August 15, 2011 (Jobs, Jobs, Jobs)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, AUGUST 15, 2011
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JOBS
Jobs and Economic Security for Rural America - press release
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs - analysis
AT&T's Wannabe Merger: It's the Jobs, Stupid - op-ed
Build the Internet! A Pathway to Jobs in Latin America [links to web]
Verizon customers see outages as worker strike continues
CWA, Verizon Accuse Each Other of Violating Labor Laws
Administration issues far-reaching plan for building cyber workforce
AT&T/T-MOBILE
Survey: AT&T deal appears less likely
Only If You're AT&T Does 1 + 1 = 3 - press release
AT&T's Wannabe Merger: It's the Jobs, Stupid - op-ed
MORE ON WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
As Networks Speed Up, Data Hits a Wall
Industry Tries to Streamline Privacy Policies for Mobile Users
It’s coming: The emergence of second-class mobile citizens
Where are the smartphones of yesteryear? [links to web]
TELECOM/INTERNET
Reforming universal service and intercarrier compensation
Verizon claims sabotage, calls cops on strikers
The 4 biggest threats facing the cloud - analysis [links to web]
How Tom Selleck predicted the future of tech [links to web]
CONTENT
Facebook Removed Threats From Site During Riots
Amazon Cracks Down on Some E-Book ‘Publishers’ [links to web]
Netflix tests new web user interface for kids [links to web]
Painful Profits From Web Video
Call for change to US gambling laws [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
UK riots: teenager charged with BlackBerry incitement
BART admits halting cell service to stop protests
See also:BART overreached when it blocked cell phone use - editorial [links to web]
Blocking social media access a ‘slippery path,’ civil liberties advocates say
Social media monitored more by law enforcement
Shutting down social media to stop violence does not violate free speech - editorial
JOURNALISM
What Did TV News Really Learn from 9/11 - editorial
NPR: Still Bending Over Backward - analysis
The Stain on News Corp - analysis
OWNERSHIP
Time Warner Cable Is Said to Acquire Midwest Cable Operator
Where Silicon Valley stands on the downgrade
HEALTH
Health Care IT Will Need to Support Diverse Mobile Devices
Millions of Dollars in Federal Broadband Funds Fail To Reach Rural Health Care Providers - research [links to web]
OPEN GOVERNMENT/GOV PERFORMANCE
Open Government and the National Plan
Rachel Sterne Vs. New York's Digital Bureaucracy [links to web]
Tight budgets prompt IT cutbacks [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
RUS Asks for Input on Information Collection for Telecom Borrowers [links to web]
Is the TV Drama Nearing Its Final Act? [links to web]
Our addiction to technology trumps caffeine, chocolate and alcohol [links to web]
JOBS
JOBS AND ECONOMIC SECURITY
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Press release]
The White House Rural Council released a new report entitled Jobs and Economic Security for Rural America, which lays out the economic landscape rural Americans face today and highlights the Administration’s key accomplishments in rural communities. The Jobs and Economic Security for Rural America report focuses on five critical areas: creating jobs and promoting economic growth, improving access to quality health care and education, fostering innovation, expanding outdoor opportunities, and supporting veterans and military families. The Administration has made significant investments in promoting innovation and investment in rural America, including expanding broadband access to over 7 million rural Americans, including more than 350,000 rural businesses.
benton.org/node/86779 | White House, The | read the report
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JOBS, JOBS, JOBS
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
As July ended, we shared some stories on jobs instead of the then-pending debt deal. And, in the wake of the deal, the Obama Administration has been trying hard to focus attention on job creation, so we return to the subject.
http://benton.org/node/86709
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AT&T MERGER AND JOBS
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Josh Levy]
[Commentary] Given this political environment, you'd think politicians would want to keep far away from anything that smells of lost jobs. But AT&T's merger with T-Mobile — which will likely give the pink slip to as many as 20,000 workers — must smell like roses. There seems to be no other explanation for why some members of Congress would embrace the deal. Why, in this climate, would any member of Congress support a deal that is safe bet to put people out of work? To answer that, it's worth taking a step back and looking at how AT&T conducts business. AT&T contributes millions to members of Congress and to groups like GLAAD and the National Education Association, who in turn come out in favor of things like... AT&T's merger with T-Mobile. Many of these officials and organization heads may know that AT&T is peddling, at best, half-truths. But AT&T has so completely worked its way into the economic structure of electoral politics and issue advocacy that many of its beneficiaries simply sign off on whatever the behemoth wants. Which brings us back to jobs. AT&T and the labor unions that support this deal tell us that 20,000 new union jobs will be created if the merger goes through. That sounds great, until you discover that T-Mobile presently employs about 40,000 people. Do the simple math, and you realize that the only merger benefits for many of those currently working for T-Mobile will be unemployment benefits.
benton.org/node/86776 | Huffington Post, The
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VERIZON OUTAGES
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
As negotiations over a strike by 45,000 Verizon workers continued to sour, several thousand Washington-area customers experienced service outages caused by what the company called acts of sabotage. Verizon reported 28 incidents of cut cables and damaged terminals in the District and Maryland since the strike began Sunday, out of more than 100 similar incidents along the East Coast. Most of the vandalism has taken place in New Jersey and New York, Verizon spokesman Harry Mitchell said. Aaron Dom, the area manager for Maryland and the District, said there has been a marked rise in serious vandalism on the company’s systems since the strike began. “Normally, in a year’s time we'd see maybe six acts of sabotage,” he said, adding that of the 28 incidents of damage, 18 took place in the District and 10 in Maryland. Vandals in the region appear to be cutting fiber-optic and copper lines as well as going after the large, square terminals on street corners, in what appear to be attempts to damage more of the system at a time, Dom said. Verizon is offering up to $50,000 to anyone who can identify the vandals. The Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represent the workers, said they do not condone any illegal or violent actions and are confident that the picketers are respecting and obeying the law.
benton.org/node/86812 | Washington Post
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CWA, VERIZON AND LABOR LAWS
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
The Communications Workers of America charged that Verizon has violated federal labor laws by not bargaining in good faith during negotiations to hammer out a new labor contract between the union and the telecommunications provider. Verizon has filed similar claims against the union. The CWA said it had filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board in Baltimore and New York. Verizon has called for cuts in health care benefits and other concessions that it says are necessary to stay competitive with cable companies that do not have similar contracts with their workers. "Since the first day of negotiations, through contract expiration and even today, Verizon management has demanded the same $1 billion in concessions from its 45,000 workers," CWA Communications Director Candice Johnson said. "These demands would cost every family $20,000 a year. This is unacceptable from a company that is among the 10 wealthiest in America." In the last day, Verizon filed its own charges against the CWA, claiming the union also is not negotiating in good faith, Verizon spokesman Edward McFadden said. "Despite the inaccurate hyperbole on the part of the union, discussions between the two sides continue," he said.
benton.org/node/86811 | National Journal
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BUILDING CYBER WORKFORCE
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Aliya Sternstein]
The Obama Administration released the first-ever roadmap for building a U.S. cybersecurity workforce and testing the government's success at raising public awareness of computer threats. Currently, there is no definition of what it means to be a cybersecurity professional. The draft strategic plan sets forth a way to measure the results of federal and private sector workforce development efforts. The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, or NICE, a branch of the Commerce Department, developed the proposal this spring to bring some order to the new frontier of cybersecurity training, agency officials said at the time. "This plan will provide a path to a more secure digital nation," states the document, which also attempts to gauge the influence of cyber publicity campaigns. The plan includes specific instructions for the federal government on how to "maintain an unrivaled, globally competitive cybersecurity workforce."
benton.org/node/86810 | nextgov
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AT&T/T-MOBILE
AT&T DEAL LESS LIKELY TO WIN APPROVAL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
The likelihood that federal regulators will allow AT&T to buy T-Mobile has slipped, according to a survey of telecommunication analysts released Thursday by financial firm Stifel Nicolaus. Thirty-two analysts rated their expectation that the government will approve the deal, on a scale of 0 to 100 percent. The analysts' average score was 49.5 percent. The likelihood fell from 54.7 percent in July, the last time the survey was conducted. In the past month, the Federal Communications Commission announced it would take more time to study the merger, and several lawmakers — including the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Antitrust Subcommittee, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) — announced their opposition to the deal.
benton.org/node/86795 | Hill, The
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1+1=3
[SOURCE: Free Press, AUTHOR: Press release]
The case for AT&T’s takeover of T-Mobile continues to unravel as new facts come to light. A Stifel Nicolaus poll of telecom analysts gave the deal only a 49.5 percent chance of being approved. Documents filed by AT&T with the Federal Communications Commission, and obtained by Communications Daily, exposed AT&T's bogus claims that it can't build out 4G LTE service to the entire country unless it acquires T-Mobile. Comm Daily reports that in the filing, AT&T admitted that expanding its most advanced network to 97 percent of the country would cost only an estimated $3.8 billion. But the filing shows AT&T rejected that option, claiming there wasn't a “viable business case” to justify the expansion. Yet the company is willing to spend $39 billion on the T-Mobile takeover — 10 times as much. And the company is committed to paying T-Mobile $6 billion in total compensation if the deal falls through, $2.2 billion more than it would cost to expand its service.
Free Press also obtained an AT&T "fact" sheet being used to lure support for the merger. The fact sheet features the claim that the proposed combination of AT&T and T-Mobile is the "rare case where 1 + 1 = 3."
Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron said, "Only at AT&T does one plus one equal three. You can call it fuzzy math or you can call it lying, but AT&T's case for this takeover doesn't withstand scrutiny. As the real numbers and facts come to the public's attention, support for this merger continues to unravel. The Department of Justice and the FCC have all the evidence they need to block this dangerous deal."
benton.org/node/86774 | Free Press
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MORE ON WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
DATA CAPS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jenna Wortham]
The newest smartphones are intended to run on speedy 4G networks that allow people to effortlessly stream music, watch Netflix movies and tune in live to a baseball game, wherever they are. But there’s a catch, of course. Cellphone plans that let people gobble up data as if they were at an all-you-can eat buffet are disappearing, just as a new crop of data-gobbling Internet services from Netflix, Spotify, Amazon, Apple and the like are hitting the market or catching on with wide audiences. These services use far more data than simply checking e-mail or browsing the Web, so their heaviest users may find themselves running over their plan’s monthly allotment and paying extra. The wireless carriers say their tighter limits will affect only a small percentage of customers. And they say they are simply trying to get ahead of an exploding appetite for data and avoid problems with overburdened networks. But analysts say that inevitably more people will find themselves in the “heavy user” category, particularly as more of them trade in their lower-end phones for smartphones and move to 4G networks. For most people who use their phones to check e-mail, surf the Web and watch an occasional video, the move toward tiered pricing will not immediately raise their phone bills. Verizon’s monthly plan offering two gigabytes of data for $30, announced last month, costs the same as its old unlimited plan, for example. But even now it doesn't take much for a media-hungry smartphone user to chew through two gigabytes; watching Netflix video for more than roughly 20 minutes a day will do the trick. And an extra gigabyte will cost Verizon customers an additional $10. The data caps are very much on the minds of developers of mobile apps and services, who need to think about how they will affect the way people use their phones.
benton.org/node/86838 | New York Times
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MOBILE PRIVACY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Tanzina Vega]
For many Internet users, online privacy policies are long and difficult to read. Transfer those same policies to a mobile device, where users can find themselves clicking through multiple screens often with tiny type, and the policies can become almost useless to the average consumer. Yet those same policies govern how much user data is collected through mobile applications and how that data is shared with advertisers and other third parties. And with growing concern over data collection, including proposed legislation to more closely protect consumers, one company is trying to make privacy policies that are both easy for consumers to read and easy for mobile application developers to create. “Everybody complains that no one reads privacy policies and that privacy policies are too long and too difficult,” said Jim Brock, the founder of PrivacyChoice, a company that has analyzed and indexed the data in hundreds of privacy policies across the Web. “The mobile environment requires you to say things very succinctly, and it requires you to say things in layers.” Using the data collected from hundreds of online privacy policies, Brock and his team devised a tool to help mobile application developers create basic policies without the help of a lawyer. Developers who want to use the tool can select answers to basic questions about how they collect data, how that data is used and whether it can be deleted. The resulting policy boils complicated policy language down to a few sentences like “We collect or share your location only with your permission” or “We keep personal data until you delete it.”
benton.org/node/86836 | New York Times
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SECOND-CLASS MOBILE CITIZENS
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
Carriers in the US, Europe and Japan are building out LTE networks to deliver faster mobile data connectivity in droves. According to the GSM Association there are 1 million LTE connections today and there will be 300 million by 2015. These networks are heralded as good enough for watching movies, video chat and even as a transmission medium for television news! But marketing is beginning to meet reality as people realize that their blinding fast connections come with a catch–a data cap. But carriers are preparing ways to change their pricing to charge by applications or services. And as they do, consumers will lose — namely because carriers will offer a variety of their own services that could strangle the quality of anything one might consider over-the-top.
benton.org/node/86773 | GigaOm
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TELECOM/INTERNET
USF REFORM PLAN
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Anna-Maria Kovacs]
The implicit subsidy system that is the combination of intercarrier compensation -- i.e. access charges -- and the Universal Service Fund (USF) has been in place for decades and was designed for a monopoly telephone system whose finances could be controlled by regulators. In that world, local rates could be kept artificially low by subsidies that came from artificially high access charges paid by long-distance providers for carriage of their traffic on local networks. Rural customers could be subsidized by urban customers. In today's competitive marketplace that is no longer the case -- competitors are forcing prices down to cost in the areas where it is economic for them to compete, leaving the uneconomic areas to the incumbents who are forced by regulators to serve them. Today's -- and tomorrow's -- highly competitive, innovative, global broadband ecosystem needs the flexibility to evolve naturally. Support and regulation must both be targeted strategically to the increasingly rare places where they are needed, and they must be eliminated from the places where they disrupt innovation and investment. The transition has to be made carefully, but it must begin.
[Kovacs is a Visiting Senior Policy Scholar at Georgetown University's Center for Business and Public Policy]
benton.org/node/86764 | Fierce
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VERIZON SABOTAGE CLAIMS
[SOURCE: CNNMoney, AUTHOR: David Goldman]
The rift between Verizon and its 45,000 striking employees grew wider, after the telecommunications giant called in the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate allegations of sabotage. Verizon spokesman Rich Young said more than 90 acts of sabotage have taken place since the strike began last weekend. Saboteurs have cut phone lines, Verizon claims, affecting the service of several thousand customers primarily in New York and New Jersey but also in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Young said that these acts "cross the line." A police station and a hospital were among those that lost service as a result of the sabotage, he said. The Communications Workers of America condemned the acts. CWA spokeswoman Candice Johnson accused Verizon replacement workers and managers of driving vehicles into picketing crowds, striking more than a dozen pickets.
benton.org/node/86765 | CNNMoney
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CONTENT
FACEBOOK REMOVED THREATS
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Facebook worked to scrub its site of dangerous communications this week as fears arose that online social networks helped spread riots in Britain and as authorities appeared poised to crack down on social media to curb the violence. Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said the company has taken steps in recent days to ensure that "any credible threats of violence are removed from Facebook." The effort follows Prime Minister David Cameron's remarks to Parliament hinting at a need to crack down on Twitter and Facebook to combat the violence. Noyes argued that Facebook has been beneficial during the riots. "We have been pleased to see the very positive uses millions of people have been making of our service to let friends and family know they are safe and to strengthen their communities," he said.
benton.org/node/86794 | National Journal
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ONLINE VIDEO
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sam Schechner]
Media companies are starting to cash in on Internet video. But that new money could be coming at a cost as fewer young people watch traditional television. That battle between the old and new ways of watching TV is putting networks and studios in a tricky position -- balancing a new, growing online market for shows with a traditional market that is facing new threats and still accounts for the lion's share of revenues. Declines among younger viewers accelerated this TV season -- a shift in an industry that has registered growth for decades. At any given time of day, about 11.5 million people between 18 and 34 years old watched TV on traditional sets between last September and the end of last month, down 2% from a year earlier and 3.4% from two seasons ago, according to Nielsen Co. Networks are able to charge advertisers a premium for viewers in the age group, which also is a barometer for future viewing habits. New digital-streaming deals with companies like Netflix Inc. meanwhile pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into big media companies this spring, and media executives say they are teeing up more such deals. The changes come as a war brews over which companies will profit by piping video to consumers. Netflix, Amazon and Google and other technology companies are muscling into living rooms with new ways to watch video. Cable operators and other traditional distributors are fighting back, rushing to give their subscribers access to shows on such new devices as tablets and Internet-connected TV sets -- and trying to restrict the amount of free TV available on the Web. Whether that war is already taking a toll is subject to debate.
benton.org/node/86826 | Wall Street Journal
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
UK INCITEMENT CHARGE
[SOURCE: The Telegraph, AUTHOR: Christopher Williams]
A British 18 year-old was accused of intentionally encouraging or assisting in the commission of an offence under the Serious Crime Act 2007, Essex police said.
She allegedly sent a message on BlackBerry Messenger on Aug 8 encouraging friends in the seaside town to copy scenes of violence and looting that were spreading across England. The unnamed teenager has been bailed to appear at Colchester Magistrates’ Court on Sept 1. Her case is among the first in which police have specifically cited BBM. A 27-year-old man from Southampton was also charged with inciting violence via the service
benton.org/node/86819 | Telegraph, The
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BART BLOCKS CELL SERVICE
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Michael Cabanatuan]
The Bay Area Rapid Transit District's (BART) shut-off of subterranean cell phone service in its downtown San Francisco stations may have prevented a protest August 11, but it sparked accusations the next day that the action stifled free speech and smacked of the kind of government intrusion employed by Middle East dictators. "All over the world, people are using mobile devices to protest oppressive regimes, and governments are shutting down cell phone towers and the Internet to stop them," said Michael Risher, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. "It's outrageous that in San Francisco, BART is doing the same thing." BART officials acknowledged that they had switched off the transit system's underground cell phone network, which runs from Balboa Park Station through the Transbay Tube, from 4 to 7 p.m. to prevent protesters from coordinating plans to stop trains. A cluster of groups under the "No Justice, No BART" banner said on websites that they planned to protest the fatal July 3 shooting of a knife-wielding man, Charles Blair Hill, by BART police. Protesters briefly shut down the Civic Center, Powell Street and 16th Street Mission stations July 11. Trains ran through the stations without stopping.
benton.org/node/86818 | San Francisco Chronicle | NYTimes
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SLIPPERY PATH
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
That British government officials are considering blocking access to social media sites as a means of curbing the rioting that has plagued that nation’s cities has led some Americans to wonder if such government actions could happen here. Michael Macleod-Ball, legislative chief of staff at the American Civil Liberties Union, said any similar measure in the United States would face significant legal hurdles. Under the First Amendment, any government action curbing free speech must be narrowly drawn to serve a compelling government interest, according to Macleod-Ball. "That's a very high threshold for any law or executive action to pass," he said. Cynthia Wong, director of the Center for Democracy and Technology's project on global Internet freedom, said blocking access to social media is "an extremely slippery path to head down."
benton.org/node/86814 | Hill, The | San Francisco Chronicle
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SOCIAL MEDIA AND LAW ENFORCEMENT
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Benny Evangelista]
In New York, police are poring through Facebook updates as if they were lineup photos. In Great Britain, authorities are posting Twitter tweets to round up rioters. And in California, prison officials are on the lookout for inmates visiting social networks from their cells. This week's headlines highlight how law enforcement agencies around the world are increasingly monitoring popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter to root out criminal behavior. It's not quite "Big Brother." It's more like "Big Friend." And it's a trend that has civil libertarians concerned. "Something you post even in jest could have deep ramifications for your life," said Rainey Reitman, activism director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
benton.org/node/86830 | San Francisco Chronicle
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SOCIAL MEDIA AND VIOLENCE PREVENTION
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: L. Gordon Crovitz]
[Commentary] All uses of technology are not equally virtuous. Enthusiasm for technology should not lead to a moral and political relativism that confuses crime with free speech and the British police with authoritarian governments. Permitting peaceful protests while stopping violence seems like a reasonable compromise. Preventing looting in England or violence in California is hardly the same as Arab despots holding onto power by targeting dissidents. It's a measure of how enamored digerati get with technology that they lose the ability to see such obvious differences. Techno-utopians would like to believe that digital technology is always a force for good, but technology can also accelerate evil. As Thomas Hobbes would say, without the enforcement of rules for ordered liberty, life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short," both in the real world and online.
benton.org/node/86833 | Wall Street Journal
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JOURNALISM
TV NEWS POST-9/11
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
[Commentary] Television news was so deeply involved in covering the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and those attacks were so traumatic that you would expect TV news was significantly changed by the experience. But has it? What about all those predications in the wake of the disasters that TV news would finally get serious — that more sober local newscasts would turn their attention to public affairs and that the networks would start covering happenings in other parts of the world so if we are attacked again we don't have to stand around asking ourselves why others would indiscriminately kill us just because we are Americans. Those who hoped that 9/11 would compel TV stations to improve have to be disappointed. If anything, the content has gotten thinner and more parochial. Newscasts may be relying even more heavily on the easy, sensational stuff — crime, fires, accidents. And enterprise reporting has diminished, even though technology has been enabling stations to do more with less. Fact is, there are forces far more powerful than Al Qaeda ever was shaping local TV news. They are bloodless economic ones, which have been demanding that stations produce more news for more platforms on tighter budgets.
benton.org/node/86805 | TVNewsCheck
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NPR BENDS RIGHT
[SOURCE: Center for American Progress, AUTHOR: Eric Alterman]
[Commentary] National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” did a report last week on therapy to turn gay people straight, inspired by the work of Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) husband. The story rested on interviews with two gay men who had been through the therapy; one who felt it caused “emotional and psychological damage" and the other—a conservative Christian—who was able to convert to heterosexuality (though NPR did not report the latter fellow also founded an organization that attempts to help others change their sexual orientation from homosexuality to heterosexuality as well). The story was a perfect mixture of journalistic “balance,” where unfortunately none existed in real life. NPR reporter Alix Spiegel and her editor Anne Gudenkauf explained themselves to NPR Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos by insisting that “As journalists, it is our job to feature the experiences of people all across the spectrum—political, religious, and, yes, sexual—and to allow their experiences and views to be fully enough shared so that they can be understood.”They neglected, they said, to distinguish between the majority and minority experiences in this case because they believed NPR listeners “are well informed about (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) issues and thus would not need to have this spelled out at the start of the story.” They admitted this was a mistake. They also tried to walk back their imputation of a “raging" debate among psychologists, explaining, "We did not mean by this to suggest that the two sides are even in numbers. We did mean to suggest that the proponents on both sides feel strongly about the disagreement." What is really going on here? Why would NPR, home to so many liberals and, one presumes, quite a few gay people, bend over so far backward to offer credibility to something associated with conservative efforts to discriminate against and persecute gay people? Alas, it’s a familiar syndrome. Journalists have been so cowed by conservative attempts to “work the refs” that they end up writing reports that raise the question of whether President Obama might be a Muslim or whether global warming is a conspiracy of a power-hungry mad scientist.
benton.org/node/86768 | Center for American Progress
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STAIN ON NEWS CORP
[SOURCE: The New Yorker, AUTHOR: Ken Auletta]
[Commentary] Rupert Murdoch’s woes, like the blood Lady Macbeth sees, will not go away. His positive quarterly News Corp. earnings report may create the illusion that they will, as does news that his newspapers may not have been the only ones in England that hacked into private phones. It was enough, on Thursday, to cause News Corp.’s stock to rise, though not yet back to the level it was before the latest round of scandals. But the stain will persist. Each arrested News of the World reporter or editor is a candidate for a plea bargain that might involve sharing the secrets of how many editors knew of phone hacking. Voices in England and the US will continue to proclaim that Rupert Murdoch’s company does not pass the character test required of those who hold TV licenses. Investigations will probe whether Murdoch’s company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when his News of the World paid police for information, and whether News Corp. hacked into the systems of advertising or marketing competitors in the U.S., and then purchased their silence with extravagant bounties. Murdoch's ability to frighten politicians and enlist them as his glee club has dissipated.
benton.org/node/86767 | New Yorker, The
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OWNERSHIP
TIME WARNER TO BUY INSIGHT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter]
Time Warner Cable, the second biggest cable television company in the United States after Comcast, is near a deal to acquire Insight Communications, a large operator in the Midwest, for about $3 billion. It would be Time Warner Cable’s biggest acquisition since 2006, when it and Comcast picked up the assets of Adelphia, a bankrupt cable television company. The acquisition highlights Time Warner Cable’s confidence in the cable subscription business at a time when cable companies are losing customers to telecommunications companies like Verizon, and when other customers are contemplating cutting the cord and consuming video online instead. Insight provides cable, broadband and phone services in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. Some of its locations complement Time Warner Cable’s operations; the two serve different parts of Columbus, Ohio, for example. Time Warner Cable has about 12 million cable customers. The deal for Insight, the ninth largest cable operator in the country, will give Time Warner Cable an additional 680,000 cable customers.
benton.org/node/86828 | New York Times | WSJ | FT | Bloomberg
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SILICON AND THE DOWNGRADE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Vivek Wadhwa]
[Commentary] The S&P downgrade has sent Wall Street on a roller coaster, but how have the markets’ massive up-and-down swings impacted the global tech epicenter in California? Multibillion-dollar global behemoths, such as Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard, and Oracle have powered much of the Valley’s growth during the past four decades. The people who run these tech titans are bracing for another recession. Tech spending had been in recovery mode, but customers won't buy more PCs, networking equipment or database software if they see their sales and revenues stagnating. Venture capitalists, the apex predators of Silicon Valley, are far more worried than the tech titans. The economic meltdown after the fall of Lehman Bros. decimated the venture capital industry, with many well-known funds holding onto underwater portfolios and thousands of venture capital jobs vanishing into thin air. But all of this will barely make a dent in the consciousness of Silicon Valley’s native tribe of eternal optimists — the tech entrepreneurs. History has shown, time and again, that a bad economy is a good time to launch a business, since the lean times embed a lean, scrappy business DNA into a company.
benton.org/node/86761 | Washington Post
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HEALTH
MOBILE HEALTH IT DEVICES
[SOURCE: eWeek, AUTHOR: Brian Horowitz]
The health care industry will need its IT specialists to support multiple platforms of mobile computing despite the apparent popularity of specific devices such as Apple's iPad, according to a new report by research firm Frost & Sullivan. The white paper "Mobile Devices and Healthcare: What's New, What Fits and How Do You Decide?" details how the health care industry must move away from established computer platforms for health care applications and support all types of mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, push-to-talk products and M2M (machine-to-machine) remote-monitoring devices. "Today, it really is unreasonable to expect a completely homogenous environment in which one type of device is universally accepted by all medical staff," said Jeanine Sterling, a senior industry analyst for Frost & Sullivan. "Different types of workers have different communication needs." In fact, many doctors prefer to use their own devices in hospitals, Sterling noted. Health care organizations turn to mobile devices to help manage their workflow to control costs, improve efficiency and comply with government and industry regulations, according to Sterling.
benton.org/node/86759 | eWeek | InformationWeek
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OPEN GOVERNMENT/GOV PERFORMANCE
OPEN GOVERNMENT PLAN
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Aneesh Chopra, Cass Sunstein]
The United States will produce an open government plan that builds on existing initiatives and practices. The plan will be released when the Open Government Partnership is formally launched on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City in September. Over time, countries participating in the Open Government Partnership have pledged to release a Country Action Plan that tackles one or more of five key challenges that face governments today, such as improving public services, increasing public integrity, more effectively managing public resources, creating safer communities, and increasing corporate accountability.
benton.org/node/86770 | White House, The
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