Time and Newsweek aren’t much better than tabloid trash

Barack Obama: “The First Gay President.”

This week’s issue of Newsweek features a photo of Barack Obama with a rainbow halo and a headline proclaiming him as the “First Gay President.”. Of course, Barack Obama isn’t gay, it’s just Newsweek’s way of shocking people and grabbing headlines. I guess they’re not confident in the quality of their writing, and decided to use tabloid techniques to sell magazines.

It could also be a reaction to Time Magazine, which decided to place a picture of a woman breast feeding her child. That alone would be questionable, but when you take into account that the child was pretty big in comparison to his mother, it seemed very strange. Actually, sick is probably a better word. » read more

Memo to Drudge: Is this news?

I check the Drudge Report daily, and on a typical day, I check it several times. It’s a great way to keep up on the news, and it typically links to stories you won’t find in the main-stream media. It’s a great site, but sometimes, it leaves me shaking my head.

I’m used to the frequently misleading captions that link to articles on other sites. That’s annoying, but today, I think it topped itself. It’s headline featured the headline “Rick Rico ,” with a pictures of Rick Santorum wearing only swim trunks. This is news?

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3,000 hits isn’t synonymous with greatness

Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, two of the greatest players of all-time, never reached 3,000 hits

I know people are tripping over themselves in an effort to heap accolades on the New York Yankees Derek Jeter after his 3,000th hit. The worst part was the tendency for the media to constantly point out that he’s the only Yankee to ever attain 3,000 hits. Let me just point out one thing: 3,000 hits or not, Jeter isn’t in the same class as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, or Mickey Mantle.

After Jeter’s accomplishment, I checked out the list of career hit leaders. Here’s a list of the 28 men who reached 3,000 hits:

1. Pete Rose 4256
2. Ty Cobb 4189
3. Hank Aaron 3771
4. Stan Musial 3630
5. Tris Speaker 3514
6. Cap Anson 3435
7. Honus Wagner 3420
8. Carl Yastrzemski 3419 » read more

News Corp set to lose big on Myspace

Rupert Murdoch seems confused when it comes to Myspace.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. purchased Myspace in 2005 for $580 million. Six years later, the site is losing money, and is reportedly for sale. The price? Likely between $20 million and $30 million. That was a spectacular failure, if I’ve ever seen one.

In 2005, Myspace had a huge advantage in the social networking market. Now, it’s just a footnote in the short history of the industry. As I think about the sale of Myspace, I can’t help think about the AOL Time Warner merger. That was another case of a traditional media company failing to blend with an online entity. AOL still has a pulse, and has some potential for future growth. As for Myspace, I hope the next owners are creative. » read more

Michele Bachman’s poll results in Iowa aren’t ‘shocking’

Michele Bachmann's campaign is starting to gain momentum.

I found an article on the Drudge Report, with the headline “Shock Poll: Bachmann Tied With Romney in Iowa.” I don’t know what’s so shocking about that. Romney is a plastic candidate who always seems willing to say what people want to hear. The reason why he had such a commanding lead in the polls was due to the popularity of his highly unsuccessful 2008 campaign.

Let’s remember that a lot of people still aren’t paying much attention to the 2012 Presidential Race, so they probably haven’t tuned in to find out much about the candidates. Once people hear more about candidates like Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, and Tim Pawlenty, voters will begin to peel away from the familiar name (Mitt Romney). » read more

New York Times reporter Jose Antonio Vargas admits to being an illegal alien

Jose Antonio Vargas of the New York Times

Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the New York Times, has admitted that he is an illegal alien. In his story, Vargas talks about how he came to the United States illegally 18 years ago when he was 12. He also details all the illegal and unethical things he and his family have done to stay here.

From what I’ve read, Jose Antonio Vargas is an intelligent, hard-working individual who has accomplished a great deal in his 30 years. He and his family have also broken immigration laws and committed document fraud, and now he is going public with his crimes. This might not be a popular sentiment, but the government needs to act. If it doesn’t, what kind of message is it sending? » read more

MSNBC’s Ed Schultz calls Laura Ingraham a “right-wing slut”

Talk show host Laura Ingraham

After the Ed Schultz’s comments about fellow talk show host Laura Ingraham, I think he’s lucky to have a job. If MSNBC had any interest in being a serious news agency, they would have imposed a longer suspension or fired him. Of course, they make no effort to hide their biases. Their minions like to complain about right-wing news sources, but let’s face it, MSNBC is the left-wing Fox News.

In case you missed Ed Scult’s comments, the audio from his tantrum is below.

Lara Loga describes the treatment of the media in Egypt

Lara Logan of CBS News discusses her experience covering the demonstrations in Egypt.

Charging for content will be a huge failure for the media

More and more news sites are thinking about charging for content. The newspaper industry is looking at dwindling circulation and assuming that their growing online readership will provide the path to profitability. They might be right, but they are heading in the wrong direction.

Online news sites benefit from type-in traffic and links from sites like Yahoo, Google, and the Drudge Report. Once sites require subscriptions, those links will disappear, along with the resulting traffic. What they’ll be left with is a small group of loyal readers willing to pay a reasonable fee for news that they could readily read at one of several free web sites. Let’s also remember that those links provided by news aggregators brought in visitors who clicked ads. When the traffic goes down, the ad revenue will probably follow. After all, do you want to advertise on a site that isn’t viewed much in comparison to its peers? » read more

Patrick Kennedy critiques the media

Let’s get this straight: Patrick Kennedy thinks the United States should leave Afghanistan and allow it to sink into even greater chaos? Sharp guy.

The global warming cult silences the media

Watching how climate researchers have handled themselves during climategate has made me reflect on my own scientific training. One way in which science is advanced is buying questioning what was done before. Such questions shouldn’t be taken personally. They should be seen as an attempt to find “the truth” and further the field of study. Any disagreements can be refuted by citing past research, or by conducting further studies. Unfortunately, professor Stephen Schneider, a climate researcher at Stanford, doesn’t seem to have this basic understanding.

While speaking at a press conference at the climate summit in Copenhagen, a film-maker asked him some questions he wasn’t comfortable answering. The proper thing to do would have been to answer his questions, seeing as though it was a press conference, then use scientific findings to support his claims. Instead of taking this scholarly high road, Professor Schneider’s associates had armed U.N. guards remove the questioner from the premises and ordered his cameraman to stop filming. Here is the exchange caught on tape: » read more

“Law & Order’s” lies

On a recent episode of “Law & Order,” the show’s liberal bias was once again on display. In an episode which dealt with illegal immigration, a character made this assertion:

“Limbaugh, Beck, O’Reilly, all of ‘em, they are like a cancer spreading ignorance and hate…They’ve convinced folks that immigrants are the problem, not corporations that fail to pay a living wage or a broken health care system…”

So, if you are to believe Dick Wolfe and those on the “Law & Order” team, anyone who believes the United States has the right to determine who can or cannot enter the country is spreading ignorance and hate. If you mention that illegal aliens are taking jobs and bringing down wages, you’re spreading ignorance and hate. » read more

Rupert Murdoch is half right

I’m glad to see Rupert Murdoch come out so strongly against government intervention in the media. Some lawmakers have suggested that the media might need government assistance due to the effect of the internet on the changing industry. One idea involved converting newspapers to nonprofit organizations. Murdoch is right to criticize these types of ideas, along with regulations which prevent companies from owning newspapers and TV stations in the same market. It’s funny how government hampers competition, then offers a bailout of sorts.

Besides government intervention, Murdoch once again commented on the future on online media. Specifically mentioning the “theft” of material by aggregators, and the failure of the current business mode. Murdoch has recently stated his intention to move to a subscription service, and there have been rumors about removing Newscorp’s sites from Google and providing exclusive access to Bing (for a price, of course). For as right as Rupert Murdoch is on government intervention, he is wrong about his ideas for the future of media. » read more

The partnership between Microsoft and News Corp seems odd

Sometimes, I feel like I’m missing something. As a blog owner, I like writing, and I like having people read what I write. You might notice that many blogs also advertise. Even though the typical blogger doesn’t make much money from their posts, some bloggers do quite well financially. Since advertising a blog can be costly, the dream is to get good placement in the results of the major search engines. Normally, high traffic can mean high revenue, while reduced traffic can mean less revenue. That’s why News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch has me puzzled.

There’s no doubt that Rupert Murdoch is a bright, successful guy. That’s why his latest idea seems to be risky: Removing all of his newspapers from Google’s index. News Corp owns well-known newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and The Sun. Murdoch seems to feel that Google is unfairly benefiting from News Corp’s content. In the past, Murdoch had mentioned ending their use of a free model and going to a subscription format. Now, another plan may have surfaced. » read more

Barack Obama vs. Fox News

In a perfect world, the media would be 100% unbiased. They would cover every important story appropriately without prejudice and never bury some stories and over-emphasize others. They would approach each topic with indifference, in order to let readers come to their own conclusions. They would exist solely to gather and distribute information without any agenda other than the desire to have an informed citizenry. That should be the goal, but it is far from the reality.

I enjoy watching Fox News, but it certainly isn’t “fair and balanced,” as the network claims. There is certainly a conservative slant that cannot be denied. I hear this mentioned frequently, but what I don’t hear mentioned often is the liberal bias demonstrated by MSNBC. They behave exactly like Fox News. They just do so at the opposite end of the political spectrum. » read more