Permanent link to MTA daily media news

From “Informing” to “Empowering” (by Mitchel Resnick, writing at MediaShift’s Idea Lab)
For the past 20 years, I have been designing new technologies … with the explicit goal of shifting away from a “broadcast” model of education, to a more decentralized model in which learners actively construct knowledge in collaboration with one another. I see the recent rise of blogging and citizen journalism as a parallel trend. In journalism, as in education, new technologies are facilitating a shift from a broadcast model to a more participatory model.

New Rules (by digby)
Come 2009, if a Democrat wins the presidency, the Village [Beltway insider] press will finally wake up from its 8 year somnambulent drool and rediscover its “conscience” and its “professionalism.” The Republicans will only have to breathe their character assassination lightly into the ether — the Village gossips will do the rest. And if this new president resists in any way, a primal scream will build until he or she is forced to appoint a special counsel to investigate the “cover up” and grovel repeatedly in forced acts of contrition in response to manufactured GOP hissy fits and media hysteria. We’re going forward into the past… Reforming politics isn’t enough. Reforming the media is just as important.
Ms. Digby, you’ve been cordially invited a number of times to join me in working together to reform the media, and I have never heard from you.

Tom DeLay targets US liberals in media war
[Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay] will this month launch a national grassroots movement to combat the liberal activists who he believes outfoxed and outmanoeuvred Republicans to win the 2006 mid-term elections… Funded by undisclosed Right-wing backers and inspired by the successful tactics of his liberal foes, thousands of recruits to the Coalition for a Conservative Majority (CCM) will be trained and mobilised to wage political war in meetings, online and in the media.
Right wingers can never admit that they lose elections on the merits.  They was always robbed.  Who pays for their crazy accusations?  We do.  See below.

Loss Leader: Terror War Dividends From Pakistani Breakdown (by Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque)
[T]he Bush-Mush [Musharraf] alliance was not really aimed at fighting terrorism or quelling extremism or establishing democracy, but had much more to do with, say, the nearly $10 billion in arms that Bush has given his friend — a pass-through of American taxpayer money to the war industry cronies of the White House. A slice of that pork is then funneled back into the operations of the corporatist-militarist political machine (and its various bootlicking media and “think tank” subsidiaries).

ALL-TIME WINGNUTTIEST BLOG POST CONTEST…. (by Kevin Drum)
The fourteen finalists for the worst, most embarrassing, most risible wingnut blog posts of all time are listed [at the page linked to in the title]. You can vote for up to five. So take a trip down memory lane and then vote for your favorites. Remember: It’s your civic duty… [Example:] John Hinderaker: “It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius….”

Plan: Use wounded troops if diplomats refuse service (WorldNetDaily)
Responding to reports that State Department officials are refusing to serve in Iraq because it’s too dangerous, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., has proposed a novel plan to President Bush – to bypass the agency and recruit from among U.S. military troops discharged after suffering injury. Hunter, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, told talk-radio host Glenn Beck today he met with Bush just 30 minutes prior to the interview and gave him a letter outlining the plan.
Get those lazy wounded shirkers off their butts and put ‘em to work!

Presidential Campaign Staffs Dominated By Men: Giuliani The Worst Offender (by Zephyr Teachout and Kelly Nuxoll, thanks to media girl)
The campaign of Republican Mike Huckabee achieves the closest gender balance at a near 50% division between men and women on all measures (it is also the smallest of all the major campaigns). The campaigns of Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson, and Republican Mitt Romney are also fairly balanced, with Clinton’s somewhat favoring women and Richardson’s and Romney’s somewhat favoring men. The most gender-skewed campaign, in contrast, is that of Rudy Giuliani.
Click through for a link to the numbers.  Alas, a blog has graphs.   It’s not just political campaigns for so-called progressives that can’t seem to find qualified women.  The problem extends to so-called progressive media, as well.

In an Amazing Coincidence, Joel Stein’s Column Happens to Exactly Resemble a Concept from a Blog Post Published Two Weeks Earlier (Patterico’s Pontifications, thanks to skippy)
Here’s Joel Stein, November 2: “Just how easy is it for Coulter to offend someone? Would any words from her mouth do the trick? To test this theory, I developed the Ann Coulter Mad Libs.™” It’s a good thing he used that ™ mark. He wouldn’t want anyone to steal his concept. Oh, look! Here’s Media Bloodhound, October 18 (two weeks earlier): “In honor of Ann Coulter’s influence on American media and politics, the Penguin Group (USA) … is releasing a special edition of Mad Libs titled Ann Libs.

Mythbuster: knzn: Incentive Effects of Progressive Taxation at the High End (by Mark Thoma at Economist’s View)
Suppose you are thinking of quitting your long-held steady job and using your accumulated savings to invest in a business (or you are thinking of moving to a potentially better job, but there are risks). When would you be more likely to do so, when there is a social safety net to catch you if things don’t work out, a net that allows a smooth return to wage employment and covers things like health insurance, or when there is little, if any help waiting for those who fail to make the business or the move to a new job work? We hear that social insurance stifles effort and risk-taking, but there are forces working in both directions.

Ben Bernanke Looks at Employment Rates, Why Doesn’t Anyone Else? (by Dean Baker)
It doesn’t seem plausible that 1.4 million people have just decided that they no longer feel like having a job, so presumably their decision to drop out reflects labor market weakness… Ben Bernanke made exactly this point in a speech at the American Economic Association convention in 2004… I was glad to see the vice-chair of the Fed focus on what I had considered to often be a better measure of labor market slack than the unemployment rate. Unfortunately, his comments seem to have been forgotten by those covering the employment data.

Further Behind Those Health Care Numbers (by Dean Baker)
If the longer life expectancies in other countries cannot be taken as compelling proof that they enjoy better health care systems than the United States, they can at least be taken as powerful evidence that they do not suffer from markedly worse health care systems. The fact that they are able to deliver comparable outcomes at a far lower cost suggests that the U.S. health care system suffers from very serious inefficiencies.

Bush’s myths on SCHIP.
On Oct. 17, President Bush explained that he vetoed Congress’s SCHIP expansion because the White House wasn’t “dialed in in the beginning.” But as The New York Times reports, the White House was heavily involved, but unwilling to compromise.

This is one dangerous man: it’s George Bush with brains (by Michael Tomasky)
In a radio ad that his campaign prepared for New Hampshire voters, Giuliani tells listeners that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2000 and goes on to say: “My chance of surviving cancer - and thank God I was cured of it - in the United States: 82%. My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England: only 44% under socialised medicine.” The numbers are false… But when asked if the campaign would continue to use the figure, a Giuliani spokeswoman said, “Yes, we will.”

Arrrggghhh! (by Paul Krugman)
The lede, from the AP report on Rudy’s prostate claims: “No one argues that Rudy Giuliani was diagnosed with prostate cancer, underwent treatment and survived. Yet there is a dispute about the statistics he quotes about his chances of survival.” If you go on to read the whole article, you sort of learn that there’s no dispute at all — he’s simply wrong, and refuses to admit it. But how many readers will get it?

Tim Russert, Clinton and the National Archives (by eriposte at the Left Coaster)
[F]rom the Oct 30 Democratic Presidential debate…: “Russert: … there was a letter written by President Clinton specifically asking that any communication between you and the president not be made available to the public until 2012. Would you lift that ban?” … Associated Press: “‘She was incidental to the letter, it was done five years ago, it was a letter to speed up presidential releases, not to slow them down,’ [Bill Clinton] told reporters Friday. ‘And she didn’t even, didn’t know what he was talking about…’” [R]egrettably Sen. Obama’s campaign is playing the Russert game… Message to Democrats - don’t uncritically believe crap that the media puts out against fellow Democrats.

Media Matters for America headlines

Newsweek reported on Clinton documents “still under lock and key,” but not that 10,000 will likely become public in 2008

On PBS, Slate’s Dickerson claimed GOP can say “Democrats are going to raise taxes” with AMT fix

NY Times’ Bumiller falsely suggested Clinton or Obama campaigns say women should not be treated equally

NY Times reported civilian causalities “decline[d] sharply” in Baghdad, ignored ethnic cleansing as possible cause

Russert misrepresented debate exchanges on Social Security to accuse Clinton of having “one public position and one private position”

Australian press freedoms being ‘whittled away’
SYDNEY (AFP) - Legal restrictions and a culture of secrecy among public officials are eating away at free speech and media freedom in Australia, a report for the country’s leading broadcasters and press said Monday.

FCC sets final ownership hearing.
Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein poke chairman Kevin Martin about a hastily-called Seattle media ownership hearing set for this Friday. In a joint statement, they say “The rush is on to push media consolidation to a quick and ill-considered vote. It shows there is a preordained outcome.” They argue with such short notice, many people will be shut out.

Prepare to be boarded (by Jeff Jarvis)
MediaGuardian’s Stephen Brook reports that, as rumored, Times of London editor Robert Thompson is bound for the U.S. to become publisher of the Wall Street Journal once his boss Rupert Murdoch closes the sale. Thompson is smart and respected… As always, when I’m in London, I’m struck by the benefit that accrues to all papers from their competitive and innovative fervor. I understand the arguments that Murdoch would be better to stick to business but selfishly, I hope he does give the Times a run. The old, gray lady needs to clear out her arteries.

WSJ.com hits 1 million subscribers
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Wall Street Journal said on Sunday that its Web site now has 1 million subscribers, a milestone for a site that charges for access even as other sites are throwing themselves open for free.

Writers Begin Strike as Talks Break Off
A strike by Hollywood writers began in New York just after midnight Monday, the first industry-wide strike since writers walked out in 1988.

Movies, TVs and Magazines Work Together in Web Campaign
As major marketers shift more of their advertising spending to the Web, media companies like Hearst Magazines are scrambling to keep up.

DOJ could clear XM-Sirius merger this week.
Word out of Washington is Justice Department antitrust chief General Thomas Barnett will sign-off on the deal by month’s end — possibly as soon as this week. That’s despite a staff recommendation advising the merger be rejected.

This Is Your Brand on ‘E’
NBC, Omnicom Want to Unleash Fictional Agency on Real Marketers in Upcoming TV Series

Publishers See a Way to Track Their Content Across the Net
A new company offers publishers a way to hunt down any place across the Web where a significant chunk of thier work has been copied, with or without permission.

Hakia search: Meet others who made the same query (by Stephen Baker at Blogspotting)
Hakia.com, a New York-based “contextual” search engine, is offering a service to link users with others who have made the same query. If you’re looking for “used cars New York,” for example, you can click and find yourself in an online room with others looking for the same thing. Hakia calls it a blend of Google and Craigslist… I can see that if the service got popular, hucksters would be hanging out in the various rooms. And any pedophiles dumb enough to use it would probably bump into a cop or two.

What’s That Hot Web Property Worth? Use the BPBPPPAR Metric (by Simon Dumenco, the Media Guy)
Now You, Too, Can Blindly Guesstimate the Value of Blogs, Social Networks and Floppy-Haired Comedians

AOL Purchases Ad Company Quigo For $300 Million
AOL is in the process of purchasing targeted ad provider, Quigo, in a deal reported to be worth $300 million. It appears this is an attempt by the Time Warner company to compete with the increased efforts of Google and Yahoo in the advertising marketplace. The purchase will give AOL two new tools in their arsenal in this increasing advertising war.

So Many Ads, So Few Clicks
Can more targeted pitches on Facebook and other sites reverse the shrinking response to online ads?

MySpace Hits Back on Ads: Launching Self-Serve Marketplace
MySpace is launching a SelfServe for its network, which will usher in a self-service advertising platform for marketers. Showcased at the ad:tech conference tomorrow, it’s specifically designed for small businesses, politicians, and others, who would like to take advantage of MySpace’s social network for advertising. Somewhat similar to Google AdSense, there will be targeted ads that will display across its network.

Get Cash and Grooming Advice
Nivea Uses Gender-specific Ads on U.K. ATMs to Launch Men’s Product

It’s the Message, Not the Medium
GfK Starch Study: Print, Web Ads Have to Work Harder to Persuade

So You Think You Can Raise a Brand-Free Kid?
From day one, you’ve got to fight Disney and the Winnie the Pooh.

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

From “Informing” to “Empowering” (by Mitchel Resnick, writing at MediaShift’s Idea Lab)
For the past 20 years, I have been designing new technologies … with the explicit goal of shifting away from a “broadcast” model of education, to a more decentralized model in which learners actively construct knowledge in collaboration with one another. I see the recent rise of blogging and citizen journalism as a parallel trend. In journalism, as in education, new technologies are facilitating a shift from a broadcast model to a more participatory model.

New Rules (by digby)
Come 2009, if a Democrat wins the presidency, the Village [Beltway insider] press will finally wake up from its 8 year somnambulent drool and rediscover its “conscience” and its “professionalism.” The Republicans will only have to breathe their character assassination lightly into the ether — the Village gossips will do the rest. And if this new president resists in any way, a primal scream will build until he or she is forced to appoint a special counsel to investigate the “cover up” and grovel repeatedly in forced acts of contrition in response to manufactured GOP hissy fits and media hysteria. We’re going forward into the past… Reforming politics isn’t enough. Reforming the media is just as important.
Ms. Digby, you’ve been cordially invited a number of times to join me in working together to reform the media, and I have never heard from you.

Tom DeLay targets US liberals in media war
[Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay] will this month launch a national grassroots movement to combat the liberal activists who he believes outfoxed and outmanoeuvred Republicans to win the 2006 mid-term elections… Funded by undisclosed Right-wing backers and inspired by the successful tactics of his liberal foes, thousands of recruits to the Coalition for a Conservative Majority (CCM) will be trained and mobilised to wage political war in meetings, online and in the media.
Right wingers can never admit that they lose elections on the merits.  They was always robbed.  Who pays for their crazy accusations?  We do.  See below.

Loss Leader: Terror War Dividends From Pakistani Breakdown (by Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque)
[T]he Bush-Mush [Musharraf] alliance was not really aimed at fighting terrorism or quelling extremism or establishing democracy, but had much more to do with, say, the nearly $10 billion in arms that Bush has given his friend — a pass-through of American taxpayer money to the war industry cronies of the White House. A slice of that pork is then funneled back into the operations of the corporatist-militarist political machine (and its various bootlicking media and “think tank” subsidiaries).

ALL-TIME WINGNUTTIEST BLOG POST CONTEST…. (by Kevin Drum)
The fourteen finalists for the worst, most embarrassing, most risible wingnut blog posts of all time are listed [at the page linked to in the title]. You can vote for up to five. So take a trip down memory lane and then vote for your favorites. Remember: It’s your civic duty… [Example:] John Hinderaker: “It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius….”

Plan: Use wounded troops if diplomats refuse service (WorldNetDaily)
Responding to reports that State Department officials are refusing to serve in Iraq because it’s too dangerous, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., has proposed a novel plan to President Bush – to bypass the agency and recruit from among U.S. military troops discharged after suffering injury. Hunter, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, told talk-radio host Glenn Beck today he met with Bush just 30 minutes prior to the interview and gave him a letter outlining the plan.
Get those lazy wounded shirkers off their butts and put ‘em to work!

Presidential Campaign Staffs Dominated By Men: Giuliani The Worst Offender (by Zephyr Teachout and Kelly Nuxoll, thanks to media girl)
The campaign of Republican Mike Huckabee achieves the closest gender balance at a near 50% division between men and women on all measures (it is also the smallest of all the major campaigns). The campaigns of Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson, and Republican Mitt Romney are also fairly balanced, with Clinton’s somewhat favoring women and Richardson’s and Romney’s somewhat favoring men. The most gender-skewed campaign, in contrast, is that of Rudy Giuliani.
Click through for a link to the numbers.  Alas, a blog has graphs.   It’s not just political campaigns for so-called progressives that can’t seem to find qualified women.  The problem extends to so-called progressive media, as well.

In an Amazing Coincidence, Joel Stein’s Column Happens to Exactly Resemble a Concept from a Blog Post Published Two Weeks Earlier (Patterico’s Pontifications, thanks to skippy)
Here’s Joel Stein, November 2: “Just how easy is it for Coulter to offend someone? Would any words from her mouth do the trick? To test this theory, I developed the Ann Coulter Mad Libs.™” It’s a good thing he used that ™ mark. He wouldn’t want anyone to steal his concept. Oh, look! Here’s Media Bloodhound, October 18 (two weeks earlier): “In honor of Ann Coulter’s influence on American media and politics, the Penguin Group (USA) … is releasing a special edition of Mad Libs titled Ann Libs.

Mythbuster: knzn: Incentive Effects of Progressive Taxation at the High End (by Mark Thoma at Economist’s View)
Suppose you are thinking of quitting your long-held steady job and using your accumulated savings to invest in a business (or you are thinking of moving to a potentially better job, but there are risks). When would you be more likely to do so, when there is a social safety net to catch you if things don’t work out, a net that allows a smooth return to wage employment and covers things like health insurance, or when there is little, if any help waiting for those who fail to make the business or the move to a new job work? We hear that social insurance stifles effort and risk-taking, but there are forces working in both directions.

Ben Bernanke Looks at Employment Rates, Why Doesn’t Anyone Else? (by Dean Baker)
It doesn’t seem plausible that 1.4 million people have just decided that they no longer feel like having a job, so presumably their decision to drop out reflects labor market weakness… Ben Bernanke made exactly this point in a speech at the American Economic Association convention in 2004… I was glad to see the vice-chair of the Fed focus on what I had considered to often be a better measure of labor market slack than the unemployment rate. Unfortunately, his comments seem to have been forgotten by those covering the employment data.

Further Behind Those Health Care Numbers (by Dean Baker)
If the longer life expectancies in other countries cannot be taken as compelling proof that they enjoy better health care systems than the United States, they can at least be taken as powerful evidence that they do not suffer from markedly worse health care systems. The fact that they are able to deliver comparable outcomes at a far lower cost suggests that the U.S. health care system suffers from very serious inefficiencies.

Bush’s myths on SCHIP.
On Oct. 17, President Bush explained that he vetoed Congress’s SCHIP expansion because the White House wasn’t “dialed in in the beginning.” But as The New York Times reports, the White House was heavily involved, but unwilling to compromise.

This is one dangerous man: it’s George Bush with brains (by Michael Tomasky)
In a radio ad that his campaign prepared for New Hampshire voters, Giuliani tells listeners that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2000 and goes on to say: “My chance of surviving cancer - and thank God I was cured of it - in the United States: 82%. My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England: only 44% under socialised medicine.” The numbers are false… But when asked if the campaign would continue to use the figure, a Giuliani spokeswoman said, “Yes, we will.”

Arrrggghhh! (by Paul Krugman)
The lede, from the AP report on Rudy’s prostate claims: “No one argues that Rudy Giuliani was diagnosed with prostate cancer, underwent treatment and survived. Yet there is a dispute about the statistics he quotes about his chances of survival.” If you go on to read the whole article, you sort of learn that there’s no dispute at all — he’s simply wrong, and refuses to admit it. But how many readers will get it?

Tim Russert, Clinton and the National Archives (by eriposte at the Left Coaster)
[F]rom the Oct 30 Democratic Presidential debate…: “Russert: … there was a letter written by President Clinton specifically asking that any communication between you and the president not be made available to the public until 2012. Would you lift that ban?” … Associated Press: “‘She was incidental to the letter, it was done five years ago, it was a letter to speed up presidential releases, not to slow them down,’ [Bill Clinton] told reporters Friday. ‘And she didn’t even, didn’t know what he was talking about…’” [R]egrettably Sen. Obama’s campaign is playing the Russert game… Message to Democrats - don’t uncritically believe crap that the media puts out against fellow Democrats.

Media Matters for America headlines

Newsweek reported on Clinton documents “still under lock and key,” but not that 10,000 will likely become public in 2008

On PBS, Slate’s Dickerson claimed GOP can say “Democrats are going to raise taxes” with AMT fix

NY Times’ Bumiller falsely suggested Clinton or Obama campaigns say women should not be treated equally

NY Times reported civilian causalities “decline[d] sharply” in Baghdad, ignored ethnic cleansing as possible cause

Russert misrepresented debate exchanges on Social Security to accuse Clinton of having “one public position and one private position”

Australian press freedoms being ‘whittled away’
SYDNEY (AFP) - Legal restrictions and a culture of secrecy among public officials are eating away at free speech and media freedom in Australia, a report for the country’s leading broadcasters and press said Monday.

FCC sets final ownership hearing.
Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein poke chairman Kevin Martin about a hastily-called Seattle media ownership hearing set for this Friday. In a joint statement, they say “The rush is on to push media consolidation to a quick and ill-considered vote. It shows there is a preordained outcome.” They argue with such short notice, many people will be shut out.

Prepare to be boarded (by Jeff Jarvis)
MediaGuardian’s Stephen Brook reports that, as rumored, Times of London editor Robert Thompson is bound for the U.S. to become publisher of the Wall Street Journal once his boss Rupert Murdoch closes the sale. Thompson is smart and respected… As always, when I’m in London, I’m struck by the benefit that accrues to all papers from their competitive and innovative fervor. I understand the arguments that Murdoch would be better to stick to business but selfishly, I hope he does give the Times a run. The old, gray lady needs to clear out her arteries.

WSJ.com hits 1 million subscribers
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Wall Street Journal said on Sunday that its Web site now has 1 million subscribers, a milestone for a site that charges for access even as other sites are throwing themselves open for free.

Writers Begin Strike as Talks Break Off
A strike by Hollywood writers began in New York just after midnight Monday, the first industry-wide strike since writers walked out in 1988.

Movies, TVs and Magazines Work Together in Web Campaign
As major marketers shift more of their advertising spending to the Web, media companies like Hearst Magazines are scrambling to keep up.

DOJ could clear XM-Sirius merger this week.
Word out of Washington is Justice Department antitrust chief General Thomas Barnett will sign-off on the deal by month’s end — possibly as soon as this week. That’s despite a staff recommendation advising the merger be rejected.

This Is Your Brand on ‘E’
NBC, Omnicom Want to Unleash Fictional Agency on Real Marketers in Upcoming TV Series

Publishers See a Way to Track Their Content Across the Net
A new company offers publishers a way to hunt down any place across the Web where a significant chunk of thier work has been copied, with or without permission.

Hakia search: Meet others who made the same query (by Stephen Baker at Blogspotting)
Hakia.com, a New York-based “contextual” search engine, is offering a service to link users with others who have made the same query. If you’re looking for “used cars New York,” for example, you can click and find yourself in an online room with others looking for the same thing. Hakia calls it a blend of Google and Craigslist… I can see that if the service got popular, hucksters would be hanging out in the various rooms. And any pedophiles dumb enough to use it would probably bump into a cop or two.

What’s That Hot Web Property Worth? Use the BPBPPPAR Metric (by Simon Dumenco, the Media Guy)
Now You, Too, Can Blindly Guesstimate the Value of Blogs, Social Networks and Floppy-Haired Comedians

AOL Purchases Ad Company Quigo For $300 Million
AOL is in the process of purchasing targeted ad provider, Quigo, in a deal reported to be worth $300 million. It appears this is an attempt by the Time Warner company to compete with the increased efforts of Google and Yahoo in the advertising marketplace. The purchase will give AOL two new tools in their arsenal in this increasing advertising war.

So Many Ads, So Few Clicks
Can more targeted pitches on Facebook and other sites reverse the shrinking response to online ads?

MySpace Hits Back on Ads: Launching Self-Serve Marketplace
MySpace is launching a SelfServe for its network, which will usher in a self-service advertising platform for marketers. Showcased at the ad:tech conference tomorrow, it’s specifically designed for small businesses, politicians, and others, who would like to take advantage of MySpace’s social network for advertising. Somewhat similar to Google AdSense, there will be targeted ads that will display across its network.

Get Cash and Grooming Advice
Nivea Uses Gender-specific Ads on U.K. ATMs to Launch Men’s Product

It’s the Message, Not the Medium
GfK Starch Study: Print, Web Ads Have to Work Harder to Persuade

So You Think You Can Raise a Brand-Free Kid?
From day one, you’ve got to fight Disney and the Winnie the Pooh.