November 20, 2014 (ConnectED; STELAR)
Headlines will return MONDAY, November 24
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2014
Today: The Great Net Neutrality Debate. Tomorrow: FCC Meeting see http://benton.org/calendar
EDUCATION
More than 1,200 School Superintendents Take the Future Ready District Pledge - White House press release
White House: FCC Raising E-rate Cap Is Essential
Close the Broadband Gap - Jim Steyer op-ed
TELEVISION
Compromise STELAR Passes In House
Sen. Markey: I Will Not Block STELAR [links to web]
GLAAD's third annual Trans Images on TV report finds some improvement - press release [links to web]
TV Studios Court Licensing Deals in Bustling Foreign Markets [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Sen Cantwell demands FCC take ‘forceful action’ to protect network neutrality [links to web]
President Obama Scores on Network Neutrality - Marvin Ammori op-ed
In praise of gatekeepers: The growth of apps and decline of the web - AEI op-ed [links to web]
Cleveland will seek to become a "gig city" with super-fast Internet, starting in the Health-Tech Corridor [links to web]
Netflix takes up 9.5% of upstream traffic on the North American Internet [links to web]
PRIVACY/SECURITY
NSA Phone Data Collection Could Go On, Even if a Law Expires
Mail Monitoring Rarely Denied, Postal Service Says [links to web]
US, Israeli companies supply spy gear to repressive regimes, report says [links to web]
Only Dem 'no' vote on NSA explains himself
FCC Chairman at National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee - speech
Everything Google knows about you (and how it knows it)
Cellphone tracking: Find an address? Easy. But new devices can calculate your altitude.
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
White House hits TV networks for skipping immigration address
DIVERSITY
Women Given Little to Say in Hollywood's Biggest Films of 2013 - op-ed
JOURNALISM
President Clinton laments 'dilemma' of media industry [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
Silicon Valley’s champion just lost a key leadership race in the House
STORIES FROM ABROAD
China Aims to Expand Censored Web [links to web]
Internet Growth Exponential In Cambodia - press release [links to web]
EDUCATION
FUTURE READY DIGITAL PLEDGE
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Cameron Brenchley]
President Barack Obama launched a new effort to assist school leaders in their transition to digital learning with the Future Ready Digital Pledge. The Future Ready Digital Pledge is part of the President’s ConnectED initiative, which empowers teachers with the best technology and the training to make the most of it, and empowers students through individualized learning and rich, digital content. ConnectED also seeks to connect 99 percent of America’s students with high-speed broadband internet in their schools and libraries. More than 1,200 school superintendents have already signed the pledge, and have agreed to:
Foster a culture of learning through technology across their schools
Assist their students and families in the transition to high-speed connectivity
Provide their learners greater access to high-quality digital devices and content
Provide teachers and principals the support needed to use technology in innovative ways
benton.org/headlines/more-1200-school-superintendents-take-future-ready-district-pledge | White House, The | President Obama | WH fact sheet
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ERATE CAP AND CONNECTED
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The White House called the Federal Communications Commission proposal to raise the E-rate cap by $1.5 billion an "essential step" in the President's ConnectED initiative. Citing the FCC, the White House said that "68% of school districts report that not a single school in their district can meet high-speed connectivity goals."
benton.org/headlines/white-house-fcc-raising-e-rate-cap-essential | Multichannel News
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CLOSE THE BROADBAND GAP
[SOURCE: Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Jim Steyer]
[Commentary] In the 21st century, it's hard to imagine a corporate world where only one-third of businesses could access high-speed Internet and the rest were relegated to dial-up speeds. Yet that's essentially the reality for our nation's schools. Although most schools today have Internet access, only about one-third of our public schools have the high-speed broadband they need for today's innovative, interactive online lessons, educational games, and collaborative tools. The rest of the schools are stuck with middling and downright slow Internet connections. The status quo condemns too many to the classroom of yesterday. Through a modernized and expanded E-Rate, we can bring our classrooms and libraries into the 21st century, and help ensure quality and equality of opportunity, as we prepare our next generation to compete in the tech-savvy workforce and global economy of tomorrow. The Federal Communications Commission took initial steps in July to streamline and modernize the E-Rate program. We now urge the FCC to take additional action to ensure much-needed funding for E-Rate, to allow America's teachers, students, and workforce to remain globally competitive. Our nation can't get ahead if we leave two-thirds of our students behind.
[Steyer is CEO of Common Sense Media]
benton.org/headlines/close-broadband-gap | Huffington Post
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TELEVISION
STELAR PASSES
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The House unanimously passed the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization (STELAR) Act of 2014 (HR 5728), the compromise satellite reauthorization bill. The bill reauthorizes (for another five years) the satellite compulsory license allowing the importation of distant network TV signals into markets without those affiliates and affects about 1.5 million satellite subscribers. The bill must pass the Senate and be signed by the President before December 31 or the license expires, as does the Federal Communications Commission's authority to enforce good faith retransmission consent negotiations. The House unanimously passed its own version of the bill earlier in 2014, but that has been merged with a Senate version that passed out of committee on that side of the Congress. But the compromise version does a lot more than that, including instituting various "consumer protections in retransmission consent" that had been sought by cable operators. During House consideration of the bill, Republicans and Democrats called them targeted, pro-consumer reforms that will help the video marketplace.
benton.org/headlines/compromise-stelar-passes-house | Multichannel News | The Hill
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
OBAMA SCORES ON NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: Foreign Affairs, AUTHOR: Marvin Ammori]
[Commentary] If the case in favor of Obama’s Internet policy is so strong, why is it so controversial and so difficult for the President to enact? Because a gutting of net neutrality would be extremely profitable to telecommunications companies (which could charge for access) and major existing Internet businesses (which could afford to buy protection against smaller, pesky competitors). Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has appeared unwilling to move against the interests of cable and phone companies on this issue, and has the bureaucratic autonomy to resist the wishes of outsiders, including those in the White House. At this point, however, the issue is in play, and both Chairman Wheeler and President Obama may ultimately be able to point to a truly significant and noble legacy -- the preservation of the freedom and openness that has made the Internet such a revolutionary force in the world.
[Ammori is a Future Tense Fellow at the New America Foundation]
benton.org/headlines/president-obama-scores-network-neutrality | Foreign Affairs
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PRIVACY/SECURITY
COULD NSA DATA COLLECTION CONTINUE?
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Charlie Savage]
A little-known provision of the Patriot Act, overlooked by lawmakers and administration officials alike, appears to give President Obama a possible way to keep the National Security Agency’s bulk phone records program going indefinitely -- even if Congress allows the law on which it is based to expire in 2015. The debate about what may happen next has played out based on a widely held premise: that the legal basis for the program, Section 215 of the Patriot Act, will expire on June 1, so if Congress remains gridlocked, the program will automatically shut down. But that premise may be incorrect. If the summer arrives and the program is facing a shutdown, President Obama could invoke the provision to ask the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to keep it going. Several executive branch officials said the Administration had not been studying that option and expressed doubt that President Obama would take such a step, or that the Surveillance Court would agree to it if he tried. Still, the mere existence of a potential way for the program to keep going without congressional action could recast the debate. Among other things, it could dampen any sense of solace felt by privacy advocates who supported the bill, the USA Freedom Act, and its revisions of the bulk data program, but who believed that if Congress remained gridlocked, the program was certain to disappear. And it potentially transforms the politics of what could happen if the expiration date is reached without new legislation, giving congressional Republicans a way to try to shift the blame for any risk created by letting the program lapse to President Obama, if the president does not use the provision to try to keep it going.
benton.org/headlines/nsa-phone-data-collection-could-go-even-if-law-expires | New York Times
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SEN NELSON EXPLAINS HIMSELF
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Mario Trujillo]
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) said a National Security Agency program that collects telephone records of millions of Americans is helpful in preventing terrorism. He was the only Democrat to vote against the USA Freedom Act, which would have ended the government's bulk collection of telephone records. The vote on the motion to open debate failed 58-42. "Sen. Nelson has consistently supported measures he feels aid the intelligence community in preventing future terrorist attacks," spokesman Ryan Brown said. "That’s why he voted ‘no’ on the measure last night," he added. "He believes the bill would have undone a provision allowing for retention of certain telephone records that he feels is helpful in preventing future terrorist attacks.”
benton.org/headlines/only-dem-no-vote-nsa-explains-himself | Hill, The
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WHEELER AT NSTAC
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler]
Speaking to the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC), Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler focused on private sector leadership on cyber security in the communications sector. The task before us, he said is to challenge the marketplace to ensure security and reliability of our nation’s communications functions in an all-Internet Protocol communications world, and what to do if that isn’t sufficient.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-chairman-national-security-telecommunications-advisory-committee | Federal Communications Commission
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GOOGLE KNOWS YOU
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Caitlin Dewey]
Even as you search Google, it turns out, Google is also searching you. Ondrej Prostrednik compiled a list of all the places where Google users can see their personal results. But it’s not that any of this is a secret, necessarily. In fact, in many instances, you’ve signed off on Google’s tracking, whether by signing up for a Google service or opting in on an Android phone. The startling thing is that we forget all this information is being stored, forever, in one centralized place. The small, ordinary act of sending an e-mail or making a search or looking up directions may seem revelatory, in and of itself. But when you compile all those thousands of disparate e-mails and searches and directions over time, which Google does, you end up with something far more intimate -- something not too far removed from a detailed portrait of your life and interests.
benton.org/headlines/everything-google-knows-about-you-and-how-it-knows-it | Washington Post
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CELLPHONE TRACKING
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Craig Timberg]
Cellphones long have doubled as tracking devices, capable of revealing your location to police, paramedics, even grocery stores looking to deliver coupons to nearby customers. But there’s a measurement cellphones once struggled to make: altitude. No more. Cellphone tracking is about to go vertical as the location-services industry, prodded by the US government, solves the riddle of what experts call “the z vector.” Soon it will be possible to determine not only what building you and your phone are in but also whether you are on the first or 15th floor. The systems, though now used mainly for apps that users control, are part of a new generation of location technology that could collect altitude data from smartphones and use it to, for example, help rescue crews find people trapped in an office-tower fire. But privacy advocates warn that detectives, intelligence agencies and maybe hackers could gain the ability to map the three-dimensional movements of cellphone users with startling new detail. An early glimpse at this tension is playing out at the Federal Communications Commission, which is updating its requirements for how wireless carriers handle 911 calls, 70 percent of which now come from cellphones rather than land lines. In a proposal that could be adopted as soon as January, the FCC would require wireless carriers to build more-precise location systems capable of finding callers anywhere, even in a multistory building.
benton.org/headlines/cellphone-tracking-find-address-easy-new-devices-can-calculate-your-altitude | Washington Post
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
IMMIGRATION ADDRESS
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Hadas Gold]
The White House is exasperated with the major broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC -- for skipping out on President Barack Obama’s primetime address on his executive actions on immigration. “In 2006, Bush gave a 17 minute speech that was televised by all three networks that was about deploying 6000 national guard troops to the border. Obama is making a 10 minute speech that will have a vastly greater impact on the issue. And none of the networks are doing it,” a senior administration official said. None of the major networks want to take time away from their primetime programming for Obama’s 8p.m. speech. So the Administration did not send out a formal request to the networks and took to Facebook to publicize the speech with a special video message from President Obama along with a link to the livestream. To be sure, the media landscape is a much different place now than it was in 2006. Smartphones and tablets that could play a livestream were nearly nonexistent. Facebook was barely a few years old. Nevertheless, the White House resents the networks' new calculus. Univision and Telemundo will broadcast the speech live. Univision is even delaying the Latin Grammys broadcast for the speech. CNN, MSNBC and Fox News will also air the speech live.
benton.org/headlines/white-house-hits-tv-networks-skipping-immigration-address | Politico
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DIVERSITY
DIVERSITY IN FILM
[SOURCE: The Wrap, AUTHOR: Stacy Smith]
[Commentary] Each year, my Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative assesses the gender of all speaking characters (those saying one or more words on screen) across the 100 top-grossing films. In 2013, only 29.2% of all speaking characters (4,506 evaluated) on screen were female. This percentage has not moved very much over time. Clearly, females have been facing a representational roadblock on screen for decades even though they comprise 50% of the population. So, what would it take to change this percentage? To be honest, not much. If filmmakers just added five female speaking characters to their current slate of projects (without taking away or changing any of the male characters) and repeated the process for four years, we would be at parity.
[Smith is an Associate Professor at USC Annenberg]
benton.org/headlines/women-given-little-say-hollywoods-biggest-films-2013 | Wrap, The
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POLICYMAKERS
HOUSE COMMERCE COMMITTEE RANKING MEMBER
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) -- who represents California's 18th district, which includes Palo Alto and Mountain View, where Facebook and Google are headquartered -- won't be the top Democrat on the House Commerce Committee in the new Congress. And that's bad news for Silicon Valley. She narrowly lost her bid to succeed Rep Henry Waxman (D-CA), who's retiring, as the ranking member. By a 100-90 vote, House Democrats voted instead for Frank Pallone (D-NJ), who has been in Congress longer than Rep Eshoo. (Among committee members, Eshoo received more votes by a margin of 30-19.)
benton.org/headlines/silicon-valleys-champion-just-lost-key-leadership-race-house | Washington Post | The Hill
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