'We're a fake news organization covering a fake news event.'

- The Daily Show's Jon Stewart on 60 Minutes, April 22, 2001

LAS VEGAS - The NAB2001's multimedia E-topia was running a little shy of paradise, so I headed back to the main event, just a 15-minute shuttle ride to the Las Vegas Convention Center. On the way outside, a guy handing out the trade show's daily publication yelled to passers-by.

'Get your NAB Daily News! Old today, new tomorrow!'

I took a copy and read it on the bus. Sure enough, it was the Monday, April 23, edition. The things had been sitting around for two days. Having covered more than my share of these tech conventions, I wasn't surprised. But I was sad. Four days to go, and the 'news' was so packaged that the National Association of Broadcasters could print the ad-thick glossy days in advance of the actual speeches. Only the sudden death of Jack Valenti or Michael Powell would complicate the process.

The primary spin of this year's event is that digital television sales are going THROUGH THE ROOF! People can't wait to buy a $5,000 teevee, that's for certain! Never mind the competing standards, forget the horrible impact this forced upgrade is having on small broadcasters, and don't even mention the basic wrong-headedness of this whole federally sanctioned push to an unwanted new technology.

Regulatory issues are being discussed, of course. It's just that opposing views seem to be limited to Total Deregulation vs. Somewhat Restrained Deregulation. The days when it was basically wrong for one company to own all the media outlets in one region is old fashioned, anti-growth, etc.

Edward O. Fritts, once a small-market radio owner in the Deep South and now a 19-year veteran of the NAB's presidency, gives the party line on Page 3 of the April 23 NAB Daily News. He's 'pleased that Congress stood up for spectrum integrity last year,' which means he's delirious over the cheap death of community low-power radio. His lobbying firm will make sure 'that the transition to digital television is a success,' no matter what people actually want. And he welcomes new FCC chief Powell's efforts, which will guarantee his member corporations the chance to 'get on with the business of being broadcasters and serving our communities instead of spending countless hours following up on applications that are stuck in a mire at the FCC.'

Well, sure. Who wants a bunch of idiot public input and democracy and all that? We're talking about the Business of Broadcasting, after all.

Some 115,000 are in town for the show. And most of them are working people - overpaid working people, but working people nonetheless. They will expense-account some strip shows and see some fancy new gadgets and go home with a sunburn. And I can't blame them. It's the executives making late-night deals in the Venetian suites that worry me.

Look, I'm a print reporter and I don't gladly shovel love to the radio/teevee crowd, but broadcasting is an absolutely crucial part of Western civilization. It's where the vast majority of Americans get their news. It's been all wound up with the Internet and telcoms and there is an increasingly ugly chance that the average citizen's cable, phone, Internet and cell-phone service come from the same giant company. You can try to be subversive, but it doesn't get you far. I canceled my cable last month and got DirecTV - couldn't stand having AT&T handle my cable, mobile and long distance. But who won? GE/NBC, that's who ... until Murdoch takes over the consumer-satellite company.

On Thursday afternoon, Kevin Ferguson of the Las Vegas Sun had already written everything that will be public about this conference. It's in the Friday morning edition, which was the only paper I could find in my Dark Ages hotel/casino Sunday night: 'National broadcasting and tele-communications industry officials will use the Las Vegas stage over the next six days to debate regulatory issues and to showcase the latest in industry technology during the National Association of Broadcasters conference.'

Boom, there's your lede for the rest of the week. I'll see Jack Valenti on a stage in a few hours, and you can watch him on C-SPAN. Later, I'll watch Sam Donaldson moderate a panel called, 'The Programming Edge: Over-the-Air, Cable or Internet.' Then I'll write something about it, or not. On Wednesday, me and another thousand reporters will try to stay awake through Lou Dobbs' lecture on the Internet and teevee. He should know, right? Space.com, etc.

Last week, the New York Times ran a good piece on the current broadcast environment. It ran alongside the staff piece in the Las Vegas Sun with this headline: 'FCC, courts friendlier to broadcasters; Less diversity of viewpoints is feared.'

Where's that panel discussion?