October 2008

To register youth, they're depending on technology's speed

With less than a week to sign up voters in many states, registration groups have revved up their efforts to target young people where they live: on their cellphones, computers and video games. It's the future of voter registration -- and it's working. Registration among voters younger than 30 has soared. Heather Smith, executive director of Rock the Vote, said her organization has registered 2.3 million voters in the last 15 months and expects to reach 2.5 million. That's more than twice as many people as the organization registered in 2004. The number of young people going to the polls has also increased in recent years. Turnout among people younger than 30 rose by 9% from 2000 to 2004, according to US Census data, more than double the increase of any other age group.

Need a tech-savvy president?

Do voters really expect the nation's chief executive to be computer-savvy? Does it matter if he is? As a practical matter, no. The number of "commissions and commissars and bureaus and agents and computer machines" surrounding the Oval Office has only increased since the publication of The Presidential Papers by Norman Mailer in 1963. Where FDR relied on "six anonymous assistants," the modern presidency boasts 125 offices and 5,000 employees. Tom Wolfe once described ordering aides around as the politician's ultimate power: "As soon as you see people jump when you raise your finger ... well, there's a great feeling of wholeness about that, apparently." Who would raise that finger to type — hunt and peck like a regular schnook — when he has 5,000 people to do it for him? Jump! Symbolically, though, our egalitarian era might demand a president as adept online as he is on The Hotline. By mocking McCain's computer illiteracy, Obama risks cries of "ageism" on the bet that Americans want their leaders to be like themselves, steeped in similar experiences, tethered (wirelessly) to reality. Ultimately, the numbers could be on McCain's side, even if the zeroes and ones are not. Census figures show that 64% of American voters cast ballots but that 72% of senior citizens do — and only a quarter of them use the Internet. Just imagine McCain's next TV ad, keyed to elderly populations and attacking Obama's digital-age fluency: "He fools around with computers — and annoys people with e-mails!" Savor the scorn! (James Rosen is a Fox News Washington correspondent)

News Flash: The Media Back Obama

[Commentary] The single constant in the eternal election remains the media, whose activist role no one will seriously dispute. To point out the prevailing (with honorable exceptions) double standard of reporting so favorable to Sen Barack Obama (D-IL) by now feels superfluous -- much like talking about the weather. The same holds true for all those reports pointing to Sen Obama's heroic status outside the United States -- not to mention the cascade of press analyses warning that if he fails to win election, the cause will surely be racism.

'SNL' wants laughs, not votes

Lorne Michaels, the executive producer of "Saturday Night Live," has a message for those convinced that the program's presidential campaign sketches have a secret political agenda. "You know, they're jokes," he said. "And when people are confronted with jokes, quite often they will over-think it." But as Michaels and his cast prepare to pull off six live shows in the next four weeks -- including three prime-time specials, beginning tonight -- "SNL's" creator doesn't hold out much hope that the show's political parodies will be viewed with equanimity. "You see it on a partisan level now, where people have no sense of humor about the other side," he said.

MoveOn Grows Up

MoveOn, the enfant terrible of online politicking, is growing up, turning 10 years old last month. And it has become far more than a purveyor of vituperative e-mail blasts. During the 2006 midterm elections, for instance, the online organization -- with a full-time staff of 23, most of whom work from home -- spent $28 million advocating for Democratic candidates through its political action committee, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. In contrast, the National Rifle Association, with a staff of about 500 housed in its expansive headquarters in Fairfax, spent $11 million through its PAC. As the battle between Obama and McCain heated up this summer, MoveOn witnessed its largest increase in membership -- adding a million new members in three months, bringing its total to 4.2 million.

Most portable TVs will be left behind in signal switch

In an era of dazzling battery-powered portable devices including iPods, computers and cellphones, it's hard to imagine what it's like to be unable to catch the news and entertainment anytime and anywhere we want. But millions of people who own portable televisions, including those who depend on them when they flee their homes or lose power during hurricanes and other emergencies, may soon return to the dark ages. Virtually all of the nation's 7 million battery-powered TVs receive analog signals. They'll become useless after Feb. 17, when broadcasters must abandon analog and just transmit digital signals -- unless the sets are connected to digital-to-analog converter boxes. The problem is, the vast majority of converters must be plugged into the wall. That makes them unreliable in an emergency. "Unfortunately, a lot of well-intentioned policymakers found out after the ink was dry that there were more (portable) devices and households affected" than they imagined, says Richard Doherty of The Envisioneering Group, a research and consulting firm. That's a "great irony" in the federally mandated move to digital TV, says Shannon Dunham, a communications specialist at law firm Sherman & Howard. Although the government "intended to reclaim the (analog) bandwidth for emergency use" -- including police, fire and medical communications— "in the end, they're going to affect people who get emergency information" from portable TVs.

NAB, NCTA Clash Over DTV Transition

The major cable and broadcast associations were firing salvos at each other Wednesday over the digital television transition, but with a subtext of ongoing rancor over the issue of issue of retransmission consent. Prompted by a Consumer Reports story criticizing the cable industry for moving channels from analog to digital without lowering the price for the analog tier, the National Association of Broadcasters suggested the Federal Communications Commission might need to investigate the industry. The magazine accused the cable industry of trying to use confusion about the DTV transition to boost cable bills. "The cable industry has been assuring cable customers that they won't be affected by the transition. Apparently that's not the case" it wrote. "If true, the Consumer Reports allegations raise disturbing questions about the cable industry that might be worthy of an FCC review." said National Association of Broadcasters spokesman Dennis Wharton.

The tech downturn: How long and how bad?

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Ron Conway sent a sobering e-mail Tuesday to the 130 start-up companies he's invested in: now is the time to hunker down. How bad those conditions will be and how long they'll last is anyone's guess. The CNET Technology Index, which tracks 66 publicly traded tech companies, dropped for the third straight day Wednesday to hit its lowest level in more than three years. Even the healthiest of companies are seeing their stocks being sold en masse. Google, for example, finished trading Wednesday down 2.28 percent to $338.11 per share; that's a new 52-week low and less than half the asking price for a Google share in November 2007. Bad news persists in the overall economy as well, despite continued attempts at government intervention. The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 indexes all continued to slide Wednesday; the Dow has now dropped 35 percent from its high a year ago.

Business, labor urge Bush to sign RIAA-backed copyright bill

With only five days left for President Bush to decide whether to sign into law a controversial copyright bill, business lobbyists and even the AFL-CIO are pushing for it to become law. Most bills to expand copyright law are bipartisan -- one aimed at file-swappers and prerelease movies in 2005 comes to mind -- and the so-called Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act is no exception. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) are the sponsors, and it enjoys the support of the Recording Industry Association of America. But the Pro-IP Act is unusual because the Bush administration threatened a veto last month. It's been subsequently amended, and the changes are likely to assuage the administration's concerns, but the U.S. Commerce Department told CNET News that it is still reviewing the revised language. While industries have been defensively adapting to a globalized economy and game-changing technologies, intellectual property holders are on the offense. The messages from companies like Procter & Gamble and NBC Universal are being carefully tailored to reveal the benefits of bolstering IP protections -- whether it's a promise to US politicians of more jobs, better products for consumers, or faster development for leaders abroad.

Obama, McCain spent $28 million on television advertising last week

Over the past week, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama and their campaigns have spent over $28 million on television advertising. From September 28 through October 4, the Obama campaign spent just under $17.5 million while the McCain campaign and the RNC spent just under $11 million combined. Compared to the first week of September (September 6-13) the amount of campaign advertising has nearly doubled, going from a total of $15.5 million to $28.3 million. During the similar week in 2004, the Bush and Kerry campaigns and their party and interest group allies spent just over $18 million dollars. Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin received over half the money spent by the two campaigns on television advertising. During the week, nearly 100 percent of the McCain campaign's advertisements were negative. During the same period, 34 percent of the Obama campaign's ads were negative. Comparing this presidential election to 2004, the research finds that both the McCain and Obama campaigns have aired more negative advertisements than did their counterparts. In all of 2004, 64 percent of the Bush campaign's ads were negative, while to date, 73 percent of McCain's ads have been negative. Similarly, 34 percent of all Kerry ads were negative while 61 percent of Obama's have been. The McCain campaign cut back on its television advertising in the days following McCain's announcement that he was suspending his campaign to focus on the economy. On September 24, his campaign aired 2,447 ads and on Sept. 25, it aired 1,304 ads. From September 26-28, McCain aired 302, 670, and 852 ads respectively. On September 29, the campaign returned to previous advertising levels, airing 2,687 ads.

Benton

Search