BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009
Headlines will return MONDAY, November 30, 2009. Happy Thanksgiving!
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
The broadband gap: Is FCC grabbing for the wrong tool?
See also: US, Internet's Inventor, Lags In Web Access
FCC Seeks Comment on Broadband Measurement and Consumer Transparency
Libraries dying for bandwidth—where's the fiber (and cash)?
Connecting the Nation: A National Broadband Plan
Promoting Broadband Diversity Within the Law
Best Practices - Spurring Access and Adoption
Amplifying noise for cheap fiber optics
THE STIMULUS
The Best Way To Streamline RUS: Fast-Track Partial Loan Guarantees
$620 Million for Smart Grid Demonstration and Energy Storage Projects
$80 Million Available to Support Health IT Workforce
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
FCC 'Net Neutrality' Rules Would Keep the Web Free for Speech and Trade
FCC Could Mess Up Internet With 'Net Neutrality' Rules No One Needs
Comments on network neutrality irk AT&T
Mobile Carriers Protest Proposed Network Neutrality Rules
Defining open mobile
WIRELESS
The smartphone wars, one year later
Why AT&T can't win its 'map for that' spat with Verizon
CONTENT
Murdoch courts trouble if he blocks Google on news
YouTube Blocks Non-Partner Device
Google's revised book settlement
Public Knowledge Response to Motion Picture Association Set-Top Box Filing
How Data is Shaping History
Google Announces Plan in Baghdad to Put Iraqi Artifacts Online
Web Shopping Gains Speed
TELEVISION/RADIO
Consumer electronics group calls for broad FCC set top box review
McDowell 'Very Troubled' By Social Security Number Collection
House Committee Holding Hearing on Arbitron PPM
Local Ratings Controversy: Nielsen Angered By 4As' Claims
Good Morning America' Cancels Lambert
Big Tribune creditors seek control of bankruptcy case
HEALTH
Health Care Debate Remains Top Topic
Once Ahead of Curve, Medical Informatics at Center of Change
CYBERSECURITY
Facebook in lawsuit over unauthorized charges
The Year Of The Mega Data Breach
Keeping Personal Data Private
Feds To Sharpen Cybersecurity Job Policies
NIST Drafts Cybersecurity Guidance
University unites industry, gov to tighten energy sector cybersecurity
JOURNALISM
Why nonprofits Need newspapers
Change in Copyright Law: A Possible Solution to News Content Crisis?
YouTube Platform Aims to Connect Citizen Journalists with News Outlets
Nieman Foundation Gets Grant to Establish Biz Reporter Fellowship
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
Who's watching Glenn Beck?
Lou Dobbs Weighs Senate Run, as a Steppingstone
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
IS FCC GRABBING THE WRONG TOOL?
[SOURCE: NetworkWorld, AUTHOR: Scott Bradner]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan team seems to be thinking reward the inefficient and to tax the affluent. For some reason the task force does not seem to be able to admit that broadband service in the United States is too expensive for a lot of people. It hints at this by noting that only 35% of adults with a annual income of under $20K subscribe to broadband whereas 88% of those with an annual income of over $100K do. It does gloss past a root cause of the relatively high cost of broadband when it notes that "areas with lower incomes have fewer competitors" and " areas with fewer competitors have higher prices." What it does not mention is that, even in areas with some competition, there are almost always only two providers: a cable company and a telephone company. A duopoly of giant, similarly motivated carriers is not normally a recipe for robust competition.
benton.org/node/30038 | NetworkWorld | Karl Bode | techdirt
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BROADBAND MEASUREMENT AND TRANSPARENCY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission is seeking additional information on whether there are opportunities to protect and empower American consumers by ensuring sufficient access to relevant information about communications services. The FCC wants more public input on fixed residential and small business Internet broadband services, service quality, and transparency issues for multi-unit buildings. Specifically, the FCC wants to understand how: 1) to increase transparency (display, communication and comparability of information) in Fixed Services; 2) Fixed Services could be better measured in the future; and 3) information fixed service capabilities in multi-unit residence buildings be communicated to potential investors, home-owners and renters at the point of sale/ rental. Comments are due December 14.
benton.org/node/30037 | Federal Communications Commission
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LIBRARIES DYING FOR BANDWIDTH
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
Most of America's libraries make it a part of their mission to offer Internet access to anyone in the community, but a severe bandwidth crunch is hobbling those efforts. That's one of the conclusions reached by the American Library Association, which says that 59.6 percent of American libraries "report their connectivity speed is inadequate some or all of the time to meet patrons' needs." One of the problems is funding; in a recession, and especially a recession where housing prices (and therefore property taxes) are dropping in many communities, it can be hard to scrape the cash together for a library bandwidth upgrade. But another problem is simple availability. As the ALA's filing with the Federal Communications Commission points out, "moving from a 56Kbps circuit to 1.5Mbps is one thing. Moving from 1.5Mbps to 20Mbps or to 100Mbps or even to a gigabit—depending on the size and need of the library—is another." Even when they can pay for it, many libraries are finding that higher speeds simply aren't available.
benton.org/node/30035 | Ars Technica | ALA
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CONNECTING A NATION: A NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski]
Speaking at the Clinton Presidential Library, Federal Communications Commission Julius Genachowski noted, "With the eRate program, President Clinton showed us that with a vision and a plan, the U.S. can and will lead the world. By contrast, until now, our country has never had a national strategy for delivering broadband to all homes and businesses." As the FCC works on a National Broadband Plan, it must address deployment, adoption and affordability because: 1) Broadband is crucial to our nation's economic success; 2) Broadband helps tackle national challenges like education, health care, energy, and public safety; and 3) Broadband allows citizens to engage their communities and representatives more effectively.
benton.org/node/30020 | Federal Communications Commission | B&C
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PROMOTING BROADBAND DIVERSITY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Mark Lloyd]
What is the federal government compelled to do, and what is it prohibited from doing to promote access and adoption for all Americans in the National Broadband plan? That was the topic of the second panel in the workshop on Diversity and Civil Rights Issues in Broadband Access and Adoption. As FCC Commission Michael Copps said in opening the panel, "This is where the rubber really hits the road." The panel featured a range of lawyers and scholars wrestling with the thorny issue of federal action that might target those groups that do not have access to broadband or are not adopting broadband, while adhering to the constitutional mandate of equal protection for all Americans. The panelists discussed the different legal review standards applied to racial and ethnic minorities as compared to Native Americans or the poor, the challenges in subsidizing religious groups, and what other federal agencies have done to address the different needs of distinct American communities.
benton.org/node/30051 | Federal Communications Commission
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ACCESS AND ADOPTION
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Calvin Osborne]
Last month, the Federal Communications Commission presented its workshop on Diversity and Civil Rights Issues in Broadband Deployment and Adoption. As part of the workshop, the FCC invited a panel of experts to discuss the best strategies for closing the gap in broadband access and adoption. These experts included investors whose investment strategies place a heavy emphasis on technology companies and educators who are focused on creating community technology centers. Laura Efurd, Vice President of ZeroDivide, discussed the best practices for addressing civil rights issues in adoption. She pointed out that broadband adoption issues demonstrate a divide among race, age, disability, and geography. She noted that this divide is part of a larger problem that exists in our country, and that in order to address best practices, the adoption issues should be addressed holistically. That means focusing on racial, cultural, and socioeconomic factors that may affect adoption.
benton.org/node/30050 | Federal Communications Commission
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THE STIMULUS
PARTIAL LOAN GUARANTEES
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
[Commentary] In the second round of broadband stimulus, we need to find solutions for streamlining the approval process, getting money out the door more quickly, and maximizing the impact of taxpayer dollars. Daily's suggestion: a fast-track partial loan guarantee program. Compared to grants, guarantees have the advantage of leverage. You only have to budget for a fraction of whatever guarantees you hand out. Whereas a dollar of budget authority can only deliver a dollar of grants, that same dollar of budget authority can be turned into ten to twenty dollars of guarantees. Government loans offer the same opportunities for leverage, but with guarantees government doesn't have to write a check and it's able to share the risk with private capital. Put simply: loan guarantees are one of the best options to stimulate broadband deployment, and yet to date we've been ignoring them. So how can loan guarantees be used to streamline the second round of RUS's BIP program? 1) Change the guarantees to cover 100% of losses up to 50% of the value of the loan. 2) Institute a fast-track approval process. The basis for implementing a new fast-track approval process is the fact that if you have a private capital source writing a check for the full amount of a loan and taking on half the risk then you can assume that that lender has done a thorough job vetting the financial viability of a project.
benton.org/node/30036 | App-Rising.com
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NETWORK NEUTRALITY
PRO NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: US News and World Report, AUTHOR: Andrew Jay Schwartzman]
[Commentary] To understand the debate over network neutrality on the Internet, it is useful to start with the adage "To not act is to act." If the federal government does nothing—that is, if it does not adopt network neutrality rules—it will be allowing telephone and cable companies to block, degrade, or slow down any content on the Internet for any reason. Without such rules, the Internet will not live up to its full potential for fueling economic growth and serving as a vehicle for artistic, political, and social expression. Big broadband providers would like to change the Internet as we now know it. They want to be able to slow down or even block content for whatever reason they choose. They want to be able to keep such practices secret, too. Do we really want AT&T or Comcast selling Domino's Pizza the right to have its website always load faster than those of local independent pizzerias? What about blocking either pro-choice or pro-life websites or, for that matter, both of them? Right now, service providers are free to do so. In short, network neutrality is about your freedom to use the full potential of the Internet for commercial, political, artistic, and social expression. We need it, and that is why the FCC needs to act on its proposal. Not to do so would be an unfortunate action.
benton.org/node/30053 | US News and World Report
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CON NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: US News and World Report, AUTHOR: Barbara Esbin]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission has proposed rules that would shift service and network management decision-making from Internet service providers to regulators in the name of "preserving the open Internet." Yet the FCC hasn't addressed what consumer harms it aims to remedy and whether the costs of imposing this remedy are exceeded by the benefits. Simply put, the case has not been made for regulating America's dynamic Internet sector at this time. In the real world, the fact is that the Internet ecosystem we have is functioning quite well to satisfy customer needs without the ministrations of the FCC. In fact, one might go so far as to say it functions as well as it does because of that.
benton.org/node/30052 | US News and World Report
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COMMENTS ON NET NEUTRALITY IRK AT&T
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
AT&T doesn't like the idea of new regulations mandating unfettered access to the Internet, and recent comments from the Obama administration that connected the issue to censorship in China have really gotten under its skin. The telecom giant responded forcefully this week to remarks by White House deputy chief technology officer Andrew McLaughlin, who said that free speech and network neutrality are "intrinsically linked." Net neutrality rules are being crafted by federal regulators that would restrict Internet service providers such as AT&T from blocking or prioritizing content on the Web. AT&T's chief lobbyist, Jim Cicconi, said it was "ill-considered and inflammatory" to connect censorship in China to the practices of American ISPs, whom he said do not threaten free speech. "It is deeply disturbing when someone in a position of authority, like Mr. McLaughlin, is so intent on advancing his argument for regulation that he equates the outright censorship decisions of a communist government to the network congestion decisions of an American ISP. There is no valid comparison, and it's frankly an affront to suggest otherwise," Cicconi said. The White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy defended McLaughlin's comments. "A key reason the Internet has been such a success is because it is the most open network in history," the office said in a statement. "Mr. McLaughlin was simply reiterating the Administration's consistent support for the importance of an open Internet -- both at home and abroad."
benton.org/node/30062 | Washington Post
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MOBILE CARRIERS PROTEST NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
Several broadband providers and right-leaning think tanks have vigorously protested the need for any network neutrality rules, saying there's little evidence of a problem that needs to be solved with government regulation. But perhaps the biggest change from the Federal Communications Commission's informal enforcement of net neutrality principles since 2005 is the agency's proposal to extend the rules to mobile broadband services. Mobile broadband providers, even as some of their parent companies oppose net neutrality for wired carriers, say the rules will be more difficult to apply on wireless networks, where providers need the flexibility to manage their networks and guard against congestion. "A single strand of fiber represents more capacity than you can ever hope to get out of the entire 5 gigahertz of usable spectrum in any given air-space," said George Ou, policy director for Digital Society, a free market, tech-focused think tank. "The fact that we've constrained commercial wireless networks for phone and data to a few hundred megahertz makes the problem even worse."
benton.org/node/30024 | IDG News Service
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DEFINING OPEN MOBILE
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: ]
There's no doubt mobile operators, led by Verizon Wireless, are opening up their networks. But is that enough to guarantee success in a world where Apple, Google and an array of app upstarts are competing for their share of the stage? Battles are intensifying between developers wanting to take advantage of the new capabilities of increasingly powerful 3G networks and carriers needing to maintain control over their expensive 3G investments. Mobile operators have always dictated what services and what applications would run over their networks — they picked and sold the devices, billed the customer and maintained the "walled garden," those restricted portals that became the sole outlet for apps and services for the vast majority of subscribers. Developers and over-the-top-service providers — led increasingly in recent days by Google — wanted to see a mobile data universe that more closely resembled the wired Internet, where customers were free to choose the provider of their individual services and developers could get their apps on any network.
benton.org/node/30031 | TelephonyOnline
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WIRELESS
THE SMARTPHONE WARS, ONE YEAR LATER
[SOURCE: Fortune, AUTHOR: Philip Elmer-DeWitt]
It's been a year since Google released Android OS, the open-source smartphone operating system widely perceived as the most likely to overtake Apple's iPhone in the long run. As it happens, Google this month also purchased AdMob, the world's largest purveyor of mobile phone advertising. So this seemed as good a time as any to take a snapshot of the changing smartphone marketplace, as measured by ad requests to AdMob's network. Over the past year, Nokia's Symbian has lost the largest raw market share, down to 25% last month from 59% the same month a year earlier. In percentage terms, Windows Mobile is the biggest loser, down 70% in 12 months, with Symbian, Palm's Web OS and BlackBerry OS close behind. These numbers are based on worldwide ad requests. Apple's lead is even greater when AdMob zeroes in on the U.S. and U.K. markets.
benton.org/node/30028 | Fortune | ars technica
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AT&T CAN'T WIN AD WAR
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Kevin Fitchard]
[Commentary] It seems the more AT&T pursues its grievances with Verizon Wireless the more it gets egg on its face. The two have been engaged in an ad battle over the last several weeks over the truths and fictions about AT&T's 3G network — a battle that has spilled over into the courts and the media, as AT&T tries to force VZW's commercials off the air. Ultimately, it's a battle AT&T can't win. It's arguing over nuances. And the more nuanced the discussion about AT&T's network becomes, the more perceptions of AT&T's network will suffer. AT&T's big complaint is that Verizon's ads only depict its 3G network coverage, creating a false impression that AT&T doesn't offer service of any kind in the vast majority of the country. The argument doesn't hold much water because VZW is clearly taking aim at the 3G network, but the whole issue of coverage is a red herring. VZW is looking for an easy way to demonstrate what is at the essence of the ads: AT&T's 3G network leaves a lot to be desired. A map with huge swathes of white spaces in between the metro markets highlighted in blue does the trick. But the problem with AT&T's network isn't so much where it doesn't offer 3G coverage, but where it does.
benton.org/node/30027 | TelephonyOnline
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CONTENT
MURDOCH COURTS TROUBLE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Robert MacMillan]
Rupert Murdoch has spent months complaining that Google is ruining the newspaper business, and now he wants to do something about it. But, his proposal is a gamble, and one that could hurt News Corp instead of helping it. Murdoch is considering removing News Corp's news from Google's Web search results, and is talking to Microsoft Corp about listing the stories with its Bing search engine instead. Microsoft would pay for the privilege, sources have told Reuters, but it was not clear how much. If Murdoch pulled this off, he will likely be followed by other newspaper publishers looking for ways to make money when all the old ones are waning in the digital age.
benton.org/node/30049 | Reuters
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YOUTUBE BLOCKS NON-PARTNER DEVICE
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Eliot Van Buskirk]
YouTube is set to become a regular feature of televisions, but only through its partners' hardware. So far one company been blocked from accessing YouTube videos on its set-top box pursuant to a July 2008 change in YouTube's terms of service, with others soon to follow, according to sources close to the situation. Syabas, which has had about 16 months to sign a contract with Google's YouTube service since the new terms of service went into effect, will no longer be able to show YouTube videos on televisions through its set-top boxes. The reason there's no deal, according to Syabas COO Alex Limberis, is that YouTube demanded a multimillion-dollar advertising commitment in return for permission to display its videos on televisions through the Popcorn Hour A-110 and C-200 set-top boxes.
benton.org/node/30023 | Wired | techdirt
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GOOGLE'S REVISED BOOK SETTLEMENT
[SOURCE: C-Span, AUTHOR: ]
Interview with Cecilia Kang, Technology Reporter, Washington Post, provides a primer on Google's efforts to digitize books in libraries throughout the world. The Google Book Search project was started in 2004 and within less than a year a class action suit was levied against the company for copyright infringement by the Association of American Publishers and the Author's Guild. In October of 2008 the parties agreed to a class action settlement. However, there were several opponents to the settlement, including authors, publishers, Google's business competitors, and the Department of Justice who initiated an antitrust investigation. Kang presents details of the case and the current status of the settlement.
benton.org/node/30034 | C-SPAN
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PK ANSWERS MPAA
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Gigi Sohn]
The Motion Picture Association of America submitted yet another filing with the Federal Communications Commission defending its waiver request to control consumer set-top boxes and television sets. Public Knowledge responded saying: "We are very disappointed at the latest attempt from the Motion Picture Association of America to attempt to justify breaking consumer electronics used by consumers. We are pleased that industry representatives are such diligent viewers of Harold Feld's videos on the Public Knowledge site (or wherever else they may appear), but disappointed that the industry filing chose to take on such a personal tone while disputing the definition of a single word, 'breaking,' as in the 'breaking' of TV sets, while evading the larger issues before them. We use the word, 'breaking,' deliberately, here and in previous filings and videos, because that is exactly what would happen if the industry has its way and the FCC grants the ill-conceived waiver to allow the industry control over consumer devices. Because of existing FCC rules, a consumer with a stand alone digital video recorder (DVR) or Slingbox knows that it will work for all video-on-demand (VoD) services, and that compatibility is a key factor when consumers spend their hard-earned money on consumer electronics. It would be a rude shock if, at the industry whim, some of those devices did not perform as expected.
benton.org/node/30042 | Public Knowledge
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HOW DATA IS SHAPING HISTORY
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Jeff Hirsch]
[Commentary] Innovation and advances in technology have continuously created circumstances that significantly alter how people live their lives, make a living, thereby changing the course of history. The Computer Age arose in the 1980's and with it came a revolution around how people and organizations could harness information and, subsequently, make their lives more informed and efficient. We're seeing yet another iteration of that change right now; interestingly, it is not material or machine based -- the catalyst is data itself. Human behavior is now being qualified and quantified and the nature of digital interactions is driving massive scale and the potential for immediacy. Sophisticated algorithms and systems now exist to apply mathematical and statistical analysis to the extreme nuances of people's wants and needs. This ability to numerate, and therefore anticipate, the behavior of the individual is driving a wave of new business philosophies and practices that stretch across industries.
benton.org/node/30054 | MediaPost
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JOURNALISM
WHY NONPROFITS NEED NEWSPAPERS
[SOURCE: Carnegie Foundation, AUTHOR: Pablo Eisenberg]
[Commentary] The potential demise of daily newspapers and investigative journalism is arguably the biggest threat to the future of our nonprofit sector. For the past twenty years, the media, notably print journalism, has assumed responsibility for keeping our nonprofit organizations publicly accountable and somewhat in balance, tempering their problems and excesses through the power and threat of information and exposure. No other institution has had a similar impact. To resuscitate the nation's daily newspapers and to kindle an intellectual bonfire in the nonprofit community would take a great deal of energy and effort. It also would take a lot of money. But there is plenty of money available, if only our very wealthy donors and foundations are willing to put it to good and vital purposes. For those who owe their wealth to the opportunities afforded them by our open society and democracy, could there be a more important priority than preserving the vibrant press that is an essential element of a democratic society? And for foundations committed to serve the public interest, what better purpose could there be than strengthening our most cherished civic institutions? Unless major donors wake up to the desperate needs of these endangered institutions, we may well see the end of quality journalism and the decline of the nonprofit sector due to lack of accountability. This would be a grim future indeed; a collective failure that no one would want as a legacy for our nation.
benton.org/node/30025 | Carnegie Foundation
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CHANGE IN COPYRIGHT LAW
[SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Evan Leatherwood]
Copyright law reform as one remedy for plummeting profits at traditional news organizations was proposed at a media affairs panel organized by the non-profit Center for Communication and hosted by Fordham University earlier this month. Dean Ringel, a partner at the New York law firm of Cahill Gordon & Reindel, advocated introducing compulsory licensing fees for Web-based agregators or re-distributors of news content. Under Ringel's system, sites like Google would be required to share profits with or pay a fee to any news organization whose content they post, in a system similar to the compulsory licensing system than currently manages rights for cable television and music. He noted that current copyright law protects the specific expression of information but does not protect the work necessary to obtain that information. Ringel argued that papers like the New York Times, which spend prodigious sums on reporter security in dangerous places around the globe, should get some of the revenue made by third-parties who distribute their content.
benton.org/node/30046 | Editor&Publisher
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ELECTIONS & MEDIA
WHO'S WATCHING GLENN BECK?
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Tim Rutten]
[Commentary] For the first time in living memory, the Anti-Defamation League is sounding the alarm about a mainstream media personality: Fox News' Glenn Beck, who also hosts a popular radio show. The report notes that while "other conservative media hosts, such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, routinely attack Obama and his administration, typically on partisan grounds, they have usually dismissed or refused to give a platform to the conspiracy theorists and anti-government extremists." By contrast, "Beck and his guests have made a habit of demonizing President Obama and promoting conspiracy theories about his administration. ... Beck has even gone so far as to make comparisons between Hitler and Obama." What gives all of this nonsense an ominous twist is Beck's announcement that he intends to use his TV and radio shows to promote a mass movement that will involve voter registration drives, training in community organizing and a series of regional conventions that will produce a "100-year plan" for America to be read from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a mass rally Aug. 28. It's hard to imagine any contemporary cable system dropping Fox News simply because Beck is an offensively dangerous demagogue -- not with his ratings at least. His new foray into politics, though, presents Rupert Murdoch's network with a profound challenge. Is it willing to become the platform for an extremist political campaign, or will it draw a line as even the authoritarian Catholic Church of the 1940s did? CNN recently parted ways with its resident ranter, Lou Dobbs -- who now confirms he's weighing a presidential bid. Does Fox see a similar problem with Beck -- and, if not, why?
benton.org/node/30064 | Los Angeles Times
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LOU DOBBS WEIGHS SENATE RUN, AS A STEPPINGSTONE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Halbfinger]
The Lou Dobbs-for-Senate rumor had barely crested when the Lou Dobbs-for-president rumor suddenly overtook it this week. Dobbs, the former cable television anchor of the sonorous voice and tough-talking immigration politics, parted ways with CNN on Nov. 11, reportedly receiving an $8 million severance payment, and immediately stirred questions about his plans. His name was quickly floated as a potential challenger in 2012 to United States Senator Robert Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat, an ardent advocate for immigrants' rights and the chamber's only Hispanic member. Then, on Monday, Dobbs said he had been urged to ponder a White House run, and was indeed thinking about it. What's unclear is whether Mr. Dobbs, who branded himself "Mr. Independent" on CNN and talks prodigiously about his scorn for partisan politicians on a radio program syndicated to more than 200 stations, would run as an independent or seek the nomination of the Republican Party, which he spurned in 2006, switching his registration to independent.
benton.org/node/30063 | New York Times | WSJ -- Hispanics | FT Palin-Dobbs?
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