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December 2008

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Thursday, December 11 - 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
1250 Eye Street, NW, Suite 200, Room 2
Washington, DC 20005

There is perhaps no telecommunications policy issue as contentious, or as poorly understood, as the issue of broadband network management. At the most basic level this issue boils down to a technical one: do modern broadband networks need to be "managed" by ISPs, or will big "dumb" pipes suffice in ensuring a high quality broadband experience?

Unfortunately, to date this debate has been little informed by knowledge of exactly how advanced networks and the different types of applications that run on them work. In a new report, "," ITIF Senior Analyst George Ou explains how advanced networks actually work and documents how, if ISPs are to provide customers a good Internet service and operate their networks efficiently, they must be able to allocate bandwidth between users and apply network management tools to shape traffic from multiple applications. However, Ou argues that ISPs can and should do this in a fair and non-discriminatory manner.

Unfortunately, these solutions have come under heavy criticism from many advocates of net neutrality who long for the idealized golden days of the early "dumb" Internet that, in fact, never was. They fear that using efficient network management techniques may enable the network operators to abuse their power, stifling free speech and civic expression and erecting unfair barriers to new market entrants. Moreover, some net neutrality proponents fear that any improvement in the efficiency of the Internet will eliminate the motivation of ISPs to build bigger pipes. However, many if not most of these fears stem from a lack of understanding of the history of the Internet, the economics of the ISP industry, and the science of network engineering.

RSVP http://www.itif.org/rsvp/event.php?id=1


The Alliance for Public Technology & The National Consumers League
Thursday, December 4, 2008
2203 Rayburn House Office Building
12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Welcome
Karyne Jones
President and CEO, National Caucus and Center on Black Aged, Inc.
Program Chair, Alliance for Public Technology

Presenters:

Sally Greenberg
Executive Director, National Consumers League

Nancy Reid
1st Place Winner, Broadband Changed My Life! Contest

Kenneth R. Peres, Ph.D.
Communications Workers of America
President, Alliance for Public Technology

Moderator
Joy Howell
Director, APT's Broadband Changed My Life!TM Campaign

RSVP: http://ga3.org/apt/events/hillevent120408/details.tcl

The Alliance for Public Technology (APT) is a nonprofit membership organization based in Washington, D.C., which was founded in 1989 to foster public policies that ensure access to advanced telecommunications technologies for all Americans. APT is the leading consumer group focused exclusively on broadband and advanced telecommunications technologies. APT can be found online at www.apt.org. APT's "Broadband Changed My Life!" campaign is a nationwide initiative to raise awareness of the life enhancing benefits of broadband technologies and services. The purpose of the contest was to highlight individuals willing to share their story about how broadband has made a profound difference in their lives.

The National Consumers League (NCL) is a private, nonprofit advocacy group representing consumers on marketplace and workplace issues. Founded in 1899, it is the nation's oldest consumer organization. NCL's mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. It provides government, businesses, and other organizations with the consumer's perspective on concerns including child labor, privacy, food safety, and medication information. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.


Dec 2, 2008 (A National Broadband Strategy Call to Action)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY DEC 2, 2008

A National Broadband Strategy Call to Action http://www.newamerica.net/events/2008/national_broadband_strategy_call_a... and http://broadbandcensus.com/blog/?p=1098


THE TRANSITION
   A Broadband Action Plan for America
   Look to the Internet to fight poverty
   USF problems snowball toward 2009
   Challenges await Obama in bid to build up security
   GAO Poses High-Tech Confirmation Questions
   Toward a 21st century government

HEALTH & MEDIA
   Too Much Media Makes the Baby Go Bad
   "NewsHour" receives grant for world health reports

FCC NEWS
   Martin May Close Analog Loophole, Fine Providers For Lack Of DTV Education
   FCC Still Pondering Next Leased Access Moves
   Regulators hang up on cell tower backup rules
   Time Warner Appeals FCC's MASN Ruling

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Get Ready to Pay More for the Web
   Clearwire may slow WiMax build to cut funding gap
   Massachusetts Passes Security Law
   Online shoppers bring to the hunt a lot of baggage from retailers
   Carlyle's Bet on Telecom in Hawaii Ends Badly

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   EFF to court: Don't shield telecoms from illegal-spying suits
   A Premier With a Hand in TV News Sues His Journalist Critics

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THE TRANSITION


A BROADBAND ACTION PLAN FOR AMERICA
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Charles Benton]
[Commentary] In a visionary blueprint for the use of technology and innovation, the Benton Foundation proposes that President-Elect Barack Obama take immediate action to connect the nation to broadband, which will unleash billions of dollars in economic development, create over a million jobs, enhance America's global competitiveness, deliver superior health care and education, reduce energy consumption and environmental degradation, improve public safety and homeland security, and reinvigorate democracy. An Action Plan for America: Using Technology and Innovation to Address Our Nation's Critical Challenges offers a draft Executive Order to implement the America COMPETES Act, legislation which Sen. Obama co-sponsored. Specifically, the Benton Foundation calls on President-Elect Obama to take immediate action to establish a Presidential Council on innovation and competitiveness, a provision of the law he helped perfect, but that has been swept under the rug by President Bush. By adopting a bold and imaginative action plan on Day One to connect all of our citizens to robust and affordable broadband, President Obama will enable America to catch up to and surpass our global competitors on broadband, while at the same time utilizing technology and innovation to address our nation's critical challenges. The President will deliver to all our citizens the opportunity they seek for their children and themselves: to reach for the American Dream in the Digital Age.
http://benton.org/node/19407
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LOOK TO THE INTERNET TO FIGHT POVERTY
[SOURCE: Boston Globe, AUTHOR: Elaine Kamarck]
[Commentary] In the past decade, information technology has begun to transform anti-poverty efforts and bring to the poverty world some of the increases in productivity that have been common in the private sector. If President-elect Obama can expand on this, the chances for him to make good on a broad social justice agenda will increase in spite of the other challenges he faces. In the past two decades, electronic database and Internet technologies have driven down the cost of government overhead while significantly elevating the productivity of the nation's anti-poverty programs. Fraud has been reduced while the needs of the economically distressed are addressed in a more timely manner. This has freed up money for other pressing anti-poverty needs. Internet innovation has transformed business, entertainment, and even government. In an Obama administration, it can transform approaches to poverty at home and abroad. The government's efforts should be focused on expanding access to Internet and other technologies for as many Americans as possible while continuing to develop our national broadband capacity.
http://benton.org/node/19414
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USF PROBLEMS SNOWBALL TOWARD 2009
[SOURCE: FierceTelecom, AUTHOR: Dan O'Shea]
Universal Service Fund reform is looking like an even bigger issue for the next iteration of the Federal Communications Commission to deal with, along with a White House administration and Congress that already seem poised to make telecom issues a high priority. It is not known yet who the next FCC chairman will be, but all the candidates for that job would do well to read up on the troubled 12-year history of the USF.
http://benton.org/node/19413
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CHALLENGES AWAIT OBAMA IN TO BUILD UP SECURITY
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Jaikumar Vijayan]
As President-elect Barack Obama prepares to take office, the task of upgrading the security of federal computer systems continues to be a work in progress. Several cybersecurity initiatives launched during the Bush administration are still years away from being completed. Others are closer to completion but don't do enough by themselves to defend networks and systems against increasingly sophisticated attacks, according to IT security analysts. And, they said, resolving the security issues will require Obama to focus on more than just finishing the ongoing initiatives.
http://benton.org/node/19412
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GAO POSES HIGH-TECH CONFIRMATION QUESTIONS
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
A new report from the Government Accountability Office for new political appointees facing Senate confirmation includes these questions: 1) Based on your experience, please explain the role technology should play in your agency to support mission needs. What measures would you implement to show the effect technology has in meeting these needs? 2) How would you determine whether your agency has in place the key information management processes and tools required by law, including well-defined enterprise architecture, an investment control process, and computer security plans? What role do you envision you would play in managing or providing oversight over these processes and tools? How would you go about implementing or improving these processes and tools? 3) Based on your experience, how would you go about assessing your core mission and business processes to identify opportunities for reengineering and for the enhanced use of technology? What challenges do you believe your agency may face in reengineering your processes and using technology? In using e-government? In hiring and retaining qualified IT professionals? 4) Every year, the Office of Management and Budget and agencies identify IT projects totaling billions of dollars as being poorly planned and poorly performing. Despite agencies' efforts to address management weaknesses, the numbers remain high. What do you believe are key practices for effective IT project planning, management, and oversight?
http://benton.org/node/19426
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TOWARD A 21ST CENTURY GOVERNMENT
[SOURCE: Office of the President-Elect, AUTHOR: ]
President-elect Obama has championed the creation of a more open, transparent, and participatory government. To that end, Change.gov adopted a new copyright policy this weekend. In an effort to create a vibrant and open public conversation about the Obama-Biden Transition Project, all website content now falls under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Change.gov has incorporated additional features designed to make the Transition more accessible and its content more open and re-useable. For every video posted - from the weekly addresses, to press conferences, to speeches, to "Inside the Transition" pieces - there are links to high-resolution QuickTime video files beneath embedded videos (these are also available via the Transition's podcast), so that the video can be saved to a computer and edited at will. The Obama-Biden Transition Team is continuing to explore ways to use new media to create a more transparent Transition. This is part of an ongoing planning process to create a 21st century government that is more transparent, participatory, and effective.
http://benton.org/node/19425
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HEALTH & MEDIA


TOO MUCH MEDIA MAKES THE BABY GO BAD
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Donna St George]
In a detailed look at nearly 30 years of research on how television, music, movies and other media affect the lives of children and adolescents, a new study released today found an array of negative health effects linked to greater use. The report found strong connections between media exposure and problems of childhood obesity and tobacco use. Nearly as strong was the link to early sexual behavior. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Yale University said they were surprised that so many studies pointed in the same direction. In all, 173 research efforts, going back to 1980, were analyzed, rated and brought together in what the researchers said was the first comprehensive view of the topic. About 80 percent of the studies showed a link between a negative health outcome and media hours or content. The average modern child spends nearly 45 hours a week with television, movies, magazines, music, the Internet, cellphones and video games, the study reported. By comparison, children spend 17 hours a week with their parents on average and 30 hours a week in school, the study said.
http://benton.org/node/19424
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"NEWSHOUR" RECEIVES GRANT FOR WORLD HEALTH REPORTS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: ]
PBS' "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" will add a production unit to focus on global health issues in the developing world. The three-year, $3.5 million grant is being funded through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Forty to fifty documentary reports on issues like HIV/AIDS, measles and tuberculosis in the developing world will air on the TV program, as well as digitally. There's also an outreach component to the grant. The Gates grant joins a similar grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for "The NewsHour" to report on domestic health issues.
http://benton.org/node/19417
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FCC NEWS


MARTIN MAY CLOSE ANALOG LOOPHOLE, FINE PROVIDERS FOR LACK OF DTV EDUCATION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is expected to hold a press conference on Wednesday to outline the agenda for his second-to-last meeting on Dec 18. He may try to close the so-called analog loophole, create a digital translator service to help fill in analog coverage gaps, and has some fines teed up against multichannel video providers -- cable and telco, and maybe satellite, for failure to provide sufficient DTV education information.
http://benton.org/node/19411
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FCC STILL PONDERING NEXT LEASED ACCESS MOVES
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin hasn't decided whether he will try to revive cable leased access rules in the few days he has remaining as chairman, according to a recent FCC court filing. A federal appeals court in Cincinnati and the Bush administration's Office of Management and Budget have blocked the FCC from enforcing the cable regulations, designed to help programmers who pay to get on cable systems. The FCC, however, can override OMB's objections. The FCC's filing on Nov. 26 notified the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Six Circuit that the agency had not come to any conclusion about how to proceed on a request by the United Church of Christ (UCC) to overturn OMB and adjust the rates cable operators can charge leased access programmers.
http://benton.org/node/19410
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REGULATORS HANG UP ON CELL TOWER BACKUP RULES
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
The White House Office of Management and Budget has rejected proposed changes by the Federal Communications Commission that would require all cell phone towers to have at least eight hours of backup power. OMB ruled that the FCC failed to get public comment before passing the regulations last year and didn't show that the information required from wireless companies would actually be useful. It also said the FCC hadn't demonstrated that it had enough staff to analyze the hundreds of thousands of pages of documents that the wireless industry said its members would likely have to produce as part of the regulations. A federal appeals court put the rules on hold this summer pending a review by the OMB, which is tasked with overseeing federal regulations. FCC officials said they were considering their options, which could include changing the proposed regulations or voting to override the OMB's decision. The court would still have to rule before any regulations went into effect.
http://benton.org/node/19418
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TIME WARNER APPEALS FCC'S MASN RULING
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Time Warner Cable is asking the five members of the Federal Communications Commission to nullify a staff order that required the cable company to widely distribute a Washington-Baltimore regional sports network to hundreds of thousands of North Carolina cable subscribers. The cable company filed its appeal on Nov. 26, attempting to nullify a staff ruling that mandated carriage of Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN), the pay-TV home of the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals baseball clubs. MASN also airs 200 NCAA basketball games, including 30 contests that include North Carolina schools, MASN spokesman Todd Webster said. Time Warner's appeal was filed under seal. A public version is expected to be available with a few days.
http://benton.org/node/19416
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INTERNET/BROADBAND


GET READY TO PAY MORE FOR THE WEB
[SOURCE: SmartMoney, AUTHOR: Stacey Bradford]
If some Internet service providers get their way, the meter could be running while you're shopping, emailing or reading news reports. That's because cable and telecommunications companies are forging ahead with plans to radically change their familiar flat-rate monthly Internet plans ­ even as new options for watching movies and TV online proliferate. What should web surfers expect? "Usage caps" that would penalize those who send and receive too much data. Caps are set by price between 5 and 40 gigabytes. To put the caps in perspective, purchasing and downloading the movie "Wall-E" from iTunes would use up over one gigabyte alone. Working through the first season of TV's "Mad Men"? In total, those episodes would consume nearly seven gigabytes.
http://benton.org/node/19409
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CLEARWIRE MAY SLOW WIMAX BUILD TO CUT FUNDING GAP
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Sinead Carew]
Clearwire may build its high-speed WiMax wireless network more slowly than originally planned if credit markets do not improve by early 2010, Chief Executive Benjamin Wolff said. Clearwire said in May it planned a network that reaches about 140 million people by the end of 2010 using WiMax, an emerging technology that promises to blanket entire cities with high-speed wireless Internet services. But Wolff believes the company is more than two years ahead of rivals in building next generation wireless services and consequently could afford to slow down its network plan if necessary. The company will reveal more about how it plans to proceed after its first board meeting in January. Clearwire's bigger rivals AT&T Inc and Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group expect to have rival high-speed services starting around 2010. Clearwire's Wolff said the company aims to upgrade the its existing wireless service in 46 markets to WiMax by the end of 2009 but that some of those markets could slip into 2010 if the company does not receive required permits on time.
http://benton.org/node/19408
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MASSACHUSETTS PASSES SECURITY LAW
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Linda Haugsted]
Telecommunications providers in Massachusetts will be grappling with a new data security law that legal experts indicate is among the most forward-looking in the nation. The state law requires businesses that "own, license, store or maintain personal information" on customers to encrypt that data, especially on portable devices such as laptops. That responsibility is extended from the primary business to contractors, such as telemarketing firms, and it extends to transmissions on wireless devices such as BlackBerries. "This law is very ahead of the curve," said Miriam Wugmeister, a partner with Morrison Foerster, a law firm that tracks trends in data security law. Currently, the law takes the view that companies had wide leeway to collect data — such as Social Security numbers, driver's licenses and financial account numbers — as long as it did not cause overt harm to the consumers. The Massachusetts law is reflective of European law, which places more restrictions on data collection. The legislation is not unlike rules that now govern the way hospitals protect and contain the release of patient information, Wugmeister said.
http://benton.org/node/19421
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ONLINE SHOPPERS BRING TO THE HUNT A LOT OF BAGGAGE FROM RETAILERS
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Deborah Gage]
People who shop online share lots of information about themselves, even when they're not buying anything, said Jules Polonetsky, the former chief privacy officer at AOL who now heads the Future of Privacy Forum. "Simply visiting a Web site leads to an explosion of data to dozens of other companies," he said. "You (may) think you're shopping alone when you sit there at home, (but) you've got as many folks along with you as if you were in a crowd at the mall." Here are some of the things that Web sites can know about you when you land: Which search term you used to get there, what Web site you came from and other purchases you've made, whether you bought online or in a physical store. None of these things leads to identity theft or phishing, he said, because the data is anonymized so it can't be used to identify you personally. But it does mean that "companies are making decisions about what they show you all over the Internet." If you'd like to be more in control of what information you're sharing, the forum is offering help in honor of the holiday shopping season. One tip is to consider using different online services for e-mail and searching so your search history and your e-mail identity can't be linked.
http://benton.org/node/19420
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CARLYLE'S BET ON TELECOM IN HAWAII ENDS BADLY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Peter Lattman]
Hawaiian Telcom Communications filed for bankruptcy protection Monday, a black eye for buyout firm Carlyle Group and another blow to the reeling world of private-equity investing. Carlyle bought Hawaii's largest telephone carrier from Verizon in 2005 for $1.6 billion, putting up $425 million in equity and using debt to finance the rest. Carlyle stocked the board with a team of telecom experts, including William Kennard, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and former Nextel Chief Executive Daniel Akerson. But the private-equity firm faced problems from the start. State utility regulators delayed the deal's closing. And billing and customer-service issues plagued Hawaiian Telcom as it created back-office systems from scratch. That spurred customers to drop service for wireless and cable providers.
http://benton.org/node/19419
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS


EFF TO COURT: DON'T SHIELD TELECOM FROM ILLEGAL-SPYING SUITS
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Greg Sandoval]
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group for Internet users, is expected to argue in court on Tuesday that it's unconstitutional to prevent Americans from suing the telecom companies that allegedly helped the federal government unlawfully spy on them. The FISA Amendments Act (FAA) gives telecommunications companies retroactive immunity for opening their networks to the National Security Agency. The telecoms can walk away from lawsuits as long as the government claims the request was "lawful" and authorized by the president. Before the law was passed, EFF had brought a lawsuit against AT&T that is before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. "The flawed (statute) improperly attempts to take away Americans' claims arising out of the First and Fourth Amendments," EFF wrote on its Web site. "(The law) violates the federal government's separation of powers as established in the Constitution, and robs innocent telecom customers of their rights without due process of law." Opponents have said that the law is an endorsement by both major political parties of illegal surveillance conducted by the Bush administration. Among the senators who supported the law was President-elect Barack Obama.
http://benton.org/node/19422
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A PREMIER WITH A HAND IN TV NEWS SUES HIS JOURNALIST CRITICS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Rachel Donadio]
Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi governs with a solid majority, oversees RAI, the state broadcaster, and owns the country's leading private television networks. So why, with all those means at his disposal, does the prime minister continue to respond to his journalist critics not on television or in the press but instead with lawsuits? In recent years, Mr. Berlusconi has sued the magazine The Economist for writing that he was not "fit to run Italy" and the British journalist David Lane for his 2004 book, "Berlusconi's Shadow," which explored the origins of his fortune and noted that some of his associates had been investigated for Mafia ties. Mr. Berlusconi lost those cases in lower court and either has appealed them or still has the possibility of doing so. Now, he has set his sights on Alexander Stille, America's best-known Italianist and one of the prime minister's most vocal Anglophone critics. A lower court in Milan is expected to rule on Tuesday in a defamation case filed against Mr. Stille by a close associate of Mr. Berlusconi. Berlusconi is not alone in suing reporters. In Italy — where journalists often play fast and loose with the facts and the legal system is devised to protect personal honor — politicians, magistrates and public figures sue journalists so often that the Italian National Press Federation has a "solidarity fund" to help with legal fees and damages.
http://benton.org/node/19423
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A Broadband Action Plan for America

[Commentary] In a visionary blueprint for the use of technology and innovation, the Benton Foundation proposes that President-Elect Barack Obama take immediate action to connect the nation to broadband, which will unleash billions of dollars in economic development, create over a million jobs, enhance America's global competitiveness, deliver superior health care and education, reduce energy consumption and environmental degradation, improve public safety and homeland security, and reinvigorate democracy. An Action Plan for America: Using Technology and Innovation to Address Our Nation's Critical Challenges offers a draft Executive Order to implement the America COMPETES Act, legislation which Sen. Obama co-sponsored. Specifically, the Benton Foundation calls on President-Elect Obama to take immediate action to establish a Presidential Council on innovation and competitiveness, a provision of the law he helped perfect, but that has been swept under the rug by President Bush. By adopting a bold and imaginative action plan on Day One to connect all of our citizens to robust and affordable broadband, President Obama will enable America to catch up to and surpass our global competitors on broadband, while at the same time utilizing technology and innovation to address our nation's critical challenges. The President will deliver to all our citizens the opportunity they seek for their children and themselves: to reach for the American Dream in the Digital Age.

GAO Poses High-Tech Confirmation Questions

A new report from the Government Accountability Office for new political appointees facing Senate confirmation includes these questions:

1) Based on your experience, please explain the role technology should play in your agency to support mission needs. What measures would you implement to show the effect technology has in meeting these needs?

2) How would you determine whether your agency has in place the key information management processes and tools required by law, including well-defined enterprise architecture, an investment control process, and computer security plans? What role do you envision you would play in managing or providing oversight over these processes and tools? How would you go about implementing or improving these processes and tools?

3) Based on your experience, how would you go about assessing your core mission and business processes to identify opportunities for reengineering and for the enhanced use of technology? What challenges do you believe your agency may face in reengineering your processes and using technology? In using e-government? In hiring and retaining qualified IT professionals?

4) Every year, the Office of Management and Budget and agencies identify IT projects totaling billions of dollars as being poorly planned and poorly performing. Despite agencies' efforts to address management weaknesses, the numbers remain high. What do you believe are key practices for effective IT project planning, management, and oversight?

Toward a 21st century government

President-elect Obama has championed the creation of a more open, transparent, and participatory government. To that end, Change.gov adopted a new copyright policy this weekend. In an effort to create a vibrant and open public conversation about the Obama-Biden Transition Project, all website content now falls under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Change.gov has incorporated additional features designed to make the Transition more accessible and its content more open and re-useable. For every video posted - from the weekly addresses, to press conferences, to speeches, to "Inside the Transition" pieces - there are links to high-resolution QuickTime video files beneath embedded videos (these are also available via the Transition's podcast), so that the video can be saved to a computer and edited at will. The Obama-Biden Transition Team is continuing to explore ways to use new media to create a more transparent Transition. This is part of an ongoing planning process to create a 21st century government that is more transparent, participatory, and effective.

Too Much Media Makes the Baby Go Bad

In a detailed look at nearly 30 years of research on how television, music, movies and other media affect the lives of children and adolescents, a new study released today found an array of negative health effects linked to greater use. The report found strong connections between media exposure and problems of childhood obesity and tobacco use. Nearly as strong was the link to early sexual behavior. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Yale University said they were surprised that so many studies pointed in the same direction. In all, 173 research efforts, going back to 1980, were analyzed, rated and brought together in what the researchers said was the first comprehensive view of the topic. About 80 percent of the studies showed a link between a negative health outcome and media hours or content. The average modern child spends nearly 45 hours a week with television, movies, magazines, music, the Internet, cellphones and video games, the study reported. By comparison, children spend 17 hours a week with their parents on average and 30 hours a week in school, the study said.

A Premier With a Hand in TV News Sues His Journalist Critics

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi governs with a solid majority, oversees RAI, the state broadcaster, and owns the country's leading private television networks. So why, with all those means at his disposal, does the prime minister continue to respond to his journalist critics not on television or in the press but instead with lawsuits? In recent years, Mr. Berlusconi has sued the magazine The Economist for writing that he was not "fit to run Italy" and the British journalist David Lane for his 2004 book, "Berlusconi's Shadow," which explored the origins of his fortune and noted that some of his associates had been investigated for Mafia ties. Mr. Berlusconi lost those cases in lower court and either has appealed them or still has the possibility of doing so. Now, he has set his sights on Alexander Stille, America's best-known Italianist and one of the prime minister's most vocal Anglophone critics. A lower court in Milan is expected to rule on Tuesday in a defamation case filed against Mr. Stille by a close associate of Mr. Berlusconi. Berlusconi is not alone in suing reporters. In Italy — where journalists often play fast and loose with the facts and the legal system is devised to protect personal honor — politicians, magistrates and public figures sue journalists so often that the Italian National Press Federation has a "solidarity fund" to help with legal fees and damages.

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