May 2003

A service of the Benton Foundation (http://www.benton.org)
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MEDIA OWNERSHIP
More Than 25 Groups at Forum Criticize Media Deregulation
Civil Rights Leader Slams FCC Proposal on Media Ownership

DIGITAL TV
Consumer Group Says FCC Has Bungled Transition to Digital TV

DIGITAL DIVIDE
Inmarsat Calls for Orgs to Deal with Info Poverty in the Middle East
Churches' Adoption of Info Tech May Spark Social Change
ICT Drive: Hype or Reality

JOURNALISM
Rick Bragg Quits at New York Times

MEDIA OWNERSHIP

MORE THAN 25 GROUPS AT FORUM CRITICIZE FCC'S MEDIA DEREGULATION
Seeking to take advantage of the strange bedfellows created by the media
ownership debate, FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein met
with representatives from 25 interest groups Tuesday to hear their thoughts
on the topic. Set before a backdrop of mail bins containing thousands of
postcards from National Rifle Associations members opposing deregulation,
Chairman Copps opened by noting the concern shared by those involved that
"what happened to radio" would affect other forms of media. Copps also
referred to Chairman Michael Powell's boasts that the public record on media
ownership is tremendous - Copps agreed, noting that they "are running 99.9%
against deregulation." Other panelists' comments ranged from the role of
Latinos in reporting to the dearth of women and minorities among the
ownership ranks to discrimination against religious programming. An aide for
Chairman Powell sat in for part of the forum, noting that the attendance of
a third Commissioner would require prior public notice.
[SOURCE: CommDaily]

CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER SLAMS FCC PROPOSAL ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP
At Tuesday's forum on media consolidation, civil rights leader Wade
Henderson criticized the FCC for its proposal to deregulate US media
ownership rules. "We believe the Chairman of the FCC, Michael Powell, has
focused the current debate over media policy on market efficiencies and
technological development to the exclusion of promoting competition, a
diversity of voices, and community engagement," said Henderson, executive
director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. "American democracy
requires a competitive media environment," Henderson continued. "A media
market with diverse voices is critical to a civil rights agenda that ensures
equity and democratic participation in areas vital to the health of our
nation and our communities -- education, economic opportunity, the
environment, health care and political participation." The event featured
leaders from a variety of civil rights, religious, consumer, industry,
conservative and creative arts organizations.
SOURCE: CivilRights.org
http://www.civilrights.org/issues/communication/details.cfm?id=13092

DIGITAL TV

CONSUMER GROUP SAYS FCC HAS BUNGLED TRANSITION TO DIGITAL TV
The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) believes that the slow pace of
transition to digital TV by the broadcast industry should not be blamed on
broadcasters, manufacturers or cable operators. Instead, they claim in
comments filed with the FCC, the Commission's lack of leadership has
resulted in behind-schedule adoption of digital formats by broadcasters and
the virtually non-existent adoption of digital TV sets by the American
public. "[The industry's] job is to promote their own ... private interests.
The only entity charged with promoting and protecting the public interest is
the FCC, and they have fallen down on the job," said CFA's Mark Cooper. CFA
points to several factors: digital content is limited, digital signals are
unavailable, equipment has been tied up by proposed restrictions such as the
"digital flag," and therefore consumers are left with no reason to replace
old sets.
SOURCE: Consumer Federation of America; AUTHOR: Mark Cooper

DIGITAL DIVIDE

INMARSAT CALLS FOR ORGS TO DEAL WITH INFO POVERTY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
The Mideast regional director for mobile satellite communications company
Inmarsat called on public and private organizations to do more to curtail
"information poverty" in rural Middle Eastern communities. "Much has been
done to bridge the digital divide between the developed and developing
world," said Samer Halawi at the Arab Telecommunications and Information
Forum in Lebanon yesterday. "Unfortunately, and with the limited resources
available, most of those resources have made their way to the urban areas,
leaving our rural communities in dire need for advanced telecommunication
services." Halawi warned that students in rural Arab communities were at a
disadvantage compared to their urban peers, who are increasingly exposed to
Internet access. An IDC study released at the forum suggests that more than
45 percent of Middle Eastern and North African communities suffer from
"information poverty" -- a lack of information and knowledge due to limited
access to telecommunications infrastructure.
SOURCE: AMEInfo.com; AUTHOR: Anne-Birte Stensgaard
http://www.ameinfo.com/news/Detailed/24466.html

CHURCHES' ADOPTION OF INFO TECH MAY SPARK SOCIAL CHANGE
According to a Penn State study, the slow adoption of information technology
by African American churches has hampered their ability to provide social
services through federally funded programs. Penn State doctoral student
Roderick Lee says that African American churches need to "catch up to the
information society" to expand their role as leading agents of social change
within their communities. "Faith-based organizations can provide the
digital literacy that is needed by many residents of urban areas to
participate in the information society," Lee explains. Surveying African
American churches in Harrisburg, Pennsyvania, Lee found that almost half
didn't have fax machines, 65 percent lacked email and only a few had voice
mail. "Churches need to utilize the Internet to augment or supplement the
self-help and social service programs they already provide," he adds.
"Without greater adoption of IT, these organizations with be further
marginalized, and the digital divide will become wider."
SOURCE: Penn State University
http://www.psu.edu/ur/2003/blackchurchsit.html

ICT DRIVE: HYPE OR REALITY
[Commentary] Drawing a comparison between information and communications
technologies (ICT) and cocoa beans, a long-time export good for Ghana, A.S.
Harruna Attah suggests that Ghana's investment in ICT must lead it down a
road where it is more than simply a consumer of tech products. Rather than
"showcasing finished products from elsewhere," Ghana must focus on
developing its own ICT industry, while its "core professionals" - engineers,
physicists, computer programmers and mathematicians - should drive the
revolution. Attah notes that indigenous companies such as SOFT have
developed and exported their own software, and questions whether or not
Ghanaian companies look to them for applications or simply import them.
Unless Ghana can make a switch from the consumption-driven ICT economy to
one of knowledge and development, the country may foster a "digital chasm"
rather than narrow its digital divide.
SOURCE: AllAfrica.com; AUTHOR: A.S. Harruna Attah, Accra Mail
http://allafrica.com/stories/200305280550.html

JOURNALISM

RICK BRAGG QUITS AT NEW YORK TIMES
Embattled Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Rick Bragg quit his position at
the New York Times yesterday, the same day the Washington Post carried
comments by Bragg aggressively defending his active use of stringers and
interns to help him write articles. While the use of such assistants is
common in journalism, Bragg acknowledged that he would send them to a
particular location for a story to collect relevant news, then publish his
name and dateline on the story as if he had been the one who traveled there
and covered it in person. "The issue, put starkly, is whether readers are
being misled about how and where a story was reported," writes the Post's
Howard Kurtz. With the New York Times already reeling from revelations that
reporter Jayson Blair plagiarized or fabricated dozens of stories, the Bragg
case is an example of how American journalism as a whole is taking stock of
its professional practices. "Everybody in the newspaper business has been
touched by this in some way," says Margaret Sullivan, editor of the Buffalo
News. "It's amazing to me how much regular, ordinary folks seem to know
about this. We're all thinking about wow, could this happen here?"
SOURCE: Washington Post; AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51506-2003May28.html

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INTERNET
Bill to Promote Internet Filters in Libraries Stalls

COMPETITION
Time Warner Cable Dials in Phone Service

PRIVACY
Japan Passes Privacy Protection Law

DIGITIAL DIVIDE
Expert Decries IT Application On Economic Growth

INTERNET
BILL TO PROMOTE INTERNET FILTERS IN LIBRARIES STALLS
A bill in the Oregon legislature to pressure public libraries into filtering
Internet
content is under heated debate. Proponents of the bill argue that libraries
risk
exposing children to pornography and other indecent materials without the
use
of filtering software, while opponents claim that the software often blocks
legitimate
content as well, typically health-related sites, making the bill
unconstitutional.
Though Oregon has far stricter protection for free speech than the US
Constitution,
the bill's sponsors feel that when government funds are used, limits on
speech are
reasonable. "The government clearly can decide on limits of what it can or
cannot
say. To the extent the library wants to accept funding from the state, the
state should
have the ability to tell the library what it should or should not express,"
said Lake
Oswego lawyer James Leuenberger.
[SOURCE: USA Today; AUTHOR: The Associated Press]
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-05-21-oregon-filters_x.htm

COMPETITION
TIME WARNER CABLE DIALS IN PHONE SERVICE
Competition may finally be realizing its potential in local telephone
markets, argue
analysts. Time Warner Cable announced a local/in-state/domestic long
distance
package to the Portland, Maine area last week, joining a list of cable
providers
including Cox and Comcast that offer such services in the local markets.
In-Stat/MDR
analyst Norm Bogen sites IP telephony and increased cell phone use as part
of the
slow decline in local lines on RBOC networks. Since cable companies can
carry local,
long distance, voice, video and data on their pipeline, the next few years
may see an
upheaval in the local market similar to that seen in the long distance
market in the
mid-1980s.
[SOURCE: CNET News; AUTHORS: Ben Charny and Evan Hansen]
http://news.com.com/2100-1037_3-1008962.html?tag=fd_top

PRIVACY
JAPAN PASSES PRIVACY PROTECTION LAW
Japanese lawmakers passed legislation Friday restricting the use of
personally
identifiable information by corporations and government bureaucracies. The
law will
allow citizens to obtain data collected about them by such entities and
control the use
of that information. Critics expressed concern that the new law would result
in an
overwhelming number of claims on business and the government. Magazine
publishers also weighed in, worried that the measure would repress speech
since
magazines are not expressly covered in a clause exempting news media.
[SOURCE: USA Today; AUTHOR: The Associated Press]
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-05-23-privacy-japan_x.htm

DIGITAL DIVIDE
EXPERT DECRIES IT APPLICATION ON ECONOMIC GROWTH
In a paper presented at a meeting of the Institute of Directors in Lagos,
international
ICT expert Dr. Lloyd Atabansi stated that poor implementation of technology
infrastructure has attributed to the slow rate of economic growth in
Nigeria. Entitled,
"The Impact of Information Technology (IT) on a Growing Business Concern,"
Atabansi noted that low levels of financing have also hindered the growth
effects of
ICT investment. He recommended that administrative infrastructure be "fixed"
to allow
for more efficient uses of tech investment, adding that the government
should require
all companies to be ICT compliant.
[SOURCE: AllAfrica.com; AUTHOR: Hassan Idris (Daily Trust)]
http://allafrica.com/stories/200305270229.html

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MEDIA OWNERSHIP
FCC Track Record on e-Comment Consideration Suspect
The Faint, Fading Voice of the Left

PRIVACY
Pentagon Details New Surveillance System

WIRELESS
Juniper Packs Wi-Fi Hot Spot in a Box

MEDIA OWNERSHIP
FCC TRACK RECORD ON E-COMMENT CONSIDERATION SUSPECT
FCC Chairman Michael Powell has stated that the public record on the media
ownership proceeding is "comprehensive," containing more than 20,000
comments and obviating the need for postponement of the June 2nd ruling.
Employing evidence from both academia and interest groups, the Benton
Foundation finds that the FCC typically turns a deaf ear to the public in
such
proceedings. This is not a new phenomenon - the Commission has a long
track record of minimizing public comments, despite the advent of its highly

touted e-filing system. In fact, some observe that electronic comments may
even
receive less consideration than those filed on paper. The article suggests
that
the FCC will merely pay lip service to the public's opinion on media
consolidation.
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) alluded to the piece in her questioning of
witnesses
in this morning's Senate Commerce Committee hearing on media ownership.
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation; AUTHORS: Norris Dickard and Charles E. Meisch,
Jr.]
http://www.benton.org/ownership/fccecomments.html

THE FAINT, FADING VOICE OF THE LEFT
"[T]he biggest problem with America's public discourse today is that the
left is barely
represented at all on mainstream TV and radio talk shows and in major
newspapers
and magazines," argues Thane Peterson, who notes that discourse in the UK is
far
more well-balanced, with both the left and right well represented in
broadcast media.
If the FCC goes forward as planned with a rewrite of its media ownership
rules, things
are likely to get much worse, with more homogenized and less substantive
programming.
Peterson is particularly concerned by the misleading proposition that US
media market
is generally liberal when in fact the most notorious TV talk show hosts lean
to the right,
which has kept the media ownership issue off of network TV. "Market forces
should create
alternatives. Yet, I don't see that happening in our major media['s]
political coverage. My
theory is that big companies controlling the media just aren't much
interested in creating
liberal alternatives."
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek; AUTHOR: Thane Peterson]
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/may2003/nf20030520_8395_db02...
m

PRIVACY
PENTAGON DETAILS NEW SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM
A report on the Pentagon's proposed electronic surveillance system featured
a new name
and specific goals. The Terrorist Information Awareness (TIA) System,
formerly known as
the Total Information Awareness System, could identify people at great
distances using optics,
facial features or their gait, analyze travel plans and incorporate
financial, medical, educational
and biometric records "to try to predict terrorists' acts or catch them in
the planning stage."
Members of the Senate, who had raised specific questions related to the
privacy of American
citizens, were less than impressed with the report. "I don't take a back
seat to anybody in fighting
the Mohamed Attas of the world, but before we send people on a virtual goose
chase, the country
needs to understand what's at stake," said Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore), who
added that the system
relied on too many theoretical possibilities to warrant the massive
investment of public funds. The
Department of Defense has budgeted $9.2 million dollars for the TIA system
this year and another $45
million in the following two years.
[SOURCE: The Washington Post; AUTHOR: Ariana Eunjung Cha]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17121-2003May20.html

WIRELESS
JUNIPER PACKS WI-FI HOT SPOT IN A BOX
Sunnyvale, CA-based Juniper Networks will offer a "hot spot in a box"
bundle, targeted at
telephone, broadband and cell phone service providers that offer public
Wi-Fi access. The
$800 package includes all the hardware, software and technical know-how
necessary to
build a single subscription wireless network. The company hopes to tap into
the burgeoning
Wi-Fi market amongst broadband providers, who spent $500 million dollars
last year to add
hotspots to their networks, by offering hardware at less than half the cost
of competitors such
as Cisco. Market analysts expect the investment in Wi-Fi to continue to rise
in the coming years,
as large DSL and cable providers seek to maintain market share over smaller
ISPs.
[SOURCE: CNET News; AUTHOR: Ben Charny]
http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-1008167.html?tag=fd_top

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MEDIA OWNERSHIP
Unlikely Alliances Forged in Fight Over Media Rules
Blethen Supports Media Regs Amid Controversy at Home

SPAM
Senate Commerce Committee to Hold Hearing on Spam

DIGITAL DIVIDE
At Last, E-mail From Baghdad

MEDIA OWNERSHIP
UNLIKELY ALLIANCES FORGED IN FIGHT OVER MEDIA RULES
Whereas past debates on media ownership have split predictably along party
and ideological lines, the current discourse has aligned some unlikely
bedfellows. Liberal government watchdogs such as CodePink, who have been
critical of FCC Chairman Michael Powell's deregulatory bent, find themselves
sharing views with conservative groups such as the NRA, who fear that
consolidation could allow anti-gun media companies to deny them ad space.
Right-wing groups concerned about family values have also opposed
deregulation, stating that media mergers tend to spawn more indecent,
family-unfriendly content. This has been especially troublesome for News
Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch, who wins praise from the right for his channels'
conservative news angle but criticism for the Fox network's racy prime-time
programming. Even legislators from opposite sides of the aisle have found
common ground on media ownership, prioritizing the goals of diversity and
localism.
[SOURCE: The Washington Post; AUTHOR: Frank Ahrens]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12773-2003May19.html

BLETHEN SUPPORTS MEDIA REGS AMID CONTROVERSY AT HOME
Frank Blethen, publisher of The Seattle Times, said last week that the FCC's
proposed media ownership deregulation is likely to signal "the beginning of
the end of our democracy." Testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee,
Blethen implored members to lead where the FCC has failed to do so, adding
that he knew no business justification, "other than monopolization," for
relaxing current regulations. Blethen's paper is in a curious position even
without deregulation, however. The Times is seeking to sever a 20-year
services agreement with rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer in which the Times
handles printing and other non-news functions for both papers in exchange
for a higher percentage of their shared revenue. Severing the deal might
force the P-I out of business, making Seattle a one-paper town. P-I parent
Hearst Corp. has sued to prevent the Times from terminating the relationship
while Blethen states that the model was failing, losing money for three
straight years. "So the question becomes: Is (the surviving paper) going to
be owned by Hearst out of New York or by the Blethen family out of Seattle?"
he asked.
[SOURCE: PennLive.com; AUTHOR: The Associated Press]
http://pennlive.com/newsflash/national/index.ssf?/newsflash/get_story.ss...
gi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?a7004_BC_APIndustryNews&&news&newsflash-national

SPAM
SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE TO HOLD HEARING ON SPAM
The Communications Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science
and Transportation will hold a hearing on unsolicited commercial e-mail
messages. The hearing will be held this Wednesday, May 21, at 9:30 AM in
Room 253 of the Russell Building. Ted Leonsis of AOL is scheduled to
testify, among others. The witness list can be found via the link below.
http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/witnesslist.cfm?i

DIGITAL DIVIDE
AT LAST, E-MAIL FROM BAGHDAD
Despite losing half of its electrical capacity and virtually its entire
telephone infrastructure, Baghdad is sending and receiving e-mail. Thanks to
two electrical engineers and a former government employee, the Al-Thakira
Internet caf