USC Annenberg Innovation Lab
Jonathan Taplin is director emeritus of the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab and author of Move Fast and Break Things: How Google, Facebook and Amazon have Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy.
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Jonathan Taplin
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FROM Jonathan Taplin
To the Point
Is Big Tech on the defensive? Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon have amassed incomparable power over the US economy, political discourse and social interactions. Now they're being targeted as monopolies, which determine -- intentionally or otherwise — not just what we buy but how we think. Both the Left and the Right are now talking Regulation, but is Big Tech insulated by its ubiquitous services, popularity with consumers — and its lobbying power?
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To the Point
Human Rights in the era of Donald Trump President Trump’s UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, said today the US might pull out of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. Serious violators of human rights are members of the Council itself–and a US resignation could make things worse. Later on today’s show, now that he’s into his second term, comedian turned US Senator Al Franken is telling jokes again.
To the Point
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.
To the Point
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
To the Point
Ex-FBI Director Comey tells his side of the story Today, former FBI Director James Comey came close to calling the President who fired him a liar. The White House denied the claim and called it insulting, but Republican Senators did not challenge Comey’s truthfulness. Many questions remain: did the President try to obstruct a federal investigation? Later, we’ll go behind the “velvet rope” for a look at 5-Star health care for the richest Americans.