Government & Communications

Suffolk University released detailed numbers from a poll it conducted with USA Today, exploring, among other things, how views of political issues overlap with public confidence in various media outlets. In this poll, 60 percent of Republicans identified Fox News as the outlet in which they had the most confidence. Every other network combined for 23 percent. By contrast, only 4 percent of Democrats cited Fox as their most trusted. (Most trusted among Democrats was CNN, at 20 percent.) On issue after issue, those who most trusted Fox News held positions that were much more favorable to the president and his party than survey respondents overall. For example, consider President Trump’s job approval. More than half of the population overall disapproves of Trump’s performance. Among those who trust Fox , 9 in 10 approved. Nearly three-quarters of that group think America is headed in the right direction; overall, half think we’re on the wrong track.

President Donald Trump lashed out at the hosts of MSNBC's “Morning Joe” in two vicious tweets on the morning of June 29, calling Mika Brzezinski “low I.Q. Crazy” and claiming that she had a facelift late in 2016. President Trump also called Joe Scarborough “Psycho Joe” and said the hosts came to Mar-a-Lago — his private club in Palm Beach (FL) — three nights in a row around New Year's Eve “and insisted on joining me.” He claimed that Brzezinski “was bleeding badly from a facelift” at the time and that: “I said no!” Brzezinski and Scarborough were both spotted at Trump's New Year's Eve party, according to pool reports at the time, prompting Scarborough to fire off numerous tweets defending his presence there.

At the time, Scarborough said that he and Brzezinski were at the party to set up an interview with the president-elect. At least three GOP senators on Twitter assailed President Trump's attack, saying the insults were "beneath the dignity" of the office of the president. Sens Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Ben Sasse (R-NE) and Susan Collins (R-ME) joined a loud chorus on social media denouncing the president's latest tweets.

President Donald Trump and his allies believe he’s gained a tactical advantage in his war with the media. As he escalates his attacks on the “failing media,” President Trump and his allies are increasingly convinced that recent evidence, including the retracted CNN piece on an aspect of the Russia investigations, will prove to skeptical voters that the mainstream media has a vendetta against the administration. Many White House staffers were “elated,” a person with knowledge of their conversations said, when they learned that three journalists had resigned over a botched story that claimed newly appointed Export-Import Bank official Anthony Scaramucci was being investigated for his ties to a Russian investment fund.

CNN host Don Lemon suggested that the White House press corps defy the White House camera ban, and turn on their cameras during the daily briefings. Reporters could certainly do that, but the White House would be within its rights to kick them out because reporters probably don’t have a First Amendment right to film or even attend the briefings, experts said. “Having a seat at a White House briefing is a privilege, not a right,” said Lucy Dalglish, dean of the University of Maryland journalism school. “The White House writes the rules,” Dalglish said. “If the networks turned on their cameras, my guess is that the entire network would be indefinitely expelled from the briefings. Credentials would be yanked.” At least reporters would not break any laws if they secretly taped. “I’m not sure any law would be broken if the the cameras were turned on surreptitiously,” Dalglish said. That’s because the District of Columbia is a “one party” jurisdiction that allows a person to record their conversations with another person, she said.

The Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality docket continues to draw a crowd of critics. The latest is House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ). Rep Pallone has called on the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate whether any federal law has been broken in the filing of fake comments using stolen identities, as some have claimed.

Rep Pallone said he was also worried that some "unknown parties" may be trying to influence federal policy. hat came in a letter to attorney general Jeff Sessions and acting FBI director Andrew McCabe. Rep Pallone wants them to investigate net neutrality activist group Fight for the Future's assertion that at least 14 people had told the FCC that their identities had been used to file comments without their permission, as well as that some 450,000 identical comments were submitted by an "unknown party" that may have been using info gained via data breaches. "Federal law prohibits knowingly making any materially false statement or representation in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch," Rep Pallone's office said.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have asked for all the surveillance warrants the FBI asked for from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court as part of the FBI's investigation into Russian campaign interference, including possible collusion with the campaign of Donald Trump.

The top Republicans cited stories by both the BBC and CNN, the latter of which President Trump continues to brand as fake news. The request by the senators was based on news reports that the Justice Department had asked the court for authority to monitor members of the Trump presidential campaign—which the court denied, advising the FBI to narrow its focus. They said they want copies of both classified and non-classified.

The OPEN Government Data Act (S 760) would direct federal agencies to publish all data they collect in an open format that can be used by any computer. Under the bill, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) would establish an inventory of all federal data sets and would direct the General Services Administration (GSA) to maintain an online interface for all such data. The bill also would require the Government Accountability Office (GAO), OMB, and Chief Information Officers at each federal agency to report to the Congress about this effort.

Information from the General Services Administration and selected agencies suggest that most of the provisions of the bill would codify Executive Order 13642 and other executive branch policies that set the framework for agencies to promote openness and interoperability in information management. That executive order requires agencies to standardize data sets and to make them publicly available. A website (www.data.gov) has been established to share this government information with the general public. However, CBO expects that implementing S. 760 would cost about $2 million over the 2018-2021 period, for additional administrative and reporting costs for GSA and other agencies and to implement the new reporting requirements for GAO; such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.

President Donald Trump attacked Amazon June 28, claiming incorrectly that it owns The Washington Post in a scheme to dodge “internet taxes.” In fact, Amazon doesn’t own the newspaper. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos bought it himself. And while there isn’t a federal “internet tax,” as President Trump contends, Amazon has worked out arrangements with states to collect sales taxes on consumers’ online purchases — all the while seeking a national solution that many Republicans long have opposed.

President Trump, however, still took aim at Amazon in a tweet that sought to decry the Post’s political coverage as “fake news” — his latest in a series of attacks on both the tech company and the newspaper dating back to the 2016 presidential campaign. "The #AmazonWashingtonPost, sometimes referred to as the guardian of Amazon not paying internet taxes (which they should) is FAKE NEWS!" the President tweeted.

In CNN’s newsroom, it is called the Triad: a three-pronged internal system designed to ensure that sensitive reporting by the network’s journalists is unimpeachable before it runs. Recently, the Triad fell short — and by June 27, the consequences were being felt across the news industry and in the hallways of the White House. CNN was forced to apologize after retracting a story on its website that a Russian bank linked to a close ally of President Donald Trump was under Senate investigation. Three high-ranking journalists at the network resigned.

But the mea culpa did not stop President Trump and his supporters from seizing on the mistake, condemning CNN and claiming it as evidence that other major news organizations were conspiring against the administration. On Twitter, President Trump wrote that “they caught Fake News CNN cold” and asked, “What about all the other phony stories they do?” News organizations regularly issue corrections and, in rarer instances, retract a story. Other journalists praised CNN for taking responsibility after a painful black eye. But the ferocious response on Tuesday was a reminder of CNN’s unique role as a nemesis for President Trump, who says the network has unfairly tried to tie him to Russian interference in last year’s election — and underlined the heightened tensions between the news media and an administration that has curtailed access and labeled the news media an “opposition party.”

At the Smart Cities Connect Conference held June 25-28 at the Austin Convention Center, US Ignite and the National Science Foundation announced five new cities that have joined the Smart Gigabit Communities (SGC) program, which "accelerates the development of advanced gigabit applications that cannot run on current networks as the bedrock of smart communities by identifying new economic and social opportunities created by those applications," according to the SGC website. Each "gigabit" city receives support from the National Science Foundation to use its physical and wireless network infrastructure as an enabler of smart applications to solve specific community problems. Cities joining the program this year include: Washington (DC), Albuquerque (NM), Phoenix (AZ), San Diego (CA) and Jackson Energy Authority (TN).