POLITICAL DISCOURSE
Before a Hollywood Crowd, Democrats Lower the Volume (NYT)
Full of Banter, Bush Takes on 'Oprah' Circuit (NYT)
EDTECH
No Technology Funds for Poor Schools (CyberTimes)
MERGERS
FTC Probes Effect of AOL Merger On Existing Pacts With DSL
Providers (WSJ)
EMI Group and Time Warner Submit Concessions to
Allay Antitrust Worries (WSJ)
COMPETITION
Qwest Opens Local Phone Service To Competitors, Drops Lawsuits (WSJ)
America Online to Roll Out Unmetered Service in U.K (WSJ)
JOBS
Hollywood Has Hope for Happy Ending Before Strike (USA)
Recruiters Hunt for Candidates On the Web in Nocturnal Game (WSJ)
JOURNALISM
Tightening Control on Media Worry Journalists in Angola (NYT)
Strangling Russia's Media (WP)
LEGISLATION/REGULATION
Mark-Up Session (Senate)
Biennial Review 2000 Staff Report Released (FCC)
SPECIAL SECTIONS
Clicking Outside the Box (NYT)
Wired Economy (WP)
POLITICAL DISCOURSE
BEFORE A HOLLYWOOD CROWD, DEMOCRATS LOWER THE VOLUME
Issue: Media & Society
At a fund raising event with 300 of their most generous contributors,
Gore/Lieberman toned down attacks on the entertainment industry. "We will
nudge you," Sen Joe Lieberman, the vice-presidential nominee, said gently.
"But we will never become censors." "Al and I have tremendous regard for
this industry," Sen Lieberman added. "We're both fans of the products that
come out of the entertainment industry -- not all of them, but a lot of
them. And the industry has entertained and inspired and educated us over the
years. And it's true from time to time we will have been, will be, critics,
or noodges, but I promise you this: We will never never put the government
in the position of telling you by law, through law, what to make." Vice
President Gore was a bit more circumspect than Mr. Lieberman in his
comments, praising Rob Reiner, the director, for paving the way for their
visit and referring obliquely to "the controversy of the previous week." The
event raised $4.2 million for the Democratic National Committee.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A1), AUTHOR: Katharine Seelye]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/20/politics/20GORE.html)
(requires registration)
FULL OF BANTER, BUSH TAKES ON 'OPRAH' CIRCUIT
Issue: Political Discourse
Gov Bush appeared on "Oprah" yesterday, trying to woe the show's 7 million
viewers -- most of them, surprisingly, women. One week after VP Gore's
appearance, Gov Bush resisted some of Oprah's efforts to force him into
introspection and joked at others. resisted some of her efforts to force him
into introspection and joked at others. This type of appearance seems to be
a campaign priority: Bush sat for an interview with Paula Zahn of Fox on
Monday. On Tuesday he sat not just for Ms. Winfrey but also for Diane Sawyer
of "Good Morning America." On Thursday he will be on the Regis Philbin show.
And the Bush campaign tried to work out an appearance with David Letterman
this week, during a brief visit to New York City, but found out that Mr.
Letterman was not taping.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A1), AUTHOR: Alison Mitchell]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/20/politics/20BUSH.html)
(requires registration)
EDTECH
NO TECHNOLOGY FUNDS FOR POOR SCHOOLS
Issue: Erate
The Urban Institute's new study of the e-rate shows that the poorest schools
cannot make good use of the telecommunications discounts. The study shows
bureaucratic requirements and financing models make it impossible for some
schools to benefit. "There are some areas that are so poor that even with
the 90 percent discount, this 10 percent disables them from using the
e-rate," Education Secretary Richard Riley told education technology
experts. "It's a small band of the poorest of the poor. Those are the very
schools we need to reach." The bureaucracy associated with applying for
e-rate funding is one barrier small and poor schools seem hampered by, said
Duncan Chaplin, a research associate the Urban Institute's Education Policy
Center. "I think the problem is getting the information together," he said.
"I'm guessing it would take about 20 to 30 hours. If you're a really small
school that's only going to get $2,000 or $3,000, it's not worth it."
Small, rural public schools often do not have the personnel needed to
complete the initial application process to participate in the e-rate
program, said Kari Afstrom, project director for public affairs for the
American Association of School Administrators, and vice president of
Organizations Concerned About Rural Education. "We also know some rural
districts are not applying if they are not members of an education services
agency," or regional education entity operated by the state, she said. "If a
state has that entity, rural schools are being covered. If they don't,
they're probably not applying because of a lack of personnel to fill out the
paperwork."
"We're continually doing outreach to simplify the process," said FCC
Chairman William Kennard. "The large urban school districts were able to
aggregate their demand and hire consultants. Smaller districts have not been
able to do that."
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Rebecca Weiner (rweiner( at )nytimes.com)]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/19/technology/20EDUCATION.html)
(requires registration)
See Also:
SCHOOL BOARD MOVES ON AD-FINANCED LAPTOPS
[SOURCE: New York Times (A26), AUTHOR: Edward Wyatt]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/20/technology/20LAPT.html)
(requires registration)
MERGERS
FTC PROBES EFFECT OF AOL MERGER ON EXISTING PACTS WITH DSL PROVIDERS
Issue:Mergers
To ensure that AOL won't promote its cable service exclusively for its own
use after the company merges with Time Warner, federal regulators are
questioning some regional telephone companies, in spite of the fact that AOL
has said publicly it plans to honor its existing agreements to provide
Internet service through high-speed digital subscriber lines from Verizon
Communications and SBC Communications. AOL Chief Executive Steve Case told
the Federal Communications Commission in July that AOL wants its service to
be available through many delivery methods. Even so, the Federal Trade
Commission is apparently considering codifying some aspects of the promise
into a legally binding requirement as part of a settlement with AOL and Time
Warner. An executive at a leading provider of digital subscriber lines said
he told the FTC that he is worried that, despite its promises, AOL will have
an economic incentive to promote high-speed access to the Web through Time
Warner cable lines.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B10), AUTHOR: Julia Angwin]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB969412624530373680.htm)
(Requires subscription)
EMI GROUP AND TIME WARNER SUBMIT CONCESSIONS TO ALLAY ANTITRUST WORRIES
Issue: Mergers
EMI Group and Time Warner are doing all they can to salvage their proposed
music joint venture. They have submitted to the European Commission a new
set of antitrust remedies involving sales of music labels and copyrights,
and have also offered to sell several catalogs of songs to reduce their huge
market shares in music publishing. The commission indicated last week that
it was prepared to block the merger unless the companies came up with
concrete proposals to allay regulatory concerns. The Warner-EMI joint
venture would surpass Seagram's Universal Music Group to become the biggest
music publisher in the world and one of the two biggest recorded-music
companies. Competitors such as Universal and Walt Disney, which owns
Hollywood Records, have complained to European regulators about the impact
of the EMI-Warner joint venture combined with AOL's acquisition of Time
Warner. The new list of Time Warner-EMI concessions for the first time
includes actual divestitures, rather than the mere promises of future
business conduct that the companies had initially offered.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A23), AUTHOR: Philip Shishkin And Martin
Peers]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB96939844999213710.htm)
(Requires subscription)
See Also:
EMI SAYS IT AND TIME WARNER MAKE DEAL CONCESSIONS
[SOURCE: New York Times (C9), AUTHOR: Edmund Andrews]
COMPETITION
QWEST OPENS LOCAL PHONE SERVICE TO COMPETITORS, DROPS LAWSUITS
Issue: Competition
The Denver-based Qwest Communications International has begun a push to open
its local phone business to competition, paving the way for it to eventually
offer combined local, long-distance and Internet services in its home region
(Western and Mountain states). Having bought USWest last June, Qwest is
dropping 17 lawsuits brought by USWest against state regulators, and
moving to make it easier for competitors to set up shop. Qwest is eager to
gain the support of state regulators as it seeks permission to enter the
long-distance market in its home region. To succeed, it must satisfy
regulators that its markets are competitive. Qwest hopes to have
long-distance applications for all 14 Western and Mountain states before the
Federal Communications Commission by the end of 2001 and to have approval in
at least one state by late summer or early fall. "Dropping the lawsuits is
wise, because it's kind of hard to get the states to love you when you are
suing them," said Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Anna-Maria Kovacs.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B6), AUTHOR: Shawn Young]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB969407732667069492.htm)
(Requires subscription)
AMERICA ONLINE TO ROLL OUT UNMETERED SERVICE IN U.K.
Issue: Competition
To encourage home Internet usage in the U.K., AOL's U.K. division said
Tuesday it will roll out a 14.99 pounds-a-month ($21) flat-rate pricing plan
to provide members with unmetered access to its service, akin to pricing in
the U.S. In June, AOL's German unit introduced a monthly flat rate for its
Internet subscribers at 78 German marks ($34). That price undercut the
79-marks rate offered by Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Online International AG
unit. Massachusetts-based AltaVista had started such a plan in the U.K. in
March, but abruptly stopped in August.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (Interactive), AUTHOR: WSJ.COM News
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB969371177325016782.htm)
JOBS
HOLLYWOOD HAS HOPE FOR HAPPY ENDING BEFORE STRIKE
Issue: Jobs
Actors and writers have threatened a strike that could cripple movie and
TV production, if a settlement cannot be reach through negotiations. The
Writers Guild of America has set a May 1 strike deadline, and the Screen
Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
are vowing to walk June 30 if they don't have a new contract. At issue
are so-called residual payments that actors and writers receive when
their movies or TV shows are sold overseas, to cable TV or to Internet
sites, increasingly able to stream video to Web users. The writers
strike in 1988 "was devastating, and we're already feeling the heat
based on the possibility of a strike now," says David Davis, an
entertainment analyst at Houlihan, Lokey, Howard & Zukin. "A strike by
either writers or actors will be a disaster for the industry," says TV
producer Dick Wolf (Law & Order).
[SOURCE: USAToday (1D), AUTHOR: Josh Chetwynd and Gary Levin]
( http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000920/2662681s.htm
RECRUITERS HUNT FOR CANDIDATES ON THE WEB IN NOCTURNAL GAME
Issue:Jobs
Bosses, beware. Someone may steal your best worker tonight. The Internet
after dark is the place to be for job-hunting in the New Economy, with
determined recruiters snapping up hot techie resumes before dawn, contacting
candidates by e-mail and sometimes even by phone. "The competition for
candidates is fierce. As a result, the early bird gets the worm," says K.C.
Ward, former recruiting director for Premier Technical Solutions. Late at
night, when traffic on the Web is low and the system moves data faster, many
headhunters stay up past 2 a.m., combing job sites, surfing chat rooms,
digging out fresh resumes on personal Web pages, posting
help-wanted ads and sending e-mails. Candidates with technical skills that
are especially in demand often find themselves bombarded with calls and
e-mail within minutes of posting a resume online. Late-night job searching
isn't limited to techies. College students now pull famous "all-nighters"
not just to cram for exams, but also to hunt for jobs. Of the students using
Internet job boards at East Coast colleges serviced by experience Inc., a
Boston provider of software for college-career centers, almost 20% did so
from midnight to 4 a.m., the company says. Even off-line aspects of the job
hunt are shifting to off-hours. Kevin Flash, 43, has been looking for a job
for the past three weeks, after his post as a software-development manager
was eliminated at Transamerica Intellitech. As a single father of four kids
ranging from eight to 15 years old, his afternoons and evenings are pretty
full. "Once I get them into bed, I have a little window of opportunity," he
says.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (Interactive), AUTHOR: Rachel Emma Silverman]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB96940785537733216.htm)
(Requires subscription)
JOURNALISM
TIGHTENING CONTROL ON MEDIA WORRY JOURNALISTS IN ANGOLA
Issue: Journalism/International
The Angolan government is pushing rules that would sharply restrict the
operations of independent news media. Under the proposed legislation,
journalists who publish or transmit news or facts "which attack the
honor" of government officials or offend "public morals and good habits"
could be imprisoned for two to eight years. "Journalists are very, very
cornered in Angola," said Yves Sorokobi, the Africa program coordinator
for the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New-York based group that
has sharply criticized the legislation. "This new law will make it
almost completely impossible to talk about politics." The government of
President Jos