Sept 23, 2008 (Media Missing the Biggest Story of Our Time)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 23, 2008
Three events today: 1) a Senate DTV oversight hearing (see stories below), 2) the CPB board of directors, and 3) Watch What You Eat: Food Marketing to Kids. See http://benton.org/calendar
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
Self-Absorbed Media Missing the Biggest Story of Our Time
"It's the Economy, Stupid" Again
The media play the race card on Obama
How Presidential Advertising Is Like Auto Advertising
McCain camp attacks New York Times
Judge Says Part of Rather's Suit May Proceed
INTERNET/BROADBAND
More on Comcast's Broadband Throttle Plan
Rep Donna Edwards on Broadband
Adelstein: Better Broadband Strategy Needed
We Can't Afford To Miss This Opportunity To Wire Rural America
Why Broadband Matters: Senate Hearing Recap
Ofcom suggests broadband 'partnership'
BROADCASTING/CABLE
Senate to Hear Update on Switch to Digital TV
House Democrats Eye $20M for NTIA
Sen Sanders Concerned About DTV Transition
Capps Bill Would Postpone Analog Recovery
Baker: Stations Should Offer DTV Converter Boxes
Collegio Outlines NAB's DTV-Education Priorities
Rehr, McSlarrow Make Noise Over Quiet Period
Product placement on TV: too much, too little, or who cares?
MEDIA OWNERSHIP
Free Press to FCC: Deny South Bend Deal
QUICKLY -- 25 Receive $500,000 'Genius' Fellowships
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
SELF-ABSORBED MEDIA MISSING THE BIGGEST STORY OF OUR TIME
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Jonah Bloom]
[Commentary] In these past 18 months, we've heard endless punditry on politicians' personalities from people who seem to be even more divorced from the voting public than the politicians they cover. The marketing of the candidates, which used to be the domain of Advertising Age and company, has sometimes threatened to become the whole story. One badly made ad with no media budget is now talked up and analyzed as if it's headline news. Not once have I picked up a newspaper or turned on a broadcast to find a lengthy discussion of how America is going to educate and retrain its citizens to make them competitive in a digitized, globalized economy. Not once have I seen a thorough analysis of what exactly is going to replace the country's rapidly disappearing manufacturing sector. No one outside a handful of people in the business media had -- until last Monday -- given serious time to how we should handle the dissolution of the investment banks, one of the nation's leading wealth-creating institutions. Seems like important stuff, but it's been upstaged by a futile discussion of who said what about lipstick.
http://benton.org/node/17157
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"IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID" AGAIN
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Mark Jurkowitz]
For the week Sept 15-21, the frightening financial meltdown on Wall Street re-oriented the campaign and re-wrote the storyline. The crisis was not only the week's top story -- marking only the second time this year that an event other than the campaign emerged as the No. 1 topic of the week. It also raised the possibility that a major policy issue, the economy, might emerge as the decisive factor of the campaign. Last week, certainly, the financial crisis was the top theme in the election coverage itself, accounting for 43% of the campaign newshole. The week also may have marked the end of a distinct phase of the race—the Palin phase. As Obama and McCain scrambled to address the economic crisis, Palin -- who had dominated media attention since Aug. 29 -- receded from the headlines.
http://benton.org/node/17163
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THE MEDIA PLAY THE RACE CARD ON OBAMA
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jonah Goldberg]
[Commentary] The news media have been shamefully stoking the idea that the only way Barack Obama could possibly lose the presidential election is if American racists have their way. Indeed, the fact that Obama isn't leading in polls by a wide margin "doesn't make sense ... unless it's race," says CNN's Jack Cafferty. This spectacle is grotesque. It reveals how little the supposedly objective press corps thinks of the American people -- and how highly they think of themselves ... and Obama. If the media were more objective, we'd be hearing a lot more about the racism at the heart of the Democratic Party (imagine if the black nominee this year were a Republican!). But such objectivity would cause too much cognitive dissonance for a press corps that defines "racist" as shorthand for Republican and sees itself as the publicity arm of the Obama campaign.
http://benton.org/node/17162
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HOW PRESIDENTIAL ADVERTISING IS LIKE AUTO ADVERTISING
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Vinny Minchillo]
The thought process behind buying a car is the same one consumers use at the polls: Both decisions come with a commitment of two, four or six years; Potential customers are engaged for a short period of time; People actually do their homework before committing; People want us to believe they decide based on facts, when it's really an emotional decision; and There's plenty of negative advertising. Whether advertising political candidates or cars, it's absolutely critical to make sure potential customers/voters make a connection to the brand that is both logical and emotional. That's why shopping for a new congressman or a new BMW is almost the exact same process.
http://benton.org/node/17156
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MCCAIN CAMP ATTACKS NEW YORK TIMES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sam Youngman]
Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Monday that The New York Times is "completely, totally, 150 percent in the tank" for Democratic nominee Barack Obama. At issue was an article about McCain campaign manager Rick Davis's time lobbying for an organization that carried the banner for recent bailed out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
http://benton.org/node/17155
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JUDGE SAYS PART OF RATHER'S SUIT MAY PROCEED
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Michele Greppi]
Days away from election '08, some lingering issues from 2004 are still being settled. New York Supreme Court Justice Ira Gammerman ruled Monday that former "CBS Evening News" anchor Dan Rather can continue with his $70 million breach-of-contract suit against CBS, but he cannot sue Viacom, CBS' former parent company. CBS had filed a motion to dismiss the suit altogether.Rather stepped down from "Evening News" and later left CBS News altogether in the wake of his 2004 report about President George W. Bush's Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard. An investigation led by outsiders found that the report was flawed but not overtly politically motivated. Rather, now working for HDNet, filed his suit in September 2007 claiming he had been made a scapegoat.
http://benton.org/node/17154
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
COMCAST SPELLS OUT HOW IT WILL CURB INTERNET HOGS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Todd Spangler]
Comcast will use equipment from Sandvine, Camiant and a third yet-to-be-determined vendor to temporarily throttle back the speeds of the heaviest Internet users during times of network congestion, the operator disclosed in regulatory filings. Public Knowledge asks, "Why ... does Comcast need both its real-time network management system and the 250 GB monthly cap on consumer usage? Will consumers end up paying more for less bandwidth to use? Is it fair to consumers to punish them based on usage lower than the advertised speed? Is it a problem to punish a consumer now for what transpired on the network 15 minutes ago, even if a customer not contributing to congestion at the moment? Will there be anticompetitive aspects to limiting consumer use of video over the Internet, but not on the Comcast cable network?"
http://benton.org/node/17153
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POLITICIANS PUSH FOR NETWORK NEUTRALITY, BROADBAND POLICY
[SOURCE: The Industry Standard, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
Rep Donna Edwards (D-MD) said the US needs to adopt a comprehensive broadband policy to bring connections to many areas of the country that don't yet have them. Rep Edwards said she does not have access to broadband service in her Fort Washington, Maryland, home. Rep Edwards hasn't used her home dial-up connection for months, she said during a OneWebDay event in Washington. "It's too much of a pain," she said. "It's too cumbersome. All of the data, all of the information that really I most want, you can't just handle on dial-up." In addition, an elementary school near Edwards' house has limited access to the Internet, she said. The students "really should be engaged on the Internet for information, for resources, for research, but they can't be because they're in an old school with old wiring that's not really equipped to handle today's technology," she said. Without broadband those students will be "left farther and farther behind," Rep Edwards added. Many areas don't have broadband despite government reports saying about 99 percent of U.S. postal codes have broadband service, she said.
http://benton.org/node/17152
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ADELSTEIN: BETTER BROADBAND STRATEGY NEEDED
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
Federal Communications Commission member Jonathan Adelstein used One Web Day, an annual global celebration of the Internet's impact on society, to press for a more prominent national broadband strategy. "Contrary to some views, I believe broadband penetration does matter -- we need to tap all our resources," he said. Broadband is slower and more expensive in the US than it is in the countries with which we compete internationally and "consistently, the data tells us something is wrong," he said. Adelstein added that even if the country was #1 by all measures, "we [would] still need to press in a public/private effort to stay on top, as technology evolves."
http://benton.org/node/17151
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WE CAN'T AFFORD TO MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY TO WIRE RURAL AMERICA
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
[Commentary] In the discussion about government buying bad mortgages to stabilize markets there's been talk about the need for these policies to also address America's infrastructure needs. As we all know, fiber optic networks are the most important and impactful infrastructure of the 21st century. Those countries that get a fiber strand laid to every building are best positioned to drive economic development, find new efficiencies, and open up opportunities to improve all parts of society. As we also know, for around $100-150 billion we could lay that fiber cable to every home in America. We should take $10-50 billion of the hundreds of billions and even trillions that we're using to buy bad debt from and save financial institutions into a fund to wire every rural community in America with a full fiber network.
http://benton.org/node/17150
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WHY BROADBAND MATTERS: THE EXCITEMENT/DISAPPOINTMENT OF MY FIRST SENATE HEARING
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
[Commentary] Last week, Daily attended a Senate hearing in person for the first time. But out of the 23 Senators on the Commerce committee holding this hearing there were only three in attendance: committee chairman Sen. Inouye, Sen. McCaskill, and the infamous Sen. Stevens (aka Mr. Tubes). Over the course of the hearing three other Senators showed up but by the end there was only Chairman Inouye. But the Chairman made the most of the opportunity.
http://benton.org/node/17149
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OFCOM SUGGESTS BROADBAND 'PARTNERSHIP'
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Rob Minto]
A "partnership approach" between the state and telecoms companies is required to supply the UK with the next generation of super-fast broadband, according to Ofcom, the UK telecoms regulator. In a consultation paper, Ofcom noted that it was "highly unlikely that the private sector will deliver truly national coverage" and suggested that the government look at geographic areas that are identified as remaining under-served in the future, and play a part in the coordination of the rollout. Upgrading to the next generation of broadband access mainly involves replacing copper wire with fibre-optic cabling, either to street cabinets or to the home. This will increase download speeds to 50-100 megabytes per second, compared with the current rates of 8-24 mbps. The report also highlighted the use of alternatives to fibre, including wireless technologies such as WiMAX and LTE, suggesting that these technologies may be used for remote and rural locations.
http://benton.org/node/17159
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BROADCASTING/CABLE
SENATE TO HEAR UPDATE ON SWITCH TO DIGITAL TV
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Roy Furchgott]
The Senate Commerce Committee plans to review a Government Accountability Office report questioning the ability of a federal agency, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, to manage its part of the digital television transition. The agency oversees the distribution of discount coupons for the converter boxes, which make it possible for older TVs to receive over-the-air digital signals. A test in Wilmington, N.C., of the coming nationwide switch of over-the-air TV signals to digital from analog went well, but some politicians are worried that the rest of the country's transition will not go as smoothly and that many people will find themselves with no TV signal. Kevin J. Martin, the Federal Communications Commission chairman, is scheduled to appear at the hearing. In a statement to the House committee, he said, that "with the national transition about five months away, much remains to be done."
http://benton.org/node/17161
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HOUSE DEMOCRATS EYE $20 MILLION FOR NTIA
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
According to a draft of a continuing resolution that would fund the federal government through March 6, House Democrats are looking to give the National Telecommunications and Information Administration an additional $20 million to mail out digital-TV-to-analog converter-box coupons. The NTIA asked for an additional $7 million, with the option of going back for more if it needed it.
http://benton.org/node/17160
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SEN SANDERS CONCERNED ABOUT DTV TRANSITION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Sen Bernard Sanders (I-VT) wrote Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin to register his strong concern about the digital-TV transition, using terms like "failed" and "extremely dangerous" to make his points. His letter came one day before he and others on the Senate Commerce Committee will hear from Chairman Martin and other DTV stakeholders about the pace of the transition and the lessons from the Wilmington (NC) early analog-cutoff test. Sen Sanders charged that the government-industry DTV-education campaign failed to inform viewers they may need new antennas to get DTV and inaccurately downplayed the likelihood of needed modifications to antennas.
http://benton.org/node/17148
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CAPPS BILL WOULD POSTPONE ANALOG RECOVERY
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Apparently Rep Lois Capps (D-CA) is preparing to introduce a bill, the Short-term Analog Flash and Emergency Readiness Act (SAFER ACT), that would postpone the federal government's recovery of all analog TV spectrum on Feb 17, 2009 and require the Federal Communications Commission to develop a market-by-market plan to make analog TV service available until March 3, 2009. The bill would give the FCC latitude to require at least one analog TV station per-market to stay on the air for an additional two weeks. In some cases, the FCC could allow one powerful analog TV station to serve two adjacent markets. The FCC's program, to be drafted no later than Jan.15, 2009, would ensure that the analog station transmitted emergency information as well information about the digital TV transition. Rep Capps, whose district is 41% Hispanic, would mandate DTV transition information be broadcast in both English and Spanish. Cable operators would not be required to carry the analog stations under Capps' bill.
http://benton.org/node/17147
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BAKER: STATIONS SHOULD OFFER DTV CONVERTER BOXES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Acting National Telecommunications and Information Administration head Meredith Attwell Baker suggests that broadcasters consider stocking digital-TV-to-analog converter boxes themselves and be ready to give them out free-of-charge to viewers who need them as a "stopgap measure" for over-the air viewers. She pointed out that broadcasters could put their station logos on the boxes, which would allow them to build brand awareness while they were helping out. She said broadcasters should also make a point of including their own station phone numbers on DTV-education messages online and on-air to make sure they are a local point of contact for viewers who need help with reception or connection issues.
http://benton.org/node/17146
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COLLEGIO OUTLINES NAB'S DTV-EDUCATION PRIORITIES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Jonathan Collegio, the National Association of Broadcasters' point person on the digital-TV transition, said Monday that the DTV education message's priorities are general awareness of the transition, awareness of the Feb. 17, 2009, date, and getting viewers to set up their converter boxes early rather than waiting until the last minute. Asked whether the DTV messages needed to be more specific to issues like setting up the boxes or scanning for new channels, he said it would be tough to do in a 30-second spot, but TV stations were doing hard news stories on the transition, suggesting that the longer format was a better place for that more specific information.
http://benton.org/node/17145
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REHR, MCSLARROW MAKE NOISE OVER QUIET PERIOD
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
National Association of Broadcasters President David Rehr and National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Kyle McSlarrow played dueling banjos at the Association for Maximum Service Television's (MSTV) annual TV conference. The topic this time is those retransmission agreements that allow cable subscribers to see local broadcast TV stations. Apparently the Federal Communications Commission is working on a plan to seek public comment on the cable industry's so-called quiet period that would ban TV stations from pulling their signals from cable systems during the period before and after the Feb 17, 2009, digital TV transition.
http://benton.org/node/17144
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PRODUCT PLACEMENT ON TV: TOO MUCH, TOO LITTLE, OR WHO CARES?
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
While Nielsen research indicates that product placement advertising is thriving on television, various groups are offering the Federal Communications Commission very different perspectives on what to do about the problem, assuming they think there is one. A self-described "alcohol industry watchdog" wants a crackdown on embedded ads for booze. A think tank says drop the issue altogether. Public TV just wants to be kept out of the rule-making loop. There is lots of research on product placement awareness. Some suggests that some TV viewers, especially adolescents and teens, are quite aware of embedded ads and think that they affect others more than them. Kids in these age ranges are pretty media-savvy these days, optimists will argue, and know that they're a sought-after market. On the other hand, as one FCC Commissioner often points out, preadolescent children are far less able to distinguish between commercial and noncommercial fare.
http://benton.org/node/17143
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MEDIA OWNERSHIP
FREE PRESS TO FCC: DENY SOUTH BEND DEAL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Free Press asked the Federal Communications Commission to deny Schurz Communications' purchase of a trio of low-power TV stations in South Bend (IN). Filing the petition for Free Press, Media Access Project argued that allowing one company to own four of the six network-TV affiliates (though only two of the Big Four), two radio stations and the only daily newspaper in the market was not in the public interest. Schurz countered that it provided all of the information the FCC requires and that its history in similar purchases has been to improve the public service on the stations it acquires. According to Free Press research director S. Derek Turner, Schurz already owns WSBT-TV, the full-power CBS affiliate; the South Bend Tribune, the only daily newspaper, which Schurz owns via a grandfathered broadcast/newspaper combination; WSBT (AM), the only news-radio station; and WNSN-FM. Adding the Weigel Broadcasting stations would expand that portfolio by WBND-LP, the ABC affiliate; WCCW-LP, The CW affiliate; and WMTS-LP, the MyNetworkTV affiliate. With that lineup, MAP added, "Schurz alone will control 81% of the revenue in the South Bend news market ... [Schurz] does not claim, much less establish, that any of the involved stations are failing, that they are experiencing financial distress, that it will be adding significant amounts of new local news, or that the Schurz properties will exercise independent news judgments. Thus, it meets none of the criteria that a majority of the commission recently said would be necessary to rebut a presumption against cross-ownership in medium-sized or smaller markets."
http://benton.org/node/17142
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QUICKLY
25 RECEIVE $500,000 'GENIUS' FELLOWSHIPS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Patricia Cohen]
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced the 25 recipients of the $500,000 "genius awards." Candidates in every conceivable field are eligible, though the largest cluster of awards this year went to scientists (13), with those in the arts (8) a close second. As always, there are a few idiosyncratic careers in the mix, including that of an engineer and architectural historian who studies and preserves ancient bridges and other structures. The foundation's president, Jonathan F. Fanton, said the description that best characterizes this year's class of winners was "people working on the very edge of discovery and people at the edge of a new synthesis." The recipients, who must be citizens or residents of the United States, join 756 who have been named fellows since 1981. Each gets $100,000 a year for five years, with no strings attached.
http://benton.org/node/17158
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