April 2007

Don't forget the FCC will hold a Media Ownership hearing on Monday
evening in Tampa (see more details below). For this and other
upcoming media policy events, see http://www.benton.org

MEDIA OWNERSHIP
Barons back off newspaper trial
Media Ownership Hearing Details
Tribune offers big payday or mayday

CONTENT
TV to U.S. govt: Hands off violent programs
Let parents handle TV violence
Groups Weigh In On FCC Violence Report
Let consumers, not government, define TV violence
Fifteen Minutes of Online Fame
Christian Coalition Calls Net Neutrality A 'Family Issue'

JOURNALISM
U.S. media have lost the will to dig deep
After Moyers Iraq Documentary, DC Reporters in Damage-Control Mode

NEWS FROM CONGRESS
Senate Commerce Committee Approves Bills
Lawmakers propose reversal of Net radio fee hikes

MEDIA & ELECTIONS
The media should avoid early election polls
Missing: Politicians who take a clear stand on tech

BROADCASTING
Glassman Nominated to Head US Broadcasting Board

TEN YEARS AGO...
Bell Partners' Next Hurdle Is Credibility

QUICKLY -- Targeting Spam at the Source; '$100 laptop' cost rises to
$175, for now; CEA Studies Consumer-Electronics Buying Habits

MEDIA OWNERSHIP

BARONS BACK OFF NEWSPAPER TRIAL
[SOURCE: San Francisco Bay Guardian, AUTHOR: GW Schulz]
Clint Reilly's federal civil suit against the Hearst Corp. and
MediaNews Group, filed last year in an attempt to block the would-be
competitors from sharing monopoly control of the Bay Area's daily
newspaper establishment, ended in a settlement which blocks any
future business deals between Hearst, owner of the San Francisco
Chronicle, and MediaNews, which now owns almost every other daily in
the San Francisco region. The settlement saved some of the nation's
biggest newspaper barons from the prospect of a long and embarrassing
trial that could have produced alarming revelations about the way the
big publishers do business. Apparently, MediaNews had tried to
purchase the SF Chronicle and Hearst, for the past ten years, has
been interested in investing in the MediaNews business model, best
described as a series of "clusters," in which the company
consolidates the operations of several regional newspapers, hacks
madly at the payroll with a broadsword, and sends ill-fated staffers
packing, from veteran editors to longtime press operators. Hearst's
inspiration for its major stock investment in MediaNews began after
the two became fast friends in Texas. MediaNews in 1995 sold the
assets of the Houston Post for $120 million to Hearst, which owned
the Houston Chronicle, enabling Hearst to rid itself of a
major-market competitor.
http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=3512

MEDIA OWNERSHIP HEARING DETAILS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
The FCC has announced the participants at Monday's media ownership
hearing in Tampa. The Market Overview panel will include: Dan
Bradley, Media General Vice President of News for Broadcast; Bill
Carey, General Manager of WFTS-TV and Incoming President of the
Florida Association of Broadcasters; Robert Dardenne, Associate
Professor in Journalism and Media Studies at Univ. of South
Florida-St. Petersburg; Steve Erlanger, President, Hometown News;
Ronald Gordon, President of ZGS Broadcast Holdings; Jim Johnson,
Publisher of State of Sunshine, a political blog covering the state
of Florida; Eric Klinenberg, Associate Professor of Sociology at New
York University; Patrick Manteiga, Editor and Publisher of La Gaceta;
Pat Roberts, President of the Florida Association of Broadcasters;
Art Rowbotham, President of Hall Communications; and Steve Wilson,
Investigative Journalist. The Perspectives on Media Ownership panel
will include: Gerardo Reyes-Chavez, Coalition of Immokalee Workers;
Glenn Cherry, President/CEO and Chairman of the Board of Tama
Broadcasting; Roswell Clarke, Director of Technical Operations and
System Admin., Cox Radio-Tampa; Bob D'Andrea, President of the
Christian Television Network; Dr. Karen Brown Dunlap, President of
The Poynter Institute; Bob Gremillion, President, CEO and Publisher
of the South Florida Sentinel; Carol Jenkins, President of The
Women's Media Center; Larry Lee, Jr., Owner of WFLM-FM/WIRA(AM), Port
St. Lucie, Florida; Luis Lopez, Director of Public Relations,
Hispanic Alliance of Tampa Bay; Carlina Rodriguez, Director of
Organizing Spanish Language, Screen Actors Guild of America; Sam
Rosenwasser, President and General Manager of WTSP(TV); and Rich
Templin, Communications Director, Florida AFL-CIO.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-272682A1.doc
http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/5150

TRIBUNE OFFERS BIG PAYDAY OR MAYDAY
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, AUTHOR: Michael Oneal mdoneal( at )tribune.com]
The significant risks and potential rewards facing Tribune Co. as a
highly leveraged concern became clear this week when the company
launched the first step in an audacious $8.2 billion gambit to take
itself private. Documents filed with a tender offer for roughly half
its outstanding shares disclosed for the first time the financial
assumptions Tribune and its advisers used in assessing the company's
various options during its six-month auction process. The documents
also contain "pro forma" data showing what could happen to Tribune's
financial picture when the company increases its debt to more than
$13 billion after transferring ownership to an employee stock
ownership plan and Chicago billionaire Sam Zell. The welter of
charts, text and tables paints a vivid picture of the rich upside and
chilling downside presented by the leveraged ESOP structure. For
employees, who will end up owning 60 percent of the new Tribune, the
potential returns could be staggering -- better than those of either
Zell, who will control 40 percent, or management, which will receive
phantom stock equivalent to 8 percent of the company. But if Tribune
falters, as it did in the first quarter, those returns could
evaporate quickly. And even if the company does just a little worse
over the next five years, it could easily find itself rubbing up
against debt covenants that could trigger a default.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0704270058apr27,0,5435767.sto...

CONTENT

TV TO US GOVT: HANDS OFF VIOLENT PROGRAMS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Rachelle Younglai]
U.S. television programmers said on Thursday that the government had
no business telling them what to air and criticized a Federal
Communications Commission report saying Congress could regulate
violent content. CBS Corp., News Corp. and the cable industry said
such regulation would be an unconstitutional violation of free speech
rights and face high legal hurdles. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) said
he is reviewing the FCC report and will include some of the
recommendations in a bill. In 2005, Rockefeller tried to move similar
legislation to protect children from violence, but it failed to
advance. Television violence is one of the biggest complaints heard
from parents, an aide to Rockefeller said. "They are just flipping
through the channels and you can't help but see it and you can't flip
fast enough or shield your kids' eyes fast enough," the aide said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/televisionNews/idUSN2622914020070426
* Second look: Inside the FCC's "Report on Violent Programming and
Its Impact on Children"
While the Report on Violent Programming and Its Impact on Children
presents a disturbing overview of the TV viewing habits of toddlers,
its fine print is far more tentative. A second reading suggests that
the document, released this week, hedges on firm analytical
conclusions about the problem.
http://www.lasarletter.net/drupal/node/394

LET PARENTS HANDLE TV VIOLENCE
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The FCC's recommendation that Congress limit kids'
exposure to violent TV programming via broadcast and pay TV is "an
unjustifiable government intrusion into the creation and consumption
of television. And even if the restrictions were upheld by the
courts, they would likely make little difference." It would be hard
to regulate "excessive violence" in a way that doesn't trample on the
Constitution. The bigger issue, though, is that few parents bother
using blocking tools. The ultimate filter is the on/off switch, which
not only shields children from violent programming but tells networks
and advertisers to offer different fare. If the report's findings
about the effects of TV violence on children are true, then the
biggest wake-up call should be to parents, not regulators.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-ed-fcc27apr27,1,305...
(requires registration)

GROUPS WEIGH IN ON FCC VIOLENCE REPORT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Reaction continues to pour in in the wake of the FCC's violence
report to Congress. The Parents Television Council and Common Sense
Media are both applauding, while the Media Coalition gives it a thumbs down.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6437124.html
* PTC Applauds FCC's Report on Violent Television
http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/release/2007/0426.asp
* Common Sense Media CEO Says FCC TV Violence Report is a 'Bold Step
on Behalf of Kids and Families'
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/news/press-releases.php?id=66
* Media Coalition
"The FCC is broadcasting the wrong signal," says David Horowitz,
executive director of the Media Coalition. "The courts have
consistently found restricting violent content is contrary to the
First Amendment. Contrary to what the FCC has implied in this
report, the Supreme Court has made clear that speech is presumed to
be protected by the First Amendment unless it falls into one of a few
very narrow categories: defamation, incitement, obscenity, and
pornography produced with children. Media with violent themes or
depictions, on TV or otherwise, does not fall into any of these categories."
* ACLU Calls FCC Television Violence Recommendations Unworkable
http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/29496prs20070426.html?s_src=RSS
* Center for Creative Voices response:
"Giving the Federal Communications Commission the power to regulate
'violent' and 'graphic' television content will stifle free
expression, threaten quality programming, and ultimately harm
America's children, just as its regulation of 'indecency' has done."
http://www.creativevoices.us/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=184
* The FCC Is Not Listening: 74% of Americans Say Parents, Not
Government, Should Decide What Their Kids Watch on TV
[SOURCE: TVWatch press release]
http://televisionwatch.org/NewsPolls/PressReleases/PR018.html
* Television Violence: Coalition of Leading Women's Organizations
Call for Congressional Hearings; Urge Parental Action Now
http://www.tickertech.com/cgi/?a=news&ticker=a&w=&story=2007042007042615...
* Children Now's Statement on FCC Report on TV Violence
"Children Now hopes that the FCC's report will motivate the
television industry to act on their responsibility to help parents
protect their children from harmful programming by providing them
with accurate, reliable and consistent ratings information."
http://www.childrennow.org/newsroom/press_releases/pr_070425.html

LET CONSUMERS, NOT GOVERNMENT, DEFINE TV VIOLENCE
[SOURCE: Miami Herald, AUTHOR: Cal Thomas, Tribune Media Services]
[Commentary] Anyone concerned about the preservation of the First
Amendment and the rights it guarantees to free speech and free
expression should be worried about this latest assault on the
Constitution, the FCC's recommendation that Congress legislate
violent TV programming. Conservatives who oppose regulation of talk
radio, which most of them like, must be consistent and oppose the
over-regulation of TV content they don't like. Increasingly, I meet
parents of young children who have decided not to have a TV in the
house. Having grown up with TV, they say they experience a period of
''withdrawal,'' similar to that of breaking free of nicotine or other
addictions. Soon, however, they are communicating more with their
children, reading books to them and enjoying time together. Their
lives are better. A conservative would call that a market decision.
People decide not to consume a product that is bad for them. When
people have had their fill of really bad television, it will no
longer be ''must-see TV,'' but ''must-leave TV,'' and I'll bet the
industry will clean up its act in response or face additional losses
in ratings and revenue. That's better than the government trying to
define violence and police-program content, and it will give
conservatives more leverage, should a Democrat win the White House
next year, to oppose any regulation of talk radio.
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/86873.html

FIFTEEN MINUTES OF FAME ONLINE
[SOURCE: Common Sense Media]
[Commentary] What are your kids learning from Virginia Tech gunman
Seung-Hui Cho, DJ Don Imus, and actor Alec Baldwin? Are their 15
minutes of online fame giving children an unwanted message? A
fundamental of child development involves mirroring: Kids look to
parents, teachers, and friends to get a sense of who they are and how
they impact the world. But increasingly, kids find mirrors in online
communities -- the MySpaces, the YouTubes, the Facebooks. Through
written, pictorial, and video postings, kids send messages out to the
world about who they think they are. Then they get reactions back.
And the more reactions they get, the more popular they feel. Just
consider what a point of pride it is for kids to have hundreds of
"friends" on MySpace. But these public forums reward the sensational.
The more outrageous a posting, the more responses a kid will get.
Kids depend on these responses to confirm their popularity, value,
and sense of identity -- and somehow, consequences aren't really
factored in. The fame itself trumps the fallout. Because our kids
look for feedback and measure it in the quantitative ways unique to
the online user-generated world, they may be taking away the message
that, consequences aside, doing something outrageous makes you an
instant celebrity.
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/parent_tips/commonsense_view/index.php?i...

CHRISTIAN COALITION CALLS NET NEUTRALITY A 'FAMILY ISSUE'
[SOURCE: InformationWeek, AUTHOR: KC Jones]
Net neutrality could become the next family value if the Christian
Coalition of America gets its way.
In a teleconference marking the one-year anniversary of the
SaveTheInternet campaign to keep the Internet content-neutral, the
Christian Coalition's Michele Combs said Wednesday network neutrality
is a "family issue" that should become part of the national
presidential debate among Republicans and Democrats. Combs was one of
several people who said they will continue to push for net neutrality
legislation, which would prevent telecommunications and cable
companies from prioritizing Internet traffic based on content or
source. Proponents of the legislation argue they want to guarantee
individuals and small companies the same access and delivery speeds
as larger companies, rather than allowing telecommunications and
cable providers to charge larger companies higher rates for faster speed.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=1992018...
* One Year Older and Fighting Strong for a Better Internet
http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/2007/04/26/one-year-old-and-fighting...
* "Hands Off" Statement on SaveTheInternet" Lobbying Call
http://handsoff.org/hoti_docs/news/pr_042607.shtml

JOURNALISM

US MEDIA HAVE LOST WILL TO DIG DEEP
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Greg Palast]
[Commentary] Investigative reporting -- the kind Jack Anderson used
to do regularly and which was carried in hundreds of papers across
the country, the kind of muckraking, data-intensive work that takes
time and money and ruffles feathers -- is dying. Again and again, I
see this pattern repeated. Until there is some official investigation
or allegation made by a politician, there is no story. Or sometimes
the media like to cover the controversy, not the substance,
preferring an ambiguous and unsatisfying "he said, she said" report.
Safe reporting, but not investigative. I know some of the reasons why
investigative reporting is on the decline. To begin with,
investigations take time and money. In America's cash-short,
instant-deadline world, there's not much room for that. Are there
still aggressive, talented investigative reporters in the U.S.? There
are hundreds. I'll mention two: Seymour Hersh, formerly of the New
York Times, and Robert Parry, formerly of the Associated Press, who
uncovered the Iran-Contra scandal. The operative word here is
"formerly." Parry tells me that he can no longer do this kind of
investigative work within the confines of a U.S. daily newsroom. One
of the biggest disincentives to doing investigative journalism is
that it jeopardizes future access to politicians and corporate elite.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-palast27apr27,1,...
(requires registration)

AFTER MOYERS IRAQ DOCUMENTARY, DC REPORTERS IN DAMAGE-CONTROL MODE
[SOURCE: AlterNet, AUTHOR: David Sirota, WorkingForChange.com]
In the lead up to and wake of Bill Moyers' much-anticipated mega-dunk
on the Washington press corps this week, we are seeing the ugliest
side of Beltway culture -- sophistry and damage control.
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/51110/

NEWS FROM CONGRESS

SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE APPROVES BILLS
[SOURCE: US Senate Commerce Committee]
The Senate Commerce Committee approved seven bills Wednesday,
including the Identity Theft Prevention Act of 2007, which sets new
standards to protect sensitive, personal information, including
allowing credit freezes and limiting the display of social security
numbers, and the IP-Enabled Voice Communications and Public Safety
Act of 2007, which creates a statutory obligation on IP-enabled voice
service providers to provide 911 and E911 service to their
subscribers. The Identity Theft Prevention Act of 2007, S. 1178,
requires businesses, organizations, and federal agencies to maintain
and protect sensitive personal information. The Federal Trade
Commission establishes standards for companies safeguarding such
information and is responsible for enforcing the Act against
businesses and organizations, other than those that are regulated by
other federal agencies. Violators may be fined up to $11,000 per
violation per day with no cap. The bill also obligates these
businesses, organizations, and federal agencies to notify consumers
in the event of a security breach that creates a reasonable risk of
identity theft. Under the bill, in the event of a breach, a consumer
may place a security freeze on his or her consumer credit report,
which blocks the release of any information from the consumer's
credit report without the explicit authorization of the consumer.
Additionally, the bill would prohibit the display of social security
numbers on employer, school or other identification cards, and state
driver's licenses. It also prohibits the sale, purchase, or
solicitation of social security numbers, except for limited purposes
such as fraud prevention and to pursue criminals. S. 428, the
IP-Enabled Voice Communications and Public Safety Act of 2007 would
grant IP-enabled voice providers the right of access to essential 911
components comparable to the rights of access granted to commercial
mobile service providers. The bill also would clarify the right of
states and localities to impose 911 fees on IP-enabled voice services
providers to use for expanded 911, E911, or other public safety
purpose. S. 428 would also direct the E911 Implementation
Coordination Office to develop and report to Congress on a national
plan for migrating to an IP-enabled emergency network within 270 days
of the bill's enactment.
http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Det...

LAWMAKERS PROPOSE REVERSAL OF NET RADIO FEE HIKES
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Anne Broache]
A bill introduced in Congress Thursday aims to overturn a
controversial royalty fee hike that Internet radio advocates say
threatens to cripple their services. The "Internet Radio Equality
Act," introduced by Reps. Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Don Manzullo (R-IL),
would invalidate a March 2 decision by the U.S. Copyright Royalty
Board that calls for hiking royalty rates paid by Net radio
operators. "You can't put an economic chokehold on this emerging
force of democracy," Inslee said in a statement e-mailed by a
spokeswoman. "There has to be a business model that allows creative
Webcasters to thrive and the existing rule removes all the oxygen
from this space." The bill's introduction comes less than two weeks
after the CRB declined to reconsider most of its decision. Small
Webcasters, National Public Radio, Clear Channel Communications and
others had filed petitions for a rehearing. Some have indicated they
are considering filing an appeal of the rules in court. If it were to
stand, the CRB's existing ruling would result in fee increases on
Internet radio operators ranging from 300 to 1200 percent between
2006 and 2012, according to a group called SaveNetRadio, which has
been lobbying Congress for relief. In addition to repealing that
regime, the new House bill offers a compromise: It would set the rate
at 7.5 percent of the Webcaster's revenue "directly related to" its
transmission of sound recordings, or 33 cents per hour of sound
recordings transmitted to a single listener. It would be up to the
Webcaster to decide which model to use. That's comparable to what is
currently required of satellite radio operators. The bill also calls
for public radio broadcasters to submit a report to Congress on how
to determine rates for their class of services
http://news.com.com/Lawmakers++propose+reversal+of+Net+radio+fee+hikes/2...

MEDIA & ELECTIONS

THE MEDIA SHOULD AVOID EARLY ELECTION POLLS
[SOURCE: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting]
While it certainly feels like the presidential election cycle has
started earlier than ever, a more important issue is what sort of
coverage of the process the media are providing citizens. Much of
what voters are seeing is reporting and analysis of early polls,
which show Rudolph Giuliani with a wide lead over his Republican
counterparts, and senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama leading
the Democratic field. But if history is any guide, the polls are a
complete waste of time. The press attention to these early polls can
amount to a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy: Polls are primarily
measuring name recognition, so high-profile candidates tend to do
better. "Winning" the polls encourages more media attention, much of
it about how a given candidate is maintaining their lead. When actual
voters intervene in the process, however, the front-runners often
become also-rans. More importantly, early polls function as a way of
giving media an excuse to ignore candidates -- often the majority of
candidates -- who are deemed outsiders undeserving of media
attention. While reporters seem aware of the problems with
overplaying these early polls, it's not clear that this awareness has
any effect on their coverage.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3091

MISSING: POLITICIANS WHO TAKE A CLEAR STAND ON TECH
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Declan McCullagh]
Net neutrality became one the hottest political flashpoints in the
last year. But in what might seem to be an odd omission, both
Republicans and Democrats studiously ignored it this week when
touting their technology agendas for 2007. Also absent from the list
of congressional priorities for the new Congress were controversial
topics like social network restrictions, Internet surveillance, data
retention, spyware, and laws aimed at regulating Google and its
competitors when doing business in China.
http://news.com.com/Missing+Politicians+who+take+a+clear+stand+on+tech/2...

BROADCASTING

GLASSMAN NOMINATED TO HEAD US BROADCASTING BOARD
[SOURCE: The White House]
The President intends to nominate James K. Glassman, of Connecticut,
to be a Member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors for the
remainder of a three-year term expiring 8/13/07 and an additional
three-year term expiring 8/13/10. The President also intends to
nominate Mr. Glassman to be Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of
Governors. Glassman is the first Editor-in-Chief and Executive
Publisher of The American, a magazine of ideas focusing on business,
economics, and public affairs. His recent work at AEI has been
dedicated to the intersection of policy, finance and technology. For
more than a decade, he wrote an investing column for the Washington
Post, as well as two books on finance, most recently The Secret Code
of the Superior Investor. In 2000, he founded the online opinion
journal, TCSDaily.com which concentrates on high tech and public
policy. He is also chairman of Investors Action Alliance, an advocacy
and education group for small investors. Before AEI, he was publisher
of both The New Republic and The Atlantic Monthly and editor of the
congressional newspaper Roll Call. He is at work on a book on the
effects of the boom in global wealth.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/04/20070425-5.html
Glassman's bio: http://www.aei.org/scholars/scholarID.21,filter.all/scholar.asp

TEN YEARS AGO...

BELL PARTNERS' NEXT HURDLE IS CREDIBILITY
[SOURCE: New York Times 4/28/1997, AUTHOR: Mark Landler]
Ten years ago this week, Bell Atlantic and Nynex completed a
regulatory steeplechase when the Justice Department announced it
would not try to block their $22 billion merger. And though the
companies tangled for more than a year with angry consumer advocates,
balky state officials and skeptical regulators, their big deal came
through without a scratch. Landler speculated that the challenge
ahead for the combined company would be convincing competitors and
consumers to accept the Government's conclusion that the combination
posed no threat to an open marketplace. The consumer advocates and
other critics were not optimistic. To them, the decision was part of
a string of Federal and state rulings that did not put any curbs on
the market power of the vast new company. "This really demonstrates
that the Telecommunications Act by itself is never going to be enough
to guarantee competition," said Consumers Union's Gene Kimmelman.
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F20912FE3E550C7B...
(requires TimesSelect subscription)

QUICKLY

TARGETING SPAM AT THE SOURCE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Krebs]
A company representing Internet users in more than 100 countries
filed a federal lawsuit yesterday seeking the identities of people
responsible for collecting millions of e-mail addresses on behalf of
spammers. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria,
was filed on behalf of Project Honey Pot, a service of Unspam
Technologies, a Utah firm that consults with companies and government
agencies. The company filed the lawsuit on behalf of 20,000 people
who use its anti-spam tool. The software records the Internet
protocol addresses of visitors who collect e-mail addresses from Web
sites and forward them to spammers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/26/AR200704...
(requires registration)

'$100 LAPTOP' COSTS RISES TO $175, FOR NOW
[SOURCE: Associated Press]
The founder of the ambitious "$100 laptop" project, which plans to
give inexpensive computers to schoolchildren in developing countries,
revealed Thursday that the machine, for now, costs $175 and that it
would be able to run Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system in
addition to its home-grown, open-source interface. At least seven
nations have expressed interest in being in the initial wave to buy
the little green-and-white XO computers -- Uruguay, Argentina,
Brazil, Pakistan, Thailand, Nigeria and Libya. The project needs
orders for 3 million machines for its manufacturing and distribution
effort to get rolling. Mass production is expected to begin by October.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-laptop27apr27,1,30242...
(requires registration)
* U.S. schools may join inexpensive laptop project
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2642385520070427

CEA STUDIES CONSUMER-ELECTRONICS BUYING HABITS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News]
According to the Consumer Electronics Association's Ninth Annual
Household and Teen CE Ownership and Market Potential Study, the
average U.S. household owns 25 consumer-electronics products and the
average adult spends $1,200 annually on them. The study also found
that the top five growth sectors were digital-video recorders,
network routers or hubs, MP3 players, cable modems and digital cameras.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6437126.html
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...and we're outta here. Have a great weekend. let's go Cubs!
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