Permanent link to MTA daily media news

I Cannot Make This Up (by Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors)
I was stunned when I got off the plane in Minneapolis St. Paul and found myself face-to-face with a Fox News store. Yes, they had souvenirs, no, I did not buy any.

Tengrain had just attended a conference in honor of the 100th anniversary of The Progressive magazine. I’m told that there were a lot of expressions of unhappiness with Obama, maybe something like this below:
Buying Brand Obama (by Chris Hedges at Truthdig)
Barack Obama is a brand. And the Obama brand is designed to make us feel good about our government while corporate overlords loot the Treasury, our elected officials continue to have their palms greased by armies of corporate lobbyists, our corporate media diverts us with gossip and trivia and our imperial wars expand in the Middle East…

Obama, who has become a global celebrity, was molded easily into a brand. He had almost no experience, other than two years in the Senate, lacked any moral core and could be painted as all things to all people. His brief Senate voting record was a miserable surrender to corporate interests. He was happy to promote nuclear power as “green” energy. He voted to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He reauthorized the Patriot Act. He would not back a bill designed to cap predatory credit card interest rates. He opposed a bill that would have reformed the notorious Mining Law of 1872. He refused to support the single-payer health care bill HR676, sponsored by Reps. Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers. He supported the death penalty. And he backed a class-action “reform” bill that was part of a large lobbying effort by financial firms.
Yes, and those of us who tried to warn liberals who he really was are still to this day demonized and refused a voice in many locales.

Frank: Democrats Blocking Progressive Financial Reforms Should Be Kicked Out Of The Party (Think Progress)
Last week, Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) “cram-down” amendment — which would rewrite bankruptcy law to allow judges to renegotiate mortgages with banks — was rejected 45-51 by the Senate. Twelve Democratic senators voted against the bill, after furious lobbying from the mortgage and banking sectors. The financial sector had funneled millions into the coffers of Democratic senators who voted nay, leading Durbin to decry that banks “own” Congress.

This weekend, on the Bill Maher Show, Maher suggested to Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) that progressive Democrats fighting against moneyed interests form a new party: “Let’s be honest, the Democratic party, starting in the 90’s, also became the party of business and Wall Street. So what we really need is another party that’s the progressive party.” Frank objected, saying, “We who don’t feel that Wall Street should call the shots are in the majority of the Democratic party.” Frank then suggested that the “minority” in the party that is blocking progressive financial reforms break away to form a third party… Frank suggested six times during the interview that Democrats cozying up to the financial sector form their own voting bloc.
Click through to watch the video. Just a reminder—Bill Maher was a big supporter of last year’s not-progressive candidate for president, Barack Obama.

Obama Dines with Krugman, Stiglitz (Political Wire)
Newsweek: “Mindful of his predecessor, Barack Obama seems to be trying harder to make sure he hears all sides. On the night of April 27, for instance, the president invited to the White House some of his administration’s sharpest critics on the economy, including New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz. Over a roast-beef dinner, Obama listened and questioned while Krugman and Stiglitz, both Nobel Prize winners, pushed for more aggressive government intervention in the banking system.”

Congress Poised To Launch 9/11-Styled Commission On Financial Crisis (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
The House of Representatives came to agreement on Monday afternoon on the establishment of a 9/11-styled commission that would be independent of Congress and granted the power of subpoena to investigate the origins of the financial crisis. Aides on the Hill said that the House will likely vote on the measure Wednesday, adding that the chances of passage were high. The office of the bill’s cosponsor, Congressman Darrell Issa, said the legislation would be similar to that recently passed by the Senate. The concept of the commission is pegged to the investigative body that looked into the intelligence collapse precededing the terrorist attacks on 9/11.
A 9/11-styled commission. Great.

More Banks Will Need Capital (Wall Street Journal)
The U.S. is expected to direct about 10 of the 19 banks undergoing government stress tests to boost their capital, according to several people familiar with the matter, a move that officials hope will quell fears about the solvency of the financial sector. The exact number of banks affected remains under discussion.

White House Expecting Banks Will Need More Money, But Not From Government (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
Gibbs stressed during his briefing with reporters that banks should be able to raise the money they will need “either from private means or the selling of some assets.”… Gibbs also insisted that the public and regulators would be “pleased with the amount of transparency with which these tests” will be conducted and released. On this front, he finds himself in disagreement with the TARP’s chief watchdog Elizabeth Warren, who has been decidedly unimpressed with the transparency of the process.

We Can’t Subsidize the Banks Forever (by Mathew Richardson and Nouriel Roubini, thanks to Economist’s View)
If we are to believe the leaks [about stress tests], the results will show that there might be a few problems… But the overall message is that the sector is in pretty good shape. This would be good news if it were credible. But the International Monetary Fund has just released a study of estimated losses on U.S. loans and securities. It was very bleak — $2.7 trillion, double the estimated losses of six months ago. Our estimates at RGE Monitor are even higher, at $3.6 trillion, implying that the financial system is currently near insolvency in the aggregate. With the U.S. banks and broker-dealers accounting for more than half these losses there is a huge disconnect between these estimated losses and the regulators’ conclusions.

FDIC screws community banks (by Brian Angliss at Scholars and Rogues)
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the very organization created to guarantee deposits against bank runs and failures, is instead about to guarantee that their services are in greater demand. They’re doing this by requiring all banks, large and small, to pay a one time charge of 20 cents per $100 of deposits (aka 20 “basis points”). In the process, this unbudgeted expense will likely cause some otherwise stable and profitable smaller banks to fail while larger banks, with the assistance of federal TARP funds, will likely be able to survive.
Per The Voice From The Blue, the feds will have to give some TARP money to the smaller banks.

Bernanke: Economy should grow again later in 2009 (AP)
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Tuesday that the economy should pull out of a recession and start growing again later this year.

Federal aid is top revenue for states (USA Today)
In a historic first, Uncle Sam has supplanted sales, property and income taxes as the biggest source of revenue for state and local governments. The shift shows how deeply the recession is cutting. Federal stimulus money aimed at reviving the economy and a sharp drop in tax collections have altered, at least temporarily, the traditional balance of how states, cities, counties and schools pay for their operations.

House Democrats seek $94.2 billion in emergency funds (Reuters)
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives will seek passage in coming weeks of $94.2 billion in emergency money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other programs, including $2 billion more to prepare for an influenza pandemic.

House Democrats won’t give Obama funds to close Gitmo (McClatchy)
The Obama administration’s bid for $50 million to move prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility was left out of the Democratic-authored emergency war-spending bill unveiled Monday.

SIBEL EDMONDS: In Congress We Trust…Not (The Brad Blog)
The former FBI translator and whistleblower suggests blackmail may be at the heart of Congressional refusal to bring accountability and oversight to its own members – such as both Hastert and Harman – in matters of espionage and national security

Why are the Dems selling out? (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
Sibel Edmonds … too thought that the corruption would end — and the investigation of corruption would begin — once the Dems attained power. Well, now they have it all: The presidency, both houses, and very soon a 60-seat majority in the Senate. Obama even has a chance to undo the damage done to the Supreme Court. So why isn’t everything all better? Not only did we not get a pony, they keep handing us horseshit… Congress has done nothing to lift the gag rule against Sibel Edmonds. That single fact tells me that Edmonds’ own suspicion is closer to the truth: The Jane Harman case proves that both parties in Congress are wading knee-deep in crap. Dems can’t expose Republican crap without exposing their own crap.

Thus, Congress won’t determine whether former House Speaker Dennis Hastert took a pay-off from the Turkish government while in office, even though Hastert now openly lobbies for Turkey… How many other congressmen might have similar relationships with foreign countries and lobbying groups, providing them with golden parachutes for their retirement? How many politicians — Demo and Repub — have broken the law compelling the registration of foreign agents? Not to mention the laws against simple bribery? Isn’t it a form of bribery when you agree to take your big pay-off after retirement?

Murtha’s Nephew Got Defense Contracts‎ (Washington Post)
[L]ast year, Murtech received $4 million in Pentagon work, all of it without competition, for a variety of warehousing and engineering services. With its long corridor of sparsely occupied offices and an unmanned reception area, Murtech’s most striking feature is its owner — Robert C. Murtha Jr., 49. He is the nephew of Rep. John P. Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has significant sway over the Defense Department’s spending as chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.

Robert Murtha said he is not at liberty to discuss in detail what his company does, but for four years it has subsisted on defense contracts, according to records and interviews. He said Murtech’s 17 employees “provide necessary logistical support” to Pentagon testing programs that focus on detecting chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats, “and that’s about as far as I feel comfortable going.” Giving more details could provide important clues to terrorist plotters, he said.
CREW has been warning us about Murtha for years. It’s just a damn shame when both parties are up to their eyeballs in corruption.

UAE “torture” scandal and cover-up sparks outrage in the U.S. (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
What kind of primitive, brutal country knows for years that its own powerful government officials participated in torture and then fails even to investigate what happened, let alone impose meaningful accountability on the torturers?   The international community simply cannot tolerate acquiescence to that sort of evil.  Note that the UAE apparently compensated the victims of the prince’s torture, whereas the U.S. blocked – and continues to try to block – its own torture victims from even having a day in court.

Soufan, Zelikow to testify about torture. (Think Progress)
Spencer Ackerman reports that the former top adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Philip Zelikow, is set to testify before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee next Tuesday, May 13. Zelikow has become an outspoken critic of the Bush administration’s torture program. FBI interrogator Ali Soufan, who has written about how effective his rapport-building methods were in extracting information from Aby Zubaydah, is also expected to testify. Meanwhile, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Foreign Affairs Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) have requested the release of Zelikow’s 2005 memo, which purportedly disputed the Justice Department’s legal rationale for torture.

Babes in TortureLand (by Rory O’Connor)
Why do we leave it to children to demand the truth about torture and the rule of law?

Gonzales And Ashcroft Disagree With Rice: Just Because A President Says It Does Not Make It Legal (Think Progress)
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently tried to defend the Bush administration’s torture program in a discussion with a group of Stanford students on April 27. Channeling Richard Nixon, Rice said that “by definition,” once the president authorized “enhanced interrogations,” they were automatically legal… [Monday], Dan Abrams released the transcript of a panel discussion he conducted with former attorneys general John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales that same day. When Abrams asks them a question similar to the one posed to Rice, Ashcroft and Gonzales come to a very conclusion — Nixon is wrong…

Also in the interview, when asked how about the job President Obama is doing, Gonzales replied, “I tend to follow President Bush’s model in terms of saying less — as opposed to Vice President Cheney’s [Laughter]. I’m often asked the same question.”
Click through to read the transcript.

Someone needs to give Jane Harman an award for this (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
[N]othing can top this quote from Harman, uttered near the end of an AIPAC panel discussion after she realized that nobody was going to ask her about this matter and thus brought it up herself.  As reported by a pro-AIPAC blogger in attendance: “Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) said she is ‘not a victim’ but a ‘warrior on behalf of our Constitution and against abuse of power’…”

[T]hat’s the same Jane Harman who tried to bully The New York Times out of writing about Bush’s illegal spying program, who succeeded in pressuring them not to publish their story until after Bush was re-elected, who repeatedly proclaimed the program to be “legal and necessary” once it was revealed, who called the whistle-blowers “despicable”, who went on Meet the Press and expressed receptiveness to a criminal investigation of The New York Times for publishing the story, who led the way in supporting the Fourth-Amendment-gutting and safeguard-destroying FISA Amendments Act of 2008, and who demanded that telecoms be retroactively immunized for breaking multiple laws by allowing government spying on their customers without warrants of any kind.

Addressing U.S., Hamas Says It Grounded Rockets (New York Times)
The leader of the militant Palestinian group Hamas said Monday that its fighters had stopped firing rockets at Israel for now. He also reached out in a limited way to the Obama administration and others in the West, saying the movement was seeking a state only in the areas Israel won in 1967… On the two-state solution sought by the Americans, he said: “We are with a state on the 1967 borders, based on a long-term truce. This includes East Jerusalem, the dismantling of settlements and the right of return of the Palestinian refugees.” Asked what “long-term” meant, he said 10 years.

Apart from the time restriction and the refusal to accept Israel’s existence, Mr. Meshal’s terms approximate the Arab League peace plan and what the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas says it is seeking. Israel rejects a full return to the 1967 borders, as well as a Palestinian right of return to Israel itself.

Gates: Allies wont be abandoned for Iran (UPI)
Two long-time Middle Eastern allies won’t be abandoned if U.S.-Iran diplomatic relations improve, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said. Gates, on a trip to the region this week, said he will tell Egyptian and Saudi Arabian leaders any overtures to Iran won’t be at the expense of relationships with the two countries, Voice of America reported Monday. “One important message will be … that any kind of outreach to Iran will not be at the expense of our long-term relationships with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, that have been our partners and friends for decades,” Gates said. “We will deal with this in a sensible way and in a way that hopefully increases the security of everybody in the region, not just us.”

Why Hasn’t the FDA Brought Charges Against Merck? (by Susie at Suburban Guerrilla)
Turns out they published their own fake “peer reviewed” medical journal so they could publish fake studies to get doctors to prescribe Fosomax.

Supreme Court Drinking Game! (by Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors)
It could be a long, hot summer with pontificating poltroons of all stripes making side bets on who the Carebear will nominate for the Supreme Court, and how the media will be reading tea leaves. Logically, this leads us to The Supreme Court Drinking Game! The rules are simple:

Matthews asks if Obama will “pick a Latina… just because that’s sort of the unfilled void in his patronage plan so far” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

83% Of Americans Have Preemptive Opinion About the Unknowable (by Pareene at Gawker)
“42% of U.S. voters believe the president’s nominee to replace retiring US Supreme Court Justice David Souter will be too liberal: A nearly equal number-41%— say his choice will be about right.” So says Rasmussen! Bush’s approval rate got down to, what, 20%? So that is your baseline “unalterably crazy” segment of the population. (It is kind of large, right?) So you know that 20-30% of the type of people who actually take polls believe Barack Obama’s Supreme Court pick will be “too secretly-not-born-in America.” But this is still an impressively idiotically worded poll that we are sure we’ll hear a lot more from on the cable news and whatnot.

Hannity says “the chances… are zero” that “radical activist” Obama will select a justice who will “follow the rule of law and the Constitution” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Hatchet Job: Jeffrey Rosen’s Utterly Bankrupt Analysis of Judge Sonia Sotomayor (Dissenting Justice)
In an article published in the New Republic, Jeffrey Rosen lays out “The Case Against Sotomayor.” It is a very weak case. Rosen, a law professor at George Washington University, concedes that Sotomayor, who grew up in a low-income single-parent household in the South Bronx, has a great biography. Despite her background, Sotomayor, a Puerto Rican woman, attended Princeton University and Yale Law School. She later became the youngest person ever appointed to the federal bench. Rosen also concedes that Sotomayor has glowing support from other judges in the Second Circuit and from her former law clerks.

Rather than analyzing traditional data on judges (i.e., bar association reports), Rosen builds his “case” exclusively by holding discussions with persons who never worked for Sotomayor. Specifically, he “interviewed” former law clerks for other Second Circuit judges and former prosecutors… Given Rosen’s background in law, it might surprise many readers of his essay that Professor Rosen does not offer his own independent analysis of Sotomayor’s rulings to support his condemnation of her candidacy.

The New Republic skips the whole fair and balanced thing (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
[T]his concession from Rosen that set off some alarms: “I haven’t read enough of Sotomayor’s opinions to have a confident sense of them, nor have I talked to enough of Sotomayor’s detractors and supporters, to get a fully balanced picture of her strengths.” Isn’t it probably a good idea, journalism-wise, to do that before publishing a take-down piece that’s filled with anonymous quotes and is headlined, “The Case Against Sotomayor”?

Sessions Was Blocked by Judiciary Commitee in 1986 (Political Wire)
Here’s an interesting fact about Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the new ranking member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee: His own nomination by President Reagan in 1986 to become a federal judge was killed in the same committee when Democrats accused him of “gross insensitivity” on racial issues. It will be interesting to watch him handle President Obama’s first nomination for the Supreme Court.

Court Bars Identity-Theft Law as Tool in Immigration Cases (New York Times)
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a favorite tool of prosecutors in immigration cases, ruling unanimously that a federal identity-theft law may not be used against many illegal workers who used false Social Security numbers to get jobs. The question in the case was whether workers who use fake identification numbers to commit some other crimes must know they belong to a real person to be subject to a two-year sentence extension for “aggravated identity theft.” The answer, the Supreme Court said, is yes. Prosecutors had used the threat of that punishment to persuade illegal workers to plead guilty to lesser charges of document fraud.
I was thinking that this was a pretty liberal decision for our corporatist Supreme Court, but The Voice From The Blue reminded me that the corporatists want as many cheap workers available as possible, so this decision is in line with previous decisions by this Court.

Supreme Court lets Shell off the hook in pollution cleanup (McClatchy)
California will pay more and companies pay less to clean up a polluted San Joaquin Valley site under a closely watched Supreme Court decision Monday.

Inhofe wrongly claims that a ‘majority’ of Americans think repealing DADT would hurt ‘unit cohesion.’ (Think Progress)
Yesterday, the New York Times’ Room for Debate blog hosted a conversation about how repealing the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy banning openly gay men and women from serving would “affect the military ranks.” Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), who supports continuing the ban, claimed that “a majority of the American people” agree with “section 571 of the 1994 National Defense Authorization Act, which states”: “The presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.”

But Inhofe is wrong about the views of the American people. Last week, the Quinnipiac Polling Institute released a comprehensive poll showing that not only do a majority of Americans support repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, but 58 percent of Americans reject “the argument that allowing openly gay men and women to serve would be divisive.” This includes 56 percent of voters with family in the military.

Health insurance parasites are killing small business (by DCblogger at Corrente)
Small-biz divided on health-care reform “Some small-business owners, however, support a public plan. David Borris, owner of Hel’s Kitchen Catering in Northbrook, Ill., told the House Ways and Means Committee April 22 that small businesses ‘already have enough bad choices – high-deductible, low-benefit plans that are barely worth the paper they’re written on.’ … ‘For businesses that don’t have good options now, offer the choice of a public health insurance plan,’ he said. ‘This will give us greater bargaining power and encourage competition among insurers to make costs affordable.’” The most important thing is that congress pass no plan that prohibits the states from enacting their own plans.

Baucus: Public health care plan may not pass without budget reconciliation. (Think Progress)
A sticking point in talks on health care is President Obama’s “public plan,” which will bring down health care costs and dramatically expand coverage. Republicans already oppose the plan, fearmongering about “socialism” and government bureaucracy. Today, CAP hosted a conference call announcing the creation of Doctors for America, a group of 11,000 physicians pushing for health care reform this year. On the call, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) acknowledged that the public plan “is one of the two or three 800-pound gorillas” in Congress, adding that the public option is unlikely to pass Congress unless Democrats pass health care with a simple majority via budget reconciliation.
That’s okay by me. The filibuster is no damn good, anyway. The Democrats refused to use it when they were in the minority, so why should it be available to the Republicans now? Click through to listen to the audio.

Train-wreck On The Horizon For Dem Establishment And Specter? (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
It’s looking more and more like the Dem establishment’s embrace of its new darling, Senator Arlen Specter, could shape up as a major train-wreck come 2010. Late last night, SEIU chief Andy Stern spoke out to ABC News about his meeting yesterday with Dem Rep Joe Sestak, who may challenge Specter in the 2010 Dem primary. Stern all but said Specter should forget about getting his support: After the meeting, Stern said he told Sestak that, based on conversations with labor leaders in Pennsylvania, Specter is highly unlikely to get the support of organized labor if he votes against EFCA, the pro-unionizing measure that critics call “card-check.”

Dean, Carville Warn Specter: Shape Up Or Face Primary (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
Less than a week into his tenure as a Democrat and Sen. Arlen Specter is already stepping sharply on the toes of party elders. Key Democratic figures warned on Monday that their newly minted colleague, despite having the backing of the White House, could face a tough primary challenge should he continue to oppose key tenets of the party’s agenda.

Second Reporter Sticks By Claim That Specter Vowed To Be “Loyal Democrat” (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
We now have a second journalist who is sticking by the claim that Arlen Specter privately promised Obama that he’d be a “loyal Democrat,” which Specter loudly denied.

Kennedy Pushed Caroline to Make Senate Bid (Political Wire)
Vanity Fair runs an excerpt from the new book, Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died by Edward Klein.
Most interesting: Klein reports that Sen. Ted Kennedy felt it was very important to have a Kennedy in the Senate after he was gone, so when Sen. Hillary Clinton’s seat became available, “he put it to Caroline almost like a last wish, and Caroline felt that she couldn’t let her uncle Teddy down.” Klein says “it honestly never occurred” to Caroline “that the seat wouldn’t be given to her immediately.” So when Governor Paterson “failed to react, and made her wait, she seethed.”

The book also claims it was Caroline’s children who ultimately convinced her to take her name out of the running for the Senate because they “felt that she was becoming a different person — one that they didn’t much like.”

Gillibrand Weak as She Faces Voters Next Year (Political Wire)
A new Marist Poll finds that appointed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is far from guaranteed to be the Democratic party nominee in 2010 if Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) challenges her. When pitted against Maloney in a Democratic primary, Gillibrand edges out Maloney, 36% to 31%. However, a whopping 33% are still undecided, meaning the race is still very much a toss up. In general election matchups, Gillibrand has lost ground in the poll to both former Gov. George Pataki (R) and Rep. Peter King (D-NY) in the last month. Gillibrand trails Pataki, 38% to 46%, but beats King, 42% to 31%.

Sununu Leads Hodes in New Hampshire (Political Wire)
A new Granite State poll finds former Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) leading Rep. Paul Hodes (D-NH) in a hypothetical Senate matchup, 46% to 41%. Both candidates have the full support of their partisans, and Sununu holds a narrow 38% to 31% lead among Independents. However, Sununu hasn’t yet indicated that he’ll run for the seat currently held by Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH).

Strickland Approval Remains Steady (Political Wire)
A new Ohio Poll finds Gov. Ted Strickland’s (D-OH) approval rating at a respectable 56% with an additional 34% disapproving. If Strickland’s new challenger in next year’s election has an opening, it will be on the economy. Ohioans are closely divided, with 48% of Ohio adults approving of the way Strickland is handling Ohio’s economy and 45% disapproving. As a side note, President Obama’s approval rating is 63% in the Buckeye State.

NRSC Chief Cornyn: GOP Primary Voters Will Pick Our Senate Candidates (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
Senator John Cornyn, the head of the NRSC, appears to be backing off his earlier vow to field more moderate Senate candidates who have a better shot at winning general election. Last week Cornyn made a bit of a splash when he said he’d seek to emulate former DSCC chief Chuck Schumer’s successes by recruiting and fielding candidates who had a better shot at winning overall even if they didn’t harbor his conservative views. But in today’s Politico, Cornyn sounded a different tune. Asked if he would back conservative Club for Growth president Pat Toomey or the more moderate Tom Ridge in the GOP primary, Ensign made a few pro forma comments about hoping the strongest candidate would win, but said: “I don’t think it’s wise for me to tell Pennsylvania Republicans who their nominee should be, so I’m not going to do that.”

Cantor Briefly Rebrands The GOP Rebranding Effort (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
The Republican leaders involved in pushing the party’s much-hyped rebranding effort briefly rebranded the rebranding on Monday. Then they took it all back. In an email sent out by the office of Rep. Eric Cantor touting Gov. Sarah Palin’s inclusion in the GOP modernization campaign, the Virginia Republican accidentally got his new organization’s name wrong… The innocent-enough gaffe was corrected with a revised statement, which similarly announced the Cantor’s “pleasure” to have Palin join “in a growing effort to engage the American people in a candid discussion.”…

In all, it was a final touch to a day in which the NCNA received decidedly mixed reviews both within and outside the Republican Party. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-MI, openly worried that the new effort would overwhelm what he and other Republicans were trying to do in the House. Rush Limbaugh, meanwhile, said he was ”weary of the same people who drove us to this point telling us what we have to do now.”

Palin To Be Part of National Council (by Chris Cillizza at The Fix, Washington Post)
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will be part of the National Council for a New America, an attempt by leaders in Congress and potential 2012 presidential candidates to rebrand the struggling party. “I am pleased to announce that Governor Palin has joined the National Council for a New America’s panel of experts,” said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) today. “When NCNA was announced last week, we spoke about a dynamic organization that worked to constantly bring in new people and innovative ideas.”

Nevada files voter fraud charges against ACORN (McClatchy)
Nevada’s attorney general on Monday filed criminal charges accusing liberal community activist group ACORN and two of its employees of facilitating voter registration fraud in November’s election by requiring canvassers to submit 20 applications each day or face termination.

WH press shows more respect for Obama than Bush?
Politico’s Patrick Gavin put together a video that shows the press remaining seated when George Bush stops by the briefing room and, in another video, standing when President Obama enters. “It’s a distorted picture, though,” writes John Dickerson. “We stood all the time for President Bush.”

NBC’s Meet the Press Losing Its Sunday Talk Ratings Lead (Los Angeles Times)
Meet the Press, the king of Sunday morning TV news talk shows, could soon lose its throne. While NBC’s Meet the Press with David Gregory still holds the lead as of the Nielsen April 20 numbers, the ratings battle, which has been heating up for months, rages on.

Oprah Winfrey to Launch Jenny McCarthy Talk Show (People)
The outspoken Jenny McCarthy is joining forces with TV’s queen of talk, Oprah Winfrey — for, among other projects, her own talk show. For starters, McCarthy, 36, has already launched her own blog on Oprah.com.
First she sicced Dr. Phil on us, then we were all supposed to get everything we wanted by just wishing for it, and now she gives us this junk science advocate. Thanks, Oprah, and thanks for giving us a corporatist warmonger for president.

Who cares what “Wall Street Journal editorialists” think? (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
And why is the New York Times referencing them–legitimizing them–in an analysis piece as if they matter? I mean honestly, Journal editorials this year have been just hacktackular displays of mindless, partisan anti-Obama fear mongering. What journalist takes them seriously? Answer: New York Times journalists… [I]nside The Village, Journal editorials must be taken seriously. Journal editorial are important and thoughtful. The fact that Journal’s wingnuttery editorials often make no sense must never be mentioned out loud.

Rumsfeld aides trash NYT’s Pulitzer for “Pentagon’s Hidden Hand” (USNews.com, via Poynter Online)
Two allies of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are leading the charge against Times reporter David Barstow, reports Paul Bedard. Former Pentagon Assistant Secretary Dorrance Smith says: “Does the Pulitzer give prizes for works of fiction? Perhaps they just got the wrong category.”

Robinson, Simon take Kemp off Matthews’ “pedestal,” explain that his “whole supply-side, trickle-down economics” were “voodoo” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

The Fox Nation runs photo of rifle pointed in same direction as photo of Obama’s head (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

O’Reilly jokes that if 24 ”really want[s] big ratings,” they’ll waterboard Garofalo (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Fox & Friends continue to advance disputed allegation that White House “threatened” investment firm (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Beck on disputed claim of White House “threaten[ing]” hedge fund: “It’s Brown Shirt stuff” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Beck declares phrases “lives in the real world,” is “compassionate” and “understands social justice” are really “code language for Marxism” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Beck claims “it’s been cooling ever since” 1998 (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Beck: “I think this whole college thing is a scam… we’re making it so easy to get, everybody can have a free education, it’s meaningless to a lot of people” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Having more people educated makes education meaningless?

Glenn Beck to Share in Book Profits in New Deal (TVNewser, Media Bistro)
Glenn Beck’s new multi-book deal with Simon & Schuster will give him more of a share in the profits of each book, as well as increased creative control. “I’d rather take a lower advance and have a partnership,” said Beck. “I’ll bet on myself and a smart person on the other side of the table every time.”
It’s a pretty safe bet. As they do for other right wing authors, right wing think tanks will buy up thousands of copies and give them away.

What Insane Message Does Glenn Beck Have for Children? (by Ryan Tate at Gawker)
So Glenn Beck has agreed to write books for children and teenagers. We almost missed that when reading about the Fox Newser’s book deal today. We almost weren’t terrified… The evening anchor will somehow find time to write three new titles this year, including audio- and e-books, most of them predictably radical-right-wing titles like America’s March to Socialism. But Beck, not known for his emotional stability, will also be reaching out to children. In the fall comes his “picture book” for children (based on Sweater), followed at some point by “young adult” literature, aka stories for teens. Between the books, the Fox show and his next comedy tour (sure to be huge with your religious-right college kids), Beck is building a collection of media designed to take conservatives from cradle to grave. He should hope his benefactors at News Corporation don’t get too jealous.

Fox Business’ Willard says “We are what I call now in a fascist state,” asks if this “is a New World Order” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Scarborough Warns Rep. Mike Pence To ‘Be Careful’ When Criticizing Limbaugh (Think Progress)
Yesterday, Rush Limbaugh — the leader of the conservative movement — criticized the newly-formed GOP outfit, the National Council For A New America, which is launching a “listening tour.” “We do not need a listening tour,” Limbaugh said. “We need a teaching tour.” This morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough invited Rep. Mike Pence to respond to Limbaugh’s criticisms, but in doing so, warned him to “be careful” about criticizing the boss… After being warned by Scarborough not to criticize Limbaugh, Pence sought to placate the right-wing radio host, claiming the GOP is not just about “listening and learning” but also “helping to educate the American people.”
Click through to watch the video.

Limbaugh attacks columnist Connie Schultz as “stupid,” “blitheringly ignorant” and a “ditz” but says, “There’s no hate on this program” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Limbaugh: “Michelle ‘My Belle’ is an angry woman. I think Barack himself is angry and they spent their whole lives in anger.” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
That’s from a man who know a LOT about anger.

Limbaugh rants on Obama’s “forced sacrifice” which is “authoritarianism, totalitarianism or what have you” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Adam Smith and Web 2.0 (by Nicholas Gruen, thanks to Adam Smith’s Lost Legacy, via Economist’s View)
As [Adam] Smith sees it, we begin our lives as blobs of infantile egoism — infans economicus, if you like. But from then on Smith sees the process that we now call socialisation deepening and transforming us. We learn from our immediate family, on whom we are utterly dependent, that some things win their approval and admiration, others their disapproval and even disgust. Our craving of approval and dread of disapproval and our ability to understand others by imagining ourselves in their shoes draw us into a lifelong dialectical social drama.

As Web 2.0 burgeons, its denizens pursue their interests like the merchants in Smith’s Wealth of Nations, posting and commenting on blogs, making and exchanging programming code and mash-ups of each other’s content, making connections based on social or practical needs. Some serve practical needs — perhaps they need some software bug fixed. Others are “know-alls” proving their superior knowledge. Some express their love of a subject. And just as the miracle of a healthy market enables the merchant’s self-interest to serve the common good, so this new alchemy of the web aggregates individual efforts into freely available public goods. Likewise this unruly mix of motives gives us glimpses of our better selves.
Glimpses of our better selves, yes, but also some glimpses of our schoolyard bully selves.

My comment: Selfishness is built in to our “lizard” brains, but also built in, we now know, is a mechanism that makes us feel good for cooperating with others.

Resource: Chicago Tribune Will Help You Access Government Records (PRNewser, Media Bistro)
Beginning [this past Sunday], the Chicago Tribune will help anyone interested navigate government records via their online open records forum, “opening a new front in the news organization’s focus on watchdog reporting” according to a press release issued on Friday night provocatively titled “Your Government in Secret”. This announcement does have PR ramifications for Illinois, empowering bloggers to quicken the news cycle, and also help those wishing to dip their toe in opposition research without hiring a specialist.

Media Matters for America headlines

On Special Report, Bream said “election law experts say” but quoted only former Bush FEC appointee

Wash. Times omits reasons Sessions’ own judicial nomination was blocked

Fox & Friends ignores hedge fund’s statement to push disputed claim

Maggie Gallagher adopted dubious claim that Dems used “threat[s]” in NH gay marriage debate

REPORT: Time and again, Fox News doctors video to smear progressives

EU issues consumer online rights, lists action ideas
The European Commission on Tuesday published a guide to consumers rights online as it gave a list of actions it is considering taking to help the public use the Internet.

E.U. to Hear Proposal for Cross-Border Net Copyright
Two European commissioners are proposing the creation of a Europe-wide copyright license for online content that could clear the way for cross-border sales of digital music, games and video.

Safe “sexting?” No such thing, teens warned
Teens sending nude or suggestive photos of themselves over their mobile phones are being warned — “sexting” can damage your future.

Jackson breast case verdict to be revisited
The US Supreme Court on Monday ordered afederal appeals court to re-examine its verdict in favor of the CBS network that aired a 2004 broadcast in which pop superstar Janet Jackson bared her breast…[T]he high court’s order comes in light of its own narrowly-divided ruling in FCC vs Fox Television stations in which it determined that US regulators can impose fines on television and radio broadcasters for allowing “fleeting expletives” – curse words used in passing — to go out over the airwaves.

FTC Looking At Apple, Google Boards In Possible Antitrust Case (Paid Content)
The Federal Trade Commission is looking into whether overlap among the directors of Apple and Google is an antitrust violation, according to a report in The New York Times. U.S. antitrust law prohibits directors from serving on the boards of two competing corporations, although there are some exceptions, including if the competing operations make up only a small percentage of the companies’ total sales. Apple and Google offer competing web browsers and phone operating systems. 

Justice Scalia Responds to Fordham Privacy Invasion! (Above the Law)
Last week, we wrote about the Fordham law professor who assigned his information privacy law class to compile a dossier on Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The professor had chosen Scalia as the target for privacy invasion because of the Justice’s remarks at a January conference organized by the Institute of American and Talmudic Law. Scalia’s views on the privacy of personal information online are summed up nicely by this quote: “‘Every single datum about my life is private? That’s silly,’ Scalia [said].”… Professor Joel Reidenberg and his class now have a 15-page dossier on Scalia, including his home address, the value of his home, his home phone number, the movies he likes, his food preferences, his wife’s personal e-mail address, and “photos of his lovely grandchildren.”…

Here is Justice Scalia’s response…: “I stand by my remark at the Institute of American and Talmudic Law conference that it is silly to think that every single datum about my life is private. I was referring, of course, to whether every single datum about my life deserves privacy protection in law. It is not a rare phenomenon that what is legal may also be quite irresponsible. That appears in the First Amendment context all the time. What can be said often should not be said. Prof. Reidenberg’s exercise is an example of perfectly legal, abominably poor judgment. Since he was not teaching a course in judgment, I presume he felt no responsibility to display any.”

Octuplet guardian sought
An advocate for child actors wants a judge to appoint a guardian to oversee the interests of Nadya Suleman’s octuplets if they are featured in TV shows, Internet videos and magazines. Lawyer Gloria Allred said Monday that she filed the petition in Orange County Superior Court on behalf of former Mouseketeer Paul Petersen, president of A Minor Consideration. Allred represents Angels in Waiting, a non-profit group of nurses that helped care for Suleman’s children. She says a guardian would ensure payments for the octuplets’ appearances go into accounts separate from their mother’s and that laws regarding child performers are observed.
Please, somebody, look after those children.

Liberty Media Merges Liberty Entertainment With DirecTV (Paid Content)
Liberty Media announced it would spin off its entertainment unit (Liberty Entertainment) and merge it with DirecTV in a stock transaction. (DirecTV will also assume about $2 billion in Liberty debt). Liberty Media actually announced back in December plans to spin off Liberty Entertainment, a holding company that would control about half of DirecTV, as well as the Game Show Network, FUN Technologies and Liberty Sports Holdings. But at the time, it made no mention of merging the company with DirecTV. The deal rids Liberty of $2 billion of debt and should simplify the equity structures of both Liberty Media and DirecTV, making both stocks more attractive to invfestors. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. 

Blogger hires a $2,000/day bodyguard for Gannett’s annual meeting
“Blogging about Gannett over the past year has been full of surprises,” writes Jim Hopkins…, “including the latest: the nation’s biggest newspaper company, which for more than 100 years has stood on a foundation of free speech, is now at least tacitly encouraging an ugly, homophobic disinformation campaign targeted at me.” The Gannett Blog founder felt the need to attend last week’s shareholders’ meeting with a 200-plus pound guard from Kroll Associates.
A publicity stunt that worked.

Online Growth Failed To Offset B2B Media Companies’ Decline In ‘08 (Paid Content)
B2B media companies had some good news and some bad news last year: revenue from online, conferences, trade shows and data were up significantly over 2007, but it wasn’t enough to offset the decline in magazine revenue, which meant that in all, revenue for these businesses were down 2.2 percent, according to a study by American Business Media and the Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc.

White House Says No Bailout for Newspapers
The White House on Monday expressed “concern” and “sadness” over the state of the ailing US newspaper industry, but made clear that a government bailout was not in the cards. “I don’t know what, in all honesty, government can do about it,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

Times Co. Postpones Threat to Close Boston Globe
After wringing concessions from all but one of the Boston Globe’s labor unions, The New York Times Co. on Monday postponed its threat to start the process of closing the Globe, leaving the newspaper’s immediate future resting on talks with the largest union, the Boston Newspaper Guild.

New York Times Union OK’s Five Percent Pay Cut
Unionized employees at The New York Times newspaper on Monday ratified a five percent pay cut. New York Times newspaper employees who are members of the New York Newspaper Guild voted 377 to 36 to approve the pay cut agreement.

Chicago financier rounds up investors to bid on Sun-Times Media Group
Mesirow Financial Inc. CEO James Tyree says he’s talked with several potential co-investors, including a private-equity firm, about forming a group of four to 25 “to keep this great institution in Chicago.” A Sun-Times spokeswoman says “the process is just getting started.”

Beverly Hills investment firm completes purchase of San Diego Union-Tribune
Platinum Equity, which specializes in turning around companies facing significant challenges, has appointed a chief restructuring officer who will be responsible for day-to-day operations and long-term strategic planning. Platinum hasn’t publicly spelled out its plans for the Union-Tribune.

You won’t read about national trends on the Voice of San Diego site
“We don’t cover anything unless it’s squarely about San Diego, even national trend stories and stuff like that, we tend to steer away from,” says voiceofsandiego.org editor Andy Donohue. “Especially the way things are going right now on the Internet, you’ve got to be really focused on doing something really well — and if you try to spread yourself too thin, you’re not doing anything well.”

The Onion Killing Los Angeles and San Francisco Print Editions, Says Source (by Ryan Tate at Gawker)
An Onion staffer whispers to us that the humor publication has already laid off editorial and sales staff for its Los Angeles and San Francisco print editions, which will, said the staffer, cease publication… [I]t would appear the publication is facing the same forces that have whipsawed alternative weeklies… Hopefully The Onion’s popular website and remaining print editions make enough money to keep the publication in business long-term. If the whole enterprise were to ever go under, who would feed staff to the Daily Show? The whole fake news talent pipeline would be horribly broken.

5 Ways Traditional Media is Going Social (by Woody Lewis, a Social Media Strategist and Web Architect, posting at Mashable)
As faltering brands look for new strategies, and the newspaper industry desperately searches for a way to keep a portion, if not all of its print business alive, traditional media companies are using social media to engage their audiences…

Widget TV
Verizon will soon push a software update to its FiOS service that will allow customers to connect their set-top boxes to the Web…
Newspapers on YouTube…
[The] trend of newspapers featuring videos of special interest stories shows that cross-media social marketing may become the rule…
Now playing at a Bookstore Near You
Not to be outdone, book publishers have been posting trailers on YouTube…
Click through for the full list, and for details.

Bunch: Netbook Giveaways a Good Deal for News Orgs (by Amy Gahran at Poynter Online)
There’s much buzz about the larger-screen Kindle e-reader Amazon appears likely to debut on Wednesday and much speculation that the Kindle would be a better venue for news delivery if it were large enough to deliver a more newspaper-like experience (including newspaper-style ads). While I think a larger-format Kindle would be a boon for several publishing markets (including engineers, architects, graphic novels and students), I suspect it would not, in itself, prove to be much of a boon to the news industry.

Atlanta Paper Tries To Get Readers To Cut Back Digital Habit—By Hiring Online Ad Agency (Paid Content)
At a time when newspapers are trying to figure out how to make better use of digital distribution, Cox Enterprises’ Atlanta Journal Constitution hopes to convinces readers to take a break from their computers and mobile phones, Adweek reports. And irony of ironies, the paper, which recently cut 30 percent of its staff, has unveiled a year-long, $1 million ad campaign crafted by local independent digital shop IQ Interactive to position the physical Sunday paper as a refuge from the frenzied “digital cacophony” that’s associated with readers’ work weeks.

Detroit Free Press to do TV show with CBS station
The Free Press and WWJ-TV are launching a 5-7 a.m. weekday program that will have weather and traffic updates, as well as news gathered by Freep journalists. “We’re more than a newspaper, we’re more than a website,” says editor and publisher Paul Anger. “We’re an information provider on many different channels, and television is just a natural evolution for us.”

Reporter leaves Chicago Tribune to pursue a pared-down life
“I’m leaving to see how self-sufficient I can be,” writes Emily Achenbaum, who was at the Tribune for 18 months. “We’re going to see how little we can buy and how much we can reduce our use of electricity. …Others have said that because we’re keeping computers and cars, we’re not dropping out ‘enough.’ Our response to that is we’re doing as much as we feel comfortable doing now, and we’ll see where it goes from there.”
She should blog about it.

Reader’s Digest to Shutter Spanish-Language Edition
Reader’s Digest Association is folding the U.S. edition of RD Selecciones, its 37-year-old Spanish language version of company flagship Reader’s Digest. The June issue will be the last. Selecciones continues to publish 17 other editions around the world.

Newsweek editor: “Nearly everything about the way the magazine looks will change”
The new design, which debuts next week, “is meant to be less daunting, more entertaining and easier to navigate,” writes assistant managing editor Kathleen Deveny. “It will be printed on higher-quality paper, which instantly will make it feel better in your hand. I think the new design is sophisticated and airy, and makes the stories we work so hard on seem more inviting.”
Less daunting? I thought the plan was to make it more exclusive. I guess it will become even more of a frilly rag than it was before.

Can the Celebrity Weeklies Be Saved? (by Mark Pasetsky at the Huffington Post)
There are three big reasons why the category is in a crisis and the celebrity weekly bubble has burst: Too many staffers are doing one job function, they ignore the success of celebrity blogs, and there is too much text.
Not to mention that too many people are too worried about their livelihoods and the roofs over their heads to concern themselves with the latest spoiled brat spat.

OK! Magazine Staffers Audition To Keep Their Jobs (FishbowlLA, Media Bistro)
Last week the west coast office of OK! magazine axed two staffers- executive editor Mary Ann Norbam and features editor Rob Chilton. But OK! has also done some hiring, in the form of consultant Juliet Gray, whose job is to work with publisher Lori Burgess- presumably to help decide who to fire next. Gawker has obtained the email Ms. Gray recently sent to the magazine staff- an idiotic quiz that may just determine whether or not employees get to keep their jobs.
Click through to read the email.

NBC Offers Marketers an Expanded Fall Lineup 
Much of NBC’s fall plan revolves around Jay Leno and his new 10 p.m. weeknight comedy show. The network also announced that it would add at least four new dramas and two new comedies to its lineup, although some may not appear until winter.

CW to Cede Sundays — Will Program Only Five Nights
Starting this fall, the CW network will likely be programming only five nights a week. After it experimented unsuccessfully with outsourcing its Sunday lineup to an outside company, MRC, last year, the CW will give Sunday night back to its affiliates.

Social Media Campaign Gives NBC’s Chuck a Fighting Chance (Mashable)
Although NBC has yet to make a decision as to whether or not the showChuck will return for a third season, the social media campaign launched by fans of the show has received a nod from the upper crust of NBC executives… [F]ans of Chuck can at least sleep well knowing that they did enough to get the attention of NBC. Now it’s in the networks hands to determine whether or not the fans will get what they want: more episodes of Chuck.

‘Homeless Real World’ Seeking TV Home
In 2007, online-video network Mania TV began documenting the lives of six homeless people in Denver — but the reality show was deemed too edgy, and the series never ran. Now the four partners who produced it have begun to rework the 160 hours of footage in hopes of finding it a home on TV.

AOL’s Socialthing And Warner Bros. TV Group Get Connected (Paid Content)
AOL’s promotion of online identities manager Socialthing continues this week by tying it in across corporate sibling Warner Bros. Television Group. The deal also suggests a new closeness with its fellow Time Warner subsidiary, even as the company moves to spinoff AOL… WBTVG will use Sociathing to insert news of its programming on AOL’s global messaging network of 57 million monthly AIM and ICQ users. Socialthing is still working on getting its hooks into Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo! or OpenID, which will exponentially increase its ability to make it easy for users to spread the word about a publisher’s online content.

Protoshare: Slick Web-Based Software for Prototyping (Mashable)
If you’ve ever been involved in the website design or creation process, you know that it can be a pain for developers, spec creators, and internal or external clients to communicate in an efficient manner. Protoshare’s nifty web-based application provides a collaborative workspace for all project stakeholders — project manager, information architect, developers, designers, executives, clients, etc. — to smoothly transition from idea to prototype, without the typical communication challenges.

Facebook Boosts Security After Dual Phishing Attacks
Facebook has brought in some soldiers to fight the war against malware and phishing scams on the social-networking site. After two different malware attacks this week, Facebook announced it would begin using San Francisco-based MarkMonitor’s antifraud services as an additional layer of protection against attacks.

Decline in Ad Spending Quickens Pace at 9.2 Percent
In a sign that marketers have begun to deepen their cutbacks, TNS Media Intelligence, an ad-tracking firm owned by WPP PLC, reported Monday that ad spending in the fourth quarter fell 9.2 percent from a year earlier. The fourth-quarter decline was more than twice as steep as the 4.1 percent drop for 2008 as a whole.

YouTube Cracks Down On Sneaky Brand Integrations (Paid Content)
YouTube has a warning for its top content partners: don’t include any branded integration without getting our permission first. Mediaweek has heard from some nervous YouTube partners, who fear that they’ll be booted from the site. Not to worry, says Tom Pickett, YouTube’s director of online sales and operations; the messages are just a nudge to obey the Google-owned video site’s terms of service. At least at this point, the worst that will happen is that an offending video would be taken down.

Recession forces new focus in e-commerce marketing
Online retailers are shifting their marketing from traditional advertising to less expensive tools like Facebook, Twitter and e-mail as they seek market share or just work to retain customers, according to an industry study being released Tuesday.

McDonald’s Rolls With YouTube For McCafe Launch (Paid Content)
McDonald’s is launching an all-out ad blitz for its new line of McCafe premium coffees—and one of the first places you’ll see the branding is on YouTube. McDonald’s has rolled out a rich media spread on the YouTube homepage, taking advantage of one of the video site’s new ad formats: the “tandem masthead” (pictured [below]). Lionsgate first tested the two-unit ads, which share creative across the top and side of the screen, about a month ago; YouTube is making the tandem ads an option for all advertisers as of today.

BlackBerry Push API Goes After Consumers
Research In Motion is injecting the power of its popular BlackBerry push technology into the consumer arena by letting third-party developers write applications that tap into it.

Could Apple Buy Twitter? (by Owen Thomas at Gawker)
Facebook tried to buy Twitter. Google and Microsoft have been giving the red-hot Internet-messaging startup the eye. But we hear it’s Apple that’s closest to sealing a deal, possibly for as much as $700 million… Twitter turned down a $500 million offer in cash and stock from Facebook, in part because Twitter’s investors couldn’t agree on whether Facebook’s stock was worth as much as Facebook said it was. But Apple could easily pay cash. A source familiar with the thinking of Twitter’s board says the company would be hard-pressed to refuse an all-cash offer in the range of $700 million. (Is Twitter really worth that? Since it’s business is nothing but a fantasy at this point, any valuation, high or low, is a matter of make-believe.)

What does Twitter, an adorable but unprofitable startup, have to do with a hardware company like Apple?
Click through for Owen’s interesting idea on why Apple might want to buy Twitter.

Obama’s tax plans raises high-tech hackles
President Barack Obama’s plan to impose U.S. taxes on corporate America’s overseas profits threatens to open a big crater in the financial statements of technology companies.