Permanent link to MTA daily media news

The Murky Blackwater Story Fuels Iraq Coverage: Sept. 30 - Oct. 5, 2007
For years, journalists struggled to report on the activities the private security firms in Iraq, companies who functioned in some ways as private armies. But last week, when the story of one such company moved from the streets of Baghdad to the hearing rooms on Capitol Hill, the media shed more light on the mystery.

The Public’s Right To Know
By a 15-to-2 vote, the Judiciary Committee approved legislation to grant reporters limited protection against being forced to reveal confidential sources in federal court.

Keith Olbermann found a link on last night’s show between the FISA bill introduced yesterday and the administration’s announcement that al Qaida is trying to establish a terrorist cell here in the U.S.  Is the administration trying to scare Congress into passing it, as they did the last time?  The transcript isn’t available as of this writing, but should be available here later today.

Petraeus adviser: Petraeus’ testimony ‘potentially misleading.’
In his column yesterday, New York Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt examined “the confusing world of statistics from Iraq.” As TPM’s Greg Sargent notes today, Hoyt quotes one of Gen. David Petraeus’ own advisers, Stephen Biddle, saying that the Petraeus’ September testimony to Congress was “potentially misleading” because it emphasized “isolated points” rather than “broad trends”:

Charlie Savage: Cheney Plotted Bush’s Imperial Presidency ‘Thirty Years Ago’
The Bush administration has long held that President Bush’s expanded executive power is justified due to 9/11… But in his new book, Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy, Boston Globe reporter Charlie Savage reveals that Cheney has been on a thirty-year quest to implement his views of unfettered executive power.

Williams: ‘Thank God’ Cheney was in office on 9/11.
For his new book, Reality Show, Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz conducted “extensive interviews with journalists and executives at all levels of ABC, NBC and CBS” about their networks’ coverage of the Iraq war and the post-9/11 era. In one of those interviews, someone revealed to Kurtz that on 9/11, NBC anchor Brian Williams found relief in the fact that “that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell were on the team”.

Iran: destroying Iraq . . . except when it’s not (by A.J. Rossmiller at AMERICAblog)
Over the weekend, General Petraeus increased the belligerent rhetoric against Iran, claiming that Iran could be the biggest long term threat to Iraqi security. Iran, he explained, is getting weapons into Iraq, sending military and political officials into the country, and coordinating with militia groups… But leaving aside the hypocrisy, on the *very same day,* news came out that Iran had helped broker a peace deal between the two major Shia militias

Beck cites ‘Law and Order’ to advocate war with Iran.
Yesterday on his CNN Headline News show, Glenn Beck stated, “War with Iran is no longer a question of ‘if,’ I believe it’s a question of ‘when.’” He pointed to the tv show Law and Order as evidence

Resource: Bush Scandals List
I’ve been hoping that someone would start a complete list and keep it updated.  Looks like this is it.

Judgment Daze (by digby)
[Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday:] “This 12-year-old kid [Graeme Frost] that the Democrats used in the Saturday radio address to whine and moan and cry to President Bush about the SCHIP children’s health program, it turns out that the family of this kid sends its kids to “one of Baltimore’s expensive private schools.” This family owns a house in a neighborhood of homes valued in the $400,000 to $500,000 range. This family bought commercial property in 1999 for $160,000.”… As most of us who read blogs know by now, it’s Rush who has just lied his ample ass off. (The true facts are here.) But now millions of half crazed wingnuts will think that this family has been scamming the government when it just isn’t true.
But Rush got it from a post on FreeRepublic.com!  How could it not be true?  This is another one of those lies that will NEVER, EVER die.  It will be brought up over and over and over again, careening around the nutosphere, alighting from time to time in the mainstream media, for the rest of eternity.

Outsourcing The Dirt Gathering (by digby)
I wonder why Mitch McConnell’s office didn’t outright deny that his office had been pimping this smear [about the Frost family] to any journalist who’d listen?… I would assume they’d deny it if they hadn’t done it, wouldn’t you? Does the [minority] leader usually use his office to disseminate the work of Freepers and stalkers? Do reporters often find that kind of information useful?

When Rhetoric Meets Reality (by John Cole at Balloon Juice)
If you look through [the Frost] family’s dossier, it appears they are doing everything Republicans say they should be doing- hell, their story is almost what you would consider a checklist for good, red-blooded American Republican voters… I simply can not believe this is what the Republican party has become. I just can’t. It just makes me sick to think all those years of supporting this party, and this is what it has become.
Welcome aboard, John.  Some of us began to notice in the early 90s the takeover of the Republican Party by fifth graders.

Enforcing Corporate Responsibility, Conservative-Style (by Melissa McEwan )
I’ve got a new piece up at The Guardian’s Comment is Free about the wingnuts going apeshit over Google’s logo: “[I]t appears that Google had the unmitigated temerity to honor the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik launch last week, by replacing its second “g” with a drawing of the satellite. But it’s not just their honoring of dirty Communist space junk that has conservatives questioning the patriotism of The Google—apparently those search engine scumbags also failed to do some silly rubbish with their logo on the US public holidays of Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Oh, the humanity!”

Rudy Keeps Telling Same Fib About Hillary — Because Media Won’t Call Him On It (by Greg Sargent)
Rudy uses [a] line on Hillary frequently [that]s an almost comically dishonest distortion of what Hillary actually said in a 1996 interview with Brian Lamb. In that interview, Hillary quoted another author saying that the unfettered free market had been radically disruptive, not destructive, and actually went on to praise free markets, saying “that the market is the driving force behind our prosperity … but that it cannot be permitted just to run roughshod over people’s lives as well.” Yet Rudy continues to use this distortion with abandon.

Media Matters for America headlines

Debate moderators allowed Giuliani to misrepresent Clinton statement on free markets

On Hannity & Colmes, Coulter vowed to fight Clinton because “I do not want to be fitted for a burqa”

Fox & Friends aired “Dean scream” and “Clinton cackle” to show purported similarities

Limbaugh falsely claimed Reid and other Democrats “do not show publicly” with VoteVets representatives

Colbert: “Hey, Media Matters, you want to end offensive speech? Then stop recording it for people who would be offended.”Grin and Colbert It: Excerpt from Stephen’s New Book
Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report” has gone out and written something that appears between hard covers and looks suspiciously like a …. book?… Here is an excerpt from ["I Am America (and So Can You!)":] “Turns out, it takes more than thirty minutes a night to fix everything that’s destroying America, and that’s where this book comes in. It’s not just some collection of reasoned arguments supported by facts. That’s the coward’s way out.”

Associated Press sues VeriSign over news Web site
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Associated Press is suing VeriSign Inc to stop its online subsidiary Moreover Technologies Inc from publishing AP news reports without permission… The lawsuit also says [Verisign’s] Moreover is “ultimately selling access to those works immediately upon their publication to paying subscribers … In one or more their services, defendants deliver the entire AP article.”

Parade Adds Edit Supplement
The Parade Selects pullouts are designed to be single-sponsor, most likely appealing to marketers with multiple brands. But unlike advertorials, Parade will produce Selects using its own edit staff and retain editorial control.

The first calls to block Imus’ return are heard.
Don Imus as well as whatever station or syndicator becomes his new broadcast home can expect a lot of attention. The National Association of Black Journalists says his return to radio is “unimaginable” and it’s calling on Citadel and Fox-TV to halt negotiations with Imus. NABJ president Barbara Ciara says “It is our hope that Citadel Broadcasting and Fox News will put decency and good broadcast practices ahead of a dysfunctional alliance.”

Maybe it’s time for CBS News to hire a tough ombudsman
A week after “60 Minutes” aired what many considered an infomercial for Clarence Thomas’ book, “CBS Sunday Morning” did a “fawning” Lynne Cheney profile — reported by Rita Braver, whose husband publishes Cheney’s books. “No one else at CBS was available to do the Cheney story?” asks Dick Fluhrer. || Lee Rood writes: How nice that Braver has a network at her disposal to help her husband with his advertising.

Fiorina Joins New Fox Business Channel
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of computer and printer maker Hewlett-Packard Co., has signed on as a contributor with Fox News’ soon-to-launch business news channel, the media company announced Tuesday. Fiorina was one of corporate America’s most divisive figures during nearly six years at Palo Alto-based HP. Fox did not specify her role at the new channel, which debuts next week.

Concerns over Comcast TV (Colorado Democratic Party, thanks to AMERICAblog)
I have received a number of complaints over actions by Comcast TV. Apparently they are only providing CNN and Fox news in their basic package. The recent move of MSNBC to digital has created great concern on the part of Democrats that the news is slanted toward a more conservative message.

NBC Universal Gets Oxygen for $925M
NBC Universal is acquiring Oxygen Media for $925 million, with $875 million net of financial assets… The cable network started by Oprah Winfrey, Tom Werner and Marcy Carsey, and backed by Paul Allen, has made a pretty big impact with its television programming as well as its Internet strategy, which garnered a good amountof the female demographic as it’s a hub for entertainment and information.

AT&T Changing its Questionable ToS
After facing criticism for its rather vague and very troublesome Terms of Service brought to our attention last week, AT&T has announced that it will modify the language used in its ToS… AT&T says that it will make it more clear as to what the original terms mean, and how they will be enforced. This may not make anybody feel any better, but AT&T has indicated that it won’t be booting you just for expressing your opinion about AT&T.

TiVo to Feature Rhapsody Music Service
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - TiVo Inc. is introducing music to its mix of entertainment services, offering owners of the company’s digital video recorders access through their TVs to the Rhapsody music service.

Remember when newspapers looked down on bloggers?
“That was then,” writes Alana Semuels. “Now newspaper websites, desperate for readers and revenue, are increasingly in cahoots with bloggers, posting and plugging them and even sharing advertising revenue. Purists may sniff at these online liaisons but, as the print newspaper industry shrinks, they may be inevitable.”

Blumner: Don’t let reader posts ruin online editorial pages
Robyn Blumner would like to see digital editorial pages evolve into a place for value-added conversation, and not just a bunch of people writing whatever occurs to them. Public radio’s “Talk of the Nation” is the quintessential value-added conversation, she says. “There is almost never any ugly name-calling or disrespect, and sometimes I learn as much from the callers as from the guest.”

HuffPost exec’s no-pay-for-bloggers remark floors Dumenco
Coming right out and saying that Huffington Post bloggers will never be paid takes cojones, says Simon Dumenco. “Not since the Pets.com sock puppet scored a deal to write his memoir (published in 2000 as ‘Me by Me: The Pets.com Sock Puppet Book’) has there been a more tellingly, creepily poetic new-media moment.”

Recommending the tail (by Jeff Jarvis)
I think there’s a lesson … for old, blockbuster-oriented economies — entertainment and media, mainly: How do you improve your product for all by having more people involved in it? And how does that motivate people to spread it for you? We have seen this happening in online forums: the more people who are involved, the more people get involved (though there is a tipping point; you can have too many people).

Bloggers rave about restaurant after getting a free meal
Why is Dine restaurant in Chicago such a hit with Yelp reviewers? “One thing that probably didn’t hurt: It fed many of the reviewers free,” writes Katy McLaughlin. Dine spent about $1,500 on an event for nearly 100 Yelp members. They were treated to an open bar, duck roulade appetizers and red velvet cupcakes for dessert — then were given certificates for discounts on subsequent meals.

Cubans go to unusual lengths to post blogs
A handful of  independent bloggers are opening up a crack in the government’s tight control over media and information to give the rest of the world a glimpse of life in a one-party, Communist state.

More Bands and Musicians Giving Away Free Downloads
Bands Jamiroquai and Oasis may be following Radiohead’s lead to let fans download new music from the band’s latest album for free, if they visit the site for the radio station XFM. With no contracts to labels, Jamiroquai and Oasis could be considering this move, which often gains a good amount of traction from the fans and spurs the viral growth of their content.

Music industry finds new beat in online recommendations
Several websites have latched onto the concept of recommendations as a way to sell new music, with one iLike attracting more than 10 million users in just a few months.

Woman Hit By File-Sharing Verdict Fights Back
The Minnesota woman ordered to pay $220,000 after being found guilty of illegally downloading copyrighted music is loudly voicing her own opinion about the case, including plans to appeal the decision.

File-Sharing Students Fight Copyright Constraints
A national organization sprouting up on college campuses advocates loosening the restrictions of copyright law so that information — from software to music to research to art — can be freely shared.

Second Life, IBM in open borders for virtual worlds
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - IBM and Linden Labs, the operator of the Second Life virtual world, said on Tuesday they will work on ways to eventually let people use the a single online persona in different online services.
Because what the world needs is more encouragement to escape into fake personas.

Want a Free Virtual Car?
Acura, Reuters Give Away SUVs to Avatars in Second Life
Because what the world needs is more consumerism in its fantasy life, as well as its real life.

Live Talks for Readers & Presidential Candidates at Washington Post
The Washington Post’s online sector will be hosting a series of online discussions between readers and presidential candidates. These live discussions, each of which will be an hour in length, will feature individual Republican and Democratic presidential candidates.

eBay’s Social Network Revolves Around Your Neighborhoods
eBay is getting ready to launch Neighborhoods, which is a new feature that aggregates the many micro-communities that are built around common interests. Neighborhoods should be officially launched later this week. Neighborhoods is essentially a place for you to “socialize” with other eBay members, should you so desire. It pulls in a variety of content from other eBay sites, like listings, blogs, eBay Guides and Reviews, and also lets you post message boards, upload photos, social mapping tools, and other ways to connect with users.

Jordan jails royal critic over e-mails
A critic of Jordan’s royal family was sentenced to two years in jail on Tuesday for sending e-mails abroad that the court ruled to be carrying “false news” and harmful to the dignity of the state.

Steve Ballmer Attacks Google’s Gmail Ads (by Kristen Nicole at Mashable)During a speech at the Microsoft Accelerator Programme in the UK last week, CEO Steve Ballmer spoke on the future of web-based services, the use of advertising to support a software business, and the inability to monetize Windows Live Hotmail, because unlike Google, Microsoft “doesn’t read your email.”… We’ve all seen the contextually related text ads along side our Gmail messages.

Google buys Finnish instant-message startup Jaiku
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc has acquired the Finnish company Jaiku, one of a new class of start-ups that offer instant-messaging tools for Web and mobile phone users to keep track of their friends’ daily activities.
Will ads in instant messages be far behind?

Study: Google Gets Bulk of World Search
NEW YORK (AP) - Around the world, Internet users are conducting about 1.4 million searches every minute - most of them through Google Inc., a new comScore study estimates.

Google Plans Service to Allow Advertisers to Use Material from YouTube Videos
The new service represents Google’s first steps toward turning its powerful ad network, which places ads on Internet sites, into a system for distributing content.

Internet Company to Let Consumers Profit From Posted Videos
By combining social networking and online video, Blinkx hopes to better compete with YouTube, the market-leading video-sharing service owned by Google.

Companies Try New Ways To Boost Web Video Quality
BitTorrent Inc., a leading developer of peer-to-peer file-sharing software, is planning today to unveil a technology that it says will make high-quality Web video affordable to a wider range of content providers.

As Customers Flock to the Web, Intel Gives Chase With Its Ad Budget
The familiar “Intel inside” logo will soon be seen more frequently online and less often in the traditional media.

For Google, Advertising and Phones Go Together
Google, which seeks to extend its dominance of online advertising to the mobile Internet, is expected to unveil the fruit of its secret mobile phone project later this year.

Some New and Better Information on How to Make an Ad Work
The Starch service, which measures print advertising effectiveness, is undergoing a major makeover in a sign of the growing importance of accountability to advertisers.