Friday, August 24, 2018
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Senate GOP to Trump administration: Don’t get sloppy with broadband
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Rural Utilities Service and American broadband policy
Rural Utilities Service and American broadband policy
This is the moment all of Trump’s anti-media rhetoric has been working toward
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Verizon slowing California firefighters’ data speeds during a wildfire crisis, but was quick to say, “This situation has nothing to do with net neutrality or the current proceeding in court.” Verizon was throttling “unlimited” customers in less extreme circumstances who hit certain data thresholds well before the Federal Communications Commission repealed net neutrality rules in 2017. But under the rules adopted in 2015, customers had a path to complain to the FCC when they believed throttling was unfair. In this case, that route was largely re-directed to the FTC, a structure that’s been criticized as insufficient. “If the net neutrality rules were still in place,” said Gigi Sohn, who worked on the net neutrality rules under the previous FCC chairman, “trust me, I don’t think there would’ve been a monthlong conversation about this.”
Two bills aimed at reinstating aspects of the repealed Obama-era net neutrality rules are headed to a vote in the California General Assembly. The measures, billed by state legislators as “the strongest net neutrality protections in the country,” were stripped of key provisions earlier in 2018 amid fierce opposition from industry groups, but those components were later restored, and the measures have gained momentum in recent weeks. The pair of bills succeeded in passing out of the Assembly Communications and Conveyance panel, setting up another round of deliberations in the main legislature. “Restoring full net neutrality protections in California is within sight,” said California State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco).
The push to reinstate the internet safeguards got a boost from California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. He cited recent reports that Verizon throttled the Santa Clara County Fire Department’s data during its wildfire emergency response efforts as a reason to support the measure. “We’re fighting for #netneutrality, because it’s vital for consumers & govt. agencies — such as @sccfiredept — to have open access to online content without interference or manipulation by providers. It can mean the difference between life/death,” he tweeted.
Congress is angling to impose some training wheels on the Trump administration when it comes to spending taxpayer dollars on broadband deployment. Lawmakers are eyeing the reconciliation process for the farm bill as a way to check the Agriculture Department, which manages various telecom subsidies through its Rural Utilities Service (RUS). “Appropriate guidance in the farm bill being reconciled and the department’s continued vigilance are critical to avoiding another boondoggle,” said a Senate GOP aide, referring to past alleged waste in the program.
The negotiations come as Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) write a new letter cautioning Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to avoid duplicating any Federal Communications Commission efforts as it develops a rural broadband pilot program with $600 million Congress allocated for the purpose earlier in 2018. The lawmakers cite reporting from POLITICO on the mishandling of broadband funds under the Obama-era RUS, which some believe squandered hundreds of millions of dollars. Although Sec. Perdue previously has touted the Trump administration’s goal to better marshall existing funds, the lawmakers stressed some concerns: “While we know you are working to correct these past shortcomings … we strongly urge you to take the necessary steps to avoid the failures of the past Administration,” Chairmen Thune and Wicker write.
Chairman Thune has looked to FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly for guidance, questioning him on the topic during a recent FCC oversight hearing. “There are some provisions in the farm bill that I appreciate,” Commissioner O’Rielly told Chairman Thune. “I think they could go a little further.” Commissioner O’Rielly said Congress should focus on making sure the money helps people who lack broadband options rather than subsidizing those who just have subpar internet service.
Drawing on the increasing body of literature on policy stakeholders and the ever-growing acknowledgement that communication policy is crafted by more than just parliamentarians and formal communication regulators this paper examines the role that another set of regulators plays in communication policy: agriculture regulators. Based on a study of the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS), this paper explores alternative agents of communication policy. More specifically, through document analysis we examine the way in which the Rural Utilities Service has shaped rural broadband policy in the United States over the last three decades. The implications for this research are wide, as it brings another policy actor into the policy making melee, and pushes communication policy scholars to consider the role that non-traditional communication regulators play in the communication policy making process.
In June, Arkansas began rolling out a controversial change to its Medicaid program. Under a new state plan, all recipients who are able to work will have to log 80 working hours each month, or risk losing access to their health care. But finding a job might not be the biggest hurdle for many people. In order to stay eligible for Medicaid, Arkansas’s recipients must report their working hours each month, and it must be done online—the state doesn’t offer a way to do it via mail, telephone, or in person. This stings especially hard in Arkansas, which ranks 48th in the country for internet access. Approximately 30 percent of the state’s population has access to fewer than two internet providers. An estimated 20 percent have only a smart phone for internet access at home. And in a state where 17 percent of residents live below the poverty line, even those with access might not be able to afford service.
During a visit to Utah, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai called for Congress, not his agency, to write “network neutrality” rules regulating businesses that connect consumers to the internet. “We need Congress to set the rules of the digital road,” Chairman Pai said, standing with Rep. Mia Love (R-UT) who made a similar call. Their public comments came after the pair met privately with Utah rural internet providers as part of an FCC outreach on how to extend and improve their services. Chairman Pai said if Congress would give some permanency to rules, it would provide “the certainty we need to move forward with some of the bipartisan initiatives that we all agree on: [improving] rural broadband and promoting digital opportunities” where they now do not exist.
A bipartisan bill now in Congress would give the National Institutes of Health $95 million over five years to fund studies on how media and technology effect children.
The storms [of Hurricanes Irma and Maria] ravaged Puerto Rico's infrastructure and economy, but we are rebuilding both to be stronger than ever. And while the work is hard, the opportunities are endless. Puerto Rico is a blank canvas, making it a unique platform for investment and innovation. That is why we are actively courting technology companies and investors to establish or expand operations on the island. Puerto Rico's biggest draw for technology companies will be the opportunity to experiment with cutting-edge technology as we rebuild our island. And our government will be an eager partner to facilitate those investments. Since the storms, Puerto Rico has partnered with Tesla and SunRun to modernize our energy grid, Google and Facebook to re-establish communications and internet access, and Airbnb to reinvigorate the island’s tourism industry. We are also working with AT&T, T-Mobile, and other telecommunication companies to build a 5G cellular network. We're giving businesses a chance to test new technologies on a once-unimaginable scale. The rebuilt energy and telecommunications system will be one of the most modern in the world. 2017’s storms destroyed so much of our island, but the rebuilding process gives us endless opportunities to improve every part of Puerto Rico’s infrastructure.
Communications & Democracy
This is the moment all of Trump’s anti-media rhetoric has been working toward
Don’t believe your eyes and ears. Believe only me. That has been President Trump’s message to the public for the past two years, pounded in without a break: The press is the enemy. The news is fake. President Donald Trump has done his best to prepare the ground for a moment like Aug 21. In a divided, disbelieving nation, will this really turn out to be the epic moment it looks like? Or will Trump’s intense, years-long campaign to undermine the media — and truth itself — pay off now, in the clutch?
After all, this ugly saga will reach its resolution in the court of public opinion, as political matters often do: in the midterm elections, in the will of Congress, in the ways that citizens talk to their representatives in their home districts. “If what we learned today doesn’t matter to people, what will?” asked CNN's Chris Cuomo. It’s an excellent question, and the answer may be “almost nothing.”
The first denial that Donald Trump knew about hush-money payments to silence women came four days before he was elected president, when his spokeswoman Hope Hicks said, without hedging, “We have no knowledge of any of this.” The second came in January of 2018, when his attorney Michael Cohen said the allegations were “outlandish.” By March, two of the president’s spokesmen — Raj Shah and Sarah Huckabee Sanders — said publicly that President Trump denied all the allegations and any payments. Even Cohen’s attorney, David Schwartz, got in on the action, saying the president “was not aware of any of it.” In April, President Trump finally weighed in, answering a question about whether he knew about a payment to porn star Stephanie Clifford, who uses the stage name Stormy Daniels, with a flat “no.” It’s now clear that the president’s statement was a lie — and that the people speaking for him repeated it.
Apparently, the tabloid executive David J. Pecker has been granted immunity by federal prosecutors investigating payments during the 2016 campaign to two women who said they had affairs with Donald J. Trump. Pecker is chief executive and chairman of American Media Inc., the nation’s biggest tabloid news publisher, best known for its flagship, The National Enquirer. He is close to President Trump and the president’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, and had been integral to a campaign effort to help protect Trump from embarrassing stories about women as he ran for the presidency.
The agreement adds another unusual aspect to a case never seen before in the annals of presidential campaign finance history. It means that a company that operates as a news organization is cooperating with federal authorities on an investigation that involves its work with a campaign. As reported in July, federal prosecutors determined that in American Media’s work for Cohen — and, according to Cohen, Trump’s candidacy — the company operated in more of a campaign mode. And when the authorities subpoenaed the company in April, its executives decided against fighting it, agreeing to cooperate where warranted, and where they deemed officials were not violating First Amendment rights. The company’s cooperation gives prosecutors a second line of access to communications about the effort to protect Trump’s secrets involving women during the campaign, on top of the information provided by Cohen.
As national media organizations contemplate how to mitigate their trust deficit with the American people, a solution emerges from the 2018 Poynter Media Trust Survey: Bag the coverage of President Donald Trump and Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency, and go wall-to-wall on zoning hearings, bus-route changes, liquor-license revocations and softball games. Local news, that is. The survey, after all, shows that people trust sources of local reporting far more than national outlets. The numbers: Whereas 76 percent of Americans register a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in local television news and 73 percent feel likewise about local newspapers, the corresponding numbers for network news and national newspapers are 55 percent and 59 percent, respectively. There’s no great mystery to this dynamic: When people see firetrucks clustered around the corner, and then read a write-up in the newspaper, they’re inclined to believe the latter. So-called “high-knowledge” Democrats have a 98 percent trust rating vs. 11 percent for Republicans.
[Erik Wemple is a media critic with the Washington Post]
Nearly eight-in-ten Americans say that when it comes to important issues facing the country, most Republican and Democratic voters not only disagree over plans and policies, but also cannot agree on basic facts. Ironically, Republicans and Democrats do agree that partisan disagreements extend to the basic facts of issues. About eight-in-ten Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (81%) say Republican and Democratic voters disagree on basic facts of issues. A similar – albeit slightly smaller – share of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (76%) say the same. Just 18% of Republicans and 23% of Democrats say that voters of the two parties can agree on basic facts even if they disagree over policies and plans. Opinion on whether or not Republican and Democratic voters can agree on basic facts differs by race and ethnicity. Whites (82%) are far more likely than blacks (70%) or Hispanics (64%) to say that voters cannot agree on basic facts. And while about a third (34%) of Hispanics and 26% of blacks say that voters of both major parties can agree on basic facts, fewer whites (17%) say the same.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors has updated its brand. The board, which oversees government-backed international programming services including the Voice of America, is now the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM). The reboot is meant to convey that the digital age agency now extends far beyond TV and radio to include digital and mobile platforms. The agency is headed by John Lansing as CEO. "The term 'broadcasting' does not accurately describe what we do," said Lansing. "The new name reflects our modernization and forward momentum while honoring our enduring mission to inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy." Lansing said the decision was made in consultation with the Trump Administration, Congress and others. "In a time of shifting politics, challenging media landscapes, and weaponized information," he said. "Our identity and name will now address these realities." In addition to VOA, USAGM comprises Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Television and Radio Martí), Radio Free Asia (RFA), and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN).
Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org) and Robbie McBeath (rmcbeath AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
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