September 2009

[Commentary] There are several rather astounding things about the current campaign of Glenn Beck against various Administration appointees. Most astounding, however, has been the Obama Administration reaction to date: quick capitulation in the face of relatively small pressure. Indeed, one of the reasons there was so little initial defense of Van Jones in progressive circles was because most of us were unaware of the attack until the Van Jones' "resignation." As compared to previous campaigns in the Clinton years or Bush years to oust various officials, pressure to fire Van Jones had not even approached noticeable, let alone "scary." The Van Jones firing proved a major strategic blunder. It infuriated the Netroots and younger civil rights constituencies, who felt betrayed, and it emboldened Beck and his following to seek new "kills." It also demonstrated the truth of Feld's Rule of Political Power: "Your political power is directly related to your perceived ability to cause pain." Among the latest targets of Beck and his followers is Mark Lloyd at the Federal Communications Commission. I've known Mark for some years and consider him friend, so I am hardly the most impartial of defenders here. Besides, my Public Knowledge colleague Art Brodsky and others have written strong personal defenses of Mark and debunked the charges against him as well or better than I could. Nor is my purpose here merely to fulfill my Biblical obligation not to suffer "a tale bearer among thy people, nor stand by the blood of thy neighbor" (Lev. 19:16) by re-iterating the defense of Mark Lloyd.

As expected, the Justice Department has demanded more information about the Microsoft-Yahoo search deal. Yahoo has less reason to worry than it did when it was courting Google, but at the very least, it will be a while before the deal is approved. Over the course of the review, the companies expect to be asked about their search engine investments to ensure that Microsoft's search engine Bing is a viable product, how the companies' online ad auctions operate, and what might happen to prices as a result of the combination. The DoJ is also interested in seeing search engine product plans from both companies to see if competition will become more vigorous or not.

As has been reported everywhere, dissatisfaction with Nielsen is nothing new. And past efforts to fund a true challenger to Nielsen have failed. Is this time different? Maybe. First things first. There are myriad issues with set-top box data. First, it's interesting that the folks who have the data—the cable operators, satellite providers, and the telcos who provide video—are not members of the coalition. Secondly, there aren't any standards thus far for gathering data from the boxes. And what about the fact that the boxes are not in the homes of many minorities? There are issues of getting enough information on a national basis, issues about privacy, and issues about getting demographic data. So clearly, in its initial stages, the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM ) is an attempt to stimulate research at the set top box level, to create a common platform for analyzing that kind of census level data and to find constructive ways to stimulate discussion. Moving forward, if the many challenges can be met, perhaps CIMM can develop a currency with which to base the buying of ad time across myriad platforms. And that's a prospect that should keep Nielsen executives up at night.

A leading government online learning program that serves as a model for job training programs in China soon will allow federal employees to use more social media tools for training. The Agriculture Department's program, AgLearn, is scheduled for an upgrade to a new version of its supporting software, allowing it to provide its employees with blogs and wikis related to their training, Stanley Gray, USDA's director of e-training told a group of Chinese trainers at a session organized by the World Bank in Washington on Thursday.