July 2014

ACCESSIBILITY

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY COMMUNICATIONS AND VIDEO ACCESSIBILITY ACT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
In accordance with the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA), this Report addresses the status, benefits, and costs of video description in television programming and IP-delivered programming, as informed by consumer and industry experiences since the video description rules became effective, and presents findings at the URL below.
benton.org/node/190919 | Federal Communications Commission
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PRIVACY/SECURITY

NSA ADMITS IT LETS THE FBI ACCESS ITS WARRANTLESS SPYING DATABASE
[SOURCE: Vox, AUTHOR: Timothy Lee]
The House of Representatives voted to bar the Obama Administration from engaging in a controversial surveillance practice that insiders call a "backdoor search." A letter from the Obama Administration gives some hints about how common the practice is. The letter, addressed to Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR), admits that the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation all conducted backdoor searches in 2013. At least 198 searches -- and possibly many more -- were seeking the contents of Americans' private communications. Here's how often government agencies engaged in the controversial practice in 2013:
The NSA brass approved searches for the contents of the communications of 198 Americans. Such content searches could include the audio of phone calls or the body of e-mails.
The NSA conducted approximately 9,500 searches for Americans' metadata -- information such as phone numbers dialed, email recipients, and the length of calls.
The CIA conducted "fewer than 1,900 queries" for information about Americans, of which 27 percent were duplicate searches for the same American.
The letter says the FBI doesn't keep track of how many queries it has performed, but "the FBI believes the number of queries is substantial." On the other hand, the FBI "only requests and receives a small percentage" of the NSA's collection of data acquired under the FISA Amendments Act.
benton.org/node/191177 | Vox
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HIGH COURT REJECTS GOOGLE APPEAL IN SNOOPING CASE
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Jessica Guynn]
Google must face a class action lawsuit alleging the Internet giant violated federal wiretap law when its Street View vehicles collected data from private Wi-Fi networks. The US Supreme Court said that it would not consider Google's challenge to the class action lawsuit. The federal Wiretap Act bans the interception of electronic communications. Google had argued that it was not illegal to collect radio communications or any "form of electronic communication readily accessible to the general public." But a San Francisco federal judge and the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals did not agree and refused to dismiss the class action. The class action was filed on behalf of individuals whose information was collected from unsecured Wi-Fi networks when Google's Street View cars rode past unsuspecting households.
benton.org/node/190890 | Associated Press
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DIVERSITY

RACE AT NPR AND THE END OF 'TELL ME MORE'
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Edward Schumacher-Matos]
[Commentary] For better or worse, the public affairs programming of NPR appeals mostly to Americans with a college degree, regardless of race or ethnicity. By this measure, black listeners index exactly the same as their proportion of college graduates in the wider society. College-educated Latino listeners are lower but within shouting distance. Asians present the opposite picture. Twice as many Asian-American adults listen to NPR news stations as their weight in the population. Among college graduates, however, the proportions converge. NPR has undertaken a concerted effort to "sound like America." So, if NPR's shows are expected to reflect the interests and voices of all the nation's races and ethnic groups, then clearly it helps to have those groups represented in the newsroom. The chart also shows staff breakdowns, including from my 2012 study and what they were following layoffs announced May 20, including from Tell Me More. The numbers are of reporters, editors, producers, designers and other full time newsroom professionals, and not administrative support. NPR had 365 such professionals after the layoffs.
benton.org/node/190915 | National Public Radio
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GOOGLE AND JESSE JACKSON TEAM ON HIGH-TECH DIVERSITY
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Jessica Guynn]
The Rainbow Push Coalition has teamed with Google to increase the ranks of minorities in Silicon Valley. The Internet giant held a series of events at the group's annual conference in Chicago. Rainbow Push said it would hold a joint event with Google in August. Volunteers from Google and other technology companies are attending the conference to host training sessions, panels and a national town hall with youth. Rainbow Push planned to show a video on inspiring blacks to get into the technology field. Google's chief legal officer David Drummond was also honored. "We have a lot of work to do when it comes to diversity in our workforce," Drummond said in a written statement. "We're committed to working with civic, community and education groups and leaders like Rev. Jackson to turn these gaps into new bridges of opportunity."
benton.org/node/190913 | USAToday
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HUNDT: 'REDSKINS' USE MAY MAKE SNYDER UNFIT LICENSEE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt is suggesting the FCC may want to strip Redskins owner Dan Snyder of his radio station licenses if he does not change the name of the team. Hundt said that the FCC should "reevaluate" whether Snyder is fit to be a licensee, by which Hundt meant "a person of appropriate character," he said. “The FCC should consider whether Mr. Snyder is fit to own radio station licenses given that he uses radio stations to broadcast an ethnic slur,” he said. “These licenses are owned by the public and they are given to individuals for the purpose of serving the public interest. The FCC does not give radio station licenses to felons; it doesn’t give radio station licenses to people of bad character. Historically, [the FCC] has been reluctant to give broadcast licenses to people who advocate racially intolerant positions.”
benton.org/node/190910 | Broadcasting&Cable
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TELEVISION/RADIO

SUPREME COURT DECLINES TO REVIEW CASE OVER ADS ON PUBLIC TV
[SOURCE: Variety, AUTHOR: Ted Johnson]
A law restricting advertising on public television will remain in place after the Supreme Court refused to review a case in which a San Francisco station challenged its Federal Communications Commission fine for airing messages from a bevy of commercial sponsors. Minority Television Project, the license holder for public television station KMTP-TV in San Francisco, sought to overturn lower court rulings that upheld a 1981 law that restricts public stations from airing ads for commercial products or political candidates. The station also said that the court should reconsider a 1969 Supreme Court decision that allowed the government to place some restrictions on broadcast content, arguing that the media landscape had changed so much in the last 45 years. It contended that it didn’t make sense that stations had limits on First Amendment protections while other media do not.
benton.org/node/190909 | Variety
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WHY THE AEREO SHUTDOWN WILL BE A DISASTER FOR BROADCAST TV
[SOURCE: Revere Digital, AUTHOR: ]
[Commentary] When I finally heard that the Supreme Court had shut down the groundbreaking digital video system, I was amazed by how universally joyful TV broadcasters and distributors were about the ruling and ensuing shutdown. Too bad they weren’t in Anaheim with me, because despite Aereo’s now-illegal Rube Goldberg-esque transmission technology, it offered a distinctive and revolutionary way for broadcast TV to remain relevant to younger viewers. Unfortunately, most TV execs probably never had a chance to actually use Aereo. And that’s too bad, because the well-designed service delivered a unique and compelling way for traditional TV -- still mostly watched on TVs -- to build an audience among digital natives. Now that the Aereo experiment is over, network executives will be newly emboldened to continue to circle the wagons and mostly keep doing business in the same old way -- via traditional distributors and to the dumb devices that, when millennials do watch, they usually mostly ignore in favor of their favorite screens in their hands (disparagingly called the “second screen” by the traditional TV industry). Unfortunately, they will continue to see their audience decline -- and revenue along with it. The broadcast upfronts just concluded, and even though there was a slight increase in the rates charged to reach each viewer, overall revenue is likely to be down across most of the English-language broadcasters, due to declining viewership. [“Cord Cutter” works as Senior Digital Exec for a major programming company]
benton.org/node/190885 | Revere Digital
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AEREO RULING MAY SET STAGE FOR DEFINING DISTRIBUTORS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Broadcasters were breathing a big sigh of relief after the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Aereo was indeed providing a public performance of their work without compensation. Their underlying challenge in the lower courts remains, and Aereo founder Chet Kanojia vowed to keep fighting. But even though the Supreme Court reversal of the Second Circuit’s denial of an injunction against Aereo does not technically settle those lower court cases, it effectively does, with language that makes it clear what Aereo is and isn’t. What it is, says the court, is like a cable operator or other multichannel video programming distributor, and not simply a cool technology to access free stuff. That could give the Federal Communications Commission some direction in its proceeding on how to define an over-the-top video service provider, and could also send the decision’s critics to Congress for help clarifying its impact on other technologies, as the court pointed out.
benton.org/node/190887 | Broadcasting&Cable
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UH OH, AEREO
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: John Bergmayer]
[Commentary] The Aereo decision is bad news for consumers, since it could take away a promising new model for watching free over-the-air television. Cord-cutters still have options. They can still access other online video services—and maybe some reconfigured version of Aereo -- and watch broadcast TV with an antenna. But there’s no doubt that the opinion (especially when considered alongside ivi and Sky Angel) is good for the network/affiliate/cable status quo. Of course if you asked me on the record I would have told you that I was optimistic that a unanimous Supreme Court would simply adopt our brief. But like most observers I concluded that the Court was looking for a way to rule against Aereo but limit the collateral damage against the tech industry as a whole. Instead, the Court uses reasoning that could apply very easily to any number of online services -- file hosting, cloud lockers, even virtual private networks (VPNs) -- as well as services that no one has even come up with yet.
benton.org/node/191171 | Public Knowledge
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

NEW FCC ONLINE POLITICAL AD DISCLOSURE RULE EXPOSES DARK MONEY TV BUYS
[SOURCE: Sunlight Foundation, AUTHOR: Kathy Kiely]
Americans get a new tool for approximating the size of what you might call the nation's "Gross Political Product." Beginning soon, every broadcast television station in the country will have to post online copies of contracts and other information about the political advertisements they are airing. For the first time, voters will have easy access to documents detailing who is buying campaign commercials and how much money they are spending. The ability to take a close and more accurate read of spending on (mostly negative) political TV ads -- already north of $40 million in April when the Wesleyan Media project released a study on the 2014 Senate contests -- represents a rare victory for transparency in a political system increasingly inundated with dark money. It's also a huge expansion of a pilot project launched in 2012, when the Federal Communications Commission (FEC) ordered affiliates of the top broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC) in the nation's 50 largest TV markets to begin online posting of their political ad files. That's why the Sunlight Foundation and other organizations, including Free Press and ProPublica, began an effort to systematically track TV ad buys during the 2012 campaign. An example is Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which has not reported a single TV ad buy during the 2014 cycle to the FEC, even though Sunlight's ad tracking tools show that the group has been extremely active in swing states, especially North Carolina and Michigan. Plenty of Democratic-allied groups, such as Patriot Majority and the League of Conservation Voters, engage in the same kind of under-the-FEC-radar advertising.
benton.org/node/190903 | Sunlight Foundation
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EDUCATION

LAUSD SHIFTS GEARS ON TECHNOLOGY FOR STUDENTS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Howard Blume]
Los Angeles school district officials have allowed a group of high schools to choose from among six different laptop computers for their students -- a marked contrast to the 2013 decision to give every pupil an iPad. Contracts that will come under final review by the Board of Education would authorize the purchase of one of six devices for each of the 27 high schools at a cost not to exceed $40 million. In the fall, administrators, teachers and students at those schools will test the laptops to determine whether they should be used going forward. What they learn will affect the future of an ongoing effort to provide computers for all students in the nation's second-largest school system. "The benefit of the new approach is clear," said Los Angeles Unified school board member Monica Ratliff, who chaired a panel that reviewed the technology effort. "Why would we treat all our students -- whether they are a first-grader or a high school freshman -- as if they all had the same technology needs? They don't.... To have a one-device-fits-all approach does not make sense."
benton.org/node/190905 | Los Angeles Times
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

SMARTPHONE THEFTS ARE DROPPING; HERE'S WHY
[SOURCE: Crain’s Chicago Business, AUTHOR: John Pletz]
After Apple introduced a kill switch last fall for iPhones and iPads, law enforcement officials in New York and San Francisco say the number of mobile-phone thefts and robberies dropped about 30 percent, respectively, during the first five months of the year. Without saying that Apple's Activation Lock was responsible, police in Chicago and Washington report similar double-digit drops. Dennis Roberson, vice provost for research at Illinois Institute of Technology and a wireless expert, is leading a Federal Communications Commission effort to come up with an industrywide plan by year-end for “kill switches” and “remote-wipe” technology that would allow victims to render stolen phones into useless bricks. In essence, he wants to turn smartphone theft into a dumb crime. Roberson is looking to carriers to take the lead on creating an anti-theft tool that works across all platforms and products. “The first person to call has to be your carrier, not your insurance or police,” he says. “No one wants a unique role from Apple, Samsung or whomever. You don't want 20 different solutions.”
benton.org/node/190871 | Crain’s Chicago Business
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SAN FRANCISCO, SAN JOSE COMBINE THEIR WI-FI NETWORKS USING HOTSPOT 2.0
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Kevin Fitchard]
The cities of San Francisco and San Jose are merging their two municipal Wi-Fi networks; at least on the virtual level. The two cities are using a new technology -- Hotspot 2.0 -- to let smartphones automatically connect and roam between their two networks as well as provide a layer of security on what wouldn’t normally be available in wide-open public hotspots. SF wants its public hotspot network -- which now covers Market Street, the city’s main commercial corridor, but will soon expand to public parks -- to become a key component of its municipal infrastructure, useful for businesses, consumers and city workers. That demands encrypted connections, he said. San Francisco Department of Technology CTO Flavio Aggio said he certainly isn’t blind to Hotspot 2.0’s potential for forming intercity networks. San Francisco and San Jose are connecting their networks, but Aggio said he is already in talks with other cities to include their municipal Wi-Fi grids in broader roaming agreements.
benton.org/node/191183 | TVNewsCheck
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

FCC ANNOUNCES POSTING OF BROADBAND DATA FROM URBAN RATE SURVEY AND SEEKS COMMENT ON CALCULATION OF REASONABLE COMPARABILITY BENCHMARK FOR BROADBAND SERVICES
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau proposes a specific methodology for calculating the reasonable comparability benchmark for fixed broadband services. In the USF/ICC Transformation Order, the Commission required that as a condition of receiving Connect America Fund support, recipients must offer voice and broadband services in supported areas at rates that are reasonably comparable to rates for similar services in urban areas. The methodology proposed here would result in a broadband benchmark that ranges from $68.48 to $71.84 for services meeting the current broadband performance standard of 4 Mbps downstream/1 Mbps upstream, with the specific benchmark depending on the associated usage allowance. The Bureau also announces the posting of the fixed broadband services data collected in the 2013 urban rate survey. The first approach calculates the average using a subsample of observations based solely on download speed, without regard to usage or upstream speeds. The second approach calculates the average by identifying the subset of observations that meet or exceed a minimum service level, and then for each provider that is captured in that sub-sample, computing the average based on the lowest rate offered by that provider that meets or exceeds the specified service level. The third approach uses a simple weighted linear regression model that takes into account the impact of three dimensions of service on rates: upload speed, download speed, and usage allowance, if any. We seek comment on survey proposals applying the aforementioned approaches.
benton.org/node/191179 | Federal Communications Commission | FCC staff report
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JOURNALISM

TIME TO FINALLY EMBRACE NEWS COLLABORATION
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Diana Marszalek]
Speakers at the recent Investigative Reporters & Editors conference say that 76% of local broadcasters partner with other news outlets, and it behooves TV reporters to maximize the potential -- and benefits -- of those collaborations, whether they like it or not. And the same goes for collaborating with their own digital teams. There should no longer be a division between on-air and digital departments.
benton.org/node/190875 | TVNewsCheck
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BRICK BY BRICK
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Michael Meyer]
[Commentary] That Amazon’s Jeff Bezos purchased The Washington Post has the potential to be one of the more significant events in the history of modern American journalism. The Post went from being a newspaper in retreat to being the only legacy media company in America that can consider itself a technology property. The Post is once again hungry to be a dominant force in American journalism, and the newsroom senses that the Graham era has been sealed off behind them. The journalism isn’t what Bezos plans to revamp, or necessarily invest significant new funds in -- the new hires notwithstanding -- at least initially. His main focus is the pipeline: reaching the maximum number of customers by putting the Post’s journalism in a package (a tablet, a mobile site) that will draw the greatest number of readers. As it has been with Amazon, his obsession at the Post is finding a way to integrate a product into millions of people’s lives in a way they haven’t yet experienced.
benton.org/node/190873 | Columbia Journalism Review
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AP AUTOMATION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ravi Somaiya]
The Associated Press announced that it would use computer automation to perform one of the most formulaic tasks for business reporters -- writing articles about the quarterly earnings of companies. Articles about corporate earnings are largely based on a company’s report to shareholders, but can include information from earnings conference calls with executives and comments from analysts. The AP produces about 300 such articles a quarter, according to Lou Ferrara, a managing editor who oversees business news. Ferrara said, these articles will be written using software from a company called Automated Insights, which The Associated Press has invested in, paired with data from Zacks Investment Research. The automated system will enable the news service to increase the number of earnings articles it publishes more than tenfold, Ferrara said, and allow journalists to use their “brains and time in more enterprising ways during earnings season.” No journalism jobs will be lost as a result, he said.
benton.org/node/191304 | New York Times
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

PRESIDENT OBAMA SURVEILLANCE REPORT GETS BIPARTISAN PUSHBACK
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Sens Al Franken (D-MN) and Dean Heller (R-NV) are not satisfied with a new report from the Obama Administration on government surveillance programs, and say their Surveillance Transparency Act is still needed. Their problem is that the report identifies the number of people targeted, not the number from whom information was collected. It also does not identify how many of those who had info collected were American, and how much of that wound up being reviewed by the government. The pair said the report, issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is only a "small step" toward the surveillance transparency they are looking for. “I recognize that this report is being offered in good faith," said Sen Franken, who suggested good faith didn't cut it. "[I]t still leaves Americans in the dark," he said. "It doesn’t tell the American people enough about what information is being gathered about them and how it’s being used." Sen Heller added: “The report released by the Administration represents some progress, but it does not do near enough to provide Americans with adequate information
benton.org/node/191191 | Multichannel News
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POLICYMAKERS

NTIA ANNOUNCES NEW MEMBERS FOR COMMERCE SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE (CSMAC)
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration, AUTHOR: Press release]
The US Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced the appointment of experts from the private and nonprofit sectors to serve on the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC), which provides advice and expertise on a wide-range of spectrum policy and technical issues. Committee members, appointed by the Secretary of Commerce for two-year terms, will provide the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information with advice and recommendations aimed at strengthening the US global leadership role in wireless technology services and innovation while supporting the country’s homeland security, national defense, and other critical government missions. The committee will be co-chaired by Larry Alder, director of access strategy at Google, and Mark Gibson, senior director of business development at Comsearch. Both Adler and Gibson previously served on CSMAC and are among the 17 returning members to the 28-member panel. The new members are Audrey L. Allison, director of frequency management services, for Boeing; Michael S Chartier, director of spectrum technology at Intel's public policy group; Harold Feld SVP of public policy at Public Knowledge; Dr Paul Kolodzy, an independent telecommunications consultant; Dr Robert Kubik, director of communications policy and regulatory affairs for Samsung Electronics America; Dr. Giulia McHenry, an associate with The Brattle Group; Charla Rath, VP of wireless policy development at Verizon; Dr Jeffrey Reed, director of wireless at Virginia Tech; Kurt Schaubach, VP and CTO, National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative; Steve Sharkey, senior director, chief engineering and technology policy in T-Mobile’s government affairs office; Mariam Sorond, VP of technology development for DISH.
benton.org/node/191173 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration | NTIA | B&C
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

EUROPEANS FLOCK TO BE FORGOTTEN
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Elizabeth Weise]
More than 250 Europeans a day have been applying to a French website to have past incidents "forgotten" by Google since the service was launched. Called forget.me, the site allows European Union residents to apply to have material removed from Google's European Union search results. The French firm, ReputationVIP, appears to be the first to take advantage of a groundbreaking Europe's high court ruling on May 13. Under European privacy laws, the court ruled, individuals have the right to request search engines remove links to information about them that is "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed." As of June 30, 2014, 13,000 people had registered on the company's website. They submitted 1,105 right to be forgotten applications requesting the remove of a total of 5,418 links, according to Bertrand Girin, the Lyon, France-based reputation management firm's chief executive officer.
benton.org/node/190917 | USAToday
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SCRAMBLED SIGNAL
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Daniel Thomas, Alex Barker]
Few things divide European consumers more starkly than the cost of using their mobile phones. Price differences are natural enough. What worries EU officials is the “ridiculous and shameful gulf” that reflects not just cost differences but divergent pricing power. Across Europe lie some of the industrial world’s fastest networks and some of its worst laggards, some of the cheapest deals and some of the globe’s more punitive rates. And all this in what is supposed to be a seamless European market for 500 million people. Sixteen years after “full liberalisation”, telecoms gives the lie to Europe’s single-market dream. State monopolies have gone but heavily regulated national microcosms remain. Sixty percent of customers are with Europe’s four big operators but in practice their businesses fracture along national lines. Cross-border retail offers are non-existent. Revenues are falling fast. Once imperious national incumbents are under siege; stateless, loosely regulated “over-the-top players” such as Google, Twitter or Facebook are riding their networks while killing the pay-for-calls business model. Executives see a path to salvation: consolidation in national markets.
benton.org/node/191299 | Financial Times
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CHINA AND GOOGLE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Charles Clover]
Nearly a month after China intensified its clampdown on Google’s services, many Chinese businesses are discovering how exposed they are to the US search company, whose fortunes in China are hostage to the so-called Great Firewall, designed to keep out pernicious foreign influences. Real estate companies, private taxi cab hailers and smartphone online gamblers are finding to their irritation that things that they took for granted – receiving email, getting a ride to the airport, or buying a $4 million house in Florida -- are becoming more cumbersome than usual.
benton.org/node/191298 | Financial Times
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Benton

Daily Digest

Analysis

July 2014

July 1, 2014 (Accessibility; Privacy; Diversity)

How the First Amendment Applies to Social Media

Should Facebook Manipulate Users?

The AP Plans to Automate Quarterly Earnings Articles

Facebook Study Sparks Soul-Searching and Ethical Questions

Cheaper mobile phone bills for EU roamers

Scrambled signal

China’s month-long Google clampdown hits businesses