January 2012

Ad Battle Heats Up for Contest in South Carolina

Campaigns and the “super PACs” that support them are signaling where they think the real primary fight is, and it is not New Hampshire. Advertising dollars have been pouring into South Carolina in recent days, which after Iowa is shaping up to be the next front in the advertising wars.

So far, voters in South Carolina have already seen more than 5,500 presidential campaign ads. In New Hampshire, by contrast, voters had seen just 2,800 presidential campaign spots as of Monday morning, according to the Kantar Media Campaign Media Analysis Group. With less than two weeks to go before the Jan. 21 primary, campaign strategists are racing to place buys before their competitors do and struggling to create messages that resonate in a market that could be saturated as early as this weekend.

The Stephanopoulos Standard

[Commentary] A funny thing happened on the way to the New Hampshire primary: ABC moderator George Stephanopoulos embarrassed himself on national television with questions plainly intended to embarrass the Republican candidates. Therein lies a lesson.

As the audience appreciated—they booed after Stephanopolous's sixth follow-up—these questions were designed less to illuminate than to paint Republicans as people who hate gays and are so crazy they might just ban contraception if elected. For conservatives, this is nothing new. Conservatives are used to a world where the referees often seem to be playing for the other team. There's a good lesson here. Whatever else we know about 2012, we know we will have many more Stephanopoulos moments ahead. Though it might be more satisfying to thunder against the injustice, there are other, possibly more effective ways to expose the bias. On the social issues especially, the media narrative is that Republicans are obsessed. The truth is that at a time when millions of Americans can't find work, when our Middle East policy is in turmoil, when the future of President Obama's signature legislative achievement—health care—is in question, every Republican in the running is itching for the opportunity to talk about how he would address these things.

Fighting for Control Of New 'Smart' TVs

TV watching is more complex these days as a flood of new Internet content and mobile devices reaches the living room. One of the hottest topics at this week's Consumer Electronics Show is how to make sense of the entertainment chaos. The old methods—channel surfing and on-screen guides—no longer seem to cut it.

Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest TV maker by shipments, is using the conference to show off a television set that responds to voice commands and gestures without the need for a remote control. LG Electronics revealed a voice-and gesture-activated remote control, and speech-recognition specialist Novauris Technologies is working with Panasonic to bring voice-recognition technology to TVs and other devices. Meanwhile, Apple —whose voice-activated technology, called Siri, helps command its latest iPhone—is expected to apply the approach to TVs at some point. Besides the sheer quantity of content, finding programs is complicated by the fact that some powerful players—such as cable and satellite companies, as well as Apple and Amazon—are building vast repositories of video programming and aren't necessarily eager to let other companies search through it.

ABC News Chief Takes Aim at NBC's Top Spot

ABC News President Ben Sherwood said that he aims to "topple" NBC in the continuing ratings wars in television news.

Speaking at the semiannual Television Critics Association press tour, Sherwood focused his comments on the morning hours, where NBC News's "Today" has led the ratings battle for "10 billion weeks," as he put it. " 'Today' is mighty," he said. But "if we keep going, we'll get to our goal of being No. 1." ABC News, which is No. 2 in morning- and evening-news ratings, has seen some ratings growth this season, closing some of the gap with NBC News, which also is the longtime No. 1 in evening news. Sherwood talked about how the Walt Disney Co.-owned network's news coverage would differentiate itself from its competitors, as viewers depart to cable and the Web. "We are trying to adapt to a nonlinear way of thinking about what news and information is," Sherwood said. He said a part of that strategy is the network's partnership with Internet company Yahoo Inc., which in addition to posting ABC news reports will co-produce a coming series of political shows, some of which are already in production, including "Political Punch," with Jake Tapper.

The FCC, the Supreme Court and policing indecency

[Commentary] The Supreme Court will be asked Jan 10 to invalidate a Federal Communications Commission policy that punishes broadcasters for spontaneous vulgar utterances — so-called fleeting expletives. That's an easy call, but the justices face the harder task of deciding whether advances in technology have undermined the rationale for any governmental policing of indecency on television.

Punishing a broadcaster for inadvertent remarks over which it has no control makes no sense. Indeed, the Federal Communications Commission recognized as much until a policy change in 2004. But in examining the cases, the U.S. 2nd Court of Appeals went further than invalidating the rule; it struck down the FCC's entire indecency policy as unconstitutionally vague, noting that the agency used subjective criteria. But if the FCC can't protect children from indecency on the airwaves, parents might ask, wouldn't that threaten their innocence? That concern assumes inaccurately that broadcast television and radio are still the only or principal media that expose children to unsuitable material.
Certainly the Supreme Court should reject the FCC's fleeting expletives rule. But it needs to recognize that the day is fast approaching when it will have to decide whether the FCC should be in the business of policing indecency at all.

Online textbooks could work for California

[Commentary] It's time for college textbooks to catch up with the 21st century. Online, open-access textbooks that rely heavily on information in the public domain would not only cost students a fraction as much, but they also could be readily updated and easily customized to individual professors' courses. That's a big deal considering that many of the most commonly used traditional textbooks cost more than $150. Buying used books isn't the option it used to be because professors often demand the latest version even when the changes are minimal.

State Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) is on the right track with his proposal for California to lead the way in creating an open-access digital library that would provide free online textbooks for the 50 introductory courses with the highest enrollment. Students could order a print version at cost, about $20. The state would put out requests for proposals for each of these; publishers, professors and others would be welcome to bid. Academics would oversee quality. Though initially expensive to subsidize, the books would be easy to update and the savings for students would add up to billions of dollars over time.

Free Mobile sparks French telecoms price war

Xavier Niel, the French billionaire, has embarked on an aggressive price war against France Telecom, Vivendi’s SFR and Bouygues Telecom that he says will break their stranglehold over one of Europe’s most expensive mobile phone markets. At an event in Paris to launch his Free Mobile service that drew inspiration from Steve Jobs at Apple, including cheering geeks and a promise to “liberate” the French consumer, the founder of Free Telecom unveiled a pricing strategy that he claimed would significantly undercut the incumbents.

Chairman Issa calls hearing on Domain Name Service, search engine blocking for Jan. 18

House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) announced a Jan. 18 hearing on the potential impact of Domain Name Service (DNS) and search engine blocking on the Internet, escalating the feud within the Republican Party over the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

“An open Internet is crucial to American job creation, government operations, and the daily routines of Americans from all walks of life,” Chairman Issa said. “The public deserves a full discussion about the consequences of changing the way Americans access information and communicate on the Internet today.” Chairman Issa has been a harsh critic of SOPA, banding together with fellow Judiciary Committee members Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Jared Polis (D-CO) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) to successfully stall a two-day marathon December markup by endlessly debating a slew of amendments to the legislation.

Lawmakers accuse Facebook of ducking questions on its privacy practices

Reps. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Joe Barton (R-TX) accused Facebook of evading questions about whether it tracks users in order to deliver targeted ads. The co-chairmen of the Congressional Privacy Caucus said the social networking giant failed to adequately answer questions raised by the patent application that suggest Facebook could be tracking users on other websites. Facebook has denied tracking users, arguing its social plug-ins are voluntary.

The pair wrote Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in November about the patent application and a Facebook spokesman insisting the firm "does not track people across the Internet." "The practice of obtaining patents on inventions without launching products based on them is common in the technology industry, and no conclusions should be drawn about a company's practices, products or services from the patents it files, acquires or holds in its portfolio," Facebook said in its response.

Senators blast House spectrum bill

In a letter to Senate leadership, a bipartisan group of senators criticized the House version of legislation to overhaul how the country uses its airwaves.

Sens. John Kerry (D-MA), Mark Warner (D-VA), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) support the Senate version of the legislation but said the House bill would inappropriately tie the hands of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The House version, sponsored by Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), would prohibit the FCC from designating additional airwaves for unlicensed use. Unlicensed spectrum, which can be used by any company for free, powers technologies such as Wi-Fi, garage door openers and remote controls. In their letter, the senators argued that Congress should allow the FCC to make its own decision about how best to use the airwaves. "In the rush to fill the Treasury’s coffers with revenue from spectrum auctions, we must not neglect the fertile ground for innovation that unlicensed spectrum offers and the subsequent economic value it produces," the senators wrote. The senators also criticized the House bill for prohibiting the FCC from imposing various conditions on which companies can buy spectrum leases at auction.

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