Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Warren’s church removes anti-gay statements from website. (Think Progress)
On Friday, AmericaBlog’s John Aravosis pointed out that the website for Rev. Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church explicitly said that “someone unwilling to repent for their homosexual lifestyle would not be accepted as a member at Saddleback”:

[Monday], however, Aravosis notes that the anti-gay language has been pulled from the website. View a Google cache of the original page here.

Barney Frank: ‘I’m suffering from post-partisan depression.’ (Think Progress)
On MSNBC [Monday] afternoon, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) repeated his criticism of President-elect Obama’s decision to invite Rick Warren to deliver the Inaugural invocation, calling Warren’s views on homosexuality “deeply offensive.” Frank said Obama “overestimates his ability” to “charm” conservative opponents to his side, and joked that he missed the days of partisanship: “…But I’ve worked frankly with Newt Gingrich, Tom Delay, and the current Republican leadership. … When [Obama] talks about being post partisan, having seen these people and knowing what they would do in that situation, I suffer from post partisan depression.”
Click through to watch the video.

Warren On? Party Off. (by Richard Cohen)
Not that he was planning to attend, but Barack Obama should know that my sister’s inauguration night party — the one for which she was preparing Obama Punch — has been canceled. The notice went out over the weekend, by e-mail and word of mouth, that Obama’s choice of Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation had simply ruined the party. Warren is anti-gay and my sister, not to put too fine a point on it, is not. She’s gay…

Warren is an important evangelical leader with whom, Obama said, “…We can disagree without being disagreeable and then focus on those things that we hold in common as Americans.” Sounds nice. But what we do not “hold in common” is the dehumanization of homosexuals. What we do not hold in common is the belief that gays are perverts who have chosen their sexual orientation on some sort of whim. What we do not hold in common is the exaltation of ignorance that has led and will lead to discrimination and violence.

Finally, what we do not hold in common is the categorization of a civil rights issue — the rights of gays to be treated equally — as some sort of cranky cultural difference. For that we need moral leadership, which, on this occasion, Obama has failed to provide. For some people, that’s nothing to celebrate. The party’s off.

Warren to be keynote speaker at MLK commemorative service on the day before inauguration. (Think Progress)
Rev. Rick Warren, who is President-elect’s controversial pick to give the invocation at his inauguration on Jan. 20, will be the keynote speaker at Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Commemorative Service at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church on the day before the Inauguration, Atlantic Progressive News reports. Before she passed away, King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, declared that gay marriage was a civil rights issue and denounced a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban it.

Obama Will Use Lincoln Bible (Political Wire)
President-elect Obama will take the oath of office using the same Bible upon which President Lincoln was sworn in at his first inauguration, according to the Inaugural Committee. Though there is no constitutional requirement for the use of a Bible during the swearing-in, Presidents have traditionally used Bibles for the ceremony, choosing a volume with personal or historical significance. President-elect Obama will be the first President sworn in using the Lincoln Bible since its initial use in 1861.
Would Lincoln have had a pro-slavery minister give the invocation at his inaugural?

Selling Influence or Perceived Entitlement: Which is More Shoddy? (by Pat Racimora at No Quarter)

Welcome to ‘Nepotism Nation‘ (by Froma Harrop)
In New York state, we are told that Caroline Kennedy is the favorite for Hillary Clinton’s soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat, and for the usual reasons of celebrity and money… On ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” Cokie Roberts explains that “her name and all that is going to work for the Democratic Party in New York, and that’s the calculation. … It’s not how great a senator she’s going to be.” And Stephanopoulos adds, “They want someone else on the ballot with that star power who can raise the money.”

Would someone please draw a dark line of distinction between what we call a scandal in Illinois and business as usual in New York? Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is accused of trying to sell a vacant Senate seat, while New York Gov. Paterson is expected to give a Senate seat to the woman whose family can raise lots of money for his benefit…

How many promising Democrats are being locked out of this dance? Makes Obama’s rise seem a total miracle.
Nope, not a miracle at all, Froma.  Obama managed to worm his way into the Chicago power structure, primarily by getting himself put into positions where he could hand out cash (e.g., via the Chicago Annenberg Challenge) or broker power (e.g., the Illinois Senate Health & Human Services Committee).  Oh, and Michelle’s father didn’t JUST work at the city water plant.  He was a Democratic precinct captain, which is no small deal in Chicago.  He was connected.  The Obamas plotted their rise quite carefully, and used each rung of the ladder as a means to climb to the next level.

And let’s not forget that Cokie Roberts’ own prominence is due to nepotism.  Her father was Hale Boggs, a New Orleans congressman (Speaker of the House, as a matter of fact) whose plane was lost in Alaska while campaigning for another member of the House.  Boggs’ seat was then taken over by his wife, Marie Corinne Morrison Claiborne “Lindy” Boggs, kin to former New Orleans mayor Chep Morrison and a member of the powerful Claiborne family, after whom a major New Orleans street is named.  Cokie has led a pampered life among the elites of New Orleans and Washington, D.C.  Why would we expect her to demand that anyone earn an office, rather than obtain it through connections?

Kennedy Declines to Make Financial Disclosure (New York Times)
If she were applying to be, say, an undersecretary of education in Barack Obama’s new administration, Caroline Kennedy would have to fill out a 63-item confidential questionnaire disclosing potentially embarrassing text messages and diary entries, the immigration status of her household staff, even copies of every résumé she used in the last 10 years.  If she were running for election to the Senate, Ms. Kennedy would have to file a 10-part, publicly available report disclosing her financial assets, credit card debts, mortgages, book deals and the sources of any payments greater than $5,000 in the last three years.

But Ms. Kennedy, who has asked Gov. David A. Paterson to appoint her to succeed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton — and who helped oversee the vetting process for Mr. Obama’s possible running mates — is declining to provide a variety of basic data, including companies she has a stake in and whether she has ever been charged with a crime.

Kennedy education record at issue (Politico)
During the two years Caroline Kennedy worked as a fundraiser and goodwill ambassador for New York City’s schools chancellor, Joel Klein, co-workers would frequently drift by her workspace for a glimpse of the department’s most famous $1-a-year employee. As often as not, they were greeted by an empty chair… “Caroline took over an office that previously oversaw donations to PTAs and alumni associations and recreated it around a model of a public-private partnership,” Klein wrote in an op-ed published Friday. “The model she created in New York City has led to similar efforts in other school districts across America.” 

But several people who worked with Kennedy during her department service take a markedly less grandiose view of her accomplishments. They say the 51-year-old lawyer and author, while a dedicated advocate for the schools, was less a traditional fundraiser than a highly credible department spokeswoman who used her name to keep big-money donors from fleeing the cash-strapped system. 

Coming out for gay marriage (Politico)
Caroline Kennedy is finally sharing some of her political opinions.

In Kennedy Senate tussle, Schumer takes a pass (New York Newsday)
WASHINGTON – Sen. Charles Schumer, arguably New York’s most outspoken politician, has publicly pledged not to take sides as Caroline Kennedy and others seek appointment to the U.S. Senate. It’s an unusual stance for the man who has picked or backed Senate candidates in every other state in the union. 

Panel reviewing impeachment of Ill. governor still waiting for guidance from prosecutor (AP)
Lawmakers studying impeachment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich heard Monday from a political watchdog who said she sees strong links between campaign contributions to him and contracts awarded to work for the state. “I do not personally know if the governor has committed acts of corruption, but the appearance of corruption — a standard our courts have acknowledged in upholding campaign contribution limits — is indisputable,” said Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform and a member of the governor’s transition team in 2002 who focused on ethics and reform.

The committee broke for the week Monday, still waiting to hear from the U.S. attorney’s office just how deeply they’ll be able to probe the charges against the governor.

Blago records may stay hidden (Politico)
A gap in disclosure laws allows transition teams to keep their documents.

Ill. governor’s Nashville brother hires lawyer (AP)
Nashville businessman Robert Blagojevich (bluh-GOY’-uh-vich), the brother of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, has hired a Chicago criminal defense lawyer amid expectations that prosecutors will investigate a campaign fund he runs. The Tennessean newspaper reported Monday that Rob Blagojevich, a real estate investor who chairs his brother’s Friends of Blagojevich fund, has retained defense attorney Michael Ettinger. Ettinger told the Chicago Sun-Times that he expects the fund will be indicted, a tactic used in a previous corruption investigation. 

What really happened with Jackson Jr., feds (Chicago Sun-Times)
Congressman talked with authorities about Blagojevich [and only recently] but never met them face-to-face

BlagoRahma update (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
There’s a limit…to how much info the Obama camp will release as part of its internal review: “Despite planning to release his team’s report, Obama has not pledged to release other records, including his staffers’ E-mails and notes, that could illuminate further what kind of contacts took place between the two offices. When an Obama spokesperson was asked if the team would release those records voluntarily, she said, ‘Let’s wait and see what we put out after our internal review.’”

The WSJ telegraphs how it’s not going to let the Blago/Obama story die (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
No matter what the released report says about the contacts between Obama’s team and Blago. Monday’s Journal news report acknowledges that Obama sources insists the report won’t contain any damning information. And Stephanopoulos over the weekend reported that Rahm Emanuel was caught on tape telling Blago all he’d receive from Obama was “appreciation” if an Obama favorite was selected to fill his U.S. senate seat. But the Journal, on behalf of the Beltway press corps, announces that it already has a back-up plan in order to hype the non-scandal… [S]imilar to Isikoff, the Journal suggests Obama’s just like Clinton.

Different questions, slightly different answers on surveys about Obama & Blagojevich (On Politics, USA Today)
Did any of President-elect Barack Obama’s aides do anything wrong in their dealings with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who’s accused of trying to “sell” Obama’s now vacant Senate seat?… [Monday], a CNN/Opinion Research Poll shows that: 12% of the 1,103 adults surveyed thought Obama’s aides did something illegal; 36% thought they did something unethical; and 43% said they had not done anything “seriously wrong.” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s complaint against Blagojevich did not accuse either Obama or any of his aides of any wrong-doing.

About Howie Kurtz’s “Obama Adulation Watch” (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
It’s a way for the WaPo’s Kurtz to mock journalists who he thinks write overly positive things about the new Democratic, president-elect. Note that in 1992, The New Republic ran its “Clinton Suck-Up Watch,” in order to mock journalists the magazine thought wrote overly positive things about the new, Democratic president-elect… In 2001, president Bush was rewarded with soft, loving press coverage. But we don’t recall reading running installments at TNR or the Post that mocked journalists for writing overly positive things about the new Republican president.

Clinton Moves To Widen Role Of State Dept (New York Times)
WASHINGTON — Even before taking office, Hillary Rodham Clinton is seeking to build a more powerful State Department, with a bigger budget, high-profile special envoys to trouble spots and an expanded role in dealing with global economic issues at a time of crisis…  The steps seem intended to strengthen the role of diplomacy after a long stretch, particularly under Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, in which the Pentagon, the vice president’s office and even the intelligence agencies held considerable sway over American foreign policy.

“we don’t know yet how comfortably Hillary will work in harness” (by vastleft at Corrente)
Jonathan Alter, with all due respect, go fuck yourself.

Things That Make You Go %$@&*!!! (by myiq2xu at The Confluence)
Politico has made a list they call “The top ten media blunders of 2008″ and I call bullshit… What’s missing from the list of media blunders?  Here’s a few off the top of my head:
1. The lack of coverage of the theft of Hillary’s delegates at the RBC meeting in May and/or during the convention in August.
2.  The failure to “vet” Obama.
3.  “Babygate” aka “The Great Alaskan Panty-sniff Raid.”
4.  The lack of coverage of Obama’s fundraising.
5.  The RFK fauxrage.
6.  Pretty much all the rest of the media coverage (or lack thereof) of the primary and general campaigns.
7.  Everything involving [Chris Matthews] and/or [Keith Olbermann]

US: Soaring Rates of Rape and Violence Against Women (Human Rights Watch, thanks to Alegre)
A new government report showing huge increases in the incidences of domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault over a two-year period in the United States deserves immediate attention from lawmakers and the incoming administration, Human Rights Watch said today. The statistics show a 42-percent increase in reported domestic violence and a 25-percent increase in the reported incidence of rape and sexual assault. 

Howard Dean, a Victim of His Own Success? (by Chris Cillizza And Perry Bacon Jr., Washington Post)
Former Vermont governor Howard Dean, the man regarded by many sharp political operatives as the progenitor of President-elect Barack Obama’s successful 2008 campaign, finds himself without an obvious next job as his tenure as head of the Democratic National Committee comes to an end… [I]t’s hard not to see Dean as a lesson in how political hardball is played in Washington. Never liked by establishment party figures — Dean publicly feuded with incoming White House chief of staff  Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) when the latter headed the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the 2006 election cycle — Dean finds himself on the outside looking in as a new Democratic administration comes to town.

Franken leads Coleman by 48 (Politico)
Minnesota Supreme Court takes case Tuesday; Coleman campaign claims double counting.

Alleged misconduct in Ted Stevens trial (McClatchy)
An Alaska FBI agent has accused fellow agents and at least one prosecutor of misconduct and unethical behavior in the public corruption investigation in Alaska and the trial of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.

GOP consultant killed in plane crash was warned of sabotage: report (The Raw Story)
The Republican consultant accused of involvement in alleged vote-rigging in Ohio in 2004 was warned that his plane might be sabotaged before his death in a crash Friday night, according to a Cleveland CBS affiliate… Without getting into specific details, 19 Action News reporter Blake Renault reported Sunday evening that 45-year-old Republican operative and experienced pilot had been warned not to fly his plane in the days before the crash.

Connell update (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
Over on Corrente there was some comparison of the Connell crash to the suicide of Vince Foster. Are those who consider this incident suspicious being just as doltish as the dolts who continue to bleat that the Clintons killed Foster? No. For two reasons:
1. The Vince Foster suicide was a legitimate topic of speculation and investigation – when it occurred. Investigation proceeded. Within a few months, I became satisfied that the man was genuinely depressed…
2. I never heard any credible evidence that Vince Foster had received death threats. The current case is different.

Demand for ‘Bush Shoe’ Creates 100 Jobs (by Susie at Suburban Guerrilla)
What a delicious piece of irony. Bush killed jobs here, but at least he created a few in Iraq! “Ramazan Baydan, owner of the Istanbul-based Baydan Shoe Company, has been swamped with orders from across the world, after insisting that his company produced the black leather shoes which the Iraqi journalist Muntazar al-Zaidi threw at Bush during a press conference in Baghdad [Sunday before last]. Baydan has recruited an extra 100 staff to meet orders for 300,000 pairs of Model 271 – more than four times the shoe’s normal annual sale.”

CNN poll: One in four say Cheney worst VP in history (On Politics, USA Today)
CNN is dribbling out the results of its latest poll. The 4 p.m. ET tidbit: While 1% say Dick Cheney is the country’s best vice president, about a quarter say he’s the worst… The answers: Best, 1%; Very Good, 4%; Good, 30%; Poor, 28%; Very Poor, 13%; Worst, 23%; No Opinion, 1%.   

Report: After Eight Years Of Promoting Bush, AEI Purges Prominent Neoconservatives From Its Ranks (Think Progress)
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) has been a major source of the Bush administration’s extreme neoconservative thought. AEI is the home, or former home, of Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Dick Cheney, John Bolton, and Doug Feith. With the help of Fred Kagan, AEI designed the Iraq “surge” strategy that Bush implemented in January 2007. Today, AEI may be moving away from eight years of cheerleading for Bush policies. The National Interest reported Friday that there is a “purge” of neocons at AEI.

Bolton on humanitarian intervention: ‘Do it with your own sons and daughters, not with mine.’ (Think Progress)
Earlier this month, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto hosted the second in a series of so-called “Munk Debates” on public policy. This particular debate asked the participants if the international community should intervene in man-made humanitarian crises if the national governments involved fail to act… [F]ormer Bush administration war hawk John Bolton … [said,] “…If you want to engage in humanitarian intervention, do it with your own sons and daughters, not with mine.”
Click through to listen to the audio.

Fred Thompson launches in March.
Westwood One confirms the reports: it launches “The Fred Thompson Show” to fill the vacancy left by the departing Bill O’Reilly. Thompson will air a two-hour midday show based in Washington.

Where’d the bailout money go? Shhhh, it’s a secret (by Matt Apuzzo, AP)
WASHINGTON — It’s something any bank would demand to know before handing out a loan: Where’s the money going? But after receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation’s largest banks say they can’t track exactly how they’re spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it.

The Public Believes Government Can Fix the Economy (by Ruy Teixeira, Center for American Progress)
The incoming Obama administration faces daunting economic problems. Yet the public is remarkably optimistic that the government can overcome these challenges.

Democrats Try to Lower Expectations (Wall Street Journals)
To win power, candidates promise to enact sweeping change. But once victory is in hand, they often scramble to lower those expectations so they won’t be perceived as falling short. Democrats are facing an especially precarious version of that dilemma. In crafting a package that will sink hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars into the economy, they are apprehensive about the fallout if the economy merely continues sputtering along for several years.

Quote of the day (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
“It’s clear that America now owes more than its citizens are worth…” That comes from “David Walker, head of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a fiscal watchdog group.” See here.

Archbishop warns of dangers of economic dogma (AFP)
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams warned Monday that governments should not pursue dogmatic solutions to the financial crisis at the risk of the most vulnerable, saying that is what the Nazis did.

Bush’s SEC Let Madoff Run Free (by Deacon Blues at The Left Coaster)
Yes, Bernard Madoff got away with massive fraud right under the SEC’s nose this entire decade. Chris Cox as SEC chairman should have been dragged up under oath to a Capitol Hill hearing long ago to explain why he shouldn’t be facing charges himself, for negligence and failure to carry out his sworn duties… In truth, guys like Madoff have spread their money around and bought off the Democrats as well into doing as little as possible. If you want to gauge the intensity of Obama’s change message, circle back to see how much he pours into the SEC during his first term. If the place isn’t doubled in size and given state-of-the-art technology to track the financial world, and if the laws aren’t significantly updated, then the change message is simply talk.

Crazy conspiracy theorists (by Paul Krugman)
So Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and Karl Rove all claim that the financial crisis was a liberal conspiracy, generated either by evil mastermind Chuck Schumer or by wily journalists.

Why does such stuff flourish? Probably because there is no punishment for it — as long as you’re on the right, and I mean right, side. Let Michael Moore point out, entirely correctly, the close ties between the Saudis and the Bush family, and he’s blasted as a crazy conspiracy theorist. On the other hand, let Donald Luskin suggest, in 2004, that George Soros is planning to engineer a financial crisis to defeat Bush, and he gets to publish front-page articles in the Washington Post Outlook section declaring that there isn’t a recession.
This kind of craziness flourishes, Prof. Krugman, because so-called progressives refuse to mount a concerted effort to combat the lies.

Dean Baker:

Post Ignores $700 Billion Loan Subsidy in Decrying Protectionism

The Washington Post Wants People to Give Up on Limiting Executive Compensation

Washington Post Does Full Merger of News and Editorial Section

Bush, the Political Philosopher, Reappears in the NYT

More Class Hatred in the Washington Post

Adjusting Unemployment Claims for Labor Force Growth and Coverage

Obama Picks Protectionist for Trade Post

The Fed’s Trade-off Is Inflation Versus Unemployment

Are Power And Compassion Mutually Exclusive?
The results … reveal that individuals with a higher sense of power experienced less compassion and distress when confronted with another’s suffering, compared to low-power individuals… These results do not just apply to how powerful people react to strangers; the authors note that this study “suggests that high-power individuals may suffer in interpersonal relationships because of their diminished capacity for compassion and empathy. The many benefits enjoyed by people with power may not translate to the interpersonal realm.”

Media Matters for America headlines

• Scarborough on door of his “American car” freezing shut: “[P]robably some Japanese engineer … sabotaged us. Kinda like blowing up things at Pearl Harbor”

• It’s official: Readers pick Cokie Roberts’ “foreign, exotic” Hawaii comments as Most Inane

• Media cite Japan’s “lost decade” to criticize Obama’s economic stimulus plan, but economists disagree

Repair crews reach damaged cables in Mediterranean
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – A robotic submarine searched beneath the Mediterranean on Sunday for damaged communications cables, two days after Web and telephone access was knocked out for much of the Middle East.
These breaks keep happening.

Small Flurry of Deals Give M&A Hope for ‘09
After several months of scarce magazine M&A action, there has been a small flurry of deals over the last week or so. The latest include PennWell Corporation’s acquisition of b-to-b publisher HCI Publications, and Austin Ventures’ purchase of Asset International.

Woman Accused Under New Cyberbullying Law
A 21-year-old woman has been accused of sending a vulgar text message to a 17-year-old girl is one of the first cases brought under a law against cyberbullying spurred by the suicide of a teenage girl following cruel messages on the Internet.

Idaho Lawmaker May Introduce Measure to Make People Use Real Names When Commenting
TWIN FALLS, Idaho A newly appointed Idaho lawmaker and former newspaper publisher may introduce a bill in the 2009 Legislature to force people to use their real names when commenting on the Internet. Rep. Stephen Hartgen, R-Twin Falls told the Twin Falls Times-News the absence of such a provision “discourages people from participating in civil life” and cheapens debate… Dave Neiwert, a former Times-News staffer from the 1980s and now a freelancer and blogger at Crooks and Liars, says “taking away that cover will remove valuable voices and important perspectives from the public dialogue.”

Gatehouse Sues NYT Co. Over Copyright
GateHouse Media has filed a copyright infringement suit against the parent company of The Boston Globe, claiming the newspaper’s new community Web sites use online material from GateHouse without permission. Times Co. spokeswoman Catherine Mathis dismissed the claims as “without merit.”

Following the Poynter Model May Be the Answer (by Joe Mathewson, Editor & Publisher)
Before newspaper owners whittle their newsrooms and their product down to nothing, they owe it to themselves, their employees, their still-loyal readers and their communities — not to mention their shareholders — to try the not-for-profit route.

EXCLUSIVE: The Top 30 Global News Sites 
CNN edged up closer to its competition, MSNBC, in November with 41.4 million unique users for the month, compared to MSNBC’s 41.8 million. Fox News Digital Network was the second-fastest growing site on the list for the month, up 131% year-over-year.

LA Times followup (by Jeff Jarvis)
Russ Stanton, editor of the LA Times, sent email following up on questions I had confirming the much-discussed report … that its web revenue is now sufficient to meet its entire editorial payroll. “Given where we were five years ago,” he email, “I don’t think anyone thought that would ever happen. But that day is here.” Can I hear an amen? Stanton does some bragging about the Times’ web life and given this milestone, let’s grant him the moment as Neilsen Net Ratings says it passed USA Today and the Washington Post in uniques with, according to internal numbers, 138 million page views in November, up more than 70% in a year, and 24 million uniques, up 125%. Secret sauce?
Click through to read how Stanton has improved traffic at the LA Times.

Va. Tech Newspaper Reveals New Massacre Details
The unauthorized release of documents related to the Virginia Tech massacre has given new voice to killer Seung Hui Cho, who had emailed regularly with professors and whom they reached out to repeatedly as it became clearer that he was a deeply troubled, even obsessive, young man.

Times Duped by Fake Letter to Editor
An editor’s note in the New York Times from yesterday reads: “Early this morning, we posted a letter that carried the name of Bertrand Delanoe, the mayor of Paris, sharply criticizing Caroline Kennedy. This letter was a fake. It should not have been published.”

Can Literature Survive the Book Industry’s Economic Woes (by Jason Boog, Salon)
Rumors of publishing’s demise are probably overstated, but the future of publishing may depend on what those laid-off editors, publicists and industry leaders do next. Can the publishing world channel all of this collective anger, bewilderment and fear into industry-altering strategies?

Jeff Jarvis on the Relationship Between Google and Authors and Publishers (FishbowlNY)
No one can say with any assurance where the future of publishing lies, but Harper Studio is certainly putting forth a convincing example of how a house might deal with the oncoming changes. Just last week they struck a deal with Borders who has agreed to buy Harper Studio’s books on a non returnable basis in exchange for a steeper discount on the purchase price. The HarperCollins imprint is also continually increasing their online presence with their blog The 26th Story, which is how we came across this interview Harper Studio head Bob Miller did with Jeff Jarvis, ostensibly about Jarvis’ new book What Would Google Do? but the discussion also turns to the relationship between Google and authors and publishers.
Click through to watch an excerpt.

The Bible as Bestseller
Year after year, the Bible is the best-selling book in America — even though 90% of households already have at least one copy. The tremendous sales volume, an estimated 25 million copies sold each year, is largely driven by innovations in design, color, style and the ultimate niche marketing.

Sacred texts: Vatican embraces iTunes prayer book
VATICAN CITY – The Vatican is endorsing new technology that brings the book of daily prayers used by priests straight onto iPhones.

App Developer Brings E-Books to the iPhone
Using its e-book reader technology called Iceberg, ScrollMotion will make several e-books available on the iPhone and iPod touch

Storybooks On Paper Better For Children Than Reading Fiction On Computer Screen, According to Expert
Clicking and scrolling interrupt our attentional focus. Turning and touching the pages instead of clicking on the screen influence our ability for experience and attention. The physical manipulations we have to do with a computer, not related to the reading itself, disturb our mental appreciation, says [a researcher].

Mags Set to Suffer Same Fate as Newspapers? (by John Byrne, Nieman Watchdog)
Magazines, too, are affected by ever rising paper (and for us even worse postage) costs, the swift migration of advertising from print to Web, the inability of online revenues to offset the decline of print ads, and often declining readership.

Time Survivors Rage At Jet-Setting Editor
Time’s international editor Michael Elliott is an up-and-comer, second only to U.S. editor Rich Stengel at the magazine. But leading an iron-fisted gutting of global editions — even while his business-class-only travel expenditures reportedly hit $250,000 this year — has made him bitter enemies.

Old-Line Magazine Sweepstakes Company Gets Digital
Years ago, sweepstakes contestants peered out their windows, hoping they would see the van from Publishers Clearing House pull up and present them with a giant check. These days, the direct-mail company has moved into the digital age, and is asking contestants to look on Twitter and their iPhone.

Web Sites in a Music Video Tussle
The removal of Warner Music Group’s videos from YouTube over the weekend highlights the growing tension between music labels and Web sites over advertising and licensing fees from music videos — the foundation that built MTV but which has now largely migrated to the Internet.

Music Games for iPhone Give Artists New Spotlight
A start-up company called Tapulous has turned a simple game for the iPhone into an Internet-age mobile stage for musicians.

Report: SAG Delays Strike Vote Until At Least Mid-January (Paid Content)
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has delayed voting on a potential strike until at least January 14,THR says. The actors’ union had planned to send strike authorization ballots to its members on January 2—though it had already started asking members to approve a strike vote when talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) ultimately broke down in late November.

The two parties struggled to hammer out compensation terms for Web content, as well as residuals for new media and DVD sales, among other details. The report says the move to delay the vote came after a NY faction of the union spoke out against a possible strike, citing the poor economy as a whole, but SAG spokesperson Pamela Greenwalt would not comment. An AMPTP spokesperson said he knew the vote had been delayed but declined to comment further.

Historic 20% revenue collapse.
The news is anything but holiday-like. November was the worst single month for radio since the RAB began tracking revenues nearly 20 years ago. Local revenues fell 21% and national declined 24% as advertisers spooked by the stock market and awful economic news cancelled existing buys or turned account reps away empty-handed.

CBS Radio to exit Denver.
Les Moonves’ goal to sell stations outside the top 20 markets takes a step forward as CBS sells AC “Mix 100″ KIMN (100.3), oldies KXKL-FM (105.1) and country “92.5 The Wolf” KWLI to Wilks Broadcasting in a $19.5 million all-cash deal. It becomes Jeff Wilks’ largest market.

A Powerful Voice for Latinos
In Los Angeles, Univision’s powerhouse station KMEX commands nearly a third of the market share among adults 18-49, regardless of language. The station is routinely top-rated among all Los Angeles TV stations in key news and entertainment dayparts. And in several months recently, KMEX even ranked as the most-watched TV station in the country. To keep up such a streak, General Manager Maelia Macin says her station must always provide its community with top-notch news, entertainment and information. “We bring our viewers news from their home countries, Los Angeles and this country. We are their lifeline,” Macin says. “We entertain them, too, but we’re always working to educate and empower our viewers.”
If only they all did that.

ESPN Rolls Out Interactive Features
As cable and satellite-TV distributors wrestle over which will be first to deliver nationally scalable interactive-TV opportunities to advertisers, one cable network, ESPN, has already taken matters into its own hands by developing its own interactive-TV products.

Whistleblower: MTV Sweatshop Sponsored by Charity (Gawker)
An MTV “citizen journalist,” Erica Anderson, has gone public to describe “grueling” work conditions on a charity-sponsored project, and to confirm what anonymous coworkers told us Friday: The network isn’t paying project staff. Anderson, identified by name here, boldly posted an account of her experience to her personal website, EricaAmerica. And her coworkers bravely chimed in, names attached, to confirm her story in the comments.

SEC Mandates Interactive Filing; Will Start Phasing In Next Year
The news is filled with stories of how much the Securities and Exchange commission has missed but, hey, maybe some of the atrocious examples of financial skulduggery could have been caught sooner if the commission had moved faster towards interactive filing. But that tortured march at least has an end in sight now with this week’s vote to mandate electronic filing with interactive data for all public companies and mutual funds. In the short term, the result is a boon to the XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) industry even though the mark-up acronym doesn’t even appear in the SEC release. It should give anyone who works with financial data much more powerful tools and, as more data is filed this way, a better grasp of the information than EDGAR currently provides.

Will Ferrell site, Funny Or Die, raises $3 million
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Internet comedy site Funny Or Die, supported by actor Will Ferrell and seeded by Sequoia Capital, has raised $3 million in cash from a single, undisclosed investor.

Bash Bush site sells on eBay in four days
LONDON (Reuters) – The Internet entrepreneur behind an online video game inviting users to throw footwear at President George W. Bush sold the property on eBay in just four days, he told Reuters on Friday.

30+ Great Resources for Blogger Templates (Mashable)
Blogger is one of the most popular hosted blogging platforms out there, but many people are still surprised when they learn you can customize the look of your blog well beyond the pre-built options the site offers. Finding these other templates can be a bit of a task, so we’ve come up with over 30 resources to help you find brand new designs, converted WordPress themes, people who will build unique custom templates, and more. 

Mini Goes from Print to Web Animation
Mini wanted to showcase its convertible to the German car-fanatic community, bringing the car showroom to people’s homes. The auto brand took advantage of technology that allows 3-D animation to be placed directly into live video streams. Readers remove a print ad from a magazine, type in a URL and then hold the ad in front of a webcam. As if by magic, a Mini convertible appears in 3-D on the screen, making it look like it’s sitting on top of the paper ad the user is holding. As the user moves the printed ad, so moves the 3-D Mini in the image on the screen.

Montel’s Back, and Does He Have a Deal for You
When Montel Williams promotes products to viewers of “Living Well With Montel,” he has good reason: how much he makes depends on how well he sells.

Ad Track: Microsoft wants you to throw a party for its Xbox
On a recent Saturday, about 1,000 women across the country moonlighted as marketers for Microsoft’s newest Xbox services. Microsoft signed them up to drum up interest among women like them in Xbox Live services and the newest console, whose price was cut in the fall to $199.

Auto Bailout Won’t Mean More Ad Buys
GM, Chrysler Still Plan to Scale Back Spending Despite Rescue Loans

The Language Of Emotion: Ad Slogans In Native Tongues Connect To Consumers’ Emotions
 In our globalized world, consumers are exposed to marketing messages in many languages. But a new study … says messages expressed in people’s native languages are most effective at triggering emotional reactions.