MEDIA OWNERSHIP
Media Ownership Rules Facing Appeals
Commentary: Public TV the Last True Local Broadcaster
Commentary: The FCC's Ghost from Watergate
DIGITAL DIVIDE
St. Louis Metro East Towns to Benefit from New Digital Divide Fund
Regulators Push for Rural Communications
PRIVACY
In Florida, Police Database Sparking Orwellian Fears
EDTECH
'Virtual School' Clicks with District
INTERNET
SBC Beefs Up Broadband Offering With Wi-Fi
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MEDIA OWNERSHIP
MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES FACING APPEALS
One day after the FCC's new media ownership rules were officially published
in the Federal Register, two groups have filed legal challenges to have them
overturned. On one side of the argument, the National Association of
Broadcasters has filed a suit against the rules in the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia, arguing that the FCC's decision to loosen the
rules doesn't go far enough. Specifically, the NAB is challenging how the
FCC defines particular radio markets, as well as rules that prevent TV
station mergers in smaller markets. On the other side, a coalition of more
than 600 local television stations have filed suit, taking the position that
new rules should not have raised the ownership cap from 35 percent to 45
percent. Meanwhile, Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project says that
public interest groups may file their own legal challenges as early as next
week.
SOURCE: Austin American-Statesman; AUTHOR: David Ho, Associated Press
http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/ap/ap_story.html/Fina...
l/AP.V9382.AP-Media-Ownership.html
PUBLIC TV THE LAST TRUE LOCAL BROADCASTER
[Commentary] James N. Morgese, president and general manager of Rocky
Mountain PBS, writes that the current debate over media ownership has
overlooked America's strongest local broadcasting asset -- public
television. "Our stations' contribution to delivering local service may
provide many of the answers to questions raised by the media-ownership
debate," he states. "With our 'ownership' not in question, public television
stations aren't looking over our shoulders at who might acquire us."
However, public television faces enormous financial challenges given the
fact that Congress continues its attempts to slash funding. Morgese argues
that the conversion to digital television creates powerful opportunities for
public broadcasters to assert themselves as leaders in providing local
content, from educational materials to homeland security information. The
challenge, he says, is making the transition to digital without bankrupting
stations -- a situation exacerbated by federal funding cuts. "The
media-consolidation debate will continue," he concludes. "We just ask those
who are concerned about the preservation of locally controlled media to
direct some of their concern public broadcasting's way."
SOURCE: Denver Post; AUTHOR: James N. Morgese
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~158~1555657,00.html
THE FCC'S GHOST FROM WATERGATE
[Commentary] The Washington Times offers an unusual historical perspective
on the media ownership debate in one of its editorials today. Quoting
Democrat FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, who stated the decision
"threatens to degrade civil discourse and the quality of our society's
intellectual, cultural and political life," the Times offers "a stroll down
memory lane" back to the Nixon administration. Nixon introduced many of the
media ownership restrictions that the FCC voted to loosen, but the Times
takes the position that Nixon's policies may have simply been a dirty trick
to prevent the Washington Post from investigating the Watergate scandal.
"The Post owned television stations and was looking to acquire more, but the
planned FCC rules prohibited it from doing so, and the company sold its
Washington broadcast arm," the Times writes. "In this case, ownership limits
on a media conglomerate could have restricted a groundbreaking story."
SOURCE: Washington Times
http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20030806-092209-5775r.htm
DIGITAL DIVIDE
ST. LOUIS METRO EAST TOWNS TO BENEFIT FROM NEW DIGITAL DIVIDE FUND
Small-town Illinois customers across the state border from St. Louis,
Missouri, are gearing up for broadband Internet access in the next six
months, thanks to recent telecommunications reform. Shortly after Illinois
Governor Rod Blagojevich signed legislation designed to connect rural areas,
SBC Communications Inc. pledged to invest $90 million to offer the service
statewide. SBC also retracted 500 proposed layoffs scheduled for this year
and committed to no additional layoffs in 2004. The legislation provides for
a subsidy for broadband ISPs if the state commerce commission determines
that "advanced telecommunications services are underprovided to residential
or business users; if the community has a low population density; and the
community lacks a competitive market for advanced technology."
SOURCE: St. Louis Business Journal
http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2003/08/04/daily46.html
REGULATORS PUSH FOR RURAL COMMUNICATIONS
The FCC said it would begin a 16-month education program to inform people
about government programs that can improve access to telecommunications
services in underserved areas. The campaign will focus on the Appalachia and
Mississippi Delta regions and Native American Indian lands. The programs
include federal discounts for local phone service and phone line
installation for low-income consumers. The FCC will hold a workshop next
month to study rural companies that use grain silos, water towers and
pumping stations as broadcast towers for wireless high-speed Internet
access. FCC staff will visit Alaskan native villages to study problems with
deploying communications services. Additionally, the commission's vote to
eliminate restrictions on satellites used for telephone service in remote
areas of Alaska will increase the availability of affordable long-distance
service in the state. The commission is also seeking comment on regulations
to promote the conversion to digital television among low-power stations,
which often serve rural communities. Congress has set a goal of December
2006 for TV broadcasters to switch from analog to digital signals, which
offer clearer pictures and crisper sound.
SOURCE: Springfield News Sun; AUTHOR: David Ho, Associated Press
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/biz/content/business/ap_story.html/Fin...
al/AP.V9039.AP-FCC-Rural-Commu.html
PRIVACY
IN FLORIDA, POLICE DATABASE SPARKING ORWELLIAN FEARS
Florida's Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, or Matrix,
combines police records with commercially available collections of personal
information, enabling investigators to find patterns and links among people
and events faster than ever before. A senior official overseeing the project
acknowledged that it could be intrusive. "I can call up everything about
you, your pictures and pictures of your neighbors," said Phil Ramer, special
agent in charge of statewide intelligence. Defenders of the system say that
the data has always been available to investigators, but Matrix brings it
together and allows police to access it with extraordinary speed. "In this
age of risks that appear immediately, you have to be able to respond
immediately," said Paul Cameron, president of Seisint, Inc., the company
that developed the system and donated it to the state of Florida. The Matrix
project began soon after Sept. 11, 2001, and authorities credit Seisint with
helping to identify links among the hijackers who crashed planes into the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The Department of Justice and the
Department of Homeland Security have pledged $4 million and $8 million
respectively to advance the project. At least a dozen states want to add
their records to the database.
SOURCE: Austin American-Statesman; AUTHOR: Robert O'Harrow Jr.
http://www.statesman.com/asection/content/auto/epaper/editions/wednesday...
s_f3038a83d6e941e300df.html
EDTECH
'VIRTUAL SCHOOL' CLICKS WITH DISTRICT
As more school administrators in Florida are cutting courses to contend with
budget deficits, they are increasingly funneling students to the Florida
Virtual School, which can educate children for nearly $1,000 less than a
traditional facility. Palm Beach County Schools Superintendent Art Johnson
sees virtual learning as a way to offset cuts to his district's course
offerings. Students taking algebra or history online frees up time for
once-jeopardized classes such as art and music, he says. Interest in the
virtual school has skyrocketed from 77 classes offered in 1997 to an
anticipated 19,000 classes this fall. Also this fall, the Broward County
district will conduct a pilot virtual high school, with 300 high school
students taking all their classes online. The Classroom Teachers Union,
which represents roughly 10,000 county educators, has concerns with removing
children from a classroom setting. "I don't think there's anything that can
replace having an experienced teacher on hand to interact with the
students," said Shelley Vana, union president.
SOURCE: Palm Beach Post; AUTHOR: Cynthia Kopkowski
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/thursday/...
_f3139cdc83e142da0048.html
INTERNET
SBC BEEFS UP BROADBAND OFFERING WITH WI-FI
SBC Communications Inc. plans to enter the Wi-Fi market for public hotspots.
The Baby Bell announced that it would offer the service in roughly 6,000
locations over the next three years in an effort to leverage its existing
broadband investment. The service will use SBC's existing network
infrastructure and it Cingular wireless holdings to allow customers to roam
amongst 20,000 total hotspots. While the company did not indicate specific
costs, SBC predicts that deployment expenses will be "relatively low."
Pricing levels are also unreleased. SBC also signed a deal with Wayport Inc.
to allow customers the use of Wayport's 565 locations, further augmenting
the service.
SOURCE: Wireless Week
http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=document&doc_id=124093
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