May 2010

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 2010

The House takes up of the America COMPETES Act again (see below) and much more on today's agenda http://bit.ly/agHy12

AGENDA
   House Dems to try again on COMPETES

BROADCASTING AND CABLE
   Broadcasters, Cable fear FCC meddling could remake TV news business
   The Changing Face of Network Television News
   Broadcasters Oppose Retransmission Reform
   Free Press, Consumers Union, PTC Ask FCC to Help Resolve Retrans Disputes
   Wall Street Loves Cable ... Still
   In a health crisis, it's public radio to the rescue

MORE NEWS FROM THE FCC
   Influential FCC adviser Colin Crowell prepares to join the industry he oversaw
   FCC adviser Sherrese Smith discusses media, consumer protection
   Genachowski Answers Wireless Communications Services Letters
   FCC Waivers and Funding Could Fuel Nationwide Public Safety Network
   FCC Seeks Comment on Public Safety Broadband Networks
   Genachowski, Kohl and Hatch Exchange Letters on Broadband Competition, Spectrum

BROADBAND/INTERNET
   Coming To Terms With Title II
   Electricity: The New Math
   Census Bureau hopes much of 2020 count will take place online

PRIVACY
   Study: Even Moderate Privacy Regulation Reduces Ad Effectiveness
   Making Privacy Personal
   Facebook Grapples With Privacy Issues
   FTC probes privacy concerns with digital copiers

DIGITAL CONTENT
   Report Examines Alcohol Industry's Online Marketing Efforts
   Louisiana politician lawsuit against Internet commenters
   IG: Poor controls over access to IRS portal put taxpayer data at risk
   Facebook, mobile carriers offer free access to site
   Professional social networking booming
   Will Growing Crop of TV Apps Engage Viewers, Advertisers?

MEDIA & ELECTIONS
   Chuck Schumer vs. Free Speech

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AGENDA

COMPETES ACT ON AGENDA
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Tony Romm, Russell Berman]
House Democrats on Wednesday will take a second stab at a science and technology research funding bill that was scuttled last week because of a debate over Internet porn. Aides said the House would vote on a version that costs about half of what the legislation that Democratic leaders abandoned last week cost. The bill will also include language expressed forbidding the use of federal funds to pay employees who have been disciplined for viewing pornography. That provision was included in a motion by Republicans that successfully forced Democrats to vote for steep cuts to the bill. Once that measure - called a motion to recommit - passed, Democratic leaders pulled the underlying legislation from the floor and lambasted Republicans for playing "political games." The bill reauthorizes the Competes Act, a program to fund science research and training grants, which originally passed in 2007 with bipartisan support. The revised bill extends the program by three years instead of five, thereby reducing its projected cost to $48 billion, from $94 billion.
benton.org/node/35891 | Hill, The | CongressDaily | House Committee on Science and Technology
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BROADCASTING AND CABLE

TV FEARS GOVERNMENT MEDDLING
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission has professed an interest in salvaging the news business, or growing a new variant. But concerned broadcast and cable operators keep asking the same question: Could the combination of the economic downturn and systemic changes be misinterpreted or leveraged into government intervention in their business -- or be a thumb on the scale of their noncommercial competition? Broadcasters are fighting a several-front war for their future. The broadband plan is a threat to their spectrum holdings; the future of media could marginalize them; and the FCC is considering changes to the retransmission consent rules that could include outside arbitration or even standstill agreements preventing broadcasters from removing their signals during retrans impasses, even though the contracts to carry those signals have expired.
benton.org/node/35876 | Broadcasting&Cable
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DIVERSITY AND TV NEWS
[SOURCE: Miller-McCune, AUTHOR: Tom Jacobs]
Women and members of ethnic minorities have made huge strides in network television news over the past 20 years, according to a newly published analysis. In the journal Electronic News, Kathleen Ryan of Miami University of Ohio and Joy Chavez Mapaye of the University of Alaska, look at female and minority representation on the three major networks' news programs during one week in February 2007, and compare it to a similar survey done in 1987. Both the 1987 and 2007 studies examined all the news programming on ABC, CBS and NBC, including the evening news, morning shows and late-night broadcasts. The differences were startling. In 1987, men reported 73 percent of stories; in 2007, men reported 48 percent of stories and women 40 percent. (The remaining 12 percent were team efforts featuring reporters of each gender.)
benton.org/node/35875 | Miller-McCune | Electronic news
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BROADCASTERS AND RETRANSMISSION
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: ]
The National Association of Broadcasters, along with the affiliate associations for ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, called on the Federal Communications Commission to deny a cable- and satellite-backed petition that they believe would give pay television providers increased leverage during retransmission consent negotiations. The proposed reforms sought are "an attempt to tilt the retransmission negotiating process... against local television stations," the broadcasters said it their joint comments. "Without the ability to negotiate for fair retransmission consent compensation, local stations would have fewer financial resources with which to compete with [cable networks] in the acquisition of quality programming, ultimately relegating the free, over-the-air television service to a non-competitive programming service." The local broadcast groups disputed cable claims that retransmission consent fees result in higher cable rates.
benton.org/node/35890 | TVNewsCheck
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CONSUMERS RETRANSMISSION DISPUTES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Put Free Press, Consumers Union and the Parents Television Council in the "retransmission consent is broken" category, one which also includes cable operators pushing for reform. The groups got together to file comments in the Federal Communications Commission's inquiry into retransmission consent. In their filing, the groups ask the FCC to step in to help resolve disputes when retrans negotiations reach an impasse, with industry footing the bill for that outside arbitration. And in a novel route to unbundling and a la carte, they want, as part of dispute resolution, a mechanism for consumers to be able to decline to pay for any channels that have been sold as a bundle. "Consumers should no longer be prisoners of pricey bundles, but should have the freedom to select, pay for and receive in their living rooms only those channels they want," they argued.
benton.org/node/35889 | Broadcasting&Cable
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WALL STREET LOVES CABLE
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Mike Farrell]
Despite the looming specter of regulatory pricing scrutiny, a panel of top cable analysts remain bullish on the industry, pointing to its superior infrastructure and broadband leadership, but warning that potential weak spots remain in customer service and shrinking consumer wallets. Sanford Bernstein cable and satellite analyst Craig Moffett, who created a bit of a firestorm with his downgrading of the entire cable sector on May 10 -- which some believe helped lead to a major sell-off in the stocks -- defended his decision in a panel at The Cable Show. Moffett's actions were in response to the Federal Communications move to classify cable broadband service as a Title II telecommunications service. But what worried Moffett the most was a clause in the ruling that gave the commission the right to regulate rates. While the FCC has said it will tread lightly, and Moffett believes it will, there is still the threat that rate regulation could come. The problem is the core of Title II includes language about just and reasonable pricing," Mofett said. "This is not a, 'We have the option to opine on whether processes are just and reasonable'; this is a, 'We are compelled to opine if prices are just and reasonable.' All we have raised, notwithstanding the promise of forbearance, is the reasonable question about the long-term flexibility of pricing." But Moffett stressed that he is still bullish on the cable sector, pointing to its robust infrastructure and leadership in the broadband market.
benton.org/node/35888 | Multichannel News
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RADIO AND EMERGENCIES
[SOURCE: GovernemntHealthIT, AUTHOR: Bob Violino]
In the aftermath of January's devastating earthquake in Haiti, rapid communication was critical to the rescue and aid efforts. One of the key links in the response was an obscure radio network designed to carry messages when traditional communications infrastructure has been wiped out. The National Public Health Radio Network (NPHRN) was activated during the earthquake to provide vital communications between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Federal Communications Commission-licensed communications services and other agencies in the affected areas in Haiti. The NPHRN, a unit of CDC Coordinating Center for Health Information and Service, is designed to be used during such events, when traditional communications, such as the telephone, the Internet and cellular networks are damaged or overloaded. "The purpose of the [network] is to provide the CDC and state, territorial, tribal and local health departments with a non-infrastructure dependent communications capability to ensure the exchange of critical health-related information under all conditions," said David Clark, the CDC's NPHRN manager. The radio network was created in 2003 with the assistance of FEMA, which controls the 14 frequencies maintained by the CDC.
benton.org/node/35869 | GovernemntHealthIT
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MORE NEWS FROM THE FCC

CROWELL LEAVING FCC
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
Colin Crowell's fingerprints are all over some of the biggest technology and telecommunications statutes of the last two decades. He's one of the most influential tech policy operatives you've never heard of. Such is the playbook of Washington, where staff on Capitol Hill and in federal agencies act as powerful agents crafting laws and regulations behind the scenes -- a place where Crowell has happily sat watching the epic transformation of communications law for the Internet age. After serving as senior adviser to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and 20 years as a lead staffer for Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), the former chairman of the House telecommunications subcommittee, Crowell, 44, is preparing to join the ranks of the industry he has helped oversee. The impending transition is another big part of the Washington playbook: the revolving door, in which some Hill staffers and lawmakers leave public service for the private sector -- sometimes eventually returning to the Hill or an administration. It could be a bumpy transition as Crowell shifts roles from public servant -- and Markey's wingman -- to the private sector. Besides his short FCC stint, and two years immediately after college spent as a Jesuit volunteer in Peru, working for Markey is the only job Crowell has had. And until recently, he was not known for expressing interest in the private sector.
benton.org/node/35892 | Washington Post
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WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski]
Earlier this year, Members of Congress wrote Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski to warn him about how mishandling an FCC proceeding on Wireless Communications Services (WCS) could cause harmful interference to nearly 35 million listeners to satellite radio. They said that "deployment of new broadband services should not threaten other established licensees and cause disruptive interference to millions of existing consumers. The WCS spectrum is already being utilized for fixed broadband applications pursuant to FCC rules. Those original rules prohibited mobile devices from operating on these frequencies, however, specifically because oft he threat of interference with satellite radio services, which use frequencies adjacent to WCS. This initial conclusion was based upon a thorough record, and despite engineering advances since.that time, remains equally valid today." In April, Chairman Genachowski wrote back to Congress saying that the FCC is "actively engaged in addressing interference issues that might exist between WCS and the Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service (SDARS). Commission staff released a Public Notice on April 2, 20 I0, to supplement the record with public comments on draft interference rules for the WCS and SDARS. The draft rules include provisions to minimize the risk of harmful interference to SDARS from mobile WCS operation."
benton.org/node/35885 | Federal Communications Commission
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NATIONWIDE PUBLIC SAFETY NETWORK
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: Corey McKenna]
The Federal Communications Commission took a significant step toward building a nationwide public safety network last week by clearing the way for 21 cities, counties and states to begin building their own fourth-generation wireless networks. The FCC gave conditional approval on May 12 to waiver requests from New Jersey, Los Angeles County, Boston and 18 others to start creating 4G networks known as Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks. These networks could begin to form a nationwide interoperable wireless network that has been sought by public safety officials since Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The LTE networks approved last week will use 10 MHz of spectrum that public safety was granted in 1997. But the FCC required that the new networks be compatible with the proposed national D Block 700 MHz network. "I think it is going to have a very profound effect upon our ability to get a nationwide network because if we can get some of these early build-out cities or regions or states done, we'll get some early lessons and learn what works and what doesn't," said Harlin McEwen, chairman of the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit designated by the FCC to guide construction of the national wireless network for first responders.
benton.org/node/35884 | Government Technology
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FCC SEEKS COMMENT ON PUBLIC SAFETY NETWORKS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
On May 13, 2010, the Federal Communications Commission released an order granting conditional waivers to twenty one public safety entities (Petitioners) for early deployment of public safety broadband networks in the 700 MHz public safety broadband spectrum (PSBB Block). The Waiver Order establishes technical, operational and governance conditions for early deployment and requires each Petitioner to submit to the Bureau, within a specified time window, a detailed plan for achieving interoperability with other public safety broadband networks. The release of this order is a major step towards development of a nationwide public safety broadband network. However, there remain open several key technical issues focused on network deployment. In this Public Notice, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau seeks further comment on interoperability, out-of-band emissions, and equipment certification surrounding public safety broadband network interoperability which will serve the basis for final rules for the public safety broadband network.
benton.org/node/35883 | Federal Communications Commission
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LETTERS ADDRESS COMPETITION, SPECTRUM
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
In December 2009, Sen Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) wrote Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski will some suggestions about how FCC broadband competition policy could be improved. They said the FCC should readily use its ample authority -- including allocation of spectrum -- to promote new entry and increased competition in the broadband market. In late April, Chairman Genachowski replied, "Mobile broadband is central to our mission at the Commission. No sector of the communications industry holds greater potential to enhance America's economic competitiveness, spur job creation, and improve the quality of our lives. To achieve this potential, however, we must address one of the biggest challenges to the development of competitive broadband services, the limitation on available spectrum. The National Broadband Plan, which was delivered to Congress on March 16,2010, presents multiple recommendations for allocating spectrum to meet consumers' needs for wireless broadband services."
benton.org/node/35882 | Federal Communications Commission
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BROADBAND/INTERNET

COMING TO TERMS WITH TITLE II
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
While extremists on both sides of the debate over whether to reclassify high-speed Internet service under Title II common-carrier regulations traded barbs here last week, the tone at The Cable Show 2010 in Los Angeles was cautiously respectful, even conciliatory. Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski and general counsel Austin Schlick, who both made appearances at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association's annual convention, promised that rate regulation and forcing cable operators to make their networks available to the competition would not be part of any new regime to regulate broadband transmissions under Title II. Even Federal Trade Commission chairman Jon Leibowitz, an avowed advocate of network neutrality, took aim at both the gloom-and-doom and Pollyanna predictions for reclassification. In Washington, both the Democratic chairman and ranking Republican on the House Communications Subcommittee proposed legislative fixes to the problem, but ones that would take very different approaches. In short, it was round two in the Title II fight, with opponents respecting each other's power and strategizing their next moves.
benton.org/node/35878 | Multichannel News
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SMART METERS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Rebecca Smith]
One of modern life's most durable features -- fixed-price electricity -- is slowly being pushed to the sidelines, a creeping change that will influence such things as what time millions of Americans cook dinner and what appliances they buy. Driving the change is the rollout of so-called smart meters, which can transmit data on how much power is being used at any given time. That gives utilities the ability to charge more for electricity at peak times and less during lulls. Spreading out electricity consumption more evenly across the day leads to more efficient use of power plants and lower emissions. Advanced meters "put consumers in charge of an expense that's often thousands of dollars a year and in ways that were never possible before," said John Geary, vice president of innovation for TXU Energy, a Texas power seller. "They won't be flying blind anymore." Utilities, economists and even behavioral psychologists are still trying to figure out the best way to convince consumers to cut their power at the right time. They worry that folks will be in for a jolt if they suddenly are exposed to wildly fluctuating prices—possibly prompting a smart-meter backlash. But if prices don't change, it would undercut the purpose of rolling out the costly smart meters in the first place.
benton.org/node/35895 | Wall Street Journal
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PRIVACY

PRIVACY REDUCES AD EFFECTIVENESS
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wendy Davis]
A new study by two marketing professors concludes that banner ads are less effective in Europe, where online privacy laws restrict ad targeting, than in other parts of the world. "The empirical findings of this paper suggest that even moderate privacy regulation does reduce the effectiveness of online advertising," states the paper, authored by University of Toronto's Avi Goldfarb and MIT's Catherine E. Tucker. Europe's data protection laws ban marketers from tracking users via Web bugs or cookies without notifying people and obtaining their consent. It's not clear whether that consent must be opt-out or if opt-in will suffice. But the report authors speculate that marketers responded to the ambiguity by adopting a "conservative legal interpretation" and curbing their use of targeted ads. The study draws on surveys of 3.3 million Web users who had been exposed to a total of 9,596 online ad campaigns between 2001 and 2008. Researchers asked users who had seen particular targeted ads whether they intended to purchase the products marketed and compared those answers to a control group of users who saw other ads.
benton.org/node/35886 | MediaPost
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MAKING PRIVACY PERSONAL
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: David Berkowitz]
How do you get people to care about privacy? People care about it in offline settings. At home, you know which window shades you prefer to draw closed at which times. At work, you might discuss Saturday night's exploits with your cubicle-mate and not with your boss. Few can tell online; I can't. I avoid networks like blippy that share purchases based on credit card data, and I turned off Google Latitude's option of automatically broadcasting my location from mobile devices, but I'm admittedly inconsistent and too laissez-faire with most other forms of social media. The latest debates over Facebook's privacy policies may not last, but there's a lot of good coming out of the dialogue. If Facebook won't clearly explain how it publicizes consumers' information, others are trying to fill the void. Most resources have the echo-chamber effect, only reaching people who care about privacy and social media to begin with. But if enough of these echoes escape and start ricocheting around the water coolers where more Facebook users hang out, then there's a chance to bring the discussion to people who wouldn't intentionally look for it. Let's look at several attempts to raise awareness about these privacy issues, and how likely they'll break through the echo chamber.
benton.org/node/35887 | MediaPost
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FACEBOOK GRAPPLES WITH PRIVACY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jessica Vascellaro]
A backlash over Facebook Inc.'s privacy practices has triggered disagreement inside the company that could force Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to scale back efforts to encourage users to share more about themselves in public. The social network has come under fire for a series of recent changes to its policies that have limited what users can keep private, as well as embarrassing technical glitches that exposed personal data. Privacy advocates have called on regulators to intervene. Some frustrated users, meanwhile, have created websites that highlight what they see as shortcomings in Facebook's privacy controls. The site's privacy travails have rattled Facebook employees and put pressure on Mr. Zuckerberg, who has argued for years that its users should be more open with their information. He has at times over-ruled employees who argue Facebook should make more information private, by default, according to people familiar with the matter. He has instead pushed to offer tools so users can control their information
benton.org/node/35893 | Wall Street Journal
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DIGITAL CONTENT

ALCOHOL AND ONLINE MARKETING
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
A new report released Tuesday claims alcohol beverage companies are using new technologies such as social media, mobile phone applications and online videos to target youth. The report, conducted by the Center for Digital Democracy and the Berkeley Media Studies Group, highlights several examples to try to prove its case that firms are targeting youth by using the communication tools they use most. For example, the report begins by examining beer maker Heineken's efforts to boost its brand among Puerto Rican youth. It created a virtual online luxury development where "the price to acquire a piece of this property wasn't cash--it was attention, time, and engagement with the brand." Users could receive real-world welcome kits where the "keys" to their virtual world also served as bottle openers. The campaign also offered a free e-mail service with a Heineken-related Internet address.
benton.org/node/35874 | CongressDaily
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POLITICIAN DROPS WEBSITE SUIT
[SOURCE: New Orleans Times-Picayune, AUTHOR: Richard Rainey]
Jefferson Parish President Steve Theriot dropped a parish lawsuit Monday that sought the identities behind 11 anonymous user names on the Times-Picayune website who made critical comments online about his administration and former parish officials. The reversal comes after a group of residents criticized Theriot and the Parish Council for the suit at last week's council meeting. Theriot said Wednesday he sued to learn more details about the commenters' specific complaints, but the lawsuit's language stated that Theriot had "suffered embarrassment" and that the comments contained "maliciously false and defamatory statements concerning plaintiffs with the purpose of defaming the plaintiffs." The suit, filed in the 24th Judicial District Court, also listed Jefferson Parish as a plaintiff and Theriot had said the parish would pay for any litigation. Council Chairman John Young said the law firm that filed the suit, Phelps-Dunbar, had been initially hired by the council to handle the investigation of Anne Marie Vandenweghe, an assistant parish attorney who Theriot suspended in February on suspicion of improperly using her parish computer. She was reinstated just weeks later.
benton.org/node/35881 | New Orleans Times-Picayune
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MEDIA & ELECTIONS

DISCLOSE ACT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Joan Aikens, Lee Ann Elliott, Thomas Josefiak, David Mason, Bradley Smith, Hans von Spakovsky, Michael Toner, Darryl Wold]
[Commentary] As former commissioners on the Federal Election Commission with almost 75 years of combined experience, we believe that the bill proposed on April 30 by Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Chris Van Hollen to "blunt" the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC is unnecessary, partially duplicative of existing law, and severely burdensome to the right to engage in political speech and advocacy. Moreover, the Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections Act, or Disclose Act, abandons the longstanding policy of treating unions and businesses equally, suggesting partisan motives that undermine respect for campaign finance laws.
benton.org/node/35894 | Wall Street Journal
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