We WILL Be Seeing You

In today's previous post, we highlighted the growing use of surveillance in our nation as a whole (see below).

The High Country is no different--now Boone wants to apply for a grant to install video surveillance cameras in the downtown area to help deter criminal activity, as the Boone Police Chief told Town Council at their December 20th meeting.

Ironically, the Boone Police Chief told the Town Council that "the Charlotte Police Department reported that surveillance doesn’t act as a considerable deterrent" according to the Watauga Democrat.

Also according to the article in the Democrat, "[t]he cameras are not monitored full-time, but rather are motion-activated. The footage would be viewed from a remote location..."

A few obvious questions seem to have not been asked at the meeting:

1) If this type of surveillance is not effective, then exactly why is the Town of Boone applying for the grant?

2) Who will be monitoring the cameras at these remote locations? What will they do with the footage? How will the footage be stored in order to safeguard privacy rights? Will the individuals monitoring the cameras be sworn police officers--or employees of private contractors who are not bound by privacy laws?

One Council member (Liz Aycock) did ask questions about the impact of these cameras on privacy rights--which was very encouraging.

Here's the whole article, from the Watauga Democrat:

A Boone Police Department grant request broached the topic of civil liberties at the December meeting of the Boone Town Council.

Chief Bill Post presented the request at the Dec. 20 meeting, saying a grant of $16,987.50 through the N.C. Governors Crime Commission with a 25 percent match from the town would fund the purchase of three surveillance cameras and signaling equipment.

Post said the cameras would be mounted in various areas throughout town, initially in the downtown area, in response to increased vandalism, graffiti and car break-ins. An area of particular concern, he said, is the alley behind the Boone Fire Department.

The cameras are not monitored full-time, but rather are motion-activated. The footage would be viewed from a remote location, and Post said he’d ideally like to see camera uplinks to patrol cars, as well.

Council member Janet Pepin noted that most surveillance cameras serve as a deterrent and also as potential evidence for a crime, but Post said otherwise, in that the Charlotte Police Department reported that surveillance doesn’t act as a considerable deterrent.

Mayor pro tem Lynne Mason asked if there were a particular impetus for the request.

“Given the issues downtown and the graffiti downtown … it’s just out of hand,” Post replied, also adding that a recent rash or car break-ins raised concern, though not all occurred in the downtown area.

Liz Aycock, in her first meeting as a Boone Town Council member, asked a string of questions involving crime downtown, first if there had been an increase of crime in the downtown area, to which Post gave a ballpark figure of a 10 percent increase.

Aycock asked what time of day criminal activity is most prevalent downtown, and Post replied that instances increase when the bars let out, usually around 2 a.m.

Aycock asked if there were a police officer on duty downtown at all times, and Post said no, in that hours vary. When the regular beat officer is not present, other patrol officers assume those responsibilities.

Post noted that several months ago, he’d spoken with council members about a request for an undercover police officer that would target hot spots as they arise.

“While I believe the safety of Boone residents is of the utmost importance, I have concerns about the privacy rights of citizens,” Aycock said, before referring to a resolution from May 2004, in which the town council affirmed the “principles and federalism and civil liberties,” in that the town supports protecting such liberties, one being the right to privacy.

While Aycock said she would have no problem with a 24-hour police presence downtown, if necessary, she objected to unnecessary video surveillance.

“In my opinion, video surveillance should only be used when all other law enforcement means have been tried and have failed,” she said. “The benefits must substantially outweigh the reduction of privacy that is at risk when a video surveillance system is in place. The citizens of Boone should have the right to walk around town without being recorded and monitored.”

Aycock observed that the town does not have any policy concerning how and when video surveillance could be used and said a comprehensive policy should be written on the matter.

The citizens of Boone should also have a say in the matter, she continued, requesting that the item be added for discussion at the February 2008 quarterly public hearing.

Post said he shared Aycock’s concerns and that he included in his request a nine-month period to develop a program to purchase the cameras, meaning council approval would only allow him to proceed with the grant requests.

Council member Rennie Brantz moved to approve the request, and Stephen Phillips, also in his first meeting as a Boone Town Council member, seconded. The motion carried unanimously.

Post then presented a second grant request, this for the purchase of “Toughbook” style laptops and mounts to be used in patrol vehicles. The grant would amount to $9,000 plus a 25 percent match from the town.

Aycock moved to approve the request, Mason seconded, and the motion carried unanimously.

Got Privacy?

Nope, not in our country. From Privacy International:

Each year since 1997, the US-based Electronic Privacy Information Center and the UK-based Privacy International have undertaken what has now become the most comprehensive survey of global privacy ever published. The Privacy & Human Rights Report surveys developments in 70 countries, assessing the state of surveillance and privacy protection.
...
In terms of statutory protections and privacy enforcement, the US is the worst ranking country in the democratic world. In terms of overall privacy protection the United States has performed very poorly, being out-ranked by both India and the Philippines and falling into the "black" category, denoting endemic surveillance.
...

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

• No right to privacy in constitution, though search and seizure protections exist in 4th Amendment; case law on government searches has considered new technology
• No comprehensive privacy law, many sectoral laws; though tort of privacy
• FTC continues to give inadequate attention to privacy issues, though issued self-regulating privacy guidelines on advertising in 2007
• State-level data breach legislation has proven to be useful in identifying faults in security
• REAL-ID and biometric identification programs continue to spread without adequate oversight, research, and funding structures
• Extensive data-sharing programs across federal government and with private sector
• Spreading use of CCTV
• Congress approved presidential program of spying on foreign communications over U.S. networks, e.g. Gmail, Hotmail, etc.; and now considering immunity for telephone companies, while government claims secrecy, thus barring any legal action
• No data retention law as yet, but equally no data protection law
• World leading in border surveillance, mandating trans-border data flows
• Weak protections of financial and medical privacy; plans spread for 'rings of steel' around cities to monitor movements of individuals
• Democratic safeguards tend to be strong but new Congress and political dynamics show that immigration and terrorism continue to leave politicians scared and without principle
• Lack of action on data breach legislation on the federal level while REAL-ID is still compelled upon states has shown that states can make informed decisions
• Recent news regarding FBI biometric database raises particular concerns as this could lead to the largest database of biometrics around the world that is not protected by strong privacy law

You Must Consume, You MUST CONSUME...

If you're a High Country media titan, one of the best ways to give a little holiday boost to your own profitability is to tell your viewers/listeners to SHOP. It's a nice way to scratch the backs of the companies who advertise on your station, or in your newspaper--send shoppers their way to make sure that they will have enough money to advertise some more!

Better still, write a news story about how everyone is out shopping today--and how you should be out there with 'em (from GoBlueRidge.net):

Shoppers to hit the stores

The day after Thanksgiving may start the holiday shopping season- but that doesn’t mean the day after Christmas won’t pack a punch.
Local retailers hope just as many shoppers will be out today as were in stores on Black Friday. Newspapers on Christmas Day were full of sale ads. Additionally, thanks to post-holiday reductions, today may be a great day to start stocking up on Christmas decorations for next year.

First of all, the headline is just strange--one can't help reading the headline and asking "Says who?", or perhaps imagining a slightly revised headline which reads "Shoppers To Hit The Stores--Or Else!"

We must shop, we are told--MUST!

Secondly, this is not a news story--it is an advertisement, plain and simple.

We suggest a more reality-based news story, not one written to satisfy advertising clients--one which examines actual issues and the impact of these issues on actual local people:

• The local impact of the mortgage lending crisis on local residents--and related impacts on holiday retail spending habits
• The local impact of high gas prices on the ability of local people to commute to work--and related impacts on holiday retail spending habits
• The local impact of changes to bankruptcy laws--and related impacts on holiday retail spending habits.

This article could be used as a starting point:

Holiday Spending Growth at 5 -Year Low
Last-Minute Buys Fail to Turn Tide

By Joseph Galante
Bloomberg News
Wednesday, December 26, 2007; D09

A surge in spending over the weekend may not have been enough to rescue Target, Sears Holdings and Macy's from the slowest holiday spending season in five years.

MasterCard's consulting unit said yesterday that sales from Nov. 23 to Dec. 24 gained 3.6 percent. Spending in the week through Dec. 22 declined 2.2 percent, the fourth week of declines, even after sales increased almost 20 percent over the last weekend before Christmas, Chicago-based ShopperTrak RCT said Monday.

We admit, these suggestions may take a couple of phone calls and use of The Google. Pressing buttons and talking--tough stuff--and way too expensive.

WXIT 1200 AM & WATA 1450 AM

Time for a little New Year's reflection. We can be very thankful that WXIT 1200 AM and WATA 1450 AM air such quality programming--here are just a few of each station's greatest hits:

On the June 18 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Neal Boortz advocated building a "double fence along the Mexican border, and stop the damn invasion." Boortz continued: "I don't care if Mexicans pile up against that fence like tumbleweeds in the Santa Ana winds in Southern California. Let 'em. You know, then just run a couple of taco trucks up and down the line, and somebody's gonna be a millionaire out of that."

On the June 11 edition of his show, a caller asked, "Why can't we just load them on planes and keep on loading them until they're back?" Boortz later responded, "We're not gonna throw these people out of airplanes with taco-shaped parachutes."

During his June 21 show, Boortz offered a suggestion he said he got from a listener's email: "When we defeat this illegal alien amnesty bill, and when we yank out the welcome mat, and they all start going back to Mexico, as a going away gift let's all give them a box of nuclear waste." Boortz continued: "Give 'em all a little nuclear waste and let 'em take it on down there to Mexico. Tell 'em it can -- it'll heat tortillas."

Nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh repeatedly used the expression "testicle lockbox," suggesting that Clinton has one.

Discussing Rep. Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) speech following her election as the nation's first female Speaker of the House, Limbaugh noted on the January 5 broadcast of his show that Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC) said that, in Limbaugh's words, "his 2-year-old daughter ... is inspired by Nancy Pelosi's ascension to the speakership." Limbaugh then commented, "His 2-year-old can't possibly know who Pelosi is other than as a cartoon figure on television. Maybe Pelosi breastfed him, I don't know, when the kid was pregnant. Who knows? She's capable of doing everything else." Limbaugh later added: "[L]ook at Ms. Pelosi. Why, she can multitask. She can breastfeed, she can clip her toenails, she can direct the House, all while the kids are sitting on her lap at the same time."

Just a few examples of what the world of consolidated media has brought to us all--cheap, irrelevant, hateful, non-local programming.

Full link here.

P.S. Limbaugh airs locally on WXIT 1200 AM at 12 noon--just in time for the kids to tune in. How 'bout them family values.

Weekend Video Salon: The Democracy School

We can't look to the corporate media to inform us about what our rights are--especially if it is a corporation that happens to be violating our rights. Fortunately, there is help--The Democracy School. This video is only 16 minutes long--enjoy!

Darth Vader Did It

The first event that DNHC sponsored in the High Country was a free screening of "Who Killed The Electric Car?" It turned out that at the same time, a group at Critcher's Auto Parts in Boone was very much involved in building a fully functioning electric car. Actually, the group had been involved in the building of the car for quite some time.

Interestingly, the group was (and still is) comprised of a wide-range of individuals with widely varying political beliefs. But the group had one thing in common: the desire to make alternative transportation a reality--on the local level. Everyone in the group recognized the need to develop the electric car, and everyone knew it was possible.

When that many people get together (especially considering that the group was comprised of progressives, activists, conservatives, liberals, and libertarians), you begin to see that most folks recognize that we need to make big changes.

Which is why this development is so concerning:

Before EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson “answered the pleas of industry executives” by announcing his “decision to deny California the right to regulate greenhouse gases from vehicles,” auto executives directly appealed to Vice President Cheney. EPA staffers told the LA Times that Johnson “made his decision” only after Cheney met with the executives.

On multiple occasions in October and November, Cheney and White House staff members met with industry executives, including the CEOs of Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler. At the meetings, the executives objected to California’s proposed fuel economy standards:

In meetings in October with Mr. Cheney and sessions with White House staff members, auto executives made clear that they were concerned not just about the fuel economy measures in the bill but also about the California proposal for stricter emissions standards.

Johnson explained his decision to thwart California by saying that the new energy bill, which the auto industry supported and President Bush signed into law on Wednesday, “made the proposed California standards unnecessary.” One EPA staffer says Johnson’s decision was part of Cheney’s deal with the industry execs brokered at the meetings:

“Clearly the White House said, ‘We’re going to get EPA out of the way and get California out of the way. If you give us this energy bill, then we’re done, the deal is done,’” said one staffer.

Since taking office, Cheney has taken “a decisive role to undercut long-standing environmental regulations for the benefit of business” while undermining any real action to combat climate change. For example, he stacked the Committee on Environmental Quality with industry heavyweights, killing Bush’s 2000 campaign promise to place caps on carbon emissions. In 2001, his infamous energy task force also ordered the EPA to “reconsider” a rule requiring stricter pollution controls on power and oil refinery plants.

More recently, since February, Cheney has also quietly maneuvered to exert increased control over environmental policy by federal agencies — particularly the regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.

We hope the electric car group will take notice of this development. When a group that diverse can get together to solve a common problem, it gives us all hope. But be clear about this: out of a desire for power and control, the leaders of this country--everyday--are doing everything that they can to prevent the electric car group at Critcher's from succeeding.

So--who did kill the electric car?

Full article here.

Our Own Backyard: MAIN

Yesterday's FCC decision to allow "cross-ownership" (i.e. newspaper/TV and/or newspaper/radio mergers) in certain towns and cities was not entirely unexpected. However, there is massive opposition brewing--both in Congress and on the "internets."

It's great to see this kind of activism and opposition to the FCC's long-standing desire to allow more media concentration--which can only lead to a significantly diminished democracy.

But let's also be certain to focus on our own region's effort to expand our own corporate-free, community-based, non-profit media system. We're talking about MAIN, the Mountain Area Information Network. MAIN is recognized nationally by some of our country's most forward-thinking media scholars and activists. People from all over the U.S. are trying to copy MAIN's successful business model--to build their own community media network.

MAIN is leading the charge to help prevent the internet from becoming just another appendage of the corporate media system. You can help them, too. You can be a part of the charge.

Let's do whatever we can to help MAIN--wouldn't it be nice to have something just like MAIN right here in the High Country?

Check it out--and help Save the Internet.

The Colonel's Consolidation: In Context

One side says media consolidation is bad--the other says it's good. When big media does choose to cover this hugely important story (which is almost never), this type of back and forth seems to be all the story is about. Rarely--if ever--is any context provided.

But it turns out that someone--60 years ago--recognized the importance of not allowing newspapers to own radio stations in the same town.

That someone was FDR. He understood just how dangerous to democracy a consolidated media landscape was. And it took a Supreme Court battle to prevent newspapers from owning radio stations in the same town--a decision fought by Col. Robert R. McCormick, owner and publisher of the Chicago Tribune.

See, the good Colonel saw absolutely nothing wrong with owning the Tribune and WGN-AM.

So, how did things play out (from the Center for American Progress)?:

...

“Will you let me know when you propose to have a hearing on newspaper ownership of radio stations,” wrote President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Federal Communications Commission Chairman James Fly. That was 1940, at the end of a second FDR administration when the New Dealers were still battling a conservative print media and a conservative Supreme Court to fix the great debacle of American capitalism—the Great Depression.

FDR’s fireside chats and his ready access to radio allowed him to speak directly to Americans and continue to push a progressive agenda. But FDR was becoming increasingly concerned about the purchase of radio operations by the newspaper publishers.

One of the most vehement Roosevelt-haters was Col. Robert R. McCormick, the longtime editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune. McCormick considered it his duty to remove Roosevelt from office and he used every means at his disposal to further this aim, including radio station WGN(AM), which the Chicago Tribune had been operating since 1924.

...

It would be the Roosevelt Justice Department and the Roosevelt Supreme Court that would generate perhaps the first modern First Amendment decision. It also happened to be an antitrust case.

...

Indeed, as [Supreme Court Justice] Black wrote, the First Amendment “rests on the assumption that the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the public, that a free press is a condition of a free society.”

...

[Today], billionaire real estate mogul Sam Zell is buying the Tribune Corporation. And he wants to keep WGN(AM) and WGN-TV. Instead of ruling that a new owner triggers the removal of the “grandfather” waiver because the Tribune’s ownership of a major radio, television, and newspaper operation in the same market has gone on long enough, the three conservatives at the FCC ruled that the “uniquely long-term symbiotic relationship between the broadcast stations and the newspaper warrants a permanent waiver.”

Yes, a permanent waiver.

Instead of pursuing “the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources” the conservative majority ruled that “forced separation of the Tribune, WGN-TV, and WGN(AM) would diminish the strength of important sources of quality news and public affairs programming in the Chicago market and that any detriment to diversity caused by the common ownership is negligible given the nature of the market.”

Notice the shift of frame from democracy to market.

And notice, too, the cyclical nature of this entire process. It seems as if big media is doing all it can to prevent the free circulation of ideas--quickly--before the next election.

Full article here.

Weekend Video Salon: Want Fries With Your "McNews"?

Here's a funny video with some notable clips from the world of consolidated big media--this is what they feed us now. What ever happened to all of those "synergies" and "efficiencies of scale" that were going to make news so much better?

Weekend Video Salon: Inconvenienced Corporate Media

We heard that the local wealthy representative of Jones Media (the wealthy out-of-state corporation that owns almost all of the newspapers in our area) was inconvenienced by having to follow some government regulations the other day. He felt compelled to write a column about his difficulties--about how government stands in the way of corporate "do-gooders".

His column is a perfect example of how (on so many different levels) big, corporate media must tell its own story--not the stories of the ordinary folks that they claim to serve. According to his column, we should somehow be concerned that a big corporation had to jump through some hoops to do some construction. This is passed off as somehow being relevant to regular folks.

We searched for this weekend's video salon with this column in mind. When big corporate media ponders its own irrelevance (do they ever?) they should do so with this video in mind.

Because this video says everything about the people that have had enough with the self-serving, irrelevant media of today--and what they are doing to take it back.

Looks like they're pretty energetic (not to mentioned having desirable demographics). One would think that big media would want these kinds of folks buying their newspapers--don't hold your breath.

"Mom, Dad--I Got A 'McD' in Nutrition."

You have to admit, it's a little funny to watch the folks who seem to believe that privatization will solve everything--kinda like these guys.

We'll just privatize our educational system--yeah, that's the ticket!

In the meantime, let's check in and see how the progress of privatization in our educational system is going thus far--we can't wait--because the results are going to be GREAT!:

Last week, students in Seminole County, Florida received their report cards in envelopes adorned with Ronald McDonald promising a free Happy Meal to students with good grades, behavior, or attendance. Targeting children directly with the message that doing well in school should be rewarded by a Happy Meal – which can contain as many as 710 calories, 28 grams of fat, or 35 grams of sugar – undermines parents’ efforts to encourage healthy eating.

The promotion highlights McDonald’s duplicity when it comes to marketing to children. The company has received kudos for their pledge to stop advertising in elementary schools, but this promotion violates that pledge. It is targeted to children in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Have any school systems in the High Country been asked by McD's to do the same thing?

Better not call to find out--otherwise McD's might just pull their ads from your station/newspaper. Full article from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood here.

Your Holiday Assignment

Who tells your story? Who tells your family's story? Who will remember your relatives once they pass away?

When it comes to big media the answer is clear: not us.

Big media values one thing only--the profit thingy. And for them, the stories that sell are not the stories of everyday people--those stories just aren't all that important. The stories that sell are the important ones.

Something important has happened. Our own stories have become irrelevant--irrelevant in the face of relentless stories about celebrities, athletes, and the promotion of consumerism.

What if we stopped for a moment to consider the importance of our own stories? What would happen? Our guess is that we would realize that our stories are MORE important than those foisted upon us by big media as somehow being relevant to our lives.

Well, enough already. Let's take some time to listen to our own stories--to listen.

And guess what--a group called StoryCorps can help us do just that (from Democracy Now!):

...radio pioneer Dave Isay, who founded StoryCorps, the largest oral history project in the United States. Isay’s new book is “Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project.” We play several excerpts of StoryCorps recordings, of ordinary people telling their stories to each other, and we speak with three of the people whose stories are featured in the book. They are among the many thousands who have recorded their memories using StoryCorps since it began in 2003.
...
“StoryCorps is built on a few basic ideas: that our stories—the stories of everyday people—are as interesting and important as the celebrity stories we’re bombarded with by the media every minute of the day. That if we take the time to listen, we’ll find wisdom, wonder and poetry in the lives and stories of the people all around us. That we all want to know our lives have mattered and we won’t ever be forgotten. That listening is an act of love.” Those are the opening lines of Dave Isay’s new book about StoryCorps. The book is called Listening Is an Act of Love. It was published in November.
...

As you know, we built a booth in Grand Central terminal four years ago, where you bring a loved one and you’re met by a facilitator, who serves a one-year tour of duty.

AMY GOODMAN: And this booth?

DAVE ISAY: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Describe the booth.

DAVE ISAY: Well, it’s a soundproof booth, and the inside of it is kind of this sacred space. When you go inside, you close the door. You’re in Grand Central terminal, and it’s completely silent. The lights are low. And you sit across from, say, your grandmother for forty minutes, and you talk. And most people ask the big life questions, like “What are the most important lessons you’ve learned in life?” or “How do you want to be remembered?” “What did your mom sing to you when you were a kid?”

And then, at the end of forty minutes, two CDs have been burned. One goes home with you, and the other stays with us and goes to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress to become part of an oral history of America.

So we launched four years ago. I came to see you about two years ago when we became a national project. And right now, we’re one of the fastest-growing non-profits in the country. And, you know, as you said, we’re trying to do a lot with this project, but at its core, I think what StoryCorps says is that every life matters and the importance of listening to loved ones and turning off the TV and the Blackberry and the computer and just looking a loved one in the eye and saying “I care about you,” by listening to what they have to say.
...
DAVE ISAY: And these are stories that are really, as Studs Terkel talks about, bottom-up history. History is so often told from the top down through the voices of statesmen and politicians. But the power and the depth of hearing about history through our own voices and our own hearts, I think, gives whole other perspective and an incredibly deep perspective of life in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Your holiday assignment is to listen to this interview--you'll be touched. And no one will get a cent.

Rule Number One

Never, ever write a story that criticizes your advertisers. Otherwise, they may pull their ads--and we might not make as much money!

How many stories have you seen or heard in the High Country media discussing the local impact of toxic toys, pet food, toothpaste, etc.? Perhaps no one up here bought any of these items from the big box stores that sell them.

There is an interesting radio program out there called "Corporate Watchdog Radio"--unfortunately it is not carried by any High Country radio outlet. In their most recent program (December 4th, 2007), they ask the questions that need to be asked:

2007 could have been called the Year of Shopping Dangerously. First there was the pet food scare, then toxic toothpaste, then a bevy of poisonous toys being recalled, one after another – containing lead, asbestos and other toxic materials. Many of the toxic products came from manufacturing outsourced to China. Do we have to choose between products that are cheap or products that are safe?
...
... our interviewees today probe the deeper issues, and help us understand how much more it will take to end the flood of toxic products.

Take a moment to listen to the show, and to learn about the origins and the scope of the problem facing us. And check out the links on Corporate Watchdog Radio's site.

We do have options--we just have to dig to find them, because no media outlet that values profitability over responsibility will ever let us know that these options actually exist.

Full radio program here.

Weekend Video Salon: Bill McKibben

Some questions are never addressed by big media--like "Is more always better?"

We rely on big media to tell us on a daily basis that the accumulation of more STUFF is good--indeed, it is the key to our happiness--and oh, by the way, it is also the key to their own profitability (through advertising). McKibben also has a new book out called "Deep Economy", which is definitely worth checking out. Enjoy!

Corporate Welfare for Big Media

Imagine this scenario: you buy a new car, and then try to sell it later--but you can't find any buyers. So you call your local congressperson, and have the government reimburse you.

In essence, that is what big media is trying to do by working with the FCC to allow newspapers to own a radio/TV station in any market they choose to do so.

How does big media get away with having their own brand of corporate welfare? Let's have a look, from freepress.net:

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin claims that he is removing the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership ban to “improve the health of the newspaper industry,” which he claims will “wither and die” without drastic action. But there is simply no good evidence showing the newspaper industry is in such grave danger.
...
It is highly questionable whether the FCC, which has no jurisdiction over newspapers, should be using broadcast regulations to “save” the newspaper industry. If the goal here is to promote media diversity, it’s hard to see how that would be accomplished with fewer newsrooms.
...

Though print circulation of daily newspapers has declined, Martin’s claims that newspapers are an “endangered species” are greatly exaggerated. Consider that:

• Revenue per circulated copy increased from 2005 to 2006 (the last year for which full financial data is available).
• Industry-wide, newspapers still enjoy operating profit margins near or above 20 percent — higher than the S&P 500 average.
• Recent mergers and acquisitions demonstrate that newspapers remain highly valued properties. Prices paid for newspaper companies have been above 10 times cash flow, with average stock prices at eight times cash flow. These values are considered quite healthy by financial industry standards.

• William Dean Singleton, CEO of MediaNews Group (a strong advocate of eliminating the cross-ownership ban) recently characterized the newspaper industry as “very, very, very profitable” and predicted it will continue to be so “for a very long time.”

Bad business bailout?

Moreover, there’s little or no evidence to suggest that cross-ownership will improve the finances of newspaper companies.

Tribune Co. is often cited as one of the most financially troubled newspaper companies. Yet it is by far the largest owner of cross-owned newspaper-TV combinations operating under temporary waivers. If cross-ownership hasn’t helped save Tribune, why will it bring financial benefits to other newspaper companies?

Many TV-owning newspaper companies are selling off their broadcast properties. The New York Times Co. recently sold all of its TV stations, and Belo Corp. has announced a plan to spin its TV stations off separately from its newspaper business.

These trends suggest that newspaper companies will be fine if they focus on their core mission of providing quality journalism and work to attract online readers. Lifting the cross-ownership ban seems designed to benefit certain companies like Tribune, Media General and Gannett, which bet heavily on this specific business model. The public interest is too important to bail out to a few conglomerates that mismanaged their businesses.

So, by the FCC's logic, corporate welfare is a good thing--and should be expanded. Expanded--even to an industry that it is not even responsible for regulating--i.e. newspapers.

By expanding the consolidated big media corporate welfare state, the FCC is giving their stamp of approval on the silencing of diverse, independent viewpoints for the sake of a few mega media conglomerates that bet the wrong way. We'll all pay for that--even here in the High Country.

Full article here.

Non-Story

After extensive DNHC staff review and analysis, we have decided that the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) report on the quality of school lunches must be a non-story (i.e. not covered by any High Country media outlet) because:

1) There are no public schools in the High Country.

2) Since there are no public schools in the High Country, there must not be any kids around here.

3) No one gets hungry around mid-day.

Had this been an actual story, you could have read/heard/seen/in/on the High Country media outlets that:

The quality of school lunches in NC has improved--from a D to a D+ since 2006.

So, what about the quality of school lunches in the High Country? Has any media outlet up here called the local school systems for a reaction? Have any local media outlets taken the initiative to evaluate local school lunch programs?

Whoops, we forgot--this is not a story (from CSPI).

“The majority of states still rely on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s outdated school nutrition standards,” said Wootan. “Those national standards limit only the sale of jelly beans, lollipops, and other so-called ‘foods of minimal nutritional value.’ Those standards don’t address calories, saturated and trans fat, sodium, or other key nutrition concerns for children today.”
...
Over the last 20 years, obesity rates have tripled in children and adolescents, and only 2 percent of children eat a healthy diet, according to key nutrition recommendations by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Despite that, about a third of elementary schools, 71 percent of middle schools, and 89 percent of high schools sell items such as sugary drinks, snack cakes, candy, and chips out of vending machines, school stores, or a la carte lines in the cafeteria, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2006 School Health Policies and Programs Study.

Full non-story here.