Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology
Make sure to check out Declan McCullagh’s excellent overview of the Bush record on technology policy. (Hey, it has to be an excellent article if he quotes me in it!) No, seriously, this is the best assessment of the Bush’s (non-)record to date. (And here’s my old piece on why these two candidates offer us a distinction without a difference on tech & telecom policy.)
Increasingly, its looking like documents reported by Dan Rather and CBS’s 60 Minutes last week regarding President Bush’s National Guard Service are fakes. It’s been a lesson in typography for most of us, but more and more experts seem to be publicly questioning the documents.
This is one case where my messy desk has proven helpful. I found–by total coincidence–a 1983 paper published here at Heritage, in courier font. That led me to recall the philosophy of the Heritage director of research at the time, who refused to use Times Roman because it looked too polished, rather than like a quick-turnaround briefing paper. Who after all coul print something in Times Roman quickly? Maybe the National Guard could in 1972, but I doubt it.
The real interesting thing about all this is CBS’s denial. Dan Rather in particular has come out swinging–saying to CNN: “I know that this story is true.” When asked about a retraction, the answer was: “Not even discussed, nor should it be.”
Pretty strong stuff.
Communications Daily had a story in today’s (subscriber-only) edition about the top technology priorities for Congress as they return from recess. 4 of the top 5 priorities are all about expanding government intervention into the technology, Internet or media sectors:
* SHVIA (Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act) reauthorization: Re-imposes compulsory licenses (read: forced contracts and price controls) on broadcast programming redistributed over satellite networks.
* Indecency regulation: As the name implies, we’ll be getting a bill with increased fines / penalties for “indecent” broadcasts on radio or television. (The Senate version of the pending bill also has a section censoring “excessive violence” on television.)
* VoIP bills: Although early drafts of VoIP legislation looked good, a Senate mark-up of a bill sponsored by Sen. Sununu this summer ended in disaster when pro-regulatory forces included language largely gutting the bill by opening the door to state and local regulation.
* Copyright revisions / INDUCE Act: There’s apparently going to be a serious push to get the INDUCE Act through before the session expires. The bill would impose liability on technology providers if their service or products “induced” copyright infringement.
So, by my count, it’s Freedom 0, Regulation 4.
As I always ask: What ever happened to “Hands Off the Net“?
Rudy Giuliani gave a pretty good speech last night, IMHO. But, alas for the GOP, the speech got cold-shouldered from the broadcast networks. Flipping around the bacast dial during the speech, I found Monday night football, a local weather report, and one local broadcast report from the convention floor–but even that didn’t show the speech. Time to take up arms against networks disregard of the body politic? No.
A few weeks ago, perhaps upset that the broadcast networks didn’t feel compelled to offer gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Democratic convention, John Kerry stated his opposition to media consolidation, supporting stronger ownership rules. A threat then, to the big media companies? They don’t seem to think so. According to figures from the Center for Responsive Politics (as reported in today’s Internet Daily), Kerry has received far more in cash from media companies than President Bush–beating him $1.9 million to $1.1 million. Overall, some 2/3 of media dollars this cycle has gone to Dems, with Time Warner giving 72% and Viacom 74% to the Democrats. So much for the Left’s claim that big media corporations are part of the vast right-wing conspiracy. If only they were. Instead, they are more influenced by their Hollywood roots than Washington battles. Combine that with the general masochistic tendency of U.S. corporations to support their own detractors, and the CRP figures may not be that surprising.
In a recent column, Declan McCullagh discussed John Kerry’s tech policy agenda and what it might tell us about how a Kerry Administration would impact the Internet, communications and media policy.
Quite honestly, I have always felt that the two major political parties–neither of which I have ever voted for in my life–offer us a distinction without a difference on technology related public policy issues. Most politicians, especially those seeking the presidency, just don’t give a hoot about these issues.
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
