Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Pecksniffian Twit (by digby)
[In 2004, a Democratic group tied to Dick Gephardt and John Kerry ran ads invoking Osama bin Laden and saying,] “Howard Dean just cannot compete with George Bush on foreign policy. It’s time for Democrats to think about that — and think about it now.”…I don’t remember any “thoughtful” members of both parties getting together and deciding it was beyond the pale. Certainly nobody suggested that it was somehow disrespectful to the delicate, high minded Howard Dean or that it would tear the party apart.
Click through for a link to the ad.

Obama takes heat for ‘independent expenditure’ ads
San Francisco — Illinois Sen. Barack Obama - who has criticized Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards for benefiting from “independent expenditure” and political action committees - is taking heat because some of the same kind of organizations are now spending money, organizing and putting up TV ads on his behalf in the Bay Area… [C]ritics say Obama is being hypocritical in denouncing Edwards’ connection with “527″ independent expenditure groups while not demanding that ones supporting him stop.

How Much Did an Accused Political Fixer Raise for Obama? (by Brian Ross at The Blotter, ABC News)
The Obama campaign says it has given away more than $85,000 in [Antoin "Tony"] Rezko-linked contributions since Rezko was indicted on federal fraud and extortion charges in the fall of 2006. An ABCNews.com review, however, has identified an additional $100,000 in contributions made to Obama from Rezko’s associates that have not been returned, including $19,500 in contributions from Rezko’s wife and employees of Rezko’s business enterprises.

Hillary On The Morning Shows: Surprised By Photo Of Her And Rezko
Hillary hits all the morning shows, gets hit with a surprise on NBC: An old photo of her and Bill next to disgraced Obama associate Tony Rezko. NBC’s Matt Lauer says that the network “received” the photo and that its date is uncertain; the same pic also popped up on Drudge this morning. Asked about it, Hillary responds: “I don’t know the man. I wouldn’t know him if he walked in the door. I don’t have a 17 year relationship with him. There’s a big difference between standing somewhere taking a picture with someone you don’t know and haven’t seen since, and having a relationship that the newspapers in Chicago have been exploring.”
Click through to watch the video.

MSNBC blames Romney whisper on microphone malfunction (The Raw Story)
The whisper that could be heard just before an answer from Mitt Romney at Thursday’s Republican debate was the result of a microphone malfunction, an MSNBC spokesman tells RAW STORY, but its source remains a mystery. Just before Romney answered a question about Ronald Reagan’s 1983 Social Security overhaul, a voice can be heard whispering, either “He raised taxes” or “not raise taxes.” The overheard musing was the result of an open microphone somewhere, but a spokesman said the whisperer has not been identified.

Florida GOP Debate: Huckabee suggests Saddam’s WMDs are in Jordan (by Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars)
This is exactly why things that should not need to be debated anymore continue to be debated. Because no matter how many facts you place in front of Republicans, no matter how many studies are done by bipartisan panels, no matter how many White House talking points you prove are lies, they remain intractable and hold on to their false memes and then keep adding to it.
Click through to watch the video.

Romney, McCain exchange jabs in Fla.
SARASOTA, Fla. - A debate between John McCain and Mitt Romney over leadership credentials spiraled Saturday into a resume-belittling showdown as the Republican presidential race grew ever more intense ahead of Florida’s pivotal primary.

When it comes to abortion, GOP leaders are happy to phone it in (by Steve Benen at Crooks and Liars)
The annual March for Life has come and gone. One of its more bizarre qualities is the way GOP presidents participate: by recorded message or telephone hook-up, but never in person… Of the pro-life Republican candidates, John McCain sent a letter, Mitt Romney issued a press release, Mike Huckabee was in Georgia, and Ron Paul (who opposes abortion rights despite his libertarianism) didn’t communicate with the crowd, though he did announce an endorsement from Norma McCorvey.

CNN’s Super Tuesday-Plus
CNN is going around the clock with political coverage in the hours leading up to and past Super Tuesday in early February.

Fox News: Bush Is ‘Really Reflecting On His Place In History,’ Trying To ‘Equate Himself’ With Lincoln (Think Progress)
Fox News reporter Bret Baier “was granted unprecedented access by George W. Bush” to put together a one hour documentary that reflects back on his presidency. The documentary will air this Sunday night. Baier previewed his documentary — “George W. Bush: Fighting to the Finish” — on Fox News this afternoon. He said that what surprised him from the interview was the President’s repeated efforts to link himself to Abraham Lincoln: “… he thinks about Lincoln and the tough times that he had during the Civil War. 600,000 dead. The country essentially hated him when he was leaving office.
Click through to watch the video.

They Are One Entity (by digby)
A number of readers have written in to point out how odd it is that Bush characterizes Lincoln as being hated when he was “leaving office,” as if he doesn’t know that Lincoln had actually just been reelected in a landslide, was despised only by those in the defeated south and was well … shot. I t makes you wonder if Bush even knows the sixth grade level history of Lincoln’s term… As I wrote to one of the readers, I suspect that this whole Lincoln thing is something some sycophant told him in passing and he’s adopted it as his coping mechanism: “don’t worry Mr President, Lincoln was despised when he left office and he’s now known as America’s greatest president. You will be too!”

The Illustrated President (by Scott Horton, Harper’s, thanks to Think Progress)
George W. Bush is famous for his attachment to a painting… “When you come into my office, please take a look at the beautiful painting of a horseman determinedly charging up what appears to be a steep and rough trail. This is us…” [But the painting was created] to illustrate a Western short story … about a smooth-talking horse thief who is caught, and then escapes a lynch mob in the Sand Hills of Nebraska.
Click through to see a graphic of the painting.

Anti-Bush campaign planned
WASHINGTON - A liberal advocacy group plans to spend $8.5 million in a drive to make sure President Bush’s public approval doesn’t improve as his days in the White House come to an end. Americans United for Change plans to undertake a yearlong campaign, spending the bulk of the money on advertising, to keep public attention on what the group says are the failures of the Bush administration, including the war in Iraq, the response to Hurricane Katrina, and the current mortgage crisis.

Students plan to protest Rove speech. (Think Progress)
Students at the prestigious prep school Choate Rosemary Hall are protesting the choice of Karl Rove as their commencement speaker. AP reports that some students “plan to walk out, while “others are trying to bring comedian Stephen Colbert to campus for an alternate speech.” The campus newspaper has also written an editorial urging the school to reject Rove.  

Rummy Resurfaces, Calls for U.S. Propaganda Agency (by Sharon Weinberger at Danger Room, Wired)
One of the many things I love about Donald Rumsfeld is that he’s totally unrepentant. Back in 2001, the Pentagon under his leadership created the controversial Office of Strategic Influence, which was closed down just a few months later after its existence became public. Rightly or wrongly, the Pentagon was accused of creating a propaganda office. Now, the former defense secretary has a bigger vision: he is advocating a “21st century agency for global communications.”

Donald Rumsfeld: Still There (by Spencer Ackerman at the Washington Independent)
[W]hen Rumsfeld tried a version of this in miniature in Iraq, his actual fix was comically stupid. The Pentagon hired the Lincoln Group to pull off a propaganda campaign designed at discrediting the insurgency… For this, the Pentagon spent more than $25 million and arguably broke the law… Whatever he says is discredited by the sheer fact that he’s the one saying it. He should be legally obligated to end of all his sentences with, “…but, on the other hand, I’m a total jackass.”

A criminal idea (James K. Galbraith, writing at Comment is Free, The Guardian)
Attacking other countries to stop them acquiring nuclear weapons repudiates a key principle of international law

Fmr Bush aide refuses to speak to students on the record. (Think Progress)
Bush’s former adviser Meghan O’Sullivan, “who played a key behind-the-scenes role in implementing Bush’s controversial Iraq policies,” canceled a speech at Indiana University on Tuesday “after the student newspaper refused to agree to demands that the public event would be off the record.” Sullivan claimed she was ill, but was later seen speaking off-the-record at a private dinner with professors and “campus leaders.”  

Media Matters for America headlines

Craig Crawford: “[T]he evidence-free bias against the Clintons in the media borders on mental illness”

NBC’s Corke repeated myth that Giuliani kept “out of all these early contests”

PolitiFact.com falsely claimed McCain opposed 2001 Bush tax cuts because they should be “balanced by spending cuts”

CNN quoted CEI policy director on “green-collar jobs” without noting group’s reported ties to energy industry

Beck called “Comrade Clinton” a “liberal fascist,” Edwards “a communist”

MSNBC’s Hall aired McCain ad attacking Romney for “chang[ing] positions” on tax cuts without noting McCain’s flip-flops on taxes, negative campaigning

Despite earlier calling it a “myth,” CNN aired Huckabee’s claim that FairTax allows workers to “get their whole paychecks”

R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. falsely asserted Clinton’s “experience … includes lying under oath, and obstructing justice”

CNN’s Blitzer and Todd falsely present August 2007 Michelle Obama comment as current attack on Clintons

Dobbs falsely suggested CNN Democratic debate didn’t include “one question about illegal immigration”

UPI baselessly asserted that Obama paid “substantially lower than market value” for Rezko property

Morning Joe hosts launched misleading attacks on Obama over state Senate votes

Beck falsely claimed Dem candidates have not supported striking writers

Morning Joe panel panned Gibson’s “awful joke of an apology” after his “anti-gay tirade” about Ledger’s death

Iraq: Another journalist held by the U.S. military
Reporters Without Borders has voiced concern about the continuing detention of Rashid Majid Al-Sari, the editor of the biweekly newspaper “Al-Fatah”, who was arrested by United States troops at his Baghdad home on 18 January 2008.

Ex-HarperCollins Publisher Settles Defamation Suit
Judith Regan, the publisher who was fired from HarperCollins in late 2006, has settled her $100 million defamation lawsuit against News Corporation, Harper’s parent.

Seattle Stranger pulls negative restaurant review off website
The Stranger’s rival noticed that ads for Thomas Street Bistro appeared in the Stranger two weeks after the restaurant was panned by the paper, and the review was pulled off thestranger.com. The Stranger says the review was yanked because the restaurant was critiqued too soon, and that the bistro was given free ad space because of production errors in previous ads.

New York Press sex columnist lifted questions from Savage
New York Press editor-in-chief David Blum says his “Lip Service” columnist didn’t realize that using questions from Dan Savage’s syndicated sex column to get her column going was a breach of journalism ethics. Claudia Lonow, a Los Angeles-based TV writer, resigned after submitting one column.

Advertiser Sues Don Imus For Unscripted Comments
A book publisher that bought an ad on Imus’s show is suing the shock jock and his former bosses at CBS for insulting the book he was paid to promote.

“CBS News employees ratify WGA deal”
CBS News employees represented by the Writers Guild of America ratified their new contract agreement with the network. The WGA and CBS reached a tentative agreement Jan. 9, pending approval by the members.

Bare rear could cost ABC $1.4 million
WASHINGTON - The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a $1.4 million fine against 52 ABC Television Network stations over a 2003 broadcast of cop drama NYPD Blue.

Internet Ad Spend Will See A Tiny Bump From Summer Olympics: Analyst (Paid Content)
Internet advertising will attract only $70 million in ad spend related to the summer Olympics, out of a total $1.5 billion in expected expenditures for the Beijing event, according to Lehman Brothers analyst Doug Anmuth’s Internet Inside Weekly report (pdf only, not online). Most of that $70 million will go to NBC’s websites, while $30 million will be up for grabs by sites unrelated to the TV network.

Eisner’s Latest: A Vuguru-Putnam Production Of Robin Cook’s Upcoming Thriller: Report (Paid Content)
Michael Eisner’s …, partnering with Cyber Group Animation and Big Fantastic, will create 50 two-minute webisodes to serve as a prequel to Robin Cook’s upcoming thriller Foreign Body.  The NYP says the episodes will debut May 27, with a new ad-supported webisode airing every Monday through Friday for 10 weeks leading to an Aug. 4 finale. The book goes on sale the next day—with, Putnam hopes, an audience already hooked on the characters.