June 2017

Gabe Pressman, Broadcast News Pioneer

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, JUNE 26, 2017

Rural Broadband Takes Center Stage During Tech Week

Today's Event -- The Future of Net Neutrality Town Hall -- https://www.benton.org/node/260946

COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY
   Obama’s secret struggle to punish Russia for Putin’s election assault
   President Trump is struggling to stay calm on Russia, one morning call at a time
   President Trump congratulates himself for influencing Comey’s testimony with White House tapes ruse
   White House Correspondents' Association: We are not satisfied with off-camera briefings [links to Benton summary]
   CNN brings courtroom sketch artist to White House press briefing [links to Hill, The]
   White House condemns 'Julius Caesar' production [links to Hill, The]
   White House-media relations at breaking point as Spicer searches for replacement [links to CNN]
   Poll: One-third blame media for political violence [links to Hill, The]
   Op-Ed: President Trump’s Twitter feed is a gold mine for foreign spies [links to Washington Post]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Eighth Circuit to Hear Challenges to FCC's Business Data Services Decision
   School-to-Home report: Understanding Why 24/7 Access to Broadband is Essential to Student Learning - CoSN analysis
   Sen Wicker (R-MS) Backs President Trump's Rural Broadband Support [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
   FCC's Pai Praises Bipartisan Addition to GO Act [links to Benton summary]
   Major Changes Sought in Nascent Citizens Broadband Radio Service - CommLawBlog analysis [links to Benton summary]
   Small Business Committee Has Big Interest in Rural Broadband

NETWORK NEUTRALITY
   Startups push to preserve net neutrality [links to Benton summary]
   Title II regulations present challenge for broadband - Ravalli Repulic op-ed [links to Benton summary]
   Why Net Neutrality Matters Even in the Age of Oligopoly [links to Wired]
   Net Neutrality: Beware ISPs Bearing Promises [links to Huffington Post]
   Brookings Podcast: Net neutrality: The war is over [links to Brookings]
   Poll: 60 percent of voters support FCC's net neutrality rules [links to Hill, The]
   How (not) to prioritize (airline) internet traffic [links to American Enterprise Institute]

SECURITY/PRIVACY
   AT&T Is Big Backer of Chairman Blackburn Privacy Bill
   Association of National Advertisers Weighs In Against California Privacy Proposal [links to MediaPost]
   Google Now Scrubbing Private Medical Records From Search Results [links to Bloomberg]
   A Cyberattack ‘the World Isn’t Ready For’ [links to New York Times]
   Snapchat’s newest feature is also its biggest privacy threat [links to Verge, The]
   Op-ed: The Elephant in the Room With EdTech Data Privacy [links to Forbes]
   US asks Supreme Court to take up Microsoft fight over email privacy [links to CNN]
   Google will stop scanning content of personal emails [links to Guardian, The]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   Do Wi-Fi and Cell Service Belong in Our National Parks? [links to Vice]
   In 10 years, an iPhone will be a suite of apps and services, enhanced with AI and AR, part of a ‘body area network’ of devices, batteries and sensors [links to Wall Street Journal]

TELEVISION
   American Cable Association makes another push to have satellite guys pay same regulatory fees as cable and IPTV [links to Fierce]
   ACA to FCC: Cable, DBS Should Have Regulatory Fee Parity [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
   NAB Cheers FCC Proposal to Raise Fee Exemption [links to Broadcasting&Cable]

ADVERTISING
   Be Prepared to Defend Political Advertising - TVNewsCheck editorial [links to Benton summary]
   Google will stop scanning your Gmail messages to sell targeted ads [links to Verge, The]

CONTENT
   The three old rules that explain basically the entire Internet in 2017 [links to Washington Post]
   Facebook Is Going Hollywood, Seeking Scripted TV Programming [links to Wall Street Journal]

OWNERSHIP
   Editorial: Hold Charter to promises [links to Times Union]
   Charter asked by New York City councilman to stop importing out-of-state workers to replace striking technicians [links to Fierce]
   Charter in the driver's seat for further consolidation, analyst says [links to Fierce]

LABOR
   Google’s ‘Trust Us’ Approach Doesn’t Satisfy Pay Gap Skeptics [links to Wall Street Journal]

JOURNALISM
   CNN anchor John King: 'Fox and Friends' is 'state TV' [links to Hill, The]
   Paying for News [links to Reuters Institute]
   NBC’s Megyn Kelly Problem [links to Variety]

TELECOM
   FTC Wraps up Major Phone Cramming Case as Remaining Defendants Settle Charges [links to Federal Trade Commission]

SATELLITES
   SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket carrying 10 communications satellites [links to Los Angeles Times]

GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS/LOBBYING
   White House Artifacts to be Digitized Using Amazon Web Services [links to nextgov]
   Prominent Democratic Fundraisers Realign to Lobby for Trump’s Agenda [links to Intercept, The]

POLICYMAKERS
   FCC Chairman Pai is getting too cozy with the White House, critics say
   Tech heads sound optimistic note after Trump meetings [links to Hill, The]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Facebook launches drive in UK to tackle online extremist material [links to Guardian, The]
   Turkish filmmakers fear the spectre of censorship [links to Financial Times]

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COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY

OBAMAS SECRET STRUGGLE TO PUNISH RUSSIA FOR PUTINS ELECTION ASSAULT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Greg Miller, Ellen Nakashima, Adam Entous]
Early last August, an envelope with extraordinary handling restrictions arrived at the White House. Sent by courier from the CIA, it carried “eyes only” instructions that its contents be shown to just four people: President Barack Obama and three senior aides. Only in the administration’s final weeks in office did it tell the public, in a declassified report, what officials had learned from Brennan in August — that Russian President Vladimir Putin was working to elect Donald Trump. Over that five-month interval, the Obama administration secretly debated dozens of options for deterring or punishing Russia, including cyberattacks on Russian infrastructure, the release of CIA-gathered material that might embarrass Putin and sanctions that officials said could “crater” the Russian economy. But in the end, in late December, President Obama approved a modest package combining measures that had been drawn up to punish Russia for other issues — expulsions of 35 diplomats and the closure of two Russian compounds — with economic sanctions so narrowly targeted that even those who helped design them describe their impact as largely symbolic. President Obama also approved a previously undisclosed covert measure that authorized planting cyber weapons in Russia’s infrastructure, the digital equivalent of bombs that could be detonated if the United States found itself in an escalating exchange with Moscow. The project, which President Obama approved in a covert-action finding, was still in its planning stages when he left office. It would be up to President Trump to decide whether to use the capability.
benton.org/headlines/obamas-secret-struggle-punish-russia-putins-election-assault | Washington Post | More from WaPo
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PRESIDENT TRUMP MORNING CALLS ABOUT RUSSIA
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ashley Parker, Philip Rucker]
President Donald Trump has a new morning ritual. Around 6:30 am on many days — before all the network news shows have come on the air — he gets on the phone with a member of his outside legal team to chew over all things Russia. The calls — detailed by three senior White House officials — are part strategy consultation and part presidential venting session, during which President Trump’s lawyers and public-relations gurus take turns reviewing the latest headlines with him. They also devise their plan for battling his avowed enemies: the special counsel leading the Russia investigation; the “fake news” media chronicling it; and, in some instances, the president’s own Justice Department overseeing the probe. His advisers have encouraged the calls — which the early-to-rise President Trump takes from his private quarters in the White House residence — in hopes that he can compartmentalize the widening Russia investigation. By the time the president arrives for work in the Oval Office, the thinking goes, he will no longer be consumed by the Russia probe that he complains hangs over his presidency like a darkening cloud. Senior officials have also been devising an overhaul of the White House communications operation to better meet the offensive and defensive demands of the president they serve, as well as the 24-hour cycle of tweet-size news.
benton.org/headlines/president-trump-struggling-stay-calm-russia-one-morning-call-time | Washington Post
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TRUMP COMEY TAPE BLUFF
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Aaron Blake]
President Donald Trump gave his first interview in more than a month on June 22, and the result — airing June 23 on Fox News — included President Trump congratulating himself for his suggestion that there might be tapes of his conversations with former FBI Director James B. Comey. What's interesting here is that this isn't the official White House position. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied June 22 that President Trump's six-week-old tweet about possible tapes was meant to threaten or influence Director Comey. But then President Trump just went out and basically said it himself.
benton.org/headlines/president-trump-congratulates-himself-influencing-comeys-testimony-white-house-tapes-ruse | Washington Post | The Hill
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

EIGHTH CIRCUIT TO HEAR CHALLENGES TO FCC BDS DECISION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Legal challenges to the Federal Communications Commission's business data services (BDS) reforms have been consolidated in the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Petitions to deny some or all of the FCC's BDS report and order updating the framework for regulating business data services had been filed in three separate federal appeals courts. Those appeals came from CenturyLink, Citizens Telecommunications Company of Minnesota and a consortium of telecoms including Sprint. The DC Circuit is the one with primary jurisdiction over telecommunications, but in the case of multiple filings, the US Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation holds a lottery to determine the venue. CenturyLink told the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that the FCC's regulation of rates on DS1 and DS3 service in areas deemed noncompetitive was arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and otherwise illegal. It said the FCC forced those price caps on competitive carriers despite evidence the cost of service had actually gone down.
benton.org/headlines/eighth-circuit-hear-challenges-fccs-business-data-services-decision | Broadcasting&Cable
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SCHOOL-TO-HOME REPORT
[SOURCE: Consortium for School Networking, AUTHOR: ]
Students increasingly must gain 21st century technology skills to succeed in life after high school. Despite the technological shift driven by rapid innovations, approximately 5 million US households with school-age children still do not have access to high-speed Internet at home. The paper gives school leaders guidance to improve digital access in their communities. In addition, CoSN puts forth recommendations for districts to build and strengthen their networks and identifies funding opportunities for school systems to improve digital equity. These include leveraging capital expenditures, operational expenditures, federal and state funds, bonds, levies, grants, and in-kind and school-to-business partnerships to address digital equity. “School-to-Home” details the main barriers to extending broadband to homes nationwide. These include assessing size of the connectivity problem and addressing the need for adequate Internet access at home and in the community, particularly for students from low-income homes. Despite cost and lack of fiber or high-speed Internet availability, some districts are improving Internet access by promoting public Wi-Fi access, providing Internet in school parking lots and athletic fields, and establishing portable loaner Wi-Fi hotspots for student use to take home to do school work.
benton.org/headlines/school-home-report-understanding-why-247-access-broadband-essential-student-learning | Consortium for School Networking
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SMALL BUSINESS COMMITTEE HAS BIG INTEREST IN RURAL BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Attendance at the June 22 House Small Business Committee's Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy & Trade hearing on improving broadband deployment in rural America was small, but it was yet another dive into a crowded pool as Washington drilled down on the issue, including on Capitol Hill, at the Federal Communications Commission and even in Iowa, where the President talked up rural broadband as well. The chairman of the subcommittee, Rep Rod Blum (R-IA), is from a rural district and also owns a small technology company that relies on internet access, so he cautioned the audience not to read the light attendance as lack of interest, only that there was a lot going on at the Hill. Chairman Blum said "the nation's small telecom providers are the ones that traditionally supply the bulk of broadband services to the most rural parts of America, and that is no easy task."
benton.org/headlines/small-business-committee-has-big-interest-rural-broadband | Broadcasting&Cable
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SECURITY/PRIVACY

ATT IS BIG BACKER OF BLACKBURN PRIVACY BILL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Top AT&T DC executive Robert Quinn said his company is "very, very" supportive of a bill (The BROWSER Act) from House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) that would "harmonize" the enforcement of online privacy by Internet service providers and edge providers like Google and Facebook. He said AT&T backed the bill for three main reasons. First, he said, it said everyone has to live under the same rules. Second, was putting all the regulation at the Federal Trade Commission, so it would be the same rules and the same regulator, rather than dividing it up between the FCC and FTC. Third, he said, the bill preempts state privacy laws, which means there aren't 50 different state regimes around privacy. "There is a rule that everyone has to live with" rather than a "patchwork" of rules.
benton.org/headlines/att-big-backer-chairman-blackburn-privacy-bill | Broadcasting&Cable
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POLICYMAKERS

PAI GETTING TOO COZY WITH WH
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
Much of the media coverage surrounding President Donald Trump's meetings with tech industry executives this week has focused on the companies in the room — Apple, Microsoft, Verizon and so on. But separate meetings organized around the same event have also included a smattering of government officials, including on June 22 the head of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai. On one level, Chairman Pai's attendance makes sense: The day's meetings focused on the future of wireless technology, an area where the FCC has a lot of expertise and jurisdiction. On another level, though, Chairman Pai's presence was unusual: As the head of an agency that's supposed to keep its distance from the White House, Pai has shown no qualms about appearing on the same agenda with President Trump. And that is now raising questions among some about his overall independence from the Trump administration.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-chairman-pai-getting-too-cozy-white-house-critics-say | Washington Post
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