Lauren Frayer

Comey Firing Provides Bright Dividing Line for Media Coverage

The nation’s political divide has been on full display in the news media in the hours since FBI Director James Comey’s abrupt ejection from his post May 9 — and the lines are brighter than ever.

On CNN, the legal journalist Jeffrey Toobin was in full-on meltdown mode, denouncing President Trump’s firing as “a grotesque abuse of power” and “the kind of thing that goes on in non-democracies.” Over on Fox News, the mood was more sanguine — even celebratory. “This was overdue, and everyone in Washington knows that,” Tucker Carlson declared at the top of his 8 pm broadcast, before introducing a series of guests who echoed his excitement.By May 10, the left-leaning HuffPost featured a one-word, all-capital headline: “Nixonian.” The right-leaning Breitbart News approvingly declared President Trump’s move “the latest in a political outsider’s crusade against entrenched Washington.”

Americans Uneasy About Data Privacy After FCC Rule Repeal

A vast majority of Americans—95 percent—say they are concerned about businesses’ collection and sale of their personal information without permission, according to a survey taken after the recent rollback of federal privacy rules for broadband providers. The Federal Communications Commission privacy rules had required providers such as Comcast and AT&T to get affirmative consent from subscribers before collecting or selling their data. Since President Donald Trump signed a bill into law rescinding those rules, the public debate over internet privacy has escalated.

The survey, published May 4 by software company Anchorfree, asked 2,000 consumers their views on internet access and privacy. Although 90 percent of Americans say internet access must be safe and secure, they are divided as to who should be responsible for ensuring such security. Two out of five Americans say the federal government is responsible, while another two out of five point to network providers, the survey said.

West Virginia journalist arrested after asking HHS Secretary Tom Price a question

As Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price walked through a hallway May 9 in the West Virginia state capitol, veteran reporter Dan Heyman followed alongside him, holding up his phone to Sec Price while attempting to ask him a question. Heyman, a journalist with Public News Service, repeatedly asked the secretary whether domestic violence would be considered a preexisting condition under the Republican bill to overhaul the nation’s health care system, he said. “He didn’t say anything,” Heyman said later in a news conference. “So I persisted.” Then, an officer in the capitol pulled him aside, handcuffed him and arrested him.

Heyman was jailed on the charge of willful disruption of state government processes and was released later on $5,000 bail. Authorities said while Secret Service agents were providing security in the capitol for Sec Price and Kellyanne Conway, special counsel to the president, Heyman was “aggressively breaching” the agents to the point where they were “forced to remove him a couple of times from the area,” according to a criminal complaint. Heyman “was causing a disturbance by yelling questions at Ms. Conway and Secretary Price,” the complaint stated.

President Trump and trickle-down press persecution

[Commentary] It's become clear in recent months that President Donald Trump’s growling at the national press has, in many ways, backfired. I’m excited about the press’s reinvigoration, too, but I’m also worried about President Trump’s anti-press words and deeds—and their trickle-down consequences for state and local journalists.

I contacted 16 editors or publishers of state and local newspapers in California, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas to ask if their papers had seen post-election bumps in subscriptions or readership. Their circulations range from 8,000 to 200,000 daily. Seven responded, and only one reported growth. The others didn’t know why they hadn’t seen growth or said their local focus might be to blame. I don’t want to lean too heavily on these results, which are anecdotal. But they only add to my concern that Trump’s anti-press antics will inspire unprecedented attempts to delegitimize the state and local press.

[Jonathan Peters is an attorney and an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Kansas]

Americans’ Attitudes About the News Media Deeply Divided Along Partisan Lines

Democrats and Republicans, who already tend to place their trust in different news sources and rely on different outlets for political news, now disagree more than ever on a fundamental issue of the news media’s role in society: whether news organizations’ criticism of political leaders primarily keeps them from doing things they shouldn’t – or keeps them from doing their job.

Today, in the early days of the Trump administration, roughly nine-in-ten Democrats (89%) say news media criticism keeps leaders in line (sometimes called the news media’s “watchdog role”), while only about four-in-ten Republicans (42%) say the same. That is a 47-percentage-point gap, which stands in sharp contrast to January-February 2016, when Americans were asked the same question. Then, in the midst of the presidential primary season, nearly the same share of Democrats (74%) and Republicans (77%) supported the watchdog role. This partisan split is found in other attitudes about the news media, though none in so dramatic a fashion as with the watchdog role. Compared with 2016, Democrats and Republicans are more divided on whether the press favors one side in its political coverage, on how much trust they have in national news media, and on how good a job national news organizations are doing in keeping them informed.

Anti-net neutrality spammers are impersonating real people to flood FCC comments

Thousands have posted comments on the Federal Communications Commission’s website in response to a proposed rollback of network neutrality internet protections, weighing in on whether and how to defend the open internet. But many others appeared to have a different point of view. “The unprecedented regulatory power the Obama Administration imposed on the internet is smothering innovation, damaging the American economy and obstructing job creation,” read thousands of identical comments posted this week, seemingly by different concerned individuals. The comment goes on to give a vigorous defense of deregulation, calling the rules a “power grab” and saying the rollback represents “a positive step forward.” By midday May 9, the thread was inundated with versions of the comment. A search of the duplicated text found more than 58,000 results as of press time, with 17,000 of those posted in the last 24 hours alone.

The comments seem to be posted by different, real people, with addresses attached. But people contacted said they did not write the comments and have no idea where the posts came from. “That doesn’t even sound like verbiage I would use,” says Nancy Colombo of Connecticut, whose name and address appeared alongside the comment. “I have no idea where that came from,” says Lynn Vesely, whose Indiana address also appeared, and who was surprised to hear about the comment.

ASC3 Launches Services Call Center Providing Workforce Development Opportunities for Digital Literacy Program Participants

Ashbury Senior Computer Community Center (ACS3), a nonprofit inter-generational technology learning center in the heart of Cleveland (OH) helps those still living on the other side of the digital divide keep up. More than half of the participants in Ashbury’s programs have an annual household income below $15,000 with few options available to them to learn technology and get access to the internet on their own. Mobile Citizen’s partnership and much-needed affordable internet has been a key component in Ashbury’s ability to offer this new and innovative Services Call Center program.

Ashbury, together with Connect Your Community (CYC), recently launched a Services Call Center offering nonprofit customers basic services such as research design, survey creation, survey programming, survey administration, data analysis, data cleaning, data entry, focus group hosting, focus group moderation, evaluation and report writing. It doubles as a valuable workforce development opportunity for their 6,000 digital literacy program participants as call center associates are required to have to have digital literacy and other technology skills to be able to participate in the program.

A “Bug Fix” That Could Unlock the Web for Millions Around the World

Companies that do business online are missing out on billions in annual sales thanks to a bug that is keeping their systems incompatible with Internet domain names made of non-Latin characters. Fixing it could also bring another 17 million people who speak Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Vietnamese, and Indian languages online. Those are the conclusions of a new study by an industry-led group sponsored by the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization responsible for maintaining the list of valid Internet domain names.

The objective of the so-called Universal Acceptance Steering Group, which includes representatives from a number of Internet companies including Microsoft and GoDaddy, is to encourage software developers and service providers to update how their systems validate the string of characters to the right of the dot in a domain name or e-mail address—also called the top-level domain.

Trump’s Campaign Can’t Just Erase History on the Internet

President Donald Trump's overhauled campaign website looks a lot like the original: the resident in a suit and red tie, embedded tweets pillorying #FakeNews, and “Make America Great Again” hats for sale in every color (plus camo, of course). But what really stands out is what’s missing: the entire archive of content published on the site prior to January.

The purge began May 8, after one White House reporter asked press secretary Sean Spicer why the campaign website still included references to the Muslim ban. That same day, during oral arguments in the federal appeals case over the Trump administration’s executive order barring travelers from six Muslim-majority countries, Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Robert King also pressed Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Wall about the site. Wall argued that the current ban doesn’t discriminate against people on religious grounds, but King insisted the press release contradicts that claim. “He has never repudiated what he said about the Muslim ban,” Judge King said of the president. “It is still on his website.” Within hours it was gone. Within a day, so was every other pesky press release that might someday prove incriminating.

President Trump dismisses FBI Director Comey

FBI Director James B. Comey has been dismissed by the president, according to White House spokesman Sean Spicer - a startling move that officials said stemmed from a conclusion by Justice Department officials that he had mishandled the probe of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails. Comey was fired as he is leading a counterintelligence investigation to determine whether associates of President Trump may have coordinated with Russia to meddle with the presidential election in 2016. That probe began quietly last July but has now become the subject of intense debate in Washington.

It is unclear how Comey’s dismissal will affect that investigation. “The president has accepted the recommendation of the Attorney General and the deputy Attorney General regarding the dismissal of the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Spicer said.

White House circulates negative stories about Comey after firing

The White House circulated negative press clippings on FBI Director James Comey minutes after announcing his firing May 9. The one-page sheet circulated by the White House contained four stories, most of them about Democrats criticizing Comey's decision to disclose developments in the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server. One of the clips was a Wall Street Journal editorial calling for Comey’s resignation because “he has lost the trust of nearly everyone in Washington, along with every American who believes the FBI must maintain its reputation as a politically impartial federal agency.”

Ninth Circuit To Review FTC v. AT&T Mobility

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has agreed to review a three-judge panel decision that left the Federal Trade Commission's authority to oversee edge-provider privacy in some circumstances very much in doubt, according to a copy of the court’s announcement of the new hearing. The court also said that in the interim that panel decision is not to be cited as precedent of the Ninth circuit. Such en banc review is unusual, but the decision had prompted a lot of attention given that potential online privacy gap.

A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit, in overturning the FTC's action against AT&T for throttling the speeds of unlimited data customers, in 2016 ruled that the regulatory exemption that prevents the FTC from regulating common carriers is not confined to common carrier "activity" by an entity that has the status of a common carrier, but to noncommon carrier activity by that entity as well. That meant that if Verizon, a common carrier, bought Yahoo, an edge provider, the FTC could not enforce Yahoo! privacy policies, and the FCC could not either because it does not regulate edge providers, leaving a potential privacy gap.

Chairman Pai on 9th Circuit Decision to Rehear FTC v. AT&T Case

Today’s action by the Ninth Circuit is a big win for American consumers. Now that the court’s prior decision is no longer effective, it will be easier for the Federal Trade Commission to protect consumers’ online privacy. The court’s action also strengthens the case for the Federal Communications Commission to reverse its 2015 Title II Order and restore the FTC’s jurisdiction over broadband providers’ privacy and data security practices. Indeed, it moves us one step closer to having the consistent and comprehensive framework for digital privacy that the American people deserve.

Sens Wyden, Schatz want details on FCC cyberattack after John Oliver critique

Sens Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) are asking the Federal Communications Commission for information about the agency’s claim that it had been the target of cyberattacks after being criticized by late night comedian John Oliver on May 7. The two Sens sent a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai with a list of questions about the FCC’s claim that its comment filing system had been hit with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.

“DDoS attacks against federal agencies are serious — and doubly so if the attack may have prevented Americans from being able to weigh in on your proposal to roll back net neutrality protections,” they wrote. “Any potentially hostile cyber activities that prevent Americans from being able to participate in a fair and transparent process must be treated as a serious issue.”

When Movies Go To Washington

Over the past few decades, an increased number of social-issue documentary film teams have endeavored to fuel policy shifts in the United States – that is, to influence legislation, regulation, enforcement and the views of policymakers related to key social issues on the federal, state and local levels. Indeed, Capitol Hill screenings in Washington (DC) have become regular rites of passage. But while anecdotal stories of Hill screenings abound, a deeper strategic and tactical understanding about how social-issue documentary films contribute to policy is harder to ascertain. Documentary filmmakers and policymakers operate in different worlds with distinct agendas and ways of doing business. And yet, they are often able to come together in mutually beneficial ways.

When Movies Come to Washington provides inside perspectives from policymakers, filmmakers and advocacy leaders who have successfully contributed to shifting or creating policy agendas with the help of documentary films. The report offers documentary film teams tips for engagement with the federal public policy arena. While social-issue documentary filmmakers certainly don’t need to transform themselves into finely-tuned policy experts, understanding the basics and some insider tips can make the difference in a policy strategy’s effectiveness. It may also provide filmmakers with the ability to fully vet impact strategy teams who may work alongside them. Additionally, a fuller understanding of the policymaking process can widen opportunities for engagement beyond passing laws alone – to the processes by which those laws are carried out and impact the lives of people outside Washington.

Comcast-Charter wireless deal offers 7 essential benefits, analyst says

Deutsche Bank Analyst Matthew Niknam listed seven key benefits to the Comcast-Charter Communications partnership, which calls for the two companies to share wireless technology and best practices, as well as control each other’s major M&A endeavors in the wireless industry. Niknam then listed seven “opportunities” rendered by the deal:

  1. It offers national scale across a fiber-dense network footprint covering 80% of the US
  2. The two companies will share network technology, software, product development and operational investments and expertise
  3. Each will dramatically increase its service footprint, allowing customers to reach across each other’s Wi-Fi networks, as well as any LTE or 5G network infrastructure built in the future
  4. The deal offers collaboration on spectrum procurement and any future network design and buildout
  5. It will enable both companies to better serve the business market with wireless services
  6. It will provide better leverage and scale for procurement from vendors
  7. It will extend the amount of retail service locations both companies can offer

FCC chairman's first 100 days: full steam ahead on slashing regulations

The roughly 100-day frenzy of deregulation at the Federal Communications Commission marks a bright spot for the Trump Administration, which has been hampered in other areas like repealing Obamacare. And FCC Chairman Ajit Pai shows no signs of slowing down, teeing up a takedown of the signature FCC achievement of the Obama years: network neutrality rules designed to ensure internet service providers treat all web traffic equally.

Sen Markey Leads Title II Fans in Last-Minute Push

With the days dwindling down to the Federal Communications Commission's May 18 planned vote on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to roll back Title II classification of Internet service providers, Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) joined a dozen other Democratic lawmakers in a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai telling him not to "gut" net neutrality protections. Sen Markey has been a leader in the pushback on modifying/unwinding the FCC's Open Internet order, vowing to fight the effort on all fronts.

In the letter, the lawmakers issue with both rolling back Title II and the suggestion—which sources said was raised in meetings between Chairman Pai and ISPs—that the Federal Trade Commission could enforce voluntary openness pledges along the lines of the Open Internet order rules against blocking and throttling and anticompetitive paid prioritization. They said since a court had upheld the FCC's reclassification, the issue was settled and should remain so. As to voluntary guidelines, they said those do not provide the certainty that innovators and "anyone else" can get access to viewers and customers and leaves ISPs as the gatekeepers.

FCC's Ajit Pai too focused on deregulation

[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Pai exudes charm even as he operates an aggressive deregulatory weed wacker that favors arcane administrative safeguards for phone companies over other matters, such as the long past due reduction in extortionate calling rates paid by prison inmates. Paradoxically, the chairman has more compassion for procedural due process rights of telephone companies than for families seeking a fair price for telephone calls priced in an unquestionably noncompetitive marketplace. The chairman instructed his legal staff not to show up at a court hearing on the matter and has announced no plans for finding ways to solve the rip-off in a legally proper manner.

Chairman Pai has undertaken an effective charm offensive promising greater transparency, reliance on facts and application of sound economic principles. Who could quibble with that? But anyone looking at the output of the Pai offensive can see a remarkable paradox. The chairman has clear deregulatory goals and will shape the evidence, statistics and economics to achieve the desired result.

[Rob Frieden holds the Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications and Law at Penn State University.]

Comcast and Charter Just Made a Deal: Here’s how it will affect you.

Maybe you've heard: Charter Communications is teaming up with Comcast. The two cable companies are working together to protect their nascent cellphone businesses from huge, national providers — such as Verizon and AT&T — by largely refraining from going after each other. Under the deal, Comcast and Charter have temporarily agreed not to take actions that could compromise each other's new offerings, such as selling mobile-phone service to consumers outside their respective cable footprints or trying to buy up existing cellphone carriers such as Sprint or T-Mobile.

Essentially, it's a deal by cable giants to shield their early investments in an industry they're just beginning to explore. But this detente, while it may seem like a small announcement, has some important implications for cellphone service, television and online media. Here's why it's such a big deal.

CTIA Annual Wireless Industry Survey: Americans’ Wireless Data Usage Continues to Skyrocket

CTIA released its Annual Wireless Industry Survey, which found Americans used a record 13.72 trillion megabytes (MBs) of mobile data in 2016, an increase of over 4 trillion MBs over 2015 and 35 times the volume of traffic in 2010. The amount of data traffic sent over wireless networks in 2016 -13.72 trillion MBs - is the equivalent of 1.58 million years of streaming HD videos.

Some other key findings:

  • Data-intensive mobile devices continue to rise: Heavy traffic-generating devices, smartphones and wireless-enabled tablets and laptops, now total 309.8 million of the 395.9 million devices on carrier networks – a 238% increase since 2010.
  • There are more wireless devices than Americans: With 395.9 million total active devices in the US, adoption is now equal to 120.6% of the US population, or more than 1.2 wireless devices per American.
  • Industry committed to building world-leading networks: A record 308,334 cells sites were in operation in 2016, representing a 57% growth over the last decade, thanks to over $26 billion invested in 2016 alone.

Verizon CEO: Verizon Wireless Network Densification Will Drive Deployment of Largest Fiber Network Nationwide

Stakeholders know that because small cells will have shorter range, operators will need a dense fiber network to support them. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam offered a sense of just how dense that network will need to be.

Verizon small cells and densification efforts are driving the deployment of 1700-strand fiber in Boston (MA), where the company is undertaking a major network upgrade, McAdam said. In comparison, he said, the company deployed six-strand fiber when it began deploying its FiOS landline broadband and internet service in the early 2000s. Verizon worked closely with its supplier Corning to get 1700 fiber strands in a single sheath, McAdam said, also noting that the company recently placed a $300 million order with another fiber supplier Prysmian. “The largest fiber network in the country will be wireless” and will be operated by Verizon to provide backhaul and other types of connectivity, said McAdam.

Net Neutrality is Particularly Important to Women

In a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, 14 U.S. senators express extreme concern will plans to roll back network neutrality rules.

Net neutrality is particularly important to women, as it affords women-owned businesses and startups an even playing field when competing with more established brands and content. Between 2007 and 2016, while the total number of firms increased by 9 percent, the number of women-owned firms increased by 45 percent - meaning that over this period the number of women-owned firms grew at a rate fully five times the national average.1 This growth mirrors the emergence of the Internet as a platform for economic growth. The online sales platform, Etsy, is another example of how women thrive under a free and open Internet. Under the current net neutrality regime, Etsy has empowered sellers in every state across the country, 87 percent of whom are women. An open Internet is also vital to providing a platform for elevating voices that are underrepresented or marginalized in traditional media, an experience many women in media know well. When turned away by traditional media outlets, many female creators have found a home and an audience for their stories on the open Internet. The vast array of online media platforms enabled by net neutrality give creators permission-less access to viewers, providing autonomy for women of every color and creed to tell rich, compelling stories in their own voices. In addition, an open Internet has allowed women to organize and create positive change in their communities.

Time for Congress to Act on Net Neutrality

[Commentary] I support the recent announcement by the Federal Communications Commission to roll back the misguided and overbearing regulatory structure imposed during the Obama Administration. Access, choice and low costs are important to American consumers when it comes to high-speed internet. That is not what the Democratic-led FCC achieved with the reclassification of broadband service under a burdensome, utility-like regulatory framework.

Closing the digital divide is a top priority of mine as chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee that oversees internet issues. To do so, Internet service providers need the confidence and certainty to invest in our nation’s most rural areas. A restrictive regulatory framework that chills growth and jeopardizes investment could hold back our underserved communities, stifling the potential for jobs and economic development with it.

The FCC’s action also offers Congress an opportunity to do more to ensure a free and open internet for all Americans. The time is ripe for Congress to find a way to balance proper regulatory oversight without stifling the freedom of internet service providers to grow and innovate.

[Sen Roger Wicker (R-MS) is Chairman of the Senate Communications Subcommittee]