Subject: [Benton's Communications-related Headlines] Aug 24, 2007 (DTV Transition)

From: Kevin Taglang <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 07:14:35 -0500

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2007
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
	Role of Telecom Firms in Wiretaps Is Confirmed

BROADCASTING
	NTIA Coupon Program May Start Slowly
	Legislation would restore radio's community presence
	Additional Radio Stations in the Community Service Grant Program	

JOURNALISM
	America's foreign news deficit may benefit BBC

ADVERTISING
	YouTube fans rant, threaten to leave over new ads
	Facebook Gets Personal With Ad Targeting Plan
	AT&T 1993 "You Will" Ads

POLICYMAKERS
	Civil-Rights Groups Miffed at Martin’s Response

INTERNET/BROADBAND
	AT&T's Still Hiding $10 DSL Service

QUICKLY -- Murdoch's presence felt at Journal; 
Britain enjoying 'digital boom'; New Media Lag 
Communication Impact Of TV, Radio, Magazines, 
Newspapers; Americans Use Cellphones for, Well, 
Calling; Anonymous Lawmaker Helps to Build 
OpenCRS Database; Sleepy? Cut out late-night Internet and TV

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

ROLE OF TELECOM FIRMS IN WIRETAPS IS CONFIRMED
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Lichtblau]
The Bush administration has confirmed for the 
first time that American telecommunications 
companies played a crucial role in the National 
Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program 
after asserting for more than a year that any 
role played by them was a “state secret.” The 
acknowledgment was in an unusual interview that 
Mike McConnell, the director of national 
intelligence, gave last week to The El Paso Times 
in which he disclosed details on classified 
intelligence issues that the administration has 
long insisted would harm national security if 
discussed publicly. Mr. McConnell made the 
remarks apparently in an effort to bolster 
support for the broadened wiretapping authority 
that Congress approved this month, even as 
Democrats are threatening to rework the 
legislation because they say it gives the 
executive branch too much power. It is vital, he 
said, for Congress to give retroactive legal 
immunity to the companies that assisted in the 
program to help prevent them from facing 
bankruptcy because of lawsuits over it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/24/washington/24nsa.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
(requires registration)
* Telecom Firms Helped With Government's Warrantless Wiretaps
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/23/AR2007082302056.html
* Discussing NSA surveillance kills Americans? Hogwash
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Declan McCullagh]
[Commentary] Having a free society requires being 
able to report on and publicly discuss what our 
government is doing with our tax dollars. This 
principle is even more important when there are 
allegations of wrongdoing. Which is why it's odd 
to see National Intelligence Director Mike 
McConnell say that Americans will die because of 
the discussion of National Security Agency spying 
in public and in the U.S. Congress.
http://news.com.com/8301-13578_3-9765305-38.html

BROADCASTING

NTIA COUPON PROGRAM MAY START SLOWLY
[SOURCE: tvnewsday, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
The National Telecommunications and Information 
Administration is promising to start taking 
requests for digital TV converter box coupons on 
January 1, 2008, but no one is sure if those 
boxes will be ready for purchase by then. “My 
sense is it will not be on Jan. 1,” says Marc 
Pearl, executive director of the Consumer 
Electronics Retailers Association. For the coupon 
program to work, NTIA needs the cooperation of 
every link in the broadcasting food 
chain—broadcasters, consumer electronics 
manufacturers and consumer electronics retailers. 
Participation is voluntary, although all segments 
are under heavy political pressure to do all they 
can to make it work. Retailers are not rushing to 
join the coupon program. To take part, consumer 
electronics manufacturers and retailers must be 
certified by NTIA. The NTIA wants to make sure 
the boxes work properly and that waste and fraud 
don't creep in. Broadcasting says they will do 
their bit, launching a major public awareness 
campaign to inform consumers of the transition, 
what their options are and the availability of the coupons.
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2007/08/23/daily.5/

LEGISLATION WOULD RESTORE RADIO'S COMMUNITY PRESENCE
[SOURCE: tennessean.com, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Small, low-power radio stations can 
serve a variety of roles that larger media 
cannot, such as keeping the community informed 
about emergencies and neighborhood school 
closings. They can also reflect the diversity of 
their community in ways that corporate-owned 
radio stations do not. Yet, low-power FM is 
locked in a battle for survival. The 
Telecommunications Act of 1996 led to 
consolidation of radio stations to such an extent 
that, in 2000, the Federal Communications 
Commission told Congress there was too much 
consolidation and community radio was endangered. 
In June, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Maria 
Cantwell, D-Wash., introduced the Local Community 
Radio Act of 2007, which seeks to remove those 
restrictions, while keeping in place a grievance 
process for large radio stations that believe 
they are harmed by signal interference. If it 
passes into law, educational groups, churches, 
nonprofits and municipal governments around the 
country are hoping to launch new radio stations 
that serve their local area. Since the airwaves 
belong to the public, it follows that the 
airwaves should reflect all aspects of the 
public. This bill would go a long way toward that 
goal, and deserves full support.
http://www.dicksonherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070823/OPINION01/708230410/1007/MTCN0205
* Congress should help unique local stations
http://www.dicksonherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070823/OPINION01/708230406/1008
* Don't interfere with what listeners enjoy
http://www.dicksonherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070823/OPINION01/708230409/1007/MTCN0205
* The Promise of Low Power FM
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3306/

CPB WELCOMES ADDITIONAL NINE RADIO STATIONS TO 
THE COMMUNITY SERVICE GRANT PROGRAM
[SOURCE: Corporation for Public Broadcasting]
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) 
today announced that an additional nine radio 
stations have qualified for funding in Fiscal 
Year 2008 through the Community Service Grant 
(CSG) Program. This brings the total number of 
radio stations receiving Community Service Grants 
to more than 900. The nine successful applicants 
are located in eight States (CA, CO, IA, GA, MI, 
TN, VA, and WA). Contingent on Congressional 
approval of CPB's budget, it is expected that the 
organizations will collectively be receiving 
approximately $830,000 in FY 2008.
http://www.cpb.org/pressroom/release.php?prn=614

JOURNALISM

AMERICA'S FOREIGN NEWS DEFICIT MAY BENEFIT BBC
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Steve Brennan]
Who would have thought that the cynical adage "no 
news is good news" could in fact be the best 
calling card Britain's BBC might have when 
knocking on the door of the potentially gigantic 
U.S. market for its storied news operations? But 
the fact is that the perceived dearth of 
international news and analysis on U.S. 
mainstream broadcasters is one of the big 
marketing ploys the BBC is using to create a 
bigger footprint in the U.S. for its global TV 
news. BBC World News' slogan is "See the world 
you've been missing." The campaign approach 
follows a recent research study carried out by 
U.S. pollster Frank Luntz for BBC World News 
which found: 1) Sixty-five percent of people 
questioned believed it is extremely important or 
very important to have access to international 
news. 2) There is a significant gap in the amount 
of international news demanded and what is being 
supplied. 3) Forty-seven percent of those 
questioned rate current coverage of international 
news as only fair or poor. 4)  The biggest 
frustrations with national cable news are too 
many tabloid stories (40% name it as their 
biggest or next-biggest frustration), too 
repetitive (32%), biased (31%) and too much politics (20%).
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=industryNews&storyID=2007-08-23T052502Z_01_N22209237_RTRIDST_0_INDUSTRY-BBC-DC.XML

ADVERTISING

YOUTUBE FANS RANT. THREATEN TO LEAVE OVER NEW ADS
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Dan Nysted]
YouTube might need to rethink their new InVideo 
advertising scheme based on initial feedback to 
the popular video sharing Web site. Most users 
responding to a YouTube blog post asking for 
feedback gave the idea a resounding thumbs down, 
and one even made a video to share his 
displeasure. The responses, a total of 132 as of 
this writing, may best be summarized by the first 
post: "Yuck" wrote user 'quepasakoolj18', of Oro 
Valley, Arizona. The new InVideo ads, launched by 
Google's YouTube division on Wednesday, start as 
an overlay on the bottom 20 percent of a video, 
and people can click and watch the advertisement 
if they want to. If the user does not click on 
the overlay, the ad will simply disappear. They 
are designed to interfere as little as possible 
with viewing. If a user clicks on the 
advertisement, the video they were watching pauses while the ad plays.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/08/23/YouTube-fans-rant-over-new-ads_1.html?source=NLC-TB&cgd=2007-08-23

FACEBOOK GETS PERSONAL WITH AD TARGETING PLAN
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal 8/23, AUTHOR: Vauhini Vara [email-masked]]
Social-networking Web site Facebook Inc. is 
quietly working on a new advertising system that 
would let marketers target users with ads based 
on the massive amounts of information people 
reveal on the site about themselves. Eventually, 
it hopes to refine the system to allow it to 
predict what products and services users might be 
interested in even before they have specifically 
mentioned an area. As the industry watches the 
Palo Alto (CA), start-up to see if it can 
translate its popularity into bigger profits, 
Facebook has made the new ad plan its top 
priority. The plan is at an early stage and could 
change, but the aim is to unveil a basic version of the service late this fall.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118783296519606151.html
(requires subscription)
* Why Google Exec. is 'Intrigued' by Facebook
Marissa Mayer, the search giant's vice president 
of search products and user experience, admitted 
in a keynote address that she has a bit of 
Facebook-envy. Mayer said she's "intrigued" by 
Facebook's ability to collect information about 
the connections people make at the social 
networking site, such as how they met online. 
"This information is particularly useful; we should do that," said Mayer.
http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3695801

AT&T 1993 "YOU WILL" ADS
So, looking back at what technology was 
"futuristic" then, how much is commonplace today?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZb0avfQme8

POLICYMAKERS

CIVIL-RIGHTS GROUPS MIFFED AT MARTIN'S RESPONSE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
"We have not been purchased by the cable 
industry," said Lillian Rodriguez-Lopez, 
president of the Hispanic Federation, warning 
Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin 
Martin to be "very, very careful what he quotes 
publicly." To say that some civil-rights groups 
were not persuaded by Martin's response to their 
complaint about his comments on a la carte cable 
at an Aspen Institute media conference would be 
an understatement. In a call with reporters 
Thursday, the heads of three of those groups, 
including Rodriguez-Lopez, attacked the FCC 
chairman, saying that his apology in a letter to 
them wasn't an apology, that he was trying to 
marginalize their arguments and that his agenda 
was driven by the religious right's fear of diverse content.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6471386.html?rssid=193
* Civil Rights Groups Not Mollified by Apology
http://www.tvweek.com/news/2007/08/civil_rights_groups_not_mollif.php
* Minority Groups Rip FCC Chairman Kevin Martin
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6471383.html?rssid=196
* Read Chairman Martin's letter
http://www.fcc.gov/commissioners/martin/documents/alacarte-ltr-082207.pdf

INTERNET/BROADBAND

AT&T'S SHENANIGANS IN HIDING $10 DSL SERVICE GO 
FROM EXASPERATING TO INFURIATING
[SOURCE: HearUsNow.org, AUTHOR: Bob Williams]
[Commentary] Let's not and say we did. That 
appears to be AT&T's newest tactic when it comes 
to letting consumers know about a bargain 
basement, $10 a month Internet service the 
company was forced to begin offering to gain 
government approval of its megamerger with 
BellSouth last year. In June we told you how 
there was not even a mention of the $10 a month 
service on AT&T's Internet service web page. To 
find out about it, consumers had to somehow 
devine they needed to click on a tiny button 
labeled "Term Contract Plans Available," which 
was buried in the boilerplate language near the 
bottom of the page. Like us, St. Louis Post 
Dispatch consumer reporter Michael Sorkin has 
criticized AT&T for its tactics. So Sorkin says 
he was pleasantly surprised when he got an email 
recently from AT&T saying it was taking steps to 
make it easier for consumers to learn about and 
sign up for the $10 a month service. As it turns 
out, not so much. As Sorkin wrote in his "Saavy 
Consumer" column this week, AT&T spokesman Kerry 
Hibbs told him ""We've changed our website to 
make our $10 DSL offer more prominent and easier 
to find." There were new buttons and headers on 
the web page, he was told. The company even sent 
along instructions to Sorkin on how to do it. Sorkin tried it. It didn't work.
http://www.consumersunion.org/blogs/hun/2007/08/post_1.html

QUICKLY

MURDOCH'S PRESENCE FELT AT JOURNAL
[SOURCE:  Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Joseph Menn]
Rupert Murdoch doesn't yet own the Wall Street 
Journal, but he's already flexing his muscles. In 
the last two weeks, the chairman of News Corp. 
has called at least three reporters who were 
considering leaving the top financial publication 
and asked them to stay. Some journalists in the 
newsroom took the gesture as a sign of Murdoch's 
commitment to keep the staff's quality high. 
Others said it showed that Murdoch would take a 
hands-on approach in newsroom affairs despite a 
special committee established to keep him from interfering in coverage.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-journal24aug24,1,3396687.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business
(requires registration)

BRITIAN ENJOYING 'DIGITAL BOOM'
[SOURCE: BBCNews]
The net, mobile phones and MP3 players are 
revolutionizing how Britons spend their time, 
says Ofcom's annual report. It reveals that older 
media such as TV, radio and even DVDs are being 
abandoned in favour of more modern technology. It 
also shows that women, in some age groups, are 
the dominant web users and older web users spend 
more time online than any group. Among children 
it showed that web and mobile phone use is 
growing at the expense of video games.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6959864.stm

NEW MEDIA LAG COMMUNICATION IMPACT OF TV, RADIO, MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS
[SOURCE: MediaDailyNews, AUTHOR: Joe Mandese]
New and emerging digital media platforms may be 
the rage on Madison Avenue and in the news media, 
but some highly regarded consumer research 
suggests they still have a long way to go before 
they replace traditional media as effective 
advertising alternatives with most consumers. The 
conclusion, which comes from the 2007 release of 
Compose, a collaboration of WPP Group's Kantar 
Media Research unit and Netherlands-based 
Pointlogic, is one of an array of new research 
studies being used by big media shops to evaluate 
the efficacy of using a wide range of 
communications platforms to reach consumers. Of 
the 33 channels - ranging from traditional 
outlets like TV, radio and print to new media and 
marketing channels like sampling, promotions and 
direct marketing - the study found that the vast 
majority of consumers still find mainstream media 
to have the greatest influence.
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=66241

AMERICANS USE CELLPHONES FOR, WELL, CALLING
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Megan McIlroy]
American mobile users are still using cellphones 
primarily for calls, falling behind other 
countries in adopting them as multimedia devices, 
a new study by Universal McCann discovered. The 
study found 65% of mobil-phone usage in the U.S. 
is made up of phone calls, one of the highest 
percentages in the world. Internet usage on 
mobile phones in the U.S. is above the global 
average -- the average U.S. user makes 12 visits 
a month -- but still lags behind the leading 
market, Japan, where users go online an average 
of 40 times a month, the study found.
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=120049

ANONYMOUS LAWMAKER HELPS BUILD OPENCRS DATABASE
[SOURCE: Center for Democracy & Technology]
A member of Congress has agreed to provide CDT 
with a running list of new Congressional Research 
Service reports in order to help bolster CDT's 
OpenCRS project, which provides the reports to 
the public at no cost. CRS generates in-depth, 
non-partisan research on a wide range of issues 
critical to Americans, but while the 
taxpayer-funded reports are unclassified, the 
government has never made them readily available 
to the public. Drawing on the catalog provided by 
the lawmaker -- who asked to remain anonymous -- 
CDT has created a list of "fugitive" reports that 
are not yet in the database.  OpenCRS is an 
interactive project that encourages users to 
obtain and add new reports to the database.
Press Release: OpenCRS: http://cdt.org/press/20070823press.php
OpenCRS: http://www.opencrs.com/
Fugitive CRS Reports: http://www.opencrs.com/fugitives.php

SLEEPY? CUT OUT LATE-NIGHT INTERNET AND TV
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Joene Hendry]
People who spend more pre-bedtime hours using the 
Internet or watching television are more likely 
to report that they don't get enough sleep, even 
though they sleep almost as long as people who 
spend fewer pre-bedtime hours in front of a 
computer or television screen, survey findings show.
http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=televisionNews&storyID=2007-08-23T213316Z_01_KRA377543_RTRIDST_0_TELEVISION-SLEEPY-DC.XML
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Communications-related Headlines is a free online 
news summary service provided by the Benton 
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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.
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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
headlines AT benton DOT org 

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