Replaying Wednesday, August 11, 1982

Publishers Closer to New Role

Date: 12 August 1982

By Jonathan Friendly

Jonathan Friendly

Newspapers around the country will be encouraged to develop their own electronic-information services as a result of a Federal judge's ruling yesterday delaying the American Telephone and Telegraph Company's entry into the field, according to the publishing executive who led the industry's efforts to keep Bell from becoming a competitor. Robert G. Marbut, president of the Texas-based Harte-Hanks Communications Inc., said many local newspapers were interested in transmitting news and advertising electronically to private homes over two-way cable systems or telephone lines, but had deferred any investments because of fear that A.T.& T. might enter the field with more resources than they could muster.

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Modifications Asked by Judge

Date: 12 August 1982

Following are the major modifications sought by Federal Judge Harold H. Greene in the antitrust settlement between the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and the Justice Department: EQUIPMENT SALES: Terminal equipment could be marketed by the 22 Bell System operating companies, once they were divested by A.T.& T. The original settlement would bar the local companies from this lucrative activity. YELLOW PAGES: Yellow Pages could be published by the operating companies, providing a major source of revenue.

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TEXT OF JUDGE GREENE'S CONCLUSION ON A.&T.T. CONSENT DECREE

Date: 12 August 1982

Special to the New York Times

Following is the text of the conclusion summarizing Judge Harold H. Greene's opinion on the consent decree between the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and the Justice Department, issued by the Federal District Court here today: CONCLUSION The proposed reorganization of the Bell System raises issues of vast complexity. Because of their importance, not only to the parties but also to the telecommunications industry and to the public, the court has discussed the various problems in substantial detail. It is appropriate to summarize briefly the major issues and the court's decisions, which are central to the proceeding. A. The American telecommunications industry is presently dominated by one company - A.T.&T. It provides local and long-distance telephone service, it manufactures and markets the equipment used by telephone subscribers as well as that used in the telecommunications network, and it controls one of the leading communications research and development facilities in the world. According to credible evidence, this integrated structure has enabled A.T.&T. for many years to undermine the efforts of competitors seeking to enter the telecommunications market.

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BELL IS EXPECTED TO GO ALONG WITH THE PROPOSED CHANGES

Date: 12 August 1982

By Andrew Pollack

Andrew Pollack

The American Telephone and Telegraph Company is expected to accept the modifications of an antitrust settlement ordered by a Federal judge yesterday, industry analysts and officials said. They suggested that while some of the changes ordered by Judge Harold H. Greene were objectionable to the company, they were not enough of an obstacle for the company to risk aborting the hard-won settlement that clears the way for A.T.& T. to restructure and enter new businesses. ''I think the alternative is not rosy,'' said John Worthington, senior vice president and general counsel of the MCI Communications Corporation, which competes with A.T.& T. in providing long-distance telephone service. ''If I were A.T.& T., I would not want to go back to the trial,'' he said, referring to Judge Green's order, which stated that the trial would resume if his modifications to the settlement were not accepted by both A.T.& T. and the Justice Department. Continuing Judicial Review Stephen G. Chrust, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, said that what A.T.& T. might find more objectionable than the specific changes sought by Judge Greene is that that the judge indicated he could intervene in process of divestiture of A.T.& T.'s 22 telephone operating subsidiaries in the future. The original antitrust settlement announced in January had left this process to A.T.& T. and the Justice Department, without court supervision, Mr. Chrust pointed out.

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News Analysis

Date: 11 August 1982

By Ari L. Goldman

Ari Goldman

Just when it looked like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had all that it could handle - or maybe even more than it could handle - it announced that it would soon be taking over the three commuter rail lines that link New York City and its northern suburbs. For riders on other M.T.A. facilities, such as the subways and the Long Island Rail Road, it seemed absurd that the authority would be the answer to anyone's prayers. But to many of the 180,000 daily commuters on the Harlem, Hudson and New Haven Lines, the news of the takeover was encouraging. ''It's our only hope,'' said Ben Frank, a regular rider on the Harlem Line who has been active in commuter organizations. Yesterday morning Mr. Frank's train from Chappaqua arrived at Grand Central Terminal 20 minutes late. On Monday night, the train was on time, but he had to stand for the entire one-hour trip home.

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News Analysis

Date: 12 August 1982

By Alan Cowell, Special To the New York Times

Alan Cowell

In the view of Zimbabwe and other governments in Africa that regard themselves as ''progressive,'' the United States has emerged as a villain in the aftermath of the Organization of African Unity's failure to hold its annual conference. The attempt to gather sufficient support for the conference collapsed in Tripoli, Libya, last Sunday when those African leaders who did attend finally acknowledged, after days of deliberation, that they could not muster a quorum of 34 members to comply with the organization's own laws. The event was the first of its kind in the organization's 19-year history. The immediate cause of the failure was a deep division in Africa over last February's decision by radical countries to admit the Polisario guerrilla movement as the organization's 51st member, representing Western Sahara, a territory administered by Morocco. The Polisario movement is fighting a war against Morocco's dominance of the country.

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News Analysis

Date: 12 August 1982

By Linda Greenhouse, Special To the New York Times

Linda Greenhouse

The Reagan Administration's long-promised campaign to enlist the Federal courts as vehicles for remolding Federal law has finally shifted into high gear. The campaign was heralded nine months ago in a speech by Attorney General William French Smith, who urged the Federal courts to take notice of ''the groundswell of conservatism evidenced by the 1980 election.'' The Justice Department did little immediately to follow through on that theme. But in the last few weeks it has produced legal briefs asking courts to reconsider their approaches in two areas central to the Administration's social policy agenda: abortion and busing.

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News Analysis

Date: 11 August 1982

By Thomas L. Friedman, Special To the New York Times

Thomas Friedman

Ten days ago Lieutenant ''Abed,'' a Palestinian guerrilla commander in the Ouzai district, was boasting to a reporter about his frontline bunker and declaring that the Palestine Liberation Organization leadership had no intention of quitting the Lebanese capital. Today Lieutenant ''Abed'' was back in west Beirut, packing his belongings, declaring that the fighting was ''all over'' and thinking ahead to what life in Damascus would be like. Despite all of the negotiations in the last two months between the American envoy, Philip C. Habib, the Lebanese Government and, indirectly, the P.L.O., the fact is the P.L.O. only firmly resolved to leave west Beirut in the last 12 days, according to Lebanese officials close to the negotiations. Only then did the guerrilla organization jettison all of its earlier political and military demands and agree to leave Lebanon in return for its own safety of passage and for the security of the 650,000 Palestinian refugees to be left behind.

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News Analysis

Date: 12 August 1982

By Clyde H. Farnsworth, Special To the New York Times

Clyde Farnsworth

With neither President Reagan nor Western Europe showing signs of retreating, a collision over trade with the Soviet Union could come as early as next week, some European officials believe. The differences are deep between the President and the European allies over Mr. Reagan's decision June 18 to tighten economic sanctions against the Soviets for their role in the repression in Poland. His ruling extended American export controls not only to the foreign activities of United States companies, but also to foreign companies that use American technological licenses to manufacture products of their own. The controls were intended to deny United States technology for the Soviet Union's natural gas pipeline to Western Europe that the Europeans want to diversify their energy sources and to provide jobs for their depressed industries.

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News Summary; THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 1982

Date: 12 August 1982

International An accord on Lebanon seemed near as the special American envoy, Philip C. Habib, pressed his efforts for an agreement on the evacuation of Palestinian fighters from Beirut. Mr. Habib met twice with Prime Minister Menachem Begin and then returned to Beirut. A high Israeli official said that two points remained to be settled, but he added that neither involved principle and that both could be resolved by today, when Mr. Habib is to return to Jerusalem. (Page A1, Column 1.) Israeli tanks advanced into strategic positions in northern Lebanon as Israeli bombers and artillery struck at Palestinian areas in west Beirut for the third successive day. (A1:2.)

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