Associated Press

US Given Heads Up About Newspaper Data Destruction

The Obama Administration knew in advance that the British government would oversee destruction of a newspaper's hard drives containing leaked National Security Agency documents in 2013, newly declassified documents show.

The White House had said it would be nearly unimaginable for the US government to do the same to an American news organization. The Guardian newspaper, responding to threats from the British government in July 2013, destroyed the data roughly a month after it and other media outlets first published details from the top secret documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The NSA emails, obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, showed that senior intelligence officials were notified of Britain's intent to retrieve the Snowden documents and that one senior US official appeared to praise the effort.

High court rejects Google appeal in snooping case

Google must face a class action lawsuit alleging the Internet giant violated federal wiretap law when its Street View vehicles collected data from private Wi-Fi networks.

The US Supreme Court said that it would not consider Google's challenge to the class action lawsuit. The federal Wiretap Act bans the interception of electronic communications.

Google had argued that it was not illegal to collect radio communications or any "form of electronic communication readily accessible to the general public."

But a San Francisco federal judge and the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals did not agree and refused to dismiss the class action. The class action was filed on behalf of individuals whose information was collected from unsecured Wi-Fi networks when Google's Street View cars rode past unsuspecting households.

Judge: Warrantless Bulk Surveillance Is Legal

A federal judge has affirmed the legality of the US government's bulk collection of phone and e-mail data from foreign nationals living outside the country -- including their contact with US citizens -- in denying a man's motion to dismiss his terrorism conviction.

It was the first legal challenge to the government's bulk data-collection program of non-US citizens living overseas after revelations about massive, warrantless surveillance were made public by former National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden. The program also sweeps up information about US citizens who have contact with overseas suspects. This type of surveillance played a key role in this case.

Lawyers for Mohamed Mohamud, a US citizen who lived in Oregon, tried to show the program violated his constitutional rights and was more broadly unconstitutional. US District Judge Garr King denied that effort.

Youtube To Launch Music Service Amid Indie Dispute

YouTube will launch a new subscription music service, the company acknowledged after being dragged into a public dispute over royalties that will result in the blockade of some independent artists' music videos.

The Google-owned video site said that it is "adding subscription-based features for music on YouTube" and that "hundreds of major label and independent artists" have signed on. The paid service -- to be launched soon -- will likely allow playback of videos without ads and allow for offline playback on mobile devices.

The people familiar with the matter also confirmed that a small number of independent artists who had not agreed to new deal terms will have their videos blocked in some countries starting in a few days, even on the free version of YouTube.

YouTube will block the music videos so users of the test version won't be confused about which content they can access for free and which features require payment, the people said. Allowing free streams of music by certain artists while not offering them on the paid service would erode the value of the paid plan, one person said.

The move also adds pressure on those labels to sign, because not being on YouTube altogether will result in less advertising revenue and exposure.

US Media Getting Ready for World Cup

The World Cup kicks off in Sao Paulo with home team Brazil going up against Croatia in the opener of the world's most popular sporting event.

All 64 soccer matches will air in English in the United States on ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC. Univision and its associated networks -- UniMas, Galavision and Univision Deportes -- will broadcast the games in Spanish.

Here are some media questions heading into the World Cup:

  • Will the World Cup be profitable for ESPN?
  • Who will turn into TV combatants?
  • Is social media ready for the World Cup?

Trans-Atlantic war over Google

Europe’s moves to rein in Google -- including a court ruling ordering the search giant to give people a say in what pops up when someone searches their name -- may be seen in Brussels as striking a blow for the little guy.

But across the Atlantic, the idea that users should be able to edit Google search results in the name of privacy is being slammed as weird and difficult to enforce at best and a crackdown on free speech at worst.

“Americans will find their searches bowdlerized by prissy European sensibilities,” said Stewart Baker, former assistant secretary for policy at the US Department of Homeland Security. “We’ll be the big losers. The big winners will be French ministers who want the right to have their last mistress forgotten.”

Google says it’s still figuring out how to comply with the European Court of Justice’s May 13 ruling, which says the company must respond to complaints about private information that turns up in searches. Google must then decide whether the public’s right to be able to find the information outweighs an individual’s right to control it -- with preference given to the individual.

The judgment applies to all search engines operating within the European Union. But in practice that means Google, given that 90 percent of all online searches there use Google’s search engine.

Free Speech Or Illegal Threats? Justices Could Say

Messages posted on Facebook and Twitter or sent in e-mails can be tasteless, vulgar and even disturbing. But just when do they cross the line from free speech to threats that can be punished as a crime?

As the Internet and social networks allow people to vent their frustrations with the click of a mouse, the Supreme Court is being asked to clarify the First Amendment rights of people who use violent or threatening language on electronic media where the speaker's intent is not always clear. Most lower courts say determining a true threat depends on how an objective person would understand the message.

Now Application 'Inconsistencies' Vex Health Law

A huge new paperwork headache for the government could also be jeopardizing coverage for some of the millions of people who just got health insurance under President Barack Obama's law.

A government document indicates that at least 2 million people enrolled for taxpayer-subsidized private health insurance have data discrepancies in their applications that, if unresolved, could affect what they pay for coverage, or even their legal right to benefits. The final number affected could well be higher.

According to the administration the 2 million figure reflects only consumers who signed up through the federally administered HealthCare.gov website and call centers. The government signed up about 5.4 million people, while state-run websites signed up another 2.6 million. For consumers, a discrepancy means that the information they supplied, subject to perjury laws, does not match what the government has on record.

France Lifts Restrictions on D-Day Video Coverage

France dropped restrictions on live video coverage of ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, ensuring that millions of viewers across the world will be able to watch the event as it unfolds.

Host broadcasters France Televisions and TF1 this time offered news agencies unfettered access to live coverage of the main international ceremony, where President Barack Obama, Queen Elizabeth II and other world leaders will join aging veterans to honor those who fought to liberate Normandy from Nazi occupation.

"Because of the exceptional character of the event and at the request of the president's office, the signal will be available for free," the broadcasters' note read.

Online Pirates Thrive On Legitimate Ad Dollars

Movie and music piracy thrives online in part because crafty website operators receive advertising dollars from major companies like Comcast, Ford and McDonald's.

That's the conclusion of several recent reports that shed light on Internet piracy's funding sources.

Content thieves attract visitors with the promise of free downloads and streams of the latest hit movies, TV shows and songs. Then they profit by pulling in advertising from around the Internet, often concealing their illicit activities so advertising brands remain unaware. Pirate websites run ads that are sometimes covered up by other graphics. They automatically launch legitimate-looking websites as pop-up windows that advertisers don't realize are associated with piracy.

At the end of the day, the pirate website operators still receive a check for serving up a number of views and clicks. The illicit activity is estimated to generate millions of dollars annually. That's only a small portion of the roughly $40 billion of online ad spending every year. Yet it is helping to feed the creation of millions of copyright-infringing websites that provide stolen content to a growing global audience.

5 Reasons Why Media Execs Top CEO Pay Lists

Once again, media company CEOs are among the highest paid executives in the nation, occupying six of the top 10 earning spots according to an Associated Press/Equilar study.

Compensation experts say a variety of factors are at play, including the gain in media stocks, the intangible value of talent in a hit-or-miss business, the control of shareholder power in very few hands, and the decline of the financial sector.

  1. Stock Outperformers: Outsized stock growth boosts the value of stock and option grants. Media companies' shares have rebounded strongly since the 2008 recession, mainly because advertising spending grows in tandem with a growing economy. That means higher-priced ads and higher-priced execs.
  2. Talent Quotient: Making it big in media means generating hits. And while top executives may not be hands-on with every decision, they are where the buck stops.
  3. Voting Power: Control of voting power by a single shareholder can dilute the impact of "say on pay" advisory votes, experts say. A major shareholder can override other shareholders' concerns.
  4. Other Industries' Decline: Lists in previous decades might have had more financial and banking executives. Since the Great Recession punished those companies with government bailouts, bank collapses, accounting revisions and writedowns, they have dropped in the pay rankings.
  5. All Boats Rise: When one company boosts pay, others compensate to remain competitive.

Study: Political TV Ads on Health Law Total $445M

A new analysis finds the nation's health care overhaul deserves a place in advertising history as the focus of extraordinarily high spending on negative political TV ads that have gone largely unanswered by the law's supporters.

The report, released by nonpartisan analysts Kantar Media CMAG, estimates that $445 million was spent on political TV ads mentioning the law since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Spending on negative ads outpaced positive ones by more than 15 to 1.

As the November midterm elections approach, the picture looks much the same, Wilner said, although a few pro-Democratic ads are countering with messages supporting the health law and a few pro-Republican ads have gone from a flat-out call for repeal to a message of replacing the law with "free-market solutions." In the 2014 congressional races, 85 percent of the anti-Obama ads were also anti-"Obamacare" ads, the analysis found.

In some competitive races, 100 percent of the pro-Republican TV ads aimed at Democrats contained anti-health law messages. Since 2010, an estimated $418 million was spent on 880,000 negative TV spots focusing on the law, compared to $27 million on 58,000 positive spots, according to the analysis. Nearly all of the spending was on local TV stations, in races ranging from state offices such as treasurer and governor to Congress and the presidential election.

News Organizations Challenge Ban On Drones

Thirteen leading news organizations are challenging the Federal Aviation Administration's ban on journalists' use of drones, saying it violates First Amendment protection for news gathering.

The organizations, including The Associated Press, filed a brief with the National Transportation Safety Board in support of aerial photographer Raphael Pirker.

Pirker was fined by the FAA for flying a small drone near the University of Virginia to make a commercial video in October 2011. He appealed the fine to the safety board, which hears challenges to FAA decisions.

Russia's Putin Calls the Internet a 'CIA Project'

President Vladimir Putin has mocked the Internet as a CIA project and pledged to protect Russia's interests online.

The Kremlin has been anxious to exert greater control over the Internet, which opposition activists -- barred from national television -- have used to promote their ideas and organize protests. Russia's parliament passed a law requiring social media websites to keep their servers in Russia and save all information about their users for at least half a year.

Also, businessmen close to Putin now control Russia's leading social media network, VKontakte.

US Newspaper Industry Revenue Fell 2.6 PCT In 2013

US newspaper industry revenue fell in 2013, as increases in circulation revenue weren't high enough to make up for shrinking demand for print advertising, an industry trade group said.

The Newspaper Association of America said revenue fell 2.6 percent to $37.6 billion in 2013. Circulation revenue rose 3.7 percent to $10.9 billion, the second straight year of growth. Advertising revenue fell 6.5 percent to $23.6 billion.

Dish To Refund $2 million To Washington State Customers

Dish Network will reimburse Washington state customers about $2 million for a surcharge officials called deceptive, but the satellite TV provider denied wrongdoing in the agreement announced by the state attorney general's office.

The Colorado-based company also will give existing customers who were charged the fee cash credit or access to free programming and pay the state nearly $570,000.

Dish denies the fee was illegal or deceptive, saying the state raised its business tax and the company was informing customers why prices were going up by listing a "Washington surcharge" on bills. Dodge said the company decided to settle with the state to avoid a court fight.

Myanmar Papers Protest Sentencing Of Reporters

Several private newspapers in Myanmar printed black front pages to protest the recent arrests and sentencing of journalists, in the latest sign the country's media climate is worsening.

The black front pages -- which included a protest message -- in the influential Daily Eleven newspaper, its Sports journal and other papers follow a court decision in which a video journalist for Democratic Voice of Burma was sentenced to one year imprisonment for trespassing and obstructing a civil servant while doing a story on education.

"We are publishing the black front page in protest against the sentencing of the DVB reporter and also to oppose the recent harassment of journalists," Wai Phyo, chief editor of the Daily Eleven newspaper, told The Associated Press.

Journalists 'Under Attack' Worldwide, Says AP President

The president and CEO of The Associated Press says journalists around the world are "increasingly under attack" by people trying to influence and control the news.

Gary Pruitt touched on the recent death of AP photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus. She was killed in Afghanistan, and her colleague Kathy Gannon was seriously wounded. The women were covering the run-up to the country's elections.

Pruitt says the increased dangers to reporters and the growing secrecy of governments make journalists' jobs more challenging but also more important.

Media Giants Struggle To Win Over Latino Audiences

Reaching the nation's 55 million Latinos has become gospel for mainstream media giants, but capturing this fast-growing, mostly US-born audience is proving tricky to networks and websites.

For every success story there is a flop. One challenge: Many in the audience today are second- and third-generation Latinos, and often they eschew a Latino-only box, even as they crave more stories that include them.

NBC Asks Gifford Not To Plug Her Wine On 'Today'

Booze may be an oft-mentioned topic when Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb are hosting the fourth hour of the "Today" show, but one alcoholic beverage they won't be talking about is Gifford's new wine line.

Gifford said NBC has asked her not to plug her new Gifft chardonnay and red blend on the show.

"They let me announce it and then they've asked us to please not discuss it right now," Gifford said. "We're in the middle of the big takeover of a major corporation. I think they just want to be -- and rightfully so -- very careful. Everybody wants to dot i's and cross t's and you notice the wine is still sitting there but they've just asked me to be a little careful while they're under great scrutiny and I'm happy to do that."

A representative for "Today" said, "We love and support Kathie Lee and as always, we let her comments speak for themselves."

US Secretly Created 'Cuban Twitter' To Stir Unrest

In July 2010, Joe McSpedon, a US government official, flew to Barcelona to put the final touches on a secret plan to build a social media project aimed at undermining Cuba's communist government.

McSpedon and his team of high-tech contractors had come in from Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Washington and Denver. Their mission: to launch a messaging network that could reach hundreds of thousands of Cubans. To hide the network from the Cuban government, they would set up a byzantine system of front companies using a Cayman Islands bank account, and recruit unsuspecting executives who would not be told of the company's ties to the US government.

McSpedon didn't work for the CIA. This was a program paid for and run by the US Agency for International Development, best known for overseeing billions of dollars in US humanitarian aid.

The plan was to develop a bare-bones "Cuban Twitter," using cellphone text messaging to evade Cuba's strict control of information and its stranglehold restrictions over the Internet. In a play on Twitter, it was called ZunZuneo -- slang for a Cuban hummingbird's tweet. Documents show the US government planned to build a subscriber base through "non-controversial content": news messages on soccer, music, and hurricane updates. Later when the network reached a critical mass of subscribers, perhaps hundreds of thousands, operators would introduce political content aimed at inspiring Cubans to organize "smart mobs" -- mass gatherings called at a moment's notice that might trigger a Cuban Spring, or, as one USAID document put it, "renegotiate the balance of power between the state and society."

Jesse Jackson readies campaign to highlight Silicon Valley's scarcity of blacks and Latinos

The Rev Jesse Jackson plans to lead a delegation to the Hewlett-Packard annual shareholders meeting to bring attention to Silicon Valley's poor record of including blacks and Latinos in hiring, board appointments and startup funding.

Reverend Jackson's strategy borrows from the traditional civil rights era playbook of shaming companies to prod them into transformation. Now he is bringing it to the age of social media and a booming tech industry known for its disruptive innovation.

"We're talking about a sector that responds to future trends," says Ronald Parker, president and CEO of the Executive Leadership Council, a group of current and former African-American Fortune 500 executives who work to increase diversity at the top levels of American business. "He's speaking at one organization. I'm sure the people at Hewlett-Packard have and will continue to put some focus on it. Whether it will accelerate is to be seen. But it's a start."

Earl "Butch" Graves Jr., president and CEO of Black Enterprise magazine, says Jackson is shining a light on the fact that technology companies don't come close to hiring or spending what is commensurate with the demographics of their customers. "Hopefully, what Rev Jackson is doing will bring attention to the 800-pound gorilla in the room that nobody wants to talk about. It's high time that gets addressed," Graves says.

Majority Of Americans Have More Confidence In News Organizations Than Social Media

Americans of all ages still pay heed to serious news even as they seek out the lighter stuff, choosing their own way across a media landscape that no longer relies on front pages and evening newscasts to dictate what's worth knowing, according to a new study from the Media Insight Project.

The findings burst the myth of the media "bubble" -- the idea that no one pays attention to anything beyond a limited sphere of interest, like celebrities or college hoops or Facebook posts. "This idea that somehow we're all going down narrow paths of interest and that many people are just sort of amusing themselves to death and not interested in the news and the world around them?

"That is not the case," said Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute, which teamed with the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research on the project. People today are nibbling from a news buffet spread across 24-hour television, websites, radio, newspapers and magazines, and social networks. Three-fourths of Americans see or hear news daily, including 6 of 10 adults under age 30, the study found. Nearly everyone -- about 9 in 10 people -- said they enjoy keeping up with the news. And more than 6 in 10 say that wherever they find the news, they prefer it to come directly from a news organization.

No Consensus On How To Notify Data Breach Victims

The data breach at Target that exposed millions of credit card numbers has focused attention on the patchwork of state consumer notification laws and renewed a push for a single national standard.

Most states have laws that require retailers to disclose data breaches, but the laws vary wildly. Consumers in one state might learn immediately that their personal information had been exposed, but that might not happen in another state, and notification requirements for businesses depend on where their customers are located. Attorney General Eric Holder has joined the call for a nationwide notification standard, but divisions persist, making a consensus questionable.

"We're stuck with the state-by-state approach unless some compromise gets done at the federal level," said Peter Swire, a privacy expert at Georgia Tech and a former White House privacy official. Despite general agreement on the value of a national standard, there are obstacles to a straightforward compromise:

  • Consumer groups don't want to weaken existing protections in states with the strongest laws.
  • Retailers want laws that are less burdensome to comply with and say too much notification could cause consumers to tune out the problem.
  • Congress is looking at different proposals for how any federal standard should be enforced and what the threshold should be before notification requirements kick in.

[March 10]