Permanent link to MTA daily media news

With Petraeus as Star, Iraq Debate has its Biggest Week: Sept. 9 – 14, 2007
The general’s appearance before Congress last week was widely expected to be a pivot point in the political brawl over Iraq war policy. The media swarmed, but the story they told may help explain why David Petraeus’s testimony seemed, for now, to cement the status quo.

Times deselected (by Jeff Jarvis)
TimesSelect is dead. It was a cynical act doomed from the start. With it goes any hope of charging for content online. Content is now and forever free… TimesSelect represented the last gasp of the circulation mentality of news media, the belief that surely consumers would continue to pay for content even as the internet commodified news and — more important — even as the internet revealed that the real value in media is not owning and controlling content or distribution but enabling conversation.
I still believe that people can be made aware of how advertising skews news coverage, and could be persuaded to contribute or subscribe to multiple sources.  They just don’t want to have to subscribe to each of them separately.

President makes conservative bloggers weep (by Paul McLeary)
[Last week] the White House extended its first ever invitation to a group of bloggers to sit down with the president for a little Q&A… These guys got some face time with the President of the United States, and the best they can do is titter about is how cool he is, and that he has the power to make a “Illinois farm kid” cry? Give me a break. In case we needed a reminder, this is why the blogworld is not yet a viable substitute for actual journalism.
Sorry, Paul, but I don’t see any difference between these bloggers and Peggy Noonan or Chris Matthews or any of the other Bush swooners in the so-called mainstream media.

How Alexis Debat Managed To Cheat Everyone In Washington
How could someone, in the age of the Internet, manage to fake interviews with world leaders without being caught, while working for the famous investigative unit of one of the biggest American television networks?

El Baradei Fights Off Drumbeat For Iran War, Warns Pre-War Iraq Failures Are Being Repeated
By all accounts, there is an increasing clamor in recent weeks from the right-wing for military action against Iran. U.S. News writes that calls for “stronger actions are intensifying, including among some U.S. officials.” Last week, Fox News reported that German officials were giving up on new sanctions against Iran, helping push the U.S. closer to a decision on a military strike.

Sen. Reed’s Democratic Response Beats Bush Speech In Cable Ratings On Fox And CNN
In what was billed as major televised address on Iraq, President Bush last week “recycled tired rhetoric” and “mumbo jumbo” about staying the course. Sen. Jack Reed delivered a direct response, pledging the Democratic leadership would “exercise our Constitutional duties and profoundly change our military involvement in Iraq.”
Click through to see a table with the numbers.

Correction? Adm. Fallon denies animosity with Petraeus
If Bill Fallon has a bad relationship with David Petraeus, he’s sure not saying so publicly… Fallon, to whom Petraeus reports, does not deny that the talks leading up to Petraeus’s report and recommendations for future strategy included some lively arguments. “Everybody’s going to have a difference of opinion,” Fallon said. “We are where we want to be right now. How we got there is our business.” The bottom line, Fallon said, is that he endorses the U.S. strategy and that the overall effort, in his view, is progressing.

Cafferty admits to drinking the Kool Aid in the run-up to the Iraq Invasion
On Sunday’s Reliable Sources, Jack Cafferty did something that most of the punditry class needs to do in this country and that is to take responsibility for his words. He admitted that he was caught up in the national hysteria that followed 9/11—-manipulated by the White House propaganda and pushed for war with Iraq. As usual, Howard Kurtz uses right-wing framing to ask Cafferty about his criticisms of the Bush Administration. No shock there.
Click through to watch the video.

Addendum to Greenspan’s War-for-Oil Quote (by gooznews)
Today, the Associated Press carried a news story that prominently featured Alan Greenspan war-for-oil quote. I don’t know if my mailing yesterday deserves credit for that (there are some AP folks on my email distribution list), but I’m glad it is gaining wider distribution. I heard it in a “top of the hour” radio newscast this morning.
I think we’re making a difference, friends.

Dr. Greenspan’s Mysterious Media Tour (by Reed Hundt)
From the Wall St Journal today: “He [Greenspan] says he felt ‘getting Saddam out of there was very important,’…because he was convinced the Iraq dictator wanted to control the Strait of Hormuz, through which a sizable portion of the world’s oil passes…He conveyed that view to [Cheney and Rumsfeld].”… Iraq has no port or border on the Strait. Saddam had no naval capability of consequence after the first Gulf War. He had no air force. On the ground, he would have had to fight his way through a legion of enemies to approach the Strait from either side, and plainly would have been crushed. The U.S. Navy is invincible in those waters. At least one can see why the Fed has no statutorily delegated role in military matters.

Greenspanspeak and the Bush Tax Cut (by Dean Baker)
Greenspan knew that there was a stock bubble, and presumably by January of 2001 he recognized that it was finally bursting. This meant that he could not have really believed at the time that there was a risk that the government actually would see the large surpluses that were projected, and therefore he could not have really been concerned that the debt would be paid off too quickly.  In short, the line about paying off the debt too quickly was simply an excuse that Greenspan gave for supporting President Bush’s tax cut. It would be appropriate to mention this fact in the accounts of Greenspan’s book.

Greenspan Discovers Housing Bubble (by Dean Baker)
In an interview with the Financial Times Alan Greenspan said the United States has a housing bubble. He said that, at a minimum, there would be large single-digit percentage point declines in US house prices and that he would not be surprised if the fall was in double digits. Greenspan also claims that he had warned about the housing bubble when he made a comment that some housing markets were experiencing “froth.” Greenspan’s outright acknowledgement that the U.S. is experiencing a housing bubble is huge news. His failure to do anything serious to confront a bubble that he had recognized at the time also deserves media attention.

High Concept Bamboozlement (by Josh Marshall)
Did the government of Syria take a delivery of nuclear components from North Korea only to have the Israeli Air Force destroy the equipment in a high stakes air raid two weeks ago? That is the story you’ll read in the Times of London. And the Daily Telegraph… But as I learned while doing full-time reporting on intelligence and national security topics the British press — even, perhaps especially prestige outlets like the Telegraph, the Times, and the FT — turn out to be far more porous than the American papers to agitprop of this kind.

Media Matters for America headlines

CNN aired Romney attack on Clinton health care plan without noting his reversal

Mark Levin reports role in Giuliani attack on Clinton

CNN displayed Giuliani attack ad against Clinton, while reporting on Cheney criticism of MoveOn ad

Kurtz responds to criticism of claim that Fox is “entitled” to misinform

Newsday repeated misleading claim from 2006 NY Times article about Clinton’s contributions from “health care industry”

NY Times: Schumer’s praise of Mukasey shows Dems have “little appetite for fight” — but he was Schumer’s suggestion

ABCNews.com uncritically quoted Romney’s attack on Clinton health plan

Couric described soldiers’ war-zone deaths as “ironic[]“

Good news: Chemerinsky returns to UC Irvine post
UC Irvine Chancellor Michael V. Drake and Erwin Chemerinsky have reached an agreement that will return the liberal legal scholar to the dean’s post at the university’s new law school, the university announced this morning. With the deal, they hope to end the controversy that erupted when Chemerinsky was dropped as the first dean of the Donald Bren School of Law.

Lohan, Hilton, Spears: The Media’s Insatiable Appetite For Celebrity Addicts
Tabloid entertainment media makes young female celebrities with drug problems seem chic while trivializing the depth of the addictions that they, along with thousands of other women, face.

‘NYT’ Posts Filmmaker’s Video ‘Letter to Editor’ on Bremer Op-Ed
For the first time ever, The New York Times has posted a video letter to the editor. The opinion is from Charles Ferguson, the anti-war filmmaker, who responded critically to L. Paul Bremer’s recent Op-Ed concerning the dismantling of the Iraqi Army.

MySpace to Discuss Latest Effort to Customize Ads for Members
The Web’s largest social network says it can tailor ads to the personal information that its 110 million active users leave on their profile pages.

Google to Sell Web-Page Ads Visible on Mobile Phones
The company said that its new product would establish a cellphone advertising network in which Google would match ads with the content of mobile Web pages.

Moving Downtown: AOL Seeks New Image
AOL will move its headquarters from Dulles, Va., next spring as tries to retool itself as an advertising company that competes with the likes of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.