Permanent link to MTA daily media news

What’s Your Best Blog Post of 2008? (Mashable)
Help us prove the case for blogging in 2009: post a link to your best blog post of 2008 [click through to post in this post’s comment section] for our staff and readers to enjoy, and explain to us why it’s worth the click. We hope to find some great unsung bloggers to add to our Mashable feed-reading lists in 2009, and great content to link to and share. Can you deliver, blogosphere?

The Heretik

Obama Refuses To Endorse Gaza Attacks… (by M.J. Rosenberg at Talking Points Memo)
On Meet The Press [Sunday], David Axelrod was asked about Gaza by David Gregory. Gregory reminded Axelrod that the President-Elect had visited Sderot earlier this year and said that Israel had the right to defend its people against the mortars. What does he think now? Axelrod said, predictably, that we have one President at a time. He also said that Obama understood the “urge” to respond militarily… When Obama feels strongly about anything, the “one President at a time” mantra is abandoned. When he wants to avoid being boxed in, he invokes it… I hope the Israelis understand what this means… Axelrod sent a signal. After Jan. 20th, America will be an “honest broker.” That is what both sides need.

What, me worry? (by Michael J. Smith at Stop Me Before I Vote Again)
[From the Rosenberg article quoted above:] “The oldsters are cheering on the Gaza attacks but the Jewish ‘best and brightest’ think ethically and not ethnically….” …The “best and brightest” to whom Rosenberg refers all take pretty much the same line: the Israelis are being silly and short-sighted, if not downright “idiotic”. The Gaza attacks are not in their interest… Considering that stunts like this are the way that Zionism took state power in the first place, and has sustained itself there for my lifetime, and has successfully beaten off during that time every remote chance of peace breaking out — considering all these things, the “idiots” in Jerusalem might have some justification for thinking that they understand their bloody brutal business better than a troika of underage beautiful-soul yesbutnik bloggers like Klein, Yglesias, and Ackerman.

Attack On Gaza: As Usual, U.S. Media (And Most Liberals) Silent — As Israeli Newspaper Raises Doubts (by Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher)
In the usual process, the U.S. government, media here — and most of the leading liberal bloggers — are silent or playing down questions about whether Israel overreacted in its massive air strikes on Gaza, while the foreign press, and even Haaretz in Israel, carries more balanced accounts.

A Hundred Eyes For An Eye (by Norman Soloman)
Israelis and Arabs “feel that only force can assure justice,” I. F. Stone noted soon after the Six Day War in 1967. And he wrote: “A certain moral imbecility marks all ethnocentric movements. The Others are always either less than human, and thus their interests may be ignored, or more than human and therefore so dangerous that it is right to destroy them.” The closing days of 2008 have heightened the Israeli government’s stature as a mighty practitioner of the moral imbecility that Stone described.

The Israel-Palestine Problem: The Quest for a Political Solution (by eriposte at The Left Coaster)
The biggest challenges for the Obama administration, in my mind, are two fold. First, if a political solution is what is desired, then a key question is what kind of solution could be facilitated between Israeli and Palestinian moderates that allows them to save face with a majority of their respective populations, regardless of what the extremists believe.  Stated another way, we need to create the conditions, both inside Israel and West Bank/Gaza and in the Middle-East, for moderates to convince a clear majority of Israelis and Palestinians that the eventual solution is indeed the best possible solution and that it is a win-win solution…

Second, there has to be a lasting mechanism by which the eventual solution can be sustained regardless of changes in the political landscape in Israel and West Bank/Gaza. In the absence of such a mechanism any “solution” will likely be short-lived and quickly be replaced with a new cycle of violence.
From the polls I’ve seen, ordinary people in both Israel and in the Palestinian territories want peace.  It’s the extremists who keep getting their way.

Why the Israeli Military Response in Gaza is Bullshit (by Larry Johnson at No Quarter)
We have the technology–as do the Israelis–to quickly pinpoint the source of a rocket/mortar launch and hit the target. The United States did not go in with airstrikes and wipe out entire neighborhoods because two assholes with a mortar were trying to stir things up… [T]he Israeli military is acting like a bunch of pathetic thugs rather than conduct themselves with professionalism and skill. You do not just kill Palestinians because you can. You kill the assholes shooting the rockets/missiles. Israel has the means to do that but clearly prefers killing large numbers of Palestinians. Sorry folks, but thems the facts.

Obama’s Plan to Rejoin the World Community (by Phyllis Schlafly, a right winger)
When Candidate Barack Obama declared himself a “citizen of the world” before thousands of cheering German socialists, and later pledged to “rejoin the World Community,” those weren’t just his usual platitudes about “change.” Those words sounded the trumpet for his specific and far-reaching globalist agenda. Obama plans to use his presidential power to get the Democratic-majority Senate to ratify a series of treaties that would take us a long way toward global rule over our money, our laws, our military, our courts, our customs, our trade and even our use of energy.
Offered not for the truth of the matter, but to let you know what the right wingers are saying.

Obama the Weasel: On Iraq, Antiwar Candidate Delivers More Carnage (by Ted Rall)
NEW YORK-Obama won the Democratic nomination and the presidency by speaking out against the Iraq War. Now that he’s packing for Washington, however, the old Chicago lawyer is using Harvard Law weasel words to make sure the war goes on for years… Of course, we should have seen this coming. Obama talked and talked and talked about his opposition to the Iraq War. He’s good at that. But whenever he had a chance to put his vote where his mouth was, he chumped out. Time after time, he voted for Bush’s requests to send billions of taxpayer dollars to Halliburton and other war profiteers. He never voted no… [E]ven in a depression, Barack Obama is no less devoted to the pit of blood and treasure that is Iraq than George W. Bush. Forget preemptive war. How about preemptive impeachment?
And that’s what the lefties are saying.

Blago Busted – Chicago Sun-Times

Obama fails to disclose transition meetings
WASHINGTON — The Obama team, pledging the ”most open and transparent transition in history,” gets and ”A” for disclosing donors to the Jan. 20 inauguration and a ”F” when it comes to revealing transition meetings with groups. Contrary to its own ”seat at the table transparency policy,” meetings are not posted on a Web site.

More pieces to Senate seat puzzle
Who knew what — and when did they know it — regarding Gov. Blagojevich’s alleged effort to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat?

Blagojevich’s lawyer to submit internal report to impeachment panel
Gov. Blagojevich’s lawyer Monday intends to submit President-elect Barack Obama’s internal report to a House impeachment panel as evidence the governor wasn’t trying to enrich himself while deciding who to appoint to Illinois’ vacant U.S. Senate seat.

Quinn: Blago will be out by Abe’s 200th birthday (Chicago Tribune)
Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn said he is certain scandal-plagued Gov. Rod Blagojevich will be out of office by Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial birthday celebration Feb. 12, 2009. Quinn, speaking from Chicago, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday he believes Blagojevich will be impeached and convicted by the Illinois Legislature.

No it is not the same (by mwb at Alegre’s Corner)
The Washington Post just had an opinion piece by Anne Glusker entitled, She’s a Kennedy, But She’s a Lot Like Us that frankly appalled me… “A great deal of the criticism around Kennedy’s interest in Hillary Rodham Clinton’s soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat sounds an alarm for women like me. We’ve been at home with the kids, sure, but we’ve also been busy with lots of other things. We’ve been working part-time, consulting, freelancing. Like Kennedy’s, our resumes don’t conform to the conventional, one-job-after-the-other sequence that recruiters expect…”

Caroline Kennedy is not trying to resume an interrupted career in politics – she never had a career in politics.  This is leaping to an entirely different occupation from what she has done.  (And frankly if you were trying to draw a comparison to the rest of “us” – she is not applying for just any old job but trying to be appointed a senior VP of company as her entry level position – in an industry she has never actually worked in.)… Seriously Washington Post if you want some perspectives of women who actually have had to deal with juggling motherhood and careers you need to look a lot harder. 

Senator You Know (Political Wire)
Ben Smith notes one thing Caroline Kennedy would bring to Washington: A new, distinctive Kennedy verbal tic. She said “you know” 142 times in her recent New York Times interview.

Say goodnight, Caroline: How JFK’s daughter flubbed the audition to become the next Senator Kennedy (by Michael Goodwin, New York Daily News)
[A] strange thing is happening on the way to the coronation. The wheels of the bandwagon are coming off. Fantasy is giving way to inescapable truth. That truth is that Kennedy is not ready for the job and doesn’t deserve it. Somebody who loves her should tell her. Her quest is becoming a cringe-inducing experience, as painful to watch as it must be to endure. Because she is the only survivor of that dreamy time nearly 50 years ago, she remains an iconic figure. But in the last few days, her mini-campaign has proved she has little to offer New Yorkers except her name.

Her handlers and family enablers insist she feels no entitlement to the Senate job, yet there is no other possible reason to give it to her. Her name is the sole reason she even dares go for it. Camelot must be Gaelic for chutzpah. New York can do better.

McAuliffe’s Prowess As Fundraiser Grabs Spotlight in Va. Race (Washington Post)
RICHMOND — With his booming voice, quick wit and gregarious nature, Terry McAuliffe established a reputation as one of the world’s best political fundraisers, soaking up hundreds of millions of dollars for Democratic causes and candidates. Now, after spending much of his adult life soliciting donations for others — most notably, former president Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) – McAuliffe is considering using those prodigious skills and extensive contacts for himself, as a candidate for governor of Virginia. McAuliffe’s potential candidacy has created what Michael Toner, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, calls “the perfect fundraising storm.” Virginia is a state with no limits on how much an individual, corporation or union can donate to a candidate running for state office, and some say McAuliffe could wage an $80 million campaign — triple what Kaine spent four years ago — if he is the Democratic nominee.
We have GOT to get the money out of the political process.

Will MoveOn live up to its name? (Politico)
fter more than a decade spent railing against the Republican machine, MoveOn wants to move on —even if it means leaving some of its high-minded ideals behind.  Last week, the group’s members chose their top four priorities for the organization, winnowed down from a top-10 list culled from 50,000 suggestions… What they chose: universal health care; economic recovery and job creation; building a green economy/stopping climate change; and end the war in Iraq. What they didn’t: holding the Bush administration accountable; fighting for gay rights and LGBT equality; and reforming campaigns and elections. MoveOn Executive Director Eli Pariser says that this happy alignment with Barack Obama’s agenda — and fortuitous absence of conflict with same — comes in part because “the people he’s listening to and the people we’re listening to are the same people.”
Obama’s listening to them. Uh huh.  I think the leaders of MoveOn are listening to Obama and the stultified leadership of the Democratic Party—and are imposing those ideas on the rest of the membership.  That’s what they’ve always done.

On Being “Disagreeable” (by kenosha Marge at InsightAnalytical)
Since the Rick Warren controversy began there is no escaping what passes for an explanation from President-elect Barack Obama. His advertising agency phrase about being able to “disagree without being disagreeable”  is played endlessly on television… I intend to be very disagreeable about Rick Warren. He is the happy face the Obama Administration has chosen to put on bigotry… Beneath the benevolent corpulence of Rick Warren beats the heart of a misogynistic, homophobic, creationist. Not someone you could believe would have a place of honor at the Inauguration of a Democratic President. Not someone you would expect liberals to embrace. Not someone acceptable to the progressive community. Au contraire,  mes amis! Our lefty friends are working so hard to keep from being annoyed with PEBO that they are abandoning or ignoring every belief they ever had.

10 things that won’t survive the recession (by Mike Elgan at Infoworld)
Here are 10 things that I believe won’t survive the recession.
1. Free tech support…
2. Wi-Fi you have to pay for…
3. Landline phones…
4. Movie rental stores…
9. Half of all retail stores…
10. Satellite radio.
Click through for more.  I have a special beef about the tech support issue.  If you have to pay for tech support, it’s in the best interest of the equipment or software manufacturer to build defective products so as to make as much money as possible from the tech support.

Fifty Herbert Hoovers (by Paul Krugman)
No modern American president would repeat the fiscal mistake of 1932, in which the federal government tried to balance its budget in the face of a severe recession. The Obama administration will put deficit concerns on hold while it fights the economic crisis. But even as Washington tries to rescue the economy, the nation will be reeling from the actions of 50 Herbert Hoovers — state governors who are slashing spending in a time of recession, often at the expense both of their most vulnerable constituents and of the nation’s economic future…

[S]hredding the social safety net at a moment when many more Americans need help isn’t just cruel. It adds to the sense of insecurity that is one important factor driving the economy down… What can be done? Ted Strickland, the governor of Ohio, is pushing for federal aid to the states on three fronts: help for the neediest, in the form of funding for food stamps and Medicaid; federal funding of state- and local-level infrastructure projects; and federal aid to education… And once the crisis is behind us, we should rethink the way we pay for key public services… That’s for later. The priority right now is to fight off the attack of the 50 Herbert Hoovers, and make sure that the fiscal problems of the states don’t make the economic crisis even worse.

The Beautiful Machine (Washington Post)
Many of the most compelling aspects of the economic cataclysm can be seen through the story of AIG and its Financial Products unit: the failure of credit-rating firms, the absence of meaningful federal regulation, the mistaken belief that private contracts did not pose systemic risk, the veneration of computer models and quantitative analysis.
This article is the first of a three-part series on what went wrong.

Stock-Market Strategy Halts Fishing Collapse
Perhaps the best way to fight the decades-long decline of fish populations, primarily from overfishing, is to give the fishing industry clearer incentives to preserve them. That conclusion leapt from a recent analysis of the effect of “catch share” incentives by resource economist Christopher Costello and others at the University of California, Santa Barbara… The system of catch shares works somewhat like a stock market: individual fishers can net a designated percentage of the total amount of a species set aside for fishing annually. The cap on each fish type is adjusted yearly by the government according to how the species is faring. If the population increases, the shares increase in value, too. And fishers can buy and sell shares to one another.
Now, if we could only find a stock market strategy that would stop the STOCK MARKET from collapsing.

Robert Samuelson’s Ignorance Is Humbling (by Dean Baker)
Robert Samuelson devotes his column today to telling readers all the ways in which the conventional wisdom about the economy was wrong. As Samuelson puts it, “our ignorance is humbling.” Yes, the experts’ ignorance was striking. But, it is also worth noting that some of us recognized that it was wrong five years ago. It should have been easy to see that it was wrong… [T]he more important question is why the experts could not see what should have been very evident, most importantly an enormous housing bubble?… Are these experts facing any consequences for their extraordinary and costly oversights? Unfortunately, the answer to the latter question will almost always be “no.” There is no cost to an expert for being wrong because he followed the conventional wisdom.

Chrysler Ad Prompts Mark Cuban Takedown (by Benjamin Sarlin at The Daily Beast)
The road to bankruptcy is paved with good intentions it seems. Critics are roasting Chrysler for purchasing pricey full page ads in several major newspapers thanking Americans for dishing out bailout dollars to keep the sinking company afloat.

Retailers Want In on Stimulus Plan
The largest retail trade association asked Obama to add sales tax-exempt shopping days to a coming economic stimulus package in an effort to spur spending.

BERNIE CASH STASH (New York Post)
Madoff, 70, has been ordered by a Manhattan fed eral judge to provide to the Securities and Exchange Commission by New Year’s Eve a detailed list of all of his assets – in cluding investments, loans, lines of credit, business interests and brokerage accounts. But tracking what happened to the estimated $50 billion Madoff is accused of making off with is already promising to be one of the longest and most complicated financial investigations on record.

Will Increased Protectionism Mean Stronger Barriers to Trade in Professional Services and Increased Copyright and Patent Protections? (by Dean Baker)
USA Today is worried that the economic slowdown may cause countries to impose higher tariff barriers on merchandise trade. But will it also lead professionals like doctors and lawyers to make it more difficult for foreign professionals from entering these fields. If so, this can cost the consumers tens of billions of dollars in higher prices for professional services and the economy tens of billions of dollars in lost output. Will the downturn cause the government to devote increased resources towards cracking down on unauthorized copies of copyrighted material or unauthorized imports of prescription drugs? These protectionist policies can also raises costs to consumers by tens of billions of dollars. USA Today is silent on these costly forms of protectionism, focusing only on the narrow category of merchandise trade.

The Noose Tightens (Newsweek)
The United States, like many countries, has a bad habit of committing wartime excesses and an even worse record of accounting for them afterward. But a remarkable string of recent events suggests that may finally be changing—and that top Bush administration officials could soon face legal jeopardy for prisoner abuse committed under their watch in the war on terror… High-level charges, if they come, would be a first in U.S. history. “Traditionally we’ve caught some poor bastard down low and not gone up the chain,” says Burt Neuborne, a constitutional expert and Supreme Court lawyer at NYU. Prosecutions may well be forestalled if Bush issues a blanket pardon in his final days, as Neuborne and many other experts now expect.

Yes We Can UnPardon War Criminals (by David Swanson)
On his third day in office President Grant revoked two pardons that had been granted by President Andrew Johnson.  President Nixon also undid a pardon that had been granted by President Lyndon Johnson.  There may be other examples of this, as these two have somewhat accidentally come up in a discussion focused on numerous examples of presidents undoing pardons that they had themselves granted, something the current president did last week… In 2001, President George W. Bush’s lawyers advised him that he could undo a pardon that President Clinton had granted… We will call on the courts to challenge [any Bush] pardons and on Congress to reject them.  We will demand that Congress reject any nominee for attorney general who accepts such pardons as legitimate.

Under Bush, OSHA Mired in Inaction (Washington Post)
“The legacy of the Bush administration has been one of dismal inaction,” said Robert Harrison, a professor at the University of California at San Francisco and chairman of the occupational health section of the American Public Health Association. It has been “like turning a ketchup bottle upside down, banging the bottom of the container, and nothing comes out. You shake and shake and nothing comes out,” Harrison said. More than two dozen current and former senior career officials further said in interviews that the agency’s strategic choices were frequently made without input from its experienced hands. Political appointees “shut us out,” a longtime senior career official said.

Federal Cases of Stock Fraud Drop Sharply (New York Times)
WASHINGTON — Federal officials are bringing far fewer prosecutions as a result of fraudulent stock schemes than they did eight years ago, according to new data, raising further questions about whether the Bush administration has been too lax in policing Wall Street. Legal and financial experts say that a loosening of enforcement measures, cutbacks in staffing at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and a shift in resources toward terrorism at the F.B.I. have combined to make the federal government something of a paper tiger in investigating securities crimes.

Bush’s Books (Political Wire)
In one of the more unbelievable anecdotes to come out about President Bush as he winds down his presidency, Karl Rove says his former boss has read 95 books in the last three years. However, Rove claims victory in their book reading competition, having read 110. Writes Rove: “The president lamely insisted he’d lost because he’d been busy as Leader of the Free World.”
I do NOT believe that Bush reads.  Not books, anyway.

Quote of the Day (Political Wire)
“As bad as the incident is, in my view, it is a sign that Iraqis feel a lot freer to express themselves.” — Laura Bush, in an interview on Fox News, on an Iraqi journalist throwing his shoes at President Bush.

Rice: Much Of Bush’s Foreign Policy Agenda Deserves An ‘A+’ (Think Progress)
[Sunday] morning on CBS, Sunday Morning’s Rita Braver interviewed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In a portion of the interview that does not appear to have aired, Braver noted the results of the recent Pew Global Attitudes survey which found that “the U.S. image abroad is suffering almost everywhere.” Braver prompted Rice saying, “It has to be more than just a perception problem.” Rice dismissed the poll’s results, claiming that the Bush administration has “left a lot of good foundations”:

One Leg Raised On The Bush-Cheney Legacy: Deconstructing The Spin And Propaganda (by Walter Brasch)
In an incisive 2,500 word analysis, award-winning journalist and university professor Walter Brasch reviews eight years of Republican spin and propaganda, all wrapped up in a letter sent by the Republican National Committee.

CBS newsman’s $70m lawsuit likely to deal Bush legacy a new blow (The Guardian)
As George W Bush prepares to leave the White House, at least one unpleasant episode from his unpopular presidency is threatening to follow him into retirement. A $70m lawsuit filed by Dan Rather, the veteran former newsreader for CBS Evening News, against his old network is reopening the debate over alleged favourable treatment that Bush received when he served in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam war. Bush had hoped that this controversy had been dealt with once and for all during the 2004 election…

Rather contends not only that his report was true – “What the documents stated has never been denied, by the president or anyone around him,” he says – but that CBS succumbed to political pressure from conservatives to get the report discredited and to have him fired. He also claims that a panel set up by CBS to investigate the story was packed with conservatives in an effort to placate the White House. Part of the reason for that, he suggests, was that Viacom, a sister company of CBS, knew that it would have important broadcasting regulatory issues to deal with during Bush’s second term.

Obama’s Election Voted Top News Story Of 2008
The epic election that made Barack Obama the first African-American president was the top news story of 2008 — followed closely by the economic meltdown that will test his leadership, according to U.S. editors and news directors voting in The Associated Press’ annual poll.

2008 Media Follies! (by Maria Tomchick & Geov Parrish at Eat The State)
Welcome to our 13th annual selection of the year’s most over-hyped and underreported stories, separated into local and global categories. [Sample:] The Great Black Hope. Reality check, please? Obama is a corporate centrist–not a progressive. Always has been, never sold himself as anything but. His actions thus far as President-Elect are exactly what he promised. But after eight long, desperate years, far too many progressives believed what they wanted to be true, not what actually was true. Wasn’t that the approach that got George W. in trouble?

Announcing the P.U.-litzer Prizes for 2008 (by Norman Solomon)
Now in their seventeenth year, the P.U.-litzer Prizes recognize some of the nation’s stinkiest media performances.

Journalists Petition Court for Right to Cover Attack on Gaza
JERUSALEM Foreign journalists in Israel are petitioning the country’s highest court to let them into Gaza to report on the heaviest fighting there in decades.

IAPA Anti-Impunity Project Releases Three Reports On Crimes Against Journalists
The murders of journalists in Bolivia and Mexico and efforts by the Brazilian justice system to put an end to impunity in crimes against the press are the subjects of three new reports published by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA).

Website age ratings ‘an option’ (BBC)
Film-style age ratings could be applied to websites to protect children from harmful and offensive material, [British] Culture Secretary Andy Burnham has said. Mr Burnham said the government was looking at a number of possible new internet safeguards. He said some content, such as clips of beheadings, was unacceptable and new standards of decency were needed. He also plans to negotiate with the US on drawing up international rules for English language websites.

Uproar in Australia over plan to block Web sites
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) – A proposed Internet filter dubbed the “Great Aussie Firewall” is promising to make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among democratic countries. Consumers, civil-rights activists, engineers, Internet providers and politicians from opposition parties are among the critics of a mandatory Internet filter that would block at least 1,300 Web sites prohibited by the government – mostly child pornography, excessive violence, instructions in crime or drug use and advocacy of terrorism.

In California, schools gain a tool to halt online cruelty
It was bad enough when middle school students in Novato last year harassed and ridiculed 14-year-old Olivia when she suffered a seizure on campus.

Jewish groups blast TV show
BRUSSELS, Belgium – Jewish groups have condemned a Belgian public broadcaster for airing a show in which a standup comedian jokes about the Holocaust and the persecution of Jews.

Should Facebook End Breast Ban? (Mashable)
A group of moms staged a protest outside Facebook’s Palo Alto offices yesterday over the site’s policy to remove photos of bare breasts.  While Facebook’s policy is to remove photos where the nipple or areola is visible, attendees of the MILC (Mothers International Lactation Campaign) “nurse in” want an exception for breastfeeding moms.

Montenegro bans Facebook, YouTube in public offices
PODGORICAAFP (AFP) – The former Yugoslav republic of Montenegro has banned public sector staff from accessing the popular Internet websites Facebook and YouTube at work, the government said Wednesday.

Activism in a Time of New Media: ‘The New School in Exile’ in Real Time
Student protesters claim victory after using text messages, email, blog posts, Youtube videos, and Twitter feeds to win the battle over message.

What Would Google Do? on a Fortune best list (by Jeff Jarvis)
I’m delighted to say that What Would Google Do? is on Fortune’s list of the three best web books of 2008.

Media Jobs? Depressing
Ad/Marketing Services Falls From ’07 Peak; Media off 19% From 2000

An NPR Reporter Becomes the News
Midway through her reporting on how Americans were handling economic pressure, National Public Radio senior correspondent Ketzel Levine found out that she had been laid off.

If It Involves Jews, Chabad’s Tiny but Far-Flung News Organization Is on It
Written and produced from a small home office in Israel by a husband-and-wife team, Chabad.org News focuses on stories of interest to the Lubavitch community around the globe.

NYT Co. Actively Looking for Buyer for Red Sox Stake
Seeking to fortify its core assets, New York Times Co. is actively shopping its stake in the holding company of the Boston Red Sox baseball club, according to two people familiar with the discussions. The company is the second-largest shareholder.

The Comics Are Feeling the Pain of Print
Many wonder whether daily comics can make a jump to mass electronic distribution or whether they will be tossed aside like yesterday’s news.

Bargain Hunting for Books, and Feeling Sheepish About It
Book publishers and booksellers are faltering. But don’t blame the recession — it’s all the fault of the Internet used books market.

Publisher Cancels New ‘Holocaust’ Book After Press Reports Doubts — Oprah Goofed Again
NEW YORK The publisher of a disputed Holocaust memoir has canceled the book, adding the name Herman Rosenblat to an increasingly long line of literary fakers and bringing down with a crash his story – embraced by Oprah Winfrey, among others – of meeting his future wife at a Nazi concentration camp… The cancellation is sure to outrage survivors and scholars, who have worried that Rosenblat would encourage Holocaust deniers, and likely revive the debate over why publishers don’t fact check books. Even after such fabrications as James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, another Winfrey favorite, publishers have said that with more than 100,000 books coming out each year, fact-checking is too time-consuming and too expensive.
Oprah is, plainly, a sucker.  And not only when it comes to books.

Satellite Radio Still Reaches for the Payday
Five months after regulators approved a merger of Sirius and XM, satellite radio’s pioneers and former rivals, in a deal that was supposed to deliver their industry to the promised land of profits and permanence, the company faces an uncertain future.

Hard Day’s Night for Beatles Reissues (by Allan Kozinn, New York Times)
To collectors, the inability of Apple and EMI to get new versions of the Fab Four’s music onto the market is a symbol of how pathetic the record business has become.

Hollywood Cheers Strong Sales
Strong holiday box-office results bucked the recession, giving a solid boost to two studios with a lot riding on expensive films.

Satellite Radio Still Reaches for the Payday
Deep debt, including Howard Stern’s $500 million contract, is causing Sirius XM Radio big worries despite growing revenue and subscriptions.

TV News Winds Down Operations on Iraq War
With a presidential election and its aftermath dominating the news, the three broadcast networks have quietly cut back war coverage.

‘Today’ Show Tries Prime-Time Role
NBC’s juggernaut morning show, now expanded to four hours each weekday, produced last week a prime-time holiday special called “Today Looks Back.”

MLB Network Preps for Rollout in 50 Million Homes (by Larry Dobrow at Advertising Age)
In these challenging economic times — during which every story and press release commences with an “in these challenging economic times …” salvo — media entities are as likely to roll out a big-dollar, big-ambition offering as they are to quadruple their head count. And then there’s Major League Baseball, which will come across as positively brazen when it launches its eponymous cable network in upward of 50 million homes Jan. 1. Those 50 million homes make the MLB Network the biggest debut in the history of cable.

Eisner Drops CNBC Show
Michael Eisner is ending his CNBC show. But unlike the recent scaling back of The Big Idea with Donny Deutsche, this was Eisner’s decision, not CNBC’s. The former Disney CEO said he’s giving up hosting Conversations with Michael Eisner to concentrate full-time on his investing activities.

Arpaio enters realm of reality TV (AP)
In Arizona, seeing Sheriff Joe Arpaio on TV is nothing new. But the self-described “America’s toughest sheriff” now has a national platform to pursue lawbreakers that stretches beyond the 5 o’clock news. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees the state’s most populous county, has a starring role in Smile … You’re Under Arrest!, a new reality show debuting Saturday on Fox Reality Channel. A cross between Punk’d and Cops, the program sets up elaborate sting operations to snare people wanted on outstanding warrants. Actors and undercover deputies play along in faux scenarios where scofflaws are enticed to have a good time before doing time. The “gotcha” drama comes when cast members reveal the prank and waiting deputies slap handcuffs on the offender.

New Web Sites Target Young Women
The Internet remains a potential growth area, thanks to its relatively low start-up costs and immediate delivery to consumers. Among the new offerings, Web sites targeted to women are growing in numbers, serving up content across a wide swath of subjects and age groups.

Sex Sells, but a Commitment Can Help
While sex in advertising is generally thought to be more useful in selling to men than to women, a study finds that this effect is reversed when emotional intimacy justifies the sex.

Your Ad in the Pages of ‘A Christmas Carol,’ or Any Other Novel
Book serialization has come into vogue again, 170 years after Charles Dickens popularized it with “The Pickwick Papers” and “Oliver Twist.” Funny enough, it’s the 19th-century author who is championing the form in 2008: His “A Christmas Carol” is one of more than 1,000 titles available through DailyLit, a digital serial book publisher that shares books with nearly 150,000 subscribers in short, customized installments via email and RSS feed. And now it’s opening its virtual pages to advertisers.

Online Video Ads Put Message Into the Medium
Online video technology firm Blinkx has developed an integrated advertising system it hopes will help generate revenues from the growing amount of video on the Web. Blinkx has developed what it calls its “un-roll” unit, which allows advertisers to wrap their message into videos.

Lennon in TV ad 28 years after his death (Reuters)
Imagine, John Lennon makes a television commercial for charity — 28 years after his death. Through the use of digital technology, the former Beatle urges people across the United States to support a campaign by “One Laptop per Child” to deliver tough, solar-powered XO laptop computers to the world’s poorest children. “Imagine every child no matter where in the world they were could access a universe of knowledge. They would have a chance to learn, to dream, to achieve anything they want,” a voice and video image of Lennon has been created to say.

Automakers’ troubles could help radio close the gap.
Ohio-based BigResearch analyzed spending by GM, Ford and Chrysler and concluded too much of their budget is allocated to television, which is far less cost efficient than other media. BigResearch VP Miles David tells Inside Radio ”It’s no longer possible for companies fighting for survival to ignore the evidence.” BigResearch recommends radio be given a 22% share — far greater than the low-single digit share it currently receives.

Internet Access Turns School Buses Into Rolling Classrooms
As part of his economic-stimulus plan, President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to wire more schools to provide high-speed Internet access. Ethan Clement, a student in rural Arkansas, has some advice: Don’t forget to wire the buses. A program providing wireless Internet access on buses enables high-school senior Ethan Clement to do classwork online during long rides to and from school in rural Arkansas, and offers her advanced classes and far-flung mentors.

Android apps you won’t find on the iPhone
Two months after the first Android phone was released, there are more than 400 free programs from which to choose and the promise of more handsets coming that use the open-source operating system.

What Carriers Aren’t Eager to Tell You About Texting
The public assumes that wireless carriers’ costs are far higher than they actually are, and profit margins are concealed by a heavy curtain.

50+ iPhone Apps to Enhance Your Photo and Video Experience (Mashable)
We know you’re obsessed with your iPhone, and chances are you’ve been taking a lot more photos – perhaps even recording videos – over the holidays. To satisfy aspiring iPhone photographers and videographers, we’ve assembled a collection of more than 50 iPhone and iPod Touch apps to enhance your photo and video experience.

LG to Debut 3G Watch-phone at CES
LG Electronics plans to debut a wristwatch-style 3G phone at the Consumer Electronics Show next month, it said Sunday.

MP3 player guides rescuers to lost tourists
ZURICH (Reuters) – The light from an MP3 player saved two lost tourists from a chilly night stuck out in the snowy Swiss mountains, rescue authorities said Saturday.