News of the movement for January 3, 2012
Virtually every traditional media company in the United States loudly and enthusiastically supports SOPA, but that doesn’t mean it's good for the rest of us. The open consumer Web has been a motor of American innovation and the attempt to curtail some of its excesses could throw sand in the works of a big machine on which we have all come to rely.
David Carr, New York Times
Internet legislation that is scheduled for a vote in the U.S. Senate next month would aim to stop the unlicensed downloading of billions of dollars' worth of movies and music -- as well as the trade in counterfeit drugs and other goods -- by blocking access to certain websites, many of them registered abroad. But its basic strategies could lead to trouble on several fronts.
David Talbot, Technology Review
Under intense pressure from an Internet-wide boycott, domain registrar GoDaddy has given the open Internet an early Christmas present: It's dropping its support for the Stop Online Piracy Act.
Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica
As regulators moved to block the AT&T deal, Verizon Wireless was buying big chunks of spectrum from the nation’s largest cable carriers and signing agreements with them to sell each other’s services to consumers around the country. The potential for these agreements to curtail competition in both wireless and wireline industries is troubling, and should be examined by the Justice Department and the FCC.
New York Times
Verizon's spectrum deal will allow cable operators to offer a compelling quadruple play without having to worry about the one thing that has driven what passes for competition in their markets the last decade: FiOS. Such a wink-and-handshake noncompete clause warrants investigation. But given the FCC's total disinterest in seriously promoting real landline broadband competition, consumer advocates probably shouldn't hold their breath.
Karl Bode, Broadband Reports
There is no force, not the FCC, not Congress, but most especially not competition to drive high-speed broadband services in America at reasonable rates. While we hear of municipalities taking it upon themselves to bypass the dysfunctional incumbent, those aren’t the norm in America. So as the FCC raises your rates and adds new fees -- and the phone companies proclaim themselves the masters of the digital universe -- it might be time to "Occupy" the FCC.
Bruce Kushnick, Nieman Watchdog
The FCC tried and failed to expand media consolidation in the face of opposition by Congress, the public and the courts. The agency is trying again. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island, and other members of Congress are once again trying to rally public opposition. "The FCC should have focused on growing the voice of the public, not drowning us out," Inslee said.
Seattle Times
The FCC's authority to auction spectrum ends Sept. 30, 2012. The GAO reviewed the FCC's history of making spectrum available for new commercial uses and its plans and actions to meet future needs. The GAO recommended that Congress consider extending FCC's auction authority beyond the current expiration date.
U.S. Government Accountability Office
Three days after its merger with T-Mobile USA was blocked by regulators, AT&T was given a green signal by the FCC to go ahead with its purchase of airwaves from Qualcomm for $1.925 billion.
Ashok Bindra, TMCnet
In late November, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said police officers must "respect the public's right to know about these events and the media's right of access to report." Recent events suggest that the commissioner should speak more loudly.
Michael Powell, New York Times
Activists are planning a visit to the block where Michael Bloomberg lives to protest the city's alleged infractions on what they say are the First Amendment rights of protesters and journalists covering protesters.
Joe Pompeo, Capital New York
President Obama recently signed next year's funding bill, which provides level funding of $445 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for fiscal year 2014 (the CPB budget is determined two years in advance). This is a huge win for the public. But the fight is not over. Snuck into the funding bill is a requirement that the CPB study alternative funding streams, signaling there may be future attacks on its federal support.
Josh Stearns, SavetheNews.org
This week on CounterSpin, a special look at race and people of color in U.S. journalism. It's a story about underrepresentation and exclusion, of bias -- and of breakthroughs. And all along, recognition that the stories news media tell us about the world and one another are a tremendous shaping force on the state of racial and ethnic understanding and the advance of social justice.
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
The last three months of 2011 brought a sudden flurry of deals in the newspaper industry, with a number of fair-sized metropolitan and regional dailies trading hands. But the increased pace of deal making doesn't reflect improved fundamentals for newspaper publishing, which is expected to suffer another round of losses in 2012.
Erik Sass, Media Post
This is the time of year news organizations pump out end-of-year "Best Of" lists highlighting the top stories from readers or editors. Here are a few end-of-year best lists related to journalism and news.
Meranda Watling, Media Bistro
The New York Times has announced that it will sell its Regional Media Group to Florida-based Halifax Media Holdings for $143 million in cash. The Regional Media Group consists of 16 regional newspapers including titles like the News Chief of Winter Haven, Fla., and Thibodaux, La.'s Daily Comet and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Megan McCarthy, New York Observer
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