Permanent link to MTA daily media news

I am not a Republican, and I am not a racist.  I will be voting for Cynthia McKinney for president.  So don’t threaten me with your post-partisan, post-racial, manipulative, coercive hate mail.

McCain is predicted, for the first time, to win the electoral college.
Electoral-Vote.com

Gallup daily: McCain, 48%; Obama 45% (On Politics, USA Today)
The presidential race narrowed by a scant 1 percentage point in the past day, Gallup estimates. Its tracking poll results, released moments ago: Republican presidential nominee John McCain, 48%; Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, 45%. Yesterday, McCain led 48%-44%.

InsiderAdvantage: More Battleground Polls (Political Wire)
InsiderAdvantage released presidential race polls from several key battleground states.
Colorado: Obama 49%, McCain 46%
Florida: McCain 50%, Obama 42%
Michigan: McCain 45%, Obama 44%
Nevada: McCain 46%, Obama 45%
Ohio: McCain 48%, Obama 47%

Quantifying The Enthusiasm For Sarah Palin (by Marc Ambinder, The Atlantic)
The huge crowds Gov. Sarah Palin attracts are one thing, but enthusiasm about the Alaska governor has produced an outpouring of volunteers for the GOP’s get-out-the-vote program. According to a Republican official, countywide, seven to ten times as many new volunteers are signing to help as compared to the same days a month ago.
And all the unfair attacks on her only fire up these people more.  Good job, so-called progressives.

West Virginia – Democrats Stay Away in Droves (by campskunk at Alegre’s Corner)
Every Democrat who has won Kentucky and Tennessee has won the election, everyone who didn’t has lost. West Virginia is even more loyal – they voted for all the Democratic winners, plus a few Democratic losers as well… So, how’s Obama doing in this bellwether state? Not good. A poll out yesterday is in the West Virginia Metro News, and it shows McCain up by 5; 44%-39%. And where are the other 17%? The poll shows only 55 percent of Democrats polled say they support Obama and 25 percent say they like the Republican John McCain in the November 4 General Election. Twenty percent of Democrats in the MBE poll say they are undecided.

generic dems sinking fast and will Biden go under the bus? (by John: south of Melrose at Liberal Rapture)

What number is more remarkable in the screen shot from today’s RCP polls? For today, I am going with the second one…A few short weeks ago the generic DEM lead was 16%. The generic Dem number has been sinking since BHO was anointed. If it continues to sink…hmmm…sure, I’ll say it again: Obama is poison. One other note: Is Biden telegraphing the end of his run for VP

Titanic Barry Is Going to Take Congress Down With Him (by campskunk at Alegre’s Corner)
Well, it’s happened.  The unsinkable Obama hit an iceberg, and the bow is tilted crazily skyward as a once-great opportunity to change the political landscape in America prepares to slide to a watery grave. Barry’s no big loss to me personally, but his pathological narcissism means we’re going to pay the price in Congress as the sinking ship sucks down all the lifeboats, too.

Obama Camp Says “Enough is Enough” (Political Wire)
As we noted earlier this week, Sen. Barack Obama promised a tougher campaign and today they step up the volume… As part of their tougher strategy, the Obama campaign released two new television ads. Change has Obama directly making the case that he’s the real change agent in this race. Still takes a shot at McCain’s age, computer skills and lack of understanding of the economy.
Note to the Obama campaign: Is McCain’s lack of computer knowledge really one of the “big issues” that matter to Americans?

Barack ‘Isotoner’ Obama to Take Off his Third or Fourth Pair of Gloves and Get Tough (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, USA Today)
Like any number of Democratic candidates before him — Mike Dukakis, Al Gore, John Kerry — Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, is once again declaring that he is going to take off the gloves and fight back against attacks from the Republican party… But just so you know — this is by my count the 4th time Obama’s campaign has officially or unofficially made such a declaration that Obama will “take off the gloves” and fight back.

Huffington Post (the link is to Will Bower’s history of PUMA)

The first headline has been debunked, and the second headline is laughable, considering how negative the Obamabots have been since Palin was nominated.

Palin doesn’t know what Bush Doctrine is (by Alex Koppelman at War Room, Salon)
For all her preparation, Sarah Palin got caught napping on perhaps the key facet of the Bush administration’s foreign policy.
Unbelievable that anyone would peddle this kind of trash.  See below.

Palin Derangement Syndrome (by Big Tent Democrat at TalkLeft)
Now even the normally level headed Greg Sargent has it: “… The real news from Charlie Gibson’s interview with Sarah Palin is this stretch, where she is clearly clueless about what the Bush Doctrine is…” This is seriously nuts. Palin asked Gibson to define what HE meant by it… Indeed, her eventual answer to the question is extremely sensible (unlike Bush and McCain’s actual policies) and smart politics. She did not accept the premise of Gibson’s question and then gave a sensible answer to the question. This type of stuff is what is killing the Left blogs right now. They look like fools when they act this way.
Click through to watch the video.  Judge for yourself.  To me, she answered the question very well from a conservative point of view.  I don’t agree with her, but I’m not going to make up things about her, and I’m going to call on the carpet people who do.

A pile of Palin sexism (by Tracy Clark-Flory at Broadsheet, Salon)
Wednesday, Jezebel’s Megan Carpentier called out, and counted, “the sexist and/or just plain offensive smears” in Cintra Wilson’s Salon article about Sarah Palin. She counted 19 such smears. A sampling:
1. “fuckable”
2. “Christian Stepford wife”
3. “she is their hardcore pornographic centerfold spread”
4. “Sarah Palin is a bit comical, like one of those cutthroat Texas cheerleader stage moms”
5. The part where she compares electing Sarah Palin to allowing child-rapist Warren Jeffs to babysit her kids
6. The part where electing Palin “is akin to ideological brain rape”
7. “this Republican blowup doll”
In the context of the article, I don’t react to most of those words or phrases — or the remaining 12 — as sexist.
There you have it, friends.  The premiere “progressive” online magazine says that calling a candidate for Vice President of the United States “fuckable” is not sexist.  The world is now officially upside down.

Huffington’s very special society of the infantile and entitled (by John: south of Melrose at Liberal Rapture)
The Obama Arugula Left smear machine is so out of control and disgusting it makes me cringe to think I ever agreed with these fiends on anything. Many of us found out during the primaries that the only place Clinton received a modicum of respect was on Fox News. Ugh. CNN and MSNBC became misogyny central… I’ve ranted against the far right for many a year. This year the danger is coming from the far Left. And it is a more alarming phenomenon for one reason: The Far Left has no moral center.

Not liberals. Liberals very much live and believe in a moral universe. The Obama “progressives” do not. Nothing from race baiting to attacking a 17 year old pregnant girl has been off the table. If these people are empowered further – no one is safe. Believe it.

Backfiring smears: How Obama lost the election (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)

Remember when Dems would decry Republicans who resorted to this kind of crap? At one time, only Republicans would dare to employ such strategems. Now, the GOP is playing it relatively clean, while the Dems ooze filth from every pore… Not long ago, I peeked into Air America for a few minutes. Within that short span, I once again heard people make fun of the elderly as a way of attacking McCain. Great way to sew up the senior vote, folks. You’ve pissed off the over-60 crowd, the rural voters, Christians and women. States that Obots once thought they could take — Missouri, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, New Mexico, Florida — are now going, going, gone. Not long ago, the bots were crowing about their chances in Alaska.

This is the first election that finds me observing Democrats “from the outside.” My god. My good god. Have we always been this foolish, this clueless, this self-defeating? Have lefties always gone so far out of their way to alienate huge voting blocs?

Or is it just the Obama factor?

A VERY dangerous precedent:
Fed Watch: Get Shovel, Dig Deeper (Economist’s View)
“From the Wall Street Journal: ‘Foreign central banks had been among those voicing concerns in the weeks ahead of the government’s seizure of Freddie and Fannie. The banks had steadily reduced their holdings of debt in the two firms in recent weeks as the turmoil around the firms worsened.’… Brad Setser adds: ‘I suspect this is the first case where foreign central banks exercised their leverage as creditors to push the US government to make a policy decision that protected their interests…’ Take note of this milestone; US authorities effectively are ceding policy independence… Update: The Wall Street Journal reports that some policymakers are seeing the implications of Chinese influence on the Freddie/Fannie bailout: ‘The topic has elicited concern from lawmakers such as Rep. Luis Gutierrez D., Ill.), who chairs the panel.’”
Remember when the right wingers went nuts over Clinton supposedly selling secrets to the Chinese? It was one of the clubs they used against Al Gore. This is infinitely worse. So why aren’t the Democrats touting this ceding of power as the inevitable result of the reckless spending policies of the Republicans? Because Democrats don’t know how to fight, that’s why.

Ungovernable? (by Kevin Drum, Mother Jones)
John McCain has obviously decided that he can’t win a straight-up fight, so he’s decided instead to wage a battle of character assassination, relentless lies, and culture war armageddon. So what happens on November 5th? If McCain wins, he’ll face a Democratic congress that’s beyond furious. Losing is one thing, but after eight years of George Bush and Karl Rove, losing a vicious campaign like this one will cause Dems to go berserk… And what if Obama wins? The last time a Democrat won after a resurgence of the culture war right, we got eight years of madness, climaxing in an impeachment spectacle unlike anything we’d seen in a century… [W]e’ll be in for another eight years of near psychotic dementia.
I’m not sure what makes anyone think the Democrats might go berserk.  They never get angry, even when the most vile tactics are used against them. And we tried to warn you, Obama supporters. We tried to tell you that the person to nominate was someone who had already been through this crucible. But no, you had to pick a shiny new toy. Just wait until the Republicans start going through HIS baggage, though. It ain’t gonna be pretty.

I Wish I Was This Optimistic (by Athenae at First Draft)
Drum: “If McCain wins, he’ll face a Democratic congress that’s beyond furious.” Really? They’ll be furious? They’ll wage all-out war? Really? Kevin has such faith in the outrage capacity and fortitude of the elected leaders of the Democratic party. He really thinks they’ll wage all-out war. It’s charming, in a way. Jesus tits. I have absolutely no faith at all that he’s right. I would like to sit here tonight, fired up, to tell you that even if, God forbid, we end up with President McCain and Vice President Palin, they’ll face a hostile Congress determined to blunt their every crap endeavor … I would so like to tell you that.

Win, Win, Lose, Lose (by digby)
I get accused of being unnecessarily gloomy, but I’m positively giddy with optimism compared to K-Drum. [See above.] … Until the modern conservative movement of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan has run its course, there will be no “post partisanship.” This kind of politics defines them. Even if Obama were comfortably ahead and the Republicans had no chance they would wage this kind of campaign and unless they lose by a substantial margin to someone who has completely repudiated their program, they will always fight a Democratic president with psychotic dementia. For them, the action is the juice. Conservatism itself has to be soundly defeated, not accommodated… Call me a glass half broken kind of person.
“Make the arguments and take the battle to the Republicans.”  That’s exactly what the Clintons did and do.  Obama, on the other hand, thinks he can win them over by being nice to them.

Biden: ‘Hillary might have been better VP pick’ (by John Amato at Crooks and Liars)
Joe’s a good guy overall and a stand up man for saying this, but I happen to agree with him.
A comment: bluegal @ 1: “I and many other observers are absolutely convinced that the reason Hillary is not the Vice-Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party is because she didn’t want to be.”

My response: If that’s the case, and they really wanted to unite the party, they could have made something public about an offer and a decline. Surely with all those spinmeisters at their beck and call, they could have come up with some graceful way to handle it. The fact that they didn’t do so tells me that Clinton hatred dementia made it impossible to pick her. And, in fact, I read that he told her early on that she wasn’t being seriously considered. Don’t try to put lipstick on a pig, bluegal.

Thursday: Hillary keeps moving things along! (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
Mass transit:  F$%^!  Can we have Hillary back now??
Click through to watch the video of Hillary speaking for mass transit and to read riverdaughter’s discussion.

Howard Fineman can read minds (County Fair , Media Matters for America)
Specifically, Clinton minds. It’s quite a skill: “I know, the Clintons are difficult to deal with and probably hope Obama fails.” Both Bill and Hillary are campaigning for Obama. But according to Fineman, they actually want him to lose. Talk about an historical race.
All Clinton haters claim to be able to read their minds.

Friday: Democrat’s Dilem[m]a (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)

Here’s [the] thing, oh mighty powers that be: all primary season long, you have been telling us to get in line, corraling us like the women of some puritanical middle eastern country.  You haven’t offered us anything in return.  Our votes were seized, our candidate humiliated, our choices eliminated.  Some of you have even written letters telling us how tiresome and irritating we are for asking for something for our votes.  You’ve given us Barack Obama who has never met a principle he cherishes so much that he wouldn’t give it up in the name of post-partisanship or political expediency…

So, all you guys out there furiously spinning the double standard that a first term governor of a state with two international borders is somehow less qualified to learn on the job to be VP than the first term Senator of a landlocked state is to learn on the job to be president, save your breath.  When you took Hillary Clinton out, the game became much bigger than your petty interparty politics. We’ll take it from here.

Ball of Confusion (by dcmediagirl at No Quarter)
I had an interesting conversation [Friday] with a Democratic member of Congress who called to chat about the campaign… [H]e’s a great, great guy and an example of what Democrats should be. The poor man is also very confused. How is it possible, he asked, that things are so fucked up for the Dems? And what in the world are women thinking? What’s with this mass migration of white women to the Republican ticket? What about the courts? Roe v. Wade? WTF?

Because I respect and like this man I took the time to roll out the explanation. If you want to know why women are so angry, I told him, I suggest you stroll down to the DNC and have a chat with Howard Dean… [A]sk why the Democrats have fucked things up so egregiously that they’ve allowed Republicans to take the high road on enfranchisement and respect for women running for higher office, thereby alienating the Democratic base?… He listened. He wasn’t happy, but he listened. Eventually, when it’s too late, they’ll all have to listen.

Campaigns grapple some more over ‘change’ (On Politics, USA Today)
Who would bring “change” to Washington? It depends on which presidential campaign you ask, of course. Democratic nominee Barack Obama’s campaign just finished a conference call with reporters. During it, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., made the case that it’s their guy — Obama — who would do the trick.
Dick Durbin and Rahm Emanuel are agents of change?  Not in MY universe.

Ratings conundrum: Obama did better on Fox than on MSNBC (McClatchy)
In a confounding Nielsen paradox Monday night, Barack Obama’s interview with presumed enemy Bill O’Reilly had more than twice as many viewers as his interview with presumed pal Keith Olbermann.

Alaska legislature, Palin face showdown over ‘troopergate’ (McClatchy)
ANCHORAGE — The Alaska Legislature’s House and Senate judiciary committees meet Friday in Anchorage to determine whether they’ll issue subpoenas to compel members of Gov. Sarah Palin’s administration – but not the governor herself – to sit for interviews with an investigator looking into Palin’s dismissal of the state’s top cop.

A Palin Primer: What’s true, what isn’t about Alaska governor
WASHINGTON — Since rocketing into political stardom as John McCain’s running mate two weeks ago, Sarah Palin has been dogged by questions.

Veterans Affairs opens new voter registration drives in VA, Obama supports (The Crypt, Politico)
Under pressure from congressional Democrats, the Department of Veterans Affairs reversed an earlier decision and announced that it would open VA facilities to voter registration drives. Barack Obama, who had cosponsored legislation to reverse the earlier decision, applauded the move.
Would it be Obama’s buddies at the disgraced ACORN who would be running these registration drives?

Blaming the Media Works (by James Poniewozik, Time)
Journalists may not like to admit it, but cowing the media works. Not always, not with everyone, but–with a polarized audience, commercial pressures, and constant self-doubt about fairness — it can succeed. If you want to amplify your message, make it about the media because the press finds itself the most fascinating subject of all.

Focus on Politics for New Season of SNL
You can just feel it simmering,” says Darrell Hammond while walking down the hallways of Studio 8H with his hands out, as if he can touch the energy around the new season of Saturday Night Live pulsating from the walls. The premiere of SNL is Saturday — Michael Phelps is hosting — and it’s one of the most anticipated seasons in the 34-year history of the comedy institution.

Media Matters for America headlines

MSNBC’s Hall, Harwood allowed McCain campaign’s DuHaime to set up false “contrast” between Palin and Obama on earmarks

Liddy guest Walid Shoebat falsely claimed that Obama is “definitely a Muslim”

On MSNBC, Feehery claimed attacks on Palin are “kind of attacking motherhood and apple pie and everything good about America”

Quinn & Rose’s Rose, whose co-host referred to NOW as the “National Organization for Whores,” called Obama a “sexist pig”

SEC Looks Into UAL Stock Scare; Implications For Online News? (Paid Content)
A ton of digits have been devoted to this in other spots but the SEC’s decision to investigate takes it to another level. The backstory: a six-year-old news story about UAL declaring bankruptcy made it into the Tribune-owned Sun-Sentinel’s current news flow, was picked up by a Google News bot and, via a reporter for a newsletter, made it onto Bloomberg News. After a lot of buck passing, Tribune finally admitted that the story did appear in its news flow while Google continues to insist its bot was just doing its job. That leaves us with the human who read the story after it came up during a routine Google News search on the term “bankruptcy” and shoveled it onto Bloomberg News, where the stock proceeded to plummet before anyone realized what was happening.

Now, the WSJ reports, the SEC has opened a preliminary investigation into how the story resurfaced. It may not turn into a full investigation but a lot of investors felt the impact Monday and those trades aren’t being reversed. However it came about, the incident is the latest in a series of false market rumors.

Journalists Say Media Revenue Squeeze Affecting Freedom of Information
Release: Squeezed for profits, news media companies no longer are pushing for access to information as they once did, a panel of Denver journalists said at a National Press Club forum Tuesday. “The media seems less and less willing to fight back and to challenge government authority in a legal sense,” said Brian Maass, who leads the investigative team at Denver’s CBS 4.
What a shame!  They were SO aggressive before.

Student Newspapers Escape Most Financial Problems of Larger Dailies
It’s all doom and gloom in commercial newspapers these days: buyouts, layoffs, and fleeing advertisers. But most student newspapers seem to be doing just fine. “We’re not experiencing a problem,” said Kevin Schwartz, general manager at The Daily Tar Heel, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “There’s no advertising downturn for us.”

Sulzberger Praises New NYT Co. Shareholder Slim
In his annual “State of the Times” address to employees yesterday, New York Times Chairman Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger painted a rosy picture of the company and its newest investor, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. The question on everyone’s mind is what Slim will do as a Times shareholder.

Murdoch is the Most Vital Man on the Planet
“I can go into restaurants and a whole table will get up and clap if they recognize me, because they love Fox News,” says Rupert Murdoch. “Other places — or even the same place — people will turn the other way. But that’s okay. Look, if you run a media company, you hand out criticism. You disclose things that people don’t want disclosed, because you think it’s in the public interest.”

McClatchy Chief Counters Chatter About Going Private
McClatchy’s chief executive, Gary Pruitt, said his resignation as a co-trustee of trusts held by the U.S. newspaper publisher’s controlling family should not be read as a prelude to the company going private or changing its capital structure, despite speculation to the contrary. Pruitt’s comments came after The Wall Street Journal published a column which posited that the move may herald a refinancing deal.

McClatchy CEO Pruitt: ‘Worst Year of My Life, By Far’
“I recognize that I earn a lot of money, a lot more money than I thought I’d ever earn. Appropriately, I now earn less money,” says McClatchy’s CEO Gary Pruitt, who warns that things might get worse for his business before they get better. McClatchy’s cost-cutting measures have had no visible effect on share price, which is down dramatically — and its credit rating remains in junk-bond status.

Ex-Conde Editorial Director Truman on the Future of Magazines
Print magazines have been superseded by improved technology, said James Truman in a presentation. They won’t go away, but there will be fewer of them and they’ll be more expensive. They’ll be more like books, in fact. The magazine publishing business is being transformed by super-ninjas like Armani and Karl Lagerfeld. Although, Truman felt constrained to point out, Karl Lagerfeld is not actually a real ninja.

Niche Media Expands in Chicago
Niche Media will expand its coverage of urban socials to Chicago with Monday’s launch of Michigan Avenue. The magazine, edited by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Susanna Homan, will make its debut with 360 pages, of which 160 are ads. The magazine will publish a holiday issue this year and move to a 10-times annual publishing schedule next year.

Affluent Prefer People to the Sunday Times
Affluent consumers are heavy readers of magazines and Internet users, compared to the rest of the population. People magazine has the largest affluent audience, with more than 7 million affluent heads of household reading the magazine per issue — nearly triple the audience of the Sunday New York Times — while just 264,000 read the Robb Report.

Vanity Fair Makes Would-Be Lance Armstrong Scoop Web-Only
Vanity Fair wasn’t so lucky with its would-be scoop on Lance Armstrong returning to professional cycling. The magazine had hoped to protect the scoop for its November issue, which hits the streets in New York and L.A. Oct. 1. But after news leaked out in cycling magazine VeloNews on Monday, Vanity Fair quickly posted the interview online and now it’s off the lineup for the print edition.

NBC Sells About a Dozen Super Bowl Spots at $3 Million
Ad time in the Super Bowl seems to be disappearing faster than a plate of buffalo wings. NBC, which will broadcast Super Bowl XLIII from Tampa, Fla., next year, has sold more than 80% of its available ad inventory for the game, said Seth Winter, senior VP-NBC Sports and Olympics sales and marketing. NBC had “about a dozen or so advertisers” who had agreed to pay around $3 million for a 30-second spot.

The Hills Star Lauren Conrad Signs Three-Book Deal
Attention, Hills fans: Lauren Conrad is about to become an author. The reality TV star has inked a three-book deal with HarperCollins. According to a HarperCollins exec, the company is gearing up for a “blockbuster” series. Conrad is currently writing her first book, which is due to hit shelves next summer, her rep said.

Yahoo Details Plans to Open Up Web Sites
Yahoo Inc. executives provided an update on the company’s plans to open its online services to contributions from third-party Internet and software companies. The efforts range from allowing users to search other content — such as classified-ad sites — from within Yahoo Mail to allowing them to access online music download services like that of Amazon.com Inc. from within Yahoo Music.

MySpace sets music free
MySpace Music, scheduled to launch in September, promises to be the most significant rollout of a digital-music service since Apple’s iTunes. It will enable MySpace users to listen to any song from the catalogs of the three music giants free. There will be on-screen ads along with that music, but yes, it will be free. And that includes U2 and Jay-Z-and Christina Aguilera, Kid Rock, and rap superstar T.I.

Zinczenko Wants to ‘Satisfy Global Appetite’ for Women’s Health
It’s a time of transition for Women’s Health as editor Tina Johnson officially left this week after helping to steer the magazine since its launch in 2005. It’s also a time for opportunity for the magazine, according to Men’s Health editor David Zinczenko, who in June took on the added responsibility of serving as editorial director of Women’s Health.

Twittering From the Cradle
Some sleep-deprived parents are shaping their children’s online identities even before they are diaper-free. “It does feel a little funny to personalize it in his voice and be connecting to other babies as him,” said Kristin Chase, 29, who updates her son Cameron’s page on Totspot at least every other day.

NBCU’s Strategy On Women’s Sites Appears To Work; Collective Traffic Up 28 Percent (Paid Content)
NBC Universal’s strategy to link its women’s sites together in a content and ad network seems to be paying off, traffic- wise at least. The company’s cluster of women-oriented sites operating under the Women@NBCU banner– iVillage.com, BlogHer, Oxygen.com and BravoTV.com—attracted a collective 19.8 million uniques last month, ClickZ reported, citing stats from Media Metrix. That number represents a 28 percent increase over the 15.4 million uniques it had in August 2007, signifiying the 25th straight month of year-over-year growth.

Google Docs Now With Thesaurus, Dictionary, and Image Search (Mashable)
Another day, another set of updates for another Google product. This time, it’s Google Docs that’s been updated with three fancy options, all three hinting at certain advantages Google Docs can have over desktop office applications.