For those used to Headlines arriving with the morning coffee, a warning
that we'll arrive a little late Monday -- probably around 1pm (eastern).
OK, OK, who do you like -- Sox or Cards?
MEDIA & ELECTIONS
Survey: Overwhelming Majority Support Airing of Opposing Political View in
Sinclair Broadcast of "Stolen Honor"
FCC Poised for POW Airing
Kerry Opts Out of Sinclair Program
Sinclair and Watergate
Partisan Politics Prove Costly To Sinclair CEO
Local TV Coverage of the 2004 Elections
MEDIA POLICY
Kids' Cablers Violate Commercial Limits
Philly Court Keep Radio/TV Ban
Push to Pass SHVIA
A Digitally-Based Alert and Warning System
QUICKLY
Election 2004: Bush and Kerry on Technology
Ed Tech: What Do Students Want?
Position Available: Managing Director, Community Technology
Learning/Telecentre Support Network
MEDIA & ELECTIONS
SURVEY: OVERWHELMING MAJORITY SUPPORT AIRING OF OPPOSING POLITICAL VIEW IN
SINCLAIR BROADCAST OF "STOLEN HONOR"
What do people think of the Sinclair/Stolen Honor case? The Consumer
Federation of America and Consumers Union took the time to ask. Here's what
they found: 78% of those who were aware of "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never
Heal," said broadcasters should air the opposing point of view if the
program is broadcast; support for airing of the piece was split -- 51% who
knew of it supported the decision; 41% opposed it; 9% had no opinion; even
among those who support the Sinclair broadcast, 69 percent felt the program
should be balanced by the opposing point of view. 70 percent of respondents
said they feel it is very important for local TV broadcasters to discuss
local issues and 81% said broadcasters should cover local news and events
-- yet when asked how well local broadcasters do in serving the community's
needs, only 13% thought they did a very good job.
The URL below provides links to the survey, a summary of the results and
some comments from respondents.
[SOURCE: Consumers Union Press Release]
http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/campaignmedia/001453.html
FCC POISED FOR POW AIRING
Last week, the ranking Democrat on the House Commerce Committee sent FCC
Chairman Michael Powell a letter (see 10/14 Headlines) asking a series of
questions raised by Sinclair's decision to air "Stolen Honor." Chairman
Powell has returned a letter to Rep John Dingell (MI) saying the Commission
will not prevent the broadcast of the documentary, but will act
"expeditiously" on any complaint filed against Sinclair after it airs the
program A POW Story: Politics, Pressure & the Media. Chairman Powell wrote
that Sinclair might have to provide comparable time for views opposed to
those expressed in the show under "certain circumstances." Those
circumstances would include if the Sinclair show were determined not to be
a bona fide newscast or news interview program, or if the FCC determined
that Sinclair had failed to "afford reasonable opportunity for the
discussion of conflicting views on issues of public importance."
CommDaily reported Rep Dingell's reaction to Chairman Powell's letter:
"Chairman Powell's response is a warning to broadcasters. It explicitly
recognizes that licensees like Sinclair have an obligation to serve the
public interest and that if questions are raised about their failure to do
so, the FCC is prepared to expeditiously investigate the matter and take
action." The FCC has already received a complaint filed by the Veterans
Institute for Security & Democracy regarding the Sinclair broadcast. The
group asked the FCC to consider its concerns that Sinclair may not provide
equal time for a counter opinion on the issues raised in the film. It
sought action before the election, saying without it the Commission
couldn't provide "any meaningful relief." Once the program is broadcast,
the group will revise its complaint, it said.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA474139.html?display=Breaking+...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
Powell Says Station's Entire Performance Is Examined
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Tania Panczyk-Collins]
(Not available online)
KERRY OPTS OUT OF SINCLAIR PROGRAM
Sen John Kerry's campaign announced that it has declined Sinclair's offer
to be part of "A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media." Chad
Clanton, a spokesman for the campaign, said, "The Kerry campaign is in no
way cooperating with this discredited, partisan effort that Sinclair is
poorly disguising as 'news.' Sinclair's latest spin on this premeditated
political attack is just a panicked attempt to appear fair and reasonable.
Sinclair Broadcasting's only motivation is political -- they are committed
to a one-sided smear. Their actions make it clear that promoting the
fortunes of George W. Bush trumps any sense of obligation to the public
trust." Broadcast law expert Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access
Project, said the Kerry campaign's announcement did not moot a pending
campaign request for equal air time to respond to Sinclair's broadcast.
"The Kerry campaign is saying, 'We're not going on where they [Sinclair]
are controlling the format.' The time they have requested can be controlled
by the candidate."
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Doug Halonen]
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=6575
SINCLAIR AND WATERGATE
[Editorial] Don't go celebrating Sinclair's decision not to air "Stolen
Honor," the Journal warns, because Pandora's Box has been opened. One of
the most important protections that a free press has is independent
corporate ownership, so the shareholder suits used against Sinclair this
past week threaten all media outlets. "If the standard now is that stirring
controversy is a fraud against shareholders because it may cost ad
revenue," the Journal concludes, "a lot more media owners than Sinclair are
going to become political targets."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: WSJ Editorial Staff]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109840411740952775,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
PARTISAN POLITICS PROVE COSTLY TO SINCLAIR CEO
This is an odd little piece centered on Sinclair CEO David Smith. Flint
does not focus on Smith's role in the "Stolen Honor" controversy or give
much detail about how he grew the company into the largest TV station
owner. Flint writes: "Sinclair, the nation's largest owner of television
stations, might have thought it was business as usual to have its stations
air a program that, among other things, would question whether John Kerry's
antiwar activities during the Vietnam conflict harmed POWs. But in this
highly charged pre-election climate, the move ignited a firestorm. The
company's stock fell, shareholders protested and advertisers threatened a
boycott." [Can one realistically speculate, in a news article, that
Sinclair did not expect some controversy from its decision?]
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Joe Flint joe.flint( at )wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109838145553152054,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
LOCAL TV COVERAGE OF THE 2004 ELECTIONS
As the campaign season entered its most intense period, nearly eight out of
ten election stories on local television news were about the presidential
race, rather than about campaigns for Congress or local offices. In markets
with U.S. Senate races, little more than four percent of campaign stories
on local news covered them. In presidential battleground states, a
half-hour of local news averaged almost six minutes of campaign
advertising, but only three minutes of campaign news. Ad watch stories, which
truth-check the political commercials, made up less than one percent of
campaign stories in the study's sample. These are among the findings
reported by the Lear Center Local News Archive. This ongoing study is
monitoring all evening news coverage from 5:00 pm to 11:30 pm aired on
local ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox stations in 11 media markets; results released
Thursday cover the period from October 4 through October 10, 2004.
These interim findings, plus a searchable video database of stories, can be
found at localnewsarchive.org. A full report on the 2004 campaign season
will be released after the election.
[SOURCE: The Lear Center Local News Archive -- Press Release]
http://www.localnewsarchive.org/pdf/LCLNARelease2004.pdf
MEDIA POLICY
KIDS' CABLERS VIOLATE COMMERCIAL LIMITS
Viacom is having problems keeping out of the news. The company's
Nickelodeon cable channel will pay a $1 million fine for carrying too much
commercial matter in its kids' shows in violation of FCC limits.
Nickelodeon ran more than 1,000 30-second spots too many and 145 shows that
contained ads for products associated with them, which, in the FCC's eyes,
turns them into program-length commercials. Viacom said in a statement: "We
were extremely upset to discover that we exceeded our allotted commercial
time due to human errors and computer system problems that occurred in our
commercial logging systems. We did not intentionally violate the FCC rules,
and we sincerely apologize for this mistake. While the vast majority of our
programming hours were well under the FCC commercial allotments, we take
full responsibility for any errors, and have initiated new procedures to
help ensure this will not happen again." The ABC Family Channel was also
found to be carrying too much commercial fare aimed at kids and will pay a
$500,000 fine. In its statement, ABC Family Channel attributed the overages
to computer error: "We had previously been using a computer traffic system
that did not read for notations regarding special children's advertising
restrictions and commercials were unintentionally placed in related
programs. Once we became aware of the mistake, we did a thorough,
voluntary review of our operation and have since revised our computer
system to prevent future errors. We derived no economic benefit from the
error, as these commercials were never sold for placement in related shows."
The NYTimes includes this quote from Andrew J. Schwartzman, president of
the Media Access Project: The announcement was "hardly a surprise because
broadcasters and cable companies are all pushing the envelope. They know
there has been a relatively low risk of F.C.C. enforcement. While these
fines may seem substantial, they are not a lot more than the cost of doing
business, and it is much less important than the fact that the F.C.C.
appears to be ignoring other more important issues such as misclassifying
entertainment programming such as 'The Flintstones' as educational
programming."
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA474059.html?display=Breaking+...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
See the Viacom case at
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-04-3260A1.doc
ABC Family Channel at
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-04-3259A1.doc
See a statement from FCC Chairman Powell at
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-253395A1.doc
Additional coverage --
TVWeek: http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=6574
Multichannel News:
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA474111.html?display=Breaking+News
Broadcasting&Cable:
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA474059?display=Breaking+News
LATimes:
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-fcckids22oct22,1,5970...
NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/22/business/media/22adco.html
PHILLY COURT KEEP RADIO/TV BAN
Federal appeals judges in Philadelphia Thursday rejected Viacom's request
to lift restrictions on crossownership of TV and radio stations in the same
market. The limits were relaxed as part of the FCC's sweeping deregulation
of broadcast ownership rules in 2003, but the Philadelphia court ordered
those changes rewritten last summer. In the meantime, the previous, tighter
incarnation of the rules remains in effect.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Bill McConnell]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA474213.html?display=Breaking+...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
PUSH TO PASS SHVIA
The DirecTV, the National Association of Broadcasters, the National
Religious Broadcasters Association, the Motion Picture Association of
America, National Cable & Telecommunications Association and all the major
US sports leagues on Thursday sent a letter to all 100 Senators asking them
to support extending the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA) for
another 5 years. Two SHVIA bills are before the Senate and the group urged
the Senate not to pass a "bare-bones" SHVIA extension because it wouldn't
serve the public interest [which is the highest priority for these
organizations]. "While DirecTV's alignment with the broadcasting lobby on
this issue is disturbing, it is not surprising, since DirecTV is controlled
by a broadcasting company," EchoStar said in a response. The company added
it hoped the Senate would enact EchoStar's digital white area proposal,
which would allow DBS operators to broadcast high-definition, digital TV
signals into areas where local HDTV signals aren't available. "We also hope
the Senate will allow time for us to transfer the local channels of
thousands of customers onto one satellite dish, without creating a
situation in which we would have to disrupt service indefinitely to those
customers."
[SOURCE: Communications Daily]
(Not available online)
See text of letter at
http://www.nab.org/xert/corpcomm/pressrel/senate%20sat%20letter.doc
A DIGITALLY-BASED ALERT AND WARNING SYSTEM
The Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) and the Department of
Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced
Thursday the launch of the Digital Emergency Alert System (DEAS) pilot in
the National Capital Region. This six-month pilot will demonstrate how
Homeland Security can improve public alert and warning during times of
national crisis through the use of local public television's digital
television broadcasts. APTS President John Lawson said, "The pilot will
demonstrate how the capabilities of America's public broadcasters can be
utilized to dramatically enhance the ability of the President of the United
States to communicate with the American public during a national crisis.
The basic technology infrastructure already exists at the 291 digital
public television stations across the country. Each digital television
station can act as the nexus of a wireless network capable of broadcasting
data -- or 'datacasting,' information in its digital television signal
beyond the pictures and sound needed for a traditional television program.
Information datacast by a public television station can be received in
homes, schools and workplaces by a TV tuner card plugged into a computer, a
set-top box attached to a television, or a new digital television set, to
capture the digital signal. The datacast receiver separates the data bits
from the television programming stream, allowing this data to be
manipulated and saved to any software program."
Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary for Homeland Security Emergency
Preparedness and Response said, "This technology will substantially improve
Homeland Security's ability to provide alert and warning accessibility to
the hearing and sight impaired, targeted warning messages, and improved
public reception by increasing the types of devices that can receive
critical alert and all hazards warnings."
[SOURCE: Association of Public Television Stations Press Release]
http://www.apts.org/news/NCR_Pilot.cfm
QUICKLY
ELECTION 2004: BUSH AND KERRY ON TECHNOLOGY
President Bush and Sen Kerry have both responded to a questionnaire on
technology policy from the Computing Technology Industry Association.
Issues addressed include: broadband deployment, privacy, intellectual
property protection, SPAM, Internet telephony, and use of unlicensed
spectrum. See questions and answers at the URL below.
[SOURCE: Computing Technology Industry Association]
http://www.comptia.org/pressroom/election_2004.aspx
ED TECH: WHAT DO STUDENTS WANT?
U.S. students who want to share their thoughts on the state of educational
technology in the nation's schools have until Nov. 12 to participate in
Speak Up Day 2004, an online survey that aims to give K-12 students a say
in how schools use technology and the Internet. Building on the success of
last year's inaugural Speak Up Day event, the NetDay organization--a
California-based nonprofit group that supports the use of technology in
schools--hopes to hear from 500,000 K-12 students enrolled in public,
private, charter, and parochial schools from all 50 states, the District of
Columbia, Puerto Rico, and on American military bases worldwide. See
NetDay's Press Release at http://www.netday.org/news_sud4s_2nd.htm and to
learn more and/or register for NetDay Speak Up Day For Students go to
http://www.netday.org/speakup_forstudents.htm
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: Corey Murray]
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=5327
POSITION AVAILABLE: MANAGING DIRECTOR, COMMUNITY TECHNOLOGY LEARNING
TELECENTRE SUPPORT NETWORK
The Managing Director of the CTCL/Telecentre Support Network will be based
at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Ottawa,
Canada. It has been initially underwritten with a major contribution from
the Microsoft Corporation. The network will provide a locally-driven,
internationally connected telecentre support network consisting of three
tiers: local telecentres, regional support networks, and a global support
centre. This new position will develop a worldwide not-for-profit
"start-up" within the ICT4D program area at IDRC. The successful candidate
will have solid, practical field experience with telecentres along with
compelling leadership, management and communications skills. You'll be
able to work with existing and new regional telecentre groups in the
regions along with building a worldwide Support Network service on the
Internet. If you're passionate about overcoming the "digital divides" and
have the
requisite skills and experiences please contact.
http://web.idrc.ca/en/ev-65324-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
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Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.
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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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