Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Military returns tape it took from AP
BAGHDAD - The U.S. military returned a videotape and digital camera memory card Monday that American soldiers had seized last week from an AP Television News cameraman.

Field Web Access Can Help Live Event Coverage
This weekend 436 people were arrested in Copenhagen when young activists tried to occupy a house. Modkraft.dk, which has always supported activists, launched two tools to help publish eyewitness reports to a wider audience. The first is a Google map on which small figures moved around to show the positions of eyewitnesses moved. The second tool is a simple list of text messages. The site reported from six to nine hours about police movements, various demonstrations, and sub-groups of activists that tried to penetrate police barriers.

Joe Wilson: “Chronic Liar” Robert Novak Is “Going Straight To Hell” (by Greg Sargent)
[F]ormer Ambassador Joe Wilson … angrily disputed Robert Novak’s latest assertion about the outing of his CIA operative wife, adding that if the columnist isn’t going to confession, “he’s going straight to Hell.” Wilson’s angry over a story [Monday] in The Hill which quoted Novak saying that Wilson did not forcefully object when Novak spoke to him before publishing his now infamous column naming his wife, Valerie Plame… Novak claimed [that] Wilson was primarily focused on not being named in Novak’s article solely as an opponent of the Iraq war. “He’s lying,” Wilson responded a few moments ago when I reached him on his cell phone.

Rabble Rouser
After a target of one of Michelle Malkin’s hate campaigns committed suicide you’d think Little Lulu would show a little restraint. But no; Malkin and others on the Right have formed a full-scale howling mob to attack the family of 12-year-old Graeme Frost. Righties have been calling the Frosts, harassing them with personal questions. Malkin personally drove by the Frosts’ home so that she could describe it to her readers, and she went to a commercial property they own and interviewed one of the tenants. Why? Because Graeme appeared in a commercial in support of the S-CHIP program.

The country started going to hell when they told women they don’t have to just buckle immediately (by Amanda Marcotte)
So, Dr. Helen [at Pajamas Media] has an interview with Glenn Sacks about how all the problems in the world can be traced to bitches who don’t act right and just do as they’re told… It’s a truly nauseating attempt to rewrite reality, starting with Dr. Helen’s mind-boggling implication that the accused in the Duke rape case were found guilty of crimes they didn’t commit and are sitting in jail.

MSNBC: Eager to paint Hillary as a harpy
In an Iowa appearance over the weekend, Hillary Clinton fielded a question on her support for the Lieberman-Kyl Amendment…  The exchange has been described as testy or harsh, though it just sounds like she got annoyed and accused Rolph of being a plant.  Kudos to Rolph for asking a question the traditional media hasn’t and kudos to Hillary for not relying on pre-approved audiences and questions like our current president. But … MSNBC covered the same non-issue no less than 3 times in the course of an hour, with such charming descriptions as “shrill” and “fishwife-y”.
Click through to watch the MSNBC video.

Is The Economy “Out Of The Woods?” (by Danny Schechter)
Can We Trust The New Jobs Report That Has Led To Rosy Forecasts?

Gallup: Republicans remain more skeptical of media
Republicans “remain deeply distrustful of the national news media — in sharp contrast to Democrats, who have a great deal more trust in the media’s accuracy”… “Only about a third of Americans today say that the news media are ‘just about right’ when it comes to ideological balance,” [Frank Newport] writes. “More than twice as many Americans say the news media are too liberal (45%) rather than too conservative (18%).”
Showing once again the success of the right wing’s 35-year assault on the media.  Too bad progressives don’t see the need to confront that propaganda in a comprehensive fashion.

Black & White & Red Faces All Over: Chicago Law Hurts Free Papers
A Chicago litter law passed unanimously last winter to bar the indiscriminate door-to-door distribution of menus, brochures, and other advertising flyers also bans many circulation practices for free newspapers.

Russians Commemorate Murdered Journalist
Thousands of people across Russia yesterday held protests and vigils to mark the first anniversary of the death of Anna Politkovskaya, the journalist who was shot dead by an assassin in Moscow.

Thomson’s bid for Reuters faces ’serious doubts’ by EU
Thomson Corp.’s (TOC) $17.2 billion offer for news and information company Reuters Group (RTRSY) will face an in-depth inquiry by EU antitrust regulators, the European Commission said Monday.

Magazines Going Mobile: ‘A Real Business’?
There are 233 million people in America who have mobile phones, or 76 percent of the population… Consumer spending on mobile “infotainment,” [a] report says, is expected to double between 2007 and 2011 to $64 billion. And Nokia predicts the number of mobile phone users will top three billion worldwide by 2009. With all of these juicy numbers, it’s no wonder many publishers are hell-bent on capturing part of the mobile space, and, of course, figuring out how to monetize it.

Rush makes $2 to $3 million a month. (via email, Inside Radio daily newsletter, no link available)
That’s according to monthly filings Rush Limbaugh has been required to fill-out for the Florida Department of Corrections.  Now in his final weeks of probation, agents say Limbaugh hasn’t broken any rules in the 18 months since he’s been under watch under a plea deal on drug charges.  Limbaugh tells the Palm Beach Post “This whole thing has made me a better person.”
From Steve Sinton, one of the creators of Air America Radio: “Down from the $4M+/mo in the $50/5 yr deal Clear Channel signed him to before pleading out to the drug charges that have decimated his audience. Actually, the calendar decimates his audience. His number 1 demo is ‘Dead.’ Huge 70+. Try selling that someone other than Gold Bond. If you believe the American Legion, 5000 of his listeners die every week.”

Internet radio: Potential is great, listeners are few.
Spring 2007 data shows less than 1% of diaries contain listening to Internet radio. But when listeners do tune-in online, they seem to favor local stations.

Comcast must listen (by Jeff Jarvis)
Here’s my ideal cable company: * I want my cable company to treat me with the respect it would give a business and issue me an SLA (service-level agreement) that guarantees me uptime, speed, and response time to problems on the internet, TV, and phones — with penalties if they fail… * I want my cable company to guarantee that they will not restrict any content on the pipe I pay for…. * I want my cable company to offer wi-fi all over my town and to come to roaming agreements that let me get wi-fi anywhere I travel. I’m willing to pay more for that. But I want it.
Click through for more good ideas on what we ought to be able to expect from our cable companies.

DailyMe’s Basic Personalized Feed Reader (by Kristen Nicole at Mashabel)
DailyMe is a news feed aggregator that lets you select the type of content you’d like to receive on regular basis, and then select the delivery preferences for this content. As if you needed another feed reader. The fact that this is yet another feed reader made me wary to even check out the service, but once I created my account, I was happy with how easy it is to choose your content.

Google Labs Offers Info View for Replacing Typical Queries
Google Labs has just made available a new search option called Info View. This new feature lets you select a different way of obtaining details on your search query, including a map, measurements, dates, and images. This tool is similar to Yahoo Search Assistant.

NBC SLEPT ON VIDEO’S DIGITAL RIGHTS
October 7, 2007 — THE latest skit-turned-video-cult-classic from “Saturday Night Live” is Andy Samberg’ s “I Ran So Far,” and it’s burning up the Internet, bringing well-earned attention to the comedic talent - but it is also leaving NBC’s legal eagles a bit red-faced. It seems NBC never secured the digital rights to the background music used during the video and therefore couldn’t up load the piece onto its YouTube channel or post it on its own Website.

Orkut: A World of Ambition
Google moves to revamp its social network, which is surging in Asia and Latin America, and take aim at Facebook and MySpace

CBS To Bring Last.fm’s Recommendations to Letterman?
CBS president Leslie Moonves discussed some of the company’s goals with online acquisitions and investments–namely Last.fm, the London-based music search and discovery recommendation tool… The technology of Last.fm is a primary focus for CBS, with possible integration of its search and recommendation tools for the creation of social networks around other types of content, including sports and news shows, like The David Letterman Show.
The David Letterman Show is a NEWS show?

Twitter Ads on the Way?
Twitter may be layering in a premium service for businesses looking to reach its users. This is reportedly the way in which the very popular micro-blogging tool will make money. Faced with the same problem that oh so many startups need to deal with, Twitter must too pay the bills. Avoiding a typical ad distribution network, Twitter may by incorporating branded channels for companies.

Google Pushing YouTube Clips with Ads
Google is finally pushing out ads along with its YouTube videos. This will be integrated with AdSense, enabling the rolling out ad options in a similar manner to what Google has done with other media markets like radio and print ads. The ads will be graphics that show atop the video or as a link that displays along the bottom of the player. Web publishers will be able to choose the type of YouTube videos that will play on their sites, and advertisements will be integrated into the clips.

MoMuni Tracks Buses for your iPhone
A company called NextMuni tracks buses in the San Francisco area using GPS technology in order to let you know the estimated time of arrival for various bus routes. The service is now available on your iPhone, at MoMuni.com.