Media & Politics (one section only today)
11-Feb-09
Permanent link to MTA daily media news
Geithner pledges forceful attack on banking crisis (AP)
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday the new administration will wage an aggressive two-front battle against the worst financial crisis in seven decades with commitments that could total up to $2 trillion…
The administration’s new plan will greatly expand an effort to unclog credit markets that provide loans to consumers and businesses. This effort will see a fivefold increase in bailout funding to $100 billion. If a total of $100 billion from the bailout fund were used, it would be enough to support an additional $1 trillion in lending support through the Fed’s program, known as the Term Asset-Backed Securities LoanFacility, the administration said… “As costly as this effort may be, we know that the complete collapse of our financial system would be incalculable for families, for businesses, and for our nation,” Geithner said.
Congressional aides said the administration was looking at possibly providing guarantees to investors who purchase the toxic assets or using the Fed’s resources to lower their borrowing costs. But Christopher Whalen, managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics, said the new plan doesn’t aggressively tackle the issue of how to get the toxic assets off banks’ books so they’ll start lending again. “We’re still not dealing with the core issue,” he said. “It’s more incremental thinking.”
The text of Geithner’s speech is here.
US Stocks Drop Amid New Bank-Rescue Plan (MarketWatch)
The recent strength shown by U.S. stocks vanished on Tuesday as the government unveiled a new bank-rescue plan and congressional action neared on a fresh round of fiscal stimulus for the wheezing U.S. economy. Investors bid up stocks last week in anticipation of the plan’s unveiling and were quick to unload them after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner revealed details of the package in a late-morning speech… The Dow Jones Industrial Average was recently off about 279 points, or 3.4%, at 7992… Treasury yields, which had reached their highest levels in months on Monday, dropped after Geithner spoke.
New bank bailout fails to address core economic problems (McClatchy)
The financial rescue plan unveiled Tuesday offers important moves to spur consumer lending, experts said, but it fails to answer key questions about how it would attack fundamental causes of the deepening economic crisis. Shoddy lending fueled a housing boom and run-up in prices that’s proved unsustainable. Mortgage finance created what now are considered distressed mortgage bonds and triggered the wider financial crisis. Geithner’s plan essentially asked markets and citizens alike to do little more than stay tuned on this front.
The plan also lacked details on the expected purchases of billions of dollars worth of “toxic” assets on bank balance sheets that investors won’t touch… These assets have a new name: legacy securities. Yet the problem of what do about them is unchanged. Banks could crumble if forced to unload them too cheaply, and taxpayers will grumble if government buys them at inflated prices.
Geithner Bank Bailout Plan: Fiasco (by Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism)
[H]ere we have another scowling Treasury secretary, with a bit more hair than his predecessor, serving up the same fatally flawed approach as before: let’s just throw money at the banks and hope they get better… The elephant in the room is how do we solve the heretofore insurmountable problem that the market price of the bad assets is well below what the banks are willing to sell them for?… The failure to clean up the banks and write down bad assets was a big contributor to Japan’s lost decade… [M]y sense that Team Obama is making this up as they go was confirmed by an e-mail from Robert Radano: “…There is no plan. The Senate received no briefing, no documents. Press reports, leaks mostly, are as accurate as anything the Admin. has discussed with the Hill.”
Acronyms (by Paul Krugman)
I was going to dub the new financial plan TANF 2 — temporary assistance to needy financial institutions, without, you know, any of the means-testing or work requirements involved when poor people get help. But Jamie Galbraith (private communication) has trumped me; he says it’s the Bad Assets Relief Fund.
That’s B.A.R.F.
Obama proves that one can fail before one starts (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
Americans must overcome their cultural phobia against nationalization. Right now, each day, each hour, right-wing propagandists key repeating one message the way Steve Reich repeats a musical phrase: Obama and the Dems are socialists. The ignorant American public will swallow that nonsense, even though the problem requires the opposite diagnosis. Obama and Giethner insist on leaving the banking industry in the hands of the suicidal capitalists who destroyed it. In other words, Obama hopes somehow to hoist the choo-choo back onto the rails and to keep the same engineer on the job. The correct name for such a policy is not socialism but corporatism.
Obama, as always, thinks he can charm his way out of this one. He thought he could charm the Republicans into supporting his plan, but they proved to be charm-proof. They see failure a-comin’, and they see no advantage in giving that failure a bipartisan label. If Obama’s plan had any chance of working, they’d have signed up.
I’m not sure Joe’s right about the Republicans signing up for anything they might think is a winning strategy to resolve the economic crisis. I really believe, based on substantial evidence over the last 15 years, that there are Republicans in positions of power who want the Democrats to fail, even if it destroys the country in the process.
But Joe is certainly right to fault Obama, the Democrats, progressives, liberals, the whole stinking crew, for not fighting for core principles. It’s why I started a website in the first place more than eight years ago. The leadership could have convinced, could still convince, the money people to fund a media strategy that fights false right-wing memes and promotes policies that make sense for the greatest number of Americans. The fact that they have done so little of that has been a thorn in my paw for a very long time. It means that the most powerful people who call themselves Democrats and/or progressives and/or liberals have bought into many of those right-wing memes. It’s just plain pitiful.
Prepare to change your thinking (by: Matt Miller, author of “The Tyranny of Dead Ideas”, writing at Politico)
The paradox of our time is that the blind spots of the world’s leading capitalist nation are now the biggest risk to the future of capitalism, and therefore to the well-being not only of the United States but also of billions of people across the globe. We’re in a race between capitalism’s tendency in this era to wreck so many lives that it loses standing with the public, and Obama’s ability to awaken us to the stakes, open our minds and lead us toward new ways of thinking that make American-style capitalism safe for the 21st century.
But Matt, you presume a WILLINGness on Obama’s part to awaken the public. I don’t see that at all. He’s beholden to the very people who have the blind spots and even spend tons of money to maintain them.
Bailed-out firms rename their cash bonuses as ‘retention awards.’ (Think Progress)
The Huffington Post reports that bailed-out financial firms Morgan Stanley and Citigroup’s Smith Barney — which will soon merge — plan to reward their financial advisers with “very generous” cash bonuses. During an internal conference call last week, advisers were warned not to call the awards bonuses because it would cause a PR headache.
Because the most important thing is not what something is, but what people THINK it is. That statement is an excellent encapsulation of the world we live in, friends.
Americans Agree Congress Doesn’t Play By The Rules (Rasmussen)
Fifty-nine percent (59%) of American adults believe that when members of Congress meet with regulators and other government officials, they do so to help their friends and hurt their political opponents. In a solid display of agreement across party lines, a majority of Democrats, Republicans and those unaffiliated with either major party share this view. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 19% disagree and believe that their elected officials try to achieve a fair result in such meetings. Twenty-two percent (22%) of adults are not sure.
See below for why they might think that.
Congressmen Hear from TARP Recipients Who Funded Their Campaigns (Capital Eye)
The eight CEOs testifying Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee about how their companies are using billions of dollars in bailout funds may find that the hot seat is merely lukewarm. Nearly every member of the committee received contributions associated with these financial institutions during the 2008 election cycle, for a total of $1.8 million. And 18 of the lawmakers have their own personal funds invested in the companies. All of the companies represented at the hearing have received millions, even billions, from the government’s Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP)… These companies’ PACs and employees gave $10.6 million to all members of the 111th Congress in the 2008 election cycle, with 61 percent of that going to Democrats.
Economic collapse? Martial law? (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
On CSPAN, congressman Paul Kanjorski of PA dropped a bombshell, and now everyone on the internet — on the right, on the left, and in-between — is talking about it. After being rattled by an emotional call from a viewer, Kanjorski disclosed something that he probably did not intend to disclose. He said that in the middle of last September, the U.S. economy came close to utter ruination. “Close” as in hours away. Why? Because there was an electronic run on the banks — or so the congressman says… I counsel caution before accepting or rejecting this report at face value…
Alas, nobody seems to be making any inquiries into the Kanjorski bombshell. Did events happen as he says they did? How could a run on all the nation’s banks be conducted in secret?… Perhaps we should see these events in the light of this revelation by representative Brad Sherman of California, who describes the pressures put on congressfolk to pass last year’s economic emergency bill. Our representatives were told that martial law might be imposed… Scare rhetoric? Or a glimpse of the future?
The Economist says that the run was caused by the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Limbaugh speculates that Soros or a “consortium of countries” may have staged a run on banks in September to throw election to Obama (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
I must admit I’ve had similar thoughts myself. Only Soros isn’t the only suspect.
Senate passes Obama’s economic recovery plan (AP)
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan has passed the Senate and is on its way to difficult House-Senate negotiations. Just three Republicans helped pass the plan on a 61-37 vote and they’re already signaling they’ll play hardball to preserve more than $108 billion in spending cuts made last week in Senate dealmaking. Obama wants to restore cuts in funds for school construction jobs and help for cash-starved states. Those cuts are among the major differences between the $819 billion House version of Obama’s plan and a Senate bill costing $838 billion. Obama has warned of a deepening economic crisis if Congress fails to act. He wants a bill completed by the weekend.
The return of shrill (by Paul Krugman)
Via Angry Bear, Will Marshall says I deserve a “Pulitzer Prize in hyperbole” for saying that “the dastardly centrists would kill hundreds of thousands of jobs and cut vital health care and food programs, while offering a fat tax break to affluent homeowners” whereas the truth is that … the centrists would kill hundreds of thousands of jobs and cut vital health care and food programs, while offering a fat tax break to affluent homeowners. But shhh! You’re not supposed to say that!
The Latest On Negotiations Over The Stimulus: School Construction In, Home-Buyer Credit Out? (Think Progress)
House and Senate conferees met for more than nine hours of closed-door negotiations yesterday to reconcile their differing versions of the economic stimulus bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he hoped an agreement could be reached by today, but declined to detail the progress made. Politico’s Glenn Thrush is reporting that the Senate may yield on including a $15,000 home-buyer’s credit in the stimulus… First Read reported that $15 billion in school construction could be added to the bill, in lieu of the credit. This would be a fantastic swap, and Congress should make sure it happens.
Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan (by Betsy McCaughey, Bloomberg)
[N]o one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion… One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions… These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.” Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far…
Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. [Emphasis added.] That means the elderly will bear the brunt… If the Obama administration’s economic stimulus bill passes the Senate in its current form, seniors in the U.S. will face … rationing. Defenders of the system say that individuals benefit in younger years and sacrifice later.
There will have to be rationing, in the sense that we won’t be able to pay for every lame brain single mother who decides to have fertility treatments to give birth to octuplets when she already has six children that she can’t take care of. So decisions will have to be made about what will be paid for and what won’t. But Daschle’s insensitivity toward old folks reminds me that he’s getting up there in years, too. Maybe we should limit him to the exact same care that the average elderly person gets.
Obama’s Press Conference (Political Wire)
President Obama used a combination of the bully pulpit of the presidency and his strong approval ratings to assert his dominance over the legislative process in Washington, D.C [Monday night] at his first prime time White House press conference… Most interesting: Nearly every question was about a policy concern facing America. There was not a single question on the process stumbles of Obama’s first few weeks in office.
Are our press corpse learning? We can certainly HOPE so.
Obama’s First Presser: Blasts GOP For Rebuffing Outreach, Signals Reluctance To Probe Bush Era (by Greg Sargent AT The Plum Line)
A couple quick notes on President Obama’s first press conference [Monday].
* First, he made his biggest effort yet to underscore his underlying philosophical and ideological differences with Republicans, mocking the claim by some in the GOP leadership that big public expenditures can’t save our nose-diving economy…
* Second, Obama made his most overt case yet that he’d reached out to Republicans, only to see his efforts rebuffed, a case that previously had been left to his aides, apparently because it stepped on his earlier “post-partisan” message…
* Third, he seemed to reiterate his unwillingness to go back and push for a full accounting of the Bush era. Asked by The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein about Senator Patrick Leahy’s call today for a genuine probe of Bush era “misdeeds,” everything Obama said was about looking to the future. He said his main task is to signal that “we do not torture” — emphasis in the present tense, not the past.
The full text of Obama’s opening remarks is here.
GOP on Stimulus: First, Do Harm (by Froma Harrop)
Although Republicans surely understand the urgency of slapping paddles on the economy’s stopped heart, they would like to go out for a smoke first and score some partisan points. Thus, Senate Republicans spent last weekend poisoning the public’s feelings toward the stimulus package and offering the same economic snake oil that drove the economy into the gutter… So the game plan, it seems, is to savage the stimulus proposal and let Democrats pass it with little Republican support. The stimulus will go into effect, and Republicans won’t have to take responsibility for what could have happened if it didn’t.
That is ALWAYS the Republican game plan. When will Democrats learn that, and learn to fight it?
Why Republicans Won’t Support the Stimulus (by Robert Reich)
Republicans don’t want their fingerprints on the stimulus bill or the next bank bailout because they plan to make the midterm election of 2010 a national referendum on Barack Obama’s handling of the economy. They know that by then the economy will still appear sufficiently weak that they can dub the entire Obama effort a failure — even if the economy would have been far worse without it, even if the economy is beginning to turn around. They’ll say “he wanted more government spending, and we said no, but we didn’t have the votes. Elect us and we’ll turn the economy around by cutting taxes and getting government out of the private sector.”
It’s exactly what they did at the beginning of Bill Clinton’s first term, and within two years they had control of the House of Representatives. But Obama supporters told us it would be DIFFERENT this time, because of Obama’s inherent betterness.
Poll: Americans Blame Republicans For Failure To Move On Stim (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
Some striking numbers in the new Pew poll dramatize again that the Republicans are, in some ways, losing the political battle over the stimulus package: “…[B]y nearly four-to-one (61% to 16%), those who say Obama and the Republicans are not cooperating blame Republicans, rather than Obama, for the failure to work together. Moreover, only about a third of Americans (34%) approve of the job that Republican leaders in Congress are doing, while 51% disapprove. The balance of opinion toward Democratic congressional leaders is much more positive; 48% approve of the job that they are doing compared with 38% who disapprove.”
Local news coverage favors economic recovery bill. (Think Progress)
Rep. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD) office has compiled statistics showing that progressives may be winning the battle on local news: “Democrats looked at 29 districts that Democrats took over in either 2006 or 2009, districts that tend to be swing or conservative districts. Democrats determined that 92 percent of the local stories portrayed the stimulus in a positive light, touting the benefits the spending would bring to struggling local economies. Of newspaper stories, 91 percent were positive; TV, 96 percent; and radio, 85 percent. The analysis excludes editorials and columns and stuck exclusively to reported stories.”
New poll shows stimulus coverage is not just wrong — it is out of touch, too (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Over the past few weeks, the news media has repeatedly portrayed President Obama and (especially) congressional Democrats as being insufficiently “bipartisan” and “centrist” in their approach to the stimulus package. These news reports often seem to suggest that bipartisanship is an end in and of itself, rather than a means to an end. Worse…, they blamed the wrong party for the lack of bipartisan cooperation… [Monday], a new Gallup poll shows that not only were these news reports factually and logically flawed, they were – once again – painfully out of touch with the American people.
LIMITED EFFECTS…. (by Steve Benen at Political Animal, the Washington Monthly)
I’m a little surprised by these results. [See the graph above.] Not only have conservative Republicans been dominating the discourse, but the critics’ talking points have been largely internalized by journalists covering the debate. There’s at least some data suggesting Americans actually want less stimulus in the stimulus bill. It’s at least possible, then, that the Gallup results are an outlier… Gallup noted “the degree to which Obama appears to be maintaining the upper hand over his opponents.” If only that were true. Given what we’ve seen of late, there’s no reason to believe Republicans’ conduct is in any way connected to the demands of voters. The president would have the upper hand if the minority party were swayed by public opinion, but at least for now, the GOP is more interested in standing on the party’s “core principles” than anything else.
GOP Leadership: Gallup Poll Reinforces Republican Claims (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
So does [the above] Gallup poll — which finds that big majorities approve of Obama and disapprove of the GOP on the stim package — reinforce Republican claims on the stimulus package? That’s the case that Brad Dayspring, a top aide to House minority whip Eric Cantor, is now making. Dayspring sends over a note laying out the argument. “The poll reinforces EXACTLY what Republicans have been saying,” it says.
GOP Leaders Taking Cues From Malkin On Stimulus, Call It ‘Generational Theft’ (Think Progress)
In early January, when President Obama first proposed his American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, conservative columnist Michelle Malkin balked at the proposal’s name, writing that it should be called “The Generational Theft Act of 2009.” Malkin has been pushing her attempted re-branding ever since, repeating it over and over and over again.
Malkin’s views are apparently beginning to hold sway with Republicans in Congress. On January 29, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) said of the proposed stimulus package, “This bill is a generational theft bill.” In a blog post [Sunday] for AmericaSpeakOn.org, a new conservative 501(c)4 group, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) used Malkin’s language as well… Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who has become a top critic of the recovery package in the Senate, also referred to it as “generational theft” on CBS’ Face The Nation [Sunday].
But Bush’s theft of the Social Security surplus to enrich his oil and military contractor buddies WASN’T generational theft? Combined with the additional debt generated by Bush’s misadventures, it was theft from TWO generations. Click through to watch the McCain video.
WoldNetDaily and Fox News “bearing false witness” on Recovery Plan ( County Fair, Media Matters for America)
ConWebWatch and News Hounds pick up on WorldNetDaily and Fox News promoting the misguided notion that the President’s recovery bill would prohibit religious activity in schools accepting Federal funds.
THE NEW LIE (by Bob Cesca, thanks to County Fair)
It’s on. The Republicans, evidently spearheaded by Drudge, are clearly attempting to conflate the bank bailouts with the recovery bill… Recently, there’s been pundit chatter about how some Americans are inadvertently confusing the two (very different) government plans. It now appears as if the Republicans will be seizing upon this confusion in order to further diminish public support for the recovery bill.
Right wing parrots Rush’s attacks on health care provisions in the stimulus. (Think Progress)
Taking their cue from Rush Limbaugh, right-wing pundits have launched a massive misinformation campaign mischaracterizing the economic recovery package as a socialist government takeover of health care that would result in Big Brother watching over Americans’ shoulders.
Click through to watch a video compilation.
Obama Allies Launch New Ad Directly Attacking GOP Leaders — White House Told In Advance (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
President Obama’s allies on the left, AFSCME and the labor-backed Americans United for Change, are ramping up with a massive advertising blitz containing the most direct and hard-hitting attack yet on specific GOP leaders, demanding that they get behind the recovery package and stop saying “No.” White House aides were told in advance what the concept of the ads would be, though they were briefed while the ad was in production, according to a Democrat familiar with the discussions.
Always the most limited approach. Never a broad strategy of educating the public.
Tuesday: Words (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
[V]erily I say unto Obama, “Embrace your inner Democrat!” Sometimes the solution requires subtlety and finesse, shade of gray, diplomacy and nuance. And sometimes the solution is very clear and easy. It’s as straightforward as putting out a fire. Grab a bucket and throw some water on it. If the bucket you grab belongs to some dead Democrat from 60 years ago and it’s the only one around, are you supposed to put it down because the Villagers are sniffing that it’s not *their* kind of bucket? People are losing their jobs, healthcare, means to feed their children and their futures… I’m tired of the words. I’m disgusted with the stage craft and the carefully crafted images of determination. I’m enraged that the Village still thinks it can have its cake and eat it too and has no sense of morality or philanthropy. And I want Obama to stop trying to walk a fine line. It’s time to do the right thing, even if you have to act like a fricking Democrat to do it. Words have no meaning if actions fail to match. Obama needs to get out there, stop depending on Congress to sort it out and lead for a change.
Screw the Republicans and DINOs and the Reagan they rode in on.
Does CNN’s John King think construction work is done pro bono? (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Apparently. Because asking questions about the stimulus bill, King, perfectly echoing GOP talking points, wonders if a construction project one mayor is proposing (a community wave pool) will actually create jobs. The only real question is how does hiring a construction firm to build a community pool not create jobs? Seriously, we’d love to hear King’s explanation.
Americans aren’t buying it, John. See below.
Gov’t. Projects Seen as Better for Job Creation Than Tax Cuts (Gallup)
In terms of creating jobs, Americans are slightly more likely to believe that increased government funding of infrastructure and other projects (50%) is a better approach than tax cuts for individuals and businesses (42%).
Dakinikat shows us the multipliers:
The Confluence
Multipliers and the Role of Government (by Mark Thoma at Economist’s View)
I think it would be fair to say that most economists believe that both tax and government spending multipliers are non-zero, though we disagree about which of the two is bigger. But if both tax cuts and government spending can get the job done, and the differences aren’t that large, I don’t think most people who aren’t economists care which is bigger, the choice depends upon other things. Suppose, e.g., that the tax multiplier is 1.25 and the government spending multiplier is 1.50. Then it would take a change in taxes of $600 to produce the same effect as changing government spending by $500, but so long as the amount is adjusted according to the magnitude of the multiplier, the impact on the economy will be the same.
Because of this rough equivalence, many people opposed to the stimulus bill aren’t opposed because they think that government spending won’t work, the issue is, plainly and simply, the size of government and its role in the economy.
But as we saw above, the multipliers are much higher if the government spends, rather than reducing taxes. What a shame that right-wing ideology, once again, triumphs over what’s best for the most of us.
Alter demolishes conservative claims that gov’t jobs “are not really jobs,” New Deal spending “did not work” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
House Recovery Act Creates More Jobs than Senate Compromise (Center for American Progress)
The Senate compromise recovery and reinvestment legislation provides for 12 to 15 percent fewer jobs created or saved than the House-passed Recovery and Reinvestment Act despite costing slightly more. The House-passed legislation creates or saves between 430,000 and 538,000 more jobs than the Senate compromise. As outlined by Michael Ettlinger in “A Step Forward, a Stumble Back,” the greater job creation in the House bill is because the balance is more focused on investment programs than on less effective tax cuts. The reverse is true in the Senate compromise which, among other tax measures, includes a patch to the Alternative Minimum Tax that will not be as stimulative as investments in infrastructure or fiscal help to states that the compromise pares back.
Driving Over the Cliff (by Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration)
The Household Survey shows that 832,000 people lost their jobs in January and 806,000 in December, for a two month reduction of Americans with jobs of 1,638,000… In other words, without all the manipulations of the data, the US unemployment rate is already at depression levels. How could it be otherwise given the enormous job loss from offshored jobs. It is impossible for a country to create jobs when its corporations are moving production for the American consumer market offshore… US policymakers have ignored the fact that consumer demand in the 21st century has been driven, not by increases in real income, but by increased consumer indebtedness. This fact makes it pointless to try to stimulate the economy by bailing out banks so that they can lend more to consumers. The American consumers have no more capacity to borrow…
Unless US corporations can be required to use American labor to produce the goods and services that they sell in American markets, there is no hope for the US economy. No one in the Obama administration has the wits to address this problem. Thus, the economy will continue to implode.
Dr. Doom & the Black Swan: You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet (CNBC)
Nouriel Roubini and Nassim Taleb are widely credited with predicting the current financial crisis, and both told CNBC they see more rough waters ahead. Even if we play our cards right, said Roubini, chairman of RGEMonitor.com, it will take at least 12 months to get out of this recession. “If you don’t do everything right, and I think there’s a large probability that’s going to happen, then we may end up in a multi-year stagnation or near depression like the one that Japan had,” he added. Roubini said there is still a 20 percent downside risk to U.S. global equities, and he advises investors to stay in cash until there is a real bottom.
The brown line is our situation today.
Calculated Risk
Quick thoughts on Obama’s speech and presser (by lambert at Corrente)
[C]rap on entitlements: “Having said that, I think there are a lot of Republicans who are sincere in recognizing that, unless we deal with entitlements in a serious way, the problems we have with this year’s deficit and next year’s deficit pale in comparison to what we’re going to be seeing 10 or 15 years or 20 years down the road.” Good to know that Big Money isn’t entitled to two trillion dollars of our money with no transparency and no accountability. Oh, wait. Those aren’t the kind of entitlements he’s talking about?
Click through for lots more.
Obama’s Reagan problem (by Gary Kamiya, Salon)
Obama was widely, and legitimately, criticized on the left for saying during the campaign that Reagan “changed the direction of America” in a way that Bill Clinton did not… By praising Reagan, Obama was trying to present himself as a reassuring, all-American-like figure, a believer in hard work and personal responsibility, not just another orthodox liberal demanding more rights and entitlements. He was trying have it both ways: be a little bit of a free-market, anti-bureaucracy populist and a little bit of a big-government liberal. In other words, he was pandering to the swing voters, moderates and independents who decide elections.
Obama’s all-things-to-all-people image worked well as a campaign tactic, but it is untenable when it comes to governance. You can’t be a little bit liberal any more than you can be a little bit pregnant. At a certain point, you have to declare — or decide — who you are.
Obama On Lessons Learned: I Should Have Started With No Tax Cuts And Let GOP Take Credit For Them (Think Progress)
At [Monday night’s] White House press conference, NPR’s Mara Liasson asked President Obama what lessons he has learned through the process of negotiating with Republicans over the economic recovery package. Obama explained there’s a lot of people who “sort of want to test the limits of what they can get.”… Obama went on [to] rip Republicans who now lecture about the need for fiscal responsibility. “It’s a little hard for me to take criticism from folks about this recovery package after they presided over a doubling of the national debt,” he said. “I’m not sure they have a lot of credibility when it comes to fiscal responsibility.”
Click through to watch the video.
Obama DOJ affirms Bush’s state secrets position in extraordinary rendition lawsuit. (Think Progress)
In federal court [Monday], the Obama administration signaled it would uphold the Bush administration’s state secrets position in a lawsuit regarding Bush’s use of extraordinary rendition. Five men who say they were victims of extraordinary rendition — including current Guantanamo detainee and torture victim Binyam Mohamed — sued, but the case was thrown out last year after Bush declared it to be a matter of state secrets. In an appeal [Monday], the new administration took the same position:
Obama fails his first test on civil liberties and accountability — resoundingly and disgracefully (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
What makes this particularly appalling and inexcusable is that Senate Democrats had long vehemently opposed the use of the “state secrets” privilege in exactly the way that the Bush administration used it in this case, even sponsoring legislation to limits its use and scope. Yet here is Obama, the very first chance he gets, invoking exactly this doctrine in its most expansive and abusive form to prevent torture victims even from having their day in court, on the ground that national security will be jeopardized if courts examine the Bush administration’s rendition and torture programs – even though (a) the rendition and torture programs have been written about extensively in the public record; (b) numerous other countries have investigated exactly these allegations; and (c) other countries have provided judicial forums in which these same victims could obtain relief.
Exclusive: Senator Feingold Hits Obama Administration Over Extraordinary Rendition Decision (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
Senator Russ Feingold is sharply criticizing the Obama administration over its controversial decision to maintain the Bush administration’s position in a closely watched lawsuit involving alleged victims of extraordinary rendition, a decision that generated a storm of criticism [Monday]. “I am troubled by reports that the Obama administration has decided to invoke the state secrets privilege in a case brought by five men who claim to have been the victims of extraordinary rendition,” Feingold said in a statement sent to me by his office, in a rare instance of criticism directed at Obama by a Senator in his own party.
Abortion policies take a back seat (by James Oliphant, Baltimore Sun)
When Barack Obama was campaigning for president, he promised to enact legislation to prohibit the states from limiting the right to abortion. Now that Obama is in the White House and solid Democratic majorities are ensconced in Congress, opponents of abortion rights have been bracing for that and other major changes to abortion laws. But there are indications that what those groups dread most and some liberal voters eagerly anticipate as the rewards of victory might not come to pass – at least not yet. Democrats on Capitol Hill say that while they are committed to reversing several Bush administration policies with regard to abortion rights and family planning, they might hold off on pursuing the kind of expansive agenda feared by social conservatives.
Because we MUST refrain from frightening social conservatives.
Health Care Reform Coming This Year (Political Wire)
A senior administration official tells Jonathan Cohn that health care would be a “central focus” of President Obama’s first budget proposal. “The official didn’t specify precisely what that meant: Would the administration be asking for funds to make sure every American has insurance, or just a portion? Would there be major reforms of the way medical care is delivered? But even with that ambiguity, the statement seems to signal that Obama still takes health care seriously and hopes to pass significant legislation in the next year.” Expect health care reforms to be pursued shortly after the debate over the economic stimulus package is over.
Cbs Poll: The People Want Govt Healthcare for ALL. (by texan4hillary at Alegre’s Corner)
A New York Times/CBS News poll released last week shows, yet again, that the majority of Americans support national health insurance. “The poll, which compares answers to the same questions from 30 years ago, finds that, ‘59% [of Americans] say the government should provide national health insurance, including 49% who say such insurance should cover all medical problems.’ Only 32% think that insurance should be left to private enterprise.”
Ignorance is bliss (by Paul Krugman)
That is, your ignorance is the drug makers’ (and the medical equipment makers’) bliss… “The drug and medical-device industries are mobilizing to gut a provision in the stimulus bill that would spend $1.1 billion on research comparing medical treatments, portraying it as the first step to government rationing.” Because freedom is all about laying out vast sums on medical treatments without knowing whether they’re actually doing any good.
Remember this the next time someone talks about “entitlement reform” (which will probably happen in the next three seconds or so.) Health care costs are the main reason long-term fiscal projections look so scary — and here we have corporate interest trying to prevent us, not from trying to spend our health dollar more wisely, but from even trying to find out what we get for the health care dollar. This is truly vile.
Leahy endorses ‘truth commission’ to investigate Bush DOJ abuses. (Think Progress)
[Monday] in a speech at Georgetown University, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said that he — like other congressional Democrats, such Rep. John Conyers (MI) and Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) and Carl Levin (MI) — supports the idea of a “truth commission” to investigate abuses at the Department of Justice:
Republicans Won’t Block Solis Over Tax Issues (Political Wire)
Republicans aren’t going to derail Rep. Hilda Solis’ nomination for Labor secretary over her husband’s tax problems, according to Politico. ”But they are still exploring the congresswoman’s ties to a pro-union organization, and a vote on her nomination has yet to be scheduled.”
Dean Gets HHS Endorsement From Patrick Leahy (by Sam Stein, the Huffington Post)
Chalk up another endorsement for Howard Dean taking over the reins of the Department of Health and Human Services. On Monday, Sen. Patrick Leahy said that the former DNC header and fellow Vermont Democrat would be the ideal candidate to take the spot of recently withdrawn HHS nominee, Tom Daschle. “I think Howard Dean would do a great job,” Leahy told the Huffington Post at an event at Georgetown University. “He is a physician. As governor he had to deal with everything that went right with HHS and with everything that went wrong. He can tell us that these are the things that a governor has to face, Medicare especially and other things, he is very knowledgeable. He would be very good … And he is obviously a tireless worker.”
Bredesen: ‘Advocacy Groups Don’t Matter Nearly As Much As The Pharmaceutical Groups’ (Think Progress)
It’s clear that Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) desperately wants to become President Obama’s Health and Human Services Secretary. In fact, as the Nashville Post blog points out, he was campaigning for the job in his State of the State address yesterday, stating, “[T]his recession has truly underlined for me something that I’ve believed for a long time: that we need a national solution for health insurance.” His candidacy, however, has been widely opposed by health care experts… FamiliesUSA, in fact, released a whole book on Bredesen’s devastating cuts to the state’s Medicaid program, TennCare, which resulted in 320,000 low-income residents losing health coverage.
Bredesen Thinks He’s Out of Running for HHS (Political Wire)
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) told state legislators this morning that he doesn’t think President Obama will nominate him for the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary position, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports.
Kagan: “Enemy Combatants” May Be Held Without Trial (American Constitution Society)
Harvard Law School dean Elena Kagan came one step closer to becoming the 46thSolicitor General yesterday, breezing through her hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Opposition to her nomination was mitigated in part by her agreement with the previous administration’s position that “enemy combatants” may be held without criminal procedural safeguards, including the right to a speedy trial.
I disagree. Either we have laws, or we don’t have laws. If we have them, they apply to everyone.
Obama Will Keep Fitzgerald (Political Wire)
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who brought criminal fraud charges against Rod Blagojevich and Scooter Libby, “will be staying in his job in the Obama administration, even though he was appointed to the position by President George W. Bush,” NBC News reports. “U.S. attorneys are political appointees. The normal practice, when there’s a change of political parties in the White House, is for the incoming administration to replace all 93 U.S. attorneys with appointees from the new president’s party.”
Oh, yes, he has to now. I still believe that was the main reason behind Fitzgerald’s arrest of Gov. Blago—to stay as U.S. Attorney in Chicago.
Interior Official Was Nabbed in FBI Sting (Washington Post)
An Interior Department official caught taking bribes in exchange for arranging meetings between insurance brokers and government officials was swept up in an FBI corruption probe that began in a struggling New Jersey shore community near Atlantic City. Federal investigators have told The Post that the New Jersey-based insurance brokerage firm that paid 60-year-old Edgar A. Johnson $15,000 in kickbacks in 2006 and 2007 was a fake company — part of a far-reaching FBI sting operation… Authorities were eager to clamp down on pay-to-play schemes running rampant in many of New Jersey’s suburban communities.
NOAA Strips Scientist Of Funding Because Of His Marine Conservation ‘Advocacy’ (Think Progress)
Despite the fact that Bush has left office, the federal government’s energy exploration apparatus is still living up to its Bush-era pro-industry reputation. Indeed, new documents released by the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) today show that Professor Rick Steiner, a marine scientist at the University of Alaska, is set to lose his federal funding for opposing the Bush administration’s industry-friendly policies.
Palin backs out of CPAC. (Think Progress)
Washington Whispers reports that Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) will no longer be speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the end of February. Palin told event organizers that the “duties of governing” now prevent her from attending.
Porn star to challenge Vitter for U.S. Senate. (Think Progress)
CNN reports that adult film star Stormy Daniels may be considering a Senate run against Sen. David Vitter (R-LA). Vitter, who was involved in the D.C. Madam prostitution ring, prides himself as being conservative on social issues. When asked about a possible senate run against Vitter, Daniels took a swipe at Vitter: “‘I don’t see how I can possibly embarrass him more than he already embarrassed himself…Honestly, I’m not sure I’m willing to take the pay cut that comes with being a senator.’” This year, an ad appeared on Craigslist seeking “a female in some aspect of the adult-entertainment industry” to run against Vitter, reports Max Blumenthal.
Green Wants Back In (Political Wire)
Mark Green (D), New York City’s first public advocate, has told NY1 he will once again run for the office. He held the position from 1994 to 2001. Ben Smith: “Green was almost elected mayor in 2001, and likely would have been if not for the September 11 terror attacks; he’s an old-line liberal figure, a one-time Naderite, who New Yorkers either love or love to hate.”
Mark Green is also the CEO of Air America Radio.
Former eBay CEO makes it official: she’ll run for governor (McClatchy)
Former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman officially submitted her bid to explore a run for governor on Monday.
The ultimate DUmmy thread (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
Democratic Underground offers a thread on the topic ”If this were a dictatorship, Barack Obama could fulfill every one of your ideological dreams.” Anyone whose “ideological” dreams are compatible with any form of dictatorship is no lower-case d democrat. That site is quite mis-named. Responses: “I was telling my friend the other day, I would not mind a dictatorship under Obama.” “…I think he would always act for the best for all, rather than for CEOs and trust-fund babies, if he were The Sole Decider”
That is EXACTLY how the Bushbots talked. And look how that worked out. Vastleft at Corrente says, “We’re the serfs we were waiting for.”
Another example of emotional infancy:
Tribal Authorities: Handing It Off to the Leader (by Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque)
[In] his important series on “Tribalism”…, [Arthur] Silber is examining some of the underlying causes – and most dangerous expressions – of the unthinking, reflexive and delusional loyalties that bind us in fearful obedience to the groupthink of the various tribes with which we identify ourselves… By fortuitous coincidence, the Guardian [Monday] provides us with a striking example of political tribalism in action: an article by writer Anna Shapiro, in which the literal abandoment of the mind and will to the guidance of the Leader (in this case, Barack Obama) is openly celebrated. This is accompanied by a deep personal and emotional identification with the Leader, and a compulsive rejection of any and all criticism of his noble deeds; such negativity is derided as “manufactured controversy” engineered by the “jackal-like” media.
Apparently, no right-thinking person (or right-feeling person, we should probably say) could possibly be troubled by, say, Obama’s retention of the leadership of Bush’s malevolent war machine; nor should any good person question the Leader’s “investigation into official standards regarding methods of interrogation.” We should eschew all “trumped-up criticism,” and put everything in Obama’s hands, because he’s “much smarter” than we are.
STFU Sirota! (by myiq2xu at The Confluence)
From David Sirota at Open Left: “I stand by everything I wrote and said about Obama during the election – that includes both the praise and criticism. I, and many others who supported Obama, weren’t misled by him. I had my eyes wide open… To Clintonites, just STFU and slither back to your rathole of bitterness. Your candidate lost because she helped create the problems we now have to fix. Deal with that and become a productive member of society, or again, just STFU.”…
Obama has to “clean up after Clintonism?” WTF? What does he have to clean up, the peace or the prosperity? Does Dave really believe that the mess we are in right now is all the Big Dawg’s fault? Hasn’t ever heard of George W. Bush? Hillary had “every single advantage?” Obama had more money, the media and the Democratic establishment on his side. What about FISA? Hillary voted no, Obama voted yes. Was Obama’s reneging on campaign finance “progressive?” How about his flip-flop on the “state secrets” privilege? Exactly what criteria is Dave using when he says Obama was the “most progressive” candidate?
Sirota misled plenty of people, helping THEM to keep THEIR eyes shut. So that makes his open-eyed support of the more conservative candidate in the primary even less conscionable.
To Sirota, with loathing (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
During the primaries, David Sirota established himself as a key Obama cultist and Hillary-hater. Now he has published an anti-Obama column titled Obama’s team of zombies. Not many months ago, Daverino was himself among the walking dead… But now, Davey is changing his tune. Too little, too late… No mea culpa, no shrift. I won’t forgive Sirota for his despicable, deceptive behavior during the primary campaign until he asks for forgiveness — until he admits that he misled his readers.
Has the real Josh Marshall returned? (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
Marshall may be approaching his “Colonel Nicholson” [Bridge on the River Kwai "Good Lord, what have I done?"] moment. Look at his column right now. First, he front-pages these comments from a reader… “…When Geithner was nominated a lot of people complained that he was a poor choice because he was far too beholden to the big Wall Street players and their interests. Now it appears that he’s trying to do everything in his power to protect those very people at the expense of the American tax payer. For better or worse this falls squarely on Obama’s shoulders–as it should. ” Next, TPM publishes [an] important investigative piece by Zachary Roth, who highlights Obama’s choice of Robert Wolf for his Economic Recovery Advisory Board… Wolf heads UBS… There’s no place for a Paul Krugman or a James Galbraith on that advisory board. But a slimeball like Wolf is welcome.
Marshall seems to be awakening from his slumber. Will Moulitsas or Atrios or Aravosis or the DUmmies notice the screaming alarm clock…?
News Narrative Turns Bearish on Obama (Project for Excellence in Journalism)
Two different stories combined to create one major media narrative last week – a new President off to a shaky start.
New Media Breaks In, but Tradition Lives On in White House Press Room
President Obama on Monday evening became the 10th American president to call on Helen Thomas at a White House news conference. And he was the first to call on Sam Stein, a reporter for The Huffington Post, whose Internet publication sprung to life during Mr. Obama’s candidacy.
Obama’s candidacy started before May 9, 2005? That would have been only four months after he was first sworn in as my senator. He abandoned us pretty quickly, but not THAT quickly.
Jonah Goldberg, a god-awful media critic (by Eric Boehlert, Media Matters for America)
It’s troubling when a phony, partisan attack on the press gets dressed up as a thoughtful examination and is hosted by one of the country’s largest newspapers, the way Jonah Goldberg’s anti-press piece was last week by USA Today.
Even for Goldberg, who makes his living casually smearing liberals as fascists, his USA Today media critique was an embarrassment. (For the paper as well as the writer.) It only highlighted what a mockery writers like him have made of the conservative media criticism genre. Poorly sourced and constructed around lazy, clichéd writing — and in a couple of cases, outright falsehoods — Goldberg’s piece simply illustrated how, rather than illuminating shortfalls of the press, conservatives often just create more work for the rest of us. Because now I have to critique Goldberg’s god-awful critique.
Click through for details.
Scarborough Mulls Senate Bid (Political Wire)
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, said he may run for office again, perhaps for the U.S. Senate in 2010, the Sarasota Herald Tribune reports. Said Scarborough: “I haven’t closed it off. I’ve been getting some calls from some fundraisers in Florida.” However, according to Politico, MSNBC closed off speculation quickly saying Scarborough wasn’t going to run.
Why not? Back and forth between media and politics—It’s the OTHER revolving door.
Specter to Ingraham: ‘Don’t Give Me That Wine and Dine Baloney, Young Lady’ (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
Some fireworks [Monday] on the Laura Ingraham Show. Her guest was Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., one of a handful of moderates who fashioned a compromise on the stimulus package… Ingraham implies that Specter supported this plan because he’d been wined and dined by President Obama. “Don’t give me that wine and dine baloney, young lady,” Specter says.
Click through for links to the audio.
Scarborough screams at Brzezinski for noting that “it is not President Obama’s fault that the Republicans spent all the money they spent over the past ten years” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Barnicle claimed Geithner gave NBC interview “with the eyes of a shoplifter,” which “doesn’t exactly instill confidence” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
On CNN, Rollins and Castellanos compare recovery plan to Soviet and Cuban communism, socialism (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Beck says of stimulus package: “It is slavery” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Politico uncritically reports Huckabee’s “anti-religious” nonsense on economic recovery plan (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Politico … uncritically repeat[ed] [Mike] Huckabee’s false claim that the economic recovery package is “anti-religious.” Though the provision Huckabee cited is correct — the bill would not provide money to be used on a religious “school or department of divinity” — Politico did not note that, contrary to Huckabee’s suggestion that this provision is a consequence of the liberal trifecta of Pelosi-Reid-Obama, such provisions were included in bills passed when the Republicans were in the majority.
Iron triangle revisited: Limbaugh touts Fox News “piece” that was really GOP press release (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Matthews to Feehery on Limbaugh: “Every time you guys get on the air, you gotta give him a kiss” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
O’Reilly mocks “old lady” Helen Thomas, compares her to “the Wicked Witch of the East” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Quinn suggests Lilly Ledbetter Act paves the way for slavery reparations (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Missouri state lawmaker compares pro-choice bill to the ‘War of Northern Aggression.’ (Think Progress)
During the campaign, Barack Obama made clear that he supports the Freedom of Choice Act and would like to sign it into law as president. The pro-choice piece of legislation would essentially “repeal the Federal Abortion Ban and other federal restrictions on abortion care, as well as codify the protections of Roe nationwide.” Today on the floor of the Missouri House during debate on the legislation, state Rep. Bryan Stevenson (R) compared it to the Civil War:
Grab Your Torch ‘n Pitchforks! (NBC New York, thanks to Susie at Suburban Guerilla)
Hundreds of people trying to save their homes from foreclosure flocked to Connecticut’s wealthy Gold Coast this weekend to give financial kingpins a piece of their mind.
Texas electricity rates skyrocketed after deregulation (McClatchy)
AUSTIN – Electricity rates in Texas have soared well above the national average under a 10-year-old deregulation law, according to a study by a coalition of cities.
Despite recession, California cities spend millions on lobbying (McClatchy)
Despite mounting money woes, California’s local government agencies continue to spend tens of millions each year to influence state government — with taxpayers picking up a rising tab.
How do you test this? California schools add meditation (McClatchy)
Math tests, soccer matches, the cafeteria bully. Grammar diagrams, global warming, dad losing his job. Now add this to some 8-year-olds’ schedules: a second- period class on dealing with stress.
It ain’t readin’, it ain’t ’ritin’, and it ain’t ’rithmetic, so git rid of it.
After discussing sexism toward women journalists, Kurtz asks Couric about her ‘new hairstyle.’ (Think Progress)
Yesterday on CNN, media reporter Howie Kurtz and CBS Evening News’s Katie Couric discussed the criticism Couric has received as the first woman to anchor a network news program. “I’ve always had enough confidence in my abilities and my work to know that sometimes there are larger issues at work here about the role of women in society,” Couric said, adding, “I always sort of feel bad for them, that this is how they spend their time.” Yet somewhat ironically, Kurtz then asked Couric if her new hairstyle has something to do with her most recent successes.
Click through to watch the video.
Study indicates fewer women reaching corner offices (McClatchy)
A new study released Wednesday, shows that as the economy began to slow, so did the advancement of women. In Florida, women made no significant gains in winning top corporate jobs and even lost board director positions over the past two years. The 2008 Census by Women Executive Leadership mirrors a national trend that reveals women gained little ground advancing as business leaders.
Change Happens When Women Lead (by Marie Cocco)
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s renewed struggle with cancer is both a demonstration of courage and a dismaying reminder that she represents a quota of one… Women — of all ethnic backgrounds — are not a minority. We are a majority of the population and a majority of the electorate. Women earn about half the law degrees awarded each year, and comprise well over half of those earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Still, we are treated as a cranky interest group to be placated, and rarely given our rightful place in leadership.
But when women lead, something extraordinary happens: Suddenly the voice of more than half the population can be heard… “Normal” would be having a Supreme Court on which four or five justices are women. And if this sounds like a fantasy, it is only a measure of just how abnormal the high court’s makeup is now.
Economist has fix for global crisis: invest in poor nations (McClatchy)
The World Bank’s chief economist on Monday proposed an alternative approach to digging the world out of the financial crisis, saying that the United States, China and other countries should invest in the development of poor nations, because eventually those countries would become customers.
Cell phones power financial revolution in Africa (McClatchy)
Cheap and efficient m-banking services are cropping up from South Africa to Senegal. They’re the latest example of how the cell phone has transformed life in sub-Saharan Africa, where over the past decade mass-market mobile networks have stitched together countries and families long separated by distance, poverty and shoddy infrastructure. Less than one-fifth of Africans have bank accounts, and far fewer access the Internet. The continent, however, recently surpassed the United States and Canada with 340 million cell phone users and is adding another 70 million each year, according to Wireless Intelligence, a market research group.
Cell phone companies are racing to capitalize by offering banking tools that make it easier for city dwellers to send money to rural relatives, small businesses to pay their employees and parents to deposit their children’s school fees. The amounts are relatively small, and the commissions are a fraction of those that major banks and wire services such as Western Union charge. “It’s absolutely changed lives,” said Aly Khan Satchu, a Kenyan financial analyst. “This is bringing banking services to the ‘un-banked’ and the poor. It’s very empowering.”
Media Matters for America headlines
• Media wield GOP’s “welfare” attack on economic recovery plan
• Fox passes off GOP press release as its own research — typo and all
• Hannity falsely identified “Frisbee golf course” as an earmark in recovery bill
• Limbaugh repeats health IT falsehood from Bloomberg “commentary” on House recovery bill
• Wash. Post uncritically quoted Steele’s false claim that government “has never created one job”
• Morris uses boogeyman of nonexistent ACORN funds to solicit funds for GOP group
‘Shipwrecked!’ salutes the power of imagination
Let your imagination loose and hearken back to a gentler time, when there was no television, radio or YouTube. Victorian-era stories were printed serially in newspapers and magazines, or in hardcover books, and readers and listeners created pictures in their minds. One such tale of adventure is the real-life subject of Donald Margulies’ thoroughly charming play “Shipwrecked! An Entertainment.”
Media group asks US to stop detaining journalists
A media watchdog group is urging President Barack Obama to end the U.S. military’s practice of detaining journalists without charges, and has asked for a full investigation into killings of journalists by U.S. military forces. Officials with the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday the detention of journalists without trial by U.S. authorities in such countries as Iraq has emboldened other countries to do the same.
Social networks join pact against cyberbullying
Facebook, MySpace and Google signed a pact with the European Union on Tuesday to improve safeguards against the bullying and abuse of teenagers online.
On Trail of War Criminals, NBC News Is Criticized
NBC News, which teamed up with local police officers to trap sex offenders for its successful but scandalous To Catch a Predator series, is now using similar tactics to hunt bigger game: war criminals. But one of the first efforts is already attracting criticism from federal officials.
As Mainstream Exits D.C., Niche Media Tide Rises
The growing exodus of mainstream reporters from the nation’s capital has ceded much of the turf to a new, more specialized kind of journalism. Just as newspaper, magazine, and television bureaus are shrinking or shutting down, high-priced newsletters and trade publications are filling the breach.
Crowded (by Megan Garber, Columbia Journalism Review)
The text of H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, is 647 pages long. The draft version of the bill currently making its way through the Senate is 736 pages long… [H]ow are journalists to fulfill their responsibility: distilling the bill, and filtering its most important components, for their readers? The Huffington Post, for one, is turning to a method with which many other news organizations have already experimented: outsourcing. In this case, to their readers… Nearly 400 people signed up to participate in the project (signing up gets an email from “HuffPost Citizen Journalism,” entitled “Taking on the Senate stimulus bill,” which thanks the recipient “for joining our stimulus package research team” and provides instructions for reading through an assigned portion—about a fifth, or 100 pages—of the bill). And those volunteers’ efforts led to hundreds of tips to Grim and his fellow reporters, in the form of individual emails and of comments on the HuffPost’s article pages.
Talking Twitter With @RickSanchezCNN
CNN anchor Rick Sanchez, who presides over an innovative broadcast incorporating Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, called in to the Morning Media Menu podcast yesterday. “Twitter has allowed me to engage in a dialogue with viewers which creates better newscasts for me,” he said.
Why Steve Jobs’ magic won’t work with newspapers
“Put simply, journalism is not music,” writes Gabriel Sherman. “Yes, Steve Jobs convinced consumers to pay for music in digital form. But unlike an individual newspaper link, an iTunes purchase becomes digital property a music lover can enjoy for life. Compare that to a dispatch from Baghdad or an analysis of the stimulus bailout. No matter how illuminating and engaging, journalism is fleeting by comparison.”
You Can’t Sell News by the Slice (by Michael Kinsley, founding editor of Slate online magazine)
Micropayment advocates imagine extracting as much as $2 a month from readers. The Times sells just over a million daily papers. If every one of those million buyers went online and paid $2 a month, that would be $24 million a year. Even with the economic crisis, paper and digital advertising in The Times brought in about $1 billion last year. Circulation brought in $668 million. Two bucks per reader per month is not going to save newspapers.
And the harsh truth is that the typical American newspaper is an anachronism… The Times, The Post and a few others probably will survive. When the recession ends, advertising will come back, with fewer places to go… With even half a dozen papers, the American newspaper industry will be more competitive than it was when there were hundreds. Competition will keep the Baghdad bureaus open and the investigative units stoked with dudgeon. Competition is growing as well among Web sites that think there is money to be made performing the local paper’s local functions. One or two of these will turn out to be right. And then, who will pay even a nickel for the hometown rag?
Brill’s secret plan to save the New York Times and journalism itself
Steve Brill writes in a confidential memo obtained by Romenesko: “I have been thinking about a way to take some of the contrarian thinking that made me try The American Lawyer and Court TV way-back-when and apply it to a new business model to save the New York Times and journalism itself.” He writes:
* Now that the Times has done so much so well to build its online offerings it’s time to turn the dynamics around – by getting paid for that content, while using the Internet to eliminate the huge costs of producing and delivering it. The Internet should be a publisher’s dream, not nightmare.
* A new marketing campaign would promote the fact that the Times alone among daily newspapers (until the others follow) is charging for its content because “you get what you pay for.”
* In two or three years, as an experiment, the paper might not be printed on the lowest-profit print day.
More Ideas for Saving Newspapers: Flavored Ink? Page One Girls?
Bill Shein: What can be done to increase readership and save the newspaper? Ideas include flavored inks, edible pages, cliffhanger endings, page one girls, paperboys as concierges, and micropayments of Human Life Force.
Let’s Stop Crazed Baby-Obsessives From Media Profit (by Simon Dumenco, Advertising Age)
The media will certainly continue to chase the story of the octuplets mom — aiding and abetting and rewarding the pathology of an obsessed woman who is in way over her head. That’s inevitable and depressingly unavoidable. But marketers must take pause.
A New Paid Journalism Model, But It Needs Work (Los Angeles Times)
Reporters pitch story proposals for reader contributions on the website Spot.us. The results aren’t perfect, but the idea is succeeding.
Analyst: Time Warner Shares Are Overpriced; Putting A Valuation On The Content Business (Paid Content)
Most analysts are fairly bullish on Time Warner shares, despite bleak forecasts for advertising revenue this year. But this morning, Bernstein analyst Michael Nathanson downgraded the stock (to “Market Perform” from “Market Outperform”), saying the company’s content business—- which will be what’s left of TWX once Time Warner Cable is officially hived off as a separate publicly traded company—is overvalued. The report takes a fresh approach to appraising the content business, including sobering forecasts of long-term results at AOL and Time Inc.
NYDN Ends 401k Contributions
NY Daily News Chairman Mort Zuckerman yesterday insisted that the paper was “here to stay.” Shortly after he left, Mark Kramer, the paper’s CEO, dispatched a memo to all employees to let them know that the paper was halting any corporate contributions to its employees’ 401(k) plans.
Cablevision erases nearly 70% of Newsday’s value from its books
Cablevision, which bought the Newsday Media Group last summer for $650 million, is taking $375 million to $450 million in pretax “impairment charges” to reflect Newsday’s decreased value.
Top Pittsburgh and Philadelphia Dailies Now Sharing Content
The Philadelphia Inquirer and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have been quietly sharing content for nearly two weeks, exchanging daily budgets and even trading high-profile stories. Inquirer editor William Marimow and Post-Gazette editor David Shribman have been swapping daily budgets since Jan. 29.
Wall Street Journal Expands Asia, Europe Web Sites
The Wall Street Journal on Monday unveiled expanded Web sites dedicated to news about Asia and Europe, and launched a regional home page for India. The publication, which is owned by News Corp., has added to its news teams in Hong Kong, London, and New Delhi, India as a result.
NYT’s biggest mistake was spending $2.7B to buy back its own stock from 1998 to 2004
“That figure is more than three times the company’s current market capitalization, it outweighs the prices of all the other second-guessed moves combined, and it would be more than enough to ensure the company’s security for years to come,” writes Richard Perez-Pena.
AP, union reach tentative agreement on two-year contract
It gives AP employees a 2% raise and spells out an orderly process for making job cuts should the company need to impose layoffs.
Ex-journalist: Going from DMN newsroom to a strip club wasn’t very difficult
After many years at the Dallas Morning News, Michael Precker took a buyout in 2006 and now manages a high-end strip club. “I really wondered how it would feel to sever that link — Michael Precker of the Dallas Morning News,” he says. “But it has been easier than I thought. I feel lucky.”
Grisham is Close to an E-Book Deal
Best-selling novelist John Grisham, one of the few major authors whose books aren’t sold in electronic form, is close to wrapping up an agreement with Bertelsmann AG’s Random House publishing arm that will make all 22 Grisham titles available in all e-book formats.
Amazon Kindle 2.0: Bezos Calls Kindle A ‘Gateway Drug’; Device Drives 10 Percent Of Amazon Sales (Paid Content)
While early opinions have already judged Amazon’s next Kindle as either the company’s great hope or just more hype, CEO Jeff Bezos took to the stage at the Morgan Library in Midtown Manhattan to fuel the excitement. “The book hasn’t changed much in 500 years. [In terms of media consumption], we’ve been going from long-form to short-form for some time. But books are different. There are certain things that can only be learned from a few hundred pages, as opposed to a few paragraphs… We have been selling e-books for years but it didn’t work—until 14 months ago. Today, more than 10 percent of the units we sell are Kindle books.”… Bezos is continuing to rhapsodize the Kindle as a “gateway drug” that spurs people to read more books.
Is There Any Glamour Left in Publishing?
In general, said ICM agent Binky Urban, the world at large is not so curious about the book business these days. And those books that take it as their main subject — whether they’re novels or memoirs or works of history — never really do that well with readers.
That’s because they don’t care about content. They only care about who the author is and how much influence that person has.
HarperCollins Shutters Collins
HarperCollins will shutter the Collins division. In the shake-up, Collins publisher Steve Ross and William Morrow publisher Lisa Gallagher have departed from the company. Jonathan Burnham’s Harper imprint will take the Collins general nonfiction, Collins Reference, and Collins Business titles.
Newsweek’s new attitude: “If we don’t have something original to say, we won’t”
Newsweek’s ingrained role of obligatory coverage of the week’s big events will soon be abandoned once and for all. “There’s a phrase in the culture, ‘we need to take note of,’ ‘we need to weigh in on,’” says editor Jon Meacham. “That’s going away.” Starting in May, articles will be reorganized under four broad, new sections — each with less compulsion to touch on the week’s biggest events.
Sports Illustrated Builds on Buzz
As the ad recession takes the oomph out of the publishing industry, Sports Illustrated is betting it can turn its iconic swimsuit edition into a souped-up marketing machine. The magazine has turned its promotional efforts themselves into moneymakers, generating about $3 million in revenue.
Burkle’s Source Interlink Sues Over Mags Distribution
The ongoing battle between magazine publishers and wholesalers took a turn yesterday after Ron Burkle’s Source Interlink Cos. sued several publishers and rival wholesalers claiming they’re trying to drive Source out of business.
The Day the Music Service Ruckus Died
Looks like college students have to go back to stealing. Rockus Network, one of the major players in the DRM-ed “free music” download space that targeted universities, closed shop over the weekend. The Ruckus Network, owned by TotalMusic LLC, launched in 2004 at Northern Illinois University, was the first of its kind, and one of the first to die.
Sirius XM Prepares for Possible Bankruptcy
Sirius XM, the satellite radio company, is preparing for a possible bankruptcy filing. It is unclear how a bankruptcy would affect customers. Service is unlikely to be interrupted, but the company might have to terminate contracts with high-priced talent like Howard Stern or Martha Stewart.
Consumer Shifts, Saturation Add to Economic Woes
Changing consumer behavior is still the biggest thorn in the side of conglomerates like Walt Disney Co., Time Warner Inc., and News Corp., all of which reported tepid quarterly results. The economy’s effect has been to thicken the haze already shrouding the television-station and DVD businesses.
One Year Later, Fallout Still Felt From WGA Walkout
One year later, the evidence is clear: The WGA strike crippled the film and TV biz at a time when the industry was already caught in the buzzsaw of a radically changing marketplace for Hollywood’s wares. The strike sent the media conglomerates on a cost-cutting binge that intensified as the recession hit.
Vudu Slashes Basic Player Price In Half (by Staci D. Kramer at Paid Content)
On-demand internet provider Vudu is halving the retail price of its basic 250GB Vudu HD player to $150. The company’s spin: the lower price is being driven by a mix of lower component prices, higher movie revenues and, hard to gauge from this perspective, holiday sales that are now fueling more content demand. Not included in the list: vying for dollars in a highly competitive market during tough economic times… Gizmodo suggests the sale means the company is phasing out the hardware in favor of a software solution; I’d say it’s the realization that the real money comes from getting people to rent or buy the 13,000-plus titles from major studios, including new releases on DVD day-and-date so the box needs to be as cheap as possible if Vudu has any chance of success.
Tony Robbins Lands NBC Reality Show
NBC is teaming up with self-help guru Tony Robbins and Biggest Loser producer Reveille for a reality show that aims to radically transform the lives of participants — in most cases without surgery, million-dollar prizes, or drill sergeant-like personal trainers.
Local TV Stations Face a Fuzzy Future
Now, with their viewership in decline and ad revenue on a downward spiral, many local TV stations face the prospect of being cut out of the picture. Executives at some major networks are beginning to talk about an option that once would have been unthinkable: eventually taking shows straight to cable.
My Network TV in an Overhaul
MyNetworkTV, a unit of the News Corporation, announced Monday that it would refashion itself, beginning in September, from a broadcast-network model to a “hybrid” service that would continue to supply programs to its affiliate stations.
DirecTV Group 4Q profit falls as costs rise
The DirecTV Group Inc., the nation’s largest satellite TV provider, on Tuesday reported a 5 percent decline in net income for the fourth quarter, even as revenue soared, because higher customer acquisition costs and interest expenses ate into the bottom line.
Ready, Set, Go: Mark Cuban’s New Open-Source Funding Reality Show (Paid Content)
Monday night, [Mark] Cuban posted an open-source funding offer with a few strings attached… The premise is simple: “You must post your business plan here on my blog where I expect other people can and will comment on it. I also expect that other people will steal the idea and use it elsewhere. That is the idea. Call this an open source funding environment.”… Business can be existing or startups… Cuban will not provide this kind of funding to any business that generates revenue from advertising… The business has to be cash-flow break even in 60 days—and profitable in 90.
Sounds pretty unrealistic to me.
A Web Reality Show on Capitol Hill
CNN.com is tracking two freshman congressmen for a weekly series called Freshman Year. The two politicians are producing most of the content themselves by carrying video cameras on Capitol Hill and writing essays about their experiences.
A Site Chronicles Ways to Adapt in the Downturn
Laura Rich and Sara Clemence, former assistant managing editor and lifestyle editor, respectively, for Portfolio’s Web site, have teamed up with Lynn Parramore, an author and academic, to create Recessionwire.com, a “user”s guide to the recession.”
Dijit Offers Free Widget Building Alternative to Sprout (Mashable)
In the wake of Sprout’s decision to eliminate all free accounts, XLR8 Mobile steps into the widget sphere, rebrands as Dijit, and offers a free and potentially financially rewarding widget platform for widget creators. Widgets are just portable web-based snippets of information that can typically be shared easily via embed code. Dijit, which launches in public beta today, offers anyone the ability to create and customize their own widgets, called “Dijits,” with music, video, and photos that users can take with them online or off (via mobile).
Help Raise $30,000 for Cancer Research by Sending a Free Virtual Cupcake (Mashable)
Appliance manufacturer Electrolux is heating things up this Valentine’s Day – in a virtual oven that is. The brand is using their Facebook application to create a little buzz and do some good in return. The Electrolux Cupcake Maker is a simple way for Facebook users to digitally bake their own cupcakes and post them to their profile or send to friends. As a bonus, Electrolux will donate $1 to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund for each cupcake sent – up to a total of $30,000 the $500,000 the company has pledged towards the charity.
Obama Trampoline Denied From App Store
The App Store has gone crazy! First they start letting in apps that are using private API’s, then they start allowing apps that go against their policy of duplicating functions of the iPhone/iPod Touch or iTunes. Now, in a recent turn of events, they’ve rejected an app that honestly is pretty hilarious and non-offensive in any way. The game is called Obama Trampoline, and that’s not a very good title for this game, considering there are 18 different characters to choose from, with Barack Obama only accounting for one of them. The object of the game is to bounce on the trampoline by moving your device around while you pop balloons for points. Each character has a set of stats that will help or hinder you in different ways.
Apple denied Swamiware the ability to publish this app, the first of many they have submitted that has been rejected, on the grounds of it being “obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials.”. Watch the video above and decide for yourself!
A $99 iPhone may be in the works
Apple may be planning a $99 iPhone, one that would look and feel the same as its $199 and $299 siblings, but come with fewer features and a more budget-oriented data plan.
Google Backs Off Multi-Touch to Please Apple, Report Claims
Did Apple ask Google not to put multi-touch capabilities on the Android-based G1? Rumor has it that Apple may have approached Google while the company was developing the G1 with HTC, and asked the search giant not to put gesture capabilities like pinching on the device. The news comes from an anonymous “Android insider” who spoke with Venture Beat.
And Now… Some Non-Kindle E-Reader News (Paid Content)
Given all the Kindle 2.0 fanfare, you’d think competitors would have held off on making major announcements today—but not Plastic Logic, the California-based company that says it has raised more than $200 million for the development of its own e-Reader. At 8.5 x 11 inches, it’s larger than both the Kindle and Sony’s Reader, but the company is aiming for publishers that don’t want to be forced into “shrinking” their content to fit on the smaller readers, per the NYT. Plastic Logic revealed a list of content providers for its device, which is slated for commercial release early next year.
Televisions ‘to be fitted in contact lenses within ten years
The sets would be powered by the viewer’s body heat, according to Ian Pearson, a so-called “futurologist” who has advised leading companies including BT on new technologies. Mr Pearson told the Daily Mail he believed that channels could be changed by voice command or via a wave of the hand. Meanwhile “emotional viewing” could be another development in television technology, according to a report commissioned by the technology retailer Comet. A “digital tattoo” fitted to the viewer would pick up on the feelings of characters on screen and create impulses causing them to feel the same way.
Southwest Airlines Tests In-Flight Internet (Paid Content)
A year after announcing its plans, Southwest Airlines is testing satellite-provided broadband on one plane in its fleet, expanding the number of places where fliers who like being offline will have one less excuse. The Dallas-based airline is working with Row 44, Inc., using one plane to trial the technology and plans to expand it to at least three more planes by March. (Other airlines use ground-based options, not satellite.) Cost won’t be an excuse either—the service is free during testing, which will go on while the FCC determines final approval. Last year Southwest said it expected to start a trial in the summer of 2008. Any WiFi-enabled device can be used. The first comment on the Southwest blog: a plea for mandatory headphones.
How about mandatory cones of silence?
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