Permanent link to MTA daily media news

AP Badly Mistaken on Drudge Retort (by Mark Glaser at MediaShift, PBS)
Last week, the Associated Press decided that the Drudge Retort was in violation of copyright laws because it excerpted parts of AP stories and linked to them. The AP legal team sent a cease-and-desist letter to Drudge Retort’s owner, the technology book author Rogers Cadenhead… To put it bluntly: The AP was badly mistaken in making this cease-and-desist letter. While the AP is clearly in the right when a site or blog uses an entire story without permission, the brief excerpts and links have been acceptable behavior for years online. I don’t see how a court could decide otherwise.

To Excerpt The Associated Press or Not (by Christopher Sprigman, associate professor of law, the University of Virginia School of Law, posted at the American Constitution Society)
The AP/Drudge Retort episode is another signal that we need a root-and-branch rethinking of our copyright laws. In particular, we should reform copyright to require that plaintiffs in most cases be required, as an element of their prima facie case in an infringement lawsuit, to prove that they have been harmed. In a stroke, this reform would re-focus copyright on the task it is meant to perform: policing serious threats to the ability of content owners to profit from their work.

Barack Makes More News Than McCain, But It’s Not All Good (Project for Excellence in Journalism)
In the first official week of the general election, the differences between Barack Obama and John McCain on issues ranging from the economy to Iraq constituted the media’s main campaign narrative.

Two national polls show Obama ahead 47%-42% (On Politics, USA Today)
Both Gallup and Reuters/Zogby say their latest national surveys give Democrat Barack Obama a 47%-42% advantage over Republican John McCain. And both say Obama does not appear to have gotten a big “bounce” since securing the Democratic nomination two weeks ago.

McCain Adviser Repeats False Claim That China Is Drilling For Oil Off The Coast Of Florida (Think Progress)
In recent days, several conservatives, in an attempt to push for expanded oil drilling, have parroted the talking point that China is drilling near Cuba, just off the coast of Florida. In reality, “China is not drilling in Cuba’s Gulf of Mexico waters, period,” as Jorge Piñon, an energy expert at the University of Miami, explained. Nevertheless, as Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) calls for lifting a ban on offshore oil drilling, the McCain campaign continues to parrot the false line. On CNBC [Tuesday] night, McCain adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer stated: “When you think about the fact that we’ve got China and Cuba drilling closer to the United States — the coastal United States — when American companies aren’t allowed to drill. It’s just insane.” [Wednesday] afternoon on MSNBC, she made similar comments… Not surprisingly, according to Senate lobbying disclosures, Pfotenhauer previously was a lobbyist for Koch Industries, a major energy company involved in oil exploration.

McCain’s push for offshore drilling could hurt him in Florida (McClatchy)
John McCain’s support for offshore drilling could hurt his prospects in the nation’s largest battleground state, where voters have long favored safeguarding the economically and environmentally precious coastline.

Obama leads in 3 big swing states (Hot off the Trail, McClatchy)
A new Quinnipiac University poll Wednesday morning shows Democrat Barack Obama leading Republican John McCain in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Obama’s up by 4 in Florida, by 6 in Ohio and by 12 in Pennsylvania–largely because of strong backing from women, blacks and

Obama: NAFTA not so bad after all (Fortune)
WASHINGTON (Fortune) — The general campaign is on, independent voters are up for grabs, and Barack Obama is toning down his populist rhetoric - at least when it comes to free trade. In an interview with Fortune to be featured in the magazine’s upcoming issue, the presumptive Democratic nominee backed off his harshest attacks on the free trade agreement and indicated he didn’t want to unilaterally reopen negotiations on NAFTA. “Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified,” he conceded, after I reminded him that he had called NAFTA “devastating” and “a big mistake,” despite nonpartisan studies concluding that the trade zone has had a mild, positive effect on the U.S. economy.
After all the hatred he ginned up against Hillary Clinton over this issue during the primaries!

Change? Obama’s foreign policy team is old Clinton hands (McClatchy)
WASHINGTON — Barack Obama met Wednesday with a new national-security advisory group that includes many of former President Clinton’s top advisers, saying that if he’s elected president he’ll return the nation “to a pragmatic tradition of American foreign policy, which has been so ably advanced by the people in this room.”
After all his disrespectful treatment of Bill Clinton during the primaries!

Obama on Guantanamo and the War on Terror (by Jeralyn at TalkLeft)
Sen. Barack Obama today named his National Security team and delivered a prepared speech on the war on terror and Guantanamo. I’m disappointed with it. “…the single greatest priority of my presidency will be doing anything and everything that I can to keep the American people safe…” If you were hoping universal health care or creating more jobs or reducing our country’s reliance on incarceration would be his greatest priority, this is a letdown. On Afghanistan: “Afghanistan is sliding toward chaos, and risks turning into a narco-terrorist state… We need more resources in Afghanistan…” Sounds like we’re headed for more war, just in a different country.

On Guantanamo: “I have confidence that our system of justice is strong enough to deal with terrorists; Senator McCain does not. That is not the same as giving these detainees the same full privileges as Americans citizens. I never said that, the Supreme Court never said that, and I would never do that as President of the United States.”… In 2001, the Supreme Court, in Zadvydas v. Davis, et al held: “Once an alien enters the country, the legal circumstance changes, for the Due Process Clause applies to all persons within the United States, including aliens, whether their presence is lawful, unlawful, temporary, or permanent….the aliens’ liberty interest is not diminished by their lack of a legal right to live at large….”

It doesn’t get much clearer than that. They do have constitutional rights, including due process and the right to habeas corpus, to name a few.

Obama and Iraqi Foreign Minister Have Different Memories of their Conversation (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
On Monday, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, talked on the phone with the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari. At a press availability in Michigan, I asked Obama if Zebari had expressed any concern to him that his plans to withdrawal U.S. troops as president would undo any security advances. “No, he did not express that,” Obama said. “He did emphasize his belief that we’ve made real progress and I think was eager to see political accommodations between the factions follow up in the wake of this progress… But today comes this report that Zebari told the Washington Post “that he had some frank talk for the candidate: ‘The foreign minister said ‘my message’ to Mr. Obama ‘was very clear…Really, we are making progress. I hope any actions you will take will not endanger this progress.’”

Obama and the Racial Politics of Symbols (by Corey D.B. Walker at the Black Agenda Report)
It is beyond question that Barack Obama’s pending nomination as the Democrats’ presidential standard bearer has great symbolic value. However, “to equate the symbolic dimension of Senator Obama’s campaign for the presidency with the substantive standing and status of American democracy is to commit a serious error,” says the author. “Senator Obama’s economic team is heavily tilted in favor of neoliberal economists” and his “foreign policy vision is still one wedded to the expansion and deepening of American Empire.” Symbols are one thing, but the facts of imperialism as a system carry more real-world weight.

Obama tours Wayne County (Detroit News)
Barack Obama touted his plans to help college students and met with a largely friendly group of community leaders on Tuesday, wrapping up a two-day Michigan campaign swing. The Democratic presidential nominee discussed party unity, parenthood, abortion and Middle East policy at a downtown hotel with several dozen political officials, religious leaders and others, said participants in the meeting, which was, for the most part, closed to the press. Though he got mostly complimentary reviews, one Arab-American leader was critical of his reactions to questions about the Israel-Palestinian conflict… Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News and head of an Arab-American political action fund, said he confronted Obama about a speech this month to an American Jewish group… Obama said he would discuss the issue later.

Obama Camp Apologizes to Muslim Women (The Caucus, New York Times)
Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has apologized for keeping Muslim women wearing headscarves out of a key shot at his Detroit event. According to Politico’s Ben Smith, campaign volunteers told at least two Muslim women that they could not join friends in special spots behind the candidate unless they removed their religious headwear.

Obama and the Church (by Mel Reeves at the Black Agenda Report)
Barack Obama is rethinking his religion. Or is he repositioning religion in his campaign profile? One thing seems certain: “He doesn’t want a church like Trinity United Church of Christ, which ‘comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.’” No, sir. “Trinity was too progressive and too issue-oriented and, some may say, a bit too pro-black for someone who seeks to lead the United States without a real progressive agenda for real change.”  It could have been worse for Obama. He might have stumbled into a church like the ones “that motivated the slaves that sought freedom by any means necessary: the Nat Turners, Denmark Vesseys, Gabriel Prossers, Harriet Tubmans, and David Walkers.”

An Obama Crowd in Detroit Comes Ready to Boo (by Anne E. Kornblut at The Trail, Washington Post)
DETROIT — Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm received a deafening chorus of boos Monday night at her mention of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the candidate Granholm once backed for the Democratic presidential nomination… A few moments later the same fired-up crowd booed former vice president Al Gore when he urged Democrats to be respectful of the likely Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain. “In that case I’m glad I brought it up,” Gore dryly responded… When Obama took the stage, he reprimanded the audience for booing Granholm over Clinton, then went on an extended detour to praise his former rival.
That’s good, but you need to make some serious apologies for the vicious lies your campaign told about the Clintons, Senator Obama.  And this new message somehow isn’t making it down to the netroots.  See below.

Thanks TPM, we appreciate your courageous work. (by herb the verb at Corrente)
Greg Sargent [has a] helpful compilation entitled “Was The Media Unfair To Hillary? Here’s Our Rundown”, arriving, “just in time to not make a difference” as the man says… So how exactly, one wonders, are they going to list the atrocities without a mea culpa? Will they moonwalk? Will they face their own crimes head-on? Well, the answer apparently is “nope”. They will show examples while completely ignoring that WKJM [Whoever Kidnapped Josh Marshall] Himself did exactly what they accuse others of doing… But then Sargent offers this stunning statement:

“Multiple pundits asserted as outright fact that the Clintons had hatched a grand plot [links to one of his Horses Mouth posts] to paint Obama as the black candidate in order to boost white turnout in the big industrial states. Let me be as clear as possible here: Yes, the Clintons did racialize the campaign in some ways. And it’s conceivable that the grand plot described above did exist.” Emphasis mine.

Evidence provided? Nada. Quotes provided? Nyet. Unfair to speculate? No way! It would be unfair NOT to speculate! So in other words, the most unfair charge against Hillary (“Billary” as he calls her unself-conciously in the Horses Mouth) is now “as clear as possible” without attribution, or proof. Stunning in its lack of self-awareness, yet pleasingly “truthy”. I don’t have the energy anymore, could someone else please be outraged for me?

Michigan, Florida to get full votes in Democratic Convention (AP via Freedom’s Phoenix)
Gov. Jennifer Granholm says she has gotten personal assurances from presidential candidate Barack Obama that he’ll restore the full voting rights of Michigan and Florida’s national convention delegates.
Now that they can’t do any harm to his forced nomination.  Remember, Obama said in mid-May that HE, not the Party, would seat the Florida and Michigan delegates.  He’s apparently known for a long time that the primary was a sham and that the party leaders would give him the nomination, no matter what.

Watchdog group: Corporations, interest groups extend lobbying reach to conventions (On Politics, USA Today)
USA TODAY’s Fredreka Schouten reports on a new study by the Campaign Finance Institute that shows corporate and group donors to this summer’s Democratic and Republican national conventions have spent more than $700 million to lobby Congress and the executive branch since 2005. Their employees and political action committees gave nearly $100 million to federal candidates and parties in the same period.

Denver stocks up on weapons to fight DNC protesters
Denver police are stocking up on guns that fire a pepper spray-like substance instead of bullets in advance of the Democratic National Convention. The department recently ordered 88 Mark IV launchers and projectiles at a cost “in the low six figures,” the company that makes the weapons stated in a news release Monday. The request was for delivery in advance of the DNC, according to Louisville- based Security With Advanced Technology Inc. But the city has refused to disclose how it is spending the money, prompting the American Civil Liberties Union last month to file a civil lawsuit.

Clinton supporter planning “holy chaos” for Obama camp (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
Ed Hale and his feisty flock are nearing action. The Texas rancher’s web site for Hillary Clinton supporters planning to back John McCain over Barack Obama has attracted thousands of supporters along with ridicule and investigations online. Now he’s launching a 527 political action committee intent on sending a message to the Democratic National Committee: put Clinton at the top of the ticket or her die-hard supporters will defect to the GOP.

Obama smear merchant has lengthy criminal record. (Think Progress)
Today, notorious Obama smear-peddler Larry Sinclair will speak at the National Press Club, presumably to continue to promote unfounded lies about Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). Politico’s Ben Smith reports that Sinclair’s history “may get in the way of that pitch,” as he has a 27-year criminal record, “with a specialty in crimes involving deceit.” The charges included forgegy and stealing someone’s tax returns; Sinclair is listed as “Wanted” by the Peublo County, CO Sheriff’s Office.

Texas GOP distances itself from vendor who sold racist Obama buttons. (Think Progress)
A booth at last weekend’s Texas GOP convention sold offensive buttons asking, “If Obama Is President…Will We Still Call It The White House?” After strong public criticism, the state Republican party said that it plans to “donate the $1,500 rent it collected from the vendor, Republicanmarket.com, to Midwestern flood victims.” Additionally, in the future, the party will begin vetting the merchandise being sold. “This vendor need not apply to another Texas GOP state convention,” GOP spokesman Hans Klingler. “We will neither tolerate nor profit from bigotry.”

Quote of the Day (Political Wire)
“I think families are off limits. I would never consider making Cindy McCain a campaign issue, and if I saw people doing that — I would speak out against it. And the fact that I haven’t seen that from John McCain I think is a deep disappointment.” — Sen. Barack Obama, quoted by the Brody File, on the attacks against his wife.

Michelle Obama on “The View” (Hot off the Trail, McClatchy)
Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle, used an appearance today as co-host of ABC’s “The View” to introduce herself to daytime-viewing Americans as an approachable, sympathetic and fairly traditional woman. Her husband’s presidential campaign hopes to debunk unfavorable and sometimes racially toned images of her as angry or aggressive… Mrs. Obama praised Hillary Clinton for breaking barriers for women and girls, including the Obamas’ two daughters. But she portrayed herself as less of a partner than Clinton saw herself in presidential-type decision-making… Obama also volunteered how much she likes First Lady Laura Bush, saying she penned her a thank-you note for sticking up for her after the “really proud” comment. Obama said she is taking some “cues” from the first lady as the campaign progressing, noting that one reason people across partisan lines respond to her is that she “doesn’t sort of fuel the fire.”

61% Say Obama, McCain Wives Influence Vote (Rasmussen)
The current First Lady, Laura Bush, is regarded favorably by 75% of the nation’s voters, with only 21% rating her unfavorably. By contrast, Michelle Obama, whose husband cinched the Democratic presidential nomination last week, is rated favorably by 48% and unfavorably by 42% of voters. That latter figure includes a startling 25% who have Very Unfavorable opinion of the potential First Lady. A statistically comparable 24% view her Very Favorably. Ten percent (10%) are undecided. Cindy McCain, the wife of the Republican hopeful, earns favorable reviews from 49% while 29% offer an unfavorable assessment.

Russert Took Media Bias Seriously (by Bernard Goldberg, Wall Street Journal)
What made Tim Russert different, and better, I think was his willingness to listen to — and take seriously — criticism about his own profession. He was willing, for example, to keep an open mind about a hot-button issue like media bias — an issue that so many of his colleagues dismiss as the delusions of right-wing media haters.
Bernard Goldberg is a symptom of all that is wrong with our media, finding so-called liberal bias in the most innocuous phrases.  His praise of Tim Russert only solidifies my belief that Russert was also a symptom of all that is wrong with our media.

Tom Wolfe: ‘Idiots’ on TV News
Televised news can’t hold a candle to newspapers, according to Tom Wolfe. “As newspapers are declining rapidly… I would just point out, all news today comes from newspapers. All of it,” the Bonfire of the Vanities author told Charlie Rose the other night. “Television has never initiated a successful story in its life. When they have a big story, it’s always wrong.”

Gore Vidal on Impeachment and the Media (Audio) (TruthDig)
The celebrated historian and author examines Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s articles of impeachment and the lack of attention they garnered in the mainstream media.

Paterson Outed as Source for Story (Political Wire)
The New York Post’s Fred Dicker reveals New York Gov. David Paterson (D) was the source for his story yesterday that the governor had privately referred to New York City Mayor Bloomberg as a “nasty, tantrum-prone liar” who has “little use” for average New Yorkers. The newspaper’s report was based on a source “with firsthand knowledge of Paterson’s comments.” When Paterson blasted the story yesterday, the newspaper outed him. Ben Smith: “Having a source deny publicly what he told you privately is a particular kind of breach of trust, and Dicker’s story is a heated response.”

Media Matters for America headlines

• KSFO’s Sussman invited guest to talk about his claim that “gay and lesbian radicals actively recruit through our schools and the media”

• Hume falsely claimed Obama’s half brother told The Jerusalem Post that Obama had a “Muslim background” [*See below.]

• Beck inflated estimated ANWR oil production by nearly 7,000 percent

• Chicago Tribune’s Zuckman repeated McCain’s suggestion that Obama had no bipartisan record — but McCain has previously thanked Obama for bipartisanship [That, however, doesn’t make it true that Obama has such a record. I haven’t seen it, myself.]

• Savage: “The children’s minds are being raped by the homosexual mafia”

• MSNBC hosted “McCain supporter” Frank Donatelli to discuss offshore oil drilling, did not mention his former post as energy lobbyist

• Wash. Times’ Pruden falsely claimed that “the earth has been measurably cooling for the last decade”

• Wash. Post falsely claimed Obama’s plan for combating terrorism includes “the possibility of invading Pakistan”

*The Jerusalem Post did, indeed, say that, but apparently the story has been scrubbed.  Here’s the Google entry:
Malik Obama says his brother will be good president for the Jews …
Barack Obama’s half brother Malik said Thursday that if elected his brother will be a good president for the Jewish people, despite his Muslim background. …
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1212659716936 - 61k - Cached

Beijing Continues Search for Balance With Media for Olympics
China’s promise to open its doors to unfettered media coverage during the Olympics is hitting a roadblock. Television media companies are locked in a stalemate with Beijing officials over the ability to broadcast live from non-Olympic venues in Beijing during the Summer Games.

Gunned-down Iraqi Journalist Wins Amnesty UK Media Award
Amnesty International has posthumously awarded its new media award to Iraqi journalist Sahar al-Haideri.

Islamic Jihad’s Cyber-War Brigades
The Palestinian Islamist movement, Islamic Jihad, says it has a new division of its armed Al-Quds Brigades - a cyberwar unit that claims it has hacked into the websites of several Israeli media outlets.

Puzo Heir on Godfather Video Game Profits: Let Me Wet My Beak a Little
The son of author Mario Puzo who created The Godfather sued Paramount Pictures on Wednesday, saying it had failed to hand over any of the revenues from a video game based on the book and award-winning movie. In court documents filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court on June 18, Anthony Puzo of New York said he was claiming at least $1 million in damages for breach of contract.

Court Approves Ziff Davis’ Bankruptcy Restructuring Plan
Ziff Davis Media has announced that a New York court has confirmed the company’s reorganization plan, and that it expects to emerge from bankruptcy protection as early as July 1. In April, Ziff Davis said it had reached an agreement with the company’s senior secured noteholders and official committee of unsecured creditors, effectively allowing it to exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Gannett Takes Minority Stake In Family Organizer Cozi (by Joseph Weisenthal at Paid Content)
Gannett has made an unspecified strategic investment in Cozi, a family organization tool. Seattle-based Cozi offers a range of tools for households, like calendars, to-do lists, photo organizing and blogs. It had previously raised at least $8.3 million. With the investment, Gannett will get a seat on the Cozi board. As for the strategy here, Gannett plans to push the Cozi brand across its various web and print properties. Cozi gets deeper access to Gannett’s local content, opening up new opportunities. Though the announcement doesn’t say so specifically, it looks like Cozi should be a good fit with Gannett’s mom-focused properties.

Sun-Times CEO takes unusual step of praising union chief
At Tuesday’s annual shareholders meeting, Sun-Times Media Group CEO Cyrus Freidheim Jr. praised Chicago Newspaper Guild’s executive director and the company’s labor chief for working “so cooperatively together . to assure we retained our editorial strength while reducing our staff by almost 20 percent.” Phil Rosenthal’s comment: “One can only imagine the delicate scalpel work necessary the next time.”

News International to Close Mags Division
News International, Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper business, is set to close its consumer magazine division, called News Magazines, a spokeswoman in the U.K. said Wednesday. “We can confirm that we will disengage from the magazine business,” she said. “It will allow us to focus on our core business as the U.K.’s largest national news publisher.”

Fox to Borrow From Brit TV
As the networks step up their interest in overseas formats, 20th Century Fox TV has sealed a production and programming pact with the top-rated U.K. commercial network/producer ITV. Under the deal, 20th will get a crack at mining ITV’s roster of series for potential development in the U.S., while ITV will do so likewise with 20th fare in the U.K.

Cablevision Systems Completes Sundance Acquisition
Rainbow Media, Cablevision Systems’ programming subsidiary, Tuesday announced it has wrapped up its $496 million purchase of the Sundance Channel from a group of owners including NBC Universal, CBS and founder Robert Redford. The 12-year-old channel went on the market in February after neither NBCU (which owns 57 percent) nor CBS (37 percent) could buy out the other partners.

comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for May 2008
Highlights:
- Mother’s Day Prompts Growth to Flower and Gift Sites, while Summer Vacation Planning Drives Traffic to Travel Sites
- Google Sites Remains #1 Property
- Platform-A continued to lead the Ad Focus rankin

Icahn Blog to Go Live Today
The New York Post can finally drop its Carl Icahn blog-watch timer. The long-delayed Icahn Report blog is going live today, the financier and corporate agitator said on Wednesday. The billionaire investor first disclosed that he will join the blogosphere in February, offering up anecdotes and a running commentary on what he describes as the desultory state of corporate governance in America.

OurSignal: Mashup of Digg, Reddit, Delicious and HackerNews (Mashable)
OurSignal is the latest site from the makers of CushyCMS, designed to bring you the freshest and most popular news from across the Web. It’s a mashup of several social bookmarking sites focused on news, including reddit, digg, delicious and hackernews. While OurSignal could be considered to be in the same arena as PopURLs, or even Original Signal, it’s the visual implementation of OurSignal that makes this site stand out. All of the stories presented on OurSignal are placed in boxes, which are made more noticeable based on size and color. The larger the box, the more relative votes that particular story received. The warmer the color, the fresher the story is (a cooling color represents a cooling story).

Trulia Launches Self-Service Marketing for Real Estate Professionals (Mashable)
Trulia’s online real estate network has become more social since adding Trulia Voices, which gives a more personal voice to the market and enables direct social networking amongst users. Now Trulia is hoping to provide even more benefit to the business professionals that use Trulia voices by launching a self-service marketing platform. This new platform will essentially turn business user profiles into advertisements. It’s an opt-in feature for professional users that would like to leverage Trulia as a marketing platform. As Trulia’s network is broken down into cities, zip codes and neighborhoods, professional users can hyper-localize their advertisements throughout Trulia’s site.

Wazoo Sports Raises $2 Million For High School Sports Broadcasting (Paid Content)
Wazoo Sports, a site that broadcasts high school sporting events online, has raised $2 million from Meritus Ventures. The Kentucky-based company says it will use the funding to expand its network, which broadcasts 88 high school games last year. In addition to live broadcasts, the company offers VOD viewing of its archived games.

Old and New Media Still Squaring Off in Jockland (by Adam Reilly, Boston Phoenix)
For the most part, the pre-Web media establishment is slowly making its peace with the very technology that will either destroy journalism (if you’re pessimistic) or utterly reshape it. For some reason, though, this coming-together of the typewriter and podcast sets doesn’t extend to sports, where sports writers regard their Web-based successors with a potent mix of contempt and rage.

Real-Time Video Streaming Service Next2Friends Launches (Mashable)
The process of Streaming video to the Web from, say, a mobile phone is primarily the domain of services like Flixwagon, Kyte, and Qik. But the players in the space are fairly young as it is, so there’s likely room for at least one more serious participant. Enter, Next2Friends Live, a service coming by way of London, England, that is having its official 1.0 launch today. Like its competition, as a “real-time streaming” mechanism, Next2Friends Live is being promoted as a service that enables anyone to share live content with friends on the Web. But claims of technical superiority are in evidence with today’s announcement. Next2Friends is pegged as having surpassed the average live-streaming service in terms of synchronous broadcasting and viewing.

YouTube launches virtual screening room for indie films
Google’s YouTube is setting up a virtual screening room to bring the work of independent filmmakers to a global audience.

YouTube Scrambles for Ad Revenue, Tests Full-Length Videos (by Alana Taylor at Mashable)
[W]ill it work? There is no telling. The long-form video model may be a hit with small independent directors who are looking to make amateur or short films. But they won’t make any money from it without ad revenues.

How Big Is ‘Tiger Effect’? Networks Will Soon Learn
Disappointment among network executives and sponsors was palpable after the news that Tiger Woods will be gone from golf for the rest of the year.

Traditional Media Not Dead Yet for Marketing, Study Says
A study released on Wednesday finds that ads appearing in traditional media like television are still “much more likely” to have made a positive impression with consumers than ads on digital media. 56 percent of survey respondents said traditional media ads made a positive impression, in contrast to 31 percent who said that about digital media ads.

Brought to You by . . . Anyone?
[T]he fact that the University of Phoenix, a relatively small player in the world of advertising, ranks at the top of Internet sponsors also highlights what for many online media businesses is a grim economic reality: The biggest U.S. advertisers, which have long supported other formats — television, radio, print — have not fully embraced the Web… [F]or all the growth in online advertising, there are some doubts that the advertising revenue available is enough to pay for the kind of content — articles, videos, etc. — that Internet visionaries have predicted.

For one thing, the largest chunk of money spent for online ads is in search advertising, those little text ads that run beside search results. These ads do not directly benefit companies putting information online. Instead, the money from search advertising is reaped by the search engines — Google, Yahoo and Microsoft — that run them… For companies that provide Internet content, the largest source of advertising revenue is display. Such advertising accounted for 34 percent of all online ad dollars last year, according to figures from the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Search advertising is 41 percent of the total, with classified, e-mail and other categories rounding out the list.