Internet Regulation
Committee Adds Filtering Amendment to Budget Bill (CyberTimes)
Television
Report Links Baltimore Crime Fears, TV News (WP)
Arts/First Amendment
Justices Uphold Decency Test in Awarding Arts Grants, Backing
Subjective Subjects (NYT)
'Decency' Can Be Weighed In Art Agency's Funding (WP)
Ruling on Indecency Prompts Fears of a Chilling Effect (NYT)
Groups Shiver at 'Chilling Effect' (WP)
Politics
In Surprise Rebuff to G.O.P., House Panel Backs Money for Arts
Endowment (NYT)
GOP Moderates, Democrats In House Back NEA Funds (WP)
Line-Item Veto Struck Down (WP)
Justices, 6-3, Bar Veto of Line Items In Bills (NYT)
Supreme Court Invalidates the Line-Item Veto (WSJ)
Mergers
Local Bells See a Bright Side in the AT&T Deal (NYT)
** Internet Regulation **
Title: Committee Adds Filtering Amendment to Budget Bill
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/06/cyber/articles/26filter.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Regulation/Censorship
Description: This week an Oklahoma lawmaker won preliminary support for
legislation that would require schools and libraries to install filters on
their computers. The proposed mandate was attached to an $81.9 billion
labor, education, health and human services budget bill pending in the House
Appropriations Committee. This move gives the legislation a much greater
opportunity of passage than if it were a separate bill. "The appropriations
bill is a must-pass bill so it is very dangerous that the provisions has
been added to that bill," said Ron Weich, a legislative consultant to the
American Civil Liberties Union. "It really is a significant threat," said
Weich. "Obviously there will be members who express their opposition to it.
But this is the kind of legislation that has a lot of visual appeal for
members because it involves children and pornography."
** Television **
Title: Report Links Baltimore Crime Fears, TV News
Source: Washington Post (C3)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-06/26/099l-062698-idx.html
Author: Lisa Frazier
Issue: Television
Description: A report released yesterday by the Project on Media Ownership,
a New York-based media research center, found that excessive television
coverage of crime has heightened fears of life in Baltimore residents and
contributed to a "mass exodus" to the suburbs. Mark Crispin Miller, director
of the project said that although the study focused on Baltimore, he
believes that the findings apply to most major cities across the nation. The
study, conducted in April, was based on a three-week content analysis of
television news reports. The study found that a "disproportionate" amount of
time was devoted to crime stories in the typical news broadcast. And a
telephone poll conducted from Feb. 25 to Mar. 2 of 500 city and Baltimore
County residents, also showed that those who watched TV on a daily basis
tended to be more likely to avoid the city and more afraid of crime than
those who don't. "It seems to us that the highly repetitive and highly
charges reports must influence the way people see their world," said Miller.
Public Agenda, a New york-based research organization that conducted the
poll for Miller's group, said that the report distorted the poll results
because more than half of those polled either had been or knew someone who
had been a victim of a crime. "People are...basing their attitudes on
real-life experience," said Margaret Dunning, a spokeswoman for Public
Agenda. "That doesn't mean television hasn't had some impact. But...to say
everything is media-driven is an oversimplification."
** Arts/First Amendment **
Title: Justices Uphold Decency Test in Awarding Arts Grants, Backing
Subjective Subjects
Source: New York Times (A17)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/washpol/scotus-rdp.html
Author: Linda Greenhouse
Title: 'Decency' Can Be Weighed In Art Agency's Funding
Source: Washington Post (A1,A18)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-06/26/143l-062698-idx.html
Author: Joan Biskupic
Issue: Arts/First Amendment
Description: A ruling came yesterday in a case originally brought against
the National Endowment for the Arts by the performance artist Karen Finley
and three other non-mainstream artists. The Supreme Court ruled that the
federal government can consider general standards of decency and the "values
of the American public" when deciding which projects should receive funding.
In an 8 to 1 ruling the court upheld the disputed provision, saying that it
saw no evidence that the decency standard suppressed expression. But Justice
David H. Souter said in the "lone dissent" that the NEA standard would harm
any artist whose artwork is outside the mainstream or shows disrespect for
traditional American values. Justice Sandra Day O'Conner said: "We do not
perceive a realistic danger" that the law will "compromise First Amendment
values." But she added, "If the NEA were to leverage its power to award
subsidies on the bases of subjective criteria into a penalty on disfavored
viewpoints, then we would confront a different case."
Title: Ruling on Indecency Prompts Fears of a Chilling Effect
Source: New York Times (A17)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/washpol/scotus-finlay-art.html
Author: Mel Gussow
Title: Groups Shiver at 'Chilling Effect'
Source: Washington Post (A18)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-06/26/092l-062698-idx.html
Author: Jacqueline Trescott
Issue: Arts/First Amendment
Description: Representatives of different art groups around the country said
they were deeply disturbed by the Supreme Court's decision yesterday and its
failure to understand "the chilling effect" of congressional "wrangling"
over public funding for the arts and artistic freedom. "We have already seen
a significant impact of artists and organization in what they can go to the
endowment for. Indirectly it has had a negative impact on the range of work
that is coming from living artists," said Philip Blither, curator of
performing arts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. In 1996, Congress
ordered that the NEA can no longer make grants to individual artists except
for jazz and folk artists and literature fellows. Performance artist Karen
Finley said that the impact of the decision will be felt in other areas of
the arts and predicted that foundations and museums will be more reluctant
to offer support to artists whose work illustrate unpopular views. Tim
Miller, another performance artist who filed the initial lawsuit in 1990,
said that the ruling will not only affect established artists like himself
and Finley, but will also limit opportunities for emerging artists. He
expressed concern about the effect the decision on other institutions such
as the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science
Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution and the academic world itself.
William J. Ivey, chairman of the NEA, said, "We are please with the Supreme
Court ruling. Today's decision is an endorsement of the endowment's mission
to nurture the excellence, vitality and diversity of the arts and a
reaffirmation of the agency's discretion in funding the highest quality of
art in America."
** Politics **
Title: In Surprise Rebuff to G.O.P., House Panel Backs Money for Arts Endowment
Source: New York Times (A17)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/washpol/congress-arts-endow.html
Author: Katharine Q. Seeyle
Title: GOP Moderates, Democrats In House Back NEA Funds
Source: Washington Post (A25)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-06/26/113l-062698-idx.html
Author: Eric Pianin
Issue: Arts/Politics
Description: In a 31-27 vote Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee
reversed an earlier subcommittee vote to deny money to the NEA. In
yesterday's actions, five moderate Republicans sided with Democrats to fully
fund the embattled agency for another year. "I thing it suggests we're in
strong shape," an NEA official said after the vote. "They [House
Republicans] fell on their swords last time and voted against us, and in the
end we got funded. Some of them may not have thought it was worth it this
time. A vote against the arts for some of these members gives them problems
back home."
Title: Line-Item Veto Struck Down
Source: Washington Post (A1,A19)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-06/26/154l-062698-idx.html
Author: Helen Dewar & Joan Biskupic
Title: Justices, 6-3, Bar Veto of Line Items In Bills
Source: New York Times (A1,A16)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/washpol/scotus-veto.html
Author: Robert Pear
Title: Supreme Court Invalidates the Line-Item Veto
Source: Wall Street Journal (A3)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Edward Felsenthal
Issue: Politics
Description: The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Constitution
prohibited the president from having the authority to rewrite legislation by
canceling specific items in spending or tax bills approved by Congress. The
Supreme Courts 6 to 3 decision dealt a potentially fatal blow to more than a
century of struggle for a presidential line-item veto. Unlike earlier laws
giving the president discretionary spending authority, "this act gives the
president the unilateral power to change the text of duly enacted statutes,"
wrote Justice John Paul Stevens for the majority. Such line-item vetoes are
"the functional equivalent of partial repeals of acts of Congress," he said.
But "there is no provision in the Constitution that authorizes the president
to enact, to amend, or to repeal statutes," he added.
** Mergers **
Title: Local Bells See a Bright Side in the AT&T Deal
Source: New York Times (C1,C3)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/06/biztech/articles/26phone.html
Author: Seth Schiesel
Issue: Mergers
Description: After AT&T announced its decision to acquire TCI on Wednesday
the thinking went that AT&T had lessened its need to use the Bells' networks
to reach local customers. By using TCI's extensive cable television system,
AT&T could link consumers and reduce the amount it pays to the Bells to
begin and end long-distance phone calls. One would think this would bother
the regional Bell companies, but instead their reaction has been: good
riddance. "I don't know who had the bigger celebration -- them or us," said
James Ellis, general counsel of SBC Communications Inc., which groups
Southwestern Bell and Pacific Telesis. The Bells think that AT&T and TCI's
merger will ultimately help them reach "their pot of gold at the end of the
optical fiber: the $80 billion long-distance market."
*********
...and we're outta here. Enjoy your weekend!