Author: Paul

Hey, the latest issue of Micro-Film, the Champaign-Urbana, IL based journal of personal filmmaking, is out. I’ve got an article in this issue which features an interview with Kevin Keyser, the documentary filmmaker behind FREE RADIO. In addition to my article this issue is chock full of other good stuff that’ll keep you reading: indie…

Counterpoint: On the Madison-IMC site Wankstor X. Muzzlebutt provides a far more critical analysis of the Wired article on the CNN-Indymedia story from yesterday. I agree with Wansktor’s overall analysis — I admit I didn’t think too hard about the article before. Mostly, I judged the article against the typical standars of the mainstream media,…

Wired News reports on CNN.com banning the word/s “Indymedia” and its variants from its chat rooms. I had read the initial story on Indymedia but somehow it didn’t register with me — I’m glad to see Wired follow up on it and take the issue seriously. I think it is interesting and laudable that several…

More on Echostar/Direct TV deal: The NY Times reports that while the deal may have an easy time passing the “pro-business” FCC, it will likely have much more trouble passing muster with anti-trust regulators at the Justice Department. I have an idea — why not let GE donate Hughes/DirecTV to FreespeechTV or the Indymedia network…

Some FCC tidbits: Washington DC public station WAMU did an interview with FCC Chair Michael Powell on its program Public Interest. Click to listen. I’ll comment after I get a chance to listen to it. The FCC also announced that Chairman Powell has created a Media Ownership Working Group. About the Group, Powell said, “Rebuilding…

Speaking of NPR and $$$, the Infoshop.org News Kiosk features one listener’s letter to NPR explaining why he’s not sending them his money.

Examining the Business of Public Radio Washington Business Forward has a reasonably comprehensive article on the current finances of National Public Radio. It gives a nice history of how the network has grown from being entirely publicly funded to relying on listener contributions to members stations and corporate grants, while also giving fair due to…

Satellite TV Consolidation After much hemming and hawing it looks like EchoStar communications, which owns the Dish Network, will be buying Direct TV parent Hughes Electronics from GM. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. had tendered an offer for the network but pulled it after GM failed to make a decision at its last board meeting. Had…

The Sound of Civil Liberties Being Flushed in a Back-Room Toilet Wired News reports that the USA anti-terrorism act is just about done after negotiations between Senate and House committees. While watered down, the USA act still allows police to get court orders to search homes, offices and possessions without notifying the searchee. My favorite…