Crackpot Notions: Google Saves The Market; The 'New' Pentagon Papers; Media Braces For Its Next Act - MediaBizBuzz for April 20

It was a good week for conspiracy theorists After a beatdown from comScore Google emerged more profitable than ever displacing losses from the financial sector and posting aftertrading gains of close to 20 that39s 80share Sunday39s epicsized New York Times expose of a Pentagon initiative to deploy military analysts as stealth quotmessage force multipliersquot to all major outlets in print and broadcast media was devastating to the Bush Administration and an even greater indictment of the media itself Likewise the Journal of The American Medical Association JAMA revealed that pharmaceutical titan Merck ampamp Co slapped the names of scholars and researchers on its own Vioxx research gutting any pretext of sacrosanct peer review In this context of DoJ and FDA quotoutreachquot or indifference I have to ask aloud Despite Comcast being far from sainted does its charge that the FCC has a bias against cableMSO39s in favor of telcos warrant Congressional investigation Is there a quid pro quo between the telco39s participation in DoJ domestic surveillance and morethanfair hearings by the FCC With hearings on the Future of the Internet later this week the Senate has its work cut out for it Four Stars39 Colored CommentaryRemember when radio host and ardent Leave No Child Behind supporter Armstrong Williams was discovered to have been on the payroll by the Department of Education Multiply that ethical breach by a google The New York Times sued the Department of Justice DoJ for access to 8000 pages worth of emails transcripts and assorted docs What it found will raise the hair on the back of your neck A cadre of retired military were deployed across the mediascape Not only did many have vested financial interests in military contracts that were either omitted or undetected but they were part of a quotMindwarquot that the PR wing of the Pentagon was and is waging on behalf of the War Against Terrorism The DoJ paid for their trips to Iraq and gave them access in exchange for favorable spin Back in 1998 and 1999 the US Psychological Operation PsyOp placed interns at CNN and NPR Why didn39t these news bureaus and their peers learn from that episode Malpractice Suits YouNot that the Ivory Tower is immune to such subterfuge Last week we learned that Merck ampamp Co fabricated research pdf publishing its own papers across a network of medical journals packaging them as the work of objective and respected scholars The EditorinChief of JAMA which broke the story appeared on NPR39s On The Media to discuss the repercussions and dangers to consumers and also drafted a code of ethics going forward Perhaps we39ll see something similar in news media Wink nudge Market PriceGoogle39s bountiful earnings call was nitroglycerin to the NasDaq While Merrill Lynch and Citi were licking their wounds the search behemoth39s results buoyed the market PaidContent took the temperature of a cadre of tech sector analysts Traders were quick to dock comScore but the Silicon Alley Investor was quick to note that it wasn39t wrong it just didn39t account for Google39s success internationally and how the weakness of the dollar amplified that success The upshot PaidContent demands that comScore quotshow us the dataquot not just cherrypick some of your results Some of Google39s good luck rubbed off of Yahoo which via the Wall Street Journal reported initial success in its twoweek old test with Google Yahoo has an earnings call tomorrow you39ll be able to listen HERE If it39s a strong Q1 SAI39s Henry Blodget in a very close and careful analysis suggests that MSFT will be able save face and raise its bid beyond 31share Conversely if the numbers are down look for a MSFT endgame EBay gave its new CEO solid earnings as well and for the first time Donohoe was on record that Skype might be put up for sale at endyear if it doesn39t perform Irrational ExuberanceWhile venture capital investment slowed in the last quarter it39s still robust in NYC Go figure John Battelle39s blog network Federated raised 50M even as Gawker Media39s Nick Denton shed three of his blogs in preparation for the quotbubble burstingquot Even more stunning was the investment in socialnetworking vehicle Ning which can thank Allen ampamp Co for securing them another 60M for a 500M market valuation This coincided with a contentfree cover feature in this month39s Fast Company which made paidContent39s Rafat Ali quotthrew up a little in my mouthquot Tell us what you really think Rafat Oddly in synch with Denton Ning cofounder Marc Andreesen told Venture Beat that the funds were quotto make sure we have plenty of firepower to survive the oncoming nuclear winterquot Ebullient author Adam L Penenberg will hear no end about this piece Me I smell overripe hype But a bit of sober perspective This innovation is occurring simultaneously as Merrill Lynch announced its writedown of 196B with 4000 layoffs expected and Citi posted a loss of 51B with some odd 9000 jobs on the line Policy Shuffles Domesticating TechLast week the FCC made a field trip to Stanford to engagement in debate around Net Neutrality While proponents including the Christian Coalition gave impassioned speeches listen to audio here those opposed like Comcast were No Shows Tomorrow the Senate Subcommittee on Commerce will hold hearings on NN Then on Thursday it will debate a quotresolution of disapprovalquot that strips the FCC of its powers Sidebar Three Congressmen allege that Google gamed the 700MHz Wireless Auction by triggering Open Access Each of them are wellfunded by ATampampT and their statements have made them the laughing stock of the blogosphere Apparently UK politicos do tech better Gordon Brown is twittering as quotDowningStreetquot while the Manchester Police are using a Facebook app to thwart crime Politics Strange BedfellowsAs we head into Tuesday Democratic showdown in Pennsylvania it39s anyone39s guess who39ll eke out a win Hillary Clinton39s endorsement of the Pittsburgh TribuneNews is noteworthy only because it39s owned by Richard Mellon Sciafe the original funder of the attacks against Bill Clinton named by HRC as the very center of the Right Wing Conspiracy mounted against her husband With 107M viewers last week39s debate might have been a ratings success for ABC but it also brought more than its share of criticism The HuffingtonPost39s Nico Pitney attempts to subject the evening to a quantitative analysis finding that it did err on the side of trivial and was slanted against Obama I tend to agree As does David Carr of The Times he with some caveats Bill Moyers has a great get this coming Friday the Rev Jeremiah Wright Should be a fascinating QampampA Remember Vote Often Broadcast NewsNAB is a great excuse to reflect on the state of the industry Broadcasting ampamp Cable provides deep coverage while our Shelley Palmer thinks that local mobile video has legs And then there39s Tim Robbins39 keynoting rant Go on you know you want to listen In last week39s Think Tank Jack Myers quotes Bob Iger quotThe ABCTV broadcast network is not a distribution platform anymore Today it39s more a program studioquot The same seems to hold true for CBS which has just rejigged Quincy Smith39s online arm NBCU has partnered with Omincom to announce the Universal Digital Studio But poor CW it just doesn39t get it It has an Internet phenomenon in Gossip Girl and it has decided to pull streams from CWTVcom hoping to boost its ratings from 25M viewers Does it not fathom CPMClive Davis Passes The TorchSonyBMG chairman Clive Davis stepped down last week To a music business in the midst of reinvention he epitomized quotold schoolquot Last week saw healthy growth of Amazon39s DRMfree music store still a distant second to iTunes and the beta launch of The Filter Peter Gabriel39s music recommendation service Crysalis rejected an offer by EMI and then fell some 20 Will Smith39s Overbrook Entertainment come out with PluggedIn which hopes to offer music videos in HD and broadcast quality I guess opening a restaurant is passamp233 Lighten UpOK The week39s news skews dark But it39s a good time for humor In the wake of FunnyorDie39s first anniversary Virginia Heffernan targetquotblankquotampgtssesses the online funny with high marks to the Onion News Network With a week stand in Philadelphia Comedy Central39s Colbert Report posted its best ratings ever averaging 15M in his 1130pm time slot His only rival as Arsenio Hall of the 3908 election cycle Jon Stewart who39ll be joined by Barack Obama on the eve of the primary something his rival did heading into Super Tuesday Out on the newsstands is a taut parody MyWallStreetJournal If straight journalism has lost your vote on The War on Terror Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay opens in theaters this Friday And if you like a little gore not the Al kind Wired has a terrific piece on Battlestar Galactica39s five secondlong animated closers You39ll never blink during end credits again

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Crackpot Notions: Google Saves The Market; The 'New' Pentagon Papers; Media Braces For Its Next Act - MediaBizBuzz for April 20

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Jerry Weinstein

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

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Crackpot Notions: Google Saves The Market; The 'New' Pentagon Papers; Media Braces For Its Next Act - MediaBizBuzz for April 20

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"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

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