Morning Reading List, 01.18.08

Good morning Washington. Today in D.C. history, Marion Barry said "bitch set me up." Quickly navigate Morning Reading List: REVOLVING DOOR | NEWSPAPERS | TV | ONLINE MEDIA | MAGAZINES | BOOKS | JOBS You think Ben Bradlee could take Robert Novak in a street fight. REVOLVING DOOR The Washington Business Journal reports, "The Washington Post Co. has appointed the chief executive of Xerox Corp. to its board of directors. Ann Mulcahy, who has received national attention for turning around Xerox since she took the helm in 2001, will take the 11th post on the board of the D.C.-based company." Today is Jeff Marn's last day at Foreign Policy magazine. He is joining the Washington, DC office of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. Radar reports that Susan Estrich, " the Harvard law professor who managed Michael Dukakis's 1988 presidential bid straight into the ground', is becoming chief of counsel to L.A.-based business-litigation firm Quinn Emanuel. Top of post NEWSPAPERS Check out E&P's "Monthly Top 30 Most Popular Newspaper Sites" The Dirksen Congressional Center annonced, "The Dirksen Congressional Center invites applications for grants to fund research on congressional leadership and the U.S. Congress. A total of up to $30,000 will be available in 2008. Awards range from a few hundred dollars to $3,500. The competition is open to individuals with a serious interest in studying Congress. Political scientists, historians, biographers, scholars of public administration or American studies, and journalists are among those eligible. The Center encourages graduate students who have successfully defended their dissertation prospectus to apply and awards a significant portion of the funds for dissertation research." All proposals must be received no later than February 1, 2008. Washington Post's Glenn Kessler, the author of The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy, is the guest of a brown bag lunch discussion held by the World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, January 22nd 2008 from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM. Sign up here. Pew Weekly News Interest Index shows, "There has been no shortage of drama in either party's early presidential primaries, but in the public's view the Democratic contest has been far more compelling. Four-in-ten Americans (40%) say they find the Democratic primary race very interesting, nearly double the proportion describing the Republican race as very interesting (21%)." The AP reports, "The state of New Hampshire is getting out of the business of issuing identification cards to members of the news media. The man who handled the chore -- Jim Van Dongen of the state Department of Safety -- says the decision is based on the proliferation of online and specialty news outlets and technology that allows just about anyone to call himself a journalist. Van Dongen says that put him and his bosses in the uncomfortable position of issuing cards to all comers or having to decide who is a legitimate journalist. News organizations now will have to issue their own identification cards for events that require them." The Los Angeles Times reports, "How much should a company's culture reflect its chief executive, especially one who prides himself on being a blunt and innovative -- some might say abrasive -- businessman? If you're new Tribune Co. CEO Sam Zell, the answer seems to be: A lot. At least that was the feeling workers got Wednesday with the distribution of a new employee handbook, a document that's nothing like the mind-numbing, lawyered gobbledygook in most corporate manuals." Daniel Finkelstein writes "an open letter to readers of The New York Times" saying, "I understand that your newspaper of choice has asked William Kristol, the conservative commentator, to provide an opinion column for the paper. Since I am the op-ed editor of what you Americans call The Times of London, I have followed the controversy that the appointment has caused with great interest. And with my mouth wide open." Top of post TV An ABC release announced, "ABCNEWS.com achieved record-high unique visitors in December 2007. The site had 16.9 million uniques, an increase of 53% compared with the same time last year, according to ABC=92s measurements. The site also garnered 153 million page views, up 24% from the previous year" "FNS:The Most Quoted Show, Again" A NBC release announced, "According to Nielsen Media Research data, 'Meet the Press with Tim Russert' was the most-watched Sunday morning public affairs program, winning the week ending Sunday, January 13, 2008. On Sunday, the Russert-moderated program was No. 1, averaging 4.714 million total viewers" A CNN release announced, "As the nation honors the 79th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., on Monday, Jan. 21, CNN delves deep into race and politics as it broadcasts the latest Democratic presidential primary debate from Myrtle Beach, S.C., and a live Anderson Cooper 360Âº special about the influence of race upon politics in America. From 8 p.m. to 10 p.m, CNN will host the two-hour debate with the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, live from the Palace Theater. CNN's lead political anchor Wolf Blitzer will serve as moderator for the debate, and CNN correspondents Joe Johns and Suzanne Malveaux will serve as panelists questioning the candidates." FOX News Channel announced, "FOX News Channel (FNC) will provide live coverage of the Nevada Caucus and South Carolina Republican Primary on Saturday January 19, 2008. Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief, Brian Wilson, will host a special Nevada Caucus edition of Weekend Live from 3-5 PM ET. Managing Editor Brit Hume, will anchor You Decide 2008 South Carolina Republican Primary coverage from 6:30-9 PM. A special edition of Hannity & Colmes will follow. FNC's daytime and primetime coverage will include reports from a team of anchors including Chris Wallace, Megyn Kelly, Bill Hemmer and Martha McCallum. FNC correspondents will be reporting live from both states, including Major Garrett, Steve Brown and Anita Vogel in Nevada, and Chief Political Correspondent Carl Cameron, Wendell Goler and Molly Henneberg in South Carolina. Overall analysis will be provided by The Weekly Standard's Fred Barnes, National Public Radio's Juan Williams; Roll Call's Mort Kondracke; The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol and U.S. News & World Report's Michael Barone." A CNN release announced, "On Saturday, Jan. 19, you can watch CNNâ€™s live coverage of the Nevada caucuses from noon-3 p.m.* Later that evening from 7:00-10:00 p.m., the Best Political Team on Television will return with results from the South Carolina Republican primary. On Monday, Jan. 21, the CNN/Congressional Black Caucus Institute Democratic primary debate will air live from 8:00-10:00 p.m. out of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Wolf Blitzer moderates; CNN correspondent Joe Johns and White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux serve as panelists. Anderson Cooper will follow the program with post-debate analysis, and then at 11 p.m., he and Soledad O'Brien will present a new special on race and politics. And, don't forget, throughout this weekend and every weekend until Super Tuesday, you can watch the candidates uninterrupted and unmediated during Ballot Bowl! Ballot Bowl brings you the candidates' significant live events in their entirety rather than in sound bite form. Here's the schedule: Saturday: 3:00-6:00 p.m. (immediately following the Nevada caucuses coverage) Sunday: 1:00-3:00 p.m. AND 4:00-6:00 p.m." AJR reports, "The media's addiction to polls and to predicting the future is obviously not new. Critics have railed against it for years. The compulsion to be ahead of the game even caused the television networks to make the wrong call on the 2000 presidential election. You'd think that humiliation was so huge that it would serve as a cautionary whale (hat tip to 'Juno' for that great line) as well as a cautionary tale for the political punditocracy. But no." Yesterday, "CREW and Media Matters for America sent a letter to CNN's U.S. President Jonathan Klein, asking that former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed, a proven liar with a deep bias against one of the major Republican candidates, no longer be afforded the opportunity to be a part of CNN's self-proclaimed â€œbest political team on television.' Most recently, Reed provided commentary as a 'Republican strategist' during the New Hampshire presidential primary." Media Biz reports, "Are we in a recession or not? Well, investors in the big five media conglomerates seem to think so. Shares of my parent company Time Warner (TWX) are down nearly 5 percent. And it's not alone. News Corp. (NWS) has fallen 7 percent this year. Walt Disney (DIS) is down nearly 8 percent in 2008. Viacom (VIAB) has shed 9 percent of its value while its former corporate sibling CBS (CBS) has plummeted 14 percent. CBS, Time Warner, Disney and News Corp. are all trading near 52-week lows, and each stock is down between 15 percent and 20 percent for the past three months. Viacom, 2007's best-performing media stock, has held up slightly better over the past few months thanks to a rebound in ratings at the company's cable networks, as well as strong box office performance from its Paramount and DreamWorks movie studios. Viacom's stock is about 20 percent above its 52-week low." TVNewser reports, "CNN Correspondent Zain Verjee was hit in the back by a tear-gas canister while covering the protests in Kenya yesterday. Verjee was fired on by Kenyan police, in what she called an 'unprovoked' attack." "Jon Stewart took MSNBC and the entire media to task last night on A Daily Show for their focus on, 'America's favorite fight starter: Race!'" For more, click here. TVNewser reports, "As part of day-long coverage related to issues of race in America, CNN will present a Democratic candidate debate in Myrtle Beach, SC this Monday, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. day. So far three candidates have met the criteria to attend: Sen. Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama. A CNN insider tells TVNewser, 'it still remains possible' for Rep. Dennis Kucinich to meet the criteria of having 5% support in national polls." A tipster writes in, "Will the media matters campaign against Chris Matthews yield anything? Yes. A spike in ratings among the media. Let's just admit it. HRC is never going to receive fair, objective coverage. There's just too much history. Matthews is just more honest about it than others. We should give him an award." Top of post ONLINE MEDIA Tech Crunch reports, "Social travel site WAYN is allegedly in talks with AOL over a possible $200m sale to the consumer portal giant. A spokesperson for the UK startup denied that any sale talks are taking place." E&P's Greg Mitchell writes, "It's good to see Upton Sinclair back in the news again amid the raves (which I don't quite share) for the new film 'There Will Be Blood,' very loosely based on his 1927 novel 'Oil!' Even though Sinclair earned a nod in many of the articles and reviews of the film, which stars Daniel Day-Lewis, few have commented on the original source material." The Boston Phoenix's Steven Stark writes, "If the surprise results in New Hampshire had an unanticipated benefit, it is this: they exposed the myth, once and for all, that the Internet has made political reporting and analysis far better than it once was. Alas, the opposite is true." Media Shift's Mark Glasser asks, "Major media sites have started to get the religion of audience participation, but thereâ€™s been one big hitch: How do you harness the audience's knowledge and participation without the forums devolving into a messy online brawl that requires time-intensive moderation?" Chris Mooney writes, "As a journalist and especially as a blogger, I sure picked a hell of a time to move to Los Angeles. No sooner did I settle here late last fall than my fellow writers in the film and television industries went on strike. I've never done their kind of writing in a professional capacity, but the more I've engaged with the issues at the center of the current dispute between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the more I'm convinced that bloggers could soon find themselves making similar complaints against their own employers." Don Wycliff writes, "I don't know whether YouTube.com is considered part of the 'news media' yet, but in the midst of the Obama-Clinton hoo-hah of the last several days the popular video Web site has performed perhaps the most basic and indispensable function of journalism: to serve, in the words of journalism educators Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Paul Waldman, as the 'custodian of fact.'" InternetNews.com reports, "Call it a photo finish. A split decision. Too close to call: The leading online tracking firms are split over which Web property garners the most traffic. According to comScore, Yahoo -- perennially ranked as the most visited destination on the Web -- held onto its lead in December, staving off surging Google for at least another month." Journalism.co.uk reports, "The editor of The Sun newspaper told a Lords' Committee the internet edition can't yet replicate the economic operations of the newspaper." The Los Angeles Times reports, "Google's expanding lobbying operation scored two significant victories last year: It convinced federal regulators to approve its $3.1-billion purchase of online ad company DoubleClick Inc., and to partially open new wireless airwaves so the company could more easily make its products available on them. Though D.C. veterans say Google has a long way to go before its lobbying clout matches its market valuation, the company is no longer viewed as a wide-eyed Washington freshman." Business Courier reports, "A social networking Web site that will focus on the 2008 elections was launched Wednesday by E.W. Scripps Co. RedBlueAmerica will serve as a free public forum for user-generated content, including blogs, personal profiles and videos, Scripps said in a news release. It will also offer political news, e-mail service for subscribers, a daily public opinion poll and a feature called 'Truth or Not' that will examine 'the veracity of factual claims made by high-profile newsmakers and others,' according to the release." MediaShift reports, "Major media sites have started to get the religion of audience participation, but there's been one big hitch: How do you harness the audience's knowledge and participation without the forums devolving into a messy online brawl that requires time-intensive moderation?" Top of post MAGAZINES Howard Mortman writes in the Weekly Standard, "Here's an odd little Hillary Clinton proposal: She wants a government blogging team. At first blush, the idea could cut either way--nutty or silly. We might even call it ridiculous, if we weren't busy laughing at it." Alex Kingsbury, associate editor for U.S.News & World Report, was featured Tuesday night on NBC Nightly News as part of a story about gender bias in college admissions, which cited a U.S. News June 2007 special report 'Admittedly Unequal.'" Top of post BOOKS The Patriot Ledger reports that Roy Harris Jr., "a former Wall Street Journal reporter and now an editor at CFO magazine" wrote "Pulitzer's Gold: Behind the Prize for Public Service Journalism," released yesterday, "is the first comprehensive chronicling of the human dramas, large and small, behind the coveted award." Top of post JOBS Chronicle of Higher Education is looking for a Technology Writer. The Map Network, a NAVTEQ Company is looking for a Advertising Sales Executive, DC. Platts is looking for a Senior Writer. National Public Radio is looking for a Associate Producer, Social Media. The Daily Progress is looking for a Public safety reporter. AARP is looking for a Deputy Editor. America Abroad Media is looking for an Online Coordinator. Council for Advancement and Support of Education is looking for a Magazine Editor. Defense Daily is looking for a Reporter. Top of post Hat Tips: DCRTV, TVNewser, IWantMedia, Romenesko, MediaBistro, JournalismJobs, JournalismNext

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Morning Reading List, 01.18.08

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