Media General's news operation in Tampa is regularly cited by proponents of media consolidation to illustrate the possible benefits of allowing a single big media company to dominate a local market. But it's fair to say MG didn't exactly shine in the early minutes of its live coverage of a Federal Communications Commission hearing on media consolidation in Tampa today.

When it comes to broadband, the United States is running backwards. So says a sobering new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group that includes most of the world's top economic powers.

Now Hear This recently went to great lengths to contact the country's top high-speed Internet providers and ask them what we believed was a fairly straightforward question: Do you impose early termination penalties on your high-speed Internet customers? Cable giant Comcast told us no, but it appears they do.

The CBS affiliate in Washington is cancelling its weekly political roundtable show because it doesn't serve the Washington community. You won't believe the replacement.

Like a lot of folks, I have been trying to figure out what the ultimate fallout will be from a recent jury verdict that Internet phone company Vonage violated patents held by telecom giant Verizon. Some of the possibilities could really hurt phone competition and consumers.

The response has been overwhelming to our item from Monday on the growing trend of early termination penalties in the broadband business. We offer our humble thanks for your comments and insights.

Broadband Internet providers are increasingly imposing early termination penalties to keep their customers from straying away for a better deal somewhere else.