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TAUKE: BIG TELECOM BILL UNLIKELY IN 2007-08
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
"I frankly think it is unlikely that there will be a telecom act. There may be some narrower measures that move through, but I don't see the dynamics in place for a comprehensive telecom bill," Verizon executive vice president of public affairs, policy and communications Tom Tauke said on a panel at the International Consumer Electronics Show. Verizon, he said, was in a better position today than one year ago, when it was pursuing a telecommunications bill, because several states had enacted statewide cable franchising and the Federal Communications Commission adopted rules giving local cable regulators just 90 days to act on Verizon's cable-entry applications. "There is no compelling issue, no compelling need for a communications reform," he added. Amazon.com VP of global public policy Paul Misener disagreed, predicting that a bill would pass with Internet-nondiscrimination provisions as the centerpiece of the legislation.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6406011.html?display=Breaking+News
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6406011.html?display=Breaking%20News
DIGITAL MEDIA: THE NEXT FRONTIER FOR MEDIA REFORM
[SOURCE: AlterNet, AUTHOR: Jeff Chester, Center for Digital Democracy]
[Commentary] On Friday, several thousand U.S. media activists will converge in Memphis to attend the Free Press group's "National Conference for Media Reform." Much of the conference is focused on current and upcoming public policy battles designed to help make this country's media system more democratic. Right now there is greater interest in media policy than we have seen since the 1960s. Among the key concerns is fighting against the Federal Communications Commission's current plan to permit greater consolidation of our nation's newspapers and broadcast stations; battling Congress over the broadband Internet (network neutrality); and highlighting the lack of ownership of media outlets by women and people of color. These are important topics, but the real action it requires must take place outside of the D.C. beltway. Our most urgent task is to proactively intervene to shape -- on behalf of progressive values -- the emerging commercial digital communications system. This will require a strategic intervention to create sustainable "new media" services that help harness the power of digital media to better promote social justice. Our digital media system will have the capability to help "define" political and social "reality" for the majority of Americans. Unless progressives can seriously "program" the new media -- in every community and across the nation -- we will face even greater obstacles promoting our agendas.
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/46504/
Digital Media: The Next Frontier for Media Reform
CONGRESS OFF TO SLOW START WITH TECH
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Anne Broache]
When newly empowered Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives launch into their much-touted 100-hours agenda on Tuesday, don't expect to see much in the way of issues important to the high-tech industry. Elevating the minimum wage, urging stem-cell research, and ushering in lower prescription drug prices are on the initial calendar. But hot-button topics such as rewriting patent law, encouraging broadband availability, protecting Net neutrality, and upping the skilled worker visas so beloved by high-tech companies aren't foremost priorities yet. The issues' early absence shouldn't be taken as a sign of things to come, Democratic aides said.
http://news.com.com/Congress+off+to+slow+start+with+tech/2100-1028_3-614...
Congress off to Slow Start with Tech
DINGELL GIVES UP INVESTIGATIONS CHAIRMANSHIP
[SOURCE: US News & World Reports, AUTHOR: Danielle Knight]
Because of past changes in Democratic Caucus rules, one of the House's warhorses, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), chair of the House Commerce Committee, will not head the subcommittee on oversight and investigations, which had been one of his passions when he led the full panel for 14 years in the 1980s and early 1990s. Instead, Rep Dingell is backing Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), who was ranking member on the oversight subcommittee last Congress. Rep Stupak will likely be ratified as subcommittee chair this week. There was speculation that Rep Dingell might again chair both the committee and subcommittee at the same time, as he did from 1981 to 1995. But in 1994 Democrats changed their rules and prohibited lawmakers from chairing both the main committee and the subcommittees in order to discourage lawmakers from monopolizing too much power. Rep Dingell was well known for his thorough investigations and his infamous Dingell-grams, which requested detailed information from agencies on environmental and energy polices, among other things.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070108/8dingell.htm?s_cid=rss...
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070108/8dingell.htm?s_cid=rss%3Asite1
AT&T RIVALS CONTEST MERGER RULE'S IMPACT
[SOURCE: Technology Daily 1/5, AUTHOR: David Hatch]
As the dust settles on the FCC's approval of the AT&T, BellSouth merger, some large and mid-sized local telephone competitors to the company are complaining that one condition imposes "backdoor" requirements on them. At issue is a restriction stipulating that the new AT&T reduce its special-access rates, the discounted fees it offers wholesale business customers. In order for companies such as Qwest Communications International and Verizon Communications to take advantage of the discounts, they must offer similar services at the same reduced fees as AT&T, according to the condition. "Any effort by AT&T, BellSouth to bind the commission to accept its proposed discriminatory tariff is null, void and to no effect," Robert Connelly, the vice president and deputy general counsel at Qwest, wrote in a Jan. 4 letter to the agency. He threatened possible legal action, stating that if the new AT&T files a "discriminatory" tariff for special access rates, "legal processes can prevent the illegal conduct from actually coming to fruition." A source noted that impacted companies have several options. They can appeal the soon-to-be-released merger order at the FCC or in federal court, or challenge tariff changes that the merged company will file with the agency.
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-EEHK1168372952775.html
AT&T Rivals Contest Merger Rule's Impact
VENEZUELAN PLAN SHAKES INVESTORS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Simon Romero and Clifford Krauss]
Verizon Communications had been looking to lighten its exposure to Latin America for some time when it struck a deal in April to sell investments in three properties in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Now, it probably wishes it had disconnected its Latin lines even sooner. The company could possibly lose up to several hundred million dollars, thanks to President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, who threatened to nationalize the country’s main telephone and electricity companies. Investors reacted with alarm here and in markets in the United States and throughout Latin America on Tuesday as they measured the impact of the plan by Mr. Chávez to nationalize crucial areas of the economy. Memories of past nationalizations during another turbulent era, in places like Cuba and Chile, helped drive down the Caracas stock exchange’s main index by almost 19 percent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/business/worldbusiness/10venezuela.html
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* Venezuela Inc.’s Hostile Takeover
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela -- the very portrait of a modern Latin American strongman -- is not content to exercise near-total political and military control of his country. Now he is tightening his grip on the Venezuelan economy. That’s bad news for foreign investors, but even more so for the Venezuelan people who will have to pay the price for an economy plagued by increasing inefficiency and corruption.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/opinion/10wed2.html
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* Chavez's Economic Plans Set Latin Markets Reeling
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/09/AR200701...
* Venezuela's Leap Backward
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/09/AR200701...
* Venezuelan stocks dive after Chavez calls for nationalization
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20070110/venezeula10.art.htm
Venezuelan Plan Shakes Investors
ELECTRONICS GURU TAKES STAND FOR COPYRIGHT REFORM
[SOURCE: Technology Daily 1/8, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
The dean of the consumer electronics sector, Gary Shapiro, used his opening keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show on Monday to promote "fair use" of copyrighted content for technology users and the Digital Freedom campaign that he helped launch last year. The initiative to oppose "crippling restrictions" on individuals' technology rights, unveiled in October, was met with opposition from the content industry. The project has a major presence at CES this week. For two decades, Shapiro and his team have fought legislative proposals that would "restrict, tax, ban and hobble" technologies, he said. Those efforts have been successful, but innovators still face "debilitating lawsuits" as consumers and venture capitalists remain worried about the legal limits of new products and services, he said.
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-NPMN1168373148302.html
Electronics Guru Takes Stand For Copyright Reform
BROADBAND VIDEO-TO-TV TREND SEEN ROILING BUSINESS MODELS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Kenneth Li]
A wave of new technologies that link home computers to televisions could threaten traditional media distribution methods as consumer interest in online video entertainment continues to grow. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, electronics manufacturers from Sony Corp. to start-ups such as Sling Media unveiled a raft of new products to allow consumers to play Internet videos, or media files stored on PCs, directly on their TV screens. Bridging that PC-to-TV gap would open up new distribution potential for media content providers, but would also challenge traditional distribution channels and strategies, such as cable TV's much-vaunted video on demand services.
http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&story...
BROADCAST BOARD CHAIRMAN ASKS FOR REPLACEMENT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Paul Farhi]
The chairman of the agency that oversees Voice of America and other government broadcasts to foreign countries said yesterday he would not seek renomination, likely ending a series of ethical controversies that have clouded his tenure. Kenneth Y. Tomlinson asked President Bush not to submit his name for reconfirmation as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which runs VOA, Radio Free Europe and Alhurra, the pan-Arabic satellite TV channel funded by the United States. "I have concluded that it would be far more constructive to write a book on my experiences rather than to seek to continue government service," Tomlinson wrote. "Accordingly, I ask that you nominate another person to serve as chairman of this board." The letter was something of a formality. With the Democrats controlling the Senate, Tomlinson -- a longtime Republican colleague of White House adviser Karl Rove -- would have faced long odds of confirmation. He has been under fire at least twice in the past 18 months for his performance in two appointed jobs.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/09/AR200701...
(requires registration)
CPB, BBG NOMINATIONS
[SOURCE: White House]
President Bush has requested the Senate confirm two recent recess appointments to full terms -- Warren Bell, of California, to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for a term expiring January 31, 2012 and Mark McKinnon, of Texas, to be a Member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors for a term expiring August 13, 2009. The President has also renominated D. Jeffrey Hirschberg, of Wisconsin, to be a Member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors for a term expiring August 13, 2007. (Reappointment)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070109-5.html
NEWSPAPERS SET TO JOINTLY SELL ADS ON WEB SITES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Julia Angwin julia.angwin@wsj.com]
The nation's three largest newspaper publishers are gearing up to sell advertising jointly on their newspapers' Web sites, believing their survival depends on seizing new online revenue. Gannett Co., McClatchy Co. and Tribune Co. are planning to offer advertisers one-stop shopping for display ads on Internet sites. The goal is to attract big advertisers such as car makers and phone companies that want to reach a nationwide online audience but don't want the hassle of negotiating ad deals with each company or newspaper. The joint effort, code-named "Open Network," marks a big new bid to win back advertisers that are defecting in droves to the Web. Currently, national advertisers buy the bulk of their online display ads -- banners and boxes -- from big portals such as Yahoo Inc., Time Warner Inc.'s AOL or Microsoft Corp.'s MSN. Yahoo has announced plans to work with seven other newspaper publishers to build a similar one-stop-shopping spot for advertisers. Google Inc. has also reaped a bonanza with advertising links that appear next to search results. The three newspaper companies, known in the industry as GMT, are likely to each contribute 10% of their online-advertising space to the network, according to people familiar with the situation. They hope to announce something early this year, although the deal isn't finalized and could still fall apart.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116840247170572327.html?mod=todays_us_pa...
(requires subscription)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116840247170572327.html?mod=todays_us_page_one