Communications-related Headlines for 8/12/97

Media Campaigns
NYT: Unions Plan To Borrow Businesses Tool: Ad Campaign
WSJ: Campaign Buffs Image of Welfare Recipient as Worker

News Coverage
WP: A Crime Spree On Network News

Business News
NYT: Book Chains' New Role: Soothsayers for Publishers
NYT: A Word of Caution for Babes in Disney's Woods

New From Washington
FCC: Proceeding Regarding the Personal Attack and Political
Editorial Rules
FCC: FCC 1996 Annual Report Goes On-line
NTIA: The New Universal Service: NTIA's Guide for Users

*********************************************
* Media Campaigns *
*********************************************
Title: Unions Plan To Borrow Business Tool: Ad Campaign
Source: New York Times (A12)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/labor-image.html
Author: Stephen Greenhouse
Issue: Advertising
Description: The AFL-CIO plans a $5 million ad campaign that shows workers
explaining what unions have done for them. Ads will air in Seattle,
Baltimore, Milwaukee, San Antonio, and St. Louis -- cities where
advertisements don't go for top dollar and where unions are gearing up for
organizing drives. The campaigns tag line: "You have a voice. Make it heard.
Today's unions."

Title: Campaign Buffs Image of Welfare Recipient as Worker
Source: Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com/ (A16)
Author: Rochelle Sharpe
Issue: Media Campaigns
Description: Eli Segal of the Welfare to Work Partnership will begin a
campaign today to change the way welfare recipients are perceived. "Often
vilified as lazy and incompetent, they may soon be perceived as the
undiscovered gem of the labor market." In a poll of senior executives,
Wirthlin Worldwide found that one-third of those highly interested in
participating in the Welfare to Work Partnership are worried about welfare
recipients motivation and willingness to work. Of those who have little
interest to participate, 57% believed these people would have poor work
skills. But firms that have started to hire former welfare recipients find
that their retention rates are double those of other employees. The campaign
will kickoff in St. Louis today and the partnership will release Blueprint
for Business, a five-step process for companies to hire welfare recipients.
A public service announcement will also be unveiled, challenging companies
to hire workers "determined to prove themselves."

*********************************************
* News Coverage *
*********************************************
Title: A Crime Spree On Network News
Source: Washington Post (D1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-08/12/053l-081297-idx.html
Author: Howard Kurtz
Issue: Television
Description: From 1993 to 1996, the homicide rate in the US dropped by 20%.
On network evening news, however, coverage of murders soared by an average
721%. One out of every 20 network news stories over the four-year period
ending last year was about a murder. These figures were compiled by the
Center for Media and Public Affairs which has studied ABC, CBS and NBC
nightly newscasts from 1990 through 1996. Crime coverage has moved from 6th
to first with 7,448 stories over four years -- 1,449 of which were about
yes, your favorite flying car renter. Says Dan Rather, "The O.J. story
convinced a lot of people that kind of story will put people in front of the
set...I felt the pressure strongly after that. We've changed, and not for
the better, in running stories that we in our journalistic heart of hearts
don't meet the standard to be on network news. We run it because we're
scared to death our competition is going to run it and beat us."

*********************************************
* Business News *
*********************************************
Title: Book Chains' New Role: Soothsayers for Publishers
Source: New York Times (A1)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/bookchains-power.html
Author: Doreen Carvajal
Issue: Publishing
Description: Concerned about slowing sales and large book returns,
publishers are now turning to the dominant chains to decide what to publish,
how to title books, and how they should look. "I think all of us recognize
the common interest that we have. It isn't a sacrifice of our individuality
or an imposition on our time. It's necessary to cope with a marketplace that
has changed so dramatically," says the publisher of Random House. But
critics, like small, independent bookstores, say that the large chains may
ultimately dictate production and packaging like Wal-Mart does for toothpaste.

Title: A Word of Caution for Babes in Disney's Woods
Source: New York Times (C5)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/compcol/081297compcol-manes.html
Author: Stephen Manes
Issue: Online Services
Description: A review of Disney's Daily Blast, a website for kids. "Awash in
self-promotion, this Magic Kingdom, like the original, is a hermetically
sealed domain where nothing of the outside world intrudes except
advertising. Daily Blast costs $4.95/month or $39.95/year.

*********************************************
* New From Washington *
*********************************************
At the FCC http://www.fcc.gov
Commission Proceeding Regarding the Personal Attack and Political Editorial
Rules. The Commission has before it a pending rulemaking proceeding
regarding the possible repeal or modification of the personal attack and
political editorial rules, 47 C.F.R.