Headlines will return MONDAY, October 29
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2012
Improving Indoor Location Accuracy for Wireless 911 http://benton.org/calendar/2012-10-24/
MEDIA & ELECTIONS
Obama's Comments on Corporate Tax Reform at Odds With Tech Industry
No more Romney interviews?
Romney super-PAC launches $18M ad blitz in 10 swing states [links to web]
Dilemma for DC stations: So many political ads, so little airtime [links to web]
Fox News and the Associated Press: What’s next?
Final Debate Draws Nearly 60 Million Viewers [links to web]
Obama's campaign booklet as marketing strategy
Digging for voters with Big Data
Mauled by Attack Ads, Incumbents Weigh Tighter Rules
Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney claim liberal media bias, but reporters just do their jobs - op-ed
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Rep Cantor slams network neutrality as example of 'imperial presidency'
Time Warner to Make Over $350 Million-a-year from Cable Modem Rentals [links to web]
Survey: States Struggle with Cybersecurity [links to web]
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
Few Winners in Heated Cellphone Wars - analysis
A Bandwidth Breakthrough
Isis mobile payments launch in Austin comes as a surprise to Austin [links to web]
TELEVISION
PBS Leads September Ratings With Kids 2-5 [links to web]
JOURNALISM
Fox News and the Associated Press: What’s next?
Journalism and the Truth: More Complicated than it has Ever Been [links to web]
ADVERTSING/MARKETING
Study Finds Millennial Consumers Are Heavily Swayed By Ethics and Practices of Marketers [links to web]
LOBBYING
Tech firms step up networking at conventions
Google pours millions into lobbying as decision on antitrust case looms [links to web]
Facebook continues record lobbying spending [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
SiriusXM CEO Mel Karmazin to Step Down [links to web]
Deutsche Telekom CEO Said to Hand Off Oversight of US Unit [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
These headlines presented in partnership with:
The Internet is Like the Old Soviet Union, Except it Works
The Use Of The Internet For Terrorist Purposes - press release
EU sends Microsoft formal antitrust complaint
In Cyberattack on Saudi Firm, U.S. Sees Iran Firing Back
Former BBC Head Says He Had No Role in Squelching Program [links to web]
Samsung wins preliminary round over Apple patent
Encouraging Growth in Enterprise Mobility in Brazil, China and India
Sony to close Tokyo tech center to trim costs [links to web]
Social Media Led Authorities to a Benghazi Terror Suspect [links to web]
Britain's first 4G service to start at 36 pounds a month [links to web]
MEDIA & ELECTIONS
TAX REFORM AND TECH
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
President Barack Obama's efforts to differentiate himself from GOP challenger Mitt Romney on corporate tax reform are unlikely to sit well with the tech industry. Although both agree on the need to cut the corporate tax rate, President Obama has criticized Romney for also favoring the implementation of a territorial tax system, which calls for taxing only those earnings that occur inside the United States. Under the current U.S. tax system, corporations are taxed for what they earn domestically and abroad unless they reinvest those revenues overseas. Many tech groups have joined with other business interests in pushing for a territorial tax system along with a reduction in corporate tax rates. They argue that allowing companies to bring back earnings that have been parked offshore to avoid what they describe as "double taxation" will allow them to create jobs in the United States. They say it would make the United States more competitive against many other countries that have adopted a territorial tax system. They also note that Obama's assertion that such a system would lead to the creation of 800,000 jobs abroad is based on a flawed study that did not measure the impact of tax reform on U.S. job creation.
benton.org/node/137800 | National Journal
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NO ROMNEY INTERVIEWS?
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: James Hohmann]
The Romney campaign is not committing to granting any network interviews in the final two weeks of the campaign. Senior Romney spokesperson Kevin Madden said, “Look, one of the great things about the debates were we got a chance to talk directly to the American people about the issues that they care about. Over the next 14 days, Gov. Romney is looking forward to meeting with as many voters in these critical swing states and delivering them his closing argument about why he would be a better president. I don’t have anything for you on scheduling yet, but I’ll let you know as we update it.”
benton.org/node/137797 | Politico
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OBAMA MARKETING
[SOURCE: American Public Media, AUTHOR: Dan Gorenstein]
The Obama campaign launched a massive media blitz -- targeted mostly at swing states -- to spell out the president’s plans for the next four years if he’s re-elected. The strategy includes a full-color, 20-page booklet. And that got us wondering: why spend money on a booklet when you can post the contents online at a fraction of the cost? This ad campaign is big, radio spots, direct mailers, T.V. commercials. And then there’s the booklet -- all 3.5 million copies of it. A typical publishing run is normally in the hundred-thousands. Sasha Strauss, with the branding company Innovation Protocol, says think of the booklet like free keychains you’d get at a convention. Even if it never gets read, the booklet serves as a physical reminder for people.
benton.org/node/137811 | American Public Media
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CAMPAIGNS AND BIG DATA
[SOURCE: American Public Media, AUTHOR: Hari Sreenivasan]
Before the debates, before the rallies and the speeches and the millions of dollars in political ads, the hunt for voters begins at places like Aristotle Inc., one of the most powerful political data-mining firms in the country. It's got two-inch steel doors, security cameras and a biometric censor. Democrats and Republicans have been buying voter data from Aristotle since Ronald Reagan ran for president. And this election they're buying more than ever. John Phillips is the CEO. He says elections are like one-day sales. "You've got to get all of the shoppers to the store there on one day and it's hard to argue that balloons and emery boards are an effective way to get people to vote," he says. What's effective, Phillips says, is when a candidate can make every political message feel like a personal conversation. And to do that you need to know as much about the person you're talking to as possible.
benton.org/node/137810 | American Public Media
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TIGHTER RULES FOR ATTACK ADS?
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jennifer Steinhauer, Jonathan Weisman]
An onslaught of negative political advertisements in Congressional races has left many incumbents, including some Republicans long opposed to restrictions on campaign spending, concluding that legislative measures may be in order to curtail the power of the outside groups behind most of the attacks. While Democrats have long denounced a 2010 Supreme Court decision that opened the gates on unlimited spending on advertisements, some Republicans are now growing more disenchanted with the system that has allowed the barrage of ads, often by shadowy groups, and the effects it has had on what they see as a sullen and disenchanted electorate.
benton.org/node/137830 | New York Times
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CLAIMING MEDIA BIAS
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Joel Brinkley]
[Commentary] Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are eagerly attacking the media, portraying reporters as hopelessly biased against them. The truth is, Ryan has a valid point. Most members of the American media do hold a generally liberal point of view toward public affairs. In fact a UCLA study a few years ago found that “of the 20 major media outlets studied, 18 scored left of center.” That said, I spent more than 30 years working as a reporter and editor in several American newsrooms, including 23 years with the supposedly left-leaning New York Times. Never once during all of that time did any editor ever approach me or any other reporter I knew and request a partisan change to a story. The only instruction of that sort editors do offer is to make sure a story is not improperly tilted in one direction or another and therefore unbalanced or unfair.
[Brinkley, a professor of journalism at Stanford University, is a Pulitzer-Prize winning former correspondent for The New York Times]
benton.org/node/137829 | Christian Science Monitor, The
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
REP CANTOR ATTACKS NETWORK NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) cited network neutrality regulations as evidence of what he called President Obama's disregard for the legislative process in a report, titled the "Imperial Presidency," which claims that President Barack Obama has eroded the rule of law by imposing regulations without congressional authorization. "When there is a breakdown in the rule of law, increased uncertainty leads to reduced investment and less growth," Rep Cantor wrote. In his report, Rep Cantor notes that then-chairman of the House Commerce Committee Henry Waxman (D-CA) introduced legislation to provide the Federal Communications Commission with the authority to set network neutrality rules, but the bill was never enacted. "Despite the fact that the legislation was not enacted, the FCC proceeded anyway with new net neutrality rules," Rep Cantor wrote in his report. "Businesses negatively impacted by these new regulations have been forced to go to court once again to defend against regulations that the agency has no authority to issue." He noted that in April, the House passed a resolution to repeal the FCC's order. Rep Cantor said the resolution would overturn "controversial internet rules that stifle small business growth and investment in order to promote freedom and innovation." The measure was defeated in the Senate on a party-line vote.
benton.org/node/137774 | Hill, The | read the report
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
CELLPHONE WARS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Steven Davidoff]
[Commentary] If you are wondering who will be your cellphone provider next year, so are the cellphone companies. Maneuvers by American cellphone providers to acquire one another are threatening to erupt into all-out war. And the question is not only which ones will survive, but whether the survivors will be ruined by the prey they are rushing to swallow, leaving consumers by the wayside. The rush to complete deals is an investment banker’s dream. But the hunt may lead these companies to not only overpay but acquire companies that are underperforming or otherwise don’t fit well. Then they have to find a way to run them profitably. And it may be that it is not being large that is crucial to winning in this game, but technical innovation. That is what Apple found out to great success. So far in the cellphone wars, these other considerations appear meaningless. For consumers, this means that there is likely to be less choice as wireless carriers disappear. And whether service will improve or large carriers will simply occupy more space is unknown. Regulators, meanwhile, are likely to stand aside from these smaller deals, instead buying the argument that AT&T and Verizon need a bigger third competitor to stand up to it. It remains to be seen if that is true, but in the heat of the moment, cellphone executives believe there is no choice but to acquire one another. And in these wars, it is all about making a deal. Consumer concerns are secondary.
[Steven M. Davidoff is a professor at the Michael E. Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University]
benton.org/node/137832 | New York Times
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BANDWIDTH BREAKTHROUGH
[SOURCE: Technology Review, AUTHOR: David Talbot]
Academic researchers have improved wireless bandwidth by an order of magnitude -- not by adding base stations, tapping more spectrum, or cranking up transmitter wattage, but by using algebra to banish the network-clogging task of resending dropped packets. By providing new ways for mobile devices to solve for missing data, the technology not only eliminates this wasteful process but also can seamlessly weave data streams from Wi-Fi and LTE -- a leap forward from other approaches that toggle back and forth. "Any IP network will benefit from this technology," says Sheau Ng, vice president for research and development at NBC Universal. Several companies have licensed the underlying technology in recent months, but the details are subject to nondisclosure agreements, says Muriel Medard, a professor at MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics and a leader in the effort. Elements of the technology were developed by researchers at MIT, the University of Porto in Portugal, Harvard University, Caltech, and Technical University of Munich. The licensing is being done through an MIT/Caltech startup called Code-On Technologies.
benton.org/node/137766 | Technology Review
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JOURNALISM
FOX VS AP
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Erik Wemple]
Viewers of Fox News may well get the sense that the cable-news outlet doesn’t like the Associated Press. Earlier this month, for instance, Fox eminence Bill O’Reilly complained about the AP after one of its photographers snapped a controversial photo of Mitt Romney crouching in front of a child with a gaping expression on her face. The photo, argued O’Reilly, wasn’t just an aberrational lapse in judgment by the AP: “The AP is one of the largest newswire services in the world. And it’s biased against Mitt Romney. I think that’s true, beyond a reasonable doubt.”
benton.org/node/137778 | Washington Post
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LOBBYING
TECH FIRMS AND THE CONVENTIONS
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
AT&T, Cisco and Microsoft led a pack of tech and telecom companies that showered the Democratic and Republican national conventions with funds and technology this year, according to new tallies filed with the Federal Election Commission. As those tech titans set up display booths, threw lavish parties, hosted leading regulators and wooed new delegates, many companies also opened their checkbooks to the host committees in Tampa and Charlotte or contributed in-kind by donating their devices, support or other services. In the end, tech and telecom companies accounted for just a fraction of roughly $55 million raised by the Republicans for the convention in Tampa, according to FEC documents. By contrast, Democrats raked in about $24.1 million — and could have used more — but the party initially resisted corporate contributions. It also received money through an outside fund, called New American City. And that group pulled in almost $20 million, new records show. At both events, tech companies played an increasingly visible role — as their expense reports demonstrate.
benton.org/node/137827 | Politico
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
These headlines presented in partnership with:
OECD REPORT
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
The internet is a pretty communist institution: when you sent a packet over the web, it may go through a dozen different networks, but in most cases no money changes hands. Somebody at each connection point has simply given their okay to exchange the traffic with your ISP or any one of the other links in the chain. Kind of like when you spot your friends a beer knowing they’ll cover your drink in the next round. And that’s how 99.5 percent of the interconnections take place between global networks work. According to a study from the OECD covering peering arrangements between providers of bandwidth around the world, most interconnections take place “on a handshake basis, with no written contract and the exchange of data happening with no money changing hands.” This new OECD report notes that the benefits of this approach to peering have brought prices for data down to 100,000 times less than that of a voice minute. Thanks to a survey of 4,300 networks, representing 140,000 direct exchanges of traffic on the internet, the study offers up evidence that less regulation on the internet is a good thing, even if it doesn’t seem initially to protect the consumer interest.
benton.org/node/137769 | GigaOm | OECD
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USE OF THE INTERNET FOR TERRORIST PURPOSES
[SOURCE: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, AUTHOR: Press release]
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime published a report to provide practical guidance to Member States for more effective investigation and prosecution of terrorist cases involving the use of the Internet. Through real examples of legal cases, the publication explores Member States' legislation dealing with the terrorist use of the Internet and demonstrates the difficulties faced by Member States in criminalizing and prosecuting such acts. It further provides guidance on current legal frameworks and practice at the national and international levels relating to the criminalization, investigation and prosecution of terrorist cases involving the Internet. The publication emphasizes the need for enhancement of cooperation between criminal justice systems and the private sector; as well as international cooperation particularly where the preservation and retention of internet-related data takes place in several jurisdictions.
benton.org/node/137762 | United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime | read the report
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MICROSOFT COMPLAINT
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
The European Union's executive arm formally accused Microsoft of failing to comply with a binding agreement to give customers a choice among Internet browsers. In 2009, the European Commission made the creation of a "browser choice screen" legally binding. But in July, the Commission said the screen had not been displayed on many computers between February 2009 and July 2012, and millions of users may have been affected during that period. At the time, Microsoft said that a technical error was responsible.
benton.org/node/137826 | Associated Press
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SAUDI CYBERATTACK
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nicole Perlroth]
A person with privileged access to the Saudi state-owned oil company’s computers, unleashed a computer virus to initiate what is regarded as among the most destructive acts of computer sabotage on a company to date. The virus erased data on three-quarters of Aramco’s corporate PCs — documents, spreadsheets, e-mails, files — replacing all of it with an image of a burning American flag. United States intelligence officials say the attack’s real perpetrator was Iran, although they offered no specific evidence to support that claim. But the secretary of defense, Leon E. Panetta, in a recent speech warning of the dangers of computer attacks, cited the Aramco sabotage as “a significant escalation of the cyber threat.” In the Aramco case, hackers who called themselves the “Cutting Sword of Justice” and claimed to be activists upset about Saudi policies in the Middle East took responsibility. But their online message and the burning flag were probably red herrings, say independent computer researchers who have looked at the virus’s code.
benton.org/node/137824 | New York Times
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SAMSUNG WINS PRELIMINARY ROUND OVER APPLE PATENT
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR:]
Samsung Electronics, which is battling Apple across the globe for dominance of the smartphone market, dealt the California company a setback by winning a preliminary invalidation of a key Apple patent, according to a court filing. The fight is related to Apple's war against Google, whose Android software powers many of Samsung's devices. Samsung said in a filing that examiners at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) had taken a second look at an Apple patent and decided that it should not have been granted. The patent allows a user with a touch screen to bounce back to the image on the screen if the user goes beyond the edge.
benton.org/node/137794 | Reuters
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ENCOURAGING GROWTH IN ENTERPRISE MOBILITY IN BRAZIL, CHINA AND INDIA
[SOURCE: cellular-news, AUTHOR:]
A growing worldwide mobile worker population creates opportunities for providing mobile solutions across geographic regions, vertical markets, and mobile worker types, according to Strategy Analytics, who examined more than 750 business respondents in Brazil, China and India. According to the Strategy Analytics report, investments in wireless services and mobile devices are very promising. "Companies in emerging markets are facing increasingly mobile workforces with between 70-80 percent of workers spending at least some portion of their time working out of the office. These companies are also investing in mobile devices that will enable the growing numbers of mobile workers to interact with customers, employees, and other businesses in real time, anytime, and from any location. Brazil, China and India have vast numbers of SMBs that are willing to spend to better leverage the capabilities of new devices and solutions" said Andrew Brown, Director of Enterprise Research at Strategy Analytics.
benton.org/node/137790 | cellular-news
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