For upcoming media policy events, see http://www.benton.org/calendar.htm
MEDIA & ELECTION
Family's TV Clout In Bush's Corner
Plan to Air Divisive Film Raises Questions
Activists Take Aim at Sinclair Licenses
Networks Vow Caution in Calling Election
Politics, Media and Money
Anatomy of a Lobbying Blitz: Cable Industry Enlists Diverse Crowd in
High-Level Influence Campaign
MEDIA POLICY
Too Big To Be Too Good
Entertainment Industry Asks Justices to Rule on File Sharing
FCC Plans to Levy Big Indecency Fine Against Fox TV
Two-Dish Ban Passes Muster In the House
Turner to FCC: Tiers Make the Most Sense
Finnish Watchdog Raps TV Game Operators
TELECOM
Comcast CEO Offers Olive Branch to Bells
FCC Fur Flies Over eRate Delays
QUICKLY
Ultrawideband Heralds Zippier Wireless Connections
Job Available: New America Foundation
MEDIA & ELECTION
FAMILY'S TV CLOUT IN BUSH'S CORNER
Who are David D. Smith and his brothers Frederick, Robert and J. Duncan?
They are the controlling interest behind Sinclair Broadcasting Group, a the
nightmare media activists have been screaming about come to life. They
control TV stations from Buffalo to Sacramento, including 20 Fox
affiliates, eight from ABC, four from NBC and three from CBS. In 2001, they
ordered local anchors to read editorials backing the Administration against
al Qaeda. Earlier this year, Sinclair sent a vice president to Iraq to find
good news stories that it said were being overlooked by the biased liberal
press. And the Smith brothers and their executives have made 97% of their
political donations during the 2004 election cycle to Bush and the
Republicans. Now Sinclair has ordered its 62 stations to carry a movie
attacking Sen Kerry's Vietnam record. "This is an abuse of the public
trust," FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said in a statement yesterday. "And
it is proof positive of media consolidation run amok when one owner can use
the public airwaves to blanket the country with its political ideology --
whether liberal or conservative." But Heritage Foundation media analyst
Mark Tapscott called it a free speech issue, saying: "Why are we even
thinking about limiting what a media organization can publish? There are
lots of things in the world that are unfair."
More reaction in the following two stories.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz & Frank Ahrens]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25406-2004Oct11.html
(requires registration)
PLAN TO AIR DIVISIVE FILM RAISES QUESTIONS
Why would Sinclair Broadcasting CEO David Smith embroil himself in
controversy by ordering his stations to air a documentary challenging Sen
John Kerry's Vietnam service within days of the presidential election? Wall
Street does not like the decision. Sinclair's shares, which have lost about
half their value in 2004, closed Monday at $7.38, down 12 cents. That's
about as low as they've been since 1995. "I don't want my media companies
that cover the news to be making news," says Barry Lucas of Gabelli & Co.,
which owns about 4% of Sinclair. Many believe Sinclair's decision shows how
much the company has riding on the election. With its heavy concentration
of Fox and WB affiliates, ranking in the middle of the pack in mostly
midsize markets, Sinclair is barely profitable and laden with debt. It had
a net profit of $14 million on revenue of $739 million in 2003. Sinclair
hopes to change that by solidifying its hold on local markets by
controlling, for example, two stations in more cities and sharing operating
and news-gathering costs. But it needs the federal government to relax
several media ownership restrictions. Sinclair wants the FCC to permit a
company to own two or more stations in more communities than allowed now.
It also wants the FCC to ease a restriction that bars a company from owning
TV stations reaching more than 35% of all homes, and to lift the rule that
keeps companies from owning newspapers and TV stations in most markets. The
Bush-appointed Chairman of the FCC, Michael Powell, supports these changes.
Sen Kerry has said that he opposes further concentration of media ownership.
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: David Lieberman]
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20041012/1b_corptax12.art.htm
ACTIVISTS TAKE AIM AT SINCLAIR LICENSES
Sinclair Broadcast Group's decision to preempt local programming schedules
to air an anti-(Sen)Kerry documentary is riling both media activists and
the Democratic Party. Free Press has started a website,
www.sinclairwatch.org, and is promising to challenge Sinclair-owned
stations when their licenses come up for renewal. Free Press thinks
Sinclair is illegally dictating programming schedules for five stations
owned by Cunningham Broadcasting that Sinclair manages under local
marketing agreements. Under LMAs, the managing partner runs advertising and
operational functions but leaves the station's programming decisions to the
owner.
The DNC plans to file a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission
arguing that airing the documentary will amount to an illegal contribution
to President Bush's campaign.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Bill McConnell]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA470905?display=Breaking+News&...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
Democrats Protest Sinclair Documentary
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA470900.html?display=Breaking+...
Additional coverage --
* Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109753409886642369,00.html?mod=todays...
* LATimes
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-sinclair12oct12,...
NETWORKS VOW CAUTION IN CALLING ELECTION
Four years ago, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox projected an Al Gore victory in
Florida on the basis of exit polls, and then awarded Florida -- and the
presidency -- to George W. Bush six hours later. But the race was so
agonizingly close that it triggered a 36-day recount battle, and the news
division presidents later apologized at a House hearing. Now they are
promising that it will not happen again. Really. Trust us. The five
networks and the Associated Press dissolved their exit poll consortium,
Voter News Service. They have hired two firms -- Edison Media Research and
Mitofsky International -- to handle this year's surveys, and have turned
over the actual vote-counting to the AP. For the first time, network
executives vow they will not make projections in any state until all the
polls have closed there. "We're not going to make a projection until we're
confident, and in some cases we may be slower, and that's the way it goes,"
said Dan Merkle, director of ABC's decision desk.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25309-2004Oct11.html
(requires registration)
POLITICS, MEDIA AND MONEY
A who's who of political donations from Hollywood celebrities and executives.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: David Hatch]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA470554?display=Top+of+the+Wee...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
ANATOMY OF A LOBBYING BLITZ: CABLE INDUSTRY ENLISTS DIVERSE CROWD IN
HIGH-LEVEL INFLUENCE CAMPAIGN
An investigation of hundreds of filings with the FCC, lobbying reports and
other documents reveals that the "grass roots" opposition to the cable
industry's a la carte system of choosing television channels is actually a
highly sophisticated lobbying campaign where seemingly disinterested
third parties -- like nonprofits and legislators -- are spreading the
anti-a la carte message using minority programming as the key issue.
[SOURCE: Center for Public Integrity]
http://www.publicintegrity.org
MEDIA POLICY
TOO BIG TO BE TOO GOOD
[Commentary] Accounts of the demise of America's newspapers are greatly
exaggerated. On any given Super Bowl Sunday, more Americans read their
Sunday paper than watch the game. Americans rely on newspapers much more
than on other media for local news and information. Newspapers influence
other media because of the size of their newsgathering resources. But there
are some financial pressures on newspapers to continue to deliver large
profits. These pressures are resulting in lower-quality news and an
unwillingness to serve customers in whom advertisers have no interest.
Allowing newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership may help profits, but not
journalism. Convergence provides additional means of distribution, but the
newspaper reporter who is asked to get the story out via radio, TV and
Internet is losing time that could be spent collecting the next story.
Every time [a newspaper] is combined with a local television station, there
is at the least one less TV reporter who might actually spy a story the
paper did not. And when the newspaper, broadcast outlets and Web all join
into one report, what values are likely to prevail? As Robert Haiman of the
Poynter Institute put it, "There is going to be a tremendous clash of
values: the journalism values of newspapers, the entertainment values of
television and the no-holds-barred, raw, unedited, anarchic values of the
Internet." Let's guess how likely it is that the values of journalism will win.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Geneva Overholser, University of Missouri]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA470566?display=Editorials&ref...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY ASKS JUSTICES TO RULE ON FILE SHARING
the movie and music industries have filed a petition asking the Supreme
Court to overturn a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the
Ninth Circuit in San Francisco that upheld the notion that makers of a
technology with legal uses cannot be held liable simply because some - or
even most - of its users deploy it to violate a copyright. That court
relied heavily on the principles of a 1984 Supreme Court decision known as
the Sony-Betamax case, which gave makers of electronic devices crucial
legal protection against claims of copyright infringement. The new
petition, filed Friday by the recording and film industries, argues that
the appellate court misapplied the Sony-Betamax decision. "The Ninth
Circuit's decision threatens the very foundations of our copyright system
in the digital era," the petition claims, arguing that software companies
like StreamCast and Grokster "brazenly encourage and profit from
infringement" of copyright.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Tom Zeller Jr]
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/12/technology/12share.html
(requires registration)
FCC PLANS TO LEVY BIG INDECENCY FINE AGAINST FOX TV
Fox may be the next TV broadcaster to get a huge indecency fine from the
FCC. A dollar to the reader who guesses correctly which program is drawing
the fine: will it be Married...With Children, That 70's Show, Who Wants to
Marry a Multimillionaire or perhaps Trading Spouses? The winner is Married
by America, a 2003 reality series which was a big loser in the ratings. The
offending material depicted a bachelor party that included strippers,
whipped cream and topless prostitutes, according to the Parents Television
Council, a media watchdog that filed a complaint with the FCC. The fine,
apparently, will apply to all Fox affiliates, not just those owned and
operated by the network. It could reach $1 million.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Anne Marie Squeo
annemarie.squeo( at )wsj.com & Joe Flint joe.flint( at )wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109754542728642705,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
TWO-DISH BAN PASSES MUSTER IN THE HOUSE
EchoStar customers in 38 markets currently need two dishes to receive all
of their local TV stations. The practise infuriates broadcasters because
although the second dish comes for free many subscribers don't bother to
get it hooked up. The FCC has refused to ban the practise, but the House
approved satellite copyright-renewal legislation that gives EchoStar just
one year to convert all local TV subscribers to a single satellite dish.
The House bill (H.R. 4518) would allow EchoStar to require a second dish,
but all local TV stations would have to be available on that dish. EchoStar
indicated it might move all local TV stations in the 38 markets to the
second dish, which would mean subscribers with one dish now would need to
install a second dish within a year.
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA470543.html?display=Top+Stories
(requires subscription)
TURNER TO FCC: TIERS MAKE THE MOST SENSE
The FCC has about six weeks to deliver to Congress a report on the pros and
cons of a la carte cable pricing. Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time
Warner, say its economic consultants concluded that a la carte mandates
would thwart cable's ability to offer consumers a broad range of
programming in the most economically efficient manner. According to
Analysis Group economists Coleman Bazelon and Thomas Hazlett, bundling
"dramatically lowers distribution costs for programmers and transaction
costs for customers who are able to continuously sample a wide variety of
programs at no additional cost." The two analysts also concluded, "Bundling
enables consumers to share the costs of facilities delivering a broad menu
of popular services." A la carte, they added, "results in higher prices and
is rejected by consumers in those instances in the multichannel-video
market where it has been tried."
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA470899.html?display=Breaking+News
(requires subscription)
FINNISH WATCHDOG RAPS TV GAME OPERATORS
Finland has seen a recent boom in television games and competitions that
can be entered by sending text messages. Broadcast during the afternoon,
the programs are targeted at children and can cost a $1 or more per text
message to play. One child racked up a bill of $1,500 playing. The
country's Consumer Ombudsman said numerous parents had complained about the
fad and has now reprimanded broadcasters. The watchdog said the price
information given was not even clear enough to fulfill legal requirements
for advertising to adults.
[SOURCE: Reuters]
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=NWYZUI42MVTXECRBAEOC...
TELECOM
COMCAST CEO OFFERS OLIVE BRANCH TO BELLS
Speaking at the United States Telecommunications Association's annual
conference, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts began with a little tune..."Try to
see it my way/Do I have to keep on talking till I can't go on?/While you
see it your way/Run the risk of knowing that our love may soon be gone/We
can work it out/We can work it out." Actually, he said, "Today I ask you to
join me to help unleash the power of competition, to use energies not to
pit the government against each other, but to (advocate) a national
deregulation policy that benefits all of us." [By "us" he most probably
meant incumbent teleco and cable giants.] He added that the two industries
should not advocate regulations as a "competitive sword in what should be
marketplace battles, not political battles." Instead, the two sides should
join in preventing the government from regulating their Internet-based
businesses, including the blossoming of voice over Internet Protocol,
commonly known as VoIP. "Whatever our differences, we should be fighting
for the same fundamental goals."
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Jim Hu and Ben Charny]
http://news.com.com/Comcast+CEO+offers+olive+branch+to+Bells/2100-1034_3...
FCC FUR FLIES OVER ERATE DELAYS
Sharp division among FCC commissioners regarding the abrupt decision to
suspend millions of dollars in eRate funding overshadowed an Oct. 6 event,
"Lifelong Learning: Unleashing the Power of Broadband," to showcase the
many ways broadband Internet access has transformed learning. At the event,
the commissioners encouraged schools and libraries to tell their eRate
success stories. The symposium highlighted many extraordinary examples of
how eRate dollars have directly changed learning in remote communities in
Alaska, for deaf students, and more.
[SOURCE: eSchoolNews, AUTHOR: Cara Branigan]
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=5318&page=2
QUICKLY
ULTRAWIDEBAND HERALDS ZIPPIER WIRELESS CONNECTIONS
Do you use Wi-Fi and dream of WiMax? Well, here's a look at what
Ultrawideband can do.
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Duncan Martell]
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=NWYZUI42MVTXECRBAEOC...
JOB AVAILABLE: NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION
http://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=app#ProgAssoc
--------------------------------------------------------------
Communications-related Headlines is a free online news summary service
provided by the Benton Foundation (www.benton.org). Posted Monday through
Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments,
policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are
factually accurate, their often informal tone does not always represent the
tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang
(headlines( at )benton.org) -- we welcome your comments.
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