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COMMISSIONER COPPS ANNOUNCES STAFF CHANGES
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
Commissioner Michael J. Copps announced that Jessica Rosenworcel, his Senior Legal Advisor and advisor on media issues, will be leaving the Federal Communications Commission to serve as Senior Legal Counsel to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, working on telecommunications and media issues. Bruce Gottlieb, advisor on spectrum and international issues, will serve as the office's primary point-of-contact for media issues and Scott Deutchman will serve as advisor on competition and universal service issues. John Branscome -- on detail from his post as Chief of the Spectrum and Competition Policy Division of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau -- will assist on spectrum and international issues. All staff changes take place immediately.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-271614A1.doc

* Jessica Rosenworcel Joins Senate Commerce Committee
[SOURCE: US Senate Commerce Committee]
http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Det...

FAIRNESS AND THE AIRWAVES
[SOURCE: Washington Post 3/19/1997, AUTHOR: Richard Harwood]
[Commentary] "Will the great multimedia corporations that now dominate broadcasting demonstrate to a skeptical Supreme Court and a skeptical public their ability to use the public's airwaves in a responsible and ethical manner?" asked Harwood in his column. In the case of broadcasting, the Supreme Court historically has rejected that the view that private enterprise and the free market system are best for protecting public debate. Broadcast regulation, the legal scholar Lee Bollinger has written, was "built on two phenomena: a fear of the power of television and radio to control the content of public discussion and a concomitant belief in the inability of the market to control that power." The broad thrust of those terms in the early days was that radio and television station owners must serve in their programming the "public interest, convenience or necessity." In fleshing out that generality, the FCC decreed that broadcasters should not put on the air "indecent" or "obscene" material, that they must abide by a "Fairness Doctrine" requiring them to present issues of public concern in a fair and disinterested manner, and that if they give time to one candidate for public office they must give equal time to any competitors for that office. All that is changing, Harwood wrote, not because of any mandate from the Supreme Court, which still condones government regulation, but because of successful pressures on the FCC to change its rules. The Commission has adapted itself to new definitions of obscenity and indecency to the point where anything goes -- almost. The Fairness Doctrine was abandoned in 1987 with the enthusiastic support of President Reagan, who vetoed congressional efforts to keep it in place.
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/11279597.html?dids=112...
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UNRULY START FOR DTV RULES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The new rules of the road for the DTV­converter-box subsidy hadn't been made public for more than a few hours last week before some Democrats and Republicans began sparring over them. The plan, the lawmakers suggested, already has its share of potholes, with only nine months and counting before the coupon program is set to start. Here's some details on the program: 1) Households must request coupons from NTIA between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2009. 2) Consumer coupon requests will be taken via toll-free customer support center, Website, fax and mail. 3) Upon request, a maximum of two coupons will be sent to households via the United States Postal Service and will expire three months after they're mailed. 4) Each coupon will be worth $40 towards the purchase of an eligible converter box from a certified consumer-electronics retailer. Coupons have no cash value and may not be resold. (There is no prohibition on reselling the boxes, however.) 5) Coupons will be electronically trackable and uniquely numbered, similar to gift cards, so that transactions will be verified at point of sale. 6) Only one coupon may be redeemed per converter box.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6425817.html?display=News

LET THE IRS HELP WITH DTV
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] About 17% of the population -- more than 18.8 million households -- receive broadcast television over-the-air, not via cable or satellite. Many of them are elderly, poor or poorly educated. When the National Association of Broadcasters last month studied consumer awareness of digital issues, not one of the 800 over-the-air viewers represented in the survey could even guess when the digital transition was happening. And 57% of them said that they had “seen, read or heard nothing” about the digital transition. The government is plotting a puny $5 million publicity campaign to alert consumers. TV groups including the NAB will mount a more substantial campaign this fall. Even so, the transition isn't simple to understand, especially for older folks. B&C offers this plan: let people opt in to the DTV coupon plan by checking a box on their tax returns.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6425809.html?display=Opinion