Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is reintroducing legislation intended to better protect citizens' personal information. The bill would increase criminal penalties for identity theft involving electronic data and criminalize intentional or willful concealment of a security breach. Chairman Leahy said passage of the measure, which would pre-empt a patchwork of state data breach laws, is among his top legislative priorities.
A temporary dip in television viewing after the transition to digital TV broadcasting has ended. Viewing levels have been returning in the ensuing weeks, according to Nielsen. Nielsen also says that most of the homes that got digital-ready in the months just prior to the switch did so by installing a converter box rather than signing up for a multichannel service, though that multichannel pick-up number was still over 20%, and translated to hundreds of thousands of new homes. Nielsen attributes the drop in part to households that had to re-scan for DTV channels or get a new antenna after the switch, noting that the stations most affected by the switch were those that moved from a UHF DTV channel to a VHF DTV channel.
Faced with issues ranging from online ads to copyright laws, Google spent $950,000 lobbying Washington in the second quarter, according to a federal government database. The amount compares with the $880,000 that Google spent on lobbying in the first quarter--and the $2.84 million it spent for all of 2008. Among the issues that Google lobbied on: intellectual property, copyright related to the Google Book Search settlement, and privacy and competition surrounding online advertising. Google has been under fire from the Justice Department over the company's settlement of a lawsuit with book publishers on digital rights issues.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski has been named Defense Commissioner; Commissioner Michael Copps will serve as Alternate Defense Commissioner for a term of one year. The Defense Commissioner "directs the homeland security, national security and emergency preparedness, and defense activities of the Commission." The duties and responsibilities of the Defense Commissioner include, inter alia:
1) representing the Commission in interagency matters pertaining to public safety, homeland security, national security, emergency preparedness, disaster management, and defense and related matters, including matters pertaining to continuity of the essential functions of the Commission under emergency conditions;
2) serving as the principal point of contact for the Commission on all matters pertaining to the Department of Homeland Security;
3) serving as a member of the Joint Telecommunications Resources Board (JTRB);
4) developing emergency programs covering service provision by wireless and wireline telecommunications carriers and broadcast, cable, and satellite facilities, as well as radio frequency assignment, investigation, and enforcement; and
5) assuming the duties of the Commission under certain emergencies.
The Alternate Defense Commissioner is authorized to perform the functions of the Defense Commissioner if he or she is not available.
Time magazine recently asked its readers: "Now that Walter Cronkite has passed on, who is America's most trusted newscaster?" The options respondents were asked to choose among for the poll were...narrow -- Katie Couric, Charlie Gibson, and Brian Williams -- and...Jon Stewart.
Bankrupt newspaper publisher Tribune Co has asked a federal bankruptcy judge to approve its plan to pay bonuses to its top employees. The company, which publishes the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, is seeking permission to continue its incentive plan that calls for bonuses of tens of millions in 2009 to 720 management employees, including its top 10 executives, according to documents filed Wednesday in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware. The incentive plan calls for paying up to $35 million in a pool, as well paying 23 leaders of key operations a total of $9.3 million and another $3.1 million in all to nine of its top 10 executives. A hearing on the request is scheduled for August 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
[Commentary] Advertising-supported journalism is dead. We should use this moment to restructure the media along more democratic lines. If we don't start rethinking the entire media system, and building the political will to change it, newspapers selling access for money may be the least of our worries.
[Commentary] Standardized smart data input and straight-forward, computer-programmed analysis will make conflicts of interest leap out at reporters. Rather than ending a golden age of watchdog journalism, new information technology may be offering us the opportunity to start one. But like putting a man on the moon, automating watchdog journalism requires more than just technology. It requires elected leaders motivated by a bold vision and the will to overcome many great obstacles; in this case, primarily political obstacles. Such leaders may be in short supply, but they are the ones who leave the greatest mark on history.
The Associated Press has taken the first move to protect its content online, with plans to create a news registry to tag and track all AP online content "to assure compliance with terms of use," according to an announcement following a board decision. "The system will register key identifying information about each piece of content that AP distributes as well as the terms of use of that content, and employ a built-in beacon to notify AP about how the content is used," it adds. "What we are building here is a way for good journalism to survive and thrive," Dean Singleton, chairman of the AP Board of Directors and vice chairman and CEO of MediaNews Group Inc, said in a statement. "The AP news registry will allow our industry to protect its content online, and will assure that we can continue to provide original, independent and authoritative journalism at a time when the world needs it more than ever." AP added that the registry would initially cover all AP text content online, and be extended to AP members in early 2010: "Eventually, it will be expanded to cover photos and video as well. AP will fund development and operation of the registry through 2010, until it becomes self-sustaining."
Blogs, Twitter and YouTube last week each led with very different stories, and none of them overlapped with the leading subjects in traditional media, according to the New Media Index by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. While the mainstream press attended to the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, social media showed very little interest in the largely drama-free proceedings. There, Sarah Palin and Iran were the biggest topics along with a number of unusual stories on subjects such as manipulative cats, hungry robots and Twitter technology. In fact, of the top 10 stories in the traditional press last week, only one-the health care debate-also showed up among the leading stories in the blogosphere or on Twitter.
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