The Special Committee to protect the journalistic integrity of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal issued a statement April 29 in a desperate attempt to remove some of the egg from its face.
The toothless-tiger committee was sandbagged by Murdoch who graciously accepted the resignation of managing editor Marcus Brauchli after Rupe told Marcus that his future lies in determining a game plan for News Corp.’s Star TV operation. Asia is about as far as you can get from the WSJ’s newsroom.
The Committee’s statement says it learned of Brauchli’s “amicable” resignation after the fact, which “failed to meet the letter and the spirit of the agreement” that gave it power to protect the integrity of the paper. As Christopher Bancroft, an opponent of Dow Jones sale to Murdoch, says that agreement is nothing more than “window dressing.” Rupert gets what Rupert wants.
Committee members, according to the statement, met and decided there was no practical way to “unresign” Brauchli and start the process over. In other words, they threw in the towel. The panel, which is chaired by former Detroit News editorial page editor Tom Bray, vows to “exercise fully its role in the approval of a successor managing editor and to take the steps necessary to prevent a repeat of the process it has just been through.”
The truth of the matter: Murdoch already outmaneuvered the Committee in December when he named his friend Robert Thomson, ex-Times of London editor, WSJ publisher. Thomson is de facto editor. The Committee, whose members receive $100K a year, plans to meet with Thomson in the “near future.” It has a little more face to be saved.
The Federal Communications Commission stands as the next mountain for Murdoch to conquer. Following Murdoch's clinching of Newsday, the Commission could decide not to renew News Corp.’s TV licenses for WNYW and WWOR due to cross-ownership concerns.
The polar bear is the iconic image of global warming. Environmental groups such as Greenpeace have skillfully reinforced that point with heart-tugging visuals of bears leaping from one shrinking ice floe to another in desperate attempts to stay alive. Elementary and high school students throughout the U.S. have adopted the polar bear as the “poster animal” of warming. The U.S. Geological Society has validated the threat to the bears, reporting that two-thirds of them will vanish by 2050 if predictions of future melting sea ice hold up.
Yet it took a lawsuit filed by Greenpeace, Natural Resources Defense Council and Center for Biological Diversity to get today’s decision that Interior must rule by May 15 whether the bears should be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The Interior Dept. has missed various deadlines and wanted another delay until June 30 to gather more information about the bears' plight.
This blogger believes that like everything else in the Bush Administration, energy development explained Interior’s foot-dragging. Interior is home to the Minerals Management Services, which has been selling off Alaskan oil and gas leases to energy companies. Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips were among giants that bid $3.4B for Alaskan oil leases in February. That bidding including a habitat for one of two of Alaska’s polar bear populations, and is undeveloped land not seen in any area of the U.S., according to Shell executive Annell Bay. Conservation groups -- to no avail -- protested that bidding, saying Interior had not made its decision on the fate of the bears. That now looms.
If Interior rules the bears are threatened, they will be the first species designated as a potential victim of global warming. That decision would be pretty embarrassing to the global warming deniers that dominate the Administration. It also will signal that -- in the waning days of the Bush Administration -- things are changing for the better in D.C.
Travel Portland, the non-profit that markets Oregon’s capital region to business and leisure travelers, has created what must be one of the first green jobs in travel PR.
In announcing the creation of the “public relations manager, sustainability,” position on Friday, TP said it has promoted media relations staffer Veronique Meuneier to tout the area’s “green” highlights.
It will be interesting to see if more posts like this are set up in PR, especially as “green marketing” is beginning to be met with some skepticism by reporters.
USA Today last week covered the green “branding onslaught” and offered a bit of advice from Middleberg Communications’ Thomas Basile, who heads the firm’s sustainability group:
“You have to be able to stand up to the scrutiny of consumers, media, bloggers and environmental advocates.”
Walking the walk is about more than PR, but building trust is a huge part of it. As a Cone/Boston College poll recently found, only 47% of consumers trust companies to tell them the truth in environmental marketing. [We also covered a Bite PR study on the risks of green PR back in February.] Having a staffer in place who specializes in green issues, can avoid dreaded accusations of "greenwashing."
Jeff Miller, Travel Portland’s president/CEO, said he was keeping up with a growing number of travelers’ requests for “green experiences” in creating the sustainability PR post. But he also noted that the staffer that fills the role is steeped in both PR and environmental practices.
Meunier, who last year planned a “green media research tour” and is part of a team that encourages businesses to adopt sustainable practices, takes up the post on May 5.
Barack Obama’s “honeymoon” is now officially over as the Associated Press-Ipsos poll released today shows Hillary Clinton is in best position to beat John McCain. Clinton slugs the Arizona Senator by a 50 to 41 percent margin. Obama is tied with McCain with 44 percent support.
The New York Times reports today that Obama is “retooling” his campaign to appeal to blue-collar voters who have been turned off by his elitist pitch. The Illinois Senator reinforced the perception that he is the candidate of the Chardonnay crowd when he told Fox News’ Chris Wallace that working class voters are “less familiar with him than they are with her, and so we probably have to work harder.” Where have you been, Barack? Your line is more than a bit condescending. Maybe you should have kept your Wallace boycott in place.
Harrison Hickman, a Democratic pollster, told the AP that voters are moving from the “infatuation stage” in choosing a candidate to the “decision-making stage” where they determine who would be the best President. That’s good news for the experience-heavy Clinton, who only because of her boneheaded strategists faces a tough fight to snatch the Democratic nod from Barry.
Obama is reportedly “bored” with the campaign against Clinton. He wants to take on Big John in the November election. One can be sure that McCain is thinking along those same lines.
McCain, who once professed a desire to run a “clean campaign” based on issues, has now chucked that line out the window.
Sensing his own mortality, the 71-year-old candidate is doing whatever it takes to win, bashing Barack for ties to Rev. Wright, and depicting Obama as the candidate preferred by Hamas. It's a safe bet the Republicans will be calling Obama and Osama former roomies by the time November rolls near.
What can Obama do? Should he challenge McCain to a little one-on-one on the basketball court?
As the Bush Administration winds down, Freedom House—for the first time—will analyze the state of freedom in the U.S. The Washington-based group, founded in 1941 by Eleanor Roosevelt, Wendell Willke and other influentials, is treasured for its annual surveys of freedom throughout the world.
There is little debate about how the Bush Administration’s “war on global terror” has curtailed freedom in the world’s sole military superpower. Bush largely rolled over a supine Congress with warrantless wiretraps, extraordinary renditions and mistreatment of prisoners. Those activities have corroded the image of the U.S. as the world’s standard-bearer for liberty and justice. Restoration of that reputation is a priority of the next Administration of either McCain, Obama or Clinton.
Freedom House will release its study on May 5. “Today’s American: How Free?” will examine “whether America is sacrificing its essential values in the war against terror and scrutinize the state of freedom and justice in post 9/11 America,” according to the group’s promotional material.
The study will probe how current Government curbs on freedom compare to other crises and conflicts in America’s history. It promises to look at challenges that pre-date 9/11 such as racial inequality, lack of political competition and handling of immigration.
This blogger can’t wait for Freedom House’s report. He prays Freedom House's report gets an extensive and fair hearing in the press. The fear is that a large section of the media, the chunk that has given the Bush White House a free ride in its assault on liberties, will dismiss the report as a political hatchet job.
The only question this blogger has for Freedom House: “What took you so long?"
President Bush today nominated General David Petraeus, head of U.S. forces in Iraq, to head the U.S. Central Command, succeeding Admiral William Fallon who resigned last month. Guess, Brownie wasn’t available.
Petraeus, if confirmed by the Senate, will be responsible for both Iraq and Afghanistan. His elevation signals the Administration is sticking to its “stay the course” strategy, while it is obvious to millions of Americans that Iraq is a losing situation.
Iraq has diverted “manpower, materiel and the attention of decision-makers” from “all other efforts in the war on terror.”
Joseph Collins, the ex-Pentagon official who wrote the report, says the “surge” strategy devised by Petreaus largely prevented the break-out of an all-out civil war. Though the surge of 30,000 U.S. troops has improved security, the additional forces are not enough to ensure that Iraq become a stable democracy.
Collins puts the blame for the Iraq mess on the shoulders on President Bush who told former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to begin “planning in secret for potential military operations in Iraq” before the war in Afghanistan was over.
The report faults Rumsfeld for never having a “Plan B”, which covered handling the insurgency, after “Plan A,” the fight against Saddam Hussein’s military was over.”
The U.S. media to its discredit largely ignored the Pentagon report. The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal failed to mention the report, which says the situation in Iraq looks like a “can’t win” situation. Commendably, McClatchy Newspapers ran a nice feature on the Pentagon’s report.
The rest of the U.S. media have apparently grown weary of the Iraq quagmire. They have moved on to covering the sinking economy and the Clinton/Obama death march.
Aggressive media coverage of the Vietnam war helped pave the way out of that quagmire. It’s a shame the current media are giving the Administration a “pass” on Iraq.
Katie Couric just can’t catch a break. The North Carolina Democratic Party, in canceling the April 27 Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama debate, has served the latest April affront to CBS News' beleaguered anchor. She was to moderate that political square-off with “Face the Nation’s" Bob Schieffer.
[You remember the grief suffered by Iron Mike Dukakis when he was framed by Republicans as a card-carrying member of the ACLU. Imagine the fun that John McCain and his crew will have with Barack buddying around with Bill Ayers, a former WU member.]
The Democrats feared that Katie would wander into such trivial subject matters as Barack’s bowling scores or Hillary’s bourbon preferences. They worried that Couric might stage a heart-to-heart with Barack about his "bitterness" or counsel Hillary about her absent-mindedness when it comes to dodging bullets in Bosnia. The Democrats just didn't want to risk those chances.
Katie took hits earlier this month when the Wall Street Journal “broke” the non-story that she will not be around much longer at CBS. The April 10 WSJ reported about a February meeting of CBS honchos that discussed Couric’s future. The Journal reported there was “idle talk and musings” that Katie will leave after the election. The rest of the media took up the story about that idle talk and musings, and Katie is now toast.
The TV industry bible, Broadcasting and Cable delivered the final blow, slapping an unattractive close-up of Katie on the April 14 cover with the headline, “A $75M Mistake?”
B&C did hit the nail on the head. It’s not Katie’s fault that Nielsen Media Research says 24M people now watch the nightly news on the three networks, down from found 30M in 1998. Today’s news audience is not exactly the most appealing demographic for advertisers, other than pharmaceutical companies hawking the latest "wonder drug" for creaking bones or high cholesterol.
Katie could appear on the show in the buff, and ratings would hardly budge. It’s not her fault that the early evening time slot is yesterday’s news. Rather than twist in the wind until early ’09, Couric should hold her head high and tell CBS management, "I'm outta here."
The New York Times deserves high praise for its April 20 front page blockbuster that exposed Don Rumsfeld’s role as the evil PR genius who manipulated the media to promote the bogus line that progress was being made in Iraq. In Rumsfeld’s world, perception tops reality every day of the week.
Ethics aside, the Pentagon’s campaign to use retired military commanders — who became talking heads on network and cable TV — to spread its false message of hope/progress is slated for the PR Hall of Fame (PR Hall of Shame?).
A bronze bust of Rummy will be placed next to that of Nayirah, the PR heroine of Persian Gulf War I. [Nayirah claimed to see Kuwaiti babies tossed from incubators by Iraqi soldiers and placed on the cold floor and left to die.]
The NYT got the big scoop because it sued the Pentagon for access to 8,000 pages of email messages and transcripts describing years of private briefings for “military analysts,” trips to Iraq/Guantanamo and Pentagon talking points.
Those documents creepily referred to the military analysts as “message force multipliers” or more directly as “surrogates” to deliver the Bush Administration’s line that everything was peachy in the global war on terrorism.
The TV toadies who faithfully mouthed the lines of the Pentagon were fawned upon the Team Rumsfeld. Some like retired Air Force General and Fox News analyst Thomas McInerney applauded the Pentagon for providing him with a script to deliver to viewers. “Good work,” he emailed DOD after receiving talking points. “We will use it.” Life is sweet indeed for the grateful McInerney and his gang who get up to $1,000 per-appearance to play Pentagon puppet.
The DOD recruited 75 former military officers. Each was approved by Rumsfeld. As major combat operations wound down in April 2003, Rumsfeld wrote an email to Torie Clark (a alumnus of Hill & Knowlton, the firm that repped Citizens for a Free Kuwait front group) to say: “Let’s think about having some of the folks who did such a good job, as talking heads after this thing is over.” Rumsfeld personally met with his analysts 18 times.
Fox News — surprise, surprise — had the most number of retired military men on the air mouthing the Administration’s line. Fox — no surprise, no surprise — refused to talk to the Times.
NYT correspondent David Barstow wrote that the ex-military men were chosen by the Pentagon because through they were not members of the news media, they were in the media and unlikely to turn on the Pentagon. Many lobby the DOD as their prime source of income, which opens another can of worms.
Rumsfeld used the analyst/media manipulation program to divert attention from the fact that his plan to invade Iraq (on the cheap) was the recipe for the disaster that still bedevils the U.S.
The ousted Defense Secretary apparently couldn’t handle that reality so he backed a psychological warfare scheme to deceive the American people. This country is still paying a very steep price for that deception in blood, treasure and reputation.
Barack Obama was off his game during last night’s debate with Hillary Clinton. The Illinois Senator took a beating from Clinton as she hammered him for ties with Rev. Wright and the Weather Underground. Barack looked a little distracted as he was whacked as an America-hating terrorist. Talk about the "kitchen sink."
Obama deserves a pass. He probably was dreaming about his Inauguration Day, capped by a performance by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. That’s right. Springsteen, who did his best for John Kerry, has officially endorsed Obama. Hillary has Elton John in her corner, but Obama has “The Boss.” That is no contest.
“He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. He speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that's interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where “...nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone.”
Loss of the Boss’ nod is a tough blow to Clinton, who is trying to lock up the blue-collar vote. Those are the people Springsteen writes about. She has been using Springsteen’s “The Rising” at campaign events. That song had been used by John Edwards to firm up his populist pitch. Team Clinton snatched that song after Edwards dropped out of the race. It will be a little awkward for Clinton to continue to use the music of the man who is backing her opponent.
One hopes she doesn’t follow the lead of Ronald Reagan, who infamously used Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” for his campaign. Remember how Bill Clinton scorched Barack when he had good words for Reagan.
More from Springsteen’s endorsement:
“After the terrible damage done over the past eight years, a great American reclamation project needs to be undertaken. I believe that Senator Obama is the best candidate to lead that project and to lead us into the 21st Century with a renewed sense of moral purpose and of ourselves as Americans. Over here on E Street, we're proud to support Obama for President.”
Tough luck, Hillary. Team Clinton should scour Elton’s songbook to come up with some rockin’ music that fits her campaign.
“I’m Still Standing” is an obvious choice. Mark Penn and the gang should think twice before selecting “The Bitch is Back.”
Sure, we all hear how badly newspapers are getting whipped online. But what about broadcast TV? It’s safe to assume that TV news is making a smoother transition to the digital age and at least cashing in a little better than their print counterparts, right? After all, the web is a visual medium made for video content to shine.
Well, a recent study by Borrell Associates says Internet-only companies sewed up nearly 50 percent of online ad revenue last year, a dominating position that is of little surprise. Newspapers, for all the grief the industry is given, raked in just under 27 percent of net ad dollars, a respectable percentage clearly with room to grow. But the surprise (to me, at least) was that broadcast TV didn’t even break 10 percent of the online ad market.
So what would the revered figure of broadcast journalism Edward R. Murrow do amid the digital revolution? He would be blogging, outfitting reporters with digital-video cameras and teaching them to write insightful blog posts, according to Steve Safran, senior VP of Audience Research & Development, a “local media” consultancy, and managing editor of the LostRemote blog.
Safran was on hand at the NAB conference in Las Vegas earlier this week and asked the Murrow question several times during an RTNDA panel before offering his take. [Broadcast & Cable caught up with Safran for a video interview.]
Safran thinks TV stations have to move their core news gathering operations to focus on the Internet and post continuous updates. The evening news casts would become ostensible highlight reels of content. A former broadcast journalist, Safran pointed to sites like TMZ.com and TheStreet.com as solid revenue models for local TV stations to mimic. He told B&C:
TMZ uses blog software but it’s not a blog. Information gets put on the site as it comes in – it maybe just a sentence – it’s information about what the station is covering. This is how people get their info online and what they’re used to seeing from their news sources. When you think about being in a newsroom, it’s how we consumer the AP wires. If it’s good enough for us, why isn’t it good enough for the audience?
Safran sees a need for local newsrooms to adapt to this “continuous news” model, especially considering that it gives an audience reason to keep coming back, expanding page views, and eventually revenue.
Airing shows on the local news and then posting summaries or video online hasn’t been cutting it for local stations. They need to embrace the digital tools unfolding around them or audiences will go around them.
Brian Solis posted yesterday about LiveNewsCameras.com, an online portal that allows users to watch raw, unedited video from more than 150 aggregated news feeds around the world, including networks like NBC and CBS. Local feeds can go global in an instant. As Solis noted:
What this really means, is that as in any form of social media, LiveNewsCameras can take a local voice or view and create an international audience for any story.
Raw feeds of the papal visit and the presidential candidates have been particularly appealing of late on the site. "Raw video" meaning news content without editors, commentators, chrion quips and the other contributions associated with a typical TV news cast.
The toothless-tiger committee was 
The polar bear is 
In 
The New York Times reports today that Obama is 
There is little debate about how the Bush Administration’s “war on global terror” has curtailed freedom in the world’s sole military superpower. Bush largely rolled over a supine Congress with warrantless wiretraps, extraordinary renditions and mistreatment of prisoners. Those activities have corroded the image of the U.S. as the world’s standard-bearer for liberty and justice. Restoration of that reputation is a priority of the next Administration of either McCain, Obama or Clinton.
Petraeus, if confirmed by the Senate, will be responsible for both Iraq and Afghanistan. His elevation signals the Administration is sticking to its “stay the course” strategy, while it is obvious to millions of Americans that Iraq is a losing situation.
The North Carolina Democrats blame scheduling problems for axing the Big Show. They also expressed concern about 
Ethics aside, the Pentagon’s campaign to use retired military commanders — who became talking heads on network and cable TV — to spread its false message of hope/progress is slated for the PR Hall of Fame (PR Hall of Shame?). 
Obama deserves a pass. He probably was dreaming about his Inauguration Day, capped by a performance by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. That’s right. Springsteen, who did his best for John Kerry, 
Well, a recent study by 
