Tuesday, April 8, 2003 | 11:10 a.m.
The nation's broadcasters kicked off their annual convention in Las Vegas Monday with an agenda filled with regulatory issues involving digital television and media ownership.
But it was the war in Iraq that took center stage at the opening of the National Association of Broadcasters convention, which runs through Thursday at the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Las Vegas Hilton.
In the show's annual congressional breakfast, six federal lawmakers split their time between discussing legislation pertinent to the broadcast industry and talking about the war, warning that legislation could be delayed by the lawmakers' attention to events in the Middle East.
NAB President and Chief Executive Eddie Fritts later made reference to war coverage in his state-of-the-industry address.
And, in accepting an award for service to the industry, ABC News political analyst Cokie Roberts applauded the work of embedded journalists covering the war.
"This is the first time in the history of this planet that we have had a play-by-play war," said Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.
Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., added that "it is incredible to watch troops being interviewed" on the front lines of the battle.
But Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., cautioned that with the war in Iraq on the front burner, other legislation -- including proposals that would affect the broadcast industry -- could take longer to move through the process.
"After Sept. 11, the equation changed," Engel said. "The fight against terrorism is long and costly. No one wants to go to war, but the war against terrorism is a war that begins in Iraq. Nothing is more important to the nation right now than homeland security and preparedness."
Some journalists have warned that the concept of embedding journalists is dangerous because the embedded reporters may become too close to the U.S. troops, resulting in a distorted view of the war.
But Fritts, before giving his assessment of the industry, paid tribute to the more than 600 journalists that are embedded with military units in Iraq.
"Of those 600 reporters embedded with our troops in Iraq, many are from local stations," Fritts said. "We salute the hard work, professionalism and, yes, the courage of news directors and broadcast journalists who are giving so much to keep Americans informed. I'm here today to tell you that broadcasting has met the test of time and relevancy, in war and in peace."
Then, following Fritts' comments about the state of the industry, attendees were reminded one more time about the war when Roberts accepted the NAB's Distinguished Service Award.
Roberts said Iraqi war coverage "was the first time we've seen war in real time," noting that the "living-room war," that Vietnam has become known, was shown to viewers on a delayed basis as film was transported from the front lines to locations where it could be transmitted to the United States from Southeast Asia.
She said she supports the concept of embedded reporters, noting that "I was imbedded in the U.S. Capitol for decades." She said viewers have quickly noted the names of embedded reporters and the military units they are with in hopes of catching a glimpse of a loved one in the battlefield.
She said her hope for broadcast journalism after the war is that American heroes of local communities could get as much of a spotlight as the military heroes that are fighting in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
"I think a reporter embedded in a local Boys and Girls Club for a few weeks would be a good thing," Roberts said.
There was other evidence of war coverage upstaging all other current events at the NAB show. Cable News Network has a large presence on the trade show floor, and CNN and the Associated Press have dominant booths at the Radio and Television News Directors Association event at the Las Vegas Hilton.
The RTNDA is conducting its annual meeting at NAB and the organization's agenda is filled with panels on war coverage.
But not everything at the convention was about the war. Fritts segued from the war to broadcast issues in his state-of-the-industry address by reminding conventioneers about the cost of covering the war.
"Certainly, the war has impacted us economically, as it has others," Fritts said. "Broadcasting is forgoing millions of dollars in advertising revenues to keep America informed. We view this loss as part of the war effort and as part of our responsibility to the American people."
Fritts said the NAB is continuing to advise the Federal Communications Commission, which is the midst of reviewing media ownership rules as well as deadlines for the implementation of digital broadcast signals. The FCC is expected to deliver its proposals by summer.
"The FCC, as part of its biennial review, is currently looking at broadcast ownership rules -- including newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership, radio-TV cross-ownership, the 35 percent national television ownership cap, television duopoly and the definition of local radio markets," Fritts said. "We have been working continuously with the FCC chairman, the commissioners and the FCC staff to craft new rules that achieve reasonable and moderate deregulation."
On digital television, Fritts gave a statistical update on the number of stations that have the signal and he criticized the cable television industry for lagging behind in carrying those signals.
"Our transition to digital television has made huge strides in the past year," Fritts said, adding that 809 stations have the digital signal today, compared with 225 a year ago and an expectation that 1,000 will have it by the end of the year. "I cannot think of another example in history where a major industry has had to switch to a completely different and complex technology by a government-imposed date."
Fritts received applause when he criticized much of the cable television industry, saying it "is missing at its post and absent without leave" on the issue of carrying the new digital signal.
"Broadcasters are under federal mandate to build DTV (digital) stations," Fritts said. "Set manufacturers are under federal mandate to phase in DTV tuners. And, it is high time the cable industry be placed under federal mandate to carry local DTV broadcast signals."
According to the NAB, seven stations in the Las Vegas market carry the digital signal -- dominant network affiliates KVBC, KLAS, KTNV and KVVU; PBS affiliate KLVX; emerging network affiliate KVWB; and independent station KFBT. Despite Fritts' complaints, the dominant local cable television provider, Cox Communications, carries their digital signals.
While Fritts forwarded the deregulation message, the keynote speaker for the NAB's opening session relished his role as a contrarian carrying the banner for regulation.
Barry Diller, chairman and chief executive officer of USA Interactive and one of the founders of the Fox Television Network, urged the FCC not to move too quickly for deregulation.
"The big four networks have reconstituted themselves into the oligopoly that the FCC originally set forth to curb in the 1960s," Diller said in his speech.
Diller called on the FCC to retain its 35 percent cap on media ownership within a market. Most owners want to see the cap raised and most believe the FCC will move in that direction. Michael Powell, the chairman of the FCC, addresses the NAB today.
Diller, whose company operates Home Shopping Network, Hotels.com, Ticketmaster and Expedia, made no mention in his speech of scrapping his company's USA Interactive name, which he disclosed in an interview with Reuters later Monday.
Meanwhile, the congressional panel also weighed in on ownership and digital TV issues, with the majority saying they expected the FCC to relax the ownership rules.
Montana's Burns, noting that "there's a lot of dirt between lights" in his home state, said Montanans aren't ready for the transition to digital television.
"I don't know how many sets were sold in Montana last year, but I bet all of them could fit in the back of a pickup truck," he said.
Engle added that "99.9 percent of the public don't even know about the transition to digital."
The original digital deadline has passed and some lawmakers are leaning toward allowing the market to dictate when the transition should be completed. That, however, slows down the FCC's ability to reallocate spectrum for everything from mobile telephones to automatic garage-door openers.
The legislators also said:
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