Permanent link to MTA daily media news

“Hip Music School” (WAFB, Baton Rouge, LA)
It started small, Doug Gay giving after-school music lessons. Then more students came, and Doug called on friends to teach the overflow. “And it just kind of flowered into this community of young musicians,” he says. It’s called Baton Rouge Music Studios–eight practice rooms and a recording studio in the works. Here they go beyond the traditional high school music classes. So what’s wrong with the way the schools teach music? “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with John Philip Sousa and Mozart,” says Doug. But many kids today want to know how to play rock and jazz, how to form a band, and Doug explains, “What we’re trying to do here is to, I guess, fill a void.”
Doug Gay is my nephew, and I am SO proud!  Click here for the video.

AP: Iraq After 5 Years — Only at Midpoint?
How much longer? Most likely, the war will go on for years, say many commanders and military analysts. In fact, it’s possible to consider this just the midpoint. The U.S. combat role in Iraq could have another half-decade ahead — or maybe more.

Winter Soldier: America Must Hear These Iraq Vets’ Stories (by Penny Coleman, AlterNet)
If America listens to what they say, the war would be over tomorrow.

Five years later: Iraq war goes online
The Web has done more than quicken reporting from the battlefield; it has made war interactive.

C&L makes the Guardian’s: ‘The world’s 50 most powerful blogs’ (by John Amato at crooks and liars)
This is pretty cool. It doesn’t say that it’s in number order, but what it does say is that the C&L team and our readers are doing great work.
It’s cool AND it’s well deserved.

‘Tis A Beautiful Thing… (by tristero at Hullabaloo)
… when the august New York Times sounds like a common blogger: “What Mr. Bush wants is to be able to listen to your international telephone calls and read your international e-mail whenever he wants, without a court being able to prevent it or judge the legality of his actions… The president will continue to claim the country is in grave danger over this issue, but it is not. The real danger is for Mr. Bush. A good law — like the House bill — would allow Americans to finally see the breathtaking extent of his lawless behavior.” That last sentence is not entirely accurate, but nevermind. I mean, Americans have always been able to see a great deal of the breathtaking extent of Bush’s lawless behavior. It’s just that media outlets like…well, like the New York Times itself, never reported the lawlessness in such a fashion as to sound the alarm if they reported it at all. Anyway, better late than never.

Sirius Radio launches ‘Client 9 Radio’ (Political Ticker, CNN)
NEW YORK (CNN) — For those who can’t get enough of the sex scandal that brought down New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Sirius Satellite Radio has launched what it is calling “Client 9 Radio,” a special channel dedicated to covering all aspects of the Spitzer saga.
If you just can’t get enough of Spitzer schadenfreude.

The $200 billion bail-out for predator banks and Spitzer charges are intimately linked (by Greg Palast, posted at the Smirking Chimp)
This week, Bernanke’s Fed, for the first time in its history, loaned a selected coterie of banks one-fifth of a trillion dollars to guarantee these banks’ mortgage-backed junk bonds. The deluge of public loot was an eye-popping windfall to the very banking predators who have brought two million families to the brink of foreclosure. Up until Wednesday, there was one single, lonely politician who stood in the way of this creepy little assignation at the bankers’ bordello: Eliot Spitzer.

Cutting Women Out: The Media Bias Against Female Candidates (by Erika Falk, In These Times, posted at AlterNet)
The mainstream media treats female presidential candidates as novelties instead of serious contenders — just like they did 100 years ago.

Writers Strike at Daily Kos? Try a Readers Strike… (The Brad Blog)
“Alegre”, a longtime Daily Kos diarist, has called for a writers strike at the world’s largest supposedly-Progressive blog site, due to what she says has become a “hostile environment” for pro-Clinton supporters. We don’t know whether that’s the case or not, since we haven’t much followed what goes on at dKos for years for our own personal, if not necessarily unrelated, reasons. But if you really want to get the attention of a blog owner, we’d suggest a readers strike is far more likely to accomplish that goal…

Tom Watson is keeping a running list of blogs and other online sources that treat Hillary Clinton and her supporters fairly.

Clinton Gains on Obama Nationally (Political Wire)
Two new polls show a shift of momentum in the Democratic presidential race to Sen. Hillary Clinton. A new Gallup poll finds Sen. Barack Obama edging ahead of Clinton, 49% to 46%, but within the survey’s margin of error. Clinton was stronger in Friday night’s interviews which could be a result of some of the recent controversy related to Obama’s ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and developer Tony Rezko. A new Rasmussen Reports survey shows Obama leading, 46% to 45%, but “reflects an unusually sharp change from yesterday’s results when Obama led by eight points.”

Oink, oink… (Malcolm Redfellow’s World Service)
Malcolm spent a few moments doing a quickie with the Primary returns to date. He listed the 22 States (obviously including Florida) the Democrats won in 2000, and must win in 2008, which would deliver a total of 287 votes in the Electoral College. There’s not much point in summing the “popular” vote, because of the different ways delegates are selected between Primaries and Caucuses. However, when he summed the “Electoral College” votes for Clinton and Obama in these (for the Democrats) key States, Malcolm found something quite remarkable:

Clinton 161;
Obama 98.

Clinton camp supports a verified paper trail at Texas Caucuses (by TxKat at MyDD)
For the last 2 weeks, there have been a multitude of reports of misbehavior, sloppy math (when determining final caucus totals), people who attended — and voted — in the caucuses who were not even registered to vote (some of these were even selected as delegates) and more… The TDP has been so overwhelmed, both with the numbers of attendees to check and the size and frequency of the problems, that they say they cannot accomplish these tasks prior to the scheduled County/State Senatorial Conventions on March 29. The Clinton campaign has requested that the County/State Senatorial Conventions be delayed until that information can be provided and the State Party can accomplish its job.
Man, that Clinton campaign is racist!

Why did Obama remove his name from the Michigan ballot? The Michigan Two-Step (video)

Obama opens up on Rezko, and it’s almost believable (by John Kass, Chicago Tribune)
Obama asks us to believe he can swim in the sewers of Illinois politics without catching a cold. He tells us that [indicted political fixer and fundraiser Tony] Rezko helped him scope out his dream house, yet Obama never thought he’d get a call from Tony saying his back was itchy. “No,” Obama said. “Because I had known him for a long time, and so I would have assumed I would have seen a pattern [of Rezko asking for favors] over the course of 15 years.” I’m too old to believe in fairy tales.

Story behind the story: Obama’s pastor (by Mike Allen at Politico)
The coverage of [Rev. Jeremiah] Wright’s comments bolstered the effort by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) to raise vague doubts about the judgment of her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Obama’s poor judgment is Clinton’s fault. You knew that was coming.

Hannity & Colmes: Bringing On The Right Wingers To Lose It Over Obama & Rev. Wright (by Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars)
Despite the fact that Billo says he’s the only guy out there courageous enough (*cough, cough*) to talk about Barack Obama’s relationship with Trinity UCC’s Rev. Jeremiah Wright, there wasn’t much else of discussion on Hannity & Colmes on Friday night. In fact, I’d say that the outrage was proportionate to the number of wingnuts brought on to discuss it. Nevertheless, co-host Alan Colmes and Democratic strategist Bob Beckell manage to inject some semblance of sanity to the predictions of the end of Obama’s chance for the White House. C&L contributer Heather made [a] mash up of Friday’s show.
Click through to watch the video.

Obama’s pastor disaster (by Mark Steyn, Orange County Register)
Barack Obama is not supposed to be the candidate of the America-damners: He’s not the Rev. Al Sharpton or the Rev. Jesse Jackson or the rest of the racial grievance-mongers. Obama is meant to be the man who transcends the divisions of race, the candidate who doesn’t damn America but “heals” it – if you believe, as many Democrats do, that America needs healing. Yet since his early twenties he’s sat week after week, listening to the ravings of just another cookie-cutter race-huckster… The “racist” here is not Geraldine Ferraro but the Rev. Wright, whose appeals to racial bitterness are supposed to be everything President Obama will transcend. Right now, it sounds more like the same-old same-old.

Senator Obama, Do Words Matter? (by Larry Johnson at No Quarter)
[Jeremiah] Wright’s words matter. Wright’s words express a view of history and a view of society that every member of his congregation understood. Obama will struggle in the coming days to insist he knew nothing about a man he calls Uncle. But Uncle Jeremiah is not some crazy relative living in an attic. He has been a leader in Africentric Liberation theology, a religious vision that promotes racial division and hatred. I guess Senator Obama is truly audacious because he apparently believes that America will not believe the recorded words of Uncle Jeremiah.

Christmas Day 2007: Obama in Chicago (by truthteller2007 at MyDD)
Jeremiah Wright fulminated against Hillary Clinton while preaching from his pulpit at Trinity United Church of Christ on Christmas Day 2007. Obama explains how he is a member of Trinity United Church of Chirst to an Iowa voter the day before he departed for Chicago for the Christmas holiday.  Was he present during this Christmas Day sermon?  Did he speak with his minister and spiritual advisor before the sermon was delivered on Christmas Day?  Was he aware of the content of Wright’s sermon?  And if so, when was he alerted to the inappropriate content of Wright’s sermon: Christmas Day, the day following Christmas Day, the week following Christmas Day?  Or were Barack, Michelle, Malia and Sasha standing and not “sitting” in the pews of TUCC when Wright uttered controversial comments critical of Hillary Clinton’s whiteness on Christmas Day?

Mr. Obama, We Have a Question (by SusanUnPC at No Quarter)
Why won’t you release your schedule that notes the dates when you attended church and heard the sermons of Rev. Jeremiah Wright? We want the facts, sir. Just the facts. You deny being at the July 22 service — as is asserted by NewsMax — but you provide no verification that your claim is accurate. You can deny from now until the end of time, but you need to provide proof, sir.

What Else Didn’t Obama Realize? (by Andy Ostroy at the Ostroy Report)
He didn’t realize his business dealings with indicted Chicago real estate developer Tony Rezko constituted a conflict of interest. He didn’t realize his pastor and spiritual advisor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, delivered hate-filled church speeches. Are we really to believe those assertions from Illinois’ junior Senator, Barack Obama, a graduate of Harvard Law School and the first black president of its esteemed Law Review? Kinda hard for a magna cum laude Harvard law grad to play dumb, don’t ya think? And is it not fair to ask the question, what else didn’t Obama realize that might surface soon from his past?

Gospel Time (by Taylor Marsh)
I know everyone is now trying to equate Reverend Wright with McCain’s Reverend Hagee. I’ve done so much eviscerating of right-wing preachers, I’d be all in for it. However, Hagee hasn’t been McCain’s spiritual guru for 17 years. Hagee also never explicitly said so many hateful things about this country. I find the man detestable, especially given his anti Catholic views. But religious prejudice is one thing. Sounding anti-American is another, especially when the man railing at this country is tied so closely to a man who might be the Democratic nominee for president. Old “uncle” won’t do in a general election fight with John McCain. In fact, Wright could ignite the Republican base in a way never anticipated.
But Taylor, Hillary Clinton is the divisive one.  SHE’s the one Republicans will come out in droves to vote against.  I know because Randi Rhodes told me so.

Red State Update: Obama’s Preacher (video)

How will Wright’s remarks affect Obama’s support from McCaskill, Sebelius? (Kansas City Star Editorial Board)
Two of Barack Obama’s most important endorsements from America’s Heartland are from Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. But how will the controversy that now surrounds Obama and his long-time pastor, Jeremiah Wright Jr., affect those endorsements? At the very least, both Midwesterners will face pressure from Missourians and Kansans to back off their earlier enthusiastic support of Obama. Both Sebelius and McCaskill will be watching very closely in the days ahead as Democrats in their states react to Wright’s offensive words.

Imagine if Wright Were Hillary’s Pastor … (by SusanUnPC at No Quarter)
Imagine for a moment Hillary had for two decades embraced a minister and a church that preached racism or hatred for America as Wright has done. Imagine that she had embraced a minister who claims that America “started the AIDS virus . . . We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty.” Imagine that Hillary had Rev. Jeremiah Wright on her “African American Religious Leadership Committee,” as did Obama as of December 4, 2007. Hillary Clinton not only would not be running for president, she wouldn’t be in the Senate, she probably would not be employable in public life anywhere.

The Fine Art of Clinton Derangement (by eriposte at the Left Coaster)
Ezra Klein at The American Prospect… “The sense around town seems to be that the odd emergence of this old video of Wright was part of a Clinton oppo dump, and that’s likely correct.” Put up or shut up. Must we ceaselessly slander HRC? Why is it that every bad thing that happens to Obama is her fault? Do you really not know that the wingnuts over at Faux News have been doing regular stories about Wright for months? Are you really so out of touch with the rest of the blogosphere that you haven’t realized that this crap has been widely discussed ad nauseum by the crazies? A good portion of the progressive blogosphere REALLY has gone bonkers.

Attack timeline – see how the Obama campaign has spread lies and sexist hate, starting more than a year ago.

The Clinton Rules and The Obama Rules (by eriposte at the Left Coaster)
One of the useful side-effects of the Jeremiah Wright brouhaha is its ample illustration of The Clinton Rules and The Obama Rules for this campaign. These rules are based on the Brilliant and Thought-Provoking Journalism™ of some of the major, allegedly, “progressive” blogs and the traditional media outlets that they have become extensions of… Vastleft at Corrente is the inspiration for this post. Vastleft sarcastically says (emphasis mine): “I’m beginning to develop a moral sense about this stuff, but it’s still kinda cloudy for me. For example, I know this to be true, but I don’t quite know why: If Obama gets the nomination and loses, it will be the fault of Hillary and her supporters. If Hillary gets the nomination and loses, it will be the fault of Hillary and her supporters.”
Click through for more of this sad but true rendition of how the two candidates are treated by so-called progressives.  And don’t forget to add your own ideas.

The True Definition of “Party Unity” (by Andy Ostroy at the Ostroy Report)
[The pro-Obama] Progressives, angry that we won’t support their candidate right now or call [Clinton] dirty or demand she quit even though she’s a hair away from Obama, threaten to vote for McCain as punishment if she wins. My way or the highway is their campaign slogan. We fight for liberty, truth, justice and Progressive values for all, they self-righteously brag, but then would freely toss their precious votes to yet another war-mongering, small government, staunch conservative if they don’t get their way in the primaries… [I]f our candidate wins, the sane thing to do is support her in our collective fight against Republican tyranny. And if Obama wins, we will of course back him with all we’ve got. Funny, that sounds an awful lot like party unity to me….

Rep. Tom Davis: Bush has killed ‘the Republican brand.’ (Think Progress)
Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), who is retiring this year, tells the Washington Post: “You have a very unhappy electorate, which is no surprise, with oil at $108 a barrel, stocks down a few thousand points, a war in Iraq with no end in sight and a president who is still very, very unpopular. He’s just killed the Republican brand.”

Who Is Rev. Moon? ‘Returning Lord,’ ‘Messiah,’ Publisher of the Washington Times (by John Gorenfeld, PoliPoint Press, posted at AlterNet)
“True Father” to some, madman to others, Sun Myung Moon is one of the strangest and least scrutinized figures in the conservative media world.

Bernanke: “The problems in the subprime market seems likely to be contained.” (by Dean Baker)
At this point, the financial markets need credible analysis from the Fed, not happy talk. An important first step would be a move toward greater transparency. Why is the Fed letting banks borrow hundreds of billions of dollars in secret? What guarantees were given to J.P. Morgan as part of its takeover of Bear Stearns? Bernanke has to start being open and honest in addressing the country’s financial problems. Otherwise his words will have no weight. Reporters should demand a fuller accounting from Bernanke and the Fed.

Media Matters for America headlines

• Media uncritically report McCain’s claim that overseas trip is not campaign-related, ignoring London fundraiser

• Fox’s Baier claimed McCain “right away” denounced controversial statements by supporters

China blocks YouTube over Tibet videos
BEIJING - Internet users in China were blocked from seeing YouTube.com on Sunday after dozens of videos about protests in Tibet appeared on the popular U.S. video Web site.

ISPs In Japan Agree With Copyright Owners To Ban Persistant File Sharing (Mashable)
Under growing pressure from copyright holders in the music, movie and software industries, Japanese ISPs have agreed to assist in tracking down file sharers, and eventually ban their accounts if they don’t stop their activities.

Craigslist Cleared Of Discrimination Charges In Listings (Mashable)
Craigslist, the popular online classified system, has been cleared of problems stemming from discriminatory ads placed on its sites… [T]his ruling could be a boon to people who operate online forums.

State officials keep e-mail from view
Governments at all levels are often unwilling to let the public see the e-mails of their elected officials.

Text messages enter public-records debate
Those messages that officials dash off on government cellphones to friends and colleagues aren’t necessarily private after all.

Annual PEJ Report: Web Changing Journalism, But Not As Expected
The Internet has profoundly changed journalism, but not necessarily in ways that were predicted even a few years ago, a study on the industry released Sunday found. The news agenda actually seems to be…narrowing, the Project for Excellence in Journalism found.

Real Web 2.0 Mantra? Be Evil. Very Evil.
There Is Nothing Utopian in the Bare-Knuckled Brawls Between Old-Media Titans and New-Media Boy Wonders

World’s Publishers v. Google: The Fight Continues (by Matthew Buckland at Poynter Online)
Newspapers and online publishers appear to be heading back into battle against search engine behemoth Google. Yesterday the powerful World Association of Newspapers (WAN) issued a rather terse statement, calling on Google “to respect the rights of contentcreators” and embrace a new access protocol for search engines indexing Web sites, known as the Automated Content Access Protocol (ACAP).
It certainly makes sense to me that the creator of particular content be ranked first in web searches.

Pincus: The press should play an activist role in government
In a magazine piece that’s not online, Walter Pincus complains that journalists and media owners rarely push issues they believe government should take up. “They don’t want to play activist roles in government — either personally or professionally — unless, of course, it could affect the bottom line,” writes the Washington Post newsman. “I believe this failure is a threat to our democracy and a poor example for the rest of the world.”
Walter Pincus has been living in a cave for the last 16 years.

Nobody can touch newspapers when it comes digging up dirt
The prestige dailies have the credibility and reach to make a scandal like the Eliot Spitzer saga fly, says William Powers. “For the real thing, the stuff that outs corruption and hypocrisy, revealing the powerful for who they really are and shaking things up in the most immediate, consequential ways — in short, the scandals that are truly scandalous — nobody else can touch newspapers.”
Yeah, like the runup to the Iraq War.  Newspapers did a GREAT job of investigating the administration’s false claims.  NOT!

Would Zell sell the Baltimore Sun? “I don’t know,” he says
Sam Zell once said he planned to keep all of Tribune’s assets, but with the tough economy and steeper-than-expected revenue declines, “we may have to re-evaluate a lot of our decisions,” the Tribune chief told Baltimore Sun staffers. He said was evaluating what to do with the Sun’s real estate holdings. Zell was asked if he’d consider selling the paper. “I don’t know,” he replied.

Publishers need to reset profit goals, say goodbye to 30%
Hearst vice chairman Frank Bennack Jr. says publishers have to get realistic about their business, and reset advertising, circulation and profit targets “so we don’t live in a constant state of depression.” He also warns that severe newsroom cutting will come back to haunt publishers. “If newspapers don’t cover the news and do it with detail and context, someone else will.”
30% was NEVER a realistic goal.  It’s not a realistic goal for almost all businesses.

Dusting Off the Archive for the Web
For magazines and newspapers with long histories, old material can be reborn on the Web as an inexpensive way to attract readers, advertisers and money.

CBS orders “Birbiglia’s Journal”
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - CBS has ordered the comedy pilot “Mike Birbiglia’s Secret Public Journal,” a project based on a weekly blog in which the comedian chronicles his daily life.

Indie labels take e-commerce into their own hands
NEW YORK (Billboard) - With their digital download sites, a growing number of indie rock labels have begun to answer the prayers of fans who would love to hear long-out-of-print singles on their iPods or other mobile devices.

Voting for the Worst on ‘American Idol’ Makes Money for an Entrepreneur
A Web site that started out as an Internet lark is now attracting advertisers.

Microsoft Pitches Merger Vision To Yahoo at Meeting
Senior executives from Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. met Monday to discuss Microsoft’s takeover offer for the Internet company, according to people familiar with the matter. The meeting, the first since Microsoft made its unsolicited offer Jan. 31, marks a breakthrough in communication between the two camps following Yahoo’s rejection of Microsoft’s offer last month.

Google says Microsoft’s Yahoo buy might hurt Internet
BEIJING (Reuters) - Google Inc, the world’s leading search engine, said on Monday it was concerned about the free flow of information on the Internet if Microsoft Corp were to succeed in acquiring Yahoo Inc.

Mergers are in the Air
Though many tech vendors are suffering as the widening U.S. financial crisis slows down consumer and business spending, IT mergers and acquisitions including bellwethers such as Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Electronic Arts and AOL continue to reshape the technology landscape and provide opportunities for investors.

Google Ad Manager: It’s bigger than it looks (by Jeff Jarvis)
The biggest news of the week — well, besides the governor-erect (hat tip to the New York Post) — was not AOL’s purchase of Bebo or Yahoo’s embrace of the semantic web (about which I remain skeptical) or certainly Lacygate. No, the biggest, most game-changing news went by without a great deal of notice and that Google’s announcement of a free ad-serving platform. Google Ad Manager is one critical piece in creating the open network of networks where any site can take any ad and any marketer can advertise on any site. When that day arrives, we all become atoms that can attract to one molecule or another, no longer locked into one network.

Microsoft to buy Rapt for ad management tools
Microsoft hasn’t yet snagged Yahoo, but it plans to acquire another company it hopes will boost its online advertising yields: Rapt, of San Francisco. Rapt sells advertising yield management tools for online media companies. The tools are designed to predict demand for advertising and optimize the price and placement of ads, improving revenue.

Advertisers shun user-generated video
NEW YORK - Anyone can become a director or star through video-sharing sites like YouTube, but not everyone can make money.

Net video ads: attention vs. annoyance
Marketers and Web sites alike are struggling to bring to the Internet ads that resemble television without turning off viewers the way TV ads often do… The challenge is finding the right formula — in the creative approach, the format or the frequency with which the ads appear — so visitors notice the pitches without getting so annoyed that they never come back.

Startup Aims to Broker Customer Feedback
BOSTON (AP) - One of the great things about the Internet is the way people post reviews on just about anything you’re considering trying, whether it’s a movie, a new restaurant or the local florist. This also introduces one of the worst things about the Internet: trying to figure out which reviews to trust. Was that effusive praise written surreptitiously by the merchant? Was that anonymous online slam posted by a devious competitor?

Bearer of Bad News Decides to Advertise It
After more than 70 years, Consumer Reports has decided that a review isn’t enough for a bad product — it deserves a provocative ad campaign, too.