January 2007

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NEWS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE
Bush Is Not Above the Law
Bush Order on Government Regulation Stirs Debate

DIVERSITY
Local Media Diversity Matters
A Dearth of Diversity

INTERNET/BROADBAND
America Needs a Fiber-Based National Broadband Policy Now

TELEVISION
Forthcoming TV Violence Report May Spur Action On Capitol Hill
NTIA Sends Converter Box Rules To OMB
FCC ruling changed phone industry in 1968; it could happen
again today
Comcast Wants Full Review of Set-Top Waiver Request
Polka to Independents: Deluge Senators on Retrans
Revised Franchising Proposal Woos Missouri's Cable Industry

QUICKLY -- Web giants ask for feds' help on censorship; New Media
Could Force Creative Races; F2C: Freedom to Connect

NEWS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE

BUSH IS NOT ABOVE THE LAW
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: James Bamford]
Last August, you may recall, a federal judge found that the president
of the United States broke the law, committed a serious felony and
violated the Constitution. The ruling was the result of a suit
brought against the National Security Agency by the American Civil
Liberties Union. It was a response to revelations by this newspaper
in December 2005 that the agency had been monitoring the phone calls
and e-mail messages of Americans for more than four years without
first obtaining warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Court, as required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Laws
are broken, the federal government investigates, and the individuals
involved -- even if they're presidents -- are tried and, if found
guilty, punished. That is the way it is supposed to work under our
system of government. But not this time. To allow a president to
break the law and commit a felony for more than five years without
even a formal independent investigation would be the ultimate
subversion of the Constitution and the rule of law. As Judge Taylor
warned in her decision, "There are no hereditary kings in America."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/opinion/31bamford.html
(requires registration)
See also --
* Surveillance case to pit strong views
The U.S. argues that the ACLU challenge of Bush's domestic wiretap
program is moot.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-spying31jan31,1,...

BUSH ORDER ON GOVERNMENT REGULATION STIRS DEBATE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Tabassum Zakaria]
An order signed by President George W. Bush on the oversight of
thousands of government regulations issued every year was praised by
business as a step toward controlling an unwieldy process but
criticized by others as potentially a loser for consumers. The White
House said the executive order signed by Bush on January 18 makes a
senior official in each agency accountable for the regulations it
issues and provides greater openness by ensuring that "guidance"
documents issued to businesses are available to the public. Business
groups say the order should help businesses which have to wade
through a myriad of regulations, sometimes conflicting ones from
different agencies, by making one person in each agency in charge of
overseeing the regulations issued. Consumer groups say the public
would lose out because the order could slow the process by which
regulations in the public interest such as pollution controls would
be issued, and puts the process under the control of an official
appointed by the president. "This is just another tool for industry
and their allies in the Bush White House to slow down and prevent
agencies from getting things done to protect the public," said Robert
Shull, deputy director for auto safety and regulatory policy at
Public Citizen.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID...
* White House Order Tightens Grip On Policy, Stirs Debate on Control
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117020990874393180.html?mod=todays_us_pa...

DIVERSITY

LOCAL DIVERSITY MATTERS
[SOURCE: Center for American Progress, AUTHOR: Mark Lloyd & Phil Napoli]
[Commentary] Access to independent and diverse media outlets is
essential to our democracy. That's why congressional oversight over
the pending FCC rulemaking will be so crucial to the agency's
congressionally mandated quadrennial review of local media ownership
rules. But oversight and critique is not sufficient. Progressives
must now offer a thoughtful and pragmatic alternative to the FCC's
business-as-usual approach to media ownership. The FCC does not have
the means today to determine whether its policies are promoting or
discouraging independent and diverse speech. The Center for American
Progress has worked with a small but diverse group of media scholars
and lawyers over the past year to develop a way to really measure
local media diversity, and a way to determine what level of media
diversity actually supports strong local democracies. What we have
developed is a series of measurements that are clear and easy to
understand, and not too burdensome for the FCC to perform. In brief,
the "Metric for Local Media Diversity" is based on a set of four
distinct but related measures: 1) Determine media markets in a way
that captures the diversity of sources available to both the general
public and significantly distinct "ethnic" audiences. 2) Count all
"independent" media outlets that serve the local media market,
including print, broadcast, cable, and Internet media; but include
only those sources contributing locally produced news and public
affairs. 3) Measure the potential audience of each particular media
source in the market. 4) Measure the news workers for each media
source in the market, with additional points given for gender and
ethnic diversity.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/01/media_diversity.html
* See "Local Media Diversity Matters"
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/01/pdf/media_diversity.pdf
* Progressives Push New Media Diversity Index
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6411449.html?display=Breaking...

A DEARTH OF DIVERSITY
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune 1/30, AUTHOR: Ed Sherman]
The media are making a big deal out of Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy
becoming the first African-American head coaches in the Super Bowl.
Good. It provides the perfect contrast to an untold story about the
media. In the previous 40 Super Bowls, only one African-American has
sat in the broadcast booth: Greg Gumbel called the play-by-play for
the 2001 and 2004 games for CBS. In a sport where more than 60
percent of the players are African-American, there never has been an
African-American analyst in the booth for a Super Bowl. That's
stunning, considering the large pool of African-Americans who not
only are the game's biggest stars but also are glib and quotable. The
lack of diversity in the media goes beyond the Super Bowl booth.
While African-Americans have prominent roles as hosts and analysts on
the various NFL studio shows, there are only a handful of
African-American play-by-play voices and analysts working NFL games
for the networks. The situation isn't limited to television. Scanning
the vast pressroom at the Miami Convention Center, you hardly see any
African-American faces. Here's why: African-American men and women
make up 7 percent of all sportswriters. CBS host James Brown contends
the situation won't change in front of the camera until it changes
behind the scenes. He says the networks need to hire more
African-Americans as producers and in executive roles. "How many
people of color currently occupy those positions?" Brown said. "I
don't know of any African-Americans in senior positions. Those are
the people who make the decisions." The analyst situation is
completely baffling. The only African-American to have a leading role
as a game analyst was O.J. Simpson on "Monday Night Football" during
the '80s. Former African-American players such as Tom Jackson,
Shannon Sharpe, Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders have assumed
high-profile positions on the studio shows. But none has risen to the
same status in the booth.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/cs-070129sherman,1,5...
* See also --
20 Years of Superbowls Yielded 1400 Commercials and 1.72 Billion Ad Dollars
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArti...

INTERNET/BROADBAND

AMERICAN NEEDS A FIBER-BASED NATIONAL BROADBAND POLICY NOW
[SOURCE: The FTTH Prism, AUTHOR: Jim Baller & Casey Lide]
[Commentary] At the two URLs below, find Baller & Lide's rationale
for and steps toward a national broadband strategy. The eight steps
are: 1) Create a Critical Mass of Support for a National Broadband
Strategy: As a first step, advocates must use all means at their
disposal to educate opinion leaders in government, business,
academia, labor, consumer groups, the media, and the public, about
America's pressing need for a National Broadband Strategy. 2) First
Step Legislation: Congress and the President should prepare and enact
legislation that articulates the nature of the challenge and the
stakes involved for America, outlines the key steps to be taken, and
provides a sufficient budget to do the job right. 3) The President
and the leadership of Congress should appoint a non-partisan, broadly
representative blue-ribbon task force. 4) Establish Preliminary
Goals: As one of its first undertakings, the task force should
develop ambitious, but realistic, preliminary goals to help focus its
information-gathering, information-exchange, and negotiations. 5) Get
Better Data: The task force should develop the statistical and
factual bases necessary for each major sector of the American economy
to identify and make informed decisions about the opportunities and
challenges it faces. 6) Exchange and Refine Information: The task
force should facilitate exchanges of information and imaginative
interactions among the various sectors. 7) Task Force
Recommendations: The task force should narrow the potential
strategies to a manageable number, prepare a working draft of a
report to the President and Congress, obtain feedback from their
constituent groups, and develop a final document. 8) Enact
Legislation to Implement the National broadband Strategy: After the
task force has presented its final report and recommendations to the
President and Congress, it will be their task to enact the
legislation necessary to implement the task force's recommendations.
http://www.baller.com/pdfs/baller-lide_fiberprism.pdf
* Eight Bold Steps to a National Broadband Strategy
http://www.baller.com/pdfs/baller-lide_8Steps_NatBBStrategy.pdf

TELEVISION

FORTHCOMING TV VIOLENCE REPORT MAY SPUR ACTION ON CAPITOL HILL
[SOURCE: Technology Daily 1/26, AUTHOR: David Hatch]
The FCC is finalizing a report on television violence that could fuel
efforts by Sen. John (Jay) Rockefeller (D-WV) and other lawmakers to
restrict excessively graphic prime-time programming. But the draft,
now being circulated among the five regulators at the GOP-controlled
commission, does not go as far as Commissioners Michael Copps and
Deborah Tate would like. The report, requested by 39 House members in
2004, is expected soon. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is spearheading the
effort and already has made changes in response to Commissioners
Copps and Tate. In particular, he removed a recommendation that the
Department of Health and Human Services study the link between TV
violence and children's behavior after they complained that fresh
research should not be the focus.
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-PJMQ1170168350133.html

NTIA SENDS CONVERTER BOX RULES TO OMB
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The National Telecommunications & Information Administration has sent
its digital-to-analog converter-box rules to the Office of Management
and Budget. Administration agencies have to vet the rules to make
sure they come within budget -- in this case a maximum of $1.5
billion -- and square with congressional intent in creating the
program. The final rules will likely be released in six weeks to
three months -- which is the maximum number of days. The rules will
provide "eligibility requirements, application procedures, and
guidance on the use, value, and restrictions of the coupons"
according to OMB. It will also include specifications on what kind of
box will be eligible. The converter box program is to make sure that
viewers with analog TV's still have access to TV signals after the
switch-over to digital broadcasting Feb. 18, 2009.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6411663.html?display=Breaking...

FCC RULING CHANGED PHONE INDUSTRY IN 1968; IT COULD HAPPEN AGAIN TODAY
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR:]
[Commentary] In 1968, the FCC ruled that anyone could make devices to
attach to the telephone network. That's one reason we're not all
stuck renting chunky black desktop phones from a telecom monopoly for
$25 a month. The Carterfone Decision made way for multitudes of cheap
phones, answering machines, fax machines and modems. In short, it
unbundled the telephone system and opened up innovation and price
competition. This year, a provision in the 1996 Telecommunications
Act is likely to finally get enforced by FCC Chairman Martin. Cable
companies will have to unbundle the cable system by sharing the
descrambling code with other device makers. The cable industry has
gotten deadline extensions ever since 1996, but the current extension
runs out on July 1, and Chairman Martin says he doesn't want to allow
another one. One certain outcome: A TiVo or Microsoft will be able to
sell a box that connects to the cable line and the Internet. It will
pull in cable channels, Web-based video and downloadable movies, mix
them all together and present them on screen in a single menu. (Cable
companies despise that because they lose control of the viewing
experience.) In the same way, the cellphone industry needs to be
unbundled. Consumer advocates want it. The FCC's Martin apparently
wants it. Cellphone makers want it, though they don't like to say so
and risk offending their wireless carrier partners. Cellphones and
other wireless devices (such as cellular modem cards for laptops) are
set up to work with one carrier. If any cellphone could work on any
network, wireless devices would compete on their own merits, separate
from the networks. That would increase competition among device
makers and free them, for instance, to more easily make phones that
work over Wi-Fi when in range of a Wi-Fi signal and switch to a
cellular network other times.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20070131/maney31.art.htm

COMCAST WANTS FULL REVIEW OF SET-TOP WAIVER REQUEST
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Cable operator Comcast has asked for full commission review of the
Media Bureau's denial of its set-top waiver request. Not mincing any
words, Comcast argues that the waiver denial was "fatally flawed,"
and is "egregious in its factual and legal distortions and bias."
Comcast said it was "inexplicable" that the FCC took 266 days to act
on the waiver when the Communications Act directs it to do so within
90 days. Comcast argues that the bureau had no authority to tell
Comcast that it could resubmit its waiver request if it limited it
only to family or ethnic tiers. "The bureau's plan raises serious
First Amendment concerns," Comcast argues, because, "The bureau would
require that Comcast offer specific types of programming content if
it wants to receive a waiver." The bureau, said Comcast, "fabricated
out of whole cloth" that and other "irrational" waiver standards.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6411688.html?display=Breaking...
* Comcast: Full FCC Set-Top Review
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6411747.html?display=Breaking+News

POLKA TO INDEPENDENTS: DELUGE SENATORS ON RETRANS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Tom Steinert-Threlkeld]
American Cable Association CEO Matthew M. Polka Tuesday morning
called for independent operators to call members of the Senate
Commerce Committee between now and Thursday to heighten awareness
that widespread outages of local TV programming could be at hand and
that cable rates could rise dramatically as broadcasters and
operators dispute what to pay for the carriage of local TV signals.
The committee is scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday on the policies
and practices of the Federal Communications Commission. FCC Chairman
Kevin Martin has declined to force the Commission to intervene in
retransmission disputes.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6411511.html?display=Breaking+News

REVISED FRANCHISING PROPOSAL WOOS MISSOURI'S CABLE INDUSTRY
[SOURCE: Technology Daily 1/29, AUTHOR: Michael Martinez]
The video-franchising debate has returned to Missouri, and a key
player has switched sides. Almost a year after killing his own bill
on the issue, state Sen. John Griesheimer has introduced legislation
to allow for streamlined entry into the state's video services
market. He authored a similar measure last year that appeared to be
on the fast track for the governor's desk before it died in the
spring. But this time Griesheimer already has won over the chief
opponent of last year's bill: the state's dominant cable providers.
Competing telephone firms looking to offer new video services have
been seeking franchising reform measures on Capitol Hill and in state
legislatures. Existing cable firms have typically defended their home
turf by objecting to proposals allowing new entrants to obtain
statewide deals and to bypass disparate local franchise rules. Cable
firms in Missouri have embraced Griesheimer's latest proposal, S.B.
284, because it would let them abrogate their existing contracts to
also seek statewide deals.
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-PUNE1170168545700.html

QUICKLY

WEB GIANTS ASK FOR FEDS' HELP ON CENSORSHIP
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Anne Broache]
Google, Yahoo and Microsoft representatives on Tuesday implored the
U.S. government to help set ground rules for complying with demands
by foreign law enforcement agencies for user records or censorship.
But a key question that remains after the U.S. Department of State
concluded its inaugural global Internet freedom conference here is
how to determine when such requests are "legitimate" and warrant
compliance. That issue took center stage last year amid reports that
Chinese authorities had succeeded in silencing -- and in some cases
imprisoning -- cyberdissidents, thanks to cooperation from Yahoo and
Microsoft.
http://news.com.com/Web+giants+ask+for+feds+help+on+censorship/2100-1028...

NEW MEDIA COULD FORCE CREATIVE RACES
[SOURCE: Ad Week, AUTHOR: Wendy Melillo]
With more campaign money likely to be spent on new media than ever
before, candidates for the White House in 2008 may be forced to
display unprecedented creativity in both their ads and overall
strategies, political experts said. If candidates hope to have their
messages distributed virally -- or even catch the attention of
consumers accustomed to being entertained and "engaged" by
advertising -- they must craft messages that viewers would want to
share with others. With candidates now taking the Internet and new
media more seriously than ever -- witnessed by the slew of candidates
already using Web video, YouTube or online chat to throw their hats
into the ring -- how campaigns handle everything from Web TV to
social networking sites will become an integral part of their
campaign strategy.
http://www.adweek.com/aw/national/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=100...
* To '08 Hopefuls, New Media Can Be Friend or Foe
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/us/politics/31video.html

F2C: FREEDOM TO CONNECT
[SOURCE: Freedom to Connect]
A plug for David Isenberg's self-described "geek-meets-wonk telecom
conference" March 5 and 6 in Silver Springs (MD). Register today and
save $100 on conference fee.
Governor Jim Douglas of Vermont is the opening speaker. He will
explain his initiative to make Vermont the first e-State in the
Union, where you can open your laptop anywhere in the state and
connect. Also on the agenda are cyber-punk sci-fi author Bruce
Sterling, FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, Rep. Steve Urquhart
(R-UT), former FCC Chair Reed Hundt, and Professor Yochai Benkler.
Learn more at the URL below.
http://freedom-to-connect.net
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Communications-related Headlines is a free online news summary
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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
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