Media Business
Another Day, Another Snapshot of Media Pumping Out Gas Price Hype
May 6th, 2008 11:06 AM
Three things in life are certain: death, taxes, and media hype about gasoline prices. On television that third item often takes place not just in your usual standup at a gas station interviewing outraged motorists. In Web-based media, however, the still shot is worth 1,000 barrels.We've noted how CNN.com has done it. Today, it's ABCNews.com with its front-page teaser headline "Oil: Another Day,…
When It Comes to Church Names, ABCNews.com Hasn't a Prayer
May 5th, 2008 10:40 AM
Former President Bill Clinton pinged ABCNews.com's Political Radar on a pulpit-pounding campaign swing through the Tarheel State just two days before the North Carolina primary. But it appears the alphabet network's Web site not only got the name of an Asheville, N.C., church wrong, but it misspelled, three times, the name of a denomination within Protestant Christianity (emphasis mine) in this…
Newsweek’s Fineman: Tune to Fox for Iran War; Bloggers Are Lazy [w/a
May 2nd, 2008 11:04 AM
Want to see how the mainstream media views Fox News? Look no further than Newsweek's Howard Fineman and the way he thinks the Bush administration uses the network. Fineman, who is Newsweek magazine's senior Washington correspondent and a regular on MSNBC, told an audience at the Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C. on May 1 that if you want to know what the Bush administration…
Newspaper Circulations in 3-Year Plunge, with Four Exceptions
May 1st, 2008 10:27 AM
Old Media business reporters have a definitionally-incorrect habit of labeling single industries or economic sectors as being "in recession," when the term, as defined here, can only describe national economies or the world economy. Two examples of this are New York Times reporter David Leonhardt's description of manufacturing as being in recession in February 2007 (laughably incorrect, in any…
LiveBlog: Bush Press Conference on the Economy
April 29th, 2008 10:31 AM
President Bush is holding a press conference on the U.S. economy. I'll be blogging the questions to the president below. Video of Bush/Raddatz clash here (audio available here).Video of Stolberg and Ryan on recession here (audio here)My bottom line analysis (11:25): The two R's of bias from this Rose Garden presser: Martha Raddatz on Syria and numerous reporters on the dreaded R-word, recession.…
Green Is Universal: Corporate Shilling at Its Finest
April 25th, 2008 11:20 AM
As you pretty much have to know by now due to the fact that they won't shut up about it, NBC Universal's "Green Is Universal" campaign is winding down. Begining next week, we'll no longer be hearing the media giant's numerous television properties spreading feel-good environmentalism to viewers and promoting allegedly earth-friendly policies (ethanol, anyone?). I, for one, couldn't be more happy…
ABCNews.com Finds New Economic Plight: Textbooks or Birth Control
April 24th, 2008 10:33 PM
It was just a matter of time I suppose. What with Sen. Barack Obama's popularity with college students and the economy being the number one issue for voters, the media finally have an excuse to put a more youthful spin on the classic food vs. prescription drugs meme. A changing media environment, after all, calls for new angles at the same old bias. Someone had to give it the old college try.…
Fmr CBS Anchor Roger Mudd: Dan Rather In ‘Front Row’ of Journalist
April 24th, 2008 5:07 PM
At the end of Thursday’s CBS "Early Show" co-host Harry Smith interviewed former CBS News anchor Roger Mudd about his new memoir, "The Place to Be: Washington, CBS and The Glory Days of Television News," and teased the upcoming interview by declaring: "And we're also joined this morning by one of the great legends of CBS News, Roger Mudd, who's covered every major story in Washington for decades…
CNN Sued for $1.3 Billion for Cafferty Remarks
April 24th, 2008 3:29 PM
In an international version of the Obama-ABC dustup, two lawsuits have been launched against CNN over remarks made by crusty commentator Jack Cafferty criticizing the Chinese government as well as products made in China. The first suit was filed in Beijing by 14 lawyers who allege that Cafferty "violated the dignity and reputation of the Chinese people," as Reuters puts it. The second was filed…
MSNBC Teams Up With Air America
April 23rd, 2008 12:59 PM
See that green thing over there? It's MSNBC's fig leaf. The network has decided to take it all off and admit what everyone knew was obvious: that it's trying to become the far-left's cable channel of choice.That's really about all you can say after learning the news that the MSNBC show "Race for the White House" will now be simulcast live at 6pm ET on Air America, the low-rated radio network for…
Man-bashing Advertisements Don't Make Business Sense
April 22nd, 2008 6:48 PM
In today's left-dominated media world, political correctness rules the roost, especially when it comes to the so-called "gender wars." Why there must be any in the first place isn't ever answered but suffice it to say, the elite American press is decidedly anti-male.It isn't just the news and entertainment media that caters to man-bashing, either. Advertisers are very much to blame for this as…