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BERNERS-LEE PUSHES CONGRESS ON 'NONDISCRIMINATORY' WEB
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Anne Broache]
World Wide Web father Tim Berners-Lee told politicians on Thursday that it's critical to shield his seminal innovation from control by a single company or country. A top priority for policymakers going forward must be "making sure the Web itself is the blank sheet, the blank canvas, something that does not constrain the innovation that's around the corner," he told the House Telecom Subcommittee. That means ensuring anyone can use the Web regardless of what software or hardware they're running, which Internet service provider supplies their connection, which language they speak, and what disabilities they have, Berners-Lee said. He was the sole witness invited to speak at a hearing here titled "The Future of the World Wide Web," the first of a series of events designed to keep politicians up to speed on communications issues.
http://news.com.com/Berners-Lee+pushes+Congress+on+nondiscriminatory+Web...

* Markey's First Hearing: The Internet Moving Forward
http://www.telecomweb.com/tnd/21994.html
* Berners-Lee: Congress should consider net neutrality
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/03/01/HNcongressnetneutrality_1.html...
* World Wide Web Founder Puts in a Plug for Net Neutrality
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6420720?display=Breaking+News
* Web Inventor Tells Congress: Net Neutrality a Top Priority
http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/2007/03/01/world-wide-web-inventor-s...

Also --

CDT REITERATES CALL FOR BALANCED INTERNET NEUTRALITY POLICY
[SOURCE: Center for Democracy & Technology]
In comments filed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), CDT highlighted ways in which the FTC could play a constructive role in a broader policy framework for Internet neutrality that benefits consumers as well as innovators. CDT filed the comments in connection to the commission's Broadband Connectivity Competition Policy Workshop, which concluded earlier this month. The comments address the importance of preserving an Internet without gatekeepers, and offer several specific recommendations to the FTC going forward.
http://www.cdt.org/speech/net-neutrality/200702028ftcneutrality.pdf

PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND
[SOURCE: US Senate Commerce Committee]
On March 1, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps appeared before the Senate Commerce Committee at a hearing on the Universal Service Fund. In prepared testimony he said, "If we are going to ensure that no community, no citizen, is left behind by lack of access to basic or advanced telecommunications in this new digital age, we need to think anew, adjust our policies and craft the proper incentives. We must include these new opportunity-creating technologies as part of our Universal Service Program. In plainer English, it is time to bring broadband into the Universal Service System. We must also update and broaden the USF contribution base. We must make sure funds are distributed with maximum equity among consumers, areas and technologies. And we must recognize that the economics of non-rural, rural and truly remote service areas are fundamentally different."
http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Testimon...

* Links to other testimony:
http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&...

UCC CHALLENGES TRIBUNE LICENSE RENEWALS IN HARTFORD
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The United Church of Christ has challenged the license renewals of two Tribune stations, WTIC-TV and WTXX, both Hartford (CT) where Trib also owns the Hartford Current newspaper. "Tribune has not demonstrated that it is entitled to a permanent waiver of the [newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership (NBCO)] rule," UCC said in its filing with the FCC. "Permitting common ownership of the three media outlets does not serve the purpose of the NBCO rule of promoting a diversity of local news sources," it said. "Indeed, the very fact that Tribune utilizes the resources of the Courant to produce its news programming for WTIC-TV and then simulcasts the same news program on WTXX illustrates how Tribune’s cross-ownership diminishes the diversity of sources of local news in Hartford." The UCC said it shouldn't get another temporary waiver either. "Previously, the Commission granted three temporary waivers to permit Tribune time to make its best efforts divest WTXX or the Hartford Courant. The Commission has granted Tribune more than sufficient time to divest the appropriate media outlets and yet Tribune has not done so." Tribune has been operating the stations under a succession of temporary waivers --the FCC declined to grant permanent ones -- and has asked for another such waiver, or alternately one that will extend until the FCC has reconsidered and revamped its media ownership rules.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6420876.html?display=Breaking...

GANNETT TO BUY 2 TRIBUNE CO NEWSPAPERS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Frank Ahrens]
Tribune Company has agreed to sell its two smallest newspapers, both in Connecticut, to Gannett for more than $65 million, as the media giant edges closer to accepting or rejecting bids for the entire company. Tribune said in September that it planned to sell $500 million in assets. As part of the sale, Tribune offered the Greenwich Time and Stamford Advocate to two prospective buyers, McLean (VA)-based Gannett and MediaNews Group of Denver. Gannett eventually outbid MediaNews for the two papers, which report a combined circulation of 39,623. Tribune sought as much as $75 million for the Connecticut papers and $25 million more for the real estate on which they sit, which is likely to be sold to third parties.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/01/AR200703...
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BREAKING THE NEWS
[SOURCE: Mother Jones, AUTHOR: Eric Klinenberg]
While our democratic culture could survive the loss of the daily newspaper as we know it, it would be endangered without the kinds of reporting that it provides, writes Eric Klinenberg. "Even in the online era, more than 60% of Americans say they read a local newspaper daily or several times a week. And with good reason: Few of the cable channels and websites that newspaper chains claim as competitors actually provide original news and information. Cable networks do virtually no local reporting of their own, and while bloggers do a good job exposing journalistic lapses, they generally aren't doing the muckraking, beat reporting, and pavement pounding that generate news." (Much more on journalism -- and the media ownership debate -- at the URL below.)
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/03/breaking_the_news.html

* The Race
Robert Kuttner believes newspapers have started down a financially and journalistically viable path of becoming hybrids -- part web, part print. "Assuming that most dailies survive the transition, my guess is that in twenty-five years they will be mostly digital; that even people like me of the pre-Internet generation will be largely won over by ingenious devices like Times Reader, supplemented by news alerts, RSS feeds, and God knows what else."
http://www.cjr.org/issues/2007/2/Kuttner.asp