News of the movement for June 18, 2010
Former Gov’t Officials Hired to Lobby As Congress Looks to Rewrite Telecom Law
As leaders in Congress announced a series of hearings this June to tackle huge telecom issues with a focus on the Internet, the top phone and cable organizations that control the majority of the access to the Internet have hired 276 former government officials to lobby both the Congress and the executive branch.
Paul Blumenthal, Sunlight Foundation
Open Letter to Will Ferrell: Help Us Save the InternetInternet service providers like Comcast and AT&T want to tame the Internet, put restrictions on our free speech, and charge users and creators to prioritize their content to load quickly. They want to clamp down on the level playing field that has made the Internet so sensational. We need Will Ferrell — and the creative community — to help save the Internet and preserve Net Neutrality.
Megan Tady, Huffington Post
The Broadband Providers Doth Protest Too Much
Why is it difficult to understand why a government organization tasked by Congress with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable might want to adapt with changes in technology and communications and seek to clearly define the scope of its authority to carry out that mission?
Tony Bradley, PC World
Industry-Funded Study Wrong (Again) on Net Neutrality and Investment
Though we have shown over and over again that Net Neutrality will boost innovation and economic growth and spark job creation, Telco lobbies and industry groups want us to believe that the FCC’s plan to protect the open Internet is somehow bad for business. A recent industry-funded study carries on this same tradition.
Moira Vahey, Free Press
Labor, Public Interest, Media Protest Comcast-NBC Universal Merger
A labor union, public interest groups and media firms wrote a letter to regulators, protesting the merger of giants Comcast and NBC Universal, saying that as proposed today the unified company could disadvantage other media and communications service giants and stifle the burgeoning market for video viewed over the Internet.
Cecilia Kang , Washington Post
Deadline: Stop Comcast’s Takeover of NBCJune 21 is the FCC’s deadline for public comments on Comcast’s proposed takeover of NBC. So what’s at stake with this merger?
Josh Stearns, StopBigMedia.com
In NBC-Comcast Deal, Quiet Concerns
Comcast has long played hardball with competitors and content providers. Now that it is seeking control of NBC Universal, those competitors are piping up, expressing fears that Comcast will use its consolidated power to favor its own content and squeeze out rivals.
Brian Stelter, New York Times
Comcast Reaches Deal to Keep Sports Events on Free TV
With a deadline looming at the FCC, Comcast has reached an agreement with independent NBC TV stations to keep the Kentucky Derby, Sunday Night Football, the Stanley Cup Finals, and other marquee sporting events on free over-the-air TV.
Bob Fernandez, Philadelphia Inquirer
Closed-Door Telecom Overhaul to Begin; Invitees Remain Uncertain
Lawmakers will debate broadband regulation on June 25 at the first in a series of talks on how to overhaul communications law, a feat that has not successfully occurred in 14 years.
The Hill
FCC Must Act While Congress Deliberates
The House and Senate Commerce Committees announced that they intend to hold a series of stakeholder meetings on communications policy issues, including the FCC’s authority over broadband. The FCC can and should act while Congress initiates these discussions.
Free Press
FCC Looks to MSS Spectrum for Broadband
The FCC now has its sights set on freeing up spectrum allocated for satellite services as it continues its search for more spectrum to accommodate wireless broadband services under the National Broadband Plan announced in March.
Lynnette Luna, FierceWireless
Wherever You May Roam
Free Press recently submitted comments to the FCC in support of a proposed rule that would require mobile data service providers to enter into roaming agreements on just and reasonable terms — the same way they are obligated to negotiate voice roaming agreements. Expanded data roaming will benefit consumers in these ways.
Austin Bonner, Free Press
Increasingly, Nonprofits Fill a Need for Investigative Reporting
Investigative reporting is increasingly being outsourced, and often offices off K Street serve as a boiler room for research that the big boys are less able to afford. The Center for Public Integrity is hardly a traditional news operation, but it is taking on a more prominent media role.
Howard Kurtz , Washington Post
Ink Gushes in Japan’s Media Landscape
While Japan ‘s long economic stagnation has prompted a slow dismantling of the nation’s postwar order, punctuated by a historic change of government last year, one pillar of that order, the news media, has so far been left relatively untouched.
Martin Fackler, New York Times
20 years on, Russian Press Still Lives in Fear
Twenty years ago this week, Russia charted a course to develop a vibrant free press, introducing a law to encourage independent journalism. For a brief period the press flourished, but for much of the last decade journalism has been under siege.
Norman Hermant, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
A Third Filipino Journalist Is Killed
Less than a week after the successive killings of two radio broadcasters, a reporter for a newspaper in the southern Philippines was shot dead, officials and colleagues said.
Carlos H. Conde, New York Times