IN BRIEF
Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/2/2001
Rate-cut foes
No provision requiring broadcasters to give politicians severely reduced ad time should be included in the House's version of campaign-finance reform, said key members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week.
Such language was in the Senate's version of the campaign-finance-reform bill, which was passed in March. Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) sponsored the disputed requirements. The House debate is expected to begin after the Fourth of July recess.
Victory victorious
The White House officially has nominated Nancy Victory, a partner at the Washington law firm of Wiley, Rein and Fielding, to be head of the National Information and Telecommunications Administration. She has been with the firm since 1989.
Privacy, please
The government should extend cable-TV privacy protections to new interactive-TV services, some industry critics say. "We need safeguards now before intrusive practices become embedded in our system," said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, in publicizing the center's study "TV That Watches You."
The report details what industry critics say is cable companies' plan to track viewers' habits once they navigate the two-way communications services in development. The 1984 Cable Act bars operators from sharing personal data without permission, but those protections don't apply online, and the cable industry is fighting their extension to interactive TV.
