| US: Ads Test Payola Case Settlement by Jeff Leeds, The New York Times October 25th, 2006 Hardly more than a year has passed since the nation’s biggest record labels started agreeing to a series of measures that were intended to end the industry’s long history of employing bribes and other shady practices to influence which songs are heard on the radio. |
| US: Bias written in black and white: study by Nicholas Hirshon, New York Daily News October 24th, 2006 A lack of racially diverse newsrooms often leads to biased media coverage of major events such as Hurricane Katrina, according to a St. John's University School of Law study. |
| IRAQ: Pentagon Audit Clears Propaganda Effort by Mark Mazzetti, New York Times October 20th, 2006 An American military propaganda campaign that planted favorable news articles in the Iraqi news media did not violate laws or Pentagon regulations, but it was not properly supervised by military officials in Baghdad, an audit by the Pentagon Inspector General has concluded. |
| IRAQ: Firm That Paid Iraq Papers Gets New Deal by Rebecca Santana, Associated Press September 27th, 2006 A public relations company that participated in a controversial U.S. military program that paid Iraqi newspapers for stories favorable to coalition forces has been awarded another multimillion-dollar media contract with American forces in Iraq. |
| US: PR joins fight for hearts and minds
by David Robertson, The Times (London) September 18th, 2006 A NEW business in military public relations that is worth millions of dollars is emerging as consultants are being drafted into the battle for the world's 'hearts and minds'. |
| US: 10 Miami Journalists Take U.S. Pay by Oscar Corral, Miami Herald September 8th, 2006 At least 10 South Florida journalists, including three from El Nuevo Herald, received regular payments from the U.S. government for programs on Radio Martà and TV MartÃ, two broadcasters aimed at undermining the communist government of Fidel Castro. The payments totaled thousands of dollars over several years. |
| MEXICO: TV spots throw Mexican business into election fray by Chris Aspin, Reuters June 28th, 2006 Mexico's most powerful business group is putting its money where its mouth is only days before Sunday's presidential vote, with thinly-veiled TV ads critical of the leftist front runner. |
| US: PUSH Seeks Boycott of Oil Giant BP by Liam Ford, Chicago Tribune June 13th, 2006 Leaders attending the annual Rainbow PUSH Coalition conference on Monday called for a boycott of oil giant BP PLC, a conference sponsor, and for a renewed focus on increasing minority representation on national television news channels, including CNN. |
| US: The Next Niche: School Bus Ads
by Caroline E. Mayer, The Washington Post June 4th, 2006 BusRadio, a start-up company in Massachusetts, wants to pipe into school buses around the country a private radio network that plays music, public-service announcements, contests and, of course, ads, aimed at kids as they travel to and from school. |
| RUSSIA: Russian Download Site Is Popular and Possibly Illegal by Thomas Crampton, International Herald Tribune June 1st, 2006 So great is the official level of concern about AllofMP3 that American trade negotiators darkly warned that the Web site could jeopardize Russia's long-sought entry into the World Trade Organization. |
| US: Big Bonuses Still Flow, Even if Bosses Miss Goals by Gretchen Morgenson, The New York Times May 31st, 2006 As executive pay packages have rocketed in recent years, their defenders have contended that because most are tied to company performance, they are both earned and deserved. But as the Las Vegas Sands example shows, investors who plow through company filings often find that executive compensation exceeds the amounts allowed under the performance targets set by the directors. |
| IRAQ: U.S. Urged to Stop Paying Iraqi Reporters by David S. Cloud, The New York Times May 24th, 2006 |
| US: Disney Loses Its Appetite for Happy Meal Tie-Ins by Rachel Abramowitz, Los Angeles Times May 8th, 2006 Disney is not renewing its cross-promotional pact with the fast-food giant, ending the arrangement with this summer's release of "Cars" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." One reason, say multiple high-ranking sources within Disney, is that the company — which prides itself on being family friendly — wants to distance itself from fast food and its links to the epidemic of childhood obesity. |
| US: America's Fake News Pandemic by Timothy Karr, Media Citizen April 7th, 2006 A report released yesterday by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and Free Press exposes corporate propaganda’s infiltration of local television news across the country. |
| US: Spitzer Criticizes Talks Between FCC, Stations
by Charles Duhigg, The Los Angeles Times April 4th, 2006 New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer said Monday that federal regulators were negotiating behind his back with radio station groups to settle allegations of illegal payments for airplay, potentially helping the companies avoid serious punishment. |
| US: Smithsonian Agreement Angers Filmmakers by Edward Wyatt, The New York Times April 1st, 2006 Some of the biggest names in documentary filmmaking have denounced a recent agreement between the Smithsonian Institution and Showtime Networks Inc. that they say restricts makers of films and television shows using Smithsonian materials from offering their work to public television or other non-Showtime broadcast outlets. |
| US: The Conservative Hand of Hollywood by Justin Clark, Nerve.com March 29th, 2006 The Christian leader of megaplex Regal Cinemas is trying to shape what audiences see -- and don't see -- at the movies. |
| US: Players Big and Small Are Sifting Through Pieces of Knight Ridder by Katharine Q. Seelye, The New York Times March 27th, 2006 With the McClatchy Company set to accept bids, starting as early as tomorrow, for the 12 Knight Ridder papers it is selling, some of the potential buyers are looking at the country as if it were a giant chessboard. The goal is not to topple a king but to become one — a king of each regional market where potential buyers already own newspapers and can achieve economies of scale by buying pieces of Knight Ridder. |
| US: 'Washington Post' To Cut 80 Newsroom Jobs, Sources Say by Joe Strupp, Editor & Publisher March 10th, 2006 The Washington Post plans to cut at least 80 newsroom jobs through attrition and buyouts, according to sources at the paper who said editors began giving staffers the bad news on Thursday in meetings and continued today. |
| US: Spitzer sues major radio chain in 'payola' suit Associated Press March 8th, 2006 Gifts, trips and cash were used to pave the way for air time for certain songs and artists at radio stations owned by one of the nation's largest chains, according to lawsuit filed by state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. |