LOOSELY INTERPRETING FREE SPEECH C-Span, Discovery Communications, the Weather Channel, TV One, A&E Television Networks, and Scripps Networks are all throwing down against the FCC in a new lawsuit based on its dual carriage rule, which requires cable operators to provide analog and digital signals for at least three years after the switch to all-digital broadcasts next year. The TV networks say the rule gives broadcasters an unfair advantage and violates the First Amendment. Because having to make room for two versions of the same channel infringes on a cable operators ability to "speak" to viewers. [Variety]
New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse turned herself into either a martyr for journalistic integrity or an example of what happens to the ego when your business card reads "reporter, New York Times."
To catch you up, Greenhouse agreed to speak on a panel called "Covering the Court(s): Reporters on the Supreme Court Beat" in Washington, D.C. at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention. Depending on who you believe, one of the following happened: 1) She showed up at the panel, was surprised when she saw C-SPAN's cameras there (panelists were supposedly notified about the TV broadcast the night before), and gave organizers the ultimatum of choosing her (a NYT reporter!) or C-SPAN; 2) She showed up at the panel, was surprised when she saw C-SPAN's cameras there, and organizers opted to get rid of C-SPAN before it became an issue.
• Poor, innocent model made to look like Anna Wintour was presumably advised, "it's less about furs, sunglasses and the bob-haircut, and more about acting like a 'huge fucking bitch.'"
• Dow director quits out of pure, unadulterated hatred towards Rupert Murdoch.
• In addition to "accidentally" portraying the Queen of England as a tantrum-throwing diva, the BBC has also inadvertently sponsored some fake phone-in competitions. For which they're truly sorry.
• FYI, The Economist's readers are younger, smarter, more educated—and way more influential—than you.
• C-Span's Brian Lamb gives such a fascinating interview (about his objections to living in a "celebrity culture") that even MarketWatch's Jon Friedman has trouble screwing it up.
• And speaking of the downsides of a celebrity culture, the "Hott 4 Hill" girl to shill for MSNBC.
Though Fox may end up getting fined up the wahz for airing Nicole Richie and Cher's usage of "fuck" and "shit" during last year's Billboard Music Awards, there's nothing wrong with broadcasting the conversation about Fox's wrong-doing.
The oral arguments in broadcasters challenge to the FCC's March profanity rulings against Fox Billboard Awards broadcasts will be allowed to be televised.
That's according to the docket of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York. The court has informed the attorneys involved that on December 11 it granted a request from C-SPAN to televise the December 20 arguments.
Arguments by broadcasters and the FCC are scheduled for 12 minutes per side, but could and probably will go longer.
The televised coverage is "uncommon but not unprecedented," said Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project, which is representing intervenor Center for Creative voices.
It's time like these when we hope C-Span's producers pull a CNN-Kyra Phillips, muting their audio and letting the bad language fly.
C-Span is 0wn1ng the rights to Stephen Colbert's White House Correspondents Dinner speech, claiming the video clips posted on YouTube and ifilm.com are violating its copyright. Not to mention C-Span is now selling its own version of the clip on its website. (C-Span, we should remind you, is a not-for-profit television venture.)
Sound errily familiar? Of course it does.
It was just a few weeks ago that NBC demanded the video sharing sites take down its Saturday Night Live digital shorts featuring castmember Andy Samberg and Natalie Portman. Like those SNL clips, Colbert's popular diatribe against President Bush (2.7 million YouTube viewings in the first 48 hours) was the most buzzworthy event to come out of the public TV network — with Al Franken sparring with Bill O'Reilly on C-Span's Book TV being the only close rival. Now "corporate" is trying to control the best unintentional viral marketing gimmick to come out of that ignored section of the dial.
We haven't checked in with Colbert, so we can't gauge his reaction. But when we ran into Samberg last week at Marquee (he was hanging with Amy Poehler at at a Death Cab For Cutie video release party), we asked him about NBC's course of action against YouTube. "I was pissed," Samberg told us, but "they [NBC] had the legal right to do it." But as Kevin Federline showed us with music, just because you can doesn't mean you should.
(NB: In our dutiful research for this item, we tried loading the clip of Colbert on C-Span.org. It didn't work.)
A Comedian's Riff on Bush Prompts an E-Spat [Noam Cohen, NYT]
Related: Stephen Colbert's White House Correspondents Dinner Assault
