Shadow's Bastion

CNN Drops to Last Place Among Cable News Networks

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:37:31 -0100

mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com

By Bill Carter

CNN, which invented the cable news network more than two decades ago, will hit a new competitive low with its prime-time programs in October, finishing fourth â and last â among the cable news networks with the audience that all the networks rely on for their advertising.

The official monthly numbers will be finalized at 4 p.m. Monday and will include results from Friday. CNN executives conceded that will not change the competitive standing for the month. CNN will still be last in prime time.

That means CNNâs programs were behind not only Fox News and MSNBC, but even its own sister network HLN (formerly Headline News.) Three of its four shows between 7 and 11 p.m. finished fourth and last among the cable news networks. That was the first time CNN had finished that poorly with its prime-time shows.

The results demonstrate once more the apparent preference of viewers for opinion-oriented shows from the news networks in prime time.

CNN has steered opinion hosts like Nancy Grace to HLN, while maintaining more news-oriented shows on CNN itself. When news events are not being intensely followed, CNN executives acknowledge, viewers seem to be looking for partisan views more than objective coverage.

Individually, the CNN shows were beaten resoundingly by all the Fox News programs, but also lost to all of the MSNBC programs, including a repeat of Keith Olbermannâs 8 p.m. edition of âCountdown,â which beat the 10 p.m. hour of CNNâs signature prime-time program, âAnderson Cooper 360.â
Again that was a first.

Mr. Cooper had 211,000 viewers to 223,000 for Mr. Olbermannâs repeat. That meant Mr. Cooper finished fourth and last in the 10 p.m. hour because, besides being well behind the leader, Greta Van Susteren, who had 538,000 viewers, he was also beaten by a repeat of Nancy Graceâs 8 p.m. show on HLN, which averaged 222,000.

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Trick or Tweet? Twitter launches crackdown after millions are duped by fake accounts

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:59:49 -0100

www.dailymail.co.uk

By Daniel Boffey
Last updated at 8:11 AM on 20th September 2009

The social networking site Twitter is clamping down on fake celebrity accounts after being sued in America.

Thousands of famous names have fallen victim to impostors, including Britney Spears, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, the Dalai Lama and even the Queen.

This summer, Mr Miliband was forced to deny quotes widely attributed to him after the death of Michael Jackson. The comments had been written on a seemingly plausible Twitter account under his name.

Twitter has decided to act after Tony La Russa, the coach of an obscure American baseball team, launched a legal action over a fake account. He claimed that postings in which he appeared to make light of the death of two of his players had been âhurtfulâ.

Twitter, which has six million users who can send instant blogs on their activities to anyone who chooses to follow them, denies it has any legal case to answer.

But it is now testing a new system to ensure that users can identify genuine celebrity accounts. In future, a tick alongside a name will guarantee it is genuine.

Until recently, Twitter has had a liberal attitude towards celebrity impostors as long as it was clear that the postings were not genuine.

One blogger claimed to be jailed record producer Phil Spector, writing from his prison cell. Among the fake Spectorâs comments were: âPeople ask me for my opinion of American Idol. Itâs a total insult to music. Not my thing.â

A phoney account under the name of film star Christopher Walken and bearing his picture is still regularly read by more than 90,000 people.

And in March this year, actor Ewan McGregorâs spokesman claimed the star was considering legal action to remove a fake Twitter account that had attracted 20,000 followers.

The Mail on Sundayâs own Piers Morgan has also been targeted by an impostor who has accumulated a following of 17,650. One of the more recent postings has the Britainâs Got Talent judge saying: âWell done everyone for backing Susan [Boyle], such a talented lady.â

Jonathan Ross recently unmasked an impostor claiming to be comedian Jack Dee. The BBC presenter phoned Dee to check if the postings were really his.

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Car showrooms quiet after clunkers clamor ends

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:57:16 -0100

www.boston.com

Dealers add other incentives in bid to entice buyers

By Megan Woolhouse
Globe Staff / September 19, 2009

It has been nearly a month since the car-buying frenzy of the Cash for Clunkers program ended, and many area auto dealers are longing for the good old days of July and August.

Like consumers nationwide, Massachusetts residents rushed to take advantage of the federal voucher program, which offered them up to $4,500 on old gas-guzzlers to be put toward the purchase of new, more fuel-efficient vehicles. About $65 million worth of vouchers were handed out statewide during the monthlong program that ended Aug. 24.

But once the federal money dried up, so did the sales rally. Now, customers at dealerships like Silko Honda in Raynham are few and far between, and inventory is once again accumulating.

Manager Adam Silverleib said business was âpretty intenseââ as a result of the federal stimulus program, with the dealership hustling to accommodate customers and handle the piles of paperwork required for them to receive reimbursement on vouchers. âNow weâre kind of back to where we were in the spring,ââ he said.

In an attempt to draw customers back to showrooms, some dealers are offering new incentives, albeit none as enticing as a $4,500 for a rusting junker. Silko, for example, is promoting 2.9 percent financing on new Accords, along with other deals on its website.

Nationwide, customers snatched up 700,000 new cars, most of them foreign-made, and the government ended up paying out nearly $3 billion toward the purchases. But from the start, analysts predicted that Cash for Clunkers would not boost sales for the year. Septemberâs sales swoon seems to be making their case. Car sales are usually slow after Labor Day, but because of the recession consumers this year are especially reluctant to say yes to major purchases. To make matters worse for dealers, most are still waiting for voucher reimbursements.

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Gold Climbs to 18-Month High as Dollar Weakens; Silver Gains

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:00:40 -0100

www.bloomberg.com

By Halia Pavliva and Claudia Carpenter

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Gold surged to the highest price since March 2008 and a record close as the dollar extended its longest slide in six months, boosting demand for the metal as a hedge against inflation. Silver reached a 13-month high.

The U.S. Dollar Index, a six-currency gauge of the greenbackâs value, has dropped for six consecutive sessions, the longest slump since March, to an 11-month low. Before declining today, crude-oil prices, used by some investors as a gauge of future inflation, jumped 61 percent this year. Gold, which tends to gain when the dollar weakens, has climbed 14 percent in 2009.

âThe dollar is going down because of inflation fearsâ and that pushes gold up, said Leonard Kaplan, the president of Prospector Asset Management in Evanston, Illinois, and a bullion trader for more than three decades. âThere is too much money and everything is going up. Itâs not about supply and demand, itâs not about common sense.â

Gold futures for December delivery rose $9.60, or 1 percent, to $1,006.40 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchangeâs Comex division, the highest closing price on record and the first above $1,000 since February. The advance brought this weekâs gain to 1 percent. Gold has climbed for four straight weeks.

Earlier, the metal touched $1,013.70, the highest price for a most-active contract since March 17, 2008. On that date, gold reached a record $1,033.90 in New York.

âThe continued weakness in the dollar gave the bulls incentive to push this higher,â Miguel Perez-Santalla, a Heraeus Precious Metals Management sales vice president in New York, said by e-mail. âIt made new highs but once the dollar went back below 1.46 euros, it lost $4. All eyes are on the dollar at this moment for some guidance.â

Dollar Slump

The dollar index, which fell 2.1 percent in the previous five sessions, dropped 5.5 percent this year through yesterday. The index includes euros, yen, U.K. pounds, Canadian dollars, Swiss francs and Swedish krona.

Goldâs gains today were âstrictly a dollar-inverse play,â said Jon Nadler, a Kitco Inc. senior analyst in Montreal. While the market is âoverbought,â he said âspeculators keep pushing.â

In London, bullion for immediate delivery rose $8, or 0.8 percent, to $1,004.60 an ounce at 7 p.m. local time. The spot price is up 14 percent for the year.

Goldâs gains may continue, âgiven concerns over rising inflation and our expectations for the dollar to weaken further,â Suki Cooper, an analyst at Barclays Capital in London, wrote in a report today.

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Obama sets stage for using budget maneuver to pass health reform

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:58:51 -0100

thehill.com

President Barack Obama this week has been laying the foundation for Senate Democrats to use a controversial budget maneuver to pass healthcare reform.

By offering Republicans olive branches during his address to Congress on Wednesday, Obama has set up a win-win situation. If GOP lawmakers embrace compromise, a healthcare bill would pass Congress easily. But the more likely scenario is that Republicans will continue to oppose Obamaâs plan, and the president later this fall will be able to note he tried to strike a deal with the GOP but could not.

That will set up a Democratic argument that Senate leaders have been forced to use a partisan budget tool known as reconciliation to pass a health bill through the Senate by a simple majority, instead of 60 votes. Under the budget plan they passed earlier this year, Democrats could invoke the reconciliation process on Oct. 15.

Republicans contend that the use of reconciliation would be at odds with Obamaâs call for bipartisanship during his 2008 presidential campaign. But Obama has countered that argument in recent days by forcefully resurrecting the anti-Washington rhetoric that got him elected.

In Cincinnati on Monday, Obama blamed the "usual bickering in Washington" for the "funk" supporters of healthcare reform were enduring. And in a discussion with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va., on Tuesday, Obama said "there are a lot of politicians like that who, all they're thinking about is just, âHow do I get reelected?â and so they never actually get anything done."

Then on Wednesday night, Obama sought to portray his health reform plan as one that contains both Republican and Democratic ideas.

"The time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed," Obama said. "Now is the season for action."

Rep. Joe Wilsonâs (R-S.C.) outburst on Wednesday was an unexpected gift to the White House, accentuating Obamaâs point that bitter politics is getting in the way of improving the healthcare of Americans.

White House officials insist they still wants a broad bipartisan deal, but â realizing that is likely out of reach â they have shifted their strategy to focus on the bottom line.

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