Nov 12, 2008 (White House E-Mail)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 12, 2008

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
White House suffers loss in e-mail case
Ensure openness, RTNDA tells Obama administration

THE TRANSITION
   Obama transition team announces lobbyist rules
   The elusive Team Obama
   Obama Agency-Vetting To Begin Next Week
   Obama boosters urge greater role for Web
   In Letter to Obama, NAB Highlights Broadcasters' Role in America

THE ECONOMY
New regulations will soon swell IT workloads

INTERNET/TELECOM
   Questions loom whether FCC will address USF vote before new administration takes over
   What do "white spaces" mean for public media?
   States Seeking Better Broadband Nationwide Turn and Make a Local Focus
   Is our Internet future in danger?
   Google Uses Searches to Track Flu's Spread
   Critical infrastructure often under cyberattack

ELECTIONS & MEDIA
Campaign Coverage Dominates News
Was the Press Really Strongly Biased Against McCain?

BROADCASTING & CABLE
   Twenty-nine percent say DTV transition means all TV programming will be in HD
   Local TV Stations Anticipate Severe Downturn in '09
   Let's pay only for the TV we watch
   NFL Seeks Balance in Cable Fray

WIRELESS
Disney, Verizon to turn the cellphone into a theme-park visitor's tool
In-home cell 'tower' linked to Internet boosts service for $100, plus $5 monthly

POLICYMAKERS
NPR Names Vivian Schiller as President and CEO
Patti Miller to Head Public Policy at Sesame

QUICKLY -- Media and Telecom Policy Developments October 2008; Microsoft a giant in lobbying; Promotional Swag More Effective Than Ads

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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

WHITE HOUSE SUFFERS LOSS IN E-MAIL CASE
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Pete Yost]
US District Judge Henry Kennedy on Monday ruled against the Bush administration in a court battle over the White House's problem-plagued e-mail system and will allow lawsuits filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive to move forward. The groups are pressing the government to recover millions of possibly missing electronic messages. CREW and the National Security Archive want a court order directing the archivist of the United States to initiate action through the attorney general to restore deleted e-mails. Judge Kennedy said the two private groups seek precisely the relief outlined in the Federal Records Act and upheld in a previous case by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
http://benton.org/node/18813
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ENSURE OPENNESS, RTNDA TELLS OBAMA ADMINISTRATION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Radio-Television News Directors Association, the National Association of Broadcasters and other media organizations in the Sunshine In Government Initiative have submitted a wish list to President-Elect Barack Obama. The groups are looking for a change in direction from what they see as the Bush administration's over-classification of information and the logjam of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The groups have four requests: 1) Restore the presumption of disclosure across the executive branch. 2) Create an independent, online ombudsman to help citizens access their government. 3) Ban agencies from proposing or endorsing unnecessary statutory exemptions from disclosure. 4) Speak on the record, and urge his senior deputies and aides to do the same, in all statements about policy and current news about public matters.
http://benton.org/node/18812
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THE TRANSITION

OBAMA TRANSITION TEAM ANNOUNCES LOBBYIST RULES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kevin Bogardus]
The transition team for President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday announced rules for lobbyists wanting to contribute to or join the effort preparing for the next administration. Lobbyists cannot make donations to the transition project and are prohibited from any lobbying work while part of the transition team. In addition, no one can work in a policy area they have lobbied on in the past 12 months, and no transition team member can lobby the future Obama administration for 12 months in the policy areas they worked on during the transition. Obama's transition team has begun working in an office space in downtown Washington provided by the General Services Administration. In addition, a nonprofit group has been established to accept private contributions to help with the transition along with the federal funds already provided. Lobbyists cannot contribute to that group. The transition team also released statements from two congressional experts praising the new rules as a clear signal that Obama plans to maintain his presidential campaign's tough stance against lobbyists. The overall transition team will employ 450 people at a budget of $12 million, with offices in both Chicago and Washington.
http://benton.org/node/18811
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THE ELUSIVE TEAM OBAMA
[SOURCE: Salon.com, AUTHOR: Walter Shapiro]
Barack Obama and his closest advisors know how to keep secrets. With nearly 10 percent of the transition period between administrations already gone, we know more about the factors that will dictate the selection of the White House puppy than we do about the reasoning behind the choice of a would-be Treasury secretary. After a historic election, the press and the public are craving names -- any names -- to put flesh and flash on that vague entity known as the Obama administration. Major news organizations, which have invested heavily in putting their reporters on the campaign planes, expect nonstop scoops about appointments even when those close to the personnel decisions have taken vows of silence.
http://benton.org/node/18810
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OBAMA AGENCY-VETTING TO BEGIN NEXT WEEK
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
John Podesta, co-chairman of the Obama transition team, said that government agency review teams would be named by the end of this week, and that they would start vetting agencies as early as the following Monday. He said the agency review teams would be going over more than 100 agencies, departments and commissions "to provide the President-elect, Vice President-elect, cabinet and subcabinet officials once selected, and key advisers with the information needed to make strategic policy, budgetary and personnel decisions prior to the inauguration." Podesta said the 2009 digital television transition is at the forefront for the Federal Communications Commission transition team.
http://benton.org/node/18809
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OBAMA BOOSTERS URGE GREATER ROLE FOR WEB
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Alex Dobuzinskis]
Barack Obama had a brigade of Web denizens backing his election, from comedy star Obama Girl to throngs of young voters, and now they are clamoring for the Internet to play a big role in his presidency. Early in his transition to the White House, the Democratic president-elect seems to be complying, and his actions could signal a change in the way U.S. citizens expect their political leaders to communicate with them in the future, experts said. Obama, who has become the first president-elect with a MySpace page, has bolstered his online presence since last week's election by creating a site called Change.gov
http://benton.org/node/18808
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IN LETTER TO OBAMA, NAB HIGHLIGHTS BROADCASTERS' ROLE IN AMERICA
[SOURCE: National Association of Broadcasters, AUTHOR: David Rehr]
National Association of Broadcasters CEO David Rehr wrote to President-Elect Barack Obama highlighting the role played by America's local television and radio broadcasters. "There are more than 15,000 local radio and television stations in the United States, employing nearly 250,000 hard working Americans," wrote Rehr. "These stations serve their communities through public service, local news, entertaining programming and vital community information -- such as emergency warnings, traffic information and severe weather alerts." Rehr also referenced the pending transition to digital television, noting that NAB has undertaken "massive consumer education efforts" to ensure that no American is left behind in the switch to DTV.
http://benton.org/node/18807
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THE ECONOMY
New regulations will soon swell IT workloads

NEW REGULATIONS WILL SOON SWELL IT WORKLOADS
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Ephraim Schwartz]
The financial meltdown, fueled by a decade of exotic financing mechanisms that some say were designed to hide risk and pass it on to unwary buyers, will have a major impact on IT budgets, personnel, and reporting responsibilities. New regulations will put IT in the hot seat, much as the post-Enron Sarbanes-Oxley and other such rules did in the early 2000s as governments responded to that period's financial shenanigans. IT acts as the regulators' "beat cop," enforcing the rules through the technology systems they deploy and manage. So, despite being battered by recession-linked cutbacks, IT will have to find a way to take on the heavy burden of new regulations expected to emerge from U.S. and other governments in 2009,
http://benton.org/node/18821
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INTERNET/TELECOM

QUESTIONS LOOM WHETHER FCC WILL ADDRESS USF VOTE BEFORE NEW ADMINISTRATION TAKES OVER
[SOURCE: RCR Wireless News, AUTHOR: Jeffrey Silva]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin's plan to reform the universal service fund and intercarrier compensation regimes could be in jeopardy. After punting the item last week, his fellow Commissioners say they could be ready to vote in December. But the clock is running out on Martin's chairmanship. "Many observers on Capitol Hill and in the industry note that after Tuesday's U.S. presidential election, reaching a consensus may be more difficult as industry stakeholders will be under less pressure to compromise and cut a deal," said Jessica Zufolo, an analyst at Medley Global Advisors.
http://benton.org/node/18806
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WHAT DO "WHITE SPACES" MEAN FOR PUBLIC MEDIA?
[SOURCE: Center for Social Media, AUTHOR: Jessica Clark]
[Commentary] What do "white spaces" mean for public media? It will be awhile before we can extract that value—and lots of others will be extracting value along the way. White-space capable transmitters and mobile devices still need to be brought to market. "Last mile" connections need to be laid in order to connect potential providers to the Internet. Google, Intel and Motorola are all lining up to provide new equipment and services for this emerging market. But if things proceed as consumer advocates like Sascha Meinrath of the New America Foundation hope, many more Americans will have broadband access. "In essence, the FCC has begun the transition from command-and-control, single-user spectrum licensure to a more distributed system that holds the potential to eliminate the artificial scarcity that prevented widespread access to the public airwaves since 1927," writes Meinrath on his blog. And they won't just be consuming media—on open networks, they'll be producing it too. That means many more chances to create and distribute the sort of dynamic public media we've been examining here at CSM. In other words—not just WiFi on steroids, but cable access too.
http://benton.org/node/18805
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STATES SEEKING BETTER BROADBAND NATIONWIDE TURN AND MAKE A LOCAL FOCUS
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
State telecommunications officials concerned about the universal deployment and use of high-speed Internet services joined together at a San Jose conference on Thursday to compare notes, plot strategy and encourage programs and activities that will lead to better broadband nationwide. The states represented at the conference, the broadband summit of the Federal Communications Commission and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, were from Alaska, California, Iowa, Indiana, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Tennessee. The FCC-NARUC joint summit meeting was the first in three years or the first since the last sputtering of the legal battles precipitated by the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Those fights concerned whether state regulators should have a say in setting competition rules for telephone services. By the end of 2004, federal courts had sided with Bell companies in urging federal regulation of telecommunications, cutting state regulators out of interstate communications. Internet services have generally also fallen in that category, often hamstringing the efforts of state regulators to act on broadband access within their states.
http://benton.org/node/18804
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IS OUR INTERNET FUTURE IN DANGER?
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Tom Kaneshige]
The digital Disneyland of the future -- where we freely work and play online -- may be at risk. Why? Because, some argue, broadband carriers can't support it. The Internet's "free ride" culture has led to more people downloading gigabytes of data at practically no cost. Even if broadband infrastructure's capacity doubled or tripled, there's no avoiding the equivalent of an abrupt work stoppage. There are signs of the free ride being nearly over. In the U.K., a million users are about to bump into "soft caps" for usage that their carriers imposed, according to consumer research group uSwitch. In the U.S., some carriers have also started imposing caps that customers have found out about only when they exceeded them in their inaccurately labeled "unlimited" plans. (These limits were hidden in the "unlimited" contracts' fine print.) Comcast, for example, now has a national cap of 256GB per month. And a few are experimenting with tiered pricing, where the more you use, the more you pay -- just like you do for electrical, gas, and water.
http://benton.org/node/18803
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GOOGLE USES SEARCHES TO TRACK FLU'S SPREAD
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Miguel Helft]
There is a new common symptom of the flu, in addition to the usual aches, coughs, fevers and sore throats. Turns out a lot of ailing Americans enter phrases like "flu symptoms" into Google and other search engines before they call their doctors. That simple act, multiplied across millions of keyboards in homes around the country, has given rise to a new early warning system for fast-spreading flu outbreaks, called Google Flu Trends. Tests of the new Web tool from Google.org, the company's philanthropic unit, suggest that it may be able to detect regional outbreaks of the flu a week to 10 days before they are reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC reports are slower because they rely on data collected and compiled from thousands of health care providers, labs and other sources. Some public health experts say the Google data could help accelerate the response of doctors, hospitals and public health officials to a nasty flu season, reducing the spread of the disease and, potentially, saving lives.
http://benton.org/node/18822
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CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE OFTEN UNDER CYBERATTACK
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Robert McMillan]
Computer systems that run the world's critical infrastructure are not as secure as they should be and insiders are mad. That's according to a new survey released Monday that asked management, network engineers, and administrators in nine infrastructure industries about the state of cybersecurity in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Insiders felt that all of these industries, save financial services, were unprepared for cyberattacks. These unready industries included: water, utilities, oil and gas, telecommunications, transportation, emergency services, chemicals, and the shipping industry. And that's bad news because more than half of them said that their companies had already been hit with some sort of cyberincident, data leak, or insider attack. Another 14 percent said they were expecting something like this to happen in the next year.
http://benton.org/node/18802
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ELECTIONS & MEDIA

CAMPAIGN COVERAGE DOMINATES NEWS
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Mark Jurkowitz]
According to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism News Coverage Index, in the final week of a campaign, the presidential election utterly dominated the news agenda. Campaign and election related themes combined to make up more than two-thirds (69%) of the newshole studied. Combined, that would make election and its aftermath the largest single event in the 22 months since the Index began. When you add in the additional stories connected to the Nov. 4 voting—including the U.S. House and Senate races and ballot questions—that number swells to almost 80%.
http://benton.org/node/18801
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WAS THE PRESS REALLY STRONGLY BIASED AGAINST MCCAIN?
[SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Greg Mitchell]
[Commentary] Yes, the press is biased in favor of recognizing who is winning and stating that perhaps too often. We may be reading for years about the strong media "bias" against McCain when it was mainly (although perhaps not completely) a matter of Obama leading the horse race and getting credit for that by reporters who were, surprise, not deaf, dumb and blind. Strong bias in news coverage of the 2008 campaign may yet be shown -- but it's not proven so far.
http://benton.org/node/18800
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BROADCASTING & CABLE

TWENTY-NINE PERCENT SAY DTV TRANSITION MEANS ALL TV PROGRAMMING WILL BE IN HD
[SOURCE: Broadcast Engineering, AUTHOR: ]
Twenty-nine percent of respondents to a new survey from Frank N. Magid Associates believe all TV programming will be presented in HD after the digital transition takes place in February 2009. The survey, conducted in September of 1238 adults who are 21 years or older, found this incorrect expectation exists among cable and satellite subscribers as well as those who receive their TV signals over the air. Aside from the glaring misperception, the survey offers a bit a solace to those concerned about the DTV transition in February 2009. A total of 96 percent of all consumers ages 21 and older now say they have heard something about the pending digital transition.
http://benton.org/node/18820
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LOCAL TV STATIONS ANTICIPATE SEVERE DOWNTURN IN '09
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Brian Steinberg]
Local TV stations, already wrestling with technology that changes how people watch their programs and the resulting fallout of ad dollars, have even worse news to consider: The TV-station trade association, the Television Bureau of Advertising, has severely recast its 2009 forecast for local TV advertising downward, suggesting that local stations are about to see their situation go from bad to worse. The trade group said today it now anticipates total spot TV ad revenue to fall 7% to 11% in 2009, down from a previous forecast of a 2% to 5% drop. Local spot revenue will fall between 4% and 8%, the TVB said, compared with its previous forecast of up 2% to down 1%. Meanwhile, national spot advertising is set to decline between 11.5% and 15.5% in 2009, the group said, down from a previous forecast of 7% to 10%. The group also said it expects total 2008 spot revenue to fall 7.1% from last year, rather than coming in flat, as was forecast in September.
http://benton.org/node/18798
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LET'S PAY ONLY FOR THE TV WE WATCH
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: David Lazarus]
[Commentary] Cable TV rates keep rising, and federal regulators said last week they're investigating -- again -- whether cable companies are gouging consumers. Why bother? We're squandering limited regulatory resources policing an industry that's stubbornly clinging to an outdated business model. It's time for the $79-billion cable industry to switch to a la carte pricing that would allow customers to pay only for the channels they want to watch. Beyond being a matter of fairness, it would bring cable in line with the wholesale shift in how consumers now approach entertainment. It's simple. In the age of the iPod, people should be able to say, "I want my MTV -- and not much else."
http://benton.org/node/18819
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NFL SEEKS BALANCE IN CABLE FRAY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: ]
This week the National Football League's definition of the New England Patriots' home market will shrink, even though the team has represented New England for nearly four decades, including markets such as Springfield, Burlington, and Hartford, where the Patriots nearly moved a decade ago. Yet, in accordance with league policy, only fans in the Boston metropolitan area and Manchester will be able to see Thursday night's showdown with the rival New York Jets on two ABC Network affiliates. Many other fans across New England will have to search for an outlet that gets the league-owned NFL Network, a cable channel that only about 40% of U.S. households receive. The suddenly shrinking New England market underscores the delicate dance the NFL has had to perform since it moved eight regular-season games to its fledgling cable channel in 2006 and tried to persuade major television distributors to pay about 75 cents per subscriber each month to include the network in its most widely distributed broadcast package.
http://benton.org/node/18818
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WIRELESS

DISNEY, VERIZON TO TURN THE CELLPHONE INTO A THEME-PARK VISITOR'S TOOL
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Dawn Chmielewski]
Walt Disney Co has struck a deal with Verizon Wireless that will allow it to remain in wireless contact with its theme park visitors -- even when they step outside the turnstiles in Anaheim and Orlando. Disney and Verizon bill it as a way to enhance the "theme park experience," enabling parkgoers to use their mobile phones for tasks such as saving a spot in line at a popular ride and zeroing in on where Cinderella can be found signing autographs. But the service has broad -- and potentially controversial -- implications for marketers and consumers as each attempts to balance the need for information with privacy. The new service has echoes of the futuristic film "Minority Report," in which Tom Cruise's character is inundated with personalized ad messages as he passes interactive billboards in a mall.
http://benton.org/node/18816
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IN-HOME CELL 'TOWER' LINKED TO INTERNET BOOSTS SERVICE FOR $100, PLUS $5/MONTH
[SOURCE: Toledo Blade, AUTHOR: Jon Chavez]
For just $100, plus $5 a month, anyone in metro Toledo can now have his or her very own cell phone tower at home. Worry not, though. The "tower" is a new piece of technology about the size of a small telephone book and designed to handle cell phone traffic only in a house or apartment. The technology is offered now by one cellular company, Sprint Nextel, and next year its rivals are expected to do the same.
http://benton.org/node/18815
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POLICYMAKERS

NPR NAMES VIVIAN SCHILLER AS PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: ]
The National Public Radio Board of Directors announced that it has named Vivian Schiller, 47, as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective January 5, 2009. Schiller joins NPR from The New York Times Company where she is Senior Vice President and General Manager of NYTimes.com. She succeeds Dennis L. Haarsager, who has served as interim CEO since March. During her tenure at The New York Times, she led the day-to-day operations of NYTimes.com, the largest newspaper website on the Internet, overseeing product, technology, marketing, classifieds, strategic planning and business development. Before joining NYTimes.com, Ms. Schiller spent four years as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Discovery Times Channel, a joint venture of The New York Times and Discovery Communications.
http://benton.org/node/18814
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PATTI MILLER TO HEAD PUBLIC POLICY AT SESAME
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Kids TV superhero Patti Miller has joined Sesame Workshop as vice President of Public Policy. Miller has been VP of Children Now, the California-based kids advocacy group that has pushed the FCC and broadcasters for more educational children's programming. Miller joins a team that includes Aura Kenny Dunn, assistant VP, government relations, and Tracy Garrett, director of public policy.
http://benton.org/node/18796
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QUICKLY

MEDIA AND TELECOM POLICY DEVELOPMENTS OCTOBER 2008
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
October passed in a whirl of election coverage and news about the financial crisis. But the month shouldn't pass without note about passage of a new law concerning universal broadband or the media's own role in the economy's meltdown.
http://benton.org/node/18793
See all our Headlines Monthly Highlights
http://benton.org/headlines/monthly_highlights
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MICROSOFT A GIANT IN LOBBYING
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR:]
The most recent federal disclosure forms offer a stark reminder of Microsoft's mighty Washington presence: The software giant's lobbying tab of almost $2 million for the third quarter alone nearly equaled the amount that rival Google spent in the first nine months of the year. But Google already has spent more on lobbying this year than it did for all of 2007 as the Internet search company starts to emerge as a formidable player in DC lobbying. Both companies put their lobbying muscle on full display this year as they battled over Google's plans to sell some of the online ads that appear alongside search results on Yahoo Inc.'s website. Google and Yahoo entered into the partnership in an effort to keep Yahoo out of Microsoft's hands.
http://benton.org/node/18817
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PROMOTIONAL SWAG MORE EFFECTIVE THAN ADS, STUDY SAYS
[SOURCE: Brandweek, AUTHOR: Elaine Wong]
As marketers continue their debate over the next great advertising medium, a new study released by the Advertising Specialty Institute found it's not TV, print or radio that gets consumers' attention, but good old promotional swag. This includes coffee mugs, pencils, retractable solar-powered flashlights or any other product bearing a company logo.
http://benton.org/node/18797
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