October 2005

The Government Accountability Office says Bush administration payments to broadcast commentator Armstrong Williams to promote its "No Child Left Behind" policy were illegal, according to Rep. George Miller (D-CA), ranking member of the Education and Workforce Committee and one of the leading critics of the Department of Education's PR contract with Williams. In a report requested by Sens.

Speaking to the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications, National Cable and Telecommunications Association President Kyle McSlarrow said the cable lobby is making progress in its fight to oppose broadcasters' push for "multicast must carry" (under which local cable operators would be forced to cover all of digital TV broadcasters signals, not just a primary one). But he wouldn't say whether cable operators will reach a compromise with broadcasters on congressional legislation that would give broadcasters carriage of a primary stream and two additional digital channels after the digital transition. "I have heard everything under the sun, but I haven't heard an official proposal," he said. He also appeared unsure when Congress will take up the issue. It could be next week or Oct. 19, when the Senate Commerce Committee is expected to mark up a DTV bill that includes a hard digital transition date, renewal of spectrum authority and a subsidy provision. The bill will be part of the budget reconciliation package that must be delivered to the Senate Budget Committee. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has said he plans a 2nd DTV bill that would deal with other provisions, including multicast mustcarry, but no timing is set for that bill. The House Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) opposes including a multicast provision in a DTV bill. McSlarrow said cable operators are making an argument based on diversity: "If the broadcasters are going to get a claim on the cable pipe broader than we think they have a right to," it will hinder diversity of viewpoints. "The one place we know in the TV industry that has provided the source of diversity that we now take for granted is the cable industry. It hasn't been the broadcasters."
(Not available online)
See also:
* McSlarrow: Multicast an Uphill Fight
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6262208.html?display=Breaking+News

Twenty representatives, including many members of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee, have written Subcommittee Chairmen Fred Upton (R-MI) and Ed Markey (D-MA) backing reinstatement of the broadcast flag. They argue that the flag is necessary to spur the transition to digital and to preserve free TV by making it competitive with other media. "The timely preservation of free, over-the-air television is essential to a smooth and timely transition to digital television, and the implementation of the broadcast flag plays a vital role in this undertaking," the lawmakers wrote. Public Knowledge responded Friday: “We agree with the letter in its view of the importance of local broadcasting as a provider of local news, events and information to consumers. However, we see no link between the continued provision of that valuable service and the broadcast flag. There is no evidence even to suggest that any programming would be withheld without a broadcast flag regime."
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Walter Cronkite, who retired from the anchor chair in 1981, has had a quarter-century to watch broadcast news from the sidelines, and he doesn't think the current generation of TV journalists is doing a bad job. Corporate broadcast owners, though, are another story, says Cronkite. He believes they are paying more attention to Wall Street than to the health of the democracy at a time when the nation's dedication to education has wavered. "We [as a nation] are not educated well enough to perform the necessary act of intelligently selecting our leaders," Cronkite, 88, said during a day of speeches and interviews Tuesday at USC's Annenberg School for Communication, where he helped present the biannual Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism. Cronkite issued a call-to-arms for fellow journalists — primarily broadcast -- to pressure "our employers, those who are more concerned with profits than they are with performance," to replace the current roundups of celebrity profiles and personal health and finance pieces with "the news of the day." "If we fail at that," Cronkite said, "our democracy, our republic, I think, is in serious danger."
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