FCC Proposes More Kids TV Fines  - How Well Is Your Station Doing?

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Broadcasting & Cable
 
By John Eggerton

The FCC has proposed fining two stations a total of $31,000 for "willfull and repeated" violations of the FCC's kids commercial limits, and has admonished three more for kids TV rules violations.

It is the latest in what has become a steady stream of fines and admonishments.

The FCC caps Kids commercials at 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends and 12 minutes per hour on weekdays. It also considers that any show that incudes an ad featuring a character from that show then becomes a program length-commercial and automatically violates the rules.

The commission proposed a fine of $17,500 against WTWB, one of its largest for such a violation, for seven program length commercials. The station said it was human error, but that did not get it off the hook. The baseline fine is $8,000, but the FCC more than doubled it, citing the number of violations.

(Click here to read the entire article).

For more information about children's television rules, click here

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MinutemanMedia.Org – op-ed voices of reason

 

by Donald Kaul

 

Donald Kaul recently retired as Washington columnist for the Des Moines Register.

Things have not been going well in the House of Bush recently - his agenda isn’t doing well in Congress, investigations keep turning up embarrassing facts, foreign elections are being won by people who hate us - but there have been some happy developments, too.

For instance, the National Guard Association of the United States
unveiled a life-size bronze bust of the young Lt. George Bush, memorializing his time in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. One can only hope that someday it will grace the George W. Bush Library.

It’s an important monument because it’s almost the only record we have of Mr. Bush’s Guard service, during which he went Missing In Alabama for a year and finally just stopped going to meetings.

Maybe this year on Veterans’ Day he’ll lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Deserter.

Don Kaul is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-losing Washington
correspondent who, by his own account, is right more than he's wrong.

MinuteManMedia provides articles free of charge to try to counteract the effects of a one-sided, far-right main stream media.

(Click here to read the complete article.)

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A La Carte Price on FCC's Menu

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Free Press

The 2006 FCC says the 2004 FCC got it wrong on à la carte cable choice,
largely because it relied on a faulty study conducted by industry
consultants Booz Allen Hamilton.

Click here to read this article.

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If you would like to be part of organized media reform efforts in Iowa, please consider joining Iowans for Better Local TV or RapidResponseIowa.

 This Week in Media 

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PATV.TV

You Don't Know What You Got Til' It's Gone...

Public Access Television is facing a number of battles in the House and Senate. 

Today, February 13, is the last day for submitting your concerns to the FCC.

Click here to submit your letter.

Click here for a complete listing of pending legislation.

The telephone companies want to do away with local video franchise agreements between local municipalities and video providers.  Local video franchising agreements are the mechanism by which municipalities ensure that cable and telecommunications companies doing business within the community are accountable to the local public interest.

Video franchise agreements are also the only mechanism that protects and ensures the existence of Public Access TV channels.  We must ensure that local municipalities have the authority to require local video franchising.

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If you would like to be part of organized media reform efforts in Iowa, please consider joining Iowans for Better Local TV or Rapid Response Iowa.

  What You Can Do To Ensure Reliable Elections in Iowa

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OpEdNews

Last Thursday, Blog for Iowa asked you to contact your state representatives in Des Moines to demand verifiable elections in Iowa.   Today, we are asking Blog for Iowa readers to help pass HR 550 in Washington.  Please pass this on to everyone you know,  regardless of party affiliation or (non-affiliation), who think Democracy is a good thing.  There are 161 co-sponsors to date, none so far from the great state of Iowa!  Let’s get after the people who are supposed to be representing us to co-sponsor this bill that will ensure Democracy lives to see another election.  

PASS H.R. 550 / VOTER VERIFIED PAPER BALLOTS

By Allen L. Roland, PhD

One bill - H.R. 550 - could be the most important bill your Representative co-sponsors this year.

The "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act" (H.R.550) is the "gold standard" of voter verifiability legislation, requiring not only voter-verified paper records but also mandatory manual audits to confirm that voting machines are working properly.

The voter-verified paper record is the "bottom line" ~ without it we can't have reliable elections. This bill continues to gain momentum, with 156 Republican and Democrat co-sponsors to date, but more co-sponsors are needed. More than half of the states already have enacted voter-verified paper record requirements, but to protect all votes we need this bill.

You can help: please make sure your Representative co-sponsors H.R. 550 immediately.

Take action - click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people

Click here for the story at OpEdNews

Click here to check out a great new non-partisan blog, Iowa Voters for Open and Transparent Elections

Click here for more information.

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Voting reform and media reform go hand in hand.  If you would like to be part of organized media reform efforts in Iowa, please consider joining Iowans for Better Local TV or RapidResponseIowa.

    ETHICS HALL OF SHAME

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From publiccitizen.org

An unprecedented wave of corruption, cronyism and special-interest sleaze has gripped our nation’s capital in recent years. To bring greater public attention to the individuals involved in these ethics scandals – in the hope of preventing such abuses of the public trust in the future – Public Citizen has established the Ethics Hall of Shame.

To be included, a member of Congress must have committed illegal acts or engaged in conduct that is highly abusive of the public trust in the service of special interests. Those members of Congress in the "dishonorable mention" category have been involved in activity that is ethically questionable or offensive to the public trust, but which does not rise to the same level of wrongdoing as that of the inductees into the Hall of Shame.  

The list of inductees is not complete; it is expected to grow in size and seriousness as Department of Justice investigations into the scandal surrounding admitted felon and former super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff continue to unfold.

To read detailed profiles of the people inducted into the Ethics Hall of Shame, click here to go to original article and click on each of their pictures.

Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) Forced to resign his position as House majority leader; under indictment for money laundering in Texas; likely the focus of a Justice Department investigation for his ties to admitted felon and former super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
 
Former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.)
Pleaded guilty to taking $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors.

Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) Resigned as chairman of the House Administration Committee because of allegations that he used his office to help Jack Abramoff and his clients.

Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) Went to bat for a Jack Abramoff client; he short-circuited an investigation into the owner of a failed savings and loan; his aides attempted to scuttle an environmental regulation that could have hurt the Pombo family’s business.
 
Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) A major recipient of Jack Abramoff’s largess, who went to extraordinary lengths to help an Abramoff client.
 
Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) Involved in an investigation of alleged extortion in a business investment scheme; was found to have stashed large amounts of cash in his freezer
 
Jack Abramoff, Admitted Felon and Former Super-Lobbyist
The poster child of why systemic reform to the influence-peddling system is so desperately needed in Washington.

DISHONORABLE MENTION:
 
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) Under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for possible insider stock trading; he also went to extraordinary lengths to insert a provision into a new law that will insulate drug companies from some defective products lawsuits.

House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) Slipped a favor for a major tobacco company into legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security but withdrew it after getting caught.
 

Nussle Uses False Arguments to Defend Soaring Federal Deficits

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IowaDemocrats.org

Nussle Claims 9/11 is to Blame; Facts Show Tax Cuts, Increased Spending Are the Real Cause

DES MOINES – Jim Nussle once again tried to justify soaring budget deficits to Dubuque voters this weekend by blaming the war on terror. However, even conservative think tanks blame increased federal spending and tax cuts for wealthy Americans for the largest budget deficits in America’s history.

In a Dubuque Telegraph Herald article from February 4th, Nussle claims, "The huge deficit was caused more by Osama bin Laden than George W. Bush.” However, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported in January, 2004, that the Bush tax cuts are three times more responsible for deficits than war and defense funding. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 1/26/04]  Even the conservative Heritage Foundation has said, “’Defense and 9/11 are not responsible for most of the spending increases.’” [Washington Post, 10/3/05]

Last week, the U.S. House narrowly passed the FY06 budget reconciliation bill that Nussle claimed would save taxpayers $40 billion over ten years. However, the House will soon take up a bill approving $60 billion in tax cuts that negate any savings and adds $20 billion to the federal deficit. Nussle has voiced support for these budget-busting tax cuts.

“Nussle’s argument that the exploding budget deficits are caused by September 11th and the war in Iraq just don’t ring true,” said Iowa Democratic Party Executive Director Mike Milligan. “When will Nussle finally tell Iowa voters the truth: that out of control Republican spending policies and extreme tax cuts for the richest Americans are to blame for federal deficits?”

(Source)

  Big Media Has Big Plans for Privatizing the Internet

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The Nation

 

by Jeff Chester

 

The nation's largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.

 

Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency. According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets - corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers - would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out.

 

Under the plans they are considering, all of us - from content providers to individual users - would pay more to surf online, stream videos or even send e-mail. Industry planners are mulling new subscription plans that would further limit the online experience, establishing "platinum," "gold" and "silver" levels of Internet access that would set limits on the number of downloads, media streams or even e-mail messages that could be sent or received.

 

To make this pay-to-play vision a reality, phone and cable lobbyists are now engaged in a political campaign to further weaken the nation's communications policy laws. They want the federal government to permit them to operate Internet and other digital communications services as private networks, free of policy safeguards or governmental oversight. Indeed, both the Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are considering proposals that will have far-reaching impact on the Internet's future. Ten years after passage of the ill-advised Telecommunications Act of 1996, telephone and cable companies are using the same political snake oil to convince compromised or clueless lawmakers to subvert the Internet into a turbo-charged digital retail machine.

 

(Click here to read the entire article)

 

Take Action!  Go now to:  netfreedomnow.org  With a couple of clicks you can send a letter to CEO’s of Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, BellSouth, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Charter, Cablevision/Optimum Online, Qwest, plus your members of Congress!

 

To learn more about this debate, go to:  freepress.net/netfreedom/

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