Month: July 2001

Ay, More Consolidation? AOL and AT&T in Talks to Merge Cable Operations This is according to CNNfn. After rebuffing an offer from Comcast Cable, the 3rd largest US cable company, AT&T, the largest US cable operator, is apparently in talks to merge its cable TV operation with AOL/Time-Warner, the second largest, leaving AOL in charge…

Now It’s Clear How Puff Daddy Is a Star Salon continues it’s cutting journalism on the seedy underbelly of the broadcast industry that no properly consolidated media conglomerate would dare do, for fear of cutting off it’s nose and biting it’s hand. In the article “Payola City” author Eric Boehlert uncovers how dominant cash payments…

Disgusting: Italian Interior Ministry Admits Indymedia and GSF Raid Were “Revenge.” The Guardian of London reports that “Evidence emerged that the assault early on Sunday morning, in which 61 people were injured, had been a vendetta by police officers seeking revenge for the rioting at the G8 summit,” which has led the parliamentary opposition to…

Indymedia Releases Response to Police Raid on Genoa Social Forum and IMC Italia Offices From their press release: “The Independent Media Center Network (IMC) (http://www.indymedia.org) demands that independent journalism and journalists be protected from state repression. We also demand this incident of grave repression be given the full investigation and scrutiny that it deserves. Reports…

Kill Those Pop-Ups! I know this isn’t quite indy/grassroots-media related, but I have to share. I’ve been using a little app called Pop-Up Killer for the last two days and I’m in love. It’s freeware that successfully closes those annoying pop-up browser windows–like the ubiquitous X10.com ones–automatically, while also giving you good control over which…

Summary & Pathfinder for Genoa News The Indymedia sites are great for getting very recent news, especially as events like the protests at the G8 in Genoa this past weekend go down. But sometimes it’s tough to get a good overview of what’s happened–there are just too many different reports, first-hand accounts and pointers to…

Italian Police Raid Indymedia Center! Protests in Genoa, Italy against the G8 conference between the heads of state of the eight wealthiest nations of the world have been met by intense police violence. Friday afternoon a protestor was shot in the head, killing him, and then run over by police. After continuing demonstrations, resulting in…

All this bandwidth and access talk has me thinking about this little encounter I had on Monday night. That evening I was staffing our local Independent Media Center when a guy came in and asked where he could find Internet access. I told him he could use a computer at the IMC, he asked how…

I alluded to wireless freenets yesterday, and today my pal Zach forwarded this link to an article about them in ISP-Planet. I appreciate that the article looks at the technology as an opportunity and not just a threat, noting that if high-bandwidth service were already resonably available, there would be less need for such freenets.…

Damn It’s Gettin’ Thick: Disney Prez Says Local Ownership not Necessary for Good Local TV News Broadcasting and Cable reports on a letter Disney Corp. President Robert Iger sent to FCC Chair Michael Powell in which he argues that local ownership isn’t necessary to do quality local TV news and public affairs programming. Iger instead…