2/24/11

News of the movement for February 24, 2011
FCC, Net Neutrality and the Future Enrons of the Internet Internet service providers have engaged in a campaign to lobby Congress and win court cases with the goal of stripping the government of any meaningful authority to regulate the Internet. If Republicans in the House of Representatives have their way, the battle will be over before it ever really begins, with the ISPs emerging as undisputed victors.
Derek Lazzaro, Truthdig
Senate Dems: Don't Defund Net Neutrality Four top Senate Democrats are urging the chamber's leaders to object to any effort that would use the appropriations process or the Congressional Review Act as vehicles to undo the FCC's Net Neutrality rules.
Tony Romm, Politico
Media Ownership Rules Go to Court Public interest advocates are presenting oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in a case challenging the FCC's 2007 decision to lift the 35-year-old ban on newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership. Instead of tightening the rules, the current chairman has chosen to defend the previous FCC's decision to loosen them, ignoring substantial evidence from public interest groups, academics and citizens showing that existing media consolidation levels already adversely impact the amount and quality of news.
Free Press
New Rules for New Technology The proposal from the FCC to stop subsidizing rural phone lines and start subsidizing rural broadband connections is long overdue. The fund has fulfilled its original mission, and it needs to meet new technological demands. Virtually all of the country's rural areas now have access to land lines or cell phone coverage. The real deficit is access to high-speed broadband, which can also deliver phone service.
New York Times
With LightSquared, Did the FCC Bet on the Wrong Horse? The FCC waiver is a huge win for LightSquared, and if LightSquared can really find a partner in Sprint or T-Mobile, perhaps the FCC's bet on a competitive wireless network will pay off.
Stacey Higginbotham, GigaOM
The Need to Protect the Internet from 'Astroturfing' Grows Ever More Urgent The anonymity of the Web gives companies and governments golden opportunities to run astroturf operations: Fake grassroots campaigns that create the impression that large numbers of people are demanding or opposing particular policies. This deception is most likely to occur where the interests of companies or governments come into conflict with the interests of the public. And it's on the rise. How do we stop it?
George Monbiot, The Guardian
Libyans Turn to YouTube to Circumvent Media Blackout If you were ever doubtful about the disruptive power of online video, consider this: Libyan border guards have started to frisk people leaving the country for recording equipment. Libya also started to block access to YouTube as soon as the protests started last week, and access has been spotty at best ever since. Many videos documenting the violence in Libya nonetheless find their way to YouTube.
Janko Roettgers, GigaOM
Ten Myths from Usage-Based Billing Supporters The usage-based billing fracas has calmed down considerably over the past few weeks, but a few people continue to beat the drum in support of it despite the fact that it's looking dead in the water. Here are 10 reasons why the arguments for usage-based billing don't hold water.
Peter Nowak, WordsByNowak
Hollywood Studios Lose Bid to Hold Internet Providers Liable for Piracy Walt Disney and Viacom's Paramount Pictures are among Hollywood's biggest movie studios that lost a piracy lawsuit in Australia as an appeals court upheld a ruling that a local Internet provider wasn't responsible for customers illegally downloading films.
Joe Schneider, Bloomberg News
Affidavits Say Fox News Chief Told Employee to Lie It was an incendiary allegation -- and a mystery of great intrigue in the media world: After the publishing powerhouse Judith Regan was fired by HarperCollins in 2006, she claimed that a senior executive at its parent company, News Corp., had encouraged her to lie to federal investigators two years before. But Regan never revealed the identity of the executive. But now, affidavits filed in a separate lawsuit reveal the identity of the previously unnamed executive: Roger E. Ailes, chairman of Fox News.
Russ Buettner, New York Times
Media Companies Need More Latino Journalists Americans count on the media to tell us -- as Walter Cronkite used to say -- "the way it is." But how can media companies do that effectively when their staffs look more like the way it used to be?
Ruben Navarrette, Pasadena Star-News
One Libyan Battle Is Fought in Social and News Media While the Libyan state-owned TV channel was broadcasting nonstop patriotic songs and rowdy rallies supporting Libyan leader, Muammar el-Qaddafi, Al Jazeera was showing images of angry Libyan demonstrators throwing shoes at a screen carrying live pictures of Qaddafi's speech. The contrast highlighted a fierce battle between Qaddafi's supporters who were using the state-run news media, and Libyan protesters who were turning to social media and foreign news media to win over hearts and minds inside and outside Libya.
Emad MeKay, New York Times
News of the movement for February 22, 2011

















House Eliminates Public Broadcasting Funds in 2011 Budget
Early Saturday morning the House voted to eliminate funding for the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the institution responsible for
distributing federal funds that support 1,300 local public broadcasting
stations. As the measure moves to the Senate, more elected officials
must stand with the American people against political efforts to
undermine the popular programs upon which more than 100 million
Americans rely.

Josh Stearns, SavetheNews.org


Public Broadcasting Cuts Would Hurt Rural Areas
House Republicans are in for a surprise if they intend to dish some
payback to liberal parts of the nation by eliminating federal funding
for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which conservative
politicians have long claimed is a liberal mouthpiece. Small television
and radio stations serving rural, politically red areas in California
and other states would likely feel the biggest impact of such a move
because 70 percent of public broadcasting funds are channeled to local
stations.

Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle


Why Black America Should Fight for Public Media
Throughout the proposed budget now before Congress are a host of
cuts that could be critical to the well-being of black America. From
health care and Social Security to federal food programs, everything
seems to be on the table. Given the weight of those issues, it's tough
to make an argument that funding of the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting should also be on your list of concerns, but let me try.

Eric Easter, The Root





Back to the Future with Comcast
With its approval of the Comcast-NBC merger, the FCC gave away the
farm with damned little to show for it. So, if exhortation does not work
and several years down the road we are faced with more insipid
programs, higher prices and a less informed public, will the FCC step in
to fix what they have wrought?

Peter White, truthout


Republicans Move to Gut FCC Neutrality Funds
On the heels of a rather redundant and unproductive hearing on
Network Neutrality, the House voted to add an amendment to the spending
bill that would prohibit the FCC from using funds to implement its new
Net Neutrality rules. Since the proposal won't pass the president, it's
not exactly clear what message was sent -- other than many members of
Congress simply do what the nation's wealthiest ISPs tell them to.

Karl Bode, Broadband Reports


New Jersey TV Station Is Accused of Failing Its Audience
WWOR-TV is the subject of an unusual investigation by the FCC, which
is looking into charges that the station's owner, News Corp.,
misrepresented the station's number of employees and amount of
programming. The investigation is gaining attention in part because WWOR
is a rarity: It is effectively the only big commercial station licensed
to the state of New Jersey.

Brian Stelter, New York Times


FCC: 'Diversity Czar' Not a Czar All
The House passed an amendment to defund the FCC's so-called
"diversity czar." But the FCC says Mark Lloyd is a chief diversity
officer and associate counsel in the office of General Counsel, not a
czar, according to a senior FCC official.

Eliza Krigman, Politico


Verizon's 911 Service Fails, FCC Asks for Answers
Verizon failed to connect around 10,000 wireless calls to 911 during
the Jan. 26 snowstorm that blanketed Maryland, according to the FCC,
and the agency has requested that the carrier provided a detailed
account of what went wrong and what the carrier plans to do to fix it.

Mike Dano, FierceWireless





Libya Internet Shut Down Amid Protests, Later Restored
According to reports, Libya appeared to have shut down its Internet
due to widespread protests, less than a month after Egypt did the same.
Libya first began shutting off social networking sites like Facebook and
Twitter and the news website for Al Jazeera before taking down entire
Internet providers. After a seven-hour outage, service was restored.

Huffington Post


Egyptians Were Unplugged, and Uncowed
For a segment of the young people of Egypt, the date to remember is
not when Egyptians first took to the streets to shake off the 30-year
rule of Hosni Mubarak. Rather, it is three days later -- the day the
Internet died, or more precisely, was put to sleep by the Mubarak
government. That was when some of them discovered a couple of polar but
compatible truths. One, the streets still had the power to act as
Twitter was unplugged. And two, the Internet had become so integral to
society that it wasn't unreasonable to consider a constitutional
guarantee of free access to it.

Noam Cohen, New York Times


New N.C. Bill Would Restrict Muni Broadband
A lawmaker in North Carolina proposed a bill that would curtail
communities from building their own broadband networks. The move marks
the fourth time since 2007 that a state legislator has attempted to
limit cities' ability to create municipal broadband networks. Previous
attempts to curb municipal broadband were backed by Time Warner and
other incumbent broadband providers.

Wendy Davis, MediaPost


Home Internet May Get Even Faster in South Korea
South Korea already claims the world's fastest Internet connections
-- the fastest globally by far -- but that is hardly good enough for the
government here. By the end of 2012, South Korea intends to connect
every home in the country to the Internet at one gigabit per second.
That would be a tenfold increase from the already blazing national
standard and more than 200 times as fast as the average household setup
in the United States.

Mark McDonald, New York Times





Egypt's Media Undergo Their Own Revolution
Discontent at the status quo within Egypt's colossal state media
complex -- which comprises eight TV channels, numerous radio stations,
dozens of newspapers and magazines and 46,000 employees in Cairo alone
-- had been rumbling long before Hosni Mubarak's resignation. It is only
now though, in the aftermath of the president's departure, that these
frustrations are erupting messily into the open.

Jack Shenker, The Guardian


Libya: Journalists Prepare for 'Floodgates to Open'
Journalists from newspapers and broadcasters across the world, including ITV News and the New York Times,
are descending on the Libyan border as anti-government protests
intensify against Muammar Gaddafi's regime. A blanket ban on foreign
journalists entering Libya has meant that facts are increasingly hard to
verify.

Josh Halliday, The Guardian


Syrian Blogger Jailed As Social Media Helps Protestors in Middle East
A veteran blogger in Syria was jailed Sunday -- yet another example
of just how important to demonstrators, and threatening to government
regimes, the Internet can be.

Nathan Olivarez-Giles, Los Angeles Times


BBC Charts New Course for Its U.S. Newscast
Tapping into what it sees as a need for impartial international news
on cable, the BBC said that it would aggressively seek distribution in
the United States for BBC World News, its 24-hour news channel.

Brian Stelter, New York Times


Media Black Hole: So Much News That We'll Implode?
The news is coming at us so fast and furious, we don't always have
time to be exposed to news we are not already interested in. Our
horizons may not be broadened by this onslaught but narrowed. And it
might become harder to experience serendipitous moments, those "Holy
Cow!" instances of discovery.

Linton Weeks, NPR
Thousands of people who want to transform the media will meet in Boston in April at the National Conference for Media Reform. Join FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn, Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez of Democracy Now!, musician and activist Erin McKeown, grassroots leaders Rinku Sen and Malkia Cyril, as well as dozens of other luminaries. Register now!
In Other News...
Zeroing Out Public Broadcasting Does Not Add up The math is simple. To disregard the immense value of public broadcasting at this decisive moment in our history -- when education is so critical and yet so beleaguered -- would be an object lesson in "penny wise and pound foolish." But if our legislators in the House are having trouble with these equations, I have no doubt that legions of PBS-educated kids will be ready to help them put two and two together.
Huffington Post
Federal Cuts Threaten Public Radio and Television Budgets Whether it's watching "Antiques Road Show" or turning the dial to 89.3, 170 million Americans tune in to public broadcasting every month. But that programming may change as Congress attempts to reduce the nation’s $1.6 trillion annual deficit. While the country needs to confront its deficit, eliminating funding to public broadcasting -- which makes up .001 percent of the federal budget –– is not the way to do it.
Minnesota Daily
Old Media Is Being Unbundled, Just Like Telecom Was Perhaps it is time for the media industry to come to terms with unbundling and re-imagine the definition of media. If it isn't the medium, then what is it?
GigaOM
Feds Appeal Warrantless-Wiretapping Defeat The Obama administration is appealing the first -- and likely only -- lawsuit resulting in a ruling against the National Security Agency's secret warrantless-surveillance program adopted in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks.
Wired
President Taps Comcast's Roberts for Competitiveness Council President Barack Obama said that Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts is among the executives he is appointing to the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Since the council is chaired by Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE, that means that both of NBC Universal's parents, will have meetings to attend.
Multichannel News
Small Businesses Oppose Patent Bill Ahead of Senate Floor Debate Arguing that Sen. Patrick Leahy's (D-Vt.) patent reform legislation favors multinational companies, foreign firms and market incumbents, several small business associations have joined conservative groups in opposing the bill, according to a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
National Journal
Netflix-CBS Deal Worth $200M Netflix and CBS aren't disclosing terms of the deal they recently announced, but an analyst said it's worth $200 million. CBS will get that amount over two years for nonexclusive rights to stream such shows as the "Twilight Zone", "Star Trek", "Family Ties", "Twin Peaks", "Cheers" and "Frasier".
Hollywood Reporter
Piracy Once Again Fails to Get in Way of Record Box Office The movie business has -- yet again -- run up record numbers at the box office. In 2010, theaters around the world reported a combined total revenue of $31.8 billion, up 8 percent from 2009. While the industry certainly has its share of piracy problems, they aren't affecting box office receipts.
Ars Technica
Google Recipe Search Cooks up Next Gen of Search Stepping into the kitchen now, Google introduced a recipe search engine that serves up dishes based not only on the ingredients you may have on hand, but the calories you want to consume and even how much time you have to cook.
Wired
Cassette Tapes Get a West Coast Rewind Remember cassettes? They were, for many of us, our first opportunity to record sound and carry music around. Mixtape love letters, kids' violin lessons, early hip hop releases -- cassettes were a cheap way to capture and circulate sonic expression. That's still true. Believe it or not, cassettes haven't gone away.
NPR
Campaigns Begin As the First Stiletto Hits the Red Carpet For the sponsors of the Academy Awards on ABC on Sunday, "The Social Network" is not just one of the 10 movies nominated for best picture. It is also a centerpiece of their media plans.
New York Times
Thin Mints, Samoas, Mobile Credit Card Systems -- Girl Scout Cookies Go High Tech Girl Scout Cookies can now be purchased by credit card thanks to mobile card processing tech and iPhones. Previously the iconic wafers could only be bought with cash. It's a nice move for the Girl Scouts, good news for anyone who has ever swooned before a Thin Mint, and it's a taste of the future of digital payments.
Fast Company
Upcoming Events
L.A. Media Reform Summit 2011
Feb 26: Los Angeles, CA
FCC March Open Meeting
Mar 3: Washington, DC
Net Neutrality: Who Owns the Internet?
Mar 8: New Brunswick, NJ
NTEN 2011 Lobby Day and Annual Conference
Mar 17-Mar 19: Washington, DC

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