Subject: [Benton's Communications-related Headlines] April 27, 2007

From: Kevin Taglang <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 07:13:10 -0500

Jack Valenti, former president of the Motion Picture Association, 
died Thursday at age 85 in Washington.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-valenti27apr27,1,5856033.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY APRIL 27, 2007
Don't forget the FCC will hold a Media Ownership hearing on Monday 
evening in Tampa (see more details below). For this and other 
upcoming media policy events, see http://www.benton.org

MEDIA OWNERSHIP
	Barons back off newspaper trial
	Media Ownership Hearing Details
	Tribune offers big payday or mayday

CONTENT
	TV to U.S. govt: Hands off violent programs
	Let parents handle TV violence
	Groups Weigh In On FCC Violence Report
	Let consumers, not government, define TV violence
	Fifteen Minutes of Online Fame
	Christian Coalition Calls Net Neutrality A 'Family Issue'

JOURNALISM
	U.S. media have lost the will to dig deep
	After Moyers Iraq Documentary, DC Reporters in Damage-Control Mode

NEWS FROM CONGRESS
	Senate Commerce Committee Approves Bills
	Lawmakers propose reversal of Net radio fee hikes

MEDIA & ELECTIONS
	The media should avoid early election polls
	Missing: Politicians who take a clear stand on tech

BROADCASTING
	Glassman Nominated to Head US Broadcasting Board

TEN YEARS AGO...
	Bell Partners' Next Hurdle Is Credibility
	
QUICKLY -- Targeting Spam at the Source; '$100 laptop' cost rises to 
$175, for now; CEA Studies Consumer-Electronics Buying Habits

MEDIA OWNERSHIP

BARONS BACK OFF NEWSPAPER TRIAL
[SOURCE: San Francisco Bay Guardian, AUTHOR: GW Schulz]
Clint Reilly's federal civil suit against the Hearst Corp. and 
MediaNews Group, filed last year in an attempt to block the would-be 
competitors from sharing monopoly control of the Bay Area's daily 
newspaper establishment, ended in a settlement which blocks any 
future business deals between Hearst, owner of the San Francisco 
Chronicle, and MediaNews, which now owns almost every other daily in 
the San Francisco region. The settlement saved some of the nation's 
biggest newspaper barons from the prospect of a long and embarrassing 
trial that could have produced alarming revelations about the way the 
big publishers do business. Apparently, MediaNews had tried to 
purchase the SF Chronicle and Hearst, for the past ten years, has 
been interested in investing in the MediaNews business model, best 
described as a series of "clusters," in which the company 
consolidates the operations of several regional newspapers, hacks 
madly at the payroll with a broadsword, and sends ill-fated staffers 
packing, from veteran editors to longtime press operators. Hearst's 
inspiration for its major stock investment in MediaNews began after 
the two became fast friends in Texas. MediaNews in 1995 sold the 
assets of the Houston Post for $120 million to Hearst, which owned 
the Houston Chronicle, enabling Hearst to rid itself of a 
major-market competitor.
http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=3512

MEDIA OWNERSHIP HEARING DETAILS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
The FCC has announced the participants at Monday's media ownership 
hearing in Tampa. The Market Overview panel will include: Dan 
Bradley, Media General Vice President of News for Broadcast; Bill 
Carey, General Manager of WFTS-TV and Incoming President of the 
Florida Association of Broadcasters; Robert Dardenne, Associate 
Professor in Journalism and Media Studies at Univ. of South 
Florida-St. Petersburg; Steve Erlanger, President, Hometown News; 
Ronald Gordon, President of ZGS Broadcast Holdings; Jim Johnson, 
Publisher of State of Sunshine, a political blog covering the state 
of Florida; Eric Klinenberg, Associate Professor of Sociology at New 
York University; Patrick Manteiga, Editor and Publisher of La Gaceta; 
Pat Roberts, President of the Florida Association of Broadcasters; 
Art Rowbotham, President of Hall Communications; and Steve Wilson, 
Investigative Journalist. The Perspectives on Media Ownership panel 
will include: Gerardo Reyes-Chavez, Coalition of Immokalee Workers; 
Glenn Cherry, President/CEO and Chairman of the Board of Tama 
Broadcasting; Roswell Clarke, Director of Technical Operations and 
System Admin., Cox Radio-Tampa; Bob D'Andrea, President of the 
Christian Television Network; Dr. Karen Brown Dunlap, President of 
The Poynter Institute; Bob Gremillion, President, CEO and Publisher 
of the South Florida Sentinel; Carol Jenkins, President of The 
Women's Media Center; Larry Lee, Jr., Owner of WFLM-FM/WIRA(AM), Port 
St. Lucie, Florida; Luis Lopez, Director of Public Relations, 
Hispanic Alliance of Tampa Bay; Carlina Rodriguez, Director of 
Organizing Spanish Language, Screen Actors Guild of America; Sam 
Rosenwasser, President and General Manager of WTSP(TV); and Rich 
Templin, Communications Director, Florida AFL-CIO.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-272682A1.doc
http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/5150

TRIBUNE OFFERS BIG PAYDAY OR MAYDAY
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, AUTHOR: Michael Oneal [email-masked]]
The significant risks and potential rewards facing Tribune Co. as a 
highly leveraged concern became clear this week when the company 
launched the first step in an audacious $8.2 billion gambit to take 
itself private. Documents filed with a tender offer for roughly half 
its outstanding shares disclosed for the first time the financial 
assumptions Tribune and its advisers used in assessing the company's 
various options during its six-month auction process. The documents 
also contain "pro forma" data showing what could happen to Tribune's 
financial picture when the company increases its debt to more than 
$13 billion after transferring ownership to an employee stock 
ownership plan and Chicago billionaire Sam Zell. The welter of 
charts, text and tables paints a vivid picture of the rich upside and 
chilling downside presented by the leveraged ESOP structure. For 
employees, who will end up owning 60 percent of the new Tribune, the 
potential returns could be staggering -- better than those of either 
Zell, who will control 40 percent, or management, which will receive 
phantom stock equivalent to 8 percent of the company. But if Tribune 
falters, as it did in the first quarter, those returns could 
evaporate quickly. And even if the company does just a little worse 
over the next five years, it could easily find itself rubbing up 
against debt covenants that could trigger a default.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0704270058apr27,0,5435767.story?coll=chi-business-hed

CONTENT

TV TO US GOVT: HANDS OFF VIOLENT PROGRAMS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Rachelle Younglai]
U.S. television programmers said on Thursday that the government had 
no business telling them what to air and criticized a Federal 
Communications Commission report saying Congress could regulate 
violent content. CBS Corp., News Corp. and the cable industry said 
such regulation would be an unconstitutional violation of free speech 
rights and face high legal hurdles. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) said 
he is reviewing the FCC report and will include some of the 
recommendations in a bill. In 2005, Rockefeller tried to move similar 
legislation to protect children from violence, but it failed to 
advance. Television violence is one of the biggest complaints heard 
from parents, an aide to Rockefeller said. "They are just flipping 
through the channels and you can't help but see it and you can't flip 
fast enough or shield your kids' eyes fast enough," the aide said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/televisionNews/idUSN2622914020070426
* Second look: Inside the FCC's "Report on Violent Programming and 
Its Impact on Children"
While the Report on Violent Programming and Its Impact on Children 
presents a disturbing overview of the TV viewing habits of toddlers, 
its fine print is far more tentative. A second reading suggests that 
the document, released this week, hedges on firm analytical 
conclusions about the problem.
http://www.lasarletter.net/drupal/node/394

LET PARENTS HANDLE TV VIOLENCE
[SOURCE:  Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The FCC's recommendation that Congress limit kids' 
exposure to violent TV programming via broadcast and pay TV is "an 
unjustifiable government intrusion into the creation and consumption 
of television. And even if the restrictions were upheld by the 
courts, they would likely make little difference." It would be hard 
to regulate "excessive violence" in a way that doesn't trample on the 
Constitution. The bigger issue, though, is that few parents bother 
using blocking tools. The ultimate filter is the on/off switch, which 
not only shields children from violent programming but tells networks 
and advertisers to offer different fare. If the report's findings 
about the effects of TV violence on children are true, then the 
biggest wake-up call should be to parents, not regulators.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-ed-fcc27apr27,1,3057461.story?coll=la-news-a_section
(requires registration)

GROUPS WEIGH IN ON FCC VIOLENCE REPORT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Reaction continues to pour in in the wake of the FCC's violence 
report to Congress. The Parents Television Council and Common Sense 
Media are both applauding, while the Media Coalition gives it a thumbs down.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6437124.html
* PTC Applauds FCC's Report on Violent Television
http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/release/2007/0426.asp
* Common Sense Media CEO Says FCC TV Violence Report is a 'Bold Step 
on Behalf of Kids and Families'
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/news/press-releases.php?id=66
* Media Coalition
"The FCC is broadcasting the wrong signal," says David Horowitz, 
executive director of the Media Coalition. "The courts have 
consistently found restricting violent content is contrary to the 
First Amendment.  Contrary to what the FCC has implied in this 
report, the Supreme Court has made clear that speech is presumed to 
be protected by the First Amendment unless it falls into one of a few 
very narrow categories: defamation, incitement, obscenity, and 
pornography produced with children.  Media with violent themes or 
depictions, on TV or otherwise, does not fall into any of these categories."
* ACLU Calls FCC Television Violence Recommendations Unworkable
http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/29496prs20070426.html?s_src=RSS
* Center for Creative Voices response:
"Giving the Federal Communications Commission the power to regulate 
'violent' and 'graphic' television content will stifle free 
expression, threaten quality programming, and ultimately harm 
America's children, just as its regulation of 'indecency' has done."
http://www.creativevoices.us/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=184
* The FCC Is Not Listening: 74% of Americans Say Parents, Not 
Government, Should Decide What Their Kids Watch on TV
[SOURCE: TVWatch press release]
http://televisionwatch.org/NewsPolls/PressReleases/PR018.html
* Television Violence: Coalition of Leading Women's Organizations 
Call for Congressional Hearings; Urge Parental Action Now
http://www.tickertech.com/cgi/?a=news&ticker=a&w=&story=200704200704261555PR_NEWS_USPR_____DCTH105
* Children Now's Statement on FCC Report on TV Violence
"Children Now hopes that the FCC's report will motivate the 
television industry to act on their responsibility to help parents 
protect their children from harmful programming by providing them 
with accurate, reliable and consistent ratings information."
http://www.childrennow.org/newsroom/press_releases/pr_070425.html

LET CONSUMERS, NOT GOVERNMENT, DEFINE TV VIOLENCE
[SOURCE: Miami Herald, AUTHOR: Cal Thomas, Tribune Media Services]
[Commentary] Anyone concerned about the preservation of the First 
Amendment and the rights it guarantees to free speech and free 
expression should be worried about this latest assault on the 
Constitution, the FCC's recommendation that Congress legislate 
violent TV programming. Conservatives who oppose regulation of talk 
radio, which most of them like, must be consistent and oppose the 
over-regulation of TV content they don't like. Increasingly, I meet 
parents of young children who have decided not to have a TV in the 
house. Having grown up with TV, they say they experience a period of 
''withdrawal,'' similar to that of breaking free of nicotine or other 
addictions. Soon, however, they are communicating more with their 
children, reading books to them and enjoying time together. Their 
lives are better. A conservative would call that a market decision. 
People decide not to consume a product that is bad for them. When 
people have had their fill of really bad television, it will no 
longer be ''must-see TV,'' but ''must-leave TV,'' and I'll bet the 
industry will clean up its act in response or face additional losses 
in ratings and revenue. That's better than the government trying to 
define violence and police-program content, and it will give 
conservatives more leverage, should a Democrat win the White House 
next year, to oppose any regulation of talk radio.
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/86873.html

FIFTEEN MINUTES OF FAME ONLINE
[SOURCE: Common Sense Media]
[Commentary] What are your kids learning from Virginia Tech gunman 
Seung-Hui Cho, DJ Don Imus, and actor Alec Baldwin? Are their 15 
minutes of online fame giving children an unwanted message? A 
fundamental of child development involves mirroring: Kids look to 
parents, teachers, and friends to get a sense of who they are and how 
they impact the world. But increasingly, kids find mirrors in online 
communities -- the MySpaces, the YouTubes, the Facebooks. Through 
written, pictorial, and video postings, kids send messages out to the 
world about who they think they are. Then they get reactions back. 
And the more reactions they get, the more popular they feel. Just 
consider what a point of pride it is for kids to have hundreds of 
"friends" on MySpace. But these public forums reward the sensational. 
The more outrageous a posting, the more responses a kid will get. 
Kids depend on these responses to confirm their popularity, value, 
and sense of identity -- and somehow, consequences aren't really 
factored in. The fame itself trumps the fallout. Because our kids 
look for feedback and measure it in the quantitative ways unique to 
the online user-generated world, they may be taking away the message 
that, consequences aside, doing something outrageous makes you an 
instant celebrity.
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/parent_tips/commonsense_view/index.php?id=226

CHRISTIAN COALITION CALLS NET NEUTRALITY A 'FAMILY ISSUE'
[SOURCE: InformationWeek, AUTHOR: KC Jones]
Net neutrality could become the next family value if the Christian 
Coalition of America gets its way.
In a teleconference marking the one-year anniversary of the 
SaveTheInternet campaign to keep the Internet content-neutral, the 
Christian Coalition's Michele Combs said Wednesday network neutrality 
is a "family issue" that should become part of the national 
presidential debate among Republicans and Democrats. Combs was one of 
several people who said they will continue to push for net neutrality 
legislation, which would prevent telecommunications and cable 
companies from prioritizing Internet traffic based on content or 
source. Proponents of the legislation argue they want to guarantee 
individuals and small companies the same access and delivery speeds 
as larger companies, rather than allowing telecommunications and 
cable providers to charge larger companies higher rates for faster speed.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199201856&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_News
* One Year Older and Fighting Strong for a Better Internet
http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/2007/04/26/one-year-old-and-fighting-strong-for-a-better-internet/
* "Hands Off" Statement on SaveTheInternet" Lobbying Call
http://handsoff.org/hoti_docs/news/pr_042607.shtml

JOURNALISM

US MEDIA HAVE LOST WILL TO DIG DEEP
[SOURCE:  Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Greg Palast]
[Commentary]  Investigative reporting -- the kind Jack Anderson used 
to do regularly and which was carried in hundreds of papers across 
the country, the kind of muckraking, data-intensive work that takes 
time and money and ruffles feathers -- is dying. Again and again, I 
see this pattern repeated. Until there is some official investigation 
or allegation made by a politician, there is no story. Or sometimes 
the media like to cover the controversy, not the substance, 
preferring an ambiguous and unsatisfying "he said, she said" report. 
Safe reporting, but not investigative. I know some of the reasons why 
investigative reporting is on the decline. To begin with, 
investigations take time and money. In America's cash-short, 
instant-deadline world, there's not much room for that. Are there 
still aggressive, talented investigative reporters in the U.S.? There 
are hundreds. I'll mention two: Seymour Hersh, formerly of the New 
York Times, and Robert Parry, formerly of the Associated Press, who 
uncovered the Iran-Contra scandal. The operative word here is 
"formerly." Parry tells me that he can no longer do this kind of 
investigative work within the confines of a U.S. daily newsroom.  One 
of the biggest disincentives to doing investigative journalism is 
that it jeopardizes future access to politicians and corporate elite.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-palast27apr27,1,68184.story?coll=la-news-a_section
(requires registration)

AFTER MOYERS IRAQ DOCUMENTARY, DC REPORTERS IN DAMAGE-CONTROL MODE
[SOURCE: AlterNet, AUTHOR: David Sirota, WorkingForChange.com]
In the lead up to and wake of Bill Moyers' much-anticipated mega-dunk 
on the Washington press corps this week, we are seeing the ugliest 
side of Beltway culture -- sophistry and damage control.
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/51110/

NEWS FROM CONGRESS

SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE APPROVES BILLS
[SOURCE: US Senate Commerce Committee]
The Senate Commerce Committee approved seven bills Wednesday, 
including the Identity Theft Prevention Act of 2007, which sets new 
standards to protect sensitive, personal information, including 
allowing credit freezes and limiting the display of social security 
numbers, and the IP-Enabled Voice Communications and Public Safety 
Act of 2007, which creates a statutory obligation on IP-enabled voice 
service providers to provide 911 and E911 service to their 
subscribers. The Identity Theft Prevention Act of 2007, S. 1178, 
requires businesses, organizations, and federal agencies to maintain 
and protect sensitive personal information.  The Federal Trade 
Commission establishes standards for companies safeguarding such 
information and is responsible for enforcing the Act against 
businesses and organizations, other than those that are regulated by 
other federal agencies.  Violators may be fined up to $11,000 per 
violation per day with no cap.  The bill also obligates these 
businesses, organizations, and federal agencies to notify consumers 
in the event of a security breach that creates a reasonable risk of 
identity theft. Under the bill, in the event of a breach, a consumer 
may place a security freeze on his or her consumer credit report, 
which blocks the release of any information from the consumer's 
credit report without the explicit authorization of the consumer. 
Additionally, the bill would prohibit the display of social security 
numbers on employer, school or other identification cards, and state 
driver's licenses. It also prohibits the sale, purchase, or 
solicitation of social security numbers, except for limited purposes 
such as fraud prevention and to pursue criminals. S. 428, the 
IP-Enabled Voice Communications and Public Safety Act of 2007 would 
grant IP-enabled voice providers the right of access to essential 911 
components comparable to the rights of access granted to commercial 
mobile service providers. The bill also would clarify the right of 
states and localities to impose 911 fees on IP-enabled voice services 
providers to use for expanded 911, E911, or other public safety 
purpose. S. 428 would also direct the E911 Implementation 
Coordination Office to develop and report to Congress on a national 
plan for migrating to an IP-enabled emergency network within 270 days 
of the bill's enactment.
http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=248799&Month=4&Year=2007

LAWMAKERS PROPOSE REVERSAL OF NET RADIO FEE HIKES
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Anne Broache]
A bill introduced in Congress Thursday aims to overturn a 
controversial royalty fee hike that Internet radio advocates say 
threatens to cripple their services.  The "Internet Radio Equality 
Act," introduced by Reps. Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Don Manzullo (R-IL), 
would invalidate a March 2 decision by the U.S. Copyright Royalty 
Board that calls for hiking royalty rates paid by Net radio 
operators. "You can't put an economic chokehold on this emerging 
force of democracy," Inslee said in a statement e-mailed by a 
spokeswoman. "There has to be a business model that allows creative 
Webcasters to thrive and the existing rule removes all the oxygen 
from this space." The bill's introduction comes less than two weeks 
after the CRB declined to reconsider most of its decision. Small 
Webcasters, National Public Radio, Clear Channel Communications and 
others had filed petitions for a rehearing. Some have indicated they 
are considering filing an appeal of the rules in court. If it were to 
stand, the CRB's existing ruling would result in fee increases on 
Internet radio operators ranging from 300 to 1200 percent between 
2006 and 2012, according to a group called SaveNetRadio, which has 
been lobbying Congress for relief. In addition to repealing that 
regime, the new House bill offers a compromise: It would set the rate 
at 7.5 percent of the Webcaster's revenue "directly related to" its 
transmission of sound recordings, or 33 cents per hour of sound 
recordings transmitted to a single listener. It would be up to the 
Webcaster to decide which model to use. That's comparable to what is 
currently required of satellite radio operators. The bill also calls 
for public radio broadcasters to submit a report to Congress on how 
to determine rates for their class of services
http://news.com.com/Lawmakers++propose+reversal+of+Net+radio+fee+hikes/2100-1028_3-6179627.html?tag=html.alert.hed

MEDIA & ELECTIONS

THE MEDIA SHOULD AVOID EARLY ELECTION POLLS
[SOURCE: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting]
While it certainly feels like the presidential election cycle has 
started earlier than ever, a more important issue is what sort of 
coverage of the process the media are providing citizens. Much of 
what voters are seeing is reporting and analysis of early polls, 
which show Rudolph Giuliani with a wide lead over his Republican 
counterparts, and senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama leading 
the Democratic field. But if history is any guide, the polls are a 
complete waste of time. The press attention to these early polls can 
amount to a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy: Polls are primarily 
measuring name recognition, so high-profile candidates tend to do 
better. "Winning" the polls encourages more media attention, much of 
it about how a given candidate is maintaining their lead. When actual 
voters intervene in the process, however, the front-runners often 
become also-rans. More importantly, early polls function as a way of 
giving media an excuse to ignore candidates -- often the majority of 
candidates -- who are deemed outsiders undeserving of media 
attention. While reporters seem aware of the problems with 
overplaying these early polls, it's not clear that this awareness has 
any effect on their coverage.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3091

MISSING: POLITICIANS WHO TAKE A CLEAR STAND ON TECH
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Declan McCullagh]
Net neutrality became one the hottest political flashpoints in the 
last year. But in what might seem to be an odd omission, both 
Republicans and Democrats studiously ignored it this week when 
touting their technology agendas for 2007. Also absent from the list 
of congressional priorities for the new Congress were controversial 
topics like social network restrictions, Internet surveillance, data 
retention, spyware, and laws aimed at regulating Google and its 
competitors when doing business in China.
http://news.com.com/Missing+Politicians+who+take+a+clear+stand+on+tech/2100-1028_3-6179702.html?tag=nefd.lede

BROADCASTING

GLASSMAN NOMINATED TO HEAD US BROADCASTING BOARD
[SOURCE: The White House]
The President intends to nominate James K. Glassman, of Connecticut, 
to be a Member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors for the 
remainder of a three-year term expiring 8/13/07 and an additional 
three-year term expiring 8/13/10. The President also intends to 
nominate Mr. Glassman to be Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of 
Governors. Glassman is the first Editor-in-Chief and Executive 
Publisher of The American, a magazine of ideas focusing on business, 
economics, and public affairs. His recent work at AEI has been 
dedicated to the intersection of policy, finance and technology. For 
more than a decade, he wrote an investing column for the Washington 
Post, as well as two books on finance, most recently  The Secret Code 
of the Superior Investor. In 2000, he founded the online opinion 
journal, TCSDaily.com which concentrates on high tech and public 
policy. He is also chairman of Investors Action Alliance, an advocacy 
and education group for small investors. Before AEI, he was publisher 
of both The New Republic and The Atlantic Monthly and editor of the 
congressional newspaper Roll Call. He is at work on a book on the 
effects of the boom in global wealth.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/04/20070425-5.html
Glassman's bio: http://www.aei.org/scholars/scholarID.21,filter.all/scholar.asp

TEN YEARS AGO...

BELL PARTNERS' NEXT HURDLE IS CREDIBILITY
[SOURCE: New York Times 4/28/1997, AUTHOR: Mark Landler]
Ten years ago this week, Bell Atlantic and Nynex completed a 
regulatory steeplechase when the Justice Department announced it 
would not try to block their $22 billion merger. And though the 
companies tangled for more than a year with angry consumer advocates, 
balky state officials and skeptical regulators, their big deal came 
through without a scratch. Landler speculated that the challenge 
ahead for the combined company would be convincing competitors and 
consumers to accept the Government's conclusion that the combination 
posed no threat to an open marketplace. The consumer advocates and 
other critics were not optimistic. To them, the decision was part of 
a string of Federal and state rulings that did not put any curbs on 
the market power of the vast new company. "This really demonstrates 
that the Telecommunications Act by itself is never going to be enough 
to guarantee competition," said Consumers Union's Gene Kimmelman.
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F20912FE3E550C7B8EDDAD0894DF494D81
(requires TimesSelect subscription)

QUICKLY

TARGETING SPAM AT THE SOURCE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Krebs]
A company representing Internet users in more than 100 countries 
filed a federal lawsuit yesterday seeking the identities of people 
responsible for collecting millions of e-mail addresses on behalf of 
spammers. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, 
was filed on behalf of Project Honey Pot, a service of Unspam 
Technologies, a Utah firm that consults with companies and government 
agencies. The company filed the lawsuit on behalf of 20,000 people 
who use its anti-spam tool. The software records the Internet 
protocol addresses of visitors who collect e-mail addresses from Web 
sites and forward them to spammers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/26/AR2007042602479.html
(requires registration)

'$100 LAPTOP' COSTS RISES TO $175, FOR NOW
[SOURCE:  Associated Press]
The founder of the ambitious "$100 laptop" project, which plans to 
give inexpensive computers to schoolchildren in developing countries, 
revealed Thursday that the machine, for now, costs $175 and that it 
would be able to run Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system in 
addition to its home-grown, open-source interface. At least seven 
nations have expressed interest in being in the initial wave to buy 
the little green-and-white XO computers -- Uruguay, Argentina, 
Brazil, Pakistan, Thailand, Nigeria and Libya. The project needs 
orders for 3 million machines for its manufacturing and distribution 
effort to get rolling. Mass production is expected to begin by October.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-laptop27apr27,1,3024242.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business
(requires registration)
* U.S. schools may join inexpensive laptop project
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2642385520070427

CEA STUDIES CONSUMER-ELECTRONICS BUYING HABITS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News]
According to the Consumer Electronics Association's Ninth Annual 
Household and Teen CE Ownership and Market Potential Study, the 
average U.S. household owns 25 consumer-electronics products and the 
average adult spends $1,200 annually on them. The study also found 
that the top five growth sectors were digital-video recorders, 
network routers or hubs, MP3 players, cable modems and digital cameras.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6437126.html
--------------------------------------------------------------
...and we're outta here. Have a great weekend. let's go Cubs!
--------------------------------------------------------------
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 2007. Redistribution of this email publication 
-- both internally and externally -- is encouraged if it includes 
this message. For subscribe/unsubscribe info email: [email-masked]
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Benton Foundation (www.benton.org) works to realize the social 
benefits made possible by the public interest use of communications. 
Bridging the 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.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Free Press also collects media and media policy related headlines 
that complement well the work we are doing. Media Headlines is a 
free, daily news service by Free Press. It includes links to articles 
found on the Free Press News Center.  For more information or to sign 
up, visit http://www.freepress.net

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 

____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     [email-masked]

You are subscribed as: [% user.email %]

Please direct questions or comments about Headlines or your subscription to Kevin Taglang at
[email-masked]

To be removed from the list, send any message to:
     [email-masked]

For all list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.benton.org/lists/info/headlines