Christmas Eve Stocking Stuffer: MediaBizBuzz

Christmas Eve Stocking Stuffer

Google moved one giant step closer to absorbing DoubleClick this past week with the blessings of the FTC. The body seemed to base its approval based on a finding that the union is "unlikely to substantially lessen competition." Abroad? There, privacy matters. The European Commission decides in early Apri. Guest JackMyers.com commentator Michael Kassan applauds the minority opinion of FTC commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour: Google should be watched. Perhaps anticipating the fallout, the FTC quickly unspooled a set of advertising principles that will receive a public comment period through February 22.

A Modest Proposal

While Late Night shows return after the New Year, there appears to be no end in sight for the strike. As each side digs in, Jack Myers has penned what is actually a radical solution:. A Strike Tax The gist: " Let the advertisers step up and agree to pay a tax on all network television ad expenditures for the next three years, beginning in September 2008, to fund a pool for distribution to writers, actors, directors and related unions." Show of hands: Do you think this will fly?

Kevin Martin Is A Gangsta!

Last week FCC head Kevin Martin overturned the ownership ban in media and capped the growth of the cable industry. In the run-up to the decision,. Senators Kerry and Obama pledged that they would go to the Senate Appropriations Committee and defund the government body . In the coming year – as Net Neutrality returns to the fore as well – we'll see who wins the day. Defiantly saying that he'll remain in his office until the end of BushWorld, that makes Martin a gangsta.

This Is Not Your Parent's Copyright

Pew Internet Life's research reminds us that our kids are no slackers: 59% of them create some form of content. And the New York Times' consumer tech guru David Pogue takes the measure of their noblesse oblige attitude about copyright. Putting it all together is Techdirt's Mike Masnick, who advises that we get over our addiction to copyright. Is there a patch for that? While we're waxing Millennial, Larry Rosen's Me, MySpace And I: Parenting The Net Generation's comes out the day after Xmas.

It's Not ALL About You Google:

Filings showed some stealth entrants into the Wireless Spectrum Auction: Echostar and Paul Allen's Vulcan group. Patent disputes were settled between Vonage and AT&T; while Comcast and DirecTV made nice. Viacom tells Google to talk to the hand: engages Microsoft. In a seismic shift, Bill Cella and Larry Blasius step down from Interpublic's Magna Global Worldwide as it shutters Media First, thereby consolidating its media buying and planning units.

Raising Your S.A.T. Verbal

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2006 was Stephen Colbert's truthiness. This year's is not exactly going to set the world afire (it's "w00t" – gamerese for wow!) Yet, the rest of the top ten's a gauge of the Zeitgeist: Charlatan. Conundrum. Blamestorm. (Meaning: A meeting held in order to come up with a name of a person to assign guilt to a certain incident.) We're especially fond here of word #4: Quixotic. The textbook definition is "foolishly impractical especially in the pursuit of ideals." We'd prefer to think that yesterday's Don Quixote is tomorrow's Steve Jobs… or Mark Zuckerberg.