03/12: Media Briefing for Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Media Briefing for Wednesday, March 12, 2008
There is a new way to manage health data. The Internet giants are joining the push to put medical records online. Washington Post.
In step toward personalized online medical information, Aetna plans to announce a new service that draws upon a patient?s own medical history to help answer questions about symptoms and treatments. The Aetna offering, called SmartSource, has been tested by the company?s 35,000 employees. It will be offered to employers that provide worker health benefits through Aetna, in a gradual introduction across the country that will begin in August. The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle report.
A common new technology for monitoring defibrillators is vulnerable to hacking and even to reprogramming that could stop the devices from delivering a lifesaving shock, according to research. In the past couple years, more than 100,000 patients in the U.S. alone have been implanted with newer devices that reduce medical visits by sending information on a patient to a bedside monitor that then sends the data to a doctor, usually once a day. Associated Press reports.
In South Carolina, a black TV reporter was attacked while reporting a news story, with the attackers shouting racial slurs at the reporter and the station news photographer, says Associated Press.
The Philadelphia Daily News examines digital converters and what kind of reception they bring to analog TV sets, on PBS stations in the Philadelphia area.
In an address to the National Religious Broadcasters Association in Nashville, Tennessee, George W. Bush said he will fight any attempt to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcast TV, AM and FM stations to provide equal time to opposing viewpoints, when controversial subjects were discussed on the air. TV Newsday reports.
In Reno, Nevada, television station KREN channel 27 closed its news division Tuesday, citing low advertising revenues, officials said. Pappas Telecasting Companies totally shut down the news division of Reno stations KREN Channel 27, an affiliate of The CW, and KAZR Channel 46, a Tu Visi?n affiliate. Some of the 19 employees who lost their jobs are considering legal action, says Reno Gazette Journal.
Celebrities top politicians in visits to news and media Web sites, says Media Post.com.
With a generation of leaders of the religious right dead or aging, the founder of the conservative evangelical group Focus on the Family - James Dobson - says he's concerned about the movement's future leadership. James Dobson told a group of Christian broadcasters last night that the passing of the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the Rev. D. James Kennedy and Ruth Bell Graham represent the end of an era. The radio talk show host noted that others like Billy Graham, Chuck Colson, the Rev. Pat Robertson and Chuck Swindoll will also soon pass from the scene, and questioned the impact on the conservative Christian church. Associated Press reports. Focus On The Family airs weekdays at 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on WMCA-AM 570 New York.
ABC News is marking the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War with multiple specials, reports Reuters.
There is a huge dropoff in newspaper circulation since 2003, reports Editor & Publisher.
The CEO of the New York Times says the newspaper will give absolute priority to expanding its online operations, says Associated Press.
America On Line (AOL), the company that introduced millions of people to the Internet, has tried to reinvent itself many times. The latest effort, like those before it, does not seem to be going well. Now, Jeffrey Bewkes, the chief executive of Time Warner, AOL?s parent company, is acknowledging weakness in the business and says he is open to combining AOL with another company - "whatever configuration makes it the strongest and the most valuable." The New York Times reports.
European regulators approved Google Inc.'s $3.1 billion acquisition of online advertising giant DoubleClick, removing the last major obstacle for the deal that critics said would hobble competition and violate consumer privacy. The decision by the European Commission allowed Google to immediately close the merger, which was first announced nearly one year ago. By combining forces with DoubleClick, Google is significantly bolstering its already formidable online advertising business, says the San Francisco Chronicle. The Los Angeles Times and San Jose Mercury News also have reports.
Google to media companies: "We're your friend." Google says media companies shouldn't fear that Google will start producing content, but should work with the company online. PC World reports.
How DoubleClick could boost Google: DoubleClick's strengths could help snap Google out of its funk. PC World reports.
Men and women dissect the Governor Eliot Spitzer scandal on the TV talk shows, says the New York Times.
None of the media outlets - including liberal ones - are cutting Governor Eliot Spitzer any slack, says the Washington Post.
Eliot Spitzer's troubles may hurt the Clinton campaign. Echoes of the past could drown out the Clinton campaign messages, says the Washington Post.
Coverage of the Eliot Spitzer story by the local New York City TV stations is examined by the New York Daily News.
Congress may have to stop broadband Internet providers from charging content providers higher fees for priority access to the Internet, says a senior U.S. House of Representatives Democrat. "I am concerned that if Congress stands by and does nothing, we will soon find ourselves living in a world where those who pay, can play (on the Internet), but those who don't are simply out of luck," Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers said. Reuters reports.
The city of Detroit has banned text messaging while driving an automobile or vehicle, says the Detroit Free Press.
If he were alive, Fred Rogers of the PBS children's program Mister Rogers' Neighborhood would be turning 80 years old. A number of events are planned in the Pittsburgh area, reports the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Mister Rogers' Neighborhood is seen weekday afternoons at 1 on WEDW channel 49 Bridgeport, Connecticut Public Television.
U.S. carmaker Ford Motor Co. has bent to the will of the American Family Association, which boycotted Ford products for two years because the company advertised in gay publications and supported gay rights, according to the association, in a statement on its website. The boycott, joined by 780,365 people, was lifted because Ford met the terms of an agreement calling for the company to stop backing gay organizations and "cease all advertising on homosexual websites and through homosexual media outlets," except for $100,000 US in Volvo ads, the website said. CBC News. But Ford says it has not many any concessions to the group, reports the Detroit News.
The Spanish Broadcasting System, which owns a national group of stations including WPAT-FM 93.1 and WSKQ 97.9 in New York, has launched a new FM 24-hour-a-day Spanish-language all-news service called Red 96 - News FM, which covers Puerto Rico.
Combatants may have access to phone link to be in touch with their homes, says the Miami Herald.
Faced with falling revenue, the Sacramento Bee is offering company buyouts, says Associated Press.
Music as medicine: music as therapy is clinically valid for the living and the dying.
The Chicago Tribune reports.
Social networking translates to the tutorial. MyHappyPlanet is helping users learn foreign languages, says the Boston Globe.
Eager to get American cinema complexes ready for a surge in 3-D movies next year, four major Hollywood studios has announced a deal to subsidize the conversion of 10,000 theaters to digital projection systems. The announcement overlooked one point: the theaters that could be converted under the deal have yet to agree to it. The motion picture industry is racing to roll out digital projectors, says the New York Times. The Los Angeles Times says 3-D is the format of the future.
The cable TV company RCN has agreed to distribute the Smithsonian Channel high-definition channel. With the addition of RCN, the Smithsonian Channel - co-owned by Showtime and the Smithsonian Institute - now reaches 22.5 million multi-platform households, says MultiChannel News.
The satellite TV company DirecTV has told the FCC that the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is "attempting to use the digital transition as a vehicle to impose additional mandates on others." That comes in response to what the satellite-TV provider said was the NAB's request that the FCC require direct-broadcast satellite operators to deliver HD signals of TV stations in all 210 markets as soon as possible, rather than on the staggered timetable offered by DirecTV and Dish Network. Broadcasting & Cable reports.
Radio innovator Lee Abrams is leaving XM satellite radio and is trying his hand at the Tribune Co., says the Washington Post. He will be Tribune's innovator, says the Los Angeles Times.
CBS has big plans for its HD FM channels in New York City and Los Angeles, say FMQB and the Hollywood Reporter.
Applebees is dropping the talking apple from its TV ads, says the Kansas City Star.
Ed Dague, former news anchor at the Albany NBC affiliate WNYT channel 13, who pleaded guilty in January to a reduced charge of second degree harassment for making the threatening phone call to the sheriff?s dispatch center, has resumed blogging about the TV news business in the Albany Times Union.
The Fox News Channel has cancelled The Big Story with John Gibson, which has aired weekdays at 5 p.m., reports the New York Times.
MSNBC's Tucker Carlson, whose weekday night 6 p.m. show has been cancelled, is not going to "whine" about it, saying MSNBC "has been good" to him, reports the New York Observer.
On March 13, 2008, CBS News Radio's "World News Roundup," already the longest running news broadcast in history, marks its 70th anniversary. When the show launched in 1938, it was the first time correspondents stationed around the world were heard together in a live news broadcast, something that is common today but was unheard of at the time. The impetus for the program was the increasing tension in a pre-World War II Europe. Anchoring the broadcast was veteran CBS News correspondent Robert Trout in New York. Reporters, including William L. Shirer in London, were based throughout Europe in Paris, Rome and Berlin. Edward R. Murrow, an unknown reporter at the time, made his debut live from Vienna. "Seventy years ago the producers of ?The World News Roundup? invented a new kind of journalism that was riveting and compelling as well as groundbreaking," says Harvey Nagler, vice president of CBS News Radio. Radio & Records reports.
Online video will not replace TV, says E-Marketer.
More people are watching TV online, especially younger ones, says Media Daily News.
ABC may not offer any new entertainment shows this fall, says the Hollywood Reporter.
Cox Radio will provide information on its program schedules and its programming on RadioTime, which allows Internet users to browse, search and listen to online radio from terrestrial stations with its RadioGuide interface. The station IDs and other information will appear on Radio Guide alongside the streaming audio. Cox joins about 100 other radio networks and a total of about 100,000 programs on the RadioTime site. Media Daily News. Cox stations in the New York area include three FM stations on Long Island: WHFM 95.3 Southampton and WBAB 102.3 Babylon, which simulcast; and WBLI 106.1 Patchogue; four FM stations in southern Connecticut: WCTZ 96.7 Stamford, WFOX 95.9 Norwalk, WEZN 99.9 Bridgeport and WPLR 99.1 New Haven; plus two Connecticut AM stations: WSTC 1400 Stamford and WNLK 1350 Norwalk.
Microsoft's Bill Gates is pushing Congress to allow more visas for college students, and improving and strengthening U.S. high school students in the subjects of math and science. The Seattle Times reports.
There is a new way to manage health data. The Internet giants are joining the push to put medical records online. Washington Post.
In step toward personalized online medical information, Aetna plans to announce a new service that draws upon a patient?s own medical history to help answer questions about symptoms and treatments. The Aetna offering, called SmartSource, has been tested by the company?s 35,000 employees. It will be offered to employers that provide worker health benefits through Aetna, in a gradual introduction across the country that will begin in August. The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle report.
A common new technology for monitoring defibrillators is vulnerable to hacking and even to reprogramming that could stop the devices from delivering a lifesaving shock, according to research. In the past couple years, more than 100,000 patients in the U.S. alone have been implanted with newer devices that reduce medical visits by sending information on a patient to a bedside monitor that then sends the data to a doctor, usually once a day. Associated Press reports.
In South Carolina, a black TV reporter was attacked while reporting a news story, with the attackers shouting racial slurs at the reporter and the station news photographer, says Associated Press.
The Philadelphia Daily News examines digital converters and what kind of reception they bring to analog TV sets, on PBS stations in the Philadelphia area.
In an address to the National Religious Broadcasters Association in Nashville, Tennessee, George W. Bush said he will fight any attempt to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcast TV, AM and FM stations to provide equal time to opposing viewpoints, when controversial subjects were discussed on the air. TV Newsday reports.
In Reno, Nevada, television station KREN channel 27 closed its news division Tuesday, citing low advertising revenues, officials said. Pappas Telecasting Companies totally shut down the news division of Reno stations KREN Channel 27, an affiliate of The CW, and KAZR Channel 46, a Tu Visi?n affiliate. Some of the 19 employees who lost their jobs are considering legal action, says Reno Gazette Journal.
Celebrities top politicians in visits to news and media Web sites, says Media Post.com.
With a generation of leaders of the religious right dead or aging, the founder of the conservative evangelical group Focus on the Family - James Dobson - says he's concerned about the movement's future leadership. James Dobson told a group of Christian broadcasters last night that the passing of the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the Rev. D. James Kennedy and Ruth Bell Graham represent the end of an era. The radio talk show host noted that others like Billy Graham, Chuck Colson, the Rev. Pat Robertson and Chuck Swindoll will also soon pass from the scene, and questioned the impact on the conservative Christian church. Associated Press reports. Focus On The Family airs weekdays at 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on WMCA-AM 570 New York.
ABC News is marking the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War with multiple specials, reports Reuters.
There is a huge dropoff in newspaper circulation since 2003, reports Editor & Publisher.
The CEO of the New York Times says the newspaper will give absolute priority to expanding its online operations, says Associated Press.
America On Line (AOL), the company that introduced millions of people to the Internet, has tried to reinvent itself many times. The latest effort, like those before it, does not seem to be going well. Now, Jeffrey Bewkes, the chief executive of Time Warner, AOL?s parent company, is acknowledging weakness in the business and says he is open to combining AOL with another company - "whatever configuration makes it the strongest and the most valuable." The New York Times reports.
European regulators approved Google Inc.'s $3.1 billion acquisition of online advertising giant DoubleClick, removing the last major obstacle for the deal that critics said would hobble competition and violate consumer privacy. The decision by the European Commission allowed Google to immediately close the merger, which was first announced nearly one year ago. By combining forces with DoubleClick, Google is significantly bolstering its already formidable online advertising business, says the San Francisco Chronicle. The Los Angeles Times and San Jose Mercury News also have reports.
Google to media companies: "We're your friend." Google says media companies shouldn't fear that Google will start producing content, but should work with the company online. PC World reports.
How DoubleClick could boost Google: DoubleClick's strengths could help snap Google out of its funk. PC World reports.
Men and women dissect the Governor Eliot Spitzer scandal on the TV talk shows, says the New York Times.
None of the media outlets - including liberal ones - are cutting Governor Eliot Spitzer any slack, says the Washington Post.
Eliot Spitzer's troubles may hurt the Clinton campaign. Echoes of the past could drown out the Clinton campaign messages, says the Washington Post.
Coverage of the Eliot Spitzer story by the local New York City TV stations is examined by the New York Daily News.
Congress may have to stop broadband Internet providers from charging content providers higher fees for priority access to the Internet, says a senior U.S. House of Representatives Democrat. "I am concerned that if Congress stands by and does nothing, we will soon find ourselves living in a world where those who pay, can play (on the Internet), but those who don't are simply out of luck," Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers said. Reuters reports.
The city of Detroit has banned text messaging while driving an automobile or vehicle, says the Detroit Free Press.
If he were alive, Fred Rogers of the PBS children's program Mister Rogers' Neighborhood would be turning 80 years old. A number of events are planned in the Pittsburgh area, reports the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Mister Rogers' Neighborhood is seen weekday afternoons at 1 on WEDW channel 49 Bridgeport, Connecticut Public Television.
U.S. carmaker Ford Motor Co. has bent to the will of the American Family Association, which boycotted Ford products for two years because the company advertised in gay publications and supported gay rights, according to the association, in a statement on its website. The boycott, joined by 780,365 people, was lifted because Ford met the terms of an agreement calling for the company to stop backing gay organizations and "cease all advertising on homosexual websites and through homosexual media outlets," except for $100,000 US in Volvo ads, the website said. CBC News. But Ford says it has not many any concessions to the group, reports the Detroit News.
The Spanish Broadcasting System, which owns a national group of stations including WPAT-FM 93.1 and WSKQ 97.9 in New York, has launched a new FM 24-hour-a-day Spanish-language all-news service called Red 96 - News FM, which covers Puerto Rico.
Combatants may have access to phone link to be in touch with their homes, says the Miami Herald.
Faced with falling revenue, the Sacramento Bee is offering company buyouts, says Associated Press.
Music as medicine: music as therapy is clinically valid for the living and the dying.
The Chicago Tribune reports.
Social networking translates to the tutorial. MyHappyPlanet is helping users learn foreign languages, says the Boston Globe.
Eager to get American cinema complexes ready for a surge in 3-D movies next year, four major Hollywood studios has announced a deal to subsidize the conversion of 10,000 theaters to digital projection systems. The announcement overlooked one point: the theaters that could be converted under the deal have yet to agree to it. The motion picture industry is racing to roll out digital projectors, says the New York Times. The Los Angeles Times says 3-D is the format of the future.
The cable TV company RCN has agreed to distribute the Smithsonian Channel high-definition channel. With the addition of RCN, the Smithsonian Channel - co-owned by Showtime and the Smithsonian Institute - now reaches 22.5 million multi-platform households, says MultiChannel News.
The satellite TV company DirecTV has told the FCC that the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is "attempting to use the digital transition as a vehicle to impose additional mandates on others." That comes in response to what the satellite-TV provider said was the NAB's request that the FCC require direct-broadcast satellite operators to deliver HD signals of TV stations in all 210 markets as soon as possible, rather than on the staggered timetable offered by DirecTV and Dish Network. Broadcasting & Cable reports.
Radio innovator Lee Abrams is leaving XM satellite radio and is trying his hand at the Tribune Co., says the Washington Post. He will be Tribune's innovator, says the Los Angeles Times.
CBS has big plans for its HD FM channels in New York City and Los Angeles, say FMQB and the Hollywood Reporter.
Applebees is dropping the talking apple from its TV ads, says the Kansas City Star.
Ed Dague, former news anchor at the Albany NBC affiliate WNYT channel 13, who pleaded guilty in January to a reduced charge of second degree harassment for making the threatening phone call to the sheriff?s dispatch center, has resumed blogging about the TV news business in the Albany Times Union.
The Fox News Channel has cancelled The Big Story with John Gibson, which has aired weekdays at 5 p.m., reports the New York Times.
MSNBC's Tucker Carlson, whose weekday night 6 p.m. show has been cancelled, is not going to "whine" about it, saying MSNBC "has been good" to him, reports the New York Observer.
On March 13, 2008, CBS News Radio's "World News Roundup," already the longest running news broadcast in history, marks its 70th anniversary. When the show launched in 1938, it was the first time correspondents stationed around the world were heard together in a live news broadcast, something that is common today but was unheard of at the time. The impetus for the program was the increasing tension in a pre-World War II Europe. Anchoring the broadcast was veteran CBS News correspondent Robert Trout in New York. Reporters, including William L. Shirer in London, were based throughout Europe in Paris, Rome and Berlin. Edward R. Murrow, an unknown reporter at the time, made his debut live from Vienna. "Seventy years ago the producers of ?The World News Roundup? invented a new kind of journalism that was riveting and compelling as well as groundbreaking," says Harvey Nagler, vice president of CBS News Radio. Radio & Records reports.
Online video will not replace TV, says E-Marketer.
More people are watching TV online, especially younger ones, says Media Daily News.
ABC may not offer any new entertainment shows this fall, says the Hollywood Reporter.
Cox Radio will provide information on its program schedules and its programming on RadioTime, which allows Internet users to browse, search and listen to online radio from terrestrial stations with its RadioGuide interface. The station IDs and other information will appear on Radio Guide alongside the streaming audio. Cox joins about 100 other radio networks and a total of about 100,000 programs on the RadioTime site. Media Daily News. Cox stations in the New York area include three FM stations on Long Island: WHFM 95.3 Southampton and WBAB 102.3 Babylon, which simulcast; and WBLI 106.1 Patchogue; four FM stations in southern Connecticut: WCTZ 96.7 Stamford, WFOX 95.9 Norwalk, WEZN 99.9 Bridgeport and WPLR 99.1 New Haven; plus two Connecticut AM stations: WSTC 1400 Stamford and WNLK 1350 Norwalk.
Microsoft's Bill Gates is pushing Congress to allow more visas for college students, and improving and strengthening U.S. high school students in the subjects of math and science. The Seattle Times reports.
