WASHINGTON -- According to news reports, two cable companies, Time Warner and Charter Communications, are expected to implement new plans to cap customers' Internet use. Time Warner, which began trialing 5GB to 40GB caps last January in Beaumont, Texas, announced on a quarterly call that it will expand its caps to additional cities. Charter will begin imposing a 100GB cap on any connection below 15Mbps, and a 250GB cap on connections over 15Mbps.
S. Derek Turner, research director of Free Press, issued the following statement:
"With Congress poised to spend billions getting
Read moreWASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama this morning delivered his first major speech on our national recovery, pledging to "put the American Dream within reach of the American people." A major component of this plan, according to Obama, is "expanding broadband lines across America" to give everyone the chance to get online.
Timothy Karr, campaign director of Free Press, made the following statement:
"Millions of people trapped on the wrong side of the digital divide are being deprived of a better education, good jobs and full participation in our democracy. We can turn
Read moreAccording to a new study, a ban on fast food advertisements in the United States could reduce the number of overweight children by as much as 18 percent. In addition, the study reports that eliminating the tax deductibility of television advertising would also result in a reduction of childhood obesity.
The study's authors found that a ban on fast food television advertisements during children's programming would reduce the number of overweight children ages 3-11 by 18 percent, and would lower the number of overweight adolescents ages 12-18 by 14 percent.
Should the U.S.
Read moreIn a Saturday morning YouTube address, President-elect Barack Obama gave the nation a first glimpse at his administration's stimulus plan - and connecting everyone to the Internet was a main route on his roadmap to economic recovery.
"Here, in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have the chance to get online, and they'll get that chance when I'm President," he said. "Because that's how we'll strengthen America's competitiveness in the world."
That closing the digital divide ranks so highly on Obama's economic agenda might come as a surprise to some
Read more1. Health Hype About Statins
== SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS ==
1. Motrin Ad Makes Moms Mad
2. McCaffrey's Military-Industrial-Media Complex
3. Pure Science vs. Biopure
4. The War Comes Home
5. Obama's Idea Factory
6. Obama 2.0
7. It's a Victory if We Say It Is
8. Yes, We Have No Ideas
9. Weekly Radio Spin: Doesn't Motherhood Suck?
10. Bribing Consumer Loyalty
11. Heart of Stone
12. Hold the Advertising?
13. Journalists for Sale
Read more
Disney accused by Catholic cleric of corrupting children's minds A leading Catholic cleric has launched a fierce attack on Disney, claiming it has corrupted children and encouraged greed.
Christopher Jamison, the Abbot of Worth in West Sussex, has accused the corporation of "exploiting spirituality" to sell its products and of turning Disneyland into a modern day pilgrimage site.
He argues that it pretends to provide stories with a moral message, but has actually helped to create a more materialistic culture.
In a guide to helping
Read more1. Vote Falsies 2008!
2. Master Settlement Agreement, or a Masterful Status-quo Agreement?
== SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS ==
1. Public Bailout for Private Jets
2. GM's Champion Stalls
3. Good Money for Goodwin
4. Weekly Radio Spin: Fly Coach? Surely You Jest
5. Green Meets Greenwash
6. The Mormon Proposition
7. Maryland Police See 'Terrorists' Everywhere
8. Too Much Information
9. Grassfire's Blitzkrieg of Fear Aimed at President-Elect Obama
10. Bush Administration Quietly Working to Weaken Read more
1. Vote Falsies 2008!
2. The Eisenstadt Hoax:A Real-life Example of a "Fake Fake"
3. Hollywood Goes to War
== SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS ==
1. The Weekly Spin E-Digest is Moving to Tuesdays
2. Science Reporting by Press Release
3. Sneaky manufacturers shrink packaging, while keeping prices the same
4. Medialink's Books Awash with Red Ink
5. Weekly Radio Spin: Help Them Help Us
6. GM Employees Asked to Drive Bailout Lobbying
7. How David Axelrod May Be Like Karl Rove
8. A Drink to Your Health ( Read more
1. How Far Have We Really Come from the "One-Drop Rule"?
2. The Media Buries the Message: Tobacco Prevention vs. High-Cost Drugs
== SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS ==
1. Lobbyists, Register with the President
2. Weekly Radio Spin: Guarding the Vote
3. Advertisers Elect Obama "Marketer of the Year" for 2008
4. FCC Votes to Open Up White Spaces
5. Military Matters and Public Diplomacy Urgent, Says GAO
6. When Pink Becomes Deadly: Virginia Slims' New, Pink "Purse Pack"
7. Change, of a Limited Sort, Comes to K Street Read more
As I predicted a while back, the Partisan-Industrial Complex in Washington, D.C. has deployed its quadrennial Mandate Manipulation Machine to make sure that the 65 million Americans who voted for Barack Obama remember that America giving more than 340 electoral votes to an African American billed as a Islamic Marxist terrorist means there is no mandate for real change in this, a country obviously more conservative than ever [1].
A cursory glance at the newspapers today shows the media
Read more
for Media and Internet Issues