Permanent link to MTA daily media news

“Fringe liberal bloggers”
When establishment journalists speak of the liberal blogosphere, it is virtually an article of faith that it represents the “far left,” that it is composed of the radical and fringe elements of liberalism… [D]oes opposition to the Iraq War, or Guantanamo and torture, or the abolition of habeas corpus, or the grotesque deceit of the Limbaugh Right make one a “leftist” or fringe liberal, as those terms are used in their pejorative sense. The reality is that the views Digby identifies as the crux of the “progressive blogosphere” are entirely mainstream American views. “Extremism” is marked by those who reject those beliefs, not by those who embrace them.
Click through to read the rest of this post.  There’s a link to Digby’s speech at the Take Back America conference.

SiCKO
I got to see an advance copy of Michael Moore’s latest documentary, “SiCKO” tonight, and it’s an utterly extraordinary film… [H]ow did Americans, who boasted just a generation ago of being the freest and strongest people on earth, fall into the clutches of vicious, depraved sociopaths, the moral and emotional cripples who run our insurance companies, our HMOs, the pharmaceutical companies, and our hospitals. How did we let them turn the Congress and White House into puppets, willing to endlessly sell out the American people so outfits like Kaiser Permenante and GlaxoSmithKline could augment already huge profits? Moore doesn’t have a simple answer, but notes that debt is the instrument used to make Americans docile, cowed, and dependent.
I once had a boss who boasted about the fact that when lenders called to ask him how much his employees made, he’d confirm whatever the employee told the lender.  He WANTED them to be loaded with debt, and therefore unable to change jobs.  He, too, was a sociopath, of course, like so many bosses.

Forget Jon Stewart — Dave Barry Running for President!
The author/columnist has been answering questions about his race for the White House over at McClatchy’s newly redesigned Web site. Learn why he hopes to pick Keith Richards as his running mate.

Are strings being pulled in the Ravenel case?
Initial reports stated that Giuliani’s South Carolina campaign manager, Thomas Ravenel, was indicted for possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine… The media seem to favor the angle that Ravenel intended to distribute cocaine, not crack cocaine… Is the case against Ravenel being spun away from a crack possession charge to a simple powdered coke charge to save the multi-millionaire from a mandatory prison sentence?
Update: It looks as though the initial reports were incorrect.

The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio (pdf)
As this report will document in detail, conservative talk radio undeniably dominates the format: Our analysis in the spring of 2007 of the 257 news/talk stations owned by the top five commercial station owners reveals that 91 percent of the total weekday talk radio programming is conservative, and 9 percent is progressive. Each weekday, 2,570 hours and 15 minutes of conservative talk are broadcast on these stations compared to 254 hours of progressive talk—10 times as much conservative talk as progressive talk.

FOX News attacks right-wing talk radio
FOX pundits attacking right-wing talk radio as a bunch of extremists with too much control over the GOP would seem an anomaly, but for the fact that Trent Lott attacked right-wing talk radio last week. One time is serendipity, two times is planned.

Bill O’Reilly: NBC JAZZED About Dead Afghan Children
Bill O’Reilly worked his knickers in a twist talking to CNN’s Howard Kurtz about the disparity in war coverage between FOX and most real news networks. BillO slams NBC for daring to report the truth about 7 children who were killed in Afghanistan by U.S. forces this week, claiming they just want to get the bang bang on the teevee to turn America against the occupation of Iraq. While he missed a few opportunities to take Orally to the woodshed, Kurtz stood his ground and actually brought some reality to table…
Click through to watch the video.

Chris Matthews gets caught with his potty mouth on camera again…
Chris Matthews didn’t realize he was on live TV when he starting yelling at his crew… He later apologized….This isn’t the first time….The big question remains. Will Brent Bozell file a formal complaint with his PTC group? You remember this group, don’t you? They put in 99.8% of FCC complaints way back when…
Click through to watch the video.

Booing Hillary
It was inevitable that Fox would get this wrong and it’s also inevitable that the rest of the mainstream media will follow their lead,but for the record, Hillary was not booed because she said she supports the troops — she was booed because she blamed the Iraqi government for the failure of the occupation — a commonly used line among Democrats as well as some Republicans despite it’s rather loathesome implications.

Remember “Slick Willy”?
Well, the Associated Press would like to share the new nickname it has now bestowed on his wife: “Slick Hillary.”

Fair and Balanced, My Ass! The Bizarre Reality of Fox News
Watching Fox News can be as funny as it is frustrating. But the new book Fair and Balanced, My Ass! shows we dismiss them at our peril.

Bancrofts Give Dow Jones Board Power to Review Sale Offers
NEW YORK Dow Jones & Co. announced today that its Board of Directors would take over from the Bancroft family the ongoing review of proposals to buy the company.

Ambitious WSJ staffers without principles will like Murdoch
They may have a more prosperous future under Rupert Murdoch, says Lord Bernard Donoughue, a former Times of London assistant editor. Bruce Page, another ex-Times newsman, tells Michael Calderone: “My recommendation to the Bancrofts is to tell Murdoch to get lost, if they believe in anything they say about their traditions. They can’t make a bad journalist good. When you talk about journalistic independence, it doesn’t mean anything to him.”
“Ambitious WSJ staffers without principles”?  That would be every one of them who writes for Opinion Journal.

Tribune Co. Reports Losses, Interactive Gains
NEW YORK Tribune Co. said today that consolidated revenues during its most recent reporting period (which ended May 27) totaled $406 million, down 11.1% from $457 million in 2006… There was, however, one bright spot: Interactive revenues, which are primarily included in classified, were up 22% to $22 million, due to growth in all categories.

The Times Is Raising Newspaper Prices
The New York Times Company will increase the newsstand and home-delivery prices for the newspaper next month, the company’s chief executive said at an investor conference yesterday… Newspaper publishers are seeking ways to replace revenue lost as advertisers continue to shift their focus to the Internet and away from print.

Conrad Black stubborn but innocent, his lawyer says
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Conrad Black is a stubborn but innocent man, the victim of manipulative, over-reaching government prosecutors and shareholders who wanted to break up his publishing company, a lawyer for the former media mogul told jurors at his criminal fraud trial on Wednesday.

Did Esquire just run the worst celebrity profile ever written?
Ron Rosenbaum says he’s not attacking Tom Junod for his Angelina Jolie cover story in the July Esquire but trying to rescue him, “to save him from further assignments of this nature. It’s a losing game: The desperate attempt to endow celebs with Deep Meaning is not worthy of his talent.”

PBS’s ‘Expose’ Is To Appear Online Before Being Broadcast
“Expose: America’s Investigative Reports” returns this weekend for its second season on PBS. Now, viewers who can’t wait until the broadcast premiere on Friday night can watch each new episode beforehand in streaming Internet video.

All the Films You Want to See, but When?
Downloading movies over a high-speed Internet connection offers the promise of convenience, but promise is the operative word for this new method.

Web Site Headed for Court Over Simpson Manuscript
MIAMI, June 20 — Lawyers for the family of Ron Goldman and a bankruptcy trustee say the celebrity gossip Internet site TMZ.com should be held in contempt for posting a manuscript of O.J. Simpson’s book “If I Did It.” The Web site and its lawyer contend that the company did nothing wrong and that the manuscript was posted only briefly, though excerpts remained on the site Wednesday afternoon.

Lonelygirl15: Sellout!
While we long ago exposed the Lonelygirl15 phenomenon as the work of professionals and not a 16-year old in her bedroom, the latest twist in the Web drama takes selling out to a whole new level. We’ve received word that LG15 will soon be getting a new friend on the show – a scientist from skin care product company Neutrogena! The Neutrogena employee will appear in multiple episodes and reportedly help the show’s cast fight an evil group… “This long-term relationship with Neutrogena is unprecedented, as the brand comes to life organically with the characters and storyline”, according to the marketing pitch.

We’re all celebrities in post-privacy age
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Move over, Paris Hilton. We all have celebrity issues in an age when anyone can create an online profile, post confessional videos on YouTube, or make snarky online comments about other people.
Yes, and my hope is that it will at least moderate our cult of celebrity.  If everyone can be a celebrity, why would there be obsessions with the spoiled brats we hear so much about?

Yahoo Buying a High School and College Sports Network
The acquisition of Rivals.com is intended to bolster Yahoo’s position as an online destination for sports fans.

Xerox rolls out semantics-based search
Xerox Corp. says its new search engine based on semantics will analyze the meaning behind questions and documents to help researchers find information more quickly.