BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2012
Two big events today: 1) 30th Annual Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture and Awards Breakfast and 2) First Responder Network Authority Board Meeting http://benton.org/calendar/2012-09-25/
AWARDS
Finding Your Voice - editorial
INTERNET/BROADBAND
State of Broadband 2012 - research
Freedom on the Net 2012 - research
Sen Lieberman pushes for mandatory standards in White House cyber order
Rep Lofgren to White House: Search, social networks should be exempt from cyber order [links to web]
Chicago unveils plan for free Wi-Fi, wider super-fast Internet [links to web]
How the U.S. is winning the race to next-gen Internet [links to web]
Sen Harry Reid raises stakes on Internet poker gamble [links to web]
Donuts Inc.’s major play for new Web domain names raises fears of fraud
HEALTH
FCC Task Force Goal: Use Of mHealth Should Be Routine Medical Best Practice Within 5 Years - press release
Medicare Bills Rise as Records Turn Electronic
JOURNALISM
Is News Corp. Failing Science? - research
Why The New York Times Story 'Power, Pollution, And The Internet' Is A Sloppy Failure - analysis [links to web]
No, an Internet tax won’t save journalism – or newspapers - analysis [links to web]
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
Local News Leaves Americans in the Dark About Big-Money Politics - op-ed
Ads Slice Up Swing States With Growing Precision [links to web]
Campaigns to focus on China intellectual property theft [links to web]
TELEVISION/RADIO
FCC to Back Away From a Majority of Its Indecency Complaints
Fox says it is Fit to be a FCC Licensee
Court Won't Block FCC Viewability Rule Decision [links to web]
Lower-Income Viewing Offers Distinct Ad Opportunities
TiVo settles lawsuit against Verizon for $250.4 million [links to web]
Verizon to pay more than $260 million in ActiveVideo suit [links to web]
Cablevision Backs Broadcasters in Aereo Challenge [links to web]
Nielsen: There Is Room For Rivals' Data [links to web]
TV Remains Decision Driver For Purchases [links to web]
PRIVACY
Five Pilot Projects Receive Grants to Promote Online Security and Privacy - press release [links to web]
Advocacy Group Urges Court To Reject Google's 'Miniscule' $22.5M Privacy Settlement [links to web]
CONTENT
Everything You Need to Know About Why Apple's Maps Problem Isn't Going Away Soon [links to web]
Frustrated with poor mobile sales, publishers blame ad agencies [links to web]
The Social Era Is More Than Social Media [links to web]
Sen Harry Reid raises stakes on Internet poker gamble [links to web]
Donuts Inc.’s major play for new Web domain names raises fears of fraud
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Only 31% of domestic flights have Wi-Fi, study finds [links to web]
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Consumer groups seek veto of Internet phone service measure
FCC Commissioner Clyburn pushes FCC to cut prison phone rates [links to web]
LABOR
Chicago tech firms commit to creating 2,000 jobs [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
New York Times closes on $300 million sale of About Group [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Happy Birthday, We The People! - press release [links to web]
The White House's We The People Petition Website: First Year Report Card - op-ed
More than 50 members of Congress just say no to Twitter’s 140 characters [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
These headlines presented in partnership with:
Iran readies domestic Internet system, blocks Google
EU Antitrust Regulator 'Worried' About Uptick in Patent Cases [links to web]
New Zealand intelligence illegally spied on Kim Dotcom
Foxconn’s supply chain of lost souls
GOP backer Adelson accused of commandeering Israel's media market
Vietnam Convicts 3 Bloggers Over Posts [links to web]
AWARDS
FINDING YOUR VOICE
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Charles Benton]
[Commentary] Prepared remarks for 30th Annual Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Award. Everett Parker is a role model for us all. That is why for my comments today I called several old friends to ask how he had inspired them. Let’s begin with Andy Schwartzman, who started as a young assistant to Earl K. (Dick) Moore, Everett’s lawyer on the WLBT case. Andy’s three insights from Everett were:
The work has to be driven by an ethic.
You need patience; it takes a while to accomplish things.
Don’t be afraid of difficult challenges.
http://benton.org/node/135097
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
STATE OF BROADBAND 2012
[SOURCE: International Telecommunications Union, AUTHOR: ]
This Report summarizes the various policy options open to governments and policy-makers to roll out the deployment of broadband networks and services and to position their country for future competitiveness in the growing digital economy. Broadband networks and services are more than simple infrastructure – they represent a set of transformative technologies that promise to change the way we communicate, work, play and do business. It is essential that every country takes broadband policy into account to shape its future social and economic development and prosperity, emphasizing both the supply and demand sides of the market. Further, it is crucial to adequately evaluate the potential alternatives to be implemented in order to encourage private sector investment. A “one size fits all” policy to broadband roll-out could have negative implications for the ICT market. Finally, a detailed cost-benefit approach should be adopted when evaluating different public policies and regulatory options to promote the growth and development of broadband in different countries around the world.
benton.org/node/135305 | International Telecommunications Union | B&C
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FREEDOM ON THE NET
[SOURCE: Freedom House, AUTHOR: ]
This report is the third in a series of comprehensive studies of internet freedom around the globe and covers developments in 47 countries that occurred between January 2011 and May 2012. Over 50 researchers, nearly all based in the countries they analyzed, contributed to the project by researching laws and practices relevant to the internet, testing the accessibility of select websites, and interviewing a wide range of sources. This year's findings indicate that restrictions on internet freedom in many countries have continued to grow, though the methods of control are slowly evolving, becoming more sophisticated and less visible. Brutal attacks against bloggers, politically motivated surveillance, proactive manipulation of web content, and restrictive laws regulating speech online are among the diverse threats to internet freedom emerging over the past two years. Nevertheless, several notable victories have also occurred as a result of greater activism by civil society, technology companies, and independent courts, illustrating that efforts to advance internet freedom can yield results.
Internet access in the United States remains open and fairly free compared with the rest of the world. Courts have consistently held that prohibitions against government regulation of speech apply to material published on the internet, but the government’s surveillance powers are cause for some concern. In early 2012, campaigns by civil society and technology companies helped to halt passage of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), which were criticized for their potentially negative effects on free speech.
benton.org/node/135303 | Freedom House
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LIEBERMAN URGES CYBERSECURITY ACTION
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Sen Joe Lieberman (I-CT) called on President Barack Obama to direct the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to identify security vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure and create voluntary cybersecurity standards for companies operating this infrastructure to follow. Sen Lieberman also argued that the president should give regulatory agencies the authority to adopt the cybersecurity standards developed by DHS as new mandates for companies to meet -- a move that would stoke the ire of business lobbying groups. The President should also use his authority to strengthen information sharing measures that would make it easier for government and industry to relay data to one another about cyberthreats, Sen Lieberman argued. However, he that "(e)xecutive action cannot make all the changes necessary to facilitate the type of information sharing we urgently need – only new statutory authorization will be sufficient."
benton.org/node/135298 | Hill, The | National Journal
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DONUTS FOR DOMAINS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Craig Timberg, James Ball]
A historic land rush is underway for vast new swaths of the Internet: Amazon has bid for control of all the Web addresses that end with “.book.” Google wants “.buy.” Allstate wants “.carinsurance.” But the single most aggressive bidder for lucrative new Web domains is a little-known investment group with an intriguing name: Donuts Inc. Its $57 million play for 307 new domains — more than Google, Amazon and Allstate combined — has prompted alarm among industry groups and Internet watchdogs. They warn that Donuts has close ties to a company with a well-documented history of providing services to spammers and other perpetrators of Internet abuses. Should Donuts come to control hundreds of new domains, including “.doctor,” “.financial” and “.school,” consumers could see a spike in online misbehavior, these critics warn.
benton.org/node/135334 | Washington Post
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HEALTH
FCC BACKS MOBILE HEALTH RECOMMENDATIONS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Communications Commission plans to act on recommendations from a new mHealth Task Force report unveiled at an event hosted at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). Chairman Genachowski announced that the FCC would collaborate with its federal partners and the private sector to meet the mHealth Task Force’s goal that mHealth technology be a routine medical best practice within five years. Chairman Genachowski also announced the establishment of a new position to coordinate the agency's health care efforts across the government.
At the event, the mHealth Task Force released its report outlining recommendations to the FCC, other federal agencies, and to industry, to accelerate the adoption of mHealth technologies for improved health outcomes and reduced costs across the health care system.
The mHealth Task Force recommendations are:
Goal 1: FCC should continue to play a leadership role in advancing mobile health adoption.
Goal 2: Federal agencies should increase collaboration to promote innovation, protect patient safety, and avoid regulatory duplication.
Goal 3: The FCC should build on existing programs and link programs where possible in order to expand broadband access for healthcare.
Goal 4: The FCC should continue efforts to increase capacity, reliability, interoperability and RF safety of mHealth technologies.
Goal 5: Industry should support continued investment, innovation, and job creation in the growing mobile health sector
benton.org/node/135293 | Federal Communications Commission | ITIF – see recommendations | FCC Chairman Genachowski | National Journal
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MEDICARE BILLS AND ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Reed Abelson, Julie Creswell, Griffin Palmer]
When the federal government began providing billions of dollars in incentives to push hospitals and physicians to use electronic medical and billing records, the goal was not only to improve efficiency and patient safety, but also to reduce health care costs. But, in reality, the move to electronic health records may be contributing to billions of dollars in higher costs for Medicare, private insurers and patients by making it easier for hospitals and physicians to bill more for their services, whether or not they provide additional care. Hospitals received $1 billion more in Medicare reimbursements in 2010 than they did five years earlier, at least in part by changing the billing codes they assign to patients in emergency rooms, according to a New York Times analysis of Medicare data from the American Hospital Directory. Regulators say physicians have changed the way they bill for office visits similarly, increasing their payments by billions of dollars as well. The most aggressive billing — by just 1,700 of the more than 440,000 doctors in the country — cost Medicare as much as $100 million in 2010 alone, federal regulators said in a recent report, noting that the largest share of those doctors specialized in family practice, internal medicine and emergency care.
benton.org/node/135283 | New York Times
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JOURNALISM
IS NEWS CORP FAILING SCIENCE?
[SOURCE: Union of Concerned Scientists, AUTHOR: Aaron Huertas, Dena Adler]
News Corporation is one of the world’s largest media companies. Under its Global Energy Initiative, the company has publicly committed to engaging its audiences on sustainability issues and the company publicly touts climate change initiatives among its successes. Despite News Corp.’s public commitment to environmental sustainability, a snapshot analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) finds that recent portrayals of climate science on Fox News Channel and in the Wall Street Journal’s opinion section are overwhelmingly misleading. UCS’s analysis finds that:
Over a recent six-month period, 93 percent of Fox News Channel’s representations of climate science were misleading (37 out of 40 instances).
Similarly, over the past year, 81 percent of the representations of climate science in the Wall Street Journal’s opinion section were misleading (39 out of 48 instances).
benton.org/node/135302 | Union of Concerned Scientists
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
LOCAL NEWS AND POLITICAL ADS
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Timothy Karr]
[Commentary] The political ad invasion is upon us. For the local stations that air these ads, it's a political goldmine. But what's a cash windfall for stations has become a nuisance for tens of millions of viewers who will have to endure thousands more political ads before Election Day arrives. But what obligations have the stations that air these ads? Are they offering any local news coverage to debunk the lies in ads? Are they exposing the deep-pocketed interests behind the groups -- some with deceptively friendly names like Americans for Prosperity and the Coalition of American Values -- that buy time? To find out, Free Press took a deeper look at local news coverage in five cities -- Charlotte, Cleveland, Las Vegas, Milwaukee and Tampa -- where ad spending has been the most intense. We inspected the political files of stations in these markets and pored over hundreds of hours of local news transcripts. In all five of these markets, we found that local newscasts ignored the political ads broadcast on their stations. In other words, they provided no local stories exposing the special interests behind these ads; only one station among the 20 surveyed devoted a couple minutes to investigating whether these ads told viewers the truth. When you stack that up against the thousands of political ads they aired, this shortfall in reporting is appalling.
benton.org/node/135289 | Huffington Post, The | B&C
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TELEVISION/RADIO
FCC BACKS AWAY FROM INDECENCY
[SOURCE: The Wrap, AUTHOR: Doug Halonen]
The Federal Communications Commission is scaling back -- in a major way --its enforcement of indecency complaints. Chairman Julius Genachowski has ordered agency staffers to refocus enforcement efforts to target only the most explicit of the more than 1.5 million pending complaints. The decision was in response to the Department of Justice’s dropping Friday of a lawsuit complaining of indecency in a 2003 Fox broadcast of its reality show “Married by America,” which included scenes featuring suggested -- but pixilated -- nudity.
benton.org/node/135284 | Wrap, The
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FOX SAYS IT IS FIT
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Jack Messmer]
News Corporation’s Fox Television Stations told the Federal Communications Commission that a petition to strip the company of its licenses for WTTG and WDCA Washington (DC) and WUTB Baltimore (MD) is fatally flawed. The company wants the FCC to toss out the petition from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) and grant the license renewals. The response from Fox claims that the CREW petition is nothing more than a compilation of newspaper articles and documents compiled by authorities in the UK relating to the phone hacking investigation of News Corp. newspapers, which is ongoing. Lacking, Fox says, is any affidavit alleging facts about which CREW or any of its members has any personal knowledge. “The Petition does not contain allegations that any of the Stations has failed to serve the public interest – indeed it makes no reference whatsoever to the Stations’ performances – nor does the Petitioner claim that Fox or any of the Stations has violated a single FCC rule or regulation,” the filing states. Fox insists that it “does not mean to diminish the gravity” of the UK allegations, but notes that no entity owned by News Corp. has yet been found guilty of engaging in any misconduct. And it insists that the allegations against the UK newspapers would not meet the legal standard for the FCC to hold a different subsidiary of News Corp., Fox Television Stations, responsible for any wrongdoing.
benton.org/node/135294 | TVNewsCheck
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LOW-INCOME TV VIEWING
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wayne Friedman]
Lower-income TV homes continue to watch more TV that other income groups -- and those households are expected to climb. Nielsen says over the next 10 years, lower-income homes are expected to rise 17% -- with overall U.S. home growth climbing 8%. Nielsen says these lower-income homes can be opportunities for retailers and manufacturers. The latest measure shows that lower-income TV homes -- those making under $30,000 watch almost 193 hours of TV per month; those making $30,000 to $100,000 watch about 149 hours; with those homes making over $100,000 tuning in 112 hours.
benton.org/node/135270 | MediaPost
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TELECOMMUNICATIONS
CALIFORNIA INTERNET PHONE BILL
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Marc Lifsher]
Consumer groups are trying to kill legislation that they say may lead to the elimination of most telephone regulation in California. Last month, the Legislature overwhelmingly approved a bill to eliminate all oversight of Internet phone service in California. Proponents, led by Silicon Valley companies, assured lawmakers that it would not affect old-fashioned, copper-wire telephone service still regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission. Now the consumer groups are urging Gov. Jerry Brown to veto the bill, saying the nation's big phone companies, including AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., are pressuring Washington to phase out the copper-wire-and-switches "legacy" phone service altogether.
benton.org/node/135333 | Los Angeles Times
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
WE THE PEOPLE REPORT CARD
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: JH Snider]
[Commentary] A year after the White House launched its We the People petition website, it's time for a report card. Fortunately, the White House has released a wealth of statistics touting the success of We the People, so we can make some educated guesses. A key finding is how remarkably difficult it is to create a petition with enough signatures to generate a White House response. The odds of creating a successful petition have dropped to one in a thousand. As of September 5, 2012, there were only 16 active petitions. Two factors help explain the dropoff. First, public officials don't like to explain their political positions clearly. As the saying goes, "ambiguity is the mother's milk of politics." Second, citizens don't like to waste their time. Although We the People was supposed to help unorganized interest groups find a voice, its 30 day signing limit and hoarding of names may have achieved the opposite result. Only well-organized interest groups could easily reach the 25,000 petition threshold within the allowed 30 days (and they presumably have other, more effective ways to get their voices heard). Meanwhile, unorganized interest groups may waste a huge amount of resources because the White House retains exclusive control of the names of those who sign a petition.
The government should provide two petition services. First, it should develop a system for verified petition signing. Politically, this is an extremely hard problem, analogous to the problem of developing a trusted online voting system. But if Estonia can solve the problem, the United States can, too. Second, it should develop a standardized data system, analogous to its election markup language (EML), to facilitate the exchange of petition data.
benton.org/node/135273 | Huffington Post, The
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
These headlines presented in partnership with:
IRAN READIES INTERNET SYSTEM
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Zahra Hosseinian, Yeganeh Torbati]
Iran plans to switch its citizens onto a domestic Internet network in what officials say is a bid to improve cybersecurity but which many Iranians fear is the latest way to control their access to the web. The announcement, made by a government deputy minister, came as state television announced Google's search engine and its e-mail service would be blocked "within a few hours." The Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) said the Google ban was connected to the anti-Islamic film posted on the company's YouTube site which has caused outrage throughout the Muslim world. There was no official confirmation.
benton.org/node/135257 | Reuters
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NEW ZEALAND INTELLIGENCE ILLEGALLY SPIED ON KIM DOTCOM
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Sean Gallagher]
New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key announced on September 24 that he has requested an inquiry into illegal spying on Kim Dotcom and other employees of Megaupload by New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau, the country's counterpart to the US National Security Agency. The revelation is just the latest in a series of exposed missteps by New Zealand authorities in their eagerness to assist the US government in apprehending Dotcom and his colleagues, and throws even more uncertainty on the ongoing efforts by the New Zealand and US governments to extradite Dotcom to the US for prosecution. According to a government statement, Key was informed by GCSB Director Ian Fletcher on September 17 that the GCSB had "acted unlawfully" while assisting New Zealand's police in locating Kim Dotcom and the other three suspects for arrest. "The Bureau had acquired communications in some instances without statutory authority," the Prime Minister's office said in its statement.
benton.org/node/135254 | Ars Technica
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FOXCONN
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Kathrin Hille]
As hundreds of workers spill out of the canteen after lunch, the girls’ bright pink uniform jumpers stand out against the grey sky, the hulking grey factory buildings and the thick grey coal dust under their feet. They are back at work at Foxconn Technology Group’s plant in Taiyuan, and some of them wonder how nothing has changed after it was rocked by one of China’s worst incidents of labor unrest in years. People’s Armed Police continued patrolling the Foxconn campus in groups of 12, and the parking lot of mdo – an upmarket shopping mall across the street from the south-west corner of the factory campus – was blocked off and filled with more than 30 lorries, 15 vans and several buses carrying PAP in a show of force. Forty were hospitalized and several arrested after a riot of more than 2,000 on Sunday night, according to Foxconn. The company, also known under the name of Hon Hai Precision, its Taiwan-listed flagship, makes many of the world’s electronics gadgets, including most of Apple’s iPhones and iPads, in what may well be the world’s biggest manufacturing empire.
benton.org/node/135321 | Financial Times | Associated Press
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ADELSON IN ISREAL
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Joshua Mitnick]
Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson grabbed the spotlight in the US earlier this year for making multi-million dollar campaign contributions to Republican presidential candidates on the bet that their policies would better jibe with those of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu than with President Obama's. In Israel, Adelson is better known as the force behind the five-year-old free newspaper, "Yisrael Hayom" (Israel Today), which is seen by some as the Israeli print equivalent of Fox News. Touting Israeli patriotism, it is among the most widely read newspapers in the country and has a reputation for its fiercely loyal coverage of Netanyahu – and now Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Adelson rejects accusations of bias, insisting in a previous interview that his paper is a "fair and balanced" alternative to other newspapers more critical of the government and that he is breaking rival newspaper Yediot Ahranot's monopoly on the market. Many Israelis nonetheless see the paper as a political vehicle to support the prime minster, and now, American Republican politicians. And with other newspapers floundering financially while Adelson puts his substantial wealth behind Yisrael Hayom, some worry that he is squeezing other political ideologies out of the market.
benton.org/node/135320 | Christian Science Monitor, The
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