September 2006

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* The biggest item on the agenda this week is the FCC's open meeting
tomorrow. But don't forget TPRC at the end of the week. For these and
other upcoming media policy events, see http://www.benton.org *

TELECOM
FCC Is Likely To Put Conditions On AT&T Deal

TELEVISION
NBC Draws Protests From Conservatives
MSTV Pushes Back on White Spaces
The WGA Digs In
Fox Roots for Long Series And Right Teams in Baseball Playoffs

INTERNET
The Future of the Internet II
The Digital Democracy's Emerging Elites
Criminals flock to the Internet

QUICKLY -- Liberal Media?; Women take to airwaves; Ads send wrong
message; DOE Slammed in IG Report; Verizon Gets Trio of Final Franchise OKs

TELECOM

FCC IS LIKELY TO PUT CONDITIONS ON AT&T DEAL
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz Amy.Schatz( at )wsj.com]
Federal Communications Commission staff recommended approving AT&T
Inc.'s $67 billion purchase of BellSouth Corp. with no conditions.
Although the FCC staff and Chairman Kevin Martin are advocating no
conditions, it is highly unlikely the deal will clear the commission
without restrictions. The FCC's newest commissioner, Robert McDowell,
is not expected to vote on the matter because of his previous career
as a lobbyist and telecom attorney for smaller phone companies, FCC
officials said. Those companies are opposing the deal. If
Commissioner McDowell is recused from voting, Chairman Martin will
have to reach a compromise with the commission's two Democrats, who
are expected to press for conditions similar to those imposed last
year when the Commission approved the purchase of AT&T by SBC
Communications and Verizon's purchase of MCI. Those conditions
involved treatment of Internet traffic. In a possible bid to avoid
imposing similar conditions this time that would affect only AT&T,
the FCC is also set to open a formal inquiry into whether
industrywide rules need to be written that would require Internet
providers -- including phone companies -- to treat all Internet
traffic equally, otherwise known as net neutrality. High-tech
companies and consumer advocates have complained phone and cable
companies may try to discriminate against some Internet traffic and
want rules to prevent that. The FCC's two Democrats successfully got
conditions to prohibit AT&T and Verizon from doing that in the deals
last year and are expected to try again. The FCC is set to vote on
the deal at its Oct. 12 meeting.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115893676244871336.html?mod=djemTECH
(requires subscription)
* FCC Chair Said to OK AT&T-BellSouth Deal
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/09/22/financial/f1...
* Competition Coalition Statement on Reports of FCC Draft AT&T,
Bellsouth Merger Approval
"We are disappointed that the FCC Chairman has signaled his intent to
approve the AT&T/BellSouth merger without a single condition to
protect competition and consumers. By all accounts, the only voice
calling for a rubber stamp approval of this merger is AT&T itself. As
parties who have filed with the Commission concrete evidence of the
irreversible marketplace harms that this merger will produce, we urge
restraint and reiterate our call for concrete conditions that protect
Americans from harm. It would be precipitous and unprecedented for
the Commission to take action on this merger while the Department of
Justice is under federal judicial scrutiny for its approval of the
SBC/AT&T and Verizon/MCI mergers."
http://www.tvover.net/PermaLink,guid,de0b904f-1936-4f56-95d8-01c169f8d2f...

TELEVISION

NBC DRAWS PROTESTS FROM CONSERVATIVES
[SOURCE: New York Times 9/23, AUTHOR: Edward Wyatt]
NBC has drawn protests this week from religious conservatives over
the content of two television shows, but for different reasons -- in
one instance for excluding references to God and in the other for
possibly including religious imagery. The disputes, over the
network's proposed broadcast of a Madonna concert that includes a
crucifixion scene and over its cutting religious references from the
animated children's show "VeggieTales," have some critics charging
that NBC maintains a double standard toward Christianity. Alan
Wurtzel, an NBC executive who oversees broadcast standards, said in
an interview on Friday that there was no double standard. Rather, he
said, the network was evaluating each show individually.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/23/arts/television/23vegg.html
(requires registration)
* Vegetable Cuts Were Religious References, Says Creator
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6374460.html?display=Breaking...
* Veggies Still Have Religion, Says NBC
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6374600.html

MSTV PUSHES BACK ON WHITE SPACES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Association for Maximum Service Television, the broadcasting
industry's spectrum watchdog, has released a study it says documents
interference problems associated with unlicensed devices operating in
the so-called "white spaces" in the TV band. The MSTV study asserts
that unlicensed devices pose a serious interference risk to DTV
reception. The Senate communications reform bill would give the OK to
using some of the TV band for unlicensed wireless devices within 270
days of passage and would require broadcasters to identify the source
of the interference before complaining about it, which troubles MSTV.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6374605.html?display=Breaking...
See "Harming the DTV Transition"
http://www.mstv.org/docs/NAFrebuttal.pdf
* MSTV Builds Case Against White Space Devices
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2006/09/22/daily.8/

THE WGA DIGS IN
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Jim Benson]
A look at what could be a major contract battle between a strident
writers union, the Writers Guild of America, and a defiant
entertainment industry. Many fear it could lead to a potentially
devastating strike by the end of the next TV season. The
disagreements focus on, among other things, compensation and benefits
for reality-show writers, which the guild has been seeking to
organize, and the demand that members receive a percentage of new
digital downloads. Another flash point: The WGA wants a piece of the
lucrative product-integration market for its members, on the theory
that, since they write the advertisers' products into shows, they
should be among those who benefit. The industry, struggling in a
relatively flat ad market, insists it needs that revenue to keep
producing high-quality entertainment. Both sides are digging in, with
the joint master bargaining agreement for the West and East Coast
branches of the WGA set to expire Oct. 31, 2007. In response to the
union, the networks and studios argue that they face a growing array
of digital and broadband viewing alternatives. The stakes are high. A
work stoppage would be the first since 1988, when a 22-week strike
stopped TV production and sent broadcast-network shares plummeting
nearly 10%. Disgusted viewers migrated to cable, and networks beefed
up reality production, which subsequently meant fewer primetime
opportunities for writers. Just the threat of a writers' strike in
2001 is estimated to have caused more than a $2 billion hit to the
Los Angeles economy in travel, lodging and real estate, according to
local economists.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6374557.html?display=Feature

FOX ROOTS, ROOTS, ROOTS FOR LONG SERIES AND RIGHT TEAMS IN BASEBALL PLAYOFFS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz Amy.Schatz( at )wsj.com]
For Chicago readers, you may need a reminder that the baseball season
has not yet officially ended -- yes, some teams are still playing
games that matter. With one week left in the season, this is the time
of year when TV sports executives, like the contending managers,
start reaching for the antacids. The stakes are high. News Corp.'s
Fox network is currently in the middle of a 13-year baseball run that
is costing it a total of $4.3 billion. More so than with other major
sports, Fox bet that money on what happens when the regular season is
over, especially on the World Series. Not only are some matchups more
attractive than others, but a series can flame out in four blowout
games, or stretch for a sublime seven. A bland, short series means
fewer ad sales and a poorer platform with which to promote the
network's new prime-time entertainment lineup, which will begin
airing after the monthlong orgy of playoff baseball. "Probably 75% of
the economics are wrapped up in the postseason," said former CBS
Sports president Neal Pilson, now a sports television consultant.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115914789708572750.html?mod=todays_us_ma...
(requires subscription)

INTERNET

THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET II
[SOURCE: Pew Internet & American Life Project, AUTHOR: Janna
Anderson, Lee Rainie]
A survey of technology thinkers and stakeholders shows they believe
the Internet will continue to spread in a "flattening" and improving
world. There are many, though, who think major problems will
accompany technology advances by 2020. Among the predictions: 1)
Humans will remain in charge of technology, even as more activity is
automated and "smart agents" proliferate. However, a significant 42%
of survey respondents were pessimistic about humans' ability to
control the technology in the future. 2) Virtual reality will be
compelling enough to enhance worker productivity and also spawn new
addiction problems. 3) Tech "refuseniks" will emerge as a cultural
group characterized by their choice to live off the network. Some
will do this as a benign way to limit information overload, while
others will commit acts of violence and terror against
technology-inspired change. 4) People will wittingly and unwittingly
disclose more about themselves, gaining some benefits in the process
even as they lose some privacy. A predictions database can be viewed
at http://www.elon.edu/predictions/
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/188/report_display.asp

THE DIGITAL DEMOCRACY'S EMERGING ELITES
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: John Gapper]
[Commntary] Old media "gatekeepers" (such as the people who edit
this column) are out of fashion and what Jay Adelson, chief executive
of Digg, calls "collective wisdom" is in. As Rupert Murdoch said last
year of young Internet users: "They don't want to rely on a god-like
figure from above to tell them what's important...They want control
over their media, instead of being controlled by it." But such
democratic rhetoric (what one critic has dubbed "digital Maoism")
ignores one awkward fact. While anyone is free to launch a blog,
contribute to Wikipedia or publish photographs on Flickr, a
relatively small number of activists often dominate proceedings on
Web 2.0 sites. Although they are unpaid, they can nonetheless achieve
an elite status reminiscent of the old media's professional
gatekeepers. The fact that there is an "A-list" of bloggers who
garner a large proportion of Internet links and traffic indicates
that just because the web is an open medium it is not necessarily an
egalitarian one. This generation of consumers has learnt to be
skeptical about how information and entertainment is edited and
filtered by groups of professionals. It ought to remain on its guard
in the Web 2.0 world as well.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/b75779ae-4bf0-11db-90d2-0000779e2340.html
(requires subscription)

CRIMINALS FLOCK TO THE INTERNET, SURVEY FINDS
[SOURCE: Reuters]
Criminals are increasingly trying to trick citizens into giving them
their bank account details, according to a survey published on Monday
which showed such "phishing" attempts almost doubled in the first six
months. Over 157,000 unique phishing messages were sent out around
the world in the first half of 2006, an increase of 81 percent
compared with the six-month period to end-December 2005. Each message
can go to thousands or hundreds of thousands of consumers, according
to the bi-annual Internet Security Threat Report from security
software vendor Symantec.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&story...

QUICKLY

LIBERAL MEDIA?
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz]
The "mainstream media presents itself as unbiased, when in fact there
are built into it many biases, and they are overwhelmingly to the
left." The man who made that comment is not some rabid right-wing
critic but Thomas Edsall, a Washington Post political reporter for a
quarter-century who recently accepted an early retirement offer. In
an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Edsall said he
is pro-choice on abortion and does not think he has ever voted for a
Republican presidential candidate. He said he believes that reporters
vote Democratic by somewhere between 15 to 1 and 25 to 1. Edsall, who
now writes for the New Republic and has just finished a book called
"Building Red America," also said that journalists have an inherent
"suspicion" of the military, and he agreed "to a certain degree" with
the argument that Fox News and conservative radio became popular
because many people, in Hewitt's words, "got sick and tired of being
spoon-fed liberal dross" by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and
Washington Post. In an interview, Edsall says the main problem is "an
inability to empathize with the way many people in red states think
and feel" but that it is "possible" for journalists to set aside
their views and report fairly.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/24/AR200609...

WOMEN TAKE TO AIRWAVES
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Joe Garofoli]
Women are growing tired of listening to men -- at least on talk
radio. Much of the dial, media observers say, is a locker room full
of sports chatter and us-versus-them political banter that leaves no
room for conversation, let alone nuance. So while terrestrial radio
expects to shed listeners of both genders as the iPod generation
matures, women are moving to take back "spoken word" entertainment,
as one longtime producer calls it. From satellite networks to a
program that is teaching low-income women in Oakland how to make
documentaries to new media podcasters in San Francisco, women are
trying to reinvigorate mass audio by conversing -- not shouting --
about topics they're currently not hearing. To describe what they're
trying to create, some use a phrase seldom heard in the
towel-snapping talk radio universe: "Respect radio."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/25/WOMENRADIO.TMP

ADS SEND WRONG MESSAGE, SAYS SURVEY
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Joshua Chaffin]
Nearly one-quarter of US baby-boomers are insulted by the advertising
messages that companies are sending them, according to a new study
which makes one ask: What's with the other 75%? The survey suggested
that many companies were taking a misguided approach as they
attempted to reach out to the largest and wealthiest group of US consumers.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3622c6f4-4c04-11db-90d2-0000779e2340.html
(requires subscription)

DOE SLAMMED IN IG REPORT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Back in March 2005, the Department of Education reassessed its
funding for Ready To Learn shows from PBS, saying the program needed
to be more research-based and targeted to early childhood education
for poor children. It was seen as a smackdown from DOE to noncoms
after the flap over an episode of Ready to Learn series Postcards
From Buster that featured a lesbian couple. Now, the grant process
for DOE's own poster-program for research-based early childhood
education for poor kids, Reading First, has been slammed in a DOE
Inspector General's report. "Program officials failed to maintain a
control environment that exemplifies management integrity and
accountability," the IG concluded, saying DEO tried to exercise undue
control over the curriculum and recommending a laundry list of fixes
to make the process more accountable.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6374614.html?display=Breaking...
* Publishers seek recourse after audit slams federal reading program
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060925/a_readingfirst25.art.htm

VERIZON GETS TRIO OF FINAL FRANCHISE OKs
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Karen Brown]
The New York Public Service Commission gave final approval this week
to a trio of video franchises, clearing the way for Verizon
Communications to field its FiOS TV service in the Long Island towns
of Lynbrook and Mineola and in the Rockland County community of
Clarkstown. So far, Verizon has maintained a perfect track record in
getting its local franchise agreements approved by the state
utilities board. In all, it now has 12 franchises covering
communities on Long Island and in Rockland County.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6374411.html?display=Breaking+News
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Communications-related Headlines is a free online news summary
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Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important
industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events.
While the summaries are factually accurate, their often informal tone
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Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang headlines( at )benton.org -- we
welcome your comments.
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