Communications-related Headlines for 2/5/97

Lamb to the Slaughter

Canada Revises Telecom Proposal; U.S. Is Unsatisfied

Chester Cheetah Can't Have His Spots, PBS Rules

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From=20the New York Times (A23) (http://www.nytimes.com/)
Title: Lamb to the Slaughter
Author: Frank Rich
Issue: Cable
Description: In his column, Journal, Rich argues that if the mild-mannered
head of C-Span, Brian Lamb, is upset, then something must be very wrong.
That something is that C-Span's two channels of public affairs programming
have been cut from 9 million households in last two to three years. Cable
operators are bumping off C-Span if they get a higher bid for its channel
slot. According to Lamb, Rupert Murdoch has spent more money securing
channels for his Fox News Network in the last five months than C-Span spent
in
18 years. The cable industry itself started C-Span, but now cable
companies may be more concerned about big earnings than public programming.

From=20the Wall Street Journal (A4) (http://www.wsj.com/)
Title: Canada Revises Telecom Proposal; U.S. Is Unsatisfied
Author: John Urquhart
Issue: International/phone reg
Description: Even though Canada offered to ease controls on foreign
companies operating in its telecommunications industry, the United States
said Canada's new proposal still doesn't satisfy, and therefore a world
telecommunications pact will likely not be reached at the World Trade
Organization in Geneva.

From=20the Washington Post (D12) (http://www.washingtonpost.com/)
Title: Chester Cheetah Can't Have His Spots, PBS Rules
Author: Paul Farhi
Issue: Children's Television
Description: The Public Broadcasting Service has decided to ban
"appearances by cartoon spokescharacters during brief 'underwriting'
messages before and after PBS shows." There are corporations that do
underwrite PBS shows, but signs of the underwriter's support will be
limited to generic, "value-neutral" descriptions of the their services or
product.

At the FCC (http://www.fcc.gov)

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