Arbitron’s Loss Is Cuomo’s Gain…

Tuesday, October, 28, 2008 by Mel Phillips.

Arbitron is not the only person, place or thing that N.Y. State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is trying to break - it just seems that way.  Cuomo has to be happy by a federal judge ruling that throws Arbitron’s lawsuit against him to the lower courts.  Why would the U.S. District Court want to get its hands dirty?  Let the little guys handle it.  Judge Denise Cole put it this way, “The Attorney General has shown that important state interests are implicated by its state court lawsuit against Arbitron.”  I’m not a judge but I can be judgemental.  Andrew Cuomo sued Arbitron first charging Arbitron with using a system that may cut advertising revenues for black and Hispanic broadcasters.  He tried to prevent them from using PPM in New York.  There are 2 things wrong with this: 1)  There’s no proof that this is so, and 2)  Cuomo is preventing Arbitron from conducting business as they so choose.  Should you choose not to subscribe to Arbitron, fine but you can’t prevent them for using their PPM system.  No one is putting a gun to your head to subscribe.  Cuomo however, was putting a gun to Arbitron’s head in his attempt to prevent Arbitron from using the PPM system…

Arbitron has responded to the court ruling by saying “The ruling does not impact Arbitron’s right to publish our PPM audience estimates in New York.  We asked the Federal Court seeking to protect our right to provide the radio industry with the up-to-date PPM audience estimates it needs.  Following our efforts, the New York Attorney General chose not to seek a temporary restraining order, adversely impacting our right to produce PPM estimates.  We look forward to defending our interests to remain competitive in an increasingly complex and crowded media marketplace.” …

Like them or not, you have to respect Arbitron which fails to cower under Cuomo or anyone else…

10 Timeline Memories:

1. 1636] Crimson coming: Harvard College is founded in the Bay State. The first school of higher education was originally called “Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony”…
2. 1886] Lady Liberty: The Statue of Liberty is dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland. The original name of the statue: “Liberty Enlightening The World.” On the same date in 1936 the statue was rededicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on its 50th anniversary and in 1986 the centennial was celebrated…
3. 1950] Debuted on this date: “The Jack Benny Show” on CBS-TV. The show will run until August of 1977…
4. 1953] Musical chairs: The “Old Redhead“, Red Barber, takes his “catbird seat” from Brooklyn to the Bronx to do play-by-play of Yankees games…1979] Dick Howser replaces Billy Martin as Yankees manager…
5. 1961] Ground breaking: For Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadows. Shea will open in 1964 when the World’s Fair opens…
6. 1962] Joining the 7 TD club: Giants QB Y.A.Tittle becomes the 3rd QB in the NFL (Sid Luckman and Adrian Burk were 1st & 2nd) to pass for 7 touchdowns in one game. It led the Giants to a 49-34 victory over the Washington Redskins…
7. 1973] Sayonara: Secretariat wins his final race in Canada, then goes to stud after 16 wins in 21 races. “Big Red” will live to the age of 19…
8. 1976] Up the river: Former Nixon presidential aide John Erlichman begins his sentence for Watergate related wrong-doings…
9. 1981] Comeback kids: The Dodgers come back from a 2-0 game deficit to beat the Yankees in 4 straight games to win the World Series. Yankee reliever George Frasier loses 3 games in the series…
10. 2007]  How sweep it is:  For the second time this decade, the Red Sox win the World Series by sweeping Colorado in 4 games…

Music Memories:

• 1956] Number One on this date: “Love Me Tender” - Elvis Presley (which replaces “Don’t Be Cruel”/”Hound Dog” after 11 weeks at the top of the charts as Elvis becomes the 1st artist to replace himself at #1. “Love Me Tender” has a 5 week run at #1. On this date, Elvis makes his 2nd appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show”)…1975] “Island Girl” - Elton John (his 3rd #1 hit of the year)…
• 1971] Recorded on this date: John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” recorded in New York…

“Happy Birthday…happy birthday“:

Joaquin Phoenix (34), Julia Roberts (41), Lauren Holly (45), Bill Gates (53), Annie Potts (56), Bruce Jenner (59), Telma Hopkins (60), Dennis Franz (64), Wayne Fontana (65), Jane Alexander (69), Lennie Wilkens (71), Charlie Daniels (72) and Bowie Kuhn (82)…

Timeline Countdown: 3 nights until Halloween, 4 nights until Standard (back one hour) Time and 7 days until Election Day…

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