October 2010

Members of what US conservatives call the "mainstream media" know they are viewed as opponents by the Tea Party movement. But few expect to be handcuffed when they turn up at campaign events.

However bizarre in its particulars, the arrest on Sunday of Tony Hopfinger, a journalist, by security guards working for Joe Miller, Alaska's Tea Party-backed Republican candidate for the Senate, was an incident waiting to happen. Although fueled by dislike for taxes, hatred of the "liberal media" - including virtually all channels, barring Fox News, and most print publications - is a central tenet of the Tea Party's world view. Hopfinger, who had written stories questioning aspects of Mr Miller's background for his website Alaska Dispatch, was handcuffed after he approached the candidate at what his campaign said was a private event. "I am leaving and this guy is just hounding me - he was right in front of me, blocking the way," Mr Miller told Fox News after the incident.

Like most US elections, this year's midterm race is chiefly a contest between the Democratic and Republican parties. But not far behind is the strange tussle between the Tea Party movement and the media. Tea Partiers see the media as an arm of the bicoastal liberal elites. The media, on the other hand, see the colorful biographies of people such as Christine O'Donnell, the Republican candidate in Delaware, or Sharron Angle, the Republican Senate candidate in Nevada, as unmissable stories.

Lawmakers asked the Federal Communications Commission to review the security risks of domestic companies ordering network equipment from China's Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp.

The Chinese companies are in "active" discussions to supply at least two US companies, Sprint Nextel and Cricket Communications, Sen Jon Kyl (R-AZ) wrote in a letter co-signed by three other lawmakers. It's at least the second time in two months that U.S. lawmakers have prodded the Obama administration to review the risks of buying Chinese telecommunications equipment. Eight U.S. lawmakers on Aug. 18 warned that a Sprint contract with Huawei would "undermine U.S. national security." A copy of the letter -- also signed by senators Joseph Lieberman, an Independent from Connecticut; Susan Collins, a Maine Republican; and Republican Representative Sue Myrick from North Carolina -- was posted on the website of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. Sens Kyl and Collins were also signatories to the August letter.

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) unveiled draft legislation to settle retransmission disputes. The legislation would include imposing fines for bad-faith bargaining, standstill agreements and the Federal Communications Commission as mediator, but not arbitrator. The bill would prompt parties who agree they have reached an impasse to submit the situation to the FCC for mediation. The legislation would still allow broadcasters to pull their content, resulting in blacked-out channels, but the rules would make it more difficult for them to do so.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski also voiced frustration with the Cablevision-Fox dispute. "I am deeply troubled that Cablevision and Fox are spending more time attacking each other through ads and lobbyists than sitting down at the negotiating table," he said. "The time for petty gamesmanship is over."

"As history has shown, 99.9 percent of these deals are reached without disruption. We don't have a broken system," said National Association of Broadcasters spokesman Dennis Wharton, "we have a broken pay-TV company that likes to play Washington games. Broadcasters and pay-TV operators share a mutual interest in reaching a fair, market-oriented carriage deal. Only when one party shifts their focus, pleading to government instead of negotiating fairly, does that mutual desire dissolve."

The Federal Trade Commission's upcoming report about behavioral advertising will include suggestions for how online ad companies can better protect consumers' privacy, but won't recommend that Congress enact new laws, commission member Julie Brill said.

"The Commission isn't calling for regulation right now," she said in a speech at a privacy conference held by the law firm Proskauer. "We're talking about a new self-regulatory framework." Brill elaborated that the behavioral targeting industry should improve its privacy efforts in several key areas. Among others, she said that companies should provide consistent and simplified notice about online tracking and ad-serving when the data is collected or used. She also said she would like to see notices focus on the unexpected uses of data, as opposed to obvious ones -- such as an ecommerce company's transfer of consumers' addresses to a shipping company.