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A profile of the Weather Channel’s Bryan Norcross.
In 1992, then a weatherman in South Florida, he became the breakout star of Hurricane Andrew when he broadcast live for 23 hours straight, much of it from a storage room, at WTVJ, an NBC affiliate. Many residents credited his steady tone and resourceful tips (if you have ever huddled in a bathtub covered by a mattress, you can thank Mr. Norcross) with getting them through the storm. Afterward, some Floridians scrawled “Norcross for President” on their battered homes. Twenty years later, the trim, slow-talking Mr. Norcross, who now lives in Miami during the off-season, keeps his eye on hurricanes from the cushier environs of the Weather Channel, using television cameras, his blog and Facebook to issue technically detailed and often passionate reports about systems he believes pose high risk. To many self-described weather nerds, he is still “the most trusted hurricane human on the planet,” as a woman on Twitter recently described him.
Speaking His Mind, Beyond the Forecast
[Commentary] While the line between fact and fiction in politics has always been fuzzy, a confluence of factors has strained our civic discourse, if it can still be called that, to the breaking point. The economic boom and middle-class expansion of the postwar era encouraged relative deference for officials, journalists and scholars. It’s true that reporters and politicians had far cozier relationships, but the slower news cycle allowed more time for verification and analysis. Candidates accordingly believed that being caught in an outright lie could damage their careers. (As Daniel Patrick Moynihan reportedly said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”) They tended only to bend the truth, not break it.
At least four factors since the 1970s have lowered the cost for politicians who lie and, more important, repeat their fabrications through their attack ads.
- First is the overall decline in respect for institutions and professionals of all kinds, from scientists and lawyers to journalists and civil servants.
- Second are changes in media regulation and ownership.
- A third trend developed as political operatives realized they had more room to stretch the truth.
- A fourth factor: most news organizations (with notable exceptions) abandoned their roles as political referees. Many resorted to an atrophied style that resembled stenography more than journalism, presenting all claims as equally valid. Fact checking, once a foundation for all reporting, was now deemed the province of a specialized few.
The Real Loser: Truth
As the cable news channels count down the hours before the first polls close, an entire election cycle will have passed since President Barack Obama last sat down with Fox News. The organization’s standing request to interview the president is now almost two years old. At NBC News, the journalists reporting on the Romney campaign will continue to absorb taunts from their sources about their sister cable channel, MSNBC. “You mean, Al Sharpton’s network,” as they say Stuart Stevens, a senior Romney adviser, is especially fond of reminding them.
Spend just a little time watching either Fox News or MSNBC, and it is easy to see why such tensions run high. In fact, by some measures, the partisan bitterness on cable news has never been as stark — and in some ways, as silly or small. Neither outlet has built its reputation on moderation and restraint, but during this presidential election, research shows that both are pushing their stridency to new levels.
Dueling Bitterness on Cable News
A Q&A with Peter Leitzinger, analyst at SNL Kagan on political advertising. Some excerpts:
- We knew political was going to be higher than the 2008 election. In our original 10-year projection we estimated this year to be $2.5 billion in local TV revenue, and by 2018 that number would grow to $3 billion. The original $2.5 billion projection represented a 21 percent increase over the $2.09 billion in 2010 and 63 percent over the $1.55 billion in 2008. We had to revise those numbers because of the massive Olympic spend, early caucuses/primaries, and the importance the PACs and super PACs were placing on television. Our new estimate stands at $2.6 billion in political revenue.
- The Citizens United ruling was a huge part of the increase in political spending, but this year seemed to be the perfect storm for political advertising that started with the Olympics and ramped up all the way through election day. We saw political spending on local TV start earlier than the last few years in part due to the Olympics being a perfect advertising platform for the candidates and the early caucuses and primaries held in January. We also saw a record amount of political contributions for both parties. A larger amount of political ad dollars was spent on the Congressional elections as well, because of the competition between parties to control Congress was at stake.
- Television will always be king for the political candidates because it can effectively communicate a message to a market/demographic that no other medium can. Using sound, picture and message candidates can influence voters in a way that radio and internet cannot.
Behind the record political ad dollars
Business groups and unions have spent millions of dollars during the 2012 election cycle in a proxy war for control of the Senate. Trade associations and labor groups have opened their war chests in an attempt to sway Senate contests in presidential battlegrounds like Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records on independent expenditures. Most of the business and industry spending has been made in support of Republican candidates, while unions have dug deep to help Democrats retain their majority. Control of the Senate is seen as vital to the legislative agendas on both sides, regardless of whether President Obama or Mitt Romney takes the oath of office in January.
Business, labor groups spent big in 2012 cycle on ad wars for Senate control
Local sports have elbowed their way into the presidential election season, as both campaigns and the various PACs looking to sway voters have targeted regional sports networks (RSNs) in key battleground states.
President Barack Obama’s campaign has been particularly active on Fox Sports’ RSNs, outspending Republican candidate Mitt Romney by nearly a 10-to-one margin. At the same time, both camps have invested heavily in college football games aired by Big Ten Network, an RSN jointly owned between the athletic conference and Fox Sports. According to Kyle Sherman, evp of Home Team Sports, a subsidiary of Fox Sports, the rival campaigns will have spent “in the mid-to-high seven figures on Big Ten Network, when is all said and done.” He added that the channel serves football-mad markets in swing states like Ohio, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Given its role as kingmaker, Ohio has attracted the bulk of the Big Ten-targeted ad spend.
In Late Push, Candidates Target Big Ten Network
Washington is pushing Silicon Valley on children’s privacy, and Silicon Valley is pushing back.
Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter have all objected to portions of a federal effort to strengthen online privacy protections for children. In addition, media giants like Viacom and Disney, cable operators, marketing associations, technology groups and a trade group representing toy makers are arguing that the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed rule changes seem so onerous that, rather than enhance online protections for children, they threaten to deter companies from offering children’s Web sites and services altogether. “If adopted, the effect of these new rules would be to slow the deployment of applications that provide tremendous benefits to children, and to slow the economic growth and job creation generated by the app economy,” Catherine A. Novelli, vice president of worldwide government affairs at Apple, wrote in comments to the agency.
But the underlying concern, for both the industry and regulators, is not so much about online products for children themselves. It is about the data collection and data mining mechanisms that facilitate digital marketing on apps and Web sites for children — and a debate over whether these practices could put children at greater risk.
A Trail of Clicks, Culminating in Conflict
The French government asked the country's antitrust authority to study whether France's new cut-rate mobile-phone operator, Free Mobile, is benefiting from a sweetheart roaming agreement, potentially giving ammunition to incumbent companies that have argued the deal is forcing them to cut jobs.
France's independent competition watchdog said that it will give an opinion by the end of February on whether Iliad SA's Free Mobile, France's fourth mobile-phone operator, would gain a "lasting advantage" over competitors if it extends its roaming agreement with partly state-owned France Télécom SA, the country's largest mobile-phone operator by subscribers. The government also asked the authority to weigh in on whether France's mobile operators can pool resources to roll out shared wireless networks in rural areas, as well as whether the operators can share wireless networks in urban areas "without harming competition, jobs and investment." The government request could signal a shift in French telecommunications and competition policy.
France to Probe Mobile Upstart
The value of the airwaves used by mobile phone services and broadcasters in the UK has risen by a quarter in five years, which will boost hopes for a strong return from the auction of 4G spectrum due next year. The economic value of spectrum use in the UK was £52bn in 2011, an increase of 25 per cent in real terms since 2006, according to a study by Analysys Mason, the consultancy.
There are plans for the release of 500MHz of spectrum, currently used by the public sector, for commercial use by 2020, which could deliver a further windfall for state coffers as well as boosting the wider economy. Radio spectrum is a valuable but scarce resource used under license by a range of companies and public bodies. Different types of spectrum have different values, but increased demand for access has prompted the government to review where freeing up airwaves can add the most economic value. The study was released as the European authorities decided to allow additional spectrum for 4G mobile broadband use that had previously been assigned for 3G use, underlining the shift towards using phones for mobile internet services.
Value of spectrum use in UK up 25% in five years
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is providing New York-based public media stations WNET and WNYC with emergency grants of $250,000 each to address their urgent and critical needs in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Stations will use the funds, available immediately, to continue broadcasting news and information about relief efforts to communities throughout New York and New Jersey, as well as to repair station infrastructure damaged in the storm.
CPB Provides Emergency Grants Following Hurricane Sandy CPB Provides Emergency Aid to New York Noncoms (B&C)