Are you among the almost 14 percent of households to have abandoned landlines in favor of cell phones, but still want to get DSL broadband Internet? If so, AT&T has finally begun offering so-called "naked" DSL. Naked DSL was framed as a concession to consumer groups and the FCC when AT&T acquired BellSouth. But it's actually just good business.
The Federal Communications Commission has voted to allow broadcasters in the 20 largest media markets to also own their very own newspaper. The decision overturns a 1975 ban that noted "it is unrealistic to expect true diversity from a commonly owned station-newspaper combination." Ah, so goes the final obstacle barring the way of the inevitable alliance of Clear Channel and News Corp. Dark and difficult times lie ahead; a new age has begun. But there are worlds beyond our own. Power can be held in the smallest of things. Or something. [CBS]
Television station WWOR (My9, currently playing: Divorce Court), owned by NewsCorp, just may become the first television station in years to have its broadcast license rejected (but probably not). And not because of that quaint law barring newspaper owners from owning T.V. stations in the same market—NewsCorp is one of 11 companies that both control all the media and hold "temporary" waivers of that particular law. Instead their renewal is being challenged by community groups because My9 is a New Jersey station that doesn't actually cover New Jersey.
A number of consumer groups are petitioning the FCC to fine Comcast $195,000 for every customer affected by their BitTorrent-throttling practices. The FCC has said in the past that service providers can't "block" customers from using certain applications or websites, but it hasn't enforced that policy. Comcast has stated that they aren't "blocking" data transmissions, but are delaying them. Angry users aren't seeing much of a difference. We still think that government regulation is not the answer. You don't like what Comcast is doing? Let your wallet do the talking — change providers or lay your own fiber, bub. Or, considering that Comcast was caught blocking a digital version of the Bible, perhaps divine intervention is what called for. Down with the infidels! (Photo by AP/Douglas C. Pizac)
While the scintillating debate about whether Fox's censors directed the profanity-erasing silence-rays of its Sphere of Censorship against Sally Field for either the "goddamned" or "no more...wars" portions of her rambling acceptance speech rages on, we thought it would be fun to share a clip of some the filthy, filthy things that the network's Standards & Practices allowed on the air during the Emmys telecast.
We're still (pretty unsuccessfully) trying to shake off our Emmys hangover—drinking was really the only way to make it through all three-plus hours of last night's telecast without going insane from boredom—but we're now lucid enough to tackle the "mystery" of that trio of perplexing cuts (compiled in the above clip) from Ray Romano, Katherine "If You Call Me Hi-Jel I Will Fucking Cut You" Heigl, and Sally Field to the giant, profanity-erasing Sphere of Censorship hanging in the rafters of the Shrine.
Smelling money all over him in the aftermath of The Departed's success, Brad Grey lures Martin Scorcese into a four-year deal with Paramount, which includes the unique provision that the 'Mount can own half of any movie the director does for another studio while still retaining 100 percent of his soul. [Variety]
· Lindsay Lohan parlays her significant real-life experience of playing a victim on a variety of talk shows into a role portraying a more dramatic kind of victimhood in the psychological thriller I Know Who Killed Me. [THR]
After the firing of striking America's Next Top Model story editors, the WGA files unfair labor practice charges against Executive Producer Ken Mok's Anisa productions with the National Labor Relations Board. The Guild calls the action strike-breaking, while Mok claims that once they figured out how to force their IATSE-unionized editors to make their cast of skinny models seem remotely interesting, having writers around just seemed silly and wasteful. [Variety]
The FCC asserts that Hollywood can't say "fuck" and "shit" on the public airwaves whenever it wants, even when those words are mouthed by Cher and Nicole Richie at awards shows nobody cares about. [THR]
· Chastened by the historic fuck-ups of 2000 and 2004, the networks showed a new hesitancy to incorrectly project last night's election results. [Variety]
• Charlie Rose — with a new pig-heart valve — returns to TV Monday. [NYDN]
• Congress boosts TV indecency fines, ensuring the Parents Television Council can continue its reign of puritanical terror over the nation's broadcasters. [WSJ]
• CBS's Kim Dozier returns to United States, still in critical condition but "in great spirits and was talking animatedly." [CBSNews.com]
• Fashion editor Angela Jones and reporter Kelly Will are among the five Star staffers we reported yesterday were being laid off. [NYP]
• Networks sue FCC to make it stand up to Parents Television Council right-wing nutjobs. One can dream. [WSJ]
• Joanne Lipman wants to steal James Stewart from The New Yorker for her new Conde biz mag — which nearly has a name. [NYP]
• More books were sold in 2005 than 2004. A sales uptick for a print medium? How unusual. [NYT]
• Former Conde editorial director James Truman has a prototype for his new Culture & Travel, which is not — not at all, he says — the art mag Si wouldn't let him do. [NYP]
• Mike Wallace once tried to kill himself. [NYDN]
• Hachette to launch Shock mag next week. It's "Life magazine for the new millennium," says founder Mike Hammer, formerly of Maxim and Stuff. We suppose this means its gross pictures — such as one of a rotting human head in the first issue — are shot by Margaret Bourke-White and Alfred Eisenstaedt. [WSJ]
• In his forthcoming bio, Ed Kosner is not very nice to Mort Zuckerman. We're just shocked. [WWD]
• Jack Shafer, de facto Times ombudsman, doesn't care for Howell Raines' new memoir. [Slate]
• NYTer Sharon LaFraniere wins $25K Michael Kelly Award. [Kelly Award]
• Nikki Finke profiles new LAT opinions editor Andres Martinez, who defected from our Times to theirs, and shockingly, doesn't tear him a new one. [LA Weekly]
• Fired ABC London correspondent says Peter Jennings wielded "hugely disproportionate" influence, without clarifying what exactly would be "proportionate" for the man with his name on the show. [Guardian]
• Slutty sis Wonkette comes to New York for a panel on — what else? — blogs and journalism, and she doesn't so much as say hello. [WWD]
• The Times wouldn't hire Slatester Tim Noah because they don't like white people. We thought it was because they don't like Jews. [Slate]
• FCC indecency complaints dropped by factor of 20 from first quarter to second. The copier must have broken at the Parents Television Council. [B&C]
• Back from imaginary Thanksgiving with the Murdochs, Simon Dumenco is drafting imaginary decency memos at the FCC. [Ad Age]
• Hey guess what? The kids like the cable networks' late-night fare, like Jon Stewart and Family Guy. And advertisers like to go where the viewers are. [LAT]
• The Bancroft family controls Dow Jones & Co., which publishes The Wall Street Journal. But the way they've been selling their stock, the family might not for much longer. [NYP]
• The newest New Yorker writer: Former WP managing editor Steve Coll. [NYT]
• Thanks to the new Wallpaper*, you can peek inside Rupert Murdoch's fridge. [WWD]
• David Carr remakes that Observer classic, "When Rupert met Hillary..." [NYT]
• Dan Rather liked Peter Jennings, too. [NY Mag]
• For foreign-policy types, sexy pictures in the new Playboy. [Media Mob/NYO]
