Benton RSS Feed

The mainstream/liberal/elite/establishment media could pool resources and hire a brand-management firm like Hill + Knowlton. It could put banners on I-95, I-80, I-30 and I-5. It could assign all of its foot soldiers to hit the airwaves and speak in flattering tones about mainstream mediaism. But all those methods could never deliver the PR payoff that conservative media outlets are providing these days, through their investigative stories on Barack Obama.

The inventory consists of the Breitbart.com story about Obama’s relationship with “radical” Harvard University law professor Derrick Bell; the 10-part series on the “Obama you don’t know” in the Washington Examiner; and the amplification of Obama’s 2007 speech at Hampton University, courtesy of the Daily Caller. As these tracts overpromise and underdeliver, they also send the public the message that maybe the media — not to mention Obama’s political opponents, especially those in the 2008 primary contest — took a decent look at his past. Perhaps the “vetting” that so many critics say never happened, happened.

The Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau announced new features in the online broadcast public inspection file system:

1. Authorizations – Stations can create folders to upload files that relate to their authorizations, such as reports required by conditions placed on their licenses by the Commission.
2. Equal Employment Opportunity – New, pre-generated folders are now available for stations to upload the annual reports required by and described in Section 73.2080(c)(6) of the Commission’s rules and information bearing on any ongoing inquiry, audit, investigation or complaint that concerns EEO and of which the licensee is aware.
3. Applications – New, pre-generated folders are now available for each type of application stations might file (renewal, assignment, etc.), so licensees can separately upload any additional material that relates to each type of application, including notices of petitions to deny and other supplemental information.
4. Ownership – A new, pre-generated “Contracts and Agreements” folder is now available so stations can upload the lists of contracts/agreements required to be placed in their public files by Section 73.3526(e)(5) of the Commission’s rules if their most recent ownership report no longer reflects all such arrangements. Licensees can, in their discretion, upload the actual documents in lieu of the lists. Licensees may also upload any additional documents relating to their ownership or ownership reporting obligations.
5. Children’s Television Programming Reports -- Stations can upload any additional documentation related to children’s television programming that is not otherwise contained in the quarterly reports.
6. Political File Terms and Disclosures – A new, pre-generated “Terms and Disclosures” folder is now available. If the documents placed by stations in the political files folders contain terms, abbreviations, or other language that require explanation for a full understanding of the documents, licensees should upload such explanations, including any keys or legends, to this folder. If documents uploaded to the other political files already contain such explanations, keys or legends, nothing need be uploaded here.

As the Federal Communications Commission prepares to vote on extension or sunset of the program access rules -- it has an Oct. 5 deadline -- the National Cable and Telecommunications Association was making its case against what it called a last-ditch effort by those trying to get the FCC to retain the rules.

Fans of retaining the ban on exclusive contracts between distributors and their co-owned networks have been pushing for modifications that would expand those protections and extend them to entertainment programming through rebuttable presumptions that the withholding of various programming is unfair and deceptive. In a filing with the FCC, NCTA said that if the FCC goes that route and "prejudge in favor of competing MVPDs virtually all of the key issues relevant to assessing the competitive impact of an exclusive contract," it would be tantamount to retaining the ban. NCTA said there was no justification for adopting special presumptions on withholding the top 20 cable-affiliated programming networks, or for presuming that withholding a regional sports net (RSN) is unfair and hinders competition, or that a successful complaint presumes the success of a future complainant, or presuming that a complainant seeking a standstill is going to merit one, or for putting a shot clock on complaints. All those have been proposed and were said to be under consideration by FCC staffers.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Oct. 2 called for the nation to move as fast as possible away from printed textbooks and toward digital ones.

“Over the next few years, textbooks should be obsolete,” he declared. It’s not just a matter of keeping up with the times, Duncan said in remarks to the National Press Club. It’s about keeping up with other countries whose students are leaving their American counterparts in the dust. The transition from print to digital instruction involves much more than scanning books and uploading them to computers, tablet devices, or eReaders. Proponents describe a comprehensive shift to immersive, online learning experiences that engage students in a way a textbook never could.