Advertising
WSJ: A Holiday Greeting Network's Won't Air:
Shoppers Are 'Pigs'
Internet Content
WP: Online Justice -- It's time for the Supreme Court
to get on the Internet
WP: Spinning A Local Web
NYT: FTC Warns Get-Rich-Quick Web Sites
Arts
WP: 25 Films Added to Registry
NYT: Pulitzer to Be Opened to Online Journalism
Philanthropy
WP: Net Wirth and Give Him $100 Million a Year
FCC
FCC: Biennial Review of Regulations
WP: New at FCC, A Member Without TV
** Advertising **
Title: A Holiday Greeting Network's Won't Air: Shoppers Are 'Pigs'
Source: Wall Street Journal (A1)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Robert Berner
Issue: Advertising
Description: Former advertising executive turned anti-consumerism activist
Kalle Lasn has been waging a grass-roots campaign against Christmas-time
commercialism. His strategy: Attack Christmas shopping one day at a time,
beginning with the season kickoff on the day after Thanksgiving, Each year,
Mr. Lasn calls for a 24-hour shopping moratorium on that Friday, he calls it
Buy Nothing Day. He has a commercial that has an animated pig superimposed
over a map of North America with a voice-over reporting on how much the
average North American consumes in comparison to other countries. The Big
Three networks won't air the commercial, though. Richard Gitter, VP of
advertising standards at GE's NBC network, said, "We don't want to take any
advertising that's inimical to our legitimate business interests." CBS, in a
letter rejecting the commercial, said that Buy Nothing Day is "in opposition
to the current economic policy in the United States." Mr. Lasn's commercial
probably wouldn't even be seen if it was aired, he only has a $15,000
budget. Mr. Lasn said, "I came from Estonia where you were not allowed to
speak up against the government. Here I was in North America, and suddenly I
realized you can't speak up against the sponsor. There is something
fundamentally undemocratic about our public airways."
** Internet Content **
Title: Online Justice
It's time for the Supreme Court to get on the Internet
Source: Washington Post (A21)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-11/19/009l-111997-idx.html
Author: Stuart Brotman, Harvard University
Issue: Internet Content
Description: Judge Hiller Zobel used the Internet as a means of distributing
his decision in a much-watched case last week. Mr. Brotman suggests that the
Supreme Court should do the same because: the Court's decisions are of
national importance, it would raise the Court's visibility and
respectability, and the decisions would be readily available to the body
politic. Brotman asks readers to email Members of Congress "and let them
know that this is something of substantial civic value."
Title: Spinning A Local Web
Source: Washington Post (C10)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran & Paul Farhi
Issue: Internet Content
Description: Microsoft is launching its Sidewalk service
http://www.washington.sidewalk.com in Washington DC today joining the fray
and competing with guides to the nation's capitol developed by the
Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com, America Online
http://digitalcity.com and Washington City Paper
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com, the city's alternative weekly
newspaper. Each wants to build an online community that visitors return to
often: "For newspapers, it's an issue of survival. For Microsoft, it's an
unconquered market," says an industry analyst.
Title: FTC Warns Get-Rich-Quick Web Sites
Source: New York Times/CyberTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/111897scam.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Regulation
Description: Earlier this week, the officials from the Federal Trade
Commission and 24 other countries announced they have issued warnings to
hundreds of "Web site operators that their get-rich-quick business
opportunities and pyramid schemes may be illegal." This is the FTC's
second big sweep of the World Wide Web in less than three weeks. When
announcing the results, Jodie Bernstein, director of the commission's
Bureau of Consumer Protection said, "We want to put computer con artists on
notice: Law enforcement agencies throughout the country and around the
world are patrolling the Internet."
** Arts **
Title: 25 Films Added to Registry
Source: Washington Post (D2)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-11/19/132l-111997-idx.html
Author: Lloyd Grove
Issue: Arts
Description: Librarian of Congress James Billington announced this year's
entrees to the National Film Registry. Perhaps most recognizable are The Big
Sleep, The Bridge Over the River Kwai, How the West Was Won, The Hustler,
Knute Rockne, All American, Mean Streets, Rear Window, The Thin Man and West
Side Story. These films have been deemed worthy of preserving for posterity
because they are "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."
(Guess that would be the difference between a "film" and a "movie"). Fifty
percent of pre-1950 and 90% of pre-1920 films have disappeared without a trace.
Title: Pulitzer to Be Opened to Online Journalism
Source: New York Times/CyberTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/111897pulitzer.html
Author: Tim Whitmire
Issue: Arts
Description: The Pulitzer Prize Board announced that newspapers seeking the
1999 Pulitzer Prize for public service will be able to include online
journalism in their entries. Seymour Topping, the Pulitzer Prize
administrator, commented that including online journalism in the public
service prize is particularly appropriate because the prize is designed to
reward papers that make full use of all journalistic resources. Geneva
Overholser, president of this year's Pulitzer board said, "It's not as
dramatic, I am sure, as some who would advocate recognition of online
journalism would hope for, but I think all of us on the board think that
it's significant. We do this in recognition that online journalism is an
important part of what newspapers do." The boards unanimous decision to
allow online entries was made this past Friday at their annual fall meeting
held at Columbia University.
** Philanthropy **
Title: Net Wirth and Give Him $100 Million a Year
Source: Washington Post (A19)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: Al Kamen
Issue: Philanthropy
Description: "In the Loop" digest story on Ted Turner's plan to set up a
foundation to handle $1 billion gift to United Nations. Undersecretary of
State for Global Affairs Timothy Wirth is reportedly leaving his job soon to
head the foundation that will dole out $100 million a year for the next ten
years to the UN.
** Industry News **
Title: Microsoft Emphasizes Its Role as a Partner at Comdex
Source: Wall Street Journal (B4)
http://wsj.com/
Author: David Bank
Issue: Antitrust
Description: At the recent Comdex trade show, Microsoft was highlighting
its role as partner and mentor to hundreds of other software concerns.
Nearly 300 companies convened under the Microsoft Partner Pavilion -- eager
to demonstrate their loyalty to the software giant. If the partners work for
Microsoft by creating software that drives demand for Microsoft's Windows
operating systems, Microsoft also works for its partners. The company spends
close to $600 million each year to provide third-party vendors with
technical support, marketing, promotion, discounts on developer tools,
access to investors and customers, and guidance on how to better complement
Microsoft's own strategies. These efforts are intended to dismiss
Microsoft's rep as a predator and destroyer of markets of products by
copying and integrating others' ideas into the Windows operating system.
But, as consolidation increases, companies are finding ways to profit from
Microsoft's momentum.
Title: BellSouth Plans Wireless Cable In New Orleans
Source: Wall Street Journal (B12)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Leslie Cauley
Issue: Competition/Cable
Description: BellSouth plans to launch wireless cable-TV services in New
Orleans, who will be the first of a half-dozen markets where BellSouth plans
to introduce wireless-cable services, eventually offering its brand of
all-digital entertainment to more than 4 million customers in Atlanta,
Miami, Orlando, and other cities in the Southeast. Their strategy includes a
more traditional expansion of new cable-telephone systems throughout its
region using conventional wires. [You know your news clips are coming out of
DC when we send you stories about "wireless cable"]
** FCC **
Title: Biennial Review of FCC Regulations
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Miscellaneous/News_Releases/1997/nrmc7094.html
Issue: FCC
Description: "FCC Chairman William E. Kennard announced that the FCC has
begun the comprehensive 1998 biennial review of telecommunications and
broadcast regulations required by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Kennard noted that the FCC's action accelerates the Congressionally mandated
biennial review requirement by beginning in 1997 rather than in 1998. In
addition, the scope of this first biennial review will be broader than
required by the 1996 Act. Kennard announced that Deputy General Counsel
David H. Solomon will coordinate the review, with the assistance of senior
managers from the Commission's Bureaus and Offices."
Title: New at FCC, A Member Without TV
Source: Washington Post (A19)
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-11/19/092l-111997-id...
Author: Mike Mills
Issue: FCC
Description: New FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth does not own a
television set. The 40-year old Republican said, "I've got five children.
And we have no shortage of live entertainment in our house." The FCC sets
policy on a host of issues including children's programming, TV liquor
advertising, and cable TV rates.
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