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How often can America lose its innocence? Again and again, as we feign shock over events that shouldn’t, if history is a guide, be all that surprising. Johns Hopkins professor Richard Halpern parses the “innocence industry” through the paintings of one of its major manufacturers, Norman Rockwell.
The presidential campaign took another step forward this week as candidates announced their success at out-fundraising each other. But how helpful are these early reports in gauging presidential potential? Political analyst Mark Halperin explains why, in campaign coverage, the horserace is never far away.
All advertising is created to get your attention, to speak to you. But one ad in particular, a billboard living for the moment in Las Vegas, can actually carry on a conversation. Bob talks back.
If you were one of the 227,000 paying subscribers to TimesSelect … well, you are no more. Paying, that is. Sometime early Wednesday morning you received an e-mail stating that the pay wall would be dismantled, effective immediately. Vivian Schiller, senior vice president of nytimes.com, explains why.
While many media outlets hope that web advertising will provide a much-needed new revenue source, web users have already found a way to nullify ads' value - by making them invisible. C-Net's Declan McCullagh explains that new ad-blocking plug-ins raise serious problems for websites and maybe even legal issues for those who use the software.
Rupert Murdoch added the Wall Street Journal to his media empire this week. While many scramble to determine if this is good or bad news for journalism, Mark Jurkowitz, Associate Director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, explains that Murdoch has a surprisingly varied track record in the U.S. newspaper industry.
Media mogul Sumner Redstone and his daughter Shari are embroiled in a nasty, public feud over the future of National Amusements Inc., parent company of Viacom, CBS, BET, MTV, and the list goes on. Silicon Alley Insider Managing Editor Peter Kafka joins us to talk about succession in the Redstone empire.
Billionaire Sam Zell is taking over at the Tribune Company, parent of the L.A. Times. But who should own newspapers? Companies? Families? Very rich guys? L.A. Times media critic Tim Rutten says that behind every great newspaper is a great family.
