For upcoming media policy events, see http://www.benton.org/calendar.htm
Due to technical difficulties, we were unable to post Headlines on Friday
January 14. We begin today's Headlines with quick recaps of the stories we
were reading last week and follow with today's top stories.
NEWS FROM LAST WEEK -- Reports from Thursday's FCC Meeting and more
MEDIA
Media's Legislative Outlook
Is Communications Consolidation Hurting Democracy?
Looking for New Ways to Make Viewers Pay
Firms Fear Backlash From Williams Case
TELECOM POLICY
Phone Companies Push Telecom Overhaul
Telco Rewrite on Fast -- and Slow -- Track
Jury Is Still Out on Driver-Cellphone Laws
Hospitals Ease Cellphone Bans
QUICKLY -- FCC Rejects Objection to Low Power Radio; Report on Comcast
Rates; Measuring Literacy in a World Gone Digital; Fox's Bottom Line;
Challengers Vie to Run .Net; Fuji TV to Launch Radio Bid; Intelsat Loses
Use of Satellite
NEWS FROM LAST WEEK
* The FCC held an open meeting last Thursday with presentations by senior
agency officials regarding implementations of the agency's strategic plan
and a comprehensive review of the Commission's policies and procedures.
Media Bureau Chief Ken Ferree said his staff has wrapped up its
recommendation for speeding the transition to all-digital TV broadcasting.
All he needs to present it to the five FCC commissioners for their review
is the go-ahead from Chairman Michael Powell. The FCC is eager to end the
DTV switch and turn over reclaimed TV channels to local emergency
departments and auction others to wireless companies. Ferree said the plan
could include a recommendation on whether broadcasters would be entitled to
cable carriage of the six or so channels they would be able to offer in
digital, but it would be Powell's decision to include that provision or
request a vote on the measure separately.
[See
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA496073?display=Breaking+News&...
or
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA496089.html?display=Breaking+News&...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
* Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein asked about
proceedings on localism, broadcasters' public interest obligations and
disclosure. Ferree answered that the proceedings on disclosure and public
interest obligations should reach the Chairman's office for review and
circulation soon. [Thanks to New America Foundation's Jim Snider for this
news.]
* Also at the same meeting, Commissioner Adelstein urged the FCC's
Enforcement Bureau to investigate the Armstrong Williams pay-for-play
scandal, saying that payola is "alive and well" and on the rise. Adelstein
pointed out that FCC rules require anyone who is paid to broadcast
information to disclose that fact to the licensee.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA496030.html?display=Breaking+...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
* Media activist organization Free Press is asking both the FCC and
Congress to investigate the Armstrong Williams situation. Free Press has
sent 12,500 complaints about the incident to the FCC and plans to share
them with Members of Congress.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA496076?display=Breaking+News&...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
* On Friday, FCC Chairman Michael Powell officially asked the Commission's
Enforcement Bureau to open an investigation into the Williams-payola affair.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA496807?display=Breaking+News&...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-256115A1.pdf
See also: http://www.radioink.com/HeadlineEntry.asp?hid=126770&pt=todaysnews
* President Bush said Thursday, "There needs to be a clear distinction
between journalism and advocacy." We need "to take a good look and make
sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-01-13-bush-williams_x.htm
* And finally... FCC Staff Changes
FCC Chairman Michael Powell announced that FCC General Counsel John Rogovin
is leaving the Commission. Austin Schlick will serve as Acting General
Counsel. Mr. Schlick has served as Deputy General Counsel responsible for
the agency's litigation. Before joining the Commission in February 2004,
he served as an assistant in the Solicitor General's office of the U.S.
Department of Justice. In that position he represented the government in
various cases before the Supreme Court. Prior to that position, he was a
partner with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd
and Evans, where he specialized in telecommunications and appellate
litigation. Chairman Michael Powell also announced that Barbara J. Douglas,
Director of the FCC's Office of Workplace Diversity, is leaving the
Commission.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-256060A1.doc
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-256061A1.doc
MEDIA
MEDIA'S LEGISLATIVE OUTLOOK
B&C offers odds of various telecom bills passing through Congress this
year. 1) The most pressing issue facing the TV business is transition to
all-digital broadcasts. House Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX)
wants it to end in 2006; FCC Chairman Michael Powell is suggesting 2009.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) may be the
deciding factor in legislation B&C suggests is likely to pass this year. 2)
Media lobbyists and anti-consolidation activists will beg Congress to pass
opposing versions of legislation rewriting the FCC's broadcast-ownership
limits. But there's no way Congress will change the commission's limits in
any direction: Either loosening or tightening the rules would generate an
unwanted backlash from the losing side. The FCC has until Jan. 31 to
request Supreme Court review of a lower-court order against its rules. If
the FCC asks the justices to take the case, the court likely will be tied
up with it for most of the current congressional session. If the FCC drops
the case, the commissioners will be obligated to spend the next year doing
their own rewrite. Either way, Congress will stay out of the fight. 3)
Without another Janet Jackson-like incident, don't expect new indecency
legislation to pass this year -- although that won't stop some from trying.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Bill McConnell]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA496911.html?display=News&refe...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
IS COMMUNICATIONS CONSOLIDATION HURTING DEMOCRACY? WRAPPING UP 2004
[Commentary] There are a few things we can say with some confidence
regarding communications policy in 2004. Both the evangelical right and
the pro-business right held major sway over the federal agencies that were
formed to oversee communications activity on behalf of the entire
public. The trend toward consolidation continued in both the sector that
produces content and the sector that distributes content. While the
communications industries spent millions influencing policy, they also made
billions in return for that investment. While a few stockholders benefited
from this state of affairs, most consumers did not. Democracy, and the
enlightened citizen so necessary to make it function, most certainly did
not benefit from the state of communications policy in 2004.
[SOURCE: Center for American Progress, AUTHOR: Mark Lloyd]
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=290397
LOOKING FOR NEW WAYS TO MAKE VIEWERS PAY
Were Americans merely using DVRs to replay touchdowns, advertisers and
television networks wouldn't be so worried. But studies have shown that at
least 70% of today's estimated 6.5 million DVRs are routinely used for
what's known as commercial avoidance. With DVR use expected to grow tenfold
over the next five years, the devices are threatening to bring the
$60-billion-a-year TV advertising business to its knees. Advertisers and
network executives have begun to scrutinize the habits of DVR users,
wondering if viewers can be persuaded to help pay for programming that
they're now getting free. Many executives believe the networks' very
survival depends on viewers accepting what some might see as a radical
idea: that the audience, not just advertisers, must subsidize the high cost
of producing the shows that so many Americans love to watch. If they don't,
executives say, the networks won't have the money to produce expensive shows.
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Meg James]
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-dvr18jan18,1,5097159....
(requires registration)
See also --
The New Ad Age
As the advertising industry devises new ways to get its messages across,
technologies are continually being developed that make it possible for
people to skip or avoid ads.
[SOURCE: AlterNet, AUTHOR: Joy Lanzendorfer]
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/20997/
FIRMS FEAR BACKLASH FROM WILLIAMS CASE
Public relations firms that are paid millions of dollars a year by the
federal government to promote programs and policies are worried the money
might dry up because of the Armstrong Williams flap at the Department of
Education. The Williams controversy was magnified by earlier revelations
that the Education Department had paid Ketchum to rate journalists on how
positively or negatively they reported on No Child Left Behind and to
produce a video news release on the law that was used by some TV stations
as if it were real news. Other government agencies, including the Census
Bureau, the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Department of
Health and Human Services, have distributed such prepackaged videos, a
practice that congressional auditors have described as illegal propaganda
in some cases.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Christopher Lee and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16464-2005Jan17.html
(requires registration)
TELECOM POLICY
PHONE COMPANIES PUSH TELECOM OVERHAUL
The nation's biggest phone companies are seeking a rollback of
telecommunications regulations, but other industries that would be affected
-- the cable and wireless companies that have gained ground against
traditional phone companies in recent years -- don't want major changes,
creating a potential roadblock to new legislation. The divisions are in
stark contrast to the mid-1990s when the interested groups were united in
seeking reform. Overhauling the Telecommunications Act of 1996 -- which was
enacted before the Internet became a widespread conduit for phone calls,
text messages, video and other communications -- appears to be a priority
for many in Congress, but not for the Bush Administration. "There is a lot
of consensus that the Telecom Act was a failure but no consensus on how to
fix it," said Scott Cleland, a telecom analyst with Precursor Group in
Washington. And, "this Congress has much bigger fish to fry."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Anne Marie Squeo
annemarie.squeo( at )wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110600339615628254,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
TELCO REWRITE ON FAST -- AND SLOW -- TRACK
The election is over, we have a new Congress, let's get that
telecommunications reform bill rolling, right? Not so fast, says new Senate
Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). Sen Stevens is
determined to move deliberately and has resisted calls from his House
counterpart, Rep Joe Barton (R-TX), to move quickly. As of last week, Sen
Stevens had not even named a telecom aide to oversee the legislation. Why
is the Alaska Republican moving so slow? Fresh from a stint running the
Appropriations Committee, where he kept tight control over pork barrel
spending and the political loyalty he could demand by doling it out,
Stevens is determined to keep similarly close control over the legislation
and the political favors he can negotiate by keeping people guessing his
intentions.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Bill McConnell]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA496342.html?display=Breaking+...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
JURY IS STILL OUT ON DRIVER-CELLPHONE LAWS
Cities around the country are enforcing new restrictions on using
cellphones while driving, requiring drivers to use handsets if they really
must take/make that call. But with cellphone-related incidents making up
only a small percentage of motor vehicle accidents, even government
officials wonder why this particular behavior was chosen for a law, since
studies have shown that hands-free and hand-held cellphones are equally
distracting. John Walls, the vice president of public affairs of CTIA, the
Wireless Association, a trade organization representing wireless interests,
said it was unfair and unnecessary to create hands-free laws. "We question
the need for a law singling out behavior that apparently is pretty far down
the pecking order of accidents in the first place," Mr. Walls said. He
cited statistics showing that before the New York law was enacted, fewer
than one-hundredth of 1 percent of New York City accidents were related to
cellphones.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: ]
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/18/national/18cell.html
(requires registration)
HOSPITALS EASE CELLPHONE BANS
As the Federal Communications Commission revisits rules against cellphone
use on airplanes, hospitals are rethinking their own policies on the
devices. Policies against cellphone use in hospitals largely began in the
1990s, as the devices became more popular and hospitals grew concerned
about interfering with vital medical equipment such as cardiac monitors.
The bans mirrored restrictions by the FCC and Federal Aviation
Administration on the use of cellphones on airplanes, which emerged out of
fear that the gadgets could interfere with flight communications. But the
issue of whether and how wireless devices affect other electronic equipment
is unresolved. Research on the subject is limited, though there is growing
evidence that today's lower-power, digital cellphones aren't as likely as
older models to be a problem for medical equipment, especially if they
aren't in close proximity.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: ]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110600365946928266,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
QUICKLY
FCC REJECTS MOTOROLA'S OBJECTION TO LOW POWER RADIO
Motorola complained to the FCC that certain applicants proposing to operate
on channels 62-69 would negatively impact the ability of public safety
entities to deploy their systems on these channels. The FCC ruled that
Motorola's opposition is speculative and unsupported. Motorola offers no
specific information to suggest that any of the facilities proposed in the
applications will cause interference to other Commission licensees. In
essence, Motorola's opposition is a late-filed attempt to seek
reconsideration of the Commission's earlier determination
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-05-83A1.doc
REPORT ON COMCAST RATES
How much should Comcast charge for basic services? Two consultants compared
what the cable giant does charge and estimates what it should charge. There
results are at the URL below.
[SOURCE: RiedelCommunications, AUTHOR: Garth Ashpaugh and Dick Treich]
http://www.riedelcommunications.com/images/Final_AS_FRC_Comcast_2004_Nat...
Also see http://www.riedelcommunications.blogspot.com/ for commentary.
MEASURING LITERACY IN A WORLD GONE DIGITAL
The Educational Testing Service, the nonprofit group behind the SAT,
Graduate Record Examination and other college tests, has developed a new
test -- the Information and Communications Technology literacy assessment
-- that it says can assess students' ability to make good critical
evaluations of the vast amount of material available to them. The test is
intended to measure students' ability to manage exercises like sorting
e-mail messages or manipulating tables and charts, and to assess how well
they organize and interpret information from many sources and in myriad forms.
[SOURCE: New York Times 1/17, AUTHOR: Tom Zeller]
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/17/technology/17test.html
(requires registration)
NO IFS, ANDS OR BUTTS: FOX'S BOTTOM LINE
A brief look at how Fox network television programs are responding to
stepped-up indecency enforcement from the FCC. No more naked cartoon baby
butts.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Lisa de Moraes]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16857-2005Jan17.html
(requires registration)
VERISIGN HAS CHALLENGERS TO RUN .NET DOMAIN
NeuStar, a Sterling (VA) company that runs .biz, Afilias, which manages
.info and a nonprofit firm in Frankfurt, Denic eG, which manages Germany's
eight million registered .de domain names are all lining up to bid against
VeriSign for the .net franchise which VeriSign currently controls but ends
on June 30. While .net is not as ubiquitous as .com, it has more than five
million registered domain names, which translates daily into millions of
page views, 155 billion e-mail messages and some $1.4 million in commercial
transactions
[SOURCE: New York Times 1/17, AUTHOR: Elizabeth Olson]
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/17/technology/17domain.html
(requires registration)
FUJI TV TO LAUNCH RADIO BID
Fuji Television Network currently holds a 12.39% stake in Nippon
Broadcasting System, but will offer up to $1.67 billion for shares of
Nippon and may aim to turn the radio broadcaster into a wholly owned unit.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Natsuo Nishio
natsuo.nishio( at )dowjones.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110598864386327970,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
INTELSAT LOSES USE OF SATELLITE
Global satellite operator Intelsat Ltd. has permanently lost one of its
orbiting spacecraft because of an electrical failure, prompting the company
to announce plans to take a non-cash charge of $73 million. The satellite
provided communications services in the South Pacific and some service
areas were without voice and data communications yesterday. The satellite's
failure gives the planned buyer of Intelsat, Zeus Holdings Ltd., the right
to back out of the deal. Zeus has told Intelsat it is evaluating the impact
of the satellite's loss. The deal was to have been completed by the end of
the first quarter.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Justin Blum]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16676-2005Jan17.html
(requires registration)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Communications-related Headlines is a free online news summary service
provided by the Benton Foundation (www.benton.org). Posted Monday through
Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments,
policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are
factually accurate, their often informal tone does not always represent the
tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang
(headlines( at )benton.org) -- we welcome your comments.
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