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You can reach the person managing the list at [EMAIL PROTECTED] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Medianews digest..." 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 Cc: [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 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 ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Medianews mailing list Medianews@twiar.org http://twiar.org/mailman/listinfo/medianews_twiar.org End of Medianews Digest, Vol 61, Issue 1 ****************************************