Free Press Newswire

Media criticism has been boiled down to a single, painful word: fail. The activist group Free Press has built a Digg-like Web site for such mistakes, called MediaFail, that highlights what its users think are the most egregious examples of the "media behaving badly," to borrow its slogan.

The FCC's proposal to reclassify broadband services really is about whether the companies that sell you the Internet should be unregulated. Or whether the government should assure that all users are treated equally by those ISPs and that they cooperate in making high-speed Internet service available to everyone in the country. What it's not about is government control of the Internet. That's total paranoid nonsense.

Although FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has decided to do reclassify broadband service transport and stand up to the big phone and cable companies, the agency will first develop the rules and regulations it will use, and it putting those out for public comment. Of course, the telecom industry has declared war over reclassification. They're lobbying incredibly hard, and the rules could be weakened if the public doesn't get involved.

Next month, AT&T will raise the termination fee it charges customers to void smartphone wireless contracts early, a move that comes amid expectations that the carrier will lose exclusivity on the iPhone over the next year.

If the cover of this week's Time magazine looks a bit pixilated, it is because the novel image is made up of 1295 members of Facebook who wanted to be there. So how do you get that many people to pose for your cover?

The FCC released its annual report on competition in the mobile space, but rather than draw any firm conclusions about the industry, the commission chose to instead highlight trends in mobile wireless, a move that aggravated mobile providers and consumer groups alike.

With Comcast and Time Warner Cable now moving forward with video paywalls, are the cable companies doing what Hollywood and the music industry couldn't do: Profiting from the Internet by forcing viewers to keep their cable subscriptions? That reality may be coming sooner than you think.

A new FCC study that failed to conclude the wireless industry is "effectively competitive" exposed the agency's fault lines, as commissioners sparred over the role of regulation in stimulating mobile phone competition.

The FCC has released their fourteenth annual report and like most things the FCC has attempted recently, the report tries to carefully walk a center line to avoid upsetting anyone. The report insists that the wireless industry is not "effectively competitive," then proceeds to insist that the FCC is not making any conclusions on whether the wireless industry is competitive.

Google has officially announced its latest product, "Google TV." It's a platform, both hardware and software, that uses a combination of technologies, including Android, Chrome, and an Intel chipset plus Internet connectivity. And it could change the way people watch TV completely.

The FCC released a 237-page report detailing the state of competition in the wireless industry. But while it offers no conclusions, it does broaden the scope of information way beyond the radio access network -- basically access to the pipe -- looking at everything from the backhaul and spectrum all the way to the apps.

Pakistani authorities broadened what started as a ban on a social networking site, blocking YouTube and about 450 individual Web pages over what they described as "growing sacrilegious content."

The Tribune Company will have to wait another week before its reorganization plan is sent to creditors for a vote, and the plan will have to include letters warning that approval will lead to protracted legal battle.

As CNN moves to replace Campbell Brown in its struggling prime -- time lineup, the most intriguing name on the channel's list is Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced former governor of New York.

Improvements to AT&T's network in New York suggest that the telecom giant may soon start to offer a feature called tethering for the iPhone, which would allow the Apple smartphone to be used like a modem.

The FCC appointed John Flynn, general counsel of ICO Global Communications to head the review of Comcast's proposed merger with NBC Universal.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle signed into law a reporter's shield bill protecting confidential sources and newsgathering materials. Wisconsin's Whistleblower Protection Act provides journalists with an absolute privilege to withhold the identity of confidential sources and a qualified privilege to protect from disclosure unpublished newsgathering information.

Adobe Systems plans to introduce a souped-up version of its flagship software that's designed to make video run more smoothly on mobile phones -- and quash criticism by Steve Jobs.

As Jason Calacanis wages an ongoing battle against Google with his people-powered search engine Mahalo, the Los Angeles entrepreneur is throwing his chips down on a new venture. Calacanis and a pair of Internet execs announced investments totaling $300,000 in ThisWeekIn, an episodic video network that was established in January.

With the Supreme Court deciding to let stand the legal status quo regarding must carry, the American Cable Association is back to pressing the FCC to revise retransmission rules and regulations.