Permanent link to MTA daily media news

“Crank Politics”
Paul Krugman at TPM Cafe Book Club discussing Jonathan Chait’s new book: “Jon talks at some length about the media, and in particular about the Republican ability to get journalists to harp endlessly on supposed character flaws of Democrats, while their own candidates get a free pass. He emphasizes the right-wing echo chamber, but there’s more to it than that. It’s also – as I can report from my own experience – a result of asymmetrical intimidation. Quite simply, if you point out character flaws in a conservative, there will be an all-out effort, involving major media as well as blogs and talk radio, to discredit and ruin you, personally. This just doesn’t happen on the other side. So journalists feel that it’s safe to ridicule Democrats, even if the supposed character-defining episode never happened; they choke up and shy away when it comes to Republicans.”
That asymmetry will never change until progressives are willing to develop a comprehensive media strategy.

Media Matters Special Report: Black and White and Re(a)d All Over
Black and White and Re(a)d All Over is a comprehensive and unprecedented analysis of syndicated columnists from 96 percent of English-language daily U.S. newspapers. Because of the time, labor, and difficulty involved in gathering such a wide scope of information about these newspapers, no one has ever before determined exactly where these columnists run. The report shows that conservatives are carried in far more newspapers, with much greater reach than their progressive counterparts, giving conservatives a distinct advantage.

The result of right-wing bias in the media: Saddam Did 9/11 — One-Third Of Americans Believe The Big Lie
An important New York Times/CBS News survey finds that six years after the terror attacks of 9/11, “33 percent of all Americans, including 40 percent of Republicans and 27 percent of Democrats, say Saddam Hussein was personally involved.”

Boehlert: Lapdogs to the end?
[H]ere we are in the waning days of Bush’s second term — a second term that will go down in presidential history as the least popular in modern times — and members of the weakened and undernourished White House press corps are still being pushed around and still signaling fresh dismay at how the administration deliberately shortchanges reporters. How is any of this surprising?
Well, Eric, we could say the same thing about the Democrats.  They continue to be bullied by a president who has no power left.

Hey Pundits, This Is The Forest – Please Ignore The Trees
Most of the newspaper coverage viewed Petraeus’ speech in terms of a partisan lens. The typical column spewed something like “Petraeus didn’t convince any Democrats and war supporters enjoyed his speech.” Even intelligent columnists … spent time writing on the horse-race aspect of the report.

Petraeus’ Report Is a Potential Minefield for Both Parties
A creatively bad take on the media event of the week achieves “balance” only by assuming the U.S. public to be total idiots. In order to portray both major parties as potentially in need of “recalibrat[ing] their positions,” Levey and Simon play congressional Democrats as at risk because Petraeus’ call for a minor drawdown could steal their thunder… It’s difficult to see how the people would confuse continued occupation at pre-”surge” levels with the withdrawal from Iraq they’d like to see happen relatively soon–though media reports like this could certainly help.

Poll found majority favors withdrawal plan resembling Dems’ — but Vieira didn’t report that
NBC’s Meredith Vieira told viewers that a poll found that “76 percent of Americans say they’d only withdraw some troops, keeping enough to train Iraqis and fight Al Qaeda or they would keep the same number of troops in Iraq until the country is stabilized.” But Vieira did not report that the same poll question found that 78 percent favor a position resembling that of leading Democrats.

Putting Lipstick on a Pig
As part of the surge-week PR offensive, the President will make a primetime address Thursday announcing that he intends to bring the surge to an end next summer. That means 30,000 U.S. troops will be rotated home without replacements…. The White House can tout it as a troop withdrawal. Gen. Petraeus can claim it is his best professional military judgment. But bringing the surge to an end is a hard reality born of an overstretched military.

Out Of Touch Elites Promulgate Partition For Iraq That 98 Percent Of Iraqis Oppose
[Tuesday] morning, New York Times columnist David Brooks joined a small chorus … in giving up on listening to what Iraqis think. Instead, Brooks wrote that the U.S. mission in Iraq is to partition Iraq… This week’s ABC News/BBC/NHK survey of 2,000 Iraqis found the following: “Nearly every Iraqi — a whopping 98 percent — said the separation of people on sectarian lines is a bad thing for Iraq”.

National Review: Don’t. Ever. Leave.
In its May 9, 2005 issue, the National Review featured a cover proclaiming, “We’re Winning,” accompanied by a breathless cover story by National Review editor Rich Lowry: “It is time to say it unequivocally: We are winning in Iraq.” After two years of “winning,” the National Review believes the war can still be won. From its new Sept. 24 issue: “This war can still be won, but only if we have the nerve and the patience to see it through.”

Lie Detector: McConnell Baselessly Claims New Expansive FISA Law Responsible For Preventing Terror Attack
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell yesterday tried to claim that the new expansive FISA law adopted by Congress prior to the August recess was responsible for the foiling of a recent alleged terror attack… McConnell’s statements … appear to be an effort to build public support for the new FISA law that expires in five months…” In fact, the information gathered ahead of the alleged German attacks was done under the prior FISA law — the law that required warrants.

FAIR Study: The Poor Will Always Be With Us–Just Not on the TV News
[D]espite being an issue that directly or indirectly affects a huge chunk of the U.S. population, poverty and inequality receive astonishingly little coverage on nightly network newscasts. An exhaustive search of weeknight news broadcasts on CBS, NBC and ABC found that with rare exceptions, such as the aftermath of Katrina, poverty and the poor seldom even appear on the evening news—and when they do, they are relegated mostly to merely speaking in platitudes about their hardships.

Path To 9/11 Writer Complains Of ABC’s Decision To Block His DVD, Compares Network To Stalin
Cyrus Nowrasteh, the avowed conservative activist who wrote the screenplay for ABC’s infamous docudrama The Path To 9/11, complains [Tuesday] in the Wall Street Journal that his fictional drama is being censored. Nowrasteh repeatedly claimed his film was based on the 9/11 Commission report, but numerous members of 9/11 Commission spoke up to indicate that the docudrama did not reflect their findings. Counterterrorism analysts Richard Clarke and Roger Cressey, both of whom served in the Clinton and Bush administrations, said that key scenes in the film had no basis in reality.

Dem Leaders Don’t Understand the Role of Emotion in Framing the Political Debate, So Writes Drew Westen of Emory University
It’s a question of resonating with the voters and training candidates to use language and imagery and metaphors and personal stories effectively so that people will hear their message. No matter how good your policies are, if you want to win hearts and minds, you really have to start with the heart. Otherwise, people don’t care much what’s on your mind.
To interview Drew Westen yourself about his book The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation, contact his publicist, Whitney.Peeling-at-perseusbooks-dot-com.

Russia: Media Clampdown Sees Blogs Flourish
Russians frustrated at television reports they see as having a pro-Kremlin bias are turning to blogs and Internet forums to debate political issues.
Gosh, just like here.  Amazing how that happens.

Indonesian court says Time must pay for defaming Suharto
Indonesia’s Supreme Court ruled that Time must pay $160 million for defaming former Indonesian dictator Suharto by alleging his family amassed billions of dollars during his 32-year rule. The Time article, titled “The Family Firm,” alleged that Suharto and his children amassed $73 billion, the bulk from oil and mining, forestry, property, banking and petrochemicals.

Sample Sell
Maybe, just maybe the idea of adding Keith Olbermann to the NFL on NBC roster is paying off for his MSNBC show. Countdown was the number one show in all of cable news Friday night, in the 25-54 demo (live+ same day DVR). Olbermann’s Friday night win comes after his Thursday night appearance during halftime of the Saints-Colts game. An estimated 16.5 million viewers (18-49) watched the game.

Premiere Radio Taps Bill Cunningham to Replace Drudge
WLW-AM/Cincinnati early afternoon host Bill “Willie” Cunningham will replace Internet journalist Matt Drudge on Clear Channel co-owned Premiere Radio Networks beginning October 7. “Live on Sunday Night with Bill Cunningham” will be heard Sunday nights from 9pm-midnight on some 325 affiliates. Premiere says Drudge is quitting radio to focus on his web site and other endeavors.
I’ll bet Drudge wants to spend more time with his family.

Micrsoft Xbox Wants BBC Content
Microsoft will be promoting its Xbox 360 as a hub for film and television shows in HD. With existing deals in the U.S., Microsoft is turning to the BBC in order to offer its content in Europe through the Xbox. With the BBC being a major player, and with its existing interest in providing content across platforms, the deal seems poised to go through.

News Corp. Vocal Against iTunes Pricing
What News Corp. and content owners really want is more control over the pricing of their products. What this could end up meaning for the consumer is an overall increase in the price for content, and a larger disparity in prices for popular and less-popular content.

‘User’ Sites Choose Different News Than Mainstream Outlets
Mainstream media outlets may not be offering up the stories online users most want to read, according to a new Project for Excellence in Journalism survey that found user-generate new sites like Yahoo giving top billing to different stories than mainstream outlets.

Wikipedia Is The Medium
Ron Paul and Mike Gravel are the dark horses of their respective parties. Not surprisingly, news coverage of them is scarce. So fired-up, web-savvy voters, tired of gatekeepers failing to mention more than half of debate participants in their post-mortems, are trying to influence media coverage and public opinion in the most straightforward way they know — by writing and editing Wikipedia entries and Digging sympathetic news articles.

AT&T Aims to Put Its Mark on Mobility
AT&T is taking the next step in its marketing makeover with an extensive brand advertising campaign, scheduled to begin today, that is focused on mobile lifestyles.

Patterns: Children’s Ads on TV Push Sugar and Fat
Most foods advertised on programs watched by children are larded with sugar, salt and fat.

TNS: Ad Spending Slips Two Quarters in a Row
Gains for Cable TV, Consumer Mags, Outdoor and Web