Reporting

The Most Powerful People In Trump’s Washington: #28 Jake Tapper

Tapper left ABC for CNN and then supplanted the network anchors as the face of gravitas in a political world gone mad. Just don't get him started about Stephen Miller.

The Most Powerful People In Trump’s Washington: #27 Chris Ruddy

To the vexation of the White House staff, Trump spends many evenings gabbing on the phone with a kitchen cabinet of rich-guy pals—fellas like Ruddy, who now enjoy incredible access to a famously impressionable POTUS. What's that like? To find out, we gave Ruddy a ring. Just like Trump does.

GQ: Are you scared that one night on the phone, you might offer some throwaway line about North Korea and wake up to discover you've dictated foreign policy?

The Most Powerful People In Trump’s Washington: #25 Steve Bannon

Steve Bannon, nationalist revolutionary and former-White House Chief Strategist. True, he was rebuked by President Donald Trump and lost his control of Breitbart News. But in Trump World, exile is rarely permanent, and Bannon continues to work out of Breitbart's Capitol Hill HQ. There, he says, he's plotting a new entity to advance his right-wing populist revolution. The venture, Bannon tells us cryptically, will involve “weaponizing ideas.”

The Most Powerful People In Trump’s Washington: #24 Ajit Pai

The ambitious 45-year-old led the charge to repeal net neutrality, gutting regulations for Internet providers and giving new powers to big broadband companies. And in true Trumpian fashion, he made his case by releasing a viral Internet video in which he dressed up as Santa Claus, played with a fidget spinner, and generally trolled his critics. The deregulation move earned him the adoration of Internet companies (and reportedly a few death threats).

The Most Powerful People In Trump’s Washington: #23 Jeff Bezos

His first Washington remains the one out west, but Bezos is growing his presence in D.C. In addition to owning the Post and a thriving business in federal-government cloud computing, he's got a giant real estate project on his hands, having spent $23 million on the city's priciest house: a 27,000-square-foot colossus. Could it be a coincidence that three of the finalist sites for Amazon's new HQ are in the DC area?

The Most Powerful People In Trump’s Washington: #20 Susan Molinari

Back in the day, being Google's top lobbyist seemed like a pretty plum gig. After all, everybody in town wanted to be aligned with the tech darling. Now that Washington thinks Silicon Valley could use a bit of regulating—on everything from anti-trust issues to sex trafficking—the work has gotten trickier. This has only made Molinari, a former Republican member of Congress, more important in Washington. And not just on the policy points.

The Most Powerful People In Trump’s Washington: #19 Rachel Maddow

In this media age of push alerts and maniac tweets, Maddow's suddenly novel approach—wise, intricate monologues—feels somehow exhilarating. And essential.

The Most Powerful People In Trump’s Washington: #15 Maggie Haberman

President Donald Trump calls her “a third-rate reporter.” [It takes third-rate to know third-rate.] Her colleagues call her the best journalist on the White House beat—something that even President Trump seems to realize, since he grants her more interviews than just about anyone (Sean Hannity not included).

The Most Powerful People In Trump’s Washington: #7 Marty Baron

Running the resurgent Post, Baron today commands more journalistic firepower than any editor in town. And he uses it: upending Alabama's 2017 Senate race (uncovering Judge Roy Moore's troubling history with young women) and gobbling more than his share of Trump-era scoops.

The Most Powerful People In Trump’s Washington: #1 Hope Hicks

A 29-year-old, just three years removed from a gig with Ivanka Trump's fashion line (doing PR mostly but also a little modeling, too), can become the president's most trusted aide. With a boss who blew into Washington distrustful of the natives, Hicks is among the last of the original campaign staffers to remain by Trump's side. And in a West Wing where power is measured by proximity to the president, her presence there is a constant.

Gothamist Lives, Thanks to a Boost from Public Radio

After billionaire Joe Ricketts announced the shuttering of local news organizations Gothamist and DNAInfo last fall, readers across the country mourned the loss of the beloved sites, and worried about the vulnerability of journalism in the digital age. Now, a consortium of public radio stations, including WNYC in New York, WAMU in Washington DC, and KPCC in Southern California, has banded together to bring some of those sites back from the dead.The three stations are acquiring the assets of Gothamist and some of its associated sites, including LAist, DCist, and DNAInfo.

As Conservatives Gather, Anger at the News Media Runs Deep

The Conservative Political Action Conference is usually a moment to hammer out what divides the fractious conservative movement.

A Homeland Security Department advisory group wants to help emergency responders control the social media conversation

State and federal emergency responders should have plans ready to go to counter rumors, misinformation and fake news in the wake of disasters, according to a new white paper from a Homeland Security Department advisory group. Those plans should include actively correcting misinformation on Facebook and Twitter with hashtags such as #rumor and #mythbuster, according to the draft report, which the Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee approved for final publication Feb 22.

President Trump raises concerns about impact of violent movies: 'Maybe they have to put a rating system for that'

President Donald Trump warned about the influence of violence in movies while discussing school safety and mass shootings, suggesting it could be a contributing factor to recent mass shootings.  "We have to look at the internet, because a lot of bad things are happening to young kids and young minds, and their minds are being formed, and we have to do something about maybe what they're seeing and how they're seeing it. And also video games," President Trump said. "I'm hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people's thoughts.

A wave of new tech could give you more choice in broadband providers

SpaceX's worldwide network of thousands of orbiting devices that can beam Internet signals down to earth from low orbit, 5G data, and more efficient use of our airwaves -- all these could boost competition in your local broadband market in the coming years. If it pays off, the result may be faster Internet speeds, better service and lower prices.

Can Lobbying Be Automated?

Could the swamp really be automated? The question feels almost alien. At the moment, if “automation” and “Washington” are used in the same sentence, it’s usually to decry how behind the curve policymakers are on a transformative economic issue like industrial robots or self-driving cars. In its own workings, Washington seems almost a uniquely un-automatable place, a constitutionally erected edifice of institutions and people driven by irreplaceable experience and relationships. FiscalNote is demonstrating that’s not true. 

Twitter bars tactics used by 'bots' to spread false stories

Twitter will no longer allow people to post identical messages from multiple accounts, cracking down on a tactic that Russian agents and others have allegedly used to make tweets or topics go viral. Twitter will also not allow people to use software to simultaneously perform other actions such as liking or retweeting from multiple accounts. Twitter said it would give users until March 23 to comply before suspending accounts. It made an exception for bots of broad interest such as earthquake alerts.

Everyone says they'll be first with 5G

When it comes to the four major carriers, everyone says they are going to be first with 5G. It's always a race to be first with a new generation of technology (and to claim being first, which isn't always the same thing.) The stakes are extra high — both within the U.S. and on the global stage, with China, Korea, Japan and others all looking to be ahead of the game. Expect even more noise (and therefore more confusion) when the cellphone industry's big conference, Mobile World Congress, starts Feb. 26 in Barcelona, Spain.

President Trump: Broadband Buildout Situation 'Intolerable'

President Donald Trump took issue with the speed of broadband buildouts to rural American and to anchor institutions, calling it an "intolerable" situation, though suggesting as with many other things that it was a problem he had inherited. In the President's Economic Report to the Congress released Feb 21, he suggested the broadband ball had been dropped on prior watches. "President Clinton promised to connect 'every classroom, every library, and every hospital in America,' to the Internet by 2000," he wrote. "Decades later, 39% of rural Americans still lack high-speed broadband.

Sinclair Submits Remade Tribune Deal to FCC

Sinclair has submitted its new proposal to purchase Tribune stations, taking into account the deregulatory media ownership changes the Federal Communications Commission made in December 2018 to allow for more local station ownership, including allowing smaller-market duopolies and the ownership of more than one top station in a market in some circumstances.  The plan includes divestitures of WGN-TV Chicago (IL) and WPIX-TV New York, and KSWB-TV San Diego (CA) to come under the FCC's 39 percent ownership cap. Sinclair does not own stations in either New York or Chicago.

The Father Of The Internet Sees His Invention Reflected Back Through A 'Black Mirror'

In 1984, two men were thinking a lot about the Internet. One of them invented it. The other is an artist who would see its impact on society with uncanny prescience.First is the man often called "the father of the Internet," Vint Cerf.

Conservatives say they've lost thousands of followers on Twitter

Conservative Twitter users are speaking out about a loss in followers after Twitter reportedly suspended thousands of accounts. Twitter has yet to announce the purge, but there is speculation that the action was part of the social media giant's effort to get rid of suspected Russian bots. Conservatives say they have been targeted in the purge. Some users are also claiming they were locked out of their accounts. By the morning of Feb 21, the hashtag "#TwitterLockOut" was trending on Twitter.

Congressional Democratic leadership Want to Boost FBI Budget to Fight Russia's Election Interference

Congressional Democratic leadership wants to boost the FBI's budget in March's government funding bill to help fight Russian interference in the 2018 midterm elections. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), as well as top Democrats on the House and Senate Appropriations committees, sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) urging them to support the increase. They are asking for a $300 million increase in the FBI's budget to help target and counteract the influence of Russian and o