Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Beef – Head Exploding Experience

Obama’s Kettle of Hawks (by Jeremy Scahill, Counterpunch)
We were told repeatedly during the campaign that Obama was right on the premiere foreign policy issue of our day – the Iraq war. “Six years ago, I stood up and opposed this war at a time when it was politically risky to do so,” Obama said in his September debate against John McCain. “Senator McCain and President Bush had a very different judgment.” What does it say that, with 130 members of the House and 23 in the Senate who voted against the war, Obama chooses to hire Democrats who made the same judgement as Bush and McCain?…

Obama’s starry-eyed defenders have tried to downplay the importance of his cabinet selections, saying Obama will call the shots, but the ruling elite in this country see it for what it is. Karl Rove, “Bush’s Brain”, called Obama’s cabinet selections, “reassuring”, which itself is disconcerting, but neoconservative leader and former McCain campaign staffer Max Boot summed it up best. “I am gobsmacked by these appointments, most of which could just as easily have come from a President McCain,” Boot wrote.
Jeremy, you were taken in.  In his 2002 supposedly anti-war speech, Obama said he was against “dumb” wars, but he didn’t say he thought attacking Iraq would constitute a dumb war.  He didn’t say that if he were a U.S. senator at the time, instead of just a lowly state senator, he would vote against any authorization that might, by the wildest stretch of even Dick Cheney’s imagination, lead to war with Iraq.  And his war votes as a member of the Senate were exactly the same as Hillary’s.  But Hillary, nevertheless, was the warmonger and Obama the peacenik.  These imaginings once again prove my new theory of life: Most of the people WANT TO BE FOOLED most of the time.

A New Clinical Syndrome: PEBS! (by Arthur Silber at The Power of Narrative)
For you non-clinical types, that would be: Progressive Exploding Brain Syndrome. There’s only one cure for it: you have to think! Hahaha. That’s like no cure at all! I’m such a meanie. I’m just piling on. You betcha! Being confronted with monumental self-delusion and stupidity on an unprecedented scale brings out the worst in me. But I admit it, ‘cuz I’m an honest son of a bitch. More than I can say for certain other people. But here’s some good news. You may have voted for Obama — but you’re getting the McCain Cabinet! Is that still being mean? Okie dokie.

Howls from the Progressive Wilderness (by dakinikat at The Confluence)
I don’t find it the least bit odd that the criticism of the newly appointed Obama team isn’t coming from Republicans.  Every Republican talking head from Karl Rove on down has been talking about the wondrous Team Obama.  These appointments were evident back in the primary days.  The Wall Street money was going to the Obama campaign from the very beginning. Where were you all when I was going on about Jason Furman and Austan Goolsbee?… I remember the entire gang at FDL trying to roast me over an open flame when I kept saying you’re listening to campaign rhetoric and not watching the greater game…  It seems to me they were much more in love with the idea of a black progressive president on the mirror’s side of wonderland.

Will Obama Stay the Course? (by Robert Scheer)
[I]t all does hang on him. Yes, him. Obama. The man. The superstar, and not that supporting cast of retreads from a failed past that have popped up in his administration in the making. Now that we have the list of his top economic and foreign policy picks – mostly a collection of folks who wouldn’t know change if it slapped them upside the head – we’ve got to hope that it’s Obama who is using them, and not the other way around… The problem with Obama’s national security team is not that he has picked hawks who he cannot control; they are all professionals, who took the job expecting to go along with his game plan. The danger here, as with his economic advisers, is only that Obama may stop being Obama, the agent of change who electrified a nation.
You, too, were taken in, Robert. Obama was never an agent of change.  Never has been, never said he would be.  He just said the word “change”, never mentioning WHAT he would change or HOW he would bring it about.  Would you sign up for an insurance policy with that little information?  Buy a house or a car?  I certainly HOPE not.

FDR’s bold brain trust versus Obama’s timid wonks (by Steve Fraser, Salon)
Roosevelt came into office with a brain trust ready to enact change. Are Obama’s brainiacs up to that task — or are they too beholden to the Clintonian, neoliberal past?

Obama Gets High Marks for Transition (Political Wire)
President-elect Obama “is riding a wave of good feeling toward him and his key Cabinet appointments, a USA Today/Gallup Poll finds — positive attitudes that may give him some breathing room for tough decisions ahead… Soaring ratings for the way he has handled the presidential transition so far — more than three of four Americans express approval — contrast with a downbeat national mood over the economy.”

Obama Takes Fire from the Left (by Clarence Page)
Obama probably could do without the unusual praise that came from Rush Limbaugh in an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters. The nattering nabob of right-wing talk radio called Obama’s selection of Clinton “a brilliant stroke” — if only because it discourages her from mounting her own possible White House challenge in 2012… The Clinton appointment is a big surprise, although it probably is not nearly as big a problem as its many critics suspect… [B]y making the job conditional on a new public transparency for Bill Clinton’s international speech making and philanthropy, Obama reduces nagging questions about the former president’s international deal making. It also helps the Clintons to make their argument that they didn’t have all that much to hide in the first place. That’s a change I hope we all can believe in.

Clinton’s India ties may complicate Obama policy
WASHINGTON – Secretary of State-nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton’s close ties with India forged during her years as a U.S. senator and presidential candidate could complicate diplomatic perceptions of her ability to serve as a neutral broker between India and its nuclear neighbor, Pakistan.
It’s always SOMETHING.

Campbell Brown: Obama’s ‘This Is Fun For The Press’ Remark Wrong (by Jason Linkins at the Huffington Post, thanks to Susie at Suburban Guerilla)
[Monday] night, CNN’s Campbell Brown criticized President-elect Barack Obama for glibly dismissing questions on the way his relationship with Senator Hillary Clinton shifted from critical to collaborative as the press “having fun” slicing and dicing old campaign rhetoric. Brown objected to Obama’s comments, saying, “As annoying how you may have found it, it is a fair question.” She makes a good point! Sure, in covering the long, drawn out Clinton appointment to the State Department, the press has had some annoying tendencies. You don’t have to venture too far to find a pundit who’ll take it as an article of faith that Clinton’s appointment is a disaster, and that she will be doing nothing but goin’ rogue and undermining Obama’s agenda every chance she gets. But yesterday’s question from Peter Baker wasn’t mean-spirited or off-base. It’s reasonable to inquire into how Obama and Clinton got square with one another after a campaign that featured some sharp critiques of the New York Senator’s foreign policy bona fides.

Liar, Liar!! Barack Obama’s Secretary of War (by Bruce Dixon at the Black Agenda Report)
Some Obama supporters are wringing their hands over the selection of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.  Hillary was, after all, a consistent supporter of the disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and much more.  But Barack Obama’s selection of Reaganite and Bush family operative Robert Gates to continue as Secretary of War speaks volumes about the new administration’s willingness to continue pulling the same wool over the public’s eyes as Democratic and Republican administrations past have done.  Is this the “change” tens of millions voted for?

Gates: Military looks to accelerate Iraq pullout
WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates signaled a willingness Tuesday to forge ahead with two key priorities for the incoming Obama administration: accelerating the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and shutting down the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

Trusted Obama adviser Susan Rice to be UN envoy
UNITED NATIONS – Susan Rice, the first African-American woman named as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, brings to the job a lifetime’s work on international issues, an insider’s knowledge of the White House and State Department, and close ties to President-elect Barack Obama.

Susan Rice is Bad News for Africa (by Glen Ford at the Black Agenda Report)
Barack Obama’s nominee for United Nations Ambassador is a very aggressive woman – militarily speaking. Susan Rice is “more bellicose” than George Bush when it comes to threatening Sudan over the plight of the people of Darfur, “while simultaneously backing a savage U.S.-Ethiopian assault that causes an even larger humanitarian calamity in Somalia.” One is forced to conclude that “Susan Rice’s brand of ‘humanitarian intervention’ is a farce, a pretext to justify military aggression under the guise of preventing human suffering.”

Obama AG pick defended Guantanamo policy (AP)
WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to become the next attorney general, Eric Holder, once defended the Bush administration’s arguments for holding detainees at Guantanamo Bay, a position that runs counter to his more recent comments — and to a signature policy of the incoming administration.

Eric Holder, Jack Quinn and the Rich pardon (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
[W]hy doesn’t Holder’s involvement in the Rich pardon make him unqualified to be Attorney General? Aside from the vital fact that there are many other factors that must be taken into account — principally, the likelihood that Holder can and will reverse the extreme Justice Department abuses of the last eight years, which I think is relatively high (though he should renounce his disturbing 2002 pro-Rumsfeld statements about Guantanamo and the Geneva Conventions) — it’s because none of these sins are unique to Holder. This is vintage Washington. This is the filthy, venal sleaze on which both political parties feed. It’s what fuels how the Beltway operates. It’s the leading cause of why it functions as a corrupt, dysfunctional, bloated, incestuous royal court. That’s what Washington is. For that reason, it would be next to impossible to find people who have been a part of this system who haven’t been infected — or more accurately: who haven’t infected themselves — at one point or another with this disease.

ACS Applauds Selection of Eric Holder for Attorney General (American Constitution Society)
ACS yesterday congratulated Eric H. Holder Jr., on being tapped by President-elect Barack Obama to serve as the nation’s next attorney general. Paul M. Smith, chair of the ACS Board of Directors and a partner at Jenner & Block, lauded the selection of Holder, a member of the ACS Board of Directors and former U.S. Deputy Attorney General. Smith said, “Eric Holder is a man of integrity and vision, who will restore the confidence that Americans should have in their Department of Justice. He will bring a renewed commitment to fulfilling the Department’s mission and mandate to provide justice and equal treatment to all Americans.”

Napolitano a Follower, Not a Leader (by Ruben Navarrette)
Dante insisted that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, preserve their neutrality. Not long ago, in a city called Chandler, Arizonans experienced a moral crisis. And Janet Napolitano did everything she could to stay out of the fray.
And that is exactly my concern about Barack Obama.  It is how he behaved as my senator.  Why should I expect anything different from him as president?

Judge sets sentencing date for Tony Rezko (Chicago Sun-Times)
In August, Tony Rezko was leaving his jail cell, meeting with prosecutors and quietly giving them information. By October, lawyers were asking to indefinitely put off his sentencing. But Tuesday U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve, acting at Rezko’s request, said she would sentence him in less than six weeks. The onetime political fund-raiser and gubernatorial adviser from Wilmette, convicted of wide-ranging corruption involving state deals, now faces sentencing Jan. 6. Prosecutors didn’t object to the fast track… Typically, a witness cooperating with prosecutors wouldn’t be sentenced until after his cooperation — which usually involves testimony before a grand jury or at trial — was complete. But sources said Rezko has grown frustrated with his current accommodations — solitary confinement — and the prosecution’s apparent unwillingness to push for his release from prison on electronic monitoring.

Dig down deep. The President-Select needs your money — again (by Procrustes at the Real Barach Obama)
RBO almost posted this bit of news in today’s News & Views, but it’s worthy of top billing — Kenneth P. Vogel at The Politico reports that Obama is using his newly named national security team to raise more cash: “Like Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state? Then send me some cash, Barack Obama is telling supporters. Obama is using the rollout of his national security team to raise money for his transition — hitting up his e-mail list this morning with a blast touting the officials announced Monday and warning of the dangers ahead…” Should you think this is some innovative twist on Obama fundraising, perish the thought. Vogel reports that Obama did exactly the same thing last week after announcing his economic policy team.
And today, he’ll go after the Latinos, after nominating Bill Richardson for Commerce Secretary.

Chambliss wins US Senate runoff in Georgia
AP – Relieved Republicans celebrated a resounding win in Georgia’s hard-fought U.S. Senate runoff, a victory that denied Democrats a filibuster-proof majority and cemented the state’s reputation as a GOP bastion.
Aw, shucks!  The Democrats won’t be able to implement ANY progressive policies.  They’re so awfully sorry.

OH NO! Canada’s going to be run by socialists, separatists, and uh, Liberals(?) (by LostClown at Corrente)
BRING IT HARPER. BRING IT! To those of you who don’t pay attention to Canadian politics, you really should right now. This is one of the most interesting times in Canadian political history. Right now 2 of the national parties, the NDP and the Liberal Party have forged a coalition deal that would, when the confidence vote fails (it’s only a matter of time Harper, just deal with it) create a coalition government led by the Liberals… The Bloc Québécois is not formally part of this coalition, but has pledged their support for the next 18 months… Not only that, but Green Party leader Elizabeth May has also lent her support to the coalition. That means that 4 of the 5 major parties are UNITED behind this effort. And they have all made concessions. (As one does when one makes alliances like this. And also as one does to actually get shit done in government.)
Click through to read some of the issues the coalition members have agreed to.  This could be an example for the left of center groups in the U.S.  If we stood out and stood up, we could start to release the stranglehold that the Republicrat Party has on the country.

Broader medical refusal rule may go far beyond abortion
The Bush administration plans a new ‘right of conscience’ rule that would allow more workers to refuse more procedures. Critics say it could apply to artificial insemination and birth control.

“Big News Orgs Help Bush Whitewash History Of Iraq War” (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Writes Greg Sargent and TPM, and he’s right. He’s referring to Bush’s recent, semi-exit interview where he claimed the biggest regret of his presidency was the failure of the intel prior to the Iraq war. That bout of “candor” is what’s made the headlines. But as Sargent points out, Bush’s version of events is a whitewash of what actually happened, but the press isn’t calling him out on his so-called candor: “Not a single one of their reports on the interview that we can find bothered to tell readers that there was plenty of good intel — ignored by the Bush administration — saying that Saddam wasn’t the threat Bush was claiming he was. Nor did any of them bother mentioning that the weapons inspectors in Iraq were saying the same thing — something that also went ignored.”

Karl Rove orchestrating the ‘Bush Legacy project.’ (Think Progress)
President Bush’s interview with ABC’s Charlie Gibson this week was the “first of several planned ‘exit interviews.’” According to White House press secretary Dana Perino, Bush’s next interview will be with ABC’s Cynthia McFadden on the topic of the faith-based initiative. It will air on Nightline next week. If the first interview with Gibson provides any clue as to what we can expect from these interviews, Bush will paint a rosy picture of his legacy and “refuse to take responsibility for a single thing that went wrong on his watch.” Heather at Crooks and Liars catches the Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes revealing that Karl Rove is currently orchestrating the Bush legacy project.
You simply cannot make this stuff up.  How fitting is it that the man who used propaganda to sell Bush’s noxious initiatives while in office should be the one hired to use propaganda to try to prop up Bush’s noxious legacy?  And speaking of legacies, we’re about to have all our fears about the Nixon administration confirmed.  See below.

Commentary: Workplace poisoned by neoptism (McClatchy)
Strong personal ties during the holidays can be a joy. In the workplace, they’re a killer. Exhibit A: The California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. The state auditor last week said that nearly half of the employees surveyed there believed that nepotism has compromised hiring and promotions. “It completely destroys morale,” said an appeals board employee who responded to the survey. “This practice has been going on so long that we are now into the second and third generation of relatives.”
Have I told you lately that I HATE nepotism?  The self-styled aristocracy is destroying this country.  It’s they who gave us George Bush.  And it’s they who are giving us Barack Obama.

Tapes, records from Nixon years to be made public
WASHINGTON – The government is opening another window into Richard Nixon’s shattered presidency.

Memo dramatizes White House dilemma over Vietnam
WASHINGTON – Tens of thousands of newly disclosed documents from the Nixon years show how the White House wrestled with public unrest over the war in Vietnam.
They didn’t wrestle with the problem of continuing to fight a war unnecessarily in the Nixon administration.  They wrestled with how to manipulate the perception of that war.

Newly released Nixon-era memo shows aides dishing dirt on critics (AP)
In Richard Nixon’s time, all the president’s men fretted about threats on every front: disquiet out on the streets, disloyalty inside the administration and trouble from political opponents who had to be discredited at any cost.
Sounds almost quaint, compared to the Bush administration, doesn’t it?

Conservative lawmakers bring God to Capitol Visitor Center (McClatchy)
WASHINGTON — Protests by conservative lawmakers led architects to promise to add “In God We Trust” as the national motto and to engrave the Pledge of Allegiance in the new $621 million Capitol Visitor Center.

Blacks as Conservative as Republicans on Some Moral Issues (Gallup)
PRINCETON, NJ — Only 31% of black Democrats in America say homosexual relations are morally acceptable, roughly the same as the 30% of Republicans who agree, while very much different from the 61% of nonblack Democrats who say homosexual relations are morally acceptable. The fact that black Democrats are much closer to Republicans’ than to nonblack Democrats’ position on this issue is noteworthy given that blacks overwhelmingly identify themselves as Democrats… The issue of black views on family-related moral issues is also noteworthy given the recent vote in California to approve Proposition 8, which effectively amended the state constitution to define legal marriage as only between a man and a woman. Exit-poll results after that vote on Nov. 4 suggested that black California voters had overwhelmingly voted in favor of the amendment, while overall, Democrats in California overwhelmingly voted against it — essentially confirming the national attitude structure apparent from Gallup’s analysis.

VA GOP chair refuses to apologize for comparing Obama to bin Laden. (Think Progress)
In October, Virginia GOP Chairman Jeff Frederick compared Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden, telling an audience that they “both have friends that bombed the Pentagon.” Before a panel of Associated Press newspaper editors Tuesday, Frederick said his comment was stupid but he refused to apologize for it. He called it “a stupid joke” but also added that “what I said was true.”

The White, White House Press Corps (by Sam Fulwood III at the Black Agenda Report)
Black White House reporters are dwindling, even as the nation’s first Black president prepares to move in. “We are going to integrate the Oval Office long before we integrate the media that covers the president,” said a veteran African American journalist. Jesse Jackson’s two bids for the White House a generation ago resulted in a respectable Black press contingent on the campaign trail. Might Barack Obama insist on a larger Black press presence at the White House? Said one Black media analyst: “He’s not going to be that kind of president.”

NBC News blog visitors want Williams to address McCaffrey controversy
“You are seriously harming your credibility by avoiding addressing this, and that of NBC News,” writes one Daily Nightly visitor. Another says: “Your failure, last night, to even acknowledge the prominent NYT article about NBC’s relationship with Barry McCaffrey was cowardly and calls your credibility into serious question.”

Novak: ‘I Don’t Think I Hurt’ Valerie Plame And I Would Out Her Again Because The Left ‘Tried To Ruin Me’ (Think Progress)
During a recent interview with the National Ledger, conservative columnist Robert Novak was asked if he would reveal Valerie Plame Wilson’s secret CIA identity if he could go back and do it all over again. Novak noted that he has previously said he “should have ignored” what he had been told about Plame, but he now claims he is “much less ambivalent“: “NOVAK: I’d go full speed ahead because of the hateful and beastly way in which my left-wing critics in the press and Congress tried to make a political affair out of it and tried to ruin me. My response now is this: The hell with you. They didn’t ruin me. I have my faith, my family, and a good life. A lot of people love me — or like me. So they failed. I would do the same thing over again because I don’t think I hurt Valerie Plame whatsoever.”

David Gregory, why all the drama? (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Word leaked this week that NBC was going to tap David Gregory for the coveted moderator position at Meet the Press. But now we learn that “the network has not finalized the deal,” that “negotiations” are still on-going, and that the leak may be “potential impediment to concluding the deal.” Gregory might even have a offer from GMA! Is any of this unusual? Not really. The media elite sometimes negotiation their seven-figure deals through the press. But it sure is funny to watch a journalist at the center of this type of story considering that when word recently leaked a certain junior senator from New York was up for the SoS job, that negotiations were ongoing and that the leak may have been premature, the press howled about how difficult Hillary Clinton was being and how she always brought so much “drama” with her. So what’s Gregory’s excuse?  

The Daily Show: MSNBC Is the New Fox News
Clearly Fox News won’t be the mouthpiece for the Obama administration, so MSNBC steps in. In order to do that though, they need foot soldiers.

Lifetime poll: Women believe Clinton & Palin made it more likely others will follow (On Politics, USA Today)
Lifetime Television’s Every Woman Counts campaign will report Wednesday morning that its latest polling shows most American women believe Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sarah Palin this year made it more likely that other women will follow in their footsteps. The national survey of 600 women, done by Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway and Democratic pollster Celinda Lake for the TV network, also shows that most respondents think Clinton (who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination) and GOP vice presidential nominee Palin moved forward the cause of electing women to positions of power.
Take THAT, sexist media jerks!

Prominent Democrat unveils health-care plan (MarketWatch)
Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee releases framework for health-care reform to guarantee coverage for all. Max Baucus of Montana, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, released an 89-page “Call to Action” that he said represents his vision for reform. The plan would:
• Create a new health insurance exchange that would guarantee coverage for individuals and small businesses. They could compare prices between private health plans and a new public option similar to Medicare and use a standardized form to enroll in coverage. Some individuals and small businesses would be eligible for subsidies to offset the cost.
• Allow people age 55 to 64 to buy in to Medicare immediately instead of having to wait for their 65th birthday to be eligible.
Click through for more.  Don’t know why he’s weighing in before Kennedy is finished with HIS plan, but Kennedy will get the sympathy vote.

There is Money for Health Care Reform (by Dean Baker)
The Washington Post decided to do he said/she said reporting on health care rather than inform its readers. It told readers that Senator Max Baucus, the chair of the finance committee, wants to push for health care reform, even though it will initially cost money. It then comments that his Republican counterpart, Senator Charles Grassley, says that the government doesn’t have this money. In fact, the government is planning a large-scale stimulus package where it is looking for areas in which it can usefully spend money. If health care reform would require an initial increase in spending, before subsequent savings could be achieved, then it would be an obvious target for the stimulus. The Post should have noted that Grassley’s claim about the lack of money for such an investment is contradicted by the vast majority of economists from both political parties.

UnitedHealth Group, WTF? (by DCblogger at Corrente)
UnitedHealth to Insure the Right to Insurance “For these economically uncertain times, the UnitedHealth Group has a first-of-its-kind product: the right to buy an individual health policy at some point in the future even if you become sick. Yes, you read that right, they want to insure your future prospect to buy insurance.
To me, that’s the best indication I’ve seen that there will definitely be radical change in health care in the U.S.  They believe they’ll never have to pay out.

Big Three survival bailout requests rise to $34B (AP)
Humbled and fighting for survival, Detroit’s once-mighty automakers appealed to Congress with a retooled case for a bailout as large as $34 billion Tuesday, pledging to slash workers, car lines and executive pay in return for a federal lifeline.
See?  Don’t give them what they want the first time, and they come back asking for more.  Just like the right wing.

Corporate Economists Tell Lies for a Living (by Glen Ford at the Black Agenda Report)
Corporate-oriented members of the economics profession are “shills and boosters” for the (one-time) Titans of finance capital “The economists most cited in corporate media are shills and boosters for capitalism in general, and Wall Street in particular.

Obama Revitalizes Disaster Capitalism: The Shock Doctrine Receives a Make-Over (by Carolyn Baker at the Black Agenda Report)
The president-elect’s “adherence to neoliberal, globalist policies couched in the rhetoric of ‘change’ but offering no substantial departure from the ultimate strategies of imperialism, corporate capitalist supremacy, and almost total ignorance (or ignore-ance) of the energy and environmental suicide perpetuated by endless growth.” Yes, it’s that bad. Obama economics advisor Larry Summers “has embraced “the three ‘ations’… privatization, stabilization, and liberalization.” Obama trusts the advice of someone who has been “preaching the [shock capitalism] doctrine.”

Governors urge Obama to help the poor, boost economy (Reuters)
U.S. state governors urged President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday to pump money into infrastructure and help support the poor as a sinking economy hits state budgets hard.

Middle class has been shrinking for decades (by Tom Eblen, Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader)
Well, the economists finally made it official this week: We’re in a recession. And, guess what? They said it began a year ago. If you’re like the three-fourths of Americans who consider themselves to be “middle class,” this probably didn’t come as a surprise. Many people feel as if they’ve been losing economic ground for years. That’s because many of them have been…

[T]he pain being felt in this recession has brought new attention to a trend economists have been watching for years: The rich really are getting richer, the poor really are getting poorer and the middle class has been shrinking steadily since the late 1970s. It’s a reality that government policy-makers and business leaders must deal with as they try to pull us out of this mess. The issue could be especially important for Kentuckians, who lag behind their fellow Americans in just about every measure of economic well-being. 

Rogoff: Embracing Inflation (by Mark Thoma at Economist’s View)
Kenneth Rogoff says inflation is the answer: “…It is time for the world’s major central banks to acknowledge that a sudden burst of moderate inflation would be extremely helpful in unwinding today’s epic debt morass.”
Trouble is, inflation penalizes savers.  They tell us we should save for retirement, and then they inflate away our savings.  It’s always the same story: Heads they win, tails we lose.  Always.

The Neo-Yeltsin Administration? The Obama Letdown (by Michael Hudson at the Black Agenda Report)
Although president-elect Barack Obama ran on a promise of “change”, explains economist Michael Hudson, one has to look awfully hard and more than a little wishfully at his economic recovery team to see much of it.  The bailout, which the new administration owns as much as the old one, is calculated to bail out wealthy investors and leave untouched the housing and debt crises of tens of millions of American families.  The bailout may also prevent the new administration’s proposed investments in jobs and infrastructure.

Media Matters for America headlines

Wash. Times continues to publish false claim that Big Three autoworkers earn average of $70 per hour or more in wages and benefits

Wash. Times debunked own claims that Obama “hijack[ed]” and “borrowed” Republican language about role of states

Hitchens makes another unsupported accusation against Hillary Clinton on Hardball – this time, that she “got” her husband to visit Pakistan “in return for” campaign funds

Rove repeatedly misstates Obama’s vote increase over Gore in 2000 to downplay victory

Fox’s Gallagher latest to falsely claim Big Three autoworkers make $73 per hour

Hannity ignored Coleman ballot challenges to accuse Franken of “stealing an election”

True to form, NBC aired clip of McCaffrey discussing “Afghan security forces” without disclosing ties to company training them

MSNBC’s Brewer cited Drudge-promoted Daily Mail story on Obama’s $30K ring, didn’t mention Obama denial

Wash. Times’ Pruden: Clinton “suggested she has the equipment to be the manliest member” of Obama administration

Mumbai: Deadly Media Euphemisms
The international media have already morphed the horrific slaughter in Mumbai into the murky realm of euphemism and apologetics.

Lack of Foreign Resources Plagued U.S. Mumbai Coverage (by Marisa Guthrie, Broadcasting and Cable)
As terrorists descended last week on Mumbai, the financial and entertainment capital of India, the staffs at American TV news organizations scrambled to mobilize resources and personnel, underscoring the effects of deep cuts in foreign news operations… TV news reports lacked precise numbers of targets, attackers, casualties and hostages. Some of the confusion could be attributed to misinformation—or none at all—from Indian authorities overwhelmed by the horrifically coordinated attacks. But the absence of boots-on-the-ground reporting was also apparent.

Mumbai attackers went high-tech
The heavily armed attackers who set out for Mumbai by sea last week navigated with Global Positioning System equipment, according to Indian investigators and police. They carried BlackBerrys, CDs holding high-resolution satellite images like those used for Google Earth maps, and multiple cellphones with switchable SIM cards that would be hard to track. They spoke by satellite telephone. And as TV channels broadcast live coverage of the young men carrying out the terrorist attack, TVs were turned on in the hotel rooms occupied by the gunmen, eyewitnesses recalled. The flood of information about the attacks — on TV, cellphones, the Internet — seized the attention of a terrified city, but it also was exploited by the assailants to direct their fire and cover their origins. This is terrorism in the digital age.

A Premier With a Hand in TV News Sues His Journalist Critics
ROME — Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi governs with a solid majority, oversees RAI, the state broadcaster, and owns the country’s leading private television networks. So why, with all those means at his disposal, does the prime minister continue to respond to his journalist critics not on television or in the press but instead with lawsuits?

Hey FCC, let parents be the Internet censors (by David Lazarus, Los Angeles Times)
Kevin Martin, the agency’s chief, wants to provide free wireless access, but he wants it filtered for porn and other objectionable material. That’s not the job of the government.

Colo. man charged with criminal libel over Craigslist posts
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – A man accused of making unflattering online comments about his former lover and her attorney on Craigslist has been charged with two counts of criminal libel. “It’s not a charge you see a lot of,” Larimer County District Attorney Larry Abrahamson said of the 1800s-era state law that can put people in jail for the content of their speech or writing. Abrahamson charged J.P. Weichel, 40, of Loveland, in October over posts he allegedly made on Craigslist’s “Rants and Rave” section.

Germany’s Largest Paper Seeks to Recruit Legion of Citizen Journalists
BERLIN Germany’s largest newspaper is looking to expand — and not by hiring new reporters. Bild has partnered with discount grocery chain Lidl to sell a basic-function digital camera in a bid to recruit a legion of citizen journalists to contribute images to its coverage. “We can’t cover everything,” said Michael Paustian, a managing editor for the newspaper with a circulation of 3.3 million copies Monday through Saturday. “We think it is an advance for journalism.”

Transparent Corrections: Why Even False Stories Shouldn’t Just “Disappear” (by Amy Gahran at Poynter Online)
On Nov. 29, the story ran in Wales Online: “We thought we were safe… then CNN stepped in!” said the headline. As of this writing you can still find it listed in the site’s own search results — but the story itself is no longer available on Wales Online… Apparently, this particular claim of media irresponsibility wasn’t true. But right now, the key media organizations involved are acting as if this never happened — to varying degrees — by making information about this story-gone-awry hard to find. This is likely to confuse or frustrate Internet users, bloggers, and social media users who try to track down the truth, thus encouraging the spread of misinformation.

Synergy: NY Post Runs WSJ Copy
News Corp. synergy appears to be increasing between The Wall Street Journal and New York Post, as a story on beleaguered Citigroup ran in both newspapers on Nov. 29. Journal staffers say there’s uneasiness in the newsroom over the decision. If this becomes common practice,Journal stories could be published in the tabloid with Post headlines and graphics, or vice versa.

‘Several Cities’ Could Have No Daily Paper As Soon As 2010, Credit Rater Says
Newspaper and newspaper groups are likely to default on their debt and go out of business next year — leaving “several cities” with no daily newspaper at all, Fitch Ratings says in a report on media released Wednesday.

Politico Network Signs More Than 60 Newspapers
“The more people who hear about it, the more they come to us,” said Jim Vandehei, Politico’s executive editor. “We have government news, analysis, and they get the content they like and share the revenue.” Among the 67 newspapers are all 27 Advance Publications dailies, including The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., and The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.

Cox Newspapers to close DC bureau in April
Cox’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Dayton Daily News will manage their own Washington and international newsgathering independently following the national bureau’s closing next year, says a news release.

ProJo declines to run departing columnist’s criticism of newspapers
David A. Mittell Jr., who was with the Providence Journal for 11 years, says his final column was spiked. He complains in the piece that “newspapers have stopped believing in their own product. As railroads did, they are diminishing the quality of their product in a self-fulfilling prophecy that for some is going to assure their doom.”

More layoffs coming at Gannett newspapers
The cuts are being tracked by Gannett Blog readers and some Gannett papers.

Laid Off Recently? Come to Tina, Darling!
These days, Tina Brown’s aggregator site The Daily Beast creates as many as 10 original stories a day, and the Beast’s roster of writers reads a bit like a list of the recently laid off. Recent fallen Radar-troops like Choire Sicha, Neel Shah and Adam Raymond all have bylines. Maer Roshan himself was lucky enough to find himself a job there as editor at large.

Claim: Real estate deal used to prop up NY Observer
A former top Kushner executive says in a lawsuit that one of the biggest commercial real estate deals in New York history was used by developer Charles Kushner to funnel more than $5 million into the money-losing New York Observer. A Kushner spokesman denies the allegation.

Osnos: “The odds are heavily against Zell succeeding”
If Tribune goes down, Sam Zell will still be very rich, but he’ll have presided over the evisceration of some of our best newspapers, says Peter Osnos. “In his session with [Portfolio editor Joanne] Lipman, Zell singled out the New York Times: ‘If you want to be a charitable trust, be a charitable trust. If you don’t want to be a charitable trust, then you’ve got to focus on producing a return for investor’s capital.’ Fair enough. But what if you are a lousy business and a newspaper that is no longer much good at real newsgathering? Then, Sam Zell, you are nothing.”

NYT says closing distribution operations will cost up to $53 million
The New York Times Co. expects the planned closure of its New York-area distribution operations in January 2009 to cost $48 million to $53 million. After City & Suburban Delivery Systems Inc. is closed, the Times will be distributed to newsstand and retail outlets through third-party wholesalers and the company’s own drivers.

Big Shakeup at Random House
After months of speculation, Random House announced a sweeping reorganization of its publishing divisions, including the resignations of the heads of two of its largest groups.

Houghton Mifflin Publisher Resigns
Becky Saletan, publisher of the adult trade division, will leave next week in a sign of further unraveling at the publisher.

Woman’s Day Taps BlogTalkRadio For Online Radio Show (Paid Content)
Woman’s Day magazine is breaking into online radio with the official launch of RadioWD, a new station powered by BlogTalkRadio. The magazine’s editors host a different 30-minute show each day of the week, with topics ranging from fashion and recipes, to managing money—and readers can tune in live on the day of or catch archived episodes on their own time. Not bad for a publication that’s been around since 1938.

VP and Publisher Carlos Lamadrid said that’s precisely why Woman’s Day chose to launch an online radio show: to evolve and become “very interactive” like its reader base, and yet not err on the side of being too tech-oriented or trendy. “RadioWD is for the woman who’s at her desk at 12 every day having a salad,” he said. “Our content is inspirational—not aspirational—so she can open up her computer, listen to the show and get practical info on living well every day.” The format is also cost effective: Woman’s Day doesn’t have to pay for hosting or airtime, it just splits the station’s ad revenue with BlogTalkRadio. Available ad formats include pre-roll audio and video clips, banners and widgets.

National Geographic Discontinues Green Guide in Print
National Geographic’s Green Guide, which the National Geographic Society acquired in 2007 and relaunched as a general consumer quarterly in March, has been shuttered. A source close the magazine said the company is “discontinuing” the magazine but “may publish some print specials.” Instead, the focus will be on the Green Guide’s Web site, which launched in 2002.

Thanksgiving Winners: CBS, Barbara Walters and NBC’s Football
Rash Report: The Rest Were Left Reheating TV’s Leftovers

TV station’s Choose Your News feature is “pure gimmickry”
Little Rock’s KATV invites viewers to vote for the stories they want covered on the night’s newscast. “I’d choose the news that violent crime had just plumb stopped,” writes print journalist John Brummett. “I’d choose the news that cancer had been cured. Alas, though, news chooses us. It happens. We behold it.”

Critter Carols Could Be This Year’s Elf Yourself (Mashable)
Pet food company Purina has launched “Critter Carols,” a site allowing you to create an animated holiday greeting card using images of your own cats or dogs. The animals will then meow or bark to the tune of holiday classics like “Deck the Halls” or “Jingle Bells.” You can also dress your pet up with various items of clothing. When done, you can email it, post it to Facebook, or embed it on a webpage.

Conde Nast’s Flip Goes Flop: Teen Social Network To Be Shuttered (Paid Content)
When news came out that Conde Nast was launching its teen social media site Flip.com, back in 2006, Staci had a very pertinent question: “Can Conde Nast, which has been so good at matching demographics with ideas for print, create an online place appealing enough to catch and keep teen girls attention among so much competition?” Now, with the announcement that it is closing Flip.com, the answer seems to be no. The site will close down on Dec. 16, according to a note sent out to users, reported by FishbowlNY.

Yahoo Ties Up With CBS To Save Streaming Radio Service (Paid Content)
Yahoo has turned to CBS to help keep its LAUNCHcast streaming radio service alive. As part of the new partnership, CBS Radio will provide the player and handle the ad sales for LAUNCHcast, and various CBS stations will be available on Yahoo Music. Yahoo will also incorporate more radio content throughout its news and sports portals. It’s the latest move in Yahoo’s strategy to “completely open” its music operations to other services.

Web Marketing That Hopes to Learn What Attracts a Click
A new breed of companies specialize in creating thousands of versions of the same ad with different colors or type font, trying to determine what ad works for a specific audience.

Dell Cancels Back-Cover Ads on Magazines
PC Maker Looks to Optimize Online and Offline Media Mix

Broadway Gets ‘Hair’; ‘Hair’ Gets New Deal
The Broadway revival of “Hair” may serve as the basis for future deals between the Public Theater and commercial producers.

Need a Skywriter? Or Napkin Campaign? Call DoMedia
Ohio-Based Firm Pulls Alternative Media Buys Under One Roof