Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Bill Press Is Bringing the Experts into Progressive Talk Radio (A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW)
I think we have proven that, given an opportunity, we can win. We can build an audience. We can hold an audience. We can make money. We can be successful in talk radio. We have disproven the old theory that liberals can’t do talk radio. That’s why I feel good about talk radio. — Bill Press
Click through to read the entire interview.

Face The Nation: Bob Schieffer on What Iowa Tells Us (by Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars)
Read carefully between the lines of what Bob Schieffer expresses in his final comment on Face The Nation this past Sunday: “A couple of nice things happened in Iowa that should not be overlooked. An African-American won the Democratic caucuses in a state that is overwhelming white and race was not a factor. No matter who you wanted to win, it’s good to know that can happen…” Did you catch it? It’s been a while so it’s hard to recognize it when it does, but that was just a MSM pundit celebrating liberal values, like colorblindness, diversity and merit over entitlement and saying that we should all look upon them as a good thing.

Media Torn Over Whether To Cast Clinton As ‘Weak’ Or ‘Calculating’ For ‘Emotional’ Display
[Monday] at a campaign event in New Hampshire, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) “eyes welled up with tears” as she spoke about why she was running for president. “It’s not easy, and I couldn’t do it if I didn’t passionately believe it was the right thing to do,” she said… The media’s excoriation and mocking of Clinton contrast with their treatment of prominent conservative politicians who have cried in the past. Their tears, according to these pundits, are “genuine,” “poignant,” and “extraordinary”.
Personally, I found it humanizing.  Click through to watch a compilation of the media’s coverage.

Playing The Wrong Clip (by dday at Hullabaloo)
I know the big story today is that a sleep-deprived Hillary Clinton, under the kind of pressure that really only people who have run for President understand, actually showed some emotion on the campaign trail… But in a sane world, the real exchange that you’d be seeing all over the cable nets is … one where Hillary outs Chris Matthews as little more than a stalker… “‘I never understood why you’re obsessed with me,’ she replied. ‘Honestly, I’ve never understood it.’”… To his credit, Tweety actually did show the clip on his show [Monday]… He looked like he was just kicked in the stomach.

Bad Call (by Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo)
I think on [Hillary Clinton’s] MLK and Lyndon Johnson remark, the edited quote that’s circulating from The Politico is misleading… [What she said was,] “‘I would point to the fact that that Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the President before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done. That dream became a reality, the power of that dream became a real in peoples lives because we had a president who said we are going to do it, and actually got it accomplished.’”
It was the knowledgeable pol, Johnson, who actually got equal rights codified into law.

O’Hanlon Mourns That Obama Was Right On Iraq (Think Progress)
Brookings fellow Michael O’Hanlon continues his abysmal record of staking out the wrong positions on Iraq in an article in this morning’s Wall Street Journal, criticizing presidential candidate and Illinois Senator Barack Obama’s position on the war. It is puzzling why newspapers print O’Hanlon’s analysis, since he’s been repeatedly wrong in staking out his inconsistent and often incoherent positions on Iraq.

Fox News Used Planted Actor In Focus Groups (by Lee Rogers at RogueGovernment.cm)
During [Monday night’s] Fox News GOP debate, [pollster and phrasesmith Frank] Luntz organized a focus group to provide feedback from so called random Republican voters. However, one of the people in the focus group was also used in a previous focus group Luntz organized for the September 5th, 2007 GOP presidential debate. Take a look at the two videos taken from both focus groups and you’ll see that the same guy appears in two supposedly random focus groups.
Well, we don’t really know that the guy is an actor, but he apparently is a plant.  Click through to watch the two videos and to see stills from both events, showing the same person asking questions.

Dirty Politics 2008
Political mudslinging as a campaign tactic is as popular as it’s ever been. Romney, Clinton, Huckabee, Giuliani, Obama - no one’s managed to steer clear of targeted rumors and malicious gossip. NOW on PBS travels to South Carolina, the home of legendary no-holds-barred campaigner Lee Atwater, to see where negative stories come from, how they spread, and whether they can be effectively defeated with positive messaging. “In South Carolina, we know how to run negative campaigns,” Rod Shealy, a veteran campaign strategist who was convicted for violating campaign laws, tells NOW. “Your challenge as a campaign is to damage your opponent without getting caught doing it.”
Click through to watch the video.

3 Days of Peace, Love and Bipartisanship (by dday at Hullabaloo)
[Monday began] the event history will record as Wankstock, where old men and older men from all over the country will get together at the University of Oklahoma and sing in the manner of the old Joni Mitchell song, “and we got to get ourselves, back to the center!” They’re coming to demand unity, which I’ve always found as the best way to unify any groups of people with differences, by demanding it. Their grievances are legion; they want bipartisanship, although there isn’t really an agenda to embrace. If the Democrats want to let the Bush tax cuts expire for those making $200,000 or more, and the Republicans don’t want any expiration, is the bipartisan position letting the tax cuts expire for those making (infinity-$200,000)/2? It’s unclear.

By The Time They Got To Wankstock (by digby)
[M]ay I just reiterate how predictable it is that the Bloomer Wankstock has now decided to insist that the candidates “renounce partisan bickering”?… “Partisan bickering” means the Democrats proposing to let the Bush tax cuts expire… You see, it’s divisive for Democrats to even hint that the Republicans have been on the wrong track. We need to move on from that kind of partisan ugliness and “get something done” which is actually get nothing done. What the Bloomberg discussions and the calls for bipartisanship are all about is to narrow the range of options for the Democratic nominee.

And here it comes … (by Paul Krugman)
When the economy was (sorta, kinda) strong, it showed that tax cuts work, and so we needed to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. Now the economy is falling off a cliff — although according to the White House, nobody is predicting a recession (I seem to know an awful lot of nobodies) — and you know what that means: we’d better make the Bush tax cuts permanent.

Whoopsie! Kristol’s First New York Times Column Attributes Quote To Wrong Author (by Greg Sargent at TPM Horse’s Mouth)
So those critics who argued against the appointment of Bill Kristol as a New York Times columnist because of the quality of his work — rather than merely because of ideology — will now have yet more proof that they were on to something.  That’s because it looks as if Kristol’s first column will already require a correction: Kristol seems to have attributed a quote to the wrong author. In the column, Kristol quotes Michelle Malkin… Only Malkin is now claiming that she didn’t write this. Instead, she notes, the quote actually comes from Michael Medved… Bill Kristol, quota hire.
Bill Scher has more.

Media Matters for America headlines

NY Times, Politico misreported Clinton’s comments during emotional moment in NH

NY Post column: Obama “is like a woman,” Clinton “has long been accused of androgyny,” Edwards is “a cute 8-year-old boy”

During NH debate, ABC’s Gibson characterized Obama’s Pakistan position as “essentially the Bush doctrine,” ignoring Bush contradictions

On Fox News’ The Live Desk, GOP strategist called Obama “anti-American”

NewsMax’s Ponte falsely claimed Obama’s “thinking was shaped by childhood in a Muslim madrassah in Islamic Indonesia”

Union Leader, CNN uncritically reported McCain’s criticism of negative ads

O’Reilly “runner-up” in “Worst Person” for failing to acknowledge error about the Constitution in his book

FoxNews.com headline: “Obama: No Cash From Denzel, Spike, Motown, Despite Oprah Backing”

O’Reilly claimed Edwards “has no clue” over claim about homeless veterans

Baidu not guilty of infringement (Variety)
HONG KONG — Music companies including EMI, Sony BMG, Warner Music and Universal Music have lost their bid to suspend Baidu’s music download service after a Beijing appeals court found the Chinese online search giant not guilty of copyright infringement.

For Pentagon And News Media, Relations Improve With A Shift In War Coverage
The anguished relationship between the military and the news media appears to be on the mend.
This is NOT good news.  The media should have an adversarial relationship with all employees of the government.

Comedy Central Hosts Return to TV
Ticketholders waited to see a taping of the return of “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” in New York, while striking writers walked the picket line at the Comedy Central studio. Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert returned to the air Monday pointing barbs at their own management and at the striking union.

Strikebound, the Globes Scale Back
The festive awards dinner will be replaced on Sunday night by a news conference to announce the prize winners.

Economists Say Movie Violence Might Temper the Real Thing
A new study challenges conventional wisdom, suggesting that violent films prevent violent crime by attracting and keeping would-be assailants occupied.

Some Brand-Name Bloggers Say Stress of Posting Is a Hazard to Their Health
Blogger Om Malik’s heart attack — and his blogging about it — raises the issue of what happens when a blogger becomes a name brand.
If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen, and leave room for others.

Taser unveils holster with music player
A handy new holster from Taser International Inc. holds not only your stun gun but a music player too.
So who will write the music to be tased by?

Sony BMG drops music copy protection
TOKYO - Sony BMG will start selling music downloads in the copy-protection-free MP3 format later this month in North America, as even the last holdout among the major record labels crumbled to the growing trend.

Young prefer MySpace to TV
MySpace, the internet site specialising in social networking, claims to be drawing young people away from television and video games as they use its web pages to make friends and money… The MySpace-commissioned survey also found that women typically spent more time on social networking sites than men, and that the sites were increasingly being used for commercial purposes.

MTV makes videos available on other services
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Viacom Inc’s MTV Networks Group has signed deals to make videos available on five online video services and Comcast Corp’s broadband site, as the company aims to increase its presence on the Web.

Sony to provide content to YouTube
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Sony Pictures Television said Monday it’s agreed to provide five-minute versions of several of its most popular TV shows for viewing on the YouTube video-sharing Web site.

Comcast Plans to Offer a Huge Menu of Films
A plan aims to offer Comcast subscribers a nearly limitless supply of movies and TV shows that can be viewed on demand and through the Internet.

TiVo Update Embraces Internet Video (PC Magazine)
LAS VEGAS – TiVo’s Season Pass option has always been a quick way to auto-record favorite TV programs, and now users can add Internet video to the mix… TiVo customers will be able to subscribe to video content from RSS feeds, ranging from network news to “indie” content from web shows like Ask A Ninja. Recorded Web video will appear in the Now Playing List along all recorded TV content. High-res Web videos will remain preserved in their original resolutions when viewed using TiVo Series3 or TiVo HD DVRs. The recorded internet video will be available both for television viewing and also, as an extra option, in a desktop folder.

Panasonic and Google to launch Internet TVs
Web giant Google Inc. is developing televisions that display Internet content such as photos and videos together with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.’s Panasonic unit.

Yahoo mobile services to run on Google-based phones
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc will create versions of its mobile Internet services to run on various phone platforms, potentially including Google’s phone software and the Apple iPhone, a top executive said on Monday.

Sony and Skype agree deal for free PSP calls
Sony (NYSE:SNE) Computer Entertainment has struck a deal with Skype, the internet telephony group, which will turn the PlayStation Portable into a handheld device capable of making and receiving telephone calls.

Intel Banks on Another Wireless Gadget
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Intel Corp. is betting on a big expansion of “ultra-mobile” computing, an idea that could hinge on how many gadgets people are willing to tote around. In an interview Monday at the International Consumer Electronics Show, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said energy-efficient, Web-connected computers with full keyboards and screens in the 4-inch neighborhood can give people more of what they want from the Internet than cell phones can.