September 2009

The blogosphere last week was even more devoted to the death of Senator Ted Kennedy than the mainstream press. And in a sign that social media is not all twenty-somethings whose political memory dates back only to the mid-90s, the posts were filled with personal tributes and remembrances-from both sides of the ideological spectrum. The death of the long-time senator received 38.7% of the links in blogs, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. This outpaced the 27% of the mainstream media newshole devoted to Kennedy, according to PEJ'S News Coverage Index, and made it the biggest weekly story in blogs since the Iranian elections the week of June 15th-19th.

[Commentary] Stupid design blunders have resulted in tremendous user dissatisfaction in the way U-verse digital public, education and government (PEG) services are being delivered. These blunders, coupled with another controversy involving digital PEG channels, could seriously impact the cable industry.

The problems led to two FCC complaints from the city of Lansing (MI) and from an alliance of community programming groups. But the FCC, rather than dealing separately with the limitations of AT&T U-verse technology, combined them into the same docket as another dispute, a lawsuit to stop a cable operator (Comcast, in this case) from digitally encoding PEG channels to free up 6 MHz analog channel spectrum.

This is a very important issue for the cable industry. It's too bad the FCC combined the relatively straightforward Comcast controversy with the complete mess created by AT&T and Microsoft. But perhaps it is understandable, because both controversies deal with the scope of Section 623(b)(7) of the Communications Act, which says that PEG channels must be carried on the basic tier. That federal law only applies to cable operators if they are rate-regulated and not yet subject to effective competition. But the complainants want that limitation to be swept away. They want an FCC rule saying how cable systems must carry PEG channels, even when subject to effective competition. And they want broad new non-discrimination rules, requiring analog delivery of PEG channels so long as any analog channels are carried, in spite of the efficiencies of digital technology.

In summary, the goal of the complainants in both of these cases is to get the FCC to enact broad new federal requirements for PEG channels affecting all cable operators. That won't happen, but AT&T and Microsoft deserve at least a spanking and an admonition to get their house in order. Meanwhile, cable industry lawyers have to deal with more than 6,000 comments in the docket, most of them identical form letters, saying "AT&T and Comcast have been illegally discriminating against PEG channels." The community programming advocates sure know how to crank up a letter-writing campaign, but suing the cable company to stop the conversion of PEG channels to digital is as ridiculous as suing a dry cleaner for $50 million for losing a pair of pants.

Progressive think tanks gained in media prominence over 2008, despite overall think tank citations declining for the fourth year in a row. The 25 most-cited think tanks in major U.S. media received 13,149 citations in 2008, a 6 percent decline from 2007 levels. The decline primarily hit conservative or right-leaning think tanks, whose share of citations in corporate media fell from 36 percent to 31 percent in 2008 , while progressive or left-leaning think tanks--the only group to actually see an increase in their total citations--went from 17 percent to 21 percent. Centrist think tanks saw little change, still beating both ends of the spectrum with 48 percent of total citations, versus 47 percent in 2007. The overall decline in think tank citations, now in its fourth year, is quite likely simply a reflection of the changing media landscape. As noted last year, the decrease in citations primarily comes from newspapers, not television; as newspapers fold and those that survive shrink their newshole, the overall news output by the outlets surveyed is decreasing. National and international news--the areas national think tanks would most likely be quoted on--are shrinking the fastest of all.