March 20, 2017 (Braziller; Breslin; Herbers)
George Braziller, Publisher of Fresh Literary Voices
Jimmy Breslin, Pulitzer-winning NY journalist
John Herbers, Who Vividly Covered the Civil Rights Era for The Times
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, MARCH 20, 2017
This week’s agenda https://www.benton.org/calendar/2017-03-19--P1W
AGENDA
Why Radical Deregulation Is Happening So Fast At The FCC - analysis
Chairman Pai to Address American Cable Association March 30 [links to Benton summary]
National Digital Inclusion Conference unveils wealth of resources in the Twin Cities [links to Blandin Foundation]
BUDGET
Benton Stands With Toby to Say "Don't Delete Big Bird"
Sens Markey, Gillibrand Tell President Trump They'll Fight for CPB
PBS Stations in Trump States Would Suffer Most Under Trump’s Cuts
Defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting won’t kill PBS. It will hurt Trump voters. [links to Vox]
Public broadcasting shouldn’t get a handout from taxpayers anymore - Manhattan Institute op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Relying on federal funding might be a fatal mistake for public media [links to Benton summary]
Why Eliminating Government Agencies Is A Lot Easier Said Than Done [links to Benton summary]
COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY
Trump’s Wiretap Accusations Renew Debate About Privacy
German reporters press President Trump on wiretap claims, ‘fake news’
Vice President Pence ally part owner of conservative news outlet: report [links to Benton summary]
Press Secretary Spicer slams media coverage of Russia, wiretapping claims [links to Hill, The]
Rex Tillerson’s Hope for a Media-Free Bubble May Burst [links to New York Times]
The Trump Resistance Will Be Commercialized [links to Benton summary]
White House installs political aides at Cabinet agencies to be Trump’s eyes and ears [links to Washington Post]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Senators Markey and Sullivan Call on FCC to Protect E-Rate Funding
Tom Wheeler: Gut Net Neutrality and You Gut Internet Freedom [links to Benton summary]
Netflix CEO says he isn’t worried that Trump administration will gut net neutrality [links to Verge, The]
Top Cable Operators Dominate Broadband in 2016 [links to Benton summary]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
WikiLeaks Won’t Tell Tech Companies How to Patch CIA Zero-Days Until Its Demands Are Met [links to Vice]
Oracle to Pai: Repudiate Wheeler's Tech-Favoritism Policies [links to Benton summary]
Competitive Carriers Association to FCC: Roll Back Privacy Regulations [links to Benton summary]
JOURNALISM
The WaPo-NYT newspaper war that wasn’t [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
Social Media Attack That Set Off a Seizure Leads to an Arrest [links to New York Times]
Gannett’s push into New Jersey saps local coverage [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
Reveal of Trump Tax Records Brings Rachel Maddow Record Viewership [links to New York Times]
OWNERSHIP
Time Warner and AT&T Are a Deal-Anxiety Barometer - Miriam Gottfried analysis [links to Benton summary]
Report: Fox Asked to Derail Sinclair-Tribune Merger
DIVERSITY
Why Is Silicon Valley So Awful to Women? [links to Atlantic, The]
HEALTH
Google’s Handling of Public Health Data Should Serve as a Cautionary Tale, Report Says [links to Vice]
ADVERTISING
Google will revamp its ad policies after backlash [links to Washington Post]
NCAA Tournament Ads Work Around Glaring Absence: Players [links to New York Times]
TRANSPORTATION
Why a Single Failed Router Can Ground a Thousand Flights [links to Wall Street Journal]
LABOR
Trump’s Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch, his budget proposal, plus an earlier hiring freeze memorandum, present a management strategy designed to jettison agencies, oust programs, slow hiring and dump employees. [links to Washington Post]
GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS
In 'Voice of America' the world trusts - The Hill op-ed
Who files the most FOIA requests? It’s not who you think. [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
‘Always appeal,’ and more pro tips from a dozen FOIA experts [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
C-SPAN Survey: 76% of Americans Say Televise Supreme Court Oral Arguments [links to Multichannel News]
It's Possible to Cut Legacy Spending. Here's How the FCC Did It. [links to Benton summary]
What's New in Civic Tech: Sunlight Foundation Guide Seeks to Improve Open Data Practices [links to Government Technology]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Vodafone forced to merge India unit amid price war [links to Financial Times]
EU requests fraud, terms-of-service changes from tech giants [links to Benton summary]
Public Knowledge Urges European Institutions to Preserve Free Expression Online [links to Public Knowledge]
AGENDA
WHY RADICAL DEREGULATION IS HAPPENING SO FAST AT THE FCC
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Andrew Schwartzman]
[Commentary] President Donald Trump has moved quickly to use Executive Orders and other plenary powers to deliver on some of his major campaign promises on issues such as immigration, the Dakota Access pipeline and appointment of a conservative Supreme Court Justice. For the most part, however, his promised deregulatory assault on what his chief strategist Steven Bannon calls the “Administrative State” has not advanced as quickly. Hundreds of top-level positions at Executive Branch agencies remain vacant, and the process of rescinding regulatory policies can be cumbersome and time consuming. There is at least one important exception - media and telecommunications regulation at the Federal Communications Commission. Within weeks after taking office, newly-designated FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has moved aggressively and with unprecedented speed to overturn many recent FCC decisions and changed some longstanding policies. While some of these actions are more symbolic in nature, others have had immediate and significant impact. Many more such actions are likely to be unveiled in the weeks, not to mention months, to come.
[Andrew Jay Schwartzman is the Benton Senior Counselor at the Public Interest Communications Law Project at Georgetown University Law Center's Institute for Public Representation]
https://www.benton.org/blog/why-radical-deregulation-happening-so-fast-fcc
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BUDGET
BENTON STANDS WITH TOBY TO SAY "DON'T DELETE BIG BIRD"
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Adrianne Furniss]
A couple weeks ago, an adorable seven-year-old boy named Toby complained that President Donald Trump is “deleting PBS kids” just to pay for the wall. Toby told US Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), “he shouldn’t do that.” The young boy received massive applause for standing up to his Senator, the President, and for what’s right. At this town hall, Senator Cotton said you could have both – a Mexican wall and PBS. But today it turns out that Toby was right. President Donald Trump unveiled his budget proposal, titled, “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again.” Disturbingly, the plan calls for the elimination of federal support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It’s time to push back hard against any proposal that threatens public broadcasting and the vital services it delivers throughout the country. Let’s not take Big Bird away from kids like Toby.
benton.org/headlines/benton-stands-toby-say-dont-delete-big-bird | Benton Foundation
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SENS MARKEY, GILLIBRAND TELL TRUMP THEY'LL FIGHT FOR CPB
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Sens Ed Markey (D-MA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) wrote President Donald Trump to register their opposition to defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. “Any funding cuts to the CPB could create a content deficit where the public no longer has access to enriching educational, civic, and entertainment shows for all Americans, regardless of ethnic, racial or socio-economic background,” they wrote. “With its near universal footprint, CPB provides virtually all Americans with access to this educational content and top-caliber local, regional, and national news. Approximately 99% of all Americans can enjoy this public media, regardless of how much money they earn or where they live.” They made a point of supporting independent sources of news. They pledged to oppose any attempt to decrease funding, much less eliminate it.
benton.org/headlines/sens-markey-gillibrand-tell-president-trump-theyll-fight-cpb | Broadcasting&Cable | Press release
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PBS STATIONS IN TRUMP-STATES WOULD SUFFER MOST UNDER TRUMP'S CUTS
[SOURCE: The Wrap, AUTHOR: Reid Nakamura]
The local PBS stations that would be hardest hit by President Trump’s proposed budget cuts are in states that voted for Trump. Public television receives about 15 percent of its funding from federal sources, according to PBS. But in rural parts of the country — most of which voted overwhelmingly for Trump — that federal funding represents a much larger portion of the budget. Federal taxes provide up to 50 percent of the money for some stations. Federal tax dollars for public TV are administered through the private Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which has a $445 million annual budget. Among the PBS member stations that get roughly half their budgets from the CPB is KYUK in Bethel (AK). Bill Legere, the general manager of KTOO — a joint radio and TV station which serves the approximately 33,000 residents of Juneau (AK) and surrounding villages — said his station would be “devastated” by the proposed cuts. “If there was anything left of the service we provide, there would be very little local content,” Legere said. “Very little content that’s responsive to Alaskan interests and needs. If we could even stay in business.” Alaska voted overwhelmingly for Trump. But Legere said most residents would be “shocked to think about not having this service available here.” In fact, a study commissioned by PBS last year found that 70 percent of Trump voters would oppose cuts to public broadcasting.
benton.org/headlines/pbs-stations-trump-states-would-suffer-most-under-trumps-cuts | Wrap, The
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COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY
WIRETAPS AND PRIVACY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Scott Shane]
Even if President Trump’s wiretap claim was groundless, as seems all but certain, it has unexpectedly renewed a debate on the left as well as the right over whether security agencies invade Americans’ privacy and could undermine democracy. Whether the president intended such a discussion or even welcomes it, his repeated undercutting of the spy agencies has been striking. Some of his vocal critics believe that the wiretap gambit is a deliberate attempt to create a distraction from the many challenges facing his young presidency. It could also be that by pre-emptively discrediting the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency, he is hoping to undermine any damning evidence they may produce of his associates’ contacts with Russia. In the domestic sphere, after all, he and his aides denigrated the Congressional Budget Office in anticipation of the office’s dismal projections on his health plan. Or possibly the president’s repeated battering of the intelligence agencies is not so different from his attacks on the Environmental Protection Agency or the State Department. He may view the spy agencies as just additional targets in what his adviser, Stephen K. Bannon, calls the “deconstruction of the administrative state.”
benton.org/headlines/trumps-wiretap-accusations-renew-debate-about-privacy | New York Times
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GERMAN REPORTERS PRESS TRUMP ON WIRETAP CLAIMS, 'FAKE NEWS'
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jonathan Easley]
Foreign reporters challenged President Donald Trump to address his wiretapping accusation and attacks on the media at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. A German reporter asked President Trump whether he regrets claiming that former President Barack Obama bugged Trump Tower during the presidential campaign, provoking Trump to joke about reports that the National Security Agency had once monitored Merkel’s phone under Obama. “As far as wiretapping, I guess by this past administration, at least we have something in common, perhaps,” President Trump said with a grin. President Trump beat back questions about why the White House had accused Britain’s intelligence agency of having helped Obama surveil Trump Tower, saying press secretary Sean Spicer had merely read aloud a report from a Fox News legal analyst. “We said nothing. All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television. I did not make an opinion on it,” President Trump said. “That was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on Fox. So you should not be talking to me. You should be talking to Fox.”
benton.org/headlines/german-reporters-press-president-trump-wiretap-claims-fake-news | Hill, The
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IN 'VOICE OF AMERICA' THE WORLD TRUSTS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: K Riva Levinson]
[Commentary] Voice of America began radio broadcasting in 1942, to combat Nazi propaganda. Per its charter, it is mandated to “serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news.” Since WWII, it has been the front-edge of America’s informational interface with citizens around the world, particularly those battling dictatorships and tyranny. VOA is the largest public diplomacy program of the United States government and broadcasts in more than 40 languages. Serving an estimated weekly global audience of 236.6 million, they provide news, information, and cultural programming through the Internet, mobile and social media, radio, and television. With today’s information overload, where fake news goes viral, and real news is labeled fake, where hacks and leaks dominate our news cycle, Voice of America is an indispensable tool in our engagement with global citizens. As President Trump considers his priorities, as he looks to beef up the U.S. military, and potentially make major cuts in diplomacy, and as the Congress reviews his 2018 budget submitted this week to Congress, they should be reminded that the fate of nations over this past decade has changed on a dime. And it was not weapons systems that fell these governments, but the power of information to mobilize a people. For good or for bad. When you consider recent history, the sophistication of Russia’s disinformation campaign, and the online recruitment tools ISIS uses, VOA’s importance is clear. President Trump should be “doubling down” on its broadcasts, and not considering cuts for a network that dispatches truth, hope and inspiration to some of the most volatile parts of the world. Further, he should take care to safeguard VOA’s integrity, its gold-standard global media brand.
[K. Riva Levinson is President and CEO of KRL International LLC]
benton.org/headlines/voice-america-world-trusts | Hill, The
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
SENS MARKEY, SULLIVAN CALL ON FCC TO PROTECT E-RATE FUNDING
[SOURCE: US Senate, AUTHOR: Sen Ed Markey (D-MA)]
Sens Ed Markey (D-MA) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK) sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission calling on Chairman Ajit Pai to support the E-Rate program. The E-Rate program, a part of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, provides schools and libraries funding for internet access. Before passage of the law that created the E-Rate program barely 14 percent of classrooms had access to the internet, while today nearly all schools around the country are connected. “The E-Rate ensures that students from working-class and rural neighborhoods can connect to and be afforded all of the opportunities given to students from more affluent communities,” write Sens Markey and Sullivan. “With technology expanding into nearly every facet of our lives, we need to ensure all Americans – whether urban or rural, rich or poor – remain connected and competitive in this global economy by continuing to support this essential program that millions of kids rely on across the nation.”
benton.org/headlines/senators-markey-and-sullivan-call-fcc-protect-e-rate-funding | US Senate | read the letter
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OWNERSHIP
FOX ASKED TO DERAIL SINCLAIR-TRIBUNE MERGER
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Diana Marszalek]
Apparently, 21st Century Fox, the media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, is weighing options to help thwart a potential takeover of Tribune Media by Sinclair Broadcast Group. Fox is deliberating over possible choices after having been approached by several parties, which are interested in acquiring Tribune directly or as part of a consortium, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. One of the parties that has talked with Fox is activist investor Starboard Value LP, which owned a 4.4 percent stake in Tribune as of March 15. While Sinclair recently approached Tribune about a possible merger, the companies aren’t close to a deal, other people familiar with the matter said. Nexstar Media Group is also weighing a bid, although it hasn’t hired a financial adviser yet, the people said. Nexstar has a history of laying in wait for a potential deal, striking an agreement to acquire Media General in 2015 only after Media General had announced plans to merge with Meredith Corp. While some of the parties eyeing Tribune are interested in teaming up with Fox for a bid, Fox doesn’t want to acquire the broadcaster, the people said. Murdoch’s company may ultimately decide not to intervene at all, apparently. A combination of Tribune and Sinclair, two of the country’s biggest TV station owners, would give Sinclair control of 28 percent of the Fox-affiliated channels that Murdoch’s company doesn’t own directly, the people said. That would give Sinclair a stronger negotiating hand in future talks with Fox about how to split fees from cable providers, the people said.
benton.org/headlines/report-fox-asked-derail-sinclair-tribune-merger | Broadcasting&Cable
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