Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Gibbs: “Danger” if Obama does too little (Politico)
Robert Gibbs just wrapped up an hourlong briefing with about 100 House press aides in Rayburn building, laying out the high points of President Obama’s speech — and handling questions on how to spin the address… When the Q & A began, someone asked Gibbs how to handle the question: “Is the Obama administration trying to do too much at once?” The answer, according to Gibbs: “The danger is trying to do too little, not too much.”
Good!  That’s the attitude we need.  Maybe Obama is finally listening to Krugman.  One of my objections to Obama has been that as my senator, he was way too timid.

Because for the Village, it’s a “game” (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair. Media Matters for America)
Note the name of [last night's] Anderson Cooper program at 10 pm, following Obama’s address to Congress about the nation’s ongoing economic crisis, which features cascading job losses, faltering banks, and a cratered housing market:  

Obama’s Rx: Innovation (Chicago Tribune)
Promising an overhaul of the nation’s policies on education, energy and health care, President Obama vows the present economic crisis “will not determine the destiny of this nation.”

Full text of Obama’s speech (McClatchy)
Remarks of President Barack Obama to Congress, as prepared for delivery.

Fact check: Obama glosses over some realities (AP)
In delivering his to-do list, the president’s assertions deserve scrutiny

Obama Speech: The Applause Lines, The Laughs, The Cool Reactions (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
President Obama’s address before Congress on Tuesday night was heavy on optimism, short on numbers, filled with lofty rhetoric and lined with emotion. It also was punctuated by repeated (and repeated, and repeated) interruptions for applause; some from the bipartisan chamber, some strictly from Democrats and one or two by a rowdy group of Republicans. (The final count: Obama was interrupted 65 times for applause, according to Fox News, and received 37 standing ovations, reports the Australia Broadcasting Corporation.)
Click through for Sam’s highlights.

Polls: Obama Won The Night (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
Instant public surveys on Barack Obama’s address before Congress showed, by in large, that the public was incredibly receptive to his speech, regardless of political party.

Bill Clinton Schools Obama, Obama Takes Notes (by masslib at Alegre’s Corner)
Everyone who knows anything about the markets and consumers, knows the markets and consumers react poorly to pessimistic leaders.  Here was Bill Clinton February 19th via ABC News: “‘I like the fact that he didn’t come in and give us a bunch of happy talk. I’m glad he shot straight with us.’ But he added, ‘I just want the American people to know that he’s confident that we are gonna get out of this and he feels good about the long run.’ ‘… Here is Obama [on] February 24th: “‘The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation… Tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.’”

I actually believe that *could* be true, provided we make the right investments now, like regional highspeed rail in regions with significant intellectual assets, Medicare for All, and green energy, but I’m not holding my breath.

Embracing the Base (by Steve at The Left Coaster)
Riding high approval ratings from the public, Barack Obama used [Tuesday night’s] speech before the world and a joint congressional audience to forcefully lay out an optimistic vision for the country. Simply put, Obama was bold, ambitious, and confident at a time when such an attitude is critical, and he may have broken through… And there was nothing centrist about it. Any agenda that includes calls for passage of health care reform this year; energy independence measures built on alternative sources and conservation; and education reforms, all funded by reducing the cost of war in Iraq and restoring the Clinton-era tax rates is a progressive agenda.

Obama: Health reform ‘will not wait another year.’ (Think Progress)
During his address [Tuesday night], President Barack Obama … delivered this pledge, eliciting a roar of approval: “I suffer no illusions that this will be an easy process. Once again, it will be hard. But I also know that nearly a century after Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform, the cost of our health care has weighed down our economy and our conscience long enough. So let there be no doubt: health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.”
Sounds great.  Now let’s see some action.

Thoughts about the speech… (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
Did you notice how tepid the response was when Obama brought up Social Security during his speech? I find hope in that palpable sense of unease…
Despite the populist tone, the fact remains: Obama’s bailout plan nationalizes the losses incurred by the banks but privatizes the winnings…
“Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs.” Won’t happen — not unless you define “save” broadly…
“I understand that when the last administration asked this Congress to provide assistance for struggling banks, Democrats and Republicans alike were infuriated by the mismanagement and results that followed. So were the American taxpayers. So was I.” Then why did he support the bailout? Why didn’t he oppose handing so much power to Paulson?…
“The United States of America does not torture.” But we’ll still outsource torture…
It’s easy to recite applause lines. Not so easy to cough up details. His talk of deficit reduction was, under present circumstances, silly.

Obama Takes Jab At Bush Policies: ‘A Surplus Became An Excuse To Transfer Wealth To The Wealthy’ (Think Progress)
President Obama took a jab at Bush’s disastrous economic policies: “[W]e have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election. A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future. Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market.” Indeed, when Bush entered office in 2001, he inherited a budget surplus of $128 billion. He bequeathed a budget deficit of over $1 trillion to President Obama.

How Social Security “Reform” Was Used to Launder $1.7 Trillion into Tax Cuts for the Wealthy (by Susie at Suburban Guerrilla)
David Cay Johnston on Lou Dobbs
Click through to watch the video.  As I’ve been saying for years, Bush gave my retirement money to Bill Gates.

Freeing Up Resources… for More War (by Norman Solomon)
Obama didn’t mention the additional number of U.S. troops — 17,000 — that he has just ordered to Afghanistan. But his pledge that he “will not allow terrorists to plot against the American people” and his ringing declaration, “We will not allow it,” came just before this statement: “As we meet here tonight, our men and women in uniform stand watch abroad and more are readying to deploy.” Get the message? In his first speech to Congress, the new president threw down a 90-month-old gauntlet, reaffirming the notion that committing to war halfway around the world — in Afghanistan and now in Pakistan too — will make Americans safer. With drumrolls like that, the mission could outlive all of us.

The Case That Wars Fuel U.S. Economic Booms (by Mark Ames, editor of the Moscow English alt weekly, the eXile, writing at AlterNet)
The Republican right unintentionally raised a very serious issue, but no one seems to want to call them on it, not even their own supporters. The can of worms they’ve opened leads to this: what if America’s booms and busts are tied not to monetary policy, taxation levels or government regulation, but rather to our success or failure as an imperialist war machine? What if our wealth is a consequence of our ability to plunder the world’s wealth, often by default thanks to our competitors’ suicidal behavior?
Maybe Obama has bought in to THIS right-wing myth, along with some of the others that he has spouted.

Anti-War Groups Will Back Obama’s Troop Withdrawal Delay (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
President Obama is reportedly preparing to announce that he will order American combat troops to be out of Iraq by August of 2010, a deadline that’s months later than the one promised during the campaign. But don’t expect the leading anti-war groups to make any noise about it. Antiwar leaders I spoke with this morning left little doubt that they’ll support Obama’s time-line.
I really have to wonder if they’d have extended the same courtesy to Hillary.

Like Having Medicare? Then Taxes Must Rise  (by David Leonhardt, New York Times)
Americans have made it clear that they want a certain kind of government, one that can field a strong military and also maintain popular programs like Medicare. Yet we are not paying nearly enough taxes to maintain those programs. Even major changes to the health care system — the single most important step for closing the budget gap — will not close it entirely. Taxes must rise, too. This is a point on which serious Democrats and serious Republicans agree, even if they do so with euphemism. “We are on an unsustainable path,” says Peter Orszag, Mr. Obama’s budget director. Judd Gregg, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, has said, “Revenues are going to have to go up.” Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Dan Crippen, budget experts who advised the McCain campaign, have quietly acknowledged the same.

Fortunately, the coming tax increase does not have to be economically ruinous. Despite all the scary stories you’ve heard, the evidence that higher taxes necessarily cripple an economy is somewhere between thin and nonexistent.
Of course, those of you who have been reading liberal blogs have known for a long time that the two largest tax increases in history have resulted in great economic booms.  But does the right wing care about that?  No.  See below for what the right wingers are planning now, presumably inspired by Rick Santelli’s crazed rant on CNBC.

American Tea Party (Pajamas TV, thanks to Monday Morning Clacker)
America is on the brink of another revolution. In a new American Tea Party, citizens across the USA are beginning to protest giant government programs that reach deep into their pockets. These programs create huge economic burdens on American families and threaten their livelihood now and into the future.

Santelli and the White House (by Ryan Chittum, Columbia Journalism Review)
Rick Santelli continues to make a fool of himself, touring the media to defend his call for a “tea party” over the homeowner bailout…  Not content with his soon-to-be-expired fifteen minutes of fame, Santelli went on [G. Gordon] Liddy’s radio show and complained that the White House was threatening him and/or his family, somehow… Now, Liddy knows about threats from the White House, having plotted to assassinate columnist Jack Anderson, and he knows about other kinds, having encouraged listeners to shoot ATF agents in the head (“Head shots, head shots…. Kill the sons of bitches”), but the idea that the White House press secretary “threatened” Santelli is nuts, and irresponsible.

Here’s that “threat” from press secretary Robert Gibbs: “I’ve watched Mr. Santelli on cable the past 24 hours or so. I’m not entirely sure where Mr. Santelli lives or in what house he lives but the American people are struggling every day to meet their mortgages, stay in their jobs, pay their bills, send their kids to school.” Poorly phrased, maybe, but Gibbs is clearly saying that Santelli is out of touch with regular people. A fair point, considering that Santelli thinks traders on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange represent a “cross-section of America” and that people who can’t pay their mortgage are “losers.” And here’s a question: Why is a CNBC editor going on a show with a convicted felon on the outer fringes of American public discourse?

The Impact on a President of Reading Citizens’ Letters (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
Following up on our story about how President Obama reads 10 letters a day from citizens so as to stay in better touch with the concerns of the American people, historian Robert S. McElvaine writes at the Huffington Post that President “Obama is adopting a practice that served President Franklin D. Roosevelt well during the Great Depression…. A look at FDR’s experience with letters from the public suggests that President Obama — and the nation — may benefit substantially from the adoption of the practice by the new president”
Yes, but who chooses the letters, and what criteria do they use?

DoD officials vow secrecy on budget (Defense News)
The Obama administration has directed defense officials to sign a pledge stating they will not share 2010 budget data with individuals outside the federal government. In an undated non-disclosure agreement obtained by Defense News, the administration tells defense officials that “strict confidentiality” must be practiced to ensure a “successful” and “proper” 2010 defense budget process. The secrecy pact comes as dozens of Bush-era Pentagon appointees remain on the job, asked to stay on by the Obama administration until replacements are confirmed to ensure continuity during wartime.

Bernanke: Crisis Could End in ’09 (Washington Post)
Fed chief details frail economy but says 2010 will be year of recovery if government actions work.

Bernanke: You Say Nationalization, I Say Partnership (Real Time Economics, Wall Street Journal, thanks to Economist’s View)
“Call it a public-private partnership,” Mr. Bernanke said. “It’s not nationalization, because the banks would not be wholly owned or probably not even majority owned by the government. The government will be a shareholder, along with private shareholders.”

Should We Assume the Worst? (The Balance Sheet, The New Yorker, thanks to Economist’s View)
we don’t want policymakers to assume the worst about the future when shaping economic policy. Nor do we want them to assume the best. Actually, we don’t want them to assume anything. Instead, we want them to come up with the most accurate forecast of the future they can, and to adopt the economic policies that make the most sense given that forecast. There’s no doubt that this is an incredibly complicated process, because the future that someone like Bernanke is trying to predict is a future that’s shaped by his own decisions. But that doesn’t mean the answer is for the Fed to say “things are going to be incredibly awful,” if it believes that they most likely won’t be.

Why did we “loan” Citi $45 billion when we could have bought them for $20 billion? (by lambert at Corrente)
And when I say “we,” I most definitely mean “they.” Dean Baker asks that question, and some other good questions: “The government originally lent $25 billion to Citigroup at below market interest rates in the first wave of TARP lending. In December, it lent another $20 billion and guaranteed $300 billion in bad assets. (The guarantee was almost certainly worth more than $30 billion annually, given the quality of the assets.) On that day, $20 billion would have been sufficient to buy Citi in its entirety on the stock market.”
Of course, if we had bought Citi outright, we might still have needed to inject additional capital to keep it going.

More Banks Behaving Badly (Tim Duy’s Fed Watch, Economist’s View)
[A]t tmz.com: “Northern Trust, a Chicago-based bank, sponsored the Northern Trust Open at the Riviera Country Club in L.A. We’re told Northern Trust paid millions to sponsor the PGA event which ended Sunday, but what happened off the golf course is even more shocking.:… Not to worry; Northern Trust received only $1.6 billion in TARP money, but didn’t ask for it.  It was just taxpayer money anyway – you know, little people.  They also laid off 450 people, but, again, little people, so also no worries. More evidence that the US response to the financial crisis has degenerated into a sad joke.
Click through for details of the bad behavior.

How bank bonuses let us all down (by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, distinguished professor of risk engineering at New York University , writing in the Financial Times, U.K., thanks to Economist’s View)
[The] mismatch between the bonus payment frequency (typically, one year) and the time to blow up (about five to 20 years) is the cause of the accumulation of positions that hide risk.. As traders say, they have the “free option” on their performance: they get the profits, not the losses… I was involved in trading for 21 years and I can testify that traders consciously play the free option game. On the other hand, I worked (in my other job as risk adviser) with various military organisations and people watching over our safety. We trust military and homeland security people with our lives, yet they do not get a bonus. They get promotions, the honour of a job well done and the disincentive of shame if they fail…

This is prompting me to call for the nationalisation of the utility part of banking as the only solution in which society does not grant individuals free options to look after its risks. No incentive without disincentive. And never trust with your money anyone making a potential bonus.

Group of Rich Americans Sues UBS to Keep Names Secret in Tax Case (New York Times)
UBS was sued on Tuesday in a Swiss federal court by wealthy American clients seeking to prevent the disclosure of their identities as part of a tax-evasion investigation by the United States Justice Department. The lawsuit accuses UBS and Switzerland’s financial regulator, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, or Finma, of violating Swiss bank secrecy laws and of conducting what Swiss law considers illegal activities with foreign authorities. It also named Peter Kurer, the chairman of UBS, and Eugen Haltiner, the chairman of Finma, as defendants… UBS is the world’s largest private bank and Switzerland is the world’s largest offshore tax haven, with trillions of dollars in assets.
Only the little people pay taxes, you see.

Obama To Target Tax Havens In Budget (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
As part of the budget that he will introduce this Thursday, President Barack Obama will call for the closure of tax havens that allow companies to pay greatly reduced tax rates, an administration official tells the Huffington Post… By calling for the elimination of tax havens in his budget, Obama is following through on a promise he made repeatedly throughout the campaign and one he has discussed as president. “If you closed loopholes you could actually lower [other corporate tax] rates,” he said at Monday’s fiscal responsibility summit. “That’s an area where there should be the potential for some bipartisan agreement.”

Miami banker who gave away $60 million gets front-row seat to Obama speech (Miami Herald)
Leonard Abess Jr., the Miami banker who quietly gave $60 million of his own money to his loyal staff of 399 current and 72 former workers, plans this evening to be watching President Barack Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress from first lady Michelle Obama’s box.

Aflac CEO gives up $2.8 million bonus (McClatchy)
Aflac Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dan Amos will forgo a $2.8 million bonus he earned last year, the company announced Monday.

Leahy Takes Bush Truth Commission To Senate Floor (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy took to the Senate floor on Wednesday to discuss the possible outlines of a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate the misdeeds of the Bush administration. Stating that he is in discussion with members of Congress, outside groups, and even the White House, Leahy boiled down his argument to one very rudimentary question: “How can we restore our moral leadership and ensure transparent government if we ignore what has happened?” “I share that desire to move forward, and to reestablish ourselves as a Nation dedicated to the rule of law, respected and trusted throughout the world,” he said, according to prepared remarks. “We also know that the past can be prologue unless we set things right.”

Burris refuses to resign despite plea from Durbin (AP)
Sen. Roland Burris refused to resign on Tuesday, rebuffing a call from the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat who made it clear that the embattled Illinois lawmaker has little hope next year of winning the seat vacated by President Barack Obama. “I told him that under the circumstances, I would resign,” fellow Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin told reporters after an hour-long meeting with Burris. “He said, ‘I’m not going to resign.’”

Vitter: Even though I didn’t resign, Burris should. (Think Progress)
[Tuesday], Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) called on Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) to resign his Senate seat. Despite his own refusal to resign after admitting to being a former patron of the “DC Madam”, Vitter dismissed the notion that his demands of Burris are hypocritical. “I honestly don’t know anybody who would compare these situations. They are dramatically different,” Vitter said. 

GOP hates earmarks — except the ones its members sponsor (McClatchy)
Republicans are expected to deliver a daylong rant Wednesday against Democratic spending legislation, yet the bill is loaded with thousands of pet projects that Republican lawmakers inserted.

Palin to reimburse Alaska for family’s travel expenses (McClatchy)
Gov. Sarah Palin has agreed to reimburse the state for the costs of nine trips for her children. An agreement announced Tuesdaysettles an ethics complaint filed in October.

Bush charging $150,000 and private jet travel for speeches. (Think Progress)
Now that Bush has officially joined the lecture circuit, it seems he’s seeking to make good on his hope to earn “ridiculous” money. The Dallas Morning News reports that he’s charging $150,000 per speech and demanding a private jet to take him to the speech venue… He does give the locals a discount, charging Dallas gigs a scant $100,000.

When news anchors Twitter (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Everyone benefits because we learn invaluable information: “WH menu: lobster bisque w beignets, seared Virginia bass w leeks and pot, pound cake w fruit compote and lemon sorbet about 2 hours ago from TinyTwitter GStephanopoulos GeorgeStephanopoulos

Will’s “final thought” on Obama speech: “I don’t know when men started to hug each other, but hug they do, and look at that” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
George Will is just plain weird.

Andrea Mitchell contrasts McCain’s return to Senate with Gore, who “grew the beard, gained weight, whatever he did — ended up winning the Nobel Prize” (video  at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Beck, self-proclaimed “thinker,” claims Arctic sea ice melt occurring because “heat rises” (video  at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Another Swipe From Obama At ‘Cable Chatter’ (by Mark Knoller, Political Hotsheet)
It’s not “press coverage” that bothers President Obama. It’s “cable chatter.”

Funding for solar power?  Sounds like something Hitler would do. (by Jamison Foser at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Wall Street Journal editorial board member Holman Jenkins didn’t like Barack Obama’s comments about developing renewable energy sources: Put away the “energy independence” conceit. This notion, a favorite of Tojo and Hitler, was debunked by Churchill, who reasoned that true energy security came from a diversity of suppliers, not the foolish pursuit of self-sufficiency.

Gingrich’s Bold New Idea: Using Twitter To Mock Democrats (Think Progress)
Conservatives love Twitter. Many have embraced it as the future of the Republican party’s outreach to young people. Prolific Tweeter Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) has said that such technology is “the next revolution that’s going to take back the Congress.” [Tuesday] night, former House speaker Newt Gingrich — an inspiration to GOP congressional leaders like Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) — promised to use conservatives’ favorite new social media tool to “liveblog at http://newt.org on the obama/jindal speeches at 9pm, i will twitter and they will appear there as well, join us.” For the most part, he didn’t talk about any of the bold, new ideas he’s been promising. Instead, he used many of his tweets to attack both President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Will media repeat Jindal’s false attack on Obama, or correct it? (by Jamison Foser at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
According to Ben Smith, Bobby Jindal will accuse Obama of pessimism [Tuesday night], saying: “A few weeks ago, the President warned that our nation is facing a crisis that he said ‘we may not be able to reverse.’ Our troubles are real, to be sure. But don’t let anyone tell you that we cannot recover – or that America’s best days are behind her.” Smith didn’t mention this, but Jindal’s claim is false.  Obama didn’t say “we may not be able to reverse” the crisis; he said if we continue to do nothing, it may reach a point where it cannot be reversed.  And he didn’t say “we cannot recover” or that “America’s best days are behind her.”  Simply didn’t happen.

Limbaugh Defends Jindal, Warns Conservatives They Are ‘Making A Real Mistake If They Go After’ Him (Think Progress)
The response across the political spectrum to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R-LA) speech last night has been overwhelmingly negative. Even the most enthusiastic conservative talkers had harsh words for Jindal, calling it “cheesy,” “insane,” and “not his greatest oratorical moment.” But Jindal still maintains one key supporter — Rush Limbaugh. On his radio show this afternoon, Limbaugh leaped to Jindal’s defense.

Limbaugh: “too many” Americans “have become a nation of wusses, of punks” (video  at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

At Politico, only Dems are to blame (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
John Harris and Mike Allen report on how the volatile stock market often reacts negatively when politicians discuss public policy. But in the article, Politico reporters only point the finger at Dems for making traders nervous with recent Beltway comments, not Republicans, even though Republicans have been uniformly trash talking Obama’s recovery plan.
Not only that, Bush had his own experiences with markets crashing after he spoke.

The WashPost finally profiles a liberal blogger (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Well, that only took seven years. Liberal bloggers have been causing a stir–and making news–since 2002, but from what I can tell based on previous research, today’s Post feature is on Pam Spaulding and her influential site, Pam’s House Blend, marks the first time the newspaper has devoted a feature-length, Style-section profile to an A-list liberal blogger.

The NY Post, Race and Cowardice (by Rod Dreher, a conservative columnist for the  Dallas Morning News)
Was the chimp cartoon Sean Delonas drew for the New York Post a racist provocation?… The Delonas controversy erupted on the same day U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder delivered a speech describing America as a “nation of cowards” too afraid to have “frank conversations” about race. Is he insane? When people have their jobs and even their lives threatened for crossing invisible lines of racial sensitivity, you’d be crazy to take that risk. If Holder really wants to show bravery, he’ll stand up for Sean Delonas, instead of contenting himself to chastise his countrymen for not running marathons across minefields.
Click through for Dreher’s own experience in being hounded for a less than important reference deemed to be racist by those who make their living from deeming unimportant references to be racist.

Fox News’ Kiddie Porn Collector Layered Like An Onion (FishbowlDC, Media Bistro)
When Aaron “Triple-threat” Bruns wasn’t busy producing political coverage or trading kiddie porn over the Web, the multi-faceted [former] Fox Newser was dabbling in soft-core porn. If you are truly disturbed, you can check out the NSFW pics of Aaron’s Bruns of steel here.

LA Times Joins the Hillary Media Makeover (Dissenting Justice)
The media are covering Hillary Clinton in an all new light. She has gone from evil to brilliant and balanced overnight!… [N]ow, the Editors of the LA Times (who endorsed Obama over Clinton) have joined the rebuilding effort: “Rather than lecturing China about greenhouse gas emissions, Clinton urged the government not to make the mistakes the United States and Europe had made, effectively taking partial responsibility for the problem…” Beat ‘em up, build ‘em up.

ZOMG! POTUS is a Racist! (by myiq2xu at The Confluence)
From last night’s Sad State of the Union address: “…People bought homes they knew they couldn’t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway..” As we learned last year from certain people who shall remain nameless, blaming the financial crisis on bad loans is racist.  So how is what Barack Obama said in his Sad State of the Union address materially different from this?: “Loose standards were set up to expand home ownership to folks who couldn’t pay home loans back and to improve the odds of high compensation for its CEOs.”

I believe the technical term used in the accusation against us was “racist, ratfucking bullshit of the Right.”

The Business Press and the Cult of Personality (by Elinore Longobardi, Columbia Journalism Review)
The birth and death of false idols in the business press is a strange and important phenomenon. Strange because it keeps happening. Important because it is a symptom of a serious weakness in coverage. It reflects the fact that the press is clinging to an old narrative, built around Wall Street Masters of the Universe. This narrative persists despite the fact that recent events have demonstrated that the system suffers from fundamental flaws no lone individual can fix. And thus, while never ideal, this habit is now especially pernicious. To think that any one person can right a corporation as drenched in subprime as Merrill is to fundamentally misunderstand the financial crisis.
The cult of personality pervades our entire culture.  It was responsible for Obama’s presidential nomination.

Film producers buying ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ kids new homes. (Think Progress)
Last month, it was revealed that the child stars of “Slumdog Millionaire” were still living in “grinding poverty,” despite the enormous success of the film. The Daily Mail reports today Danny Boyle and Christian Colson, the director and producer, respectively of the Oscar-winning movie, are working with a Mumbai housing association to move the children into new “bricks and mortar flats” in the coming months. They will also hire a rickshaw driver to take the kids to school. “These children are special and have won laurels for the country and we want to felicitate them,” said Amarjeet Singh Manhas, chairman of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority.

The Great Broadband Scam (by David Rosen)
Why the Recovery Plan Will Fail to Meet America’s Broadband Needs

In Innovation, U.S. Said to Be Losing Competitive Edge (New York Times)
The U.S. ranks sixth among 40 countries and regions for innovation, a nonpartisan group noted in a report.
Of course we are.  All concern for the long term has been replaced by the maximum gain for today, and today only.

Citing Cost, States Consider Halting Death Penalty (New York Times)
Ending capital punishment is part of a trend in which states are trying to cut the costs of fighting crime.
Not because it’s immoral.  Because it’s too expensive.

Report critical of sex education in Texas schools (McClatchy)
The overwhelming majority of Texas schools use scare tactics and spread myths in place of teaching basic sex and health information that students can use to protect themselves and others, according to a report released Wednesday by watchdog group Texas Freedom Network.

Colorado state senator compares being gay to committing murder. (Think Progress)
On the floor of the Colorado state senate on Monday, Republican Sen. Scott Renfroe equated “homosexuality as a sin with murder” during a debate on a bill that would allow same-sex partners of state employees to be covered by health care benefits. “I’m not saying this (homosexuality) is the only sin that’s out there,” said Renfroe. “We have murder. We have all sorts of sin. We have adultery. And we don’t make laws making those legal, and we would never think to make murder legal.”

“‘Infantilising’ The Human Mind” (by Turkana at The Left Coaster)
No, this isn’t about Republicans. It’s about social networking sites. The Guardian talks science: “Social network sites risk infantilising the mid-21st century mind, leaving it characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity, according to a leading neuroscientist.” I don’t like the idea of using this warning as justification for government censorship, but I do consider it important.
It all started with the PR/advertising explosion.

Media Matters for America headlines

• Media quote Jindal without noting he is misrepresenting Obama’s comments

• Updated Report: Economists comprised only 6 percent of guest appearances discussing stimulus on cable news, Sunday shows

• Wash. Times claim that Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib were “completely unrelated” contradicted by bipartisan Senate report

• Ignoring FDIC, ABC’s Stark says bank nationalization happens “in socialist countries” and is “not supposed to happen” in the U.S.

• Cavuto purported to “correct” Obama with corporate tax falsehood

• On Hannity, Dietl promoted Social Security falsehood

• AP falsely reported Obama called Social Security “the single most pressing fiscal challenge we face by far”

• CNN slams Pelosi for “living the dolce vita” in Italy while giving Afghan leg of trip only brief mention

• The Hill uncritically repeated NRCC’s mouse falsehood

• Limbaugh falsely claimed that taxes on “most small businesses” would increase if Bush tax cuts on wealthiest Americans expire

• Boehlert: Unhinged in 30 days: The right-wing media’s Obama era implosion

UK blocks publication of Iraq war discussions. (Think Progress)
The British government said today that it will not “publish records of cabinet discussions on the legality of invading Iraq in 2003, despite a tribunal ruling in January that it should release them.” Justice Secretary Jack Straw blocked the request made under the Freedom of Information Act, saying that release of the records would “risk serious damage to Cabinet government.” Previously released government documents revealed that former Attorney General Peter Goldsmith had “cast doubt on the legal grounds for war” just days before then-Prime Minister Tony Blair ordered British troops to invade Iraq.

The Cable TV Model for News Online (by Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune)
News organizations that generate significant original content should band together for their own survival and sell group subscription packages for unlimited access to their stories, photos, videos, archives, and other offerings.
Eric, you’ve been on my mailing list for years.  And for most of those years, I’ve been talking about aggregation of payment for online content.  Recently, I’ve compared it several times to paying for cable TV.  But I didn’t see an acknowledgment in your column.

Lauren Rich Fine: Micropayments? Won’t Work. Here’s A Better Plan For Newspapers (by Lauren Rich Fine at Paid Content)
[I]t becomes increasingly clear that newspapers are in dire straits. They won’t all survive, nor by the way, should they all. Newspapers’ unwillingness to grasp what is before their very eyes has been at the core of their current woes—but even if they had gotten it, the challenge would still be enormous. Years ago, the Chicago Sun-Times probably had it right when it tried to offer very-low-cost web-site creation and hosting for local small businesses. It could still be done. Newspapers could be the local ad network that is so sorely missing from the mix. Newspapers could offer free PDF-like versions of their paper daily and only distribute a day or two a week. Newspapers could prove they are the best editors by pouring all their limited resources into great local stories and investigations, while complementing it with links to the best content on the web.

Currah: Kitemarks Could Help Save the News Business (by Paul Bradshaw at Poynter Online)
In the recent Reuters report, “What’s Happening to Our News,” an “investigation into the likely impact of the digital revolution on the economics of news publishing in the U.K.,” author Andrew Currah explores the situation facing U.K. publishers. He offers three broad suggestions for moving forward: kitemarks, public support and digital literacy education. Owen Amos explained recently in the U.K. Press Gazette that a digital kitemark (somewhat similar to the digital watermark concept), would “differentiate quality journalism from the noise of the Web. …[It] could be visual and electronic — for example, via embedded metadata.”

Currah’s adaptation of the kitemark idea seems to have stirred up some fuss. In the first of a series of e-mail exchanges, I asked Currah how kitemarks might make a difference in how people consume newspapers — and how they could work in practice.
Click through to read Currah’s response.

Could a $2M online news org replace Chicago’s dailies?
Chi-Town Daily News founder and former Chicago Tribune reporter Geoff Dougherty says yes. He described his plan at Sunday’s discussion on the state of Chicago journalism. “People flat out didn’t believe it,” he writes. “It sounds like a lot of journalists and news observers are convinced it takes tens, or hundreds, of millions of dollars to run a robust local news organization. Trust me: It doesn’t.”

The New Breed of New Media Researchers (by Rory O’Connor)
Unlike face-to-face, ‘offline’ social networks, online social networks lend themselves to easy group formation. The looser, more extensive social ties that result then lead to the delivery of more diverse — and ultimately more trustworthy and credible — news and information.
Not if ideology is allowed to trump truth, Rory, as is the case with so many blogs.

Minnesota papers get $238,000 grant to retrain journalists
The Minnesota Job Skills Partnership program has given the Duluth News Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the University of Minnesota’s journalism school a total of $238,000 to help retrain the newspaper staffs. As part of the grant, the two papers and j-school will collectively contribute $469,330, mostly through in-kind contributions of staff time for training.

Baltimore Reporter Loses Job Over Altered Video of Fox’s Gibson
A television reporter has lost his job after doctoring a video to make it appear that Fox News Radio host John Gibson had made a racial slur. In the video, which was picked up across the Internet, Gibson seemed to be comparing Attorney General Eric Holder to a monkey with a “bright blue scrotum.”

Private Equity Group Revises Media Forecast From Five Percent Growth to Slight Decline
Veronis Suhler Stevenson today revised its annual five-year communications industry forecast (2008 to 2012) to show a 0.4 percent decline in overall media spend in 2009, down from the 5.4 percent gain the private equity firm previously forecasted.

Will Murdoch end up owning NYT and LAT?
It’s been previously reported that Rupert Murdoch’s dream is to own the New York Times, but Variety’s Dade Hayes reports the media mogul has been talking about a play for the Los Angeles Times, too.

Hearst May Sell or Close SF Chronicle
The owner of the San Francisco Chronicle has set out to purge the payroll and slash other expenses in a last-ditch effort to reverse years of heavy losses. If it can’t reduce expenses dramatically within the next few weeks, the Hearst Corp. said it will close or sell the Chronicle.

Philly News Execs Will Skip Raises
Bankruptcy lawyers say three Philadelphia newspaper executives will roll back their 2008 raises while the company tries to shed debt and stay afloat. Chief Executive Brian Tierney’s 38 percent pay hike in December has boosted his salary to $850,000.

FT Goes One Up On France: Offering 3-Day Work Week and Other Options (Paid Content)
As parent Pearson and the Financial Times continue to try to save costs after some buyouts, layoffs and salary freezes, the pink paper has now done one better than France on the work week: It is offering employees a couple of options, including a three-day week in the summer, reports DJN. “The first is extended annual leave receiving 30 percent of pay, the other is to work a three- or four-day week between June and August, and the third is the option to buy up to seven days annual leave,” a spokesperson said. This offer is for FT staff across all worldwide offices, the company said.

Washington Post profit falls 77% in fourth quarter
A large impairment charge drove down net income. The Post Co.’s newspaper revenue dropped 13% in the fourth quarter, while revenue from the education division climbed 13% and cable TV revenue was up 11%.

SF Chron Cost-Cut Target Equals 47% of Staff
If the San Francisco Chronicle had to slash enough payroll to offset the more than $50 million operating loss threatening its future, nearly half of its 1,500 employees would be dismissed. To wipe out a $50 million loss, let alone make a profit, the paper would have to eliminate 47% of its entire staff.

A.H. Belo to lay off 100 more at Providence Journal
The newsroom will lose 18 full-time positions by March 6. || Denis Horgan: Hartford Courant is laying off people by phone.

P-I’s Thiel now wishes he had taken a woodshop class in high school
Post-Intelligencer sports columnist Art Thiel figures if his paper closes, “I could be a pretty good pool boy for a wealthy widow.” He tells Rick Anderson: “Anybody who has to go through a job thing like this, you finally get done cursing all the forces. You realize this just may be the change you needed, even if you don’t know what you’re suited for. I just wish I would have taken a woodshop class in high school.”

‘Economic Gales’ Sweep Liz Smith Out Of The NY Post
You know times are extremely, badly, very tough when even Liz Smith is falling victim to the Recession! The Times City Room blog reports that Thursday will be the gossip doyenne’s last! Apparently currently nefarious editor Col Allan informed her in a letter earlier this month that her contract would not be renewed due to “unprecedented economic gales.”

Des Moines Register gives fired cartoonist’s work to University of Iowa
Brian Duffy, who was dismissed from the Register about three months ago, says: “The editor felt that I wasn’t important enough, or my work wasn’t important enough to keep me at the newspaper, yet she wants to keep my legacy alive by donating all of my work to the University of Iowa.” He’s hired an attorney to try to retrieve his original sketches.

The Kindle: Good Before, Better Now
While the changes in the new Kindle are fairly minor, they’re exactly what was needed to turn a very good electronic book reader into an even better one.

Rodale: Brand-Building Bellwether
The lousy advertising climate notwithstanding, Rodale’s Steve Murphy is still bullish on ad-supported print. The president and CEO of the company that publishes Prevention and Men’s Health is prepping a new slew of consumer and ad-supported spinoffs for 2009.

Conde Falling Fast
Conde Nast is reeling more than its rivals, as luxury-goods retailers hoard their ad dollars. Many of Conde’s venerable titles are down 30 percent in ad pages so far in the first quarter. Start-up mag Portfolio is down a staggering 60 percent, while Wired is off 57 percent.

Hallmark Magazine Folds
Hallmark has announced it is shuttering both Hallmark magazine as well as its accompanying Web site. “The decision was reached after a comprehensive analysis of the current business and trends facing the magazine publishing industry as a whole,” said Hallmark’s CEO.

B-to-B Magazine Revenues Plummet 13.1 Percent in Q4
Advertising revenue for b-to-b magazines plunged 13.1 percent during the fourth quarter of 2008, leading to an overall slide of 7.3 percent, according to numbers released by American Business Media’s Business Information Network. Advertising pages fell 9.6 percent for the year.

CJR gets MacArthur grant to study relationship between magazines and their websites
CJR says its survey — funded with a $230,000 grant — “will shed light on the road blocks to and the opportunities for achieving the best editorial and business practices for magazines and their websites.”

The Lure of Sirius: Tax Losses
Some investors are baffled why media titans John Malone and Charles Ergen are competing to throw money at Sirius XM Radio Inc., the money-losing satellite-radio company that was perilously close to bankruptcy. But in fact, the company’s most valuable asset could be precisely all the money it has lost.

S&P Downgrades Clear Channel Debt (Paid Content)
No big surprise here, but Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the debt ratings on Clear Channel Communications. It cites steep earnings declines, saying Clear Channel is in danger of violating its debt covenants during the second half of this year. As we reported recently, Clear Channel has been taking steps to service future debt payments by tapping a $2 billion credit facility and making significant layoffs. Ironically, the additional $1.6 billion in debt it recently tapped contributed to the downgrade, according to S&P.

The Republic Project Puts Musicians in Control of Their Content (Mashable)
The Republic Project, officially launching next week…, is a new company that’s hoping to remix the standard mode of operation in the music industry by giving artists a more direct way to sell their music and engage with fans. Even though artists can already leverage existing social sites like Kyte to produce their own branded online and mobile presence, the Republic Project appears to go one step further by targeting artists who want the independence to market, sell, and retain the rights to their records.

Essentially with the Republic Project, artists will have their own platform where they can sell their albums directly to fans, create and monetize their own video content, blog, and participate in artist and fan chat sessions. Debut artists include Tim Myers, Dexter Freebish, Steriogram, and Still Time.

Imeem Lets You Sync Your Music Library With Your Android Mobile (Mashable)
As more and more native iPhone apps for streaming music pop up in the iTunes app store, Imeem’s mobile offering continues to evolve in feature-set while remaining firmly cemented to Google’s Android platform. Fresh on the heels of Last.fm’s Android release, the newly revamped Imeem mobile app, available today, now includes MyMusic, which gives users access to their personal Imeem music library for on-the-road streaming. Imeem mobile music lovers can also create their own stations based on the artists and songs that they favorite, as well as share tracks with friends via email.

Nearly Half of Web Users Have Illegally Downloaded Music
Almost half of web users have used illegal file sharing sites, with Limewire (34%) and BitTorrent (25%) the most popular. In a survey of over 1,000 consumers, 46% have used a peer-to-peer site (P2P), but 53% have never knowingly downloaded music illegally, according to research by Tiscali.

Schumer Grills Azoff At Hearings On Live Nation Merger (Paid Content)
In his opening remarks during Senate hearings on the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger…, Schumer “made no secret of my opposition to this merger,” saying it represented “monopolistic behavior plain and simple.”… One interesting factoid that emerged during the hearings is that if the merger goes through, Live Nation would gain access to all sorts of proprietary information from competitors that also use Ticketmaster. Most of the competitors use the company for everything from selling tickets to marketing shows.

News Corp ‘Rescues’ Best Picture ‘Slumdog’
“Slumdog Millionaire,” the big winner at this year’s Academy Awards, almost didn’t get distributed. The film, made for about $15 million with a cast of unknowns, was picked up by News Corp.’s Fox Searchlight after Time Warner closed its small-picture divisions.

VUDU Offers Download-To-Own HD Movies
Digital on-demand movie provider VUDU has begun allowing consumers to own some of the high-definition movies and documentaries downloaded from the company’s online store.

Preliminary Ratings Show Oscar Numbers Up
An estimated 36.3 million people watched this year’s Academy Awards, an increase of more than 4 million from last year’s least-watched Oscars ceremony ever. While ABC was heartened by the larger audience, there are still only two Oscar telecasts on record with fewer viewers.

Fox Reveals Development Slate Early To Advertisers
Fox is the first broadcast network to give agencies a comprehensive presentation of its programming plans, though NBC shared its updated slate at the Super Bowl with those advertisers attending. Official development meetings, traditionally held in March, were wiped out last year as a result of the writers’ strike.

CW Fashions Its Strategy Around Women
Can a cable network make it as a broadcast network? That’s the difficult question that CBS and Warner Bros. seem to be posing with CW. Rather than chase the same relatively broad audience that every other network does (adults 18-49), CW is now locked into a cable-like demo of woman 18-34.

Cable companies want a way to win with online TV
HBO on your PC? It could happen sooner than you think. Wary of the growing number of consumers watching TV shows online for free — and yet reluctant to upset viewers by yanking shows from the Internet — the nation’s largest cable operators are in talks with media conglomerates to take back control. They would create a platform to release cable TV shows online, but exclusively for paying subscribers.

If Cable Companies Start Streaming Shows, What Would It Mean For Consumers? (Paid Content)
As we and others have reported, cable operators are exploring the idea of negotiating streaming rights into their carriage agreements with cable networks. If that becomes a reality, what would it mean for consumers? Giving cable companies another service to charge for can’t be good for viewers, right? Well, it’s not quite that simple. Here are the upsides:
—Consumers could finally get a universal set-top box that converts internet video into high-quality TV viewing.
—There would be more programming available.

Earnings: Discovery Revenues Flat, Ad Revenues Up 6 Percent (Paid Content)
In another sign that cable advertising is holding up better than broadcast advertising, fourth-quarter revenues at Discovery Networks were flat versus the same period 2007, at $904 million, while ad revenues were up 6 percent. The results were boosted by growth at the U.S. networks, but weighed down by declines from its international networks.

DirecTV, DISH ask U.S. lawmakers for rural incentives
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The right incentives would make satellite television companies willing to extend local service to underserved and rural areas, senior executives of DISH Network Corp and DirecTV Group Inc told lawmakers on Tuesday.

Why Hulu Is Winning the Online Video Race
Unlike YouTube, Hulu has legal access to great content. YouTube has lots of content, but from the perspective of advertisers much of it is utterly worthless. Nobody wants to tout their brand amid user-generated videos that could turn out to be almost anything.

Hulu A Better Business Than YouTube? Not So Fast (by Rory Maher at Paid Content)
What makes YouTube’s business better than Hulu is its ability to use its massive audience to pursue different revenue streams—that includes not only various types of advertising but also, say, selling products. If YouTube were to include a “buy this” button on some of its videos (that referred viewers to a product they could buy online and tied into a video they were viewing), revenues from affiliate fees from the sale of those products could easily double the size of the business at no additional cost… So even if YouTube isn’t profitable now, it could add an extra $150 million in revenue by basically snapping its fingers. And because there are no hosting costs, that is pure profit. Suddenly YouTube’s business doesn’t look so bad after all.

Africa: Blogging About Startups, Innovation And Entrepreneurship (by Ndesanjo Macha, Global Voices)
If your main source of news and information about Africa is the mainstream media, then you are less likely to know about groundbreaking innovation and entrepreneurship that is taking place on the continent.

Observer Kills Media Mob Blog (by Matt Haber, New York Observer)
Media Mob is no more. Make no mistake, observer.com will continue to bring readers breaking media news and analysis from our brilliant, tireless, attractive, and humble media team, but these stories will no longer exist under the old rubric.

News Corp’s Slingshot Labs Launches First Public Project: Gossip Site DailyFill (Paid Content)
Another day, another celeb site—this time from News Corp internet incubator Slingshot Labs. Snarky DailyFill, which has been up in beta since November, officially launches Tuesday. It’s the first public project for Santa Monica-based Slingshot Labs, started last year by News Corp to create and launch quick, low-cost online businesses that can be profitable early on… Content partners for the celeb site include News Corp. sib New York Post’s Page Six, which shut down its standalone gossip site last March after less than four months. Other publications such as Elle, US Weekly, Gossip Girls and Splash News also provide a steady flow of content. The consistently snarky tone comes from Chris Case, one of the original writers for Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect and the editorial lead for the site. The approach is paying off demographically: 49 percent of its users are male.
Because what the world needs more of is snark.

Create Your Own Private YouTube With Fliggo (Mashable)
Fliggo is a new social media site, funded by Y Combinator, that offers anyone the possibility to create a video sharing site or a video blog. The process is simple: create an account with Fliggo, choose a name (in the form of name.fliggo.com) and a description for your site, and choose whether you want a video sharing site, a video blog or a very minimal site just for posting videos for others to see.

Earnings:  MSLO’s Online Revenues Down 18 Percent; Overall Numbers Down Considerably (Paid Content)
Martha Stewart’s brand lost more than a bit of its shine in Q408, as consumers moved towards cheaper brands in the deepening recession. Mainline: Revenue was $72.9 million in Q408, compared to $118.5 million in Q407.

Ballmer Stirs The Microsoft-Yahoo Deal Pot, Yet Again (Paid Content)
And so the Microsoft-Yahoo dance begins again … Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told analysts at a strategic update/mid-year outlook presentation today that he still wanted to pursue some sort of search deal with Yahoo. According to ZNET, Ballmer wants to find a way for the two companies to “pool their resources” to take on Google; he said Microsoft was unlikely to gain search ground this year on its own. He said he understands investors want to see better results from Microsoft’s search and ad properties. “I don’t want to wind up being known as the Jerry Yang of this market in a different way,” Ballmer said. Ouch.

Veronis Suhler Issues New 2009 Ad Forecast; Digital Still Up, But Not By As Much (Paid Content)
Citing a worse-than-expected economy in 2009 Veronis Suhler issued an update to its 2009 ad industry forecast earlier today that, unsurprisingly, expected traditional media to fare much worse than digital media.  However, even digital media projections came down significantly and overall US advertising now expected to decline -0.4 percent in 2009 versus previous forecasts of 4.9 percent growth.

How Glam Made Money Off Twitter During The Oscars (Paid Content)
ABC didn’t live-stream the Oscars, and the network is trying to keep video clips from last night’s show off YouTube, in favor of its own Oscar.com (per MediaMemo). But Glam Media figured out a way to make money from the buzz. Hosting a Twitter widget is a no-brainer these days, particularly for a mega event like the Oscars. Glam, though, offered marketers the chance to sponsor a filtered or edited version of the message stream during the awards ceremony. As VentureBeat notes, the ad network’s editors chose which tweets showed up in the stream and purged those that were inappropriate or off-topic, making it safer for brand advertisers. Aveeno sponsored last night’s Twitter widget; Glam says it plans to expand the service, dubbed gWire, to include FriendFeed and Facebook streams for future events.

One-Second Superbowl Ads for Miller High Life Produce Spike in Sales
Miller High Life’s one-second Super Bowl ads that weren’t created a sales bump that definitely was. Sales of High Life popped 8.6% during the week after the Super Bowl vs. the same period a year earlier, and they were up nearly 5% during the week before the game.

Interview: Scott Howe, MSFT’s Ad & Pub Group: ‘Display Is Not The Problem; The Scoring Methods Are’ (Paid Content)
Over the past few years, Microsoft, like Yahoo, has placed a big bet on display’s rising power to propel it as an online ad mover. Lately, though, the display space has seen nothing but struggles as the economy has worsened. Meanwhile, search has been looking ever-more healthy. In both his presentation and in conversation afterwards, Howe sought to address the pessimism surrounding display. Mostly, Howe wanted to get across a message: Microsoft is trying to refine its own strategy in the face of display’s heavy pressures.

Google pays for e-mail outage with 15-day credit
Google Inc. is making amends for an e-mail outage by giving 15 days of free service to businesses,government agencies and other subscribers who pay for an expanded version of the product.

Warning: Google Talk Phishing Scam Spreading Like Wildfire (by Adam Ostrow at Mashable)
Gmail is now being attacked by a phishing scam that is spreading like wildfire. I became alerted to it when I received IMs from three people I hadn’t talked to in some time within a matter of minutes – one a marketing exec at a prominent startup – with typical phishing jargon “check this out!” with a link to a tinyurl that when clicked, points you to a site called ViddyHo. Apparently, the site sends out the message to all of your Google Talk contacts.

Google backs Europe case against Microsoft browser
Google Inc. is joining forces with European regulators in an attack on Microsoft Corp.’s dominance of the Web browser market, injecting more bad blood between two of computing’s richest and most powerful companies. The latest assault on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, announced Tuesday, comes as Google is trying to expand the usage of its own Web browser, a 6-month-old product called Chrome.

Microsoft explores educational link to video games
The software company, which publishes “Gears of War,” is studying the reactions of avid gamers to see whether video gaming can promote learning skills that carry over to the classroom. “We want to figure out what’s compelling about the games,” said John Nordlinger, head of gaming research for Microsoft. “If we can find out how to make the games fun and not make them so violent, that would be ideal.”

In Silicon Valley, Recruiters Are Sending Out Their Own Résumés
Evidence suggests that the recession has slammed technology company recruiters particularly hard.