Fun_People Archive
17 Jan
Excerpted: 01/14/99 -- ShopTalk

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 100 20:02:33 -0800
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Subject: Excerpted: 01/14/99 -- ShopTalk

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CBS executives defended their decision to digitally alter images in New
Year's Eve news coverage at a meeting with TV critics here Wednesday. The
technology, widely used to insert ads in sports stadiums, this time replaced
an NBC logo in the Times Square millennium celebration with CBS',
potentially compromising the network's editorial standards.  CBS News
president Andrew Heyward said the technology's use in this case "was a
close call, which we did debate." While a superimposed image of Capitol
Hill used by ABC's Cokie Roberts in 1994 was "an overt attempt to deceive,
this was in my view an extension of our electronic signage." While critics
complained, CBS Television president and CEO Leslie Moonves stood firm.
"Any time there's an NBC logo up on our network, we will block it again,"
he said, unless it was "part of a news story. If somebody used an NBC logo
to commit a murder, we wouldn't cut it out." (USA Today)

Persons trying to reach the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association
(NLGJA) online might understandably type in http://www.nlgja.com. But that
address takes visitors to a pornography site. The Washington, D.C.-based
organization's actual Web site can be found at http://www.nlgja.org. Now
the organization is trying to decide what to do if anything about the
similar URL, which re-routes visitors to http://www.gayspycam.com, an adult
entertainment site. NLGJA's board, headed by President Robert Dodge, found
that the site is registered at Network Solutions to a company called "New
Links for Guys to Jack At," which forms an identical acronym NLGJA. The
contact listed for the company is Harold A. Meyer III. Rose Arce, NLGJA's
vice president for broadcast, contacted Meyer in December to find out more
about the company. She believes Meyer was well aware that the acronym NLGJA
represented the journalists' organization before he registered the ".com"
URL. "He didn't name a price, but he did request compensation for removing
the site, and he had seen the [real] NLGJA Web page," Arce said. "I think
he's just trying to extort a few bucks." Dodge said the pornography URL is
hurting a "legitimate, professional journalism organization." With 1,350
members, the non-profit NLGJA seeks to foster fair and accurate coverage
of the gay and lesbian community, Dodge said. One of NLGJA's major
initiatives has been "domestic partnership" benefits for gay journalists.
"We are going to pursue every legal remedy we have to see that these people
stop infringing on our good name," Dodge said. NLGJA certainly isn't the
first organization to find a URL nearly identical to its own leading to a
pornography site. The White House's official site can be found at
http://www.whitehouse.gov, but typing in http://www.whitehouse.com takes
users to graphic sexual images.

© 2000 Peter Langston