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COMMISSIONER TATE'S REMARKS AT THE AMERICAN PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS COUNCIL
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
In a world where it seems like almost everyone has a cellphone - and indeed, where 6% of households ONLY use cellphones - it's easy to forget that payphones are still an important part of many people's lives. 8.7 million American households still have no phone service at all. A payphone may be some peoples' only lifeline to communicate with others. In particular, payphones are a critical part of homeland security. They are there for those times that we can't anticipate, when our landlines and our cellphones aren't available, and so as we plan for the possibility of another disaster -- whether a terrorist attack, a hurricane, or pandemic flu -- we should not forget to consider payphones as part of our response.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-265545A1.doc
Commissioner Tate's Remarks on Public Payphones
STUDY SAYS VIOLENCE STILL ABOUNDS IN CHILDREN'S TELEVISION
[SOURCE: Kansas City Star, AUTHOR: Aaron Barnhart]
Thirty years after researchers found that Saturday morning cartoons were more violent than prime-time TV shows, a study released Thursday argued that little had changed. The report from the Parents Television Council, called 'Wolves in Sheep's Clothing,' found that children's shows were still more violent than adult shows — even when "cartoony" depictions of violence were factored out. With Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) sitting beside him, Parents Television Council executive director L. Brent Bozell said, "This disturbing trend signifies that parents can no longer be confident that their children will not have access to dark violence, sexual innuendo or offensive language on entertainment programming targeted toward children." David Kleeman, executive director of the American Center for Children and Media, said the council's researchers did not watch public TV — which is known for its children's programming — and did not take into account whether people on the shows were punished or learned lessons from their bad behaviors. "They looked at all of these behaviors in isolation," Kleeman said. "That kind of analysis eliminates any opportunity to do comedy, or drama, or even learning."
http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/tv/all-tvviolencekids0529may29,0,4302...
Study says Violence still Abounds in Children's Television
BROADCASTERS URGED TO BEEF UP ELECTION COVERAGE
[SOURCE: Campaign Legal Center]
In a letter mailed to every television station general manager in the nation, the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause and the Benton Foundation called on broadcasters to provide their viewers with substantive coverage of this year’s elections. General managers nationwide were urged to encourage their news staffs to tackle significant election issues in order to engage and educate viewers. The organizations reminded broadcasters of their responsibilities as the primary source of election information for voters. A list of resources was also compiled by the organizations designed to help broadcasters improve their election coverage, meet their public interest obligations and understand the legal requirements related to political broadcasting.
http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/press-2053.html
Broadcasters Urged to Beef Up Election Coverage
In a letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) Friday, affiliate television stations of ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC called for changes to a Stevens bill that would allow cable systems, through 2014, to convert digital TV signals to analog for their analog customers and high definition signals (HDTV) to standard definition signals (DTV) for their digital subscribers. Stations are fine with the first part of that equation because, they say, it "protects against the disenfranchisement of viewers with analog receivers." Downconverting HD to DTV is, by contrast, consumer unfriendly, they argue, because "it condones viewer disenfranchisement from HDTV services." Allowing cable to "degrade" HDTV, they argue, would disenfranchise viewers who have bought HDTV sets to be able to watch the Super Bowl, Nascar or other programs in high-definition. Besides, they say, cable would have the incentive to favor its own HDTV programming, which it could supply without degradation while converting the services of the networks or stations. The affiliate groups want the chairman to either drop both conversion provisions and deal with the issue in a bill next session, or drop the HDTV conversion provision only. They said their focus on conversion should not indicate they don't have other issues with the bill. They do, including its permitting unlicensed wireless devices to operate in broadcast spectrum and "broad" exceptions to the broadcast flag content protection technology that the bill would also approve.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6338597?display=Breaking+News
* Affiliates Protest DTV Terms In Stevens Bill
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6338775.html?display=Breaking+News
* NAB Opposes HDTV Downconversion
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6338779?display=Breaking+News
Stations, NAB Oppose HDTV Downconversion
ADELPHIA PUSHES MERGER CLOSURE
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Mike Farrell]
Frustrated with the failure of its major bondholders to reach an agreement, Adelphia Communications Corp. tried to take matters into its own hands Friday, asking a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge to allow its sale to Comcast and Time Warner to go through without a final bankruptcy agreement. “Despite our best efforts, the creditors’ disputes remain unresolved,†said William Schleyer, chairman and CEO of Adelphia, in a statement. “Removing the requirement for a confirmed Plan of Reorganization for Adelphia greatly increases the odds of Adelphia's sale closing in a timely manner. We believe these modifications accommodate the desires of creditors to lock in maximum value for the estate while enabling them to continue settlement discussions and litigation without the pressure of a looming deadline.†Time Warner and Comcast have apparently signed off on the modified deal. According to a statement, “Time Warner Cable and Comcast are working closely with Adelphia to find the swiftest path to accomplish the sale.†Time Warner and Comcast agreed to jointly purchase Adelphia in April 2005, but the $17 billion deal is predicated on the bankruptcy being completed. Both Time Warner and Comcast have set a July 31 drop-dead date when the two can walk away from the deal without penalty.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6338713.html?display=Breaking+News
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6338713.html?display=Breaking%20News
BUSH 'PLANTED FAKE NEWS STORIES ON AMERICAN TV'
[SOURCE: The Independent, AUTHOR: Andrew Buncombe]
The Federal Communications Commission is actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies' products. Among items provided by the Bush administration to news stations was one in which an Iraqi-American in Kansas City was seen saying "Thank you Bush. Thank you USA" in response to the 2003 fall of Baghdad. The footage was actually produced by the State Department, one of 20 federal agencies that have produced and distributed such items. The controversy over the use of VNRs by television stations first erupted last spring. At the time the FCC issued a public notice warning broadcasters that they were obliged to inform viewers if items were sponsored. The maximum fine for each violation is $32,500.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article621189.ece
Bush 'planted fake news stories on American TV'
AT&T LEAKS SENSITIVE INFO IN NSA SUIT
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com 5/26, AUTHOR: Declan McCullagh]
Lawyers for AT&T accidentally released sensitive information while defending a lawsuit that accuses the company of facilitating a government wiretapping program. AT&T's attorneys this week filed a 25-page legal brief striped with thick black lines that were intended to obscure portions of three pages and render them unreadable. But the obscured text nevertheless can be copied and pasted inside some PDF readers. The deleted portions of the legal brief seek to offer benign reasons why AT&T would allegedly have a secret room at its downtown San Francisco switching center that would be designed to monitor Internet and telephone traffic. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed the class-action lawsuit in January, alleges that the room is used by an unlawful National Security Agency surveillance program. "AT&T notes that the facts recited by plaintiffs are entirely consistent with any number of legitimate Internet monitoring systems, such as those used to detect viruses and stop hackers," the redacted pages say. Another section says: "Although the plaintiffs ominously refer to the equipment as the 'Surveillance Configuration,' the same physical equipment could be utilized exclusively for other surveillance in full compliance with" the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The redacted portions of AT&T's court filing are not classified, and no information relating to actual operations of an NSA surveillance program was disclosed [so it is unlikely you will be prosecuted for reading this]. Also, AT&T's attorneys at the law firms of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and Sidley Austin were careful not to explicitly acknowledge that such a secret room actually exists.
http://news.com.com/AT38T+leaks+sensitive+info+in+NSA+suit/2100-1028_3-6...
AT&T leaks sensitive info in NSA suit
AMNESTY SEEKS TO END INTERNET REPRESSION
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Paul Majendie]
Amnesty International marked its 45th anniversary on Sunday by launching a global campaign to stamp out state censorship of the Internet. The human rights pressure group called on Web users to sign a pledge calling on governments to stop censoring sites and urging technology corporations not to collude with them. Arguing that online censorship is a new threat to freedom, Amnesty claimed to have uncovered Internet repression in areas around the world from China and Tunisia to Vietnam, Iran, Israel and the Maldives.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID...
ADIOS TO A PHONE TAX
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] Treasury Secretary John Snow said the Internal Revenue Service will no longer collect the 3% federal excise tax on long-distance phone calls and will offer refunds for the past three years. The WSJ would like to think the Administration was acting out of principle. But the reality is that the courts -- most recently the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a decision last month -- have forced its hand with repeated rulings that the tax on long-distance is illegal in a telecom world in which calls are no longer priced based on distance. The IRS will continue to collect the tax on local calls, but Sec Snow to his credit did express support for the idea of Congress passing legislation to repeal the tax entirely. That would be the best outcome, and not just because a future administration might opt to begin collecting the tax again and restart the court battles. Another argument for full repeal is that so long as the tax exists, so will the political temptation to expand its scope and turn it into yet another revenue stream for the federal till. A Joint Tax Committee report issued last year suggested extending the excise tax to "all data communication services," including cable modems, cellular and DSL Internet connections. Like the alternative minimum tax, the federal excise tax was intended to target "the rich," who at the time were the only ones who could afford a telephone. Yet our tax code still considers phones "luxury" items today. The last time Congress came close to ending this charade was 2000, when majorities in both the House and the Senate voted for repeal, which President Clinton vetoed. The Republican Congress, which may not be Republican much longer, might consider giving it another shot before November.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114894015305465661.html?mod=todays_us_op...
(requires subscription)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114894015305465661.html?mod=todays_us_opinion
CELL CARRIERS SEEK GROWTH BY CATERING TO HISPANICS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Matt Richtel & Ken Belson]
Now that nearly three out of four people in this country have mobile phone service, cellphone companies are chasing new customers by marketing to ever more specific slices of the population. But one group is getting extra attention: Hispanics. The industry is spending tens of millions of dollars on marketing campaigns to court Hispanic customers. This summer, Verizon is sponsoring the concert tour of the Colombian-born pop singer Shakira, while Sprint is promoting advanced phones that let subscribers watch television and download songs in Spanish. And there is ample reason for the carriers' attention. One of the country's fastest growing demographic groups, Hispanics often have large families that span international borders, making for larger phone bills. They are also younger as a group, so they are less likely to have an old-fashioned landline phone and more likely to use pricey data services on their cellphones. In other words, they are ideal customers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/30/business/media/30cell.html
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Cell Carriers Seek Growth by Catering to Hispanics