September 2010

[Commentary] There was a time when hearing that a bunch of employees of news organizations had given money to candidates in a current election cycle would have caused a stir. Today, not so much.

Megan Wilson, an enterprising reporter for OpenSecrets.org, a blog run by a Washington-based non-profit, has named 235 news-related contributors in a spreadsheet linked to the blog. People working for such respected outlets as The Washington Post, The New York Times, the New York Post, News Corp., Vanity Fair and Reuters are on her list. When the number of media outlets was limited by the physical process of production, including expensive printing presses and a limited broadcast spectrum, journalists were more careful about appearing partisan. It was a business issue as much as an ethical one. With relatively few outlets going for the same mass audience, it was important to be trusted. To be trusted by the greatest possible number of consumers, we carefully concealed our biases. In today's era of narrowcasting, media thrive by focusing on smaller audiences and gaining their trust by mirroring the biases of specialized audiences. Journalists of yesteryear strained to seem like the proverbial man or woman from Mars, remote and uncaring about the outcome of the daily battles over public policy.

It may come as a surprise to some war victims, but there actually is a body of international law that establishes when and how nations can legally engage in armed conflict. Thanks to various treaties, the United Nations Charter, and the Hague and Geneva Conventions, we are able to draw official distinctions between victims and aggressors, and we have guidelines that, when honored, provide some protection to civilians. Professional militaries train with the rules of war in mind, recognizing that abiding by them works to their benefit as much as to the enemy's. It is no surprise, then, that many legal experts, diplomats and military commanders around the world are now debating how to extend the law of war to cyberspace. The emergence of electronic and cyberwar-fighting capabilities is the most important military development in decades, but it is not yet clear how existing treaties and conventions might apply in this new domain of conflict. Uncertainty about the legal and ethical limits of state behavior in cyberspace could have disastrous consequences.

Vice President Joe Biden used a roundtable discussion with university presidents about stimulus research grants to promote the administration's renewed commitment to investing in scientific research.

"Science is back in the White House," Vice President Biden said while promising Washington will continue to provide the "seed money" to help American universities "change the world." The purpose of the gathering was to draw attention to the more than $18 billion included in the Recovery Act for university research. Vice President Biden said the research funds were among the most critical parts of the stimulus and key to the nation's economic competitiveness. "Folks, this is where the future lies," he said. "Our economic future will grow from ideas that are incubating at universities. That's the breeding ground and it always has been." Vice President Biden also said he is "always amazed" at critics of federal research spending.

ABC affiliates can expect to kick more of their retransmission consent spoils up to the network, as Walt Disney Company President/CEO Bob Iger told a room full of investors that the company seeks to grow its retrans pot at their expense.

"The good news is, we've struck some deals already with affiliates to gain access to those fees, and we're in negotiations with other affiliates to continue that strategy," he said at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia confab in New York. "Given the dynamics of the broadcast business and the relationship of the affiliates, we feel we're not only within our rights, but we will get more cash from their retransmission consent deals." Networks are increasingly demanding a substantial piece of partner stations' retrans earnings. Some ABC affiliates have privately grumbled at the network's demands, while others have chalked the fees up to the cost of doing business with a major network in the modern media age. ABC is not the only network pushing affiliates for retransmission revenue. Iger said it's essentially easy money for the network, with no costs involved. "Cash payments for retrans are real, will grow, and there's no incremental cost to get them," he said.