U.S. Government

The Central Intelligence Agency classified and withheld from public release a 25-year-old joke item in a weekly terrorism report about the terrorist threat to Santa Claus, notes a new report on government secrecy. "The CIA's secret Santa" leads what the report calls a "lengthy compilation of declassified documents that illustrate the arbitrary and capricious decision making that all too often characterizes the U.S.

"A majority of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) intends to
ratify a sweeping plan to weaken or eliminate rules that limit the size
and power of media companies," media watchdog Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting writes. Among other things, the changes would allow a company to own a newspaper and
a TV station in the same market, and would significantly increase the number
of TV stations one company can own. The FCC is scheduled to vote June 2 on the proposal.

"We pay particular attention to not only what the president says but what the American people see," White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett told the New York Times' Elisabeth Bumiller. "Americans are leading busy lives, and sometimes they don't have the opportunity to read a story or listen to an entire broadcast.

The White House expects congressional funding to the tune of $64 million for the first-ever, 24-hour Arabic-language satellite television network. "The aim is to provide the Middle East's tens of millions of viewers with an alternative to their usual viewing diet of unremediated anti-American propaganda," the Hill's Melissa Seckora reports.