Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Protest Against Media Bias & Voter Suppression NYC: Friday, April 11, 2008 (by Fleaflicker at No Quarter)
Attention Hillary Supporters!!
Protest Against Media Bias & Voter Suppression
NYC: Friday, April 11, 2008
(8am at: W48th St & Rockefeller Plaza)
Sick of the biased media? Disgusted with sexism against Hillary? Tired of the absurd calls for Hillary to stop competing and “to quit”? Frustrated that votes in Michigan & Florida are not being counted? It’s time we demand the media STOP trying to choose our president!

Clinton Told True Tale of Woe, Says Kin (by Anne E. Kornblut at The Trail, washingtonpost.com, thanks to No Quarter)
The aunt of a young pregnant woman who died after a hospital told her she needed to pay $100 up front for care said in an interview on Monday that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been telling the story accurately on the campaign trail — following claims by a different Ohio hospital that it did not turn the patient away.
So where does Hillary Clinton go to get her reputation back?  I’d like to point out, by the way, that Anne Kornblut, who worked for the Boston Globe in 2001, was the only national reporter at the time not to have been taken in by the ridiculous White House vandalism story.

Hillary Says Bush Should Boycott Olympic Ceremony (by Jeralyn at TalkLeft)
Hillary Clinton today on the Olympics: “The violent clashes in Tibet and the failure of the Chinese government to use its full leverage with Sudan to stop the genocide in Darfur are opportunities for Presidential leadership. These events underscore why I believe the Bush administration has been wrong to downplay human rights in its policy towards China. At this time, and in light of recent events, I believe President Bush should not plan on attending the opening ceremonies in Beijing, absent major changes by the Chinese government…” What’s Obama’s position? He’s conflicted.

Clinton repeats opposition to trade deal with Colombia (On Politics, USA Today)
[Sunday], Hillary Rodham Clinton’s chief strategist left her campaign because he had been lobbying on behalf of a trade deal with Colombia that she opposes — lobbying that The New York Times reports did not sit well with several influential unions… “As I have said consistently for several months, I oppose signing any trade deal with Colombia while violence against trade unionists continues and the perpetrators are not brought to justice,” Clinton said in this statement issued by her campaign. Barack Obama, Clinton’s rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, also opposes the deal.
Many of the unions have refused to endorse Hillary Clinton, but she continues to stand by them anyway.

Clinton’s economic advisers served her husband
WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton’s campaign slogan of “ready on day one” extends to her economic team. She’s surrounded herself with economic counselors who advised her husband during the booming 1990s.
Sounds like a good thing to me.  I’m so old that I remember the boom times of the 90s, when even teenagers were getting rich.

Clinton will fight for gay rights (video).  Obama is friends with anti-gay pastors and wouldn’t have his picture taken with the gay mayor of San Francisco.

Obama’s Gun Dance (by Robert Novak at Real Clear Politics)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Barack Obama, who informs campaign audiences that he taught constitutional law for 10 years, might be expected to weigh in on the historic Second Amendment case before the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices are pondering whether the 1976 District of Columbia law effectively prohibiting personal gun ownership in the nation’s capital is constitutional. But Sen. Obama has not stated his position.  Obama, disagreeing with the D.C. government and gun control advocates, declares the Second Amendment’s “right of the people to keep and bear arms” applies to individuals, not just the “well-regulated militia” cited in the amendment. In the next breath, he asserts this constitutional guarantee does not preclude local “common sense” restrictions on firearms. Does the Draconian prohibition for Washington, D.C., fit that description? My attempts to get an answer have proved unavailing. The front-running Democratic presidential candidate is doing the gun dance.
Yes, it’s Robert Novak, but it illustrates a point.  Obama is never straightforward about anything controversial.

Brief Credential Summary of the 2008 Democratic Presidential Candidate Nominees
It’s a real eye opener—a side by side comparison.

RUSSERT PLAYS ALTOONA: (by Bob Somerby at the Daily Howler)
[Tim Russert, on Meet the Press, Sunday:] “Governor Rendell, these were the headlines in the New York Daily News and across the country on Saturday. Here it is, the “109 Million-Dollar Couple: Bill and Hill make more than $15 million a year since leaving the White House.” Fifteen million dollars a year—$109 million in seven years. How is that going to play in Lancaster, Altoona, Erie, PA?” We suppose that question might make some sort of marginal sense—if Russert ever bothered to ask it about people like John McCain… McCain is married to an heiress whose worth may exceed $100 million. How would that play in Altoona? We don’t have the slightest idea, and frankly, we don’t really care. But it’s amazing to see the way people like Russert pimped the Clintons’ wealth this weekend—as with Kerry and Edwards before them—having spent so many years failing to mention McCain’s… (By the way: According to estimates by Howard Kurtz, … Russert [makes] more than $5 million each… [T]hat estimate appeared in 2004. By now, we’ll guess it’s low.)

Hillary Sexism Watch: Castrating Bitch Edition (by Melissa McEwan at Shakesville)
Part Seventy-Six in an Ongoing Series. (Previous parts linked at end of post.) Are you fucking kidding me, Josh Marshall? Because I quite honestly can’t believe that a person who identifies as a progressive and has two brain cells still knocking together doesn’t understand why it’s problematic, to put it charitably, to frame Hillary Clinton pushing her male chief strategist from power as “gelding” him. I find it difficult to believe that a man of your intelligence doesn’t know that “to geld” means to castrate, and I find it similarly difficult to believe that a man of your experience doesn’t know that powerful women are routinely cast as castrating bitches, and I further yet find it difficult to believe, in light of your constant reminders that you’ve spent a good part of your adult life defending the Clintons, that you are totally unaware of the existence of “hilarious” novelty items like the Hillary Clinton nutcracker. So where exactly is the disconnect, Josh, that allows you to use such disgusting language in reference to a sitting senator and presidential candidate? Or any woman, for that matter. With “allies” like these…

Remember how we’d always laugh when the Republicans gave Democrats advice on how to win? (by lambert at Corrente)
Now we’re doing it. Seriously, why would anybody take whoever kidnapped Josh Marshall seriously when he gives advice to Hillary? Kidz, I’m so old I remember when I thought Talking Points Memo was misnomer, and they were really into news gathering. I thought they wanted to be the next Times, when it turns out they want to be the next Weekly Standard. A shame, really.

Polls: Race helps Clinton with whites
WASHINGTON – Add this to the divisive debate over race in the presidential campaign: Whites who said race was important in picking their candidate have been about twice as likely to back Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as Sen. Barack Obama.
And, of course, the reason for this disparity HAS TO BE because of racism.  Thanks for helping to keep us all divided, Associated Press.

Barack Obama in suspended animation (by Walter Shapiro, Salon)
The front-runner is trapped in an unchanging race that will be hard for him to lose — but is proving impossible for him to end.

If the system made sense, Clinton would be far ahead (by Sean Wilentz, Salon)
Under a winner-take-all primary system, Hillary Clinton would have a wide lead over Barack Obama — and enough delegates to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination by June.

This Week: Cokie Roberts Sneers At The Responsible Plan To End The War, Says Most Americans Interested In Winning (by Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars)
It’s hard for me at times to not think of the mainstream media as this monolithic Borg-like hive mind designed merely to keep the status quo and tell you how you should think. And sadly, too few people have the time or inclination to do more than passively accept the information given, even if simply makes no sense. Case in point, Cokie Roberts during the panel segment of This Week with George Stephanopoulos. When Katrina Vanden Heuvel tries to bring up A Responsible Plan and the netroots/alternative media’s attempts to really force the discussion of withdrawal from Iraq from the candidates they are supporting, and Roberts openly laughs at her. To Roberts, polls be damned, Americans are more concerned with winning (a concept still vaguely and defiantly undefined five years into the occupation) than leaving Iraq.
Click through to watch the video.

60 Minutes: Gov. Siegelman challenges Rove to testify under oath (by SilentPatriot at Crooks and Liars)
There’s a reason why programs like “60 Minutes” win Peabody Awards. Less than 2 months after airing a story exposing the politically motivated conviction of former Democratic Governor Don Siegelman — yes, we now have political prisoners in this country — Scott Pelley sits down with a newly-released Siegelman, who has some serious questions he wants Karl Rove to answer under oath before the Judiciary Committee.
Click through to watch the video.

Worst. President. Ever. (by Scott Horton at No Comment, Harper’s Magazine)
America’s historians, it seems, don’t think much of George W. Bush… They … stack him up against his thirty-three predecessors as the nation’s chief executive. Among historians, there is no doubt into which echelon he falls–his competitors are Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Franklin Pierce, the worst of the presidential worst. But does Bush actually come in dead last?  Yes. History News Network’s poll of 109 historians found that 61 percent of them rank Bush as “worst ever” among U.S. presidents.

The Real Case Against Greenspan (by Dean Baker)
If Greenspan had explicitly warned of the bubble, explaining carefully with charts and graphs how the run-up in house prices was inconsistent with longstanding trends in house prices, and could not be explained by the fundamentals in the housing market, it is likely that it would have taken the air out of the bubble years ago… It is difficult to see any negative consequences that could have resulted from Greenspan providing accurate analysis to the public and financial markets. It is unfortunate that the pages of the WSJ and most of the rest of the business media were not open to this view years ago. It is remarkable that these views are still excluded from the debate.

Media Matters for America headlines

• O’Reilly guest Rudov “fear[s] … the long-term consequences for children” of “promoting” “homosexual lifestyle”

• Washingtonpost.com’s Cillizza repeatedly and falsely referred to Lieberman as a Democrat

• Discussing NY Times/CBS poll, Cokie Roberts, Reuters’ Decker claimed McCain is ahead of, or even with, Obama, Clinton — poll says otherwise

• Andrea Mitchell: Clinton’s campaign, “right now, is not the greatest example of why women should rule the world”

• Wallace refused to acknowledge inconsistency in McCain’s statements on Iraq as South Korea, accusing Kerry of “conflating” them

• LA Times highlighted National Journal’s ranking of Obama, uncritically quoted NRCC spokesman

• On Tim Russert, Hitchens said to Sullivan: “Oh, well don’t be such a lesbian. Get on with it”

• Brzezinski and McCain adviser agree that McCain admitted lack of economic knowledge once — but he’s done so several times

• WSJ reported McCain criticism of execs’ pay without mentioning his approval of Bear Stearns aid

• Savage on Obama: “Now we have an unknown stealth candidate who went to a madrassas in Indonesia and, in fact, was a Muslim”

Justice Department Sues Fox
The Justice Department has taken on the role of the FCC’s enforcer, filing a lawsuit Friday against Fox and Sinclair Broadcast Group to collect $56,000 in fines.

Web Site Restores “Abortion” Search Term
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has restored the word “abortion” as an acceptable search term on a reproductive health Web site funded by the government.

Facebook Reportedly Near Accord Over Origin
According to a person briefed on the talks, the company is completing a settlement of a suit brought by three former Harvard students who contend that the original idea for Facebook belonged to them.

“My students do not read newspapers, online or otherwise”
Former Washington Post and Time investigative reporter Ted Gup is surprised how little his college students know about the world. “In recent years I have administered a dumbed-down quiz on current events and history early in each semester to get a sense of what my students know and don’t know. Initially I worried that its simplicity would insult them, but my fears were unfounded. The results have been, well, horrifying. …It is time to once again make current events an essential part of the curriculum.”

‘Wash Post’ Captures 6 Pulitzers, ‘NYT’ Takes 2
The Washington Post (under Exeuctive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., left) was the big Pulitzer Prize winner on Monday, taking home six of the 14 journalism categories — including the coveted Public Service award — the most ever for the newspaper, and second most for any paper in one year. Winners were announced at 3 p.m. at Columbia University.

Tribune Turns to Radio to Revive Empire (Wall Street Journal)
As real-estate magnate Sam Zell tries to rejuvenate ailing newspaper and television empire Tribune Co., he is turning to another, more freewheeling medium: radio. An influx of veteran executives from radio — including several hired in recent days from Clear Channel Communications Inc., which has been buffeted by the departures — is likely to upend Tribune’s once-staid culture. Under the direction of Mr. Zell and his No. 2 at Tribune, radio veteran Randy Michaels, pinball machines and a jukebox have been installed at the company’s corporate headquarters in Chicago. Another radio veteran, newly hired Chief Innovation Officer Lee Abrams, he floated some provocative ideas for reviving Tribune’s newspapers, including front pages primarily composed of colorful maps.
What does entertainment radio have to do with a news organization based on a newspaper?  I have no idea.

Newspapers need to pay closer attention to online comments
A Chicago Tribune feature on a violinist’s accident has elicited more than 160 comments, many of them incorrect or off-topic. “No one with authority stepped in to admonish the rude, correct those who posted wrong information, or to respond to those who had questions about the story,” writes Robert Niles. “Reporters and editors need to stay engaged with a piece so long as people are commenting on it and linking to it. Otherwise, they are squandering their chance to use that amazing content as the foundation to build the communities that can sustain market success online.”

Ex-Dallas Morning News TV critic Bark loves the blogging life
Ed Bark wishes he had launched UncleBarky.com sooner. At the Dallas Morning News, he wasn’t allowed to cover local news because the paper’s owner, Belo, owns a Dallas TV station. Now he covers Dallas-Fort Worth TV, network news, primetime TV and more on his website. “I started out in journalism as this passionate, fearless kid reporter,” says Bark. “Now I”m kind of going out the way I came in.”

CBS is leaving the news business (by Jeff Jarvis)
The signs have been adding up: CBSNews.com did major layoffs and an aggressive retreat from news online. CBS stations made news layoffs aplenty. And now CBS is said to be talking with CNN — again — about outsourcing news to CNN. One imagines a one-woman-thick news operation: Katie Couric reading intros to CNN reports… But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Oh, we’ll hear wailing about public service and the public airwaves — that and a damned expensive contract is why they’ll keep Couric in a storefront operation. But what we have now is not public service. We don’t need three evening newscasts exactly alike except as a repository for erectile dysfunction commercials. So let one or two networks win the ratings. Let CBS put more resources into investigations on 60 Minutes. Let CNN cover breaking news — with more help from witnesses with cameras. I hope they let others take that news and curate it in different ways with different perspectives. There’ll be a new ecology of news on video and it’s about time.

NHL Launches Ambitious Next Phase In Broadband As Stanley Cup Playoffs (Paid Content)
The National Hockey League continues its aggressive broadband push with a new video player for nhl.com, more ad options and a batch of channels timed to launch when the 2008 Stanley Cup playoffs begin Wednesday. This week’s launch includes access to three years of archived clips by date and player, as well as several hours a day of programming. It’s just the beginning—a taste of what’s coming this summer when all 30 teams will start using the player to distribute their own programming, and when nhl.com relaunches completely in September.

Bravo’s Parent Sues for ‘Runway’ Rights
NBC Universal, the parent company of Bravo network, filed a lawsuit to try to keep one of the biggest hits in cable television from moving to Lifetime this fall.

Yahoo Answers Microsoft With Yet Another No
Yet Yahoo made it clear that the company remained open to a deal, as long as Microsoft sweetened its bid.

The Catch-22 of Buying Black Media
Field Deserves Support, but There Aren’t Many Outlets Left, and Most Have Limited Reach

Marketing gold could be found in Web video
You don’t need a pan and a stream in California to join the next gold rush. A video camera, computer and high-speed Internet connection will do.

News Corp ad network buys stake in Utarget
NEW YORK (Reuters) – .Fox Networks, a year-old online advertising network owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, will announce on Tuesday it has bought control of European video ad network Utarget as part of a move to expand in Europe and Asia.

Nielsen’s Latest Purchase Is Audience Research Firm
Nielsen said that it had agreed to acquire IAG Research, which measures the effectiveness of advertising on television and online, for $225 million in cash.

Phorm’s All-Seeing Parasite Cookie
Phorm has developed a variation on the cookie — code numbers stored by Web browsers — that can help track far more information than cookies have before.