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In a move to head off rebellious local affiliate stations, NBC issued an ultimatum Friday.  

 

NBC Universal announced that Boston's NBC affiliate WHDH-TV must show Jay Leno during the 10 p.m. (9 p.m. central time) time slot or lose their affiliation with the NBC network. 

 

 

Fears about Leno going from late-night to prime time have been decreasing with local affiliates since the initial announcement about the move was made. Much of the concern that remains is over whether or not Leno can hold viewers through the entire hour. In response to the worries, the NBC affiliates board  is currently working on a study to determine what the effects of the move will be on viewers and ratings. It is unclear whether the network will take into consideration the results of the study. This is not the first disagreement that the board has had with NBC. Previously, it has battled with the network because of concerns by local affiliates that NBC has been unable to provide effective lead-ins to their 11 p.m. news programs. Despite the concerns, according to NBC  no other stations have expressed any intent of not airing Leno.    

 

The disagreement between WHDH and NBC shows the discontent that can exist between networks and local affiliates. Ultimately, both sides have valid arguments to make. First of all, WHDH is concerned that Leno in prime time will fail to lead viewers into their nightly news program, which would cut profits for the station. This could possibly lead to the station being forced to make cuts, or worse case scenario, go out of business. When looking at it this way, it seems local affiliates should be able to reject the program and go with a news cast in the time slot.  

 

 

However, NBC Universal will be on a very slippery slope if it allows this to occur. The network should be able to determine what programming is played during prime time. This should include the decision to move Leno to the new time slot. Regardless of whether or not NBC has the right, the network was lucky that this battle occurred in a market where they were able to issue an ultimatum with little fear of losing an entire market of viewers. NBC officials cited WNEU-TV, the local affiliate of Telemundo, as a possibility for running NBC programming if it was necessary to remove WHDH's affilation.  

 

It seems unlikely that WHDH will actually follow through with not running Leno and lose their affiliation. Regardless of what does happen, all local affiliates and NBC Universal will be holding their breath when Leno premieres in prime time with the local stations waiting to see if the show pushes viewers into the late night news and the network to see if its cost-saving move will pay off.   

  

Wednesday night's episode of The Daily Show has created a lot of controversy because of Jon Stewart's eight-minute attack on the CNBC network and one of it's reporters, Rick Santelli. The segment came after Santelli canceled his scheduled appearance on the show.
 
Santelli was set to appear following a February on-air rant against President Obama's homeowner mortgage bailout plan. The rant quickly became a successful viral video effectively making Santelli a more well-known commentator. It even caught the attention of the White House who responded by criticizing Santelli for not knowing what he was talking about.
 
The amount of attention that Jon Stewart's response has created is yet another example that people pay attention to comedic satire shows for more than just entertainment. Shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report provide an outlet for challenging mainstream media's portrayal of information, especially cable news commentators. This is a vital role that more traditional news sources can not effectively provide because they are trusted with providing neutral facts.





Although CNBC has not officially responded to the painful attack against them, plenty of criticism has emerged against the segment. Critics are claiming that the clips are provided out of context which makes them seem much worse than they really are. This argument goes along the same line as claiming that both sides of the story are not presented. However, stating this argument suggests a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of satire in comedy shows. Jon Stewart is not a journalist, as much as some people may want him to be; he is a satire comedian. Thus, I would argue that he should not be criticized for attacking CNBC, or anyone else, as long as he provides truthful information.

After watching the video, do you think that Stewart was out of line in attacking CNBC or was he just making a valid point? Should Stewart and other satire comedians present both sides of the story or is it understood that they are not real journalists who must present unbiased information? 

With the ever increasing popularity of social media networks, the issue of what content should be deemed obscene and removed has become a topic of heated debate. 

If you logged onto Facebook on December 27, 2008, you may have come into contact with one of the more than 11,000 images of women breastfeeding that popped up on the site. This "virtual nurse-in" was organized by the Facebook group "Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene! (Official petition to Facebook)."

The group was created after Facebook began deleting pictures of mothers breastfeeding and began threatening to remove their accounts if they continued to post obscene pictures. Members maintain that breastfeeding is a natural process that is an integral part of many women's lives. As a result, they believe Facebook is further pushing a stigma against breastfeeding, portraying it as dirty and inappropriate. The group's page calls for Facebook to stop "discriminatory practice of arbitrarily and randomly removing breastfeeding pictures."

Facebook claims that they will continue to remove pictures showing an entire breast or exposing a nipple, which they have classified as obscene. The social network also maintains the right to remove content they deem inappropriate, according to their terms of use.  

This battle seems unlikely to end anytime soon as pictures continue to be deleted and another virtual nurse-in is set to occur on February 21.  

 

This example of a social media network cracking down on content raises some important questions about how networks will tackle the issue while continuing to grow rapidly. With more than 150 million users worldwide, content regulation is an impossible task. The fact is that Facebook relies on other users to flag content they deem inappropriate. It is likely that at least one person flagged the photo and Facebook agreed that it was inappropriate.

My question is...Do you think that Facebook should be able to remove pictures of breastfeeding?