Permanent link to MTA daily media news

BuzzFlash Media Putz of the Week: Robin Givhan
Traditionally we think the fashion editor of a newspaper should stick to the fashion industry and not get involved in politics. But not Robin Givhan, who oversees fashion coverage for The Washington Post… Givhan was nominated for this week’s Media Putz by a noted journalist wishing to remain anonymous. The journalist wrote about how far Givhan had strayed from fashion writing into a stiletto cattiness well below the limbo bar of the most basic journalistic standards.
Maybe Givhan is angling for the Queen of Mean position at the Washington Post, to rival the NYT’s version, Maureen Dowd.

Obama campaign chair questions Hillary’s tears, why she didn’t cry during Katrina (by John Aravosis (DC) at AMERICAblog)
Jesse Jackson Jr, a co-chair of the Obama campaign, go on TV today and questioned whey Hillary teared up over her campaign hardships but didn’t tear up over Hurricane Katrina.
Click through to watch the video.

Chris Matthews says the only reason Hillary became a Senator is because Bill “messed around” (by John Amato at Crooks and Liars)
[On the Joe Scarborough show:] “Matthews: Well, I don’t know if they read the NY Post. I think the Hillary appeal has always been somewhat about her mix of toughness and sympathy for her. Let’s not forget, and I’ll be brutal, the reason she’s a US Senator, the reason she’s a candidate for President, the reason she may be a front runner, is that her husband messed around.”
Click through to watch the video.

The witch ain’t dead, and Chris Matthews is a ding-dong (by Rebecca Traister, Salon)
Jan. 9, 2008 | “I’m not a Hillary supporter, but …” has been an oft-heard preamble in the five days since the New York senator’s Iowa defeat, usually followed by a description of how aghast the speaker is at the treatment Clinton received from a media anxious to throw a hoedown on her political coffin. To my surprise, it’s a phrase I’ve heard myself uttering….  As it turns out, my sudden, almost primal defensiveness about Hillary Clinton may not have been unique, but part of a larger wave of sentiment that swept her to a surprise victory in New Hampshire on Tuesday night.

The Anti-Chris Matthews Vote: And how it sparked some media soul-searching (though not from Matthews) (by Liz Cox Barrett, Columbia Journalism Review)
“BROKAW: We don’t have to get in the business of making judgments before the polls have closed and trying to stampede, in effect, the process. Look, I’m not just picking on us, it’s part of the culture in which we live these days. I think that the people out there are going to begin to make judgments about us, if they haven’t already, if we don’t begin to temper that temptation to constantly try to get ahead of what the voters are deciding.”

Marist Poll looks back at New Hampshire results (by Lee M. Miringoff and Barbara L. Carvalho, Marist Institute for Public Opinion, Thanks to BuzzFlash)
So, what exactly happened [Tuesday] night in New Hampshire?… [F]or the most part, Obama’s support was not overstated in the polls. But the polls missed the magnitude of the support for Clinton. Although the pollsters in New Hampshire cannot have Monday night back, we plan to re-contact in the next few days the voters we spoke with over the weekend to glean whatever additional insights we can.

Primary Concerns (by Robert C. Koehler, Tribune Media Services)
[W]hatever actually happened in New Hampshire voting booths on Tuesday, our elections are horrifically insecure. For instance, Bev Harris, of the highly respected voting watchdog organization Black Box Voting, recently wrote that the Diebold 1.94w optical scan machines used in some 55 percent of New Hampshire precincts (representing more than 80 percent of the state’s voters) are “the exact same make, model and version hacked in the Black Box Voting project in Leon County (Florida)” a few years ago. They haven’t been upgraded; the security problems haven’t been fixed. National, or at least media, denial about this situation doesn’t say much for the strength of our democracy.
Get the documentary, Uncounted.

Hillary’s Gender Is a Bigger Deal Than We’d Like to Admit (by Megan Garber at Columbia Journalism Review)
An in-depth look at media coverage of Clinton’s emotion.

McCain Calls For ‘Respect’ In Political Dialogue, Ignores Time He Called Fellow Senator An ‘A–hole’ (Think Progress)
Today at a campaign event in Michigan, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) promised to clean up the political discourse. He argued that he knows how to “reach across the aisle” and treat Democrats with respect.. McCain’s record of dealing with his fellow lawmakers, the press, and members of the public, however, has been considerably less than respectful.
Click through for some examples.  I’d also like to remind all of the “reach across the aisle” addicts that George Bush did that when he was governor of Texas.  As president, it’s been “my way or the highway”.

The Post Attack on Social Security Continues (by Dean Baker)
[O]n the Post opinion pages, Social Security is losing in a landslide. Robert Samuelson has yet another diatribe talking about the budget breaking cost of “Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.” As CBO director Peter Orszag has tried to teach those willing to learn, the problem is health care, not aging. Of course cutting health care costs means going after the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and the doctors’ lobbies, all of whom enjoy great popularity on the Washington Post opinion pages. So, they would rather beat up the elderly and mislead their readers.
We pre-Boomers and Boomers had better be ready to fight for our retirement benefits THAT WE PRE-FUNDED, at least partly.  Since 1983, we’ve been paying in more than was needed to fund current benefit payments. The fact that George Bush has given our FICA contribution surplus away to his campaign contributors doesn’t obviate the fact the we have paid for our own retirement. The shots across the bow are clear:  right wingers are going to try to use a generational war to try to take our benefits away from us.

Australia questions community after lonely death
CANBERRA (Reuters) – The death of elderly man in his Sydney apartment, which went undiscovered for more than a year, had Australians questioning their loss of community spirit on Thursday.
We’ve all lost our sense of community and responsibility for each other, at least in the western world.  It’s every person for himself, even among so-called progressives.  It’s no surprise to readers of Make Them Accountable that I fault, to a great extent, the 35-plus-year, right-wing campaign to convince everyone that greed is good.

Media Matters for America headlines

Conservative radio host Cunningham falsely referred to “Barack Mohammed Hussein Obama,” advanced madrassa falsehood

Matthews didn’t challenge DeLay’s claim that Obama will “surrender the war on terror”

O’Reilly asserted secular progressives think “Mitt Romney is a dangerous Mormon,” but polls show conservatives more reluctant to vote for a Mormon

Ignoring Giuliani’s statement that he “spent the most time in” NH, media report that Giuliani skipped NH

NY Times has yet to correct misquote of Clinton’s comments during emotional moment in NH

Limbaugh falsely asserted that “you won’t find a Senate bill with [Obama's] name on it”

Matthews on Clinton’s performance: “good enough here for women who wanted to root for her anyway”

Media figures claimed Clinton’s emotional moment in NH was “pretend[],” not “genuine”

On GMA, Sawyer allowed McCain to tout his “positive” New Hampshire campaign

NY Times’ new columnist Kristol said Clinton won because “[s]he pretended to cry”

Salad dodgers fight slummy mummies for Aussie dictionary honour
SYDNEY (AFP) – A cyberathlete might not suffer boomeritis as he or she is probably a digital native, but could be at risk of globesity, according to Australia’s top dictionary.

UK Copyright Law To Become A Bit Less Ridiculous (by Stan Schroeder at Mashable)
The UK lawmakers are finally considering changing their copyright law… The proposal of Lord Triesman, Minister for Intellectual Property, includes two important changes to copyright law: if it should pass, it would be legal to parody existing work, as well as create CD/DVD copies for personal or private use.

EU reaches iTunes deal with Apple
BRUSSELS, Belgium – Apple Inc. has agreed to scrap its online pricing policies across Europe for its iTunes music downloads, the European Union said Wednesday.

New Hampshire Results Will Lead to More Spending
With No Clear Leaders, Expect Feb. 5 Media Barrage

Dissident investors boost stake in CNet
SAN FRANCISCO – An investment group that wants to shake up CNet Networks Inc. has boosted its holdings in the online technology news and entertainment provider in an effort to overcome the company’s resistance to a proposed overhaul of its board.

NBC Offers Marketers Cash Back for Canceled Globes
While ABC Reaches Out to Prepare Advertisers for Oscar Changes

Tentative Deal for 500 CBS News Workers
Unionized CBS News staffers who have been working under an expired contract for nearly three years reached a tentative labor agreement with the network, the Writers Guild of America said Wednesday.

CBSNews.com Teaming Up with Digg for 2008 Campaign Coverage
CBSNews.com and popular social-content aggregator Digg are teaming up for 2008 presidential campaign coverage. The deal will see some of Digg’s most highly rated 2008 campaign stories appear on CBSNews.com. In addition, CBSNews.com will add “Digg This!” buttons to its stories and videos, making it easier for users to digg their content.

More on Charlie Wilson’s War (by Larry Johnson at No Quarter)
Here’s a great piece from a dear friend who served with U.S. special operations forces and had a distinguished military career. This is his take. “Larry,  OK, I’ve seen the film and the History Channel documentary, and I’ve read the Criles book, and as mentioned earlier I was involved in part of this. As far as the movie goes, I liked it very much.   It’s very well done and nicely captured the feeling of that period in time and the politics of the situation.   I think there are some time compressions, and some things were deleted, but it’s still worthwhile.  I particularly liked Tom Hanks as Charlie Wilson, except he made him smarter, funnier and more sympathetic than he actually was.”

Radiohead’s “Rainbows” yields pot of gold
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – British rock band Radiohead scored its second No. 1 album on the U.S. pop charts on Wednesday with a release that was initially sold on the Internet under a revolutionary “name-your-own-price” system.

Zotero Is Your Online Research Assistant (by Sean P. Aune at Mashable)
This tool will help you automatically store citations of webpages used in your research, store PDFs, take notes, export information, integrates with WordPress… basically it sounds like it will take out all the tedium of research and just let you concentrate on the important parts of looking for sources. I’m not sure there is any bigger pain in the universe than writing bibliography, so this sounds like a dream come true to me.

Newsweek: Ruckus Bloggers’ Political Contributions? No Problem (by Amy Gahran at Poynter Online)
Newsweek.com [has] launched a new group political blog, The Ruckus… “We actively recruited a mix of bloggers from across the political spectrum for The Ruckus. As partisan voices, we fully expected some would make contributions to political campaigns or would have done so in the past. At least one blogger previously held an official position with the national Republican party, and we’re okay with that. What we didn’t want — and wouldn’t accept — is a blogger who is currently employed directly by a party or political campaign.”… Newsweek is not paying its bloggers directly; it’s paying the MBA [Media Bloggers Association], and MBA is paying the bloggers.
That kind of arrangement will help build the power of the Media Bloggers Association.  I’m not sure what else it accomplishes.

ClipSyndicate Launches Video Search API for Social Networks (by Kristen Nicole at Mashable)
ClipSyndicate, the video tool that lets web publishers offer quality news clips on their site, is releasing its video search API for social networks, news and video search platforms to use within their communities and services. What the controlled release of its search API does is allow other sites to extend quality video search and embed options to their own users.

Daily Traffic To Video Sharing Sites Nearly Double: Survey (Paid Content)
The audience for YouTube and other video sharing websites has risen sharply in the past year, with almost half of online adults logging onto such sites, reports a study from Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Sprint says WiMax on track for end of April
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Sprint Nextel is on track to launch commercial services for its next-generation WiMax high-speed wireless network at the end of April, Chief Technology Officer Barry West said on Tuesday… “People will be excited about our rates. They won’t be ecstatic about them because we’re not going to give it away,” said West. WiMax service fees could also be included in the purchase price of devices, such as WiMax-enabled cameras.

Race is on for Mobile Web’s pot of gold
AT&T and Verizon Wireless lately have embraced the idea of giving consumers greater control over the wireless devices and applications they use, such as e-mail, downloading and picture-sharing.