July 2009

Comcast's Cohen: Telecom Likely Low On Legislative Agenda

Comcast executive vice president David Cohen, Comcast's top Washington executive, said he has "high hopes" for the commission under new chairman Julius Genachowski, including an Internet openness policy that recognizes the need for reasonable network management. Cohen also expects telecom issues to be relatively low on Congress' agenda. In an interview for C-SPAN's Communicators series, Cohen said Congress will have a lot on its plate before it gets around to FCC reform issues that have long been on the radar screen of one of those legislators, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). Cohen noted that if you were to poll every member of Congress, he would be hard-pressed to find telecommunications issues on a list of the top 100 issues they felt they needed to deal with in the next couple of years.

Minority Media and Telecommunications Council
Tuesday, August 4, 2:30 5:30
NCRC Building
Washington, DC

On Tuesday, Aug 4, 2009 the Black Leadership Forum, Inc. and the National Conference of Black Mayors are hosting Seminar. This forum will act as a vehicle to inform minority business owners how to capitalize on the funds made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The seminar will take place from 2:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m., on the 8th floor of the NCRC Building, located at 727 15th St., NW, Washington, DC 20005.

The seminar is seeking to provide a forum for attendees to listen and speak to minority business owners who have successfully secured Stimulus funding, Recovery Act representatives from different agencies and members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Tim Reid (actor, comedian, director & entrepreneur) will act as the moderator for this event.

The four minority business owners highlighted represent a broad spectrum of areas that include hotel ownership, broadcasting, telecommunications, entertainment, construction and technology.

Read more about The Stimulus Bill and the Minority Contractor

Wednesday, August 5, 2009
02:30 PM
SR - 253

During the Executive Session, the Senate Commerce Committee members will markup legislation and nominations including:

S. 30, the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009

S. 251, the Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009

Nomination of Ms. Patricia D. Cahill, to be a Member of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (PN 692)

Read more about Senate Commerce Committee Mark-up

Senate Dems blame media for August health deadline

Senate Democratic leaders on Thursday blamed Capitol Hill media for setting an August deadline for health reform and Republicans for blocking the bill's progress. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said reporters created a fictitious deadline of a successful vote by the August recess, and downplayed the fact that the chamber won't meet that mark. "That is a deadline that you created," Reid told a group of about 75 reporters. "It's not like we don't have a product. Significant progress has been made ... The mere fact that this wasn't done by last Friday or by five o'clock doesn't mean we're not going to get a quality product."

Health Care Front-And-Center on Public's News Agenda

The public sharpened its focus on health care reform last week, following news about the debate in Washington more closely than any other story. Interest in health care reform has steadily increased in recent weeks as coverage - including a prime-time presidential news conference - has intensified. Nearly a third (31%) name the debate in Washington over health care reform as their top story, more than the share who cite the economy (19%) or the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. (17%). In addition, the latest weekly News Interest Index survey, conducted July 24-27 among 1,018 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, finds that more than four-in-ten (44%) say they followed health care news very closely, up from 33% in the previous week and 24% two weeks prior.

Health News Coverage in the US Media, Early 2009

As the Obama Administration begins in earnest its plans to take up health care reform, how the media covers the debate at the outset will influence the public view of the issue and what happens next. To what extent did health issues get covered in the national press during the first six months of the new Obama Administration? What were the topics and stories driving the coverage? How does the extent and focus of the coverage broadly compare with health news coverage in 2007 and the first half of 2008? Overall, health news coverage is on the rise. And while attention in the early months of the year was more tied to public health issues like the swine flu and salmonella-tainted peanut butter, media attention to health policy increased sharply in June. This report covers a six-month time period, from January through June 2009, and updates an earlier 18-month analysis of January 2007 through June 2008. Both reports were joint projects of the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ). The findings are based on an analysis of coverage of health in 55 different news outlets that were originally sampled as part of PEJ's ongoing News Coverage Index. The study includes the front pages of small, medium and large market newspapers; network TV morning and evening news programs; cable television news; news and talk radio and online news. A total of 1,568 health stories were analyzed for this report.

Connected Nation's Other Shoe Drops On NTIA

[Commentary] Connected Nation, the front group for the big telecom companies, has made it a practice to sign very restrictive non-disclosure agreements to protect its masters. In fact, confidentiality is one of CN's selling points, along with its network of telecom lobbyists. CN tells states that it works successfully with carriers because it protects the carriers' information. That may help the private interest; the public interest, not so much. Now, the companies represented by CN were bringing the message to the government up close and personally. The industry doesn't like the information NTIA wants to collect. At the end of the day, somebody is going to be in control of the mapping. It will either be the public, and the public interest, as represented by NTIA, or the industry.

Wireline Competition Bureau Releases State-Specific List of Broadband data Filers

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau has published a state-specific list of the entities that filed broadband data in the Form 477 data collection conducted in March 2009, which collected information as of December 31, 2008. The current list identifies providers who made or updated filings through July 9, 2009, and this list may be updated from time to time.

Analyzing in the Dark: The Internet Research Data Acquisition Crisis

New America Foundation met with Blair Levin and John Leibovitz to discuss areas where current scientific research on broadband aligns with the FCC's research goals. New America says it strongly supports the Commission's efforts to improve data collection as well as the use of empirical research to inform policymaking. The Foundation attached a policy brief entitled "." GN Docket No. 09-51

FCC Announces Topics to Focus Discussion at Workshops for National Broadband Plan

First announced earlier this month, the Federal Communications Commission's staff workshops for the development of a National Broadband Plan will provide a way to promote an open dialogue between the FCC and key constituents on matters important to the National Broadband Plan. The workshops are open to the public at the Commission's headquarters building and online. In preparation for the workshops, a detailed list of topics has been posted at broadband.gov The public is invited to use the web site to suggest additional topics or revisions to those now slated for discussion at the workshops, which begin on August 6 and run through Sept. 3. The public is also invited to suggest questions for the workshops. "Broadband is our generation's major infrastructure challenge. It's critical that all stakeholders provide the Commission with the information it needs to develop a National Broadband Plan that will spur innovation, promote competition, create jobs, and bring the powerful benefits of broadband to all Americans," said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. "The effort to focus dialogue on specific topics in an open, participatory format is one of the many ways the Commission is trying to develop a comprehensive and meaningful record for the development of the Plan."

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