February 2008

Public Interest Obligations in the 21st Century: Where Do We Go from Here?

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein are the headliners at "" on Monday.

The Public Interest, Public Airwaves Coalition is hosting a discussion of the new requirements that television broadcasters disclose their public interest performance to the communities they serve. The discussion also looks forward to the FCC's recently launched proceeding on new localism requirements for both television and radio broadcasters.

For more on the public interest obligations of broadcasters see www.benton.org/issues/obligations and Benton's Citizen's Guide to Public Interest Obligations

Bush Calls Surveillance Bill an ‘Urgent Priority’

BUSH CALLS SURVEILLANCE BILL AN 'URGENT PRIORITY'
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Stout and Brian Knowlton]
Using some of his toughest language in weeks, President Bush prodded Congress on Thursday to pass his preferred version of surveillance legislation, asserting that every day of delay could put the country in danger. President Bush said again that renewing the surveillance legislation is “a very urgent priority,” and that it must include controversial provisions that would shield telecommunications companies from wholesale lawsuits over their assistance in monitoring the phone calls and e-mail messages of suspected terrorists without warrants. Failure to give the legal protection to the telecom companies would not only be unwise and dangerous policy but plain unfair, the president said at a White House news conference. The companies were told by government leaders after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, “that their assistance was legal and vital to national security,” the president said. “Allowing these lawsuits to proceed would be unfair.” Contrary to what administration critics say, “people who analyze the program fully understand that America’s civil liberties are well protected,” President Bush said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/washington/28cnd-bush.html?hp
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* Press Conference transcript
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/02/20080228-2.html

* Telecom Firms' Need For Immunity Stressed
President Bush: "They're facing billions of dollars of lawsuits."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/28/AR200802...

* Less Telecom Dollars for GOP
[SOURCE: TPM]
You can understand their exasperation. The administration and Congressional Republicans have done everything in their power to protect the telecoms. They used every legislative tactic at the ready, made every speech or public pronouncement possible, and even engaged in occasional theatrics to drive the point home: Congress will not be passing, and the President will not be signing, any surveillance bill into law that does not give the telecoms retroactive immunity for having helped the administration break the law. And despite all that, the telecoms still seem not to understand which side their bread is buttered on. "GOP leadership aides are grumbling that their party isn't getting more political money from the telecommunications industry," Roll Call reports
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/todays_must_read_285.php

* FISA or bust: What's Bush's real angle
[Commentary] Bush made it seem that FISA requests routinely get held up by recalcitrant, fuddy-duddy judges. But if the Justice Department fails to get its way, it can always appeal to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. (They needed to go that far just once in the history of the law.) Bottom line: The Feds nearly always get what they want. So why is Bush making a big megilla out of this? Hmm, rumor has it there's a big election in the offing.
http://www.news.com/8301-10787_3-9882499-60.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=...

Congress worries that .gov monitoring will spy on Americans

CONGRESS WORRIES THAT .GOV MONITORING WILL SPY ON AMERICANS
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Anne Broache]
A new Bush administration plan to capture and analyze traffic on all federal government networks in real time is generating privacy worries from congressional Democrats and Republicans alike. At a hearing convened here Thursday by the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, politicians directed pointed questions to Department of Homeland Security officials about their plans to expand an existing "intrusion detection" system known as Einstein. Among other things, the system will monitor visits from Americans--and foreigners--visiting .gov Web sites.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9882031-7.html?tag=nefd.top

* House Lawmakers Question Privacy in Cyber-Security Plan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/28/AR200802...

Surveillance system raises privacy concerns

SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM RAISES PRIVACY CONCERNS
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Mimi Hall]
The Homeland Security Department is testing technology that would allow its agents to use cellphones or e-mail devices to covertly share live video of possible terrorists over a law enforcement network. The idea is prompting concern from privacy advocates. Department officials call the security surveillance system RealEyes because it instantly broadcasts images to anyone connected to the system. It can stream the video across the country to computers and give the law enforcement agencies a front-row view of what's going on in real time. If it passes a privacy test, the technology could allow air marshals, border officers or Secret Service agents to videotape surreptitiously in airports, at border crossings and anywhere else where there's a possible threat.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080229/a_airvideo29.art.htm

Easy, Timely, Public Access to CRS Reports Urged

EASY, TIMELY, PUBLIC ACCESS TO CRS REPORTS URGED
[SOURCE: Center for Democracy & Technology]
Efforts to make Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports more accessible to the public received another boost today from Sen. Joe Lieberman, (ID-Conn.), who asked that a complete system be crafted that is readily accessible to the public. Currently, making the reports public is a time intensive task handled by congressional staff. Lieberman's request went to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, (D-CA), head of the Senate Rules Committee, and follows his introduction of resolution S. Res 401, which also calls for greater public access to the reports. CDT supports Sen. Lieberman's request and calls on Congress and the CRS to develop a system as described in his letter. CDT's OpenCRS project provides public access to a portion of these taxpayer funded, unclassified reports that have been released by various members of Congress.
* Sen. Lieberman's Letter: http://lieberman.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=293824
* S Res. 401: http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c110:./temp/~c110r9f8P2
* OpenCRS: http://www.opencrs.com

Newspaper Primary Coverage Nearly All About The Horse Race

NEWSPAPER PRIMARY COVERAGE NEARLY ALL ABOUT THE HORSE RACE
[SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Mark Fitzgerald]
University of Missouri Communication Professor William Benoit and doctoral candidate Mark Glantz analyzed more than 800 USA Today stories about the 2008 presidential primaries, and found more than half -- 56% -- were devoted to the horse race aspect of the campaign, such as polls, strategies, predictions, and, of course, election results. By contrast, fewer than a third -- 29% -- of the articles concerned a candidate's character -- and just 15% included statements about a candidate's policy. The research into USA Today stories is just the first part of an unfinished study that will include statistics of the primary campaign coverage of The New York Time and The Washington Post as well. But Benoit doesn't expect the results form those papers will be very different from USA Today.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_con...

The Media's Election

THE MEDIA'S ELECTION
[SOURCE: AlterNet, AUTHOR: Mark Weisbrot]
The major media plays a much bigger role in the formation of our national politics than most people realize. The media helps define and choose the issues, and acts as gatekeeper in setting the limits for political discussion and sometimes even candidacies for public office. The most media-savvy candidates know how to play within the media's rules, and use them to their advantage. The media can also veto candidates. The media does much more than directly influence the opinion of voters. Most donors, politicians, institutions and other important political participants will not waste resources on a candidate that they think is unlikely to win. They often look at how the media treats a candidate in order to make this decision. If the media does not take a candidate seriously or is obviously hostile to him or her, these potential supporters will look elsewhere. Sen Obama has played the media like a violin, and unless he stumbles, it should carry him all the way to the White House.
http://www.alternet.org/election08/77972/

You Wouldn't Bring Wine to the Gallo House

YOU WOULDN'T BRING WINE TO THE GALLO HOUSE
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Evan Tracey]
[Commentary] You wouldn't bring a bottle of wine over to the Gallo brothers' house or give Tiger Woods golf balls for his birthday, so why would you pay good money to run ads on behalf of Barack Obama? This week the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and the Service Employees International Union started running ads in support of Obama in Texas and Ohio. The ads drive home themes, in both English and Spanish, of Obama's ability to bring change and take on the healthcare industry as well as other special interest groups. The ad buys seem significant and may prove valuable in the March 4 primaries. However, I must ask the question: Does he really need the help at this point? During the last 30 days, Obama has outspent Senator Clinton by a whopping $9 million. He's outspent Hillary Clinton in Texas by $1.5 million and in Ohio by $1.1 million. While these union ads will help fire up the base labor voters in these states by reinforcing themes helpful to the Obama campaign, these ads may have a hard time breaking through the Obama's own ad clutter. This extra help may actually be coming at the best time for the Obama campaign. Although he has consistently maintained a decisive spending advantage on the air, the Clinton campaign buys have recently been able to maintain parity on a daily basis in Texas and Ohio. If Clinton is to have any chance to change the momentum of this race she needs wins in Texas and Ohio, and a one-point victory may not be enough. So these outside-funded ads will likely tip the ad-buy scales back toward Obama as we enter the crucial home stretch. If Obama becomes the eventual Democratic nominee, he may have these union ads to thank.
http://adage.com/campaigntrail/post?article_id=125378

How They Grew Brand Obama

HOW THEY GREW BRAND OBAMA
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Joe Erwin]
[Commentary] Erwin, an Obama supporter, heads an advertising and marketing agency. He writes: As the Clinton campaign now realizes, being behind in organization on the ground and further behind in using the Internet (to both raise money and to build a community of believers) have been the biggest differences in these two campaigns.... This is building a brand the way social networks are built out. And perfect strangers are talking to each other over the Internet and sharing stories about why, for the first time in their lives, they are signing on to a campaign website and donating money. So with Ohio, Texas, and other critical primaries coming soon, you just have to wonder if this incredible momentum can possibly be blunted. I doubt it.
http://adage.com/campaigntrail/post?article_id=125377

Station Cites Equipment in Blackout of Program

STATION CITES EQUIPMENT IN BLACKOUT OF PROGRAM
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Bill Carter]
In an attempt to clear up questions about how an Alabama television station lost its signal at the start of Sunday’s edition of “60 Minutes” on CBS, the management of the station, WHNT-TV, issued a statement Thursday citing equipment failure. The station, in Huntsville, said that after a review, it had concluded that the blackout was related to a similar interruption during a basketball game the day before. The break in the signal, which lasted about eight minutes, came as the CBS News program was beginning a report of special interest to Alabama residents: an investigation into whether the trial and conviction of a former governor, Don Siegelman, was politically motivated. The report included charges that Republican and Bush administration officials, including Karl Rove, had sought to discredit Mr. Siegelman, a Democrat. The station initially suggested that some failure at CBS was to blame but quickly reversed that, saying the problem involved a “receiver” at the station. The general manager, Stan Pylant, said Thursday in an interview that there was no intention to keep the Siegelman story from viewers, citing the fact that the report was replayed on two newscasts and posted on the station’s Web site. Thursday’s statement also emphasized that reports of a link between the ownership of the station and the Bush administration were inaccurate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/business/media/29tele.html?ref=todaysp...
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-- See also --
* Times Co. Agrees to Sell TV Stations to Equity Firm (01.05.07)
In January 2007, the New York Times Company agreed to sell WHNT-TV to Oak Hill Capital Partners, a private equity firm.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/05/business/media/05times.html
* New Station Super Group Reaches Half of U.S. (01.01.08)
In January 2008, in the wake of Sam Zell's purchase of the Tribune Company, Tribune combined its own 23 television stations with the nine stations owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners. And Tribune hired Randy Michaels, a veteran Clear Channel executive, to run the new company.
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/01/01/daily.2/
* Clear Channel veteran expected to play a big role at Tribune (12.20.07)
Most recently, Michaels has been chief executive of Local TV, a chain of nine mid-size Midwestern television stations acquired in May with the backing of Oak Hill Capital, a private equity firm run by Fort Worth investor Robert Bass. Under Michaels, the chain has emphasized live local newscasts as audience builders. Michaels, 55, last worked for Zell at Jacor Communications Inc., a radio chain Zell bought in 1993 and sold at a huge profit in 1998 to Clear Channel Communications Inc. He helped build Clear Channel into a network of 1,200 stations coast to coast. But he had also alienated record companies by exploiting the company's market strength to build its concert business, forcing the industry to do business with both units. Critics also blamed him for homogenizing local radio, a reference to Clear Channel's use of disc jockeys operating out of a centralized location but projecting the impression that they were locally based. Although Michaels helped implement the policy at Clear Channel, it is not certain he originated it.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-michaels20dec20,1,524...
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