Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Obama’s Health Care Charade (by Glen Ford at the Black Agenda Report)
President Obama has gone to extraordinary lengths to suppress advocates of single-payer health care. He has choreographed a grand theater of faux-change, in which he “seeks to create a façade of unity along lines that do not threaten corporate power.” The goal is to “sidetrack, possibly for decades, the most broadly supported idea in American politics, today.” This “requires elaborate reconstructions of reality,” starting with “methodically erasing single-payer advocates from the picture, with the enthusiastic collaboration of the corporate media.” Thus, Obama and compliant Democrats on The Hill stage “summits” and “public roundtable discussions” on health care from which majority U.S. opinion is totally excluded.

Obama’s Health Care Kickoff (by Matt Miller, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and author of The Tyranny of Dead Ideas: Letting Go of the Old Ways of Thinking to Unleash a New Prosperity)
Washington is buzzing over the interest groups that gathered with President Obama at the White House Monday to announce their collective vow to slow the growth of health spending by 1.5 percent a year, which would save the country $2 trillion over the next decade… If the sector can find a way to slow cost growth from 7 percent a year to 5.5 percent as pledged, it would save enormous sums for governments, businesses, and families—maybe even enough, according to the White House, to meet Obama’s ambitious (and little-examined) campaign pledge to shave family health costs by “up to $2,500” from where they would otherwise soar.

All potentially fabulous news. But put aside the fact that for now this commitment is a placeholder for good intentions, with only early sketches of how the goal might be met. There’s a larger truth that needs to be underscored amid the cheers. Even if this goal were achieved over the next decade, America’s health-care system would still be radically inefficient compared other advanced nations… [N]o one should be deluded that [this pledge] represents anything but the first baby steps of a long national journey to reengineer health-care delivery in ways that save money and improve lives.
Click through for much, much more.

Is Obama Naive About the For-Profit Health Industry’s Commitment to Real Reform? (by M.S. Bellows, Jr., writing at the Huffington Post)
The big news … is that healthcare will continue to be increasingly expensive for consumers, employers, and governments, but not quite as quickly as it was going to be. 7% per year inflation will become 5.5% per year inflation — that is, if the participants keep their promise. Which, according to the officials, they’ll do, not because there’s any kind of enforcement mechanism – there isn’t one – but simply because they’re “Americans.” (That’s a quote from one of the administration officials, by the way: these for-profit healthcare industry groups are going to reduce costs, and potentially profits, simply because they’re good “Americans.”)…

One of the Obama administration’s mantras is “don’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good.” But in these times, with Obama’s still-strong mandate for change and the American people’s rare but undeniable hunger for reform, their motto ought to be: “Don’t let the good be the enemy of the perfect.” Radical health care reform — reform that doesn’t shave health care costs for regular people and their employers, but slashes them; reform that doesn’t force single-payer healthcare on the American people, but demonstrates that it can work well and therefore sets the stage for their eventual acceptance of it — is within Obama’s grasp. He’d be wrong to settle for merely “good” health care — for health care that merely slows the rate at which costs increase, or health care that doesn’t include a government-payer option to demonstrate that a government-sponsored plan can provide better care at lower cost than profit-driven private plans. He would, to paraphrase Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, be wasting a crisis.

POTUS Tells Health Care Groups to Show Him Progress on Cost-Cutting Next Month (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
In a letter to the leaders of the six health care groups with whom he met[Monday], President Obama says he appreciates their commitment to significantly reducing health care costs, but says he “will hold you to your pledge to get this done.” The President writes that as he discussed with them Monday, “I would like you to update my Administration by early June on the progress you have made toward fulfilling this important commitment.”
Didn’t Bush try this kind of jawboning?

Tax health care to pay for health care? (AP)
Most people with job-based health insurance don’t think of their benefits as a form of income. But Uncle Sam might just change that. Senators are considering limiting — but not eliminating — the tax-free status of employer-provided health benefits to help pay for President Barack Obama’s plan to provide coverage to 50 million uninsured Americans. Employer-provided health insurance technically is considered part of workers’ compensation, but unlike wages, it is not taxed. The forgone revenue to the federal government amounts to about $250 billion a year…

Obama sees a world in which doctors and hospitals compete to offer quality service at lower costs, and the savings help cover the uninsured. Turning that vision into reality remains the biggest challenge for the president and his backers, because hard cash — not just ideas — is required to cover upfront costs of expanding coverage.
Wrong, AP, hard cash is not REQUIRED to cover upfront costs, except in the minds of those who never  balked at the profligate expenditures of the Bush administration.

Savage guest warns that universal healthcare will lead to “destroying human life,” via assisted suicide for depressed and suicidal individuals (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Alarm Sounded On Social Security (Washington Post)
The financial health of the Social Security system has eroded more sharply in the past year than at any time since the mid-1990s, according to a government forecast that ratchets up pressure on the Obama administration and Congress to stabilize the retirement system that keeps many older Americans out of poverty. The report, issued yesterday by the trustees who monitor the government’s two main forms of help for the elderly, shows that Medicare has become more fragile as well and is at greater risk than Social Security of imminent fiscal collapse. Starting eight years from now, the report says, the health insurance program will be unable to pay all its hospital bills.

The findings put a stark new face on the toll the recession has taken on the two enormous entitlement programs. They also intensify a political debate, gathering strength among Democrats and Republicans, over how quickly President Obama should tackle Social Security when health-care reform is his administration’s most urgent domestic priority.
Health care reform IS entitlement reform. Why aren’t liberals pounding that information into Americans’ brains?

Two Statements by Robert Greenstein on the New Social Security and Medicare Trustees’ Reports (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

Medicare Report
“The Trustees’ report on Medicare underscores the urgency of health care reforms to slow health care cost growth, starting with President Obama’s proposed Medicare reforms.”

Social Security Report
“The Trustees’ report shows Social Security doesn’t face an immediate crisis but does require changes, and the sooner they’re made, the better.”

NY Times pulls a switcheroo headline (by MsExPat at Corrente)
Since I live 12 times zones away, I’m alert and at my desk in the wee hours of the MSM’s morning. So I often notice some interesting little switcheroos that take place in the headlines while most Americans are asleep. Today’s was a whopper. I booted up the nytimes.com site to see this: “Insolvency for Social Security and Medicare Is Seen Closer…” Of course I got really pissed off. As we all know, the “insolvency” meme is just plain false. And lumping Social Security together with Medicare is apples/oranges. Then [later] I returned to the nytimes.com front page to find this Brian Knowlton article’s been replaced by one less apocalyptic, with a completely new headline, byline, angle and lede: “Recession Drains Social Security and Medicare”

Breathing easier after bank stress tests? You shouldn’t (McClatchy)
Largely unnoticed in last week’s government report on the condition of the nation’s biggest banks was the disclosure that five of them, topped by Bank of America, could lose $99 billion from the kinds of exotic bets that sank the global economy.

Paul Krugman Says Rapid Recovery ’Extremely Unlikely’ (Bloomberg)
Paul Krugman, Princeton University’s Nobel Prize-winning economist, said global economic prospects don’t justify the two-month rally that has restored $8.9 trillion to stock markets around the world… “It looks to me now as if the markets are now pricing in a rapid recovery, that they’re pricing in a V-shaped recession, which I consider extremely unlikely,” Krugman, 56, said at a forum in Shanghai today. “The market seems to be looking as if this is going to be an average recession, but it’s not.” Krugman, who won the 2008 Nobel Prize for economics, joins New York University’s Nouriel Roubini in calling for a more cautious outlook on growth. Roubini said last week analysts expecting the U.S. economy to rebound in the third and fourth quarter were “too optimistic.” Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the author of “Black Swan,” said the current global crisis is “vastly worse” than the 1930s.

See how one corporation that took our money to stay afloat is showing its “Americanism”:

GM Shares Plunge on Executives’ Sell-Off (Washington Post)
Shares of General Motors plunged to their lowest levels since the depths of the Great Depression yesterday following news that six GM executives sold off their company holdings.

Reports: GM to export China-built cars to US (AP)
General Motors Corp. plans to begin exports of vehicles made in China to the United States within two years, ramping up sales to more than 50,000 by 2014, reports said Wednesday.

GM says open to moving HQ from Detroit (Reuters)
General Motors Corp is open to considering moving its headquarters from Detroit, selling U.S. plants and renegotiating its restructuring plan with its major union as it heads toward probable bankruptcy, the automaker’s chief executive said on Monday.

Straight Talk about Corporate Social Responsibility (by Robert Stavins, thanks to Economist’s View)
Critical thinking about “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) is needed, because there are few topics where discussions feature greater ratios of heat to light. … Much of what has been written on this question has been both confused and confusing.  Advocates, as well as academics, have entangled what ought to be four distinct questions about corporate social responsibility:  may they, can they, should they, and do they… [D]efinitive answers to these questions await the results of rigorous, empirical research.
My comment: Corporations are legal entities, and therefore are subject to the laws that the representatives of we the people create for them. There’s no reason, other than the corporatocracy having bought our representatives, that corporations couldn’t be forced, by charter, to maximize the benefit to all the STAKEholders–which would include shareholders, bondholders and other creditors, employees, the communities they “live” in, their country of residence, and humanity as a whole.

U.S. Economy: The Cancer is Still There (by Glen Ford at the Black Agenda Report)
“In the cold assessment of history, Barack Obama will be remembered more for his massive transfers of national wealth to the finance capitalist class, than as the first Black president of the United States.” Mostly under his administration, $12.8 trillion dollars has been committed to prop up the Wall Street oligarchy. Yet the five banks that are the biggest recipients of federal largess continue to hold $195 trillion in fatally toxic derivatives – a notional value more than three times the planetary domestic product! “There is nothing rational to do but to wipe the obligations, and their holders, off the face of the Earth, in order to save the real economy.”

Despite Stimulus Funds, States to Cut More Jobs (Washington Post)
Eleven weeks after Congress settled on a stimulus package that provided $135 billion to limit layoffs in state governments, many states are finding that the funds are not enough and are moving to lay off thousands of public employees… The layoffs are one early indication of how the stimulus funding could be coming up short against the economic downturn. As the stimulus plan was being drawn up, there was agreement among the White House, congressional Democrats and many economists that a key goal was to keep states from making big layoffs at a time when 700,000 Americans were losing their jobs every month.

House Republicans: Look How Many Layoffs We Helped Create (Think Progress)
[Tuesday], the Washington Post reported that “eleven weeks after Congress settled on a stimulus package that provided $135 billion to limit layoffs in state governments, many states are finding that the funds are not enough and are moving to lay off thousands of public employees.” Washington state will be forced to layoff several thousand educators and Massachusetts which “cut 1,000 positions late last year, just announced 250 layoffs, with more likely to come soon.”

Apparently missing the article’s point — that the stimulus should have included more budget stabilization funding for states — the House GOP featured the article on their website today, suggesting that the report vindicated their unanimous opposition to the recovery act. Later in the day, they linked to the article on twitter and gleefully quipped, “Look how many layoffs the stimulus created“… In reality, of course, the economic recovery didn’t “create” layoffs at the state level. Had the recovery plan included no money at all for state level budget stabilization — as the House Republicans proposed — layoffs of public servants at the state level would have been far more widespread.
Missing the point? Not on your life. It’s just another opportunity to twist reality to fool as many people as possible.

Fight crime to revive economy: Obama‎ (AFP) — President Barack Obama said Tuesday that fighting crime was vital to spurring economic recovery, as he feted US police officers honored for acts of bravery. Obama praised the award-winning cops for stepping into harm’s way to form a “block by block” line between “safety and violence, calm and chaos, hope and despair.”… The president, who included about three billion dollars in funding and grants to save the jobs of police officers facing lay-offs in economically bereft states, said safe neighborhoods were a prerequisite for prosperity.

Greenspan sees ”seeds of bottoming” for US housing (Reuters)
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Tuesday that “the seeds of a bottoming” in plunging U.S. home markets were becoming visible. Speaking to a National Association of Realtors summit, Greenspan said there were reasons to believe that bulging inventories of unsold homes were dwindling and that should bring some stability to prices.
He didn’t see the housing bubble, nor predict the crash, so why is this man given a platform?

Is the Housing Bust Over? (Michael Shenk at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, thanks to Economist’s View)
While there are some tentative signs that the housing market is stabilizing, it is Important to note that things are still far from normal. Home prices, for example, are currently down 30.7 percent and 9.5 percent from their respective peaks in the Case-Shiller and FHFA indexes. Also, given the still-bloated inventories of unsold homes, it might be some time before things return to what we remember as normal. That being said, any positive signs in the market are certainly welcome after such a long period of dreary news.

US Foreclosure Filings Hit Record for Second Straight Month‎ (Bloomberg)
Foreclosure filings in the U.S. rose to a record for the second consecutive month in April as banks increased efforts to seize homes from delinquent borrowers.

Who’s Going Down? (by Charlie Gasparino at the Daily Beast)
[T]o date there has been one formal case brought against Wall Street executives in connection with the implosion of the financial system—and it isn’t Bernie Madoff. The actual “culprits,” as the government would have you believe, are Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, who ran two hedge funds for the now-defunct securities firm Bear Stearns. Their trial set to begin in September, and The Daily Beast has learned their plan is not to go down quietly; both are looking to fight the charges by pointing the finger at their old firm. In other words, they plan to put Bear itself on trial as a possible co-conspirator if any crimes were committed.

Records Show Billions Withdrawn Before Madoff Arrest (New York Times)
About $12 billion was pulled out of accounts at Bernard L. Madoff’s firm in 2008, according to several people briefed on an analysis of Mr. Madoff’s business records. About $6 billion, or half, was taken out in just the three months before the financier was arrested in December and charged with operating an extensive Ponzi scheme, these people said. Those figures offer a bit of hope for Mr. Madoff’s thousands of defrauded customers. Under federal law, the trustee overseeing the Madoff bankruptcy can sue to retrieve that money from the investors who withdrew it.

Officials Knew of AIG Bonuses Months Before Firestorm (Washington Post)
Documents show that senior officials at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York received details about the bonuses more than five months before the firestorm erupted and were deeply engaged with AIG as well as outside lawyers, auditors and public relations firms about the potential controversy. But the New York Fed did not raise the alarm with the Obama administration until the end of February. Timothy F. Geithner, who became Treasury secretary early this year, was the head of the New York Fed when it became aware of the bonus details.

U.S. Eyes Bank Pay Overhaul (Wall Street Journal)
The Obama administration has begun serious talks about how it can change compensation practices across the financial-services industry, including at companies that did not receive federal bailout money, according to people familiar with the matter. The initiative, which is in its early stages, is part of an ambitious and likely controversial effort to broadly address the way financial companies pay employees and executives, including an attempt to more closely align pay with long-term performance.

Administration and regulatory officials are looking at various options, including using the Federal Reserve’s supervisory powers, the power of the Securities and Exchange Commission and moral suasion. Officials are also looking at what could be done legislatively. Among ideas being discussed are Fed rules that would curb banks’ ability to pay employees in a way that would threaten the “safety and soundness” of the bank — such as paying loan officers for the volume of business they do, not the quality. The administration is also discussing issuing “best practices” to guide firms in structuring pay.

The massive expansion of America’s “Hard Left” (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
[Jesse Ventura, on CNN with Larry King on Monday night:]  ”I would prosecute the people that ordered it. Because torture is against the law.”  That is the crux of the case for investigations and prosecutions.  That’s it.  Can anyone find a “liberal” or ideological argument anywhere in what Ventura said?  It’s about as far from a partisan or “leftist” idea as one can get.  Yet our establishment media has succeeded … in converting this view into a “Hard Left,” “liberal” or “partisan” argument because that’s the only prism through which they can understand anything, and that’s their time-honored instrument for demonizing any idea that threatens their institutional prerogatives and orthodoxies (only the Hard Left favors this)…

Unlike the establishment-revering, prosecution-opposing pundits who are the true partisans — loyal spokespeople who fiercely defend Beltway culture and legal immunity for political elites above all else — Ventura is doing nothing more than expressing definitively independent and non-ideological political principles, ones that were quite obviously ingrained in him over the course of decades as an American and a veteran:  torture is wrong in all cases; it is illegal; and those who do it should therefore be prosecuted.

Bush Failure To Disclose Waterboarding Appears To Violate Law (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
The furor over when and whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed about the use of waterboarding has distracted attention from what is, perhaps, a far more problematic revelation regarding the Bush administration’s interrogation of suspected terrorists. According to the testimony of two high-ranking Democrats and recently declassified CIA and Justice Department documents, the Bush White House failed to disclose the use of waterboarding until roughly half a year after it was first deployed… [I]t is worth restating and highlighting again because, if accurate, it appears to constitute a violation of law by the former White House.

Congress’s Torture Bubble (by Vicki Divoll, former deputy counsel to the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center and general counsel of the Senate Intelligence Committee from 2001 to 2003)
[M]any of the laws mandating Congressional notification of covert action programs were enacted after the Senate’s Church Committee hearings in the late 1970s had revealed widespread abuses by the intelligence agencies domestically and overseas. The House and Senate intelligence committees — created at that time — were designed to be the “eyes and ears” of the full Congress on significant intelligence activities. These committees were entrusted with the faith of the American people to oversee aggressive intelligence operations done in all of our names, and to ensure that they are necessary, effective and consistent with American laws and values.

But the narrow Gang of Eight exception, or worse, the Gang of Four, has swallowed up the notification rule. This is a trend that began before the Bush administration, and the types of programs about which the Church Committee was most concerned now receive the least oversight — in many cases, no oversight — by Congress. It is reasonable for us to wonder how many other covert action programs the Bush administration kept from the committees.

PolitiFact, please define “false” (by Jamison Foser at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
[A]t one point, PolitiFact tells us that the CIA timeline does not say waterboarding was discussed in the meeting Pelosi attended.  Later, in order to justify its conclusion that Pelosi’s claim not to have been told about waterboarding is “false,” PolitiFact tells us the CIA timeline “contradicts” Pelosi and provides “compelling” evidence that her memory is incorrect.  Well, which is it?

Source: Aide told Pelosi waterboarding had been used (CNN)
A source close to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now confirms that Pelosi was told in February 2003 by her intelligence aide, Michael Sheehy, that waterboarding was actually used on CIA detainee Abu Zubaydah. This appears to contradict Pelosi’s account that she was never told waterboarding actually happened, only that the administration was considering using it… This source says Pelosi didn’t object when she learned that waterboarding was being used because she had not been personally briefed about it — only her aide had been told.

Conservatives Outraged Over Release Of Torture Photos, But Not Over Actual Torture (Think Progress)
On April 23, the Obama administration announced it would release hundreds of photos of detainee interrogation, obeying a court order from a lawsuit filed by the ACLU. Predictably, conservatives furious with the Obama administration’s attempt at greater transparency denounced the move… [Tuesday]y, Liz Cheney, daughter of the former Vice President, decried the move as “appalling,” saying in a Fox News interview that the decision was proof Obama was aiming to “side with the terrorists”.
Click through to watch a video compilation of conservatives complaining about the potential release of torture photos.

According to Fox News, Abu Ghraib photos show “detainee ‘abuse’ “ (County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Obama seeks to block release of abuse photos (AP)
President Barack Obama is seeking to block the release of hundreds of photos showing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan being abused, reversing his position after military commanders warned that the images could stoke anti-American sentiment and endanger U.S. troops. The pictures show mistreatment of detainees at locations beyond the infamous U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Obama administration threatens Britain to keep torture evidence concealed (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
[T]he Obama administration is not merely failing to investigate (let alone prosecute) acts of high-level criminality by U.S. government officials.  Far worse, ever since he was inaugurated, Obama has engaged in one extraordinary legal maneuver after the next to block American courts from ruling on the legality of those actions.  He has now extended his Bush-protecting conduct to the international realm, as he re-iterates Bush’s threats that we will purposely leave British citizens more vulnerable to terrorist attacks if their courts rule that, under their laws, their citizens are entitled to know what was done to Binyam Mohamed.  

John Yoo Used Newspaper Gig To Attacks Critics Calling For Torture Probe (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
You may have heard the news that the Philadelphia Inquirer has given infamous torture memo author John Yoo a contract to write a monthly column for the paper… [Yoo] used his newspaper gig to attack his political opponents — those who are pushing for a torture probe that could ensnare him — at a time when government officials were mulling whether to investigate those who created the torture program, including him… It would be one thing for a paper to invite someone under scrutiny to air his side of the story in an occasional Op ed. It’s quite another for a paper to give such a person a regular platform on contract for use in attacking political opponents in an ongoing governmental dispute.

Becoming What We Seek to Destroy (by Chris Hedges at Truthdig)
The bodies of dozens, perhaps well over a hundred, women, children and men, their corpses blown into bits of human flesh by iron fragmentation bombs dropped by U.S. warplanes in a village in the western province of Farah, illustrates the futility of the Afghan war. We are not delivering democracy or liberation or development. We are delivering massive, sophisticated forms of industrial slaughter. And because we have employed the blunt and horrible instrument of war in a land we know little about and are incapable of reading, we embody the barbarism we claim to be seeking to defeat.

We are morally no different from the psychopaths within the Taliban, who Afghans remember we empowered, funded and armed during the 10-year war with the Soviet Union. Acid thrown into a girl’s face or beheadings? Death delivered from the air or fields of shiny cluster bombs? This is the language of war. It is what we speak. It is what those we fight speak…

We are the best recruiting weapon the Taliban possesses. We have enabled it to rise from the ashes seven years ago to openly control over half the country and carry out daylight attacks in the capital Kabul. And the war we wage is being exported like a virus to Pakistan in the form of drones that bomb Pakistani villages and increased clashes between the inept Pakistani military and a restive internal insurgency. 

Freedom Rider: Af-Pak Is Obama’s War (by Margaret Kimberley at the Black Agenda Report)
President Obama, who campaigned behind a thin veil of peace, dragged two heads of client states into the White House to demand “that both Afghanistan and Pakistan allow their citizens to be murdered and or displaced in the thousands” – or else. Obama read Presidents Zardari and Karzai “the riot act” to let them know who is boss in the military theater called “AfPak.” Obama claims to “want to respect their sovereignty, but” – there’s always the imperial ‘but’ – America has “huge national security interests” in the region. Afghanistan’s Karzai later wondered, “How can you expect a people who keep losing their children to remain friendly?”

The Bad PR of Dead Civilians: Afghan Airstrikes and the Corporate Media (FAIR)
Early reports of a massive US attack on civilians in western Afghanistan last week hewed to a familiar corporate media formula, stressing official US denials and framing the scores of dead civilians as a PR setback for the White House’s war effort…As is frequently the case with such incidents…, the primary fallout would seem to be the damage done to U.S. goals… While it is important to be cautious about early reports of such atrocities, many accounts played up U.S. denials. Some anonymous U.S. military officials vigorously denied that they were responsible, instead blaming the deaths on Taliban grenades and use of “human shields.”… It is difficult to see the corporate media’s credulous, cursory coverage of these killings as evidence of a U.S. public relations “disadvantage.”
Surely, FAIR meant to say that it is NOT difficult to see the media’s coverage as being concerned with PR, rather than the human suffering involved.

5 Miami men convicted of Sears Tower attack plot (AP)
It took three trials, three juries and nearly three years, but federal prosecutors finally succeeded Tuesday in convicting five Miami men of plotting to start an anti-government insurrection by destroying Chicago’s Sears Tower and bombing FBI offices. One man was acquitted… “Any cases that involve someone’s mental intent, their intention when they made certain statements, are always difficult,” said Matthew Orwig, former U.S. attorney in Texas who has monitored the Miami case. “It was a must-win for the government. They needed some vindication.”
These guys sounded like a bunch of losers to me.

U.S. ships must post guards if sailing off Somalia (Reuters)
The U.S. Coast Guard will require U.S.-flagged ships sailing around the Horn of Africa to post guards and ship owners to submit anti-piracy security plans for approval, a Coast Guard official said on Tuesday. The new requirements, which respond to a surge of piracy off the coast of Somalia, allow ship owners to decide whether to use armed or unarmed guards, Coast Guard Rear Admiral James Watson told shipping industry representatives at a maritime security meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

First Black President Cuts Funds For Black Higher Education (by Glen Ford at the Black Agenda Report)
President Obama’s economic stimulus was very kind to the general category of education. But Black higher education got the butt end of his budget, with a net of $73 million in cuts, while traditionally Hispanic schools got an increase in funding. “It would be difficult to find anyplace in the federal budget where $73 million has a more concentrated impact on the fortunes of a particular ethnic group.” Even southern Republican lawmakers are wondering aloud about Obama’s priorities.

Is the White House pulling out on abstinence? (War Room, Salon)
Last week, it seemed that the White House was ignoring the advice of Bristol Palin. While one of the country’s most recognizable teenage mothers did her best to tout abstinence, the Obama administration released a budget proposal that cuts funding for two abstinence-only education programs. But now comes news that the proposed cuts don’t necessarily mean that abstinence will have no place in the Obama team’s plan to reduce teenage pregnancy in the U.S. After speaking with a White House official, Christian Broadcasting Network White House Correspondent David Brody points out that abstinence-only programs could still receive federal money through the Obama budget…

The White House seems to be trying to eat its proverbial cake on this issue. Obama is leaving the door open to abstinence-only education in principle, but putting the pressure on program advocates to prove that it works — something that the White House has already acknowledged isn’t the case at present.

Obama rejects federal wind insurance for hurricanes (McClatchy)
The Obama administration has quietly told Congress that it “strongly opposes” federal wind insurance legislation — surprising a Mississippi lawmaker who lost his home to Hurricane Katrina and who’s spent more than two years fighting for wind coverage.

Obama Shows His True Katrina Colors (by Glen Ford at the Black Agenda Report)
“The line between Bush and Obama has not simply blurred in New Orleans: it has disappeared.” President Obama has adopted, in whole, the Bush approach to rebuilding the city – minus the Black Diaspora that was scattered to the winds in 2005. Notices of eviction have been served on the mostly elderly and Black inhabitants of 3,000 FEMA trailers. The Obama Department of Housing and Urban Development is putting the finishing touches on public housing demolition in the city. Not a single “Katrina Cottage” has been made ready for occupancy. Obama no more favors the “right to return” to – or remain in – New Orleans, than Bush did.

OBAMA LEAVES POLAR BEARS OUT IN THE COLD (Truthdig)
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that the Obama administration will leave in place an unpopular Bush rule on the protection of polar bears. The decision comes despite an outcry from Democrats, environmental activists and scientists alike, who promised to push to overturn the rule in court.

FDA Warns General Mills: Cheerios Is a Drug (by Jacob Goldstein at Health Blog, Wall Street Journal)
Hey, General Mills: If you want to say Cheerios is “clinically proven to lower cholesterol,” you better get your whole-grain Os approved as a new drug by the FDA. That’s what the FDA told the company in [a] letter, which says the labeling on Cheerios boxes is in “serious violation” of federal rules… “Based on claims made on your product’s label, we have determined that your Cheerios® Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal is promoted for conditions that cause it to be a drug because the product is intended for use in the prevention, mitigation, and treatment of disease.” What’s more, the letter says, Cheerios “may not be legally marketed with the above claims in the United States without an approved new drug application.”

White House Pushes Back Against Protests of Pending Presidential Honorary Degree From Notre Dame (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
The White House [Tuesday] aggressively pushed back against the notion that the opposition of one Notre Dame University group to President Obama receiving an honorary degree at their commencement ceremony this Sunday is representative of widespread feelings on campus on among Catholics in general. “I think there’s one group organizing a boycott,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, “and, as best I can understand it, there are 23 groups that have formed in support of the president’s invitation.”
Sen. Vitter releases hold on FEMA nominee (McClatchy)
After coming under tremendous pressure to release his hold on FEMA nominee Craig Fugate before hurricane season begins, Sen. David Vitter, R-La. this morning gave the former Florida emergency chief the green light for Senate confirmation.

Pelosi: House taking up health care before recess (AP)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that her chamber would have a sweeping health care bill on the floor by the end of July, an announcement that President Barack Obama hailed.

45 Centrist Democrats Protest Secrecy of Health Care Talks (New York Times)
Forty-five House Democrats in the party’s moderate-to-conservative wing have protested the secretive process by which party leaders in their chamber are developing legislation to remake the health care system. The lawmakers, members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, said they were “increasingly troubled” by their exclusion from the bill-writing process… Representative Mike Ross, an Arkansas Democrat who is chairman of the coalition’s health task force, said: “We don’t need a select group of members of Congress or staff members writing this legislation. We don’t want a briefing on the bill after it’s written. We want to help write it.”
And the rest of the country doesn’t want Blue Dogs (who are NOT CENTRISTS) anywhere near that bill.

Analysis: Carbon cash to energy committee shapes climate debate. (Think Progress)
A Wonk Room analysis has found that the average energy committee member opposed to, or wavering on, the green economy legislation has received six times as much lifetime climate polluter cash as the average supporter… “The obstructionist politicians working to weaken the ACES Act,” the Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson writes, “are ironically threatening the future of the industries who fill their campaign coffers. The nation needs to set strong standards for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and global warming pollution in order to compete in the 21st century economy.”

Senate measure would allow loaded guns in national parks (McClatchy)
People would be able to carry loaded guns in national parks and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service public lands under a provision approved overwhelmingly Tuesday by the Senate. Final passage of the amendment, which was attached to legislation rewriting some credit card laws to favor consumers, isn’t guaranteed, however… The measure was pushed by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who argued it “makes no sense to treat (gun owners) like a criminal if they pass through a national park while in possession of a firearm.” He was trying to undo a March ruling by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly that overturned a rule implemented by the Bush administration in its final days.

Unions Air First Ad Hitting Democrat Arlen Specter (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
In another sign that labor is serious about backing a 2010 primary challenger to newly-minted Democrat Arlen Specter, a coalition of unions is going up on the air in Pennsylvania with a statewide ad demanding that he back the Employee Free Choice Act, labor’s top priority… The ad, is paid for by the labor-backed American Rights at Work, makes the threat of a primary challenge pretty explicit. “Where will Specter stand?” it asks. “With Obama, Biden, and the working families of Pennsylvania…Or with greedy CEOs, and Big Business lobbyists?” “Call and Tell Specter Pennsylvania’s for him,” it concludes, “As long as he’s for the Employee Free Choice Act.”
Click through to watch the ad.

Cornyn Endorses Crist After Saying He Wouldn’t (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
NRSC chief John Cornyn endorsed popular Governor Charlie Crist in the Florida GOP Senate primary this morning. The Crist candidacy is being hailed by pundits as a coup for Cornyn and the embattled national GOP, and rightly so. But what’s interesting is that Cornyn’s endorsement comes only a week after he said he wouldn’t take sides at all in the Florida GOP primary, in which Crist is squaring off against conservative candidate Marco Rubio.

Sound Advice – How to Re-Brand the GOP (Colbert Report)
The GOP needs to make painful, soul-searching, superficial changes to their image without altering anything inside.
Click through to watch the video.

Bush in 2012? (Think Progress)
In a Fox News interview, former Vice President Dick Cheney continued to blast away at the Obama administration on everything from bailing out the auto industry to closing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. He even hinted that he’d like to see another Bush as president. Said Cheney: “I like Jeb. I think he’s a good man. I’d like to see him continue to stay involved politically… I’d probably support him for president.” Meanwhile, the Fort Myers News-Press reports Jeb Bush (R) isn’t interested in running for Florida governor again, so perhaps he’s setting his sights on the White House.

Republicans Seek to Tie Democrats to Murtha (Political Wire)
The NRCC is looking to sink Democrats by tying them to Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), Congress Daily reports. “A radio ad launching today in nine districts blasts Democrats for voting for the stimulus package, which includes funding for what Republicans have labeled, ‘the airport for no one,’ a play on the ‘bridge to nowhere’ in Alaska.”

It’s War: Conservative Candidate Uses Image Of Obama To Attack Moderate GOPer (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
Another mark of just how far to the right the GOP has moved: “Barely moments after the news broke that Governor and stimulus-supporter Charlie Crist has entered the Florida GOP primary, his conservative opponent already has a new ad attacking him — with an image of President Obama, whose performance is supported by strong majorities and by Independents.”… The spot slams Crist for supporting “trillions in reckless spending,” a reference to Obama’s agenda. It then flashes a picture of Crist with Obama, and says: “Today, too many politicians embrace Washington’s same old broken ways — but this time, there’s a leader who won’t.”
Yeah, Obama promised change, too.

Cheney Whacks EFCA, Labor Welcomes Him As Spokesman (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
Former vice president Dick Cheney … in his interview on Tuesday afternoon on Fox News, … grasped hold of one of the GOP’s biggest rallying cries — the Employee Free Choice Act… “I don’t think we want to get into the business where we make it easier for there to be the kind of intimidation that we’ve sometimes seen in these operations in the past and where people wouldn’t be able to cast a secret ballot in terms of whether or not they want to join a union.”…

Lest one have any doubt, labor officials scoffed at Cheney’s criticism, noting that EFCA actually doesn’t do away with the secret ballot and isn’t some nefarious gateway to political dominance. But they also had some fun with his rather unpopular persona. And, like the Democratic Party as a whole, they weren’t exactly quivering at having the former vice president as the public face of the opposition. “Dick Cheney is as much of an expert at helping America’s workers as he is on not shooting people in the face,” said AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale. “If Cheney wants to emerge and be the lead spokesman against the Employee Free Choice Act, I’ll help book his interviews.”

The hidden hand of Dick Cheney (by Juan Cole, Salon)
Dick Cheney is out there. He is defending torture, dissing Colin Powell, and genuflecting before radio personality Rush Limbaugh as the high priest of what’s left of conservatism. His refusal to go quietly, unlike his much-reviled boss, is risky… [T]he media’s focus on the sheer spectacle of the ex-veep’s antics, and on the Republican vs. Democrat feud he’s stoking, underestimates the way Cheney’s principles still inform many of the country’s most crucial policies. Like the creatures in the “Alien” films, Cheney has planted some vicious spores in the bellies of his successors, which threaten to tear them apart as they mature. Can the new administration truly reverse Cheney’s transformation of the United States into a 21st century empire, with the president an imperial figure above the law?

Dick Cheney: Why so chatty all of a sudden? (by Michael Duffy, Time)
The former Veep says he’s worried that by dismantling a controversial Bush-era terrorist surveillance program and stepping back from harsh interrogation policies, the Obama administration is putting the nation at risk… Cheney is clearly troubled both by Obama’s rollback of the policies he championed – and the buzz on the left that a sitting president might prosecute a predecessor who took those policies too far…

Cheney, who championed the idea of pre-emptive attack doctrine as vice president, knows that in politics as well the best defense is often a good offense. With the White House decision to release various Bush-era memos on interrogation, and the coming disclosure of thousands more photographs from Abu Ghraib later this month, “He’s trying to rewrite history,” says a Republican consultant who has experience in intelligence matters. “He knows that as time goes by, he will look worse. And so he’s trying to put his stroke on it.”

Palin Writing a Book (Political Wire)
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) is writing a memoir and will come out in Spring 2010 — the year she is up for re-election, the AP reports. Said Palin: “There’s been so much written about and spoken about in the mainstream media and in the anonymous blogosphere world, that this will be a wonderful, refreshing chance for me to get to tell my story, that a lot of people have asked about, unfiltered.”

“Being a voracious reader, I read a lot today and have read a lot growing up. And having that journalism degree, all of that, will be a great assistance for me in writing this book, talking about the challenges and the joys, balancing the work and parenting, and, in my case, work means running the state. I’ve read a variety of books, and that helps shape my opinions and my views.”
If she writes the way she talks (but of course she won’t actually WRITE the book), first graders will find it an easy read.

Action Alert: CBS Pro-Drone Propaganda (FAIR, posted at Democracy in Action)
On May 10, CBS’s 60 Minutes presented a remarkably one-sided report on unmanned Air Force drones firing missiles into Afghanistan and Iraq. Though the drones have been criticized for killing civilians in both countries, CBS viewers heard from no critics of the weapons.

Agency pays $75,000 to hear a Friedman speech that’s posted online (San Francisco Chronicle, posted at Poynter Online)
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which gets its money from business permits and federal and state sources, paid Times columnist Tom Friedman to appear at an Oakland event last week. A district spokeswoman says that it “very likely may be” that Friedman delivered a speech that’s online, but it’s “much more moving and inspirational to see and hear in person.”

Friedman to Return $75,000 Speaker’s Fee (Editor & Publisher)
It drew criticism earlier this week for another reason: The $75,000 paid to New York Times columnist for a speech to a San Francisco group that attendees allegedly could have just as easily read or watched online. Now Friedman has returned the fee due to an ethical challenge.

PBS’s “NewsHour” to return to a two-anchor format
Jim Lehrer will be joined this fall by one of three co-anchors drawn from the show’s current team — Gwen Ifill, Judy Woodruff or Jeffrey Brown. The co-anchor will vary, and when Lehrer, is off, two of them will anchor. “This is not a succession plan in disguise,” says “NewsHour” executive producer Linda Winslow.

Jack Kemp and media double standards (by Jamison Foser at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
[In 1996,] Jack Kemp was the Republican Party’s vice presidential nominee. In that capacity, Kemp liked to tell the story of a boy in a Chicago public housing project who, upon being asked what he wanted to be whenhe grew up, gave a conditional reply: if he grew up, he would like to be a bus driver. The story wasn’t Kemp’s; it appeared in Alex Kotlowitz’s book There Are No Children Here. And Kemp attributed it to Kotlowitz. Until, one day, he didn’t. Then, another day, Kemp explicitly claimed the story as his own. Then he did it again…

Now, for the record, I don’t think Kemp’s use of Kotlowitz’ story should have been an international scandal that dogged him for decades. Politicians give a lot of speeches and tell a lot of stories; it’s inevitable that things are going to get jumbled from time to time. I assume Kemp made an honest mistake. It may well be that one blurb deep within the Washington Post was all the coverage Kemp’s mistake deserved. But that’s certainly not how the media treated Joe Biden, or Al Gore when he (supposedly) took credit for the experiences of others (see:Love Story, Love Canal.)

Coverage of al-Libi ‘Suicide’ Almost Wholly Absent from US Mainstream Corporate Media (by Brad Friedman, The Brad Blog, posted at Media Channel)
MSM goes AWOL on the reported suicide of the man who falsely “confessed”, during torture, to a false tie between Iraq and al-Qaeda.

“Outrage” Review Spiked for Naming Names (IndieWire)
Kirby Dick’s new documentary, “Outrage,” continued to skirt controversy and stir debate in its opening weekend in U.S. theaters, particularly among some media circles. As the film opened, NPR trimmed its review of the film, cutting mentions of the American political figures depicted in the movie. Critic Nathan Lee subsequently removed his byline from the article in protest and lodged a comment on the NPR site, which was also quickly removed by NPR executives.

This came amidst a simmering debate about Dick’s decision to pursue and name politicians believed to be closeted homosexuals in the film, specifically those whose public voting record counters the civil rights of gay and lesbian Americans. And it seems to support charges by Dick, made in the film, that the mainstream media has a history of handling stories of politicians same-sex orientations with kid gloves.

O’Reilly: Gay Marriage = animal marriage (by Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors)
Speaking on Fox News Channel Monday, O’Reilly declared that same sex marriage could lead to individuals marrying — a turtle. So this is just the beginning, ladies and gentlemen, of this crazy gay marriage insanity — is gonna lead to all kinds of things like this. Courts are gonna be clogged. Every nut in the world is gonna — somebody’s gonna come in and say, ‘I wanna marry the goat.’ You’ll see it; I guarantee you’ll see it.

Fox & Friends wants to know “what about Americans who want to marry multiple partners at the same time?” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Beck argues that gay marriage would allow for siblings to marry, if “they’re both fixed” and can’t procreate (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Beck uses toys to explain slippery slope from same-sex marriage to polyamorous marriage (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Fox Condemns Sykes’s Act: If A Talk Radio Host Compared Obama To A Terrorist, He Would Be Fired (Think Progress)
[Monday] night on Fox News, Sean Hannity and Dick Morris expressed outrage at comedian Wanda Sykes’s act at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Sykes joked that “maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight,” and said she hoped his kidneys fail. Specifically, Hannity couldn’t believe that she compared Limbaugh to a terrorist, saying her jokes were far worse than waterboarding detainees. He and guest Dick Morris then claimed that if a conservative radio host ever made such a comparison, he could be fired or arrested…

Ironically, a few seconds later, Hannity asked why Sykes didn’t bring up President Obama’s tenuous link to former Weatherman Bill Ayers.
And it’s just as hypocritical of the left to complain about the right’s behavior while justifying that same behavior by one of its own. Click through to watch the video.

Liz Cheney: Obama Finds It Fashionable To Side With Terrorists (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
In an appearance on Fox News, Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter, Liz Cheney, accused Barack Obama Tuesday of finding it “fashionable” to side with terrorists… The flame-throwing remarks came on the heels of similar statements Cheney made during an appearance Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”… Cheney also argued that Attorney General Eric Holder, by offering to work with foreign governments, was refusing to “stand up and defend American sovereignty.”

Fox Nation portrays Democratic Party moving “From Thomas Jefferson… to Karl Marx” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Beck suggests ACORN may kill him for his coverage of them (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

So how is all this hate speech at Fox working out:
FoxNews.com Rockets Nearly 50 Percent in April (Mediaweek)
Fox News’ online ascent continues, as the network’s formerly lightly-trafficked Web site FoxNews.com has significantly improved its numbers for several key engagement scores over the past year as its audience has steadily climbed, according to newly-released data.

Trump: Miss California, President Share Opposition to Same Sex Marriage (by Jake Tapper and Karen Travers at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
Miss California USA Carrie Prejean, Donald Trump said today, “gave a very, very honest answer when asked a very tough question at the recent pageant. It’s the same answer that the President of the United States gave. It’s the same answer that many people gave and at the same time, it was a controversial question. It was a tough question. It was probably a fair question because it’s asked of many people.”…

One of the complaints many gay and lesbian activists have with President Obama’s opposition to same sex marriage is that it gives cover for the Carrie Prejeans of the world. Even though the president may support civil unions and other rights for same sex couples, it’s his insistence that marriage is between a man and a woman that allows opponents of what gay rights groups call “marriage equality” to paint themselves as mainstream and reasonable. Richard Socarides, who advised President Clinton on gay and lesbian issues, agrees with Trump’s observation… “You know, it’s the same answer,” Socarides says, “but one of them should know better.”

Limbaugh rant on Prejean press conference: “We’re supposed to tolerate” the “perversions” and “godlessness” of the left, but “when we stand up and just express our beliefs … it’s time to get the Gestapo” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Limbaugh: “[F]ascists, statists” on the left are interested in “silencing people who disagree with them and the reason for that, folks, is fear. They are afraid of Dick Cheney. They are afraid of me” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Boortz: CA fire started because “somebody not Mexican tried to use a weed eater” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Boortz agrees with caller that Katrina refugees are “parasites” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

G20 police ’used undercover men to incite crowds’ (The Guardian, U.K.)
MP demands inquiry into Met tactics at demo
Our FBI did the same thing in the 60s, at anti-war protests.

Online car hysterics drive Shanghainese round the bend (Reuters Life!)
A popular Chinese online video showing a woman going hysterical after her male companion refuses to buy her a car is stirring debate about Shanghai’s females, who are renowned for their demanding ways.
OMG, DEMANDING!!!!! Shut it down before women in other places get any ideas!

Media Matters for America headlines

 

 

France Approves Crackdown on Internet Piracy
A law that could cost copyright violators their Internet service is the farthest-reaching action yet in the music and movie industries’ battle against piracy.

Google’s Street View halted in Greece over privacy
A privacy watchdog has banned Google Inc. from gathering detailed, street-level images in Greece for a planned expansion of its panoramic Street View mapping service until the company provides additional privacy safeguards… The decision, announced Monday, comes despite Google’s assurances that it would blur faces and vehicle license plates when displaying the images online and that it would promptly respond to removal requests.

Google reshoots Japan views after privacy complaints
Internet search engine Google said it would reshoot all Japanese pictures for its online photo map service, Street View, using lower camera angles after complaints about invasion of privacy.

College papers hear from ex-students who want old stories deleted
Editors at The Emory Wheel heard from a former opinion editor — now in the Marines — who wanted a column deleted because “if any of my Marines were to end up Googling me, I’d feel uncomfortable with them knowing my own politics.” One journalism prof contends the best way to dilute old, embarrassing web content is to publish new, positive content that will appear first in Google searches.

How the next internet revolution will save your favourite TV shows, newspapers and magazines (by Stephen Armstrong, Sunday Times, U.K.)
There are huge problems in Silicon Valley. The sheer cost of running the huge servers required to store tons of information has started to worry the sort of free media and social networking sites that came of age during what is known as the “Web 2.0” era – defined as 2004 to the beginning of the economic crisis at the end of 2007. All of them subscribed to a widely accepted business blueprint: build huge global audiences with a free service and let advertising pay the bills. The problem is: the model doesn’t seem to be working…

“The idea that everything has to be free was so voguishly accepted and this is an epochal moment in the fightback,” said Ashley Highfield, managing director of consumers and online at Microsoft and the man who created the BBC’s iPlayer. “That doesn’t mean everything will remain the same as always. The recession will only encourage people and publishers and producers into the digital world – it’s just now there’s a business model for survival in that world.” THE precise shape of that world is unknown.

MediaNews execs: We’ll no longer give away all our print content to web users (Romenesko)
“Instead, we will explore a variety of premium offerings that apply real value to our print content,” write MediaNews CEO Dean Singleton and president Jody Lodovic. “We are not trying to invent new premium products, but instead tell our existing print readers that what they are buying has real value, and to our online audience (who don’t buy the print edition), that if you want access to all online content, you are going to have to register, and/or pay.”

What readers want vs. what they need (by Edward Wasserman, Knight professor of journalism ethics at Washington and Lee University)
If all you do is give the public what it thinks it wants, you aren’t doing your job. But if you ignore those wishes, you won’t have a job… I’ve long argued that news is best understood not as a consumer product, but as a professional service. People buy a paper or go to Web site not to consume a good, but to renew a relationship with an informant they trust. That’s not to say readers don’t want to be amused or don’t like reading the comics and hearing about celebrity bust-ups or money-saving recipes. And they aren’t passive receptacles: They’ll make vigorous use of new media feedback channels to dispute, correct, redirect and enrich the news they get.

But what this suggests is that ultimately, people look to journalists for a special service – keeping them on top of what they need to know. They can’t say exactly what that is, any more than journalists know in the morning what they’ll report that day. But they trust the news source to tell them. Today’s news aggregators exemplify that. Because I follow media news, I regularly visit three or four sites that monitor media coverage. I read only a fraction of what they link to, but I’m a fan because if there’s something I need to know, I’ll probably find out about it there. That’s a service of great value to me, and its value has nothing to do with any ranking I might assign to particular stories I could imagine seeing there.
The news we need the most is often the news we least want to hear.

Dow Jones’s MarketWatch gets a new look, stays free
MarketWatch sees the redesign as a way to get back to its roots as a scrappy business news service with a “laser focus” on markets, says Gordon McLeod, president of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network.

What David Geffen Sees in The New York Times (by Ron Grover, Business Week)
David Geffen, who in the last year has stepped down from his job as chairman of Steven Spielberg’s Dreamworks studio and from the board of Dreamworks Animation, doesn’t so much see taking a Times stake as a business venture, but rather as a civic investment.

NYT Co. Board Member Denies Having Talked to Google
New York Times Co. board member Scott Galloway said he did not contact Google Co-founder Larry Page to try to get the Internet company to buy the newspaper publisher. Galloway said he has not talked to anyone else at Google about buying the Times, denying a report in Fortune.com.

Washington Post, Google discuss possible collaboration
This could range from creating new web pages to technological tools for journalists or readers, reports Howard Kurtz. The Post’s Phil Bennett says the WP and Google discussion “has produced some interesting ideas already. I’d say that on the journalism side of the conversation we’ve learned a lot.”

Judge Approves Tribune Bonus Payments, Denies Severance Payments
The Tribune Co. can pay more than $13 million in bonuses to almost 700 employees for their work last year, a federal bankruptcy judge ruled. But the judge denied authorization for the Tribune to make more than $2 million in severance payments to more than 60 employees laid off shortly before the company filed for bankruptcy protection.

Metro sells its three US newspapers to Seabay Media
Metro, based in Sweden, says its free newspapers in Philadelphia, Boston and New York have a combined circulation of 590,000 copies per day. Metro will book a loss of about $2 million on the deal. Seabay is a newly formed operation.

HarperCollins Wants to Be Your Friend
Debbie Stier, the head of digital marketing at HarperCollins, is among the most energetic believers in the idea that publishers must stop relying on critics, journalists and talk show hosts for coverage, and instead start finding creative ways of reaching readers directly through emerging social media tools.

Magazines Find Some Success With Interactive Content
While a handful of magazines have experimented with making their advertising pages digitally interactive, women’s service title Woman’s Day has gone a step further and made its editorial pages interactive as well — with promising results for one advertiser.

Trade Journos No-Shows at Cannes
When the 62nd Cannes Film Festival opens [this week], Variety and The Hollywood Reporter will have virtually called a halt to a longstanding cross-Croisette daily news war. Both trades will still be competing for stories, but under unprecedented limitations.

Study: TV news reluctant to cover TV industry woes
University of Pennsylvania researchers found that TV news shows had 38 stories about falling print newspaper readership and only 6 about the falling audience for national news broadcasts. “The television networks have basically not been very interested in talking about television’s problems,” said Michael X. Delli Carpini, one of the study’s authors.

Rival Networks Can Learn From CBS’ Playbook
With less than 10 days left in the traditional September-to-May TV calendar, CBS has earned bragging rights as the only big broadcaster to improve its performance. For the sixth time in the last seven years, the network is No. 1 in total viewers, averaging 11.7 million for a gain of 12%.

Miniweb merges Internet and TV with Blinkx
Blinkx said it is putting its online video search skills to work for Britain-based Miniweb Interactive, a firm specializing in merging television with the Internet.

eGuiders Uses Media Experts to Find Quality Video on the Web (by Ben Parr atMashable)
eGuiders, a new video service that relies on a core of media experts from multiple industries (the “eGuiders”), … is an aggregation of top video content as picked by its media experts, which include some big names like Jerry Stiller (comedian, father of Ben Stiller) and Guy Kawasaki (CEO of Alltop)… The eGuiders website itself is essentially a portal – it embeds video chosen by its experts from a variety of sources, provides a quick description from the expert who chose the video, and categorizes them based on genre, the type of video, and source of content. So if you’re bored and want to learn something, you can scan the non-fiction section, or if you’re in need of a pick-me-up, the comedy category would be the smart choice. It’s not revolutionary in any sense, but it works.
Is it an age thing? I think of Ben Stiller as the son of Jerry Stiller (and Ann Meara).

Watch Out Nintendo! Social Gaming is Rapidly on the Rise (by Ben Parr at Mashable)
Ever since the launch of social networking application platforms on Facebook, MySpace, and others, gaming has taken a sharp turn towards social media. For many, playing games is best as a shared experience on consoles, so it makes sense that companies would utilize social media to build stickier games. Yet it’s still amazing how rapidly social gaming is growing. Case-in-point? Zynga, the social game and application developer, reached a big milestone this week, surpassing 10 million daily active users across its portfolio of social games. Having that many simultaneous players every day is an impressive feat, and this is just one application company.

Society6 Launches a Social Platform for Awarding Grants to Artists (by Ben Parr at Mashable)
Society6 doesn’t bill itself as a business or a website, but rather, “a movement set in motion by a clear and relentless pursuit to empower the world’s artists.” Society6, as simply as I can put it, is a platform for artists to showcase their work and for those who wish to fund them to provide grants to fuel this artistic creativity. It does all of this with an interface that is social by design. Society6 is based upon charts, grants, posts, and studios. Combined, they help promote and connect aritsts.

Google Answers the Twitter Threat With Time-Based Search Options (Mashable)
Google has just made search a lot more useful, and real-time search offerings … are about to feel the power of the Google juggernaut. Why? Because of the release of Google Search Options, a new Google search feature that provides the user the ability to drill down search results by recency, content type, and more… Google Search Options is an attempt to organize universal search results – ones that include news, blog posts, images, and videos. Once turned on (by clicking “Show Options” in any search result), the feature appears as a left-hand column next to search results.
I’d like a toggle to make it persistent for every search. I’d also like options to specify the level of reliability I’m looking for—an established news source, for example, as opposed to Joe Blow’s Website.

Hate Groups Losing Face on Facebook
A debate over freedom of speech on Facebook has shaken up the Web this past week. The controversy centers on use of the social media site by such entities as Holocaust denial groups. In an interview, Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt expressed the site’s desire “to be a place where people can discuss all kinds of ideas, including controversial ones,” but drew the line at groups that incite violent behavior.

One Giant Leap for Twitterkind; Mike Massimino Tweets from Space (Mashable)
It may not be a moon landing, or a giant leap for mankind, but the first human tweet from space has just made its way over the microblogging platform to Earth. Due to the extraordinary nature of the tweet, this very first one is likely to go down in the annals of Twitter history. The tweet in question comes courtesy of NASA’s Mike Massimino, a.k.a Astro_Mike, whose status update reads, “From orbit: Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!”
I’m not sure why this message is more thrilling than the audio that we’ve had for years.

Twitter’s Traffic Beats WSJ.com, NYTimes.com (Paid Content)
This is what the “Oprah impact,” Ashton Kutcher’s followers race with CNN and non-stop coverage from tech and media blogs amounts to: Twitter actually surpassed both the NYT and the WSJ for unique visits in April.
But it’s still losing money.

Video: Microsoft’s New-Old Pitch On Zune: We’re Cheaper (Paid Content)
A new Microsoft ad notes that it costs $14.99 a month to subscribe to the Zune’s unlimited music subscription service—but $30,000 to fill a 120 gigabyte iPod with songs. Not quite a fair comparison since Apple doesn’t have a subscription service, but that’s the point. The company is trying to position itself as the best option for thrift-conscious consumers. It’s back to the future for Microsoft, which has also cast the PC as a less-expensive alternative to Macs in a series of TV commercials.
Click through to watch the new ad.

Orange to sell Nokia music package in Britain
Top mobile phone maker Nokia said on Wednesday France Telecom’s Orange would sell its top model 5800 and exclusive music-package deal in Britain.

Why is Vin Diesel So Popular on Facebook? (Mashable)
With all due respect, I wouldn’t put Vin Diesel in the upper echelon of movie actors. But on Facebook, the Fast & Furious star is second to none among the Hollywood elite. He’s currently adding hundreds of thousands of fans daily, and with more than 3.4 million of them at the moment, the only person bigger than Diesel on Facebook is President Obama. How’s he doing it? Simple: authenticity… [A]bout a month ago … his updates went from standard fare – clips of TV appearances and an event schedule – to authentic updates and interaction from the star.

Pay-Per-Click Web Advertisers Combat Costly Fraud
The economic downturn has led to an increase in pay-per-click advertising, and in the use of false clicks to make money for the Web sites that carry the ads.

Make Room for Bigger Web Ads
As online advertising revenue shrinks, publishers are making their advertisements bigger. MSNBC is one site that has redesigned its pages to make room for the ads.

As Storefronts Become Vacant, Ads Arrive
Rather than let abandoned retail spaces look like pockets of poverty, landlords are renting the windows out to marketers for street-level advertising displays.

UK may cap spectrum ownership for mobile telcos
Britain unveiled plans to cap ownership of the digital radio spectrum among mobile phone companies, aiming to settle a long-running dispute and fulfill the government’s target of providing universal broadband.