April 2012

US ban on political ads on public TV struck down

A divided US appeals court struck down a federal ban on political advertising on public television and radio stations, a decision that could open the public airwaves to a heavy dose of campaign ads leading up to the November elections. By a 2-1 vote, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said the Federal Communications Commission violated the First Amendment's free speech clause by blocking public broadcasters from running political and public issue ads.

The court said the ban was over broad and that lifting it would not threaten to undermine the educational nature of public broadcast stations. It upheld a ban on ads for goods and services on behalf of for-profit companies. "Public issue and political speech in particular is at the very core of the First Amendment's protection," Judge Carlos Bea wrote in the main opinion. "Public issue and political advertisements pose no threat of 'commercialization,'" he continued. "By definition, such advertisements do not encourage viewers to buy commercial goods and services. A ban on such advertising therefore cannot be narrowly tailored to serve the interest of preventing the 'commercialization' of broadcasting." Minority Television Project, a non-profit that runs KMPT-TV in San Francisco, had challenged the FCC after being fined $10,000 for running paid ads from companies such as insurer State Farm and General Motors Co's Chevrolet division.

FTC Broadens Study of Alcohol Advertising

For the first time, the Federal Trade Commission is requiring the major alcoholic beverage advertisers to detail their use of digital marketing and data collection practices.

The move is part of the agency's periodic review to see how effective the industry's voluntary guidelines are in reducing marketing messages to underage audiences. Companies such as Anheuser-Busch, Diageo and Pernod Ricard must provide the information to the FTC by June 11. Over the years, alcohol advertisers have adopted more stringent guidelines concerning ads in media where 70 percent of the audience is 21 and older, up from a 50 percent threshold prior to 2003. The three main alcoholic beverage industry trade associations have also adopted compliance systems.

FCC Updates Low Power FM Channel Finder Tool

The Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau announces that its updated Low Power FM (LPFM) Channel Finder search tool is now available to the public.

The LPFM Channel Finder tool provides a simple means to tentatively identify available FM channels at any location. To undertake a search a user enters NAD 27 latitude and longitude coordinates of a potential transmitter site. Coordinates must be determined to the nearest second. The LPFM Channel Finder incorporates changes required by the Local Community Radio Act of 2010, including the elimination of LPFM third-adjacent channel spacing requirements. The FCC is currently considering standards for waiving second-adjacent channel spacing requirements and a proposal to exempt LPFM stations operating at less than 100 watts from intermediate frequency spacing requirements. FCC action on these proposals could affect LPFM channel availability at many locations. Searches can include or exclude either or both of these spacing requirements to help LPFM applicants take into account these potential rule changes.

Apple and the Revenge of the Phone Carriers

Is Apple merely mortal? Apple is the largest, most dominant and highly valued company on the planet. It’s measured against entire gross national products. Doubt it at your peril. And yet Apple does not control its own destiny. After all, the company counts on wireless carriers to connect and help market its iPhones. What if the likes of AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint (combined worth: roughly half of Apple) don’t necessarily like the idea of just getting by financially while the Cha-chinger of Cupertino hordes spectacular profits?

What if they wise up and realize they can earn a bigger cut of the recurring windfall every time Apple upgrades its hardware? Or just slow the iPhone’s aggressive upgrade cycle to protect their own profits? It’s a grain of kosher salt being offered by analyst Walter Piecyk of brokerage BTIG, who is sounding a rare cautionary call on Apple (which Wall Street rates with 49 Buys, 7 Holds—including Piecyk—and just 1 Sell). He downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy on the fear that the carriers will get their act together this year to defend their profitability.

What Happens at the President's Innovation Cohort?

The President's Innovation Cohort has existed since 2009 but largely flown under the radar.

One of the few official mentions is in a 2011 memo from then-federal CTO Aneesh Chopra who described the cohort's goal as "surfacing leading practices for open innovation [and] inspiring the public sector to move toward a culture of possibility." By coincidence, U.S. Agency for International Development Chief Innovation Officer Maura O'Neill dug a bit deeper into how the cohort operates in an interview with Nextgov last week. "We run it in a very interesting way," she said. "I come and for the first 15 or 20 minutes I present the problem I'm having. For 10 minutes people ask questions and for 20 minutes they debate the issue without involving me in the conversation." Once that process is done, she said, the person who brought the problem to the group is able to ask questions and respond. "It makes for an interesting conversation," she said. "It's a very interesting way to assess a problem."

Following Local News Closely, Relying on Newspapers

Nearly three quarters (72%) of adults are quite attached to following local news and information, and local newspapers are by far the source they rely on for much of the local information they need. In fact, local news enthusiasts are substantially more wedded to their local newspapers than others.

They are much more likely than others to say that if their local newspaper vanished, it would have a major impact on their ability to get the local information they want. This is especially true of local news followers age 40 and older, who differ from younger local news enthusiasts in some key ways. One-third of local news enthusiasts (32%) say it would have a major impact on them if their local newspaper no longer existed, compared with just 19% of those less interested in local news. Most likely to report a major impact if their newspaper disappeared are local news followers age 40 and older (35%), though even among younger local news followers 26% say losing the local paper would have a major impact on them. In contrast, just 19% of adults who do not follow local news closely say they would feel a major impact and fully half (51%) say they would feel no impact at all from the loss of their local paper. Only 34% of local news enthusiasts feel this way. These local news and information consumers stand out from other adults in several respects related to community attachment, general interest in all types of news, use of sources for local news and information, and the particular topics of interest to them on the local scene. As a whole, local news enthusiasts do not stand out from other adults in their use of technology or in the way they use technology to participate in local affairs, such as sending around links or posting comments on websites. However, among local news enthusiasts there are considerable differences in technology use across generations.

These are among the main findings in a nationally representative phone survey of 2,251 adults by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and Internet & American Life Project, produced in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. It focused on the ways people get information and news about 16 different topics, ranging from breaking news to weather to crime to schools information. The survey was administered from January 12-25, 2011 on landline and cell phones. It has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

The time Americans devote to technology

A Q&A with Frank Newport, the editor-in-chief at the polling firm Gallup. According to Gallup, young Americans are worried they spend too much time in front of screens. “Almost six in ten 18-29 year olds told us that they feel guilty; they spent too much time using their cell phone or their smart phone. And they spend too much time using the Internet. Almost half said they spend too much time on social media sites such as Facebook.”

Charting The Charlotte Observer's Failure To Cover The Fight For Internet Access In North Carolina

Over the past two years, North Carolina's largest newspaper, the Charlotte Observer, has almost entirely ignored efforts to restrict broadband internet access for thousands of North Carolina residents -- efforts that proved successful after passage of the "Level Playing Field" law in 2011, effectively prohibiting underserved North Carolina communities from creating their own municipal broadband networks. Broadband internet access boosts a community's economic output and quality of education, creates jobs, increases government efficiency, and reduces the costs of doing business, but the readership of the Charlotte Observer was left in the dark on the debate.

KFI debuts diversity programming moves

Under fire for the recent comments on the “John & Ken” show, Clear Channel Los Angeles has made the first moves to diversify its on-air lineup.

Two new weekend shows have taken to the station’s airwaves, hosted by David Cruz and Mo O’Kelly. The introductions of the new shows are the first fulfillment of the commitment that KFI management made several weeks ago after meeting with LA African-American community leaders. Clear Channel Market Manager Greg Ashlock, KFI Program Director Robin Bertolucci and Marketing Director Neil Saavedra had pledged to audition for a diverse group of local hosts and guests. That has now led to two new shows. This is a rare and laudable initiative by a talk station to diversify its talent roster and its audience. I hope it works!” said a note to RBR-TVBR from David Honig, Executive Director of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council.

In contrast, National Hispanic Media Coalition President and CEO, Alex Nogales said: "It appears that [Jack Messmer] has failed to contact anyone in the Los Angeles community regarding this Los Angeles station. Instead he relies on David Honig's assessment of the situation. David Honig is a Washington, DC insider -- he is not a member of the Los Angeles community and, in this case, he does not represent our interests. His claim that this move is 'rare and laudable' is fatuous and I've taken David to task over it. Although I am happy to see two more people of color on Los Angeles' airwaves, let's be clear about one thing: adding Cruz and O'Kelly to KFI only on weekends when hot levels (the number of people listening) are immensely small is tokenism, at best. This has been done before and these slots have not led to weekday shows with large audiences and meaningful compensation. Clear Channel's move is cynical and underhanded and does nothing to alleviate KFI and Clear Channel Radio's pattern of hate against people of color, LGBT people, women and others. KFI haters John and Ken, Rush Limbaugh and Bill Handel air every weekday to large audiences, but nobody listens to KFI on the weekends. This in no way makes up for the regular menu of hate that KFI and Clear Channel serve up weekly. KFI is throwing us scraps and expecting us to smile and pat them on the back. But in a community as diverse as Los Angeles, where 2/3 of all residents are people of color, we deserve better. John and Ken must go! And if KFI and Clear Channel are serious about diversity and inclusion, which I suspect they are not, they should feature women and people of color at times when the community is actually listening."

Motorola, Google face probes in Europe, Australia

Foreign regulators are taking a close look at Google and Motorola Mobility as federal regulators in the United States continue to work on their own antitrust probe into the tech giant.

Officials in the European Union are looking at Motorola patents and Google’s search business, while a court in Australia recently found that the company hosted misleading ads on its AdWords platform. The European Union’s competition watchdog announced that it has opened “two formal antitrust investigations” against Motorola Mobility, which is being bought by Google. At issue are “standard” patents held by the wireless company, which are supposed to be licensed at a fair rate. But Apple and Microsoft have complained that Motorola’s decision to seek injunctions against their products on the basis of these basic patents.

(April 3)

Benton

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