Monday, October 26, 2009

Monday October 26 -- Got news or an update?

If you have news or an update, leave it in comments.
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27 comments:

Anonymous said...

No news is bad news (Variety)

If you think local TV news is irrelevant and has long sacrificed real news coverage for flash and trash, just wait until stations have no money to even pretend they're covering the important stuff.

Despite their obligations as inhabitants of the public airwaves, cash-strapped stations may find it even more difficult to properly inform the public.

Once upon a time, local TV stations were a license to print money -- and were frequently the most profitable link in a media conglom's portfolio.

Those stations' newscasts were a great business (and continue to generate nearly half a station's revenue) -- even if news purists scoffed at the medium's time-consuming "happy talk" and focus on sensational crimes and inane human-interest stories.

But stations don't generate the kind of major profits they once did. And as the biggest expense at most TV outlets, news operations are feeling the pain.

The once-proud operations are slashing costs and, in the process, downsizing news coverage and dumping highly paid and experienced talent.

Anonymous said...

White House Attempts to De-Legitimize FOX News (The Woodward Report)

In the most overt ploy yet to control the media the Obama Administration attempted to prevent FOX News from interviewing Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg on Thursday.

At the same time the White House granted permission to interview Feinberg to CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.

This came on the heels of David Axelrod’s appearance on ABC’s This Week where he asserted that FOX was not a real news organization urging that other authentic news organizations such as ABC “ought not to treat them that way”.

This is simply a continuation of strategies derived from Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals in which Rule 5 of the Chapter on Tactics states “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.”

What the White House didn’t count on was that their perceived lap-dogs at the other networks would refuse the interview unless FOX was given the same opportunity.

This of course will be swept away by other political happenings in the coming days. However, it is important to note that this administration will stop at nothing to control the outflow of information and opinion in regards to the policy they are attempting to impose. In this case the administration made a huge gaffe.

Anonymous said...

Scarborough and Smiley Agree: White House Attacks Driving People to Fox News (Newsbusters)

Here's something you don't see every day: former Republican Congressman turned MSNBC personality Joe Scarborough and perilously liberal PBS host Tavis Smiley agreeing on something.

Maybe even more shocking, this odd couple was also in lock-step with former Bush administration member and current Fox News contributor Dan Senor as well the New Yorker's Jane Mayer.

Appearing together on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday, the unlikely quartet not only felt the Obama administration is making a mistake going after the Fox News Channel, but also that it is tremendously benefiting the cable network.

Scarborough went so far to say that as a result of this strategy, "America's waking up in the morning, click, they turn on Fox News"

Anonymous said...

Fox News' Glenn Beck strikes ratings gold by challenging Barack Obama (Los Angeles Times)

Before Glenn Beck started his new show on Fox News in January, he sat down with Roger Ailes, the network's chief executive, to make sure they were on the same page.

"I wanted to meet with Roger and tell him, 'You may not want to put me on the air. I believe we are in dire trouble, and I will never shut up,' " said the conservative radio host.

But before Beck could say anything, Ailes shared a message of his own: The country faced tough times, he said, and Fox News was one of the only news outlets willing to challenge the new administration.

"I see this as the Alamo," Ailes said, according to Beck. "If I just had somebody who was willing to sit on the other side of the camera until the last shot is fired, we'd be fine."

That couldn't have suited Beck more. In making the jump to the top-rated cable news channel from HLN, where he had a show for two years, he hoped to alert more people to one of his consuming fears: that the government's handling of the economic crisis is ushering in an era of socialism.

"Look in your rear-view mirror; we just passed France," he said. "I think our country is on the verge of disintegration."

Beck's indignant critiques of the Obama administration and gloomy outlook on the nation's financial health have found near-instant resonance.

His eponymous 2 p.m. PST program averaged nearly 2.2 million viewers last month -- double the number the time slot attracted the previous February and a remarkable amount for the afternoon.

That made "Glenn Beck" the third most-watched program in all of cable news for the month, after Bill O'Reilly's and Sean Hannity's evening shows.

Anonymous said...

Why Is a World Leader Distancing Himself From President Obama? (Fox News)

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is reportedly growing increasingly frustrated with the Obama administration.

A Reuters analysis piece says Sarkozy is shifting his focus from the U.S. to other international allies.

Didier Billion of the Institute of International & Strategic Relations says: “Sarkozy has clearly been thrown off course in his relations with America.”

Another foreign affairs expert, Bruno Tertrais from the Foundation for Strategic Research, adds: "There is an annoyance about what the French see as naivety in the Obama administration."

One major sticking point has been President Obama’s softer stance on Iran, while President Sarkozy prefers a more hawkish approach. Sarkozy said last month:

“I support America’s outstretched hand. But what has the international community gained from these offers of dialogue? Nothing but more enriched uranium and centrifuges."

Anonymous said...

Lying Associated Press tries to blame Bush for Obama’s recession: Don’t buy it. (The Collins Report)

The Democrat controlled media’s lying again. They’re relying on your not being able to get the truth about Obama’s failed administration.

The AP reports the Obama Administration has given us a 26 year record breaking unemployment rate of 9.7%. Counting those who are under employed furloughed and involuntarily working part time, the effective under employed/ unemployed rate is now 16.8 percent the highest rate since such numbers started to be calculated.

Anonymous said...

Detroit house auction flops for urban wasteland (Reuters)(Democrat Controlled for 50 Years)

DETROIT (Reuters) - In a crowded ballroom next to a bankrupt casino, what remains of the Detroit property market was being picked over by speculators and mostly discarded.

Taken together, the properties seized by tax collectors for arrears and put up for sale last week represented an area the size of New York's Central Park.

Total vacant land in Detroit now occupies an area almost the size of Boston, according to a Detroit Free Press estimate.


Detroit sounds like a great place for a new “Museum of Liberalism” - plenty of exhibits

Anonymous said...

Michigan Governor: Republicans Are Bowing at the Altar of “Teabaggers” (GatewayPundit)

Michigan’s Governor Jennifer Granholm is the latest democrat to mainstream obscenity.

Granholm defended her tax increase proposals by smearing the conservative “teabaggers” who oppose her.

The Blog Prof reported this from Detroit News: Granholm says Bishop and his Republican colleagues, who oppose any government revenue increase because they view it as a tax hike, are “bowing at the altar of the teabaggers.”

Michigan unemployment remains the highest in the country at 15.3 percent.

Anonymous said...

George Will Accuses Media of Manufacturing Return of Public Option

George Will on Sunday accused the media of manufacturing the return of government mandated healthcare to the current reform debate.

Discussing the subject on the recent installment of ABC's "This Week," Will said it was highly unlikely Democrats actually have the votes for what they call a "public option," but the media are assisting them in "cleverly and skillfully manufacturing a sense of inevitability that they hope will be self-fulfilling."

In effect, although it is quite doubtful the votes are currently there for any form of government run healthcare, the press are doing their darnedest to change that

Anonymous said...

Warner on Obama: Bare-fisted Politician at Home- Pantywaist Abroad (GatewayPundit)

Gerald Warner releases with another bruising and honest analysis of the Obama presidency today.

Via The Telegraph Blog: Steyn points out what should be obvious, but hasn’t been articulated or emphasized often enough, which is, Obama’s enemies are all American citizens (FOX News, Rush Limbaugh, Oil Industry, Insurance Industry, Tea Party participants, doctors, drug companies, Wall Street, bankers, etc.).

He has no problem with, and his door is always open to, the true foreign enemies of America and freedom, like Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il, Chavez, and Castro (also: they are publicly both fond of him and his policies).

It’s sadly ironic that Obama’s enemies are all Americans and he’s more willing to love-up to brutal dictators than he is to sit down with Republicans to discuss health care.

Anonymous said...

Dan Rather Hailed for 'Courage' at University of Texas; Rather Bashes Fox 'Propaganda' (newsbusters.org)

Disgraced CBS anchorman Dan Rather continues to make the rounds, trying to rehabilitate his image and paint himself as a man wronged by an overcorporatized, politically neutralized media structure.

That's no longer surprising. But why would schools of journalism gloss right over his embrace of fabricated National Guard records in 2004? Viviana Aldous at The Daily Texan reported on Rather's Thursday appearance at the University of Texas in Austin:

“Journalism continues to weather its profound changes as it transits into its digital future,” said Tracy Dahlby, director of the School of Journalism.

“Rather has spent six decades getting the job done, telling people things they need to know about their world they otherwise wouldn’t. He’s done it with courage, style, wit and occasionally the controversy that [often] comes [with being a] journalist.”

Is Tracy Dahlby really expressing an opinion, or just taking politeness to an embarrassing extreme?

But at least Dahlby didn't call Rather the "world's best journalist," as odd as that sounds:

Anonymous said...

Hume’s challenge to media: Do you really want the Gibbs Seal of Approval?

We already know where Jake Tapper stands on this point, but the real question is why more journalists in the White House aren’t making their position clear.

Brit Hume wondered whether American journalists from other news organizations really will become the lackeys of the Obama administration by ignoring news stories originating at Fox, just because Robert Gibbs disapproves of Fox.

Toby Harnden of the London Telegraph channels Pastor Niemoller in his blog today:

"Those journalists sitting this one out need to ask themselves what they will do when the White House comes after them or their news organisation."

Anonymous said...

Mission Accomplished PATTERICO

William A. Jacobson at Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion is relieved Frank Rich hasn’t forgotten Bush Derangement Syndrome:

“I’ve been waiting patiently, armed with foresight that one of these days Bush Derangement Syndrome would work its way into the Balloon Boy hoax story.

And I’ve waited. And waited. It has been almost a week. My faith tested but not broken.

Then the satisfaction of seeing my faith rewarded by none other than Frank Rich, doyen of the BDS community, guardian of the BDS crystal ball, all-knowing user of Bush as a metaphor for everything.”

Frank Rich’s quote is at the link.

Anonymous said...

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll: -12

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 29% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President.

Anonymous said...

ABC (Newspaper) Circ Numbers (NYT -7%, LAT -11% - (Editor & Publisher)
[Oh Melanie! It’s just that darn old Economy...Huh?]

The latest FAS-FAX for the six months ending Sept. 30 is here in a matter of moments and some numbers are already trickling out.

We already know about the massive 17% drop at USA Today and now there's this:

Compared to the same six-month period ending September 2008, daily (Monday-Friday) circulation at The New York Times is down 7.2% to 927,851. Sunday fell 2.6% to 1,400,302.

Los Angeles Times reported daily is off 11% to 657,467 and 6.7% on Sunday to 983,702.

The San Francisco Chronicle lost more than a quarter of its daily circ, down 25.8% to 251,782. Sunday was off more than 22% to 306,705.

The Washington Post lost 39,000 copies daily, to 582,844. Daily circ at the Chicago Tribune decreased 9.7% to 465,892. Sunday was down 7.1% to 803,220.

Daily circulation at its cross town rival the Chicago Sun-Times dropped 12% to 275,641. Sunday at that paper fell 1.8% to 251,260.

In a statement released this morning, the Sun-Times noted a price increase to 75 cents from 50 cents. Single-copy sales are down while daily home-delivered papers grew 5.5%.

Daily at the Newark Star-Ledger dropped 22.2% to 246,006 and 30.5% on Sunday to 316,281.

The Boston Globe's daily circ decreased 18.4% to 264,105. Sunday lost 16.9% to 418,529.

The Miami Herald reported a daily circ decline of 23% to 162,260. Sunday fell 14.6% to 238,613.

The Plain Dealer in Cleveland's daily circ was down 11.2% to 271,180 while Sunday was down 4.9% to 411,058.

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of the movie Independence Day when the captured alien was asked,

"What do you want us to do?" and the alien responded with one word:

"Die."

Anonymous said...

Top 25 Daily Newspapers in New FAS-FAX By E&P Staff

NEW YORK Here are the top 25 newspapers in the country ranked by daily (Monday-Friday) circulation for the six months ending September 2009 from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The percent change compares the same six-month period ending September 2008.

WALL STREET JOURNAL — 2,024,269 — 0.61%

USA TODAY — 1,900,116 — (-17.15%)

NEW YORK TIMES — 927,851 — (-7.28%)

LOS ANGELES TIMES — 657,467 — (-11.05%)

WASHINGTON POST — 582,844 — (-6.40%)

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS — 544,167 — (-13.98%)

NEW YORK POST — 508,042 — (-18.77%)

CHICAGO TRIBUNE — 465,892 — (-9.72%)

HOUSTON CHRONICLE — 384,419 — (-14.24%)

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER — 361,480 — N/A

NEWSDAY — 357,124 — (-5.40%)

DENVER POST — 340,949 — N/A

ARIZONA REPUBLIC — 316,874 — (-12.30%)

MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE — 304,543 — (-5.53%)

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES — 275,641 — (-11.98%)

CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER — 271,180 — (-11.24%)

DETROIT FREE PRESS (e) — 269,729 — (-9.56%)

BOSTON GLOBE — 264,105 — (-18.48%)

DALLAS MORNING NEWS — 263,810 — (-22.16%)

SEATTLE TIMES — 263,588 — N/A

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE — 251,782 — (-25.82%)

OREGONIAN — 249,163 — (-12.06%)

NEWARK STAR-LEDGER — 246,006 — (-22.22%)

SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE — 242,705 — (-10.05%)

ST. PETERSBURG TIMES — 240,147 — (-10.70%)

Anonymous said...

NEWSDAY — 357,124 — (-5.40%)

And NewsDay will now charge people to view their drivel online. This begs the question, “Charge who?”

Anonymous said...

First FAS-FAX Reports: 'NYT' Falls Below 1 Million Daily, (Editor and Punblisher)

NEW YORK The New York Times, in the new FAS-FAX report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, fell below one million daily circulation for the first time in decades.

The paper lost about 72,000 copies, down to 927,861, for the six months ending Sept. 30, compared to the previous year's period. The Sunday drop was about 38,000, to 1,400.307.

Anonymous said...

NYT Co. close to selling Worcester Telegram & Gazette? (Poynter online)

Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Negotiations over a bid for the Telegram & Gazette submitted by a group of Worcester businessmen could be resolved within two weeks "if we are lucky enough to pull this off," says the group's leader, Polar Beverages Corp. Ralph D. Crowley Jr..

Anonymous said...

McGraw-Hill third-quarter profit fell 14% NEW YORK (MarketWatch)

McGraw-Hill said Monday its third-quarter earnings fell to $336 million, or $1.07 a share, from $390 million, or $1.23 a share, in they year-ago period. Last year's earnings included a 5-cents-a-share after-tax charge for restructuring.

Anonymous said...

The San Francisco Chronicle lost more than a quarter of its daily circ, down 25.8% to 251,782. Sunday was off more than 22% to 306,705.

The Chron moves into Pennysaver territory. This is not sustainable.

Who is going to want to buy ad pages that only reach 250,000 people?

As “Dandy” Don Meredith used to sing: Turn out the liiiiights. The party’s oooover.

Good riddance.

Anonymous said...

SO, HOW’S THIS STRATEGY WORKING OUT FOR ALL YOU LIBERAL NEWSPAPERS?

White House stance boosts Fox News
Arguing it is not a news network gave the organization 'tremendous fodder' (Chicago Tribune)

NEW YORK - -- It's been a long time since Fox News, which avidly cultivates its outsider status, got to play the underdog. But after White House aides recently labeled the top-rated cable news channel "a wing of the Republican Party" and argued that it is not a news network, Fox News found itself in a spot it relishes: firing back at a more powerful adversary.

The salvos by administration officials have rallied liberals who complain that the channel has a conservative agenda. The activist group MoveOn instantly jumped in the fray, urging Democrats to stay off Fox News programs.

But the White House's stance also gave extra lift to the network at a time when it is on track to record its best ratings year ever.

Anonymous said...

GO MELANIE GO!

Sac Bee's news boss Melanie Sill admits blatant bias in editorial today:

"There's no dispute that The Bee has a liberal editorial page on most issues, though not all matters, and has mostly endorsed Democrats. We won't change our editorial philosophy to placate critics."

Anonymous said...

BusinessWeek’s Fire Sale Nets McGraw Hill $5.9 Million, or $15,000 Per Staffer (MediaMemo)

Anonymous said...

S.F. to ease up on unlicensed drivers
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | October 26, 2009 | Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross

Posted on Monday, October 26, 2009 8:19:38 AM by artichokegrower

Call it sanctuary on wheels: San Francisco is about to give a big break to people, many of them illegal immigrants, who are caught driving without a license.

Beginning Sunday, cops will no longer impound cars the first time drivers are pulled over without a license.

The reason: Many such drivers are in the United States illegally - and thus unable to get a license - and the officials pushing the change think that impounding their cars is an unfair hardship.

Anonymous said...

Looks like more bad news for McClatchy. They may even have to make more cuts. For example, the Graphics Department may cut the number of full-time Photo Editors devoted to preparing photos of Barack Obama from 7 down to 4.