February 18, 2017 (Special Saturday Edition -- Happy President's Day)

COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY

TRUMP CALLS THE NEWS MEDIA THE 'ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE'
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael Grynbaum]
President Donald Trump, in an extraordinary rebuke of the nation’s press organizations, wrote on Twitter on Feb 17 that the nation’s news media “is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American people.” Even by the standards of a president who routinely castigates journalists, President Trump’s tweet was a striking escalation in his attacks on the news media. At 4:32 p.m., shortly after arriving at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach (FL), President Trump took to Twitter to write: "The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @CNN, @NBCNews and many more) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American people. SICK!" That message was swiftly deleted, but not before being seen by thousands of social media users. Sixteen minutes later, President Trump posted a revised version of the tweet. Restricted to 140 characters, the president removed the word “sick,” and added two other television networks to his list of offending news organizations, ABC and CBS.
benton.org/headlines/trump-calls-news-media-enemy-people | New York Times
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KUSHNER DELIVERS CRITIQUE OF CNN TO TIME WARNER EXEC
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Keach Hagey, Damian Paletta]
Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser, met with a senior Time Warner executive in recent weeks and expressed the administration’s deep concerns about CNN’s news coverage, apparently. In a meeting at the White House, Kushner complained to Gary Ginsberg, executive vice president of corporate marketing and communications at CNN’s parent Time Warner, about what Kushner feels is unfair coverage slanted against the president. The Trump administration’s hostile posture toward the news media, especially CNN, has been evident in the president’s own statements and those of his press secretary and top aides. While the administration is battling a large swath of the media, the fight with CNN has special intrigue because its parent company has a massive piece of business awaiting government approval: a proposed $85.4 billion sale to AT&T. Kushner and Ginsberg, who have been friends for a decade and whose discussion covered a variety of issues including Israel and the economy, didn’t discuss the merger in their recent meeting, apparently.
benton.org/headlines/jared-kushner-delivers-critique-cnn-time-warner-executive | Wall Street Journal | B&C
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ENCRYPTED APPS SPARK NEW QUESTIONS FOR TRUMP-ERA WORKERS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Harper Neidig, Joe Uchill]
The reported use of encrypted messaging apps by government workers is raising questions about whether the services evade scrutiny from their superiors and the public — or are even legal. Trump administration staffers are reportedly communicating via an encrypted messaging app called Confide, the main feature of which is self-destructing messages. Top GOP operatives and aides in the administration have been using the app to communicate out of fear that they might be hacked and have their correspondence made public. Amid the fallout of national security adviser Michael Flynn’s resignation, White House staffers are using Confide out of fear that President Trump is planning to crack down on leaks to the media. Government accountability watchdog groups are raising concerns about the use of Confide in the White House, saying it violates the Presidential Records Act. The 39-year-old law requires the president, vice president and their immediate staff members to preserve all correspondence so that official records can be archived. “The reason we have to have an archived record is so there's accountability for the actions and decisions that get made and historically we can review the activities of an administration,” said Sean Moulton, who oversees the open government program at the Project on Government Oversight.
benton.org/headlines/encrypted-apps-spark-new-questions-trump-era-workers | Hill, The
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IN TRUMP ERA, CENSORSHIP MAY START IN THE NEWSROOM
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jim Rutenberg]
This is how the muzzling starts: not with a boot on your neck, but with the fear of one that runs so deep that you muzzle yourself. Maybe it’s the story you decide against doing because it’s liable to provoke a press-bullying president to put the power of his office behind his attempt to destroy your reputation by falsely calling your journalism “fake.” Maybe it’s the line you hold back from your script or your article because it could trigger a federal leak investigation into you and your sources (so, yeah, jail). Or, maybe it’s the commentary you spike because you’re a publicly supported news channel and you worry it will cost your station its federal financing. In that last case, your fear would be existential — a matter of your very survival — and your motivation to self-censor could prove overwhelming. We no longer have to imagine it. We got a real-life example recently in San Antonio (TX), where a PBS station sat atop the slippery slope toward censorship and then promptly started down it.
benton.org/headlines/trump-era-censorship-may-start-newsroom | New York Times
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AT&T/TIME WARNER

ATT, TIME WARNER DEFEND DEAL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Ali Breland]
AT&T defended its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, writing in a letter to Sen Al Franken (D-MN) and three other Sens that “this merger is about giving consumers what they want." The letter is written by AT&T Executive Vice President for Federal Relations Tim McKone and Time Warner Senior Vice President of Global Public Policy Steve Vest. They say the merger would allow the combined company to offer cheaper and more robust services to their consumers. “The merger will allow us to offer customers more attractive bundles of broadband and video services, prodding cable companies and other competitors to respond by improving their own services,” it states. “And the merger will further incentivize AT&T and other wireless carriers to deploy lightning-fast 5G wireless technology faster and deeper in their networks.”
benton.org/headlines/att-time-warner-defend-deal | Hill, The | B&C
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ANTITRUST SENS CALL FOR AG TO SCRUTINIZE ATT-TIME WARNER MERGER
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Harper Neidig]
The top Sens on the Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel are urging the Department of Justice to scrutinize the proposed AT&T-Time Warner merger for the possibility that it leads to anticompetitive practices. The subcommittee's chair, Sen Mike Lee (R-UT), and Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), wrote a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions pointing to aspects of the deal that they find troubling. "The proposed transaction raises complex questions that will require a fact-intensive investigation that has yet to be completed, as well as a deep understanding of the economics of the digital content creation and distribution markets," reads the letter.
benton.org/headlines/top-antitrust-senators-call-sessions-scrutinize-att-time-warner-merger | Hill, The
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OWNERSHIP

SOFTBANK WILLING TO CEDE CONTROL OF SPRINT TO ENTICE T-MOBILE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Liana Baker]
Japan's SoftBank Group Corp is prepared to give up control of Sprint Corp to Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile US Inc to clinch a merger of the two US wireless carriers, apparently. SoftBank has not yet approached Deutsche Telekom to discuss any deal because the Federal Communications Commission has imposed strict anti-collusion rules that ban discussions between rivals during an ongoing auction of airwaves. After the auction ends in April, the two parties are expected to begin negotiations.
benton.org/headlines/softbank-willing-cede-control-sprint-entice-t-mobile | Reuters
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

PAI RESPONSE TO SEN FRANKEN RE: OPEN INTERNET
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai]
On Jan 30, Sen Al Franken (D-MN) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai urging him to "protect freedom of speech by maintaining and enforcing the Open Internet Order." On Feb 8, Chairman Pai responded by writing, "We share the same goals of promoting a free and open Internet and protecting fully Americans' rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I look forward to working with you to ensure that the FCC's regulatory framework preserves each of these values."
benton.org/headlines/chairman-pais-response-sen-franken-regarding-open-internet | Federal Communications Commission | Franken letter | The Hill
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SECURITY/PRIVACY

SEN MARKEY ON BROADBAND PRIVACY RULES
[SOURCE: US Senate, AUTHOR: Sen Ed Markey (D-MA)]
Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) released the following statement about efforts to undo the Federal Communications Commission’s broadband privacy rules by utilizing the Congressional Review Act: "Big broadband companies want to mine and sell consumers’ most sensitive personal information without any consent. Overturning broadband privacy protections is nothing more than Big Broadband’s way of pumping up its profits and undermining consumer rights. Without the FCC’s broadband privacy rule, broadband providers will be able to sell dossiers of the personal and professional lives of their subscribers to the highest bidder without their consent. I will oppose any efforts to roll back important broadband privacy rules either by Congress or at the FCC.”
benton.org/headlines/sen-markey-criticizes-efforts-undo-broadband-privacy-rules | US Senate | The Hill
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February 18, 2017 (Special Saturday Edition -- Happy President's Day)