Permanent link to MTA daily media news

A tale of two headlines: Associated Press, “Iraqi Shiite festival escapes bloodshed”; Associated Press, “Shiite holiday marred by violence”

MOYERS ON CLINTON, OBAMA, KING AND JOHNSON (by Bill Moyers)
[Lyndon Johnson signed] into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and black people were no longer second class citizens.  Martin Luther King had marched and preached and witnessed for this day.   Countless ordinary people had put their bodies on the line for it, been berated, bullied and beaten, only to rise, organize and struggle on, against the dogs and guns, the bias and burning crosses.  Take nothing from them; their courage is their legacy. But take nothing from the president who once had seen the light but dimly, as through a dark glass — and [then] did the right thing. Lyndon Johnson threw the full weight of his office on the side of justice… [T]here is no inevitability to history, someone has to seize and turn it.  With these words at the right moment —  ”we shall overcome”  — Lyndon Johnson transcended race and color, and history, too — reminding us that a president matters, and so do we.
Click through to read or to watch the video of the entire commentary.

Delegate Math: Who Won Nevada? (by Chris Cillizza at The Fix, the Washington Post)
Both the chairwoman of the Nevada Democratic Party and a senior adviser for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign are insisting that the contention that Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) won more delegates in today’s caucus is incorrect. “The calculations of national convention delegates being circulated are based upon an assumption that delegate preferences will remain the same between now and April 2008,” said Jill Derby, the chairwoman of the state party. “We look forward to our county and state conventions where we will choose the delegates for the nominee that Nevadans support.”

Crack Pipe (by Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo)
I do find myself wondering what sort of crack Chris Matthews is smoking during the station breaks. He was just describing Hillary’s win in Nevada, saying she beat expectations that Obama was going to take it. Olbermann then helpfully pointed out that Hillary was actually ahead in all the polls.

Martian Observer (by digby)
Somebody give David Shuster a bib, because with the way he’s fluffing Matthews right now he’s going to need it. “Shuster: I love listening to you analyze politics, Chris…Matthews… [T]he Clintons … would say the obvious as a topper, a trumper, not particularly original, but it would work. Especially in American culture the Clintons are very good at hitting that middle, the people who are not living on irony and surprise and novelty but those basic bread and butter Democratic values. David, I obviously give a lot of thought to this stuff. Shuster: Chris you are brilliant, and thanks for coming on” How much do they pay these guys?

Mythbuster: Obama’s Dubious Praise for Reagan (by Robert Parry at Consortiumnews)
Sen. Barack Obama … seemed to suggest that Reagan’s 1980 election administered a needed dose of accountability to the U.S. government. In reality, however, accountability wasn’t part of Reagan’s medicine for America. Indeed, one could say the opposite… Obama’s negative comparison of former President Bill Clinton to Reagan also could be viewed as a slap at the husband of his principal rival.
And if that’s not mudslinging, I don’t know what is.  But Obama fans don’t like to hear anything negative, even if true, about their hero.

Debunking the Reagan Myth (by Paul Krugman)
Historical narratives matter. That’s why conservatives are still writing books denouncing F.D.R. and the New Deal; they understand that the way Americans perceive bygone eras, even eras from the seemingly distant past, affects politics today. And it’s also why the furor over Barack Obama’s praise for Ronald Reagan is not, as some think, overblown… [P]rogressives have been granted a second chance to argue that Reaganism is fundamentally wrong: once again, the vast majority of Americans think that the country is on the wrong track. But they won’t be able to make that argument if their political leaders, whatever they meant to convey, seem to be saying that Reagan had it right.
Because historical narratives matter, and because our corporate media refuse to provide historical or any other kind of context for their reporting, progressives should be funding a media infrastructure to provide that context.  And we’re not doing it.  We’re leaving history hostage to those willing to pay big bucks to see it distorted.

Is the New Supply Side Better Than the Old? (by Austan Goolsbee, economics professor at the University of Chicago and economic advisor to the Barack Obama campaign)
The academic debate continues, but thus far, the new Laffer curve has looked more like a fleeting figment of economic imagination. That is sad, because it would be great if we could cut taxes and raise revenue at one stroke. Alas, the research suggests that we will have to pay for high-income tax cuts the old-fashioned way — by actually cutting spending or just busting the budget.
Yes, it would be nice if we could have our bread and eat it, too.  But since we can’t, we’ll have to give up bread altogether.  Is that what this man is saying?  Is that what Obama believes?  Remember, the Economics Department of the University of Chicago housed Milton Friedman, who caused more misery to his fellow humans than anyone who ever lived.

Are Democrats over 45 Racists? (by digby)
Apparently, some people think so. Here’s a headline on CBS: “Obama’s Age Gap: Is It Race?
CBS’s Dick Meyer Says Older Americans Have So Far Proven Unwilling To Vote For Barack Obama”[.] How about young voters have so far proven unwilling to vote for an older person? Is it ageism? Really, this is ridiculous. It’s not all that hard to figure out that older voters would vote for the person who is running on “experience” just as it’s not surprising that younger voters would vote for the man who promised “change.”

H&C: Dick Morris Loves Him Some Dirt… (by Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars)
I really don’t understand why FOXNews likes using Dick Morris as an “analyst”. The guy comes off as so oily and unctuous that I want to take a whole bottle of hand sanitizer to my computer every time I see him. What’s funny now is that even Fox’s designated milquetoast “balance” Alan Colmes can’t take him seriously any more… “DM: It’s very funny. You have all of these people savaging Obama, emails that he’s a Muslim. You have people savaging McCain… AC: We have you to savage the Clintons…”
Click through to watch the video.

10 years ago: When the Lewinsky bombshell sparked a Web revolution — Here’s how it happened
NEW YORK It was precisely 10 years ago that the “Lewinsky Affair” burst into full view, largely at first via the new Drudge Report and then in a frenzy, with the Web leading the way.

ROMNEY VS. THE PRESS. (by Ezra Klein at The American Prospect)
I find the purity of my dislike for Mitt Romney is basically being overwhelmed by my discomfort with the press corps’ white-hot hatred for the guy. .. Romney’s jobs rhetoric is stupid. But it’s a common campaign lie, and one the press never, ever rebels against. They hate Romney, though, and so he’s getting an uncommon level of scrutiny… The difference between Romney and McCain is that the press hates Romney for lying to them, while McCain has figured out how to get them to lie for him.

They Know Better (by digby)
I’m no fan of Romney, but I’m really not a fan of these unelected scribblers putting their ham fists into politics for their own amusement and affecting the race with their own petty prejudices and knee jerk assumptions while presenting themselves to the mass of Americans as unbiased and objective. If they hate Romney so much that they can’t be objective then they should admit it publicly or stop covering him. Manipulating and slanting the coverage, especially for their own amusement, is journalistic malpractice. This has been going on for a couple of decades as least and it’s not getting any better.

How Voters Think
The election is … really about image–which just happens to be an aspect of campaigning that political journalists love to report on. Note that one of the puzzles that Brooks poses to show the idea that make “cold, rational decisions”–”Why have primary victories produced no momentum for the victors?”–suggests that it’s irrational for voters not to be swayed by the bandwagon effect.

Resource: A Site Follows the Money So Users Can Slice and Dice
Politicalbase.com is building a base of devoted political junkies, and its creators think the site’s audience will keep growing — even after the November election.

Surge Architects Tout ‘Success’ Of De-Baathification Bill As Reason To Stay ‘Heavily Engaged In Iraq’ (Think Progress)
[Saturday] in a Washington Post op-ed, surge advocates retired general Jack Keane, AEI scholar Frederick Kagan, and the Brookings Institution’s Michael O’Hanlon trumpet Iraq’s new de-Baathification legislation as a first step in the surge’s “remarkable” success… Last week, Kagan compared the bill to “the beginning of their [Iraqi] civil rights legislation.” What does all this “good news” mean? According to the three armchair generals, it means that U.S. troops should stay in Iraq as long as possible, despite the recommendations of U.S. commanders.
When there’s more violence, we need to stay in Iraq.  When there’s less violence, we need to stay in Iraq.  See a pattern here?

Why Has Bush Changed Mideast Rhetoric, Goals?
Foreign policy revisionist Fareed Zakaria tells NPR listeners of “the hypocrisy of the United States”: “Because we talk a lot about democracy, except in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and Egypt. In other words, all the countries that matter, we emphasize the stability of the present. And then when it comes to Burma, you know, strategically a relevant country, we beat the Chinese and the Indians on the head by saying, why aren’t you more in favor of democracy?” Minnesota media site Cursor.org noted these tough words, and a quick comparison with Zakaria’s 2005 commentary finds them hypocritical in their own right—since he helped sell the White House’s line in the first place:.

Do the Math (by Larry Johnson at No quarter)
The Washington Post is out Monday with an article pushing the nonsense that most of the violence in Iraq, particularly suicide bombers were foreign fighters… Do the math kids.  606 is what percentage of 4500 attacks in 2007.  Let’s assume that every single foreign fighter identified in these records carried out a suicide attack.  That accounts for a little more than 10% of the attacks.  Who were behind the other 90%?  The American people are not being told that the vast majority of the attacks in 2007 were carried out by Iraqis, not foreign fighters and not Al Qaeda.

Time for Action on Health Care (Public Opinion by Ruy Teixeira, Center for American Prospect)
Americans are dissatisfied with out-of-control health care costs and lack of access, and they want the government to do something about it.

Media Matters for America headlines

Russert did not mention statement from Salmon Press co-owner regarding Clinton’s comments on Reagan

MSNBC’s Shuster: “[C]able-news organization that rhymes with ‘clocks’ ” distorted Bill Clinton’s exchange with reporter

Brokaw falsely claimed Giuliani’s Florida ads “don’t mention terrorism”

Craig Crawford: “[M]any of us in the media tend to gang up on the Clintons”

Russert: Giuliani will get support in FL from “people who still have memories of September 11th”

Matthews to Giuliani: “I’ve been one of the troubadours for you out there in terms of your prospects”

GoodReads Social Networking Site Well On Its Way To 1M Users (by Sean P. Aune at Mashable)
It was only last September that we posted about GoodReads The social network for book lovers then had over 5 million book reviews and counted over 300,000 more members. Four months later, the site has reached past 10 million book reviews and now has 700,000+ members, with the 1m benchmark on the horizon… No matter how you choose to read your literature, it seems lots are flocking to GoodReads to get/give tips on what they/others should be reading next.

A Venerable Magazine Energizes Its Web Site
Readership will get another boost starting Tuesday, when TheAtlantic.com will abolish the fire wall that has allowed only subscribers to the print magazine to see most of its articles online. It will make its archive accessible, too. Executives hope that a rise in traffic brings to The Atlantic, one of the nation’s oldest publications, something it hasn’t had in many years: a profit.

Homeland Security Offers ‘Pre-Written’ Weather Articles to Media
The Department of Homeland Security’s penchant for illegal covert domestic propaganda begets a twist on the “video news release” concept to produce meteorological articles with “apparent conflation of winter storms and terrorism.” The government’s propagandists disingenuously claim simply to be supplying “just facts that reporters can put into their own words,” since having “just noticed that staffing has been a little down at newspapers”.

More Trouble For The LA Times; Top Editor Fired (Paid Content)
The honeymoon is over at Tribune … Jim O’Shea is out as editor of the LA Times—the second top editor to leave in 15 months over cost-cutting disputes.

Charlie Rose to contribute to “60 Minutes”
(CBS) Master interviewer Charlie Rose will contribute stories to 60 Minutes beginning this season, it was announced Thursday by the news magazine’s executive producer, Jeff Fager. Rose, who has hosted and produced his own daily interview program, “Charlie Rose,” on PBS since 1991, returns to CBS News in a similar role to the one he filled on another CBS news magazine, 60 Minutes II, where he was correspondent from 1999-2005.

Writers, studios to revive negotiations
Spurred by the day-old employment contract signed by the Directors Guild of America, Hollywood’s writers and the major studios agreed Friday to resume talks, hoping to reach an agreement that would end the nearly 11-week-old strike, according to several people close to the matter.

TV’s Business Plan: Keep ‘Em Short and Sweet
Writers Strike’s Legacy Could Be Fewer Episodes, 365-Day Selling Season

Getty Images Up for Sale, Could Fetch $1.5 Billion
Getty Images, the world’s biggest supplier of pictures and video to media and advertising companies, has put itself on the auction block.

UK aiming to curb terrorists on internet
Britain has announced a drive to shut down websites inspired by al-Qaeda, comparing the move with efforts to target paedophiles online. British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith vowed the government would deny Islamist ideologues the use of a key recruitment tool.

Turkey Bans YouTube for Second Time
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – A Turkish court has again blocked access to the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube because of clips allegedly insulting the country’s founding father, according to reports Sunday.

MySpace to Spin Off Its Incubator Into A Separate Company; Financed By News Corp (Paid Content)
This will be a separate company, tentatively named Slingshot Labs, and will be financed by News Corp. Chris DeWolfe, CEO of MySpace anticipates that it will nurture four or five consumer websites at a given time. Fox Interactive media, of which MySpace is a part, has had an incubator for a while, and has developed new services for MySpace. So now instead of buying startups that survive off the MySpace economy, it will actively spur new ones to be born, just as its pace of growth is slowing down (and the competition with Facebook is white hot).
News Corp. is always looking for new ways to enhance its media presence, giving it more and better ability to spread the right-wing gospel of Rupert Murdoch.  Meanwhile, rich progressives sit on their hands.  And their funds.

The “Google generation” not so hot at Googling, after all (Ars Technica)
[Teens] “tend to use much simpler applications and fewer facilities than many imagine.” So what’s true about the Google generation? • They like to cut-and-paste. “There is a lot of anecdotal evidence and plagiarism is a serious issue.” • They prefer visual information over text. “But text is still important… For library interfaces, there is evidence that multimedia can quickly lose its appeal, providing short-term novelty.” • They multitask all the time. “It is likely that being exposed to online media early in life may help to develop good parallel processing skills.”

HBO Back in Broadband Game; Launches Service With TW Cable (Paid Content)
[T]he service will feature HBO Films, theatricals, and comedy specials. HBO’s East Coast feed will also be streamed live on the service. Programming will hit the broadband service at the same time as the linear HBO channel and will expire (and be removed from the user’s hard drive) after four weeks. The app used to play the video on PC can be set up for up to five user accounts, which is a nice touch.

The Video Game May Be Free, but to Be a Winner Can Cost Money
In a major departure from its traditional business model, E.A. [Electronic Arts] plans to announce Monday that it is developing a new installment in its hit Battlefield series that will be distributed on the Internet as a free download. Rather than being sold at retail, the game is meant to generate revenue through advertising and small in-game transactions that allow players to spend a few dollars on new outfits, weapons and other virtual gear… Strategically, [E.A.’s executive vice president for publishing in the Americas and Europe] said the game was a step toward figuring out how to generate multiple revenue streams from a single intellectual property, a maneuver Hollywood has mastered.

Nokia And Facebook Working On Mobile Deal; Could Involve Investment (Paid Content)
Nokia and Facebook are working on porting the social network on to Nokia handsets in a major way, we have learned. The Facebook placement could be as prominent as the YouTube button on the main screen of iPhone, our sources indicate. Also, the deal involves giving Facebook a major slot within Nokia retail products’ displays. But another factor elevates this beyond just-another-social-net-on-a-phone deal: Our sources have indicated that the discussions have involved Nokia purchasing a stake in the company.

GPS adds dimension to online photos
NEW YORK – To plan an upcoming hike in the Alps, John Higham scoured scores of photos plotted along his route on a digital map for clues to the steepness of trails and the availability of accommodations or camp sites.

What Exactly Does Google Want From The 700 MHz Auction? (by Sean P. Aune at Mashable)
Google’s interest in the 700 MHz auction has been a bit of mystery since it was first rumored to be planning to partake in the process some months ago… There has to be an “end game” they are aiming for. And my thoughts are it has all to do with [Google’s free mobile phone platform] Android. It’s not difficult to imagine an Android-powered device operating on an ad-supported system; allowing anyone to pick up a gPhone, possibly for free, and using the handset anywhere in the United States (over the 700 MHz band).
And further suppose that the local broadcast transmission ties in to the internet backbone, bypassing the telecoms.  See below.

FCC will test Internet over TV airwaves
Federal regulators said they will try again to test prototypes on Jan. 24 for transmitting high-speed Internet service over unused television airwaves.

Political Advertising Online: Prez Races May Devote 5 Percent On Money Online (Paid Content)
Lehman analyst Doug Anmuth came out with a report this week on political advertising online, and estimates that these ads could generate more than $110 million in revenues this year, with the Presidential elections contributing $42.5 million of that amount. This is small compared to total election spending in excess of $3 billion in 2008, and Presidential spending estimated to reach $850 million. But the trends are that the online spending is incremental and campaign advertising will increasingly shift online going forward, the research note says.

Wal-Mart ups the ante with radio.
The discount retailer is increasingly looking to radio for advertising — more than doubling its commercial volume. According to Media Monitors, 664,773 national Wal-Mart spots ran last year compared to 255,397 in 2006. Country and AC stations are getting the most. Cumulus COO John Dickey tells Inside Radio “If the trend line continues I think it will show some positive things
for 2008.”

Taxi Drivers in London Take a Turn as Pitchmen
A promotional campaign for an online gambling Web site will enlist the help of London taxi drivers to engage passengers in conversation and promote the site.

See Cookies? Go Watch a Movie
Consumers make more impulsive choices after being exposed to “appetitive stimuli,” according to a new study.