Subject: Benton's Communications-related Headlines for 4/25/05

From: Kevin Taglang <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 07:21:38 -0500

Screen-Free, For a Week
[Commentary] On average, based on Nielsen ratings, children in the US will 
spend more time in front of the television set per year (1,023 hours) than 
in their classrooms (900 hours). In fact, Americans typically watch more 
than four hours of TV every day. From age 2 through 65, that translates to 
watching more than 10 entire years of TV. Those statistics alone should be 
enough to enthusiastically support TV-Turnoff Week, which is under way this 
week and expected to inspire some 7.6 million Americans to break away from 
their sets -- at least for a few days. See http://www.tvturnoff.org/index.htm
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0425/p08s02-comv.html

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for APRIL 25, 2005

Three events of note this week: 1) FCC appropriations, 2) How Internet 
Protocol-Enabled Services Are Changing the Face of Communications: A View 
from Government Officials; and 3) new FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's first 
open meeting. For these and other upcoming media policy events, see 
http://www.benton.org/calendar.htm

DIGITAL TV
        Quid Pro Quo
        Broadcasters Ask FCC to Rethink Must-Carry Ruling
        Complications Dampening Expectations for 2006 DTV Deadline

CABLE
        'Definitive’ Adelphia Sale Bolsters 2 Top Cable Ops
        Bells, Cable Spar on Franchises
        TV's Religious Revival
        Cable TV Could Get Its Mouth Washed Out

PUBLIC BROADCASTING
        Recasting PBS?
        CPB Plans Civics Lessons

MEDIA
        Who's Going to Win The Living-Room Wars?
        Newspapers Struggle to Avoid their Own Obit

INTERNET
        Internet, Polarized Politics Create an Opening for a Third Party
        Peer-To-Peer Users Share More Than Stolen Songs
        Watchdogs Seek Out The Web's Bad Side

NEWS FROM CONGRESS
        Stevens Endorses Kurth for Open FCC Seat
        USF Reform in Congress Not Likely Until 2007, Members Say
        VNR Hearing Slated For April 28

QUICKLY -- MCI Tentatively Accepts Qwest Bid; Digital TV Ads; Cellphones 
and Protests in China; New Media & Control of Nippon Broadcasting Systems; 
Al-Jazeera and Terrorism

DIGITAL TV

QUID PRO QUO
A handful of station groups are pushing to include a small set of 
public-interest obligations in digital television legislation being drafted 
by House Commerce Committee leaders. The broadcasters hope they can trade a 
narrow slate of obligations for winning TV broadcasters’ top priority in 
Washington: expanded cable-carriage rights for their digital programming. 
Activist groups such as Media Access Project (MAP) and Common Cause are 
pushing for public-interest obligations as well, but broadcasters involved 
in the talks hope to exclude them from the deal-making. Industry lobbyists 
fear that the activists will demand measures beyond what stations will 
accept. For instance, activists have pushed for quotas for independently 
produced programming, which broadcasters oppose, refusing to give outside 
parties any programming say over their operations. MAP President Andrew 
Schwartzman says the NAB has been foolish to oppose public-interest 
obligations at a time when new wireless video services are coming online 
and threatening their business. Unless stations provide programming that 
the government has clearly defined as a public service, the government may 
one day decide that there’s no reason stations should continue to enjoy 
preferential interference protections or their domain over the country’s 
most valuable slice of communications frequencies. “I think the NAB has 
made a serious tactical error,” Schwartzman says. “It has hurt 
broadcasters’ position in Washington and their bottom line.”
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Bill McConnell]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA527236.html?display=News&referral=SUPP
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

BROADCASTERS ASK FCC TO RETHINK MUST-CARRY RULING
The FCC should require cable operators to carry free portions of DTV 
signals from local commercial TV stations, NAB said in a petition filed 
late Thursday seeking reconsideration of FCC’s multicast must-carry order. 
Joint petitioners for ABC, CBS, NBC and Telemundo also sought 
reconsideration, saying the FCC “rushed” into the must-carry decision, 
making “numerous” factual and legal errors and ignoring important evidence 
about carriage of diverse programming under the new rule. the joint 
ABC-CBS-NBC-Telemundo petition said the “proper course” for the FCC is to 
vacate the order and reconsider the petition after resolving public 
interest issues -- a point they said Commissioners Adelstein and Copps have 
consistently termed important in these discussions. Paxson said the FCC 
should bring public interest issues “front and center.”
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Anne Veigle]
(Not available online)
For more on digital broadcasters public interest obligations see: 
http://www.benton.org/pioguide/index.html
More coverage --
* Groups Make Must-Carry Cases
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA527159?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
* NAB to Seek New Multicast Vote
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA527211.html?display=Policy&referral=SUPP
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

COMPLICATIONS DAMPENING EXPECTATIONS FOR 2006 DTV DEADLINE
Several issues are complicating staff negotiations on a digital television 
transition bill that House Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) 
hoped would end the transition by December 31, 2006. There are concerns 
among some staff, including leading Democrats, that tower issues could make 
the 2006 deadline impossible to meet. A House source said most Commerce 
Committee members realize that Dec 2006, will be extremely difficult -- if 
not impossible -- to pull off. Besides the obvious work to be done in the 
House, one source said the Senate is unlikely to have a bill until the late 
Fall, making it unlikely that a bill would go to the President’s desk
until 2006. The House source said this was a “conservative” estimate. 
Another House source said the actual deadline will probably be somewhere 
between the 2006 proposed by Rep Barton and a 2009 deadline being talked 
about by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Stevens (R-Alaska). The source 
said 2008 sounded like a good date.
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Terry Lane]
(Not available online)

CABLE

'DEFINITIVE' ADELPHIA SALE BOLSTERS 2 TOP CABLE OPS
More reading on the purchase of Adelphia by Time Warner and Comcast. 
Comcast’s participation in the purchase of bankrupt Adelphia Communications 
puts the cable giant close to the national cable-ownership limit that a 
federal court rejected in 2001. Monitoring the deal closely, 
public-interest watchdogs want the Federal Communications Commission to 
adopt a new ownership limit prior to approving any Adelphia transaction 
involving Comcast. “What’s critical here is that the statute is mandatory. 
It’s not like the FCC has discretion not to issue a rule,” said Andrew Jay 
Schwartzman, an attorney with Media Access Project, a public-interest law 
firm here. FCC Democrat Jonathan Adelstein, a vocal opponent of media 
consolidation, agreed that cable limits should be adopted. “I think we need 
to put rules in place … so the market knows what we are dealing with,” he 
said. Before leaving office March 17, FCC chairman Michael Powell proposed 
issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking in an effort to refresh the 
cable-ownership docket. But an FCC source indicated that new chairman Kevin 
Martin is not rushing to adopt new cable-ownership rules. Instead, Chairman 
Martin is working on personnel matters and reviewing the status of various 
rulemakings across the agency’s portfolio. Schwartzman said he believed the 
FCC would adopt a new cable cap before signing off on an Adelphia 
transaction. If the agency failed to do that, he said, he plans to go to 
court.
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Mike Farrell]
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA527311.html&referral=SUPP
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA527212.html?display=Policy&referral=SUPP
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA527312.html?display=Top+Stories&referral=SUPP
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

BELLS, CABLE SPAR ON FRANCHISES
Verizon and SBC Communications Inc.’s attempt to enter the video market 
without local approval has outraged the cable industry, which fears being 
placed at a regulatory disadvantage that would permit the Bells to target 
affluent communities while ignoring low-income consumers. Federal law 
requires community-wide cable buildouts, to prevent economic 
discrimination, also called redlining. Cable companies need local 
franchises. A big cable company like Comcast Corp. has 5,000 franchises and 
about 10% come up for renewal each year, requiring the company to hire 
hundreds of lawyers to satisfy the concerns of local politicians.
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA527313.html?display=Top+Stories&referral=SUPP
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

TV'S RELIGIOUS REVIVAL
Religious broadcasters are eager to capitalize on the emerging place of 
religion in the national conversation. Plenty of them are still giving 
audiences that old-time TV religion -- low-production-value preachers 
paying for time on stations or Christian networks -- but a slew of new 
companies are clamoring for cable carriage. At the National Cable & 
Telecommunications Association convention in San Francisco earlier this 
month, the exhibition hall was studded with booths for aspiring religious 
channels. Unlike the teach-and-preach religious-TV tradition, they say, 
many of the new programmers will offer modern content and packaging to 
reach an underserved and media-savvy Christian youth market. Whether trying 
to break into the business or expand an existing base, religious-TV 
entrepreneurs sense a rare opportunity.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Anne Becker]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA527238.html?display=Special+Report&referral=SUPP
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

CABLE TV COULD GET ITS MOUTH WASHED OUT
Cable -- and even satellite TV and radio -- could become subject to the 
government's indecency rules. "It absolutely will happen; it's only a 
question of when," says Adam D. Thierer, a senior fellow at the Progress & 
Freedom Foundation. Decency advocates say the Supreme Court may look at 
cable protections differently now that 85% of households have cable or 
satellite, vs. 15% nearly 25 years ago when the court said that the rules 
did not apply to cable. Cable faces a formidable coalition that includes 
the conservative Parents Television Council and liberal Consumers Union -- 
along with religious broadcasters and even Walt Disney. Senate Commerce 
Committee Chairman Ted Stevens is expected to introduce a cable indecency 
this Spring.
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Catherine Yang]
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_18/c3931059_mz013.htm

PUBLIC BROADCASTING

RECASTING PBS?
Solomon interviews the new chief executive at the Corporation for Public 
Broadcasting, Ken Ferree. Asked if public TV should attract more 
conservative viewers, he answers, "Yeah! I would hope that in the long run 
we can attract new viewers, and we shouldn't limit ourselves to a 
particular demographic. Does public television belong to the Democrats?" 
Ferree pushed changes in FCC rules that would have loosened media ownership 
restrictions. "What I was doing at the FCC, in my mind, was preserving 
commercial broadcast services and helping them thrive. Now, in this job, I 
am trying to preserve free noncommercial television." What PBS shows does 
he like? "I'm not much of a TV consumer. I like Masterpiece Theater and 
some of the Frontline shows. I like Antiques Roadshow and Nova. I don't 
know." The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer? "Lehrer is good, but I don't watch a 
lot of broadcast news. The problem for me is that I do the Internet news 
stuff all day long, so by the time I get to the Lehrer thing . . . it's 
slow. I don't always want to sit down and read Shakespeare, and Lehrer is 
akin to Shakespeare. Sometimes I really just want a People magazine, and 
often that is in the evening, after a hard day." Do you listen to NPR? "No. 
I do not get a lot of public radio for one simple reason. I commute to work 
on my motorcycle, and there is no radio access."
[SOURCE: New York Times 4/24, AUTHOR: Deborah Solomon]
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/magazine/24QUESTIONS.html?
(requires registration)

CPB PLANS CIVIC LESSONS
Continuing its heavy focus on curriculum-based programming, the Corporation 
for Public Broadcasting is sponsoring a series of conferences to help 
public-television producers and others apply for grants from its $20 
million American History and Civics Initiative. The grants are intended to 
fund media projects that "demonstrably improve" the teaching of American 
history and civics to middle- and high school students.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Bill McConnell]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA527167?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

MEDIA

WHO'S GOING TO WIN THE LIVING-ROOM WARS?
Telephone giants, cable titans, computer companies and consumer-electronics 
makers are all vying to provide the next generation of high-tech 
entertainment -- a single network of gadgets that lets you view photos, 
listen to music, record DVDs and tune into whatever TV programs you want to 
watch, whenever you feel like watching them. This convergence of computing, 
communications and entertainment has been promised before, only to 
evaporate because of consumer indifference and technology that wasn't ready 
for prime time. But now the pieces are finally coming together. And 
corporations are scrambling to make sure they aren't left behind. In some 
sense, there are really two separate match-ups: cable vs. telephone to 
deliver traditional and on-demand television programs, and PC vs. consumer 
electronics to provide the hardware in the home-entertainment system. But 
to an increasing extent, everybody wants a piece of everything.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Michael Totty [email-masked]]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111392360478310765,00.html?mod=todays_us_the_journal_report
(requires subscription)

NEWSPAPERS STRUGGLE TO AVOID THEIR OWN OBIT
The percentage of adults who report reading daily newspapers has fallen 
from 81 percent in 1964 to just 52 percent in 2004. The antics of 
plagiarizing and lying newspaper reporters have scarred the media's 
credibility. Recent industry scandals raise questions about whether 
newspapers are fudging their circulation numbers, and federal do-not-call 
legislation stopped the lucrative practice of selling subscriptions through 
telemarketing. And now, free websites like craigslist.com are siphoning off 
millions of dollars in vital classified ad revenue from newspapers. But 
given all these challenges, more than 1,400 daily newspapers continue to 
set the news agenda for television, radio, and the Internet, both 
nationally and locally. Meanwhile, newspaper advertising revenue grew 
during all but the first three years of the 1990s, and it went up during 
the last quarter of 2004, too.
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR:Randy Dotinga]
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0425/p02s01-usgn.html

INTERNET

INTERNET, POLARIZED POLITICS CREATE AN OPENING FOR A THIRD PARTY
[Commentary] Elite newspapers and magazines dominate their markets partly 
because it costs so much to build conventional hard-copy competitors. But 
the Internet has allowed thousands of new voices to find audiences at 
little cost for a panoramic assortment of news and opinions in Web logs and 
online magazines. Some of the same effect is already evident in politics 
and some pundits -- including Joe Trippi, a principal architect of Howard 
Dean's breakthrough Internet strategy in the 2004 Democratic presidential 
campaign -- believe the Internet could ignite a serious third-party 
presidential bid in 2008.
[SOURCE:  Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Ronald Brownstein]
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-outlook25apr25,1,6007847.column?coll=la-news-a_section
(requires registration)

PEER-TO-PEER USERS SHARE MORE THAN STOLEN SONGS
Peer-to-peer, or P2P, software allows users to connect directly to each 
others' computers, bypassing the powerful servers that underpin much of the 
Internet. Web pages, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and other 
material usually stored on servers can thus be made public directly from a 
user's hard drive. That makes online communication much simpler -- and its 
not just for illegal downloads anymore, Peter.
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Andy Sullivan]
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=411TS2OV1ITLCCRBAELCFEY?type=internetNews&storyID=8272652

WATCHDOGS SEEK OUT THE WEB'S BAD SIDE
Part vigilantes, part informants, part nosy neighbors, a new breed of 
Internet activists search the Web for sites that they say deal in theft, 
fraud and violence. Their causes can vary widely, be it stopping spam or 
holding large corporations accountable for poor products or service. There 
are groups that investigate murders and those that fight terrorism and 
other crimes. The activists often operate at the boundaries of what is 
legal and illegal.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ariana Eunjung Cha]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/24/AR2005042401473.html
(requires registration)

NEWS FROM CONGRESS

STEVENS ENDORSES KURTH FOR OPEN FCC SEAT
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has endorsed 
Christine Kurth, the Senate Commerce Committee deputy staff director, for 
the open seat on the Federal Communications Commission. Kurth, 34, is No.2 
in seniority on the committee staff and is from Anchorage. She began her 
tenure with Sen Stevens as an intern, held several positions on the Senate 
Appropriations Committee when Sen Stevens was chairman, including deputy 
general counsel and a position on the Interior Subcommittee. She was also 
an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board and worked as counsel 
for the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee. Kurth earned two 
degrees from Valparaiso U. in Ind.; graduating magna cum laude as an 
undergraduate and cum laude as a J.D. She clerked for the chief judge of 
the U.S. Dist. Court, Alaska. Kurth is married to Timothy Kurth, a lobbyist 
with Lundquist, Nethercutt & Griles and a former aide to House Speaker 
Hastert (R-II) on technology issues.
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Terry Lane]
(Not available online)

USF REFORM IN CONGRESS NOT LIKELY UNTIL 2007, MEMBERS SAY
Sen. Craig (R-Ida.) and Rep. Cannon (R-Utah) said Friday that no 
significant universal service fund reform in Congress is likely to be 
enacted until at least 2007.Other legislative priorities, coupled with the 
issue’s complexity, make 2007 a likelier timeline for enactment. These 
members’ evaluation is noteworthy, since neither sits on his chamber’s 
Commerce Committee. They said their judgments are based on Members’ 
knowledge and attitudes, not on the expert Committees.
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Terry Lane]
(Not available online)

VNR HEARING SLATED FOR APRIL 28
Senators Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) have scheduled 
an April 28 Commerce Committee hearing on a video news release (VNR) bill 
to be introduced by Senator John Kerry and several others. The bill 
requires that "VNR's produced, distributed or otherwise paid for by the 
federal government clearly identify the federal government as the source of 
such material." The legislation, which would require a disclaimer to run 
continuously during the VNR, is expected to closely mirror an amendment the 
legislators tried to add to a "Junk Fax Prevention" bill 10 days ago then 
being considered by the Commerce Committee. It was withdrawn when Sen 
Stevens agreed to take it up separately. VNRs are essentially prepackaged 
news stories produced so that TV news programmers can air them without any 
additional editing. Sometimes actors have been employed to portray 
reporters. Producers of the releases often suggest scripts that news 
anchors can use a lead-ins.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA527322?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
See info about the hearing at 
http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/witnesslist.cfm?id=1488

QUICKLY

MCI TENTATIVELY ACCEPTS QWEST BID
MCI finally, but tentatively, embraced a takeover bid from Qwest 
Communications, declaring the Qwest offer of $9.74 billion, or $30 a share, 
superior to the accepted merger with the far larger Verizon Communications. 
However, Verizon isn't giving up and is likely to raise its current bid of 
$7.5 billion, or $23.10 a share. A new bid will probably come closer to the 
$25.72/share price Verizon agreed two weeks ago to pay for the MCI shares 
held by MCI's biggest shareholder, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jesse Drucker [email-masked] 
and Almar Latour [email-masked]]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111427444420715104,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
(requires subscription)
See also:
* Qwest Raises Its MCI Bid, and Anxiety Goes Up, Too
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/25/business/25place.html
* MCI terms latest Qwest bid ‘superior'
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20050425/qwest25.art.htm

NOW A WORD FROM OUR LOW-DEFINITION SPONSOR...
Although the number of households with HDTVs is growing fast, it's still 
small. And even people who own the special television sets often have to 
jump through technical hoops to pick up some shows in high definition -- 
and it's hard to estimate how many people actually take that extra step. So 
while a variety of shows are now designed for high-definition transmission, 
just a handful of commercials are. Most channels that broadcast in high 
definition simply reformat conventional ads to fit the different standard. 
Some proponents of high-definition commercials argue that the ad industry 
is missing out on a golden opportunity. Consumers are paying more and more 
attention to picture quality, they argue, and the sharper ads will stand 
out from the pack. Moreover, they say, people with HDTVs represent a 
valuable group of early adopters -- and it's worth going to great lengths 
to reach them.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sarah McBride [email-masked] ]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111400990191312019,00.html?mod=todays_us_the_journal_report
(requires subscription)

A HUNDRED CELLPHONE BLOOM, AND CHINESE TAKE TO THE STREETS
The thousands of people who poured onto the streets of China this month for 
the anti-Japanese protests that shook Asia were bound by nationalist anger 
but also by a more mundane fact: they are China's cellphone and computer 
generation. For several weeks as the protests grew larger and more unruly, 
China banned almost all coverage in the state media. It hardly mattered. An 
underground conversation was raging via e-mail, text message and instant 
online messaging that inflamed public opinion and served as an organizing 
tool for protesters. The underground noise grew so loud that last Friday 
the Chinese government moved to silence it by banning the use of text 
messages or e-mail to organize protests. It was part of a broader curb on 
the anti-Japanese movement but it also seemed the Communist Party had 
self-interest in mind.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jim Yardley]
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/25/international/asia/25china.html?hp&ex=1114488000&en=63e366184854b780&ei=5094&partner=homepage
(requires registration)

OLD, NEW MEDIA FIRMS SEAL DEAL
Fuji TV and Livedoor hammered out a deal that allows Fuji TV to take 
control of Nippon Broadcasting Systems, its radio broadcasting affiliate, 
as it had initially hoped to do by buying back Livedoor's majority stake of 
just over 50%.
[SOURCE:  Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR:Michiyo Nakamoto]
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-ft-livedoor25apr25,1,7454207.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business
(requires registration)

THE ENEMY ON OUR AIRWAVES
[Commentary] Figures show that 77% of Iraqis cite TV as their main source 
of information; 15% cite newspapers. Current estimates are that close to 
100% of Iraqis have access to satellite TV, 18% to cell phones, and 8% to 
the Internet. The battle for Iraqi hearts and minds is being fought over 
satellite TV. It is a battle today that we are losing badly. Smith writes 
that there is a collaboration between terrorists and satellite news 
channel, Al-Jazeera. "While the precise terms of that relationship are 
virtually unknown, we do know this: Al-Jazeera and the terrorists have a 
working arrangement that extends beyond a modus vivendi. When the 
terrorists want to broadcast something that helps their cause, they have 
immediate and reliable access to Al-Jazeera." A-Jazeera receives $100 
million a year from the government of Qatar. Smith questions this 
relationship as well as the between Al-Jazeera and US television networks.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Dorrance Smith, former senior media 
adviser to Ambassador Paul Bremer]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111438848754715621,00.html?mod=todays_us_opinion
(requires subscription)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Communications-related Headlines is a free online news summary service 
provided by the Benton Foundation (www.benton.org). Posted Monday through 
Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, 
policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are 
factually accurate, their often informal tone does not always represent the 
tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang 
([email-masked]) -- we welcome your comments.
--------------------------------------------------------------
(c)Benton Foundation 2005. Redistribution of this email publication -- both 
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The Benton Foundation (www.benton.org) works to realize the social benefits 
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worlds of philanthropy, public policy, and community action, Benton seeks 
to shape the emerging communications environment and to demonstrate the 
value of communications for solving social problems.
--------------------------------------------------------------
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Kevin Taglang
Editor, Communications-related Headlines
Benton Foundation
Communications in the Public Interest
1625 K Street, NW 11th Floor
Washington, DC 20006
[email-masked]