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.

All Hat No Cattle

Up To $1 Trillion Needed to Prevent Meltdown (Political Wire)
“Congressional leaders said after meeting Thursday evening with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that as much as $1 trillion could be needed to avoid an imminent meltdown of the U.S. financial system,” according to Politico. According to Sen. Christopher Dodd, lawmakers were told last night “that we’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our

U.S. Plans to Clean Up Finance System (Wall Street Journal)
The federal government, acknowledging the need to take a more comprehensive approach to the financial crisis, is working on a sweeping series of programs that would represent perhaps the biggest intervention in financial markets since the 1930s.  At the center of the potential plan is a mechanism that would take bad assets off the balance sheets of financial companies… It’s size could reach hundreds of billions of dollars.

Stocks soar as officials confirm gov’t rescue plan
NEW YORK – Wall Street extended a huge rally Friday as investors stormed back into the market, relieved that the government plans to rescue banks from billions of dollars in bad debt. The Dow Jones industrials rose nearly 360 points, giving them a massive gain of more than 770 points over two days, and Treasurys fell as money flowed into equities.

View from the left: The Bailout of All Bailouts is a Bad Idea (by Robert Reich)
[T]he problem isn’t a liquidity or solvency crisis; it’s a crisis of trust… A better idea would be for the Fed and Treasury to organize a giant workout of Wall Street — essentially, a reorganization under bankruptcy, for whatever firms wanted to join in. Equity would be eliminated, along with most preferred stock, creditors would be paid off to the extent possible. And then the participants would start over with clean balance sheets that reflected new, agreed-upon rules for full disclosure, along with minimum capitalization… The only way Wall Street’s meltdown doesn’t spill over to Main Street is if policymakers begin to pay adequate attention to the people whose wallets really keep the economy going, and who merit more help than the Wall Street tycoons whose carelessness and negligence have put it in such jeopardy.

View from the right: Larry Kudlow blames Congress and low income families for housing crisis: ‘Guilty Liberal Consciences’ Forced Banks To Make Bad Loans (by John Amato at Crooks and Liars)
Larry Kudlow proves once again that he’s nothing more than a right wing, free market, Milton Friedman hack that just lies at will. Doesn’t he have a conscience? Nope…It’s never the big money freepers that horde the wealth of this country and  have no restrictions on what they can do.
Click through to watch the video.

Stock-market woes highlight risk U.S. families now face (McClatchy)
WASHINGTON — As millions of people watched their 401(k) retirement plans rise and fall this week along with the stock markets, their fears reflect a sweeping revolution in how Americans save for retirement. Whether it’s disappearing work-based health care, the move from traditional pensions to 401(k)s, the push to privatize Social Security or just making it harder to file for personal bankruptcy, these and other social supports and safety nets that were designed to make Americans more secure have been watered down, abandoned or altered so that individuals bear a greater share of the risk and cost.

Senator Clinton Calls for Immediate Action to Halt Market Crisis
Assails Bush Administration for Ignoring Warnings as Crisis Built
Proposes Bold Steps to Restore Confidence in Market
Alegre has reminded us that Hillary was trying to head off this crisis back in March of 2007.  Click here for links to text and video of both speeches.

Friday: Freaky Friday (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
Why, Howard [Dean], WHY couldn’t we have Hillary this year?  You media types have a lot to answer for too.  In a year when we need our best, brightest, most competent, ready-to-go leaders, you connive to give us John McCain and Barack Obama, a Product.  Was this really necessary?  Why was it so important to sideline this woman in a time of crisis in our nation’s history?   What was so damn special about Barack Obama?  How come you couldn’t see past the color of his skin to the complete absence of content in his character? Well?  I’d like to hear some answers from the media who helped to force this decision on us.

Financial Crisis and Political Opportunity (by Anglachel)
If you are committed to the idea that government is the problem, or that use of government power to structure outcomes and compel compliance is always suspect, you will not be able to move decisively to take advantage of this political opportunity. Yes, it’s trite, but a crisis is danger and opportunity. Things uprooted can be replanted in better locations, or replaced by [something] else entirely. You have to know what you want at several levels, and be able to explain it in a way that the ordinary person can grasp and agree to. Kind of like [what Hillary said yesterday—see above].

First, put the blame where it belongs, on the heads of the people in charge… Make the opposition own this shitpile, and make it clear who is really paying the price for the pile. Then point out what a really bad response looks like… Remind people that the Bush administration’s actions when caught by crisis – 9/11, Katrina, this meltdown – is to freeze, like a deer in the headlights, unable to make any decisive action at the appropriate time. Then talk about what is at stake if we stay on that course… This crisis is a political opportunity to do what is right and to secure political capital. The current Democratic leadership does not appear able to take it to the bank.
Read the whole thing.  Really.

Poll: GOP brand making comeback (Politico)
Half of registered voters have a favorable opinion of Republican party, its highest ranking in three years.
Jeb Bush: “The Republican brand improves when the political conversation is about issues and the ideas around them.”  He really, really said that.  If Democrats mounted a serious branding effort, and put the blame where it lies, as the Clintons do, this shift would not be happening.

Obama Outraged at Being Accused of Not Supporting Something He Doesn’t Support (by Jonathan Martin at Politico)
Obama, on the trail in New Mexico, had this to say of McCain: “And today he accused me of not supporting what the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Bank did with AIG despite no evidence whatsoever that that’s what I had said.” To recap, when I wrote earlier today that Obama supported the bailout, I quickly was instructed by his staff that this was not the case. He just didn’t oppose it, I was told. Now he’s so adamant about not opposing the Fed’s move that he’s complaining about McCain’s portrayal. Where, I wonder, is the line between not opposing and, ya know, supporting.

Does Team Obama have a clue?… (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
The financial crisis is the issue of the moment. This is Obama’s opportunity to demonstrate vision and boldness. Instead, he’s all over the map like an overturned bucket of warm gelatin. Josh Marshall thinks that we’re supposed to cheer Obama’s squishiness. We’re supposed to consider McCain at fault for not keeping up with Obama’s shifting positions. And we’re supposed to give a damn about whether John McCain forgot the name of the guy running Spain right now. The headline on TPM: Obama Hits McCain As Economic Flip-Flopper. There’s truth in that charge… But the “flip flop” charge is pretty galling when it comes from a candidate who would not issue a clear statement until he held up his own flipper in the air to feel which way the wind was blowing. Now Obama talks as though he favors the bailout strongly (as opposed to his previous position of “non-opposition”).

Obama describes ‘four principles’ guiding his response to Fed’s rescue plan (Politico)
The day begins with reports about an emerging rescue plan for the financial sector, and Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama just issued this statement that lays out what he says are the four principles that will guide his thinking on the merits of that bailout. A quick summary of what Obama says he believes:
• The financial rescue must be combined with efforts to create new jobs elsewhere in the economy.
• Nothing should be done that makes the CEOs of financial companies rich.
• The plan must also have “tough new oversight and regulations of our financial institutions.”
• There must be global coordination on responding to the crisis.
You were expecting something concrete?  Oh, harty har har.  Obama doesn’t SOLVE PROBLEMS, you silly goose, he DESCRIBES ACCEPTABLE PROCESSES for solving them.  While your savings circle the drain.

McCain lays out six steps to respond to financial crisis (On Politics, USA Today)
This hour in Green Bay, it’s Republican nominee John McCain who is describing six steps he would take… [H]ere’s a quick summary of what McCain plans to say:
• “First, to deal with the immediate crisis, I will lead in the creation of the Mortgage and Financial Institutions trust — the MFI.”
• “Second, I will propose and sign into law reforms to prevent financial firms from concealing their bad practices.”
• “Third, we need regulatory clarity. The lack of transparency in our financial markets went unnoticed by the regulatory agencies scattered throughout Washington charged with protecting the common good.”
• “Fourth, we must ensure that consumers and investors are protected.”
• “Fifth, in cases where failing companies seek taxpayer bailouts, the Treasury Department will follow consistent policies in deciding whether to guarantee loans.”
• “Finally, the Federal Reserve should get back to its core business of responsibly managing our money supply and inflation. It needs to get out of the business of bailouts.”

Bundlers for McCain, Obama Are Among Wall Street’s Tumblers (Capital Eye)
How did Wall Street’s largest firms also become some of the largest donors to John McCain and Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns? Take a look at the candidates’ rosters of bundlers on OpenSecrets.org, and it becomes clear. McCain’s list includes at least 69 individuals who, according to his campaign, have raised a total of at least $11.4 million for his campaign. That makes the struggling investment industry his top source of bundlers… The securities and investment industry is Obama’s second-largest source of bundlers, after lawyers, and at least 56 individuals have raised at least $8.9 million for his campaign. Bundlers in the larger finance, insurance and real estate sector have collected at least $13.4 million for Obama, making it his most generous sector.

Obama questions rival’s advisers (Politico)
New ad hits McCain for taking advice from Carly Fiorina, Phil Gramm and George W. Bush.

McCain ad goes after former Obama adviser (On Politics, USA Today)
This time it’s former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson who’s the subject of a TV ad from Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s campaign that raises questions about Democratic nominee Barack Obama’s judgment. Fannie Mae is one of the mortgage giants that’s been taken over by the federal government as regulators try to get a handle on the crises rocking the financial and credit markets. Yesterday, the McCain campaign released an ad that said Obama was getting economic advice from another former Fannie Mae chief, Franklin Raines. Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton called that an “flat-out lie.”

Obama adviser warned against over-regulating subprime mortgages (Hot off the Trail, McClatchy)
As storm clouds gathered over the subprime mortgage mess more than a year ago, Barack Obama’s chief economic adviser warned against regulating the risky mortages too much because that could hurt minorities and others who needed the loans. “Regulators should be mindful of the potential downside in tightening too much,” Obama adviser Austan Goolsbee wrote in a column March 29, 2007 for the New York Times… He also noted that new types of home loans like subprime loans historically helped people who had been excluded from getting home loans, including “the young, the discriminated against, the people without a lot of money in the bank to use for a down payment.” He said “it has allowed them access to mortgages whereas lenders would have once just turned them away.”
And it will be costing us taxpayers a ton of money.

The moral imbalance of bailouts (by Jeff Jarvis)
When Hurricane Ike hit Texas, the government, acting on our behalf, offered bailouts to the thousands whose homes — built in risk-prone areas — were damaged or destroyed: payment for hotel rooms, aid in rebuilding. But when your neighbor’s house burns down, she gets nothing from us. She gets help only if she has paid for insurance. If that same neighbor gets cancer, she’ll also get no help from us unless she or her employer could afford insurance.

But the government is — we are — bailing out banks that risked too much on bad investments. By buying time, the bailout could also give a lifeline to people who borrowed too much on their homes. If the neighbor lady overmortgaged herself with a now-toxic loan, she might get a break. But if that neighbor lady defaults because she has cancer and has to pay her medical bills before her responsible 30-year, flat-rate, well-documented mortgage, well, she’s out of luck.

Creative Destruction: The Solid Core Behind the Financial Crisis (by Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque)
“The bailout [of American International Group]… effectively puts taxpayer money at risk while protecting bad investments made by A.I.G. and other institutions it does business with.” Do you get it now? The rich and powerful spend years making foolish deals in a market they rigged with the connivance of utterly corrupted politicians on both sides the aisle; their fraudulent scheme finally collapses, exposing them to some of the most horrific financial losses in history….and YOU will have to pay for it… [D]espite all the disasters raging around us — the wars, the atrocities, the tyranny, the economic collapse — the system is working. It’s doing exactly what it’s supposed to do: serve the rich and powerful, guard and protect them, entrench them in their rule. Just like John McCain says, the system is fundamentally sound.

Wall Street’s crisis isn’t affecting most voters’ thinking (On Politics, USA Today)
“The crisis on Wall Street is driving more voters toward Democratic nominee Barack Obama than to Republican John McCain, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll,” writes USA TODAY’s Martha T. Moore. But, she adds, “far more voters say the financial turmoil will have no effect on their vote.” According to Martha, “in the survey, taken Wednesday, 29% of registered voters said the crisis makes them more likely to vote for Obama, compared with 23% who said they were more likely to vote for McCain. But 43% said the virtual collapse of major financial institutions such as Lehman Bros., and the resulting market plunge, will have no effect when they go to the polls Nov. 4.”
It’s hard to believe.

And now for the REALLY important news:
Poll: Obama tops McCain as football-watching buddy
According to an AP-Yahoo! News poll, people would rather watch a football game with Barack Obama than with John McCain — but by barely the length of a football. Such views are significant because in many elections, candidates considered more likable often have an advantage.

Don’t you just love what the Democratic Party has become?  No?  Then you must be a racist.
Obama mocks McCain in Nevada stops (AP)
Barack Obama sharpened his attacks on John McCain and mocked the Republican’s recent calls for reform in two stops in Nevada on Wednesday after days of listening to nervous supporters fret about the Democrat’s chances of taking the White House… In Elko, Obama tried to anticipate his critics and called on the crowd of about 1,500 to sharpen their elbows, too. “I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face,” he said. [Emphasis added.]

It Was Only A Matter of Time (by Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy at No Quarter)
Obama has backtracked on yet another one of his promises. I think the title of this article pretty much gives it away: “Obama Says He Won’t Try to Repeal ‘Don’t Ask’ on His Own.” Yep. I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Here’s more of the article: “Democrat Barack Obama said if elected president he would not try to repeal the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy about homosexuality on his own. Obama said in an interview to run in gay publications Thursday that he wants to work with military leaders to build a consensus on removing the ban on openly gay service members in the armed forces.”

McCain camp backs up Spain tough talk (Politico)
Campaign says he did not misspeak when he declined to commit to a meeting with Spanish prime minister.

Palin email hacker caught (by Valhalla at Corrente)
Oops… Hacker’s dad seems to be a Democratic state representative in Tennessee, Mike Kernell. [Emphasis added.] Nothing profound to say here, except: People! Don’t use ’secret hints’ for your passwords that are data freely available on Wikipedia.

Palin E-Mail Hacker Says It Was Easy (Wired)
A person claiming to be the hacker who obtained access to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s private Yahoo e-mail on Tuesday has posted a supposed first-person account of the hack, revealing the relatively simple steps he says he took to crack the private e-mail of the Republican vice-presidential candidate… The simplicity of the attack, of course, makes it no less illegal. The hacker said that he read all of the e-mails in the Palin account and found “nothing incriminating, nothing that would derail her campaign as I had hoped. All I saw was personal stuff, some clerical stuff from when she was governor…. And pictures of her family.”

Palin’s husband won’t testify in trooper inquiry, campaign says (CNN)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s husband won’t comply with a subpoena issued by state lawmakers investigating her firing of Alaska’s public safety commissioner, the McCain-Palin campaign said Thursday. A state Senate committee is scheduled to meet Friday to take statements from the 12 people they subpoenaed last week, including Todd Palin. But McCain-Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella said Todd Palin would not face a “fair hearing” before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Has The ‘Surge’ Brought Us Any Closer To ‘Victory’?
Journalists are under-reporting certain key aspects of the current Iraqi political situation.

UCLA study of satellite imagery casts doubt on surge’s success in Baghdad (UCLA press release, thanks to Economist’s View)
By tracking the amount of light emitted by Baghdad neighborhoods at night, a team of UCLA geographers has uncovered fresh evidence that last year’s U.S. troop surge in Iraq may not have been as effective at improving security as some U.S. officials have maintained.
So, uh, Barack.  Didn’t you just say that the surge has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams?  I wonder if you could be wrong.

House Ds to Bush and Iraq War: Have some more money! House Ds to the unemployed: Fuck you! (by lambert at Corrente)
WaPo: “House Democrats are likely to drop a 13-week extension of unemployment insurance benefits from a major spending package that includes continued funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and that would create a new education benefit for military veterans returning from the battlefields. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said yesterday that the unemployment insurance provision would “probably not” be part of the final package of war and domestic spending…” Nancy, Steny, nice work! It’s good to see you carrying out your 2006 mandate so forcefully, and I’m sure we can expect more of the same come January!

No way does Sen. Obama get to pick the DNC’s next chair (by Heidi Li at Alegre’s Corner)
CQ Politics is reporting a new twist in the shameless collusion between Senator Obama and the DNC to suggest that, at a time when the Democratic Party is deeply divided, it is somehow Senator Obama’s prerogative to pick the next DNC chair… Apparently the new Democratic Party way is for one chair to overrride rank and file Democrats and use any number of unscrupulous tactics to install his preferred candidate as the nominee and then that nominee turns around and arrogates to himself the right to pick the next chair… The cycle of egomanical self-servingness has just been ratcheted up.
The CQ Politics article speculates that Clinton traitor Bill Richardson may be the one being considered.

Do you want fries with your culture war? (by vastleft at Corrente)
Click through to watch the most anti-liberal elitist video you’re likely to see on television.

Short Selling Ban: Why is the Bush SEC Scared of the Market? (by Dean Baker)
That is the question that serious reporters would be asking after the SEC banned all short-selling on financial firms. Have the folks at the SEC determined that stocks of financial firms are under-valued? They must be really smart if they can determine that. Of course if the SEC crew can recognize undervalued stocks, presumably they can also recognize over-valued stocks. Have they ever stopped trading because a stock’s price had gotten too high?

CNBC feeling the heat (County Fair  at Media Matters for America)
Anchor Erin Burnett questioning the patriotism of short sellers? Analyst Jim Cramer wondering if terrorists are behind the financial madness that continues to unfold on Wall Street?

Media Matters for America headlines

• In article about Dem criticism of Lieberman, CNN.com did not report he broke RNC speech pledge

• CNN’s Roberts failed to challenge Romney on taxes falsehood

• Hannity did not challenge McCain’s false claim that Alaska “provides 20 percent of America’s energy requirements”

• Quinn says he told Fatimah Ali to “get an American name,” because, “why would you want to relate to Africa? Africa is a nightmare.”

• Limbaugh baseless smear: “Obama thugs” responsible for Palin email hacking

• MSNBC anchor said Obama “would add $3.4 trillion to the national debt” without noting that McCain’s proposal would add more than $5 trillion

• Hannity asked if it was “danger[ous]” for Obama to speak of “economic crisis” but ignored McCain ad saying “the economy is in crisis”

• NY Post falsely claimed that ad analysis findings “clashed with recent media coverage accusing McCain of distorting Obama’s record in ads”

• Savage on Muslim immigrants: 15th-century “throwbacks, some of whom are no doubt terrorists, and some of whom are gonna produce children who will become terrorists”

• Minneapolis radio host Baker on Pelosi’s response to Wall Street crisis: “Another reason why it’s very rare to find a woman worthy of serving in political office”

AP Reporter Detained, Beaten by Police in Vietnam
An Associated Press reporter in Vietnam was punched, choked and hit over the head with a camera by police who detained him Friday while he covered a Catholic prayer vigil in the communist country. “They told me I was taking pictures in a place that I was not allowed to be taking pictures,” he said. “But it was news, and I went in.”

Jerusalem Journalists Propose Forum To Confront Crisis Facing Israeli And Palestinian Media Staff
Israeli journalists have spoken out against restrictions on freedom of movement facing reporters in Palestine and propose a joint forum with Palestinian colleagues to deal with a range of problems.

Nigeria’s Media, Opposition Slam Closure Of Private TV
Nigeria’s opposition and media groups Wednesday condemned the closure of one of the country’s independent television stations which ran a story that President Umaru Yar’Adua was planning to step down.

Opposition Protesters Batter Press
A wave of violent clashes between opponents and supporters of the government in Bolivia has badly hit the press, particularly public and community media.

Libel Suit Against Grisham Dismissed (by TChris at TalkLeft)
Bill Peterson, the former district attorney of Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, and two investigators who were involved with Peterson in the trial and conviction of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz, didn’t like the way they were portrayed in John Grisham’s book, “The Innocent Man.” Williamson and Fritz were convicted of murdering cocktail waitress Debbie Sue Carter. Twelve years later, DNA evidence exonerated them. Peterson and the investigators sued Grisham for libel. They also sued “Barry Scheck, founder of the New York-based Innocence Project and an attorney for one of the men falsely accused in the murder.” U.S. District Judge Ronald White has wisely dismissed the lawsuit.

Cops Need Warrant for Cellphone Location Data, Judge Rules (Wired)
The government cannot force your cellphone provider to turn over stored records about your location without proving to a judge there is probable cause you have violated the law, a federal district court ruled Wednesday. [O]ther judges have disagreed with the logic of protecting this data as if it were very sensitive.

Overholser unveils the “new” Online Journalism Review
Annenberg School of Journalism director Geneva Overholser writes: “This website will be different from the ‘old’ OJR in a couple of ways: First, as you’ll see, it is integrated with the Knight Digital Media Center. Also, we want to ensure that Annenberg faculty, friends and students play an important role in the conversation. …We also will eagerly continue to accept comments and suggestions from readers.”

Miner: I see Internet values seeping into print journalism
“Internet values reward instant punditry, the more flamboyant the better,” writes Michael Miner. “Simple, solid reporting is OK, but flamboyance is what attracts page hits, and page hits attract advertisers — enough of them, in a theoretical tomorrow, to keep journalism afloat. …Cool dispassion is what a few old-school reporters clinging to a dying trade will go on practicing until they disappear. But frenzy’s in fashion.”

Surfin’ Safari: Top 30 Newspaper Sites for August
The race for the White House and the 2008 Olympic games gave newspaper Web sites a leg up in August, according to the latest data from Nielsen Online. Nearly all of the top 30 sites reported increases in unique audience in August compared to the same period a year ago. Some top gainers: The Baltimore Sun and New York’s Daily News.

NYT Co. Shares Jump on August Report
New York Times Co. shares rose 12% Thursday after the company reported August revenue results at its newspapers that reflected an improvement in online ad growth after a particularly tepid July, along with better results at the long-beleaguered Boston Globe. The media company said online ad revenue rose 7.9% in August, mostly due to growth in display advertising.

Al Gore to Buy Environmental Magazine Plenty?
Al Gore’s getting into the magazine business. Sources familiar with the former vice president’s plans say he is set to announce the acquisition of a stake in Plenty, a four-year-old title about environmentally-conscious living. As it happens, Gore — who already has a toe in the media business through his TV network, Current — is on the cover of the current issue.

NBC’s Web Sites See Surge in Traffic
The Peacock felt gale-force winds beneath its wings this week on the Internet. A trio of unrelated events conspired to give NBC Universal record traffic at three Web locations: CNBC.com, NBC.com, and iTunes. Instability on Wall Street this week made CNBC.com a prime destination, delivered the site’s largest audience ever, according to internal data provided by Omniture.

America Likes Watching Americans Compete
Rash Report: Strong Ratings for ‘America’s Got Talent’ and ‘America’s Next Top Model’

How Many Web Services Can One Person Use?
Claire Cain Miller: How many more new social networking or micro-blogging or video-sharing site can one person use? Most of us don’t have time to respond to voice mail and e-mail every day, let alone check our Twitter updates and Facebook accounts and Flickr friends. And even if we have the time, do we need another site that helps us share and connect and network?

BuzzLogic Launches a New Approach to an Ad Network for Bloggers (Mashable)
One of the growing trends this year is that just about everyone with any kind of scale is trying to cash in by creating an ad network. While many of the ideas sound similar, BuzzLogic is trying something rather unique, targeted specifically towards bloggers and the advertisers trying to reach their audiences. BuzzLogic offers what it likes to call a “Conversation Ad Network,” which is basically marketing speak for targeting bloggers with highly engaged audiences in fairly specific niches.

Rallying Cry for Display Ads
Display ads have fallen on hard times. The graphic ads that border a Web page are among the slowest-growing formats in the online-ad marketplace, and they are seen by many marketers as stodgy and ineffective. But some ad-technology and Web-measurement companies are trying to engineer a comeback for display ads, offering data that they say show display advertising is more effective than marketers think.

The Google-Yahoo Pact FAQ: We Don’t Set Prices; Why Yahoo Will Earn More (Paid Content)
As it tries to avoid a potential antitrust clampdown from the Justice Department over its search ad deal with Yahoo, Google hopes it can ease advertisers’ fears about the pact as well. In a post on the Google Public Policy blog, the company tries to make the case that the partnership won’t result in higher prices—necessarily, anyway. But Google certainly doesn’t deny that some marketers will see higher charges.
Click through to read excerpts from the Google-Yahoo ad FAQ.