November 12, 2012 (The Rainbow Election)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2012
The Future of Music Summit 2012 begins today http://benton.org/calendar/2012-11-12/
WHAT’S NEXT?
The Rainbow Election - op-ed
The Agenda - analysis
What to Expect on Technology in Obama’s Second Term
Google braces for antitrust suit following Obama reelection
An Antitrust Brain Teaser for Google - editorial [links to web]
Advertisers Gird for Gridlock [links to web]
Without an agreement, Reid eyes last 2012 effort on Cybersecurity Act
FCC Announces Tentative Agenda For November Open Meeting
MEDIA AND ELECTIONS
Don’t Take Presidential Dollars for Granted - editorial
Romney and Republicans Outspent Obama, But Couldn't Out-Advertise Him - op-ed
Inside Team Romney's whale of an IT meltdown
Media fight on the right over GOP
Election Night’s Big Winner: Television - analysis [links to web]
Dead Tree Alert: Why TV Still Matters in Politics - analysis [links to web]
Rove-affiliated groups spend $175 million, lose 21 of 30 races [links to web]
Study: News sites take a huge hit on election night [links to web]
Google or Gallup? Changes in Voters’ Habits Reshape Polling World
For One Night at Fox, News Tops Agenda
COMMUNITY MEDIA
Is the death of newspapers the end of good citizenship?
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
The FCC Wants to Know: How Much Spectrum Is Too Much Spectrum? - analysis
Remember how AT&T swore it needed T-Mobile to expand LTE? Funny story. - analysis
It’s Great that AT&T Opened FaceTime up but When Will Apple? [links to web]
INTERNET/TELECOMMUNICATIONS
The end of landlines: No phone numbers and no international calling charges - analysis
AT&T – optimism or fear? - analysis [links to web]
PATENTS
Apple Settles Patent Suit With HTC [links to web]
Does HTC Deal Signal End to Apple’s Thermonuclear War Against Android? - analysis [links to web]
Judge to review claims of juror misconduct in Apple-Samsung case [links to web]
TELEVISION
TV Blackouts Force Viewers, Markets, FCC To Consider Alternatives [links to web]
NAB Makes Court Case Against FCC's Viewability Decision [links to web]
What's Going to Kill the TV Business? - analysis [links to web]
CONTENT
Online viewers start leaving if video doesn’t play in 2 seconds, says study [links to web]
Survival of the Fittest in the New Music Industry [links to web]
Divining Music Fans’ Habits [links to web]
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
National SMS System Successful During Superstorm Sandy [links to web]
As Sandy Became #Sandy, Emergency Services Got Social [links to web]
Left Homeless, Storm Victims Turn To Internet To Find Shelter [links to web]
HEALTH
Committee Releases Stage 3 Rules for Electronic Health Records
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Jury says journalist arrested while videotaping police is not guilty [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
VanRoekel Will Stay on at the White House
Rep. Bono Mack loses seat in Congress [links to web]
Merger between ITI and TechNet on thin ice [links to web]
NEWS FROM ABROAD
Chinese Web monitoring group says Google blocked in China
Google Outage Shows Business Risks in China [links to web]
BBC crisis claims news chiefs [links to web]
WHAT’S NEXT?
THE RAINBOW ELECTION
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Michael Copps]
[Commentary] While the pundits will devour months dissecting and divining all the implications of the election, one result trumps all others: the huge, positive, and transformative impact of diversity on so many electoral outcomes, from the Presidential through Congressional, state and local contests. When the history of the 2012 elections is written, this will be its finding—a story of America turning a corner toward future elections that will be unlike any in our past. Diversity covers a wide waterfront of issues. My beat has been communications. Minorities haven’t fared well in telecommunications and media. They are behind in accessing the opportunity-creating tools of broadband. That means they have less access to jobs, education and healthcare. They are behind in owning media outlets that could help so much to spread knowledge of diversity issues and to inform our nation’s flagging civic dialogue. They are behind in holding top managerial jobs in media and telecommunications. They continue to suffer discrimination both blatant and subtle as their issues and voices are pushed to the side by the huge consolidated media behemoths that increasingly control our nation’s airwaves. At those times when minorities are covered, it is all too often in stereotype and caricature.
http://benton.org/node/138791
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THE AGENDA
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] The work of policymaking generally grinds to a halt in the days, weeks, and, unfortunately, months before a major election as uncertainty reigns. The question isn’t just who will lead, but what direction the nation is headed. What unfolds on election night is not just vote tallies and changes in leadership. We catch sight of where we are headed and, for some, a path is revealed as well. After the November 6 election was called, re-elected President Barack Obama took the stage at Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center and delivered a speech about perfecting our union. The President’s address gives a glimpse of Washington’s agenda in the coming months. There are huge challenges ahead – reducing the debt, fixing our immigration system, reforming the tax code, addressing global climate change, reducing dependence on foreign oil, ensuring our security while shaping “a peace that is built on the promise of freedom and dignity for every human being.” The President reminded the Nation that we have obligations to one another and to future generations and that with freedom comes rights and responsibilities – “love and charity and duty and patriotism.” He spoke of our shared destiny and shared obligations, of opportunity for all and addressing inequality, and of securing the middle class. The opportunities include a high quality education and employment, and American leadership in technology and discovery and innovation.
http://benton.org/node/138813
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WHAT TO EXPECT ON TECHNOLOGY IN OBAMA'S SECOND TERM
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Adam Mazmanian]
Obama’s regulators arrived in January 2009 with a laundry list of priorities they have largely achieved—a version of network neutrality called the “Open Internet” rule; more spectrum for wireless broadband networks; subsidies for those who don’t yet have broadband access; and limits on how much telecom companies can charge for access to high-speed lines. The second term will fill in the few blanks left by the first term, probably with new leadership at the Federal Communications Commission. At the same time, industry leaders and regulators want to ease the transition from the current hybrid analog-digital telecom system to a digital Internet Protocol-based system run on fiber-optic lines. “What FCC will do next is try to figure out how to have a rational IP transition, just as we had a digital television transition,” says Blair Levin, a former FCC official whose name has been mentioned as a possible chairman.
benton.org/node/138875 | National Journal
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GOOGLE BRACES FOR ANTITRUST CASE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
President Obama's reelection means that Google is unlikely to receive a reprieve from a looming antitrust lawsuit. The Federal Trade Commission is nearing the end of a yearlong investigation into Google's business practices. People familiar with the case say the commission staffers have concluded there is reason to believe Google is violating antitrust laws and have recommended that the commission take action. The commissioners are currently reviewing that recommendation. If Mitt Romney had won the election, he would have appointed a new FTC chairman and Republicans would have controlled three of the five commission seats. It is possible that a GOP-led FTC would have still gone after Google, but a Romney victory was probably Google's last best chance at escaping the investigation unscathed.
benton.org/node/138874 | Hill, The
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LAST TRY FOR CYBERSECURITY BILL?
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) may take another crack at passing cybersecurity legislation next week although Republicans and Democrats still haven't reached a compromise on the matter. Sen Reid is aiming to bring the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 to the floor at the end of next week after the Senate votes on Sen. Jon Tester's (D-MT) sportsmen's bill, according to Senate aides. The bill's prospects look dim, however, as it appears the bill still lacks enough Republican support to clear the upper chamber. Observers expect the bill to fail just as it did in August, when Senate Republicans blocked a motion to move the measure forward after arguing that it would saddle industry with new burdensome regulations. “While we are eager to pass effective cybersecurity legislation, we are no closer to a compromise than we were this summer,” a Senate GOP aide said.
benton.org/node/138873 | Hill, The
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FCC MEETING AGENDA
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced that the following item will be on the tentative agenda for the next open meeting scheduled for Friday, November 30, 2012:
Expanding Nationwide Low Power Radio Opportunities Fifth Order on Reconsideration and Sixth Report and Order: The Commission will consider a Fifth Order on Reconsideration and Sixth Report and Order, which address the final procedures to approve more than 6,000 pending FM translator radio applications and implementation of the Local Community Radio Act. The consideration of these items will represent the final steps toward enabling non-profit groups nationwide to apply for low power radio licenses to further expand the diversity of local voices in the media landscape.
benton.org/node/138871 | Federal Communications Commission
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MEDIA AND ELECTIONS
DON’T TAKE PRESIDENTIAL AD DOLLARS FOR GRANTED
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
[Commentary] An organization called National Popular Vote is trying to convince state legislatures to award their electoral votes not on the basis of the popular votes in their state as they now do, but rather on the national popular vote. If NPV can persuade states representing 270 electoral votes to join in, the national popular vote would pick the president. That would mean that today's presidential swing states (and their TV stations) would be collateral damage as candidates and their backers shift TV ad dollars to national networks. Any local broadcaster that is penciling in big gobs of presidential money in 2016 would be wise to keep an eye on NPV.
benton.org/node/138869 | TVNewsCheck
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ROMNEY OUTSPENT, BUT DID NOT OUT-ADVERTISE OBAMA
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Elizabeth Wilner]
[Commentary] In 2012, the presidential nominee who was outspent on TV was not, in fact, out-advertised. Not only that, but to view the presidential air war just in the context of dollars would be to overlook how President Barack Obama won the election -- by targeting his way to a second term. CMAG projected that about $1.1 billion would be spent on broadcast TV advertising in the presidential race, primary and general election advertising included. And in fact, our preliminary estimate for actual spend is $953 million. That's an immense sum well worth discussion and debate, particularly given the ratio of dollars spent on advertising to votes that ultimately were moved by it. Therein lies the rub. In politics, TV advertising only matters at the margin, influencing a small pool of undecided voters and possibly boosting turnout among likely supporters. This means that increasingly eye-popping sums of money are spent to affect the choices of fewer and fewer people. TV advertising is the single biggest undertaking of any campaign: about 75% of everything a candidate raises goes to support it, and about two-thirds of all ad dollars go to local broadcast TV. For faceless outside groups that exist solely for the purpose of advertising, the proportion of funds raised that is spent on TV is surely higher. Because the impact of the advertising is at the margins, the path to understanding it leads not through the tonnage but through the targeting and messaging. As anticipated, Republicans did indeed outspend Democrats on broadcast TV in the general election contest by CMAG's preliminary estimate of $479 million to $396 million, but Obama's campaign either held its own or retained the edge in many aspects of the air war. Among them: Tone, Message -control, Bargain buying, and Demographics vs. Economics.
benton.org/node/138868 | AdAge
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ROMNEY’S IT MELTDOWN
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Sean Gallagher]
It was supposed to be a "killer app," but a system deployed to volunteers by Mitt Romney's presidential campaign may have done more harm to Romney's chances on Election Day—largely because of a failure to follow basic best practices for IT projects. Called "Orca," the effort was supposed to give the Romney campaign its own analytics on what was happening at polling places and to help the campaign direct get-out-the-vote efforts in the key battleground states of Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Colorado. Instead, volunteers couldn't get the system to work from the field in many states—in some cases because they had been given the wrong login information. The system crashed repeatedly. At one point, the network connection to the Romney campaign's headquarters went down because Internet provider Comcast reportedly thought the traffic was caused by a denial of service attack. Here's how it happened.
benton.org/node/138867 | Ars Technica
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MEDIA FIGHT OVER GOP
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Dylan Byers]
Rush Limbaugh couldn’t have been more right. Months before the election, the conservative radio host made a prediction: “If Obama wins, the Republican Party is going to try to maneuver things so conservatives get blamed.” And that’s exactly what’s happening. On the night of Nov. 6, shortly after President Barack Obama won reelection, Steve Schmidt went on NBC News and called on GOP leaders to “stand up” against the extreme elements in the party that the Republican strategist believes are leading it down the wrong path, even singling out Limbaugh by name. Days later on MSNBC, Joe Scarborough criticized Republicans for taking cues from unnamed pundits “who make tens of millions of dollars engaging in niche marketing” that the host complained provides a misleading picture of the nation’s electorate. Columnist David Frum last week slammed the “conservative entertainment complex” that had “fleeced, exploited and lied to” Republicans, ensuing doom on Election Day. “These people have made politics a theater for identity politics for a segment of America, rather than a way to solve collective problems,” said Frum, referring to conservative media commentators. “What is happening now, and it’s disturbing, is that this complex has sold the idea that conservatives are the real majority in America. That claim has been exposed as false. But they are turning on the country and leading their viewers toward alienation and rejection.”
benton.org/node/138866 | Politico
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CHANGES AND POLLING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nate Silver]
[Commentary] As Americans’ modes of communication change, the techniques that produce the most accurate polls seem to be changing as well. In the presidential election, a number of polling firms that conduct their surveys online had strong results. Some telephone polls also performed well. But others, especially those that called land lines only or took other methodological shortcuts, performed poorly, showing a more Republican-leaning electorate than actually turned out. Our method of evaluating pollsters involves looking at all the polls that an organization conducted over the final three weeks of the campaign — rather than only its very last poll. For each of the two dozen polling firms that issued at least five surveys in the final three weeks of the campaign, counting both state and national polls, I have calculated an average error and an average statistical bias. The bias calculation measures the direction, Republican or Democratic, that a firm’s polls tended to miss. The estimate of the average error in the firm’s polls measures how far off the polls were in either direction, on average.
benton.org/node/138888 | New York Times
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NEWS TOPS FOX AGENDA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Carr]
It has been suggested, here and elsewhere, that Fox News effectively became part of the Republican propaganda apparatus during the presidential campaign by giving pundit slots to many of the Republican candidates and relentlessly advocating for Mitt Romney once he won the nomination. Over many months, Fox lulled its conservative base with agitprop: that President Obama was a clear failure, that a majority of Americans saw Romney as a good alternative in hard times, and that polls showing otherwise were politically motivated and not to be believed. But on Election night, the people in charge of Fox News were confronted with a stark choice after it became clear that Mr. Romney had fallen short: was Fox, first and foremost, a place for advocacy or a place for news? In this moment, at least, Fox chose news. Fox News made the call on Ohio, and was the third network to call the election, behind NBC and MSNBC, because news people work there and knew what the data were saying. No matter how much Rove and much of the Fox News audience wanted it to end differently, Barack Obama had been duly re-elected as president of the United States. We decided. They reported.
benton.org/node/138887 | New York Times
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COMMUNITY MEDIA
NEWSPAPERS AND CITIZENSHIP
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Jessica Bruder]
The death of newspapers – by cutbacks, outright disappearance, or morphing into lean websites – means a reduction of watchdog reporting and less local information. Some say it has caused a drop in civic participation. Is it a blow to good citizenship? A few days after The Times-Picayune shuttered its daily edition, a 23-year-old New Orleans reporter flew to New York to accept a national Edward R. Murrow Award, one of journalism's top prizes. Jessica Williams wasn't from the Picayune or, for that matter, The Advocate. She was a staff reporter at The Lens, a scrappy nonprofit start-up for investigative journalism that is growing in response to the Picayune's cutbacks. Her story was about a woman who'd spent six years trying – and ultimately, failing – to get back into her damaged home after hurricane Katrina. Two months earlier, Lens cofounder Karen Gadbois had also won national honors. The Society of Professional Journalists gave her its annual ethics award for exposing an unsavory practice among New Orleans police: disseminating the arrest records of crime victims. If there's hope for journalism here – and elsewhere – experiments like The Lens may offer a glimpse of the future. "We don't have any illusions of being the answer or the model," Ms. Gadbois admits. She says she doesn't believe any single effort will suffice. Newspapers may wane, but citizens' information needs are still immense. "Without a community, a newspaper ceases to be relevant," she says. "But does a community cease to be relevant when there's no newspaper?"
benton.org/node/138886 | Christian Science Monitor, The
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
FCC SPECTRUM HOLDINGS INQUIRY
[SOURCE: CommLawBlog, AUTHOR: Donald Evans]
[Commentary] It’s undeniable that a small handful of carriers control an overwhelming amount of mobile spectrum in the US. Many observers of the communications landscape believe that that intense concentration has reached alarming proportions. Unfortunately, to date, federal regulators have not tended to be among those hand-wringers. As a result, Verizon and AT&T, and to a lesser extent Sprint and T-Mobile, have increasingly gobbled up huge chunks of spectrum both through auctions and in secondary market transactions, leaving only the crumbs for smaller carriers to squabble over. Often the Federal Communications Commission auctions the spectrum in increments covering huge territories – Regional Economic Area Groupings (REAG) or Major Economic Areas (EA) – that span as many as ten states. Such vast areas are too big for a small or medium sized carrier to handle and usually more than even the largest carriers can hope to build out in a reasonable timeframe. So a considerable amount of spectrum lies moldering in the larders of the largest carriers for a rainy day while smaller carriers cannot fulfill their customers’ basic needs. Now the FCC has decided to take a fresh look at its policy on mobile spectrum holdings. In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking released in September (and published in the Federal Register in early October) , the FCC has opened a far-ranging and much needed inquiry into all aspects of the spectrum accumulation issue.
benton.org/node/138846 | CommLawBlog
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AT&T’S FUNNY STORY
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Cyrus Farivar]
Last year, when AT&T was in the throes of trying to convince federal regulators that its proposed deal to acquire T-Mobile should go through, company executives repeatedly cited the fact that they didn’t have enough spectrum to begin with and needed their smaller competitor’s resources. On November 7, AT&T changed its tune, saying that it would have complete LTE coverage nationwide by 2014, largely driven by its purchases earlier this year of the 2.3GHz WCS band. Those earlier claims appear now to have been proven to be wrong at best and disingenuous at worst. "AT&T may have believed that the T-Mobile merger was the best, fastest way to get to a full LTE build, but it’s certainly disingenuous of them to claim that it was the only way for them to get there," said Joshua King, who was an AT&T Wireless vice president from 2000 to 2005 and is now a VP at Avvo, in an interview with Ars. "I wouldn’t call it ‘outright false,’ but I certainly believe they overplayed their hand in a way that was counter-productive." Back in May 2011, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that his company did not own adequate spectrum, particularly in sparsely-populated parts of the country. Sen. Michael Lee (R-UT) put the question directly to Stephenson, asking, "If you were unable to acquire T-Mobile what would your options be as far as developing your 4G LTE network?" Stephenson replied, "It's a long-term solution. Most of the rural communities that we're speaking to, we would not have the spectrum depth to do the conversion that we need.”
benton.org/node/138856 | Ars Technica
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INTERNET/TELECOMMUNICATIONS
THE END OF LANDLINES
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
[Commentary] Most of us already live in a world where voice minutes are moot. But what about a world where international long-distance costs don’t matter, or phone numbers are rendered completely irrelevant? All of these are relics of the circuit-switched copper phone network, and if AT&T gets its way those things could all go by the wayside. We’ll enter the VoIP future and drag everyone who isn’t already making Skype calls or subscribing to digital voice lines with us. But before we can move forward there are several issues that must be dealt with — from broadband and VoIP access for all to the role of the FCC, which will have to fight for relevance and regulatory power in an all-IP world. And if you think that the world has already gone VoIP, you’re wrong. The Federal Communications Commission counted 192 million circuit-switched lines in 2001. By mid-2011,there were still 112 million lines. Because of the prevalence of the original network, most calls made still touch the original copper network at some point. Even your cell phone calls.
benton.org/node/138853 | GigaOm
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HEALTH
COMMITTEE RELEASES STAGE 3 RULES FOR ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: John Pulley]
A federal health information technology committee this week released its proposed rules for Stage 3 meaningful use of electronic health records -- the first step in a long public process of reviewing how the government assesses whether EHRs qualify for incentive payments under Medicare and Medicaid. Health care providers must demonstrate “meaningful use” of EHRs to qualify for incentives. Meaningful use stages are being phased in over several years, with each stage raising levels of functionality, usability and data exchange required of EHR systems. The committee’s “vision” for Stage 3 “includes a collaborative model of care with shared responsibility and accountability, building upon the previous [meaningful use] objectives,” according to the document released by the Health Information Technology Policy Committee. “While the committee appreciates and recognizes today’s challenges in setting up data exchanges, it is the committee’s recommendation that Stage 3 is the time to begin to transition from a setting-specific focus to a collaborative, patient- and family- centric approach,” the committee wrote. With that in mind, the committee said Stage 3 objectives should:
Support new models of care;
Address national health priorities;
Have broad applicability to different medical specialties, patient health needs and regions of the country;
Promote advancement of EHR capabilities; and,
Be achievable and feasible.
benton.org/node/138848 | nextgov
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POLICYMAKERS
VANROEKEL WILL STAY ON AT THE WHITE HOUSE
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Joseph Marks]
Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel confirmed via Twitter on November 9 that he plans to stay in the White House during President Obama’s second term. VanRoekel was named the nation’s second-ever CIO in August 2011 after a long career as an executive at Microsoft and, more briefly, as managing director at the Federal Communications Commission.
benton.org/node/138872 | nextgov
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NEWS FROM ABROAD
CHINA BLOCKS GOOGLE
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jessica Guynn]
Google and many of its services, including its popular email service Gmail, are being blocked in China. The search giant has weathered intermittent outages in the world's most populous market since Google said it would end its practice of acquiescing to Chinese government officials' demands to censor search results in China nearly three years ago. Google's Transparency Report shows a decline in traffic to all of its products in China over the last several hours. Users trying to reach Google services end up at a vacant IP address, GreatFire.org reports. Only those with special access to a virtual private network, or VPN, can now reach Google services, it said.
benton.org/node/138858 | Los Angeles Times
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