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Benton media news digest – 2007

31 Jan
A DEARTH OF DIVERSITY [SOURCE: Chicago Tribune 1/30, AUTHOR: Ed Sherman] The media are making a big deal out of Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy becoming the first African-American head coaches in the Super Bowl. Good. It provides the perfect contrast to an untold story about the media. In the previous 40 Super Bowls, only one African-American has sat in the broadcast booth: Greg Gumbel called the play-by-play for the 2001 and 2004 games for CBS. In a sport where more than 60 percent of the players are African-American, there never has been an African-American analyst in the booth for a Super Bowl. That's stunning, considering the large pool of African-Americans who not only are the game's biggest stars but also are glib and quotable. The lack of diversity in the media goes beyond the Super Bowl booth. While African-Americans have prominent roles as hosts and analysts on the various NFL studio shows, there are only a handful of African-American play-by-play voices and analysts working NFL games for the networks. The situation isn't limited to television. Scanning the vast pressroom at the Miami Convention Center, you hardly see any African-American faces. Here's why: African-American men and women make up 7 percent of all sportswriters. CBS host James Brown contends the situation won't change in front of the camera until it changes behind the scenes. He says the networks need to hire more African-Americans as producers and in executive roles. "How many people of color currently occupy those positions?" Brown said. "I don't know of any African-Americans in senior positions. Those are the people who make the decisions." The analyst situation is completely baffling. The only African-American to have a leading role as a game analyst was O.J. Simpson on "Monday Night Football" during the '80s. Former African-American players such as Tom Jackson, Shannon Sharpe, Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders have assumed high-profile positions on the studio shows. But none has risen to the same status in the booth.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/cs-070129sherman,1,5617955.column?coll=chi-sportstop-hed
See also -- 20 Years of Superbowls Yielded 1400 Commercials and 1.72 Billion Ad Dollars
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=54586

WEB GIANTS ASK FOR FEDS' HELP ON CENSORSHIP [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Anne Broache] Google, Yahoo and Microsoft representatives on Tuesday implored the U.S. government to help set ground rules for complying with demands by foreign law enforcement agencies for user records or censorship. But a key question that remains after the U.S. Department of State concluded its inaugural global Internet freedom conference here is how to determine when such requests are "legitimate" and warrant compliance. That issue took center stage last year amid reports that Chinese authorities had succeeded in silencing -- and in some cases imprisoning -- cyberdissidents, thanks to cooperation from Yahoo and Microsoft.
http://news.com.com/Web+giants+ask+for+feds+help+on+censorship/2100-1028_3-6154930.html?tag=nefd.top

NEW MEDIA COULD FORCE CREATIVE RACES [SOURCE: Ad Week, AUTHOR: Wendy Melillo] With more campaign money likely to be spent on new media than ever before, candidates for the White House in 2008 may be forced to display unprecedented creativity in both their ads and overall strategies, political experts said. If candidates hope to have their messages distributed virally -- or even catch the attention of consumers accustomed to being entertained and "engaged" by advertising -- they must craft messages that viewers would want to share with others. With candidates now taking the Internet and new media more seriously than ever -- witnessed by the slew of candidates already using Web video, YouTube or online chat to throw their hats into the ring -- how campaigns handle everything from Web TV to social networking sites will become an integral part of their campaign strategy.
http://www.adweek.com/aw/national/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003538670
• To '08 Hopefuls, New Media Can Be Friend or Foe
• http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/us/politics/31video.html

30 Jan
EB WAR: NOTHING NEUTRAL ABOUT IT [SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Catherine Holahan] There's a high-stakes battle raging in Washington over who picks up the tab for the rising rivers of Internet data and the newly upgraded networks that deliver it. On one side are a host of tech companies -- from Google to Yahoo! to Intel to Microsoft -- that specialize in Web-related content and technology, pushing for rules that they say would keep the Internet free from discriminatory pricing. On the other are the phone and cable companies that run the networks shuttling that information from place to place. They oppose regulation of the Internet. Last year, the skirmish ended in stalemate. The battle will rage on again in 2007, with the Google camp likely to gain the upper hand. Both sides of the issue spent the better part of 2006 trying in vain to win over the then-Republican-controlled Congress to its vision of the Internet's future. A bill that favored telecom companies such as AT&T and cable operators such as Comcast was passed in June by the House of Representatives, but it went on to die in the Senate. Similarly, an amendment to that bill viewed as favorable to the opposite camp was also rejected, largely by Republicans. This year, the Democrats are in control, and they're seen as more sympathetic to laws favoring so-called network neutrality, which would bar phone and cable companies from erecting tiered pricing that favors some Web traffic or sites over others.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2007/tc20070129_444703.htm?chan=search

INTERNET TV IS FINALLY A REALITY SHOW [SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Cliff Edwards] After years of build-up, it looks as if content, computers, and consumer electronics are all finally converging. So far there's been scant consumer interest in Internet TV. Indeed, two-thirds of U.S. homes that have gone to the trouble of setting up wireless networks and Ethernet routers still only use them to share Internet access and have no other devices connected -- not even printers or other PC peripherals, according to researcher In-Stat. Even though prices for such products are low, most consumers still consider it too complicated to network all their electronic gear. To make the technology as simple as possible, Sony, HP, and other vendors are finally creating software that can be used across all their devices -- be it PCs, TVs, or set-top boxes. Consumers for the first time won't have to learn new tricks for using different products from the same company. And third-party software vendors will have a common set of development tools for a particular company's products, helping speed time to market. The battle for dominance is expected to be bruising. Traditional cable and satellite companies will fight it out with Web portals like Yahoo! and Google, as well as their own content partners. "The fight to capture the expanding base of IPTV subscribers will put telecom operators on a collision course with existing pay-TV market competitors and with a new class of broadband video portals as they roll out progressively more sophisticated offerings," says Mark Kirstein, iSuppli vice-president for multimedia content and services.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2007/tc20070129_246549.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5

AUSTRALIA MEDIA OPEN FOR BUSINESS [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Lyndal McFarland lyndal.mcfarland@dowjones.com] Australia's decision to relax media-ownership rules has international buyout groups and industry chiefs jostling for pieces of the action. The government won't formalize changes to the country's 20-year-old media laws until later this year. But billions of dollars in deals already have been unveiled since lawmakers approved the new rules in late 2006. Prominent among the deal makers in the sector -- which is 40 billion Australian dollars in size (US$30.93 billion) -- have been buyout giants Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and CVC Asia Pacific. Irish billionaire Tony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media PLC last week revived a A$2.8 billion plan to buy newspaper-and-radio offshoot APN News & Media Ltd. with Providence Equity Partners and Carlyle Group. The new rules relax cross-ownership restrictions and scrap foreign-ownership limits.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117012558938491983.html?mod=todays_us_money_and_investing
(requires subscription)

29 Jan
POPULARITY OF WEB BRANDS SIGNALS POWER SHIFT [SOURCE: Reuters] A consumer poll on Friday exposed the worst kept secret in the business world: Internet companies are becoming more important to people than firms that operate in the real world. Google retained its title as the world's most influential brand, and video-sharing site YouTube and online encyclopedia Wikipedia were catapulted into the top five at the No. 3 and 4 spots, according to the annual survey by online branding magazine brandchannel.com. "Ask yourself how many more hours you are using the Internet compared with 10 years ago. Now ask yourself how many more minutes you make calls on a mobile phone. There's no comparison," said Bengt Nordstrom, chief strategy officer at business and technology consultants InCode. "Internet brands are the brands people use and which they like. They are much stronger than mobile brands," he added.
http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2007-01-26T170853Z_01_L26570473_RTRUKOC_0_US-BRANDS-GLOBAL-INTERNET.xml&WTmodLoc=InternetNewsHome_C1_%5bFeed%5d-5

INTERNET TO REVOLUTIONIZE TV IN 5 YEARS: GATES [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Ben Hirschler] The Internet is set to revolutionize television within five years, due to an explosion of online video content and the merging of PCs and TV sets, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said on Saturday. "I'm stunned how people aren't seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we've had," he told business leaders and politicians at the World Economic Forum. The rise of high-speed Internet and the popularity of video sites like YouTube has already led to a worldwide decline in the number hours spent by young people in front of a TV set. In the years ahead, more and more viewers will hanker after the flexibility offered by online video and abandon conventional broadcast television, with its fixed program slots and advertisements that interrupt shows, Gates said. "Certain things like elections or the Olympics really point out how TV is terrible. You have to wait for the guy to talk about the thing you care about or you miss the event and want to go back and see it," he said. "Internet presentation of these things is vastly superior."
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2007-01-27T220203Z_01_L27910975_RTRUKOC_0_US-DAVOS-INTERNET-TV.xml&WTmodLoc=TechNewsHome_C1_%5bFeed%5d-2

INTERNET BRANDS LEAVE MUSIC SERVICES TO EXPERTS [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Antony Bruno] Veterans of the subscription service field say a successful music subscription business needs at least 1 million subscribers in order to reach critical mass and become self-sustaining, although one can be profitable with lower numbers. To date, the only company to achieve that milestone is RealNetworks' Rhapsody. Assuming it can retain most of the subscribers it acquired from AOL and Virgin, Napster will not be far behind, at around 900,000 subscribers. Meanwhile, household names like Yahoo and MTV are not even close. Neither company has disclosed subscriber figures, but analysts estimate they lag far behind. AOL Music Now had just 350,000 subscribers when it handed the service over to Napster -- 100,000 less than when it acquired Music Now in November 2005. The complex market is defined by technology, device and supply problems far out of their control. The technology governing the transfer of subscription tracks to portable devices still has problems. None of the services work with the popular iPod; the few devices that are compatible are unoriginal clones that have not sold well; and the monthly music licensing fees are a constant drain on already thin resources. And to cap it all off, most consumers are just not ready to accept the concept of music as a service rather than as a product. Convincing consumers otherwise will take an expensive marketing effort that the surviving services from MTV and Yahoo have promised, but not yet delivered.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2007-01-27T022904Z_01_N26386535_RTRUKOC_0_US-INTERNET.xml&WTmodLoc=InternetNewsHome_C1_%5bFeed%5d-2

TRACKING WHO'S SAYING WHAT ABOUT WHOM [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Kim Hart] Companies ranging from movie studios and television networks to automakers and burger chains hire these professional Web surfers to scour the Internet for any mention of their brands. Over the past few years, the "online analysts" have helped the companies track their reputations, found ways to get their products noticed and joined online conversations to help steer them the way clients want them to go. More recently, as the explosion of blogs, social networks and video-sharing sites has driven big companies to recognize the role of Internet image in protecting their bottom lines, traditional media companies and private investors are seeking to buy Web-savvy start-ups that have a toehold in cyberspace.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/28/AR2007012801032.html (requires registration)

NEWSPAPERS LOSE GROUND IN WEB-SAVVY SCHOOLS: STUDY [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Robert MacMillan] More U.S. teachers are using national and international online news sites in the classroom, leaving behind newspapers that fail to grasp the Internet's importance in trying to reach students, found the Carnegie-Knight Task Force on the Future of Journalism Education. Fifty-seven percent of teachers use Internet-based news in the classroom with some frequency, said the study, which was based on a survey of 1,262 teachers in grades 5 through 12 in the fall of 2006. That compares with 31 percent for national television news, and 28 percent for daily papers. Local television news, at 13 percent, was at the bottom of the list, the study found.
http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2007-01-29T065632Z_01_N28443894_RTRUKOC_0_US-NEWSPAPERS-SCHOOLS.xml&WTmodLoc=TechNewsHome_C2_technologyNews-1

25 Jan
'LAT' EDITOR: WEB WILL BE 'PRIMARY VEHICLE' FOR NEWS DELIVERY [SOURCE: Editor&Publisher] Los Angeles Times editor James O'Shea outlined a bold plan to increase traffic and revenue from LATimes.com in the face of an increasingly difficult economic climate for newspaper publishers, and urged journalists to think of the Web site as the newspaper's primary vehicle for news. "We can't hide from the fact that smart competitors such as Google and Craigslist are stealing readers and advertisers from us through innovative strategies that are undermining the business model we've relied on for decades," said O'Shea, whose remarks were published in their entirety on the paper's Web site. He said today that the Times will fully integrate its print and online newsrooms, and named business editor Russ Stanton to the new position of Special Editor for Innovation. "Currently we have a newspaper staff and an LATimes.com staff," he said. "No more. From now on, there are no two staffs, there is just one. And we will function as one. One of Russ's first jobs will be to help set up that newsroom." O'Shea also said that there would be changes in the way the content in the print edition would be viewed. Where Web stories and blogs allow journalists an endless amount of space to give readers in-depth accounts, he said he wanted the physical paper to become "an even stronger vehicle for tightly-written context, analysis, interpretation and expertise."
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003536826
• 'LA Times' Staffers Greet Merged Newsroom With Cautious Enthusiasm
• http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003537239
• * The Times shifts its focus to Web
• http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-times25jan25,1,3413968.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business

CHINA TO SURPASS US ON INTERNET USERS [SOURCE: Associated Press] China is on pace to surpass the United States within two years as the nation with the most Internet users. China's online population grew by 23.4 percent last year to 137 million people, about 10 percent of its 1.3 billion population, the China Internet Network Information Center reported on its Web site. "We believe it will take two years at most for China to overtake the United States," the official China Daily newspaper quoted an official of the agency, Wang Enhai, as saying. About 210 million of the United States' 300 million people are online, according to the U.S. government. China would reach 210 million users in two years if it keeps up a 24 percent annual growth rate.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16785918/

AMERICANS THINK DOWNLOADING NO BIG DEAL [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Etan Vlessing] Most Americans regard the illegal downloading and distributing of Hollywood movies as something on par with minor parking offenses, according to a report issued Wednesday. Only 40 percent of Americans polled by Toronto-based Solutions Research Group agreed that downloading copyrighted movies on the Internet was a "very serious offense." That compares with the 78 percent who said shoplifting a DVD from the local video store was a very serious offense. The survey found that 59 percent of Americans polled considered "parking in a fire lane" a more serious offense than movie downloading.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2007-01-25T090928Z_01_N25169626_RTRUKOC_0_US-PIRACT.xml&WTmodLoc=InternetNewsHome_C1_%5bFeed%5d-1

REALITY CHECK: UNSCRIPTED TV A HIT FOR LA ECONOMY [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Richard Verrier] Reality has set in throughout Los Angeles. Camera crews tracking the unscripted lives of car buffs, geeky guys longing to date supermodels, wannabe singers and aspiring tycoons are filling streets and neighborhoods, turning the area into the reality TV capital of the world. The trend will be underscored today when local film officials release statistics that show the number of days spent shooting reality TV episodes in Los Angeles soared 53% last year, accounting for about 40% of all on-location TV production. All told, reality film crews spent the equivalent of 8,397 days filming here in 2006. The numbers show that reality TV, for better or worse, has become an increasingly important component of the Los Angeles entertainment infrastructure, which supports about 240,000 local jobs and contributes an estimated $30 billion into the local economy. Los Angeles economist Jack Kyser estimates at least 30,000 local jobs are tied to reality television. On a positive note, unscripted programs have contributed to a larger boom in local television production, which is helping blunt job losses due to the luring of feature films to other states that offer financial incentives. Last year, on-location feature-film production declined 7% from 2005 as more films were drawn to such states as New Mexico, New York and Louisiana. But reality shows don't pack the same economic punch as scripted shows, which have larger budgets, bigger crews and longer runs. A typical one-hour drama that runs 22 episodes costs close to $50 million, compared with about $7 million spent on a 10-episode reality show.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-reality25jan25,1,4449861.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business
(requires registration)

24 Jan
MIXED MESSAGE IN MEMPHIS [SOURCE: Wired in Washington, AUTHOR: Drew Clark] SavetheInternet.com is David to the Bell companies' Goliath. Over the last two years AT&T, Verizon and their trade group, the United States Telecom Association, spent more than $50 million lobbying Congress to change the nation's telecommunications laws. Those payments were made in vain. The Bell-favored bill, which had overwhelmingly passed the House, died last year in the Senate. "Save the Internet," by contrast, spent $250,000 on educating the public on its side of the story. "Save the Internet" opposed the Bell bill, and made Network Neutrality its rallying cry. It gathered more than 1.5 million signatures in support of this notion: that Bell companies must be stopped from controlling the content that flows over their broadband networks. At the National Conference for Media Reform earlier this month, all the panelists were neutralistas. Not all agreed on what their struggle meant. For Matt Stoller, a political blogger at MyDD.com, the victory was a win for the political left. "The Net Neutrality fight is the first pro-regulatory stance in public debate that has been put forward in 30 years or so that won, and it won in a very specific way," said Stoller. "We had a debate in the public domain about whether the government should regulate the Internet. We convinced the American people that the government should regulate something." But Adam Green, communications director for MoveOn Civic Action, preferred this philosophy: "We need to show and prove the world that we are on the side of the free and open market, and the free and open exchange of ideas." A bit later, Green derided the telecommunications industry critics of neutrality for "trying to brand us as being against companies." It's best to keep both sides off-balance, said Tim Wu, the Columbia University law professor who first penned the term "Net Neutrality." Some dislike his turn of phrase, but he couldn't be happier: "For better or worse, that term Net Neutrality has become a third rail" of telecom politics. Touch it at your peril."
http://www.wiredinwashington.com/20070123.htm

THE STATE OF THE TV STATION BUSINESS [SOURCE: tvnewsday, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell hajessell@tvnewsday.com] Lets face it: TV broadcasting has seen better times, but it's still a healthy business with great prospects. Here's the bad and the good and a few ideas for making it better. First the bad: The business hasn't been able to stop the erosion of non-political national spot revenue -- still a third of total revenue. Political advertising keeps growing -- it topped $2 billion in 2006 and is expected to reach new highs in 2008. But that growth masks the weakness in many of the other major ad categories and the quickening loss of network compensation. Broadcasters have yet to discover the key to DTV riches. They made the capital investment, but after 10 years of on-and-off experimentation, none has come up with a sure-fire way to recoup the expense. Local HD is another big expense with no obvious payoff, retrans cash is still elusive, the FCC is disinclined to award multicast must-carry rights and the newly empowered Democrats in Congress may crack down on TV violence and move to restrict advertising of pharmaceuticals, fast food and political candidates. The good: Cash-flow margins for most are still extraordinarily high, and broadcasters have been able to maintain healthy margins by using technology to cut payroll and other costs. Another trick is to run two stations out of one shop -- duopolies and virtual duopolies. TV stations have the programming that everybody wants to watch -- local news, The Guiding Light, Oprah and primetime. You might be able to see Ugly Betty on cable or Lost on an iPod, but you'll see them first on the local affiliate.
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2007/01/23/daily.3/
See also -- * Limited Upside Seen For Big Media [SOURCE: Forbes.com, AUTHOR: Joshua Lipton] Market analysts see less upside ahead for media conglomerates. "While reports of the death of traditional ad media have repeatedly proved premature, they continue to slowly lose share and nothing seems likely to change the trend. History dictates that ad dollars follow eyeballs with a lag, and eyeballs continue to migrate away from traditional media." Riding to the rescue of these companies could be cash-heavy private equity firms.
http://www.forbes.com/markets/2007/01/22/big-media-earnings-markets-equity-cx_jl_0122markets16.html

LOCAL PAPERS MULL THEIR GLOBAL ROLE [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sarah Ellison sarah.ellison@wsj.com] The Boston Globe said it would close all three of its remaining overseas bureaus, reflecting a painful issue for larger metropolitan papers: In the presence of steep budget cuts, do they get out of international and national coverage and focus relentlessly on their local markets? Advertisers think they should, and so do some of the people interested in buying those papers. They see a world with wire services like the Associated Press and a tier of national papers like The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Washington Post providing national and foreign news. "I'm not sure local papers need to cover Iraq, need to cover global events," Jack Welch, the former General Electric Co. chairman who wants to buy the Globe from New York Times Co., told CNBC last week. "They can be real local papers ... and purchase from people very willing to sell to you their wire services that will give you the coverage." Reducing international staff at big metropolitan papers has become a contentious debate at many newspapers as publishers struggle to redefine themselves. Overseas coverage can confer prestige and prizes, and attract talented reporters and editors, but now foreign bureaus are increasingly being considered a luxury. "Many other regional newspapers, some larger than ours, have taken similar steps in recent years," Globe Editor Martin Baron said in a memo to his staff. "All along, a guiding principle was to secure the resources required for local coverage and for journalism that has the most direct impact on our readers." The number of foreign correspondents at U.S. newspapers had dropped to 249 in 2006, down nearly 12% from 282 in 2000. The number of overseas reporters from all but the five largest papers fell to 52 in 2006 from 80 in 2000.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116960535347085821.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

THE MEDIA'S OBSESSION -- MAKE IT STOP! [SOURCE: Media Matters for America, AUTHOR: Eric Boehlert] [Commentary] The press truly has embraced the notion of the nonstop campaign and Boehlert thinks it has done so for increasingly selfish reasons. For political scribes, presidential campaigns can be career-making seasons, when high-profile promotions, book deals, TV punditry contracts, and teaching positions can be pocketed. For news media companies, presidential campaigns mean big business; relatively inexpensive content that can be endlessly rehashed. In other words, they're good for the bottom line. The never-ending analysis for 2008, though, has already morphed into a deafening background noise. And the press' often shallow performance last week does not bode well for the long term. We have an industry of media political pros who have surprisingly little to say, yet insist on saying (or writing) it over and over and over.
http://mediamatters.org/columns/200701220010
Rivals CNN and Fox News Spar Over Obama Report
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/24/us/politics/24obama.html

TV SHOWS FIND YOUNG, AFFLUENT VIEWERS ON 'NET [SOURCE: Reuters] U.S. television networks draw a younger, wealthier and better educated audience when they run their shows over the Internet, according to a new study released on Wednesday. The study by Nielsen Analytics and Scarborough Research comes as networks have increasingly made hit TV shows available for viewing through computers. Concerns that allowing consumers to view those popular programs and others over the Internet would cut into the number of people watching them on television are unfounded, the study found. "Video on PCs and iPods actually is expanding the audience for broadcast and cable programs," the study said, citing data that total TV usage was at an all-time high in U.S. households at 8 hours, 14 minutes a day during the 2005-2006 TV season. [Nielsen stressed, however, that watching TV on your computer does not make you younger, smarter or more affluent.]
http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2007-01-24T052125Z_01_N24300717_RTRUKOC_0_US-NIELSEN-STUDY.xml&WTmodLoc=InternetNewsHome_C1_%5bFeed%5d-4

TECHNOLOGY IS TAKING OVER AMERICANS' LIVES [SOURCE: InformationWeek, AUTHOR: W. David Gardner] If there was any doubt that computers and technology are taking over the lives of Americans, it was dispelled Monday by two studies -- one noting that most Americans spend more time with their computers than with their spouses, the other revealing many drivers are e-mailing and instant messaging while driving. After reviewing PC and broadband Internet usage by 1,001 Americans, Kelton Research found that 65% of U.S. consumers are spending more time with their computers than with their significant others ["Yes, dear, I'll be up to bed in a minute; I just want to finish downloading Battlestar Gallatica."]; moreover, they aren't very happy with their technology experience. It's no surprise that Kelton Research found that consumers are frustrated. "A majority of Americans (52%) describe their most recent experience with a computer as one of anger, sadness, or alienation," according to the announcement of the study. The study, conducted for SupportSoft, found also that the average American computer user is wasting 12 hours a month because of problems with computers.
http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=196902629

23 Jan
WEB POWER IN WHITE HOUSE RACE [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Ellen Wulfhorst] Just how powerful will the Web be in the 2008 race for the White House? Democratic presidential hopefuls Sen Hillary Clinton (NY), Sen. Barack Obama (IL), and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson all used the Web to announce their campaign plans. "These campaigns are not going to be about who has the best television commercials or who has the greatest direct mail or who can make the most phone calls," said political strategist Hank Sheinkopf. "You're going to see greater use of the Net than ever before," he said. "You get your news out when you want to." The Web is inexpensive, allows control of a political message and can target groups of voters, experts say.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2007-01-22T212052Z_01_N20369612_RTRUKOC_0_US-USA-POLITICS-CLINTON.xml&WTmodLoc=InternetNewsHome_C1_%5bFeed%5d-2
On Web, Voters Question Clinton Directly
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/us/politics/23webcast.html
• Clinton Dives in Media Waters
• http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/22/AR2007012201303.html
• * Throwing Their Blogs into the Ring
• http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/22/AR2007012201088.html
• * Media can learn from White House hopefuls
• "Although masterful reliance on these new digital venues and tools might not immediately alter the $3 billion in ad spending expected across all media platforms for the 2008 presidential race, it likely will have a profound impact on the reallocation of political advertising dollars to the Internet in the next decade."
• http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2007-01-23T055925Z_01_N23179748_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEDIA-ONLINE.xml&WTmodLoc=InternetNewsHome_C2_internetNews-3

SPEED MATTERS: AFFORDABLE HIGH SPEED INTERNET FOR ALL [SOURCE: Communications Workers of America] CWA has released a new whitepaper exploring how Americans pay too much for too little when it comes to broadband Internet access. CWA argues: It is now time for the United States to adopt a comprehensive national high speed broadband policy to ensure that we all benefit from the telecommunications and information revolution. Throughout our history we have been able to benefit from major technological advances because we adopted national policies to ensure their widespread and equitable deployment. In the 19th century we adopted policies to develop canals and a national railroad system. In the 20th century we instituted policies to develop national telephone and highway systems. It is now the 21st century but we still do not have a national high speed broadband policy. CWA also identifies five key goals: real high-speed access, access for all, a better definition of "high-speed" for policymakers, Network Neutrality, and consumer and worker protections.
http://www.speedmatters.org/blog/page.jsp?itemID=28211126

MUSIC INDUSTRY DIVIDED OVER DIGITAL FUTURE [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Kate Holton] With global music sales down for a seventh straight year, the talk at an annual industry meeting in Cannes, France, has become heated over how to develop digital sales against competition from the dreaded F word -- free. Global sales are expected to be down again for 2006 despite digital sales almost doubling to $2 billion and the popularity of music being as strong as ever. Critics of the major players in the industry argue that they have been distracted by the fight against piracy and in doing so, hindered the growth of the legal business. In response, the accused argue that they had little choice.
http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2007-01-22T160916Z_01_L22303409_RTRUKOC_0_US-DIGITAL-DIVISIONS.xml&WTmodLoc=TechNewsHome_C1_%5bFeed%5d-5
• Record Labels Contemplate Unrestricted Digital Music http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/technology/23music.html

22 Jan
BASHED, THRASHED AND ENCOURAGED [SOURCE: Seattle Times, AUTHOR: Ryan Blethen rblethen@seattletimes.com] [Commentary] I did not go to Memphis to get mugged. But that is what it felt like sitting through the National Conference for Media Reform. The conference might have felt like an assault against a journalist like me who works at a metropolitan newspaper. I heard about the evils, and incompetence, of the likes of me at almost every turn. Apparently, mainstream journalists are to blame for the war, for not connecting the Bush administration to 9/11, for the plight of the middle class, and whatever other grievances could be identified. I am glad I sat through the thrashing. Folks are unhappy with the press. I do not blame them. We are living in a divisive time, and the press is partly responsible for our nation's ills and the war. I left the conference encouraged about the future of newspapers even though most panels and speakers at the conference freely bashed journalism's mainstreamers. Why the optimism? The theme I kept hearing was a thirst for a substantive narrative.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003531090_ryan19.html

VIOLENCE: THE NEW INDECENCY? [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton] In recent years, as lawmakers have focused on flashes of skin and profanity, TV violence has become not only more pervasive but more graphic -- even cartoonish in its gore. While the TV industry perennially tests regulators’ elusive definitions of indecency, critics and creators alike say the forces are now aligning for a crackdown on TV carnage. The FCC is readying a report, two years in the making, prompted by, among others, the current chairmen of the House Commerce Committee and the Telecommunications subcommittee. Among the issues the report addresses are the negative effects on kids of cumulative viewing, the limits on the FCC’s power to regulate violence, and the definition of “harmful” TV violence. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin may be looking to distribute the report before a Feb. 1 FCC oversight hearing by the Senate Commerce Committee. The House will probably hold a similar hearing soon after. While there are constitutional hurdles to regulating violence, they’re not insurmountable if Congress wants to give the FCC the authority.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6408809.html?display=Features
• FCC Commissioners Review TV Violence Report
• http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6408818.html?display=Breaking+News
• * The Chilling Field [B&C editorial staff] "Hear us clearly. We're unalterably opposed to any legislation or regulation that would let the government tell networks what we should be watching. We are quite sure there has never been a more effective censor than the On-Off switch. There are no better regulators than viewers themselves when they choose to act on their judgment, armed with new tools provided by the industry. The V-chip, which once appeared to be a threat to edgy programming, could be its salvation. But the FCC and Congress may again gang up on the networks over violence. Even if no laws are passed, the potential to chill content is a clear and present danger.".... "Where violence is gratuitous or unnecessarily graphic, programmers better fix it. But neither Congress nor the FCC should take that job away from them."
• http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6408863.html?display=Opinion
• * Washington may take up TV violence
• http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-violence22jan22,1,3596743.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business

CAN DEATH DENT MEDIA'S HUMILIATION FAD? [SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: CW Nevius] When a Sacramento mother died Jan. 12 of water intoxication after a morning radio stunt on Sacramento station KDND went wrong, it sent a jolt through the industry. And this may not get resolved with a radio network issuing an apology and offering cash to make everything go away. "There isn't going to be a settlement," says Roger Dreyer, the Sacramento attorney who is handling a wrongful death lawsuit for Strange's husband and three children. "There's going to be a venting in a public forum. That's what we want, and that's what the family wants." One must assume, however, that it is not what the large corporations that own most of the radio stations in this country want. The water-drinking stunt isn't out of the ordinary. In fact, local station KSAN 107.7 has done it more than once -- although with supervision and planning. "There have to be network executives who are thinking, there but for the grace of God go I," says Michael Harrison, editor and publisher of the influential Talkers magazine, a trade publication covering the talk radio industry. "This is one of the most important stories to come along. This is big." "This is a story that is going to be reverberating for a long time," says Tom Taylor, editor of Inside Radio, an industry newsletter. "Everybody's paying attention to this. And it's clear from talking to station managers that they've already pulled back on the stunt-boy stuff."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/21/MNG2ONMB4E1.DTL

16 Jan

Bloggers hit radio where it hurts
From the NY Times via Benton: A San Francisco talk radio station pre-empted three hours of programming on Friday in response to a campaign by bloggers who have recorded extreme comments by several hosts and passed on digital copies to advertisers. The lead blogger, who uses the name Spocko, said that he and other bloggers had contacted more than 30 advertisers on KSFO-AM to inform them of comments made on the air and to ask them to pull their ads. The comments were also posted on Spocko’s Web site, spockosbrain.com. In response, ABC Radio Networks, which owns KSFO and which in turn is owned by the Walt Disney Company, sent letters to the site’s service provider, demanding the clips be taken down from its servers. The provider complied, raising the issue of what constitutes fair use of copyrighted material by a critic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/technology/15radio.html (requires registration)

Somalia gags radio
From the same source: Somalia’s transitional government shut three of the country’s biggest radio stations on Monday, accusing them of broadcasting incendiary propaganda. Executives of the radio stations, however, said that was no excuse to force them off the air. “All we have done is voice different opinions,” said Mohammed Amiin, deputy chairman of Shabelle Media Network. “We never expected this to happen.” Abdirahman Dinari, spokesman for the transitional government, accused Shabelle, along with the other stations, of making false reports to stir up the people against the government. “They said our soldiers were looting the markets and harassing people, which was totally untrue,” he said. “They are using the media to undermine the government. They have been doing this for months.” Security officials have summoned station owners to a meeting on Tuesday, and Mr. Dinari said there was a possibility that the stations would soon be back on the air, after they were given a warning.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/world/africa/16somalia.html (requires registration)

Convenience at a price
From the Washington Post, via Benton: Many Americans use modern gadgets to make life easier and along the way create a data trail that others can access and preserve, sometimes permanently. Every Internet search resides on a computer somewhere. Comings and goings are monitored by security cameras. Phone calls are logged by telecommunications companies. This explosion in data collection has been embraced by many Americans as a trade-off for convenience and discounts. But it also has raised questions about personal privacy at a time when the government is increasingly tapping into these reservoirs of telling details to fight crime and terrorism. The new Congress has begun to examine the uses and abuses of data gathering for security and commerce. A look at one person's activity one recent day helps to illustrate what they're likely to find: that ordinary Americans leave a trail of digital data that is being gathered, stored and analyzed, and that these people seldom realize it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011501304.html (requires registration)
* E-mail http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011501442.html
* Cellphones http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011501440.html
* GPS Tracking http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011501443.html
* Security Cameras http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011501441.html
• The Legal Tangles Of Data Collection http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011501301.html

Secrets buried in paperwork
From the same source: At the stroke of midnight on Dec. 31, something profound happened in the government secrecy system. With little fanfare, the paradigm of secrecy shifted. The days when secrets would be secret forever officially ended that night. Some 700 million pages of secret documents became unsecret. No longer were they classified. They became . . . public. Imagine it: Some 400 million formerly classified pages at the National Archives, another 270 million at the FBI, 30 million elsewhere, all emerging into the sunshine of open government, squinting and pale, like naked mole rats. This would seem a victory for freedom of information, just as President Bill Clinton envisioned when he signed Executive Order 12958 in 1995 (affirmed by President Bush in 2003), which mandated that 25-year-old documents be automatically declassified unless exempted for national security or other reasons. But it is not so simple. There is a dirty little secret about these secrets: They remain secreted away. You still can't rush down to the National Archives to check them out. In fact, it could be years before these public documents can be viewed by the public. Fifty archivists can process 40 million pages in a year, but now they are facing 400 million. The backlog, inside the National Archives II facility in College Park, measures 160,000 cubic feet inside a massive classified vault with special lighting and climate controls to preserve old paper. Row upon row of electronically operated steel shelves, all a pale gray, hold hundreds of thousands of document boxes buffered to fight destructive acidity. The place feels like the set of a science fiction movie, all pristine and orderly and hushed. Inside the boxes are documents that have to be scrutinized and processed according to the classification instructions written on them by staffers in any one of several agencies, which leaves archivists with a task not unlike deciphering a 25-year-old crime scene.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011501216.html (requires registration)

'24' hits the shelves in half that
From the Los Angeles Times via Benton: In one of the quickest turnarounds ever for a television show to appear on DVD, Twentieth Century Fox Television today is expected to release the season premiere episodes of "24" less than 12 hours after the popular drama finishes airing. The sixth season of the show starring Kiefer Sutherland as federal agent and terrorist fighter Jack Bauer was launched Sunday and Monday on Fox Broadcasting Network. By this morning, DVDs of the shows will be on retail shelves. Usually, studios release a television DVD months, if not years, after the network run and package them as a boxed set with an entire season's worth of discs. "This is an interesting approach to marrying the DVD format with the broadcast network," said Amy Jo Smith, executive director of Digital Entertainment Group, a trade organization that tracks the home entertainment business. "The entire industry has been discussing convergence — but this is an actual illustration of it." Fox's release of the "24" premiere on DVD is as much a promotional device as it is an experiment in collapsing the windows that traditionally separate a show's network run from its appearance in other formats. The latest "24" DVD will contain the first four hours of the new season plus 12 minutes of the episode that is scheduled to air Monday. But Fox's gambit also illustrates the speed at which studios increasingly must operate to keep up with a world where consumers prefer to watch shows on their own time schedule — not the networks'. Several networks, including ABC and CBS, have offered Internet downloads of an episode a few hours after the show airs. "The trend of the network business is to try to tap into the value of shows earlier in their life span instead of waiting four or five years like we used to," said Gary Newman, president of Twentieth Century Fox Television, which produces "24." "Shows today have a relatively short life span. We've got to make money while there's heat on a show."
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-twentyfour16jan16,1,3815288.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business (requires registration)

Ads gone mad
From the NY Times via Benton: Add this to the endangered list: blank spaces. Advertisers seem determined to fill every last one of them. Supermarket eggs have been stamped with the names of CBS television shows. Subway turnstiles bear messages from Geico auto insurance. Chinese food cartons promote Continental Airways. US Airways is selling ads on motion sickness bags. And the trays used in airport security lines have been hawking Rolodexes. Marketers used to try their hardest to reach people at home, when they were watching TV or reading newspapers or magazines. But consumers’ viewing and reading habits are so scattershot now that many advertisers say the best way to reach time-pressed consumers is to try to catch their eye at literally every turn.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/business/media/15everywhere.html (requires registration)

Boys & girls use sites differently – Pew
From the NY Times via Benton: Older teenage girls are far more likely than younger girls, or boys of any age, to use social-networking sites like MySpace or Facebook, according to a recent study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The study found that, while older girls use such sites the most, older boys are more likely to meet new people through them. Sixty percent of older boys, for example, say they use the sites to make new friends, while only 46 percent of older girls do. And older boys are more than twice as likely to say they use the sites to flirt.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/business/15drill.html (requires registration)
* See Pew study at http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/198/report_display.asp

14 Jan
NOT GREAT NEWS FOR LATE NEWS [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Paige Albiniak] With late newscasts falling as much as 10%-20% in major markets from November 2005 to November 2006, stations are rethinking how they offer news. News consultants say people are up earlier, home later, and to bed later—which bodes poorly for the 11 p.m. news, for decades a crucial chunk of a station's revenue. As a result, stations such as Chicago's WMAQ are starting their news earlier in the morning, while increasingly focusing on their digital offerings. In that one-year period, the late news in the top 10 markets dropped 10% in households, from an average 6.7 rating/13 share in November 2005 to an average 6.0/12, according to data compiled by Nielsen Media Research. That trend tends to hold true among each of the Big Three network stations. In New York, WABC's 11 p.m. news has dropped 12% in households in the past year, from a 7.5/14 in November 2005 to a 6.6/12 in November 2006. WNBC has fallen similarly, while WCBS inched up 1/10 of a ratings point.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6407459.html?display=News

13 Jan
BILL MOYERS TAKES ON BIG MEDIA
[SOURCE: Free Press] Award winning journalist Bill Moyers opened the National Conference for Media Reform Friday with a pointed speech about the negative influence of corporations on American media and democracy. Before a packed house of more than 3,000 conference goers, Moyers said that the independent press is under sustained attack with a few corporations conspiring with political leaders to create an Orwellian world “in which language conceals reality and the pursuit of personal gain and partisan power are wrapped in rhetoric that turns truth to lies and lies to truth. Evoking the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., Moyers compared big media corporations to plantation owners and American media consumers to their slaves. “What happened to radio, happened to television, and then it happened to cable. If we are not diligent, then it will happen to the Interent [creating] a media plantation for the 21st Century dominated by the same corporate and ideological forces that have controlled the media for the last 50 years.” The government cut a deal with the industry and soon the public lost control of its media, he said. “Something is wrong with this system,” Moyers added. “This is the moment freedom begins, the moment you realize someone else has been writing your story, and it’s time you took the pen from his hand and started writing it yourself. We now have it in our means to tell a different story than big media. Our story,” he concluded. “This is the great gift of the digital revolution and you must never let them take it away from you.”
http://www.freepress.net/conference/blog/?p=29
Media Reform Movement seen as "Bursting at the Seams"
http://niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Showcase.view&showcaseid=0054
Moyers speech on YouTube
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLK-rK3rfW8
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaK3tSVu68k
Transcript: moyers07.html

JESSE JACKSON: MEDIA OWNERSHIP IS A CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE [SOURCE: Memphis Commercial Appeal 1/12, AUTHOR: Trevor Aaronson] In the city whose conscience is stained by the blood of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Jesse Jackson evoked the civil rights leader and described media ownership as a new civil rights issue. Speaking at the National Conference for Media Reform at the Memphis Cook Convention Center Friday afternoon, Jackson blamed a complacent American news media for the continuing war in Iraq and an economically burdened African-American population, among other issues. The 65-year-old Jackson advocated tax credits to benefit local ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations as well as ethnic media. Today’s news media, Jackson said, won’t report the stories that need to be told. http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/local/article/0,2845,MCA_25340_5275698,00.html

COPPS UNVEILS NEW AMERICAN MEDIA CONTRACT [SOURCE: Free Press] On Friday Night FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps challenged thousands of media reformers to set a bold new agenda for America’s media system and “get rid of the bad old rules that got us into this mess in the first place.” Speaking at the National Conference for Media Reform in Memphis, Commissioner Copps released the “New America Media Contract” to, as he put it, “guarantee that our airwaves serve their masters — we, the people.” The contract says: We, the American people have given broadcasters free use of the nation’s most valuable spectrum, and we expect something in return. We expect this. First, a right to media that strengthens our democracy; Second, a right to local stations that are actually local; Third, a right to media that looks and sounds like America; Fourth, a right to news that isn’t canned and radio playlists that aren’t for sale; and Fifth, a right to programming that isn’t so damned bad so damned often.
http://www.freepress.net/conference/blog/?p=30

TAPPING THE CONFLICT: KEEPING NET NEUTRAL [SOURCE: Memphis Commercial Appeal, AUTHOR: Trevor Aaronson] As part of the National Conference for Media Reform at Memphis Cook Convention Center, the nonprofit Free Press is trying to raise awareness of Network Neutrality. Tim Wu, a Columbia University law professor and author of ''Who Controls the Internet?'' compared protecting Net neutrality to shielding the First Amendment. "The Internet is a network where you do not need permission to speak," Wu said. "It is like the backside or the undiscovered side of the First Amendment." "It's an issue that cuts across the political spectrum," said Robert W. McChesney, founder and president of Free Press. "When we first started campaigning for Net neutrality, people told me, 'You'll never get anyone to support this. It sounds like something an accountant or lawyer dreamed up.'" That turned out to be untrue. Awareness of Net neutrality grew quickly last year when the nation's telecom and cable giants, such as Comcast and AT&T, began to lobby Congress for legislation that would undermine Net neutrality. In an effort to fight this lobbying effort, Free Press collected 500,000 online signatures, arranged in-person meetings with congressional representatives and torpedoed the new law. "We were able to get people in 25 different cities to visit their members of Congress during the August recess," McChesney recalled. "A lobbying effort like that gets attention."
http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/local/article/0,2845,MCA_25340_5277100,00.html
See also -- * Neutrality Backers Hope Climate’s Improved
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6407334.html?display=Breaking+News
* Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) paid a surprise visit to the National Conference for Media Reform and announced to hundreds of cheering activists that the U.S. House will create a committee on media reform and that Kucinich will be its chair. He promised reform in media and said it would drive national reform, even world reform.
http://blogs.commercialappeal.com/blake/
* Another local blog http://citizen.commercialappeal.com/iDiva/

MEDIA OWNERSHIP REFORMER STUDIES SLAM INDUSTRY STUDIES [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton] On the opening day of the Free Press-sponsored Media Reform Conference in Memphis, researchers released a half-dozen studies they say refute big media's case for loosening ownership restrictions. “These six studies take apart Big Media’s latest claims and show that ownership limits are more important than ever to ensure a local, diverse and competitive media environment,” said Free Press Research Director S. Derek Turner. The studies include Out of Focus: The NAB’s Fraudulent Financial Analysis, which claims to expose "misleading claims about the supposedly poor financial health of broadcasters," and Misleading Industry Market Analyses, which "reveals how Big Media dominate the lion’s share of local markets across the country."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6407169?display=Breaking+News
See also -- * New Studies Dismantle Case for Consolidation
http://www.freepress.net/conference/blog/?p=28

NEWSPAPERS... AND AFTER?
[SOURCE: The Nation, AUTHOR: John Nichols] [Commentary] Newspapers may be the dinosaurs of America's new-media age, hulking behemoths that cost too much to prepare and distribute and that cannot seem to attract young--or even middle-aged--readers in the numbers needed to survive. But the dinosaurs still have enough life in them to guide -- and perhaps even define -- our politics. What is necessary now is a determination to insure that the media of the future deliver not merely for owners but for workers, news consumers and democracy. Perhaps newspapers really can survive in a form familiar to those of us who cherish them. But even if that is not to be, they must survive in a form that fosters a healthy transition from old media to new, and that preserves and, one hopes, improves journalism. The transition need not be tidy. It should embody the experimentation, adventurousness and glorious failures that our current crop of risk-averse publishers have shunned. Above all, the debate about the future of newspapers should not be ceded to the investment-driven corporations that have failed so miserably to maintain media that sustain both themselves and democracy. Americans who recognize that newspapers remain, at least for the time being, essential generators of journalism, and that the serious-minded gathering and analysis of news is still necessary for an informed and engaged citizenry, must join reporters and editors in the struggle to assure that even if newspapers do not survive forever, journalism will.
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20070129&s=nichols

SENATORS AIM TO RESTRICT NET, SATELLITE RADIO RECORDING
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: ] Satellite and Internet radio services would be required to restrict listeners' ability to record and play back individual songs, under new legislation introduced this week in the U.S. Senate. The rules are embedded in a copyright bill called the Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act, or Perform Act, which was reintroduced Thursday by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). They have pitched the proposal, which first emerged in an earlier version last spring, as a means to level the playing field among "radio-like services" available via cable, satellite and the Internet. By their description, that means requiring all such services to pay "fair market value" for the use of copyright music libraries. The bill's sponsors argue the existing regime must change because it applies different royalty rates, depending on what medium transmits the music. But the measure goes further, taking aim at portable satellite radio devices, such as XM Satellite Radio's Inno player, that allow consumers to store copies of songs originally played on-air. The proposal says that all audio services--Webcasters included--would be obligated to implement "reasonably available and economically reasonable" copy-protection technology aimed at preventing "music theft" and restricting automatic recording.
http://news.com.com/Senators+aim+to+restrict+Net%2C+satellite+radio+recording/2100-1028_3-6149915.html?tag=nefd.top

UN TELECOM NOT EYEING INTERNET CONTROL
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Frank Jordans] The United Nations will not try to take the lead in determining the future of the Internet, the head of the U.N. telecommunications agency said Friday. Hamadoun Toure, a Malian who was elected director-general of the International Telecommunication Union in November, said the agency would be just one of many organizations involved in shaping the Internet's development. He said the ITU would work with other agencies such as the quasi-independent Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, which manages the day-to-day flow of data across the Internet from its Marina del Rey, Calif., headquarters and oversees key rules that govern how computers communicate. Control over these rules has been a major point of contention between governments, with some developing countries demanding complete independence of ICANN from the U.S. government, perhaps with the U.N.-affiliated body taking control.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/16449700.htm
Internet should be run by key players: new ITU boss
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2007-01-12T180345Z_01_L12910538_RTRUKOC_0_US-INTERNET-UN-ITU.xml&WTmodLoc=InternetNewsHome_C1_%5bFeed%5d-2

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Communications-Related Headlines are compiled, summarized and edited by Rachel Anderson (rachel@benton.org), Andy Carvin (andy@benton.org) and Charles Meisch (charlie@benton.org) of the Benton Foundation -- we welcome your feedback. Based in Washington DC, the Benton Foundation's mission is to articulate a public interest vision for the digital age and demonstrate the value of communications for solving social problems. Other projects at Benton include:
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