Telephone Regulation
NYT: States Plan to Sue F.C.C. On Jurisdiction Over Bells
Television
NYT: Microsoft Facing a Challenge Over Internet-Cable TV Link
NYT: Can You Spell "Compliance," Boys and Girls?
FCC: Unsolved Mysteries in Law, Communications, and Cyberspace
FCC: Commission Seeks Comment on
Revised Industry Proposal for Rating Video Programming
Wireless Telephony
WSJ: FCC Wireless Auction May Reap $7 Billion Less
WSJ: SPECIAL SECTION: Telecommunications
Privacy
NYT: Trifling With Medical Privacy
Arts
NYT: A Showdown In Texas On Money For the Arts
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* Telephone Regulation *
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Title: States Plan to Sue F.C.C. On Jurisdiction Over Bells
Source: New York Times (D2)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/fcc-phone-suit.html
Author: Mark Landler
Issue: Telephone Regulation
Description: Another court battle for the Federal Communications Commission.
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, regulators
from California, Iowa, and Florida, and possibly Bell South and other Baby
Bells will file suit -- perhaps as soon as tomorrow -- accusing the FCC of
violating its jurisdiction by setting the terms by which local phone
companies must open their networks to new rivals. The FCC has been
attempting to pry open to competition the $100 billion local telephone
service market leveraged by its authority to allow local phone companies to
enter into long-distance service. "This could be a regulatory Pearl Harbor,"
said one senior Government official.
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* Television *
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Title: Microsoft Facing a Challenge Over Internet-Cable TV Link
Source: New York Times (A1)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/091197television.html
Author: John Markoff
Issue: Convergence
Description: A small start-up company, Worldgate Communications of Bensalem,
PA, is developing the cable industry's strategy to thwart Microsoft's bid to
blend the Internet and cable TV. The cable industry's plan may bring the
Internet to TV households much quicker than Microsoft envisions. Worldgate
plans to begin offering in the next few weeks Internet service through
set-top convertor boxes, existing TVs, remote control, and optional
keyboards. The suggested retail price is $12/month. The service data rate
would be four times faster than the fastest connections over conventional
phone lines. "Worldgate is Web TV and Microsoft's worst nightmare," says an
industry consultant.
Title: Can You Spell "Compliance," Boys and Girls?
Source: New York Times (B1)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/arts/tv-networks.html
Author: Lawrie Mifflin
Issue: Children's Television
Description: The fall television schedule begins this week and broadcasters
must provide three hours of educational programming for children. The
programming to fulfill this federal requirement is a mixed bag. CBS will
offer "The Weird Al Show" with Weird Al Yankovic who says an educational
message never entered his mind when he set out to do the show. ABC has
retooled "101 Dalmations" with sentimental lessons on friendship and
responsibility. Fox has no new programming for kids. And NBC, the most
watched network, continues to argue that "NBA Inside Stuff" doesn't just
promote basketball, its designed to teach "life lessons." "My concern is
that they'll use these little formulas and will not really try to improve
anything or try new things," says the Center for Media Education's Kathryn
Montgomery [see http://tap.epn.org/cme/]. "I'm worried that they'll do the
bare minimum and hope the public complaints will eventually go away." [See a
summary of the FCC's new rules on kidvid
http://www.benton.org/Policy/TV/kidstv-sum.html]
At the FCC http://www.fcc.gov
Chairman Hundt Speaks at George Washington University Law School on Unsolved
Mysteries in Law, Communications, and Cyberspace: "I love TV; doesn't
everyone?" http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Hundt/spreh744.html
Commission Seeks Comment on Revised Industry Proposal for Rating Video
Programming (FCC 97-321, CS Docket No. 97-55) Comments are due on October 6,
1997, and reply comments are due on October 20, 1997. Interested parties
should send comments and reply comments to: Office of the Secretary, Federal
Communications Commission, 1919 M Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20554.
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/Public_Notices/1997/fcc97321.html
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* Wireless Telephony *
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Title: FCC Wireless Auction May Reap $7 Billion Less
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (A3)
Author: Bryan Gruley
Issue: Spectrum/Auctions
Description: Bidders in FCC spectrum auctions committed $10 billion to win,
but now say they cannot afford to pay for the licenses and build their
networks. The FCC and Congress are trying to figure out how to save the
licenses from being tied up in bankruptcy court for years to come by giving
the bidders some sort of relief. "Either these loans are marked to market
[price] by the FCC, or they will be marked to market by bankruptcy courts,"
says FCC Chairman Reed Hundt. Estimates have the FCC collecting only $3 to
$5 billion for the licenses now.
Title: Telecommunications
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (R1)
Issue: Cellular Phones
Description: A special section in the Wall Street Journal examines the
present and future of wireless communication. Includes tips for consumers,
concerns over privacy, and a look at the technology.
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* Privacy *
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Title: Trifling With Medical Privacy
Source: New York Times (A34)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/editorial/11thu3.html
Author: NYT Editorial Staff
Issue: Privacy
Description: As part of a 1996 law making health care coverage more
accessible for millions of Americans, the Congress required the Department
of Health and Human Services to develop a plan on medical records privacy.
Secretary Donna Shalala will unveil that plan today at a Senate hearing. The
Administration's plan will place new safeguards to limit access to medical
records by employers, drug manufacturers, and direct-marketing companies.
But there is an exemption for law-enforcement agencies who would not have to
get court orders or to notify patients when they are seeking medical
records. Although there is a need to investigate fraud in the nation's
trillion dollar health-care industry, it should not come by making health
records less private than bank records, e-mail messages, or cable and movie
rental records.
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* Arts *
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Title: A Showdown In Texas On Money For the Arts
Source: New York Times (B1)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/arts/sanantonio-arts-funds.html
Author: Judith Dobrzynski
Issue: Arts
Description: Following similar battles in Charlotte and Greensboro, NC,
Anchorage AK, and Jackson Hole, WY, the San Antonio City Council will decide
the fate of the city's Department of Arts and Cultural Affairs (DACA) today.
DACA provides ~$2.7 million in grants annually to 39 cultural organizations,
from the San Antonio Symphony to urban mural projects. "It's an attack on
arts funding overall, the trickling down of the controversy surrounding the
National Endowment for the Arts," says DACA's director, Eduardo Diaz. "These
issues have been festering." Grass roots movements on both sides of the
battle have organized to decide San Antonio's arts funding.
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