mediageek

Category: media ownership & consolidation

  • Want To Know What the Telcos Are Really Up To? Ask the Guys on the Line.

    Craig Newmark, of Craigslist fame, was in on today’s SaveTheInternet conference call, too, though he kept his few comments pretty short. But he brought one very interesting insight to the table, addressing one of the telco lobby’s loudest arguments against network neutrality: the likes of AT&T and Verizon haven’t discriminated against any internet content yet,…

  • A Right-Wing Perspective on Saving the Internet as We Know It

    I just finished listening in to a national conference call put on by the SaveTheInternet campaign. The call was advertised to reporters as a meeting of “strange bedfellows,” because in addition to usual suspects from Public Knowledge and Consumer Federation of America there was the inclusion of Craig Fields from Gun Owner’s of America. Fields…

  • Pushing Net Neutrality: Coalition to Save the Internet

    If one thing has become clear with this year’s session in Congress, it’s that some serious organizing has to happen if our congresscritters are going to be pressured into keeping the internet free of speedbumps and corporate-imposed taxes. Legislators might get the issues, but they need to be convinced that their constituents care about them.…

  • How Do You Sell Neutrality?

    Josh Breitbart of MediaTank and Clamor has been blogging lately, and raises a really good question about the framing of the network neutrality debate: Only a Democrat would think people could get excited about neutrality. What’s the opposite of “neutral”? Non-neutral… Partisan… In gear…? The same issue has been bugging me, but I haven’t been…

  • Why Cable TV Franchises Are Important

    The main component of the telecomm legislations bouncing around Congress right now is the creation of a national franchise for new entrants in the cable TV market, aimed at smoothing the onramp for the big telcos like AT&T and Verizon to begin offering TV services over their broadband lines. One of the big problems with…

  • Net Neutrality All The Rage this Week

    They haven’t killed net neutrality yet, but I think House Republicans are pulling out their hatchets. Public Knowledge’s Policy Blog takes note of several events in Congress this week where net neutrality is at the forefront. It all starts Tuesday at 5 Pm when the House Energy and Commerce Committee‘s Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee starts…

  • Net Neutrality To Be the FCC’s Responsibility? Or Nobody’s Responsibility?

    On Monday Sen. Commerce Comittee Chair Ted Stevens told reporters at a press conference that he’s considering charging the FCC with protecting network neutrality. He was speaking at an event sponsored by CompTel, which represents the smaller telecom companies that compete with the big Bells like Verizon and AT&T. For it’s part, CompTel supports legislating…

  • FCC Chair Says He’s Ready to Eliminate Cross-Ownership Ban

    I missed this one last Friday, but FCC Chair Kevin Martin gave his first press conference as chair and promised to repeal the cross-ownership ban which prevents a company from owning both a newspaper and a television station in the same market. He will have a fighting chance at this when the Senate confirms new…

  • Shocking and Gratuitous: Bono’s F-Word Is Now a Precedent for Two Words Too Bad To Use

    Last week the FCC cleared out part of its indecency queue and I’ve finally had a chance to read the order [link to PDF]. Let me tell you, it is interesting reading, if only to find out that the words “shit” and “fuck” are such fundamentally offensive words that their mere utterance alone makes something…

  • Is There Another, Grassroots Way to Network Neutrality?

    I am always a bit uneasy with policy campaigns, especially those in which the only option for positive political action seems to be, basically, “call your Congressperson!” So, as concerned as I am about the real threat that AT&T and Verizon are about to tier off and filter our internet, I am also uncomfortable thinking…