Monday, November 21, 2005

Saved by the Bells

Jeff Gelles in The Philadelphia Inquirer on the changing rules of monopoly:

Are the Baby Bells the answer? I put that question last week to Jonathan Rintels, who heads the Center for Creative Voices in Media and is one of the cable industry’s most thoughtful critics.

Rintels was the author last month of a report titled “Cable’s ‘Level Playing Field’ - Not Level, No Field.” [pdf] It’s too rich in detail to summarize (you can read it at http://www.creativevoices.us), but it skewers the cable industry’s hypocrisy on several key issues, especially its claim that so-called “tiered pricing” is crucial to allowing creative ventures to flourish.

That’s been the cable industry’s argument against “a la carte” pricing, and other proposals for sparing you from paying more each year for a growing number of channels you may not want.

But cable is hardly letting hundreds of new channels bloom. As Rintels documents, Comcast routinely refuses to carry new channels it doesn’t have a financial stake in.

To Rintels, the Bells’ push is welcome - as long as lawmakers set rules that prevent all providers from turning the Internet into a “walled garden,” akin to what cable TV is today.

His top priority: “net neutrality,” to stop any provider from blocking some Web sites or favoring others.

Next week, I’ll tell you more about Rintels’ ideas. But the good news is that he doesn’t see this fight as a remake of Alien vs. Predator - with the tagline, “Whoever wins, we lose.”

Via Center for Creative Voices in Media blog. Nice work! We’ll watch for next week.

I don’t think so…

TiVo-like DVRs are no threat to advertisers:

Based on Arbitron’s findings, DVR-inspired ad skipping and time-shifted viewing is just another niche trend rather than a knockout punch to TV networks and advertisers. Arbitron says just 7 per cent of TV viewing in DVR-enabled homes (9 per cent of the total) is done at a later time to the original broadcast and 80 per cent of that delayed viewing occurs on the same or next day.

It’s a tiny figure compared to initial projections and the reason for the huge change in numbers is probably because the original forecasts were based on early adopters with lifestyles very different to those of the general population. In other words, the early DVR buyers were more time pressured and less tolerant of ads compared to the later majority.

Or maybe the “later majority” just hasn’t gotten used to all the features of the new technology. On the other hand, I agree with Ray Kurzweil on paradigm shifts. Television advertising’s not going away; the question is what model will emerge for the next television age.

Via Thomas Hawk.

VAGUELY RELATED QUOTE via Romenesko: “Newspapers have been around for 400 years. And, for about 399 years, give or take a few months, people have been predicting their demise. In my lifetime alone, radio was going to do newspapers in; then television; and now the Internet.”

Goodnight Ted

Tonight is Koppel’s last night on Nightline:

Mr. Koppel began as anchor of “Nightline” in March 1980, after first proving his mettle as host of a late-night program, “The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage.” Those were primordial days in television news, before CNN, easy live-by-satellite access, and the Internet. He stood out immediately, interviewing guests about the story of the day with crisp authority and a brisk, no-nonsense style. He was sometimes confrontational, but almost always in an impersonal, somewhat lofty manner.

Mr. Koppel leaves at a time when younger anchors are making a name for themselves by flaunting their personal feelings on the air. During the Hurricane Katrina debacle, NBC’s Brian Williams was widely applauded for venting his anger and frustration over the government’s failure to act quickly to help the victims. So was Anderson Cooper, who recently replaced Aaron Brown as CNN’s late night anchor and famously gave Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana an on-air tongue-lashing.

I’ve been a loyal Nightline viewer since its inception. I’m hoping that Koppel might do something outstanding in his retirement.

UPDATE: Time-shifted-newspaper-predated confusion! Last night, Nov. 21, was Chris Bury on Darfur. Koppel’s goodnight is tonight, Tuesday, Nov. 22.

Chickenhawks & me (again)

I saw this list and found it remarkable, but didn’t post it. I’ve reflected, and here it is. Now, I didn’t serve either (details here) and I’m no social scientist - I don’t really know a correlation from a causation - but the list is well worth posting in any event:

Service in the Armed Forces

Democrats:

* Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71.
* David Bonior: Staff Sgt., Air Force 1968-72.
* Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72.
* Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971 as an army journalist in 20th Engineer Brigade.
* Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam.
* Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-47; Medal of Honor, WWII.
* John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V,Purple Hearts.
* Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea.
* Max Cleland: Captain, Army 1965-68; Silver Star & Bronze Star, Vietnam. Paraplegic from war injuries. Served in Congress.
* Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951-53.
* Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74.
* Jack Reed: Army Ranger, 1971-1979; Captain, Army Reserve 1979-91.
* Fritz Hollings: Army officer in WWII; Bronze Star and seven campaign ribbons.
* Leonard Boswell: Lt. Col., Army 1956-76; Vietnam, DFCs, Bronze Stars,and Soldier’s Medal.
* Pete Peterson: Air Force Captain, POW. Purple Heart, Silver Star and Legion of Merit.
* Mike Thompson: Staff sergeant, 173rd Airborne, Purple Heart.
* Bill McBride: Candidate for Fla. Governor. Marine in Vietnam; Bronze Star with Combat V.
* Gray Davis: Army Captain in Vietnam, Bronze Star.
* Pete Stark: Air Force 1955-57
* Chuck Robb: Vietnam
* Howell Heflin: Silver Star
* George McGovern: Silver Star & DFC during WWII.
* Bill Clinton: Did not serve. Student deferments. Entered draft but received #311.
* Jimmy Carter: Seven years in the Navy.
* Walter Mondale: Army 1951-1953
* John Glenn: WWII and Korea; six DFCs and AirMedal with 18 Clusters.
* Tom Lantos: Served in Hungarian underground in WWII. Saved by Raoul Wallenberg.

Republicans

* Dick Cheney: did not serve. Several deferments, the last by marriage.
* Dennis Hastert: did not serve.
* Tom Delay: did not serve.
* Roy Blunt: did not serve.
* Bill Frist: did not serve.
* Mitch McConnell: did not serve.
* Rick Santorum: did not serve.
* Trent Lott: did not serve.
* John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business.
* Jeb Bush: did not serve.
* Karl Rove: did not serve.
* Saxby Chambliss: did not serve. “Bad knee.” (The man who attacked Max Cleland’s patriotism.)
* Paul Wolfowitz: did not serve.
* Vin Weber: did not serve.
* Richard Perle: did not serve.
* Douglas Feith: did not serve.
* Eliot Abrams: did not serve.
* Richard Shelby: did not serve.
* Jon! Kyl: did not serve.
* Tim Hutchison: did not serve.
* Christopher Cox: did not serve.
* Newt Gingrich: did not serve.
* Don Rumsfeld: served in Navy (1954-57) as flight instructor.
* George W. Bush: failed to complete his six-year National Guard; failed to show up
* B-1 Bob Dornan: enlisted after fighting was over in Korea.
* Phil Gramm: did not serve.
* John McCain: Vietnam POW, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.
* Dana Rohrabacher: did not serve.
* John M. McHugh: did not serve.
* JC Watts: did not serve.
* Jack Kemp: did not serve. “Knee problem, “ although continued in NFL for 8 years as quarterback.
* Dan Quayle: Journalism unit of the Indiana National Guard.
* Rudy Giuliani: did not serve.
* George Pataki: did not serve.
* Spencer Abraham: did not serve.
* John Engler: did not serve.
* Lindsey Graham: National Guard lawyer.
* Arnold Schwarzenegger: AWOL from Austrian army base.

Pundits & Preachers

* Sean Hannity: did not serve.
* Rush Limbaugh: did not serve
* Bill O’Reilly: did not serve.
* Michael Savage: did not serve.
* George Will: did not serve.
* Chris Matthews: did not serve.
* Paul Gigot: did not serve.
* Bill Bennett: did not serve.
* Pat Buchanan: did not serve.
* John Wayne: did not serve.
* Bill Kristol: did not serve.
* Kenneth Starr: did not serve.
* Antonin Scalia: did not serve.
* Clarence Thomas: did not serve.
* Ralph Reed: did not serve.
* Michael Medved: did not serve.

Oh, and the marine behind Republican Rep. “Mean Jean” Schmidt’s attack on Rep. John Murtha? Colonel Danny Bubp, political hack!

UPDATE: Bupp says, â€Â�There was no discussion of him personally being a coward or about any person being a coward.”