In this case, I mean John Edwards. His minute and a half talk on media is well worth a listen.
Category: Media
Media Whores
It appears that three “journalists”, “Robert Bazell and Nancy Snyderman of NBC News and Susan Dentzer of PBS’ NewsHour“, all had speaking gigs with the America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) Speakers network.
Considering the fact that they get speaker fees in the 5 figures (I’m in the wrong line of work), I have to say there is a real conflict of interest.
I really miss the old horse (Media Whores Online).
ONLY $2 Million???? ONLY?????
The New York times has an article on the difficulties of finding a family sized apartment in New York.
In truth, they mean Manhattan, because they can be found in good neighborhoods Brooklyn and Queens, but generally it would be no never mind to be, but for this quote:
The elusiveness of these large apartments is hitting people with budgets of, say, $8 million just as hard as buyers with only $2 million to spend. And the fights for the apartments that are available are being won or lost in bidding wars.
Only $2 million? What the hell is up with that? Based on a simple rule of thumb, that means that these folks are making at around $700K/year.
Only in the Times real estate section is this poverty.
Newspapers and the Chop Shop Mentality of Private Equity
Alan D. Mutter gives us the lowdown on the damage done to newspaper as an insitution by Private Capital Management (PCM).
These folks are best known for forcing the liquidation of Knight-Ridder, and have been dumping their media holdings for quite some time (see pic).
That being said, Mr. Mutter missed the big picture, which is that most private equity functions as the equivalent of a chop shop. They part out businesses, or destroy the aspects of those businesses that made them valuable in the first place, in order to make their profit.
The current “crisis” in newspapers is less a function of declining ad revenues and readership than it is is the increasingly low quality product that is being produced to satisfy Wall St. investors.
And Related to Charlie Pierce’s Comment
Mitt Romney spent nearly $2K on makeup while governor.
Who cares. Really. The only thing of interest is that the press won’t be constantly harping on this, because makeup on Mitt makes him “manly”.
This is crap. Romney is a f#$%ing moron.
When he first ran for state wide office in Massachusetts, he ran for senate against Teddy Kennedy, and it started out competitive. Some polls actually had him in the lead.
Until the debates. Romney made the point that Kennedy was born wealthy, so what did he ever have to give for public service?
Mitt…You know…There are the three brothers…The war hero, the assassinated war hero president, and the assassinated populist presidential candidate.
Mit is stoopid.
What Charlie Pierce Said.
On Fridays, he frequently contributes a pice to Eric Alterman’s Altercation:
However, where in hell do we go with that last passage there, about how the haircuts matter because “a healthy chunk of the political press corps” doesn’t like Edwards, and how they’re staying away from a sauce-for-the-goose position on Mitt Romney’s makeovers because of their own private calculations of the relative electability of the two candidates. OK, here’s the deal. Every member of that “healthy chunk” of the press corps should be fired. Today. This minute. Without pay or recompense. Let them all walk back inside the Beltway from Cedar Rapids if they have to. I value what I do. I value the work of the people in my business who do it correctly. But, holy mother of god, these people do not do what I do. It’s OK to sneer at a candidate if you don’t like him? It’s OK to create a destructive narrative out of unmitigated piffle because he doesn’t kiss your ass with the regularity you think you deserve, or because his press buses don’t run on time, or because one of his staffers was late with the Danish in Keene? I watched a roomful of them boo Al Gore seven years ago, behavior that would have gotten them run out of any press box in the major leagues. Do you think one of these jamokes — or jamokettes — is thinking, “Maybe we should lay off the haircut thing because of what we all did to Gore in 2000, and look how well that worked out.” Please.
Here’s what I think — the majority of people who cover national politics believe that history is whatever happened in the MSNBC Green Room 15 minutes earlier. I believe the campaign is covered by people with a completely unjustified sense of their own superiority, since not many of them understand or ever care about most of the issues, much less the horrendous bills that are going to come due upon whichever of these poor sods winds up with the job. I believe these people care more about their reputation around the bar at the Wayfarer in Manchester than they do about the interests of the people they purportedly serve. And, were I an editor, and someone brought me a story about John Edwards’ hair or Mitt Romney’s skin, that person would do it once. The second time, the lazy bastard would find himself typing bowling agate on Wednesday night.
Damn good thinking, and damn good writing.
OH MY GOD! Hillary has Boobs!!!
And Robin Givhan, Washington Post Staff Writer, is a boob.
She wrote an article that is entirely about the fact that Hillary’s neckline shows about 1/4 inch of cleavage.
The Washington Post: Let Rupert Murdock buy it. The quality will improve.
Horrors: 
Murdoch and Blair Colluded on Selling Iraq War
This defines Rev. Smiler, and history will be most unkind to him.
How Murdoch had a hotline to the PM in the run-up to Iraq war
By Andrew Grice, Political Editor
Published: 19 July 2007Tony Blair had three conversations with the media magnate Rupert Murdoch in the nine days before the start of the Iraq war, the Government has disclosed.
Details of the former prime minister’s contacts with Mr Murdoch have been released under the Freedom of Information Act. After trying to block disclosure for four years, the Government backed down in a surprise change of heart the day after Mr Blair resigned last month.
Sounds like Gordon Brown threw his dear friend Tony under the Bloody bus.
……
In Alastair Campbell’s diaries, published last week, the former spin doctor described a Downing Street dinner for Mr Murdoch and his sons, James and Lachlan, in 2002. “Murdoch pointed out that his were the only papers that gave us support when the going got tough. ‘I’ve noticed,’ said TB,” Mr Campbell wrote. Lance Price, Mr Campbell’s deputy, called Mr Murdoch “the 24th member of the [Blair] Cabinet“. He added: “His presence was always felt. No big decision could ever be made inside No10 without taking account of the likely reaction of three men, Gordon Brown, John Prescott and Rupert Murdoch. On all the really big decisions, anybody else could safely be ignored.”
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Well, there’s always hoping that he’ll share a cell with Bush and Rumsfeld.
Pentagon to Engage in Psych Warfare Domestically
The full article is in Harper’s.”
Meet the Pentagon’s New Spin Unit: Bush Administration hacks court bloggers, talk radio
Ken Silverstein
….
The rapid-response team has been shut down but several sources tell me that another of Smith’s spin projects is ongoing. This project seeks to bypass the traditional media and work directly with talk radio and bloggers, mostly those with a heavily conservative tilt. The unit, which one source says was originally called “Surrogates Operation” but was later rechristened “Communications Outreach,” also reportedly provides talking points and briefings to retired military officials who now support the administration in appearances as media pundits. (I haven’t been able to learn which blogs and individuals the unit has been working with, but urge anyone with such information to contact me via email.)
It should be noted that this effort appears to violate the law which forbids domestic Pentagon propaganda operations.
The article, while informative, buries one of the important points in the last graph:
…
The irony here is that Gates has a far better relationship with the media than Rumsfeld, who treated journalists as the enemy. But with Smith running amok, Gates’s honeymoon with the media and with the military may be coming to an end.
More Extortion by the Record Distributors
The Register has some insights into the conflict between Universal’s decision to go with an “At Will” arrangement with Apple’s iTunes.
Basically, it comes down to the record distributors wanting to demand royalties on the music Players.
Microsoft already does so with it’s abysmally received Zune player.
The article is right in some areas, and wrong in others though.
On why Apple is in the Driver’s seat:
Another underlying tension is that Apple has made a huge amount of money from sales of iPods – far more than the labels have made from iTunes. As of April 2007, the iPod had sold over 100 million units worldwide. This makes iPod the best-selling digital audio player series in history.
Analyst estimates for iPhone sales in its first weekend ran as high as 700,000 units, beating many investors’ expectations, and some expect the momentum to continue. The iTunes Store has sold over 2.5 billion songs since its inception four years ago, as well as 50 million TV shows and over 1.3 million movies, making it the world’s most popular online music, TV, and movie store. But the labels only make 70c off each track. This revenue pales in comparison to the amount of money Apple generates from sales of such devices whose purpose, in full (the iPod) or in part (the iPhone) is to store and play these tracks. The money is in the hardware.
No. That $0.70 is pretty significant, particularly since Apple, and the end user are paying ALL costs of distribution. $1.75 billion is not chump change.
It is very possible that Universal intends to use the new “at will” deal to exert pressure on Apple to either replace the 99c fixed price with variable pricing or to agree to pay Universal a royalty on iPods, or both. Or as just discussed, Universal may wish to extend the royalty to any new products that play music, such as the iPhone.
True. They want to get all the golden eggs from the goose.
iPod’s success does not depend on iTunes, but rather the elegance of iPod’s design and ease of use. For these reasons, if Universal retreated from iTunes, no one can reasonably anticipate that it would seriously hurt sales of iPods or iPhones.
Generally agree, but I would also note that there is a chic factor driving iPod sales too.
The Audio Home Recording Act already imposes a royalty on digital tape recorders, but not MP3 Players or computers. But when the AHRA was passed in 1992, the personal computer was only just making its debut in the US, and the MP3 player had yet to be imagined. So while the Act compensates copyright owners and artists for lost sales because of copying, the income generated by the levy has been negligible because AHRA does not apply to the new generations of technology, including personal computers and MP3 players.
This is where the author jumps the shark. Digital tape is a failure because of the AHRA. Between the excessive fees on tapes, and the anti-copying technology that reduced playback quality on home units (notching), the AHRA destroyed the digital tape player.
So why hasn’t the Act been extended to include this new generation of technology? The principal reason is that the major labels have not pushed for it. But wouldn’t the record labels want to collect royalties from the manufacturers who are raking in money from sales of electronic equipment which is being used to acquire and listen to music without compensation to the labels?
Perhaps the main reason is the way royalties are distributed under the AHRA. The first third of royalties go to music publishers and writers. Then four per cent goes to side artists. The balance is paid 60 per cent to the labels and 40 per cent to the artists.
Maybe the record companies are afraid to push the extension of this Act to MP3 players and computers because they don’t want to set another precedent of splitting proceeds on a 60:40 basis with the artists they represent. The standard artist royalty is only 10 to 15 per cent.
Moreover, under the AHRA the artists are paid directly. By targeting a successful individual manufacturer like Apple, Universal is aiming to recoup red balances (the amount it spends on production and marketing) on each artist’s account. Most artists never recoup production and marketing costs so when the record labels collect money from their music, they “allocate” royalties to the artists’ accounts but actually keep the money.
While cheating artists is a major profit stream for the studios, the blithe assertion that the act has not been extended to MP3 players and computers is, “major labels have not pushed for it” is again, wrong.
During the debate over the AHRA, it was clear, and it is more clear now, that Congress was unwilling to to apply it to computer makers, and the basis of the law in the first place, copying, does not apply to MP3 players, which play music, but do not copy music.
As much power as the labels have, the fact that they could not get computers covered in 1992 means that they cannot get this now.
The labels do not go for this because they know that they will lose.
Looks Like Murdoch Gets Dow Jones
Straignt from the horse’s mouth, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the deal is done, complete with their “engraved style” picture of Rupert.
As I’ve said before, I have mixed emotions. The WSJ has VERY good news coverage, but that gives credibility to the worst editorial page this side of the New York Sun.
Murdoch will destroy it, and in so doing, he’ll make the Editorial page as irrelevant as that of the Moonie Washington Times.
An Unbelievably Bad Wall Street Journal Editorial
Even by the standards of the WSJ editorial page, which has a relationship to truth analogous to the relationship that Ebola has to French kissing.
Mark Thoma, an economist, blogs writes about the vicissitudes of the Laffer curve.
What the Laffer curve says is that there is a point where tax increases, through depressing economic activity, and encouraging tax avoidance behavior, will actually depress revenue.
It’s fairly straightforward. the question is where this point.
So Kevin Hasset, comes up with the following graph:
What’s wrong with the graph? He’s plotting through three points out of over a dozen to push a lie.
A least squares regression gets this:
Tax receipts increase as taxes go up, now there’s a shocker.
In fact Laffer himself suggested that the point where tax receipts would drop would be well north of 50%.
There is the additional lie that much of what they are showing by way of Norway’s revenues are as a direct result of revenues generated by it’s massive reserves in fossil fuels.
Deliberately and transparently dishonest editorials are being given legitimacy because of the sterling news operation of the Journal, and is why there is a part of me that hopes that Murdock destroys the WSJ.
Justice, and Conrad Black, Have Been Served. Will Richard Pearle be Next?
Well, it appears that my report of the jury being deadlocked was a bit premature. They just found Conrad Black guilty of guilty of three counts of mail fraud and one charge of obstruction of justice.
One wonders about some of his well connected board members, like Richard Pearle and Henry Kissinger, who might now be at some risk of either civil or criminal proceedings for enabling his larcenous habits.
One can hope.
Olbermann’s Special Comment
Crooks and liars has the vid of Olbermann’s special comment On Michael Chertoff’s Gut.
Watch it.
Once again, he’s on fire.
Schadenfreude: 20 More Perps Edition
According to Raw Story, Hustler magazine is involved in more than 20 sex scandal investigations.
Flynt is saying that about the hypocrisy, not the sex….Whatever.
Referring to his past court battles over indecency charges, the hardcore magazine publisher said the government “did everything it could for 15 years” to put him behind bars.
“This is payback time,” he said. “And payback’s a bitch.”
Snark of the Day
Courtesy of Glenn Greenwald, who noted a comment on his blog:
As Gen. Apathy noted in comments, having read the entire Murray [Washington Post National Political Reporter Shailagh Murray] chat from yesterday: ‘Every answer she gave was smarmy, sarcastic, pedantic and lacking any serious insight.’ Indeed, the whole thing reads like a tongue-clucking rant from a 12-year-old Maureen Dowd, which is saying quite a bit since Maureen Dowd, in her full-blown adult self, is more than sufficiently adolescent.
FWIW, Glenn Greenwald, Esq. is generally pretty serious, though a good read.
His expertise is constitutional law.
Ummmm….Conrad Black is Guilty as Sin! What’s Your f%$#ing Problem?
Sometimes the thought of a jury of one’s peers is kind of scary.
Black jury deadlocked
By Ameet Sachdev
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 10, 2007, 2:54 PM CDTA Chicago federal jury weighing fraud charges against former Sun-Times publisher Conrad Black said today it was deadlocked.
‘We have discussed and deliberated on all the evidence and are still unable to reach a unanimous verdict on one or more counts. Please advise,’ jurors wrote in a note to the U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve this afternoon.
In court, St. Eve responded by rereading a portion of the jury instructions which advised the panel to act in good faith and attempt to reach a verdict before sending the 9 women and 3 men back to the jury room to continue deliberations.
Tuesday was the ninth day of jury deliberations. The trial began March 20.
It is unclear if the jury has reached a conclusion on any of the 42 charges and four defendants before them.
Black faces 13 criminal charges, including racketeering and mail and wire fraud, tied to accusations that he and associated pocketed more than $60 million from non-compete agreements signed when his company Hollinger International Inc. sold several newspapers. If convicted, the 62-year-old member of the British House of Lords could spend the rest of his life in prison and forfeit much of his fortune.
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‘Chicago Sun-Times’ Looks to Redefine Itself as ‘Liberal, Working-Class’ Paper
I don’t know what this means, but I pray that this means that liberal will be the new black.
‘Chicago Sun-Times’ Looks to Redefine Itself as ‘Liberal, Working-Class’ Paper
By Mark Fitzgerald
Published: July 10, 2007 12:29 PM ET
CHICAGO The Chicago Sun-Times is turning left.
The tabloid that shifted toward political conservatism under the brief ownership of Rupert Murdoch more than two decades ago now says that it is ‘rethinking our stance on several issues, including the most pressing issue facing Americans today: Bush’s war in Iraq.’
Under marching orders from Publisher John Cruickshank and Editor in Chief Michael Cooke, new Editorial Page Editor Cheryl L. Reed introduced a new Commentary section Tuesday with a promise to turn the tabloid back into the liberal-leaning paper it was for decades before the Reagan administration.
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Schadenfreude Squared
According to TPM Muckraker Senator Vitter admitted to patronizing a prostitute because Hustler Magazine called for his statement.
Lol.
MediaBloodhound: Special Report: The Conflict of Interest Between Matthews and Coulter
Here’s a surprise, Mr. Spittle is a slime ball.
Special Report:
The Conflict of Interest Between Matthews and Coulter…
But there is something else happening here, something that finally reveals why Matthews keeps going to the mat for Coulter. And that something is a direct conflict of interest that MSNBC – and especially Chris Matthews – should not only be ashamed of, but held to account for not informing viewers.
Ann Coulter’s Godless is published by Crown Forum, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, which is part of Random House. Who is Chris Matthews’ publisher for his upcoming book Life’s a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me About Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success? You guessed it – Random House.
But wait, there’s more.
Coulter showed up on Hardball this past Tuesday to promote the new paperback edition of Godless, which just happened to be released on the same day of her appearance. (Matthews also fails to point this out to his viewers.) And while this hour-long Coulterfest was nothing more than a deftly marketed, nationally televised promo book party posing as news, it only begins to touch on the disturbing synergy between the two. A little more digging reveals that Coulter’s forthcoming book If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans: Ann Coulter at Her Best, Funniest, and Most Outrageous, published by the same Random House company, is scheduled for an October 2, 2007 release. And the release date for Matthews’ Random House publication Life’s a Campaign (his first, incidentally, with Random House)? Whaddya know: October 2, 2007.
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