June 23, 2008 (FISA; Journalism)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY JUNE 23, 2008
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
House approves surveillance bill, protects telecoms
A compromise on surveillance
House Opens Hearings on White House Manipulation of News Media
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
Obama's Telecom Policies Suggest Open-Internet Push
TV stations stand to gain in campaign
Obama Asks NBC to Draw Up Olympics Ad Packages
Applying a Personal Touch to the Campaign
McCain 'Google Bomb' Project Launched
Does Local TV Care About the News?
JOURNALISM
Reporters Say Networks Put Wars on Back Burner
Study Finds Imbalance on 3 Newspapers Op-Ed Pages
Investigative Journalism Under Fire
The Media's Pro-Business Bias
US Network Falters in Mideast Mission
The Beltway-Blog Battle
The New Fight for Financial News
Delaying News in the Era of the Internet
OECD Discord To The Tune of 'Martin Seoul'
INTERNET/BROADBAND
High-Speed Broadband Access for All Kids: Breaking through the
Barriers
Three Myths About the Internet That Refuse to Die
The three survivors
BROADCASTING/CABLE
Product Placements Get FCC Scrutiny
Senate Clears Way For More DTV Funds
Rep Boucher: DTV Transition Needs Technical Assistance Component
Television Challenges FCC Indecency Authority and Implementation
Net-Affil Peace Raises Troubling Reality
CEA Opposes Waiver For DTA Devices
TELEPHONY
Time to start hanging up on phone service program
FCC sides with cable in Verizon dispute
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
Free Internet is part of new FCC airwaves auction
QUICKLY -- The mobile revolution's hidden cost; Computers in use pass 1 billion mark: Gartner; Google, Yahoo Clients Defend Advertising Partnership; Is the Tyranny of Right-Wing Radio Coming to an End?; Internet extends doctors' reach; Schwarzenegger, Brown ask ISPs to block child porn; French minister attacks TV for tots
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
HOUSE APPROVES SURVEILLANCE BILL, PROTECTS TELECOMS
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
The House of Representatives has approved legislation that would continue a controversial surveillance program at the U.S. National Security Agency with limited court oversight, while likely ending lawsuits against telecommunications carriers that participated in the program. The House on Friday voted 293 to 129 to approve the bill which would extend the NSA surveillance of phone calls and e-mail messages going in and out of the United States, while giving the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) an opportunity to review Bush administration requests for wide-ranging surveillance powers. The bill, called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act, allows the NSA to receive blanket surveillance orders covering multiple suspects of terrorism and other crimes. The bill also sends the dozens of outstanding lawsuits against telecom carriers for their alleged participation in the NSA program to a district court, which will review whether they should be dismissed. The lawsuits would be thrown out if telecom companies can show that the U.S. government issued them orders for the surveillance that were presented as lawful. The U.S. Senate could take up the bill as early as next week. The telecom immunity provisions may face opposition there. Democrats, the majority party in Congress, were split on the bill, with 105 voting for it and 128 against it. Opponents of the bill argued the NSA program violates the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures.
http://benton.org/node/14820
A COMPROMISE ON SURVEILLANCE
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The House compromise represents a major step forward from the Senate's last effort, which included fewer restrictions on surveillance. The House measure won't impede legitimate intelligence operations, and it brings oversight to a program that has operated for too long with too little of it. We are not yet clear of the mess the Bush administration created with its disregard for privacy and personal liberty in this area, but the bill moves us closer to that overdue day.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-fisa23-2008jun23,...
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* Congress wrestles over spying bill (The Christian Science Monitor)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0623/p03s02-uspo.html
HOUSE OPENS HEARINGS ON WHITE HOUSE MANIPULATION OF NEWS MEDIA
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
With echoes of the Watergate hearings, the House Judiciary Committee Friday opened hearings on whether the White House obstructed justice by impeding the investigation into the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame and manipulated the media in making the case for going to war with Iraq. Scott McClellan, President Bushs former press secretary, told the House Judiciary Committee on Friday that he had been unfairly vilified by Bush supporters for his recent book criticizing former White House colleagues over the Iraq war and their involvement in leaking the identity of an intelligence officer. McClellan, however, offered little new information in his testimony on those issues beyond what he wrote in the book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washingtons Culture of Deception.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6571945.html?rssid=193
* Former Bush Aide Testifies About C.I.A. Leak (New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/washington/21aide.html?_r=1&ref=todays...
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
OBAMA'S TECHNOLOGY POLICIES SUGGEST OPEN-INTERNET PUSH
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Fawn Johnson]
Sen Barack Obama (D-IL) is seen as likely to push for key changes in telecommunications policies that would expand Internet businesses if he's elected US president. He supports Network Neutrality legislation which prevents Internet providers from interfering with Web content based on its source or ownership. Internet companies that advocate open online access, such as Google, would be the winners under that scenario. Smaller companies like eBay and Amazon.com also would benefit. Traditional phone and cable companies balk at government mandates for Internet nondiscrimination, saying the industry can best handle network management problems on its own. Obama's presidential rival, Sen John McCain (R-AZ), agrees with the phone and cable companies on network neutrality. Sen McCain has repeatedly used the phrase "market-based" in describing his approach to Internet access and competition. He also has said regulators aren't equipped to anticipate fast-moving industry developments. Not surprisingly, top Google officials aligned themselves with the Obama camp early in the campaign before it was clear he would secure the Democratic nomination.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121398992226092571.html
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* Hey Mr. Obama - What About Fiber? (App-Rising.com)
http://app-rising.com/2008/06/hey_barack_what_about_fiber.html
TV STATIONS STAND TO GAIN IN CAMPAIGN
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: David Lieberman]
Sen Barack Obama's decision to eschew public campaign funds, and spend as much as he wants on his presidential race, gave television executives a rare opportunity to smile. TV station owners including Scripps Howard, Hearst-Argyle and Post Newsweek -- with strong newscasts in hotly contested states including Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan -- stand to benefit most from Obama's plan to blow past the $84 million limit on publicly financed campaigns. Yet the extraordinary amount of cash to be spent on TV ads for Obama and Republican John McCain, who's accepting public limits, also could boost stations that don't usually see a presidential campaign windfall as well as cable networks that want in on the fast-growing political business. Obama's decision "probably adds a couple of states to the (spending) mix," including North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and Arizona, says Evan Tracey, chief operating officer of TNS Media Intelligence's Campaign Media Analysis Group. "He'll go 20 cable channels deep. There won't be something for him that's considered too risky," he says. McCain should still be competitive, even if his campaign has a cap. "The Republican national party has a lot more money than the Democrats," says Leo Kivijarv of PQ Media, a research and analysis firm. Candidates and issue groups at all levels will spend $3 billion on TV ads for this year's election, up from $1.7 billion in 2001 and $1 billion in 2002, TNS says. The presidential campaign will account for about 27% of this year's total. But forces beyond candidates' control may influence where the money goes.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20080623/1b_politics23.art.htm
OBAMA ASKS NBC TO DRAW UP OLYMPICS AD PACKAGES
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
Sen Barack Obama (D-IL) has asked NBC Universal about Olympics advertising. It is not only a sign that the Obama campaign is confident it will continue its steller fundraising, but a signal that a widening field of battle ground states has the candidate contemplating national advertising buys. An Olympic buy could allow Sen Obama to reach a large swath of women. There's also a big difference between Team Obama and Team McCain. Sen. John McCain's campaign has inquired about Olympics rates but hasn't asked for specific packages. Besides, with the Republican candidate lagging far behind in fundraising, such buys would take a huge chunk out of his budget before the conventions. NBC will air 3,600 hours of Olympics coverage on NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network, Oxygen and Telemundo. All the packages presented to the Obama campaign include time on both NBC and cable. No presidential candidate has done any significant buying of network TV ad time since Bob Dole ran in 1996. The only political ads that have aired on any broadcast network in this campaign were two from Rudy Giuliani in consecutive weeks on "Fox News Sunday." Instead, presidential candidates have targeted their ads to battleground states. When they have tried to reach a wider audience, they've gone with national cable. There has been speculation this year that with more states in play this time, the economics of media buying might call for a national overlay to state-by-state ads. But there are costs aside from the high ad prices. The Olympics come pretty early in the presidential process, ahead of both parties' conventions. And the prices of national ads reflect their reach in states such as California, Illinois and New York -- states that are presumably already in Obama's column.
http://adage.com/article?article_id=127880
APPLYING A PERSONAL TOUCH TO THE CAMPAIGN
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz]
In his march to the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen Barack Obama has demonstrated an ability to mesmerize 20,000 people in an arena, but for all his sudden fame, most voters know little about the texture of his life. Now, in ways large and small, he and his staff are trying to add some dabs of color to a gauzy portrait, using media coverage to convey the sense of a down-to-earth fellow.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/22/AR200806...
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MCCAIN 'GOOGLE BOMB' PROJECT LAUNCHED
[SOURCE: TechDailyDose, AUTHOR: ]
Chris Bowers has launched a 'Google bomb' project aimed at boosting Google search results for nine news articles showing presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain in a negative light. Bowers, managing editor of the blog OpenLeft, is reprising a similar effort he undertook in 2006 against 52 different congressional candidates. The articles Bowers is using range from a story about McCain voting to filibuster a minimum wage hike to an item about the Senate passing an expanded GI bill despite opposition from McCain. Bowers is aiming by Labor Day to have three of the nine articles appear in the top 10 search results for "John McCain" and "McCain," three in results 11 through 20 and three more in 21 through 30.
http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2008/06/mccain_google_bomb_proj...
DOES LOCAL TV CARE ABOUT THE NEWS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Meredith McGehee]
[Commentary] June 3 was a historic moment in our nation's history. But if you were watching broadcast television that night, chances are you never would have known it. After a seemingly endless, exorbitantly expensive, hard-fought primary in the first truly open seat presidential election in decades, the presidential candidates for the two major parties were decided. The Democrat Party chose the first African-American to become a presidential candidate for a major party. Only ABC cut away from regularly scheduled programming to cover for 14 minutes the speech by Sen. Barack Obama. CBS showed Obama's speech only on the West Coast where it was not yet primetime. Meanwhile, NBC, according to The New York Times, offered brief cut-ins, encouraging viewers to watch continuing coverage on MSNBC. Instead of seeing Obama give his victory speech, or the speeches by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain or Sen. Hillary Clinton, the public was served the following: 48 Hours Mystery and reruns of NCIS and Without a Trace (CBS), two reruns of Law & Order: SVU and two episodes of Most Outrageous Moments (NBC), reruns of According to Jim, Samantha Who? and Boston Legal (ABC), and Hell's Kitchen and Moment of Truth (Fox). Most Americans spend most of their time watching the local affiliates of the major networks. Americans look to their local broadcasters to define what is important for them to know about. Broadcast television remains where our national conversation takes place. The broadcasters and the national networks should have recognized the importance of June 3. This moment when the broadcasters were AWOL should be Exhibit 1 of why the rules for broadcasters need to be rewritten.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6572129.html
JOURNALISM
REPORTERS SAY NETWORKS PUT WARS ON BACK BURNERS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter]
Getting a story on the evening news isn't easy for any correspondent. And for reporters in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is especially hard, according to Lara Logan, the chief foreign correspondent for CBS News. Five years into the war in Iraq and nearly seven years into the war in Afghanistan, getting news of the conflicts onto television is harder than ever. According to data compiled by Andrew Tyndall, a television consultant who monitors the three network evening newscasts, coverage of Iraq has been massively scaled back this year. Almost halfway into 2008, the three newscasts have shown 181 weekday minutes of Iraq coverage, compared with 1,157 minutes for all of 2007. The CBS Evening News has devoted the fewest minutes to Iraq, 51, versus 55 minutes on ABCs World News and 74 minutes on NBC Nightly News. (The average evening newscast is 22 minutes long.) CBS News no longer stations a single full-time correspondent in Iraq, where some 150,000 United States troops are deployed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/business/media/23logan.html?ref=todays...
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STUDY FINDS IMBALANCE ON 3 NEWSPAPERS' OP-ED PAGES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Richard Perez-Pena]
In the great marketplace of ideas, the opinion pages of major newspapers offer nonjournalists mainly academics a rare chance to reach a big audience and influence public policy. So which college professors win the competition for that limited, coveted space? Overwhelmingly, they agree with the editorial page, and they are men, according to researchers at Rutgers University. Unfortunately, those findings do not suggest the kind of forum for diverse views that newspapers say their opinion pages should be. The authors of the study are Bob Sommer, who teaches public policy communications and is president of Observer Media, publisher of The New York Observer, and John R. Maycroft, a graduate student in public policy. They combed through 366 opinion articles written by college teachers or researchers and published by three newspapers: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Star-Ledger, the largest-circulation newspaper in New Jersey. At each newspaper, 90 to 95 percent of the published articles agreed with the editorial page stance on the issue at hand, they wrote, and when the opinion pieces disagreed, it was usually in a point/counterpoint format where at least one of the authors by definition had to take a view in opposition. The study says that men wrote 78 percent of the academics opinion pieces in The Star-Ledger, 82 percent in The Times, and 97 percent in The Journal. The study will be published in the journal Politics and Policy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/business/media/23editorial.html?ref=to...
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INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM UNDER FIRE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Marisa Guthrie]
Investigations of the rich and powerful, the multinational corporations and monopoly industries, have all but dried up, say a coterie of journalists still trying to ply their trade. To be sure, enterprise reporting on the network level is far from dead. Investigations are, for instance, still staples at 60 Minutes and PBS's Frontline. But the days of news divisions rich with staff and resources claiming multiple hours a week of primetime real estate with newsmagazines are now history. Producers have felt the sting of contracting budgets and swelling corporate concern over the bottom line. Such conditions have been most inhospitable to reporters working on investigations requiring time and resources; these stories are often magnets for legal action.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6572223.html?rssid=193
THE MEDIA'S PRO-BUSINESS BIAS
[SOURCE: The Progress Report, AUTHOR: ]
A new report, "Journalists Give Workers Business," finds that "the media ignores ordinary workers and instead covers economic issues from the perspective of business." The analysis by David Madland, Director of the Center for American Progress' American Worker Project, looked at newspaper and television coverage of unemployment, minimum wage, trade, and credit card debt issues in 2007 and concluded that "the perspective of workers is largely missing from media coverage, while the views of business are frequently presented." A front page story in Wednesday's Washington Post, for instance, asked why Americans are "gloomier than the economy" but avoided talking to a single worker. The article failed to mention that incomes for most workers have declined since 2001, that health care and retirement benefits have become scarcer and more expensive, and that inequality has risen to unprecedented levels. As the report argues, this type of the coverage is the norm, not the exception. All too often the traditional media prefers "elite sources, such as government or business representatives, over ordinary citizens."
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/progressreport
US NETWORK FALTERS IN MIDEAST MISSION
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Craig Whitlock]
A look at al-Hurra, an Arabic-language television network financed by the US government. Al-Hurra -- "The Free One" in Arabic -- is the centerpiece of a US government campaign to spread democracy in the Middle East. Taxpayers have spent $350 million on the project. But more than four years after it began broadcasting, the station is widely regarded as a flop in the Arab world, where it has struggled to attract viewers and overcome skepticism about its mission. Propaganda has become a primary front in the war against terrorism, with the United States and al-Qaeda each investing heavily to win over hearts and minds. This article examines one aspect of the U.S. effort to influence people through the airwaves. Tomorrow, another will look at al-Qaeda's online propaganda campaign. Since its inception, al-Hurra has been plagued by mediocre programming, congressional interference and a succession of executives who either had little experience in television or could not speak Arabic, according to interviews with former staffers, other Arab journalists and viewers in the Middle East. It has also been embarrassed by journalistic blunders.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/22/AR200806...
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THE BELTWAY-BLOG BATTLE
[SOURCE: Time, AUTHOR: James Poniewozik]
The loss of Tim Russert comes just as journalists are feeling besieged. Their bosses are slashing staffs, their advertisers are drifting away, and their prerogatives are being challenged by bloggers and YouTubers: a diffuse army of the uncredentialed, uninhibited and--most terrifyingly--unpaid. In Russert, the press lost its most authoritative mass-market journalist, just as it is losing its authority and its mass market. It's too simple to say that the new media are killing off the old media. Interest in political news is sky-high, and new and old media each need the other to supply material and drive attention. What's happening instead is a kind of melding of roles. Old and new media are still symbiotic, but it's getting hard to tell who's the rhino and who's the tickbird.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1816489,00.html
THE NEW FIGHT FOR FINANCIAL NEWS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ian Austen]
Thomson Reuters is going hard after Bloomberg, which has long been the marquee name on Wall Street for financial information. The companies are in a dead heat: Thomson Reuters has 34 percent of the market for financial data and Bloomberg 33 percent. Thomson Reuters is a far larger, more diverse company: its strength is delivering electronic data and services to professionals, including lawyers, doctors and scientists. It was Bloomberg, however, that defined the market by providing information unmatched in scope by any other company, married to a disciplined and customer-driven culture.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/business/media/23thomson.html?ref=toda...
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DELAYING NEWS IN THE ERA OF THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Noam Cohen]
As long as there is news, people will try to share it. And new technology promises to turn the process into a tide that can swallow us up, good intentions and all.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/business/media/23link.html?ref=todaysp...
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OECD DISCORD TO THE TUNE OF 'MARTIN SEOUL'
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Fifty-five years of peace on the Korean peninsula suffered a minor setback last week after Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin landed in Seoul for a two-day ministerial session of the 30-country Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. According to a published report, Martin held a press conference that U.S. Embassy officials limited to U.S. media outlets, angering an excluded journalist with the Korean Times. Reporter Cho Jin-seo described Martin's press conference as a back-door meeting planned by the FCC, and officials from the U.S. Embassy in Seoul blocked access to reporters from other countries. Cho anonymously quoted an OECD official on the press management ways of U.S. government officials in other parts of the world. They are Americans,'' the OECD official said. They do that in Paris, too. OECD is based in Paris. Cho wrapped up his dispatch by saying an unnamed U.S. Embassy official apologized for any impoliteness shown to excluded reporters.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6572214.html?nid=4262
INTERNET/BROADBAND
HIGH-SPEED BROADBAND ACCESS FOR ALL KIDS: BREAKING THROUGH THE BARRIERS
[SOURCE: State Educational Technology Directors Association, AUTHOR: ]
The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) has released a report addressing the growing concern and critical need for high-speed Internet access among our districts and schools. Although national statistics boast almost 98% connectivity in US schools, the substance and bandwidth of the connection is often problematic and insufficient. High-speed broadband access and connectivity are vital for economic growth, global competitiveness, education, innovation, and creativity. Ensuring high-speed broadband access for all students has become a critical national issue especially when considering the necessity for the use of technology in assessment, accountability, engagement, and preparing our students for work and life in the 21st century.
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=870599
* SETDA report
http://www.setda.org/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=270&name=DLFE-...
THREE MYTHS ABOUT THE INTERNET THAT REFUSE TO DIE
[SOURCE: AlterNet, AUTHOR: Annalee Newitz]
[Commentary] There are three myths about the Internet that refuse to kick the bucket. 1) The Internet is Free: The poisonous part of this myth is that it sets up the false idea that the Internet removes all barriers to free expression. The Internet removes some barriers, but it erects others. You can get a few free minutes online in your local public library, maybe, and set up a Web site using a free service (if the library's filtering software allows that). But will you be able to catch anyone's attention if you publish under those constraints? 2) The Internet Knows No Boundaries: The Internet does have boundaries, and they are often drawn along national lines. 3) The Internet Is Full of Danger: As long as you don't hand out your address to strangers, you've got a cushion of anonymity and protection online that you'll never have in the real world. It's no surprise that our myths of the Internet overestimate both its ability to bring the world together and to destroy us individually.
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/88923/
THE THREE SURVIVORS
[SOURCE: The Economist, AUTHOR: ]
Yahoo, Amazon, eBay -- the only three big Internet firms to have survived since the web's earliest days. Even as hundreds of other dotcoms fell by the wayside at the turn of the century, these three made it through the great Internet crisis and have since prospered, to varying degrees and at different times. Their fates have reflected the evolution of the web as a whole, and now suggest its future direction. For many years eBay and Yahoo! made more money than Amazon, which, as a capital-intensive retailer, struggled longer with losses and then made profits at lower margins. And yet, says Pip Coburn of Coburn Ventures, an investment adviser, Yahoo! is now drifting and eBay is a washed-up quasi-monopoly, whereas Amazon finds itself at the Internet's cutting edge.
http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?sub...
BROADCASTING/CABLE
PRODUCT PLACEMENT GETS FCC SCRUTINY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz, Suzanne Vranica]
Federal regulators are beginning an effort to crack down on stealth advertising in television shows, a move aimed at letting consumers know when companies have paid to use their products as props. This week the Federal Communications Commission is expected to open a formal proceeding about new rules requiring more disclosure of product placement, a technique that has become a critical tool for Madison Avenue. Regulators say they've become more concerned about the issue as TV executives seem to be using more product placements to reach viewers, who are using digital video recorders to skip commercials. The rules wouldn't bar the practice of product placements or other in-show advertising designed to reach consumers who skip commercials. Regulators are mostly interested in improving the amount of disclosure advertisers and producers will have to provide for consumers during the TV programs.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121417741810895461.html?mod=todays_us_ma...
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SENATE CLEARS WAY FOR MORE DTV FUNDS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
In an amendment to the Deficit Reduction Act, the Senate decided to 1) free up "leftover funds" from the DTV-to-analog converter box program to help assist senior citizens minorities and rural viewers in preparing for and making the transition and 2) make funding available to help low-power broadcasters make the switch to digital.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6571824.html?rssid=193
REP BOUCHER: DTV TRANSITION NEEDS TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE COMPONENT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Rep Rick Boucher (D-VA) said that the government's digital television transition plan does not provide any money for new DTV antennas and lacks a technical assistance component, which could prove to be a problem for some viewers still connected to rabbit ears. Rep Boucher said he had lots of rural, elderly, low-income constituents who would have some major challenges with issues like reception via indoor and outdoor antennas. He expects that 10+% of his constituents will need to replace their outdoor antennas. Rep Boucher suggested that the government could take some of the $20 billion in spectrum auction proceeds and "enhance the coupon program, provide technical assistance. He also wants the government to pay for the hardware and labor for replacing antennas.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6572000.html?rssid=193
* Digital TV reception a question (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08174/891593-96.stm
TELEVISION CHALLENGES FCC INDECENCY AUTHORITY AND IMPLEMENTATION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The ABC Television Affiliates Association told a federal court Friday that the Federal Communications Commission was wrong to levy indecency fines on 45 stations for airing a fleeting scene of a nude actress in a 2003 episode of NYPD Blue. The stations were joined by ABC, Fox and NBC in filing briefs at the court Friday and inside all were arguments that fleeting glimpses of "buttocks" are not indecent and a raft of arguments, constitutional and procedural, for overturning the FCC's decision. As had ABC, Fox and NBC in their filings with the court Friday, the affiliates argued that backsides do not meet the FCC's indecency criteria because they are neither sexual nor excretory organs but part of the muscular system. The brief even includes a picture of the iconic 'Coppertone Girl,' the child whose own briefs are lowered by a puppy "on billboards all over America," to illustrate the historical lack of community shock over behinds. But, "even assuming that buttocks are within the FCC's regulatory grasp," the brief said, the FCC was out of line in numerous other ways. They included: that the broadcast was not patently offensive because it was neither explicit or graphic, that it did not dwell upon or repeat it to titillate or shock. "It is impossible to see how the non-sexualized depiction of buttocks for fewer than seven seconds could ever be patently offensive per FCC requirements as measured by contemporary community standards," the they argued. But there was more. The FCC was inconsistently enforcing its rules.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6572207.html?rssid=193
* Fox, NBC Say FCC Lacks Authority to Ban Indecency (Broadcasting&Cable)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6572061.html?rssid=193
NET-AFFIL PEACE RAISES TROUBLING REALITY
[SOURCE: tvnewsday, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
[Commentary] Representatives and the major broadcast networks and their affiliates last week hand-delivered to key Federal Communications Commission officials what amounts to a treaty formally ending seven years of hostilities between them. But Jessell is not sure that this happy state has arrived because the network and affiliates were able to work out their differences over program preemptions. That was never the real issue. He thinks it had far more to do with the networks' changing strategies. Networks are no longer interested in owning more TV stations and are thus no longer a threat to the affiliates. Seven years ago, the networks wanted to raise the FCC cap on station ownership and buy more stations, figuring that that was the best means of capturing a better return on their hefty investment in primetime programming. The affiliates of that day rightly feared that the networks would take away their businesses or their jobs. The affiliates' FCC complaint against the networks was always a small part of the larger battle being waged at the FCC, in Congress and before the federal courts over the station ownership cap. But sometime over the past two or three years, the network decided that owning more TV stations wasn't such a good idea anymore. As if one, they turned their sights to the Internet and to trying to figure out how to exploit it as an alternative outlet for their programming. Ironically, after all the spilt blood in Washington, the networks have been shedding stations. Seven years ago, the affiliates may have feared a network takeover, but at least they could take comfort in knowing they had a business that the networks coveted. They no longer can.
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/06/20/daily.6/
CEA OPPOSES WAIVER FOR DTV DEVISES
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Todd Spangler]
The Consumer Electronics Association said Evolution Broadbands digital-to-analog cable converters should not be granted an exception to the Federal Communication Commissions separable-security mandate, alleging in a filing with the agency that such a waiver would harm the public interest. Evolution Broadband in May asked the FCC for a three-year waiver to the agencys separable security mandate. The company said a waiver would allow its customers to deploy digital-to-analog (DTA) adapters and convert their systems to all-digital operation. For example, Massillon Cable TV in northeast Ohio is in the middle of phasing out analog serviceto unlock as much as 500 Megahertz of spectrumusing some 100,000 DTA devices from Evolution. In its June 16 filing, the CEA said: This is not the time to be introducing new security technologies that are not disclosed or available to competitive entrants, and that cannot be implemented competitively on a nationally portable basis.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6571949.html?nid=4262
TELEPHONY
TIME TO START HANGING UP ON PHONE SERVICE PROGRAM
[SOURCE: Star-Telegram, AUTHOR: Barry Aarons]
[Commentary] The mission of the federal Universal Service Fund was long ago accomplished, but it remain in place continuing to soak up tax dollars and subsidize service. Meanwhile, not only has phone service long since become "universal," but people are actually cancelling their wire lines in favor of other forms of communication, such as wireless. Although the USF has outlived its usefulness, our elected representatives keep it cranking along, even thought they know that the USF no longer maintains any pretense of improving the communications system in America. In fact, instead of going away quietly, the USF has over time expanded its mission, subsidizing broadband Internet access for schools, libraries and other facilities. But even that mission is complete. Yes, the subsidies provided to schools were helpful, but they probably are no longer necessary. Elimination of the cumbersome, outmoded universal service subsidy system would achieve several goals: 1) Reduce average consumer bills by removing the USF fees. 2) Allow state incentives such as tax abatements and deductions to be used more freely to entice development of infrastructure in rural areas. 3) Further development and deployment of new products and services to all customers more evenly and efficiently. Policymakers should learn from the wireless industry, where a generally light regulatory touch or outright forbearance on regulation has allowed wireless not just to flourish in the marketplace but to grow rapidly to the point that more Americans are wireless subscribers than wire-line subscribers. That also raises the question of why is there still a subsidy program for a shrinking communications mode.
http://www.star-telegram.com/242/story/713850.html
FCC SIDES WITH CABLE IN VERIZON SUIT
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: ]
Apparently, the Federal Communications Commission voted on Friday to bar Verizon Communications from marketing to customers to talk them out of a decision to switch their phone service to cable. A majority of the FCC's five commissioners voted to uphold a complaint by cable operators that Verizon improperly used customer data in its marketing efforts to dissuade customers from switching. The FCC faced a midnight deadline for a ruling on the complaint, which was filed in February by Comcast Corp, Time Warner Cable Inc and others.
http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN1937840820080621
* FCC Majority Favors Cable On Verizon Marketing (Broadcasting&Cable)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6572208.html?rssid=193
* Verizon Responds To "Retention-Marketing" Inquiry (Broadcasting&Cable)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6571983.html?rssid=193
* Telecom Titans Tussle Over Pending FCC Proceeding (techDailydose)
http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2008/06/telecom_titans_faceoff_...
* Verizon Can't Solicit Ex-Customers (Wall Street Journal)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121416948691795125.html?mod=todays_us_ma...
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
FREE INTERNET IS PART OF NEW FCC AIRWAVES AUCTION
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Julie Vorman]
The Federal Communications Commission on Friday said it wants to auction a section of wireless airwaves to buyers willing to provide free broadband Internet service without pornography. The agency asked for public comment on its plan to auction an unused portion of the wireless spectrum with the condition that the winning bidder offer free Internet access and filter out obscene content on part of those airwaves. Successful bidders for the spectrum would also be required to provide coverage to at least half of the United States within four years, and to at least 95 percent of the U.S. population by the end of the 10-year license, the FCC said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN2026548420080620
* FCC press release
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-283120A1.doc
* FCC rulemaking proceeding
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-08-158A1.doc
QUICKLY
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION'S HIDDEN COST
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Ken Banks]
[Commentary] Late last year, the mobile phone industry passed a remarkable milestone, one that not so many years ago it didn't even expect to reach: 3 billion mobile phones. There is little doubt that mobile phones are proving incredibly empowering. Mobile technology has indeed revolutionized many aspects of life in the developing world, where the number of mobile connections almost universally overtook the number of fixed lines in the blink of an eye (which is why they're regularly referred to as a "leapfrogging technology"). If further evidence were needed, increasing bodies of research are pointing to mobile penetration as having a strong positive impact on GDP, and for many people, their first telephone call will be on a mobile. Despite the many incredible things happening around the world, one thing that continues to trouble Banks is the environmental impact of the number of mobile phones being manufactured, consumed, and in some cases, dumped.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/06/19/The_mobile_revolutions_hidden_...
COMPUTERS IN USE PASS 1 BILLION MARK: GARTNER
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Tarmo Virki]
The number of personal computers in use around the world has surpassed 1 billion, with strong growth in emerging markets set to double the number of PCs by early 2014, research firm Gartner said on Monday. Mature markets accounted for 58 percent of the first billion installed PCs, but would only account for about 30 percent of the next billion, Gartner said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSL2324525420080623
GOOGLE, YAHOO CLIENTS DEFEND ADVERTISING PARTNERSHIP
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Amy Thomson, Crayton Harrison]
Google, owner of the most popular Internet search engine, may have some unlikely allies in defending its proposed partnership with Yahoo!: the very advertisers that critics say may be hurt by the deal. The views of advertisers may help determine whether the tie-up between the two biggest Internet ad companies passes US government muster. Google already gets $7 of every $10 spent on sponsored search links in the US, according to researcher IDC
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aC75mgm67PNc&refer=t...
IS THE TYRANNY OF RIGHT-WING RADIO COMING TO AN END?
[SOURCE: Media Is Plural, AUTHOR: Rory O'Connor]
[Commentary] Conservative fears of an impending Democratic attack on talk radio - dubbed the Hush Rush effort in an homage to top-rated radio talker Rush Limbaugh continue to escalate, despite ample evidence that such an assault is unlikely to occur when (as is likely) Democrats sweep back into power in the forthcoming elections in November.
http://www.roryoconnor.org/blog/2008/06/20/is-the-tyranny-of-right-wing-...
INTERNET EXTENDS DOCTORS' REACH
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Christy Fricks]
A look at Partners Online Specialty Consultations (POSC). Online second-opinion services offer patients consultations from specialists based on the medical records that they fax, mail or send via the Internet. The average cost, payable upfront via credit card, is $500 to $1,500, depending on the number of radiology or pathology interpretations required. Patients then receive online access to a second opinion in about two weeks.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20080623/bl_cover23_secondopin...
SCHWARZENEGGER, BROWN ASK ISPs TO BLOCK CHILD PORN
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Marguerite Reardon]
California Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and Attorney General Jerry Brown Jr. (D) issued a press release Friday asking Internet service providers in California to follow the lead of Verizon Communications, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint in "removing child pornography from existing servers and blocking channels" that disseminate the illegal material.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9973966-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=...
FRENCH MINISTER ATTACKS TV FOR TOTS
[SOURCE: Variety, AUTHOR: David Hayhurst]
French culture and communications minister Christine Albanel has called for greater awareness among broadcasters and parents of the potential dangers of TV aimed at very young children, such as US-based channels Baby TV and BabyFirst. In response to a report by Frances Directorate General of Health warning against channels for children under three years of age, irrespective of the type of programming, Albanel said Friday, I want to tell parents not to use these channels. They bombard children with images and sounds. We do not know what effects this may have on such young people.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117987828.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&nid=...