"Don't touch my hair."
Is the Winx Club educational TV?

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) may give television high marks for children's educational programming, but a group of public interest advocates say that the industry has yet to make the honor roll.

On September 4th, both the NAB and the Children's Media Policy Coalition (CMPC) filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission, offering dramatically different assessments of the state of children's educational TV.

"Broadcasters are providing an abundance of high quality, diverse programming that amply meets the educational and informational needs of children," the NAB filing concludes in response to an FCC proceeding on the state of kid's television.

But the CMPC doesn't see it that way; the group includes Children Now, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Benton Foundation, the National PTA, and the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ.

The coalition acknowledges that broadcasters generally comply with FCC requirements that they provide three hours a week of educational TV. But they say that beyond that, children's television has a long way to go.

Two public radio organizations have called for the Federal Communications Commission to relax its proposed limit of ten applications for the impending window for non-commercial, educational (NCE) FM radio licenses. Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) says the limit should be lifted to 30 applications. National Public Radio (NPR) wants it raised to 15.

"The pent-up demand for new NCE facilities, along with the freeze on new NCE station applications for the past seven years, means that the October NCE filing window will provide an extremely important opportunity for public radio licensees," MPR wrote to the FCC in a statement posted by the Commission today, "many of whom have limited resources . . . "

After a long delay, the FCC will invite the public to apply for non-commercial FM radio stations across the United States. The filing period will last from October 12th through October 19th—a week.

Thousands of organizations, many of them non-profit groups, Native American tribes, and churches, are expected to compete for these licenses. Although the Commission will not charge an application fee, legal and engineering costs associated with the process could range from five to ten thousand dollars.

"My husband is currently deployed in Iraq," one woman wrote to the Federal Communications Commission in March. "On days that he calls me it makes me so happy, and nothing can go wrong. On days where he can't it seems like a cloud hangs over my head. I believe that if the phones and the amount charged were adjusted then i would be able to talk to him more."

"When I receive calls from my deployed spouse, it is such a relief to hear his voice," confided another. "We both hesitate to talk long, as the cost of calling home is so high."

Soldier phone costs from the Middle East were supposed to be adjusted by a law Congress passed late in 2006 called the "Call Home Act," subtitled "A bill to direct the Federal Communications Commission to make efforts to reduce telephone rates for Armed Forces personnel deployed overseas."

The FCC began to implement the statute in January. The agency issued an Order permitting phone carriers to stop charging Universal Service Fund (USF) and Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) taxes on overseas service men and women's calls to their families and friends. But the legislation specifically prohibits the FCC from taking the most obvious step: reducing rates on behalf of the troops.

Back in the 1960s they used to say that "the issue is not the issue," meaning that whatever specific problem was being argued, larger principles were at stake. This observation seems to have returned with a vengeance in the matter of the M2Z network, whose principals will not take no for an answer from the Federal Communications Commission in their quest to create a smutless, free, national broadband system.

Over the last week a plethora of activity has whirled around the Great M2Z Crusade, much of it coming from parties who don't exactly endorse the M2Z concept per se, but like the idea that sometimes the FCC will do something with spectrum besides auction it off to the highest bidder.

But first let us recap the basics and latest developments.

Over the last year M2Z, founded by a former FCC bureau chief, has run a veritable marathon to win a big chunk of spectrum in the 2155-2175 MHz band to create a free, advertising based national broadband service. The zone would be accessible by a special attachment on your computer.

Endorsed by Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, the operation would include a "compulsory setting that will utilize state of the art network filtering technology to take every reasonable and available step to block access to sites purveying pornographic, obscene or indecent content."

Maybe the authors didn't think it was important. Or maybe they forgot, but for whatever reason, F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America doesn't have much to say about junk food ads on TV.

The study, just released by the Trust for America's Health, is all over the news with its mediagenic ranking of states with the highest obesity levels (Mississippi wins the Plumpness Prize; 30.6 percent of its residents qualify as obese).

The 120 page survey faults the United States for lacking a national plan to combat the epidemic of overweightness and obesity that has swept the country over the past two decades.

"Individuals are often told to take personal responsibility and lose weight . . . " F as in Fat observes. "More than $35 billion is spent annually on weight loss-related products and services. Clearly, the strategy of focusing on personal responsibility alone is failing."

But the report fails to acknowledge an obvious point: every day television, newspaper and Internet advertising urges millions of Americans to gain weight, to consume cheeseburgers, candy, potato chips, fatty cereals, and megasodas like the McDonalds Hugo—a 42 oz, 410 calorie cannister of sugar, water, and food coloring the size of a small fire extinguisher.

It's not that F as in Fat doesn't know that this is a problem. One of its five recommendations for government action is for the Federal government to "develop guidelines regarding the advertising and marketing to children and youth by convening a national conference."

The would-be proprietors of a national, smut free broadband network say they won't take legal action against the Federal Communications Commission for denying them spectrum, at least not yet.

M2Z Chair Milo Medin wrote to FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate today, informing her that the company will wait a "reasonable interval" before deciding whether to sue the agency.

"I make this commitment . . . principally upon the hope that it will provide a useful path forward to bring the benefits of our proposed new service to the millions of Americans who are waiting for free, family-friendly broadband," Medin wrote to Tate.

Over the last year M2Z has run a veritable crusade, backed by hundreds of organizations, to win a big chunk of spectrum to create a free, advertising based national broadband service. Endorsed by Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, the operation would include a "compulsory setting that will utilize state of the art network filtering technology to take every reasonable and available step to block access to sites purveying pornographic, obscene or indecent content."

National Association Broadcasters (NAB) Joint Board Chair Jack Sander has promised the Federal Communications Commission a "political campaign" to educate consumers about the DTV transition—the impending move from analog to digital broadcasting.

"DTV is the candidate, the transition date of February 17, 2009 is Election Day, and over-the-air television viewers are our target voters," Sander wrote to the FCC on August 21st.

February 17th is the last day that television stations can broadcast using analog signals. The problem is that millions of Americans don't know this, or that their analog TVs won't work after that day. In fact, according to Sander's letter, over 60 percent of polled consumers have no idea that the transition is taking place.

The NAB letter says that at least 19.6 million households rely on analog, or "free, over the air" broadcasting. An additional 14.7 million have cable or satellite service, which probably will keep their TV sets going after 2/17, but also have an unconnected analog set somewhere in the kitchen or basement that will cease to function.

"Demographics most disproportionately affected by the DTV transition are older Americans, minority populations, the economically disadvantaged and those living in rural areas," Sander's letter observes.