DIES, ONE MAN WANTS TO MAKE VERIZON PAY
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Jacob Kastrenakes]
Imagine if you took every single gripe you've had with Verizon over the past five years — the time it blocked Nexus 7 tablets for five months; the time it forced you to pay $20 per month for tethering; the time it tried to make you use a mobile wallet app called "ISIS" — and finally put your foot down. For a year, you spend free moments holed up in library stacks, speaking with experts, and researching and writing a sprawling legal complaint about the company's many, many misdeeds. And then you file it all with the Federal Communications Commission, hoping to get some payback. That's exactly what Alex Nguyen did. And one day very soon, Verizon may have to answer for it. When he wrapped up in the middle of 2016, Nguyen paid a $225 filing fee and handed his complaint over to the FCC. It would end up being the only formal complaint filed under the net neutrality rules. Now one year after Nguyen's initial filing date, all the arguing is over, and the case is the in hands of the commission's Enforcement Bureau to either shoot down, deliver a fine, or demand Verizon make some changes. "Verizon and I made our cases," Nguyen said. "It looks as though [the FCC's Enforcement Bureau] staff any day now could make a decision."
benton.org/headlines/net-neutrality-dies-one-man-wants-make-verizon-pay-its-sins | Verge, The
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
SECURITY/PRIVACY
ACLU ON LOCATION DATA
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Cyrus Farivar]
Lawyers representing a man convicted of six robberies in the Detroit area have now filed their opening brief at the Supreme Court in one of the most important digital privacy cases in recent years. This case, Carpenter v. United States, asks a simple question: is it OK for police to seize and search 127 days of cell-site location information (CSLI) without a warrant? Previously, lower courts have said that such practices are compatible with current law. But the fact that the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case suggests that at least four justices feel that perhaps the law should be changed. In Carpenter, as is the case in countless modern criminal cases, law enforcement was able to obtain the relevant records directly from the mobile phone provider with a court order that has less stringent requirements than a warrant. This is not a trivial distinction. A so-called "d-order" can be circumspect with how information is obtained by authorities. It does not, as the Fourth Amendment demands, require as much particularity. A warrant, unlike a d-order application, also mandates a signed and sworn affidavit ("on oath or affirmation"), as the Constitution requires, which describes the "places to be searched and the things to be seized." Carpenter's attorneys, many of whom are from the American Civil Liberties Union, argue in their filing that the current legal standard gives the government too much leeway. "If the Court were to accept this argument, the government could use this tool to monitor the minute-by-minute whereabouts of anyone—from ordinary citizens to prominent businesspersons to leaders of social movements," they wrote in their August 7 brief.
benton.org/headlines/aclu-absent-warrant-standard-police-could-monitor-anyone-location-data | Ars Technica
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
OWNERSHIP
ALTICE WEIGHING BID FOR CHARTER
[SOURCE: CNBC, AUTHOAR: David Faber]
You can add Altice to the growing list of companies trying to figure out a way to buy Charter Communciations. The French telecom giant and its US cable subsidiary, Altice USA, are working on an offer to buy Charter, but have not yet brought a purchase proposal to Charter or its advisors, apparently. There's no guarantee that Altice will engage, though the prospects seem likely. Altice and its founder Patrick Drahi have long had ambitions to expand in the U.S., and with SoftBank's recent interest in making an offer to buy Charter, Drahi has decided to see if he can compete. Altice has bankers and lawyers working on a bid for Charter. But like SoftBank, it faces significant hurdles in crafting a deal that would meet shareholders' expectations on price while not being replete with the stock of the acquiring company, which in this case would be the far smaller Altice USA.
benton.org/headlines/french-telecom-giant-altice-weighing-bid-charter-what-could-be-200-billion-deal | CNBC
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
JOURNALISM
MOZILLA LAUNCHES NEW EFFORT TO COUNTER FAKE NEWS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Joe Uchill]
Mozilla, the creators of the popular Firefox web browser, are launching a new program to counter fake news stories. Fabricated news, made to mislead or turn a profit, is a growing problem in online communities. The U.S. intelligence community assessed that Russia used social media to propagate misinformation campaigns throughout the 2016 presidential race. "Misinformation devalues the open web," said Katharina Borchert, Mozilla chief innovation officer. "We see this as a threat to the fabric of our society." The Mozilla Information Trust Initiative (MITI) will increase funding for research on misinformation, the first findings to be released later in 2017. The company hopes to leverage Firefox's size and reach to get data about news browsing habits. MITI will also tailor products to amplify actual news over fake news, expand an effort to increase digital news literacy and fund designers to work on software to provide on-the-fly visualizations of the problem.
benton.org/headlines/mozilla-launches-new-effort-counter-fake-news | Hill, The | Press release
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top