Permanent link to MTA daily media news

A Critical Juncture For Media Reform
The new Free Press Action Network will be a forum to help expand this growing movement across the country.

I will be a guest on Tony Seton’s America Back on Track today at 3:30 PM ET.  Listen to Tony from 3:00 to 4:00 PM ET every weekday on the Quality News Network.

Access to Web appears cut in Myanmar
YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar’s government appeared to have cut public Internet access and troops occupied key Buddhist monasteries on Friday, witnesses and diplomats said, in an effort to end demonstrations against the ruling junta.

Spoonfed citizens (by Jeff Jarvis)
In [the] video from [Wednesday] night’s debate, Barack Obama makes politics a bit too cause-and-effect, in my book. Sound bite: “One of the things the next president has to do is to stop fanning people’s fears. If we spend all our time feeding the American people fear and conflict and division then they become fearful and conflicted and divided. If we feed them hope and we feed them reason and tolerance then they will become tolerant and reasonable and hopeful.” Isn’t that essentially insulting? We are politicians’ empty vessels. We are molded by their rhetoric? The Presidency isn’t a PBS self-improvement show. It’s an executive job. Sounds like Obama has been hanging out with Oprah too much.

Financial Modeling for Fun and Profiteers (by Barry Crimmins)
the Huffington Post. It just got done raising $5 million dollars from Softbank Capital and other corporate concerns. Not a dime of this money is going to the dozens of writers who draw the traffic to millionaire Arianna Huffington’s website… Don’t look now but the South has done it again–  and on a “liberal” website! They have brought back slavery under cover of the term “financial model.” Last I checked, great companies pay their laborers in more than visibility, promotion and distribution. They pay money.
But Barry, Arianna may start asking her contributors to pay to post on her websites, if she reads about what Will Ferrell did for his new movie.  See below.

Boy gets $47,000 shot to act in Will Ferrell comedy
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The parent of a 10-year-old boy has won the bidding for a coveted spot to appear alongside comedian Will Ferrell in an upcoming movie, paying $47,100 in an Internet charity auction.

Rather chokes up, and hunkers down
Former CBS “Evening News” anchor Dan Rather choked back tears on several occasions today when discussing his decision to file a lawsuit against CBS… When asked by Carol Joynt, host of the “Q&A Café” held at Nathans restaurant who worked with Rather at CBS in the 1970s, whether “he’d like to” call President Bush as a witness in the trial, Rather paused, then said “I’d like not to answer the question,” leaving both Joynt and audience members wondering whether the newsman has Bush in his sights.”

Spies Prep Reporters On Protecting Secrets
Frustrated by press leaks about its most sensitive electronic surveillance work, the secretive NSA convened a series of off-the-record “seminars” in recent years to teach reporters about the damage caused by such leaks and to discourage reporting that could interfere with the agency’s mission to spy on America’s enemies.

Brooks Attacks Entitlements: The Courage of a Coward (by Dean Baker)
David Brooks is back again spreading dishonesty as the honest broker. He is upset about “entitlements” and how they are going to break the budget… As everyone familiar with the data knows, Medicare and Medicaid are the real problems, as projections showing exploding private sector health care costs make these program unaffordable. The implication of this analysis is that we have to fix the private health care system in order to keep both the private and public sector solvent. But, this would mean going after powerful interests like the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and the doctors.

Violent Crimes in U.S. Near 5-Year Peak
AP runs another story written by the Bush administration: “A five-year look at crime rates show that the number of murders, robberies, rapes and other violent offenses committed in 2006 is returning to the peak reached in 2002. Crime dropped dramatically after that, the FBI data show….” But 2002 was in no way a “peak” year for violent crime… The only reason the article mentions 2002 is because the big graph the FBI handed out started with 2002—and the reporter was too lazy to look at the full chart to see what the real story was.

Rush Limbaugh On Saving Troops’ Lives: “Whatever”
Newsflash: Rush Limbaugh just described soldiers who are in favor of U.S. withdrawal from Iraq as “phony soldiers.” This will naturally explode into a huge controversy. Pundits like Richard Cohen will scowl darkly and demand that Republicans condemn Rush over it, just as they demanded that Dems condemn MoveOn for criticizing Mighty Scholar-Warrior Petraeus. Pundits will say for days and days that it has put the Republicans on the defensive. (Editor’s note: Sarcasm too heavy-handed here. Please tone down.)

Media Matters for America headlines

Members of Congress denounced Limbaugh’s “phony soldiers” smear

O’Reilly claimed Media Matters had “personally attacked” him, but failed to offer any examples

O’Reilly: “[I]f I could strangle these people and not go to hell and get executed … I would — but I can’t.”

On CNN, Peterson called NAACP “a hate group”

Fox’s Gibson claimed “George Soros is after Bill O’Reilly … over some benign remarks”

NBC debate moderators can’t get past Edwards haircut story, despite acknowledgment it’s “silly”

On her blog, Bruce attacked “the Soros Media Gestapo, Media Matters”

Matthews’ post-debate analysis: “Let me tell you how short Hillary’s leash is”

AJ-C upends its organization chart, reinvents news process
Carl Sessions Stepp says the Atlanta Journal-Constitution “is not only rethinking journalism, it is flash-forwarding into new ways of doing it. …The strategy of thinking Web first, talked about nearly everywhere, is demonstrated hourly.” Stepp also looks at the Mercury News, Politico and other changing newsrooms.

Treat Controversial College Editor Like A Student– Not A Villain
Is embattled Colorado student editor David McSwane, who wrote that now-famous “F— Bush” message, the new evil monster of college newspapering or the deprived First Amendment stalwart expressing his freedom of speech? Neither, he is a student trying to learn.

The Culture of “K-Ville”
FOX’s new drama portrays a post-Katrina New Orleans. But in reducing its tragedy to a cop drama, have the real lessons been lost?

Gigapan: Richer Context, Detail from Digital Photos
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed an intriguing way to enhance digital photography that could have significant implications for photojournalism, news sites, and any effort to share visual information or experiences.

Google’s YouTube Starts Program to Help Charities
Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) — Google Inc.’s YouTube video site will grant some non-profit organizations their own channels so they can solicit donations and upload footage of their work. The channels will include buttons that let people make donations through Google Checkout, YouTube said today in a statement. Google, based in Mountain View, California, will process the donations for free through 2008.

Armani in Second Life
Armani’s virtual store in Second Life has opened today, and the designer himself has gone to the grand opening as his avatar, and was interviewed by Style.com’s fashion director Candy Pratts Price for the event. Second Life users can now don themselves in Armani clothing, purchased with Linden dollars or directly through his online store for non-virtual items. Finally, a really smart integration of a clothing brand and Second Life, with options for purchasing real life items as well. Furniture next? Please?
Not enough consumerism in our real lives?  We have to have it in pretend lives, too?

Another Good Thing: Marthapedia
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to Launch Social-Networking Site

Hollywood studios go after two piracy sites
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – The Motion Picture Assn. of America has filed suit against two Web sites that it claims are allowing Internet users to view pirated films, many of which are still in theaters.

Verizon Wireless to allow abortion texts
NEWARK, N.J. – Reversing course, Verizon Wireless on Thursday said it will allow an abortion rights group to use its mobile network for a sign-up text messaging program.

Texting, Facebook Used to Alert Students
NEW YORK (AP) – When a masked freshman came to campus at St. John’s University with what police said was a loaded rifle sticking out of a bag, the school alerted students via cell-phone text messages within 18 minutes. And when a suicidal gunman was reported to be on the loose at the University of Wisconsin, the school sent out mass e-mails and took out an ad on Facebook to warn students.

Google’s Game-Changing Phone
Mobile biggies are quaking at the idea of competition from a free, ad-based service

Google Defends the DoubleClick Deal
In Senate hearings on the proposed acquisition, critics say the deal would give Google too much control of the online advertising market

Yahoo’s Quality vs. Google’s Quantity. Who Wins?
Compete has just compiled a study that shows Yahoo’s superiority over Google when it comes to search results… What Compete looked at were the referrals from search queries done across Yahoo, Google and MSN/Live. An entire third of search queries performed on Google led to a dead end, meaning people weren’t clicking on a single search result. This is the silver lining that so many search engine developers look to when creating their own way to navigate the semantic web.
I don’t use Yahoo, but the reason why I don’t click any of the results on many of my Google searches is that the search results show me what I’m looking for.  Seems to me that Google could improve its click results by including less text in its search results.  But I hope it doesn’t.  It saves me time the way they have it.