Why Radical Deregulation Is Happening So Fast At The FCC
Chairman Ajit Pai is moving fast at the FCC
March 2017
Vodafone forced to merge India unit amid price war
Submitted by benton on Mon, 03/20/2017 - 06:53
Analysis
Analysis
Benton Stands With Toby to Say "Don't Delete Big Bird"
A couple weeks ago, an adorable seven-year-old boy named Toby complained that President Donald Trump is “deleting PBS kids” just to pay for the wall. Toby told US Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), “he shouldn’t do that.” The young boy received massive applause for standing up to his Senator, the President, and for what’s right. At this town hall, Senator Cotton said you could have both – a Mexican wall and PBS. But today it turns out that Toby was right. President Donald Trump unveiled his budget proposal, titled, “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again.” Disturbingly, the plan calls for the elimination of federal support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It’s time to push back hard against any proposal that threatens public broadcasting and the vital services it delivers throughout the country. Let’s not take Big Bird away from kids like Toby.
Relying on federal funding might be a fatal mistake for public media
Public media operations—and loyal listeners—are expected to put up a fierce fight against potential funding cuts. But hanging on to the hope that federal funding will always be around could potentially be a fatal mistake for local stations, former NPR President and CEO Vivian Schiller says. All public media players, she says, ought to double down on efforts to court listener support and philanthropic giving as a hedge against the continued, and perhaps complete, reduction of government support.
Schiller notes stations should move aggressively to pursue non-governmental revenue streams. “It would be irresponsible not to have those contingency plans in place, and even without the threat of federal dollars being pulled, it would be irresponsible to not begin to act on ways to replace that money through other sources,” says Schiller.
Vice President Pence ally part owner of conservative news outlet: report
A top political ally to Vice President Mike Pence is an investor in the conservative news organization that was granted special access to cover Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's latest overseas trip. Nick Ayers, an Atlanta-based political strategist who worked on the campaign, is a part owner of the Independent Journal Review, whose White House correspondent was the only reporter allowed to accompany Tillerson on a trip to Asia this week.
There is no evidence to suggest that Ayers was behind or involved in the decision to allow the reporter to accompany Tillerson on his trip, nor is there any indication that the strategist is involved in the organization's editorial decisions. A State Department spokesman said the decision to allow IJR reporter Erin McPike on the trip was "to bring somebody in who doesn’t necessarily cover the State Department, a media outlet that isn’t steeped in foreign policy and give it a new, fresh perspective.” That decision enraged reporters assigned to cover the State Department, and reignited questions about the whether the Trump administration grants special privileges to news outlets that it views as favorable.
The Trump Resistance Will Be Commercialized
These days, even a labor strike can be corporatized and repurposed as public relations. The typical refrain from brands that take on a cause is that they are “using their platform” to “raise awareness” about an issue. But the internet has complicated the transaction. Modern news audiences are bombarded with too much information, and right now, it all seems to be news for or against President Donald Trump. Brands that enter the fray aren’t so much “raising awareness” as they are jostling for their own messaging to be seen amid the rush of signals.
President Trump’s election has sparked great interest in civic engagement — joining community groups, organizing protests, showing up at town hall meetings. The resistance brand presents another option: Buy this thing, not the other. Is that the kind of awareness that needs to be raised?