...Since... spring 2004, the company has spent more than $4 million to hire some of the nation's premier lobbyists to counter a savvy campaign conducted by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, a team of longtime Clinton strategists hired by the media conglomerate, and a coalition of black and Hispanic community leaders. Before 2004, Nielsen had not spent a dime on lobbying. Nielsen has also sprinkled more than $200,000 among minority organizations.... The technology, called local people meters, replaced set-top boxes and paper diaries, and offered advertisers and TV networks something they had never had before: detailed local demographic data every day...