Democrat Barack Obama’s plan to bring the debate over gas prices straight to the pumps hit a roadblock Wednesday.
What sounded like a great way to reach a captive audience as they pumped $4-a-gallon gas into their car crashed and burned quickly when the company that sells spots on small, gas pump televisions rejected the idea.
Drivers upset by high fuel costs would have seen an ad saying Republican John McCain voted against alternative energy and higher mileage standards as gas prices soared. As the dollars continued adding up on the pump, drivers would have then heard that Obama would give them a $1,000 energy rebate and make energy independence a priority.
But just as the campaign announced the ads were ready to roll in Tampa, Orlando and Miami, Gas Station TV decided to reject them.
The Michigan-based company’s CEO, David Leider, said the company was considering running campaign ads on the mini-televisions, but decided Wednesday that wouldn’t be such a good idea. That’s the same day he saw Obama’s ad, which says the candidate will seek policies that lower gas consumption.
Leider, though, said the decision had nothing to do with the ad’s message.
“We avoid politics in general,” he said.
But the Obama campaign said the company gave a different reason for rejecting the ad: It was too damaging to the oil industry.
“It looks like Gas Station TV doesn’t want the American people to know about Senator Obama’s plan to offer working families a $1,000 energy rebate that would be funded by a tax on oil company profits” said Mark Bubriski, Obama’s Florida spokesman.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More