Jobs/Minorities
WSJ: TV Jobs Rules On Minorities Are Overturned
NYT: Appeals Court Voids F.C.C. Requirement on Minority Hiring
FCC: Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod v. FCC
Universal Service
TelecomAM: FCC Report Criticized and Praised by Both Sides
Internet
WSJ: Web Publishers Wage War for Music Scoops
NYT: Houston High School Students Take Time-Honored
Exam Cram to the Net
NYT: Technology Companies Push For Standards on Web Images
Long Distance
TelecomAM: Pennsylvania Considering Following New York's "Road Map" Example
Cable
WSJ: Big cable-TV Operators Are Up in Arms Over ESPN
Move to Raise Rates Sharply
Electronic Commerce
WSJ: IBM Blitz to Introduce "E-Business Tools"
NYT: AT&T Data Network Fails and Commerce Takes a Hit
WP: AT&T Gets Network Running Again
Journalism & Arts
WSJ: Grand Forks, ND, Newspaper Wins A Pulitzer Prize
NYT: Gershwin, Graham and Roth Among Pulitzer Winners
WP: Katharine Graham, Philip Roth Win Pulitzers
NYT: Guggenheim Announces Record Gift, $50 Million
NYT: A Night at the Computer-Generated Opera
** Jobs/Minorities **
Title: TV Jobs Rules On Minorities Are Overturned
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (B9)
Author: Scott Ritter
Issue: Jobs/Minorities
Description: "A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia yesterday said the [Federal Communications Commission]
failed to show how its equal employment opportunities rules serve the public
interest." The ruling is a setback for the FCC's efforts to bring diversity
to the nation's airwaves. The FCC adopted the rules in 1968 to foster more
diverse programming. In 1971, about 9% of all full-time employees in radio
and television were minorities; today they comprise 20%. "It means that the
steady progress of minorities in broadcast employment may lessen," said
Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project. "Most troublesome is the
narrow, crimped understanding of what the FCC's diversity objectives are."
[See reaction from FCC below]
Title: Appeals Court Voids F.C.C. Requirement on Minority Hiring
Source: New York Times (A1)
http://www.nytimes.com/
Author: Steven Holmes
Issue: Jobs/Minorities
Description: "We do not think it matters whether a government hiring program
imposes hard quotas, soft quotas, or goals," Judge Laurence Silberman said,
who was appointed to the appeals court in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan.
"Any one of these techniques induces an employer to hire with an eye toward
meeting the numerical target. As such, they can and surely will result in
individuals being granted a preference because of their race." The
three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
ruled that the FCC had failed to prove that the affirmative action program
imposed on broadcasters served the public interest. "The broadcasting
industry has been much more effective in hiring and promoting minorities
than the print media, which is the only comparable industry," said Andrew
Schwartzman, president of the Media Access Project, a non-profit public
interest law firm that promotes affirmative action programs. "The main
reason for that has been this program."
Title: Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod v. FCC
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Kennard/Statements/stwek823.html
Author: Chairman Kennard
Issue: Jobs/Minorities
Description: Statement from Chairman William E. Kennard on the D.C. Circuit
Opinion in Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod v. FCC: "Our nation is diminished
by today's D.C. Circuit opinion in Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod v. FCC.
In this opinion, a panel of the D.C. Circuit held unconstitutional the FCC's
rules requiring broadcasters to cast a wide net in their recruitment
efforts. I am confident that our rules are constitutional and that they
embody the best American principles of fostering opportunity. We are
reviewing the D.C. Circuit's decision and our options for judicial appeal.
The unfortunate reality in our nation today is that race and gender still
matter. We all benefit when broadcasting, our nation's most influential
medium, reflects the rich cultural diversity of our country. Over the last
several decades, the broadcast industry and the FCC have worked in
partnership to encourage opportunity in the broadcast industry. Our rules
have opened doors for minorities and women and have led to more minorities
and women in front of and behind the television camera and inside and
outside of the radio booth. In 1971, three years after the FCC's EEO rules
began, women constituted only 23.3% of full-time broadcast employees, and
minorities constituted only 9.1%. Last year women constituted 40.8% of
broadcast employees and minorities constituted 19.9%."
** Universal Service **
Title: FCC Report Criticized and Praised by Both Sides
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Internet/Universal Service
Description: Members of Congress are beginning to react to the Federal
Communications Commission's report Internet service providers (ISPs)
contributions to the universal service fund. The agency didn't propose the
type of systematic approach that's needed to "solve the problem," said Mitch
Rose, chief of staff for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), but what they ended up
with "at least showed some understanding of the issues." On the other hand,
Rep Rick White (R-WA) praised the Commission for acknowledging "that it
doesn't have enough facts to act now." But he added that when a government
agency says it will consider something, "that means it wants to do it but
hasn't figured out how." The Internet Access Coalition says, "The FCC has
once again shown itself to be the Internet consumer's friend. The executive
director of the Commercial Internet eXchange Association said the report
isn't "something we need to fight or be unhappy about." But she warned that
Internet companies would be "naive to think that [regulation] ends here."
** Internet **
Title: Web Publishers Wage War for Music Scoops
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (B1)
Author: Patrick Reilly
Issue: Internet Content
Description: Music giants are waging a war for the dollars of teenagers in
cyberspace. Competing music news sites are competing for the next generation
of music fans by reporting recording-industry news and gossip. "The question
is which will be the one or two default destinations for people," says an
executive at the Rolling Stones site. "Our goal is to own the mind share for
music."
Title: Houston High School Students Take Time-Honored Exam Cram to the Net
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/
Author: Pamela Mendels
Issue: EdTech
Description: Ten days before this year's round of Advanced Placement exams
for high school students, The Great American Cram
http://www.cy-fair.net/great/ will be launched. The site will be an online
study group aimed at helping students cram for the exams. "The idea came to
us last year after our A.P. history teacher suggested study groups," said
one founder. "We had been involved in the Internet for a while, so we
figured there was no way not to merge the benefits of the Internet with the
benefits of a study group." Last year the same two Houston high school
students launched a similar site http://library.advanced.org/10335/ on the
AP History exam that ended up attracting over 1,000 hits per day. "Robert O.
McClintock, director of the Institute for Learning Technologies
http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/ at Teachers College of Columbia University,
took a quick look at last year's site, and praised the idea, but said he
thought the students' outline contributions could have been stronger and
more cohesive."
Title: Technology Companies Push For Standards on Web Images
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/04/cyber/articles/15graphics.html
Author: Peter Wayner
Issue: Technology
Description: Several major technology companies announced this week plans to
support a new plan called Precision Graphics Markup Language (PGML) for
distributing "vector-based" artistic content in an effort to unify the
"disparate" worlds of print media and the World Wide Web. Their hope is that
digital designers will create works that look great when displayed on a
computer screen and "when printed in much higher resolution upon paper."
Halle Winkler, a San-Francisco-based designer said, "HTML text is really a
catastrophe. It's perfect for information delivery, but for actual design
it's terrible for designers." She points to the fact that the vector-based
formats take up less space and give designers the freedom to specify exactly
where and how letters and lines will appear. Richard Cohen, a senior
designer at Adobe who helped develop the PGML standard, points out that
printing is just as important as the display on the computer screen.
"Everyone's gone off and created nice looking Web pages and they look lousy
when they're printed." PGML would solve this problem by providing higher
level descriptions of the artwork to the printer so the work could be
recreated at a higher resolution.
** Long Distance **
Title: Pennsylvania Considering Following New York's "Road Map" Example
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Long Distance
Description: PA Public Utility Commission Chairman David Rolka said that the
state may follow New York's lead and adopt Bell Atlantic's New York
commitments for PA at its April 23 meeting. The PUC wants to "build upon"
New York's review that resulted in a Bell Atlantic's agreement to open New
York's local phone market in exchange for the NY PUC and the Department of
Justice's approval of BA's long distance application.
** Cable **
Title: Big cable-TV Operators Are Up in Arms Over ESPN Move to Raise Rates
Sharply
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (B6)
Author: Leslie Cauley
Issue: Cable
Description: Cable industry executives are howling over a proposal being
pushed by Walt Disney's ESPN. The plan would raise rates 20% annually
through 2006 for cable operators to show the sports programming channel.
ESPN's rates would quadruple over that time. Cable operators will have to
decide to eat those costs or to pass them on to customers and face their
wrath. "For ESPN, this is a license to print money," said a Cox
Communications executive. ESPN is raising rates because of its decision to
spend a record $600 million per year for the cable rights to National
Football league games -- 225% the rate paid for the games before. Starting
August 1, ESPN will cost cable operators more than $1 per subscriber.
** Electronic Commerce **
Title: IBM Blitz to Introduce "E-Business Tools"
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/
Author: Raju Narisetti
Issue: Advertising/Electronic Commerce
Description: IBM has been running ads touting electronic commerce for
months, but the ads didn't make clear what the computer giant was selling.
Now IBM will clarify: the exciting new e-business tools are laptops,
personal computers, and other computers the company has been selling for
years. In the start of a year-long $100 million global ad blitz, look for
the eight-page newspaper insert next week that states: "The Work Matters.
The People Matter. The Tools Matter." IBM spends $750 million annually on
advertising.
Title: AT&T Data Network Fails and Commerce Takes a Hit
Source: New York Times (D2)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/biztech/articles/15phone.html
Author: Steve Lohr
Issue: Electronic Commerce
Description: From Monday afternoon until yesterday afternoon, consumers and
companies across the nation were exposed to the reality of just how
dependent we are upon vast computer networks. Several million people found
their credit cards were useless and automated bank teller machines were
unable to function because a high-speed data network of the AT&T Corp. had
broken down. The crash did not affect the phone service of AT&T customers,
nor did it affect Internet access. But "the flow of data for transactions
involving credit cards, bank accounts, travel reservations, and the like
were seriously disrupted." Industry experts agree that AT&T's collapse was
the worst such failure ever. "This sort of thing is going to happen
infrequently, but more and more in the future," said Howard Anderson,
managing director of the Yankee Group, a technology research firm. "And it
makes you realize how vital to the lifeblood of the economy these complex
computer networks have become." The AT&T network that crashed is known as a
frame relay network. Until the company finds and solves the problem, C.
Michael Armstrong, chairman of AT&T, said that customers that use AT&T frame
relay will not be charged.
Title: AT&T Gets Network Running Again
Source: Washington Post (C11)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-04/15/115l-041598-idx.html
Author: Mike Mills
Issue: Electronic Commerce
Description: Engineers worked throughout the night Monday to fix the AT&T
system crash that "crippled much of the nation's credit card authorization
system and thousands of bank machines and computer terminals" on Monday and
Tuesday. C. Michael Armstrong issued an apology to everyone affected and
said that AT&T was working hard to "identify, isolate and fix" the cause of
the collapse. The system that crashed was AT&T's "frame-relay" system.
Governments and businesses use this system to send computerized information
across state lines. "The nature of the frame-relay is such that an outage at
a couple of switches can spread like a contagion everywhere else," said
Melanie Posey, a senior analyst with International Data Corp. in New York.
"It just shows you that no matter how great and wonderful a certain
technology is, you have to have a backup plan.
** Journalism & Arts**
Title: Grand Forks, ND, Newspaper Wins A Pulitzer Prize
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (B10)
Author: WSJ Staff Reporter
Title: Gershwin, Graham and Roth Among Pulitzer Winners
Source: New York Times (A1,A23)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/041598pulitzers.html
Author: Felicity Barringer
Title: Katharine Graham, Philip Roth Win Pulitzers
Source: Washington Post (A1,A10)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-04/15/035l-041598-idx.html
Author: David Streitfeld
Issue: Arts/Journalism
Description: The Pulitzer Board announced its annual awards Tuesday.
Katharine Graham, former chairwoman for the Washington Post, won the
biography prize for her book "Personal History." "I have to say bluntly at
80 to suddenly have this kind of award is pretty unbelievable -- and pretty
fun," said Mrs. Graham. Novelist Philip Roth, who has been a finalist for
the prize three times in the past, received his first Pulitzer for "American
Pastoral." Charles Wright, a professor at the Univ. of VA, won the poetry
prize for "Black Zodiac" and Paula Vogel won the drama prize for "How I
Learned to Drive." "A special citation was given posthumously to George
Gershwin, the composer of "Rhapsody in Blue" and "An American in Paris," on
the centennial of his birth 'for distinguished and enduring contributions to
American music.'" The Pulitzers are presented by Columbia Univ. and include
an award of $5,000. For a complete list of all of the prizes awarded please
see the above links or newspapers. The winner for public service was Knight
Ridder's Grand Forks, North Dakota Herald for its coverage of flood and fire
in the city.
Title: Guggenheim Announces Record Gift, $50 Million
Source: New York Times (B1,B8)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/arts/guggenheim-gift.html
Author: Carol Vogel
Issue: Arts
Description: The Solomon Guggenheim Museum announced yesterday that it had
received "a cash pledge" of $50 million from Peter Lewis, chairman and chief
executive of Progressive Corp., a Cleveland-based insurance company. This
gift is one of the largest ever made to any visual arts institution and the
largest gift that the Guggenheim has ever received since its founding in 1937.
Title: A Night at the Computer-Generated Opera
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/04/cyber/articles/15opera.html
Author: Matthew Mirapaul
Issue: Arts
Description: The first opera with computer-generated scenery, characters and
action, will appear Wednesday night in Los Angeles. The opera, "Monsters of
Grace," is a collaboration between director Robert Wilson and composer
Philip Glass. It is a 68-minute opera which presents many of its visual
effects in "three dimensions through overlapping stereoscopic images
projected onto a movie screen 17 feet high and 42 feet wide." Members of the
audience who wear special polarized lenses "will see realistic renderings
of an undulating snake, a severed hand coursing with blood, birds that
appear to fly overhead and other dramatic accompaniments to Glass's
pulsating score." Following its two-week engagement at the UCLA Center for
the Performing Arts, the opera will begin a year-long world tour. Jedediah
Wheeler, the opera's producer, said the new technology allowed Wilson to
expand his ideas in fresh directions. "He is realizing a vision he's never
realized before," Wheeler said. "He's able to put things on stage that he
could not do in a conventional form...For the first time, other than building
devices in the center of a house [theater], you can bring the objects to the
audience. The parameters of the four walls of the theater box are expanded."
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