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November 2016

AT&T-Time Warner Deal Could Be a Net Neutrality Nightmare, Senator Wyden Warns

AT&T’s proposed $85 billion buyout of Time Warner could make a mockery of US open Internet protections if the combined company decides to exploit a loophole in federal regulations in order to favor its own content at the expense of rivals. That was the blunt warning issued by Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) in a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler.

Sen Wyden is particularly concerned that AT&T could use the controversial practice of “zero-rating” to favor Time Warner programming, thereby undermining the FCC’s policy protecting network neutrality. Zero-rating refers to a variety of practices that broadband companies use to exempt certain Internet content and services from data caps, effectively favoring those services by providing consumers with an economic rationale to use them instead of rival offerings. “I am deeply concerned that if AT&T acquires Time Warner's content, the new mega-company will have incentives to prioritize its own content over content created by small business, independent artists or by its rivals,” Sen Wyden wrote.

The Tribe Protesting the Dakota Pipeline Is Ready to Defend Its Wireless Network

Fred McLaughlin speaks with a melancholy tinge in his voice. It’s not just caused by his drawn out North Dakotan accent. McLaughlin feels certain that eminent domain practices, which have cleared the path for the Dakota Access Pipeline, are setting up another future showdown. From his back porch on Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation, located near the southern border with South Dakota, McLaughlin can see people arriving to protest against oil being piped under the Missouri River, a source of water for the tribe and 18 million other Americans. But as general manager of Standing Rock Telecom, the tribe-owned local wireless service provider, McLaughlin worries that federal and private entities are coming for the tribe’s cellular spectrum next.

He mapped out this scenario for me while the sun set on the majestic North Dakota plains, closing out a tense day where fellow Native Americans were confronted by the National Guard, private security and militarized police from six states. “It’s a spectacular benefit to have our own telecoms company, and everyone can see this and validate it. It’s a point of pride,” he said. “We as tribal nations have never given up our airspace.” Standing Rock Telecom owns 17 towers and provides month-to-month contracts for 1,600 subscribers (and growing). The strong signal it provides to the reservation, which stretches from Sioux County, North Dakota, to Corson County, South Dakota, covers 3,500 square miles and has played a crucial part in disseminating grassroots media coverage of the pipeline protests.

NTEN, the Nonprofit Technology Network
March 23-25, 2017
http://www.nten.org/ntc/


The PG-13 Reporters Covering an R-Rated Election

Scholastic has been providing child-friendly election coverage to teachers and classrooms for nearly a century, starting with the 1924 race between Calvin Coolidge and John W. Davis. It introduced its children’s press corps program in 2000, and for the last five presidential elections, Scholastic has sent precocious young political reporters to cover rallies, debates and stump speeches around the country. 2016's press corps includes children in 22 states and the District of Columbia. The children cover their local areas, and their reports appear on the Scholastic News website and occasionally in its classroom magazines, which reach about 25 million students. Many of the young reporters say it is exhilarating to witness history unfolding before their eyes. But this election has presented challenges, as the race has devolved into one of the most vicious contests in the nation’s history. Even the most grizzled, jaded campaign veterans have been shocked by the barrage of insults and controversies that have defined this year’s race. Kaitlin Clark, 12, of New Hampshire, said that when she was in a news media pen at a rally for Donald Trump. “You could feel that the crowd didn’t really want us there,” she said.

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