[1st-mile-nm] DRAFT NYT letter Sign on by 3 PM EST

[William Zayas]

William Zayas,Guaynabo,Puerto Rico,
787-620-0046,William.zayas at fibercrossing.net

Good job.

-----Original Message-----
From:
1st-mile-nm-bounces+william.zayas=fibercrossing.net at crank.dcn.davis.ca.us
[mailto:1st-mile-nm-bounces+william.zayas=fibercrossing.net at crank.dcn.davis.
ca.us] On Behalf Of Steve Ross
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 12:19 PM
To: RFF List; 1st-Mile-NM
Subject: [1st-mile-nm] DRAFT NYT letter Sign on by 3 PM EST

If you want to sign on, please note your

Name, title, city, state, phone, email address

in one paragraph so I can easily paste it in.

I hope to get this out to the NYT in 4 hours.

Feel free to forward. Also note that the Times letter page 
is handled mainly by interns. Tough to get in.


The letter is at the outer limit for length now. No editing 
allowed except for outright factual errors.

The article was so absurd and so utterly lacking in 
journalistic standards that I have already sent a detailed 
response to the NYT public editor. This would not have 
passed in my basic writing course (I taught full-time at 
Columbia University's Graduate school of Journalism for 20 
years). How could it possibly have ended up on the front page?

Steve

----


DRAFT NYT Letter to Editor



To the Editor:

David M. Herszenhorn's Feb. 3 front-page story, "Internet 
Money in Fiscal Plan: Wise or Waste," unfairly targets $9 
billion for rural broadband in the Senate bill - 1 percent 
of the total package. The third paragraph describes rural 
broadband as a "cyberbridge to nowhere," although all 
sources named in the article insist later in the story that 
(unlike Alaska's bridge) building broadband pays.

Timing? The article also states, with no sourcing 
whatsoever, that "it will take at least until 2015 to spend 
all the money... vastly limiting the stimulating punch."

That, too, is absurd. We know about dozens of rural projects 
that have been put on hold due to the credit crunch. They 
could be build immediately. For example, a $93 million 
22-town project in Vermont, presold to nearly half the 
residents and with experienced management, can't sell muni 
lease paper with a coupon rate around 8 percent and an 
after-tax return of 11 percent.

Could the industry scale to absorb the $9 billion? Easily. 
US spending on telecom infrastructure was over $60 billion 
in 2007 - some 50 percent greater than spending on roads. 
The equipment and skilled labor required for deploying the 
best technology, fiber-optic cable, is sitting idle due to 
the housing collapse.

Steven S. Ross
Feb. 4, 2009
Revere, MA

Mr. Ross is editor of Broadband Properties Magazine. This 
letter was also signed by:

Name, title, city, state, phone, email address



-- 
Steven S. Ross
Editor-in-Chief
Broadband Properties
steve at broadbandproperties.com
www.bbpmag.com
SKYPE: editorsteve
+1 781-284-8810
+1 646-216-8030 fax
+1 201-456-5933 mobile
_______________________________________________
1st-mile-nm mailing list
1st-mile-nm at mailman.dcn.org
http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/1st-mile-nm