BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, JUNE 13, 2010 (HAPPY 9TH BIRTHDAY, DYLAN JOE)
The Filter Bubble http://benton.org/node/76778
AT&T/T-MOBILE
AT&T warns deal block could delay network
The Other Duopoly
Divide, buy and conquer - analysis
Banality of Capitulation: Why Silicon Valley Supports AT&T - editorial
Trade a merger for broadband?
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
NTIA Offers FCC Ideas on National, Public Safety Broadband Network
Is it time to start factoring data into cost of app ownership?
Smartphones at saturation point, profitability under threat
UK warns mobile operators not to derail spectrum auction
INTERNET/BROADBAND
FCC's slow pace on Internet rules puzzles some
M-Lab Tool, Shaperprobe, Reveals Traffic Shaping Among Major ISPs
NTIA Seeks Input on the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Functions - public notice
More Rural Broadband Consolidation With Midco Buying US Cable Assets [links to web]
Earthlink Leverages Broadband Stimulus Money for Middle Mile Network [links to web]
Amazon Cancels Connecticut Website Sales Agreements, Citing New State Tax [links to web]
1Gbps fiber for $70 -- in America? Yup. [links to web]
Online sales tax battle looms in US
The Hidden Cost of Letting Workers Telecommute [links to web]
Rules to manage the digital clouds - editorial
CYBERSECURITY
EU states agree on tougher sanctions on cybercrime
IMF struck by cyber attack [links to web]
Spain arrests Anonymous members over Sony attack [links to web]
Chairman Issa to Microsoft, Yahoo: Hand over hack records
TELEVISION
Court affirms rules on cable access to sports
AT&T, Verizon Push FCC to Resolve Complaints in Wake of Court Decision [links to web]
US cable aims to broaden its horizons [links to web]
For Instant Ratings, Interviews With a Checkbook [links to web]
TELECOM
AT&T Loses at U.S. Supreme Court on Price for Sharing Lines
The Other Duopoly
JOURNALISM
Media's Problems, While Serious, Said Fixable
For Instant Ratings, Interviews With a Checkbook [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
FBI Agents Get Leeway to Push Privacy Bounds
Same Gaffes, but Now on Twitter - analysis
KIDS AND MEDIA
Lawmakers, advocates push social networks for more protection of youngest users [links to web]
Songs Stick in Teens' Heads [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
New Portal Will Cut 10 Days From FOIA Process [links to web]
CoSN E-Content Report - press release [links to web]
Why Isn't There a "Google Kids"? [links to web]
In Joplin's Tornado Emergency, Electronic Health Records Were Key [links to web]
Former FCC Commissioner Launches Free-Market Think Tank [links to web]
AT&T/T-MOBILE
AT&T: LET US HAVE OUR WAY OR WE'LL SHOOT OURSELVES
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Paul Taylor]
AT&T has hinted that it may delay extending its next-generation telecom network to more than 50 million Americans if regulators block its acquisition of T-Mobile USA. The largest US telecommunications group on June 10 responded to criticism of its proposed $39bn deal with Deutsche Telekom for T-Mobile with a 235-page submission to the Federal Communications Commission, which is reviewing the transaction. In the filing, AT&T said that the FCC cannot “simply assume” that if the merger were blocked that it would still deploy a 4G network based on Long Term Evolution, or LTE, technology to 97 per cent of the population. It indicated that it had originally planned to extend the network to just cover 80 per cent of the population by the end of 2013. It plans to begin rolling out the service in five cities this summer. AT&T said in the filing that the deal has “drawn unprecedented support from across the political, social and commercial landscape.” AT&T’s FCC filing emphasized what it described as “the overarching imperative that drives this transaction: giving AT&T and T-Mobile USA customers the network capacity they need to enjoy the full promise of the mobile broadband revolution.” AT&T has argued that the deal would address spectrum shortages faced by AT&T’s mobile unit and enable the company to improve call quality in densely populated urban areas.
“The synergies of this transaction will create immense new capacity that will provide enormous benefits to consumers,” the company said. “That new capacity will provide a more robust platform for the next generation of bandwidth-intensive mobile applications while improving consumers’ overall service quality through faster data speeds and fewer dropped and blocked calls. In the process it will create jobs and investment, help bridge the digital divide and help achieve the administration’s rural broadband objectives, all without the expenditure of government funds.”
benton.org/node/77234 | Financial Times | Broadcasting&Cable
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THE OTHER DUOPOLY
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Josh Smith]
Most of the anxiety about AT&T’s proposed merger with T-Mobile centers on the wireless market. Critics say that the deal will create a duopoly in which AT&T and Verizon control nearly 80 percent of the wireless business. But, in fact, that nightmare may already exist -- in an entirely different arena: the complex system of payments for landline services. As Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) complained at a hearing last month, “We’re reassembling a duopoly in the back end.” That “back end” refers to landline communications companies that lease access to their networks -- a market variously referred to as backhaul, special access, or high capacity. The good news is that there is a fair amount of competition when it comes to carrying voice and data traffic between large cities. The bad news is that there are a lot fewer options -- and sometimes just one -- when it comes to the “last mile” connection between these competitive networks and, say, a medium-sized office building or a cell-phone tower next to a highway. Together, AT&T and Verizon own 70 percent of backhaul nationwide, according to the NoChokePoints coalition, an interest group. What the Federal Communications Commission does about it may come to define the telecommunications market for years to come. Ownership of those landline networks gives players a major competitive advantage. When the FCC deregulated the special-access market in the mid-1990s, interstate special-access fees made up only 5 percent of Verizon’s and AT&T’s total revenues. But consolidation, and the lack of competition, allowed them to raise the price for back-end use. By 2007, the service had jumped to almost 25 percent of Verizon’s revenue and about one-fifth of AT&T’s income, according to a 2009 report by the National Regulatory Research Institute that provides the latest available data. “The backhaul issue is the Rodney Dangerfield of telecom issues—it never gets the respect it deserves,” said Maura Corbett, executive director of NoChokePoints, whose coalition includes public-advocacy groups and wireless companies such as Sprint. “It is the plumbing of the Internet and wireless communications,” she said. The coalition is urging the FCC “to determine what changes are necessary to ensure reasonable prices.”
benton.org/node/77233 | National Journal
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DIVIDE, BUY, CONQUER
[SOURCE: The Deal, AUTHOR: Nicole Duran]
What does advocating for gay rights or the environment or civil rights have to do with AT&T's proposed $39 billion merger with T-Mobile USA Inc.? As letters praising the deal poured into the Federal Communications Commission from groups having nothing to do with telecommunications or antitrust, more and more of their members have begun asking that question. Though both sides usually deny it, corporations frequently ask recipients of their philanthropic largess to weigh in on pet issues or mergers. The trend intensified last year during Comcast Corp.'s successful acquisition of NBC Universal Inc., and it's reaching new heights as hundreds of organizations answered the call for AT&T. Now the members of these groups are becoming more unhappy about it.
When the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD, submitted its letter of support to the FCC, critics pounced almost immediately. "What is a gay rights organization doing weighing in on a phone company merger?" John Aravosis of Washington wrote on AmericaBlog Gay one day after GLAAD's letter became public. "My sexual orientation has exactly zero to do with my phone service. Well, that's not entirely true ..." The rest of the post, which more than 200 people "recommended" via Facebook, gets to the heart of critics' complaints: that GLAAD and others are engaging in quid pro quo. "There's a lot of talk already that this is happening because AT&T underwrites the GLAAD awards, because the company has made monetary grants to GLAAD and has a member on GLAAD's board," he continued. "It certainly looks that way." GLAAD did not respond to a request seeking comment.
The monetary connection between most of these groups and AT&T -- like Comcast before it -- is strong. Almost all of the groups' websites bear AT&T's logo and list AT&T as a funder or have an AT&T executive on the board. But how companies use these ties has become more sophisticated, say nonprofit leaders and lobbyists. Known as third-party outreach, companies have forged partnerships with organizations advocating for minorities, the disabled, the poor or other disadvantaged communities for decades. The interaction helps build brands with specific demographics, bolsters their philanthropic bona fides and fulfills their civic engagement principles. But until five or six years ago, it ended there, according to one former nonprofit executive.
benton.org/node/77194 | Deal, The
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SILICON VALLEY AND THE MERGER
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Art Brodsky]
[Commentary] At first glance, the news earlier this week from Silicon Valley had all the makings of a political bombshell — some of the biggest names in a region supposedly known for backing competition and innovation sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) backing AT&T’s takeover of T-Mobile, a transaction that would reduce competition and stifle innovation. When patriots all over the world are risking their lives, how in the U.S. corporate world, could companies like Facebook and Oracle and leading venture capitalists like Kleiner Perkins or Sequoia Capital simply walk away from those guiding principles that have come to symbolize the technology sector? One letter, organized by Microsoft, was signed (with corporate logos only) by Microsoft, Avaya, Brocade, Facebook, Oracle, Qualcomm, RIM and Yahoo. The VCs sent separate letters.
At second glance, however, the view is much different. Call it the banality of capitulation. There is no stirring defense of competition or innovation which made Silicon Valley what it is today. There is only the reality of interlocking financial relationships controlled by AT&T. It's about the money. Perhaps this headline from a story last fall will shed some light on things: “AT&T will provide tens of millions to app developers; working with Kleiner and Sequoia”. AT&T is prepared to spend its millions finding and developing mobile apps. And guess who will be its guide to the app world? “AT&T is partnering with venture-capital firms Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, early backers of Google, for its app-development venture. The firms will help AT&T identify promising application developers and may invest in companies that emerge through the process,” the story said. So having a nice working relationship with AT&T and the possibility of getting involved with millions in investments not such a bad deal. These are investors, after all. Of course, if AT&T succeeds in getting rid of T-Mobile, then AT&T will have a tighter control over mobile apps, and then the investors would make more money. In that light, it makes perfect sense.
benton.org/node/77192 | Public Knowledge
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AT&T, T-MOBILE AND MINNESOTA
[SOURCE: Star Tribune, AUTHOR: Jeremy Herb]
AT&T Minnesota President Bob Bass says that 1.2 million additional people in Minnesota will get broadband the company's plan to buy T-Mobile and a push to cover 97 percent of the population nationally. But critics of the proposed merger, including cellphone competitor Sprint, say the promise of increased rural broadband is being offered as a mirage to entice regulators into allowing the megamerger to proceed. They say that nothing is stopping AT&T from expanding now if it was willing to put the effort -- and money -- into rural broadband. Like other telecom services, high-speed Internet and strong cell coverage have been slowest to reach rural communities. The proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom leaves some of Minnesota's rural residents wondering if it could fix their dropped calls and Internet issues, or if they'll still be left out of range as prices rise.
benton.org/node/77190 | Star Tribune
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
NTIA ON PUBLIC SAFETY NETWORK
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration, AUTHOR: Lawrence Strickling, Anna Gomez, Kathy Smith]
In a filing at the Federal Communications Commission, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration highlights important issues in the development of an overarching framework to achieve a nationwide interoperable public safety wireless broadband network and suggests an appropriate course of action. NTIA supports legislation to create a not-for profit Public Safety Broadband Corporation that would effectively oversee a nationwide network operation tailored to meet the needs of the local, State, Tribal, and Federal public safety communities. The Corporation would consult and coordinate with relevant public safety officials at State, local, or Tribal jurisdictions, as well as Federal entities where appropriate, on matters within their purview. This corporate structure would be the most efficient and cost-effective way to ensure the deployment of a truly nationwide, interoperable public safety network.
benton.org/node/77204 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration
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DATA AND APP OWNERSHIP
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Ryan Kim]
Right now, smartphone users compare the relative cost of their apps by their price, a reasonable measure. But with data caps looming and unlimited plans fading away, the better measure would be total cost of ownership, which factors in not only price, but more importantly, data usage, suggests InkWire, which makes a news aggregator app. The company did an analysis comparing the total cost of ownership between individual publisher apps and aggregation apps like Reeder, Pulse and Yahoo. Surprise: InkWire, which has a vested interest in this study, found that it’s more economical to buy a reader app that pulls from various sources than hitting up single-source apps, even when aggregation apps initially cost more.
By looking at the average price of the apps amortized over 18 months, and then factoring in the average monthly cost of bandwidth for mobile users and the average amount of data usage per month (about 126 MB), InkWire found that the average data costs for an aggregator app were about $2.73 a month. Assuming that users visit multiple single-source publishing apps to get the same info they can find in one aggregator, the cost of reading apps dedicated to a single source was about $7.94 a month, based on InkWire’s modest assumption that one aggregating app can replace three single-source apps.
benton.org/node/77180 | GigaOm
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SMARTPHONE SATURATION
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Paul Rasmussen]
The high-end smartphone market is at a peak, with traditional vendors about to come under intense competitive pressure from new entrants, according to an analyst. Growth and profitability is also going to be squeezed hard as this segment of the handset industry undergoes a radical shift. These worrying predictions came from Richard Windsor, a senior analyst with Nomura Securities, speaking at the Open Mobile Summit in London. "Based on the company's research, the high-end smartphone segment is fast becoming saturated, and the market for handsets costing around $500 is running out," Windsor said. "We could see Apple start to struggle." However, this could change radically if Apple launches a mid-range iPhone, which would then take them into the volume market. "They are the company to do it, and it would make sense. But, Apple has admitted that they 'don't do cheap well.'"
benton.org/node/77175 | Fierce
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UK SPECTRUM AUCTION
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Parker]
The UK government has warned mobile operators not to embark on legal action that would delay an auction of airwaves suitable for supporting fast web surfing on smartphones. The culture department responded to a thinly-veiled threat of legal action by O2 over the proposed auction rules by saying it was important the radio spectrum was released “as soon as possible”. Google and Skype have also waded into the heated debate over the auction rules by urging regulators to ensure that mobile operators do not stop their customers using services that threaten the telecoms companies’ revenues. Britain has missed the opportunity to be an early adopter of mobile networks based on fourth generation wireless technology that enables fast web browsing on smartphones. Consumers in the US and Japan are already enjoying the benefits. The spectrum available in the auction planned for early next year is suitable for 4G networks, but the infrastructure is unlikely to built until 2013 or 2014 at the earliest.
benton.org/node/77221 | Financial Times
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
FCC'S NETWORK NEUTRALITY RULES
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Jasmine Melvin]
The Federal Communications Commission has been oddly slow in unleashing new powers to police the Internet, six months after finalizing network neutrality rules. The delay has kept the rules in a glass box, both preventing the FCC from cracking down on unwarranted blocking of Internet content and keeping legal challenges at bay.
Analysts could not pinpoint a reason for the delay in unleashing the new powers, but did not rule out the idea the FCC was stalling court and congressional challenges. "If to a degree the order is vulnerable from a judicial standpoint, it'll push out that much into the future any decision on whether the rules are going to be upheld or not," said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Rebecca Arbogast. The order cannot be challenged in the courts until it is published in the Federal Register. Lawmakers eager to overturn the rules are also held at bay as the Senate cannot expedite consideration of a measure passed in the House to throw out the regulations.
benton.org/node/77187 | Reuters
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TRAFFIC SHAPING
[SOURCE: New America Foundation, AUTHOR: Sarah Morris, Thomas Gideon, Benjamin Lennett]
Developed by Georgia Institute of Technology researchers Partha Kanuparthy and Constantine Dovrolis, a new measurement program called ShaperProbe is the first of its kind to detect traffic shaping over end user connections to the Internet. Through a large sample test deployment on the Measurement Lab (“M-Lab”) platform, the researchers found that several major ISPs are actively shaping end user traffic over their Internet connections. The research conducted by Kanuparthy and Dovrolis achieved three objectives: 1) the development of an active end-to-end mechanism for detecting traffic shaping, 2) the deployment of ShaperProbe technology over the M-Lab platform and resulting analysis, and 3) the subsequent modification of the ShaperProbe detection algorithm for passive deployment on the traffic of any TCP-based application. Viewed in the context of recent debates surrounding truth-in-labeling requirements and network capacity, the findings raise concerns about the reliability of ISP advertised speeds and statements about network congestion.
The ShaperProbe research primarily underscores the need for better transparency among ISPs. Although the research does not indicate that traffic shaping practices of many of the providers are nefarious, they have the effect of substantially obscuring what actual data rates consumers can expect on their broadband service. The research found for example that in at least one instance, a company was actively shaping in 80% of the tests conducted without any explicit mention or explanation of traffic shaping to consumers in its Service-Level Agreement (“SLA”).
benton.org/node/77188 | New America Foundation
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IANA FUNCTIONS
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration]
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is accepting pubic comment on a draft statement of work on the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions. The IANA functions have historically included: (1) the coordination of the assignment of technical Internet protocol parameters; (2) the administration of certain responsibilities associated with Internet DNS root zone management; (3) the allocation of Internet numbering resources; and (4) other services related to the management of the ARPA and INT top-level domains (TLDs). The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) currently performs the IANA functions.
benton.org/node/77206 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration
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ONLINE SALES TAX
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Barney Jopson]
Amazon and Ebay, two of the biggest names in online retail, have staked out contrary positions in a debate over the taxation of US Internet shopping, which enables many buyers to escape paying sales tax. The two companies are divided in the face of a lobbying challenge from bricks-and-mortar rivals including Walmart and Sears, which complain that a tax loophole gives their online rivals an unfair price advantage. The issue is being pushed up the political agenda by the weak public finances of many US states, which are struggling with budget deficits and are eager to find new sources of tax revenue. The US does not have a federal tax law on Internet commerce, but since 2008 seven states have changed their laws in an effort to make Amazon and others collect sales tax from customers. Amazon has fought such moves aggressively, but says it would support a federal law provided it was simple and applied even-handedly. Ebay, by contrast, remains a staunch opponent of any catch-all legislation. The controversy has implications for cash-strapped consumers, whose shift to tax-free online shopping was accelerated by the economic downturn.
benton.org/node/77227 | Financial Times
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RULES FOR THE CLOUDS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Devices such as Apple’s iPod and Amazon’s Kindle once looked like becoming the dominant platforms for media, giving their creators huge sway over fields such as digital music and digital books. But the unveiling last week of Apple’s iCloud again makes clear that these gadgets and their connected online services are just stepping stones. They connect to the ultimate platforms for digital existence: the big data centers that store an increasing amount of the world’s information in “the cloud”. The battle between companies such as Apple and Google to draw mass digital audiences and suck as much of their users’ personal data as they can into vast centralized repositories has the feeling of an endgame. Other digital platforms merely tended towards monopoly; the cloud operators could be unassailable. Even if users are not trapped by data lock-in, network effects, scale economics and other forces suggest a few will dominate. That is why urgent action is needed to set ground rules for the new cloud players, starting with security. The hacking of the IMF shows few institutions are fully prepared. The guardians of our digital assets must face incentives to take their responsibilities seriously. When things go wrong, they must be held to account. A new system of personal rights, establishing who should have a say in how personal data are used and who may profit from them, is also overdue. Users’ rights should be reinforced with mechanisms that require their active consent more often, rather than the system of tacit approval that currently exists. They should also have the freedom to take all of their data with them when they choose to leave a cloud service, and to leave no digital traces behind. The need for a new system of rights extends to access to media.
benton.org/node/77225 | Financial Times
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CYBERSECURITY
TOUGHER CYBERCRIME MEASURE IN EU
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Christopher Le Coq]
European Union countries agreed on June 10 on tougher sanctions against people conducting cyber attacks. Under the new rules, which have to be agreed by the European Parliament, hackers would face a sentence of at least five years if found guilty of causing serious damage to IT systems. Tougher penalties would also affect perpetrators of attacks through botnets -- networks of infected computers programmed to send spam e-mails -- and target identity theft. Illegally intercepting data would become a criminal offence in the EU. The EU's 27 member states have also decided to boost their judicial and police cooperation by creating a cybercrime unit which could be attached to Europol, the European police agency.
benton.org/node/77210 | Reuters
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ISSA WANTS RECORDS
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) fired off letters to Microsoft and Yahoo asking them to preserve all e-mails from the personal Hotmail and Yahoo Mail accounts of federal officials who may have been targeted in previous hacker attacks. Chairman Issa sent a very similar letter to Google Chief Executive Larry Page earlier this week, after the search giant recently disclosed its Gmail service suffered a hacker attack. In the letters to Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz and Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, Issa wrote that recent media reports have said hackers breached the two companies’ systems. He fears these cyber criminals may have accessed email messages of senior federal officials and military personnel. “This development is of particular concern to this committee, not only because of our interest in the broader issue of cybersecurity and its national security implications, but also because of recent news accounts describing a similar infiltration of individual users’ Google Gmail accounts,” Chairman Issa wrote. “Our committee is primarily interested in determining whether official federal communications may have been inappropriately compromised.” In the letter, Issa requests Yahoo and Microsoft produce all documents and electronic records that identify the federal officials whose Yahoo and Hotmail email accounts were believed to be compromised since the beginning of January 2010.
benton.org/node/77200 | Politico
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TELEVISION
COURT BACKS FCC RULES
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Jasmine Melvin]
The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the Federal Communications Commission's decision to bar cable operators from blocking access to some sports programming. The FCC closed a loophole last year that allowed cable companies to deny access to channels delivered via terrestrial ground lines and not satellite feeds. The court denied Cablevision Systems' challenge that the FCC lacked the statutory authority to regulate the withholding of such programming. "We see nothing in the statute that unambiguously precludes the Commission from extending its program access rules to terrestrially delivered programming," the court said. But the court did vacate one part of the order, which the FCC will have to reexamine before any program access complaints can be addressed. The DC Circuit said the agency "acted arbitrarily and capriciously" by concluding that exclusive terrestrial programming contracts are categorically unfair.
benton.org/node/77185 | Reuters
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TELECOM
SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS LINE SHARING
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Greg Stohr]
Established local telephone companies including AT&T must share parts of their networks with competitors at cost, the Supreme Court ruled. The unanimous ruling backs the position taken by the Federal Communications Commission in a fight stemming from the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the law that injected competition into the local telephone business. The law requires incumbent local carriers to share their facilities with rivals.
benton.org/node/77183 | Bloomberg | ars technica
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JOURNALISM
FCC AT COLUMBIA
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Diana Marszalek]
On June 10, Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski and senior advisor Steven Waldmen were at the Columbia School of Journalism discussing the FCC's new report, The Information Needs of Communities. Waldmen said he remains optimistic despite “serious problems” with today’s media landscape. “While we are all aware of very serious challenges that face us, they are fixable,” Waldman said. “If we can preserve and allow innovations to continue to address the serious problems, we really can have the system that the founders wanted and the best media system that we've ever had.” Waldman called for increased accountability by stations when it comes to “pay-for-play” disclosures, saying paid or sponsor-driven content should be labeled not only on air but also online. The practice of advertisers dictating content or reporting is “a serious problem,” but can be abated through a searchable, online database of stations that are “selling their airwaves,” Waldman said. “We propose a system based on transparency.” Waldman cited current circumstances making it increasingly hard for TV stations to produce the kind of in-depth local news that serves their communities. Staff cuts, and increased pressures on those who remain to produce more, means some of the beats stations used to cover — courts, state governments and agriculture, for example — are not getting the attention they need, he said. At the same time, though, he praised local TV news for actually growing (the number of local news hours has increased 35% in the last seven years) at a time when other legacy media, like newspapers, have been shrinking, or even folding. Many broadcasters have also taken advantage of digital opportunities to expand the reach of their local news.
Joel Meares notes that Waldman's presentation was simply an abridged version of the presentation he gave yesterday at the FCC’s open meeting where the report was first presented. There were no questions taken from the audience. The room was full of sharp minds ready to ask some challenging questions. Josh Stearns, from Free Press, for example, was in attendance, and said after the event that the FCC report had “dropped the ball” on issues of media consolidation, localism, and enhanced disclosure. Stearns was particularly concerned about the report’s recommendation to shelve the FCC’s ongoing localism proceedings, which gather information from consumers and civic organizations on how broadcasters are serving their local communities. With Waldman saying that the crisis in the media is most acute in “full-time accountability reporting” at the local level, it seems odd that measures specifically in place to address local news services would be disbanded without great explanation or obvious replacement.
benton.org/node/77213 | TVNewsCheck | video | Chairman Genachowski | Columbia Journalism Review | Josh Stearns
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
NEW FBI RULES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Charlie Savage]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is giving significant new powers to its roughly 14,000 agents, allowing them more leeway to search databases, go through household trash or use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who have attracted their attention. The F.B.I. soon plans to issue a new edition of its manual, called the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, according to an official who has worked on the draft document and several others who have been briefed on its contents. The new rules add to several measures taken over the past decade to give agents more latitude as they search for signs of criminal or terrorist activity. The F.B.I. recently briefed several privacy advocates about the coming changes. Among them, Michael German, a former F.B.I. agent who is now a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that it was unwise to further ease restrictions on agents’ power to use potentially intrusive techniques, especially if they lacked a firm reason to suspect someone of wrongdoing.
benton.org/node/77236 | New York Times
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SAME GAFFES, NOW ON TWITTER
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Carr]
[Commentary] Richard Nixon did some terrible things in order to maintain a grip on the Oval Office, but the dumbest may have been recording what went on there. Nowadays, the hidden recorder is no longer necessary: the Internet has become the Rose Mary Woods of the digital age, dutifully transcribing every wiggle and wobble of the people who hold office. Public officials are being ambiently recorded, one way or another, regardless of whether they intend to be. Extensive efforts were expended over the weekend to comb through Sarah Palin’s e-mails from her time as the governor of Alaska. Ms. Palin may have thought that she was just chatting with her staff and friends, but now every comma, every aside, every random thought is being picked apart for meaning. There may have been some legitimate news buried in the trove of e-mails, and she remains a person of significant public interest. So the press response makes sense, but she could not be blamed for feeling that she was under attack from a horde of biting ants. “A lot of those e-mails obviously weren't meant for public consumption,” she told Chris Wallace of Fox News, where she is a source, a commentator and a subject, all wrapped into one. As it turns out, the 24,000 pages of e-mails that journalists and the public spent the weekend poring through contained nothing notable — quite an achievement that Palin seems guilty of nothing more than the excessive use of exclamation points. But the results are beside the point. She is of interest not because of what she did as governor but because she has almost perfected the modern hybrid of politician and celebrity: once your daughter appears on “Dancing With the Stars,” your celebrity is far more important that your position on off-shore drilling. That means that all those e-mails are destined for public consumption whether she likes it or not.
benton.org/node/77229 | New York Times | WSJ - Gordon Crovitz
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