Pruitt is gone. Congress still doesn’t care about ethics.; The Washington Post, July 6, 2018

Walter M. Shaub Jr., The Washington Post; Pruitt is gone. Congress still doesn’t care about ethics.

"The damage to the executive branch ethics program is profound. A bad ethical tone from the top, which began with Trump’s refusal to divest his conflicting financial interests, continues to erode that program. Trump’s commendation of the departing Pruitt is as strong a statement as a leader can send to devalue the importance of ethics in government.

The foundational principle that public service is a public trust is now on the ropes. Those in Congress who share responsibility for Pruitt’s ethical failures will find it difficult to avoid looking hypocritical if they demand ethical conduct from appointees in this administration or the next. Gowdy is a notable exception, but he is leaving Congress. It is time for his colleagues to step up their oversight of this administration’s ethical failings. The road to redemption may require an acknowledgment of responsibility for failing to oversee the EPA’s administrator and a recommitment to enforcing government ethics. As for the executive branch, Trump can start by curtailing his praise of the current holder of the title “most unethical Cabinet member in modern history.”"

Drug Company ‘Shenanigans’ to Block Generics Come Under Federal Scrutiny; The New York Times, April 14, 2018

Robert Pear, The New York Times; Drug Company ‘Shenanigans’ to Block Generics Come Under Federal Scrutiny

"At a time when researchers are using sophisticated science to develop new treatments and cures, the fight over physical samples — a few thousand pills — sounds mundane. But it has huge implications for consumers’ access to affordable medicines.

The F.D.A. says it has received more than 150 inquiries from generic drug companies unable to obtain the samples needed to show that a generic product works the same as a brand-name medicine. Some of the disputes over samples involve drugs that are costly to patients and to the Medicare program and that have experienced sharp price increases in recent years.

“Without generic competition, there is no pressure to drive down the costs of these medications,” the food and drug agency said. Under current law, it said, it cannot compel a brand-name drug manufacturer to sell samples to a generic company."

Zuckerberg tells Congress ‘we didn’t do enough’ to prevent privacy crises that rock Facebook; Washington Post, April 10, 2018

Craig Timberg, Tony Romm and Elizabeth Dwoskin, Washington Post; Zuckerberg tells Congress ‘we didn’t do enough’ to prevent privacy crises that rock Facebook

"Another pointed exchange took place when Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), asked Zuckerberg what hotel he stayed at Monday night and the names of anyone he messaged this week. Zuckerberg, appearing somewhat amused by the question, declined to answer.

Durbin shot back, “I think that may be what this is all about: your right to privacy, the limits of your right to privacy and how much you give away in modern America in the name of quote, 'connecting people around the world.' ”"

9 questions Congress should ask Mark Zuckerberg; Vox, April 9, 2018

Emily Stewart, Vox; 9 questions Congress should ask Mark Zuckerberg

"In prepared testimony to the House committee released ahead of the hearing, Zuckerberg will tell lawmakers he’s sorry for what happened. “We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake,” he plans to say.

Facebook has announced a number of steps it plans to take on its own to address concerns about its practices in recent weeks and days, including enacting new measures to prevent election meddling and spelling out its terms and data policy more clearly. Zuckerberg also took part in an hour-long Q&A session with reporters last week. All of that is likely an effort to avoid fireworks in Congress if at all possible. “I’m assuming that his people are not planning to have him break news,” Rebecca MacKinnon, an internet freedom advocate and director of Ranking Digital Rights, said. “They broke all their news last week so that he doesn’t have to break it in the hearings.”

I’ve spoken with a variety of experts, observers, and stakeholders in recent days to find out what sorts of questions Congress can and should ask."

Congress wants to 'inflict pain’ on Mark Zuckerberg. Is he ready for it?; Guardian, April 10, 2018

Olivia Solon, Guardian; Congress wants to 'inflict pain’ on Mark Zuckerberg. Is he ready for it?

"Taking the stand will be a major test for Zuckerberg’s communication skills. Unlike when he deals with the media, his public relations team won’t be there to cherry-pick questions from friendly parties. And Congress wants its pound of flesh.

“Congress is theatre. More than what they are going to want to learn [about the data lapses], they are going to want to inflict pain. They are going to want to be seen as being responsive to public disgruntlement with how Facebook handled the issue,” said Ari Ratner, founder of communications consultancy Inside Revolution and former Obama administration official...

Zuckerberg will want to come across as authentic and apologetic, and will, according to his testimony published on Monday, highlight the sweeping changes that the company has announced already to its privacy tools and to the way third parties can access data on the platform as well as a verification process for political advertisers and page administrators. He will probably also want to talk about Facebook’s global compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a broad set of privacy protections being introduced in the European Union in May."

What Congress Should Ask Mark Zuckerberg; The Atlantic, March 28, 2018

Alexis C. Madrigal, The Atlantic; What Congress Should Ask Mark Zuckerberg

"Mark Zuckerberg will be headed to Washington. No one knows precisely when or to whom, but he himself has said he would be “happy” to testify.

That he has never been before Congress is one of those minor miracles that only technology companies seem capable of generating through their bulky “policy” (i.e. lobbying) teams and still considerable popularity.

But times are changing and in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica affair, Facebook processes that have been known for years are coming under the most intense scrutiny they’ve ever received. Senator Ron Wyden, for example, has already submitted a formidable list of questions to Facebook.

I’m most interested in pinning down the facts around Cambridge Analytica and political advertising generally. But Facebook is multifaceted, so I reached out to a dozen close observers of the company to see what they wanted to ask Facebook’s CEO."

A Needle In A Legal Haystack Could Sink A Major Supreme Court Privacy Case; NPR, March 28, 2018

Nina Totenberg, NPR; A Needle In A Legal Haystack Could Sink A Major Supreme Court Privacy Case

"The question in the case is whether a U.S. technology company can refuse to honor a court-ordered U.S. search warrant seeking information that is stored at a facility outside the United States...

...[A]s the case came to the justices, they were going to have to apply current advanced technology to the Stored Communications Act, a law enacted in 1986, several years before email even became available for wide public use.

Amazingly, just three weeks after the Supreme Court argument, lo and behold, a Congress famous for gridlock passed legislation to modernize the law...

Titled the Cloud Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data), the statute was attached to the 2,232 page, $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill."

Hardly Anyone Trusts The Media Anymore; Huffington Post, 4/18/16

Nick Visser, Huffington Post; Hardly Anyone Trusts The Media Anymore:

"Only 6 percent of people say they have a great deal of confidence in the press, about the same level of trust Americans have in Congress, according to a new survey released on Sunday.

The study mirrors past reports that found the public’s trust in mass media has reached historic lows, according to data gathered by the Media Insight Project, a partnership between The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the American Press Institute. The report found faith in the press was just slightly higher than the 4 percent of people who said they trusted Congress.

Alongside the dire findings, the report found respondents valued accuracy above all else, with 85 percent of people saying it was extremely important to avoid errors in coverage. Timeliness and clarity followed closely, with 76 percent and 72 percent respectively saying those attributes were imperative among media sources."