A widely viewed clip of Sinclair anchors nationwide repeating company talking points was shown at a panel on the decline of local news with journalism experts. President Andy Burness of Burness, which represents nonprofits and organized Thursday's panel, showed the Deadspin news website clip from earlier this year. "Sinclair is a rebuttal in their view to the dominance of the left wing on major networks," said Boulder, Colorado, blogger Dave Krieger, fired earlier this year from the Daily Camera for running an editorial that slammed the newspaper's hedge-fund owner, Alden Global Capital. "That’s their motivation." Krieger and Nicco Mele, director of Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, agreed the likes of Sinclair aren't a new trend, as politically slanted or driven news in the U.S. dates back a few hundred years. "Ideologically driven news doesn’t bother me too much," Mele said. "There’s a long tradition of it in America." What's important is that consumers know what that slant is and that the content is truthful, attendees were told. Panelists warned that's not always the case on social media. "You frequently don’t know that you’re making an ideological choice in your news consumption" such as on Facebook, Mele said. For traditional media, panelists made a pitch for more diversity, as wider representation of women and other groups in tech and telecom is drawing attention including from FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel (see 1811280035). Such efforts need to begin even before job applications are filed and reviewed, Krieger said. Mele recounted that when he was a Los Angeles Times executive several years ago, "the newsroom was overwhelmingly white. I do think that hurt the business in a substantial way." Tronc, which returned to the Tribune Publishing name, separately earlier this year sold the paper to a local billionaire who has pledged to hire staff and make other changes. "Over the past several years, the Los Angeles Times has made increasing diversity within our newsroom a top priority, to better serve the community," a spokesperson emailed. "Each year we make progress." She said 36 percent of the paper's journalists aren't white, compared with 23 percent in U.S. newsrooms overall in a recently released survey that said it had low participation. Since 1984, the paper has had a program to "develop" young journalists and to increase diversity, she noted.

AT&T left the American Legislative Exchange Council, after Verizon's departure about two months earlier (see 1809180036). Right-wing activist David Horowitz drew controversy when he spoke in August at an ALEC event in New Orleans. “We have ended our membership with ALEC and their convention speaker was a key factor in the decision,” said an AT&T spokesperson Thursday. ALEC "values partnerships with Communications companies and stakeholders across the business community," a spokesperson emailed. "Decisions made by businesses are unfortunately not always issue based, and are a product of highly charged political times. ALEC has and continues to work with the telecommunication and technology industries on deregulation, innovation, privacy and intellectual property policy." Charter Communications isn't an ALEC member, a spokesperson said. Other ALEC telecom members CenturyLink, Comcast and NCTA didn’t say if they will also leave.

FCC commissioners seem open to giving states and territories access to national outage data in the network outage reporting system (NORS) and disaster information reporting system (DIRS), said Puerto Rico Telecommunications Bureau Chairwoman Sandra Torres Lopez in a Thursday interview before scheduled meetings with Chairman Ajit Pai and an aide to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. Torres met Wednesday with FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Brendan Carr, she said. The federal body has had a flurry of meetings recently on NORS access (see 1811210018). Torres is optimistic the FCC will open access. Her agency responded to requests for information including about confidentiality, a concern raised by industry. The territorial government needs the information “to keep the people ... informed” about the status of recovery, she said. In FCC meetings, the she argued for additional funding to help the island further recover from 2017 hurricanes and reach unserved areas, Torres said. Pai last week suggested Puerto Rico may need even more USF support for recovery (see 1811230018). The territory needs more than the $117 million in short-term support from USF, Torres agreed. It needed the money “yesterday” but is working through the process, she said. One year after Hurricane Maria, infrastructure restoration remains a challenge, Torres said. Puerto Rico faces at least weekly brownouts, with brief telecom outages, she said.

Spending for digital video, audio, news and games will increase 6 percent, down from 6.3 percent last year, to $1.8 trillion worldwide in 2018, PQ Media reported Wednesday. Growth slippage is due to declining trends in mobile media, digital device penetration nearing saturation, decelerating economic growth and a slowdown in the number of middle-class consumers who can afford first-time digital gadgets and subscriptions. The only gadget category with improved growth was digital audio components, spurred by popularity of smart speakers. Consumers worldwide will spend an average of $325.25 this year on digital and traditional media, access and technology, up 5 percent, on strong growth in services like Netflix in video and Spotify in audio, both of which doubled subscriber counts vs. 2016, said PQ. Such growth faces headwinds including censorship firewalls and quotas for native-language content, the researcher said. Upcoming content renewals in 2019 and 2020, particularly in audio, may “substantially” boost licensing fees and be passed on to consumers, it said. For the first time, mobile media won't post a double-digit gain in 2018, as digital access spending is dropping “on younger demographics cutting the cord,” said analyst Patrick Quinn. Due to saturation, global cellphone shipments declined for the first time in Q3, while tablet sales fell below a double-digit growth rate in most major markets. The U.S. is projected to remain the top market for media, access and technology, at $442.7 billion in 2018.

Tech companies need more data on employee promotions to help close the gender gap, said a behavioral scientist in Q&A with FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. Many companies can't recreate performance appraisal or promotion data for the past five years because “they just haven't collected it in any systematic way,” said Iris Bohnet, Harvard University’s Women and Public Policy Program co-director. “We just have not been focusing on our employees' data with the same kind of scrutiny that we might have focused on our customers' data,” said Bohnet, nor have companies “applied the same rigor” in human resources departments as in engineering and finance departments. Measuring outcomes of hiring algorithms and focusing on systems, not just diversity training, while “blinding” names on resumes can be effective, the professor told Rosenworcel's Tuesday podcast, publicized Wednesday.

The FCC said the Lifeline national verifier will begin operating Tuesday in Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. The soft launch lets eligible providers voluntarily test the NV before use becomes mandatory to confirm consumer low-income Lifeline eligibility, said a Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 11-42 and Wednesday's Daily Digest. It said Universal Service Administrative Co. will use the NV in the states to re-verify existing Lifeline subscriber eligibility, with ineligible persons de-enrolled. Hawaii, Idaho, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Guam are also in a soft launch. Consumers aren't able to access the verifier until hard launch, which has occurred in Colorado, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

More IP traffic will cross global networks by 2022 than in the 32 internet years combined through 2016, Cisco forecast Tuesday. Sixty percent of the global population will be internet users, said Cisco, and more than 28 billion devices and connections will be online, with video comprising 82 percent of all IP traffic. “The size and complexity of the internet continues to grow in ways that many could not have imagined,” said Jonathan Davidson, general manager-service provider business. Since the company's first forecast in 2005, internet traffic has increased “56-fold,” he said. To handle the data surge, service providers are transforming their networks to better manage and route traffic, while delivering premium experiences, said Davidson. IP traffic is expected to reach 396 exabytes monthly by 2022, up from 122 exabytes monthly in 2017, he said (an exabyte = 1 million terabytes). Cisco predicts 4.8 billion internet users -- 60 percent of the global population -- by the end of the period, up from 3.4 billion last year. It predicts 28.5 billion fixed and mobile personal devices and connections in four years at an average 3.6 per person, up from 2.4 per person last year. More than half of all devices and connections by 2022 will be machine-to-machine, up from 34 percent last year. Global fixed broadband speeds are forecast to grow from 39 Mbps to 75.4 Mbps, and Wi-Fi connection speeds will more than double to 54 Mbps. Average mobile connection speeds will rise to 28.5 Mbps from 8.7 Mbps, and video, gaming and multimedia will comprise more than 85 percent of traffic. Gaming traffic is expected to grow ninefold over the period, to 4 percent of traffic, and virtual and augmented reality traffic will skyrocket, reaching 4 exabytes monthly as more consumers and businesses use the technologies. North America is forecast to see triple IP traffic growth to 108 exabytes monthly.

Internet law must derive from globally agreed principles, representatives from nine parliaments said in a declaration signed Tuesday in London. The members of an "international grand committee" investigating disinformation and "fake news" noted that the "world in which the traditional institutions of democratic government operate is changing at an unprecedented pace." Legislatures and governments must urgently ensure that citizens' fundamental rights and safeguards aren't violated or undermined by the unchecked march of technology, they said. "Representative democracy is too important and too hard won to be left undefended from online harms." The declaration's principles state: (1) The internet is global and the law relating to it must have globally agreed principles. (2) Deliberate spreading of disinformation is a credible threat to democracy. (3) Global technology companies must recognize their great power and show they're ready to accept responsibility. (4) Social media companies should be held liable if they fail to comply with judicial, statutory or regulatory orders to take down harmful and misleading content from their platforms. (5) Tech companies must demonstrate accountability to users by making themselves fully answerable to national legislatures and other organs of representative democracy. Signers represented Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Ireland, Latvia, Singapore and the U.K. Lawmakers took testimony Tuesday from, among others, Facebook Vice President-Policy Solutions Richard Allan and U.K. Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham. Legislators at the hearing called it unprecedented, given the breadth of countries represented. They chastised Facebook for not sending CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The company declined further comment to us, as did the Internet Association. "I wouldn't characterize the decision as a 'blowing off'" of the invitation for Zuckerberg to appear, Allan responded to Charlie Angus of Canada's House of Commons, who used that phrase and said the company "lost the trust of the international community to self-police." "Our intent is to be there, to answer the questions that you have" at appearances in various countries, Allan said, apologizing. Zuckerberg and the company are engineering fixes, Allan said. "I will not disagree with you that we have damaged public trust through some of the actions we have taken," Allan said. He acknowledged the company had hired Definers, a firm it's stopped working with that targets critics (see 1811230021). He said a "regulatory framework" may be needed. It's not "up to Facebook to determine what regulatory structure it ought to be under, it's up to parliaments," the U.K.'s Damian Collins said. "That's why we're here."

This year's FCBA FCC chairman's dinner on Dec. 6 won't coincide with the National Christmas Tree lighting that snarls traffic and closes many streets. It's the first time they won't overlap in the memory of some longtime attendees. This year's lighting is earlier than usual, on Wednesday evening. This tree event doesn't seem to have affected dinner attendance, expected at 1,500-plus this year and little changed from 2017, said FCBA Executive Director Kerry Loughney. The National Park Service didn't comment on why its event date had changed from years past.

From harsher criminal penalties for some streaming piracy to more engagement with U.S. trade partners, media groups, tech companies and others had suggestions for the Office of the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator in docket 2018-19863 as IPEC puts together its next three-year joint strategic plan. Google said IPEC should seek feedback from rights holders on hurdles to suing rogue sites in foreign courts and a modernization of the Copyright Office by putting registration and recordation systems online. Calling streaming piracy via plug-and-play devices an "insidious" threat, NCTA said the U.S. needs to engage trading partners more on adopting and enforcing copyright protections, and IPEC needs to prioritize trying to persuade trading partners to shut illicit streaming services. It said the FCC should use RF equipment authorization powers to deter makers and importers of piracy devices from selling in the U.S. by bringing "stiff" monetary penalties. BSA sought engagement with trade partners. The Copyright Alliance and MPAA urged continued public access to Whois data (see here and here). The alliance said IPEC should back harmonization of criminal penalties for copyright infringement, so infringement of a public performance right -- typically a misdemeanor -- is treated the same as infringement of the reproduction and distribution rights, which can result in felony charges. It said the Trusted Notifier program between MPAA and some domain name registries bore fruit in fighting online infringement, and IPEC should encourage more domain registries and registrars to employ similar arrangements. The Independent Film & TV Alliance and RIAA and National Music Publishers' Association (see here and here) said Congress should classify large-scale streaming piracy as a felony. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement doesn't include a fair use standard, and IPEC should encourage U.S. trade negotiators to push for one, R Street Institute said, urging roundtable discussions on such issues as how the U.S. can encourage other nations to adopt fair use models. Public Knowledge said IPEC needs to be mindful of how enforcement schemes might affect non-infringing users. PK said enforcement should focus "on targeted bad actors." The Internet Association said the U.S. needs to defend copyright law flexibility that includes fair use and Digital Millennium Copyright Act safe harbors both domestically and internationally. Push back against curtailing intermediary liability protections, IA asked. Tech groups told the U.S. Trade Representative that bolstering IP rights should be a high priority in negotiating a new trade agreement with Japan (see 1811260011).