February 2009

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 4, 2009

Today is Digital TV Day in the House (see story below and http://benton.org/node/20829)

THE TRANSITION
   Gregg Is Nominated for Secretary of Commerce
   Daschle Withdraws Name for HHS Secretary
   Daschle pushed Hindery for Obama job
   Citing Tax Troubles, Obama Appointee Killefer Withdraws
   Ad Experts Talk-Up Google's Obama Appointment
   New FTC Chief Faces Tech, Economic Issues

DIGITAL TELEVISION
   DTV Bill To Be Considered Under Closed Rule
   Copps: Most Stations Could Move Earlier Than June 12
   Consumers Union, LCCR Urge Passage Of DTV Date-Delay Bill
   DTV: Stations Try to Fill Digital Subchannels

THE ECONOMY
   Dell: Stimulus package can be improved
   States Want More Say In Broadband Stimulus
   South Korea Throws Down Bandwidth Gauntlet: Universal 1Gbps by 2012
   Dear NYT: Rural America's Ready to be Wired Now!
   Telecommunications Alliance Advocates Un-Served Communities to Get Broadband Stimulus Money

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Vuze calls for FCC probe of Cox Cable traffic management
   Comcast defends itself against FCC's VoIP probe
   EU media chief rules out Internet freedom law
   ISPs Conjoined With NebuAd Claim Innocence
   MySpace Turns Over 90,000 Names of Registered Sex Offenders
   Obama Win Showed Rising 'New Media' Influence -- Now What?
   Lawmakers all a-Twitter

WIRELESS/TELECOM
   AT&T Seeks Verizon Wireless Assets
   South Carolina's plan to reprogram huge spectrum asset faces challenges
   Can the Cellphone Industry Keep Growing?

JOURNALISM
   The Loss of the Trade Press Covering the Media Industry: Why it matters
   Strengthen think tank accountability
   Newspapers need an antitrust exemption
   The Economic Crisis Returns with a Vengeance

BROADCASTING/CABLE
   Commissioner McDowell's Mistaken Views on Fairness Doctrine
   AT&T's U-verse service gives short shrift to public-access programming

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THE TRANSITION

GREGG IS NOMINATED FOR SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jeff Zeleny]
President Obama on Tuesday nominated Sen Judd Gregg (R-NH) to help "shore up our financial system and revitalize our economy" by serving as commerce secretary. In naming Sen Gregg to the post, which requires Senate confirmation, the president is seeking to win more bipartisan support for his economic recovery plan. President Obama said that Gregg would be a key member of his economic team. Gregg, who is in the middle of his third Senate term, said he agreed to answer the president's call to serve because of the enormity of the nation's economic crisis. "This is not a time for partisanship," Gregg said. "This is not a time when we should stand in our ideological corners and shout at each other. This is a time to govern and govern well." The Commerce Department has a broad mandate - to promote economic development at home and abroad - but sees little public attention. It includes agencies ranging from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to the Patent and Trademark Office. It also plays a key role in promoting international trade. Gregg is not known as a fiery ideologue, but his voting record is consistently conservative. He has a 4% lifetime rating from the labor union organization AFL- CIO and most recently voted against pay equity legislation signed into law by Obama, calling it "a boon for trial lawyers." In fact, Gregg voted in favor of abolishing the Department of Commerce as a member of the Budget Committee and on the Senate floor in 1995. Ultimately, the Commerce Department survived, and Gregg has since shown more interest than most of his Republican colleagues in funding some of its agencies, particularly the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
http://benton.org/node/21579
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DASCHLE WITHDRAWS NAME FOR HHS SECRETARY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Anne Kornblut, Michael Shear, Ed O'Keefe]
Thomas Daschle, President Obama's choice to be secretary of health and human services, withdrew his nomination today, citing the distractions that followed his failure to pay $146,000 in taxes in recent years. Daschle, in a statement, said being chosen for the post had been "one of the signal honors of an improbable career." "But if 30 years of exposure to the challenges inherent in our system has taught me anything, it has taught me that this work will require a leader who can operate with the full faith of Congress and the American people, and without distraction," Daschle said. "Right now, I am not that leader." Daschle had been appointed to two posts -- both the HHS secretary and the health-care czar, with an office at the White House. He will not serve in either job, officials said. Sen Richard Durbin (IL), the Senate Democratic whip, said the withdrawal could be a serious setback for health-care reform, because of Daschle's unusually strong legislative background and long interest in the issue.
http://benton.org/node/21578
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DASCHLE PUSHED HINDERY FOR OBAMA JOB
[SOURCE: Politico.com, AUTHOR: Ben Smith, Eamon Javers]
Apparently, Tom Daschle backed Leo Hindery, the patron who paid him a million-dollar salary and supplied him with a free car and driver, for a job inside the Obama administration. Hindery, whose InterMedia Partners employed the former Senate majority leader, had been mentioned as a possible secretary of commerce or U.S. trade representative. President Obama's aides rejected Daschle's suggestion that a top job go to Hindery, for whose private equity fund Daschle had served as a rainmaker and adviser. Hindery, who divides his time between New York and Charlotte, N.C., made his money in cable television. A former Seattle newsboy and executive at the San Francisco Chronicle, he came to prominence when he became CEO of cable giant Tele-Communications, Inc. in 1997. He was hailed for turning the company around and sold it to AT&T in 1999, reportedly collecting $300 million in stock options in the process. He also did a stint as CEO of the telecommunications firm Global Crossing, and in 2002 sued the then-bankrupt company for $822,000 in back salary and rent for his apartment in the Waldorf-Astoria.
http://benton.org/node/21577
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CITING TAX TROUBLES, AN OBAMA APPOINTEE WITHDRAWS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jeff Zeleny]
Nancy Killefer, President Obama's choice for the position of chief White House performance officer, has withdrawn from consideration for the post after coming forward with concerns about her tax returns. "I recognize that your agenda and the duties facing your chief performance officer are urgent," Killefer wrote in a letter to President Barack Obama Tuesday. "I have also come to realize in the current environment that my personal tax issue of D.C. unemployment tax could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay those duties must avoid. Because of this I must reluctantly ask you to withdraw my name from consideration."
http://benton.org/node/21576
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AD EXPERTS TALK-UP GOOGLE'S OBAMA APPOINTMENT
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Laurie Sullivan]
President Barack Obama's move to create a transparent and tech-savvy administration will put Google product manager Katie Jacobs Stanton in the driver's seat as "director of citizen participation" in March. Search engine optimization gurus, industry experts, ad agency executives and Wall Street analysts provided insight on the move. Danny Sullivan, search engine optimization guru at Search Engine Land, said having someone like Stanton who knows Google's products and services may prompt the Obama administration to further adopt them. The Obama administration has already begun to rely on some Google tools. Stanton--a group product manager at Google who co-founded the company's election team--worked on Google Moderator, a tool the public used to submit questions during the presidential debates.
http://benton.org/node/21575
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NEW FTC CHIEF FACES TECH, ECONOMIC ISSUES
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
Apparently, Federal Trade Commission member and onetime Hollywood lobbyist Jon Leibowitz is a top contender to lead the agency charged with consumer protection and preventing unfair business practices. Leibowitz, who served as vice president for congressional affairs at the Motion Picture Association of America and worked as Democratic counsel for the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2004. He serves alongside Republicans J. Thomas Rosch and William Kovacic, the acting chairman, and Pamela Jones Harbour, an independent. Christine Varney, a former FTC commissioner and a partner at Hogan & Hartson, was in the mix to lead FTC but was nominated last month by President Barack Obama to head the Justice Department's antitrust division. Another former FTC commissioner whose name is being floated is Mozelle Thompson, a policy adviser to social-networking site Facebook.
http://benton.org/node/21574
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DIGITAL TELEVISION

DTV BILL TO BE CONSIDERED UNDER CLOSED RULE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The House Rules Committee has decided there will be one hour of debate, evenly divided among Democrats and Republicans, and no floor amendments when the House considers a bill to delay the digital television transition today. House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) had asked the bill be brought up under the so-called "closed rule," which prevents the proposal of and votes on amendments that could greatly slow the process.
http://benton.org/node/21584
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COPPS: MOST STATIONS COULD MOVE EARLIER THAN JUNE 12
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Copps has replied to Reps Joe Barton (R-TX) and Cliff Stearns (R-FL) saying 61% of TV stations (1,089) should be able to turn off their analog signal before June 12 if they choose to without causing interference to other stations, and that "most" of the remaining 700 or so stations "may" also be able to do so. In the letter, Chairman Copps also told Reps Barton and Stearns that, as of Feb. 2, the FCC had received or granted requests form 143 stations that have already turned off analog, and that an additional 60 had said they were going to do so before Feb 17. In addition, he said, 276 had indicated, even though they were not required to, that they would be ending analog on Feb. 17, though he pointed out some of those could change their minds if the analog cut-off date is extended.
http://benton.org/node/21573
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CONSUMERS UNION, LCCR URGE PASSAGE OF DTV DATE-DELAY BILL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Consumers Union and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) say they support passage of the digital television transition delay bill and for a concerted effort to help those still needing information and assistance to make the DTV transition. [more at URL below]
http://benton.org/node/21572
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DTV: STATIONS TRY TO FILL DIGITAL SUBCHANNELS
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Daisy Whitney]
The country's switchover from analog to digital broadcast signals brings with it a need for stations to program the digital subchannels created in the bandwidth space formerly occupied by their analog signals. Fortunately for stations, there are a lot of choices on the programming menu. Many stations have already opted for weather reports, movies and classic television shows to occupy the additional programming real estate created with digital subchannels, which take up much less space than analog channels. Some station groups already are carrying fresh content on their digital tiers. Digital subchannels offer stations the opportunity to wring additional revenue from existing assets. Given the slumping economy, broadcasters are eager to extract revenue wherever they can, and new channels represent more advertising inventory to sell. On the flip side, most subchannels aren't profitable yet, and they're one more thing for already busy station managers to manage.
http://benton.org/node/21571
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THE ECONOMY

DELL: STIMULUS PACKAGE CAN BE IMPROVED
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
The economic stimulus package going through Congress has provisions that could start a trade war and fails to address US competitiveness, Dell's chairman and CEO Michael Dell said Tuesday. A provision requiring projects funded by the stimulus package to use U.S.-made equipment and materials could prompt complaints to the World Trade Organization and could lead other countries to erect trade barriers on U.S. products, said Michael Dell. "You run the risk of protectionism," Dell said at a Northern Virginia Technology Council event. "Trade wars are very, very dangerous, particularly in the economic situation we find ourselves in right now." Dell also told his audience that another major concern he has with the stimulus package is that it largely fails to address U.S. competitiveness with the rest of the world. Congress should focus more on improving the U.S. education system, cutting corporate tax rates, and allowing U.S. companies to hire foreign workers, he said.
http://benton.org/node/21566
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STATES WANT MORE SAY IN BROADBAND STIMULUS
[SOURCE: InformationWeek, AUTHOR: W. David Gardner]
Regulators from the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) will be in Washington later this month to urge that states be given the responsibility of using federal funds to be earmarked for broadband deployment. The group, whose members come from state government agency regulators, will meet in Washington beginning Feb. 15, and the regulators are expected to press their requests at the time. The Obama administration has listed stepped-up deployment of broadband as an important part of its plan to help the economy. NARUC president Frederick Butler of New Jersey has asked Congress to ensure that states "play a lead role" in the deployment of broadband infrastructure investments. Noting that "states have every incentive to make certain the money is not wasted," Butler added that "states can assure efficient utilization and targeting of stimulus monies."
http://benton.org/node/21565
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SOUTH KOREA THROWS DOWN BROADBAND GAUNTLET: UNIVERSAL 1 GBPS BY 2012
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
[Commentary] The most ambitious broadband plan for the US is 100Mbps by 2015. Koreans to Have 1Gbps by 2012. And this isn't just a vague promise. They've got a specific plan to generate roughly $25 billion in total investment by investing $1 billion in government dollars. Of course there are vast differences in the geography and marketplace in South Korea and the US. But the underlying truth still stands that they're leaving us in their dust because they have more vision, energy, and unity than we do. Plus we need to understand that since we are much bigger than a South Korea or Japan that even if we had a big plan in place it's going to take two or three times as long to wire our whole country. And we don't even have agreed upon goals let alone a plan on how to accomplish them!
http://benton.org/node/21564
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DEAR NYT: RURAL AMERICA'S READY TO BE WIRED NOW!
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
[Commentary] Today there's a front-page article on NYTimes.com entitled: "Internet Money in Fiscal Plan: Wise or Waste?" While it attempts to present a balanced approach to the positive and negative reactions to the money put in the stimulus package for rural broadband, on some of the most crucial issues it's factually wrong. Take this quote: "And yet, supporters cannot simply wave away the potential pitfalls, including the fact that it will take at least until 2015 to spend all the money on infrastructure to deliver the service -- vastly limiting the stimulating punch." The only reasons why it would take that long to spend $9 billion on rural broadband is if government's slow in distributing grants or if the industry around next-generation broadband deployment can manufacture enough wire and electronics to keep up with demand.
http://benton.org/node/21563
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TELECOMMUNICATIONS ALLIANCE ADVOCATES UN-SERVED COMMUNITIES TO GET BROADBAND STIMULUS MONEY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Rural Telecommunications Alliance has sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) saying that while it supports the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which passed the House last week, it wants the money for broadband to go first to un-served areas where there is no existing broadband provider. [more at the URL below]
http://benton.org/node/21562
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

VUZE CALLS FOR FCC PROBE OF COX CABLE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
Vuze, the media company that petitioned the Federal Communications Commission for an investigation of Comcast's peer-to-peer throttling practices is on the warpath once more. This time Vuze has set its sights on Cox Cable, which has made itself a pretty obvious target with its announcement in late January that it will classify P2P traffic in Kansas and Arkansas as "Non-Time Sensitive," and thus "tolerant of delay." Did somebody say P2P? Vuze attorney Jay Monahan speaks about the throttling to Vuze users on his blog, saying, "That includes all bittorrent applications, including your Vuze application. We take that personally, and think you should too." Monahan has asked for "close scrutiny by the FCC of Cox's activities affecting peer-to-peer traffic." Vuze is a bit sensitive to these practices because practically all the streaming content that it delivers comes via the kind of apps Cox says it will deprioritize.
http://benton.org/node/21570
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COMCAST DEFENDS ITSELF AGAINST FCC'S VOIP PROBE
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
The Federal Communications Commission's main sparring partner in the realm of network management has sent the agency a polite but chilly refutation of its suggestion that the company may allow its own VoIP service an advantage over others running through its pipes. Comcast says that the ISP giant doesn't give its Digital Voice product (CDV) "disparate" treatment over its High-Speed Internet (HSI) lines, because it doesn't route the application through those lines. [more at the URL below]
http://benton.org/node/21569
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EU MEDIA CHIEF RULES OUT INTERNET FREEDOM LAW
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Huw Jones]
European Union Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding said a EU law to reinforce freedom on the Internet would be unnecessary and put operators in a difficult position. Congress has drafted a Global Online Freedom Act. Some European Parliament members want the EU to follow suit, saying authoritarian nations are increasingly censoring the Web by blocking sites and intimidating users with "cyber police." Such actions violate human rights, the EU lawmakers say. The American law would promote freedom of expression on the Web and protect US companies from coercion to participate in repression. "Should the EU have specific legislation on Internet freedom? I am not convinced so far that hard law is the best way to deal with the challenge," Reding told a meeting in the European Parliament.
http://benton.org/node/21568
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ISPS CONJOINED WITH NEBUAD CLAIM INNOCENCE
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wendy Davis]
Internet service providers facing a lawsuit for allegedly violating subscribers' privacy by working with behavioral targeting company NebuAd are asking the court to dismiss the cases against them. The broadband providers argue that they can't be sued for violating federal or state privacy laws if they didn't intercept any subscribers. In court papers filed late last week, they argue that NebuAd alone allegedly intercepted traffic, while they were merely passive participants in the plan.
http://benton.org/node/21567
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MYSPACE TURNS OVER 90,000 NAMES OF REGISTERED SEX OFFENDERS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jenna Wortham]
MySpace provided two state attorneys general the names of 90,000 registered sex offenders it had banned from its site in response to a subpoena. The figure is 40,000 more than the amount previously acknowledged by MySpace, according to Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who along with Attorney General Roy Cooper of North Carolina are among officials pressing social networking sites to adopt more stringent safety measures.
http://benton.org/node/21582
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OBAMA WIN SHOWED RISING 'NEW MEDIA' INFLUENCE -- NOW WHAT
[SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Greg Mitchell]
The rules of the Presidential election game have been changed forever -- by technology. It was more than the "YouTube Election," as some dubbed it, or "The Facebook Election," or "hyper-politics." James Rainey, the longtime media reporter for the Los Angeles Times, declared that there is a "new-media revolution that is remaking presidential campaigns. Online videos can dominate the evening news. Or an unpublished novelist 'with absolutely no journalism training' can alter the national debate," a reference to Mayhill Fowler. "What's different this year is that the entire political and media establishment has finally woken up to the fact that the Internet is now a major player in the world of politics and our democracy," said Andrew Rasiej, co-founder of the TechPresident blog and annual Personal Democracy Forum. "We are watching a conversion of our politics from the 20th century to the 21st."
http://benton.org/node/21560
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LAWMAKERS ALL A-TWITTER
[SOURCE: Politico.com, AUTHOR: Andie Coller]
The microblogging tool Twitter has become a popular way for Members of Congress to stay connected to their constituents on an up-to-the-second basis. Sometimes, however, members have been tapping out tweets, as Twitter messages are called, at times that some might find ... surprising. While it may be nice for the folks back home to receive these you-are-there dispatches from the field, the messages also seem to suggest that legislators are not always fully immersed in their work — or are not being fully forth­coming about who's writing their posts.
http://benton.org/node/21555
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WIRELESS/TELECOM

AT&T SEEKS VERIZON WIRELESS ASSETS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amol Sharma]
In the bidding for the roughly $3 billion in wireless assets Verizon Wireless must divest as part of its purchase of Alltel Corp., one strong but controversial contender is emerging: AT&T. The telecom giant is among the bidders, along with a joint bid from private-equity firms Carlyle Group and Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts & Co. and a separate bid from Providence Equity Partners. Verizon Wireless agreed to sell the assets to get government approval for the $28.1 billion Alltel purchase, which closed last month. Assets include 2.1 million wireless subscribers in 22 states, as well as wireless spectrum and other assets necessary to run the businesses in those markets. AT&T is in the strongest financial position of the interested companies and is in a good position to walk away with a large chunk of the assets. Critics, including consumer advocates and Verizon's smaller competitors, say such a deal -- allowing one giant telecom provider to transfer customers to another -- wouldn't be in the interest of consumers. AT&T and Verizon Wireless have a combined 160 million subscribers, nearly 60% of the entire U.S. market. Gigi Sohn, president of the public interest group Public Knowledge, said the government should encourage Verizon to sell the assets to smaller players to enhance competition. "This could be one of the first big tests for the Obama administration to see if their antitrust enforcement will have any teeth," Sohn said.
http://benton.org/node/21583
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SOUTH CAROLINA'S PLAN TO REPROGRAM HUGE SPECTRUM ASSET FACES CHALLENGES
[SOURCE: NetworkWorld, AUTHOR: John Cox]
In two weeks, South Carolina will find out if its educational wireless spectrum is a gold mine or an albatross. On Jan. 2, a recently created state commission released a request for proposals, inviting bids on 67 Educational Broadband Service (EBS) licenses, originally issued decades ago for one-way, analog, education TV broadcasts, allowing a lecture to be watched in multiple classrooms, for example. There's enough of this 2.5-GHz spectrum not only to cover nearly every square inch of the state but also to shower 5.6 million residents with multichannel, wireless broadband voice, video and data services. All that is possible because the FCC in 2004 and 2006 revamped the 2.5-GHz rules. One key change let EBS holders lease out up to 95% of their spectrum, which is rarely used for its original purpose since new modes of distance learning now are offered over IP-based broadband networks. It's prime spectrum real estate. But the state faces an array of challenges including a potentially bruising and time-consuming political battle over different visions of how government and industry should partner on a range of broadband policy issues, from contract details, to service-level agreements, to bridging what's called the digital divide between well-heeled broadband users and the poor.
http://benton.org/node/21557
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CAN THE CELLPHONE INDUSTRY KEEP GROWING?
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Matt Richtel]
Cellphone sales are falling, manufacturers have announced thousands of layoffs and wireless carriers are finding it harder to acquire and keep customers. It seems like another tale of "recession bites industry," but there are signs that this downturn is masking something more fundamental, that the cellphone industry's best days are behind it. Analysts and investors are beginning to ask whether the industry can continue growing. The challenge is both simple and daunting: how to expand when four billion of the six billion people on the planet already have phones. And even in developing countries where there are underserved markets, subscribers spend less on phones and services. Craig Moffett, an industry analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, is one of the skeptics. "I don't think anyone would argue that the salad days of the wireless industry are over," he said. He added that in terms of subscriber growth in North America, "we're awfully close to saturation."
http://benton.org/node/21561
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JOURNALISM

THE LOSS OF THE TRADE PRESS COVERING THE MEDIA INDUSTRY: WHY IT MATTERS
[SOURCE: Digital Destiny, AUTHOR: Jeff Chester]
[Commentary] Multichannel News, Variety, the Hollywood Reporter, Adweek, Mediaweek, Brandweek, Ad Age,TV Week, Broadcasting and Cable. All of these outlets either have closed or scaled back their Washington (DC) coverage. These D.C.-based reporters played an incredibly important role­not just covering their own industry for insiders, but providing consumer and public interest advocates real insight into what the industry was actually saying and doing. Trade reporters are a crucial part of the journalistic ecosystem­their loss is another indication of how the entire journalistic enterprise is collapsing. It cannot be replaced solely by bloggers. It takes real shoe "leather" and digging into the facts on a daily basis they helps keep an industry accountable­and the public informed (including industry insiders ).
http://benton.org/node/21556
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STRENGTHEN THINK TANK ACCOUNTABILITY
[SOURCE: Politico.com, AUTHOR: J. H. Snider]
[Commentary] Every time there is a presidential transition, we are reminded of the power of think tanks, as dozens of administration officials and think tank employees switch jobs. Fueled by tax-deductible donations and an explosion in philanthropic assets, think tanks have dramatically grown in size and influence during the past 100 years. Despite think tanks' billions of dollars of tax subsidies and considerable power, they have received minimal public scrutiny and are often poorly understood. Think tanks often portray themselves as being all things to all people. But in fact, many are rife with ethical conflicts. To strengthen think tank accountability, the media should do a better job covering think tanks. [more at the URL below]
http://benton.org/node/21558
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NEWSPAPERS NEED AN ANTITRUST EXEMPTION
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Tim Rutten]
[Commentary] The US newspaper industry needs help. It could come from the government in the form of a antitrust exemption that would allow all US newspaper companies -- and others in the English-speaking world, as well as popular broadcast-based sites such as CNN.com -- to sit down and negotiate an agreement on how to scale prices and, then, to begin imposing them simultaneously. That, in turn, would set the stage for tackling the other leg of this problem -- how to extract reasonable fees from aggregators like Google and Yahoo, which currently use their search engines to link to news that newspapers and broadcasters pay to gather.
http://benton.org/node/21581
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THE ECONOMIC CRISIS RETURNS WITH A VENGEANCE
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Mark Jurkowitz]
In a sign of how quickly the media narrative has shifted from pomp and circumstance to layoffs and bankruptcy, the grim U.S. economy was the overwhelmingly dominant story one week after Barack Obama's festive inauguration. The financial crisis filled 45% of the coverage studied from Jan 26-Feb. 1, as measured by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. A week earlier, it was Obama's move into the White House that consumed most of the media's attention, also accounting for 45% of the newshole, or the time on TV and radio and space in print and online.
http://benton.org/node/21580
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BROADCASTING/CABLE

COMMISSIONER MCDOWELL'S MISTAKEN VIEWS OF FAIRNESS DOCTRINE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Henry Geller]
[Commentary] In his recent speech to the Media Institute, Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell warned against the return of the fairness doctrine and said that its return might put in jeopardy the entire broadcast regulatory scheme like children's TV rules. I believe he is wrong on several counts. First, the doctrine never required broadcasters to air both sides of controversial issues. It required that broadcasters afford a reasonable opportunity for contrasting views, and it gave them great discretion in discharging this obligation. Second, Commissioner McDowell does not appear to understand the "spectrum scarcity" basis of the doctrine. The scarcity was never based on the number of broadcast outlets, but on available frequencies (which is still true today). Indeed, there is a serious question whether broadcasting should be treated like its main rival cable, and required to pay a modest spectrum usage fee in lieu of the public trustee obligation, with the sums so raised going to a trust fund for public broadcasting, so the latter could render high quality public service in areas like children's TV, in-depth informational programming, cultural and minority fare. Others argue that the public service obligation should be clarified and made more effective. The appropriate regulatory scheme for broadcasting in the 21st Century is the overriding issue ­ not this skirmish over the unlikely re-appearance of the fairness doctrine, especially with mistaken notions of its nature and operation.
http://benton.org/node/21554
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AT&T&T'S U-VERSE SERVICE GIVES SHORT SHRIFT TO PUBLIC-ACCESS PROGRAMMING
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, AUTHOR: David Greising]
[Commentary] AT&T has cutting-edge technology and a beefy balance sheet, but the company's handling of community programming channels in Illinois and other states is putting a big black blot on its sky-blue logo. At the heart of a growing controversy are questions about whether AT&T's U-verse service, a marvel of modern technology that pipes 320 channels of television programming over phone lines, violates state law and federal rules requiring fair treatment of community programming. The fight over U-verse, still in its early stages, shows what happens when corporate power runs up against entrenched community opposition. Federal and state laws require AT&T to give community programming similar access to what the other channels on its U-verse service get. AT&T believes it does so, but advocates for public access make a compelling case when they argue that the communications giant falls short.
http://benton.org/node/21559
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