June 12, 2013 (More on NSA Surveillance)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2013
How timely – the Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board meets today. Mobile and Satellite Television are also on the agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2013-06-12/
GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS
Head-in-the-sand Congress - op-ed
ACLU Files Lawsuit Seeking to Stop the Collection of Domestic Phone Logs
Lawsuit filed over NSA phone spying program
Senators push bill to declassify secret FISA surveillance rulings
Sen. Wyden presses Clapper for ‘straight answers’ on NSA
NSA Disclosures Put Awkward Light on Previous Denials
Advocacy groups, companies urge Congress to rein in NSA spying [links to web]
Majority Views NSA Phone Tracking as Acceptable Anti-terror Tactic - research
Petition launches to pardon source of NSA leak, Edward Snowden
Debate on Secret Data Looks Unlikely, Partly Due to Secrecy
Government’s Data Grabs are Unlikely to Prompt Legislative Action
A Real Debate on Surveillance - NY Times editorial [links to web]
Accused of Scheming With U.S., Britain Says It Follows the Law in Gathering Intelligence
US Surveillance Leak in Criminal, Congressional Probes
US Preparing Charges Against Leaker of Data
PRISM data transfers done conservatively
Tech Companies Tread Lightly in Statements on U.S. Spying
Silicon Valley is More Involved in National Security Than You Think
Surveillance: A Threat to Democracy - editorial [links to web]
Surveillance: Snowden Doesn’t Rise to Traitor - editorial [links to web]
NSA Prism surveillance program sullies digital relationships - analysis
What's the problem with PRISM? - analysis
Big data NSA spying is not even an effective strategy - analysis
This is, hands down, the scariest part of the NSA revelations - analysis
Obama’s Surveillance State - op-ed
Edward Snowden: saving us from the United Stasi of America - Daniel Ellsberg op-ed
US Relies on Spies for Hire to Sift Deluge of Intelligence [links to web]
Cryptic Overtures and a Clandestine Meeting Gave Birth to a Blockbuster Story [links to web]
Rep Hoyer: No comparison between Obama, Bush secret surveillance [links to web]
Domestic Surveillance Could Create a Divide in the 2016 Primaries [links to web]
Google Wants Permission to Disclose How Many National Security Requests It Gets
Big Brother Really Is Watching Us - Sen Rand Paul op-ed [links to web]
Big Brother isn’t watching you - AEI’s Thiessen op-ed [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
Google Officially Buys Waze in a $1 Billion-Plus Deal, Will Keep It Independent
News Corp. shareholders approve company split
Tribune Papers' Sale Clouded by Digital Assets [links to web]
Pandora Buys FM Station, Aiming to Lower Royalty Rates [links to web]
JOURNALISM
Murdoch's News Corp mulls FCPA deal with US Justice Department
Tribune Papers' Sale Clouded by Digital Assets [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
USDA Seeks Applications to Finance Rural Broadband in Remote Areas - press release
Here’s how cable will hit gigabit speeds and create a tricky business problem in the process [links to web]
Pivot Study: 13% of Millennials Are 'Broadband Only' Customers [links to web]
CenturyLink says a city rule is putting Seattle behind on broadband [links to web]
CYBERSECURITY
China's Cyber Stonewall - editorial
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
SoftBank Raises Its Bid for Sprint to $21.6 Billion
Accenture: Network Speed is Top Mobile Differentiator [links to web]
Tablet Ownership 2013 - research
Dish’s Ergen Keeps Rivals Guessing [links to web]
Hands-free texting still distracting for drivers [links to web]
CONTENT
Web Display Ads Often Not Visible
TELEVISION
Democrats call on Nickelodeon to stop airing junk food ads
Time Warner Cable's Britt says he supports smaller TV packages [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
FCC’s Clyburn Says Being First Female Chair 'Racheted Up Pressure'
Campbell Interviewed for Republican FCC Seat
ED’s former ed-tech chief discusses new role [links to web]
ACCESSIBILITY
VRS Overhaul to Improve Phone Service for Americans With Disabilities - press release [links to web]
COMPANY NEWS
Apple's Siri Boots Google for Bing as Search Engine [links to web]
Apple enters the streaming music game [links to web]
Google is the General Electric of the 21st century - analysis [links to web]
NCTA’s Powell Says Cable is Conduit To Future [links to web]
How Upworthy Used Emotional Data to Become the Fastest Growing Media Site of All Time [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Mexican Telecom Overhaul Becomes Law
Greece Shutting Down State Broadcaster to Cut Costs
GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS
HEAD-IN-THE-SAND CONGRESS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Doyle McManus]
[Commentary] In the end, we still have to rely on Congress to ensure that intelligence agencies don't overstep the law. That means we need to support them when they shoulder the sometimes unpopular burden of tougher oversight — but also call them to account if they develop selective amnesia when something goes wrong.
benton.org/node/153735 | Los Angeles Times
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ACLU LAWSUIT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Charlie Savage]
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the Obama Administration over its “dragnet” collection of logs of domestic phone calls, contending that the once-secret program is illegal and asking a judge to stop it and order the records purged. The lawsuit could set up an eventual Supreme Court test. It could also focus attention on this disclosure amid the larger heap of top secret surveillance matters. The program “gives the government a comprehensive record of our associations and public movements, revealing a wealth of detail about our familial, political, professional, religious and intimate associations,” the complaint says, adding that it “is likely to have a chilling effect on whistle-blowers and others who would otherwise contact” the ACLU for legal assistance.
benton.org/node/153731 | New York Times | Wall Street Journal
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NSA LAWSUIT
[SOURCE: ComputerWorld, AUTHOR: Jaikumar Vijayan]
A former federal prosecutor and the parents of a Navy SEAL member killed in action in Afghanistan have filed a lawsuit against President Barack Obama, Verizon, the National Security Agency (NSA), and others over the NSA domestic spying operation. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, charges the defendants of violating constitutionally protected privacy rights and rights against unreasonable search and seizure. The lawsuit seeks $3 billion in compensatory and actual damages from the government and a cessation of the NSA spying program. The three named plaintiffs in the lawsuit are, Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and a former prosecutor, and Charles and Mary Strange the parents of Michael Strange, a Navy SEAL who was killed when his helicopter was shot down by Taliban fighters.
benton.org/node/153693 | ComputerWorld
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BILL TO DECLASSIFY FISA RULINGS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Carlo Muñoz]
Eight senators introduced legislation that would require the Attorney General to declassify significant opinions made by courts operating under the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). If the bipartisan bill was law, it would have required the government to reveal its collection of Verizon phone records and the PRISM Internet data mining program. “Americans deserve to know how much information about their private communications the government believes it’s allowed to take under the law,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who is spearheading the effort alongside Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR). The effort has the backing of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) and is co-sponsored by Sens. Dean Heller (R-NV), Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Al Franken (D-MN), Jon Tester (D-MT) and Mike Lee (R-Utah).
The Senate's No. 2 Democrat said he did not believe the effort would get far. "I encourage this, though I think it is going to be ill-fated," said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL). "I just don't see a freight train coming down the track," in terms of getting the White House and Congress behind the Merkley-Wyden bill, Sen Durbin said. He argued that even if a bill got through the House and Senate, it is unlikely that President Barack Obama would accept it.
benton.org/node/153691 | Hill, The | The Guardian | The Hill – Durbin
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WYDEN WANTS ANSWERS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jonathan Easley]
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) called for public hearings to investigate the scope of the National Security Agency’s electronic surveillance of Americans, questioning if Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had provided “straight answers” to lawmakers about the programs. Sen Wyden pointed to Clapper’s testimony during a March 12 hearing, where Wyden asked if the NSA collects “any type of data at all on millions of Americans.” “No, sir,” Clapper responded. “There are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps collect [intelligence on Americans], but not wittingly.” The exchange put Clapper in a difficult position. Sen Wyden, a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had been briefed on the NSA program, but publicly led Clapper in a line of questioning that would either require him to disavow knowledge of the program, or to answer truthfully, breaking the law by revealing classified information. While Sen Wyden did not charge Clapper with lying before Congress, he repeatedly suggested that the intelligence director had not been forthcoming about the NSA’s secret programs.
benton.org/node/153688 | Hill, The
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PREVIOUS DENIALS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Scott Shane, Jonathan Weisman]
For years, intelligence officials have tried to debunk what they called a popular myth about the National Security Agency: that its electronic net routinely sweeps up information about millions of Americans. In speeches and Congressional testimony, they have suggested that the agency’s immense power is focused exclusively on terrorists and other foreign targets, and that it does not invade Americans’ privacy. But since the disclosures last week showing that the agency does indeed routinely collect data on the phone calls of millions of Americans, Obama administration officials have struggled to explain what now appear to have been misleading past statements. Much of the attention has been focused on testimony by James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, to the Senate in March that the NSA was not gathering data on millions of Americans. When lawmakers returned to the Capitol on June 11 for the first time since the NSA disclosures, however, the criticism was muted.
benton.org/node/153733 | New York Times
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MAJORITY VIEW AS ACCEPTABLE
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, AUTHOR: ]
A majority of Americans – 56% – say the National Security Agency’s (NSA) program tracking the telephone records of millions of Americans is an acceptable way for the government to investigate terrorism, though a substantial minority – 41% – say it is unacceptable. And while the public is more evenly divided over the government’s monitoring of email and other online activities to prevent possible terrorism, these views are largely unchanged since 2002, shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
benton.org/node/153662 | Pew Research center for the people and the Press
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PETITION TO PARDON SNOWDEN
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
A ”We the People” petition on the White House Web site is calling for the government to pardon Edward Snowden, who identified himself as the source of leaks detailing a National Security Administration program that receives consumer data taken from major technology firms. The petition, created June 9, has over 44,000 signatures and counting. 100,000 signatures are required to trigger a response from the White House.
benton.org/node/153660 | Washington Post | We The People
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DEBATE UNLIKELY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Scott Shane, Jonathan Weisman]
Edward J. Snowden said he had leaked secret documents about National Security Agency surveillance to spark a public debate about civil liberties. President Obama, while deploring the leak, endorsed the same goal of a vigorous public discussion of the “trade-offs” between national security and personal privacy. “I think it’s healthy for our democracy, “ he said of the prospect of re-examining surveillance policy. But the legal and political obstacles to such a debate, whether in Congress or more broadly, are formidable. They only begin with the facts that the programs at issue are highly classified and that Snowden is now a hunted man, potentially facing a prison sentence for disclosing the very secrets that started the discussion that President Obama welcomed. Steven Aftergood, who runs the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, said: “If President Obama really welcomed a debate, there are all kinds of things he could do in terms of declassification and disclosure to foster it. But he’s not doing any of them.” Nor is it clear that political pressure from either Congress or the public will be sufficient to prompt the administration to open the door wider on government surveillance.
benton.org/node/153658 | New York Times
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GOVERNMENT’S DATA GRABS ARE UNLIKELY TO PROMPT LEGISLATIVE ACTION
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Michael Catalini]
Despite the political and media furor surrounding the recent news about data collection by the National Security Agency, the appetite among some top lawmakers for undoing the legislation that allowed the sweeps is meager. The revelations that the government obtained millions of Verizon customers’ phone records, and that the NSA directly accessed information from top Internet service providers, prompted libertarian and liberal lawmakers alike to decry the news. But congressional leaders have been reticent to suggest legislative changes. It’s a signal, insiders say, not to expect Congress to roll back the laws that empowered the secret courts to authorize the programs. “I can’t imagine any legislative proposal to amend some of these programs will be passed by Congress,” said Jim Manley, a former aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).
benton.org/node/153656 | National Journal
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BRITAIN SAYS IT FOLLOWS THE LAW
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Stephen Castle]
Stung by allegations that it colluded with American intelligence agencies to collect data on its citizens, Britain’s government insisted that its secret services operate within the law, but did not give details of what rules apply to some requests for information from foreign powers. Despite the growing controversy over the issue, the British government has yet to confirm or deny reports that it had been given information from an American surveillance program called Prism, which is said to have collected Internet data on foreigners abroad from companies including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo and Skype. But in a statement to Parliament, Foreign Secretary William Hague rejected as “baseless” the suggestion that the intelligence-gathering facility, Government Communications Headquarters, known as G.C.H.Q., had used its partnership with the United States to secure information not legally available to it at home. Britain, he added, had “one of the strongest systems of checks and balances and democratic accountability for secret intelligence anywhere in the world.”
benton.org/node/153652 | New York Times
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CRIMINAL, CONGRESSIONAL PROBES
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Margaret Talev]
An ex-CIA worker’s exposure of a once-secret U.S. electronic surveillance program has spawned a criminal investigation and congressional questions about the ability of a low-level employee to breach national security. The Obama Administration, while refusing to say what it knows about Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old American and former technical assistant for the Central Intelligence Agency, said the case is being investigated. With Snowden having fled to Hong Kong, congressional leaders are demanding his indictment and extradition for what several lawmakers called treason. “There is, obviously, an investigation under way into this matter,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said, declining to comment further about Snowden, who provided detailed information about a wide-reaching National Security Agency Internet surveillance program to journalists and then revealed his identity voluntarily.
benton.org/node/153650 | Bloomberg
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US PREPARING CHARGES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael Schmidt, Eric Schmitt, Keith Bradsher]
As Justice Department officials began the process June 10 to charge Edward J. Snowden, a 29-year-old former C.I.A. computer technician, with disclosing classified information, he checked out of a hotel in Hong Kong where he had been holed up for several weeks, according to two American officials. It was not clear where he went. Whether Snowden remained in Hong Kong or fled to another country — like Iceland, where he has said he may seek asylum — the charges would strengthen the Justice Department’s hand if it tries to extradite him to the United States. One government typically must charge a suspect before another government will turn him over. The department’s investigation of Snowden will be overseen by the FBI’s Washington field office, which has considerable experience prosecuting such cases, according to one of the officials. Agents are trying to learn as much as they can about him and have tried to interview his family members. The Justice investigation into Mr. Snowden was one of at least two government inquiries. The National Security Agency began trying to identify and locate the leaker when The Guardian published its first revelations
benton.org/node/153648 | New York Times
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CONSERVATIVE DATA TRANSFERS
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Byron Acohido]
The disclosure of details about how marquee U.S. tech companies co-operated with PRISM, the clandestine national security program to ferret out terrorists, shows how methodically and conservatively the program is being carried out. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, Apple, AOL and Paltalk erected what the New York Times describes as "locked mailboxes" in which to place data on suspicious persons requested by the government under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. The Times' description, published Saturday, used unnamed sources. The tech companies have said they obeyed the law of the land while participating in the PRISM program. The specific data requests, as well as the data transfers, were blessed by a federal judge and vetted by corporate attorneys. And use of a highly secure digital storage location to make the data hand off is a tried-and-true methodology used on Wall Street for more than 20 years.
benton.org/node/153630 | USAToday
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TECH COMPANIES TREAD LIGHTLY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Ross Sorkin]
Someone’s not telling the whole truth. In the wake of the news leak that the National Security Agency is engaged in a wide-ranging surveillance program of Internet users through a system called Prism, the world’s biggest technology companies responded by unilaterally denying any involvement in the government’s spying apparatus. And yet President Barack Obama and the United States director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., have publicly confirmed the existence of the Prism system, without providing any details about it. Of course, the news — as well as the responses — raises doubts about who is telling the truth and about how extensive the spying program really may be. But perhaps just as important, the episode also raises questions about how publicly traded companies with hundreds of millions of consumers — companies that are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission — can, and should, react to news when pressed about involvement in confidential government programs.
benton.org/node/153644 | New York Times
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SILICON VALLEY IS MORE INVOLVED IN NATIONAL SECURITY THAN YOU THINK
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Michael Hirsh]
Some of America's biggest social media and tech companies have been denying in recent days that they were aware of the National Security Agency's recently-exposed "PRISM" and telephone monitoring programs. But these denials obscure a larger truth: The government's massive data collection and surveillance system was largely built not by professional spies or Washington bureaucrats but by Silicon Valley and private defense contractors. So says Michael V. Hayden, the retired Air Force general who as director of the NSA from 1999 to 2006 was a primary mover behind the agency's rebirth from Cold War dinosaur into a post-9/11 terror-detection leviathan with sometimes frightening technical and legal powers. After many false starts, that transformation was achieved largely by drafting private-sector companies that had far more technical know-how than did the NSA, and contracting with them to set up and administer the technical aspects of these surveillance programs, Hayden said. "There isn't a phone or computer at Fort Meade [NSA headquarters] that the government owns" today, he says.
benton.org/node/153625 | National Journal
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PROGRAM SULLIES DIGITAL RELATIONSHIPS
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Mike Cassidy]
[Commentary] In the wake of the revelations about the National Security Agency's practice of rifling through email and social media posts with the cooperation of big Silicon Valley companies, what I'm feeling is a loss of innocence. For years we've essentially invited companies such as Apple, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Skype and others into our homes. We've relied on them to exchange and store our most intimate thoughts. We've used them to search for answers to questions we weren't ready to share with anyone. The companies served as the repositories of our photo albums and the sound track of our lives. It's not a stretch to say that we would often start and end our days with them. Together the big Web companies, which knew us better than we knew ourselves, became a trusted aide, a helper, a reassuring voice when we were lost. They seemed almost like part of the family. Now I'm worried they'd just as soon give us up to the feds as help us diagnose that strange skin rash.
benton.org/node/153725 | San Jose Mercury News
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WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH PRISM?
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Matt Apuzzo]
When the federal government went looking for phone numbers tied to terrorists, it grabbed the records of just about everyone in America. Why every phone number? "Well, you have to start someplace," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told NBC News. That breadth, that willingness to sweep up enormous information on Americans with no ties to terrorists, is making it hard for the Obama Administration to tamp down controversy over a separate program, called PRISM, to monitor Internet traffic. In short, critics ask, if looking for terrorists means collecting every American's phone records, how can anyone believe the President when he says Americans aren't being monitored on the Internet? The law says the government must limit its surveillance to people "reasonably believed to be located outside the United States." But everything hinges words such as "targeting" and "collecting," which have unique meanings in the spy world.
benton.org/node/153640 | Associated Press
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IS BIG DATA SPYING EVEN EFFECTIVE?
[SOURCE: Fortune, AUTHOR: Francis Gouillart]
The Obama Administration thinks it can prevent terrorism by collecting and linking immense volumes of private phone call, credit card, and Internet data. Unfortunately, as the Administration trades privacy for intelligence insights, President Obama is exchanging a cherished American value for an unproved theory. The Obama Administration loves data. It argues that the president was reelected because of its enormous people database and use of polling and social media. And the Affordable Care Act is built in part on a belief that massive troves of electronic health records will pave the way for predictive algorithms that will prevent costly hospital readmissions, or identify medical practices that lead to better patient health. But the evidence for big data is scant at best. To date, large fields of data have generated meaningful insights at times, but not on the scale many have promised.
benton.org/node/153638 | Fortune
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SCARIEST PART
[SOURCE: Foreign Policy, AUTHOR: Shane Harris]
Forget PRISM, the National Security Agency's system to help extract data from Google, Facebook, and the like. The more frightening secret program unearthed by the NSA leaks is the gathering and storing of millions of phone records and phone-location information of U.S. citizens. According to current and former intelligence agency employees who have used the huge collection of metadata obtained from the country's largest telecom carriers, the information is widely available across the intelligence community from analysts' desktop computers. The data is used to connect known or suspected terrorists to people in the United States, and to help locate them. It has also been used in foreign criminal investigations and to assist military forces overseas. But the laws that govern the collection of this information and its use are not as clear. Nor are they as strong as those associated with PRISM, the system the NSA is using to collate information from the servers of America's tech giants.
benton.org/node/153636 | Foreign Policy
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SURVEILLANCE STATE
[SOURCE: Foreign Policy, AUTHOR: Suzanne Nossel]
[Commentary] It's official. We are living in a surveillance state. This week's revelations that wave after wave of Verizon call data, and an endless sea of emails and Facebook posts, are all being trawled by government dragnets are shocking but not really surprising. We've known for years that the government's intelligence machinery has invisible means of cultivating and harvesting personal data in service of a war against terror that has taken over not just America's foreign policy, but also our inboxes and homepages. Like the video footage of the backpack-laden Boston bombers melting into the crowd, this week's disclosures are just an in-your-face reminder that forms of privacy once taken for granted -- getting lost in a crowd or maintaining a private email account -- are all but gone. The idea that new technologies can be simultaneously indispensable and dangerous isn't new. That the popular addiction to email, texting, Facebook, and YouTube will keep usage levels high virtually no matter what is revealed about where posts may wind up should not be confused with public consent to ever more encroaching surveillance. As long as the programs remain even partially secret, that consent can never be fully informed. There is no substitute for courts, legislators, and executive branch officials taking responsibility to ensure that, in trying to protect American society, we don't destroy what we love most about it. [Nossel is the executive director of PEN American Center]
benton.org/node/153634 | Foreign Policy
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SAVING US FROM THE UNITED STASI OF AMERICA
[SOURCE: The Guardian, AUTHOR: Daniel Ellsberg]
[Commentary] In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden's release of NSA material – and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago. Snowden's whistleblowing gives us the possibility to roll back a key part of what has amounted to an "executive coup" against the US constitution. Obviously, the United States is not now a police state. But given the extent of this invasion of people's privacy, we do have the full electronic and legislative infrastructure of such a state. If, for instance, there was now a war that led to a large-scale anti-war movement – like the one we had against the war in Vietnam – or, more likely, if we suffered one more attack on the scale of 9/11, I fear for our democracy. These powers are extremely dangerous. Pressure by an informed public on Congress to form a select committee to investigate the revelations by Snowden and, I hope, others to come might lead us to bring NSA and the rest of the intelligence community under real supervision and restraint and restore the protections of the bill of rights. Snowden did what he did because he recognized the NSA's surveillance programs for what they are: dangerous, unconstitutional activity. This wholesale invasion of Americans' and foreign citizens' privacy does not contribute to our security; it puts in danger the very liberties we're trying to protect. [Ellsberg is best known for leaking secret documents known as the Pentagon Papers]
benton.org/node/153632 | Guardian, The
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GOOGLE WANTS TO DISCLOSE NATIONAL SECURITY REQUESTS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Arik Hesseldahl]
Google’s chief legal officer has asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller for permission to disclose the number of requests for information it has received from federal agencies under the auspices of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. In a corporate blog post, Google’s David Drummond published the text of a letter to AG Holder seeking clearance to add data on FISA requests that Google receives to its Transparency Report. Being allowed to disclose aggregate numbers would, Drummond writes, “clearly show that our compliance with these requests falls far short of the claims being made.”
benton.org/node/153681 | Wall Street Journal | Google blog
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OWNERSHIP
GOOGLE BUYS WAZE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Liz Gannes]
Google acquired mapping startup Waze. The deal was worth $1 billion in cash, plus $100 million in performance payouts in cash and possibly stock to the Waze staff, said people familiar with the deal. Waze is a social mapping start-up that features real-time traffic data provided by users to help drivers find the fastest route to a destination. The deal highlights the increasing importance of location data in our on-the-go lives, whether it is finding a place to eat or navigating an unfamiliar road. Google said that Waze, which has nearly 50 million users, will remain a separate service. Some of Waze’s real-time traffic data will feed into Google Maps, and Google plans to incorporate its powerful search capabilities into Waze.
benton.org/node/153679 | Wall Street Journal | Google | NYTimes | Washington Post | LA Times
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NEWS CORP SPLIT APPROVED
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Meg James]
News Corp. shareholders overwhelmingly approved measures to carve Rupert Murdoch's sprawling media empire into two separate publicly traded media companies. The corporate split is on track to occur June 28. The television networks, television production and movie studio operations will form the newly named 21st Century Fox Inc. The publishing assets, including the Wall Street Journal, Times of London, New York Post, the Australian and the HarperCollins book publishing house, will take the name News Corp. During the meeting, two corporate governance activists raised questions about the structure of the companies, including the two classes of stock, which allow Murdoch to control the company with nearly 40% of the voting stock. Most shareholders have non-voting stock. Julie Tanner, assistant director of socially responsible investing for Christian Brothers Investment Services, challenged News Corp. executives over the decision to allow Murdoch to wear three hats in the two companies: Murdoch will serve as chairman and chief executive of 21st Century Fox and he will be chairman of the new News Corp.
benton.org/node/153677 | Washington Post | NYTimes
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JOURNALISM
NEWS CORP SETTLEMENT?
[SOURCE: The Guardian, AUTHOR: Michael Wolff]
In private conversations, executives at Rupert Murdoch's News Corp are acknowledging ongoing discussions with the US Justice Department about a possible settlement of alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that took place in Britain. Speculation by one knowledgeable News Corp source puts the size of the settlement as high as $850 million; other sources say that it could go as high as billions. The primary charges involve the activities of News Corp's newspapers in London – principally, the Sun and the defunct News of the World – and allegations of bribes paid to the London police for information, which emerged during investigations begun two summers ago into phone-hacking. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) prohibits US companies from making undisclosed payments to government officials in foreign countries in order to gain favorable treatment. From the company's point of view, the most favorable timetable for a settlement will occur after 28 June, when News Corp will be split into two distinct entities, a smaller newspaper-focused group, which will retain the name News Corp, and a much larger group, which will retain all of the present company's entertainment assets, to be called 21st Century Fox. But the company would also prefer that a settlement come before the September trial date of several of its once high-ranking executives, including its former chief Rebekah Brooks, the executive who is allegedly tied to the police payments.
benton.org/node/153675 | Guardian, The
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
USDA BROADBAND GRANTS
[SOURCE: Department of Agriculture, AUTHOR: Press release]
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that applications are being accepted for grants to finance broadband deployment in remote, rural areas. The USDA Rural Development may award up to $21 million in grants through the Community Connect Grant program. It serves rural communities where broadband service is not available, but where it can make a tremendous difference in the quality of life for citizens.
benton.org/node/153667 | Department of Agriculture
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CYBERSECURITY
CHINA’S CYBER STONEWALLING
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Obama emerged from their "shirt-sleeve summit" on the weekend touting new cooperation on climate change and North Korea. The big exception to this new era of good feeling? China's cyberattacks against U.S. private and government targets, on which Mr. Xi gave no ground. U.S. officials say Mr. Xi refused even to acknowledge Beijing's responsibility and insisted that China is the main victim of cyber spying. The U.S. strategy seems to be to ask China to join a global cyber arms-control regime when China is the world's major promoter and beneficiary of cyber warfare. Parchment promises rarely work in world affairs, but they have no chance in this case until China pays a price for its thievery. This may mean sanctions against Chinese firms and individuals that benefit from cyber theft, as well as against military officials who practice it. But even those steps probably won't matter unless the Chinese begin to see that their own military and business assets are vulnerable to cyberattack. Arms control won't stop China's cyber theft. The fear of counter cyber warfare might.
benton.org/node/153617 | Wall Street Journal
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
SOFTBANK RAISES SPRINT BID
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael De La Merced]
SoftBank of Japan agreed to increase its takeover bid for Sprint Nextel to $21.6 billion, seeking to block a rival bid by Dish Network. Under the revised terms of the complex transaction, SoftBank agreed to shift over about $1.5 billion earmarked for Sprint itself to the company’s shareholders instead. Existing investors can now sell their shares at $7.65 apiece, up nearly 5 percent from the first offer. All told, the new offer is valued at about $7.48 a share, up almost 19 percent from the original bid. SoftBank would own about 78 percent of Sprint if the deal is approved. SoftBank reiterated that it intended to invest $1.9 billion in Sprint if its deal closed, in addition to the $3.1 billion it already invested into the company. Sprint added that it had ended sales talks with Dish.
benton.org/node/153619 | New York Times | WSJ | WSJ – less cash | FT
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TABLET OWNERSHIP 2013
[SOURCE: Pew Internet and American Life Project, AUTHOR: Kathryn Zickuhr]
For the first time, a third (34%) of American adults ages 18 and older own a tablet computer like an iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Google Nexus, or Kindle Fire—almost twice as many as the 18% who owned a tablet a year ago. Demographic groups most likely to own tablets include:
Those living in households earning at least $75,000 per year (56%), compared with lower income brackets
Adults ages 35-44 (49%), compared with younger and older adults
College graduates (49%), compared with adults with lower levels of education
Unlike smartphones, which are most popular with younger adults ages 18-34, we see the highest rates of tablet ownership among adults in their late thirties and early forties. In fact, almost half (49%) of adults ages 35-44 now own a tablet computer, significantly more than any other age group. Adults ages 65 and older, on the other hand, are less likely to own a tablet (18%) than younger age groups. There are no statistically significant differences in tablet ownership between men and women, or between members of different racial or ethnic groups.
benton.org/node/153605 | Pew Internet and American Life Project
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CONTENT
SOME WEB ADS NOT VISIBLE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Suzanne Vranica]
The old adage in advertising—that half the money is wasted but no one knows which half—turns out to be as true for the digital world as it ever was for traditional media. An astounding 54% of online display ads shown in "thousands" of campaigns measured by comScore between May of 2012 and February of this year weren't seen by anyone, according to a study completed last month. Don't confuse "weren't seen" with "ignored." These ads simply weren't seen, the result of technical glitches, user habits and fraud. The finding implies that billions of marketing dollars are being poured down a digital drain. Last year, $14 billion was spent on online display advertising, estimates eMarketer, 40% of all online ad spending. Advertisers can blame both technical snafus and more nefarious factors for ads going nowhere. Technical issues include ads being displayed on part of a browser not open on a computer screen—such as when an ad appears at the bottom of the screen and surfers don't scroll down. Another problem: Some ads load so slowly that the Web surfer switches off before the ad comes up, says comScore.
benton.org/node/153723 | Wall Street Journal
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TELEVISION
NICKELODEON JUNK FOOD ADS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Ramsey Cox]
A group of Senate Democrats demanded that Nickelodeon, children’s cable TV channel, stop airing commercials for unhealthy food and beverage. The lawmakers said Nickelodeon could help address the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic by barring the advertisement of junk food. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) sent a letter to Nickelodeon President Cyma Zarghami and its parent company, Viacom. “As a leading multi-media entertainment destination for children and adolescents, Nickelodeon has a special opportunity — and responsibility — to help address our nation’s childhood obesity epidemic,” the senators wrote. “We ask that you implement a clear policy to guide the marketing of food to children on Nickelodeon’s various media platforms.” The senators cited a Center for Disease Control and Prevention report that said childhood obesity has doubled among children and tripled among adolescents in the last 30 years. They said Nickelodeon could help the federal government save more than $140 billion in healthcare spending related to childhood obesity by taking similar action that the Walt Disney Corp. did last year.
benton.org/node/153609 | Hill, The
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POLICYMAKERS
CHAIRWOMAN CLYBURN
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
At a Women in Cable Telecommunications luncheon celebrating Signature Spirit Accolades for community service, Mignon Clyburn said being named by the President to be acting chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission was her highest professional honor, but added that her audience would not be surprised to learn she felt that being the first woman "ratcheted up the pressure just a little bit." As did walking the ground floor of the FCC and seeing all those portraits of the former chairmen. "As you walk down the hallway, you start to detect a pattern." She said women had made progress on the road to equality, "but we still have a lot of work to do." She said the FCC has been working to expand opportunities for women both internally and in the industry. Internally, she said, female attorneys outnumber the men, while 50% of engineers at the FCC are women. She said the FCC is also working to remove barriers to market entry for women and minorities.
benton.org/node/153611 | Broadcasting&Cable
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CAMPBELL FOR FCC?
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Fred Campbell, director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute's Communications Liberty & Innovation Project, has been interviewed for the Republican Federal Communications Commission seat recently vacated by Commissioner Robert McDowell according to a source familiar with the process. Campbell declined comment, pointing out that in his role at the project, he has not been commenting on the FCC commissioner or chairman selection process in general. But a source said that the staff of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), had talked to Campbell about the post. Sen McConnell was said to have wanted to extend the search to include academics and think-tank thinkers and Campbell would fit the bill. Campbell, a veteran communications attorney, was a wireless adviser to former-FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, chief of the wireless bureau and an attorney adviser with experience in auction policies, including the 700 MHz auction of broadcast spectrum, arguably the FCC's central issue as it preps for a second broadcast spectrum incentive auction.
benton.org/node/153711 | Broadcasting&Cable | The Hill
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
MEXICAN TELECOM OVERHAUL BECOMES LAW
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Anthony Harrup]
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto signed into law a far-reaching overhaul of the telecommunications and broadcast industries that aims to curb the market power of companies such as América Móvil in order to increase competition and investment in the sector. The changes create a new regulatory body, Ifetel, which will have expanded powers, including the ability to apply more restrictive regulations on dominant competitors and even force them to sell assets. In signing the overhaul in the constitution, President Peña Nieto set the clock running for the drawing up and approval of secondary legislation, which Congress has six months to complete. The scope and spirit of the constitutional changes, which seek to give Mexicans access to better and less-costly telecommunications services and raise competitiveness in Mexico, should be reflected in the secondary laws, President Peña Nieto said.
benton.org/node/153615 | Wall Street Journal
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GREECE SHUTTING DOWN STATE BROADCASTER
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Kiki Kitsantonis]
In a surprise move, Greece’s conservative-led coalition government said that it would shut down the state broadcaster Net as part of a cost-cutting drive imposed by the country’s foreign creditors, prompting protests from labor unions and the government’s increasingly alienated junior partners, which said they had not been consulted. Describing Net as a “modern-day scandal” and “a unique case of lack of transparency and waste,” a government spokesman, Simos Kedikoglou, said Net would stop broadcasting at midnight on Tuesday and reopen soon as a “modern state organization” with a fraction of its 2,900 employees. Net has not been implicated in corruption scandals any more than any other state organization, and Kedikoglou’s strong language was broadly seen as the government’s attempt to show creditors that it was boldly and decisively moving to cut waste in the public sector. Following the broadcast of the spokesman’s remarks on Net, the station’s anchors and commentators engaged in a furious live discussion lamenting their fate.
benton.org/node/153695 | New York Times
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