Be The Media

Columnist Novak has ties to anti-kerry book

Jacques Steinberg in the NY Times:

"Among the stoutest defenders of ''Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry,'' the best-selling book arguing that Mr. Kerry lied about his record of service in Vietnam, is the columnist Robert Novak.

In his syndicated columns and on the CNN program ''Crossfire,'' Mr. Novak has lauded the book and referred to veterans who criticize Mr. Kerry -- most notably John E. O'Neill, the book's co-author -- as ''real patriots.''

Unmentioned in Mr. Novak's columns and television appearances, however, is a personal connection he has to the book: his son, Alex Novak, is the director of marketing for its publisher, the conservative publishing house Regnery."

Supercharged Wi-Fi to blanket all Amsterdam

Reuters reported:

"Amsterdam's Web surfers could soon be liberated from their home computers and Internet cafes, as a start-up company plans to make their city the first European capital where laptops can hook up anywhere to the Web.

HotSpot Amsterdam launched a wireless computer network on Monday with a supercharged version of the Wi-Fi technology that is used to turn homes, airports, hotels and cafes into Web-connected "hot spots."

The first seven base stations are up and running, connecting historic areas that date back to the 13th century, and the entire city center will be covered by 40 to 60 antennas within three months, HotSpot Amsterdam founder Carl Harper said.

That network would be able to support several thousand users, he said.

"We'll go on to cover all of Amsterdam with 125 base stations. The idea is to prove to the big boys that it can be done and that consumers can live with a mobile phone and mobile Internet. The landline is dead," he said. Many computer makers build Wi-Fi chips and access cards into their products.
The Finnish town of Mantsala has an 11 square-kilometer Wi-Fi network, available to the public and schools, while New York plans to build a city-wide Wi-Fi network.

The Port of Amsterdam installed a Wi-Fi network three months ago, covering its 30 square kilometers, but that network is not for public use."

Show me the convention

From the New York Times by Michael Copps:

"As a Democratic commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission, I may not agree with many positions taken by speakers this week at the Republican National Convention. Even so, I believe our broadcast media owe us more coverage of an event that remains an important component of the presidential campaign. Yet tonight, if people around the country tune in to the commercial broadcast TV networks, most will not see any live convention coverage. That's not right.

Let's remember that American citizens own the public airwaves, not TV executives. We give broadcasters the right to use these airwaves for free in exchange for their agreement to broadcast in the public interest. They earn huge profits using this public resource. During this campaign season broadcasters will receive nearly $1.5 billion from political advertising.

What do we get in return for granting TV stations free use of our airwaves? Unfortunately, when it comes to coverage of issues important to our nation, the answer is less and less. Coverage of the 2000 presidential election on the network evening news dropped by a third compared to reporting on the 1996 election. During the last election cycle we heard directly from presidential candidates for an average of 9 seconds a night on the news. Local races? Forget it. In 2002 - the most recent midterm elections - more than half of local newscasts contained no campaign coverage at all. Local coverage has diminished to the point that campaign ads outnumber campaign stories by four to one. What coverage there is focuses inordinately on polls and handicapping the horse race.

Whether we are Democrats, Republicans or independents, we all can agree that democracy depends on well-informed citizens. So as you flip through the channels tonight while the convention is largely ignored, consider whether TV broadcasters, sustained by free access to the public airwaves in exchange for programming in the public interest, are holding up their end of the deal."

Clear Channel plays rough in motorcycling battle

From the New York Times:

"Supercross, a popular dirt-bike racing competition held in stadiums around the country, is best known for ear-splitting machines and mud-spattered racers. Now it is shaping up to be the latest battleground in the fight over media consolidation.

A federal judge ruled earlier this month that a suit brought by an independent events promoter in Chicago, accusing Clear Channel Communications of antitrust violations, could proceed to a jury trial, set for Nov. 15.

In the decision, Judge Matthew F. Kennelly in Chicago ruled that while the facts were in dispute, there was sufficient evidence that Clear Channel, the nation's biggest entertainment promoter and owner of radio stations, "used its market power to pressure stadiums'' not to work with the Chicago promoter on motorcycling events "with the sole intent of restraining the competitive process.''

Judge Kennelly's decision in Chicago is the second time in five months that a federal judge found sufficient evidence to allow a lawsuit accusing Clear Channel of market abuses to proceed to trial. The decision came amid a Justice Department inquiry into possible antitrust violations by the company's executives.

In late June, the Justice Department contacted Clear Channel and a Denver concert promoter, Nobody in Particular Presents, demanding copies of the evidence produced in a lawsuit the promoter had filed against Clear Channel, according to a person involved in the case. Clear Channel settled the case earlier this summer."

Can Microsoft stomp iTunes with a store of its own?

Laurie J Flynn in the NY Times:

"But music is only part of Microsoft's strategy. The company has timed the store opening with the release of a new version of Windows Media, the software that allows consumers to play movies, songs and other content on a variety of devices running the Windows operating system. With Windows Media and the online music store, Microsoft hopes to further its efforts to make Windows a foundation for its reach beyond the desktop and into the living room.

But regardless of MSN's success, Microsoft will face a strong competitor in the online music market. In 16 months, Apple has managed to capture almost 70 percent of the market for digital music downloads, according to Forrester Research. And iTunes has helped Apple sell its iPod, the portable music player compatible with iTunes. Last month the company announced it had sold its hundred-millionth song - a milestone that did not come as quickly as the company had originally projected.

The rest of the market for online music downloads is shared by Sony, RealNetworks, Napster from Roxio, MusicMatch, the Wal-Mart Stores Web site and a long list of others, "all fighting for the scraps that Apple has left behind," said Josh Bernoff, a market research analyst at Forrester. Yahoo, Virgin Records and MTV, a Viacom unit, are all expected to join the fray within the next few months.

Given how fragmented the market is, MSN's eight million subscribers could quickly allow Microsoft to grab second place, Mr. Bernoff said. That spot has been held for the last few weeks by RealNetworks, a longtime Microsoft adversary that has both a music download store and a subscription-based streaming music service.

Earlier this month, in anticipation of Microsoft's new store, RealNetworks cut the price of its downloads in half, to 49 cents a song, and as a result sold more than a million songs the first week, compared with about 200,000 a week in July. Analysts expect Microsoft to sell its songs for something close to Apple's 99 cents."

Films To See Before You Vote

A new website is about to launch that will enable citizens to inform, inspire and organize for the November elections. It is designed to connect citizens to exceptional films they can use to make a difference. 2004 presents an unprecedented opportunity for citizens to utilize films to educate, inspire and organize. There is a hunger for deeper analysis and investigation than the mainstream media has provided.

FilmsToSeeBeforeYouVote.org will:
* Provide a central access point to outstanding new political films (just released or just about to be released) as well as classics relevant to the upcoming elections
* Enable visitors to easily purchase them on DVD or see them in a theater
* Encourage users to organize screening parties so they can watch and discuss the films, and explore next steps related to the impending elections

How can you help?
* Tell your friends and colleagues about the upcoming launch of this important new site. Ask them to pass along this information to their friends and colleagues
* Link to the site from your blog or web site!
* Encourage any organizations you are involved with to send an email blast to members
* Alert journalists or bloggers you are in contact with

Hey Kidz! - Radical Education Roadshow

Anne Elizabeth Moore's new book, "Hey Kidz! Buy This Book" is getting rave reviews, get your copy NOW!

And check out this web site to book your very own Radical Education Roadshow and Reading Series. It is a dynamic series of hands-on workshops, fantastic literary performances, and good, old-fashioned parties staffed by some of the most amazing independent media-makers of our day.

To book the Radical Education Roadshow in your town, email anne@heykidz.org.

Reuters gets bad news from union

From The Business Standard (India) by Parvathy Ullatil:

"International news and information provider Reuters is the latest to get into trouble over outsourcing. The media company, which decided to outsource some of its editorial work to India earlier this year, might be taken to court by the Newspaper Guild of New York, a union whose members include more than 500 Reuters America staff.

According to the guild, the protest follows an announcement made by Reuters to do away with 20 editorial jobs, including 12 guild-represented positions, in the US in favour of 60 employees in Bangalore.

A press release issued by the guild in the middle of August said Reuters was guilty of violating the collective bargaining agreement between the company and the guild."

Media Revolt: A Manifesto

David Neiwert, Orcinus:

"For too long, the public has been forced to rely on the mass media as the means for obtaining and disseminating information. This was not a serious problem for most of our history. Though the means for spreading information had to go through the traditional filter of the media gateways (particularly editors and reporters), the system in fact worked generally well, as long as a measure of independence was present within the press itself.

As the conglomeration and consolidation of the mass media has proceeded apace through the past two decades unchecked, that independence has largely vanished or become effectively strangled, and with it a responsible treatment of the public interest by the nation's press. The traditional media filters have instead become bottlenecks, preventing information that is in fact vital for the public well-being from ever reaching them -- oftentimes for reasons that are trivial and puerile, not to mention geared toward the manipulation of the media in the service of corporate powers and their agenda.

The blogosphere is a direct result of those bottlenecks. Information is now flowing around them through the networks of dissemination that blogs have become.

Blogs represent, in fact, the real democratization of journalism, which traditionally has always been about the work of keeping the public duly and properly informed. Stories and vital facts now no longer need go through the New York Times and NBC News in order to gain wide distribution. Blogs can effectively reach as many people as several large city dailies combined. And the network of their combined efforts represents a massive shift of data around the traditional media filters.

Blogs can also be terrific means for organizing, particularly for putting together a concerted response to political and media atrocities. One need only survey the ability of blogs to affect real-world politics -- their role in bringing about the fall of Trent Lott was just a start -- to understand that their power can readily extend to reshaping the media, since they represent in themselves a kind of citizens' solution to needed reforms in the media.

To bring that about, two things are needed: 1) A recognition that this power exists, and 2) Organizing in a thoughtful and effective fashion to wield it. "

The secret behind those newspaper apologies ... and all those anti-Bush books

You must read Pat's two reasons/secrets behind all the newspaper apologies, from Holt Uncensored #388. Here is her main point:

"My point is that a scaredy-cat mentality was introduced nearly 30 years ago during the Reagan era and has extended so deep into the heart of the Bush administration that it's almost impossible to dig out.

As a result, today we are seeing the very best newspapers and news media eating themselves alive by kowtowing and apologizing to all the wrong task-masters - conservative fanatics, corporate owners, power-mad presidents.

And the book business has its own problems. One of the reasons we have hundreds of anti-Bush books today is that a smart bunch of librarians stood up for Michael Moore after 9/11 and created a movement that shamed HarperCollins into publishing "Stupid White Men." Before that, there were NO anti-Bush books, isn't that odd? Now that it's safer, there are too many.

The fact is, OF COURSE the press is liberal, in the sense that it's *liberal-minded.* It's pro-free speech, pro-civil rights, pro-choice, pro-affirmative action, pro-diversity and pro-gay. It's laissez-faire; it's against war until the need for war is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. Why hide such standards? Why apologize for it?"