Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Running to the Right: Barack Obama and the DLC Strategy (by Bruce Dixon at the Black Agenda Report)

Barack Obama – Rudy Clay – Possible Fraud Indiana Primary (video)

Why Did Obama LOSE Indiana? (by TexasDarlin at MyDD)
Why did Barack Obama lose the state of Indiana, a state his own campaign predicted he would win in February, a state he declared would be a “tie breaker,” a state in which 25% of the electorate lives in Obama’s hometown media market?… Clinton is the one who out-performed expectations [on Tuesday].  Clinton’s core base grew, and Obama did not cut into it.  Obama lost ground in Indiana.  A big Rezko-sized lot full of ground.  A net 9-point loss from his own projections.  Despite massive advertising expenditures and a hometown advantage with 25% of the electorate, Obama could not close the deal in Indiana.

Aha! It’s Rush Limbaugh’s Fault that Obama Lost Indiana! (by SusanUnPC at No Quarter)
Kerry, political genius — and Obama campaign manager David Pfouffe — have blamed Rush Limbaugh for Barack Obama’s failure to win Indiana last night, reports Politico.com’s Ben Smith. “Rush Limbaugh was tampering with the primary,” Kerry said “If it was not for Republicans taking Democratic ballots, he would have won,” he said of Obama… But what the two geniuses Pfouffe and Kerry do not realize is that Rush has given them a BIG boost towards victory! Pouty Poofy and Jawin’ John should NOT look this gift horse in the mouth! Here’s Mark Halperin’s big headline at Time magazine’s The Page blog:

Limbaugh ‘Releases’ Superdelegates to Obama

And MSNBC has the hot video… Halperin also reports: “After months of promoting ‘Operation Chaos,’ in which the conservative talk show host pushed listeners to vote for Clinton to aid McCain, he pulls back on Wednesday and tells them to go for Obama. Adds: ‘He will lose. He will lose big and you supers know it….but go ahead. Go ahead and get in the tank for him.’”
So we see how Democrats do so well at losing elections, time after time after time.

Why Did Obama Do Worse in N.C. Than Virginia? (by Jeralyn at TalkLeft)
TwinMom at MyDD has an interesting diary up comparing Obama’s win in Virginia to North Carolina: “Obama won Virginia by 28 points and North Carolina by 14. What’s different, given the similar voter demographics?” Using exit poll data … from the NY Times, TwinMom shows the percentages of white men, white women, black men and black women voters were very similar but the results were not… The conclusion: … Obama lost ground among all but black women:

Clinton makes case for wide appeal (USA Today)
Hillary Rodham Clinton vowed Wednesday to continue her quest for the Democratic nomination, arguing she would be the stronger nominee because she appeals to a wider coalition of voters — including whites who have not supported Barack Obama in recent contests. “I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,” she said in an interview with USA TODAY

Clinton lends her struggling campaign $6.4 million
WASHINGTON – Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has lent her presidential campaign $6.4 million over the past month, a campaign aide says.
This is how much she believes in herself, even with all the powerful forces arrayed against her.

From a Clinton campaign volunteer returning from Indiana:
Hey–I’m on a plane flying back from Indiana right now and I thought I’d take a minute to write a short note about [Tuesday] night and the way forward from here… Despite what the punditocracy wants you to believe, Indiana was a battleground state, and, accordingly, the results there were very close.  For weeks, Obama enjoyed a double-digit lead in the polls and he was quoted as calling the state a ‘tie-breaker.’ That Hillary was able to win in Indiana, a state that borders Illinois, after being outspent 2-1, including a last-minute, 1-day $300,000 ad buy in the Chicago media market (which accounted for 20% of last night’s votes), is a testament to the appeal of her message among those most affected by our troubled economy.

I’m going to be frank with you: the campaign needs the resources to compete in the upcoming states–and that means money and volunteers.  There are many voters who have not yet had their say in this process, and we need to make sure Hillary’s message is reaching them loud and clear.  Please consider donating–even if your contribution is only $5 it will help get Sen.  Clinton’s message out… So let’s channel the energy of the 93-year-old Iowan who showed up at the caucus and proudly said to me “Move out of my way — I’m here to make history!”

From a Clinton campaign volunteer in Oregon, via email:
I just took a call from a disabled lady who wants to make a contribution. Donations are a big hassle for us because we are not set up to take cash. So the best we can do with non-wired people is have them come down for the donation-by–mail form. This lady is going to buy a $100 money order for Hillary out of her disability income. AND, she said she would do anything to help Hillary win. Ding, ding, ding – a recruit!

But this one is special. She is paralyzed from the neck down, She can call from home, dialing with her tongue. She has promised to make calls for 20 minute shifts, the period that her phone battery lasts. If that doesn’t make you choked up, you’re tougher than I am.
This is the kind of person the Obama fans have mocked.

Senate Democrats seek to tax oil companies
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Democrats on Wednesday called for a temporary windfall profits tax on oil companies and a rollback of $17 billion in oil industry tax breaks as part of an energy package.
And the oil companies will just raise prices to continue their obscene profits.  With no benefit to consumers.  But Hillary’s gas tax holiday was stupid, remember that.  It would have made the oil companies pay the gas tax for a while, instead of consumers.  It was such a bad idea that the Obama campaign had to run misleading ads against it in Indiana.  Oh, and Clinton’s plan had already been derided as DOA in Congress, so why is the Senate doing something that is WORSE for consumers than her plan?  We know where the stupid is, and it’s not with the Clinton campaign.

Stay classy…. (by lambert at Corrente)
And way to ask for my vote! Times: “Mrs. Clinton endured boos when she mentioned her proposal for a gasoline tax holiday, catcalls when she spoke of ending the Iraq war and, most difficult of all, the heckling of her daughter, Chelsea, who introduced her. … [E]xcept for an unusually large and at times vocal contingent of Obama supporters in the crowd, the appearance went off without incident.” The only reported catcall is “End the dynasty…” And in a state that Obama’s not even contesting, they’ve got to send out goons. Nice people.
Remember the Bushbots of 2000, who demonstrated outside the Vice President’s residence, yelling “Get out of Dick Cheney’s house”?  I swear, these are the same people.  If anyone has a photo of that lovely event, please send me a copy.

Ex-Sen. George McGovern drops Clinton, backs Obama
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Veteran Democratic Party figure George McGovern dropped his support for Hillary Clinton on Wednesday and endorsed Barack Obama, saying the Illinois senator seemed certain to win the party’s nomination for the November presidential election.

Ed Koch: Obama Is A Sure Loser, Clinton Should Fight On (by Sam Stein, the Huffington Post)
As Democrats coalesce around Sen. Barack Obama, one of Hillary Clinton’s must outspoken supporters is not mincing words: the party is walking needlessly and unaware into a general election buzzsaw… “I believe that when the voting is over that the vast majority, not all, on both sides, will vote for the [Democratic] candidate,” said Koch. “But that applies only to the Democrats who have been participating. I believe that the vast majority of voters will look at all of these allegations, which nobody disputes, as related to Wright and his comments, and that they will have an enormous impact on the vote and on those Independents and others who will make a decision in the general election. I just think he is a loser because of that.”

Obama or Clinton? Superdelegates in no rush to decide
WASHINGTON — The fight for the approximately 270 uncommitted Democratic Party superdelegates shifted into a higher gear Wednesday, but few of the party insiders were ready to pledge their allegiance to Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.

Mich. Democrats: Split our delegates between Clinton, Obama
Michigan Democratic leaders have settled on a plan to give Hillary Clinton 69 delegates and Barack Obama 59 as a way to get the state’s delegates seated at the national convention.

MSNBC’s Russert: ‘We Now Know Who the Nominee Will Be’
Tim Russert, on MSNBC, points out that after the Indiana and North Carolina Primaries, “We now know who the Democratic Nominee Will Be.”

Dear Timmy (by Taylor Marsh)
You loud mouthed, self-important, elitist, John McCain pimping, pile on artist, anti feminist, misogynistic, ego driven, over paid, hack, blow hard, Clinton hating, so 20th century male, mind numbing pontificator, against all things Democratic jackass. Who elected you to anything? Whose place is it to announce we have a nominee when neither candidate has enough delegates? I’ll tell you who: no one… No one cares about your predictions. It’s also embarrassing to see a grown man get paid all that money to make an ass out of himself every day, but especially when it comes to Hillary Clinton. Don’t think for a second we don’t know your real game. It’s been obvious for a very long time.

NBC News’ bad week: Russert, Williams, and Huffington (by Eric Boehlert at Media Matters)
Those close to Huffington said the word inside NBC was that the unofficial boycott stemmed from the fact that her new book, Right is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe, takes long, page-after-page jabs at NBC Washington bureau chief Tim Russert, portraying him as a hapless, “conventional wisdom zombie.” And that it was because of Russert’s bruised ego that the company’s anti-Huffington edict was issued.

Wright story: What took so long? (by Don Campbell, USA Today)
[T]he coverage of Obama’s spiritual relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the Trinity United Church of Christ is disturbing… [I]t took much too long for major news media outlets to appreciate the importance of the Wright connection… Obama has been ill-served by a press corps that seemingly was mesmerized by the large, frenzied crowds who turn out to see the Democratic rock star. Crowds can be deceiving: McGovern, nobody’s idea of a rock star, attracted huge and exuberant crowds throughout the fall of 1972  — on his way to losing 49 states to Richard Nixon… More than two years ago, at a Gridiron Club news media dinner in Washington, Obama poked fun at his meager accomplishments when he told his audience: “I want to thank you for all the generous advance coverage you’ve given me in anticipation of a successful career. When I actually do something, we’ll let you know.” But the joke was on the journalists then, and now that Obama is about to actually do something, it still is.
The joke is on the Democrats.  Again.

Wishful Seeing (video)
Cornell University psychologists prove we sometimes see what we wish instead of what’s really there.

Floyd Brown and David Bossie: Back in the Swift Boat captain’s chairs (by Bill Berkowitz at Media Transparency)
Floyd Brown and David Bossie have spent a good part of their political careers making life miserable for Bill and Hillary Clinton… These days, however, Brown’s new organization, The National Campaign Fund — which launched a new website “ExposeObama.com” — and Bossie’s Citizens United have added Sen. Barack Obama to the mix… Just as Obama’s explanations about his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright — and Wright’s increased public presence — has not put that saga to rest, there is no doubt that right wing columnists, talk show hosts, partisan advertising and public relations specialists, pundits and two longtime practitioners of negative campaigning, Floyd Brown and David Bossie, will squeeze every last drop out of the [Bill] Ayers controversy.
Mr. Berkowitz, you left out the part where Obama essentially worked for Bill Ayers for eight years.  They’ll hit that, too.  For a smorgasbord of what they’ll throw at him, watch the video below.

A Video Portrait Of Barack Hussein Obama (video)

Just a Guy in Barack’s Neighborhood (by Pat Racimora at No Quarter)

Democratic schism could put some Clinton loyalists in McCain’s camp (Boston Globe)
Hillary Clinton’s loyalists appear to be hardening in their disdain for Barack Obama as he gets closer to the Democratic nomination. Fewer than half of Clinton supporters in both Indiana and North Carolina said they would vote for Obama in November, according to exit polls. Instead, most said they would vote for presumptive Republican John McCain – or just stay home. Even though voters say that Clinton has run the more negative campaign, Obama backers are significantly more supportive of Clinton if she were to be the nominee.
People believe that Clinton has run the more negative campaign because they’ve been told that, again and again and again and again.  I say she barely laid a glove on his tender ass.

Why I will not vote for Obama even if he’s the nominee — and why you shouldn’t either (by Violet Socks at Hillary’s Voice blog)
The Obamabots are under the delusion that if Obama wins the nomination (which he hasn’t yet, by the way), all of us in the Hillary camp will forget about the misogyny and come over to their side. Make nice for the sake of party unity. Forgive all the abuse. Nope… The only “ism” the Obamabots take seriously is racism. So I’m going to try to explain the situation in terms they’ll understand, using a racial analogy. Imagine this scenario: The shoe is on the other foot, and Obama, not Hillary, is the punching bag of the media — a media that is blatantly and unapologetically racist. And I do mean blatant. Jokes every night on the cable news shows about Obama’s hair and his fondness for fried chicken. Pundits laughing about what a problem uppity Negroes are.
Further imagine that the opposing candidate does nothing to stop those jokes, and in fact, gives the black candidate the finger for daring to stand up for himself.

Yinz got it backwards (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
All day long, I have been reading some version of Turkana’s plaintive wail: “It isn’t necessary that those who support Clinton now enthusiastically come to support Obama, but it is necessary that they come to support him. Even at the bare minimum level.. [K]eep in mind that the often odious behavior you have seen from online Obama supporters is not the fault of the candidate himself.”… But he sure did take advantage of it, didn’t he? Did he once stand up for women and tell the media to can the sexist crap? Did he once tell his supporters to stop calling the Clintons racists? F%&( no. It wasn’t in his best interests to do that… Let’s get one thing straight. We all have choices in our lives. I have a vote. I could give it to McCain, Obama, the write in candidate of my choice or no one at all. If that concept pains Obama supporters and causes them distress, consider this: Obama has choices too. He could continue to cater to an ever shrinking pseudo-Democratic coalition running a Republican lite version of High Broderism and deliberately alienate half of his party or he could actually make an effort to stop pissing us off. He wants something I have. It is incumbent on HIM to gracefully kiss my ass to get it…

The Supreme Court Argument for Obama (or How the Democrats Are Already Planning to Surrender to McCain) (by BDBlue at Corrente)
If Obama becomes the party nominee, as seems likely, those of us who are not Obama supporters will get an earful on why we have to vote for him in November… [O]f course we all have to support Obama, think of the Supreme Court… I call bullshit on this argument. I will not have my body held hostage by the Democratic – or any – political party. McCain cannot stack the Supreme Court or any Court with wing-nut judges by himself. His nominees have to be confirmed by the Senate. A Senate that will almost certainly be controlled by Democrats, probably with an increased majority. Why should I have to worry about Roe v. Wade or any other core constitutional right?
If we could make the Democrats stand up for us and against right-wing appointees, that is.  We constituents had to PRESSURE1 Obama to vote against Roberts and Alito.

Sitting out November (by Paul Lukasiak at Corrente)
I finally realized why I was having such a hard time saying that I’d vote for Obama if he is the nominee. I’ve been voting straight ticket Democratic just about my entire adult life, and one of the big reaons is that I find the GOP’s use of its Southern Strategy abhorrent. Obama’s use of race baiting in an effort to create huge margins and massive turnout in the AA community is his own “Southern Strategy.” Every time I think about what they’ve done to Bill and Hillary Clinton in the name of securing the nomination, I feel ill. So I’m sitting November out if Obama is the nominee. I’m not going to vote for a “Democrat” who employs the tactics I find most abhorrent in Republicans.

Voting and working (by lambert at Corrente)
And as I have been saying all along: I’ll vote for Obama in the general, but that will be the extent of my investment in his campaign. No doubt many of Obama’s supporters feel that’s a good thing; and surely they have the privilege of working with people with whom they feel comfortable. But I don’t feel I have a duty to work for him. Why would I? It makes more sense for me to try to shove Congress left with downticket races; maybe the LA results mean that Obama has coattails. Alternatively, maybe LA just means we’ll have even more Blue Dogs than before, and that could end up just as awful as the Rs. It makes even more sense to start thinking er, creatively, and look around for alternative parties. What about citizen engineered referenda? What about parallel political systems? Who said there had to be only two parties?

Media Matters for America headlines

• Memo to the media: Have you hosted on air the person who told Rumsfeld at military analyst meeting, “You are the leader. You are our guy”?

• Las Vegas Review-Journal praised McCain for not backing off “bold position” on MN bridge collapse — but he reportedly did back off

• CNN hosts Republican creator of racially charged ad to falsely suggest link between 9-11 and Iraq

• Reuters failed to note Bush withdrew renomination of FEC chair who asserted McCain needs FEC permission to leave public financing system

• Russert noted media’s lack of scrutiny of McCain over Hagee, other issues, but not Russert’s own McCain “grace period” on Hagee

• Wash. Times quoted Indiana man saying Obama is “a Muslim” without noting the assertion is false

Released al-Jazeera journalist describes Guantanamo “most heinous”
The U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay detention camp is the worst prison ever, Sudanese al-Jazeera journalist Sami al-Haj who was released from the prison days ago said Monday. In a speech broadcast live on Sudanese television, ai-Haj, who returned to Sudan on Friday, said he spent 2,340 days in the “most heinous prison mankind has ever known,” and that jailers there insulted Islam before prisoners. Al-Haj, the only journalist from a major international news organization held in Guantanamo, believed he was arrested because Al-Jazeera was reporting on U.S. rights violations in Afghanistan.

China won’t guarantee Web freedom over Olympics
BEIJING (Reuters) – China will not guarantee it won’t censor the Internet over this summer’s Beijing Olympics, nor can it guarantee to stamp out piracy of Olympic-branded goods, officials said on Thursday.

Japan Eyes Adding Copyright Fee to IPod Price
Japan’s Cultural Affairs Agency has proposed adding a fee to the price of Apple iPods and other digital music and video devices to partially compensate rights holders for revenues lost to piracy. The proposal represents an extension of an existing program that adds the fee to the price of blank recordable media and products such as MiniDisc recorders. Consumers end up paying an additional few tens of yens (tens of U.S. cents) for media under the scheme that started in 1992.
A national organization that promotes good journalism could get behind an effort like this as a way of making sure that journalism can remain independent.  If any of those organizations wanted to make a big, bold step toward saving journalism, that is.

Medill student’s Windy Citizen has “a fighting shot at success”
Brad Flora started Windy Citizen in October 2006 because he was frustrated that he and friends would write stories for Medill classes, then have no place to publish them. The Tribune’s Steve Johnson writes: “It’s a Sisyphean task for any news site to compete with the big boys and convince advertisers to think in new ways. But in the early going, The Windy Citizen is doing enough thinking, digging and innovating to give itself a fighting shot at success.”
A national organization that promotes good journalism could form an umbrella for these kinds of efforts, with various kinds of expertise and helpful contacts made available to the students.  If any of those organizations wanted to make a big, bold step toward saving journalism, that is.

Carroll: There are many exciting new ventures in journalism
Veteran editor John Carroll tells journalism students that they’ll be working with tools unlike any imagined by earlier generations. “You will have new tools for finding things out, and tools to send your stories to the entire world at the speed of light,” he says. “Journalism has always been a one-way bulletin from journalist to public. Now it is a conversation with millions of participants, which gives us access to new facts and new ideas.” HE NOTES: “The current period in journalism is, in fact, historic. It is epochal. It is remarkable, perhaps even unprecedented. I’m speaking, of course, of the passage of journalism into the digital age.”

The state of media ethics since the Jayson Blair scandal
Observations from media critics and editors:
* Ken Auletta: “I suspect that serious felons like Blair have been deterred. But cheating and cutting corners has not been.”
* Bill Keller: “Obviously there’s no such thing as fail-safe in an institution run by human beings, but there is a pretty impressive list of safeguards we have put in place to protect against errant reporting and shore up our reliability.”
* Jacob Weisberg: “I think the print media’s credibility issues have been largely overwhelmed by its economic issues.”
* Alicia Shepard: “Because of the Internet, media ethics have definitely improved in the last five years.”

‘NY Post’ Reporter’s Racial Profiling Suit Counters ‘Post’ Editorial
On the same day that a New York Post editorial claimed racial profiling was not a growing problem, Post reporter Leonardo Blair — a newsroom staffer since May 2007 — filed suit against the city claiming to be a victim of such profiling.

Earnings: Murdoch Comes Out Swinging On DJ; Defends Deal (Paid Content)
Rupert Murdoch is intent on changing the Street’s image of News Corp’s investment in Dow Jones and he’s using today’s earnings call to make the case that the acquisition—small for News Corp but “potentially transformative on many levels” shouldn’t be seen as an investment in newspapers. “That is not our intent nor is it factually correct. What’s being lost in all this chatter is a crucial fact—it’s not just a global newspaper.” Murdoch thinks people may be surprised to hear that the Enterprise Media group, which includes Factiva, contributes by far the most in revenue and growth. Murdoch, who spent most of the last year talking about doing away with paid access to WSJ.com, wound up bragging today about the site’s 1 million-plus paying subs.

Web Ad Revenue Up Against ‘The Wall’
Shackling content behind a pay wall may be off the drawing board — or at least a thing of the past — for most big metros. Yet in smaller markets, some papers have had success online with the paid model while others can’t pull the wall down fast enough.

WSJ Plans Closer Ties With London Times; May Offer Business Tools (Paid Content)
News Corp is planning closer integration between its new Wall Street Journal website and its existing News International publications in the UK. Times Online EIC Anne Spackman told me WSJ bosses flew to London today to meet her team: “It will be partly about tools, partly about deep linking to each other’s content. Wall Street Journal is such a powerful brand.” Away from just The Times, she suggested The Sun has plenty on common with The New York Post, too… Last week, The Times said it was working with WSJ to develop ad cross-selling opportunities from a new New York office, now it seems the integration will be editorial too.

News Corp: Yahoo ‘Talks’ Overstated; No Discussions With Microsoft or AOL Ongoing (Paid Content)
Asked during a press call today about cooling talks with Yahoo, News Corp COO Peter Chernin replied quickly: “Saying talks have cooled overstates them … I’m not sure I would ever characterize (conversations) as ‘talks.’ As for Microsoft, “we’re not in discussions with Microsoft. We talk with everybody in the space.” When it came up again, Chernin said, “I have not had a conversation with Yahoo or AOL in a couple of weeks.” Rupert Murdoch dittoed that. Of course, that doesn’t preclude “conversations” at other levels. 

Your Chance to Finish a Movie Microsoft Started
Microsoft Corporation is underwriting an online movie-making contest to stimulate sales and burnish the reputation of its Windows Vista operating system.

TV Guide, Having Just Been Bought, Is Bracing to Be Sold
Another sale would be the fourth change in control during the last decade for TV Guide, which has long been trying to forge a new identity as an entertainment magazine.

NBC Plans 24-Hour News for the New York Region
The new channel will de-emphasize the identity of NBC’s flagship station, WNBC, Channel 4, rechristening it a “content center” and making it one part of a larger media presence.

Cablevision Unit Buys Sundance Channel
Rainbow Media, which is buying the channel for $496 million in stock and cash, said it would not combine it with IFC, an independent film channel it introduced in 1994.

MTV Plans to Increase Its Blending of Ads and Shows
In this year’s annual round of network pitches to advertisers, MTV Networks plans to sell not only the appeal of its programs but of its commercials as well.

N.F.L. Is Taking Cable Fight to the F.C.C.
The league’s filing contends that Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, is discriminating against the NFL Network.

Wilmington, N.C., to test TV change over to digital
Residents of Wilmington, N.C., will soon become laboratory rats in the nation’s transition to digital TV.

Studios win $111 million judgment against TorrentSpy.com
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The six major Hollywood studios have won a $111 million judgment for copyright infringement against the shut-down file-sharing Web site TorrentSpy.com.

Yahoo India Search Results Combine Text, Video, and Images
Yahoo has chosen India for the beta test of its new search concept that aggregates text, images, and video results on a single…

Domize: The Fastest Domain Name Search Ever (by Adam Ostrow at Mashable)
Are you the type of person that registers a new domain name every time you think you’ve cooked up the next big thing? If so, you might want to check out Domize, a new site that is essentially a super slick and fast interface for checking the availability of domain names, both on the Web and via iPhone. As developer Anson Parker describes it, “Without exaggeration, it blows away anything before it in terms of speed and allows you to quickly scout out an available name.”

Tethered gadgets threaten Internet future: academic
LONDON (Reuters) – The rise of gadgets such as the iPhone, Blackberry and Xbox threatens to unravel the decades of innovation which helped to build the Internet, a leading Oxford academic has warned in a new book.
Another voice of doom.  They’re already combining the gadgets, Oxford academic.  Pretty soon there will only be one that does it all, and it will be a very small computer.

Google Gets Closer to a Mobile Future
Google has long said that its best hope for future growth comes from mobile devices. Google moved to bring that future a bit closer.