MEDIABLAB DAILY NEWS DIGEST DEC 28: BHUTTO JAMIE LYNN SPEARS GOD VS ALLAH CRICKET RACISM
December 28th 2007 00:04
A daily compilation of media news items posted by MediaBlab over the past 24 hours
AN INTERNATIONAL NEWS AGENCY SOMBRE SONG OF DEATH
Below is the series of news alerts from Reuters that this morning informed the world of the death of Benazir Bhutto:
Three dead in Pakistan election violence -official
Several dead in blast outside Bhutto rally
Several dead in blast outside Bhutto rally
About 15 dead in blast outside Bhutto rally-police
Pakistan's Bhutto badly wounded –husband
Pakistan's Bhutto killed in attack – party
Bhutto death may trigger terror -Russian diplomat
US condemns attack on Pakistan's Bhutto
A party aide says Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has died following a suicide attack. Latest details:
INSTANT VIEW-Pakistan's Bhutto killed in attack – party
Bush informed of Pakistan situation-spokesman
Bush to make statement on Pakistan - White House
U.N. council to consult on Bhutto killing
Pakistani paramilitary forces on "red alert"
Musharraf says terrorists killed Bhutto, urges unity
Extremists must not kill Pakistani democracy-UK's Brown
Bush to call Musharraf about Bhutto assassination
Pakistan's Sharif says to boycott January election
Bush has spoken with Pakistan's Musharraf -W.House
Gunmen kill one, wound two at Kenya's Kibera slum
Senior militant killed in Gaza-Islamic Jihad
DEBATE HOTS UP OVER UNCOOL MEDIA MUTTERINGS THAT GLOBAL WARMING HAS CEASED
Devout global warming devotees on the blogosphere have cried foul over scientist David Whitehouse’s claim in the New Statesman that warming has stopped globally.
Whitehouse wrote, “Global warming stopped? Surely not. What heresy is this? Haven’t we been told that the science of global warming is settled beyond doubt and all that’s left to the so-called sceptics is the odd errant glacier that refuses to melt?”
Whitehouse had the temerity to report, “With only a few days remaining in 2007, the indications are that global temperature for the year is the same as that for 2006. There has been no warming over the past 12 months.
“The fact is that the global temperature of 2007 is statistically the same as 2006 as well as every other year since 2001. Global warming has, temporarily or permanently, ceased.”
Whitehouse does add that that something is going on with the world’s weather but we still don’t know exactly what and should find out, rather than blindly assume carbon dioxide induced warming is the culprit.
He wrote, “I have heard it said by scientists, journalists and politicians, that the time for argument is over and that further scientific debate only causes delay in action.
“But the wish to know exactly what is going on is independent of politics and scientists must never bend their desire for knowledge to any political cause, however noble.”
CALL TO CHARGE PREGNANT 16-YEAR-OLD SUPER-SKANK JAMIE LYNN SPEARS’ BOYFRIEND WITH RAPE
TV Week reports that with Jamie Lynn Spears’, the 16-year-old star of Nickelodeon's series Zoey 101, announcing she's pregnant, the kids network is considering airing a special on love and sex from Linda Ellerbee.
Ellerbee has done Nick News specials on other sensitive topics, including same-sex parents and the impeachment of President Clinton.
Nickelodeon has not said much about Ms Spears, sister of singer Britney Spears, or the show, other than releasing a supportive statement.
"We respect Jamie Lynn's decision to take responsibility in this sensitive and personal situation,” the statement said. “We know this is a very difficult time for her and her family, and our primary concern right now is for Jamie Lynn's well-being."
The third season of Zoey 101 ends on January 4. The network has already shot the fourth and final season of the series and was scheduled to air it later in 2008.
But the news of Spear’s pregnancy has of course triggered a wave of media comment, and it has sent Walter Brasch, professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University in the US, particularly gaga.
In an article, published in Australia by Online Opinion, he wrote,
“Ever vigilant, the mass media dug into a critical social issue and rooted out the information in their never-ending quest to guarantee the people’s right to know.
“The people’s right to know, they decided, was that 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears, star of Nickelodeon’s Zoey 101, is pregnant. Jamie Lynn is the younger sister of Britney Spears, the former Mouseketeer who has combined a chart-topping career as a singer and dancer with being America’s Celebrity Super-Skank.
“The National Enquirer first broke the story about Jamie Lynn in its July 28 issue. Unfortunately, Jamie Lynn wasn’t pregnant at the time.
“Shortly after the Enquirer’s story appeared, and thousands of bloggers became sexually active, Jamie Lynn’s ‘good name’ became semen-stained when she became pregnant, probably in September. The father is 19-year-old Casey Aldridge, who lived with Jamie Lynn and her mother in an LA condo, and followed the teen mini-star to the Zoey 101 set almost every day. So far, no one is filing any statutory rape charges.
“True to the ethics and business practices of tween celebs, Jamie Lynn hid the news until she could find a price high enough. High enough to run the story was OK! magazine, which put Jamie Lynn and a mega-hype teaser on its cover, and trumpeted the six-page in-depth investigation as a “world exclusive”.
“In true media tradition, the ‘news’ was released a day before the magazine appeared on the shelves, December 19, two weeks before its cover date. Circulation was expected to rise faster than a pubescent boy’s hormones.
Naturally, the rest of the messed-up mainstream and alternative media also had to jump onto the story. OK!’s not-so-hard news interview led the news segments of the network morning shows, was discussed thoroughly by the mid-morning and afternoon talk shows, and was featured by CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News - which paused just long enough to report a fire in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House; a chemical plant explosion in Jacksonville, Florida. that killed three and injured 14; and the President signing an Energy Bill.
“Radio, the blogosphere, and the internet-based newspapers wasted no time polluting the airwaves and the world’s bandwidths; print newspapers were caught in the wrong news cycle and had to publish ‘day after’ not-so-investigative stories. Under reported, or not reported at all by most of the media, was that in four separate instances in Iraq, seven civilians were killed and 27 wounded. Nevertheless, enquiring American minds wanted to know all there was about Jamie Lynn: within a day, Google recorded more than 150,000 separate stories and blogger comments.”
MARINER BOSS UNLOADS ON BEYOND INTERNATIONAL OVER FAILED TAKEOVER BID
Mariner Financial executive chairman Bill Ireland has hinted at making another bid for Beyond International, while attacking Beyond's board for failing to accept Mariner's bid for the group, the Australian reports today.
Mariner's $1.25-a-share, $74.6 million bid for Beyond expired a week ago, after failing to receive more than 50 per cent acceptances because the Beyond board withdrew a recommendation in favour of the bid due to a potentially higher rival offer from digital media group Destra.
But the Destra offer did not materialise, after the company was unable to raise funds on-market last week to make a bid.
Ireland attacked the Beyond board for their handling of the bid, particularly because the company had entered into due diligence with three companies –
Mariner, Destra and Malaysian-based private equity firm Navis – with no success.
"They've gone through three due diligence processes, paid a $500,000 break fee and they've got no bid on the table," he said.
"They haven't behaved in the best interests of shareholders. They had the company up for sale and got the best price, but they decided they didn't want to sell it."
BRITAIN’S CROWN AS WORLD LEADING TV FORMAT ORIGINATOR SHOWS SERIOUS SLIPPAGE
Take that Captain America – Britain claims that is has held on to its crown as the world's leading originator of television formats, with successes such as Simon Cowell's Got Talent franchise continuing to dominate international sales.
But its proportion of the global market, however, has once again declined, according to The Guardian.
In the first nine months of this year, the UK's share of the global format sales market was 33 percent, with independent producers accounting for 88 percent of the total, according to a report by the international distributor FremantleMedia, which is owned by the Luxembourg-based media group RTL.
By comparison, the UK's two nearest rivals, the US and the Netherlands, home to Big Brother and Deal or No Deal creator Endemol, stood at 21 percent each.
The Guardian said “Britain has traditionally been seen as a leader in format origination because of the competitiveness of its domestic TV market and the willingness of broadcasters to take risks.”
But, despite still enjoying a big lead over its competitors, the UK has slowly seen its domination erode. Its global share stood at 43 percent last year and 50 percent in 2005, according to Fremantle.
The US and the Netherlands saw growth this year, mainly down to their successful creation of new game shows, a genre which has seen a renewed global interest with a 30 percent rise in the number of new titles this year across the main TV markets.
NEW EDITOR IN CHIEF FOR AUSTRALIA’S WOMEN’S WEEKLY
ACP Magazines has appointed Robin Foyster as editor-in-chief of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Foyster, who will report to editorial director, Deborah Thomas, was formerly the editor of Pacific Publications’ New Idea magazine and in 2007 she was named Editor of the Year by the Magazine Publishers of Australia.
Announcing the appointment, ACP Magazines’ group publisher of women’s lifestyle titles, Pat Ingram said, “Robin will be an absolute asset to our business and, together with Deborah, they will form a remarkably dynamic team. Deborah will continue in her role as editorial director and she will be assuming additional responsibilities within the group in the coming months.”
The Australian Women’s Weekly, which is the highest circulating magazine (605,039 ABC June 07) and also the most read magazine in the country (2,706,000 Roy Morgan September 07), will celebrate its 75th year in 2008.
MALAYSIA THREATENS TO SHUT DOWN CATHOLIC NEWSPAPER IF IT REFERS TO GOD AS ALLAH
The government of Muslim-majority Malaysia will not renew a Catholic newspaper's license to publish unless it stops using the word ‘Allah’ to denote god.
Father Lawrence Andrew, the editor of the Herald has come up against an issue that has affected inter-religious relations before in the Southeast Asian country, which is often cited as an example of pluralistic democracy in the Muslim world, according to CNSNews which followed up a story that originally appeared on Asia Sentinel on Christmas eve.
Shortly before Christmas, the Malaysian Internal Security Ministry sent a directive ordering the weekly to drop the use of the word ‘Allah,’ when referring to the god who Christians worship. Instead, the newspaper should use the word ‘Tuhan,’ which is a general term for god in the language spoken by the majority of Malaysians, Bahasa Malaysia.
A ministry official was quoted as saying that ‘Allah’ referred only to the Muslim god, and its use was designed to confuse Muslims.
The instruction to the Herald, which publishes sections in Bahasa Malaysia, English, Tamil and Mandarin, has stirred controversy, especially because of its timing..
The newspaper, like others in Malaysia, is required to have an official permit that must be renewed annually, and that expires on December 31.
The Herald editor said the ministry was trying to suppress the Bahasa Malaysia section of the newspaper, and pointed out that the word for god in the Bible in the Malay language is Allah, and said it was thus natural that that word be used.
This isn't the first time the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims has caused contention in Malaysia.
In 2003, the issue prompted a government decision to ban a Bible published in the tongue of a small indigenous ethnic group. The ban was later reversed after protests.
Asia Sentinel said, “The Malaysian authorities’ refusal to renew the publication of the weekly Catholic newspaper The Herald unless it stops using the word Allah as the word for god in the Malay language is a demonstration of racism and linguistic ignorance, not religious purity.
“According to Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharum, ‘Only Muslims can use Allah. It’s a Muslim word, you see. It’s from the Arabic language. We cannot let other religions use it because it will confuse people,’ he was reported as saying. ‘We cannot allow this use of Allah in non-Muslim publications, nobody except Muslims. The word Allah is published by the Catholics. It’s not right.’”
“But what Johari revealed was his ignorance of his own professed religion, of the Arabic language in which the Koran is written, and of the history and culture of Muslims throughout most of the world. God and Allah mean the same in different languages.”
FREE TV FOOTBALL INSTEAD OF BREAD AND CIRCUSES FOR THE AMERICAN MASSES
Australian politicians take note: the way to the hearts and minds of voters may be free football for the masses.
That’s the way US Democrat Senator Kerry saw it earlier this week.
On Saturday America plays host to a potentially historic National Football League match up between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants which will now be broadcast nationally both on CBS and NBC as well as the NFL Network.
The Patriots are poised to become the NFL's first regular-season undefeated team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the game was to have been available nationally only on the NFL Network, is owned by the league. The channel isn't carried by most major cable-TV operators, although it is available on satellite-TV services. The cable industry and the NFL have been feuding over the channel's distribution, an issue that has caught the attention of some in Congress and put pressure on the league.
Earlier this week Kerry wrote to the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell urging him to put the game on free TV.
The Wall Street journal said, “The league has heard from several other New England politicians representing fans in areas where the game wouldn't have been widely distributed.
In a subsequent statement, Goodell said the league took the step to sanction the first triple national simulcast in league history and the first national simulcast of an NFL game since the first Super Bowl, to please fans.
AUSTRALIANS PROTESTING INDIAN CRICKET RACISM IS LIKE THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK
Stephen Hagan, a lecturer in the Centre for Australian Indigenous Knowledges, University of Southern Queensland explored the irony of “the recent saturation media coverage of the Australian cricket tour of India” being focused entirely around “racial vilification of Australia’s only black cricketer, Andrew Symonds (of British and West Indian origin) by other non-white spectators, the Indians.”
In Online Opinion Hagan, who also worked as a diplomat in Colombo in the early 1980s, wrote, “Symonds was persistently racially vilified with chants of ‘monkey’ by sections of the Indian crowd whenever he fielded near the boundary. I was most disturbed to see images beamed back to Australia on national television of what appeared to be monkey gesturing by the Indian crowd.”
But he also pointed out that Australian cricketers and the public are not entirely guilt free when it comes to bringing the game into disrepute from their conduct on and off the cricket field.
He referred to several incidents recounted in his 2006 book, Australia’s Blackest Sporting Moments - The top 100.
He said Shiney, a cricketer who played for Hobart Town and was the first Aboriginal sportsman mentioned in the media in 1835, was beheaded and his ‘specimen’ sent by a resident doctor to an Irish museum for preservation after his cricketing days were over.
Johnny Mullagh, the first Aborigine to play cricket for Victoria in the 1870s, as cited in Anthony Mundine’s book The Man, was told by an innkeeper while on tour that a room next to the stable was good enough for a “nigger”.
Mullagh opted to sleep in the open yard as his quiet protest while his Victorian white team mates slept in the Inn’s beds.
Hagan wrote, “In more contemporary times the mere mention of the name Jimmy Maher brings back memories of a man who had a bad case of foot in mouth. The Queensland cricket captain’s comments on Channel Nine’s The Footy Show that he was as ‘full as a coon’s Valiant’ during post-match celebrations of the State’s first-ever Sheffield Shield victory in March 1995 had to be heard to be believed.”
He also recanted the anguish Shane Warne caused his captain Ricky Ponting when he called South African paceman Makhaya Ntini ‘John Blackman’ in December 2005. The Advertiser reported that Ntini rebuked Warne by saying “Hey, enough of the black”.
In January 2003, The Australian reported that Australian opener, Darren Lehmann, yelled “black c*&#s" in the tunnel leading to the Brisbane Gabba dressing rooms after he was dismissed in the game against Sri Lanka.
In December 2003, The Age reporter Trevor Marshallsea reported racial abuse by spectators against the visiting Indian team.
He wrote, “As Cricket Australia said it was moving to adopt powers to eject spectators for racial abuse, Indian spectators and journalists yesterday reported being called names such as ‘coolie’ and ‘curry muncher’ at the Adelaide Oval and in Brisbane.”
CBS SHARE PRICE IN DOWNWARD SPIRAL OVER WRITERS STRIKE AND AD SPEND DOWNTURN
The Wall Street Journal reports that with television writers on the picket lines, CBS Corp's stock price “has also been on strike.”
CBS shares have shed a quarter of their market value in a few months and the Wall Street Journal attributes that to the writers' strike that exposes CBS's reliance on its TV network, and a slowdown in advertising spending.
Ironically, when CBS split from Viacom at the start of last year, with Viacom keeping film businesses and cable networks like MTV, CBS was expected to be the slow-growth, steady-return sibling.
But its shares rose nearly 40 percent in the first 18 months out of the gate, while Viacom's performance was fairly flat.
The stock price was a source of pride at CBS but as they say, pride comes before a fall, or in this case a sharp rise comes before fall, and CBS shares then began to drop.
And they’re still doing that.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Many say it was inevitable the company would come down to earth.”
NEW ZEALAND’S SMALL BUSINESS EXPO MAGAZINE TO GO INTERNATIONAL
New Zealand’s Your Business Your Way expo magazine will create an international presence as a back up to the proposed international launch of The Small Business Expo, the country's largest event for business.
Scoop.Co.NZ said the Small Business Expo went national in New Zealand for the first time last year and attracted larger than expected crowds with more than 13,000 business people attending at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
Now small business sector specialists Sarah Trotman and Associates have taken the
concept overseas and are franchising the event through New Zealand's
leading franchise company Franchize Consultants.
Trotman attended the Business Startup Expo at Olympia in London and the International
Small Business Conference in Glasgow this year and says the Small Business Expo stacks up extremely well against these international events.
Resorting to acronym-speak, she told Scoop, "We plan to invite a number of APEC SME leaders and managers charged with looking after SMEs in the EU to attend the 2008 Small Business Expo and Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards to see for themselves that we are indeed world class."
She is confident the franchise package which includes Your Business Your Way expo magazine, the Small Business Expo, and the Excellence in Business Support Awards will work as well internationally as they have in New Zealand.
REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS GIVES MYANMAR MEDIA FREEDOM A BAD END OF YEAR REPORT CARD
Myanmar’s military government has constantly hounded local journalists during the three months that have gone by since September 27, the day that Japanese video reporter Kenji Nagai was shot dead by a soldier in Yangon, according to Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association.
The police and army continue to hunt for journalists and activists who photographed and filmed the crackdown on the pro-democracy demonstrations, and at least nine have fled to Thailand.
Privately-owned media has resumed publishing but the Censorship Board has stepped up its control.
Reporters Without Borders said, “The impression that things are back to normal is false The security services are still looking for the underground journalists who let the world know about the violence against monks and pro-democracy activists. We call for an end to the intimidation of the press and for the release of the six journalists currently held. The international community must find a way to get UN special rapporteur Sergio Pinheiro's recommendations implemented."
The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on Myanmar on December 14 that calls on the government to guarantee the freedom of the independent media.
Ko Aung Gyi, the former editor of the sports magazine 90 Minutes, is one of the latest journalists to be detained, but it is not known why he was arrested in Yangon. Two other former journalists, Ko Win Maw and Ko Aung Aung, have also been arrested without being charged. At least 15 other journalists have been arrested since September and then released.
The six currently in prison include Win Tin, a prominent journalist held since July 1989.
People who have been arrested and then released say the police ask everyone for the names of the ‘cameramen,’ meaning the journalists who work clandestinely for foreign news media or Democratic Voice of Burma, an exile radio and TV station based in Oslo. Many photographers and cameramen who contributed to exile media have stopped working altogether for fear of being identified.
The Union Solidarity and Development Association, a pro-government militia, continues to be hostile towards journalists. The Myanmar Nation photographer Aung Khine Nyunt was beaten by thugs believed to be association members while taking photos of a march on October. In all, about ten journalists were beaten or roughed up during the demonstrations.
The weekly News Watch was banned for a week in mid-November after proposing the publication of photos that displeased the military, and military censors have forced editors to resign.
In early December, the authorities punished the magazine Action for failing to withdraw articles censored by the government. A censorship official publicly criticised Action for not being "constructive." The newspaper Middle Line also got into trouble. It was suspended after its editor, Oo Swe, complained that some media were getting favourable treatment from the censors.
To prevent Myanmar people from seeing reports and pictures of the crackdown in September, the military government has strictly controlled the sale of foreign publications since mid-October. The magazines Time and Newsweek and Thai newspapers have not been seen in news stands for the past few weeks. The internet has been restored but surveillance has been stepped up in Internet cafés. For fear of reprisals, many internet cafe owners have removed the program from their computers that allowed users to circumvent the government's filters.
The censorship is not limited to political topics. The military government, for example, banned coverage of a new outbreak of bird flu on October 20, although the outbreak was announced by the government agency responsible for dealing with it.
INDIA’S BAG FILM AND MEDIA TO LAUNCH ENGLISH NEWS WEBSITE
India’s BAG Films & Media Ltd will soon roll out an English news website called www.News24online.com to supplement the recent launch of its 24-hour Hindi news channel, News24channel.
Agencyfaqs! reports that News24online will feature regional, national and international news in both text and video formats. Most of the news will be sourced from its news channel and various news agencies, while the videos will be taken from the TV channel only.
Hemant Kumar, head of BAG Convergence, says, “Initially, the site will be in English, but later, the Hindi language will be added. The site will also have content related to lifestyle, movies, technology, shopping, spirituality and health.
“The site and news channel will supplement each other as the site will cater to the audience which does not have access to the news channel and vice versa.”
There are also plans to offer live video streaming of news which will let visitors watch the news as it is broadcast on News24.
The site will have user generated content in the form of a citizen journalism section where people can create blogs and write on contemporary issues.
From MediaBlab via Dow Jones Factiva, by Peter Olszewski
AN INTERNATIONAL NEWS AGENCY SOMBRE SONG OF DEATH
Below is the series of news alerts from Reuters that this morning informed the world of the death of Benazir Bhutto:
Three dead in Pakistan election violence -official
Several dead in blast outside Bhutto rally
Several dead in blast outside Bhutto rally
About 15 dead in blast outside Bhutto rally-police
Pakistan's Bhutto badly wounded –husband
Pakistan's Bhutto killed in attack – party
US condemns attack on Pakistan's Bhutto
A party aide says Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has died following a suicide attack. Latest details:
INSTANT VIEW-Pakistan's Bhutto killed in attack – party
Bush informed of Pakistan situation-spokesman
Bush to make statement on Pakistan - White House
U.N. council to consult on Bhutto killing
Pakistani paramilitary forces on "red alert"
Musharraf says terrorists killed Bhutto, urges unity
Extremists must not kill Pakistani democracy-UK's Brown
Bush to call Musharraf about Bhutto assassination
Pakistan's Sharif says to boycott January election
Bush has spoken with Pakistan's Musharraf -W.House
Gunmen kill one, wound two at Kenya's Kibera slum
Senior militant killed in Gaza-Islamic Jihad
DEBATE HOTS UP OVER UNCOOL MEDIA MUTTERINGS THAT GLOBAL WARMING HAS CEASED
Devout global warming devotees on the blogosphere have cried foul over scientist David Whitehouse’s claim in the New Statesman that warming has stopped globally.
Whitehouse wrote, “Global warming stopped? Surely not. What heresy is this? Haven’t we been told that the science of global warming is settled beyond doubt and all that’s left to the so-called sceptics is the odd errant glacier that refuses to melt?”
“The fact is that the global temperature of 2007 is statistically the same as 2006 as well as every other year since 2001. Global warming has, temporarily or permanently, ceased.”
Whitehouse does add that that something is going on with the world’s weather but we still don’t know exactly what and should find out, rather than blindly assume carbon dioxide induced warming is the culprit.
He wrote, “I have heard it said by scientists, journalists and politicians, that the time for argument is over and that further scientific debate only causes delay in action.
“But the wish to know exactly what is going on is independent of politics and scientists must never bend their desire for knowledge to any political cause, however noble.”
CALL TO CHARGE PREGNANT 16-YEAR-OLD SUPER-SKANK JAMIE LYNN SPEARS’ BOYFRIEND WITH RAPE
TV Week reports that with Jamie Lynn Spears’, the 16-year-old star of Nickelodeon's series Zoey 101, announcing she's pregnant, the kids network is considering airing a special on love and sex from Linda Ellerbee.
Ellerbee has done Nick News specials on other sensitive topics, including same-sex parents and the impeachment of President Clinton.
Nickelodeon has not said much about Ms Spears, sister of singer Britney Spears, or the show, other than releasing a supportive statement.
"We respect Jamie Lynn's decision to take responsibility in this sensitive and personal situation,” the statement said. “We know this is a very difficult time for her and her family, and our primary concern right now is for Jamie Lynn's well-being."
The third season of Zoey 101 ends on January 4. The network has already shot the fourth and final season of the series and was scheduled to air it later in 2008.
But the news of Spear’s pregnancy has of course triggered a wave of media comment, and it has sent Walter Brasch, professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University in the US, particularly gaga.
In an article, published in Australia by Online Opinion, he wrote,
“Ever vigilant, the mass media dug into a critical social issue and rooted out the information in their never-ending quest to guarantee the people’s right to know.
“The people’s right to know, they decided, was that 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears, star of Nickelodeon’s Zoey 101, is pregnant. Jamie Lynn is the younger sister of Britney Spears, the former Mouseketeer who has combined a chart-topping career as a singer and dancer with being America’s Celebrity Super-Skank.
“The National Enquirer first broke the story about Jamie Lynn in its July 28 issue. Unfortunately, Jamie Lynn wasn’t pregnant at the time.
“Shortly after the Enquirer’s story appeared, and thousands of bloggers became sexually active, Jamie Lynn’s ‘good name’ became semen-stained when she became pregnant, probably in September. The father is 19-year-old Casey Aldridge, who lived with Jamie Lynn and her mother in an LA condo, and followed the teen mini-star to the Zoey 101 set almost every day. So far, no one is filing any statutory rape charges.
“True to the ethics and business practices of tween celebs, Jamie Lynn hid the news until she could find a price high enough. High enough to run the story was OK! magazine, which put Jamie Lynn and a mega-hype teaser on its cover, and trumpeted the six-page in-depth investigation as a “world exclusive”.
“In true media tradition, the ‘news’ was released a day before the magazine appeared on the shelves, December 19, two weeks before its cover date. Circulation was expected to rise faster than a pubescent boy’s hormones.
Naturally, the rest of the messed-up mainstream and alternative media also had to jump onto the story. OK!’s not-so-hard news interview led the news segments of the network morning shows, was discussed thoroughly by the mid-morning and afternoon talk shows, and was featured by CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News - which paused just long enough to report a fire in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House; a chemical plant explosion in Jacksonville, Florida. that killed three and injured 14; and the President signing an Energy Bill.
“Radio, the blogosphere, and the internet-based newspapers wasted no time polluting the airwaves and the world’s bandwidths; print newspapers were caught in the wrong news cycle and had to publish ‘day after’ not-so-investigative stories. Under reported, or not reported at all by most of the media, was that in four separate instances in Iraq, seven civilians were killed and 27 wounded. Nevertheless, enquiring American minds wanted to know all there was about Jamie Lynn: within a day, Google recorded more than 150,000 separate stories and blogger comments.”
MARINER BOSS UNLOADS ON BEYOND INTERNATIONAL OVER FAILED TAKEOVER BID
Mariner Financial executive chairman Bill Ireland has hinted at making another bid for Beyond International, while attacking Beyond's board for failing to accept Mariner's bid for the group, the Australian reports today.
Mariner's $1.25-a-share, $74.6 million bid for Beyond expired a week ago, after failing to receive more than 50 per cent acceptances because the Beyond board withdrew a recommendation in favour of the bid due to a potentially higher rival offer from digital media group Destra.
But the Destra offer did not materialise, after the company was unable to raise funds on-market last week to make a bid.
Ireland attacked the Beyond board for their handling of the bid, particularly because the company had entered into due diligence with three companies –
Mariner, Destra and Malaysian-based private equity firm Navis – with no success.
"They've gone through three due diligence processes, paid a $500,000 break fee and they've got no bid on the table," he said.
"They haven't behaved in the best interests of shareholders. They had the company up for sale and got the best price, but they decided they didn't want to sell it."
BRITAIN’S CROWN AS WORLD LEADING TV FORMAT ORIGINATOR SHOWS SERIOUS SLIPPAGE
Take that Captain America – Britain claims that is has held on to its crown as the world's leading originator of television formats, with successes such as Simon Cowell's Got Talent franchise continuing to dominate international sales.
But its proportion of the global market, however, has once again declined, according to The Guardian.
In the first nine months of this year, the UK's share of the global format sales market was 33 percent, with independent producers accounting for 88 percent of the total, according to a report by the international distributor FremantleMedia, which is owned by the Luxembourg-based media group RTL.
By comparison, the UK's two nearest rivals, the US and the Netherlands, home to Big Brother and Deal or No Deal creator Endemol, stood at 21 percent each.
The Guardian said “Britain has traditionally been seen as a leader in format origination because of the competitiveness of its domestic TV market and the willingness of broadcasters to take risks.”
But, despite still enjoying a big lead over its competitors, the UK has slowly seen its domination erode. Its global share stood at 43 percent last year and 50 percent in 2005, according to Fremantle.
The US and the Netherlands saw growth this year, mainly down to their successful creation of new game shows, a genre which has seen a renewed global interest with a 30 percent rise in the number of new titles this year across the main TV markets.
NEW EDITOR IN CHIEF FOR AUSTRALIA’S WOMEN’S WEEKLY
ACP Magazines has appointed Robin Foyster as editor-in-chief of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Foyster, who will report to editorial director, Deborah Thomas, was formerly the editor of Pacific Publications’ New Idea magazine and in 2007 she was named Editor of the Year by the Magazine Publishers of Australia.
Announcing the appointment, ACP Magazines’ group publisher of women’s lifestyle titles, Pat Ingram said, “Robin will be an absolute asset to our business and, together with Deborah, they will form a remarkably dynamic team. Deborah will continue in her role as editorial director and she will be assuming additional responsibilities within the group in the coming months.”
The Australian Women’s Weekly, which is the highest circulating magazine (605,039 ABC June 07) and also the most read magazine in the country (2,706,000 Roy Morgan September 07), will celebrate its 75th year in 2008.
MALAYSIA THREATENS TO SHUT DOWN CATHOLIC NEWSPAPER IF IT REFERS TO GOD AS ALLAH
The government of Muslim-majority Malaysia will not renew a Catholic newspaper's license to publish unless it stops using the word ‘Allah’ to denote god.
Father Lawrence Andrew, the editor of the Herald has come up against an issue that has affected inter-religious relations before in the Southeast Asian country, which is often cited as an example of pluralistic democracy in the Muslim world, according to CNSNews which followed up a story that originally appeared on Asia Sentinel on Christmas eve.
Shortly before Christmas, the Malaysian Internal Security Ministry sent a directive ordering the weekly to drop the use of the word ‘Allah,’ when referring to the god who Christians worship. Instead, the newspaper should use the word ‘Tuhan,’ which is a general term for god in the language spoken by the majority of Malaysians, Bahasa Malaysia.
A ministry official was quoted as saying that ‘Allah’ referred only to the Muslim god, and its use was designed to confuse Muslims.
The instruction to the Herald, which publishes sections in Bahasa Malaysia, English, Tamil and Mandarin, has stirred controversy, especially because of its timing..
The newspaper, like others in Malaysia, is required to have an official permit that must be renewed annually, and that expires on December 31.
The Herald editor said the ministry was trying to suppress the Bahasa Malaysia section of the newspaper, and pointed out that the word for god in the Bible in the Malay language is Allah, and said it was thus natural that that word be used.
This isn't the first time the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims has caused contention in Malaysia.
In 2003, the issue prompted a government decision to ban a Bible published in the tongue of a small indigenous ethnic group. The ban was later reversed after protests.
Asia Sentinel said, “The Malaysian authorities’ refusal to renew the publication of the weekly Catholic newspaper The Herald unless it stops using the word Allah as the word for god in the Malay language is a demonstration of racism and linguistic ignorance, not religious purity.
“According to Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharum, ‘Only Muslims can use Allah. It’s a Muslim word, you see. It’s from the Arabic language. We cannot let other religions use it because it will confuse people,’ he was reported as saying. ‘We cannot allow this use of Allah in non-Muslim publications, nobody except Muslims. The word Allah is published by the Catholics. It’s not right.’”
“But what Johari revealed was his ignorance of his own professed religion, of the Arabic language in which the Koran is written, and of the history and culture of Muslims throughout most of the world. God and Allah mean the same in different languages.”
FREE TV FOOTBALL INSTEAD OF BREAD AND CIRCUSES FOR THE AMERICAN MASSES
Australian politicians take note: the way to the hearts and minds of voters may be free football for the masses.
That’s the way US Democrat Senator Kerry saw it earlier this week.
On Saturday America plays host to a potentially historic National Football League match up between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants which will now be broadcast nationally both on CBS and NBC as well as the NFL Network.
The Patriots are poised to become the NFL's first regular-season undefeated team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the game was to have been available nationally only on the NFL Network, is owned by the league. The channel isn't carried by most major cable-TV operators, although it is available on satellite-TV services. The cable industry and the NFL have been feuding over the channel's distribution, an issue that has caught the attention of some in Congress and put pressure on the league.
Earlier this week Kerry wrote to the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell urging him to put the game on free TV.
The Wall Street journal said, “The league has heard from several other New England politicians representing fans in areas where the game wouldn't have been widely distributed.
In a subsequent statement, Goodell said the league took the step to sanction the first triple national simulcast in league history and the first national simulcast of an NFL game since the first Super Bowl, to please fans.
AUSTRALIANS PROTESTING INDIAN CRICKET RACISM IS LIKE THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK
Stephen Hagan, a lecturer in the Centre for Australian Indigenous Knowledges, University of Southern Queensland explored the irony of “the recent saturation media coverage of the Australian cricket tour of India” being focused entirely around “racial vilification of Australia’s only black cricketer, Andrew Symonds (of British and West Indian origin) by other non-white spectators, the Indians.”
In Online Opinion Hagan, who also worked as a diplomat in Colombo in the early 1980s, wrote, “Symonds was persistently racially vilified with chants of ‘monkey’ by sections of the Indian crowd whenever he fielded near the boundary. I was most disturbed to see images beamed back to Australia on national television of what appeared to be monkey gesturing by the Indian crowd.”
But he also pointed out that Australian cricketers and the public are not entirely guilt free when it comes to bringing the game into disrepute from their conduct on and off the cricket field.
He referred to several incidents recounted in his 2006 book, Australia’s Blackest Sporting Moments - The top 100.
He said Shiney, a cricketer who played for Hobart Town and was the first Aboriginal sportsman mentioned in the media in 1835, was beheaded and his ‘specimen’ sent by a resident doctor to an Irish museum for preservation after his cricketing days were over.
Johnny Mullagh, the first Aborigine to play cricket for Victoria in the 1870s, as cited in Anthony Mundine’s book The Man, was told by an innkeeper while on tour that a room next to the stable was good enough for a “nigger”.
Mullagh opted to sleep in the open yard as his quiet protest while his Victorian white team mates slept in the Inn’s beds.
Hagan wrote, “In more contemporary times the mere mention of the name Jimmy Maher brings back memories of a man who had a bad case of foot in mouth. The Queensland cricket captain’s comments on Channel Nine’s The Footy Show that he was as ‘full as a coon’s Valiant’ during post-match celebrations of the State’s first-ever Sheffield Shield victory in March 1995 had to be heard to be believed.”
He also recanted the anguish Shane Warne caused his captain Ricky Ponting when he called South African paceman Makhaya Ntini ‘John Blackman’ in December 2005. The Advertiser reported that Ntini rebuked Warne by saying “Hey, enough of the black”.
In January 2003, The Australian reported that Australian opener, Darren Lehmann, yelled “black c*&#s" in the tunnel leading to the Brisbane Gabba dressing rooms after he was dismissed in the game against Sri Lanka.
In December 2003, The Age reporter Trevor Marshallsea reported racial abuse by spectators against the visiting Indian team.
He wrote, “As Cricket Australia said it was moving to adopt powers to eject spectators for racial abuse, Indian spectators and journalists yesterday reported being called names such as ‘coolie’ and ‘curry muncher’ at the Adelaide Oval and in Brisbane.”
CBS SHARE PRICE IN DOWNWARD SPIRAL OVER WRITERS STRIKE AND AD SPEND DOWNTURN
The Wall Street Journal reports that with television writers on the picket lines, CBS Corp's stock price “has also been on strike.”
CBS shares have shed a quarter of their market value in a few months and the Wall Street Journal attributes that to the writers' strike that exposes CBS's reliance on its TV network, and a slowdown in advertising spending.
Ironically, when CBS split from Viacom at the start of last year, with Viacom keeping film businesses and cable networks like MTV, CBS was expected to be the slow-growth, steady-return sibling.
But its shares rose nearly 40 percent in the first 18 months out of the gate, while Viacom's performance was fairly flat.
The stock price was a source of pride at CBS but as they say, pride comes before a fall, or in this case a sharp rise comes before fall, and CBS shares then began to drop.
And they’re still doing that.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Many say it was inevitable the company would come down to earth.”
NEW ZEALAND’S SMALL BUSINESS EXPO MAGAZINE TO GO INTERNATIONAL
New Zealand’s Your Business Your Way expo magazine will create an international presence as a back up to the proposed international launch of The Small Business Expo, the country's largest event for business.
Scoop.Co.NZ said the Small Business Expo went national in New Zealand for the first time last year and attracted larger than expected crowds with more than 13,000 business people attending at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
Now small business sector specialists Sarah Trotman and Associates have taken the
concept overseas and are franchising the event through New Zealand's
leading franchise company Franchize Consultants.
Trotman attended the Business Startup Expo at Olympia in London and the International
Small Business Conference in Glasgow this year and says the Small Business Expo stacks up extremely well against these international events.
Resorting to acronym-speak, she told Scoop, "We plan to invite a number of APEC SME leaders and managers charged with looking after SMEs in the EU to attend the 2008 Small Business Expo and Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards to see for themselves that we are indeed world class."
She is confident the franchise package which includes Your Business Your Way expo magazine, the Small Business Expo, and the Excellence in Business Support Awards will work as well internationally as they have in New Zealand.
REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS GIVES MYANMAR MEDIA FREEDOM A BAD END OF YEAR REPORT CARD
Myanmar’s military government has constantly hounded local journalists during the three months that have gone by since September 27, the day that Japanese video reporter Kenji Nagai was shot dead by a soldier in Yangon, according to Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association.
The police and army continue to hunt for journalists and activists who photographed and filmed the crackdown on the pro-democracy demonstrations, and at least nine have fled to Thailand.
Privately-owned media has resumed publishing but the Censorship Board has stepped up its control.
Reporters Without Borders said, “The impression that things are back to normal is false The security services are still looking for the underground journalists who let the world know about the violence against monks and pro-democracy activists. We call for an end to the intimidation of the press and for the release of the six journalists currently held. The international community must find a way to get UN special rapporteur Sergio Pinheiro's recommendations implemented."
The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on Myanmar on December 14 that calls on the government to guarantee the freedom of the independent media.
Ko Aung Gyi, the former editor of the sports magazine 90 Minutes, is one of the latest journalists to be detained, but it is not known why he was arrested in Yangon. Two other former journalists, Ko Win Maw and Ko Aung Aung, have also been arrested without being charged. At least 15 other journalists have been arrested since September and then released.
The six currently in prison include Win Tin, a prominent journalist held since July 1989.
People who have been arrested and then released say the police ask everyone for the names of the ‘cameramen,’ meaning the journalists who work clandestinely for foreign news media or Democratic Voice of Burma, an exile radio and TV station based in Oslo. Many photographers and cameramen who contributed to exile media have stopped working altogether for fear of being identified.
The Union Solidarity and Development Association, a pro-government militia, continues to be hostile towards journalists. The Myanmar Nation photographer Aung Khine Nyunt was beaten by thugs believed to be association members while taking photos of a march on October. In all, about ten journalists were beaten or roughed up during the demonstrations.
The weekly News Watch was banned for a week in mid-November after proposing the publication of photos that displeased the military, and military censors have forced editors to resign.
In early December, the authorities punished the magazine Action for failing to withdraw articles censored by the government. A censorship official publicly criticised Action for not being "constructive." The newspaper Middle Line also got into trouble. It was suspended after its editor, Oo Swe, complained that some media were getting favourable treatment from the censors.
To prevent Myanmar people from seeing reports and pictures of the crackdown in September, the military government has strictly controlled the sale of foreign publications since mid-October. The magazines Time and Newsweek and Thai newspapers have not been seen in news stands for the past few weeks. The internet has been restored but surveillance has been stepped up in Internet cafés. For fear of reprisals, many internet cafe owners have removed the program from their computers that allowed users to circumvent the government's filters.
The censorship is not limited to political topics. The military government, for example, banned coverage of a new outbreak of bird flu on October 20, although the outbreak was announced by the government agency responsible for dealing with it.
INDIA’S BAG FILM AND MEDIA TO LAUNCH ENGLISH NEWS WEBSITE
India’s BAG Films & Media Ltd will soon roll out an English news website called www.News24online.com to supplement the recent launch of its 24-hour Hindi news channel, News24channel.
Agencyfaqs! reports that News24online will feature regional, national and international news in both text and video formats. Most of the news will be sourced from its news channel and various news agencies, while the videos will be taken from the TV channel only.
Hemant Kumar, head of BAG Convergence, says, “Initially, the site will be in English, but later, the Hindi language will be added. The site will also have content related to lifestyle, movies, technology, shopping, spirituality and health.
“The site and news channel will supplement each other as the site will cater to the audience which does not have access to the news channel and vice versa.”
There are also plans to offer live video streaming of news which will let visitors watch the news as it is broadcast on News24.
The site will have user generated content in the form of a citizen journalism section where people can create blogs and write on contemporary issues.
From MediaBlab via Dow Jones Factiva, by Peter Olszewski
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