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December 2013

5 Things To Know About The NSA Court Ruling

Here are five takeaways from Judge Richard Leon's opinion on National Security Agency surveillance program:

  1. The government can't or won't justify the program.
  2. Technology is moving faster than the law. The ubiquity of phones, Judge Leon wrote, "has dramatically altered the quantity of information that is now available and more importantly, what that information can tell the Government about people's lives."
  3. Americans are at the mercy of an unprecedented union between industry and government. Judge Leon suggested an almost conspiratorial fusion between the interests of the NSA and the telecom industry.
  4. Leon is just one judge -- and can be an iconoclast. For one thing, the decision of a single federal judge at the district court level has no bearing on the conclusion that another district court judge might reach or what an appeals court might conclude.
  5. The Senate's "nuclear option" could make trouble for President Obama. The White House hailed Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision in November 2012 to trigger the so-called "nuclear option" to eliminate the minority party's ability to block federal judicial nominees. But in this case, that move could come back to haunt the administration.

Sprint, Dish Teaming Up to Develop Wireless Broadband

Sprint and satellite TV company Dish Network agreed to jointly develop and deploy a trial run of a fixed wireless broadband service, just months after Dish attempted to buy the wireless provider and the two battled over Clearwire. The companies plan to run the trial in Corpus Christi (TX) in the middle of next year with plans to expand into additional markets in the future. Dish will install an outdoor router or an indoor system, depending on a client's location, to deliver broadband service, which features built-in antennas to receive a 4G TDD-LTE signal on Sprint's 2.5 GHz spectrum.

As pay phones vanish, so does lifeline for many

For pay phones everywhere else in America, the dial tone is flat lining.

In an age when just about everyone seems to have a cellphone, coin-operated phones are disappearing from the landscape at a rapid clip -- and with them a lifeline for the poor. Those that remain stand on street corners and in suburban plazas like monuments to history, quaint relics of the past and curiosities to children of the 21st century. "I've never used a pay phone," Jessica Maye, 20, confessed recently. "I tried to use a pay phone once, but it didn't work, I didn't know how to use it." But just as the likes of Maye wonder who still plunks down 50 cents -- yes, the cost has doubled in the past decade -- to make a call, pay phone operators and trade associations insist pay phones are used and serve an invaluable public function. "The best numbers we have I think underestimate the number of households in America that have no phone at all," said Randy Nichols, president of the American Public Communications Council. "If somebody doesn't have a phone, the only place they can make a call is the pay phone." According to the US Census Bureau, nearly 3 million households in the country do not have access to either a landline or cellphone. Residents of those households in many cases rely on borrowing cellphones and pay phones.

This Needs To Be Invented Before the Internet Of Things Can Take Off

Many enabling technologies have arrived which will make the internet of things ubiquitous, and, thanks to smartphones, the public is finally ready to accept that it will become impossible to escape from the Internet’s all-seeing eye. But a critical piece of the internet of things puzzle remains to be solved.

What engineers lack is a universal glue to bind all the “things” in the internet of things to each other and to the cloud. A lack of standards means most devices on the internet of things are going to use existing methods of connection -- Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and the like -- to connect to one another, and efforts like ioBridge’s Thingspeak are a first step to creating pools of data recorded from our things that can be shared by all our other things. But eventually, something like HTML, the language of the web, will be required to make the internet of things realize its potential. “Interoperability is critical,” says Bell. “Pretty soon this default method of using bluetooth is going to break down.” One thing standards bodies and companies wishing to influence them will contend with could be regulators. Already, the US Federal Trade Commission is taking an interest in what kind of data companies are gathering through the internet of things and what they’re doing with it. Aside from privacy, one reason regulators are poking around is that the security implications of the internet of things are truly frightening. Once our homes, cities and bodies are connected, hackers will be able to do a lot more than steal our financial data and shut down our online identities -- they’ll have the power to reach through cyberspace and hack our physical world.

In 5 years, schools, medical systems, stores will know all about you, says IBM

It’s that time of year again. IBM Research has come up with its annual 5 in 5 list of technologies that it expects to go mainstream within five years.

This year’s predictions, culled from IBM Research’s brain trust, are all about things that learn and adapt from their learnings -- a timely theme given the explosion of data coming about as the internet of things gains traction. What good are all those sensors and all that data if you can’t apply them to make everyday systems smarter and more adaptive? For example, IBM researchers predict that cloud-based cognitive systems that will take data harvested from MOOCs (massive open online courses, like Coursera and EdX) and other sources so that the classroom or coursework adapts to a child’s way of learning as opposed to forcing the child to adapt to the classroom. These systems, according to IBM, would create “longitudinal student records” so teachers will know a give child’s problem areas and strengths and to tailor coursework to that child.

White House taps new chief for health care website

Kurt DelBene, former president of the Microsoft Office Division, will replace Jeff Zients as the lead on HealthCare.gov, the Department of Health and Human Services announced.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said DelBene would begin working with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. "Kurt will work closely with me, the White House, and the teams and senior leadership in place at HHS and CMS to see this project through its next important phase as the CMS team continues to build on their initial progress," Secretary Sebelius wrote. "He has agreed to serve in this role for at least the first half of next year." Secretary Sebelius said DelBene would provide oversight and advice on everything from technology to marketing, as well as execute the existing plan.

Chairman Wheeler Announces Appointment of Acting Director, Office Of Legislative Affairs

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced the appointment of Sara Morris as Acting Director of the FCC’s Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA) effective on January 2, 2014.

Morris has had a long career working on legislative and communications policy issues, including experience in Congress, the private sector, and the Executive Branch. Acting Director Patrick Halley will become Associate Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau where he will focus on policy and strategy for the Bureau’s high priority proceedings. Morris comes to the FCC from the Department of Commerce, where she is Deputy Director of the Office of Congressional Affairs for the department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Her major areas of legislative and policy focus have included federal spectrum reallocation, establishment and implementation of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), Recovery Act broadband programs, and the digital TV transition. In addition to working with Members of Congress and staff, she has coordinated with state government officials, other federal agencies and the White House.

Susan Desmond-Hellmann Named Chief Executive Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has selected Susan Desmond-Hellmann, M.D., M.P.H., as its next chief executive officer.

Currently the chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Desmond-Hellmann will assume her role on May 1, 2014. An oncologist by training, Desmond-Hellmann is a recognized leader on issues of higher education, public health, drug development, regulatory innovation and health policy. She has led UCSF since August 2009, when she became the first woman to serve as the university’s chancellor, overseeing all aspects of the university and medical center’s strategy, academic programs and operations. She has extensive experience in product development, and a deep understanding of how to bridge applied research to delivery of product. Prior to her tenure at UCSF, she was President of Product Development at Genentech, where she led the development and introduction of two of the first gene-targeted therapies for cancer, Avastin and Herceptin. Desmond-Hellmann also served as a member of Genentech’s executive committee, beginning in 1996. She sits on the boards of directors of Proctor and Gamble and Facebook, and was previously a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Economic Advisory Council. Desmond-Hellmann will take over from Jeff Raikes, who announced his retirement from the foundation in September 2013 after five years at the helm. He was the foundation's second CEO, and served after a long and successful career as a senior executive at Microsoft.

AT&T adds 4G roaming to UK with EE

AT&T's US customers visiting the UK should benefit from a new 4G roaming arrangement with the EE. The agreement should mean that visiting Americans who are AT&T customers can use their own phones and SIM cards to access average speeds of between 24Mbps and 30Mbps on EE's network, which will cover 160 towns and cities by Dec 25. The AT&T deal is EE's first 4G roaming agreement, and the operator expects to ink similar deals in early 2014. EE said that its UK customers should gain access to 4G networks when travelling abroad by the first half of next year; however, a spokesperson for the company declined to provide details of which countries will be included and the service isn’t expected to come free, or even cheap.

December 17, 2013 (Judge: NSA Programs 'Likely Violate the Constitution')

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2013

A debate over the broadband stimulus program highlights the day’s agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2013-12-17/


GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Federal Judge Rules Against NSA Phone Data Program
   A Powerful Rebuke of Mass Surveillance - editorial [links to web]
   NSA issue is costing US tech companies billions, and a fix is needed - editorial [links to web]
   DOJ defends NSA phone records program after judge's ruling [links to web]
   Disarming Surveillance - WSJ editorial
   State Of Deception
   The NSA must disclose more to make its case - editorial [links to web]
   Carriers Keeping US Spy Records Seen as Costly, Risky

TELEVISION/RADIO
   FCC Withdraws Proposal to Relax Media-Ownership Rules
   Justice Department Requires Divestiture from Gannett in Order to Proceed with Its Acquisition of Belo - press release
   NAB: Include UHF In Broad Ownership Review [links to web]
   US cable musters forces to meet upheaval - analysis
   FCC is enabler when Comcast slaps on high-def box fees - analysis
   Here’s what you’ll save by ditching cable TV [links to web]
   Low Power TV Lobby Names Executive Director [links to web]

SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
   Expert Poll: A Sprint/T-Mobile Merger Unlikely To Be Approved
   The FCC may need to approve a Sprint/T-Mobile merger. But not yet. - analysis
   Sprint/T-Mobile: Three Isn't a Crowd - analysis
   Carriers must get tough on smartphone theft - editorial [links to web]

BROADBAND/INTERNET/TELECOM
   Tech Firms Push to Control Web's Pipes
   US cable musters forces to meet upheaval - analysis
   The quest for high-speed fiber: a conversation with Susan Crawford [links to web]
   See how Florida lags in broadband Internet [links to web]
   San Francisco Gets Fast, Free Public Wi-Fi on Market Street [links to web]
   Wireline Competition Bureau Announces Timeline for Completion of Urban Rates Survey - public notice [links to web]

JOURNALISM
   Anonymous sources are increasing in news stories, along with rather curious explanations
   Can a Journalist 'Plead the Fifth' to Avoid Having to Name a Confidential Source? A Federal Judge Says Yes - op-ed [links to web]

CONTNET
   AOL Chief’s White Whale (Patch) Finally Slips His Grasp [links to web]
   Copyright Office Calls for Congress to Reconsider Royalties for Artists [links to web]

EDUCATION
   How do two ‘connected districts’ do it? [links to web]

HEALTH
   On Secure Mobile Health Devices and a Better Future for Us All - press release [links to web]

GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE
   Democrats Seek Classified Briefing on Healthcare.Gov Docs, Citing Security

POLICYMAKERS
   At the beginning of a cycle, a low-controversy Federal Communications Commission - analysis

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Canada's competition agency takes Google to court in antitrust investigation [links to web]
   Google will not answer to British court over UK privacy claim [links to web]

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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

NSA PROGRAM LIKELY UNCONSTITUTIONAL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Charlie Savage]
Judge Richard Leon of the District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the National Security Agency program that is systematically keeping records of all Americans’ phone calls most likely violates the Constitution, and he ordered the government to stop collecting data on two plaintiffs’ personal calls and destroy the records of their calling history. Judge Leon called the program’s technology “almost Orwellian” and suggested that James Madison, the author of the Constitution, would be “aghast” to learn that the government was encroaching on liberty in such a way. “I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary’ invasion than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval,” Judge Leon wrote. “Surely, such a program infringes on ‘that degree of privacy’ that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment.” Judge Leon stayed his injunction “in light of the significant national security interests at stake in this case and the novelty of the constitutional issues,” allowing the government time to appeal it, a matter that he said could take some six months.
benton.org/node/170320 | New York Times | Washington Post | The Hill | ars technica | GigaOm | Politico | The Verge | National Public Radio
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DISARMING SURVEILLANCE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
The panel President Barack Obama appointed to review the National Security Agency's methods and the balance between security and privacy is advising the government to seriously degrade U.S. counterterror defenses and shut down several valuable surveillance assets in a dangerous world.
Bulk metadata collection. One of the worst proposals would effectively cripple the NSA's ability to collect, store and analyze telephony records, or the time, duration and originating and terminating numbers for phone calls.
Foreign-to-foreign intercepts. The panel attempts to quell the European uproar over purely foreign surveillance by the US by suggesting some kind of agreed-upon code of conduct among allied intelligence agencies.
A more adversarial FISC process. The FISC judges are not now operating as a judiciary but instead fill a quasi-legal management role over NSA. This dilutes accountability for the political branches, but the Obama panel wants to go further and appoint a public advocate whose job is to argue against the NSA as in a public lawsuit.
benton.org/node/170404 | Wall Street Journal
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STATE OF DECEPTION
[SOURCE: New Yorker, AUTHOR: Ryan Lizza]
Even without a full picture of the programs, two senators who were not on the Intelligence Committee became intense critics of National Security Agency domestic surveillance: Barack Obama and Joe Biden. In May, 2006, after the USA Today article appeared, then-Sen Biden said it was frightening to learn that the government was collecting telephone records. Obama’s objections to domestic surveillance stretched back even further. In 2003, as a Senate candidate, he called the Patriot Act “shoddy and dangerous.” And at the 2004 Democratic Convention, in the speech that effectively launched his eventual campaign for President, he took aim at the “library records” provision of the law. “We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states,” he declared. In 2005, when he arrived in Washington, Sen Obama became one of Sen Ron Wyden’s (D-OR) new allies in his attempts to reform the law. The Patriot Act was up for reauthorization, and, at Wyden’s urging, the Senate was trying to scale back the “library records” section. One of the first bills that Obama co-sponsored, the Security and Freedom Enhancement Act, would have required that the government present “specific and articulable facts” if it wanted a court order for records, a much higher standard than the existing one. Sen Obama and several other senators, including John Kerry, now the Secretary of State, and Chuck Hagel, the current Secretary of Defense, laid out their legal case against the provision in a letter to colleagues on December 14, 2005. The Bush White House fought Obama’s changes, but offered a few minor concessions. Sen Wyden later learned that, while he and Obama were fighting to curtail Section 215, the NSA’s lawyers were secretly arguing before a court that the provision should allow the NSA to legally collect the phone records of all Americans.
benton.org/node/170386 | New Yorker
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AT&T TO T-MOBILE KEEPING US SPY RECORDS SEEN COSTLY, RISKY
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Chris Strohm, Mike Dorning]
Requiring AT&T, T-Mobile US and other telecommunications companies to retain bulk phone records for US spy programs is costly and risks exposing customer data to hackers, industry and privacy groups said. A White House advisory committee on National Security Agency spy programs recommends that US carriers, instead of the NSA, hold phone records of millions of citizens, said an Administration official familiar with the panel’s report. The report says the NSA should be able to have access to the phone data, which includes numbers dialed and call durations. It attempts to address criticism of the program, in which the NSA collects metadata under court orders, by requiring companies to collect and retain the records. “I expect our members would oppose the imposition of data retention obligations that would require them to maintain customer data for longer than necessary,” said Jot Carpenter, vice president of government affairs for CTIA-The Wireless Association.
benton.org/node/170318 | Bloomberg
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TELEVISION

MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
The Federal Communications Commission said it has withdrawn a proposal to relax the nation's long-standing ban on owning multiple media outlets in the same market. More than a year ago, then-FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski circulated a draft item that would have eliminated the ban on owning a radio station and newspaper in the same market. The proposal would have also paved the way for smaller TV stations to own newspapers, a change pushed by the struggling newspaper industry. Now under the leadership of Chairman Tom Wheeler, the commission said it has taken the old item off the table while it reassesses the issue. By law, the FCC must review its media ownership rules every four years. Because Chairman Genachowski deferred action on the 2010 review, the commission is on the verge of missing the deadline before the process restarts next year. While there is no statutory penalty for missing the report, a commission official said the FCC expects "to move expeditiously to take additional steps with regard to our broadcast ownership rules and recognize our statutory obligations." That suggests another order is coming next year, but it is unclear whether it would again try to relax cross-ownership rules.
benton.org/node/170397 | Wall Street Journal
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JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REQUIRES DIVESTITURE FROM GANNETT CO. INC. IN ORDER TO PROCEED WITH ITS ACQUISITION OF BELO CORP.
[SOURCE: Department of Justice, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Department of Justice will require Gannett Company, Belo and Sander Media LLC to divest their interests in KMOV TV, a CBS affiliate in St. Louis, in order to proceed with Gannett’s acquisition of Belo, and Sander’s related acquisition of six Belo television stations that Gannett cannot hold under Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules. The Department said that, without the required divestiture, Gannett would have gained a dominant position in broadcast television spot advertising in the St. Louis area, resulting in higher prices advertisers. In addition to acquiring the six stations from Belo, Sander will enter into several agreements with Gannett in order to both finance purchasing the stations and facilitate operating the stations. KMOV-TV is one of the six stations Sander would acquire from Belo and would be subject to agreements between Sander and Gannett. These agreements, however, do not include any joint negotiation of retransmission rights in St. Louis. The Gannett-Belo acquisition is valued at approximately $2.2 billion. The Department’s Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia to block the proposed acquisition and related agreements between Gannett and Sander, including an option for Gannett to assign or acquire the Belo stations sold to Sander, a financing guarantee and a long-term shared services agreement. At the same time, the department filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the competitive concerns alleged in the lawsuit. “Gannett’s KSDK TV and Belo’s KMOV TV compete head-to-head in the sale of broadcast television spot advertising in the St. Louis area, and this rivalry constrains advertising rates,” said Bill Baer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “The full divestiture required by the department will ensure that KMOV-TV will remain a vigorous competitor in St. Louis.”
benton.org/node/170316 | Department of Justice
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FCC IS ENABLER WHEN COMCAST SLAPS ON HIGH-DEF BOX FEES
[SOURCE: Seattle Times, AUTHOR: Brier Dudley]
At every stage in Comcast’s switch to a digital cable system over the past few years, all sorts of people ask what’s happening to their TV and what can be done. The latest round of questions came in November 2013 when the company cut off access for basic subscribers in Washington who hadn’t yet added some sort of cable box to every one of their TVs. After looking into the issue a bit further, I have some bad news. First, there’s not much that can be done about the hated “DTA” converter boxes that were forced upon basic-cable subscribers. The first few boxes are free, but they interfere with video recorders, require an extra remote and outlet, and downgrade picture quality on modern TVs. This mostly affects people looking for bare-bones cable who don’t want to pay for hundreds of channels and rent a full-blown Comcast cable box. It’s particularly galling because most of them upgraded not too long ago to digital-ready TVs with “QAM” tuners that shouldn’t require extra hardware, especially not a gadget that reduces their TV’s capability. I asked the FCC if it might reconsider, especially since it’s now reviewing changes to cable TV service standards. A spokeswoman told me the agency won’t comment “because it’s an open proceeding that is still under consideration.”
benton.org/node/170314 | Seattle Times
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

EXPERT POLL: A SPRINT/T-MOBILE MERGER UNLIKELY TO BE APPROVED
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
A rumored potential merger of the nation’s number three and number four largest wireless carriers appears unlikely to pass regulatory scrutiny based on an informal poll that included three former Federal Communications Commission chairmen and other former FCC officials. Financial research firm Moffett Nathanson Research conducted the survey of what it called an “extraordinarily august group” of respondents after the Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Sprint was considering purchasing T-Mobile. In addition to the former FCC people, respondents also included telecommunications and antitrust attorneys, telecommunications lobbyists not directly involved with the carriers, regulatory academics and antitrust scholars. “The preponderance of respondents put the probability of success at below 50%,” the researchers wrote. “But it was by no means an overwhelming or definitive majority.”
benton.org/node/170308 | telecompetitor
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THE FCC MAY NEED TO APPROVE A SPRINT/T-MOBILE MERGER. BUT NOT YET.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
One of the major hurdles facing Sprint right now is whether federal regulators would even approve a T-Mobile merger. Back in 2011, the Federal Communications Commission rejected AT&T's own bid to buy out T-Mobile over concerns that it would put too much power in the hands of the country's strongest phone companies. A deal involving Sprint would be a little different, and it's been cited as one reason why the FCC might change its tune this time. But observers say that even with a new chairman at the agency's helm, the government still isn't likely to smile on a deal right away. "No one's in a distressed situation right now," says telecom analyst Jeffrey Silva. "They may want to see how T-Mobile and Sprint fare, having improved themselves on a number of levels recently." But that could change in the future, Silva adds, particularly if either company winds up faltering. If T-Mobile fails to win subscribers, regulators could see it as evidence that the market can only reasonably support three major carriers. There are barely more wireless subscriptions than people in the United States, meaning that all the companies are competing for essentially the same customers now. Even if the FCC shoots down a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile today, it's not hard to see something like it passing muster down the road when both companies have had a little more time to (dis)prove themselves.
benton.org/node/170382 | Washington Post
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THREE ISN’T A CROWD
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Miriam Gottfried]
It isn't often companies have reason to cheer for a competitor's deal. But if Sprint moves forward with a bid for T-Mobile US, as it is considering, AT&T and Verizon Wireless might not necessarily object to having a bigger rival to deal with. But that, in turn, might put the kibosh on any deal happening at all. The past year has seen a raft of consolidation at the lower end of the wireless market, including Sprint's purchase of Clearwire, the acquisition of MetroPCS by T-Mobile and AT&T's deal to buy Leap Wireless. But unlike those deals, combining Sprint and T-Mobile, the No. 3 and No. 4 U.S. carriers by subscribers, respectively, would eliminate a national provider, reducing the choice for most U.S. consumers from four to three. A deal would be a boon for the two carriers, offering greater scale, significant spectrum holdings and one fewer competitor. But it would also benefit Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Eliminating a competitor would mean less pressure from an upstart willing to undercut prices as T-Mobile has done.
benton.org/node/170393 | Wall Street Journal
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

PUSH TO CONTROL INTERNET PIPES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Drew FitzGerald, Spencer Ante]
Technology giants like Google and Facebook are expanding efforts to control more of the world's Internet backbone, raising tensions with telecom companies over who runs the Web. In the past year, these companies that supply much of the world's online content have ramped up their investment in Internet infrastructure. The moves include bringing online new submarine and underground cables they have funded, striking long-term agreements to lease so-called dark fiber, and building their own networking hardware. In the process, they are beginning to rival some of the telecom companies that count them as clients. Google has spent years piecing together a network of private fiber-optic cables and now controls more than 100,000 miles of routes around the world, said one person familiar with its assets. That is bigger than the size of the continental US network run by Sprint, which covers less than 40,000 miles. Executives at the tech companies say they are aiming to reduce costs, improve the performance of their Internet services, and guarantee they have enough capacity to support the growing traffic in online video, photos, games and other services generated by their businesses. The development is troubling for many telecom companies which say they are reluctant to relinquish control of those lines to their biggest customers. On one hand, the projects are bringing a fresh source of investment to an industry dogged for more than a decade by falling prices and excess capacity. But the industry is already grappling with the concern that it will be reduced to "dumb pipes"—simple conduits for valuable traffic. The current trend, they fear, could downgrade companies even further to mere builders of those pipes.
benton.org/node/170399 | Wall Street Journal
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CABLE CONSOLIDATION
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Emily Steel]
For years, cable operators have been at the heart of how television is financed, distributed and viewed in the US. But with new competitors rising and rapid technology changes upending the business, the industry is entering a period of upheaval and possible consolidation. Speculation is rife about consolidation that involves some combination of Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter or Cox -- the four biggest cable companies in the US by subscribers. The rationale for consolidation is clear. Geographically divided, no one cable operator has national dominance. This has kept cable operators from competing with one another in the past but they are now fending off new rivals. One issue is cord cutting, where people cancel pay-television subscriptions and turn to cheaper online streaming alternatives such as Netflix and Hulu that can appear -- just like traditional programming -- on Internet-connected televisions. Even those who are not cutting the cord are choosing TV services provided by satellite or telecoms operators instead.
benton.org/node/170395 | Financial Times | Reuters
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JOURNALISM

ANNONYMOUS SOURCES
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Paul Farhi]
It used to be that anonymous sources -- Watergate’s “Deep Throat” was the most famous -- spoke on the condition of anonymity because . . . well, because they wouldn’t speak to reporters any other way. Back then, anonymous sources were just “sources” and you, dear reader, had to take our word for whoever they were and whatever we said they said. Readers noticed, and apparently didn’t like guessing about who was saying what. In 2004, the New York Times surveyed its subscribers on their concerns about the paper. In the wake of flawed (and often anonymously sourced) reporting before the start of the Iraq war, readers said their biggest gripe was the use of anonymous sources, and that it trumped political bias or even delivery problems, according to Margaret Sullivan, the paper’s current public editor. So, in an attempt at greater transparency, news organizations began explaining why their sources weren’t being identified by name. The idea was to offer readers a little peek under the veil of anonymity. “Frankly, this kind of sourcing is ridiculous,” says Alicia Shepard, a journalist and NPR’s former ombudsman. She adds: “I get it that [news organizations] are trying to be transparent, but it doesn’t enhance the believability of the anonymous quote. The only thing worthwhile about the convoluted sourcing explainers is how funny they are.”
benton.org/node/170387 | Washington Post
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GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE

DEMOCRATS SEEK CLASSIFIED BRIEFING ON HEALTHCARE.GOV DOCS, CITING SECURITY
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Joseph Marks]
Lawmakers continued to wrangle over how and whether to publicly release a collection of e-mails and reports that document the troubled building and disastrous launch of HealthCare.gov. The ranking Democrats of seven House committees sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi seeking a classified briefing on documents House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep Darrell Issa (R-CA) subpoenaed from contractors that worked on the Obama Administration’s online health insurance marketplace. Rep Issa has said the e-mails and progress reports show officials launched HealthCare.gov despite warnings about security vulnerabilities that may still exist in the site and that could endanger insurance seekers’ personal data. Democrats argue that publicly releasing the documents could increase security vulnerabilities by giving hackers a roadmap to that information. Their letter to Speaker Boehner and Rep Pelosi quoted a letter from White House Counsel Kathryn Reummler stating: “It is the view of cybersecurity experts from across the administration that these documents, if further disclosed, would provide information to potential hackers that increases the risk they could penetrate HealthCare.gov, the Federal Data Services Hub and other federal [information technology] systems.”
benton.org/node/170380 | nextgov
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POLICYMAKERS

AT THE BEGINNING OF A CYCLE, A LOW-CONTROVERSY FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
[SOURCE: Broadband Breakfast, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
[Commentary] The recent testimony, by the full group of Federal Communications Commissioners at the House Commerce Committee, restores the pulse of the nation’s technology and communications policy issues to a “low-tension” state. We’ve seen this perennial cycle before: first, an issue stirs immense conflict among the agency’s five members. Next, that issue incites intervention by the agency’s congressional overseers. Extensive inter-industry lobbying follows, generally resulting in a pre-emptive rule-making by a majority of FCC commissioners. Soon enough, the five-year term of one or more members of the FCC expires. The tension with Congress is too high for the President and/or the Senate to nominate and confirm a new commissioner. Thus ensures – most of the time – a long period of near-dormancy by the agency. Finally, the tension is broken, new commissioners are confirmed, and balance in the universe is once again restored. This has played out dramatically in recent years. The testimony before the Commerce Committee offered a handful of sleeper issues that might ultimately break out of the box and become an issue of unusual conflict through the next telecommunications policy cycle.
benton.org/node/170290 | Broadband Breakfast
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