A Dangerous Medium
Microsoft Plans Big Digital-TV Push, Stressing Hardware and Programming
SEN. BURNS SAYS FCC MUST STAY FOCUSED ON UNIVERSAL SERVICE
Universal Service Decisions Will Flower in May
Digital Television: Opportunities, Realities and Challenges
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Title: A Dangerous Medium
Source: Washington Post (A17)
Author: Michael Kinsley
Issue: Internet
Description: This op-ed by the editor of Slate magazine warns readers of
the dangers of paper as a communications medium. Stalin and Hitler both
used paper to spread their messages. Parents should be careful about
letting their children in the same room with it. People may spend hours
isolated from society reading books written on paper. Congress must
institute a paper decency act.
Title: Microsoft Plans Big Digital-TV Push, Stressing Hardware and Programming
Source: Wall Street Journal (B2)
Author: David Bank and Dean Takahashi
Issue: Digital-TV
Description: Microsoft, Intel, and Compaq were not phased when broadcasters
did not jump at their idea for PC-TVs. The companies are going to produce
PC-TVs and create programming for them if need be. Microsoft and Intel
representatives have been working around Hollywood and New York to develop
committments of proof of concept shows. With a web enhanced show, the show
would take up 2/3's of the screen and the remainder of the screen would
have buttons viewers could click for star bios, background information,
etc.
Title: SEN. BURNS SAYS FCC MUST STAY FOCUSED ON UNIVERSAL SERVICE
Source: Telecommunications Reports Daily
Issue: Universal Service
Description: Conrad Burns (R - Mont), Chairman of the Senate Commerce,
Science, and Transportation Committee's communications subcommittee, has
vowed to "remind" the Federal Communications Commission that the primary
purpose of the
universal service support system is to keep telephone rates low in rural
areas. Burns said that the FCC should not be searching for a cost proxy
model that
describes the circumstances in some "imaginary world."
At the FCC (http://www.fcc.gov)
Hundt Says Universal Service Decisions Will Flower in May, Decision Will Be
on Time and on Target; Also Speaks to Heath and Safety Issue of Hard Liquor
Ads.
Commisssioner Ness's 4/14/97 speech "Digital Television: Opportunities,
Realities and Challenges" before the Association of American Public
Television Stations
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