Media Notebook (January 18, 2007)

Collected and Edited by Rick Kaempfer


Highlights and links to the big stories in the news this week about the media. This column appears twice a week at http://medianotebook.blogspot.com


Coverage of the National Conference for Media Reform
(Editor's Note: I attended the conference this past weekend in Memphis. I was very impressed with the speakers, the speeches, the seminars, and the organization amassed by Free Press. Over 3000 people from all over the country attended the event. On the other hand, it got to be a bit much for me. I was particularly turned off by some of the political ranting from some of the attendees. I was squirming during each of the "question and answer" sessions. After long monologues, the questions often never came, and the answers from the experts had to be brief to compensate. Nevertheless, I agree with the central message of the conference, and I support their efforts to slow and/or reverse media consolidation. It's a worthy, noble, and necessary cause.)
The report by the Associated Press
The Memphis Commercial Appeal article about the event
VIDEO: Bill Moyers Keynote Speech, Part 1
VIDEO: Bill Moyers Keynote Speech, Part 2
VIDEO: "President Bush" interviewed by Helen Thomas


Mom dies in radio station's water drinking contest
(AP via Chicago Sun Times) A woman who competed in a radio station's contest to see how much water she could drink without going to the bathroom died of water intoxication, the coroner's office said over the weekend. Jennifer Strange, 28, was found dead Friday in her suburban home hours after taking part in the ''Hold Your Wee for a Wii'' contest in which KDND 107.9 (Sacramento) promised a Nintendo Wii video game system for the winner.
Update: Radio station fires the show


Barack Obama announces 2008 candidacy on YouTube


Today Show adds a fourth hour
(USA Today) Peter Johnson writes: "Hosts have not yet been named for Today's new hour, but regulars Natalie Morales and Campbell Brown are expected to have roles, along with ex-Giants running back Tiki Barber, who'll join as men's lifestyle contributor."


Brit's NFL ad gone in a flash
(New York Daily News) Ben Widdicombe writes: "Looks like Britney Spears has crotch-flashed her way out of the Super Bowl. Among the celebrity business being brokered while everyone is in L.A. for the Golden Globes is casting for an all-star NFL Network promo to air during the Feb. 4 football finale. A source familiar with negotiations says Spears' people were turned down flat when they asked about participating. 'She's too much of a train wreck,' says the insider. 'Besides, we already have Paris Hilton.' Ouch! (As of yesterday, Hilton was said to be 'on board' but had not inked the deal.) Spears' infamous underwear-free week out in L.A. disqualified her from a Super Bowl still sensitive about Janet Jackson's 2004 "wardrobe malfunction," says the source."


Scooter Libby trial begins
(Slate) John Dickerson is covering the Libby trial: "Lawyers worked hard to press the jurors, but not too hard—they might, after all, have to appeal to them should they graduate to the jury box. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald may have won himself a friend for life when he asked a middle-aged woman if her children were young. "Oh, aren't you sweet," she said as if he'd served up a winning pickup line. She said her kids were college-age. It was hard to get a real feel for the judge or defense and prosecuting lawyers, because the press had to watch the action from a far remove. We will be let in for the main trial, but we watched jury selection on a flat screen in a windowless room with walls laminated in the fake wood popular in recreation rooms across America in the 1970s."



The Golden Globes
(USA TODAY) Click on this link for the entire list of Golden Globe winners. Among the winners this year: Eddie Murphy, Borat, and Prince.



Stock Price probably means Tribune won't sell
(Bloomberg) Leon Lazaroff writes: "Tribune Co.'s share price, down 7.2 percent over the past three months, suggests the company won't be sold, an analyst said. 'Investors appear to anticipate that no sale will transpire,' Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Lauren Rich Fine said in a research note to clients on Friday. `Even if there is a sale, a big premium is unlikely.' Shares of Chicago-based Tribune, the second-largest U.S. newspaper publisher, are little changed since the board said on Sept. 21 that it would consider a sale of the company. The original end-of-year deadline for a decision was extended to the end of the first quarter, indicating tepid interest from any single buyer."
Wall Street Journal update: Tribune receives three lukewarm offers


Newsweek gets the OJ Simpson book and reports what it says
(Newsweek) Mark Miller writes: "To be sure, Simpson never explicitly admits to slicing his ex-wife's neck so savagely that he almost decapitated her. (According to the source, he told the ghostwriter that he could not have his children read such gruesome details of the slashing.) Simpson's Florida attorney, Yale Galanter, said again last week that the account is "purely hypothetical": 'In the final manuscript and in the book there is a clear, concise statement disclaiming anything that is contained in the chapter as being fact or close to fact.' NEWSWEEK did not obtain the book's six other chapters."



FCC Chairman says satellite radio merger is prohibited
(Radio Online) Rumors have run rampant suggesting a possible merger between the two satellite radio companies. But FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, speaking to reporters after the Commission's open meeting today, said that a merger is outright prohibited by the agency's rules. Martin made it clear that FCC regulations clearly state that two satellite radio operators remain in place and that there is "a prohibition on one entity owning both of those licenses."


Rosie/Trump Debate
(NBC) The argument was perfectly mocked by Saturday Night Live...particulary Trump's recent behavior.
SNL VIDEO: Rosie vs. Trump


Jim Cramer: Apple gets it, Big Media does not
(Thestreet.com) According to Jim Cramer: "Thank heavens I have teens! Without them on this Web stuff, you don't have a clue. You believe that when the newspapers get together for Web initiatives -- as Gannett, McClatchy, and Tribune are, according to The Wall Street Journal -- it will save them, even though my kids wouldn't know a newspaper from a black-and-white television. Now, suddenly, the iPod is going to be the iPhone. One cool device instead of one OK utility and one cool device. They won't be able to resist it. And I'll pay for it. 'OK,' you say, 'People can't afford it.' I say, 'You go tell your kid that when everyone else has one.' Apple gets it. That's not in the numbers. It can't be. The guys who make the numbers are usually too young to have kids. I am old. I have the edge."
VIDEO: Conan O'Brien's take on the iPhone (very funny)
Boston.com: Cramer's show "Mad Money" develops cult following on college campuses



Clear Channel Recruits Minority & Female Station Buyers
(Radio Online) Has Clear Channel seen the light? Consider me skeptical, despite this report via Radio Online: "About 120 attended meetings this past week hosted by Clear Channel, the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council and NAB in Washington at NAB's headquarters. The purpose was to educate potential minority and women buyers with tips on how to 'best position themselves to purchase Clear Channel' radio assets."



The Bloggers Vs. The Right Wing Hosts battle continues in San Francisco
(New York Times) You have to love this sort of measured and reasonable debate. Noam Cohen writes: "Most of the callers were sympathetic during Friday’s broadcast, but one blogger who has supported Spocko’s cause, Mike Stark, was encouraged to call in. The extended dialogue perhaps can best be summarized by one exchange.

Mr. Stark: “You’ve spoken of the number of apologies you have tried to make. How many apologies does a professional get before they realize they are an incompetent and move on to another line of work?”

KSFO’s Lee Rodgers: “Well I haven’t apologized for anything and I am not going to start with you. How the hell do you like that, creep?”

A rare moment of levity in the White House Press Room
(Crooks & Liars) It was just a normal press conference until ABC correspondent Martha Raddatz's cellphone began to ring.
VIDEO: Tony Snow to Martha Raddatz: "Play that funky music, white girl."


NAB Urges FCC To Maintain “Vibrancy Of America’s Radio Stations”
(Radio Ink) “The Commission,” the NAB writes, “must have fair and rational rules so that local broadcasters can continue to provide many vital, free services that all Americans have come to expect. “Because technological and competitive developments have dramatically and irrevocably altered the media landscape,” NAB continues, “the local ownership regulations are simply not necessary to promote the Commission’s goal of competition, diversity and localism. Competition has fragmented audiences and eroded the ad revenue that is critical to free, over-the-air broadcasting. “Because current ownership limits inhibit broadcasters’ ability to respond to changing market forces by creating more effective ownership structures, many stations (especially those in smaller markets) are today facing grave economic conditions.”

(Editor's note: Regarding the ridiculous story above...According to the NAB, ownership LIMITS are CAUSING financial problems? Wow. Look in the mirror, fellas. Ad revenues are dropping because you destroyed traditional media by having too LITTLE competition, leading to an oversaturation of ads--which leads to fewer viewers/listeners and unhappy advertisers, lost in a sea of advertising. The consolidation also leads to excessive corporate cost cutting, which leads to increasingly generic programming, which attracts fewer listeners/viewers, and creates unhappy advertisers unable to reach the people they want to reach. That's the bottom line causing your decreased bottom line. An entire generation of Americans have grown up without realizing what traditional media can be, and that's your own fault. Actual broadcasters--I said broadcasters, not businessmen who buy broadcasting outlets--are universally opposed to this increased media consolidation. The National Association of Broadcasters should be ashamed of themselves. I wish someone would write a satire about this hypocricy...oh wait...what's that below?)





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