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Today's Topics:

   1. CBGB's, epicenter of live punk, closing its doors (Greg Williams)
   2. Cambridge [MA] Public Internet (CPI) Initiative (Monty Solomon)
   3. Cult of Backyard Rocketeers Keeps the Solid Fuel Burning
      (George Antunes)
   4. Nickelodeon Sees Mouse Ears Over Its Shoulder (George Antunes)
   5. Top NPR News Executive Is Reassigned (George Antunes)
   6. FCC Delays Vote on AT&T-BellSouth Deal a Second Time
      (George Antunes)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2006 01:29:08 -0400
From: Greg Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] CBGB's, epicenter of live punk, closing its doors
To: Media News <medianews@twiar.org>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

 CBGB's, epicenter of live punk, closing its doors
POSTED: 4:47 p.m. EDT, October 13, 2006
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Music/10/13/cbgb.closure.ap/index.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- Legs McNeil remembers the night back in 1975 when he 
walked into the dingy storefront club perched in the even dingier Bowery 
neighborhood. The band onstage, four guys in leather jackets and torn 
jeans, was the Ramones. McNeil sat at a nearby table, watching their set 
with Lou Reed.

It was unforgettable. But as McNeil would soon discover, it was just a 
typical night at CBGB's, the club that spawned punk rock while launching 
the careers of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Blondie, the Talking 
Heads and the Ramones.

"Every night was memorable, except I don't remember 'em," said a 
laughing McNeil, co-author of the punk rock history "Please Kill Me."

After Sunday, memories are all that will remain when the cramped club 
with its capacity of barely 300 people goes out of business after 33 
years. Although its boom years are long gone, CBGB's remained a 
Manhattan music scene fixture: part museum, part barroom, home to more 
than a few rock and roll ghosts.

The club didn't exit without a fight. An assortment of high-profile 
backers, including E Street Band guitarist Little Steven Van Zandt, 
battled to keep the legendary club open. But in the end, it was a simple 
landlord-tenant dispute -- and owner Hilly Kristal saw the handwriting 
on the club's dank walls.

"I knew the closing was inevitable, because my lawyers said, `You can't 
win this case. The law is that your lease is up, and they don't even 
need a reason to put you out,"' said Kristal.

Kristal sits beneath a platinum record from Joan Jett, a CBGB's clock 
and a few of the endless band stickers that blanket the interior. 
Kristal, who is battling lung cancer, wears a black and white CBGB's 
T-shirt with a matching baseball cap.

He once managed the Village Vanguard, the renowned jazz club where he 
booked acts like Miles Davis. Things were a bit different at his new 
club: "In rock, the bands were creative -- but at first, they didn't 
play so well."

The first punk-scene band at Kristal's nightspot was Television, soon 
followed by Patti Smith. Punk poet Smith will play the closing night as 
well, a booking that Kristal described as effortless.

Smith isn't the only veteran playing one last gig. The '80s hardcore 
band Bad Brains and the '70s punks the Dictators are both scheduled for 
the final week. Blondie's Debbie Harry and Chris Stein are also stopping by.

When Kristal opened his doors in December 1973, CBGB's stood for 
country, bluegrass and blues -- three musical styles that wound up in 
short supply. Tommy Ramone, drummer for the Ramones, recalled how a new 
breed of bands gravitated to the space.

"At that time, there were no places to play in New York," Ramone said 
last year. "It was a very dead time in New York City, doldrums all 
around. But CBGB's allowed bands -- original bands, no less -- the 
freedom to go and play and do whatever they pleased."

Kristal plans to move the club far from its roots with a new CBGB's in 
Las Vegas. The owner plans to strip the current club down to the bare 
walls, bringing as much of it to Nevada as possible.

"We're going to take the urinals," he said. "I'll take whatever I can. 
The movers said, `You ought to take everything, and auction off what you 
don't want on eBay.' Why not? Somebody will."

Even a longtime CBGB's devotee like McNeil thinks the best advice for 
the 74-year-Kristal is go west, old man.

"I always said Hilly should go to Vegas," said McNeil. "Girls with 
augmented breasts playing Joey Ramone slot machines. It would become an 
institution."

-- 
Greg Williams
K4HSM
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

http://www.twiar.org
http://www.etskywarn.net




------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2006 01:40:32 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Cambridge [MA] Public Internet (CPI) Initiative
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"



The City of Cambridge, in partnership with MIT, Cambridge Health 
Alliance, Cambridge Housing Authority, Harvard, and volunteers from 
the community, is embarking on a project to provide wireless coverage 
to many residents via a mesh network. This service will, resources 
permitting, be free to all residents of Cambridge and their visitors. 
It is currently in the proof of concept phase with a usable pilot 
expected later in 2006 and into 2007.

...

http://www.cambridgema.gov/wifi/




------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2006 15:09:07 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Cult of Backyard Rocketeers Keeps the Solid Fuel
        Burning
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
        [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
        <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed;
        x-avg-checked=avg-ok-56ED659A

[Sounds like these folks are having great fun with this little hobby !]

October 14, 2006

A Cult of Backyard Rocketeers Keeps the Solid Fuel Burning
By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN
NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/science/14rocket.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print


GERLACH, Nev. ? Wedge Oldham, a 49-year-old software engineer from Los 
Angeles, finds nothing sweeter than spending a fall weekend in the Black 
Rock desert, barking rocket launching commands like ?Are we good to go?? 
into the hot dusty wind.

Nerves jangling, he awaits the moment when Carpe Diem, his homemade 
18-foot-long rocket, hurls itself heavenward with 737 pounds of thrust, 
shockwaves ? or ?mach diamonds? ? surging from its supersonic exhaust. With 
dazed exuberance he watches it recede into deep blue sky, and then, with 
the release of parachutes, gently drift four miles away, preserved for 
another flight.

At a cultural moment when billionaires like Paul G. Allen, the Microsoft 
co-founder, and Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin Atlantic chairman, are 
getting into the space business, the members of the Tripoli Rocketry 
Association are the ultimate do-it-yourselfers ? backyard versions of Burt 
Rutan, the legendary engineer of the first privately financed manned rocket.

 From Florham Park, N.J., and as far away as London, 100 launchers came ? 
plumbers, paint contractors, firefighters, bankers and Silicon Valley 
techies united by their passion for building rockets capable of blasting 
94,000 feet into the air, at nearly three-and-one-half times the speed of 
sound, as one record-setter did this weekend.

Members of a gonzo subculture, the hobbyists have been known to launch 
Weber grills, Port-A-Potties, bowling balls and pink flamingos. But once a 
year, on this bleak, 400-square-mile dry lake bed, they meet for the Indy 
500 of rocketry, with waivers from the Federal Aviation Administration.

This year, the subculture itself is on the defensive, unsure whether it 
will soar or come crashing down in a ?cato? ? lingo for a catastrophic 
failure. Since Sept. 11, the rocketeers, about 6,000 nationwide, have had 
to contend with tougher restrictions from the federal government and local 
fire marshals, and are involved in a seven-year-old dispute with the Bureau 
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives over their use of a propellant.

Bearing names like Questionable Mental Health and the Procrastinator, their 
rockets are usually restricted to low-altitude launchings from sorghum 
fields in Kansas, sod farms in South Carolina and frozen Lake Champlain in 
winter.

?A lot of guys close their eyes and see women. I close my eyes and see 
rockets,? said Ky Michaelson, 68, a junior high school drop-out from 
Bloomington, Minn., who has been called ?the sultan of thrust? by Outside 
Magazine.

Mr. Michaelson shot the first amateur rocket into space, and his inventions 
include a rocket-powered sled that zooms uphill. His record-breaking 
launching was 72 miles up, at 3,420 miles per hour ? factoids embroidered 
on his rocket-red satin shirt.

Like many of his brethren, Mr. Michaelson developed his passion early with 
a chemistry set he got for Christmas. He graduated to launching rocket cars 
in an alley in southern Minneapolis, and today he fills his home with space 
collectibles, including a hand-held toilet from the Russian space station Mir.

The talk in Nevada was technical minutiae ? thrust ratios, fuel efficiency, 
altitudes. Even over a ravioli dinner at Bruno?s Country Club and 
Casino,the hobbyists were constantly gesturing in an upward trajectory, 
forks in hand.

The apogee of the weekend is when they push the button launching creations 
that teams have spent up to a year making at a cost of thousands of dollars.

?Every time I launch a rocket, a little of me goes up with it,? said Derek 
Stavenger, a 50-year-old painter from San Francisco. ?It?s about escaping 
the bounds of our restrictive existence on the planet.?

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the extreme rocketeers have seen their ranks 
dwindle. In many parts of the country, rockets are prohibited. Local groups 
face a welter of ordinances and safety codes, as well as F.A.A. 
restrictions. Tripoli extreme rocketeers also need federal low-explosives 
permits. On Tuesday, lawyers representing Tripoli and the National 
Association of Rocketry and officials of the firearms bureau will head to 
Federal District Court in Washington to resolve the seven-year-old dispute 
over the hobbyists? use of a flammable propellant, ammonium perchlorate 
composite, or APCP. The chemical is the main ingredient on the space 
shuttle?s solid rocket boosters.

The firearms bureau classifies APCP as an explosive and, amid post-Sept. 11 
security concerns, requires that anyone who uses more than two ounces of 
propellant undergo federal background checks.

?If I was an 18-year-old and told my mom I needed a low explosives permit 
and that an A.T.F. agent would come to my house, she?d say, Why don?t you 
just continue with your guitar lessons?? grumbled Ken Good, the president 
of Tripoli and a vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland.

Rocketeers say the agency has no right to regulate the propellant because 
it does not explode but rather ?deflagrates,? or burns intensely at a 
controlled rate, like a road flare.

The agency is also concerned that large rockets could be used as weapons. 
But weapons experts say it is doubtful that the rockets could be 
significant threats because they do not have guidance systems, which are 
prohibited by federal law.

?Designing a rocket to go straight up and down is hugely different than 
making it controllable to hit any kind of a target,? said John Hansman, a 
professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology.

Still, the unpredictable does happen. With a spectacular kaboom, an 
elegantly minimalist rocket designed by Alex McLaughlin, 29, a software 
engineer from Portland, Ore., broke apart at around 40,000 feet, the hobby 
rocket equivalent of the Death Zone on Mount Everest.

It is an unforgiving hobby, but it is arguably safer for participants than 
in the past. Like many of the Black Rock ?rocket rats? ? largely men of a 
certain age ? Mike Mullane, 61, a retired space shuttle astronaut, recalled 
his boyhood rocketry experiments with black powder and other dangerous 
substances. Mr. Mullane said he was ?reborn? the day Sputnik was launched 
in 1957. ?It was the 9/11 of my childhood, a blow to the American ego,? he 
said.

The horizon was soon populated with rocket and moon clubs, with schools 
?passing out formulas for rocket fuel,? he said. Before the arrival of 
Estes rocket kits, ?the only game in town was getting a steel tube, mixing 
hazardous material and lighting fuses in the desert,? an activity, he said, 
that was far riskier than three flights on the space shuttle.

On Oct. 20, 60 members of Tripoli will launch high-powered rockets at the 
first X Prize Cup in Las Cruces, N.M., in an expo that bills itself as ?the 
world?s first space show.? The X Prize Foundation of Santa Monica, Calif., 
richly rewards private space innovation. The rocketeers will try to launch 
an unmanned replica of the Mercury Redstone, which first transported Alan 
Shepard and Gus Grissom into space.

With space entrepreneurship on the rise, including plans by Robert Bigelow, 
the owner of Budget Suites hotel chain, to invest $500 million in an 
inflatable space hotel for tourists, even members of this proletariat 
rocket nation are being tapped for real projects.

John Carmack, a member who is also the creator of the games Quake and Doom, 
recruited fellow hobbyists to help design a lunar landing vehicle for a 
competition sponsored by NASA and the X Prize Foundation.

?It?s more important to me to get people who are building, testing and 
flying things than an aerospace graduate who has never screwed two bolts 
together,? Mr. Carmack said.

David Reese, 19, a member of Tripoli since age 8, now works at the Rocket 
Propulsion Laboratory at the University of Southern California, where he is 
helping to develop a carbon fiber vehicle designed to go to the edge of 
space. He ecstatically broke his own record at Black Rock, with a launching 
of 17,230 feet.

?The Sony Playstation motto is, ?Leave your world here and play in ours,? ? 
Mr. Reese said of a more ubiquitous teenage pastime. ?But why leave this 
world when you can hang out with a bunch of nerds and play with rockets in 
the middle of the desert??


================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923  Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu




------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2006 16:03:46 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Nickelodeon Sees Mouse Ears Over Its Shoulder
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
        <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed;
        x-avg-checked=avg-ok-56ED659A

October 14, 2006

Nickelodeon Sees Mouse Ears Over Its Shoulder
By GERALDINE FABRIKANT
NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/business/media/14tube.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print


A giant stuffed SpongeBob SquarePants is perched against the window of Cyma 
Zarghami?s corner office at Nickelodeon Television overlooking the Hudson 
River, its blue eyes staring out and puffy arms drooped by its side.

The stuffed icon in the president?s office is an appropriately oversize 
reminder of just how important SpongeBob has been to Nickelodeon, the 
children?s network that was started by Viacom in 1979.

Since then Nickelodeon has grown and diversified into new networks and on 
to the Web, and it quickly became the industry leader. But Nickelodeon is 
now learning that a saturated SpongeBob can only take it so far as the 
competition in its core business ? the cable network ? has exploded.

In the last year, the Disney Channel has bolstered its market share, 
closing the gap with Nickelodeon, whose ratings have been flat. The Cartoon 
Network from Time Warner has been losing share.

In the ratings, Nick still has the top 10 shows for children 2 to 11, but 
in the view of Michael Nathanson, a media analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & 
Company, it could use some new hits ?to lure advertisers and create 
consumer products.? ?The competition to come up with those has just gotten 
tougher,? he said.

Indeed, the buzz today is around Disney, which has ambitiously added 
viewers both on cable and the Web. It has had a handful of megahits, like 
?High School Musical,? which generated sales of millions of CD?s and DVD?s; 
?The Cheetah Girls?; and, most recently, ?Hannah Montana.?

To lure viewers, Disney made some bold moves, including introducing shows 
in early summer when Nickelodeon was playing reruns from the earlier season.

As a result, the Disney Channel?s ratings are up 17 percent, to 2.7 percent 
of all cable television homes at the end of September for children 2 to 11 
years old, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Nickelodeon?s ratings for that audience, meanwhile, were flat at 3.8 
percent of all television homes compared with the period a year earlier. 
That means an average of 1.2 million children watched Nick at any given 
time compared with 863,000 for the Disney Channel. At the same time, the 
Cartoon Network says its ratings have declined 3 percent, for a period that 
includes prime time. However, Viacom says that the ratings drop is about 16 
percent in the time period where the Cartoon Network competes with Nickelodeon.

The statistics are even more striking among children 6 to 11: Nick has lost 
3 percent, as its ratings dropped to 3.5 percent of all cable homes, while 
the Disney Channel?s ratings have soared 23 percent, to 2.7 percent of 
cable homes.

Whether the Disney Channel is taking viewers from the Cartoon Network or 
simply adding new viewers ? some of whom might have otherwise gone to Nick 
? is unclear.

Ms. Zarghami is quick to point out that Nickelodeon has been the No. 1 
rated cable network for the last 11 years. She dismisses Disney?s recent 
success as cyclic. ?I am not concerned that Disney is having a good 
summer,? she said. ?They have had a good summer before. Our story is 
consistency. Consistency of audience: revenue and brand attributes.?

?Remember ?Pok?mon,? ? she said, referring to the animated hit show on WB 
Network. ?There were a few weeks when we though the sky was falling in. We 
thought, here is a competitor who is here to stay, but they went away.?

?Disney has gotten close to Nickelodeon before but our leadership is with 
the core demographic,? Ms. Zarghami said, alluding to the 2 to 11 year olds 
that are Nick?s primary audience.

Nevertheless, Nickelodeon is planning an ambitious slate of series in 
search of a hit. Though Ms. Zarghami says this is business as usual, there 
are not only new animated shows, including ?El Tigre? and ?Barnyard TV,? 
but also some live-action movies, an effort perhaps to respond to the 
popularity of Disney?s ?High School Musical.?

For all the hype surrounding the Web, for the near term Nickelodeon?s hit 
shows remain the bread and butter of its business. ?SpongeBob SquarePants? 
has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising revenue and, 
along with Nickelodeon?s other recent hit, ?Dora the Explorer,? has brought 
in about $4.5 billion in product sales, according to company officials.

In the last several years, Nickelodeon had a steady stream of successes but 
has not come up with hits of the magnitude of ?Blue?s Clues? or ?Rugrats.?

Judy McGrath, chairman of MTV Networks, maintains she is not worried. ??We 
are always shooting for megahits, but business is based on a slate of 
strong performers that people like and that you build a steady business on.?

To hold its young audiences Nickelodeon has been aggressively expanding 
online. On Monday, its parent MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, is set to 
announce the purchase of Quizilla, a Web site that aims to appeal to 
teenage girls and will complement The N.Com, a Nickelodeon-based site for 
female ?tweens,? those aged 9 to 12.

Other recent additions include Neopets.com, which allows children to create 
and play with pets; Addicting Games.Com, a gaming site for children and 
tweens; and a second gaming site, Shockwave.

Viacom wants to position itself online as far broader than just the 
Nickelodeon brand. Executives say their strategy is now diversified into 
sites that have little to do with Nickelodeon content but try to reach the 
same young audiences. Nick and its newly acquired sites attract about 28 
million visitors a month, the company said.

?We roll across all our businesses,? Ms. McGrath said. ?We sell across many 
of these brands: we sell Nick, the N.Com, MTV 2, Neopets.?

And the competition on cable-related sites has grown more intense. Nick.com 
and NickJr.com, the network?s main sites, had 11.6 million visitors in 
September, according to comScore/Media Metrix. That is up from 8 million a 
year earlier. At the Disney Channel Web site, the number of unique visitors 
rose to 11.5 million at the end of September, up from 5.8 million a year 
earlier, according to comScore.

Though the increase comes off a far lower base, clearly Disney?s hits have 
caught on with young audiences. And visitors to the Nickelodeon sites still 
spend more time there: an average of 54.9 minutes, while Disney?s visitors 
spend an average of 49.5 minutes on its site, according to comScore.

For Viacom, maintaining the success of its core cable brands is crucial. 
Led by MTV and Nickelodeon, they accounted for 63.7 percent of the 
company?s $5.2 million in revenue for the first six months of this year and 
95 percent of the company?s income from its two principal operations: cable 
networks and entertainment.

At cable the days of easy growth are over. The cable business has matured 
in recent years. For the first six months of this year Viacom?s cable 
network revenues rose 7 percent, to $3.3 billion, and operating income for 
the cable networks increased 10 percent, to $1.3 billion.

That makes the battle for market share even more significant. Sumner M. 
Redstone, the chairman, has repeatedly described Viacom as a ?growth? 
company and publicly reprimanded its former chief executive, Tom Freston, 
for not buying the fast-growing MySpace, the hot Web site that the News 
Corporation acquired.

?It?s a maturing business,? said Richard Bilotti, an analyst at Morgan 
Stanley. ?Nickelodeon is a victim of its own success.?


================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923  Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu




------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2006 16:05:03 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Top NPR News Executive Is Reassigned
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
        <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed;
        x-avg-checked=avg-ok-56ED659A

October 14, 2006

Top NPR News Executive Is Reassigned
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/business/media/14npr-WEB.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print


William K. Marimow has resigned as the top news executive at National 
Public Radio after nine months in the job and has agreed to take a position 
as NPR?s ombudsman, the broadcasting network announced Friday.

The move ? a demotion ? is one of several changes within the network?s news 
division, signaling a likely period of instability as NPR overhauls the 
management of its news operation and fills many top jobs on an interim 
basis. Mr. Marimow, 59, is the former top editor of The Baltimore Sun and 
an investigative reporter and editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he 
won two Pulitzer Prizes. NPR hired him in 2004 to help strengthen and 
expand the news division after it received a bequest of $235 million from 
the late Joan B. Kroc, widow of Ray A. Kroc, the founder of McDonald?s. 
Since 1999, NPR?s weekly audience has doubled to almost 26 million listeners.

As NPR?s vice president for news, Mr. Marimow oversaw all activities of the 
news division, including about 350 employees and 36 bureaus around the 
world and such award-winning programs as ?All Things Considered? and 
?Morning Edition.? As ombudsman, he will serve as the listeners? 
representative, a position that has been vacant for three months.

His resignation was announced Friday but he had actually resigned a week 
earlier, according to people within the organization. He had been in 
conversations with Jay Kernis, the head of programming, for months about 
whether he was fulfilling the wide range of responsibilities of the vice 
president?s job, these people said, and whether he had schooled himself 
sufficiently in the particular needs of radio.

To his credit, they said, he was focused on the journalism. His strongest 
relationships in the newsroom were with reporters, and he served as a 
mentor to many. But, they said, the job of vice president required more 
attention to managerial issues involving budgets, personnel, and the 
?convergence? of the radio newsroom with the round-the-clock, multiplatform 
digital world. In addition, colleagues said that he had had difficulty 
making the transition from print to broadcast. They also said that Mr. 
Marimow was on the wrong side of an internal power struggle. He was 
promoted to vice president for news in February by Kevin Klose, the 
president and former chief executive of NPR, who had overruled an internal 
search committee that had not recommended Mr. Marimow.

At a staff meeting Friday in which the changes were announced, Mr. Kernis 
said that in seeking a replacement for Mr. Marimow, he was looking for 
someone with broadcast experience, although he did not rule out someone 
with a distinguished resume in newspapers.

The network is retaining the Sucherman Consulting Group, a leading national 
search firm for broadcast media, to advise an internal search committee on 
a replacement. Ellen Weiss, the national desk editor, is taking Mr. 
Marimow?s duties temporarily.

Several NPR employees who attended the meeting said that some of their 
colleagues had praised Mr. Marimow for raising NPR?s level of journalism. 
But they also said there were no visible signs of rebellion against the 
decision to seek his resignation as vice president of news.

Mr. Marimow, in a brief telephone conversation, declined to discuss the 
situation but said he had received numerous e-mails from colleagues 
expressing their support.

One was from Steve Inskeep, the co-host of ?Morning Edition,? who said in 
an interview that Mr. Marimow was widely admired for setting high 
journalistic standards. ?He has inspired a lot of people to improve their 
reporting and raise the ambition of what they attempt,?? Mr. Inskeep said. 
In a memo to the staff Friday, Mr. Kernis said: ?Bill leaves a newsroom 
that is stronger in its investigations, research and daily reporting. 
Bill?s skills also make him a great fit for the ombudsman role, which 
demands an appreciation for powerful journalism and how NPR delivers it day 
in, day out.?

In his own memo, Mr. Marimow said that during his tenure, he had created 
new beats, expanded the news division?s contribution to the network?s Web 
site, NPR.org, and had produced ?a steady stream of solid investigative 
projects.?

He also said working at NPR had been a ?revelation and an inspiration? to 
him, in part ?because I?ve learned about the beauty and the impact of the 
world of sound on the human heart and mind.?

Michael Montgomery, an investigative reporter for American Radio Works, 
which is not part of NPR, said that word of Mr. Marimow?s resignation had 
traveled quickly through the radio world and had been met with surprise and 
sadness.

?People saw some of the issues in terms of Bill?s coming from print,? said 
Mr. Montgomery, who worked with Mr. Marimow on several projects. ?But he 
did a lot to boost morale for reporters, and a lot of reporters felt 
empowered by him.?

He added that he hoped NPR would maintain the commitment to investigative 
reporting that Mr. Marimow brought to the organization.

In a posting on NPR?s Web site, Nell Boyce, a staffer, described the day?s 
events and wondered how Mr. Marimow would make the transition to ombudsman.

?Some reporters in the newsroom were frankly amazed that he?d consider 
taking the ombudsman?s job, which basically involves critiquing journalism 
after the fact,? she wrote. ?Marimow has always given off a sense that he 
loves shaping journalism ? working with reporters to investigate and dig 
deep. He?s supposed to be back on Monday, serving as ombudsman.?


================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923  Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu




------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2006 16:07:38 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] FCC Delays Vote on AT&T-BellSouth Deal a Second
        Time
To: medianews@twiar.org
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October 14, 2006

F.C.C. Delays Vote on AT&T-BellSouth Deal a Second Time
By KEN BELSON
NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/business/14phone.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print


The Federal Communications Commission delayed voting yesterday on AT&T?s 
$80 billion takeover of BellSouth for the second time this week, because 
two commissioners declined to make a decision until public hearings were held.

AT&T and BellSouth have already won approval from their shareholders, state 
regulators and the Justice Department. The F.C.C. is the organization 
remaining that must endorse the deal.

On Wednesday, the Justice Department signed off on the purchase without 
imposing any conditions on the companies. That angered Michael J. Copps and 
Jonathan S. Adelstein ? the two Democratic commissioners at the F.C.C. ? 
who said more time was needed to assess how consumers and companies would 
be affected.

With their objections in mind, the commission rescheduled its vote on the 
merger to yesterday, from Thursday, to give the commissioners more time to 
negotiate. When they were unable to decide whether and what conditions to 
impose on the companies, yesterday?s meeting was canceled and rescheduled 
for Nov. 3.

?Given the limited analysis from our leading antitrust authorities, it is 
all the more imperative that we now employ an open process to fully involve 
all affected parties, including the applicants, in order to get the public 
and expert review that is otherwise lacking,? the Democratic commissioners 
wrote in a letter to the F.C.C. chairman, Kevin J. Martin.

The negotiations are complicated further because one Republican 
commissioner, Robert M. McDowell, is expected to refrain from voting 
because of a potential conflict of interest. If he were allowed to vote, 
the Republicans would presumably be able to approve the merger faster 
because they would outnumber the Democrats, 3 to 2.

Industry analysts do not expect the commissioners to reject the merged 
company, which would be the primary local phone provider in 22 states. The 
company would also be the largest seller of telecommunications services to 
businesses and the owner of Cingular Wireless, the country?s biggest 
cellphone provider.

The commissioners could suggest that the merged company sell broadband to 
customers as an individual product, not bundled with phone service, a 
commitment Verizon accepted when it bought MCI this year.

The F.C.C. could also require AT&T and BellSouth to sell some of their 
wireless spectrum and local phone and data lines to ease concerns that they 
have too big a share in certain markets. The F.C.C. could also impose 
conditions that would ban the companies from charging companies extra fees 
to gain priority access to their networks.

Michael Coe, an AT&T spokesman, said in a statement: ?We are open to 
discussing with the Democratic F.C.C. commissioners reasonable conditions 
on the merger in order to obtain unanimous approval, so long as they do not 
affect our ability to deliver merger benefits to customers and shareowners, 
given the intensely competitive environment in which we operate.?

The F.C.C.?s decision to put off voting on the deal initially sent both 
companies? stocks lower in trading yesterday. AT&T?s shares finished 
unchanged at $33.60 while BellSouth?s stock dipped 15 cents, to $44.13.


================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923  Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu




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