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AFTER PREVIOUS GAFFES, NETWORKS MOSTLY TAKE THEIR TIME
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Bill Carter]
The television networks reporting on the results of the midterm elections last night exercised an unusual degree of caution in declaring any shift of power in Congress, apparently chastened by previous miscalculations based on exit poll information. While some contested races, like the Maryland and New Jersey contests for the Senate, were called fairly quickly by all of them, they held back on the night’s marquee story: whether Democrats would take control of either house. It was just after 5 p.m. that exit poll data, closely held under a “quarantine,†were released by the National Election Pool, the network-created organization that provides tabulated vote counts and the results of exit surveys. Several network executives said later that those early numbers had indicated a sweeping victory for Democratic candidates, but for the most part that was not mentioned on the air. The reason was the experience of two years ago, when the exit polls seemed to point to a victory by Senator John Kerry in the presidential race. That night the networks hinted broadly at such an outcome, only to be repudiated by the real numbers. Last night, network executives said, the numbers seemed so skewed toward the Democrats again that they simply did not trust them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/us/politics/08networks.html
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* Fox News calls exit polls unreliable
In the middle of its election coverage, Fox News -- one of the members of the consortium -- announced that it was going to stop relying on the exit-poll data because its decision-desk analysts had discovered a Democratic bias of six to eight percentage points in many areas after comparing the survey results with the actual vote.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-fox8nov08,1,1977...
After Previous Gaffes, Networks Mostly Take Their Time
GROUPS PETITION FCC TO REVERSE CROSSOWNERSHIP DECISION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The United Church of Christ and Rainbow/PUSH have petitioned the FCC to reverse its decision to grant a permanent waiver of the newspaper/broadcast crossownership ban to News Corp. for WNYW(TV) and extend a temporary waiver for WWOR(TV) New York. New Corp. also owns The New York Post and would have to sell either the paper or the stations without the waiver. “These repeated and extended waivers by the FCC essentially allow some companies to operate above the law.†said Cheryl Leanza, managing director of UCC, “While in rare cases the FCC can make a justified exception to its rules, this wavier is inappropriate.†The groups complain that the waiver was issued behind closed doors and challenge Fox's character as a licensee.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6389130.html?display=Breaking...
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6389130.html?display=Breaking%20News
LOS ANGELES TIMES SAYS EDITOR TO QUIT
[SOURCE: Reuters]
Los Angeles Times editor Dean Baquet, who has resisted parent company Tribune Co.'s plan to lay off staff to cut costs, will leave the newspaper. He was forced to resign at the request of the publisher after he refused to agree to further cuts of his editorial staff. Baquet surprised industry experts when he did not resign in October when Jeffrey Johnson quit as the paper's publisher. Johnson had supported Baquet's decision to fight the Tribune's efforts to eliminate jobs at the paper, which is one of the largest in the United States. Johnson was replaced by David Hiller, former publisher of the Chicago Tribune in Tribune Co.'s home town. Hiller told Times employees Tuesday that the company will cut positions sometime next year.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=industryNews&storyID...
* LA Times job cuts will come next year - publisher
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=industryNews&storyID...
* Times editor Baquet is forced out
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-110706baquet,0,7757157.story?coll=la-...
* Los Angeles Paper Ousts Top Editor
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/business/media/08paper.html
REQUESTS FOR EXEMPTION FROM FCC's CLOSED CAPTIONING RULES
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
Numerous television broadcasters have filed petitions for exemption from the FCC's closed captioning requirements, claiming that compliance would impose an undue burden. The FCC's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB), which decides on these petitions, is now placing them on public notice allowing for public comment. For hundreds of pending petitions, the CBG is now allowing 20 days for those comments to be filed. Comments filed via email will NOT be part of the official record. For more info: Michael Jacobs (202) 418-2859 (voice), (202) 418-8233 (TTY); e-mail Michael.jacobs@fcc.gov.
http://www.fcc.gov/da062287.pdf
Requests for Closed Captioning Exemptions to get Public Comment
LOOSE ENDS... FOLLOWING THE CARTER MODEL ON NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Holman Jenkins]
[Commentary] Think how different the world might be today if former President Jimmy Carter had spent the past 25 years insisting that Democrats embrace the legacy he created with airline deregulation, natural gas deregulation, trucking deregulation and rail deregulation. Think how utterly transformed today's "net neutrality" debate might be. Net neutrality is one issue stalling the AT&T-BellSouth merger approval at the FCC. The Commission remains in a 2-2 tie because Commissioner McDowell refuses to vote. Jenkins concludes: "Yet there is a solution. The FCC's Office of General Counsel can effectively rule that Mr. McDowell's previous employment is no hindrance to his voting on the deal. Mr. McDowell would be bound by law to carry out his job and fulfill the FCC's mandate to vet the merger. Even better, this circus should be our indication that it's time for the FCC to fold up its pup tent and go the way of the now-extinct Civil Aeronautics Board."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116294754879516433.html?mod=todays_us_op...
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116294754879516433.html?mod=todays_us_opinion
TOP MODEL TAKES STRIKERS OFF PAYROLL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Jim Benson]
The WGAW Monday filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), alleging the show’s producers unlawfully eliminated the jobs of the 12 “writers†in retaliation for their decision to go on strike last July to demand union representation. Responding to the complaint, Top Model Executive Producer Ken Mok said in a statement issued by The CW Tuesday, "When our story producers walked off the job, we exercised our right to sustain production during the strike. In the process, we were able to create a new system utilizing IATSE editors that has not only maintained the quality of our episodes, but at the same time has improved the efficiency of our post-production operation.†This latest labor strife, which some fear could be a preview of things to come if there is an industry-wide strike in 2007-08, has the WGAW seeking to have the NLRB issue an order reinstating the strikers, as well as providing them with compensation for lost wages.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6389164.html
Top Model Takes Strikers Off Payroll
BLOGS TAKE LEAD IN REPORTING POLLING PROBLEMS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Tom Zeller]
Blogs of all political stripes spent most of yesterday detailing reports of voting machine malfunctions and ballot shortages, effectively becoming an online national clearinghouse of the polling problems that still face the election system. And in a new twist this year, many bloggers buttressed their accounts of electoral shenanigans with links to videos posted on the video Web site YouTube. That the blog now has a firm place in the choreography of national events — and in elections perhaps more so than in any other cultural exercise — is a boon to the democratic process, said Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of Internet governance at Oxford University and a co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard. “In a lot of ways they’re helping to set the agenda for the mainstream media in fast-moving events like this,†Mr. Zittrain said. “They just need to be able to produce enough that’s credible quickly to give a lead.â€
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/us/politics/08blogs.html
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Blogs Take Lead in Reporting Polling Problems
ALL SLANDER ALL THE TIME
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: John Ellis, Boston Globe]
[Commentary] According to Advertising Age magazine, the total amount spent this year on political advertising will reach $2 billion, a hefty increase over 2004. If one conservatively estimates that at least half of all political advertising can be fairly described as "negative," then 2006 will be the first year that negative political advertising expenditures reached the $1 billion mark. That's a dollar amount greater than all of the television, radio and print advertising buys done by Anheuser-Busch in 2005. Look through the list of the major advertisers in the U.S. and what strikes you is that all of them spend vast sums of money building and strengthening brands. What makes our politics so sensationally awful is not just the amount of money spent denigrating the category and the profession, but the equally stunning amount of energy that is expended by party apparatchiks to amplify the negative in news-media coverage of politics. And the news media are only to happy to comply. The truth is they can't get enough of it. The net effect of this constant and unrelenting assault on politicians and the political process is voter resignation and ultimately a kind of doomed acceptance.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116295075531916551.html?mod=todays_us_op...
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116295075531916551.html?mod=todays_us_opinion
TECH MONEY FLOWS TO DEMOCRATS
[SOURCE: Technology Daily 11/6, AUTHOR: David Hatch]
AT&T, Microsoft, Time Warner and other deep-pocketed technology giants are filling the campaign coffers of House Democrats who could emerge as key powerbrokers if their party prevails in Tuesday's mid-term congressional election. The beneficiaries include House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and John Dingell of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, the lead Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee, also is raking in tech industry money. All three lawmakers are drawing sizable donations despite supporting Internet regulations that put them at odds with many of the industry behemoths bankrolling their campaigns. The trio voted against House-passed deregulatory telecom legislation backed by the Bell companies. Reps Markey and Dingell in particular have been frequent critics of telecom and cable giants. "Obviously people are hedging their bets," said Gigi Sohn, president of the watchdog Public Knowledge. "I think all [the campaign money] gets them is access."
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-QPAY1162899874427.html
Tech Money Flows To Democrats
FTC: POLICING ONLINE ADS IS 'DAUNTING TASK'
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Anne Broache]
As ads and marketing messages spread to a growing number of devices and with increased personalization, challenges lie ahead for authorities charged with policing deceptive schemes, a Federal Trade Commission official said Tuesday. Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch predicted that the next decade will bring concerns the FTC could never have foreseen in the early 1970s, when the agency made it a top priority to clamp down on pitches laced with false or unsubstantiated claims. "Monitoring advertising and marketing is a bread-and-butter investigative technique used by FTC staff," Commissioner Rosch said at the second day of FTC hearings on Internet consumer challenges. "In a growing media universe, that's a daunting task."
http://news.com.com/FTC+Policing+online+ads+is+daunting+task/2100-1024_3...
FTC: Policing online ads is 'daunting task'