Time Warner Cable could face serious competition from AT&T in the not-too-distant future, according to an article on greenvilleonline.com. Rudolf Bell writes that AT&T has already launched its U-Verse video programming service in Charlotte “and has received certificates from South Carolina officials to bring the service to Columbia and Rock Hill within a year.” U-Verse delivers video content — including HD cable channels, video-on-demand and more — via AT&T’s IP network. The service currently has 781,000 subscribers and is getting high marks from consumers so far: A recent survey by J.D. Power and Associates ranked U-Verse at the top of the heap for customer satisfaction in the South. U-Verse scored 706 on a 1,000-point scale; Time Warner scored 580. The entry of U-Verse into the market is the result of a state law, the Competitive Cable Services Act, enacted in 2006.

Too big to fail? That might work for banks and car companies, but apparently not for media giants, as the Tribune Company announced that it is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company, which publishes the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and other papers, as well as owning 23 television stations, is suffering not only from a massive debt load — as of Dec. 8, the company had $7.6 billion in assets and $12.97 billion in debt, according to Reuters — but also from the declining circulation and ad revenue that is plaguing daily papers everywhere. Nonetheless, CEO Sam Zell did his best to strike an optimistic tone: “We believe that this restructuring will bring the level of our debt in line with current economic realities, and will take pressure off our operations, so we can continue to work toward our vision of creating a sustainable, cutting-edge media company that is valued by our readers, viewers, and advertisers, and plays a vital role in the communities we serve.”

So, now that America has elected a black president, race relations are good to go and blacks need no longer worry about whether their leaders are effectively representing them, right? Not so fast, says local author Kevin Alexander Gray in his new book, Waiting for Lightning to Strike: The Fundamentals of Black Politics. “In all the millions of words written about the political ascent of one black man, there was virtually nothing about the descent of black leadership into well nigh total ineffectiveness,” says a summary of the book’s arguments. With such provocative chapter titles as “Why Does Barack Obama Hate My Family?”, Gray delivers the message that “before we turn the page” on civil rights history, “we should read and understand it.” He also challenges Obama’s status as a change agent, arguing that the president-elect really offers “a mixture of Kennedyism, Reaganism and Clintonism packaged as the new face of multicultural America.” Waiting for Lightning to Strike is published by AK Press and can be ordered at akpress.org.

Also in the “not so fast” category: If you heard that 88 percent of U.S. youths have Internet access, you would think that’s a good thing, right? Not so much, actually. The recently released World Internet Report from the Center for the Digital Future finds that the figure “is far behind Internet access for youngsters and teens in other countries,” according to 
news.digitaltrends.com. How far behind? Well, 95 percent of Canadian youths are online, as are 96 percent of Czechs and — get this — 100 percent of Brits. The survey looked at Internet usage in 13 countries and regions. In addition to gauging youth Internet access, the survey covered online behavior as it relates to shopping, banking, music and video downloading, news consumption and more. To download a summary of findings, visit 
www.worldinternetproject.net. 

Media Madness is a column exploring web sites, media industry news, books, blogs, TV, video games and anything else in the media universe that strikes our fancy. Let us know what you think: Email editor@free-times.com.