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December 2016

December 8, 2016 (AT&T/Time Warner Hearing)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2016

Today's Event -- Community Connectivity Initiative-Webinar Series, NTIA -- https://www.benton.org/node/245382


AT&T/TIME WARNER
   Senate Judiciary Committee Examines the Competitive Impact of AT&T’s Acquisition of Time Warner
   A Dose Of Reality On The AT&T-Time Warner Merger - Sen Orrin Hatch (R-UT) op-ed [links to Benton summary]

MORE ON OWNERSHIP
   Reps Walden and Yarmuth Introduce Bill Eliminating Disco Era Media Ownership Rules - press release

TRANSITION
   Rep Blackburn Outlines Path to Network Neutrality Reversal, Communications Act Rewrite
   Trump Transition Team Adds Tech Execs
   Remarks of Michael O'Rielly, Commissioner, Before the New England Ratepayers Association (NERA) - speech
   Remarks of FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly Before the Free State Foundation's Tenth Anniversary Luncheon - speech [links to Benton summary]
   Remarks of FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai Before the Free State Foundation's Tenth Anniversary Gala Luncheon - speech [links to Benton summary]
   Retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly picked to head Department of Homeland Security [links to Washington Post]
   Trump names Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma attorney general suing EPA on climate change, to head the EPA [links to Washington Post]
   Trump picks pro wrestling mogul McMahon for administration role [links to Hill, The]
   Time 2016 Person of the Year: Donald Trump [links to Time]
   Megyn Kelly On Trump And The Media: 'We're In A Dangerous Phase Right Now' [links to NPR]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   House Passes Veterans Broadband Access Bill
   Remarks of Assistant Secretary Strickling at the Internet Governance Forum Opening Session - speech [links to Benton summary]

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Our desperate need to save US democracy from ourselves - The Hill op-ed [links to Benton summary]
   The United States Commitment to the Open Government Partnership and Open Government - WH press release [links to Benton summary]
   Why 2017 will bring a lobbying bonanza to Washington [links to Verge, The]

SECURITY/PRIVACY
   Government spies can see everything you’re doing with your phone on a plane
   Worried About the Privacy of Your Messages? Download Signal. [links to Benton summary]
   Op-Ed: Modernizing IT Infrastructure is Critical to Combating Today's Threats [links to nextgov]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   What Happens If The Spectrum Auction Fails? [links to Benton summary]

CONTENT
   Information Overload - Pew research [links to Benton summary]
   VR Heavyweights Band Together for New Association [links to Broadcasting&Cable]

ELECTIONS & MEDIA
   News Coverage of the 2016 General Election: How the Press Failed the Voters - Harvard University research
   Nothing about the way Team Trump made TV ads was normal [links to Benton summary]

JOURNALISM
   Poll: Majority Find Major Media Outlets Credible [links to Morning Consult]
   Documentary filmmakers fear more legal challenges in Trump era
   How the war against fake news backfired [links to Washington Post]
   Fake News Is Rampant Even Under Tight Chinese Filters [links to Wall Street Journal]
   Nonprofit Journalism Groups Are Gearing Up With Flood of Donations [links to Benton summary]
   Women journalists: ‘It was different’ covering the Access Hollywood tape [links to Politico]
   Pope warns media over 'sin' of spreading fake news, smearing politicians [links to Reuters]
   How journalists are shaping the way Americans understand contemporary white nationalism - analysis [links to Benton summary]
   Reporting and punditry that escaped infamy - CJR op-ed [links to Benton summary]
   The Google News Lab in 2016, and where we’re headed [links to Medium]

CHILDREN & MEDIA
   Sen Markey Wants Info on Internet-Linked Toys [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
   Should children get to have cellphones in elementary school? [links to Washington Post]

LABOR
   US Deputy Secretary of Commerce Bruce Andrews Delivers Keynote Remarks on Tech Workforce Development at Urban Alliance Event - speech [links to Benton summary]

POLICYMAKERS
   Ray Baum Named House Commerce Committee Chief of Staff
   Hoffman, Grimaldi Tapped for Media Institute Board [links to Benton summary]

COMPANY NEWS
   T-Mobile announces Digits: one phone number for all your devices [links to Verge, The]
   Verizon begins fiber optic rollout in Boston [links to Verge, The]
   Where the digital dollars have gone - CJR analysis [links to Benton summary]
   Comcast CFO Talks Netflix Deal, Wireless Rollout and Why DirecTV Now Doesn't Worry Him [links to AdWeek]

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AT&T/TIME WARNER

HEARING RECAP
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
The Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy & Consumer Rights held a hearing on AT&T’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner, a deal that would combine one of the nation’s largest
phone and internet providers with a media entertainment titan that among other things, owns HBO, CNN, TBS, TNT and Warner Brothers studios. A fun time was had by all. In the New York Times, Cecilia Kang started her coverage saying, “When AT&T and Time Warner announced their $85.4 billion deal in October, lawmakers greeted the acquisition frostily. Now their tone is changing.” Although lawmakers said the deal merited tough scrutiny, they also questioned whether traditional ways of evaluating mergers are growing outdated as Silicon Valley companies like Facebook and Google become massive media platforms that threaten the television industry. AT&T and Time Warner executives pitched a message that catered to the new administration: a populist promise of lower prices and the potential to build more wireless infrastructure through the merger. While AT&T and Time Warner are powerhouses, they presented themselves as weaker rivals to the cable industry and Silicon Valley tech companies. Antitrust enforcers in the Trump administration will ultimately decide whether to approve the deal or block it as anticompetitive. However, members of Congress can both reflect and contribute to the public mood regarding the merger of such large, high-impact businesses. The members of the Subcommittee extracted a pledge from the AT&T and Time Warner executives to treat their competitors fairly on content and distribution if their pending $85 billion merger is approved. AT&T’s Stephenson promised that the combined company would not unfairly favor Time Warner content on its distribution platforms, like DirecTV, by blocking or overcharging companies that compete with Time Warner from offering content. In turn, Time Warner Chief Executive Jeffrey Bewkes promised that his company would not inflate the price of Time Warner content for distributors that compete with AT&T. “The reason we have these hearings is to get stuff on the record, right?” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), the subcommittee’s ranking member. “So they said on the record they wouldn’t discriminate. They said on the record that Time Warner wouldn’t discriminate, either, where the content went. So if that proves to be false, then you have it under oath that they said this, and then you can use that for further action.”
[more at the URL below]
benton.org/headlines/senate-judiciary-committee-examines-competitive-impact-atts-acquisition-time-warner | Benton Foundation | NY Times | | Washington Post | USA Today | Morning Consult | Recode | The Verge | ITU | B&C – diversity | Vice | B&C – CNN | Multichannel News – Cuban testimony | Associated Press | Reuters | Bloomberg | B&C – consumer groups | The Hill | NPR
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MORE ON OWNERSHIP

REPS WALDEN AND YARMUTH INTRODUCE BILL ELIMINATING DISCO ERA MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee, AUTHOR: Press release]
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and committee member Rep John Yarmuth (D-KY) introduced a bipartisan bill to repeal the newspaper broadcast cross-ownership ban. Enacted in 1975, the cross-ownership rule prohibits ownership of both a broadcast station (AM, FM, TV) and a daily newspaper in the same market. Despite the fact that the Federal Communications Commission, in 2003, found the ban to no longer be in the public interest, the rule remains largely unchanged and hinders potential investment in struggling newspapers across the country. The bipartisan bill would eliminate the 1970s era cross-ownership ban to reflect today’s competitive media marketplace, providing greater flexibility to newspapers and broadcasters. “Broadcasters and newspapers face intense competition from cable and the Internet. Eliminating this relic of the disco era will provide much needed flexibility to the many newspapers and broadcasters throughout the country that provide important local news coverage and encourage greater investment in original journalism. We want what’s best for consumers and this bill provides a thoughtful solution that puts the public’s interest first.” Chairman Walden said.
benton.org/headlines/reps-walden-and-yarmuth-introduce-bill-eliminating-disco-era-media-ownership-rules | House of Representatives Commerce Committee | B&C
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TRUMP TRANSITION

BLACKBURN AGENDA
[SOURCE: Morning Consult, AUTHOR: Amir Nasr]
Rolling back network neutrality rules and replacing them with legislation that establishes the “rules of the road” for internet service providers will be a priority for House Republicans in 2017, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said. Rep. Blackburn, a member of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team and a candidate to lead the House Commerce Committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee, said Republicans are intent on reversing Obama-era net neutrality rules that reclassified broadband companies as common carriers under the 1934 Communications Act. That move allowed the Federal Communications Commission to regulate internet service providers the same way as traditional phone companies. “I think you will see us address a net neutrality fix early in the next Congress,” Rep Blackburn told an audience at a Free State Foundation event. “I also believe you are going to see a legislative solution as opposed to a regulatory solution for this issue.” Rep Blackburn added, “A legislative fix is going to give you in the industry the certainty that you need so that you know what the rules of the road are for standards for internet conduct.”
benton.org/headlines/rep-blackburn-outlines-path-network-neutrality-reversal-communications-act-rewrite | Morning Consult
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O'RIELLY REMARKS BEFORE NEW ENGLAND RATEPAYERS ASSOCIATION
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly]
Broadband deployment challenges need to be examined holistically. As the Federal Communications Commission, states, and localities consider particular actions to address existing challenges, everyone needs to assess both the individual and additive impact of their actions on the competitive environment. In any event, government entering the marketplace as a participant should not be part of any solution. Here are four areas in which I think we could best spend our time in the coming months:
One, enact fixes to our internal process and reorganize the Commission structure.
Two, remove regulatory underbrush (i.e., those rules and regulations that have outlived their usefulness and cause burdens, in terms of costs, compliance time and lost opportunities, on regulated entities);
Three, undo inappropriate and partisan decisions made by the prior Commission.
And four, pursue a pro-growth, pro-innovation agenda that allows providers to spend more time serving consumers and less time worrying about being trapped by the Commission’s latest harebrained regulatory scheme.
benton.org/headlines/remarks-michael-orielly-commissioner-new-england-ratepayers-association-nera | Federal Communications Commission
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TRUMP TRANSITION TEAM ADDS TECH EXECS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Rolfe Winkler]
Silicon Valley investor and entrepreneur Peter Thiel is continuing to put his stamp on the presidential transition with appointments of two associates to help in that effort, according to a person close to the transition effort. Mark Woolway, the Vice President of Corporate Development at health benefits broker Zenefits, and Kevin Harrington, a managing director at Thiel Capital, will join so-called “landing teams” charged with identifying policy priorities and hiring key people into executive-branch departments. Woolway is set to join the landing team at the Treasury Department and Harrington the team at the Commerce Department.
benton.org/headlines/trump-transition-team-adds-tech-execs | Wall Street Journal | CNN
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

HOUSE PASSES VETERANS BROADBAND ACCESS BILL
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The House has passed a bill with a directive likely to get action in a Trump Federal Communications Commission given the President-elect's commitment to helping out veterans. The Improving Broadband Access for Veterans Act of 2016 (HR 6394) passed the House on suspension of the rules, a way to fast-track noncontroversial bills that limits debate, prevents amendments, and requires a 2/3 majority for passage. It requires the FCC to study and report back to Congress on the availability of broadband access to veterans. The FCC has a year from enactment--the bill still needs to pass the Senate and be signed by the President--to report back to Congress on access, particularly for low-income vets and ones living in rural areas, where there is the toughest business case for building out networks. But the FCC would have to do more than produce a state of the marketplace report. Congress wants recommendations on how to promote access. The FCC won't have the full year to work on the report. It is required to put it out for public comment before submitting it.
benton.org/headlines/house-passes-veterans-broadband-access-bill | Multichannel News
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SECURITY/PRIVACY

GOVERNMENT SPIES CAN SEE EVERYTHING YOU'RE DOING WITH YOUR PHONE ON A PLANE
[SOURCE: Quartz, AUTHOR: Joon Ian Wong]
If you like your privacy, don’t fly the friendly skies with your phone connected to in-flight networks. American and British intelligence have been surveilling phone use aboard civil aircraft since at least 2005, according to a new investigation by Le Monde based on secret documents from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Simply turning on your phone when the plane is flying above 10,000 feet will reveal your location to the NSA, according to an article from a classified internal newsletter. The spy agencies were able to extract a range of information in near real-time under a program aptly named “Thieving Magpie.” They include: BlackBerry PINs and e-mail addresses, e-mail addresses, Skype identifying data, Facebook and identifying data. The agencies then correlate this data with other facts, like the plane’s passenger list, the flight number, and other details in order to pinpoint a particular user.
benton.org/headlines/government-spies-can-see-everything-youre-doing-your-phone-plane | Quartz
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ELECTIONS & MEDIA

NEWS COVERAGE OF THE 2016 GENERAL ELECTION
[SOURCE: Harvard University, AUTHOR: Thomas Patterson]
A new report from Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy analyzes news coverage during the 2016 general election, and concludes that both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump received coverage that was overwhelmingly negative in tone and extremely light on policy. The negativity was not unique to the 2016 election cycle but instead part of a pattern in place since the 1980s and one that is not limited to election coverage. “A healthy dose of negativity is unquestionably a good thing,” writes Thomas Patterson, the study’s author. “Yet an incessant stream of criticism has a corrosive effect. It needlessly erodes trust in political leaders and institutions and undermines confidence in government and policy,” resulting in a media environment full of false equivalencies that can mislead voters about the choices they face. The study found that, on topics relating to the candidates’ fitness for office, Clinton and Trump’s coverage was virtually identical in terms of its negative tone. “Were the allegations surrounding Clinton of the same order of magnitude as those surrounding Trump?” asks Patterson. “It’s a question that political reporters made no serious effort to answer during the 2016 campaign.”
benton.org/headlines/news-coverage-2016-general-election-how-press-failed-voters | Harvard University | Politico
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JOURNALISM

DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKERS FEAR MORE LEGAL CHALLENGES IN TRUMP ERA
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Judith Matloff]
Some of the hardest-hitting documentaries in recent years have been forced to delay release or cough up hefty fees for attorneys, among them "Bananas!", a 2009 documentary about Nicaraguan plantation workers for Dole Food Co. who were sickened by a pesticide banned in the US; "Citizenfour", which followed Edward Snowden as he began to leak documents about US surveillance programs; and "Crude", which dealt with a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit against Chevron Corp. that claimed the oil giant despoiled the Amazonian jungle in Ecuador. Many in the documentary film world expect further assaults on free speech in the current divisive political climate. With a president-elect who has threatened to loosen libel laws and sue over reporting he doesn’t like, indie filmmakers are steeling themselves for open season.
benton.org/headlines/documentary-filmmakers-fear-more-legal-challenges-trump-era | Columbia Journalism Review
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POLICYMAKERS

RAY BAUM NAMED HOUSE COMMERCE COMMITTEE CHIEF OF STAFF
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Incoming House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) has named Ray Baum, formerly senior policy advisory and chief strategist for the committee, as the committee's new staff director. He replaces Gary Andres. Baum was named VP of government relations for the National Association of Broadcasters in March. Baum was a senior advisor to Rep Walden, who has been chair of the Communications Subcommittee, when he came to Washington in 2011. He got an expanded role as senior policy advisor to the full committee in 2013. Baum was also majority leader of the Oregon House of Representatives---he and Rep Walden were elected to the Oregon State House in 1988. Before that he was a commissioner with the Oregon Public Utility Commission, including chairman in 2010. He was also chairman of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Telecommunications Committee. Baum's name surfaced as a candidate for the Republican seat of Commissioner Robert McDowell of the Federal Communications Commission back in 2013, a post that ultimately went to Commissioner Michael O'Rielly.
benton.org/headlines/ray-baum-named-house-commerce-committee-chief-staff | Broadcasting&Cable
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Senate Judiciary Committee Examines the Competitive Impact of AT&T’s Acquisition of Time Warner

The Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy & Consumer Rights held a hearing on AT&T’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner, a deal that would combine one of the nation’s largest phone and internet providers with a media entertainment titan that among other things, owns HBO, CNN, TBS, TNT and Warner Brothers studios. A fun time was had by all.

Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) pointed to concerns about the a negative impact on competition and innovation. “There’s concern that a combined AT&T-Time Warner will block competitor access to popular Time Warner content. There’s concern that a combined company will give preferential treatment – for example, favorable channel placement and zero-rating pricing – to Time Warner’s premium entertainment programming to the disadvantage of other content producers, in particular small independent producers. There’s concern about AT&T-Time Warner’s ability to leverage their assets to negotiate better licensing arrangements or raise the price of their content to the detriment of other distributors. There’s concern about the merged company’s ability to employ “bullying” tactics to dictate rates and terms to other networks. There’s concern that this acquisition will concentrate too much power into one conglomerate, resulting in higher prices and fewer programming options for consumers. There’s also concern about the merger’s implications for a free and diverse press.”

In the New York Times, Cecilia Kang started her coverage saying, “When AT&T and Time Warner announced their $85.4 billion deal in October, lawmakers greeted the acquisition frostily. Now their tone is changing.” Although lawmakers said the deal merited tough scrutiny, they also questioned whether traditional ways of evaluating mergers are growing outdated as Silicon Valley companies like Facebook and Google become massive media platforms that threaten the television industry. Sen David Perdue (R-GA) said the deal would combine companies that did not directly compete against one another. “The consumer is benefited from the aggregation,” he said. “That is called capitalism.”

At the hearing, AT&T and Time Warner executives pitched a message that catered to the new administration: a populist promise of lower prices and the potential to build more wireless infrastructure through the merger. While AT&T and Time Warner are powerhouses, they presented themselves as weaker rivals to the cable industry and Silicon Valley tech companies. AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said that cable companies dominated the broadband and television market, serving high-speed internet to eight of every 10 American homes that have broadband service. To experiment with new mobile video technologies, he said, AT&T needed to have in-house content to quickly try new streaming services at a lower cost. He added that AT&T had just introduced a streaming service with 100 channels for less than most cable television packages. “It is only the beginning of what we want to bring to the marketplace to threaten cable’s entrenched and still-dominant market position,” Stephenson said. He said AT&T would give CNN editorial independence if the merger were approved. Jeff Bewkes, the chief executive of Time Warner, said, “It is not enough to deliver great content.” The companies’ competitors have multiplied, he said. Stephenson said the merger “eliminates no competitor” and that the company aims to “get the most content to the most people at the lowest prices.”

Consumer groups rejected the characterization of AT&T and Time Warner as disadvantaged rivals, saying a combined company would create a powerhouse that all cable providers and networks would have to negotiate with. Streaming providers like Sling TV and Hulu would face a major new competitor, with AT&T’s access to 110 million wireless and satellite subscribers and premium television networks under the same roof, the groups said. “If a single company is able to control so many key inputs to online video, this new market could be snuffed out,” said Gene Kimmelman, president and chief executive of Public Knowledge, a nonprofit consumer group, at the hearing. He stressed that internet companies rely on the wireless and broadband networks controlled by huge telecommunications companies like AT&T.

Mark Cuban, an internet entrepreneur and owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, who also spoke at the hearing, said the truly dominant companies in media distribution these days were Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon. “Facebook is without question in a dominant position, if not the dominant position, for content delivery,” he said.

Antitrust enforcers in the Trump administration will ultimately decide whether to approve the deal or block it as anticompetitive. However, members of Congress can both reflect and contribute to the public mood regarding the merger of such large, high-impact businesses. The members of the Subcommittee extracted a pledge from the AT&T and Time Warner executives to treat their competitors fairly on content and distribution if their pending $85 billion merger is approved. AT&T’s Stephenson promised that the combined company would not unfairly favor Time Warner content on its distribution platforms, like DirecTV, by blocking or overcharging companies that compete with Time Warner from offering content. In turn, Time Warner Chief Executive Jeffrey Bewkes promised that his company would not inflate the price of Time Warner content for distributors that compete with AT&T.

“The reason we have these hearings is to get stuff on the record, right?” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), the subcommittee’s ranking member. “So they said on the record they wouldn’t discriminate. They said on the record that Time Warner wouldn’t discriminate, either, where the content went. So if that proves to be false, then you have it under oath that they said this, and then you can use that for further action.”

Rep Blackburn Outlines Path to Network Neutrality Reversal, Communications Act Rewrite

Rolling back network neutrality rules and replacing them with legislation that establishes the “rules of the road” for internet service providers will be a priority for House Republicans in 2017, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said.

Rep. Blackburn, a member of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team and a candidate to lead the House Commerce Committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee, said Republicans are intent on reversing Obama-era net neutrality rules that reclassified broadband companies as common carriers under the 1934 Communications Act. That move allowed the Federal Communications Commission to regulate internet service providers the same way as traditional phone companies. “I think you will see us address a net neutrality fix early in the next Congress,” Rep Blackburn told an audience at a Free State Foundation event. “I also believe you are going to see a legislative solution as opposed to a regulatory solution for this issue.” Rep Blackburn added, “A legislative fix is going to give you in the industry the certainty that you need so that you know what the rules of the road are for standards for internet conduct.”

Reps Walden and Yarmuth Introduce Bill Eliminating Disco Era Media Ownership Rules

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and committee member Rep John Yarmuth (D-KY) introduced a bipartisan bill to repeal the newspaper broadcast cross-ownership ban. Enacted in 1975, the cross-ownership rule prohibits ownership of both a broadcast station (AM, FM, TV) and a daily newspaper in the same market. Despite the fact that the Federal Communications Commission, in 2003, found the ban to no longer be in the public interest, the rule remains largely unchanged and hinders potential investment in struggling newspapers across the country. The bipartisan bill would eliminate the 1970s era cross-ownership ban to reflect today’s competitive media marketplace, providing greater flexibility to newspapers and broadcasters.

“Broadcasters and newspapers face intense competition from cable and the Internet. Eliminating this relic of the disco era will provide much needed flexibility to the many newspapers and broadcasters throughout the country that provide important local news coverage and encourage greater investment in original journalism. We want what’s best for consumers and this bill provides a thoughtful solution that puts the public’s interest first.” Chairman Walden said.

Trump Transition Team Adds Tech Execs

Silicon Valley investor and entrepreneur Peter Thiel is continuing to put his stamp on the presidential transition with appointments of two associates to help in that effort, according to a person close to the transition effort. Mark Woolway, the Vice President of Corporate Development at health benefits broker Zenefits, and Kevin Harrington, a managing director at Thiel Capital, will join so-called “landing teams” charged with identifying policy priorities and hiring key people into executive-branch departments. Woolway is set to join the landing team at the Treasury Department and Harrington the team at the Commerce Department.

Remarks of FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai Before the Free State Foundation's Tenth Anniversary Gala Luncheon

On issue after issue at the Federal Communications Commission, the Free State Foundation has spoken out forcefully and eloquently on behalf of limited government, the rule of law, and rigorous economic analysis. It has been a key voice fighting against the FCC’s regulatory overreach in areas such as Title II, business data services, municipal broadband, set-top boxes, and broadband privacy. Unfortunately, the FCC lately has been providing Free State’s scholars with plenty of material to criticize.

But I’m optimistic that Nov’s election will prove to be an inflection point—and that during the Trump Administration, we will shift from playing defense at the FCC to going on offense. Indeed, I believe the new year will bring the best opportunity in the Free State Foundation’s existence for it to advance public policy that reflects our shared principles.

Remarks of FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly Before the Free State Foundation's Tenth Anniversary Luncheon

I’m excited and honored to play a part in the new Federal Communications Commission, and to the extent it is helpful, I am humbly going to outline some very broad areas where the next Commission could potentially focus some of its efforts.
1. Undo Harmful Policies: Foremost in many minds is the need simply to undo the more harmful policies adopted by the current Commission.
2. Clear Regulatory Underbrush: Another priority worth attention is clearing away the existing regulatory underbrush that is choking businesses and diveverting resources away from new and improved products, better service, and lower prices for consumers.
3. Develop and Execute a Strong Pro-Growth, Pro-Innovation Agenda: The new Commission should have ample opportunity to showcase its creativity and foresight by developing and executing a strong pro-growth, pro-innovation agenda firmly grounded in free market principles
4. Process Reform and Organization: Last but not least, I hope the next Commission will take this opportunity to make substantial progress toward improving the efficiency of the Commission and increasing fairness and transparency in its processes.

Remarks of Assistant Secretary Strickling at the Internet Governance Forum Opening Session

Nearly 20 years ago, the United States promised to privatize the Internet's domain name system. Two years ago, the United States announced its intent to complete the privatization once the multistakeholder community developed a consensus plan for that transition. The transition was discussed in great deal at the IGF in Istanbul in 2014 and again last year in Joao Pessoa. Today I am pleased to appear here at IGF 2016 to report that the transition is now complete and was completed as of October 1, 2016.

The United States Government now stands on an equal footing with all other governments with respect to ICANN and the domain name system. The challenge now before us is how we can expand and evolve the multistakeholder approach. Can we build on the success of the IANA transition and the outcome of the 10-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society to tackle other Internet policy challenges? To do this, we must understand and adhere to the attributes of a successful multistakeholder model.

Our desperate need to save US democracy from ourselves

[Commentary] The trouble is that no one really sees it as their job to save American democracy — not politicians, not owners of social media platforms, not advocates of conservative and liberal causes, and maybe not even citizens themselves. Instead, in the course of selfishly or zealously pursuing our interests, we all do our bit to chip away at the great gift of democracy. Eventually, unless we start taking better care of democracy, it’s going to stop taking care of us.

American democracy is a marvelous edifice for governing in which we all pursue our own interests. But its health and persistence depends upon restraint and ethical commitments to preserving democracy. That’s why each of us needs to make it part of our job to save American democracy.

[Archon Fung is the Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.]

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