Permanent link to MTA daily media news

I present the first bumper sticker (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire))

Uprising on Main Street (by Gary Kamiya, Salon)
Today’s populist rage could regenerate America — if Obama handles it right.
And this is the damn shame, the sad waste of the Obama administration.  He started with the good will to really make some fundamental changes in how our country does business, and he’s squandering more and more of it every day.

One Story Dominates: AIG In The Crosshairs (Project for Excellence in Journalism)
Last week, the media narrative for a complex economic crisis got much simpler. The coverage focused on one corporate villain and one angry public.

AIG Changes Its Name (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
Valujet became ATA. Blackwater morphed into Xe. And New Kids on the Block changed to NKOTB. Plus, as we noted earlier, “toxic assets” today became “legacy loans.” Amidst all this re-branding, AIG has emerged as AIU Holdings. Enjoy!
Because in America, it’s not what you do, only what people think of what you do that is important.

Bailout Money Turning Into Campaign Contributions (Political Wire)
“There was plenty of outrage on Capitol Hill last week over the executive bonuses paid out by AIG after getting federal bailout money. But another money trail could make voters just as angry: the campaign dollars to members of Congress from banks and firms that have received billions via the Troubled Asset Relief Program,” Newsweek reports. “While a few big firms, such as Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase, have curtailed their campaign giving, others are quietly doling out cash to select members of Congress, particularly those who serve on committees that oversee TARP.”
Wow, gee, who could possibly have foreseen that?

Cuomo Says Most Huge A.I.G. Bonuses Were Returned (Deal Book, Wall Street Journal)
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced late Monday afternoon that 9 of the top 10 bonus recipients at the American International Group were giving back their bonuses. He also said 15 of the largest 20 bonus recipients in A.I.G.’s financial products division had agreed to give back the money, for a total that he estimated at about $30 million. “Those bonuses will be returned in full,” Mr. Cuomo said during a conference call with reporters. The attorney general noted that about 47 percent of $165 million in retention bonuses was awarded to Americans, accounting for nearly $80 million. All told, Mr. Cuomo said, A.I.G. employees have agreed to return about $50 million in bonuses.
Thank you, Andrew, it’s obvious that you, for one, care about the taxpayers.

Criminals: Wall Street vs. Main Street (by Pat Racimora at No Quarter)
Can you imagine the scenario in my toon actually happening? It seems ludicrous beyond words. The police would probably make a quick stop at the nearest mental facility just to assess how delusional this dumb sap is before booking him for robbery. And yet it is exactly parallel to what is happening at AIG. I was stunned when Edward M. Liddy said that he asked his executives who ran the company into the ground to give back at least half of their bonuses if they were more than $100,000. Like that would make everyone happy. (Oh, and leave those poor babies alone whose bonuses were still more than what most of us make in an entire year.)

Ivy Smackdown? Another Legal Prof Gives House AIG Plan The Thumbs Up (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
A second legal scholar is differing with the interpretation of the House plan to tax those AIG bonuses that was offered … by Harvard’s Laurence Tribe, who argued that the plan could be unconstitutional… Jack Balkin of Yale (a brewing Ivy smackdown?) has weighed in on his blog. He says the bill of attainder argument poses “no problem”… Whatever the reality, the larger political context is that worries about the constitutionality of the measure could give Obama and his advisers, who appear increasingly uncomfortable with a measure this draconian, the cover they need to oppose it.

We humans have hated unfairness since before we were human:
Monkeys Hate Others’ Bonuses, Too (Scientific American, thanks to Economist’s View)
Even monkeys know when they’re getting a bad deal, said primatologist Frans de Waal… Give two side-by-side monkeys a piece of cucumber for performing a simple task and there’s no problem. But if one sees his neighbor get a more desirable grape—“now grapes are far better than cucumber and the monkeys know that”—for doing the same thing, “they become agitated. They don’t like this experiment anymore, even though they get exactly the same food as before. But the partner is now getting grapes. And if you give the partner a grape without any task, then they really don’t like it anymore. So this is, I usually call it an egocentric sense of fairness, it’s like resentment or envy. It’s very similar actually to the response that we have currently to Wall Street bonuses. I always say we live in Cucumberland and they live in Grapeland, basically.”

Republican Party Video Slams Obama For Only Helping Those “At The Top” (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
In what may be the GOP’s most direct shot at President Obama yet, the NRSC has cut a new Web video that slams Obama over the AIG mess, suggesting that the administration’s failure to halt the huge bonuses shows that he’s reneged on his vow not to only help those “at the top.” “If seeing is believing, is this change you can believe in?” the vid asks. An NRSC official says the video, which will go out today to the NRSC’s three-million email list, is intended to frame the debate in advance of Obama’s prime-time presser tonight.
But they’re speaking out of both sides of their mouths, as usual.  See below.

Limbaugh guest host Steyn on Wall Street bankers: “They’re not fat cats. They’re emaciated, cadaverous cats. They’ve got … that cat version of AIDS that the cats get — the feline immunodeficiency virus.” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

CNBC’s Haines on executive pay limits: ‘It’s getting scary.’ (Think Progress)
As ThinkProgress first reported, CNBC’s Mark Haines offered a spirited defense of the wealthy last week, saying that Wall Street companies shouldn’t be managed by anyone making under $250,000 per year. Today, Haines defended exorbitant executive pay, saying that new compensation limits from the Obama administration are “scary”… CNBC’s Erin Burnett agreed, simply responding, “Yes.”
Click through to watch the video.

Burnett claims bailout recipient bonus tax “to some echo[es] the Russian and French Revolutions,” asks: “[I]s America starting to look like Venezuela?” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Bank Plan Out, Dow Up (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
The Dow Jones Industrial average shot up 497.48 points today, to close at 7,775.86. ABC News’ Charlie Herman tells us this was the biggest point gain since November 13, 2008, and the 5th biggest point gain in its history.
What makes Wall Street happy is NOT necessarily what makes me happy.

Can GOP Gain Traction By Hitting Dems Over AIG Mess? (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
Two new polls out today suggest that the answer to this one is mixed. First up: A new Rasmussen poll finds that nearly three out of four (74%) say Congress and the President should have acted sooner to nix those AIG bonuses… But the Ras poll also finds a solid majority of 57% back the House Dems’ plan to fix the mess by slapping a massive tax on some of the bonuses — a plan that many Republicans voted against… [A] new Gallup poll finds that less than one in five blame Congress for the bonus disaster, with only eight percent blaming Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and only seven percent blaming Obama.

So even if majorities think the White House and Congress should have moved to block those bonuses faster, folks just don’t seem to be ready to point fingers directly at Obama and Dems over it.

Poll of change: Obama’s job approval slipping to ‘50-50’ (Boston Herald)
The honeymoon is over, a national poll will signal today as President Obama’s job approval stumbles to about 50 percent over the lack of improvement with the crippled economy… Pollster John Zogby said his poll out today will show Americans split on the president’s performance. He said the score factors out to “about 50-50.” Some polls show Obama coasting with a 65 percent job approval, but not in Zogby’s tally.
I don’t know, though.  Sometimes I think Zogby reports outlier results as a way of getting attention.  It remains to be seen whether other polls will begin to show the same results.

Geithner Goes On Media Blitz But Questions Over Strategy Persist (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
[The “bankers get the mine and taxpayers get the shaft” toxic asset purchase] plan has engendered positive reviews from both key and surprising constituencies. Wall Street approved by following suit with the biggest one-day gain in stock prices since October. On the political front, some GOP leaders offered support for the proposal… And while liberal economists, notably Paul Krugman of the New York Times, took Geithner to task for a plan that he termed an “awful mess” that would create a “massive moral hazard,” observers on the conservative side were more sympathetic.
I worry when my government generates plans that please today’s conservatives, and that includes Harry Reid (see below).

U.S. Senator Reid backs Treasury “bad asset” plan (Reuters)
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Monday backed the Treasury Department’s plan for buying banks’ “toxic assets” to help encourage lending, saying it was based on “sound principle.”

The Politics Might Be Harder Than the Economics (Political Wire)
John Heilemann notes a “vexing dilemma” for President Obama: “Saving the banks is the sine qua non for the country’s emergence from its ever-deepening miasma, but in doing so, Obama risks incurring a tsunami of bailout rage. If, on the other hand, he appeals too much to populism, he risks driving elites away. Either outcome could deny him the support he needs for the rest of his agenda. Getting the economics right may be devilishly difficult — but the politics are even trickier, and just as crucial.”

Slow Walking Over The Cliff (by digby, thanks to Susie at Suburban Guerilla)
“‘It’s almost like they’ve got — they’ve got a bomb strapped to them and they’ve got their hand on the trigger,’ President Obama said on Thursday of the banks he’s chosen to bail out. ‘You don’t want them to blow up. But you’ve got to kind of talk [to] them, ease that finger off the trigger.’”… And you can bet that the fucking bond traders [as Bill Clinton called them] are getting ready to strap on the IED over health care and energy…) The owners of America will be appeased or they will destroy everything in their wake. In another world, they would call this economic terrorism.

I am not averse to Wall Street making money. It’s capitalism and god bless them for it. But this is a crisis. But these people is so arrogantly grasping that it defies reason. But then this isn’t a rational situation. They are telling the US Government to sit down and shut up — and getting away with it:

Another Noble hates the Geithner plan (by Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors)
The U.S. government is basically using the taxpayer to guarantee against downside risk on the value of these assets, while giving the upside, or potential profits, to private investors. “Quite frankly, this amounts to robbery of the American people. I don’t think it’s going to work because I think there’ll be a lot of anger about putting the losses so much on the shoulder of the American taxpayer.” – Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz

A ponzi scheme that would make Charles Ponzi blush. (by J –SOM at Liberal Rapture)
The massive debt the banks are now holding will be transferred to you and me and everyone we know, and for that matter, every American we don’t know. Even Charles Ponzi would not have the balls to try a stunt like this… Simply because the government (you and me) now owns this mountain of crap does not mean that is is suddenly not a mountain of crap. It is. The difference is that now WE will own it all. The intention is to have us pay 100 cents on the dollar for bundled mortgage feces that is worth 30 cents on the dollar. If that… Anyone who still believes that Obama is anything but an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill – is in a coma.

Tuesday: It’s official. Obama gave the country to the bankers (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
What’s the difference between Democrats and Republicans these days?  Last year, the party traded in its guiding principles for Republican Lite.  Barack Obama is definitely pro-”money class”.  He’s proven that now by Geithner’s plan where the only people to benefit already have money.  We can rage against Congress but they are feckless… Meanwhile, the left seems paralyzed.  Those of us who would rally the troops are trying to keep our jobs.  Those on the left who sold out to Obamamania last year seem like bewildered children who discovered something nasty about their parents.  They just can’t believe it.  But it’s worse than that.  Obama has effectively neutralized the left with the left’s help.  His campaign attacked it from within and made it helpless.

Which Bailout Plan is Best? (by Mark Thoma at Economist’s View)
Which plan is best, the original Paulson plan where the government buys bad paper directly, the Geithner plan where the government gives investors loans and absorbs some of the downside risk in order to induce private sector participation, or straight up nationalization?… What’s important to me is that we do something, that we adopt a reasonable plan that has a decent shot at working and that satisfies the political test it must pass (though the administration could certainly do more to sell the plan to the public and help with this part, so passing the test is partly a reflection of the effort that is put into selling it). We’ve been spinning our wheels for too long, and it’s time to get this done. We can’t wait any longer.

So I am willing to get behind this plan and to try to make it work. It wasn’t my first choice, I still think nationalization is better overall, but I am not one who believes the Geithner plan cannot possibly work. Trying to change it now would delay the plan for too long and more delay is absolutely the wrong step to take. There’s still time for minor changes to improve the program as we go along, and it will be important to implement mid course corrections, but like it or not this is the plan we are going with and the important thing now is to do the best that we can to try and make it work.

Some Positive Comments on the Geithner Toxic Plan (Calculated Risk)
I tend to agree with Mark on this. The Geithner plan is suboptimal, but it is probably the best we can get in the current environment. I’d add a caveat: this plan is easy for the banks to game or arb – and if a bank is caught gaming this plan, the AIG bonus flap will seem like a light Summer breeze… I think this is a myth that banks will lend “more aggressively” once the toxic assets are off their balance sheets. To whom?…

The key problem with the Geithner plan is that it incentivizes investors to pay more than market value for toxic assets by providing a non-recourse loan and with below market interest rates… The investors do not receive this incentive, the banks do. And the taxpayers pay it, so this is a transfer of wealth from taxpayers to the shareholders of the banks… Oh well, Paul Kedrosky quotes T. Boone Pickens today: “My dad said a fool with a plan can beat a genius with no plan.”

Dark musings (by Steve Waldman at Interfluidity, thanks to Economist’s View)
I often wish I were Mark Thoma. If I were Mark Thoma, I could be smart and paying attention without being bitter… Unfortunately, I have a darker temperament, a spirit less generous and optimistic than Mark’s. I am filled with despair, not because what we are doing cannot “work”, but because it is too unjust. This is not my country. The news of today is the Geithner plan. I think this plan might work very well in terms of repairing bank balance sheets. Of course the whole notion of repairing bank balance sheet is a lie and misdirection.

The balance sheets we should want to see repaired are household balance sheets. Banks have failed us profoundly. We want them reorganized, not repaired. A world in which the banks are all fixed but households are still broken is worse than what we have right now. Too-big-to-fail banks restored to health are too-big-to-fail banks restored to power. The idea that fixing legacy banks is prerequisite to fixing the broad economy is a lie perpetrated by legacy bankers.

McCain Economic Adviser: Let Insolvent Banks Fail (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
Sen. John McCain’s chief economist during the campaign is sounding a tune on the financial crisis that endears him to some of the progressives he once irritated. Appearing on NPR Tuesday morning, Douglas Holtz-Eakin argued (in contrast to Obama’s bank plan) that insolvent institutions should be allowed to fail, and taxpayer money should be geared towards managing the fallout of those failures. “To really get financial stability, we have to acknowledge that some of these institutions have failed, for example AIG has failed, and move past simply keeping them upright — and pumping money in to do it — to winding them down in an orderly fashion, selling down their assets to new institutions that have a chance to make a profit in the future. That’s the only way we will effectively clean out the bad assets in the system,” said Holtz-Eakin.

Tell me again how a government that gives ANYBODY trillions of dollars with no transparency and no accountability is legitimate? (by lambert at Corrente)
William Buiter: “…The opaqueness of the financial operations of the Fed in support of the financial sector (which are expanding in scale and scope at an unprecedented rate) and the lack of accountability for the use of tax payers’ resources that it entails, threaten democratic accountability. Even if it enhances financial stability, which I doubt, democratic legitimacy and accountability are damaged by it, and that is too high a price to pay.

Indeed. Let me check the operating manual here: “Article I… Section 9 Clause 7: No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time” I hate to sound like I’m joining the black helicopter crowd here, but whatever the Founders had in mind, it certainly wasn’t the Executive branch throwing trillions of dollars into an enormous hole, with nobody the wiser as to where it ultimately ended up.

After Mitchell says criticism of Obama laughing is “a little bit overboard,” Todd comments, “Matt Drudge, there you go” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Punch Drunk on Tax Funded Bailouts (by dakinikat at The Confluence)
While the Right Wing is off having tea parties and screaming class war, there appears to be some legitimate soul searching going on  in left Blogistan about our “punch drunk” POTUS and his continual campaign-like appearances.  A lot of the discussion is focused on his dogged support of Turbo Tax Timmy and his bailout of the Suckers who created this bad economy for the rest of us.  We’ve been overwhelmed with “heckuva-job-Timmy moments and distasteful ‘gallows humor’.  When is enough enough?

Lucidity, however,  is on the rise in other places.   I’m finding it in interesting places like the second episode of South Park where the lampoon on the Dark Knight included this little back ground gem;  a satire of the famous Obama poster featuring a deer-caught-in-the-headlights appearing  Obama with the change mantra tagged by a bright red WHEN? My answer to the WHEN question is probably never.

Take note, Timmy (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
How much time elapsed between “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of job” and “Brownie, you’re fired”? Not much. And as long as we’re checking our watches, let’s see how much time passes before a Kos commenter writes: “Obama’s a fraud? OMG! Get this to Keith!”

Geithner = Warren? (bby Paul Rosenberg at Open Left, thanks to J -SOM at Liberal Rapture)
“Is Tim Geithner another bad choice, like Rick Warren, that Barack Obama is simply incapable of recognizing, admitting and acting on?  And is his unwillingness to recognize this a symptom of some much deeper problem with how he will govern?  I fear it very well could be.”

There was a headline at Huffington Post, it’s gone now–I blinked and it went away–but it made a sharp impression before it was replaced with something far more benign.  I forget the exact wording, but basically it was the Obama told 60-Minutes there was no way he was letting Geithner go… I’m having a flashback right about now, to Barack Obama posting a diary at Daily Kos, telling all us dirty fucking hippies to lay off his buds in the Senate.  That was the first instance when Obama used his popularity with the Democratic base to shield his personal friends from justly earned criticism–criticism that had nothing, necessarily, to do with them as private people, and everything to do with their public duties. Then, there was his still-unexplained infatuation with Rick Warren….  

Analysis: Clinton’s mockery of Obama proves true (CNN)
During the most contentious stretch of the Democratic presidential primary campaign last winter, then-candidate Hillary Clinton mocked Barack Obama for his pledge to transcend Washington’s entrenched partisanship. “The sky will open. The lights will come down. Celestial choirs will be singing and everyone will know we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect!” Clinton bellowed. Obama dismissed Clinton’s sarcasm as overly cynical and further evidence she was a creature of Washington. But as President Obama prepares to make his first major address to Congress, Clinton’s comments are borne out.

For a candidate who won the White House on a mantle of bringing the country’s two political parties together, Washington could not be more divided on Obama’s initial weeks in the Oval Office and the policies he has put in place… “Clinton’s earlier critique of change has quickly become very valid,” said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. “The Washington of George Bush is the same Washington of Barack Obama. The promise of bipartisanship and hope in Washington is difficult to actually achieve.”

Another Vetting Problem? (Political Wire)
CQ Politics: “In another potential vetting embarassment for the Obama administration, White House urban policy czar Adolfo Carrión is being targeted in a probe of whether he received a cut-rate deal on the renovation of his home on City Island, N.Y.”

Dodd’s Wife a Former Director of Bermuda-Based IPC Holdings, an AIG Controlled Company (by Kevin Rennie, a former Republican state senator and now a columnist for the Hartford Courant)
No wonder Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn) went wobbly last week when asked about his February amendment ratifying hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to executives at insurance giant AIG. Dodd has been one of the company’s favorite recipients of campaign contributions. But it turns out that Senator Dodd’s wife has also benefited from past connections to AIG as well. From 2001-2004, Jackie Clegg Dodd served as an “outside” director of IPC Holdings, Ltd., a Bermuda-based company controlled by AIG.
No evidence of wrongdoing, apparently, but I just HATE these incestuous relationships among the elite.

Was ‘Hillary: The Movie” wrongly censored? (Yahoo News)
The US Supreme Court takes up a closely watched case on Tuesday examining when a documentary film may violate election law and become an illegal form of campaign advocacy.

Breaking: Specter Confirms He’ll Vote Against Employee Free Choice (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
Senator Arlen Specter has just confirmed that he’ll vote against cloture for the Employee Free Choice Act, his office confirms to me, potentially dealing a real blow to labor’s efforts to get the key 60 votes for the measure in the Senate.

Gillibrand Would Face Tough Race Against Pataki (Political Wire)
A new Siena Research Institute poll shows Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) handily defeating Rep. Peter King (R-NY) in a possible U.S. Senate match up, 47% to 23%. However, Gillibrand would face a tough challenge if former New York Gov. George Pataki (R) ran against her as the two are currently tied at 41% support.

Poll Shows Paterson Sinking Further (Political Wire)
A new Siena Research Institute poll in New York finds Gov. David Paterson (D) behind in both primary and general-election matchups and with record low job approval ratings. In the Democratic primary, Andrew Cuomo (D) blows away Paterson 67% to 17%. As recently as January, Cuomo and Paterson were deadlocked. In the general election, Rudy Giuliani (R) crushes Paterson 56 to 33%. However, Cuomo would beat Giuliani, 51% to 41%. Just 19% of New Yorkers say Paterson is doing an excellent or good job.

Palin — Who Whacked Obama’s Special Olympics Crack — Turned Down Nearly $40 Million For Kids With Disabilities (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
On Friday, Sarah Palin hammered President Obama for his careless remarks about the Special Olympics, professing herself “shocked” at Obama’s “degrading remark” about “precious and unique people.” But less than 24 hours before hitting Obama this way, Palin turned down nearly $40 million in Federal funding for programs catering to special education kids. The funding for special needs kids, it turns out, is buried in all that stimulus money for Alaska that Palin drew national criticism for turning down last week (though there are now doubts about whether she’s made a final decision on them).

Jindal Versus The Volcano (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
With Monday’s massive volcano eruption in Alaska likely to leave Anchorage and Gov. Sarah Palin’s hometown covered in ash, a Democratic strategist sends over the reminder that just a month and a half ago, another up-and-coming Republican star, Gov. Bobby Jindal, mocked the very notion of volcano monitoring. Speaking in the non-State of the Union rebuttal, the Louisiana Republican said that instead of spending $140 million “for something called ‘volcano monitoring,’” Congress “should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.”… Many Alaskans took issue with Jindal’s comment, the Anchorage Daily News reported. “Of course Alaskans want to know if a volcano is going to blow,” a Palin press aide told the paper.

Pods on Parade. (by J –SOM at Liberal Rapture)
Obama’s cult is trying to rally his minions to get out and hector the rest of us to sign pledge cards (acceptable, but still creepy.) in support of THE ONE’s agenda… On its face I have little problem with this part of the permanent campaign. I doubt el Presidente has occupied a millisecond of thinking about it. At least I hope not. People out in the streets canvassing for something they believe in is a good thing in a democracy. The trouble is, of course, it is painfully apparent that what these types believe in is not an idea, or a set of principles, but a person. It’s not like any of Obama’s ideas are, in fact, his…

I could work up a rant here – but I suspect this project will fail. The vast majority of the most engaged pods were in it to smugly prove a point. “Look what we elected!” Last month Obama’s peeps tried this trick with house parties supporting the stimulus bill and participation was next to nil. Besides, blowback is everywhere. It is one thing to defend a candidate with delusions, “hope”, and screams of racism. It is quite another for a Pod to willingly put himself out side a grocery store to endure snarking comments about Obama being a con man. Most of us know the campaign is over – even if the pods do not.

Congress isn’t feeling much heat from Obama’s ‘army’ (McClatchy)
President Barack Obama’s army of canvassers fanned out across the nation over the weekend to drum up support for his $3.55 trillion budget, but they had no noticeable impact on members of Congress, who on Monday said they were largely unaware of the effort.

Orlando ‘Tea Party’ rally draws more than 4,000 (Orlando Sentinel)
Singer Lloyd Marcus told the crowd assembled in Lake Eola Park on Saturday that he was going to give them his take on the first days of the Obama administration. Then he shrieked. That pretty much summed up the mood in the park Saturday afternoon, when more than 4,000 people attended the Orlando Tea Party, a conservative rally aimed at expressing discontent with Washington… “We’re really scared about what’s happening in our country,” said Debby Whisenand, 71, of Largo in Pinellas County. She waved a sign that read “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money” on one side, and “You can’t blame Bush anymore” on the other.

Progressives Launch Campaign Targeting Centrist Senate Dems (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
A coalition of progressive groups and officials announced the launch of a media and grassroots campaign Tuesday to target conservative Democrats they deem obstructionist. The impetus of the campaign was a recent move by some Democrats, led by Sen. Evan Bayh, to form a working group that would ostensibly move the president’s agenda in a more conservative direction. Calling their work — particularly the preemptive call to not consider major legislative reforms in the budget reconciliation process — “very bad politics and very bad policy,” Robert Borosage, the co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, said that the Senate group was obstructing the president’s agenda.

“We have been pretty unhappy to see many conservative Democrats, new Democrats, Blue Dogs, etc., suggesting that they are beginning to have doubts about the president’s program and are ready to move against it,” he said.
Well, that’s some good news.  But what happens when they find out they have to move President Obama to the left, too?

McCaskill Says We Need “Entitlement Reform” For Social Security ASAP (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
Critics on the left don’t like the phrase “entitlement reform” used to describe proposed reforms to Social Security — and want Obama and Dems to refrain from “fixing” Social Security in the short term and preserve their political capital for bigger, more urgent problems. So these folks won’t like what Senator Claire McCaskill had to say on her Twitter feed this morning. On it, she said she’d just attended a “bipartisan breakfast” and had come away persuaded that Social Security — which she described as “entitlement reform” — needed to be fixed ASAP.

Obama Administration: $150K Fine Per Downloaded Song Warranted (by Susie at Suburban Guerrilla)
[T]he Founding Fathers called for a ten-year limit on copyrights… “The Obama administration for the first time is weighing in on a Recording Industry Association of America file sharing lawsuit and is supporting hefty awards of as much as $150,000 per purloined music track… Two top lawyers in President Barack Obama’s Justice Department are former RIAA [Recording Industry Association of America] lawyers.

DNC’s Kaine picks panel to reform Democrats’ entire nominating process (by Andrew Malcolm at Top of the Ticket, Los Angeles Times)
Last year’s Democratic primaries were hard fought even bitter affairs, not helped by the initial banning of [two] states, which denied Hillary Clinton two crucial albeit sneaky victories. [SNEAKY?  What on earth does this author mean by that?]… The 37-member Democratic Change Commission will be headed by Sen. Claire McCaskill (who likes to Twitter) and Rep. James Clyburn, both ardent Obama backers. And Obama’s ex-campaign manager David Plouffe is also on… The commission, which grows from a convention resolution by Obama last August, will have three goals: chop the number of superdelegates, reform the caucus system and change “the window of time” for caucuses and primaries… The commission’s report is due by next New Years Day.
Click through to see the list of names of the members.  This is the first indication I’ve seen that the party recognizes there’s a problem with a process that awards more delegates to the candidate who didn’t win a majority vote in the state.  Maybe they’ll figure out a way to make it impossible for the RBC to break its own rules.  Say, have a penalty of boiling rule breakers in oil.

Obama Comes A’Courtin’? (by Susie at Suburban Guerrilla)
The Politico says Obama is going to meet with liberal bloggers. I suppose I’m in a distinct minority if I point out it presents a credibility problem. It’s always harder to be critical about someone you like (or his Secretary of the Treasury), and when the POTUS wants to meet you, well, it’s hard to knock his taste, isn’t it? See it for what it is: Good for business, not so good for maintaining your editorial independence. Like the late, great Izzy Stone, I have no interest in meeting the people I write about. Not only does this protect me, it protects you – the reader. My advice to those being courted? Just say no.

Hillary Clinton, e-diplomat, embraces new media (AP)
Her videos aren’t quite viral yet and she’s not tweeting, but Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is embracing new media, using the Web to promote the agency and her role as the nation’s top envoy.

Introducing Financial Media Matters (by Karl Frisch at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Media Matters … launched Financial Media Matters (www.FinancialMediaMatters.org) a website dedicated to holding accountable those who report on the financial and business industry as well as those who report on labor, economic, and other fiscal matters. The new website will focus extensively on ensuring that outlets such as CNBC, Fox Business Network, and The Wall Street Journal are held accountable.

Howard Dean Joins CNBC as Contributor (TVNewser, Media Bistro)
Former DNC chairman and 2004 presidential candidate Howard Dean has joined CNBC as a contributor… There’s no word yet which programs Dean will contribute to regularly.

Dean on Wall Street compensation: Americans don’t understand rewarding people who did ‘a crappy job.’ (Think Progress)
During his inaugural appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning as a paid commentator, Howard Dean told the CNBC regulars that he believed they were misreading the public’s reaction to Wall Street excess. Dean said that rather than resenting the wealth of Wall Street as a matter of course, Americans simply believe that “you shouldn’t get rewarded…for doing a crappy job”… Squawk Box co-host Joe Kernen said that the hiring of Dean was meant to “balance” their recent hiring of former Bush administration spokesperson Tony Fratto.
Click through to watch the video.

Money for Nothing (by Jamison Foser at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
What do you get in exchange for a history of sexist comments, cluelessness about public opinion, baseless and hypocritical accusations of “elitism,” and mindless gushing over George W. Bush? If you’re Chris Matthews, all that is good for roughly $20 million. Keep that in mind next time Matthews says that Barack Obama is out of touch with regular people because he plays pool.

Quote of the Day (by Jamison Foser at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Joe Klein: “But most of the anger we see and hear comes from people who are paid to be angry, on cue, on cable television–as opposed to people with actual grievacnes. Suddenly, the White House press corps goes barking mad over the AIG Bonuses. It is said that the bonuses are an aspect of the bust that the ‘public’ can understand; in truth, the bonuses are an aspect of the bust that reporters can understand. Suddenly, the Obama Administration has a ‘crisis.’ The President has to go on television and act as if he’s angry, even though he knows these bonuses are the tiniest outcropping of outrageousness.”
Yes, well, welcome back to the bright side, Joe.

Exchange of the Day (Political Wire)
CNBC’s Erin Burnett: Final question, your house, it’s up for sale. We know that. That’s part of the public record. We’re in a housing crisis. You haven’t been able to sell it, so you’ve got to do this commute. Is that — is that an indicator we can all look at, when Tim Geithner can sell his house, things are going to be OK?
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner: We’re planning to move my family down in the fall. Can’t wait to see them, can’t wait to get them here. Don’t like commuting very much. And I look forward to having them live in the same city with me as quickly as possible. But it’s not going to happen till the summer because of the school year.
Burnett: Because of the school year. OK. Secretary Geithner, thanks very much.

Fox News VP: Fox is ‘the voice of opposition’ to the Obama administration. (Think Progress)
Though Fox News is widely known to be biased in favor of conservatism, the network likes to claim that is “fair and balanced” and that the objectivity of the “hard news” they do is “is not in question.” But in an interview with NPR, Fox News’ Senior Vice President for Programming, Bill Shine, admitted that the network is consciously aiming to be “the voice of opposition” to the Obama administration “on some issues”… Fox News has wasted no time in opposing the Obama administration’s agenda. For example, the network has unleashed a steady drum beat of misinformation and propaganda against the Employee Free Choice Act. In fact, when it comes to challenging the Obama administration, Fox News CEO Roger Ailes has compared the network to “the Alamo.”

Dick Morris’ self-confessed conspiracy theory: Obama “wants his plan to fail…so that he can make the case for bank nationalization and vindicate his dream of a socialist economy” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Morris: To take back the House, Republicans “basically… have to let Barack Obama hang himself” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Fox News contributor Pinkerton compared Obama’s appearance at a “closed press” reception to “the secrecy of Dick Cheney and detentions and renditions and all that stuff” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

In back-to-back teasers, O’Reilly questions Rep. Frank’s “tactics,” highlights his producer’s “ambush” of blogger (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

FOX again attacks US allies (by Jamison Foser at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Fox has insulted Canada, attacking the country’s military even as four Canadian soldiers were killed in attacks in Afghanistan: “The Canadian government … was incensed by a recent talk-show segment on the American conservative cable network that poked fun at Canada and the Canadian military… Canadian soldiers have been fighting in Afghanistan since 2001 and have spent the last four years in the country’s most violent region. Canada has lost 116 soldiers in Afghanistan.”

Ingraham guest host Bruce on the Obamas: “We’ve got trash in the White House” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Boortz on those who are “thrilled to make $75,000 a year”: “[E]very once in a while they’ll oil all the wheels on their house” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Savage: “Obama has a plan to force children into a paramilitary domestic army” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Blago is Back (Political Wire)
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich “has a new gig — as a radio talk show host,” the AP reports. WLS-AM program director Bob Shomper says Blagojevich will be on the air on the Chicago station Wednesday morning, taking calls from listeners, telling stories and talking with guests.
WLS is the former employer of another politician who’s already in prison, former city alderman “Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak.

Congresswoman, a breast cancer survivor, urges national campaign (McClatchy)
Two days after she disclosed her fight with cancer, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz launched into advocacy Monday, championing legislation that calls for greater awareness of breast cancer among younger women.

Sam Waterston Pushes Bipartisan Fair Elections Now Act (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is set to propose legislation this week that would create a public election financing system that would keep candidates competitive while, among other things, banning lobbyist money in elections. “Law & Order” star Sam Waterston, in an interview with the Huffington Post, said the time is ripe. Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Arlen Specter (R-Penn.), will be introducing the Fair Elections Now Act on Wednesday. And they are expected to be supplemented by a coterie of Representatives in the House, according to advocates for the legislation. Proponents of the legislation say that it would eliminate the predominance of special interests in politics without tilting the playing field against those politicians that chose to take part. They believe it’s the right time for an election-financing system overhaul.
I want what Jack McCoy wants.

Media Matters for America headlines

• Bush missing from USA Today/Gallup poll response options to question about AIG bonuses

• Scarborough shills GE stock on GE-owned MSNBC

• Boehlert: Jeff Zucker and the CNBC straw man

• CNN’s Castellanos falsely claimed Dems “gave” bonuses to AIG execs

• Memo to the media: Where’s W?

• Did O’Reilly violate his own ambush rules?

• Following Politico’s lead, media fixate on Obama’s “awkward laughter” in 60 Minutes interview

• Wall Street Journal article omitted Bush Treasury Department’s role from AIG bonus timeline

• Politico published Bauer op-ed that advanced 61-detainee falsehood

Violence Against the Press Frequently Goes Unpunished, Says Study
In a report called “Getting Away With Murder 2009,” the Committee to Protect Journalists has found that violence against the press often goes unpunished. “Our findings indicate that the failure to solve journalist murders perpetuates further violence against the press,” said CPJ’s Joel Simon.

Papers apologise to Australia’s Hanson
Australia’s largest newspaper group apologised to far-right politician Pauline Hanson Sunday for publishing photos it incorrectly claimed showed her in a series of raunchy poses.
Oops!

Ocala Magazine editor insists her plagiarism was unintentional
Ocala Magazine editor Heather Lee says after being accused of lifting passages from the Wall Street Journal, Dallas Morning News, Oprah Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and other publications: “Producing 17 issues a year is a huge responsibility, especially with a limited staff and little to no freelancers. … I do my best to keep detailed notes as to where the items come from and I believe that as I work through the files, getting closer to finished copy that I amend all the information to be in my own voice. So when I say that I never intentionally reproduced someone else’s work as my own, I’m being truthful.”

Tribune Sues Warren Beatty Over Dick Tracy Rights
Tribune Media Services has filed a lawsuit against Academy-award winning director and actor Warren Beatty to recover motion-picture and television rights to iconic comic-strip character Dick Tracy, according to court documents.

News Media Chiefs: Finding New Revenue a Challenge
“There’s no question it’s revenue — and where it’s going and how to get it and how to hold onto it,” said Tom Curley, president and CEO of The Associated Press. “This is not about a declining market. This is about a growing market. The problem is the revenue is going in different directions.” 

By ‘Optimizing’ Ads, Can the Rubicon Project Save Newspapers?
The Rubicon Project promises to help newspapers “find money” online. With the Rubicon Project’s technology, says Frank Addante, the 32-year-old co-founder, newspapers and other “premium news” outlets can increase their online revenue by an average of 60% a year.

Nonprofit Mother Jones a Role Model for the Industry
Thirty-three years after Mother Jones began as a nonprofit magazine, co-editor Monika Bauerlein jokes that “we’re so out of date, we’re hip.” She was referring to renewed interest in the magazine’s business model.

How the Kindle Will Change the World (by Jacob Weisberg at Slate)
Why should a civilization that reads electronically be any less literate than one that harvests trees to do so? And why should a transition away from the printed page lessen our appreciation and love for printed books?
Remember five years from now that you read it here first: Someday you will have the option of buying a device that is a digital reader, a movie and music player, a computer, a game console, and a mobile phone.

Farewell to the Printed Monograph
The University of Michigan Press will shift its scholarly publishing from being primarily a traditional print operation to one that is primarily digital. Because digital publishing is so much less expensive, the press expects to be able to publish more books, and to distribute them to a much broader audience.

Austin Chronicle thrives with a relentlessly local news agenda
“We don’t do gotcha journalism, our coverage is very policy-oriented, and always local, local, local,” says the alt-weekly’s founder and editor Louis Black. “Even during the Bush years, which were a very big deal here, we never put anybody that wasn’t local on the cover. We don’t do out-of-towners.”

Ann Arbor Paper to Close in July
The Ann Arbor News will close in July after publishing as the city’s daily newspaper since 1835, publisher Laurel Champion announced today. Heavy losses in revenue drove the decision. Champion said the current “business model is not sustainable.”

Star Tribune posted a $1.8 million operating loss in its first six weeks in bankruptcy
David Brauer reports the Minneapolis paper grossed $24.2 million from Jan. 15 to March 1, and spent $26 million. Management also racked up $2.2 million in reorganization costs, which aren’t reflected in the operating loss.

Advance Newspapers Announces Company-wide Furloughs
Advance Publications is instituting mandatory 10-day furloughs and a pension freeze at nearly all of its daily papers outside Michigan. Those Michigan dailies, meanwhile, are undergoing a string of changes that include cutbacks in frequency for some and consolidation of operations for others.

Gannett imposes another round of furloughs
Employees, who took an unpaid week off in the first quarter, have been told to take another week of unpaid leave before July.

Remnick Denies Tweet About Bi-Weekly New Yorker
Yesterday, Washington Post book critic Ron Charles posted on Twitter that The New Yorker was considering reducing its frequency. You could practically hear the sound of 600 media reporters picking up their phones in response, but soon after New Yorker editor David Remnick denied the rumor.

Hispanic Magazine Ad Pages Down 17 Percent Through February
Hispanic magazines have been hit just as hard as the rest of the U.S. consumer magazine industry during the recession. Ad page declines at Hispanic magazines were significantly steeper through the first two months of 2009 (-17.2 percent) than they were in 2008 (-11.8 percent).

Hachette Filipacchi is Selling Enthusiast Titles
Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. is looking to sell a group of its enthusiast magazines including Popular Photography, American Photo, Boating, Cycle World, Flying, and Sound & Vision. Hachette has been feverishly scrubbing its budget under CEO Alain Lemarchand since he arrived last fall.

What happened to the Men’s Vogue staff after the magazine folded?
New York mag thought it would be interesting so find out, so it assigned the story to a former Men’s Vogue intern. || Ghost Word: How the Bay Area’s former best and brightest reporters are spending their time.

NPR Achieves Record Ratings
The audience for NPR’s daily news programs reached a record last year, driven by widespread interest in the presidential election, and the general decline of radio news elsewhere. NPR will release figures showing that the audience for its daily news programs hit 20.9 million a week, a 9 percent increase.

Cary Grant Goes Digital: Warner Brothers To Reformat Old Movies (Paid Content)
It’s not going to save the DVD market, but Warner Brothers started selling classic movies from its library today—everything from silent movies to ’80s classics—in DVD format and as internet downloads. DVDs cost $19.95 and internet downloads $14.95, and they can be ordered at Warner’s archive site. Warner didn’t say how many movies it would make available today, but did say that it plans to continue going through its entire 6,800-movie catalog for movies it feels are good candidates to be converted to digital (i.e. films that may still have an audience). The studio plans to add about 20 films per month… c[C]nverting the films to digital requires almost no investment, so it’s a no-brainer for the studio. 

NFL’s New $4 Billion DirecTV Deal Includes Streaming Rights (Paid Content)
For football fans for whom the ability to watch every NFL game on TV on Sundays isn’t enough, help is on the way. As part of a new four-year, $4 billion deal struck between DirecTV and the NFL last night, they will now also have the option of getting any game streamed to their laptops… While the league gave up the online rights, the NFL won the right to create a new channel called “Red Zone Channel” (to be launched in the next couple of years) that shows real-time highlights of NFL games that will be distributed on multiple media, including cable, satellite, online and mobile. 

With Steve Kroft as Lead Correspondent, 60 Minutes Is Ticking Right Along
During Steve Kroft’s two decades with 60 Minutes, the franchise was primarily identified with Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, and Ed Bradley. But Kroft has finally emerged, with 10 of his 12 pieces topping the broadcast this season, including an interview that aired Sunday with President Obama.

CNN plans to launch its wire service this year
“We’re seeing some early interest” from newspaper editors and television and radio owners, CNN president Jon Klein said Monday at a journalism forum. “I think it will be enough to launch something, probably some time this year, we think.” AP chief Tom Curley told the audience that “our profession is going to undergo some enormous growth after we get through this valley, so I would not give up on it. The next couple of years are going to be tough, but I would not give up on it.”

Stephen Colbert Wins NASA Space Station Name Contest
Comedian Stephen Colbert has won NASA’s online contest to name a new room at the international space station. The name “Colbert” beat out NASA’s four suggested options in the space agency’s effort to have the public help name the addition. NASA reserves the right to choose an appropriate name.

David Zaslav Is Cable’s Fastest Rising Star
In David Zaslav’s two short years as Discovery Communications’ Chief Executive he has rebranded three channels in the U.S., launched 20 new networks or feeds overseas, and taken the company public. Along the way he has replaced the heads of every one of Discovery’s 13 networks.
Well, I’m still not impressed with their content.  Dirty Jobs is about the only thing ever on the Discovery Channel.  It seems to be a guy thing.

Mobile TV Is a Minefield for Everybody Involved (by Terry Heaton at PoMo Blog)
The big media companies want to have their cake and eat it, too, when it comes to mobile video, and this, I think, will not go over well with consumers. According to Online Media Daily, panelists at the Media Summit New York last week discussed their preference for a dual revenue stream model in the mobile video space. Like cable, NBCU and Disney want subscriber fees AND advertising revenues in distributing their content via mobile devices. You want mobile video, you pay a fee to your carrier and then sit through advertising. No thanks, folks.

Fox Local Deal Brings RedLasso Back From The Dead (Paid Content)
Online video search and clipping service RedLasso just got a lifeline from Fox: it sealed a deal to carry video clips from the network’s owned-and-operated local TV stations, which registered users will be able to embed into their blogs. It’s an about-face for Fox, which, along with CBS and NBCU, sued RedLasso for copyright infringement last year, effectively shutting the company’s popular service down.

Bloggers flocked to RedLasso because the service let them edit and only use portions of news video clips they needed, but like many fledgling digital media-sharing startups, it failed to nail down revenue-sharing deals with the content owners first. The fact that Fox returned to the negotiating table shows that big media companies do want to work with innovative startups—particularly companies that boost distribution and exposure—as long as they can have some control over the terms.

Time Warner Buys 31 Percent Stake In Central European Broadcaster (Paid Content)
Time Warner is putting its faith in European TV by spending $241.5 million (£165.9 million) for a 31-percent stake in Central European Media Enterprises, a TV network reaching 97 million people in seven countries across central and eastern Europe… CME is in many ways a traditional TV operator with a mixture of pay and free-to-air channels, but it does have digital assets, including several portals accompanying its main channels such as Protv.ro in Romania and Dnevnik.hr in Croatia, which publish news and offer VOD services. CME also owns Jyxo, the operator of Czech blog network Blog.cz, which it bought in May last year. The company also runs Croatian blog platform Blog.hr.

Last.fm to Start Charging International Users (Mashable)
If you use Last.fm and live outside of the US, UK, or Germany, you might need to get your wallet out. The online radio service has announced that users outside of those countries (their 3 most popular) will need to start paying €3.00 (about $4.40 USD) per month to continue streaming music on Last.fm… The … reason is likely international licensing fees, which led Pandora to pull the plug on international users back in 2007. It’s unfortunate for users outside of Last.fm’s top countries, but likely a necessary move to continue to provide sustainable service, even though the outfit is now owned by media conglomerate CBS.

AOL, Yahoo Will Add Life Streams to Their Popular Web Services
The growing popularity of Twitter and Facebook’s news feed functionality has made everyone embrace life streaming — essentially a way for us to broadcast our daily digital lives via photos, videos, postings and status updates — as a way to consume information. In a matter of months, expect both Yahoo and AOL to come up with their own news feed offerings, likely to be embedded in their more popular web services.

Share Netflix Ratings on Facebook (by Stan Schroeder at Mashable)
Netflix API is resulting in some cool mashups lately. The other day we wrote about semantic movie search engine Jinni making use of the API. Today, Netflix has announced integration with Facebook Connect. This integration lets you post movies you’ve rated on Netflix in your Facebook profile. To start using the feature, go to www.netflix.com/facebookconnect and use the “Connect” button. If you don’t like it, you can opt out (or back in) at any time.

Are we dangerously dependent on Wikipedia? (by Vincent Rossmeier, Salon)
The author of a new book says no, and talks about how a site spawned by an Ayn Rand enthusiast became our most popular encyclopedia.

18 WordPress Plugins for RSS Management and Tweaks (Mashable)
Real Simple Syndication (RSS) enables site owners to automatically syndicate their content to readers in an easily digestible format. There are a number of WordPress plugins to help you manage your blog’s RSS feed, track subscribers, and much more. [Click through for] 18 of our favorite WordPress plugins for RSS. While we think all of the options we’ve provided are extremely useful, we advise you to only download a few as more will impact your blog’s response time.

Using Twitter to Promote Your Book (FreelanceSwitch)
Book publishers are doing less and less to promote and market books. Since much of this work will fall on the author’s shoulders anyway, you might as well use every tool at your disposal.

Facebook Beware: More Mainstream Companies Are Adopting Twitter (Paid Content)
Salesforce.com and Best Buy have incorporated Twitter feeds into their redesigned websites and products… Salesforce.com built a Twitter-response tool into its customer-relations product, and service reps from clients like Comcast and Dell are now able to monitor the Twitter stream for messages that mention their brand (via InformationWeek). Best Buy has also incorporated Twitter into ConsumersPrice.com, its new social-media hub: users can comment on various products through Twitter, share product photos via Flickr, and get price alerts via SMS (via Internet Retailer).

Blellow: A Better Microblogging Tool for Freelancers and Web Workers (Mashable)
One of the reasons that people are embracing Twitter with open arms is the quality of people and networking opportunities that arise from the 140 character community. With Twitter trending towards the mainstream, however, conversations are becoming more social, so freelancers using the popular microblog to find clients and projects might start to feel like a small fish in an expansive sea. For niche networking with a professional purpose and Twitter-like feel, we can now turn to Blellow, a more focused microblogging site to join groups, find projects, check the job board, and meetup with other Blellow members.

ExecTweets: The Twitter Business Model? (Mashable)
Today, the ad network Federated Media is taking a shot at making money from Twitter; FM has launched ExecTweets, a site that aggregates Tweets from business executives. The site is sponsored by Microsoft. The fact is, many business executives are actively using Twitter today. It makes more sense than blogging, which takes more time, and the public sees it as a great view of a company communicating with its users, shareholders and customers. Finding all those business people on Twitter can be quite a chore, and thus FM’s new service might be useful for tracking what’s on the minds of business executives.

‘You Can Take Your Desk’: Tuscon PR Firm Fires Staff, Rehires As Contractors
Well here’s an, er, creative cost-cutting measure: A Tuscon, Arizona-based PR firm has fired 88 percent of its staff and rehired them as contractors. LP&G principal Leslie Perls says revenue’s plummeted and the company simply can’t afford to keep their employees on—they’re also moving out of their historic downtown building. The company’s trying to be generous with the little it has—it’s letting employees take their desks and computers. But since they’ve got to move out of their office anyway, the other way you can look at it is—free moving.

A Network Takes Us Out to a Ballgame
It is rare that media buyers form a consensus on anything, but in the case of the neophyte Major League Baseball Network, which had its premiere in January, they seem to agree that they like its chances of becoming a successful player in the television sports marketplace.

Has The Search-Ad Market Already Bottomed Out? (Paid Content)
That seems to be the suggestion in a report on Google by Citi analyst Mark Mahaney. Mahaney says he hosted a call with executives at four search-engine marketing firms—Clickable, Covario, Reprise Media and SearchIgnite—and all four said they expect next quarter to show improvement over the first quarter, which they say was dismal. One firm said search ad spending dropped a whopping 20 percent to 30 percent in January and February… Already, though, the search-marketing executives say they have noticed a “snap back” in March spending—and expect the business to improve next quarter.

Social Media Marketing Budgets on the Rise (by Adam Ostrow at Mashable)
Recently, we looked at media usage trends, which showed the rising numbers of media consumers that are using social networking sites, reading blogs, and viewing Internet video, among other forms of digital content. Not surprisingly, as these new forms of media consumption grow, so too grows the number of marketing dollars being poured into them. According to a new study released by Aberdeen Group (published today by eMarketer), 63 percent of companies plan to increase their social media marketing budgets in 2009, despite the current weakness in the economy. Digging deeper into the numbers, 21 percent of those surveyed plan to increase social media spending by 25 percent or more, while a mere 3 percent plan to shrink their budgets (34 percent responded “no change”).

The Future of Online Ads is Huge (by Adam Ostrow  at Mashable)
I’m talking about the enormous physical size of advertisements we’re increasingly seeing across the Web. The movement towards huge got a big boost when the Internet Advertising Bureau recently added some big new formats to its standard ad unit sizes: 300×100 and 720×300. Additionally, even bigger takeover-style ads been seen on many popular websites over the past few weeks, including ESPN, MySpace, and YouTube…

Why go huge? Online Media Daily explains YouTube’s strategy: “Many people come to YouTube without having a particular video in mind to view. They land on the home page to search through the site for videos that grab and pull them in.” And pull them in is exactly what ads of the takeover variety can do – on all but the biggest resolutions, they take up so much screen space that you can’t miss them. Like it or not, I think these type of ads are here to stay. 

Google Goes (Slightly) Semantic with Tweaks to Search Results (Mashable)
Google has introduced two changes to its most important product, Search. It now recognizes longer queries and gives you longer description snippets as results. The idea is that, if you’ve written a longer search query, such as “Barbados fishing snorkeling gear and trips,” a short description snippet will not contain enough information for you.

The other change is much more important since it points to Google making use of certain semantic web technologies. Related searches – the terms associated to your query which are sometimes displayed at the bottom of the search result page – are now more intelligently chosen through the use of a new technology (Google hasn’t given out any details about the technology in question). The example that Google gives is the search query “principles of physics.” The related searches offer will include terms such as “special relativity,” “angular momentum,” “big bang” and “quantum mechanics.” It’s not for English users only; as Google explains, it’ll work in 37 languages all around the world.

Create Your Own Branded Mobile Video Broadcast with Ustream (Mashable)
In February, they launched Watershed, a private label business version of their player with strong customization features. Today, Ustream launched another product: the mobile version of Watershed. For those unfamiliar with Watershed, it is the “white-label” version of Ustream – it provides businesses, institutions, and even universities a personalized, branded version of Ustream. It also provides detailed traffic and viewer analytics. The mobile version adds on to this functionality by allowing for live streams via Nokia N95 and S60 phones (sorry, no iPhone version yet).

Watershed mobile includes Twitter integration and chat, but also has two other useful features: GPS and Yes or No Polling. Watershed mobile is GPS-enabled, meaning that viewers can know where you are. Yes or No Polling allows broadcasters can quickly and easily gauge their audience for feedback and opinions. According to Ustream, one of the major points of differentiation between Watershed mobile and competing streaming applications is its low latency – it only takes 1-3 seconds for a live mobile stream to reach a computer. If true, that is some serious technological innovation that makes interacting with an audience via mobile practical.

Microsoft Underwhelms With Preview Of Futuristic Ad Technologies (by Joseph Tartakoff at Paid Content)
Looking for the next “big thing” from Microsoft’s adCenter Labs? It certainly wasn’t on display at the group’s DemoFest, an annual presentation of next-generation online ad technologies that are in the works.
Click through for details.

Meet Zeebo: The Cheaper, Downloadable Video Game Console (Paid Content)
The S.F.-based company unveiled its namesake device at the Game Developers Conference today, a video game console aimed not at the saturated U.S. gaming market, but middle-class gamers in emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). CEO John Rizzo told GDC attendees that a console had to be affordable to succeed in the BRIC countries; its launch price is $199, but that’s expected to come down to $150 later this year. That’s a stark contrast from the roughly $1,000 that a new PS3 or Wii can cost in countries like Brazil…

The Zeebo can can hold about 50 games at a given time; currently the roster is made up of mostly older games like Quake and the Need for Speed franchise, but publishers like EA, Capcom and Namco have already signed on to either license or develop games for the service. It’s designed for cost-effectiveness, since publishers can save on packaging and distribution costs (and pass those savings to gamers), but also to combat the piracy that comes with selling disc-based games.

Steve Perlman’s Next Act: Video Game Technology That Cuts Out The Console (Paid Content)
Steve Perlman, one of the original developers at Apple and founder of WebTV Networks, which was sold to Microsoft in the 90s, is trying to shake up the video-game business. Perlman’s incubator Rearden LLC has developed technology that enables video-game players to play anywhere without a console by accessing games through an internet-connected server, something not currently available to gamers. The technology works a lot like many video-content delivery networks: It compresses then de-compresses large amounts of data quickly, which is necessary to play graphics-rich games that require fast two-way action.

Is The iPhone A Bigger Game Changer Than The Wii? (Paid Content)
There’s a consensus that Nintendo forever changed the video-game industry when it launched the Wii in 2006, since, even with its simple graphics and thin library of “hardcore” games, it quickly eclipsed sales of the PS3 and Xbox 360. But one gaming exec says that the iPhone is an even bigger game-changer. Ngmoco founder and CEO Neil Young kicked off the Game Developers Conference by saying that the launch of the iPhone was as big a gaming milestone as the launch of the first Nintendo console, the Game Boy, Xbox Live and even the first massively multiplayer online game (via Wired)…

But the iPhone has limitations as a gaming device, just like the Wii (or the Xbox 360 or PS3, for that matter): The low barrier to entry means that lazy developers can quickly put out poorly functioning games—and if iPhone owners pay for one too many disappointing game apps, they’ll stop buying. There’s also too much clutter: with more than 25,000 apps, even very good games may find it hard to get noticed (without the bump of being featured in an iPhone commercial)… Nintendo (and even Sony) have taken notice: both companies are pushing game downloads as the next hot thing for their portable gaming devices now, with new announcements expected to roll out over the next few days at GDC.

Here’s One Way To Raise Venture Capital In A Recession (Paid Content)
Industry Ventures has raised $265 million for a new fund that buys stakes in VC funds on the cheap from limited partners looking for a quick exit. According to VentureBeat about 65 percent of the money came from pension funds and about half of the 20 investors were new investors… Similar to distressed-debt funds, which buy debt for deep discounts during periods of weakness, funds like Industry Ventures buy stakes in VC funds from limited partners who want to avoid having to put more money into VC funds through so-called capital calls, or requirements to continue to invest a certain amount of money in the fund. Industry Ventures isn’t wasting time putting its money to work; it has already made 11 acquisitions, including the purchase of nine funds from Washington Mutual for $7 million.