BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2015
For a recap of top stories, see the Weekly Round-up https://www.benton.org/headlines/weekly-roundup
PRIVACY/SECURITY
The World Says No to Surveillance - Edward Snowden op-ed
Snowden deserves credit for NSA reform -- and to stand trial - LA Times editorial [links to web]
Hunting for Hackers, NSA Secretly Expands Internet Spying at US Border
Data Breach Linked to China Exposes Millions of US Workers
Did the Senate just roll back the government’s surveillance power? Not so fast. - op-ed
Anti-spying measures slipped into funding bill [links to web]
FBI official: Companies should help us ‘prevent encryption above all else’ [links to web]
Consumers Dislike Data-Mining but Feel Helpless to Stop It, Report Finds [links to web]
Evil Wi-Fi captive portal could spoof Apple Pay to get users’ credit card data [links to web]
Watchdog Says Pentagon Needs to Crank Up ‘Insider Threat’ Monitoring [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Living Without Broadband In 2015: How 55 Million Americans Find Jobs, Study, Watch YouTube
FCC Chairman Wheeler tries to rewrite Internet history - AEI op-ed [links to web]
Regulating interconnection: The FCC has a role to play, but it’s more limited than they’d like - AEI op-ed [links to web]
Telecom Law Overhaul Hit by 'Atomic Bomb' of Net Neutrality [links to web]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
A brief history of Dish's many attempts to break into wireless - analysis [links to web]
Why Dish, T-Mobile Merger Makes All the Sense in the World - analysis [links to web]
A T-Mobile-Dish Deal Could be the Ultimate Marriage of Convenience [links to web]
Questions on Spectrum Animate T-Mobile-Dish Merger Talks - analysis [links to web]
T-Mobile and Dish Launch Summer of Love - analysis [links to web]
Dish’s Finicky CEO Is Wild Card in T-Mobile Talks [links to web]
Possible Dish/T-Mobile merger could be trouble for AT&T and Verizon [links to web]
NAB: FCC Spectrum Scenarios Raise More Qs Than As [links to web]
The IoT needs more wireless spectrum - AEI op-ed [links to web]
Vodafone confirms Liberty Global talks [links to web]
TELEVISION/RADIO
Where There is “Competition, Competition, Competition,” the Need for Cable Rate Regulation is Diminished - press release
FCC’s Clyburn Explains ‘Effective Competition’ Dissent - press release [links to web]
FCC’s Rosenworcel: ‘Effective Competition’ Decision Goes Beyond Congressional Mandate - press release [links to web]
Regulations Should Reflect the Marketplace to Which They Apply - press release [links to web]
FCC’s O’Rielly: Presumption of Competing Provider Effective Competition is an Idea Whose Time Has Come - press release [links to web]
Public Knowledge Disappointed by FCC Effective Competition Vote - press release
Pay TV Subs Yearn for Unlimited DVR Storage [links to web]
Stations: Encourage Web Viewers To Return - TVNewsCheck op-ed [links to web]
Pandora internet radio wins nod to buy South Dakota station [links to web]
CONTENT
SoundCloud Reaches Royalty Deal With 20,000 Record Labels [links to web]
Online video gets more tempting, confusing with NFL and Showtime [links to web]
Digital Democracy Survey - Deloitte research [links to web]
Can Copyright Protect a Language? - Public Knowledge op-ed [links to web]
TRANSPORTATION
Sen Thune Sets Passenger Rail Safety Hearing [links to web]
JOURNALISM
Why Millennials Don't Vote for Mayor - Knight Foundation research
Twitter effectively shuts down Politwoops [links to web]
Campaign Finance Reform Advocates: Media Should "Significantly Increase Coverage" Of Money In Politics [links to web]
LABOR
Gawker Writers, Editors Join WGAE [links to web]
DIVERSITY
WMC Divided 2015: The Media Gender Gap - research
Remarks of FCC Commissioner Clyburn at DC Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners - speech [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
FCC's Sohn Remarks: "Halftime at the Wheeler FCC" - speech
The Man Stopping Vladimir Putin From Taking Over the Internet [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
China Is Exporting its Tiananmen Censorship, and We Are All Victims [links to web]
Free TVs in Mexico Are Seen as Having Political Strings Attached [links to web]
Vodafone confirms Liberty Global talks [links to web]
PRIVACY/SECURITY
SNOWDEN OP-ED
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Edward Snowden]
[Commentary] Two years ago today, three journalists and I worked nervously in a Hong Kong hotel room, waiting to see how the world would react to the revelation that the National Security Agency had been making records of nearly every phone call in the United States. In the days that followed, those journalists and others published documents revealing that democratic governments had been monitoring the private activities of ordinary citizens who had done nothing wrong. Privately, there were moments when I worried that we might have put our privileged lives at risk for nothing — that the public would react with indifference, or practiced cynicism, to the revelations. Never have I been so grateful to have been so wrong. Two years on, the difference is profound. In a single month, the NSA’s invasive call-tracking program was declared unlawful by the courts and disowned by Congress. After a White House-appointed oversight board investigation found that this program had not stopped a single terrorist attack, even the president who once defended its propriety and criticized its disclosure has now ordered it terminated. This is the power of an informed public.
[Snowden is a director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation]
benton.org/headlines/edward-snowden-world-says-no-surveillance | New York Times
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HUNTING FOR HACKERS, NSA SECRETLY EXPANDS INTERNET SPYING AT US BORDER
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Charlie Savage, Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Henrik Moltke]
Without public notice or debate, the Obama Administration has expanded the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international Internet traffic to search for evidence of malicious computer hacking, according to classified NSA documents. In mid-2012, Justice Department lawyers wrote two secret memos permitting the spy agency to begin hunting on Internet cables, without a warrant and on American soil, for data linked to computer intrusions originating abroad -- including traffic that flows to suspicious Internet addresses or contains malware, the documents show. The Justice Department allowed the agency to monitor only addresses and “cybersignatures” -- patterns associated with computer intrusions -- that it could tie to foreign governments. But the documents also note that the NSA sought to target hackers even when it could not establish any links to foreign powers. The disclosures, based on documents provided by Edward J. Snowden, the former NSA contractor, and come at a time of unprecedented cyberattacks on American financial institutions, businesses and government agencies, but also of greater scrutiny of secret legal justifications for broader government surveillance.
benton.org/headlines/hunting-hackers-nsa-secretly-expands-internet-spying-us-border | New York Times
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DATA BREACH
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Sanger, Julie Hirschfeld David]
The Obama Administration announced what appeared to be one of the largest breaches of federal employees’ data, involving at least four million current and former government workers in an intrusion that officials said apparently originated in China. The compromised data was held by the Office of Personnel Management, which handles government security clearances and federal employee records. The breach was first detected in April, the office said, but it appears to have begun at late in 2014. The target appeared to be Social Security numbers and other “personal identifying information,” but it was unclear whether the attack was related to commercial gain or espionage. The announcement of the intrusion came on the same day The New York Times reported that the National Security Agency had expanded warrantless surveillance of foreign hackers, an effort that could sweep up the information of innocent Americans. There seemed to be little doubt among federal officials that the attack was launched from China, but it was unclear whether it might have been state sponsored.
benton.org/headlines/data-breach-linked-china-exposes-millions-us-workers | New York Times | WSJ
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DID THE SENATE JUST ROLL BACK THE GOVERNMENT'S SURVEILLANCE POWER? NOT SO FAST.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: HL Pohlman]
[Commentary] After a great deal of political posturing and brinkmanship, the Senate finally passed the House version of the USA Freedom Act. Finally, some rebalancing of privacy and national security concerns in the post-9/11 world! Except … not so fast. Although the law does prohibit the bulk collection of the metadata linked to all American telephone communications, it arguably will expand the government’s ability to analyze the data it does collect. How is this possible? Well, in the past, the government collected as much US.telephone metadata as it could, but the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) only allowed the government to analyze the data if there was a “reasonable articulable suspicion” that a foreign telephone number was associated with specific international terrorist groups. The government would query the database, which contained up to five years of US telephone metadata, to see if that foreign terrorist number communicated with someone inside the United States. If there was a link between the foreign number and a US number, then the government would check what numbers were linked to that US number, and so on. The big question is whether the FISC will permit the government to engage in this expanded program of telephone metadata analysis or whether it will it continue to restrict the analysis of telephone metadata to counterterrorism purposes. The FISC has yet to weigh in on whether the government can expand the use of telephone metadata analysis as a tool of U.S. foreign policy. If the court goes along with the expansion of the use of these analytical tools, then American privacy is more endangered than ever. The irony is that the court’s privacy is rather closely held within the executive branch -- so it’s not clear we will find out what choice it has made anytime soon.
[H.L. Pohlman is a professor of political science at Dickinson College]
benton.org/headlines/did-senate-just-roll-back-governments-surveillance-power-not-so-fast | Washington Post
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
LIVING WITHOUT BROADBAND IN 2015: HOW 55 MILLION AMERICANS FIND JOBS, STUDY, WATCH YOUTUBE
[SOURCE: International Business Times, AUTHOR: Kerry Flynn]
For Americans who lack reliable broadband service at home, some of life’s most basic tasks -- paying bills, applying for jobs, taking tests and the like -- often require trips to a library or Internet café at all hours. New York City, the town with the world’s largest free public Wi-Fi plan, had people huddled in a Midtown Manhattan branch shortly before closing time on a recent Thursday to use the Internet. Some were there because their own computers were stolen or broken. For others, the library’s silent nooks are an escape between work and home. But for a good many, such as a 60-year-old Washington Heights resident Nicole Tanis, the library’s system is a necessity. She is one who does not pay for and cannot fathom affording broadband Internet at home on her income from Social Security and doing small tasks online. And in 2015, living without reliable access to the Web is, while not quite impossible, highly disadvantageous in myriad ways large and small. Many companies’ hiring process now start with the Web, in some cases exclusively. “If you go to a gas station today and you ask for an application for a job, they’ll tell you to submit it online. You go to a Subway. Target. They’re all processing those applications online,” said Edyael Casaperalta, a research fellow at the Washington, DC-based nonprofit Public Knowledge. And some of the most accessible jobs for those who lack college or high school diplomas, such as telemarketing from home, require a broadband connection. As more and more aspects of life move online, the greater the risk that those on the wrong side of the digital divide will fall further behind. The feds are hoping to prevent that. A proposal from the Federal Communications Commission seeks to update the government’s 30-year-old aid program for telephone plans, called Lifeline, to include broadband Internet. The proposal calls for an expansion of the number of providers in the program and the inclusion of minimum standards for dependable, high-speed Internet access. “As communications technologies and markets evolve, the Lifeline program also has to evolve to remain relevant,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wrote.
benton.org/headlines/living-without-broadband-2015-how-55-million-americans-find-jobs-study-watch-youtube | International Business Times
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TELEVISION
CHAIRMAN WHEELER’S STATEMENT ON EFFECTIVE COMPETITION ORDER
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Wheeler]
In the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, Congress instructed that where “Effective Competition” existed among pay-TV providers, such competition was preferable to using local rate regulation to protect consumers. Congress determined that Effective Competition existed in communities where there are more than one pay-tv provider in the market serving more than 15 percent of the community. In the more than twenty years since Congress’s 1992 instructions, competition in the video marketplace has increased dramatically. Direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers, like DIRECTV and DISH Network, now have a ubiquitous nationwide presence providing competition in virtually all markets. This is in addition to the competition increasingly being provided by other pay –TV providers. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that the Commission found, in almost all cases, that Effective Competition did exist and that most cable operators who petitioned the FCC met the statutory test. Where there is “Competition, Competition, Competition,” the need for basic service tier rate regulation is diminished. This is our presumption: competition results in lower prices for consumers. However, any local franchising authority is free to come to the FCC and rebut this new presumption for its service area, and, where successful, regulate basic tier cable rates. In addition, nothing in this Order affects other franchising authority responsibilities including the collection of franchise fees, provisions relating to PEG channels and I-Nets, and the creation and enforcement of customer service standards.
benton.org/headlines/where-there-competition-competition-competition-need-cable-rate-regulation-diminished | Federal Communications Commission
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PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE DISAPPOINTED BY FCC EFFECTIVE COMPETITION VOTE
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: John Bergmayer]
The Federal Communications Commission has voted to create a presumption that all cable markets are subject to "effective competition," with FCC Commissioners Clyburn and Rosenworcel dissenting in part. This action does not serve the public interest. Congress directed the FCC to streamline the process by which small cable operators can file petitions with the FCC for finding that they are subject to effective competition, which exempts them from some regulatory oversight. In general, Public Knowledge agrees that the FCC should do what it can to make regulatory processes simpler for smaller entities. However, the FCC has gone beyond Congress's directive, adopting a blanket presumption that all cable operators, large and small, are subject to effective competition. Any analysis that shows that the largest cable companies face effective competition in their local markets is flawed. These companies bundle cable television with high-speed broadband and often have control over valuable programming. They are in a fundamentally different marketplace position than the small cable operators that Congress is concerned with. Public Knowledge commends Commissioners Clyburn and Rosenworcel for dissenting from this action to the extent it exceeds the directive given by Congress.
benton.org/headlines/public-knowledge-disappointed-fcc-effective-competition-vote | Public Knowledge
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JOURNALISM
WHY MILLENIALS DON'T VOTE FOR MAYOR
[SOURCE: Knight Foundation, AUTHOR: ]
A large share of millennials who vote in national elections opt to bypass local elections. This research sheds more light about why and highlights ways to encourage greater civic engagement locally. This research identifies that a key barrier to greater millennial participation in local elections is trustworthy information. But the research also shows that millennials are not actively seeking this information and it will be important to reach them through their existing social networks and community affiliations. Recent studies have shown that Americans have higher levels of trust in local government than federal government. This may be true, but this research suggests millennials struggle with clearly understanding the roles served by local government. Demonstrating to millennials how local government affects their lives and its importance in addressing the issues they passionately care about in their community will be vital for encouraging them to vote in local elections.
benton.org/headlines/why-millennials-dont-vote-mayor | Knight Foundation | Poynter
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DIVERSITY
WMC DIVIDED 2015: THE MEDIA GENDER GAP
[SOURCE: Women's Media Center, AUTHOR: ]
The Women's Media Center (WMC) released its yearly report on the status of women in US media 2015. The report is based on new and original research that finds the media landscape is still dominated by male voices and male perspectives. “Inequality defines our media," said Julie Burton, President of the Women’s Media Center. “Our research shows that women, who are more than half of the population, write only a third of the stories. Media tells us our roles in society – it tells us who we are and what we can be. This new report tells us who matters and what is important to media – and it is not women.” WMC’s “Divided 2015: The Media Gender Gap” found that:
Overall, men generated 62.1 percent of news; women generated 37.3 percent.
In evening broadcast news, men were on camera 68 percent of the time. These include appearances by anchors as well as correspondents. Women were on-camera 32 percent of the time.
In print, men wrote 62 percent of all stories in 10 of the most widely circulated newspapers. Women wrote just 37 percent.
On the Internet, men wrote 58 percent of content at four online news sites. Women wrote 42 percent of the content.
On the wires, men wrote 62 percent of the content. Women wrote 38 percent.
benton.org/headlines/wmc-divided-2015-media-gender-gap | Women's Media Center | Huffington Post | Vox
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POLICYMAKERS
FCC'S SOHN REMARKS: "HALFTIME AT THE WHEELER FCC"
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Gigi Sohn]
If I had to use a football metaphor to describe where we are at the Federal Communications Commission today, I would say that we'ere at halftime -- although without rest or refreshments. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler was sworn in 19 months ago, and by my calculation, we have about another 19 months to go. So it seems to be a good time to take stock of what the FCC has accomplished over that time and what the future holds...I won't belabor the big decisions that make the papers seemingly every day, like open Internet, mergers, community broadband, E-Rate and spectrum auctions. I'd rather focus on those actions that didn't get as much attention, but impact the everyday lives of Americans. Decisions like getting the major wireless companies to agree to unlock their cellphones; requiring those same companies to certify annually that their networks can withstand the damage done by natural disasters; requiring that all wireless carriers enable text to 911 and provide bettter location accuracy in an emergency; requiring cable operators and broadcasters to improve their closed captioning; eliminating the sports blackout rule; simplifying our consumer complaint system; and last, butnot least, using the power of our enforcement authority to ensure, among other things, that consumers' privacy and data are protected and that netowkr operatros who engage in fraudulent billing practices are called to account. So what should you all expect in the second 19 months? There are numerous decisions in the pipeline, but I want to highlight five:
1) Lifeline Modernization
2) Over-the-Top Video: Making any providers that make linear streams of programming available for purchase, including over-the-top video services, multichannel video programming distrubtors (MVPDs).
3) Tech Transitions: From his very first days in office, Chairman Wheeler has emphasized that the values underlying our communications system must be preserved as that system transitions to all Internet Protocol.
4) Incentive Auction
5) FCC.Gov 2.0: While fixing the FCC's website and our 18 year old Electronic Comment Filing System won't bring fast, fair and open broadband to American households, it will go a long way to makingthe agency more open, transparent and responsive.
benton.org/headlines/fccs-sohn-remarks-halftime-wheeler-fcc | Federal Communications Commission
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