November 2016

AGENDA

FCC DECEMBER MEETING AGENDA
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced that the following items are tentatively on the agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 15, 2016:
Transition from TTY to Real-Time Text Technology: The FCC will consider a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to help achieve the transition from TTY technology to a reliable and interoperable means of providing real-time text communication over wireless Internet protocol-enabled networks and services. (CG Docket No. 16-145, GN Docket No. 15-178).
Improving the Nation’s Public Alert and Warning Systems: The FCC will consider a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to enhance the Emergency Alert System (EAS) as a tool for community emergency preparedness. The Report and Order improves alerting organization at the state and local levels, builds stronger community-based alerting exercise programs, and protects the EAS against accidental misuse and malicious intrusion. The Further Notice seeks comment on proposals to leverage technological advances to improve alerting and additional measures to preserve EAS security. (PS Docket No. 15-94)
The following items that are currently on circulation may be considered, unless voted on circulation prior to the December Open Meeting:
Update to Parts 2 and 25 Concerning Non-geostationary, Fixed-Satellite Service Systems and Related Matters, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
In the Matter of Amendment of Part 0 of the Commission’s Rules Regarding Public Information, the Inspection of Records, and Implementing the Freedom of Information Act
Maritime Communications/Land Mobile, LLC, Order on Reconsideration and Memorandum Opinion and Order
Improving the Resiliency of the Nation's Mobile Wireless Communications Networks, Order
Preferred Long Distance, Inc., Memorandum Opinion and Order
benton.org/headlines/fcc-chairman-wheeler-announces-tentative-agenda-december-open-meeting | Federal Communications Commission
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TRUMP TRANSITION

PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP VISITS THE TIMES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael Grynbaum, Sydney Ember]
In the morning, President-elect Donald Trump was the media-bashing firebrand many of his supporters adore, denouncing The New York Times as a “failing” institution that covered him inaccurately — “and with a nasty tone!” Eight hours later, after a lunchtime interview with editors and reporters for The Times — one that was briefly canceled, after President-elect Trump quarreled over the ground rules, then restored — the mood of the president-elect, it seemed, had mellowed. “The Times is a great, great American jewel,” he declared as he prepared to leave the gathering in the newspaper’s 16th-floor boardroom, where portraits of former presidents adorn the walls. “A world jewel,” added President-elect Trump, who was seated next to Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the paper’s publisher. “And I hope we can all get along.” In an extraordinary 75-minute meeting — parrying, debating and, at times, joking with the leaders of a publication that has long been an object of Trump’s fascination and frustration — the president-elect’s chameleonlike approach to the news media was on full display. He dismissed his earlier talk of strengthening libel laws, telling the assembled journalists, “I think you’ll be OK.” He expressed interest in improving his relationship with the paper, saying, “I think it would make the job I am doing much easier.” “To me,” President-elect Trump said at one point, “it would be a great achievement if I could come back here in a year or two, and have a lot of folks here say, ‘You’ve done a great job.’”
benton.org/headlines/less-defiant-trump-times-i-hope-we-can-all-get-along | New York Times
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GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY INSTITUTE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Robert O'Harrow Jr]
Donald Trump’s chief White House strategist Stephen Bannon accepted $376,000 in pay over four years for working 30 hours a week at a tiny tax-exempt charity in Tallahassee while also serving as the hands-on executive chairman of Breitbart News Network. During the same four-year period, the charity paid about $1.3 million in salaries to two other journalists who said they put in 40 hours a week there while also working for the politically conservative news outlet, according to publicly available documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service. The salary payments are one part of a close relationship between the nonprofit Government Accountability Institute, a conservative investigative research organization, and for-profit Breitbart News. The ties between the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) and Breitbart call into question the assertions the institute made in filings to the IRS that it is an independent, nonpartisan operation, according to philanthropic specialists and former IRS officials. Bannon launched the institute in 2012, shortly after taking the helm of Breitbart. He sought tax-exempt status from the IRS by describing the institute as an education group to help the United States and other countries maintain a “higher quality of life” through “promotion of economic freedom,” according to IRS filings. But from its inception, the institute has been closely tied through personnel and donations to a network of nonprofit organizations that have pushed a conservative agenda, in part through highly critical reports about Clinton and the Obama administration, according to IRS filings from multiple organizations. The institute received nearly $4 million in donations between 2012 and 2014 from two conservative charities — Donors Trust and the Mercer Family Foundation.
benton.org/headlines/trump-adviser-stephen-bannon-received-salary-charity-while-steering-breitbart-news | Washington Post
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FCC TRANSITION TEAM'S MARK JAMISON: DO WE NEED AN FCC?
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
In staffing his Federal Communications Commission transition team, President-elect Donald Trump has tapped a pair of American Enterprise Institute (AEI) veterans and free market de-regulators in Jeffrey Eisenach and Mark Jamison. While it is tough to predict whether the merger-threatening populist Donald Trump (he has said he opposes AT&T-Time Warner and would unwind Comcast-NBCU) or the regulation-threatening Trump (he wants two regulations axed for each new one added) will set the tone for the FCC, the choice of the transition team leadership could be instructive. Eisenach and Jamison are linked at the communications deregulatory hip by AEI, a free market think tank. While Eisenach has gotten attention as a key overall transition team member for his deregulatory views, including on network neutrality, Jamison's appointment adds some new deregulatory punch. "Regulation is about disappointing people at a rate that they can endure," Jamison has written. But he is clearly out to "disappoint" people less. Jamison says most of the reasons for having an FCC have "gone away," in part because he says there are few telecom network monopolies, and ISPs are rarely among those few. That is quite the difference from the Wheeler FCC's emphasis on ISP gatekeepers to justify various regulatory approaches, including net neutrality and broadband privacy rules, both of which are likely to get a second look under a Republican chair.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-transition-teams-mark-jamison-do-we-need-fcc | Broadcasting&Cable | Washington Post | ars technica | The Verge | MediaPost
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TRUMP WON'T PURSUE CASE AGAINST CLINTON
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jerry Markon, Sari Horwitz]
President-elect Donald Trump has decided that he won’t seek criminal investigations related to former rival Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server or her family foundation, his campaign manager said. President-elect Trump’s apparent decision, conveyed by Kellyanne Conway in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,’’ is a change from his campaign rhetoric, in which he issued incendiary calls for a special prosecutor to reopen the FBI’s closed investigation of Clinton’s use of a private server while serving as secretary of state and had also urged investigations of allegations of corruption at the Clinton Foundation. He nicknamed the Democratic nominee “Crooked Hillary” and encouraged chants of “Lock her up!” at his rallies. President-elect Trump’s decision to pursue or not pursue a criminal investigation from the Oval Office would be an extraordinary break with political and legal protocol, which holds that the attorney general and FBI make decisions on whether to conduct investigations and file charges, free of pressure from the president. Conway said President-elect Trump sees things differently. “I think when the president-elect, who’s also the head of your party, tells you before he’s even inaugurated that he doesn’t wish to pursue these charges, it sends a very strong message, tone and content” to fellow Republicans, she said. “Look, I think he’s thinking of many different things as he prepares to become the President of the United States, and things that sound like the campaign are not among them,” she added.
benton.org/headlines/president-elect-trump-wont-pursue-case-against-clinton-campaign-manager-says | Washington Post
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UPTON AND THUNE ASK FTC TO PAUSE
[SOURCE: US Senate Commerce Committee, AUTHOR: Press release]
House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Edith Ramirez requesting a pause on any controversial new regulations. “We are writing to express our thoughts about the pending [Federal Trade Commission (FTC)] agenda in light of the recent election and upcoming transition. While the leadership of the [FTC] will soon change, congressional oversight of the Commission will continue. Therefore, any action taken by [FTC] before a new chairman is designated will receive particular scrutiny. While we expect and encourage the [FTC] to continue its routine merger reviews and consumer protection enforcement in support of competition and on behalf of American consumers, we strongly encourage the [FTC] to avoid directing its attention and resources in the coming months on complex, partisan, or otherwise controversial items that the new Congress and new Administration will have an interest in reviewing.”
benton.org/headlines/chairmen-upton-and-thune-request-pause-controversial-ftc-regulations | US Senate Commerce Committee | read the letter
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

LOOK TO SAN FRANCISCO
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Michael Hiltzik]
[Commentary] Hopes that Google would establish a nationwide model for fiber Internet service were dashed, when the company suddenly declared a “pause” in its plans to lay fiber in as many as 18 municipalities. The disappointed suitors will have to wait for this strategy to play out or move ahead on their own. They would be well advised to keep an eye on San Francisco. That city is contemplating what would be the largest and most ambitious public broadband system in the country, with the ultimate goal of running fiber into every home and public building. San Francisco has some advantages other communities lack. It’s geographically compact and densely populated, with a technophile citizenry. But the city of 865,000 residents is facing a daunting challenge. No city of comparable size has deployed a system of fiber to every building. The technical and physical obstacles to laying fiber citywide could sink the project at birth. The cost, which could come close to $1 billion, could raise public and political opposition. Existing Internet providers such as Comcast and AT&T can be expected to fight the project through lobbying and lawsuits. Still, this is a city sensitive to its digital inadequacies. As of 2014, the legislative analyst reported, only 2.6% of San Francisco residents had gigabit-per-second access, the gold standard for broadband connectivity. To this day, service in a city closely identified with high technology is spotty and often atrocious.
benton.org/headlines/google-fiber-scales-down-its-broadband-business-san-francisco-moves-ahead-its-own | Los Angeles Times
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JOURNALISM

BILLIONAIRES VS THE PRESS IN THE ERA OF TRUMP
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Emily Bazelon]
A small group of superrich Americans — President-elect Donald Trump among them — has laid the groundwork for an unprecedented legal assault on the media. Can they succeed? The new president will be a man who constantly accuses the media of getting things wrong but routinely misrepresents and twists facts himself. There are signs, too, of new efforts to harness the law to the cause of cowing the press. President-elect Trump’s choice for chief adviser, Stephen Bannon, ran the alt-right Breitbart News Network before joining Trump’s campaign last summer. Breitbart announced recently that it was “preparing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against a major media company” for calling Breitbart a “ ‘white nationalist’ website.” Even if Breitbart is bluffing, the threat will discourage other news outlets from using that term to describe it, and that will in turn help Breitbart and Bannon seem more acceptable to the mainstream. President-elect Trump was right about one thing: You don’t have to win every case to advance in the larger legal war.
benton.org/headlines/billionaires-vs-press-era-trump | New York Times
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HOW FAKE NEWS SKEWS OUR IMPACT MODELS AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT
[SOURCE: Media Impact Funders, AUTHOR: Jessica Clark]
By far, the most visible debate about how and why fake news spreads so quickly revolves around the role that large social platforms such as Facebook, Google and Twitter play as conduits. While these platforms have in the past tried to claim that they’re just neutral pipes for content, sustained post-election pressure is beginning to move them to action. Of course, only so much can be done to fix the problem on the supply side. At the end of the day, the problem lies on the demand side, among credulous news consumers who are emotionally primed to believe the worst about politicians and the powerful. “Sorry, but I don’t want Facebook to be the arbiter of what’s true,” writes Arizona State University professor and author Dan Gillmor. “Nor do I want Google — or Twitter or any other hyper-centralized technology platform — to be the arbiter of what’s true.” Instead, he argues, the platforms should help users learn how to read skeptically, seek out multiple perspectives, and create their own media. Primers such as this “How to Spot Fake News” piece from FactCheck.org are a useful start.
benton.org/headlines/true-story-how-fake-news-skews-our-impact-models-and-what-we-can-do-about-it | Media Impact Funders
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MOST STUDENTS DON'T KNOW WHEN NEWS IS FAKE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sue Shellenbarger]
Preteens and teens may appear dazzlingly fluent, flitting among social-media sites, uploading selfies and texting friends. But they’re often clueless about evaluating the accuracy and trustworthiness of what they find. Some 82% of middle-schoolers couldn’t distinguish between an ad labeled “sponsored content” and a real news story on a website, according to a Stanford University study of 7,804 students from middle school through college. The study is the biggest so far on how teens evaluate information they find online. Many students judged the credibility of newsy tweets based on how much detail they contained or whether a large photo was attached, rather than on the source. More than two out of three middle-schoolers couldn’t see any valid reason to mistrust a post written by a bank executive arguing that young adults need more financial-planning help. And nearly four in 10 high-school students believed, based on the headline, that a photo of deformed daisies on a photo-sharing site provided strong evidence of toxic conditions near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, even though no source or location was given for the photo.
benton.org/headlines/most-students-dont-know-when-news-fake-stanford-study-finds | Wall Street Journal | The Verge
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November 2016

Don’t expect Donald Trump’s testy relationship with the New York Times to change

Sen Warren asks Government Accountability Office to Review 'Chaotic' Trump Transition

Snowden can be asked to testify in person in German NSA probe

UK To Help Fund 'Full-Fibre' Broadband Network Build

British ISPs may be forced to block adult-content sites that don’t do age checks

November 23, 2016 (FCC December Agenda)

Peter Binzen, Dean of Philadelphia Journalism for Half a Century

Trump adviser Stephen Bannon received salary from charity while steering Breitbart News

The internet of things: a way small firms can use it

James Simons’s Foundation Starts New Institute for Computing, Big Data