Jan 8, 2009 (Broadband stimulus plan; DTV delay?; New post for Markey)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY JANUARY 8, 2009

FCC Chairman Martin on Balancing Deregulation and Consumer Protection (http://benton.org/node/20394) today the American Enterprise Institute.

THE ECONOMY
   Obama's Broadband Plan
   Group Asks Obama for $30B Tech Stimulus
   Keep the Sock Puppets Out of Your Stimulus

THE TRANSITION
   Markey to lead powerful energy subcommittee
   Obama Assembles Powerful West Wing
   Obama's Regulatory Czar Likely to Set a New Tone
   Waxman Ready To Pick Telecom Panel Chairman
   Obama tech appointments seen coming soon
   Obama announces 'chief performance officer'

DIGITAL TV
   Consumers Union Urges Delay of Digital TV Switchover
   Markey: Feb. 17 DTV Date May Have To Move
   NAB Asks FCC, Congress To Help Unclog Backlog Of DTV Coupon Requests
   PBS chief pushes for digital conversion action

FCC REFORM
FCC: Burn it down or reform it?
NCTA Offers FCC-Reform Ideas to Obama Transition

BROADCASTING/CABLE
   Is public access TV dead?
   Illinois AG's Office Examining U-Verse's PEG Programming
   Bills Would Block FCC on Fairness Doctrine
   Arbitron Settles Ratings Suit
   DirecTV in dispute with Comcast over sports cost
   Time Warner Takes $25 Billion Hit

JOURNALISM
   End Times
   Gunmen Attack TV Offices in Mexico
   War in Gaza Casts Shadow over Transition

QUICKLY -- Schools tap '21st-century skills'; Microsoft Wins Key Search Deals; OLPC slashes workforce in half, cuts salaries; New York City to Pay Doctors to Contribute to Database; Music Groups Merge To Fight Broadcasters; US Mobile Broadband Users To Surpass 140 Million By 2013

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THE ECONOMY

OBAMA'S BROADBAND PLAN
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Arik Hesseldahl]
The Obama Administration has pledged support for universal broadband, or making speedy Internet service available to all Americans. But the ideas under consideration by the President-elect's transition team are likely to fall short of the radical changes some activists have sought. At the core of the $20 billion to $30 billion effort under discussion by Obama's advisers are tax breaks for companies that extend the availability of broadband or, in regions where it already exists, boost the speed of service. Companies that build broadband networks in areas with no service could receive as much as 60% of their investment back in tax credits. Companies that increase the speed of existing networks could get tax credits of as much as 40%. The tax incentives also could be structured to promote high broadband speeds, according to Jeffrey Campbell, director of technology and communications policy for network equipment maker Cisco Systems (CSCO). For example, some analysts say the government could give 20% tax credits for 20-megabit-per-second service and 40% credits for 100-megabit service. As currently conceived, the incentives would be available to any company. However, those most likely to benefit would be existing broadband providers. The new Administration appears unlikely to push forcefully for more competition in broadband. S. Derek Turner, research director at Free Press, is skeptical that a broadband program relying heavily on tax credits is the best approach. The risk, he says, is that the country will fail to encourage competition, and the money spent will go largely to the telecom and cable companies that already dominate the business. "There's no point to doing all this if all we're doing is writing the incumbent [players] a blank check," he says.
http://benton.org/node/20424
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GROUP ASKS OBAMA FOR $30B TECH STIMULUS
[SOURCE: RedHerring, AUTHOR: Cassimir Medford]
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a technology lobbying group, called on President-elect Barack Obama to reserve $30 billion of his proposed $700 billion economic stimulus package for broadband, a smart electric grid, and a health network. ITIF says rebuilding the nation's digital infrastructure will have a bigger impact on the economy than rebuilding roads and bridges--the centerpiece of the stimulus plan. Money spent on improving the digital infrastructure will spur investment, productivity, and innovation as opposed to the planned physical stimulus expenditure which will spur consumption for the most part, ITIF said. But the report is sure to chafe free market advocates, many of whom believe spending taxpayer dollars upgrading digital communications in the United States is a waste of public money. The big broadband problem in the country is coverage rather than cost to consumers. In urban areas there are multiple wireline and wireless broadband services from which to choose, but the commercial incentive to extend broadband to less-populated rural areas is not as compelling. "There are ways to improve broadband coverage in the U.S. without spending $30 billion," said Tim Farrar, president of Telecom Media and Finance Associates. "It can be done through regulation and perhaps extending Universal Service Fund responsibility to wireless broadband operators."
http://benton.org/node/20405
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KEEP THE SOCK PUPPETS OUT OF YOUR STIMULUS
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Craig Aaron]
[Commentary] In a recent commentary, Robert Atkinson of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation attacks Free Press for trying to advance our nefarious "agenda of getting open networks and even more broadband competition." His group published its own $30 billion broadband stimulus plan, which he touts as more "pragmatic" and "shovel-ready" than the alternatives. On the surface, his proposal seems somewhat similar to the Free Press plan, using tax credits and incentives to bolster broadband supply, especially in rural and other underserved areas. But a closer examination shows Atkinson suspiciously avoiding any proposals that might actually bring some needed competition into the broadband market. He has criticized our proposed $10 billion "Bonds for Broadband" program, claiming there are few companies that would take advantage of it and it would take too long to spur investment. But an independent study released yesterday by the Fiber to the Home Council estimated that such a program would result in substantial investments in 2009, creating nearly 200,000 new jobs this year alone.
http://benton.org/node/20404
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THE TRANSITION

MARKEY TO LEAD POWERFUL ENERGY SUBCOMMITTEE
[SOURCE: Boston Herald, AUTHOR: Susan Milligan]
Rep Ed Markey (D-MA) today will be awarded a key energy and environment leadership post in the House, a move that will make the Malden Democrat one of the most powerful players on Capitol Hill on an issue central to President-elect Obama's first-term agenda. The 17-term congressman with a strong record against nuclear power and for more fuel-efficient cars will be named chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment. Rep Markey already chairs the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, a new panel that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi created in early 2007. Rep Markey, the House's most vocal advocate for tighter automobile emission limits, will replace Democratic Representative Rick Boucher, who represents a coal-country district in Virginia. Rep Boucher will take Markey's current position as chairman of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.
http://benton.org/node/20423
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OBAMA ASSEMBLES POWERFUL WEST WING
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Michael Shear, Ceci Connolly]
President-elect Barack Obama is assembling a new and influential cadre of counselors just steps from the Oval Office whose power to direct domestic policy will rival, if not exceed, the authority of his Cabinet. Presidents have long strived to centralize influence in the White House, often to the frustration of their Cabinet secretaries. But not since Richard M. Nixon tried to abolish the majority of his Cabinet has a president gone so far in attempting to build a West Wing-based clutch of advisers with a mandate to cut through -- or leapfrog -- the traditional bureaucracy. Obama's emerging "super-Cabinet" is intended to ensure that his domestic priorities -- health reform, the environment and urban affairs -- don't get mired in agency red tape or brushed aside by the ongoing economic meltdown and international crises. Half a dozen new White House positions have been filled by well-known leaders with experience navigating Washington turf wars. Top Obama advisers spent months studying the internal workings of previous administrations and came away convinced that high-priority issues require a White House coordinator akin to the national security adviser. White House veterans say the new posts are the clearest signal yet that the incoming president has no patience for the resistance to change that permeates the capital. But some see the potential for chaos within the administration.
http://benton.org/node/20422
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OBAMA'S REGULATORY CZAR LIKELY TO SET A NEW TONE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jonathan Weisman, Jess Bravin]
Cass Sunstein, a Harvard Law School professor who pioneered efforts to design regulation around the ways people behave, will be named the Obama administration's regulatory czar. Prof Sunstein, a friend of President-elect Barack Obama from their faculty days at the University of Chicago law school, will mark a sharp departure for the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Although obscure, the post wields outsize power. It oversees regulations throughout the government, from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Obama aides have said the job will be crucial as the new administration overhauls financial-services regulations, attempts to pass universal health care and tries to forge a new approach to controlling emissions of greenhouse gases. Under President George W. Bush, the office has been dominated by administrators with a strong deregulatory bent. Activists saw it as the place where environmental, workplace safety, consumer products and other areas of regulation often stalled or died. Sunstein, a prolific academic with wide-ranging interests, may be best known for advancing a field known as "law and behavioral economics" that seeks to shape law and policy around the way research shows people actually behave. The theory builds on earlier approaches developed at the University of Chicago law school that sought to harmonize regulatory law with free-market economics. Although widely embraced by conservatives, critics said it failed to account for the sometimes less-than-rational aspects of human behavior.
http://benton.org/node/20421
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WAXMAN READY TO PICK TELECOM PANEL CHAIRMAN
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Thursday is the day for House Commerce Committee democrats to meet and elect chairmen for the committee's five subcommittees. Full committee chair Henry Waxman (D-CA) wants to name the panel will jurisdiction over the Federal Communications Commission the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet from the current Telecommunications and the Internet. Chairman Waxman's proposed name change suggests he might want to broaden the subcommittee's jurisdiction to include the computer software and hardware industry. Rep Edward Markey (D-MA), current chairman of the Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee, is reportedly interested in becoming chairman of the Energy Subcommittee in light of the incoming Obama Administration's desire to pass climate change legislation. Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) has reportedly expressed interest in being chairman of the Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee if Markey steps down.
http://benton.org/node/20410
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OBAMA TECH APPOINTMENTS SEEN COMING SOON
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Kim Dixon]
President-elect Barack Obama is expected to announce key technology appointments as early as this week. Industry lobbyists, consumers groups and other advocates are waiting for Obama to pick someone to head the Federal Communications Commission and to fill a new job of chief technology officer for the federal government. Top candidates for FCC chairman include Julius Genachowski, a classmate of Obama's at Harvard Law School, and Blair Levin, most recently an investment advisor. Both were high-level staff at the FCC under President Bill Clinton, and both are now advising Obama. Sonal Shah, head of global development at Google, is also advising Obama on telecom issues during the transition. Former agency officials and others, both Democrats and Republicans, told a Washington conference this week the FCC has failed to keep up with new technologies and is hamstrung by outdated laws that were based on old technology.
http://benton.org/node/20409
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OBAMA ANNOUNCES 'CHIEF PERFORMANCE OFFICER'
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Kim Dixon]
President-elect Barack Obama has picked Nancy Killefer, a director at McKinsey & Company and a former assistant Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, to serve as the first US "chief performance officer" to oversee budget and spending reform. She will work with economic officials to increase efficiencies and eliminate waste in government spending. The details of Killefer's role and responsibilities remain fuzzy, but one key to her success is clear. When it comes to government performance, one of the best ways to improve it will be to improve the way we measure it.
http://benton.org/node/20408
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DIGITAL TV

CONSUMERS UNION URGES DELAY OF DIGITAL TV SWITCHOVER
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
Consumers Union is asking Congress and the White House to delay the digital TV transition scheduled for Feb 17, citing problems with the government coupon program for DTV converter boxes and other worries. In letters today to President George W. Bush, President-elect Barack Obama and House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA), Consumers Union suggested the government's inability to issue new coupons, on top of concerns about the number of call centers and the amount of assistance to viewers, should prompt a re-examination of the switchover date. "We believe Congress should consider delaying the transition until a plan is in place to minimize the number of consumers who will lose TV signals, particularly by fixing the flaws in the federal coupon program created to offset the cost of this transition," said the letter from Joel Kelsey and Christopher Murray, senior policy analysts for Consumers Union. The letter also went to Rep Ed Markey (D-MA). "With Feb. 17 only 40 days away, we are concerned that millions of at-risk consumers, including rural, low-income and elderly citizens across the country, could be left with blank television screens. Consumers have fewer resources than ever to buy the necessary equipment to regain access to essential news, information and emergency broadcasts. Against this backdrop, Congress should consider delaying the digital transition so the significant flaws in the converter box coupon program can be adequately addressed and sufficient local assistance put in place to help millions of consumers who are being forced to navigate this transition."
http://benton.org/node/20403
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MARKEY: FEB 17 DTV DATE MAY HAVE TO MOVE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Rep Ed Markey (D-MA), chairman of the House Telecommunications & Internet Subcommittee, is working on legislation that would provide the National Telecommunications & Information Administration a waiver on the Antideficiency Act requirement that NTIA not send out more digital-to-analog converter box coupons until money was freed up from coupons that went unredeemed. Congressman Markey is working on an exemption to the ADA to deal with the immediate waiting list issue," said Daniel Reilly, a spokesman for Markey. "But with the date looming, moving the date back certainly warrants further discussion and may be a wise choice." According to several sources, the Obama FCC transition team has been "very busy" on the issue and has been floating the possibility of moving the date. Consumers Union has suggested a move of four months or so, according to a CNBC interview with CU senior counsel Chris Murray, the other signature on the CU letter. Murray told CNBC that he thought there was a "reasonably good chance" that Congress would push the date back four months or so. "We're not ready to say there will be a delay yet," he said. "We believe that Congress should consider a delay [but] I don't think I can talk about this as something that is readily going to happen," he said. Perhaps, but the Washington lobbying community was buzzing Wednesday with talk that it was a real possibility.
http://benton.org/node/20420
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NAB ASKS FCC, CONGRESS TO HELP UNCLOG BACKLOG OF DTV COUPON REQUESTS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The National Association of Broadcasters has asked Congress and the FCC to do something to unclog the backlog of DTV-to-analog converter box coupon requests. In a letter Wednesday that was also distributed to reporters, NAB President David Rehr suggested four options to address the National Telecommunications & Information Administration's announcement Monday that it may run up against its $1.34 billion funding cap and would have to start putting requests on a waiting list. Rehr said they could: Raise the redemption rate assumption, boost the funding, waive the expiration on the coupons (currently 90 days), or waive the Antideficiency Act requirement that NTIA not send out more coupons until money was freed up from coupons that went unredeemed.
http://benton.org/node/20419
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PBS CHIEF PUSHES FOR DIGITAL CONVERSION ACTION
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
PBS chief Paula Kerger said it's inexcusable that people seeking coupons for the looming digital TV conversion are being put on a waiting list, and she called for immediate federal action. "I'm very disheartened to hear that with a month before the (conversion) deadline, the federal government has run out of money to help citizens purchase digital converter boxes," Kerger, president and CEO of the Public Broadcasting System, said Wednesday. She pushed for Congress and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the arm of the Commerce Department administering the coupon program, to work together to quickly remedy the situation. It's especially crucial because "people are making very hard economic choices in their households" and more are depending on free, over-the-air television instead of cable or satellite, Kerger said.
http://benton.org/node/20418
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FCC REFORM

FCC: BURN IT DOWN OR REFORM IT?
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
Criticizing the way that the Federal Communications Commission conducts its business has been something of a parlor game in tech policy circles for years. Like most parlor games, it's simple enough to start playing. The problems have been so apparent that Reed Hundt, a former FCC Commissioner, says his former agency has a reputation for "capture by special interests, mind-boggling delay, internal strife, lack of competence, and a dreadful record on judicial review." Why would he say this? Well, for some of the same reasons Congress recently released a report titled "Deception and Distrust: The Federal Communications Commission Under Chairman Kevin J. Martin." Martin's tenure has been characterized by hasty decision-making, secrecy, confusion, and even a bit of fear; it's gotten bad enough that some staffers held a silent protest last year by wearing black. The question, then, isn't whether to fix the FCC, but how to do so. A conference organized this week in Washington by Public Knowledge and the University of Colorado's Silicon Flatirons center sought answers, and the two groups have now launched a new FCC reform website based on the event. The site allows for user-submitted suggestions, which will eventually be turned over "to the new leadership at the FCC as well as the appropriate officials in the incoming Obama Administration."
http://benton.org/node/20407
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NCTA OFFERS FCC-REFORM IDEAS IN OBAMA TRANSITION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
In a letter to Presidential Transition Team member Susan Crawford, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Kyle McSlarrow has offered some suggestions for how to reform the Federal Communications Commission and remedy its current "process breakdowns." In broad strokes, he asked for swifter action that keeps pace with the "blistering rate" at which technology changes; more transparency and public input rather than "gaming by regulators or privileged insiders"; decisions based on facts; and regular rule modifications to keep up with that blistering pace. Pointing out that the concerns are shared by some members of Congress, McSlarrow said specifically that the FCC should draw clear distinctions between notices of inquiry (NOIs) and notices of proposed rulemaking (NPRMs), including confining broad inquiries with no tentative conclusions to the former category. Then, at whatever point a rulemaking is actually proposed, providing plenty of notice to the public and opportunity to comment. McSlarrow would like public notice when items are circulated by the chairman among the other commissioners for a vote. He also suggested that agendas for public meetings be set three months in advance, rather than the current three weeks, and texts of the actual rule or decision made public at the same time. Currently, the chairman walks reporters through the broad strokes of the decisions about three weeks beforehand. McSlarrow says the FCC should not act on items based on last-minute filings, and reports should be available in draft form for public comment before votes on them. To help it act in a timely fashion, McSlarrow recommends a 180-day shot clock on waiver requests, and asks the FCC to do a better job of holding to the informal 180-day clock it set for merger reviews. He also wants texts of FCC orders released within 30 days of adoption.
http://benton.org/node/20406
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BROADCASTING/CABLE

IS PUBLIC ACCESS TV DEAD?
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Pat Morrison]
[Commentary] For decades, some cities' cable TV franchises have been required to operate TV studios -- a dozen of them in L.A. -- so that just about any resident with the chutzpah and the know-how could get a show on public access TV. But as of Jan. 1, the studios where these shows were created could be shut down, leaving those exhibitionists and their fans in the dark. Why? Go back to 2006, to AB 2987, a state bill that, like all bills, promised to make life more wonderful and even cheaper. What it actually did was take the "local" out of local cable TV. Cable franchises have to add 1% to the 5% of gross revenues they already pay in L.A. for the privilege of selling their services here. In exchange for that new dough -- $5 million in L.A. -- they don't have to maintain those public access studios. A few public access channels will still be around, but not the means for most of the public to make programs to broadcast on them. So why can't the city, which runs at least one public studio now, use some of those fees to operate more? Does anyone believe L.A. will splash out money on public access when it has a nearly half-billion-dollar deficit? You do? Would you like to buy a condo in Miami? What about just adding citizen TV to Channel 35?
http://benton.org/node/20413
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ILLINOIS AG'S OFFICE EXAMINING U-VERSE'S PEG PROGRAMMING
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Linda Haugsted]
Responding to complaints from public-access producers and city officials, the office of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is examining public access programming on AT&T's U-verse service to determine whether the delivery method somehow violates state law. Producers have complained about public-access programming on the Internet-protocol-delivered service since the day it debuted. AT&T aggregates all local programming on a region onto a single channel. Viewers enter a Web page listing all possible content providers, and must look for the desired programmer, wait for content from that source to load, then pick from various programs. Critics say it can take as long as a minute for content to load, adding that the delivery method disables such technology as second audio programming; and prevents channel surfing. A viewer must "back out" of the public-access page before they can view commercial content. Critics also contend that the public-access streams are not of the same signal quality as commercial channels delivered by AT&T, critics add.
http://benton.org/node/20398
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BILLS WOULD BLOCK FCC ON FAIRNESS DOCTRINE
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
It didn't take long in the new Congress for Republicans to mount a fresh attempt to head off any bid by the Federal Communications Commission to revive the fairness doctrine, an old requirement that broadcasters have to provide equal time for competing political viewpoints. On the first day bills could be introduced, Senate Republicans offered two bills to prevent the FCC from acting. House Republicans offered one. The bills were introduced amidst fear by conservative talk-radio hosts that a new Democratic led FCC could reintroduce the requirementimpacting the ability of radio stations to run conservative talk shows. The FCC dropped the Fairness Doctrine in 1987. While it existed, the doctrine applied to TV stations as well as radio stations.
http://benton.org/node/20402
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ARBITRON SETTLES RATINGS SUIT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Chad Bray]
Arbitron Inc. will pay $260,000 and overhaul its new electronic radio-ratings system in New York to resolve allegations the system undercounted minority listeners, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said. He said the agreement will resolve a suit his office filed against the New York media and marketing company over its Portable People Meter system, or PPM, in state court in October. Cuomo had claimed the rating system doesn't adequately measure minority listeners and might reduce ad revenue drastically at minority radio stations. As part of the deal, Arbitron will increase its recruitment of individuals who only use cellphones and ensure that a higher proportion of panelists across racial demographics successfully operate the PPM system. The company also will contribute $100,000 to the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and the Spanish Radio Association to support minority radio and fund an ad campaign of at least $25,000 to promote minority radio.
http://benton.org/node/20416
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DIRECTV IN DISPUTE WITH COMCAST OVER SPORTS COST
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Yinka Adegoke]
DirecTV Group said on Wednesday it has advised Comcast Corp it plans to file for arbitration in a dispute over rate increases to carry Comcast's sports networks in New England and the San Francisco areas. Executives from DirecTV, the largest U.S. satellite TV provider, said Comcast is asking for increases of 25 to 40 percent for its subscribers to be able to view games of teams like the National Basketball Association's Boston Celtics and National Hockey League's San Jose Sharks. The dispute could impact nearly 2 million DirecTV subscribers and also includes programing for other sports franchise like the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics baseball teams and the Golden State Warriors basketball team on the Bay Area sports network. But DirecTV executives said it was likely the two sports TV networks would remain on air for fans during the arbitration process.
http://benton.org/node/20399
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TIME WARNER TAKES $25 BILLION HIT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Merissa Marr, Nat Worden]
Responding to past problems and the future perils of the economic downturn, Time Warner Inc. attempted to clear its slate by writing down $25 billion of assets to account for the tumbling value of its cable, publishing and AOL businesses. The move, coming as the advertising outlook sours, could signal more write-downs for media and cable companies. After a rash of acquisitions at peak prices, companies in those industries are having to scale back accounting values in the now-sullen climate. The media industry also faces secular declines in areas such as newspapers, broadcast television and radio, which are being ravaged by ad declines.
http://benton.org/node/20417
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JOURNALISM

END TIMES
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Michael Hirschorn]
What if the New York Times goes out of business -- like, this May? At some point soon—sooner than most of us think—the print edition, and with it The Times as we know it, will no longer exist. And it will likely have plenty of company. In December, the Fitch Ratings service, which monitors the health of media companies, predicted a widespread newspaper die-off: "Fitch believes more newspapers and newspaper groups will default, be shut down and be liquidated in 2009 and several cities could go without a daily print newspaper by 2010." What would a post-print Times look like? Forced to make a Web-based strategy profitable, a reconstructed Web site could start mixing original reportage with Times-endorsed reporting from other outlets with straight-up aggregation. This would allow The Times to continue to impose its live-from-the-Upper-West-Side brand on the world without having to literally cover every inch of it. In an optimistic scenario, the remaining reporters—now reporters-cum-bloggers, in many cases—could use their considerable savvy to mix their own reporting with that of others, giving us a more integrative, real-time view of the world unencumbered by the inefficiencies of the traditional journalistic form. Times readers might actually end up getting more exposure than they currently do to reporting resources scattered around the globe, and to areas and issues that are difficult to cover in a general-interest publication.
http://benton.org/node/20401
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GUNMEN ATTACK TV OFFICES IN MEXICO
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: William Booth]
The Televisa network news offices in the northern city of Monterrey were attacked Tuesday night in a commando-style raid by hooded gunmen who fired on the front doors of the building and then lobbed a hand grenade into the parking lot near a reporter and her cameraman. No one was hurt in the attack, which occurred at 8:40 p.m. in the prosperous manufacturing metropolis, which many executives consider one of the safer cities in Mexico. The assailants left a threatening message, a now-common tactic used by the heavily armed enforcers for drug-trafficking cartels and organized crime. The message read: "Stop reporting only about us, also report about the narco-officials. This is a warning."
http://benton.org/node/20414
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WAR IN GAZA CASTS SHADOW OVER TRANSITION
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Mark Jurkowitz]
According to the weekly News Coverage Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, the Gaza fighting between Israel and Hamas, which escalated from aerial warfare to fierce ground fighting, accounted for 21% of the newshole from Dec. 29-Jan. 4. The No. 2 story, the economic crisis, filled 14% of the newshole.
http://benton.org/node/20397
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SCHOOLS TAP '21ST CENTURY SKILLS'
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Stacy Teicher Khadaroo]
For decades, the emphasis in public education has been on making sure that students can read, write, and do math. But can they apply those skills in a real-world scenario, such as designing a bridge? Can they identify what information they need and use digital tools to find it? Those are some of the capabilities known as "21st-century skills" - what everyone from CEOs to President-elect Obama says that today's students need for their fast-changing future. In a knowledge economy, the reasoning goes, the ability to articulate and solve problems, to generate original ideas, and to work collaboratively across cultural boundaries is growing exponentially in importance. The challenge for schools is to find ways to shift from traditional rote learning and teach these skills, while still doing due diligence to the three R's. The good news about 21st-century skills, advocates say, is that they can be integrated into core subjects.
http://benton.org/node/20412
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MICROSOFT WINS KEY SEARCH DEALS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Nick Wingfield]
Microsoft, facing a bleak economy and rivals that have outflanked it in the consumer market, announced a milestone for the next version of Windows and a raft of deals designed to boost its online-search business. Microsoft announced a five-year deal with Verizon Wireless to make its Internet-search service broadly available on the wireless carrier's mobile phones and a similar agreement with Dell covering that hardware maker's PCs. The Microsoft agreements displace an existing search deal that rival Google had with Dell and another that Google was previously negotiating with Verizon. The agreement with Verizon, starting in the first half of this year, will make Microsoft's search engine easily accessible from nearly all of the handsets from the carrier.
http://benton.org/node/20415
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OLPC SLASHES WORKFORCE IN HALF, CUTS SALARIES
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Steven Musil]
The One Laptop Per Child project announced Wednesday that it is slashing its workforce by 50 percent, reducing salaries for the remaining staff, and restructuring its operations. Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the group, wrote that the company will focus on development of its second-generation device, but will hand-off development of the Sugar operating system to the open source community.
http://benton.org/node/20411
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NEW YORK CITY TO PAY DOCTORS TO CONTRIBUTE TO DATABASE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Anemona Hartocollis]
New York has about 1,000 primary-care physicians who have given up their doctor's pens over the past year to collect the smallest details of their patients' lives in a database as part of a $60 million city health department project. Experts say it is the most ambitious government effort nationwide to harness electronic data for public-health goals like monitoring disease frequency, cancer screening and substance abuse. It follows the Bloomberg administration's aggressive focus on everyday health concerns — which has included startling anti-smoking advertisements in subways and requirements that chain restaurants post calorie counts — and frequent use of statistics to drive public policy on crime, homelessness and other issues. And echoing the city's cash-incentive experiments in the school system, the health department will soon start offering doctors bonuses of perhaps $100 for each patient who hits specified targets like controlling blood pressure or cholesterol, up to $20,000 for each doctor.
http://benton.org/node/20400
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MUSIC GROUPS MERGE TO FIGHT BROADCASTERS
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
The Recording Artists' Coalition and the Recording Academy are uniting to lobby in Washington. The group's agenda includes opposing the opening of "white spaces" and Network Neutrality.
http://benton.org/node/20396
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US MOBILE BROADBAND USERS TO SURPASS 140 MILLION BY 2013
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Mark Walsh]
More than 140 million US consumers will be paying for mobile broadband services in 2013 -- up from 46 million in 2008, according to a new study by Parks Associates. The research firm also predicts in its "Mobile Broadband: Beyond the Cell Phone" report that the number of smartphones sold in five years will more than triple to 60 million as multimedia devices go mainstream.
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