2001 - Communications, Media

Communications, Media

The U.S. first-class postal rate goes to 34¢ January 7 but will remain at that level for less than 18 months.

President Bush appoints Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's 37-year-old son Michael K. chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The Birmingham, Ala.-born Powell has served as a commissioner since 1997 and will strongly support deregulation of telecommunications in the next 4 years while at the same time back unprecedented penalties for broadcast indecency.

Telecommunications pioneer Claude Shannon dies of Alzheimer's disease complications at Medford, Mass., February 24 at age 84, having created the system of binary code ("bits") used in electronic communication and established the theoretical groundwork for digital communication.

The Week magazine begins publication at New York April 13 under the direction of Felix Dennis, now 53, who limits advertising to six pages of the 40-page news digest and projects a circulation of 400,000 (see Maxim, 1995). Started at London 6 years ago by former Times editor Jolyon Connell, the weekly gained 65,000 subscribers but lost a fortune until Dennis bought it and made it profitable.

Mademoiselle magazine ceases publication with its November issue after 66 years as Condé Nast responds to lower advertising revenues.

Journalist Tad Szulc dies of cancer at Washington, D.C., May 21 at age 74; cartoonist Hank Ketcham of "Dennis the Menace" fame at his Carmel, Calif., home June 1 at age 81; former Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham suffers head injuries when she falls on a sidewalk while attending a conference of media executives at Sun Valley, Idaho, July 14 and dies at Boise July 17 at age 84 without having regained consciousness. Her son Donald, now 56, became publisher in 1979 and has been CEO since 1991; longtime Washington Post political cartoonist Herblock (Herbert Block) dies of pneumonia at Washington October 7 at age 91 (the stock that was almost worthless when he received it from the Post's late publisher Eugene Meyer in lieu of more salary has appreciated in value to about $50 million).

Executive Order 13223 signed by President Bush November 1 allows a sitting president to keep secret the papers of a previous president, even if his predecessor wants the papers made public. The White House since January has three times blocked releasing 68,000 pages of Reagan administration documents, the first such papers scheduled for release under terms of the 1978 Presidential Records Act requiring such action 12 years after a president's term expires. Aides say the order will provide an "orderly process" to help archivists handle requests for presidential papers, but critics suggest that Bush may want to keep Ronald Reagan's papers from being published lest they expose potentially embarrassing information about his budget director Mitchell E. Daniels Jr.; White House economist Lawrence B. Lindsey; Secretary of State Colin L. Powell; or former president George H. W. Bush's possible involvement in the 1980s Iran-Contra affair. Historians file suit to overturn the executive order, and the administration will release 7,000 pages of Reagan papers in January of next year.