The Federal Communications Commission ended a grave injustice when it prohibited price-gouging by the private companies that provide interstate telephone service for prison and jail inmates. Thanks to the FCC order, which takes effect next month, poor families no longer have to choose between paying for basic essentials and speaking to a relative behind bars.
US Adults Fare Poorly in a Study of Skills
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
American adults lag well behind their counterparts in most other developed countries in the mathematical and technical skills needed for a modern workplace.
Storytelling Ads May Be Journalism’s New Peril
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
When the guy who ruined the Internet with banner ads tells you that a new kind of advertising might destroy journalism, it tends to get your attention.
Verizon-FCC Court Fight Takes On Regulating Net
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
Few people would dispute that one of the biggest contributors to the extraordinary success of the Internet has been the ability of just about anyone to use it to offer any product, service or type of information they want. How to maintain that success, however, is the subject of a momentous fight that resumes this week in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
‘PBS NewsHour’ Begins Its Overhaul
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
The 38-year-old “PBS NewsHour” began a new era, adding Saturday and Sunday newscasts for the first time and preparing for the debut on Sept 9 of Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff as the new weeknight anchor team and the first female co-anchors at any network.
Democracy May Prove the Doom of WBAI
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
WBAI likes to call itself “radio for the 99 percent.” But most of the time the station — a listener-supported and proudly scrappy mainstay of the left since 1960 — is lucky to be heard by 0.1 percent of the New York radio audience. That disparity, and the teetering finances of the station and its owner, the nonprofit Pacifica Foundation, became apparent with a tearful on-air announcement by Summer Reese, Pacifica’s interim executive director, that the station was laying off 19 of its 29 employees just to cover basic expenses like the rent for its transmitter atop the Empire State Building.
Antidrug Campaign, Lacking Federal Funds, Turns to Social Media
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
A multimedia campaign that was deemed effective in fighting drug and alcohol abuse among American teenagers is seeking a second act after the federal government ended its financing.
FTC Commissioner Brill Starts ‘Reclaim Your Name’ Campaign for Personal Data
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
Federal Trade Commission member Julie Brill has proposed an industry-wide initiative to give consumers access to their own records held by data brokers. She envisions an online portal where data brokers would describe their data collection practices and their consumer access policies.
Cisco: Big Data Is The Network, Too
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
John Chambers says the profits from Cisco Systems’ new strategy are still one to three years away. The strategy, however, is already becoming more clear: Big Data will only work if it’s delivered through the network, and that could go hand-in-hand with consolidation among companies that specialize in data analysis and networking or traditional computing.
Concerns Arise on U.S. Effort to Allow Internet ‘Wiretaps’
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
Surveillance can be a tricky affair in the Internet age.