October 2010

MEDIA AND ELECTIONS

POLITICIANS DUCK PRESS
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] In this campaign season, instead of running toward the news media, more candidates than usual are running away. Some are seeking to control their messages by shopping for outlets they perceive as friendly, by ducking the national news media, or by avoiding debates. It's a nice trick for candidates -- particularly uninformed novices afraid of unscripted gaffes -- but a dirty trick on voters, who are losing what little opportunity they have in this age of sound bites to see how candidates deal with tough, independent questioning. The situation has become so bad that Politico has dubbed this the "year of the missing candidate." In part, the trend is an escalation of the adversarial relationship candidates have always had with reporters who break unflattering stories that office-seekers wish never became public. In the past, though, most candidates had to deal with all comers -- those they liked and those they didn't -- or risk failing to get their messages out. What's different today is that the rise of cable's conservative Fox News and its left-leaning rival MSNBC has given candidates outlets where they believe they can get kid-gloves treatment -- and sometimes do. When former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin advised one Republican to "speak through Fox News," other conservatives took heed. Many have sought to shun the broader press and, by extension, the public. While this is mostly a conservative phenomenon, some Democrats have adopted the same arrogant attitude. How have candidates tried to avoid accountability? Ducking debates. Playing hide and seek. Picking favorite reporters. Acting thuggish. A lot of this is as absurd as it sounds: Candidates running for election running from the public. Campaigns are meant to test the candidates' views on the issues, their character, their intelligence and their ability to weather the rough and tumble that governing will entail. If candidates are afraid to answer questions, and prefer to hide behind handlers and TV commercials, you have to wonder about their fitness for public office.
benton.org/node/44100 | USAToday | candidates respond to USAToday
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THE TEA PARTY AND THE MEDIA
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Amy Gardner]
Most local tea party organizers interviewed in an extensive canvass this month by The Washington Post said media coverage of their groups has been fair, suggesting that perceptions of antagonism between the tea party and traditional news media are overstated. Seventy-six percent of local organizers said that coverage of their groups is either very fair or somewhat fair. Only 8 percent said coverage has been very unfair; 15 percent said somewhat unfair. The canvass showed that more than three-fourths of group leaders said their activities have received local media coverage, revealing the depth of the news media's -- and the public's -- fascination with the tea party. Media coverage of the tea party has evolved markedly since the groups first began forming in February 2009. Major news outlets paid little attention to the first wave of tax-day protests in April 2009 and even a large march the following September in Washington. But attention quickly focused on the impassioned and sometimes-raucous protests that tea party activists continued to stage, notably those leading up to passage of the health-care overhaul law. Accusations by members of Congress that protesters had hurled epithets prompted a wave of media coverage over whether the tea party was based on anti-Obama racism. A string of stories focused on the racially charged statements and signs of certain protesters. Such coverage drew criticism from Sarah Palin and other conservative leaders. But as media outlets have spent more time following tea party protesters around the country -- and as more studied analyses of the movement and its members have emerged -- the coverage has grown more nuanced.
benton.org/node/44099 | Washington Post
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SUPREME COURT WAS WRONG
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: David Savage]
The Supreme Court sent a wave of corporate and union money flooding into campaign ads this year, but it did so with the promise that the public would know -- almost instantly -- who was paying for them. "With the advent of the Internet, prompt disclosure of expenditures can provide shareholders and citizens with the information needed to hold corporations and elected officials accountable for their positions," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in January. "This transparency enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and messages." But Justice Kennedy and the high court majority were wrong. Because of loopholes in tax laws and a weak enforcement policy at the Federal Election Commission, corporations and wealthy donors have been able to spend huge sums on campaign ads, confident the public will not know who they are, election law experts say. Corporate donors have been able to hide their contributions despite the opposition of shareholders and customers -- the very groups cited by Justice Kennedy. By an overwhelming margin, shareholders say they don't want their companies devoting money to political ads. Customers are also easily angered by corporate political stands.
benton.org/node/44098 | Los Angeles Times
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BROADCASTERS WIN
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Bill Mann]
[Commentary] Want to know who the big winners will be next Tuesday on Election Day? That's already been decided. The answer: Your local broadcasters. It's something most voters don't stop to consider in all the uproar about negative ads, Citizens' United, and the need for campaign finance reform. The people who are making most -- over 90%, by most estimates -- of the money from all the obnoxious and ubiquitous ads this fall have names unfamiliar to most people: Belo, Young Broadcasting, Cox, Fisher Broadcasting, Media General. And big names, of course, like ABC, Tribune, Gannett, NBC Universal. Why don't we see any stories about the broadcasters feasting at the trough each election year? Simple: They own the stations that would air those stories. And they're not about to assign them, either. (We gotcha "public service" right here, pal).
benton.org/node/44088 | Huffington Post, The
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JOURNALISM

AMERICA'S DEGRADED DEBATE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Jurek Martin]
[Commentary] Contrary to majority opinion in the US media, National Public Radio was perfectly within its rights -- and was right -- to fire Juan Williams for last week's comments that Muslims made him nervous on airplanes, delivered on the Fox TV network. It is less a question of what he said than where he said it. I would go further. NPR should have fired him years ago, on the grounds that running off at the mouth in the putrid kitchen that is talk media is inconsistent with the higher standards of objectivity practised at NPR. NPR should also tell Mara Liasson, another staffer who appears regularly on Fox (as a liberal punching bag for the conservative heavies) that she has a choice to make; stick with her employers, or change partners for the (fleeting) fame and fortune that Rupert Murdoch is accustomed to dangling. The Williams incident also served to remind how degraded political debate has become. In conservative demonology - exemplified by, but not confined to, Fox -- NPR stands as a redoubt of the "far left," a bastion of political correctness and guilty of closet racism, all accusations now laid at its door by the once progressive Williams. In reality, it is the closest America comes to the BBC, wielding its liberal tendencies with a small stick. It is also a bit smug and boring and, fair enough, politically correct.
benton.org/node/44096 | Financial Times
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TELEVISION

NEW WRINKLE IN FOX-CABLEVISION DISPUTE
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Mike Farrell]
Fox Networks kicked its retransmission consent battle with Cablevision Systems up a notch, firing off a cease and desist letter to the cable company claiming that it is encouraging theft of copyrighted content. The source of Fox's ire is a report that some of the cable company's customer service reps are directing customers who call in to complain about missing sports on Fox to websites that offer the programming illegally. "This is an obvious tactic from News Corp, which blocked the Internet, to shift focus away from their pulling the plug on 3 million New York households," Cablevision said. "Fox should cease and desist its World Series blackout, put its programming back on Cablevision and agree to binding arbitration."
The companies also sent the Federal Communications Commission additional comments, replying to letters each company sent to the FCC on Oct 25.
benton.org/node/44091 | Multichannel News | NY Daily News | MediaWeek | Fox replies to Comcast | Cablevision replies to Fox
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SHORTER TV ADS
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Emily Fredrix]
TV commercials are shrinking along with attention spans and advertising budgets. The 15-second ad is increasingly common, gradually supplanting the 30-second spot just as it knocked off the full-minute pitch decades ago. For viewers, it means more commercials in a more rapid-fire format. For advertisers, shorter commercials are a way to save some money, and research shows they hold on to more eyeballs than the longer format. "It used to be that the most valuable thing on the planet was time, and now the most valuable thing on the planet is attention," says John Greening, associate professor at Northwestern University's journalism school and a former executive vice president at ad agency DDB Chicago. The number of 15-second television commercials has jumped more than 70 percent in five years to nearly 5.5 million last year, according to Nielsen. They made up 34 percent of all national ads on the air last year, up from 29 percent in 2005. Commercial-skipping digital video recorders and distractions such as laptops and phones have shortened viewers' attention spans, says Deborah Mitchell, executive director of the Center for Brand and Product Management at the University of Wisconsin. Viewers are also watching TV streamed on sites like Hulu, where advertisers have less of a presence. So companies figure: "Why spend money on anything longer anyway? Plus, if they're going to skip our ads, at least we have a better chance of them seeing something if it's really short."
benton.org/node/44094 | Associated Press
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UNIVISION AIMS FOR #1
[SOURCE: AdWeek AUTHOR: Steve McClellan]
As the demographic balance of the nation tilts away from an Anglo majority, the largest TV network in the country will soon be Hispanic. Univision CEO Joe Uva is confident they're on target to achieve this in as little as three years. But will advertisers follow? With double-digit ratings growth so far this season, Univision is off to a better start than any of the major English-language nets. Uva believes he has the wind at his back in the ratings race. The new Census is expected to show a nearly 45 percent increase in the number of Hispanic Americans since 2000, to a total of 50 million. This couples with continuing audience erosion at the major networks and Univision's recent deal with Mexican programmer Grupo Televisa, which locks up the source of much the network's popular programming for at least another decade. A network researcher ran calculations that concluded Univision could surpass the Anglo networks in seven years, even without the boost provided by growth in the Hispanic population.
benton.org/node/44061 | AdWeek AUTHOR: Steve McClellan
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OWNERSHIP

RUSH ASKS FCC TO APPROVE COMCAST DEAL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Add Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) to the list of legislators who have asked the Federal Communications Commission to approve the Comcast-NBC Universal deal. In a letter to all five FCC commissioners, Rep Rush said that the deal should be approved before the end of the year so the public can "reap the benefits without delay." He did not ask for any conditions on the deal, according to a copy of the letter. Rep Rush cited Comcast's diversity commitments to ownership, programming, procurement, employment and more as argument for that public benefit, particularly for minority business owners who will get to control 10 new cable channels over the next eight years and the more immediate opportunity to own an Los Angeles TV station. Comcast is divesting the station and has pledged to seek a minority buyer. He also cited pledges to make more diverse on demand content available and to put $20 million into a venture capital fund.
Rep Rush, also told the FCC that former agency chairman Kevin Martin's new role as the voice of opposition against the proposed Comcast-NBC Universal merger is "highly suspect." Martin is representing a half-dozen clients opposed to the deal and is a principle of one of them: the National Coalition of African American Owned Media. The coalition has close ties with the Entertainment Studios, a black-owned enterprise that is one of the few, or perhaps only, programmers that would benefit financially from the conditions being sought by the African American group.
benton.org/node/44090 | Broadcasting&Cable | National Journal
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WHY DOES BLOOMBERG CARE ABOUT COMCAST DEAL?
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
Why does Bloomberg, best known for its financial terminals, care about the merger between Comcast and NBC Universal? The television dial. Specifically, Bloomberg is concerned that a merger of the cable and media giants could relegate rivals -- such as the Bloomberg TV channel -- to cable television's boonies. The New York-based financial information powerhouse has met with members of the Federal Communications Commission to ask that any approval of the merger come with the condition that Comcast put the Bloomberg TV channel near competitor CNBC. It may sound like an old media problem, but analysts and legal experts say Bloomberg's concerns about its television interests point to broader questions about how a combined Comcast-NBC Universal could unfairly use its clout to undercut competitors.
benton.org/node/44087 | Washington Post
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

HOLDER ON D-BLOCK SPECTRUM
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Attorney General Eric Holder said that trying to resolve the dispute over what should be done with a chunk of spectrum that public safety officials want to use for an interoperable public safety broadband network and the Federal Communications Commission wants to auction is one of his department's top priorities. In a speech to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which along with other public safety groups has called for Congress to reallocate the D-block spectrum for public safety use, AG Holder said the Justice Department has "facilitated a series of discussions concerning the public safety broadband network, including the future of the D-block." He said the department, working with the relevant stakeholders, has been trying to "determine a path forward" to make sure the "communication needs of state, local, and tribal law enforcement are met." AG Holder added, "This is a Cabinet-level priority. It is a Justice Department priority. And I will continue to advocate for meaningful, affordable access to radio spectrum when and where you need it. This continues to be a personal priority for me."
benton.org/node/44089 | National Journal | read the speech
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

BIP WIRELESS GRANTS
[SOURCE: NetworkWorld, AUTHOR: Brad Reed]
Broadband fans living in some rural areas of the country won't have to wait for Clearwire, Verizon or AT&T to deploy 4G services in their areas. That's because the Department of Agriculture has awarded broadband stimulus grants of more than $500 million to 40 companies to deploy WiMAX services in 22 states. The grants, recently awarded by the Rural Utility Service Fund's second round of grants, will go toward building high-speed networks in areas that so far have had to rely on dial-up connections to log onto the Web. Two prominent companies to win major grants include EcliptixNet Broadband, a rural-focused ISP in Washington state, and DigitalBridge Communications, an ISP in Virginia that delivers wireless Internet services to Virginia, Mississippi, Indiana, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. EcliptixNet received the larger grant, getting a total of $20.4 million to build out a mobile WiMAX network in rural Washington that will cover 46,000 rural homes, while DigitalBridge has received $7.5 million in grants to build out WiMAX networks in Idaho, Indiana and Mississippi.
benton.org/node/44065 | NetworkWorld
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INVESTING IN BROADBAND
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
[Commentary] Why haven't we been reinvesting the proceeds from our previous spectrum auctions into building up our nation's broadband infrastructure? The Federal Communications Commission has raised about $50 billion over the last decade selling off our country's spectrum assets. So where does that money go? Back into the federal treasury, never to be heard from again. But why are we doing that? The most common refrain in debates around how to overcome our country's broadband limitations is the lack of federal dollars to make a real difference. We've been told that we've got the $7 billion a year in Universal Service Fund to reform and rededicate to broadband, and the one-time $7 billion of the stimulus and that's about it. But everyone knows reforming USF is going to be a mess that'll likely take years to resolve before those funds are being invested in broadband. The sad reality is that we've spent $70 billion over the last decade largely subsidizing non-broadband communications, which is really pretty silly given that this represented the first ten years of the 21st century. And at the same time, everyone acknowledges that the broadband stimulus is but a drop in the bucket relative to what our country's needs are. Imagine if instead of just dumping that money back into the treasury we'd instead had an ongoing comprehensive plan to build up an open fiber network connecting every school in the country. We probably could have that built by now for $50 billion. That'd mean that today all students would have access to robust Internet in the classroom, instead of the reality we're in where a huge percentage of schools are stuck paying too much for not enough bandwidth.
benton.org/node/44064 | App-Rising.com
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NEWS FROM COURT

JUDGE BACKS AMAZON
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
Judge Marsha Pechman has blocked North Carolina's Department of Revenue request for names and addresses information from Amazon for purchases by NC residents. Although the state said it did not need or want specific item information, and that it had removed the initial Amazon database dump from its computers, it continued to hang onto the CDs holding this information. Combining that information with names and addresses would allow the state to see a person's entire seven-year Amazon purchase history. Amazon objected to the request on First Amendment grounds. It did not object to the state's request for tax information, but it refused to turn over personally identifying information so long as the state could link this to individual purchases. Judge Pechman ruled: "The First Amendment protects a buyer from having the expressive content of her purchase of books, music, and audiovisual materials disclosed to the government," wrote Pechman. "Citizens are entitled to receive information and ideas through books, films, and other expressive materials anonymously... The fear of government tracking and censoring one's reading, listening, and viewing choices chills the exercise of First Amendment rights."
benton.org/node/44082 | Ars Technica | WashPost | National Journal
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LIMEWIRE SHUT DOWN
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Yinka Adegoke, Jonathan Stempel]
Federal Judge Kimba Wood granted the music industry's request to shut down the popular LimeWire file-sharing service, which had been found liable for copyright infringement. The ruling halts one of the world's biggest services for letting consumers share music, movies and TV shows for free over the Internet. Saying that LimeWire's parent Lime Wire LLC intentionally caused a "massive scale of infringement" involving thousands of works, Judge Wood issued a permanent injunction that requires the company to disable its "searching, downloading, uploading, file trading and/or file distribution functionality."
benton.org/node/44084 | Reuters
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PRIVACY

ROCKEFELLER'S PRIVACY CONCERNS
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Eliza Krigman]
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller sent letters to Facebook and MySpace requesting more information about privacy breaches. Users of Facebook and MySpace have had their personal information transferred to third-party companies without their knowledge. "These reports raise serious questions about social networking sites' commitment to enforcing their own privacy policies on behalf of consumers," Chairman Rockefeller (D-WV) said. "I intend to find out whether today's social networking sites are adequately protecting their users' personal information." In his letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman Rockefeller expressed concern that if the Journal repot is accurate, "the privacy of tens of millions of Facebook users could be seriously compromised in violation of the company's stated policy." Among the information Chairman Rockefeller is seeking includes the number of personnel Facebook dedicates to monitoring and enforcing its third-party application providers' compliance with Facebook's privacy policy and whether the social networking site imposes penalties on application operators and websites that violate Facebook's privacy policy. "We look forward to addressing any confusion that has resulted from the Wall Street Journal article and we're happy to work with Sen. Rockefeller to answer any questions he may have," Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said. "The underlying issue raised in the article isn't at all specific to Facebook and has existed across the Internet for years. The issue is caused by an inherent weakness in how web browsers work, particularly the amount of information about a user that browsers shared with visited websites."
benton.org/node/44063 | National Journal | The Hill | read the letters
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EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

DISASTER RECOVERY PLAN
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Chris Strohm]
The Homeland Security Department has not developed an effective way to ensure that critical national infrastructure, such as electrical grids and telecommunications networks, can bounce back from a disaster, government auditors have found. In response to criticism from lawmakers and private-industry officials, DHS has emphasized the need for critical infrastructure to be resilient, meaning it has the ability to absorb and recover from a natural disaster or terrorist attack. Critical infrastructure generally refers to structures and systems, whether physical or virtual, that are vital to national security, economic security, and public health. The department has conducted surveys and vulnerability assessments of critical infrastructure to identify gaps, but has not developed a way to measure whether owners and operators of that infrastructure adopt measures to reduce risks, the Government Accountability Office said in a report. "DHS's efforts to incorporate resiliency into the programs it uses to work with asset owners and operators is evolving, but program management could be strengthened," GAO wrote. To that end, GAO recommended that Homeland Security officials "develop performance measures to assess the extent to which asset owners and operators are taking actions to resolve resiliency gaps identified during the various vulnerability assessments."
benton.org/node/44062 | National Journal | read the report
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HEALTH

HIT PANEL NEEDS FEEDBACK
[SOURCE: GovernemntHealthIT, AUTHOR: Mary Mosquera]
A Health & Human Service Department panel has asked the public to comment on how to set up a governing system for the nationwide health information network (NHIN) so providers can start using its services to exchange patient data. The request was made by the governance workgroup of the Health IT Policy Committee, which is developing final recommendations on the matter. Dr. John Lumpkin, chairman of the work group, has called governance the foundation of health information exchange because it offers confidence that all participants participate according to established rules, such as applying appropriate privacy and security protections. The Office of the National Coordinator has said it plans to release a proposed rule in early 2011 on NHIN governance.
benton.org/node/44080 | GovernemntHealthIT | HHS
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EHRs CUT LONG-TERM COSTS
[SOURCE: Health Data Management, AUTHOR: Joseph Goedert]
A report from the Medical Group Management Association finds significant financial benefits to using an electronic health records system. MGMA reports that independent practices had a median of $49,916 more revenue after operating costs per full-time physician in 2009 than paper-based practices. Hospital- or delivery system-owned multi-specialty practices with an EHR had a median operating margin in 2009 of $42,042 more than paper-based practices. The highest information technology costs for non-owned practices occurs in the first year after installation, according to the report, with medical records and transcription costs deceasing in subsequent years. Median information technology staffing per FTE physician increases slightly after five years from 0.13 to 0.15, but medical records staff per physician falls by 44 percent from 0.34 to 0.19, according to the report. After five years of EHR use, surveyed independent practices reported a median operating margin of 10.1 percent higher than practices in their first year of using an EHR.
benton.org/node/44079 | Health Data Management | link to report
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IT HELPS HEART DISEASE PREVENTION
[SOURCE: HealthcareITNews, AUTHOR: Molly Merrill]
An intensive population management program that matches heart disease patients to personal nurses and clinical pharmacy specialists is able to save lives, reduce hospital visits and drive down costs, according to a new study from Kaiser Permanente Colorado. Researchers in the study examined healthcare expenditures in two populations of patients with heart disease: a group of 628 people enrolled in the Kaiser Permanente Collaborative Cardiac Care Service (CCS), a population disease management program, and 628 matched patients receiving standard care. The goal of the study was to determine if an intensive disease management program could provide more value than usual care. Electronic medical records and computerized disease registries helped the clinicians in the study coordinate the care. For example, the electronic tools notify the clinical pharmacist if a patient forgets to pick up a prescription or a cholesterol test shows a change in medication is needed. Using this electronic data, clinical pharmacists can proactively outreach to the patient to support them in making necessary changes. The study found that patients cared for by the CCCS experienced superior health outcomes. As compared to patients receiving usual care, enrollees in the CCCS had better cholesterol control, were more likely to be screened and adhere to important medications like statins, and had far fewer hospitalizations. Overall, CCCS patients had an 89 percent reduction in overall mortality and 88 percent reduction in cardiac mortality compared with patients receiving standard care.
benton.org/node/44078 | HealthcareITNews | see the report
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POLICYMAKERS

FCC LAUNCHES THE TECHNOLOGY EXPERIENCE CENTER
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Managing Director announced that it is accepting donations for the new FCC Technology Experience Center (FCC TEC), an on-site technology lab that will provide FCC employees and invited guests hands-on experience with the latest communications devices and solutions. The Technology Experience Center will provide access to an array of technical communications devices designed for personal or business use. "Today's world of technology is always changing, and we are establishing the Technology Experience Center to allow FCC employees to keep pace with this change," said Steven VanRoekel, the FCC's Managing Director. "The goal of FCC TEC is to promote better employee understanding of the current state of technology in the industries in which the Commission oversees."
benton.org/node/44083 | Federal Communications Commission | B&C
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October 2010

Smartphone makers ready to wage war on radio over FM chip mandate

Law Professors Urge Obama To Fix ACTA

Zell's Tribune and the Hidden Costs of Bad Management

How Google Instant Is Influencing Elections

How Campaigns Will Use Online Tools in the 2010 Elections Crunch

Ed-Tech Industry Sees Uptick in Mergers and Acquisitions

Genachowski's Response Senators Regarding Early Termination Fees and Bill Shock

Chairman Genachowski's Response to Members of Congress Regarding the FCC's Retransmission Consent Rules

Genachowski's Response to Senators Regarding FCC's Review of its Broadcast Ownership Rules

October 27, 2010 (Elections, journalism, and ads)