July 2010

2010 likely to bring more negative campaign ads than ever

In each election cycle, the tone of campaign rhetoric seems to grow sharper and more personal. But a 2010 calendar front-loaded with contested primaries, combined with scores of vulnerable incumbents and both sides playing underdog, means there's an extra dash of hot sauce this year. "We always say this is the most negative cycle, but 2010 probably will be it," said Evan Tracey, who tracks campaign ads for the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which is based in Northern Virginia. "The national issues are huge, and both parties hold the view that you have to blow up your opponent." Tracey, who is tracking media buys in 130 races, estimates that TV ad spending is running about $100 million ahead of 2006 levels. And ad rates still haven't fully rebounded from the recession, he said. The general rule for congressional races is that the party out of power wages the more negative campaign -- which, for Republicans this year, is translating into an ad ratio of about 80 percent negative to 20 percent positive. That formula was borrowed from the Democrats' successful 2006 game plan. But Democrats can't afford to stay positive, either, not with Obama's slumping popularity and voter opposition to the Democratic agenda.

Money spoke against Disclose Act

[Commentary] Senate Republicans made sure this fall's elections will be drenched in corporate money. By threatening a filibuster, the minority party blocked a Democratic plan to require disclosures of business and labor contributions in campaigns. The upshot is a political landscape with few restraints on lobbyists and special interests, the very groups Republicans claim to repudiate in insider Washington. Now the country gets to live with the no-rules results blessed by Republicans.

Some senators expected to block Postal Service's proposal to limit mail delivery

Sen Jon Tester (D-MT) said that senators who oversee the US Postal Service's budget will block a proposal by the head of that agency to drop Saturday mail delivery. Postmaster General John E. Potter has urged the change to five-day mail delivery, saying that the cash-strapped post office won't survive without such a fundamental change to its operations. Sen Tester said that he had persuaded the Senate financial services appropriations subcommittee to oppose five-day mail delivery. He said that eliminating Saturday deliveries would not produce the major savings that Potter forecasts, while it would surely be a hardship on people living in rural areas.

Also, by the time the Postal Service announced plans to raise rates earlier this month, an unusual alliance of customers was in place to oppose it. The Affordable Mail Alliance includes more than 700 publishers, direct-mail companies, nonprofit groups and other mailers that fear the economic impact of proposed increases.

Japanese Antitrust Official Defends Approval Of Google Deal

Japan's antitrust authority defended its decision Wednesday to approve Yahoo Japan's deal with Google to use its search services after critics such as rival Microsoft criticized the agreement as anticompetitive.

Under the non-exclusive deal formally announced Tuesday, Google will provide both search and search-related advertising platform services to Yahoo Japan, which will license some of its Japanese search content to Google for use in its Japanese search results. Yahoo Inc. owns a minority stake in Yahoo Japan, which is a subsidiary of Softbank. "Both companies will remain independent search and advertising providers, will not share any customer or pricing information and will continue to vigorously compete in Japan," Daniel Alegre, vice president of sales for Google Japan and Asia-Pacific, wrote in his blog post Tuesday. "Our hope is that through this deal we can drive further innovation in ads and search and spur each other--and other companies--towards greater competition."

OPASTCO members unmoved by Genachowski address

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski addressed the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies in Seattle on July 28.

He sought support for the National Broadband Plan's recommendation to fund broadband connections at speeds of 4 Mb/s downstream and 1 Mb/s upstream, but OPASTCO members seemed unconvinced. "Four megabits is the initial level for minimum service that would apply to funding," Chairman Genachowski said. "It is designed to increase over time." The chairman added that the plan specifies "actual" download speeds of 4 Mb/s and that actual download speeds often are lower than those advertised. An actual download speed of 4 Mb/s would be equivalent to a connection advertised at 8 Mb/s today, he said. Four megabits per second also would be a 20-fold increase over the broadband definition used today of just 200 kb/s, Genachowski added, and would represent a 40-fold increase if actual speeds were taken into account. Most other countries have not set a specific level for broadband service, and those that have typically have focused on speeds of 2 Mb/s or lower, the chairman said.

"We can't deal with four meg," said John Rose, chairman of OPASTCO, in a panel presentation immediately following Genachowski's address. "We'll have to wear them down," he added later. Rose also expressed concern about the disparity between the 4 Mb/s funding level for rural broadband and the National Broadband Plan goal of 100 Mb/s connectivity to 100 million homes by 2020. "If we divide 100 meg by four meg, that's 25 times more," Rose said.

A peek inside the "secret, backroom" network neutrality meetings

Free Press is still up in arms over what the reform group calls the Federal Communications Commission's "back room" meetings with big corporations to cut a deal on network neutrality rules. But for "secret," "closed," "back room" meetings, these have been remarkably open affairs.

Here's the sordid history of these allegedly clandestine gatherings, summaries of which a FCC blog. These conversations have all been earmarked in the FCC's two main net neutrality proceedings—broadband reclassification and open Internet proposals. But because they go beyond specific agency rules and deal with ideas for Congressional action, the FCC has more leeway to pick and choose with whom they wish to meet. In that sense, they're less open than normal FCC gatherings, and it's unclear whether other groups are going to get their chance to tell the agency what Congress should do. But if everybody ran their "secret" meetings the way the Commission is running them here, Washington, DC would be a much more transparent place.

US Telecom, FCC square off on broadband

Rick Kaplan, chief counsel to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, and Walter McCormick, president of USTelecom, squared off on July 27 on whether the FCC was right to tell Congress this month that broadband is not being deployed in a timely and reasonable way to all U.S. residents.

"We think that it is alarmist; we think it was intended to alarm, and as a result we are alarmed," McCormick said. McCormick noted that 95 percent of people in the U.S. have access to broadband -- the same percentage covered by the healthcare reform law, which has been categorized as "universal" in scope. McCormick said a chief concern is that the report will be used as "a predicate for increased government regulation in a dynamic sector of the economy." Kaplan countered that the report, which the agency regularly issues to Congress, reflects the fact that up to 24 million Americans remain without broadband. He said the report considered the perspective of consumers who do not have access, rather than attempting to attack broadband providers.

Listen here

GSA, union negotiate on rules for workers' posts on Facebook, other social media

The General Services Administration is attempting to become the first civilian federal agency to codify how workers should behave on Facebook and Twitter, but it faces resistance from one of its unions over the use of social media Web sites.

GSA officials and representatives of the National Federation of Federal Employees' GSA National Council are set to resume negotiations Wednesday, two weeks after talks broke down over the proposed social media policy. The government wants GSA workers who post comments on non-agency Web sites to consider adding a disclaimer that their opinions do not reflect official GSA policy. It also wants to remind workers not to share details of internal discussions or agency policy on non-GSA blogs.

With NBCU, Comcast Eyes $10 Billion Ad Haul

While local and national advertising accounts for around 5 percent of Comcast's overall revenue haul, Comcast chief operating officer Steve Burke said that a merger of Comcast and NBCU assets would command some $10 billion in annual ad sales revenue.

"Advertising has got to be the biggest headline," Burke said. "We signed the deal when advertising was going backwards. Now we're seeing it going up, and that's a big deal." Burke added that he was optimistic that Comcast would clear the regulatory hurdles that stand between it and a consummated NBCU deal. "We have been there before where you feel everything goes against you," Burke said, in a nod to Comcast's fruitless 2004 bid to scarf up The Walt Disney Co. for $54 billion. "This time everything is going our way." Burke has been leading the charge to close out the NBCU transaction since it was first announced in December 2009. Under the new structure, Burke will run the suite of broadcast and cable networks, which includes flagship NBC as well as high-performance cable channels USA Network, Bravo, Syfy and Oxygen. Upon completion of the deal, Comcast will own a 51 percent stake in NBCU. Current parent GE will hold the remaining 49 percent share.

FCC FY 2011 Funding Update

The Senate Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Financial Services approved a fiscal year 2011 spending bill that includes $355.5 million for the Federal Communications Commission. The full committee is scheduled to mark up the legislation on July 29. The Obama Administration had requested $352.5 million for the FCC, up from the $335.8 million it got in FY 2010 to help it implement the National Broadband Plan and broadband mapping, conduct a spectrum inventory, launch an Emergency Response Interoperability Center, and achieve other goals.

Benton

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