Permanent link to MTA daily media news

It’s Time for the Taste Test (by Pat Racimora at No Quarter)
No doubt in anyone’s mind. Barack Obama is the best known brand name on the planet. He was marketed masterfully, from the almost-Pepsi logo to imposing the best persuasion techniques known to social scientists… But now it is time to open the can and see what’s really inside.

Crowds pack frigid Mall for Obama’s inauguration (AP)
WASHINGTON – Braving frigid temperatures, an exuberant crowd of hundreds of thousands packed the National Mall on Tuesday to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as America’s first black president. He grasps the reins of power in a high-noon ceremony amid grave economic worries and high expectations.

Obama Aides Map Out First 100 Hours (Political Wire)
“Vans will be poised at the Capitol to take a few top aides of Barack Obama’s to their new offices at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. as soon as he is sworn in,” transition aides told Politico. “About 20 senior officials have had their paperwork cleared to enter the White House complex on Tuesday. Some will attend a traditional lunch with the new president in the Capitol, then get to work while the inaugural parade is under way.”

Cindy McCain: Media Had ‘Agenda’ (Politico)
Cindy McCain attacked media coverage of her husband’s presidential campaign Monday, saying there is now “very little difference now between journalism and gossip… Without sounding bitter — and I’m not bitter — I do believe there was a media bias,” she said.
And, indeed, there was.

Kurtz: Many in journalism seem thrilled by Obama’s swearing-in (Poynter Online)
“The country’s big-name anchors, actors, commentators, news executives, producers, editors and scribes have been celebrating the quadrennial event — and themselves — at one glitzy gathering after another in the run-up to today’s inauguration,” writes Howard Kurtz. “It is hard to envision this level of intensity if John McCain were taking the oath of office.”
Funny, I don’t recall Howie complaining about media stars joining the Bush parties.  And he’s right about the level of enthusiasm being different from what it would be for McCain (or even Hillary, probably), but it was just as great for George Bush.  Look at how that turned out.

“This White House has mainly given the Fourth Estate and the First Amendment the finger” (Poynter Online)
Bob Garfield … says the Bush Administration “ridiculed the press, ignored the press, stonewalled the press, bullied the press, maneuvered around the press, co-opted the press, censored the press, jailed the press, fabricated for the press, lied to the press and, for example, when caught illegally wiretapping Americans without a warrant, blamed the press.”

LAT: “We pledge to watch Obama, to hold him to his work, and to report back” (Poynter Online)
Barack Obama’s victory “was welcome news to us, as it was for many millions of Americans,” says the LAT editorial board. “But recent history supplies a sobering lesson in what happens when support for a president dulls the skepticism needed to ensure public accountability.”
ExACTly.  And that oversight may be needed.  See below.

No More Oversight? (Political Wire)
Newsweek: “With Democrats in control on Capitol Hill, the incoming Obama team shouldn’t have to worry much about hostile probes. Last week’s confirmation hearings for top Obama nominees were largely congenial… Legislative insiders say a reshuffling of key committee posts in the new Congress will ensure that investigations of Obama’s actions will proceed with caution.”

The New White House Press Shop (Politico)
New assignments keep the Obama White House press shop looking more or less like the campaign press shop, perhaps on the principle of not tinkering with what works. The overall structure is a bit different from that of the campaign, but the names are familiar.

Thoughts Preceding the Great Transformation (by Arthur Silber at the Power of Narrative)
You’re living in a world of make-believe, with flowers and bells and leprechauns and magic frogs with funny little hats. – Homer Simpson, Ph.D., M.D., Psy.D., D.O., D.S.W., Ed.D., D.C.M., D.Min., J.D., D.C.H., from his seminal work, Meditations on the Transmigrational Nature of Perambulating Observances (sometimes referred to more informally as, Don’t Bullshit a Bullshitter)

Obama to overturn global gag rule ‘in one of his first acts.’ (Think Progress)
“In one of his first acts as president, Barack Obama is planning to lift a rule” that bars federal money from going to international family planning groups that counsel women on abortion or perform the procedure. The so-called “global gag rule” (also referred to as the “Mexico City policy”) was created by the Reagan administration, then overturned by President Clinton, and was later re-instituted by President Bush as his first act in office.

Obama’s Day of Service (by Jake Tapper and Jennifer Duck at Political Punch, ABC News)
On his final day before being sworn in as Commander-in-Chief, President-elect Barack Obama took time to volunteer in an effort to make good on his promise of service.. Martin Luther King III celebrated his late father’s birthday by joining Obama at Walter Reed and riding with him to … an emergency shelter for homeless teens in Washington, D.C… “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve,” Obama said, standing next to Martin Luther King III, quoting his late father… “I am making a commitment to you as the next president, that we are going to make government work,” Obama said. “But I can’t do it by myself. Michelle can’t do it by herself. Government can only do so much.”

Barack Obama: the libertarians’ best friend? (by Al Schumann at Stop Me Before I Vote Again)
“‘We can’t allow any idle hands,’ [Barack Obama] said. ‘Everybody’s got to be involved.’”… Can’t we just? I’m pretty sure we could if we tried, and I’m sorry to say there are many hands thatshould remain idle. Involvement in his nebulous understanding of service is not at all appealing either. He’s a recruiting machine for the “leave me alone!” party… [T]here are better ways to approach it than through sanctimonious eructations. Shorter hours, better pay and public transport would be a good start.

Limbaugh: ‘I Hope Obama Fails’ (Think Progress)
Rush Limbaugh is already rooting for [Obama’s] failure. On his radio show last Friday, Limbaugh said, “I disagree fervently with the people on our [Republican] side of the aisle who have caved and who say, ‘Well, I hope he succeeds.’” Limbaugh told his listeners that he was asked by “a major American print publication” to offer a 400-word statement explaining his “hope for the Obama presidency.” He responded: “So I’m thinking of replying to the guy, ‘Okay, I’ll send you a response, but I don’t need 400 words, I need four: I hope he fails.’”

Blackwell: GOP Must Defeat Job-Creating Stimulus Because It Will Ruin GOP’s Election Chances (Think Progress)
In an article published on Townhall…, RNC Chairman candidate and former Ohio governor Ken Blackwell urges congressional conservatives to oppose the reinvestment and recovery stimulus plan promoted by President-elect Obama. Though he offers standard conservative arguments against the plan — including a screed against the growth of “big government” — Blackwell seemed most concerned about the political benefit Democrats might see from successfully boosting the economy. He warned that the bill, which calls for 80 percent job creation in the private sector, could create 600,000 new federal jobs — a problem because it would make it that much harder for for Republicans to win back Virginia:
I don’t know of two better examples of the Republican attitude than Limbaugh’s and Blackwell’s.  Of course, those of us who were paying attention knew this about them, because it’s what they accused us of in regard to Bush.  It’s pretty well a given that when someone accuses you of low motives, that person is telling more about himself than about you.

Melding the Middle (by Amy Traub at DMI Blog, thanks to Susie at Suburban Guerilla)
“What will happen if we do it right,” Senator Chuck Schumer informed journalist and Atlantic Monthly editor Joshua Green, “is that there’ll be an alliance between the middle class and the poor, as opposed to the alliance between the middle class and the rich [that held for the past 28 years]. Everything we’re talking about is the work of an active, strong government, and if it works, it will wed the middle class to the Democrats for a generation.”… But Schumer’s policy prescriptions (mostly an array of tax cuts and credits) don’t quite add up to the type of epochal class alliance he describes…

To consider policies that really unite the middle class with low-income families, it makes sense to consider their common aspirations. At its core, a middle-class standard of living means secure jobs that support a family; a safe and stable home; access to affordable health care; retirement security; time off for vacation, illness, and major life events; opportunities to save and avoid crippling debt; and the ability to provide a good education, including a college education, for one’s children. Middle-class households – increasingly squeezed by rising costs and stagnating wages even before the current economic downturn – aim to hold onto these staples while low-income households aim to attain them. And many of the same policies can do both – both strengthening the existing middle class and expanding it to include more working Americans.
You could call it a trickle UP program.  But what are Democrats actually doing?  See below.

A Brief Note to Those Who Still Insist the Current Bailout Will Spur More Lending… (by David Sirota at Open Left)
If you read news about the bailout very carefully, you’ll see that the entire goal of the current bailout is to protect bank shareholders – not the taxpayers, homeowners or the financial system as a whole… If our government was a bit less corrupt, we might have a much more effective bailout with strings attached – maybe, as the New York Times reports, we’d do what the British are doing by forcing bank executives to “sign legally binding agreements requiring them to provide more loans to consumers and businesses.” But those are big ifs.

Sure, I know it makes Obama partisans feel better to tell themselves that the current bailout the president-elect endorsed is really designed to stop an imminent emergency, not just to raid the federal treasury on behalf of the Wall Street donor class. But the evidence – whether from the GAO, the Congressional Oversight Panel, and now from the banks themselves – continues to prove that this bailout is kleptocracy in its most naked form.

Not So Much (by Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo, thanks to Susie at Suburban Guerilla)
Theda Skocpol responds to Rep. Frank … “The idea that ‘elites’ will ‘get serious about repairing the safety net’ if they are FIRST given billions of dollars of payoffs to shareholders who made bad decisions is the height of naivete… The banking/Wall Street interests will sucker Obama and Barney Frank into giving them yet more (unpopular and ineffective and very expensive) handouts — and, then, when the improvements to health care, college funding, etc. come up later they will suddenly be fiscally responsible with the public’s money. And, of course, they will have plenty of blue dogs and small business lobbies and others to hide behind as they make this manuever.”
If history is our guide…

Recession Insurance (by Robert J. Shiller, thanks to Economist’s View)
The Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund, Olivier Blanchard, and several IMF economists have proposed … that governments should offer what they call “recession insurance.” Companies and/or individuals would buy insurance policies, pay a regular premium for them, and receive a benefit if some measure of the economy, such as GDP growth, dropped below a specified level… Recession insurance might … help alleviate the economic crisis by reducing uncertainty. After all, the real problem that we are currently facing is one of paralysis: uncertainty has placed many spending decisions – by businesses … and by consumers … – on hold. Reducing uncertainty might augment, or even be superior to, fiscal stimulus programs, for it would address the root cause of the unwillingness to spend.
Unemployment insurance provides some of the benefit Shiller talks about here.  But it or something like it could become a real tool for smoothing out business cycles if we had the courage to increase the “premiums” (which could also be taxes) when the economy heats up, making bubbles less likely, and lower them when the economy falters.  But no matter what happens with the economy, the top echelon make out like bandits.  See below.

Shareholders to Focus on Executive Compensation (Wall Street Journal)
Some Investors, Frustrated With Big Payouts Amid Financial Crisis, Plan to Propose Limits at Annual Meetings
Well, we’ll have to see.  We’ve heard talk like this before, and nothing happened.

Poll results suggest tax cuts won’t help stimulate economy (McClatchy)
WASHINGTON — The idea sounds great – cut taxes, people will spend the extra cash going out to eat or buying a TV and stimulate the economy. But a new McClatchy-Ipsos poll out Monday shows that only a tiny sliver of people would spend the windfall that way. The vast majority would not.

Transforming the Auto Industry (by Jeffrey D. Sachs, Scientific American thanks to Economist’s View)
[T]he changeover to high-mileage automobiles must be a public-private effort. To wait for the “free market” to bring it about is to wait forever. Major technological change, such as from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles recharged on a clean power grid…, requires a massive infusion of public policy and public funding. Research and development depend on huge outlays, and many of the fruits of R&D … will become public goods rather than private intellectual property. That’s why public financing for R&D is so vital, and has been widely recognized and practiced by the U.S. government for a century in many industries, including aviation, computers, telephony, the Internet, drug development, advanced plant breeding, satellites, GPS and much, much more.

To … bemoan the fact that the forthcoming Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid will have a first-year price tag of $40,000 is to miss the point. The costs of early-stage … deployment are inevitably far above those that companies can realize in the long run. Public policy should help to promote this transition.
But I believe that we the public should benefit more from our investments.  In drug development, for example, we pay for most of the basic research, but then drug companies charge ungodly amounts for drugs based on that research.

Why Health Reform May Happen (by Froma Harrop)
Let the name-calling begin. A national health plan is again proposed, and its foes are trying to deal it death by unflattering labels. The old favorites include “socialized medicine” and “government takeover of health care.”… Insecurity over health coverage is surging. Spiraling medical costs have made American companies less competitive. And Americans are feeling beaten up by the crashing economy. This time, a national health plan may survive the bad rap.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Deep in my heart (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream that someday we will all be judged by “content of our character”.  That should be the only yardstick by which we are measured.  Not the color of our skin, the configuration of our bodies, the nature of our love or the source of our morality.  Martin’s dream has been fulfilled in part, but the dreamers were the American people, not Barack Obama.  We were ready after decades of work by people like Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson and Andrew Young, Lyndon B. Johnson and, yes, Hillary and Bill Clinton.  Now it is time to wake the nation to see the rest of the dream realized.   It may not happen today, or tomorrow, but with vision and hard work, we too will find the awakening accelerated for the rest of us.

With the right preparation, creative use of technology and charismatic voices, the pace of change can be swift.  It is trite to say that we are the ones we have been waiting for.  That doesn’t require any effort.  It is a Hallmark greeting.  And whether Michele Obama believes it or not, the hard work that is required of us does not extend simply to the cult of Obama.  Change is going to come but it is not here yet.  But we can do this because it is in the best interests of all of us.  The country is in dire need of help and it can’t afford to be picky in the form of who can give it.  We will overcome.

Deep in my heart, I do believe.
Click through for a link to one of my favorite singers, Aaron Neville, singing “Change Gonna Come.”  And it will come, despite all the sexist jerks, male and female, who promoted hatred of Hillary Clinton

Clintons Say Goodbye to K Street; Hill’s P.A.C. Will Go On, Sell Posters (by Jason Horowitz at PolitickerNY)
WASHINGTON–Hillary Clinton is celebrating her departure from politics with a new political poster. On Monday afternoon, Clinton’s supporters swarmed Bill and Hillary Clinton at the K Street headquarters of the Friends of Hillary P.A.C., which was papered with new posters showing Clinton’s profile emanating sun beams… Clinton adviser Ann Lewis … said the political movement Clinton started would go on. But without her… “Many of the friendships and connections forged and political skills learned during Hillary’s campaign will still be in use, and will change the country” she said.

Biden tries to shush wife after state-VP slip (AP)
WASHINGTON – Joe Biden’s wife said Monday that he had his pick of being Barack Obama’s running mate or the secretary of state nomination that eventually went to Hillary Rodham Clinton, a slip that the vice president-elect immediately tried to shush… After the exchange aired on television three hours later, Biden spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander denied Jill Biden’s account in a statement e-mailed to reporters.
So, did Jill Biden lie to Oprah and her audience?  Or did Joe lie to Jill?  Or did Biden lie to reporters?  One of those must be true.  Why can’t they just admit these things?

Consider: (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
Bill Clinton, our finest post-war president, was impeached. And George W. Bush, the worst president of all time, has not been impeached. What do these facts say about us?

The Rise of Barack Obama (Political Wire)
The Washington Post … on the political rise of Barack Obama[:] “There is improbability in the making of any president, some more than others, none comparable to Obama… Obama is the creation of restlessness, searching, odd connections. He springs out of this wide world, defined by disparate locations that together enfold many of the central themes and movements of modern times.”
Obama is the creation of the Illinois Combine, which will, effective today, replace the Texas Mafia in Washington.

Podesta: ‘Let Barack have his Blackberry.’ (Think Progress)
In [the] Los Angeles Times, Obama transition co-chair John Podesta writes of his unique experience from being a keen eyewitness to Barack Obama’s decision-making over the past few months. “[Obama’s] politics are interactive, solutions-oriented and open to the citizens,” Podesta writes. He adds that Obama’s Blackberry enhances his decision-making by helping him reach outside his inner circle. “Let the man have his Blackberry,” Podesta told senior staffers. “An off-line Obama isn’t just bad for Barack. It’s bad for all of us.”

Obama to tap ex-Sen. Mitchell as Mideast envoy: report (Reuters)
Barack Obama plans to name former Sen. George Mitchell as his Middle East envoy in one of his first actions as the new U.S. president, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday… Mitchell, 75, led a commission appointed by former President Bill Clinton to find ways to halt Israeli-Palestinian violence.

WSJ Says That Crash Promulgator Plays Central Role in Planning Obama Economic Policy (by Dean Baker)
The Wall Street Journal told readers that former Treasury secretary and Citigroup honcho Robert Rubin is playing a central role in designing President Obama’s economic policy. It would have been appropriate to note that with the possible exception of Alan Greenspan, Mr. Rubin is the person most responsible for the policies that lead to the current crisis… The WSJ does note that Mr. Rubin personally profited from these policies in his role as a top Citigroup executive, but it does not point out the extent to which he was directly responsible for the policies that have produced the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. If Mr. Rubin is in fact playing a large role in determining the economic policies of the Obama administration, this should be serious cause for public concern.

Marty Lederman joins the Obama Justice Department. (Think Progress)
Georgetown Law Professor Marty Lederman will serve as Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel, working under Dawn Johnsen, who will head the office. Over the past few years, Lederman’s legal blogging at Balkanization has provided invaluable insight and strength to critics of key Bush policies, including torture and warrantless wiretapping. Lederman wrote passionately against the Bush administration’s efforts to legalize the use of torture.

Paper Offers Apology for ‘Gross Neglect’ During Civil Rights Struggle (by Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher)
In a remarkable statement one day before the birthday holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. — and two days before the inauguration of Barack Obama — the Meridian (Miss.) Star has, in an editorial, offered an apology for its past coverage of civil rights issues.
So, will it take 50 years for newspapers to apologize for giving us George W. Bush?  And the Iraq War?  And the current financial meltdown?  But I don’t really want apologies.  I want them to do better reporting in the future.  So far, the signs aren’t good.

Portfolio’s Matt Cooper Joins New TPM Blog (by Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo)
TPM is launching a new politics blog, TPMDC.com. Our team covering the Capital under the new administration will be Elana Schor covering Capitol Hill, Matt Cooper covering the White House and the rest of the Obama administration and Eric Kleefeld covering the political world.

Couric: “It’s nice not to be criticized on a regular basis in the press” (Poynter Online)
Katie Couric says the recent positive attention for her work has been gratifying, especially after going through “a hazing period of sorts.” She tells Matea Gold: “I mean, listen, it’s nice to be respected for your work, [but] I take it all with probably a shaker of salt.” Regarding initial criticism of her anchor work: “I got to a point where I really didn’t focus on it because it sort of sucks your spirit dry after a while.”

Shorter Wall Street Journal (by Paul Krugman)
So, there’s a WSJ editorial on the Bush economy, which just cries out for a capsule summary.
Shorter WSJ I: Everything good that happened during the Bush years was due to Bush; everything bad was due to Alan Greenspan, who fostered the housing bubble whose existence we and our friends denied again and again.
Shorter WSJ II: The decline in the unemployment rate in the middle Bush years, after Bush cut taxes, proves that tax cuts work — and had nothing to do with the housing bubble. The much larger, much more sustained decline in unemployment through the whole Clinton administration, which followed a tax increase, proves that tax increases are a terrible thing. Honest!
Shorter WSJ III: Fannie and Freddie! And did we mention Alan Greenspan?
Shorter WSJ IV: Who you gonna believe, us or your lying eyes?

Bush won’t pardon Libby. (Think Progress)
Today is President Bush’s last full day in office, and according to Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff, he has decided not to pardon Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff Scooter Libby for his role in the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity. The move has left many conservatives very disappointed:

Bush commutes sentences of 2 Border Patrol agents (McClatchy)
FORT WORTH, Texas — In one of his final presidential acts, President George W. Bush on Monday commuted the prison sentences of two Texas Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a Mexican drug smuggler in 2005.

Bush pardon for Stevens unlikely (McClatchy)
On his last day in office, President Bush likely won’t be pardoning former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens or anyone else, a White House spokesman said today.

Court Issues Last Minute Decision Accepting VP’s Claim He is Preserving Records (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington – CREW)
In the waning hours of the Bush administration, Judge Colleen Kollar Kotelly accepted the vice president’s claim he is complying with the Presidential Records Act (“PRA”). The act requires presidential and vice presidential records to be turned over to the National Archives at the end of an administration.

Media Matters for America headlines

Will falsely claimed 2006 extension of Voting Rights Act “was based on the evidence used for the 1975 extension”

Media make false comparison of inauguration costs

On Fox News, Gingrich echoed distortion that EFCA “tak[es] away your right to a secret-ballot vote before being forced to join a union”

Lawyer and Journalist Are Shot Dead In Moscow
A prominent Russian human rights lawyer who often clashed with the security services was shot and killed along with a student journalist investigating neo-Nazi activity on Monday in central Moscow, prompting grief and outrage from colleagues who suspect they were targeted for their work.

On Facebook, Sicilian Mafia Is a Hot Topic
Authorities are investigating groups devoted to Mafiosi.

After Hookups, E-Cards That Warn, ‘Get Checked’
Public health officials are exploring ways to harness the Internet to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases by alerting people exposed to them.

Ask not… (by Jeff Jarvis)
I was talking with a good news exec who’s trying to build a new kind of local news product but it was only hours after I got off the phone that I figured out how I should have told him what he’s really doing. He talked about the community helping his company build a product. He should turn that around and ask instead how he can help the community build its network. Appropriate to the day, let’s paraphrase JFK: Ask not what your community can do for you. Ask what you can do for your community. When this thing is built – not a product, not a company, but perhaps a network or a looser ecosystem – it will work only when and if the community owns it. That’s why this news exec must help them build it. If he expects them to help him build his thing, they won’t – they’re building their own thing instead.

Media General Centralizing Products
Media General Inc. is centralizing its production and distribution services to allow its papers to focus more on selling advertising and providing editorial content, and less time on how the finished product reaches readers. The change will affect the company’s 24 daily papers and 275 weekly newspapers and niche publications.

USAT Discontinuing International Edition, But Willing To Hand It Off To Partners (Paid Content)
Gannett flagship USA Today plans to cease publishing its international edition next month, unless it can find willing partners in Europe and South America who would agree to take over operating it, AP reported. USAT has a similar arrangement in the Caribbean, where the paper offers its news and photos to partners who print it locally and sell their own ads. In return, USAT receives a licensing fee.

Billionaire Slim Invests in NYT Co.
The New York Times Company said Monday it had reached an agreement with the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu for a $250 million loan intended to help the newspaper company finance its businesses. Slim already owns 6.9 percent of the Times Company.
Now HE can pay for Maureen’s spa trips.

Maureen Dowd, Expense Account Queen
These are lean times at The New York Times. On Friday, the paper handed down new, tighter guidelines for employee expenses. So there was predictable outrage after op-ed star Maureen Dowd published a travel piece about her weekend spent scoping the scene at a new high-end spa in Miami.

Chicago Tribune tabloid “seems solid, substantial, very clean and easy to read”
“The overall feel, swept along by the Trib’s new elegant serif font, recalls classic tabs like Newsday, Christian Science Monitor (RIP), and yes, occasionally the competing Sun-Times, which in recent years has had several iterations of nice clean formats,” writes Ron Reason.

A day of change for radio too.
Clear Channel is widely expected to announce a major restructuring that could cause other companies to analyze the way they too do business. It’s reportedly seeking hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cost efficiencies, partly driven by a declining radio advertising marketplace.

Music industry urged to embrace the Internet
CANNES, France (Reuters) – The music industry needs to learn from the “dark side of the Internet” that has so decimated its business if it is to ever regain the upper hand in the fight against piracy.

Isle of Man proposes file-sharing fee
LONDON – Music fans and record labels have long fought over the rights and wrongs of file-sharing, but now an island tax haven in the Irish Sea says it has come up with a way to keep the peace.

CNN Looks to Cash in on Inauguration
The election cycle was kind to CNN. The home of Election Night’s second-most-watched network and most-trafficked website is hoping to capitalize in an even bigger way on Inauguration Day. The network’s total client list is the largest that CNN has ever had for any one- or two-day event.

Online TV Sites Battle for Viewers
On TV, content is king. But on the Web, community may reign supreme. Throughout television history, the way to lure most viewers was to air the best shows. It doesn’t necessarily work that way on the Web, where many shows can seen on multiple sites.

Inauguration Crowd Will Test Cellphone Networks
The cellphone industry has a plea for the throngs descending on the nation’s capital for the presidential inauguration: go easy on the mobile communications.

Backup Your Cell Phone Online with Skydeck (Mashable)
Ever lost your cell phone? Even the best of us have (this includes me), and more often than not the process of retrieving lost contact information, missed calls, texts, and even tweets is a stressful nightmare. If you’re using Skydeck, however, you won’t even skip a beat. The service, which bills itself as your cell phone online, has upgraded in a major way including contact sync with your phone, the ability to return calls from the Web, and access to all your voicemail as audio or transcribed text.

Flip phones dip in popularity
Clamshell-style phones remain popular although they’re losing favor to slider-type cell phones with QWERTY keyboards and “slate” screen devices like the iPhone.

With an Ultrathin Film, a Big Step Forward for Flexible Electronics
Scientists in South Korea are reporting a significant advance toward the development of flexible electronics.