Permanent link to MTA daily media news

This is for those who say I’m too hard on Obama:
Lynnwood Blog

After Dedicating Crass Song to McCain/Palin, Jay-Z to Rally Obama Supporters in Ohio (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
The Obama campaign announced today that Jay-Z and NBA star LeBron James will hold a “Last Chance for Change” concert in Cleveland next Wednesday. The announcement about Jay-Z comes a few days after he dedicated his 2003 song “99 Problems” to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The lyrics to “99 Problems” include the famous line: “If you’re havin’ girl problems I feel bad for you son / I got 99 problems but a bitch ain’t one.”
Yes, and that was the song Obama played at his Iowa victory rally—thereby calling Hillary Clinton a bitch.

Which is more repugnant: the misogyny or the silence about the misogny? (Heidi Li’s Potpourri )
If Senator Obama cannot make it clear that he either truly understands misogyny and its pervasiveness in American culture or that he sincerely wants to learn about it and use his political platform to oppose it with all his might, he does not deserve the votes of true humanists, people who work to rid our culture of all forms of illegitimate assaults on human dignity, including not only racism, but misogyny. His silence on the topic will cost him my vote, and I believe it should cost him the vote of anybody who expected more and better from the candidate who kept promising us a new kind of politics and a better brand of leadership.

Friday: If Obama doesn’t condemn misogyny, we will resist (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
The Democratic party has been revealed to take no real interest in the wishes of women.  18 million voters, many of them women for Hillary Clinton, were easily dismissed and their votes relegated to the circular file… They are so used to taking us for granted that they feel they don’t need to try to win us over and they have no comprehension of the damage they have done to their most faithful constituency… That is why we resist the Democratic party this year.  We want real change and we’re not going to get it with Barack Obama as president after he has unleashed the monster of sexism that lurked beneath a thin veneer of comity.  It is on his shoulders to do something about it.  We hold him personally responsible because misogyny sells and he has reaped the benefits all season long at our expense.

Mad Men Makes a Splash Bigger Than Its Ratings (AP)
Mad Men draws a slice of viewers as slender as Don Draper’s 1960s neckties, yet the TV drama unquestionably is all the rage. There was a Mad Men-themed category last week on Jeopardy! along with an online game, and a Mad Men homage is tucked like a fancy chocolate treat into the Nov. 2 Halloween episode of The Simpsons.
I wonder how big a part the blatant misogyny on Mad Men plays in its popularity among the cognoscenti. Sexism, after all, is so IN.  And so is violence.

“Get in their faces” (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
In Pittsburgh, a mugger robbed a 20 year old woman named Ashley Todd at an ATM machine. When he noted a McCain bumper sticker on her vehicle, he flew into a rage, punched her, kicked her and carved a B into her face. Also: In Seminole County, Florida, an unknown assailant shot up the home of Rog Coverly, the manager of the local McCain campaign headquarters… In Missouri, the Obama movement used Sheriffs and prosecutors to put together a “truth squad” to intimidate critics of Barack Obama. Obama makes no secret of his desire to erect a massive “civilian security force.” And the RAND Corporation was tasked with considering the best ways to implement a new domestic intelligence agency… [A] cult of personality, new tools of state repression, unfettered snooping — all point in a dangerous direction. The threat can be reduced to two words: Power and ego.
Must have been a dyslexic mugger.  He got the B backwards.  The Ashley Todd incident has now been questioned (see below), but the other incidents mentioned above have not.

UPDATE: McCain Worker ‘Confesses’ She Made Up Attack Story (Fox News)
Campaign volunteer Ashley Todd, 20, reportedly admits she lied when she claimed a ‘black man’ beat her and carved a ‘B’ in her face because she was McCain backer

Bachmann Loses Lead in MN-6 (Political Wire)
A new SurveyUSA poll in Minnesota’s 6th congressional district shows Elwyn Tinklenberg (D) edging past Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), 47% to 44%. The district had been considered safe for Republicans until Bachmann claimed liberals and other Obama supporters were anti-American in a MSNBC interview.

Republican club leader resigns over ‘Obama Bucks’ controversy (On Politics, USA Today)
The president of the Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated, club in San Bernadino County, California, has resigned in the wake of reports about the “Obama Bucks” that her organization created and which caught national attention earlier this month.

North Carolina Republicans send out homophobic mailings against Democratic Senate candidate Kay Hagan. (Think Progress)
The North Carolina Republican State Executive Committee has sent out homophobic mailers targeting Senate candidate Kay Hagan (D), who is challenging Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R). The mailings warn that Hagan seeks to advance a “radical homosexual agenda” that includes legalizing gay marriage, removing “Under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, and forcing the Boy Scouts to accept gay and atheist troop leaders.

With “Friends” Like These . . . (by myiq2xu at The Confluence)
So I’m over at TGW [Tennessee Guerrilla Women] and I see a post on how this election may increase the percentage of women in Congress from 16% to 19% and I decide to post this comment: “I was still a kid when ‘Women’s Lib’ supposedly happened. That was damn near four decades ago. By this point women should occupy something like 45%-55% of elected offices.”

I didn’t figure that was controversial, but this morning I see this response from someone named “Zee”: “myiq! A foray here, how exciting. However…after a quick look at your webpage, you may be related to Mormons who are “good people” but the cult definitely deserves to crash and burn. I’m sorry, yeah, I hate all religions as they are mostly paternalistic crap, but some, such as Islam where they practice gender apartheid to the point where male firefighters let schoolgirls burn to death rather than TOUCH them and the MORMONS, where the men are ‘gods’ of their own planets in their ludicrous afterlife and women just part of a harem to pump out ghost babies to populate said planets, deserve all the ridicule they get and then some. ‘Tolerance’ is bullshit in these cases.”

Zee was referring to [a] post of mine, where I called out a commenter at Corrente for religious bigotry against Mormons.  here was my response to Zee: “After we round up the Moslems and Mormons, do we gas them with Zyklon-B and burn the bodies?”… Freedom of religion (which includes freedom from religion) isn’t just a liberal value, it’s a constitutional right… Bigotry, whether in the form of racism, sexism, homophobia, nationalism, religious intolerance or even partisanship is WRONG.  Progressives used to have principles. Liberals still do.

Hey Barack! If McCain “Is fighting for Joe The Hedge Fund Manager” How Come That Joe Keeps Giving YOU Money? (by Uppity Woman at No Quarter)

Barack Obama…: “Let’s be clear who John McCain is fighting for — he’s not fighting for Joe the Plumber, he’s fighting for Joe the Hedge Fund Manager”… Well I was just wondering then, Barack, since we are “being clear here”: If John McCain is fighting for Joe The Hedge Fund Manager, how come Joe The Hedge fund Manager has given you so much money?

Be happy, Democrats!  Obama is running on a message similar to that of George Bush in 2000!
Former Bush Aide Backs Obama (Political Wire)
Former Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said he will vote for Sen. Barack Obama in the presidential election, according to ABC News. “Said McClellan: ‘From the very beginning I have said I am going to support the candidate that has the best chance for changing the way Washington works and getting things done and I will be voting for Barack Obama and clapping… It’s a message that is very similar to the one that Gov. Bush ran on in 2000.’”

Rejoice, Democrats, your leaders won’t be doing a damn thing for you if they get elected.
Biden says no to populism (by vastleft at Corrente)
On XM satellite radio’s POTUS station, I … heard a couple of minutes of a Joe Biden speech in Winston-Salem. Mostly, it sounded fine, and more like a Democrat than a typical Obama speech does. But then, in criticizing trickle-down economics, he tossed out a trope that struck me as odd: “I’m not making a populist argument.” As if one should be relieved to hear that. Turns out, this is a theme he’s fond of… [T]he rich have long enjoyed a politics that the rest of America has not, and it should be no shame for Democrats to represent the interests of the have-nots. In fact, it used to be a source of pride.

What the landslide means in one sentence (by lambert at Corrente)
Stoller (again this morning, so sue me): “[T]he elites are swinging to the Blue Dog position rather than coming our way.” Quelle surprise… Of course, everybody knows that the Blue Dogs won’t fuck us over nearly as badly as the Republicans. They haven’t had time to figure out how, yet!

And be glad, Democrats, because manipulating your friends is now the order of the day!  Public humiliation is a great way to convert people to your cause.  Maybe we should put nonvoters in stocks in the public square.
From: Peter Koechley, MoveOn.org Political Action (via email)
Subject: Frances, you’re in this video
To: Frances
Date: Wednesday, October 22, 2008, 9:06 PM

Dear Frances,

Oversleeping. Getting the car fixed. Having to pick up the second-cousin’s stepkids on the other side of town. These are just a few of the reasons millions of Americans won’t vote on November 4th.

It’s not like they hate voting. They want to do it. They know they should. And mostly, they intend to. But some of your friends won’t get around to actually voting because they haven’t been reminded vividly enough.

That’s why we developed this funny, scary video. It shows people what it might look like if we lose the election by a single vote: theirs.

Here’s a version we prepared for you. You’re in it—seriously, you, Frances. Check it out—and if you like it, send it to your friends:

Yet more proof the press screwed Al Gore (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Lots of folks are talking about the broad, new Project for Excellence in Journalism study about the fall’s campaign coverage that concludes  coverage of John McCain had been decidedly more negative than the Barack Obama coverage in the last six weeks. According to the study of mainstream media, 57% of print and broadcast stories about the GOP nominee were negative, compared to 14 that were positive… “Winning in politics begets winning coverage,” the study concluded. Makes sense, right? Than how do we explain this additional conclusion from the study: “McCain’s numbers are almost identical to what we saw eight years ago for Democrat Al Gore.” [Emphasis added.]

Somebody alert Bob Somerby, because this is just amazing. John [McCain’s] campaign has, according to the polls and even conservative pundits, been going through a slow-motion wreck for the last month. (i.e. Free fall?) And yet his press coverage is “almost identical” that of Al Gore in 2000. It’s amazing because what was Gore doing at this point in 2000? He was basically running dead even with George Bush, and in the process of winning virtually every toss-up state come Election Day. See how that correlation between performance and coverage disappeared for Gore? He was performing just as well as his opponent (and light-years better than McCain today), yet Gore got saddled with kind of coverage usually assigned to the pronounced loser.
And what does it say about the media that they give more favorable coverage to the perceived winner?  And if the media chose George Bush for us over Al Gore, what does it say about them, and about us, that the media are now pushing Barack Obama?

Politics as Entertainment (Political Wire)
A new Entertainment Weekly survey has found that six in 10 Americans have found the presidential election to be entertaining, so much so that the 18-24 year-olds surveyed estimate they spend one-third of their TV time watching election coverage. Interesting: “More than half of Americans (53%) feel celebrity endorsements can have some influence on the candidates’ appeal. Those 25-34 (59%) and Democrats (64%) are more likely to feel that celebrity endorsement has influence on the candidates’ appeal.”

In Driving Election-Year Dynamics, Television Still Reigns Supreme (Los Angeles Times)
Mary McNamara: Not since the Kennedy-Nixon race has television played such a significant role in a presidential election. The Saturday Night Live skewerings, the David Letterman-John McCain feud, the political meltdowns on The View, the Gov. Sarah Palin interviews, the Joe the Plumber interviews, Obama’s World Series lead-in (if there’s a Game 6) and, of course, the debates.

Networks Going Big on Election Night (Variety)
Given the enormous interest in this year’s presidential election, the broadcast and cable nets have concocted supersized plans for their election night coverage. The nets aren’t adding much more time to the already wall-to-wall coverage they provided in 2004, but this year’s telecasts promise a bit more heft.

Sarah Palin: Future Media Star? (Hollywood Reporter)
As polls cast doubt on the McCain-Palin ticket, producers and agents are discussing possibilities for capitalizing on Sarah Palin’s fame, ranging from an Oprah-style syndicated talk show to a Sean Hannity-like perch in cable news or on radio. “Any television person who sees the numbers when she appears on anything would say Sarah Palin would be great,” said a veteran morning-show producer.

Obama Snubs Smiley? (Marketwatch)
Tavis Smiley doesn’t expect presidential candidate Barack Obama to agree to come on his PBS late-night talk show before the election. “The odds are slim to none — and slim is out of town,” Smiley said. He has received his share of flak from some African-Americans because they were unhappy with his professional posture toward Obama. He hasn’t given the Democrat a free pass during the campaign.
Smiley dared to call out Obama for not attending his conference in New Orleans earlier in the year.  Hillary attended, Barack did not.

Camp Followers (by Patrick Buchanan)
Perhaps the only institution in America whose approval rating is beneath that of Congress is the media. Both have won their reputations the hard way. They earned them. Consider the fawning indulgence shown insider Joe Biden with the dripping contempt visited on outsider Sarah Palin. Twice last weekend, Biden grimly warned at closed-door meetings that a great crisis is coming early in the term of President Obama… This is an astonishing statement from a chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee who has access to the same intelligence as George Bush… If one assumes Joe is a serious man, we have a right to know…

The media cannot get enough of the “Saturday Night Live” impersonations of Palin as a bubblehead. News shows pick up the Tina Fey clips and run them and run them to the merriment of all. Can one imagine “Saturday Night Live” doing weekly send-ups of Michelle Obama and her “I’ve never been proud” of my country, this “just downright mean” America, using a black comedienne to mimic and mock her voice and accent? “Saturday Night Live” would be facing hate crime charges… Is there a media double standard? You betcha.
Teeth must be chattering in hell.  It has to be freezing down there when I find myself agreeing with Pat Buchanan.

Campbell Brown: Stop Covering Palin’s Wardrobe Controversy; Women Are Unfairly Held to Higher Standard on Appearance (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
On CNN [Wednesday] night, Campbell Brown discussed the “sniping…about Sarah Palin’s clothes. Politico.com reports that the Republican National Committee spent more than $150,000 on clothes, hair, and makeup for Palin on the campaign trail. “Now, these are not your tax dollars. This is money given by Republican donors to the RNC,” Brown said. “But the report questions whether it’s legal to use campaign cash for quote,’ personal use.’ My issue: there is an incredible double standard here, and we’re ignoring a very simple reality. Women are judged based on their appearance far, far more than men. This is a statement of fact. There has been plenty of talk and plenty written about Sarah Palin’s jackets, her hair, her looks. Sound familiar? There was plenty of talk and plenty written about Hillary Clinton’s looks, hair, pantsuits. Compare that to the attention given to Barack Obama’s $1,500 suits or John McCain’s $520 Ferragamo shoes. There is no comparison.”

Palin Derangement Syndrome and Those Who Suffer From It (by Ani at No Quarter)
So there I was the other day, invited into a political debate via email, painstakingly composing all sorts of facts, figures and associations of Obama that would certainly give any reasonable person pause. You know the litany: 130 present votes, 6 wrong votes, reneging on FISA, NAFTA, public financing, women’s rights, don’t ask don’t tell, Iraq, Israel. Bitter Gate. Sweetie Gate. I mention ACORN, the Fannie and Freddie scandal, caucus fraud, Ayers, Dohrn, Wright, Rezko Auchi, Pleger, Meeks, Pritzker, Khalidi, Al Mansour and the piece de resistance, picking the bloviating, endlessly gaffe prone – Joe Biden. Wow, what judgment, Barack!!!! I send facts and figures together with, I must say, a rather cogent argument.

They counter with: McCain will croak in office within two months and Palin, spawn of the devil, will be President and ship us all back to the stone age.

Palin: ‘I don’t know’ if abortion clinic bombers are ‘terrorists.’ (Think Progress)
In her interview with NBC’s Brian Williams, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said that Bill Ayers is “no question” a terrorist because he sought to destroy the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon. Palin, however, refused to apply the same label to abortion clinic bombers: “Q: Is an abortion clinic bomber a terrorist, under this definition, governor? PALIN: (Sigh). There’s no question that Bill Ayers via his own admittance was one who sought to destroy our U.S. Capitol and our Pentagon. That is a domestic terrorist. There’s no question there. Now, others who would want to engage in harming innocent Americans or facilities that uh, it would be unacceptable. I don’t know if you’re going to use the word terrorist there.”
Click through to watch the video.

Weatherman Undergound Agent Discusses WU’s Plans For Re-education ….and Genocide (by Uppity Woman at No Quarter)
Larry Grathwohl was an underground agent who infiltrated Bill Ayers’ Weather Undergound movement. Here he discusses what would happen next after they overthrow the USA government. “… And they were dead serious”. So, do too many MSMers and Democrats still think that an affiliation for years with Bill Ayers is a harmless little thing?
Click through to watch the video.

McCain Adds NASA Funding To List Of Exemptions From His Spending Freeze (Think Progress)
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) frequently faults “wasteful spending” and “earmarks” as contributing to the current economic crisis, and has campaigned on a promise to take a “hatchet” to the federal budget and to impose a spending freeze on all non-essential government spending. However, the Wall Street Journal reports that, in an effort to court Florida voters, McCain has now pledged to increase funding for NASA, a major employer in the state.

Palin Betrays Base On Immigration Amnesty (by Cernig at Crooks and Liars)
With 12 days to go until the election, today was the wrong time for Sarah Palin to shoot herself in the foot and alienate her base. But that’s what she has done, in style, on Univision. “Interviewer: To clarify, so you support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants? Palin: I do because I understand why people would want to be in America. To seek the safety and prosperity, the opportunities, the health that is here. It is so important that yes, people follow the rules so that people can be treated equally and fairly in this country.” Needless to say, the wingnuts, those few mentioning it so far, are not at all happy.
It’s funny, but I have yet to see reporting on any of Obama’s or Biden’s inconsistencies or panderings on either Think Progress or Crooks and Liars.

Wisconsin Judge Tosses Lawsuit Challenging Voter Registrations (American Constitution Society)
A Wisconsin judge dismissed a lawsuit today aimed at forcing state election officials to use the Social Security database to check voters’ registrations, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The lawsuit was lodged against the state’s Government Accountability Board by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, who also serves as the co-chair of Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain’s Wisconsin campaign. The state’s Republican Party also joined Van Hollen in the case. Their lawsuit alleged that federal law required Wisconsin election officials to make sure voters’ registration information matched information on driver’s licenses and Social Security records.

Judge Maryann Sumi concluded that Van Hollen failed to show that Wisconsin officials had violated the federal Help America Vote Act and that the Wisconsin Republican Party had no standing to be involved in the case.
If the law wasn’t broken, that’s one thing.  But how can it be that the Republican Party has no standing to demand that elections be fair?

Bloomberg cleared to run for a third term. (Think Progress)
The New York City Council voted [Thursday] to extend term limits so that Mayor Michael Bloomberg can run for a third term next year. The council’s vote of 29 to 22 undoes the result of two voter referendums that had imposed a limit of two four-year terms for the Mayor’s office… The New York Times reports that after Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum announced the final result, the balcony in the Council chamber “erupted in shouts of ‘The city’s for sale!’ and ‘Shame on you!’”

‘I made a mistake,’ admits Greenspan (Financial Times, U.K.)
Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, said on Thursday the credit crisis had exceeded anything he had imagined and admitted he was wrong to think that banks would protect themselves from financial market chaos. “I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interest of organisations, specifically banks and others, was such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders,” he said.
At least he admitted to a mistake.  At the same congressional hearing, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said that the problem was too many congressional committees!

Greenspan Follies: The World Is as Ayn Rand Would Have Predicted (by Dean Baker)
What would Ayn Rand expect to happen? On the one hand we have the hot shot executives, on the other hand the schmucks who own stock in these banks. Would Ayn Rand expect that the executives would put aside their ambition, their lust for success, their greed, in order to benefit shareholders who are too dumb to even know what a credit default swap is? Not for a second; Ayn Rand would watch the Wall Street big boys run roughshod over their shareholders’ interests and be applauding them every step of the way. That is how the game is played… Calling them, or their patron Alan Greenspan, free market ideologues is far too generous.

Not So Very Brilliant (by Susie at Suburban Guerrilla)
How many bloggers managed to see this before Greenspan did? It really had nothing to do with intelligence. It had to do with the narrow ideological prism through which Greenspan and his minions viewed the world. In other words, it had more to do with their emotional identification with a certain philosophy that blinded them to everything else. Liberals are often ridiculed for not having a firm ideological foundation, but that’s just not true. We like to do what will actually work, and that leaves us with a much wider array of options.
Oh, would that it were true, Susie.  What I see among so-called liberals is a blind devotion to a person, shedding every single ideal they ever professed to have to shove him in our faces.

Rove Blames Market Volatility On Obama: It Reflects ‘People’s Concerns’ About An Obama Presidency (Think Progress)
[Thursday] on Fox News, host Neil Cavuto asked Karl Rove to explain today’s “very volatile markets.” Rove responded by claiming that it was a result of people’s uncertainty over an Obama presidency: “ROVE: But we have to be a little bit careful here, because markets try and predict the future. And what they may be doing here, this volatility may be people’s concerns about what would happen if Barack Obama, who has a lead in the polls and has been deemed by the media to be the likely next president of the United States, what would happen to their economy and their portfolios if he were to become president?”… Rove also claimed that investors were nervous about Obama’s “anti-business attitude,” pointing to how he would “raise the capital gains tax, which will take some value out of the market.”
Click through to watch the video.

The ice floe cometh (by vastleft at Corrente)
Would someone more expert than I about Social Security and Medicare please take a crack at Newsweek’s Robert J. Samuelson’s “Young Voters, Get Mad — You need to appeal to the shame and guilt of older Americans”?
And when they do get mad, we must take every opportunity to remind them that ROBERT J. SAMUELSON HELPED GEORGE BUSH STEAL OUR PRE-PAID RETIREMENT FUND.

How the Economy Literally Makes You Sick (by a little night musing at Corrente)
That was the front-page header given to [an] AP article in today’s Metro (freebie newspaperlet). “The ailing economy is leading many Americans to skip doctor visits, skimp on their medicine, and put off mammograms, Pap smears and other tests. And physicians worry the result will be sicker patients who need more expensive treatment later.”… Say it with me! We can’t afford NOT to have single-payer.

Media Matters for America headlines

• AP uncritically reported false McCain claim that under Obama’s tax plan, “people who pay no taxes would receive a $500 tax credit”

• LA Times, AP repeated McCain campaign misinformation about Obama’s tax plan

• CNN’s Carroll aired Cindy McCain’s attack on Obama over troop funding without noting her husband’s own vote

• O’Reilly vows “to document every ACORN situation and any other voter fraud” but has yet to mention fraud complaints against YPM

• CNN’s Crowley cropped Obama quote, omitting his assertion that “[w]e’re going to have to fight” every day until election

• Savage: “Why should a welfare recipient have the right to vote? They’re only gonna vote themselves a raise”

• In falsely accusing Obama, Fox News’ Brown misrepresented reason McCain gave for initially opposing Bush tax cuts

• LA Times reported that McCain “has not budged” from balance budget pledge but didn’t report that his chief economic policy adviser has

• Wash. Times reported McCain claim about Obama’s response to Lewis statement without reporting what Obama actually said

• Wash. Post cropped Obama’s “we’ve got a righteous wind at our backs” remark to exclude “but we’re going to have to work”

• Hannity falsely claimed Obama “said” he is “going to … cut tens of billions of dollars in our military”

U.S. ranks 36th on press freedom list. (Think Progress)
Reporters Without Borders today released its annual Press Freedom Index. Despite purporting “to be a beacon for the rest of the world” for human rights protections and freedom of thought, the U.S. has been ranked 36 out of 173 countries — a spot also shared by Bosnia and Herzegovina. Iceland ranked number one in press freedom, with Ghana, Slovenia, Trinidad and Tobago, Surinam, and Jamaica also ranking higher than the U.S. The report singled out “wars carried out in the name of the fight against terrorism” as a cause for the steep decline in press freedoms around the world.

AP Backs Down On Controversial Rate Plan: Cuts Rates, Gives Members All AP Text, Halts ’09 Increases (Paid Content)
In a major turnabout, the Associated Press has just reversed course on its controversial rate plan following a board meeting today. The co-op, facing defections from members large and small, will cut member assessments by another $9 million next year, for a total of nearly $30 million—and will start an examination of its member structure that could result in a complete overhaul. The board voted to issue a moratorium for the papers—a minority of AP members—facing cost increases next year and unwound a provision of the new plans that would have made some AP text content, including enterprise, columns and some sports and entertainment features, premium. AP Rate reductions will be considered for AP Broadcast members as well.

Editors React To AP Rate Cut: ‘A Good Starting Point’ Or ‘This Changes Nothing’ (Paid Content)
The Associated Press’ decision to revise its controversial member pricing plan received a mixed reaction from editors at newspapers that have submitted notices asking to exit the fold in two years. Editors appear keen to listen, but no one is willing to say this is a mind-changer. Still, the papers have achieved their first goal: getting the AP to take their concerns seriously and getting a break on their membership fees. And it’s worth pointing out that the cancellation notices only represent a fraction of the over 1,500 AP members.

Bono to Write Op-Eds for NYT
New York Times editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal has announced his first acquisition for the paper’s Op-Ed pages for 2009: Bono. Yep, Bono. The activist-creator of Zoo TV will pen between six and ten pieces for the Grey Lady next year, Rosenthal told students Wednesday night at Columbia’s School of Journalism.

NYT Co. 3Q Profits Down 51%, Beats Estimates
The New York Times Co. reported Thursday that its third-quarter profit skidded 51 percent lower but still beat Wall Street estimates as the newspaper industry continues to suffer from advertising reductions accelerated by a worsening economy. Early numbers from the current quarter indicate that slow ad sales at the Times newspaper and other properties are likely to continue.

Moody’s May Cut New York Times Into Junk Territory
Moody’s Investors Service said on Thursday it may cut its ratings on New York Times Co. into junk territory, citing concerns about continuing revenue declines and risks associated with refinancing its debt. The New York Times posted a quarterly loss from continuing operations on Thursday and said advertising revenue at its news media group dropped 16 percent for the quarter.

Hearst Heiress Bashes Family Biz
Lydia Hearst is trashing her own family’s media empire for continuing to live large during the financial meltdown. “Hearst Corporation, which my family owns, continues to host parties even as it folds magazines like CosmoGirl,” the heiress writes. “It seems excessive. … At least Hearst recently cancelled the company Christmas bash. It’s time to work through this crisis, not party through it.”

Slowing Fast Company?
While layoffs and hiring freezes are the topic du jour at media companies across New York City, Mansueto Ventures remains a bright spot in the industry. According to PIB, Fast Company sold roughly $29 million in ad pages between January and September, a change of 37.3% over last year. Another Mansueto title, Inc., sold roughly $64 million in ad pages, a change of 10% over last year.

‘Major’ Layoffs at Time Inc.’s Southern Progress Magazines
Layoffs one tipster calls “major” have hit Southern Progress Corporation, the Time Inc. subsidiary that publishes Southern Living, Cooking Light, and Coastal Living, among others. A Southern Progress spokeswoman said, “Of course we’re sad to be losing good people. It was an unfortunate but necessary decision based on challenging economic conditions in our industry.”

Al Primo’s Eyewitness Revolution
James Brady: In 1968, a buccaneering young TV news director out of Pittsburgh via Philadelphia came to New York, and within six months was violently shaking the evening news show of the city’s local WABC, introducing a startling new format, firing people, hiring a bunch of talented kids, and launching what he called Eyewitness News. Local TV has never been quite the same.

In Downturn, Publishers Go ‘Beyond the Page’
Magazine publishers across the industry are struggling to build — even maintain — print advertising pages. According to Publishers Information Bureau’s third quarter report, ad pages fell 12.9 percent for the quarter, and were down 9.5 percent year-to-date over the same period in 2007. However, some publishers managed to grow print pages and revenue — many by double digits

Google’s New Trick For Getting People To Sit Through Its Video Ads? Biometrics (Paid Content)
It’s not hard to find people who will say that video ads are annoying, but marketers want to know just how annoying they really are. Or, as they might put, at what point viewers get so irritated they turn them off. Leah Spalding, ad research manager for Google, tells Mediaweek that the search giant plans to use biometrics—which can involve attaching sensors on testers’ heads, pupil dilation and skin response and is typically used to test individuals for conditions like Attention Deficit Disorder— to go beyond click-through rates as a way to determine the value of its InVideo Ads, which are served on YouTube.

Gmail for Mobile Gets Offline Support (Mashable)
Gmail’s mobile application is getting a useful upgrade today. You can now compose and send emails when in a low/no coverage area and have them automatically delivered in the background when you regain a signal… Along with the offline support, Gmail has added a few other features. Most notable is the ability to switch between multiple Gmail/Google Apps accounts from the Gmail Mobile interface. There are also shortcut keys for performing basic functions like jumping to the top or bottom of your mailbox, or undoing your last action.