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Abie Nathan passes over
Gave peace a chance
Israeli pirate broadcaster and peace activist Abie Nathan has died, age 81, in Tel Aviv Wednesday (August 27).
Nathan was born in Iran, educated in India, served with the British Royal Air Force, immigrated to Israel in 1948 and sued for peace at very opportunity.
With a little bit of help from John Lennon, Nathan bought a 188 foot, 570 ton freighter, anchored it "somewhere out in the Mediterranean" and from it broadcast the pirate radio station Voice of Peace. For 20 years the station gained a wide audience with pop music and English-speaking DJs and newscasters. In 1993 Nathan sank the boat as Israelis and Palestinians began the Oslo peace process.
“When the Peace Boat was sunk by its founder,” wrote Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy (August 28), “Abie and all his charm sank with it in the public awareness.”
Nathan had been in declining health after a series of strokes in the late 1990’s. (JMH)
Remember the 1980 Moscow Olympic Boycott? How About The Eurovision Song Contest 2009?
Remember how the US and several European nations boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games because of the Soviet 1979 invasion of Afghanistan? Estonian politicians are floating now the idea that Russia’s foray in Georgia is worthy of a similar boycott, this time of the Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Moscow next May. Eurovision is not amused.
Laine Jänes, Estonia’s Minister of Culture, and Margus Allikmaa, chairman of the National Broadcasting Association, have suggested Estonia boycott going to Moscow for the song contest because of Russian actions in Georgia.
Santé Stockselius, the EBU's Eurovision Song Contest boss, counters, however, that the song contest is a non-political event and that the politicians should basically butt-out. The same thing was said by the International Olympic Committee against the American and European boycott, but U.S. President Jimmy Carter followed through with his threat to the Soviets since they had no withdrawn from Afghanistan by the deadline Carter gave them.
Stockselius said that if Estonia stayed away from next year’s contest then that was its decision. “We have many members who don’t participate every year and who return later,” he noted.
American coverage of American elections
site enhanced
At the weekly ftm staff meeting, lunch and whinging session Phil Stone and I were grousing about - among other media things - the proposed and long debated closure of VOA's English language service. The idea stinks. Can you imagine Radio France International NOT broadcasting in French? Oh, well...
Almost immediately thereafter I received from VOA a note about their US election coverage. (Read the announcement here) They have, yes indeed, set-up a special website.
We were also whinging about the summer coming to an end far too early.(JMH)
Judge Rules Internet Cannot Print What Newspapers Can
In what may well be a first, the New Zealand Herald reports that a judge has ruled that names and images of two men accused of murder can be used in newspapers, and television but news websites cannot publish that same information. The Herald printed the men’s names and pictures on its front page Wednesday but it removed Internet links and references to its digital replica until it receives further legal advice.
What was the judge’s purpose in such a strange ruling? No one really seems to know. The Herald reported the judge was ‘"concerned with the viral effects of digital publication’ and the long-lasting effects information on the internet had. He was concerned about ‘someone Googling someone's name and being able to access it later’".
The newspaper quoted Auckland University law expert Associate Professor Scott Optican saying, “It strikes me as odd. What is the judge trying to do - stop mass dissemination of their images?"
Everyone is looking for the judge to offer some clarification – real soon
Minneapolis Star Tribune Cancels AP
We wrote at length last week about an Idaho small circulation daily canceling its AP contract because it believed $114,000 annual assessment for its 26,000 circulation was just too much. That was small-fry, so to speak, but we said if more newspapers took similar actions it would likely get the AP’s attention. Now a major metropolitan, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, has written its letter.
Doubtful the Strib, as it is known, can do without the AP and no doubt this is the opening salvo in wanting to get a rate reduction, even if there likely will be a two-year wait.
The Strib is in dire economic trouble with its majority owner, Avista Capital Partners, wanting out, and in such situations it is common to cancel expensive contracts in preparation for a sale.
Mind you, the Strib’s editor, Nancy Barnes, took the AP to task a few months back. She doesn’t like the idea that her material is freely picked up by the AP and sent on to her competitors – she wants a 30 mile (50 km exclusion zone). She was one of eight editors a few months back who co-signed a letter asking the AP to drastically lower its rates. "Editors of newspapers are not getting meaningful help from AP when they need it most. They need help now. Without relief from AP, the organization's members must make even more drastic cuts in their own newsroom staffs. Essential coverage is sacrificed," the eight wrote.
Guess she doesn’t think AP’s new rate structure effective in 2009 went far enough.
Multimedia standard wins Emmy
H.264 | MPEG-4 AVC is very cool
The team that invented the coding standard bringing you HDTV and video on your mobile phone has been awarded an Emmy from the US Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The group of experts from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), International Standards Organization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) gathered at the podium in Hollywood last Saturday night (August 23). (read joint ITU, ISO and IEC presser here... full of neat technical language)
Impress your colleagues and mention H.264 | MPEG-4 AVC around the ol'watercooler.
There were no reports of disturbances after the award ceremony... but we all know about those engineers. (JMH)
California Tackling Newspaper Theft
With the price of newsprint so high, and recycled newsprint so high, it was only a matter of time before thieves started raiding newspaper recycling bins and vendor boxes for their recycling value.
The situation has gotten so bad in California that the legislature is near approving a new law to help police track down recycling thieves.
Once approved the law will require recyclers to take down identification details for whomever brings in more than $50 worth of newspapers. Also payment is to be made by check, not cash.
The idea, according to the Bill’s sponsor, is to stop thieves making late-night raids on recycling bins and stealing newspapers from vendor boxes.
This Newspaper Delivery Boy is 80
It is often said that for all the billions of dollars invested in producing an American newspaper at the end (or should we say the beginning) of the day in so many cases it is all up to a young boy or girl kid getting out of bed around 5 a.m. getting on a bike and throwing that newspaper hopefully somewhere close to the front door porch. But there are notable exceptions.
The Brookings Register in South Dakota has run a nice tribute to Roger Diedrich, it’s “delivery boy” who has been a route driver for the past 20 years. He celebrated his 80th birthday last month.
Thankfully the Register is a PM newspaper through Friday so it’s usually a five hour job from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. But Saturday it’s an AM and for that he starts at midnight and is finished around 7 a.m.
"It kind of wipes you out," Diedrich admits.
But the Register is not sure that Diedrich is its oldest delivery “boy” ever. It says there was a rumor some years back that one of its “boys” was in his 90s.
US VP pick connects with broadcasters
…to fight the media war…
When presumptive US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barak Obama named his vice president running mate, Joseph Biden, some might not be unfamiliar with the center-right senator from the small state of Delaware. But US international broadcasters know him well.
Senator Biden led legislation – the International Broadcasting Act of 1994 – creating the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), intended to be a non-partisan agency directing all United States government international broadcasting. Biden has long been a key member, most recently Chairman, of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. His interest in international broadcasting as a public diplomacy tool was raised during the early 1990’s, witnessing the propaganda and hate speech of the Milosevic regime.
"If the U.S. is to deal with these problems, we have to move beyond military, political and economic weapons and we must learn how to fight the media war,” he said on returning from a mission to the Balkans. Creating the BBG was intended as a move in that direction. Biden supported the creation of Radio Free Asia in the model of Radio Free Europe.
But Cold Warriors and neo-conservatives were – and continue to be – apoplectic at Senator Biden’s support for Norman Pattiz’ effort at redirecting US international broadcasting to the Middle East. (see that story here) Pattiz, CEO of the Westwood One radio network, put in place Arabic language radio and television channels with an audience building approach rather than the favored right-wing approach. But Pattiz is gone from the BBG. Senator Biden’s former Chief of Staff Ed Kaufman remains. (JMH)
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