• Verizon Blocks Again

    Josh Levy
    December 13, 2011

    Last week Verizon announced it was blocking Google’s new Galaxy Nexus phone from using Google Wallet, the mobile payment app.

  • Carrier IQ Continues to Dodge the Truth

    Josh Levy
    December 13, 2011

    The Wall Street Journal’s AllthingsD blog just posted an interview with Carrier IQ CEO Larry Lenhart and VP of Marketing Andrew Coward in which the two execs attempt to come clean about just what the heck Carrier IQ is doing with our sensitive mobile information.

  • NYPD: Elmo Safe, Journalists Not So Much

    Josh Stearns
    December 13, 2011

    There is breaking news out of New York City today. The New York Police Department has announced that it is halting its crackdown on Elmo. Journalists, on the other hand, are out of luck.

  • Are Reader-Owned News Co-ops the Answer?

    Tom Stites
    December 12, 2011

    Maybe we’ve been looking for models in all the wrong places. To find the elusive secret to making Web journalism sustainable in community after community, maybe we need to take a peek behind the curtain into the secret sector of the economy.

  • The Real Government Takeover of the Internet

    Christopher Mitchell
    December 9, 2011

    If you aren't familiar with SOPA — the House's "Stop Online Piracy Act" or its companion in the Senate (called PIPA or Protect IP) — you should be. This is legislation that would allow the U.S. government to require Internet Service Providers block websites without due process.

  • Broken Records

    Megan Tady
    December 9, 2011

    Media conglomerates continue to squeeze the life out of radio, and the Federal Communications Commission continues to facilitate the slow death.

    The New York Times recently reported that media giants Clear Channel and Cumulus Media are forming a “daily deal” alliance to compete with sites like Groupon and LivingSocial. Clear Channel will run ads for Sweetjack, Cumulus’ daily-deals program, meaning radio personalities from both companies will endorse the business discounts in corresponding markets. In exchange, Clear Channel gets to add Cumulus’ radio stations to its iHeartRadio online listening service.

  • Seacrest In? What Happened to Comcast's Commitment to the News?

    Craig Aaron
    December 9, 2011

    Yesterday I was as close to Ryan Seacrest as I'll probably ever get. I was quoted in a story in the New York Times about rumors Seacrest might succeed Matt Lauer as host of Today on NBC. The celebrity beat is not my normal bailiwick, but the Seacrest story raises some serious questions about Comcast's commitment to news.

    A year ago, when Comcast was pushing through its multibillion-dollar mega-merger with NBC (with an assist from future in-house lobbyist Meredith Attwell Baker), the company promised that it wouldn't interfere with the news operations. It didn't say anything about possibly abandoning them altogether.

  • Call Your Mayor: Stop the Journalist Arrests

    Josh Stearns
    December 9, 2011

    After 10 journalists were arrested during the Nov. 15 NYPD raid on Occupy Wall Street, there was a flood of attention focused on press freedom issues. Articles were written, meetings were held and about a week later the NYPD issued a formal order telling its officers to stop interfering with the press. It felt like real momentum.

  • Verizon's Broadband Bunk

    Timothy Karr
    December 8, 2011

    A letter to the editor of the New York Times from Verizon Chairman Ivan Seidenberg had us scratching our heads at Free Press today.

    Seidenberg wrote to rebut an Op-Ed written by former White House technology adviser Susan Crawford, in which she states that the United States high-speed Internet marketplace suffers from a lack of competition, a problem that drives up broadband prices for American Internet users.

  • Congress to the FCC: Protect the Public Interest

    Libby Reinish
    December 8, 2011

    The Federal Communications Commission is still mulling proposed changes to the rules that protect the public from media monopolies. But reports that the agency is considering handouts to broadcasters have compelled dozens of organizations to remind the FCC that its policies must benefit the public.

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