November 2016

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2016

Today's Events

• FCC Open Meeting -- https://www.benton.org/node/233053
• Here Comes Everybody -- Boosting Economic Opportunity in the New Administration, Internet Association and ALA -- https://www.benton.org/node/249777

FCC AGENDA
   FCC abides by GOP request, deletes everything from meeting agenda
   Sen Markey Slams GOP's Request to Chairman Wheeler
   Public Knowledge Responds to Sudden FCC Agenda Changes - press release
   Reactions to FCC Business Data Services Item Withdrawal [links to Benton summary]

TRUMP TRANSITION
   Ritual of Ever-Present Coverage May Not Pass Muster With Trump
   Trump Says Transition’s Going ‘Smoothly,’ Disputing Disarray Reports [links to New York Times]
   An Open Letter to President-elect Donald Trump - National Press Club
   WHCA says lack of media access to President-elect Trump is 'unacceptable' [links to Benton summary]
   Jeffrey Eisenach should be Purged from the FCC Transition Team as a Phone Company Lobbyist - Bruce Kushnick op-ed
   Donald Trump’s Son-in-Law, Jared Kushner, Could Get Key White House Role [links to Wall Street Journal]
   Laura Ingraham could extend Donald Trump’s media reach even farther [links to Washington Post]
   Shakeup on Senate Intelligence Committee: Sen Warner Becomes Top Democrat
   Billionaire investor Ross said to be Commerce Secretary pick
   Confirmation Prospects for FCC’s Rosenworcel Remain Cloudy [links to Benton summary]
   169 House Democratic Reps Join To Tell President-elect Trump: Dump Steve Bannon [links to Hill, The]
   Sen Sanders: 'Racist' Bannon 'totally unacceptable' in White House [links to Hill, The]
   Rep Walden Leaving National Republican Congressional Committee After Two Successful Cycles [links to Benton summary]
   Sen Schumer elected Senate Democratic leader [links to Washington Post]
   Facebook, Instagram helping White House aides find jobs [links to Benton summary]
   Transition Memo to President-Elect Trump: How to Spur Innovation, Productivity, and Competitiveness [links to Benton summary]
   Obama was an innovator. Will Trump Follow? [links to CNN]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Chairman Walden: Let’s Do a Network Neutrality Bill
   Charter Launches Low-Cost Broadband Service
   Democrats will try to find common cause with President-elect Trump on infrastructure spending [links to New York Times]
   AT&T Fiber Locations Expand to Four Additional Markets, Now Reaches 3 Million Locations [links to Benton summary]
   High-Speed Rail and CENIC Join Forces to Create California Broadband Communities - press release [links to Benton summary]
   RCN to Launch 1-Gig in Philadelphia Area [links to Multichannel News]
   Escaping black holes on the Internet - Medium op-ed [links to Benton summary]

AT&T/TIME WARNER
   These Professors Make More Than a Thousand Bucks an Hour Peddling Mega-Mergers
   President-elect Trump vs. AT&T: A Signal Test of How Business Will Fare in New Washington [links to Benton summary]
   A Bigger AT&T Is the Last Thing We Need - Free Press [links to Benton summary]

SECURITY/PRIVACY
   House Communications Subcommittee hearing on Understanding Role of Connected Devices in Recent Cyberattacks - press release
   TITANPOINTE: The NSA’s Spy Hub in New York, Hidden in Plain Sight
   Sec Pritzker Keynote on Digital Privacy and Security at Council on Foreign Relations - speech [links to Benton summary]
   Op-ed: In The Lame Duck, How Congress Makes Cybersecurity A Non-Partisan Priority [links to Forbes]
   Why smartphone owners can't tell if their data is being sent to China [links to CNN]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   Stage Three of FCC Reverse Auction Reaches Midpoint [links to Benton summary]
   FCC Tells Court to Reject Auction-Related Legal Challenge [links to Benton summary]
   Noncommercial Broadcasters Ask FCC to Expand Repack Reimbursement Catalog [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
   National Association of Broadcasters: FCC Needs To Extend Repack Deadline [links to TVNewsCheck]
   5G moves forward in 2017 [links to Verizon]
   What an iPhone could cost in Trump’s America [links to Benton summary]

ELECTIONS & MEDIA
   A “nation-state” used Wikileaks to influence the US election, the head of the NSA says [links to Benton summary]
   The Decline and Fall of Establishment Media - The Diffusion Group analysis [links to Benton summary]
   Bursting the Facebook bubble: we asked voters on the left and right to swap feeds [links to Guardian, The]
   Facebook fake-news writer: ‘I think Donald Trump is in the White House because of me’ [links to Washington Post]
   The top 20 fake news stories outperformed real news at the end of the 2016 campaign [links to Vox]

CONTENT
   Social Media’s Globe-Shaking Power [links to New York Times]
   Twitter suspends alt-right accounts
   Facebook Says It Found More Miscalculated Metrics [links to Benton summary]
   Promotional Effects and the Determination of Royalty Rates for Music [links to Phoenix Center]
   The author of The Filter Bubble on how fake news is eroding trust in journalism [links to Verge, The]
   Pokémon Goes to Capitol Hill [links to Multichannel News]

TELEVISION
   Public Knowledge Urges President-elect Trump to End Cable Box Rip-off - press release [links to Benton summary]
   National Association of Broadcasters President: Local TV Key To Freedom [links to TVNewsCheck]
   LRG: Top US Pay-TV Providers Lost 255,000 Subscribers in Q3 [links to Multichannel News]

DIVERSITY
   GLAAD Report Says Nearly All Spanish-Language Series Ignore or Stereotype Gays [links to Wrap, The]
   Op-Ed: Virtual reality is the new tech frontier, but it's still a boys' club [links to Vox]

JOURNALISM
   Facebook won’t call itself a media company. Here’s how it can still support journalism [links to Verge, The]
   Facebook's fake news problem, explained [links to Vox]
   In the war on fake news, school librarians have a huge role to play [links to Verge, The]

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Unprecedented international audience growth to 278 million; US international media sees a rise in demand for fact-based global reporting - press release [links to Benton summary]
   The outsize role of the press in the Trump administration [links to Washington Post]
   Donald Trump isn’t president yet, but he’s already at war — with the New York Times [links to Washington Post]
   Using Partnerships to Power Smart Cities: A Toolkit for Local Communities - press release [links to Benton summary]
   Executive Order -- Establishing a Community Solutions Council - press release [links to Benton summary]
   Congress had an office that gave expert tech analysis; let's bring it back -The Hill op-ed [links to Benton summary]
   Transforming government through digitization [links to McKinsey]
   How Social Media Helps Dictators [links to Foreign Policy]

POLICYMAKERS
   Rep Darrell Issa Retains Narrow Lead in Reelection Bid [links to New York Times]
   FCC’s Gigi Sohn Departing
   President Obama Names Newt Minow Among Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom - press release

COMPANY NEWS
   Chasing millennials and profits, Univision restructures and lays off 6% [links to Washington Post]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Microsoft offers antitrust concessions to EU over LinkedIn purchase [links to Ars Technica]
    [links to http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/17/technology/russia-linkedin-banned/index....]
   Slow internet speeds irritate more Australians than patchy mobile services [links to Guardian, The]

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FCC AGENDA

FCC ABIDES BY GOP REQUEST, DELETES EVERYTHING FROM MEETING AGENDA
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
The Federal Communications Commission has deleted every major item from the agenda of its Nov 2016 meeting, apparently submitting to a request from GOP leaders to halt major rulemakings until President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated as President. Republicans from the House and Senate sent letters to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Nov 15 urging him to stand down in his final months as FCC Chairman. The GOP pointed out that the FCC halted major rulemakings eight years ago after the election of Barack Obama when prompted by a similar request by Democratic lawmaekrs. Chairman Wheeler's office hadn't said whether it will comply with the request, but Nov 16 it announced the deletion of all items that were originally scheduled to be presented and voted on at Nov 17's meeting. The FCC said the items "remain on circulation," which means they can still be voted on, but a vote doesn't appear likely. Before the change, the agenda included votes on price caps for “special access” business data services; Universal Service funding to expand mobile broadband networks; wireless roaming obligations; and requirements for audio description of TV programming for blind and visually impaired people. The only item not deleted from Nov 17's meeting is part of the "consent agenda," which means it is routine and wasn't going to be presented individually.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-abides-gop-request-deletes-everything-meeting-agenda | Ars Technica | | FCC Announcement | B&C | Morning Consult | Vice
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MARKEY SLAMS GOP
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Ali Breland]
Sen Edward Markey (D-MA) blasted GOP calls for Federal Communication Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler to avoid action on “controversial items" until the new administration. "Blind and visually impaired individuals will suffer because Republicans and their allies on the Commission will not allow a vote to expand the amount of video-described programming available,” Sen Markey said. "Small business, universities, hospitals, and public safety organizations will suffer because Republicans and their allies on the Commission won’t allow a vote on business data services. Republican lawmakers should stop their obstruction and support Commission action on those pro-consumer, pro-accessibility measures without delay.”
benton.org/headlines/sen-markey-slams-gops-request-chairman-wheelermarkey-slams-gops-request-chairman-wheeler | Hill, The
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PK RESPONDS TO SUDDEN FCC AGENDA CHANGES
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
The Federal Communications Commission cancelled its agenda items for the Thursday, November 17 Open Meeting. The following may be attributed to Harold Feld, Senior Vice President at Public Knowledge: “We are disappointed that the FCC will not act on the previously announced November agenda. While respecting the tradition that the FCC should generally wait for the new administration before acting on any new initiatives, these items were essentially completed and ready to move. It seems absurd that if Chairman Wheeler had scheduled the meeting on election day, we would have already resolved the decade-old proceeding on legacy business data services pricing. More importantly, the agenda items address real and pressing problems in the broadband marketplace. These problems do not simply go away due to an administration change. When Republicans take over, they will need to address the same competitive problems, or explain to the American people why they plan to perpetuate our broadband duopoly.”
benton.org/headlines/public-knowledge-responds-sudden-fcc-agenda-changes | Public Knowledge
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TRUMP TRANSITION

THE PRESS AND PRESUDENT TRUMP
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael Grynbaum]
Since Election Day, President-elect Donald Trump has refused to let reporters accompany him to the White House, accused the media of inciting protests and tweeted accusations that The New York Times fabricated stories about his transition. As a candidate, he vilified journalists by name and blacklisted news outlets that displeased him. So when President-elect Trump ducked out to dinner one night without informing the journalists assigned to cover him, it struck White House reporters as a small but significant omen that cordial relations between the president and his press corps, a hallmark of the West Wing, were under threat. Is it a big deal if a president goes to dinner and the press doesn’t know? In a word, yes, according to former administration officials, journalists and a group of press advocacy organizations that issued an open letter to President-elect Trump arguing that Americans “deserve to know what the president is doing.” [see next story]
benton.org/headlines/ritual-ever-present-coverage-may-not-pass-muster-trump | New York Times
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AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP
[SOURCE: National Press Club, AUTHOR: Thomas Burr]
Dear President-elect Trump, We, a group of diverse journalism associations representing thousands of journalists from the nation's capital to every corner of the country, begin this letter on a hopeful note. Your administration is a blank slate and we are eager to work with you to perpetuate one of this nation's great strengths: our freedom of the press. As the new leader of the free world, we expect that you will preserve longstanding traditions that ensure coverage of the Trump presidency. The idea of a press pool that covers all of the president's movements is one that dates back to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration. Every president of both parties has treated this important tradition with respect. The role of the press pool is critically important to our country, whose citizens depend on and deserve to know what the president is doing. This isn't about access for the press itself, it's about access for Americans in diverse communities across the country. Your constituents receive information from a variety of platforms to learn about what our president is doing. We also call for access to you via regular press conferences and pool sprays and to your key decision-makers. You have an opportunity as incoming president to set the tone for your staff speaking on the record for the sake of transparency. We also hope your administration will improve response rates to FOIA requests as a way to show the American people, and the world, that the republic belongs to the people.
benton.org/headlines/open-letter-president-elect-donald-trump | National Press Club | Politico | Huffington Post
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JEFFREY EISENACH
[SOURCE: Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Bruce Kushnick]
[Commentary] Vice President-elect Mike Pence is supposedly cleaning house of lobbyists who are part of the Trump transition team. We would suggest that Jeffrey Eisenach fits the bill. We already wrote about some of his ties to Verizon and the other phone and cable companies, including Comcast. In a 2014 email, Eisenach encouraged Federal Communications Commission member Michael O’Rielly to use an American Enterprise Institute event to ‘lay out the case against’ network neutrality regulations. Eisenach reinforced this message by writing commentary pieces, using his title as a think tank scholar. AEI is a 501(c) (3) educational organization and it claims it does not take positions on public policy issues. Comparing this quote and the email, one has to realize AEI is not supposed to be lobbying for Verizon and the other phone, wireless and cable companies. It could even be violating their IRS granted non-profit status. Now, it could be that this just shows the coziness of the FCC transition team leader with the FCC staff, but considering that Eisenach’s client, Verizon, benefits from these dealings, this brings up a host of ethical violations, or other acts that need investigation.
[Bruce Kushnick is Executive Director of the New Networks Institute]
benton.org/headlines/jeffrey-eisenach-should-be-purged-fcc-transition-team-phone-company-lobbyist | Huffington Post
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SEN WARNER AND SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Julian Hattem]
A shakeup among Democrats has positioned Sen Mark Warner (D-VA) as the top minority voice on the Senate Intelligence Committee, a key role overseeing the nation’s spies. Sen Warner, who joined the panel in 2012, ascends to the role of vice chairman following Sen Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) decision to replace Sen Patrick Leahy (D-VT) as Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee. Sen Leahy in 2016 opted to become the senior Democrat on the powerful Appropriations Committee. As Ranking Member of the panel, Sen Warner will work along with Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) to guide oversight of the CIA, National Security Agency (NSA) and other secretive intelligence agencies. The panel will have a key role to play in 2017 as lawmakers contemplate whether to reauthorize a key portion of the 2008 update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which undergirds controversial NSA data collection programs.
benton.org/headlines/shakeup-senate-intelligence-committee-sen-warner-becomes-top-democrat | Hill, The
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BILLIONAIRE INVESTOR ROSS SAID TO BE COMMERCE SEC PICK
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Andrew Restuccia, Doug Palmer]
Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross is President-elect Donald Trump's leading candidate for Commerce Secretary, apparently. Ross, 78, is the founder of the private equity firm WL Ross & Co., known for restructuring failed companies, and he's an economic adviser to President-elect Trump. Ross has been a vociferous critic of trade deals negotiated over the last 25 years, including the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has vowed to leave unless Mexico and Canada agree to renegotiate on more favorable terms. “I think there’s a big difference between the impact of trade agreements on corporate America and the impact on Mr. and Mrs. America,” Ross said earlier in 2016. “Corporate America has adjusted to them by investing lots of capital offshore. … What we’re doing is we’re exporting jobs and importing products, instead of exporting products and keeping jobs.” Along with fellow President-elect Trump campaign adviser Peter Navarro, an University of California-Irvine economics and public policy professor, Ross has called for future trade deals to include automatic renegotiation triggers if trade gains “are not distributed fairly” and other “safeguards” including ironclad sanctions against currency manipulation, zero tolerance on intellectual property theft and stringent environmental and health and safety standards.
benton.org/headlines/billionaire-investor-ross-said-be-commerce-secretary-pick | Politico
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

CHAIRMAN WALDEN: LET’S DO A NET NEUTRALITY BILL
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: ]
House Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman (and potential full Commerce Committee Chairman) Greg Walden (R-OR) is still on board with enshrining network neutrality principles into law. Back during the dustup over the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet order, Chairman Walden, along with Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD), had pushed a bill to mandate no blocking and no throttling of web traffic — without reclassifying broadband providers as common carriers. But it went nowhere. “There were things we could find common ground on, and should have been able to,” Chairman Walden said. “Blocking, throttling, the abusive things people were concerned about, we should put in statute. I’d be fine with that.” Many Democrats at the time refused to come to the table on legislation, since they had the votes to pass the network neutrality rules at the FCC. But with the Trump win and Republicans set to take over agency — and likely intent on reversing the Open Internet order — Democrats may be more willing to play ball on the Hill.
benton.org/headlines/chairman-walden-lets-do-network-neutrality-bill | Politico
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CHARTER LAUNCHES LOW-COST BROADBAND SERVICE
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Jeff Baumgartner]
Pushing ahead on a pledge tied to its acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, Charter Communications has launched a standalone, low-cost broadband service for qualified seniors and families that costs $14.99 per month. The uncapped, contract-free offering, called Spectrum Internet Assist, delivers 30 Mbps downstream by 4 Mbps upstream, speeds that exceed the Federal Communications Commission’s current definition of wireline “broadband” -- 25 Mbps down by 3 Mbps up. Those customers can also add in-home Wi-Fi through Charter for an additional $5 per month. Qualified customers (families with students that participate in the National School Lunch Program and seniors 65 and older who receive Supplemental Security Income program benefits) can also bundle other Charter services. A triple-play under the program that includes phone and TV, starts at $74.97. While prospective customers for the program can’t have had a broadband subscription from the operator within 60 days of signing up, they likewise won’t be denied the offering due to a bad credit score. However, they must clear any outstanding debt incurred within the last year with Charter, Time Warner Cable or Bright House Networks in order to be eligible. Charter is initially offering Spectrum Internet Assist in its legacy service area, and expects to make it available across its remaining footprint by mid-2017.
benton.org/headlines/charter-launches-low-cost-broadband-service | Multichannel News | Charter
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AT&T/TIME WARNER

THESE PROFESSORS MAKE MORE THAN A THOUSAND BUCKS AN HOUR PEDDLING MEGA-MERGERS
[SOURCE: ProPublica, AUTHOR: Jesse Eisinger, Justin Elliott]
If the government ends up approving the $85 billion AT&T-Time Warner merger, credit won’t necessarily belong to the executives, bankers, lawyers, and lobbyists pushing for the deal. More likely, it will be due to the professors. A serial acquirer, AT&T must persuade the government to allow every major deal. Again and again, the company has relied on economists from America’s top universities to make its case before the Justice Department or the Federal Trade Commission. Moonlighting for a consulting firm named Compass Lexecon, they represented AT&T when it bought Centennial, DirecTV, and Leap Wireless; and when it tried unsuccessfully to absorb T-Mobile. And now AT&T and Time Warner have hired three top Compass Lexecon economists to counter criticism that the giant deal would harm consumers and concentrate too much media power in one company. Economists who specialize in antitrust — affiliated with Chicago, Harvard, Princeton, the University of California, Berkeley, and other prestigious universities — reshaped their field through scholarly work showing that mergers create efficiencies of scale that benefit consumers. But they reap their most lucrative paydays by lending their academic authority to mergers their corporate clients propose. Corporate lawyers hire them from Compass Lexecon and half a dozen other firms to sway the government by documenting that a merger won’t be “anti-competitive”: in other words, that it won’t raise retail prices, stifle innovation, or restrict product offerings. Their optimistic forecasts, though, often turn out to be wrong, and the mergers they champion may be hurting the economy.
benton.org/headlines/these-professors-make-more-thousand-bucks-hour-peddling-mega-mergers | ProPublica
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SECURITY/PRIVACY

HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING ON RECENT CYBERATTACKS AND IOT
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee, AUTHOR: Press release]
The House Communications Subcommittee, Chaired by Rep Greg Walden (R-OR) and the Trade Subcommittee held a hearing examining the recent series of Internet of Things (IoT) connected device-based distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. In Oct, hackers leveraged a DDoS attack against global Internet routing company Dyn that resulted in thousands of consumers being unable to connect with Netflix, Twitter, CNN, and other well-known websites. It’s estimated that 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020 and as this number grows, so too do the risks. Members continued the committee’s long track record of examining emerging cybersecurity threats and their impact on consumers and the economy while looking at what can be done to mitigate future attacks and risks. “The knee-jerk reaction might be to regulate the Internet of Things, and while I am not taking that off the table, the question is whether we need a more holistic solution,” said Chairman Walden. “The United States can’t regulate the world," he warned.
benton.org/headlines/house-communications-subcommittee-hearing-understanding-role-connected-devices-recent | House of Representatives Commerce Committee | Hearing Page | B&C | The Hill | CNN
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TITANPOINTE
[SOURCE: The Intercept, AUTHOR: Ryan Gallagher, Henrik Moltke]
They called it Project X. It was an unusually audacious, highly sensitive assignment: to build a massive skyscraper, capable of withstanding an atomic blast, in the middle of New York City. It would have no windows, 29 floors with three basement levels, and enough food to last 1,500 people two weeks in the event of a catastrophe. But the building’s primary purpose would not be to protect humans from toxic radiation amid nuclear war. Rather, the fortified skyscraper would safeguard powerful computers, cables, and switchboards. It would house one of the most important telecommunications hubs in the United States — the world’s largest center for processing long-distance phone calls, operated by the New York Telephone Company, a subsidiary of AT&T. Documents obtained by The Intercept from the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden do not explicitly name 33 Thomas Street as a surveillance facility. However — taken together with architectural plans, public records, and interviews with former AT&T employees conducted for this article — they provide compelling evidence that 33 Thomas Street has served as an NSA surveillance site, code-named TITANPOINTE.
benton.org/headlines/titanpointe-nsas-spy-hub-new-york-hidden-plain-sight | Intercept, The
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CONTENT

TWITTER SUSPENDS ALT-RIGHT ACCOUNTS
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Jessica Guynn]
Twitter suspended a number of accounts associated with the alt-right movement, the same day the social media service said it would crack down on hate speech. Among those suspended was Richard Spencer, who runs an alt-right think tank and had a verified account on Twitter. The alt-right, a loosely organized group that espouses white nationalism, emerged as a counterpoint to mainstream conservatism and has flourished online. Spencer has said he wants blacks, Asians, Hispanics and Jews removed from the U.-S. Twitter removed Spencer's verified account, @RichardBSpencer, that of his think tank, the National Policy Institute @npiamerica, and his online magazine @radixjournal. "This is corporate Stalinism," Spencer told The Daily Caller News Foundation. In a YouTube video, entitled Knight of the Long Knives, an apparent reference to the purge of Nazi leaders in 1934 to consolidate Adolf Hitler's power, Spencer said Twitter had engaged in a coordinated effort to wipe out alt-right Twitter. "I am alive physically but digitally speaking there has been execution squads across the alt right," he said. "There is a great purge going on and they are purging people based on their views."
benton.org/headlines/twitter-suspends-alt-right-accounts | USAToday | The Hill
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POLICYMAKERS

GIGI SOHN
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: ]
Gigi Sohn, counselor to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, is leaving the agency for a fellowship with the Open Society Foundations. As president and CEO of Public Knowledge from 2001 to 2013, Sohn was known as an outspoken critic of the agency and a fierce consumer advocate when Chairman Wheeler tapped her to join his office in November 2013. She pushed for strong network neutrality rules before joining the commission, and was considered a key adviser in the development of the Open Internet Order. In January, she will begin a year-long Leadership in Government Fellowship. She will use multi-platform storytelling techniques to help demonstrate how public policy can improve access to communications networks, new technology, and media for communities too often left behind in the digital age.
benton.org/headlines/fccs-gigi-sohn-departing | Politico | Open Society Foundations
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NEWT MINOW RECIPIENT OF PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: ]
President Barack Obama named 21 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the Nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors. The awards will be presented at the White House on November 22nd. One recipient was Newt Minow. Minnow is an attorney with a long and distinguished career in public life. After serving in the US Army during World War II, Minow served as a Supreme Court clerk and counsel to the Governor of Illinois. In 1961, President Kennedy selected Minow, then 34, to serve as Chairman of the Federal Communications Committee, where he helped shape the future of American television and was a vigorous advocate for broadcasting that promoted the public interest. In the five decades since leaving the FCC, Minow has maintained a prominent private law practice while devoting himself to numerous public and charitable causes.
benton.org/headlines/president-obama-names-newt-minow-among-recipients-presidential-medal-freedom | White House, The
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