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Fox News Channel is expected to announce shortly that Karl Rove has signed a multi-year deal to remain a Fox contributor through the 2016 election. The contract assures the ratings-leader cable news network that it will retain one of its most popular commentators, and someone whose views continually make news, especially in the heat of a campaign. Rove appears on a variety of Fox programs including “Hannity.” Rove joined Fox as a contributor in February 2008.
From Rove’s official biography:
Rove served as Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush from 2000–2007 and Deputy Chief of Staff from 2004–2007. At the White House he oversaw the Offices of Strategic Initiatives, Political Affairs, Public Liaison, and Intergovernmental Affairs and was Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, coordinating the White House policy-making process. … Before Karl became known as ‘The Architect’ of President Bush’s 2000 and 2004 campaigns, he was president of Karl Rove + Company, an Austin-based public affairs firm that worked for Republican candidates, non-partisan causes, and non-profit groups.
Fox renews Karl Rove contract through 2016
The details are still shaking out, but if there’s one tech lesson to draw from the strange story of Notre Dame football player Manti Te’o and his fake girlfriend, it’s that you are what you tweet.
Who you are online — on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn — has more or less become a central part of your public identity. “We’re basically the sum of our offline and online parts,” said Sarah Downey, senior privacy strategist at the online privacy firm Abine. “And so many of us spend so much time online that they’re indistinguishable.” Anyone watching Manti Te’o on Twitter would have sworn they almost knew Lennay Kekua, the girlfriend Te’o and Notre Dame now say never existed. As Deadspin reported, fans had seen the tweets between them, sent messages of support to Kekua’s “sister,” and saw Te’o mourn her death in September. They saw pictures of her, which appear to be taken from another woman’s Facebook account. And, as ESPN reported, Te’o may not be the only football player who believes he’s met Kekua. The scale of the hoax is shocking but faking online personalities is nothing new.
What the Manti Te’o hoax teaches us about the power of social media
[Commentary] Few things make me experience the bitter joy of Cassandrafreude more than watching someone flip the other guy’s argument. So it is with Netflix and Time Warner Cable, and their current beef over Netflix making its new uber-HD content available to ISPs for free, but only through Netflix’s content delivery network (CDN).
TWC accuses Netflix of demanding "unprecedented" access and privileges for its own (i.e., Netflix's, not TWC's) content. (Although ESPN360 actually went so far as to charge ISPs on a per subscriber basis some years back, which strikes me as a little more extreme than just saying "use my CDN," but let’s not quibble on this point.) This of course begs the question: how can Netflix be asking for privileges if they are making this available for free, and if it actually improves speed and avoids network? Come to think of it, this has been available for free since May, but none of the major vertically-integrated MVPD/broadband access providers had any interest in it? (Although a number of standalone players like Google Fiber signed up right away). Why did Netflix have to artificially create an incentive to get TWC (and the other major MVPD/access providers) to even come to the table to discuss connecting to their CDN? Could it be because you are actually making Netflix pay through the nose to deliver its content to you via traditional CDNs, so that “free” actually means “no longer able to collect CDN fees from our chief video rival?” Does it have anything to do with the fact that the CDN allows Netflix to determine – and publish – whether an MVPD/broadband access provider is diddling with its content delivery?
Netflix CDN v. The Cable Guys or "Comcast v. Level 3 Part Deux -- Peering Payback!"
The federal government took the Department of Veterans Affairs' current record system, which "looks and feels like a receipt," and challenged designers to reimagine the Continuity of Care Document, an electronic medical record (EMR) output used to describe a patient's health history. Technology is "only a tool," as an expert who helped push for the adoption of EMRs under President Barack Obama told The New York Times. "Like any tool, it can be used well or poorly." Here are some ways it could be done very, very well, as put forward by entrants.
The Future of Medical Records
Ranging from projects that turn no-frills mobile phones into radio stations to applications that help newsrooms manage a deluge of incoming mobile content, eight media innovation ventures received a total of $2.4 million as winners of the Knight News Challenge: Mobile. Many of the projects focus on using mobile to get news and information in developing countries. Among them: Wikipedia, which will develop new tools to allow people to access articles and knowledge via text message in multiple languages. The project is part of the Wikimedia Foundation’s efforts to offer access in the developing world to its site without prohibitive data charges.
Eight mobile ventures win $2.4 million in funding via Knight News Challenge
John Lawrence, the long-time chief of staff for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), is leaving Capitol Hill effective Feb 1.
A 38-year veteran of the Capitol corridors, Lawrence began his Washington career with Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), then bounced around several committees before landing in Pelosi's office in 2005, just ahead of her rise to the Speakership following the 2006 elections. The New Jersey native was Pelosi's chief liaison with the White House, placing him at the forefront of the Democrats' efforts – largely successful – to enact the ambitious agenda of President Barack Obama, including healthcare reforms and the 2009 economic stimulus bill. Filling Lawrence's spot will be Nadeam Elshami, a 21-year veteran of Capitol Hill who began in the Senate mailroom, moved between several Democratic offices in the Senate and House, and in 2007 found his way to Pelosi's camp, where he currently serves as chief spokesman. In the shake-up, senior adviser Diane Dewhirst will take on the role of deputy chief of staff, while George Kundanis will remain deputy chief of staff, "with an expanded role for legislative and Member responsibilities," according to Pelosi's office. Drew Hammill, now the deputy communications director, will replace Elshami as lead spokesman and senior adviser.
Rep Nancy Pelosi losing key political aide
Federal Communications Commissioner Robert M. McDowell announced today that his Chief of Staff, Angela Giancarlo, will step down in February.
Erin McGrath, Legal Advisor for media issues, has acquired the wireless, international and public safety portfolio. Giancarlo has served as Chief of Staff and Senior Legal Advisor to Commissioner McDowell since 2007. Prior to joining Commissioner McDowell, she was Associate Chief for Spectrum Policy in the Public Safety and Critical Infrastructure Division of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. Prior to her service at the Commission, she practiced telecommunications law in the Washington, D.C. office of Hogan & Hartson L.L.P. (now Hogan Lovells), where her primary focus was advising clients on commercial and private wireless regulation, auction-related transactional matters and strategic planning on spectrum allocations.
FCC Commissioner McDowell Announces Staff Change
Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT) introduced a bill that would ban the sale of violent video games to minors.
The Supreme Court struck down a similar California law in 2011, ruling that the restriction violated the constitutional right to free speech. Matheson's Video Games Ratings Enforcement Act, H.R. 287, would make it illegal for anyone to ship, distribute, sell or rent a video game that does not bear a label from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) on the age-appropriateness of the game. It is currently up to retailers to decide whether to sell violent or sexually explicit games to minors. Matheson's bill would make it illegal to sell or rent video games with a rating of "adults only" to anyone under 18, or video games rated "mature" to anyone under 17. The measure would also require retailers to display information from the Federal Trade Commission about the ESRB's content-rating system in a "clear and conspicuous location."
Bill introduced to ban sales of violent video games to minors
Addressing the Minority Media and Telecom Council's Broadband and Social Justice Policy Summit in Washington, Federal Communications Commission members Ajit Pai and Mignon Clyburn agree that the FCC needs to move on a variety of diversity initiatives.
Commissioner Clyburn said there was hope for progress in some of the suggestions teed up in the incentive auction proposal, while Commissioner Pai made a pitch for a couple of proposals. Commissioner Clyburn said that as a child of the Civil Rights movement, "proposals that we know are right often seem to take a lifetime to come to fruition." She said there were glimmers of hope in the FCC seeking comment on a small business credit for participation in the broadcast side of the incentive auction, and proposals to address diversity in the wireless space of the forward auction. Commissioner Pai added that he hoped there would be a "flowering" of diversity on the wireless side. He also put in a plug for loosening the restrictions on foreign ownership. He said it didn't make sense for a foreign entity to be able to invest billions in a U.S. wireless company, while they could not in a broadcaster -- if that investment exceeded a 25% stake -- particularly given minority broadcasters' need for access to more capital.
FCC Commissioners Pai, Clyburn Agree FCC Needs to Do More on Diversity
At the Minority Media and Telecom Council's Broadband and Social Justice Policy Summit, former Federal Communications Commission Chairman and current National Cable and Telecommunications Association President Michael Powell said that cable's interest in usage-based broadband pricing was not principally about network congestion, but instead about pricing fairness.
He pointed out that the cable industry had to spend a bunch of money on its network before the first customer was signed. So, for a business that requires "enormously high" fixed costs -- digging up the streets, put the wires in -- and operational expense, "it is a completely rational and acceptable process to figure out how to fairly allocate those costs among your consumers who are choosing the service and will pay you to recover those costs." And he said that from paying their electric bills to bellying up to the buffet at a restaurant, consumers are familiar and comfortable with usage-based pricing. Powell pointed out that most capacity is used by a high-end elite being subsidized by the rest. He suggested that usage-based pricing was one way to spur broadband adoption. For people with affordability challenges, you want to be able to offer them product that suit their uses at lower prices so you can get more people on the network. "We worry about the 30%-35% who aren't on the Web yet, but aren't willing to entertain pricing approaches that might bring them there in a cost-effective way," he said. Powell said another reason to have usage-based pricing is to encourage Web app designers to be more bandwidth efficient.
Former FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said the FCC should approach data caps with a little more "questioning" attitude. He said he does not opposed to people paying more for using more. But he also said that the focus should be more on building out broadband infrastructure to all citizens, and after making that investment it is a better time to focus on usage-based pricing or caps. "I am more interested right now in getting the abundance of high-speed broadband out there," he said.
NCTA's Powell: Usage-Based Pricing About Fairness, Not Capacity