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NBC's "Today" show invited on "Newsweek International" editor Fareed Zakaria to promote his book "The Post-American World," on Monday's show and during his segment the author depicted the United States as a nation in decline as he declared the "era" of "'American exceptionalism' is over." As examples of America's declining standing in the world the "Newsweek" editor cited such facts as China now having the "Largest ferris wheel in the world," Minneapolis' "Mall of America" no longer being the largest in the world and Macau having surpassed Las Vegas in the size of their casinos.

President Bush will never live down “Mission Accomplished” — and should not. When the White House’s spinners spun that claim five years ago (remember the aircraft carrier?), it seemed cocky and premature. As Mr. Bush continues his $526 billion war-without-end in Iraq, it seems stunningly deceitful. The only mission that needs to be accomplished is an orderly exit from Iraq, and Mr. Bush is no closer to acknowledging that reality. Neither is Senator John McCain. All Congress seems capable of is hand-wringing. So it is up to Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton to revive the national debate on...

Following yesterday's announcement of a reorganization of the operations and finance areas of ABC News, TVNewser has learned as many as 21 jobs have been eliminated. However, insiders tell us a number of new jobs have already been posted, and that those who were cut are being encouraged to apply for the added positions. In the end, the insider figures around 11 jobs will be lost. In his note yesterday, ABC News president David Westin wrote, "...we will reduce the level of operations management and the number of operations positions overall." ABC News Operations has an opening for a Vice...

CBS reeling from disappointing earning in the last quarter has done some layoffs, at the corporate level, and separate from that, at some local O&O stations. On corporate level, TVNewser reports that CBS News has made cuts in to editorial, technical operations and the bureaus. CBS owns 29 stations, including 16 CBS affiliates ...

Are insurgents in Iraq emboldened by voices in the news media expressing dissent or calling for troop withdrawals from Iraq? The short answer, according to a pair of Harvard economists, is yes.In a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the authors are quick to point out numerous caveats to their findings, based on data from mid-2003 through late 2007. Yet, their results show that insurgent groups are not devoid of reason and unresponsive to outside pressures and stimuli. "It shows that the various insurgent groups do respond to incentives and shows that a successful counter insurgency strategy...

It's just a coincidence that the essay "Does the News Matter to Anyone Anymore?" by the impresario of The Wire, David Simon, appeared in the Washington Post the same day news broke of the top editor of the Los Angeles Times having been forced out over a refusal to make further budget cuts. Virtually every major magazine...has eloquently bemoaned the state of contemporary newspapering. And the departure of James O'Shea from the LA Times marks the fourth time in less than three years that either the top editor or the publisher has "quit" rather than make budget cuts demanded by...

Let me get this straight: In order to save America's newspapers, we should give Big Media more freedom of ownership? Is that right? Did I hear that correctly? Because if so, I want to make sure my passport is stamped. I'd hate to get caught in Bizarro World without the proper papers. Earlier this month, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Kevin J. Martin, said the 32-year-old ban on cross-ownership in the media — whereby a company cannot own more than one media outlet in a market — is passé. He proposed lifting the ban in larger markets to...

"It is now becoming widely known within the US that the terrorist attacks and violence is subsiding in Iraq rapidly, because of the US military buildup of "surge"...

"Army desertion rate up 80 percent since '03 Iraq invasion," blared The Associated Press headline atop an article that began, "Soldiers strained by six years at war are deserting their posts at the highest rate since 1980." Sounds pretty bad until one puts 80 percent in context, which the AP didn't try to do, except to frame it to support its premise: Desertions "declined in 2003 and 2004, in the early years of the Iraq war, but then began to increase steadily," reaching "about nine in every 1,000 soldiers" in the year ending Sept. 30. As journalists are wont to...

Saturday, November 17, 2007 CNN's six "undecided voters" were all Democratic operatives    UPDATES BELOW - CNN hits bottom and digs: All six debate questioners appear to be Democratic Party operatives. So much for "ordinary people, undecided voters". To paraphrase Junior Soprano, CNN is so far up the DNC's hind end, Howard Dean can taste hair gel. In a nutshell, CNN's six "undecided voters" were: A Democratic Party bigwigAn antiwar activistA Union officialAn Islamic leaderA Harry Reid stafferA radical Chicano separatist Wow. This looks "rather" like a scandal. Hot Air: ...You’d think the network’s audience might want to know who...

Dan Rather marks 1st anniversary with HDNet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BY RICHARD HUFF DAILY NEWS TV EDITOR Tuesday, November 13th 2007, 4:00 AM Print Email Suggest a Story Dan Rather was in Cuba Monday, hoping for a gift from above in the form of an interview with Fidel Castro. He'd been told it wasn't going to happen, but he's not giving up. "I have no expectations," said Rather. "Do I have hope? I always have hope. You drive to the heart of the story and give yourself your best chance." It's been that way for the past year, since news legend and...

'In the beginning, there must be a news story' before blogs and punditry can exist, 'NewsHour' anchor says. By Patrick George AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Tuesday, November 06, 2007 Although traditional journalists face declining profits and increased competition from pundits, bloggers, comedians and different types of Internet media, Jim Lehrer said, the screams of panic coming from newsrooms aren't completely merited. "Well, I say, 'Calm down, please,' " the anchor and executive editor of the PBS show "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer" said to a packed auditorium at the University of Texas on Monday evening. "I believe we mostly have fear...

GOP: Giuliani 33, McCain 19, Thompson 16, Romney 11, Huckabee 9 Dems: Clinton 49, Obama 26, Edwards 12

NEW YORK (AP) — Tom Curley, CEO of The Associated Press, called on news executives Thursday to "stop pining" for the past and adapt to the new ways that news is being distributed and consumed. Curley said in a speech that news organizations should quit thinking like gatekeepers of information and reach out to people who are accustomed to receiving news in real time online and customizing the ways they see and read it. "Editors need to stop pining for the old world and intensify the leading to the new one," Curley told a fundraising dinner for the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship,...

In a recent speech at the National Press Club, Katie Couric expressed somber disapproval of the jingoistic excesses after 9/11. Among the things that vexed her: "The whole culture of wearing flags on our lapel and saying 'we' when referring to the United States." From what I can tell, nobody among the journalistic swells bothered to ask, "Who isn't 'we,' Kemo Sabe?" I don't want to revisit those supposedly Orwellian flag pins, which sat so heavily on so many journalistic lapels. But it's worth recalling that during World War II, civilian correspondent Walter Cronkite -- whose anchor job Couric now...

NewsBusters reported Sunday that the media's fascination with record low ice in the Arctic ignored history while relying on satellite data that's only been around since 1979. At the same time, the press have totally boycotted news from the Southern Hemisphere where ice and snow levels are currently at their highest since data have been collected. Pretty convenient wouldn't you agree? Meteorologist Joe D'Aleo wrote at IceCap Tuesday : " While the news focus has been on the lowest ice extent since satellite monitoring began in 1979 for the Arctic, the Southern Hemisphere (Antarctica) has quietly set a new record...

Bloggers have caught a politician saying one thing in a speech, while carrying a very different rendering of a critical passage at a supposed "transcript" of that speech. The difference is significant. The transcript whitewashes a slander on the performance of US troops in Iraq delivered by a United States senator. Specifically, New York's Charles Schumer gave a made a speech on the floor of the Senate last week ascribing the turnaround in the Anbar province in Iraq to the locals, and discrediting the notion that American troops could have had anything to do with it.

The Camera newspaper of Boulder announced Thursday it will lay off 19 production and pressroom employees and move the bulk of its printing operations to Denver. On Oct. 22, the Camera plans to start printing at Denver facilities operated by the Denver Newspaper Agency (DNA), where The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News are printed. The DNA is a joint venture of the owners of the Post and News: MediaNews Group and E.W. Scripps Co. It prints, distributes and sells ads for the two Denver dailies under a "joint operating agreement," an exemption from antitrust laws aimed at saving failing...

With Katie Couric in Iraq, the CBS Evening News on Wednesday allowed viewers to hear directly from U.S. soldiers who regretted how people back home don't hear more about “the good things soldiers do for the Iraqis” and warned that a pullout by the U.S. would lead to “mayhem.” Couric asked a small group of soldiers: “What would you like people to know that you don't think they're hearing back home?”Army Sergeant Jamie Wall answered: “The good things that happen out here, the good things that soldiers do for the Iraqis and how the Iraqis react to us.” Sergeant Brady...

This has been happening so much in the past few years that it is reaching the point of redundancy to report on it. A politician is caught up in a major scandal and/or corruption. The media dutifully reports on it but leaves out one key factor. The political party of the fallen politician. And can you guess which political party is ALWAYS missing from these reports whenever such an affliliation is conveniently purged from the news stories? That is your Blue Book exam question, boys and girls. If you had answered "Democrat" you would have been absolutely correct. Such was the case today...

... Overall, the segment is solid, militarily accurate, and surprisingly thorough considering the time allowed. She interviews Iraqis of various stripes, and among them there seems to be an underlying thread that the anti-war crowd (I’m not saying Katie’s a member) can no longer deny: As one tribal leader, Sheik Saddoun Al Bou’issa, explains, Al Qaeda “says they care about Islam … but they’re lying.” Thirty members of his tribe were killed by terrorists, and his greatest worry is that Al Qaeda will return if the Americans leave. ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The CNN cable television news network said on Thursday it would stop using the Reuters news service, ending a 27-year relationship, to contain costs and invest in its own news gathering operations. The global television news network owned by the world's largest media company, Time Warner Inc (TWX.N: Quote, Profile , Research), said in an internal memo that it wanted to reduce reliance on agency material while achieving better control of its growth. "This is all about us, not Reuters. This is about content ownership," CNN spokesman Nigel Pritchard said. "Everything is changing and content ownership...

In a “Web-exclusive” commentary posted Thursday, Newsweek Senior Editor Michael Hirsh ridiculed President George W. Bush's warning that a precipitous pull-out from Iraq could lead to the humanitarian horrors that followed the American pull-out from Vietnam. Recalling a trip he made to Vietnam in 1991, Hirsh reported that he found a nation looking to the West and capitalism, adding that “today Vietnam remains” only “nominally communist.” He then snidely asserted: “This was the 'harsh' aftermath that George W. Bush attempted to describe this week when he warned against pulling out of Iraq as we did in Vietnam.” James Taranto, in...

The conversation now about revival of the Fairness Doctrine, buried by the Federal Communications Commission 20 years ago, shows no idea ever dies. Even the worst ones. The Fairness Doctrine's original logic was that broadcast media were transmitted over limited public airwaves. Therefore, the federal government had an obligation to ensure that competing views were aired. The FCC reasoned in 1987, when it closed the book on this doctrine, that emergence of cable to compete with broadcast had made media markets competitive enough to preclude government policing. If true 20 years ago, how much more so now. The Pew Research...

At Mountain Retreat, Media CEOs Share Small Talk and Big Ideas About the Digital FutureThe sun always seems to shine in Sun Valley, a pristine mountain resort in Idaho, when the top brass from media and technology companies convene every July for a deep-think retreat hosted by the investment banker Herbert Allen.But it's the darkest of thoughts that are racing through the minds of the media power elite as they go between high-level meetings, golf and family activities: How can they survive the rapid-fire technological changes that are transforming their industries and changing the way people get news and entertainment?Conveniently,...

The Wall Street Journal says the Republicans' prospects for 2008 are looking "dim," with Americans giving the GOP "their most negative assessment in the two-decade history" of the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. Maybe this will help: As the Politico reports, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has come up with a 39-page playbook to teach GOP candidates how to weather the not-so-new new-media world. "Rapid response and explanation of a position or vote to friendly blogs can ensure center-right solidarity behind your defense," the playbook says. "The paradigmatic example of the failure to do is the 'macaca' moment. Conservative blogs,...

MANASSAS, Va., June 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Richard A. Viguerie, co- author of America's Right Turn--How Conservatives Used New and Alternative Media to Take Power (Bonus Books, 2004), celebrated the defeat of the cloture motion in the Senate on the Amnesty Bill and attributed it to conservative New and Alternative Media and grassroots efforts to overcome the pressure from the White House and the Left. Viguerie said conservatives using blogs, e-mail messages, websites, radio talk shows, cable TV, and direct mail were able to bypass the Left's near monopoly of old media. "Ordinary citizens were able to have their voices clearly...

Having Won a Pulitzer for Exposing Data Mining, Times Now Eager to Do Its Own Data Mining by Keach Hagey May 1st, 2007 Barely a year after their reporters won a Pulitzer prize for exposing data mining of ordinary citizens by a government spy agency, New York Times officials had some exciting news for stockholders last week: The Times company plans to do its own data mining of ordinary citizens, in the name of online profits. The news didn't make everyone all googly-eyed. In fact, some people at the paper's annual stockholders meeting in the New Amsterdam Theatre exchanged confused...

LAS VEGAS, May 8 (Reuters) - Leading media executives took a combative tone against Internet companies on Tuesday, suggesting that Big Media increasingly considers new content distributors like Google Inc. to be more foe than friend. At a panel discussion on the second day of the 56th annual National Cable & Telecommunications Association conference, top executives said talk of the demise of traditional media in the digital age was overblown. While new distribution technologies like the Internet and mobile phones are siphoning television audiences, media companies argued that the Web also brings new revenue streams. But the discussion quickly moved...

DUBAI - A Palestinian photographer for Agence France-Presse won an Arab award on Wednesday for a picture of the funeral of a Palestinian child killed during an Israeli incursion in the Gaza Strip. Mahmud Hams, 27, a native of Rafah, bagged the prize for photography of the Arab Journalism Awards handed out by Dubai Press Club at the end of a two-day Arab media forum in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The 15,000-dollar prize “is a boost which will prompt me to work with more enthusiasm,” said Hams, who was shot in both legs while taking pictures in the...

- Renowned newsman encourages press to challenge government - Former CBS Evening News anchor and UT alumnus Walter Cronkite condemned today's news media for not being critical enough of the Bush administration at an appearance in the downtown Driskill Hotel Monday. "The press needs to further report on this administration and its failings. They need to tell the nation the problems that face them. We, as a people, are entitled to that," Cronkite said. Anchor for Austin's CBS channel 42 and moderator of the event Judy Maggio quoted famous news service reporter Helen Thomas as saying the press is responsible...

The vast majority of American voters detect the presence of political bias in the mainstream news media... Sentiment is strong: 83 percent of likely voters think bias is "alive and well." Of that number, 64 percent said the press leans left, while slightly more than a quarter -- 28 percent -- said there was a conservative bias. Naturally, there's a partisan divide, and a pronounced one. Among Republican respondents, 97 percent said the press was liberal. Two-thirds of political independents agreed with them, with less than a quarter of the independents -- 23 percent -- saying there was a conservative...

"Somewhere along the line, many Americans relegated the media to a notch on the morality scale only slightly above that of child molesters." ... On February 23, former president of the Virginia chapter of the ACLU Charles Rust-Tierney was arrested at his home in Arlinton, Va. and charged with receiving and possessing child pornography... Despite the news worthiness of this story, the mainstream press has failed to cover it. Rust-Tierney owned numerous computer discs filled with images of young girls being victimized. The investigation report described prepubescent girls "seen and heard crying" and many "bound by rope." There were even...

In the summer of 2003, Operation Predator was launched by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency. The investigation has targeted individuals who make and consume child pornography worldwide. Because much of this stuff is manufactured overseas and shipped to America, ICE agents took the lead in tracking down the bad guys in the United States. According to ICE agents, one of those who used a credit card to purchase child porn is attorney Charles Rust-Tierney, the former president of the American Civil Liberties Union in Virginia. Tierney was arrested and charged on Feb. 23. Tierney apparently told the feds...

Don't bother looking for it via Google News. There hasn't been a single major story published on him since Charles Rust-Tierney appeared in Court. A local source sent me this, which Google either didn't capture, or hasn't spidered, yet. Previous coverage here and here. Alexandria, Va. (WUSA) -- A public defender from Arlington now finds that he is the accused. Fifty-one year old Charles Rust-Tierney appeared in United States District Court in Alexandria Wednesday. He’s accused of receiving and possessing child pornography, and investigators outlined what they say they found after searching his home. They say Rust-Tierney had video showing,...

The New York Times gets its fair share of criticism. So does CNN. So do the major broadcast networks. The Washington Post and L.A. Times have their own detractors. In fact, these days, nearly everyone recognizes press bias, incompetence and arrogance when they see it in the major media.Yet, it is my considered opinion that one news agency gets off nearly scot-free from criticism despite being the worst purveyor of political propaganda and distortion. I refer to the largest news-gathering organization in the world – the Associated Press. For the life of me, I don't understand why there haven't been...

Gibson thinks old-style news more vital now Published February 9, 2007, 7:49 AM CST On a day when his "World News" would open with new findings on the prevalence of autism in this country rather than the death of model/litigant Anna Nicole Smith, ABC anchor Charles Gibson was thinking aloud. Now that people get what they want the way they want on the Internet, where does that leave those mainstream media outlets that, in traditional fashion, pair the news people want with the news it is thought they need? "I'm getting on a high horse here, and I haven't really...

Blogs rule, newspapers creak Except ye olde 'papers retain access to Perry Thursday, February 01, 2007 Tooting itself a little, Texas Monthly this month trumpeted political bloggers over reporters for ye olde newspapers. Editor Evan Smith, referring to Rep. Tom Craddick's fight for re-election as speaker, wrote that bloggers — including the magazine's Paul Burka — excelled in tracking the fray. "Even more than the old-media fuddies in the Capitol press corps, they broke news, spun with style, and made themselves into must-reads," Smith said. Few would argue with newspapers as old or with the vigor of political blogs. On...

A nasty fight between the news staff and the owner of a local paper here has created some new casualties: readers. Take, for example, Eric Zahm, a hairdresser who hung a sign in his window taking Wendy P. McCaw, owner and co-publisher of The Santa Barbara News-Press, to task for not recognizing a vote to unionize her news staff. Within days, Zahm received a letter from a lawyer for McCaw, warning him that the sign - which read, “McCaw Obey the Law” - could get him sued for defamation. After consulting a lawyer, Zahm took the bright orange sign down...

this New York Times photograph of a crowd of Lebanese refugees: This is probably nothing. If it’s photo manipulation, it’s certainly an incredibly mundane example, and I can’t think of a reason why anyone would do it. I’m tossing this to the lizardoid community for comment from the other photoshop geeks out there, without rendering any judgment yet. In other words, I am not saying this is a definite fake; I know we’ve got quite a few experts at digital manipulation among our readers, and I’m sincerely asking for their opinions. But look at the image of the man in...

Big cuts are coming to the Boston Globe, according to memos from publisher Steve Ainsley and editor Martin Baron. (See story here.) According to the memo, the New York Times New England Media Group will see a cut of about 125 employees. The New England Media Group includes the Globe and The Worcester Telegram & Gazette. About 19 editorial jobs will be slashed at the Globe. Here are both memos: January 11, 2007 To the staff: As I trust all of you will understand, this is a difficult memo to write. You know as well as anyone that we are...

A journalist working for Arabic TV news channel al-Jazeera has been arrested in Egypt for allegedly fabricating videos of police torturing suspects. Huweida Taha Metwalli was stopped on her way to Qatar and 50 video tapes were found in her luggage, the Egyptian interior ministry said. She is reportedly charged with "tarnishing Egypt's reputation and harming Egyptian national interests". Al-Jazeera said the tapes showed a "documentary reconstruction" by actors.

Servicemembers Unite to Save Iraqi Girl's Life Many doubted she would live to play again. By Lance Cpl. Geoffrey P. Ingersoll 1st Marine Logistics Group CAMP HABBANIYAH, Iraq, Jan. 5, 2007 -- "She is our future... that's why we support the Iraqi Police, so they can provide a secure future for (Iraqi children)," said Lt. Col. Bob McCarthy, Police Transition Team Leader, in response to an Iraqi tribal leader's gratitude toward U.S. forces for their efforts to save an Iraqi youth named Riyam Shihan. "She is our future... that's why we support the Iraqi Police, so they can provide...

The Muslim religious holiday Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, is meant to commemorate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son on God's orders. But now the holiday could also be associated with something else: the execution of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

RAMADI, Iraq -- Spc. Brent Everson was just a few steps from safety. The 22-year-old from Florence, Mont., was climbing out of a tank, near the entrance to a U.S. outpost called Sword when a sniper's 7.62-millimeter bullet hit him just above his Kevlar vest, tearing into his shoulder and through his back. He fell back into the tank -- wounded but alive. On the roof of the outpost, Army gunners returned fire. But the sniper probably already was gone. "This guy knew what he was doing," said Staff Sgt. Jeremy Gann, who like Everson is assigned to Company C...

Hi, I'm a blogger.

The most explosive and far-reaching news story of the year has nothing to do with underage pages and a certain Republican ex-Congressman. This story involves ignition in the streets of Baghdad and six immolations that probably never occurred. While Mark Foley took down a congressional majority, the tale of Jamil Hussein may end up permanently damaging the credibility of the world's premier news gathering source, the Associate Press... The story begins on Nov. 24 when Qais al-Bashir, an Iraqi "stringer" working for the AP, wrote a story in which he alleged that Shiite militiamen avenging earlier attacks burned down four...

Another search through different avenues has failed to turn up AP’s source for more than 60 reports of atrocities and murders: The AP (non-)responds and another search comes up empty.

Time magazine asked a large number of people to name the Person of the Year. They were in a populist mood and named the largest possible number of Persons of the Year: Everybody. Of course. The most capacious modern entitlement is not to Social Security but to self-esteem. So Time's cover features a mirror-like panel. The reader -- but why bother to read the magazine when merely gazing at its cover gives immediate and intense gratification? -- can gaze at the reflection of his or her favorite person. Narcissism is news? Evidently. To the person looking at his reflection, Time's...

Couldn't find any in this post by Paul Holmes Reuters Global Editor for Political and General News