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Single White Democrat, Seeking...
By Tommy Christopher (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 12:39:00 PM
Filed under: Democrats, Race While
researching yesterday's Obama/Clinton
story, I came across a Pew Research Study
entitled, Obama Weathers the Wright
Storm, Clinton Faces Credibility Problem,
which I used in that story. As is often the
case, the study "buries the lede," as they
say. Deep into the report, I found a
fascinating survey. I deliberately haven't
linked it here. I will do so after the jump.
The portion of the study that caught my
eye was called Political Values, Traits and
Emotions, and it was a survey of white
Democrats on a variety of issues, questions
I would never have thought to ask of any
Democrat. I have always taken for granted
that being a Democrat carried with it a set
of automatic principles that transcended
politics.
These were not traits that I ascribed
solely to Democrats, but that I assumed all,
or most, Democrats shared. The
overarching philosophy of the Democrats,
as I saw it, was tolerance, empathy, and
fairness. You know, the old Liberté,
égalité, fraternité. Sure, there were non-
Democrats who shared some or all of these
principles, like good people who were just
a little too greedy. It's that smug
superiority that people hate in us.
Of course, I'm oversimplifying, but you
get the idea. Even after the Ohio primary,
when there was so much chatter in the
media about white Democrats voting for
Sunday Talk Line-Up!
By Greg McNeilly (Political Machine)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 7:15:00 AM
Filed under: 2008 President, Media
The Sunday talking heads schedule:
Hillary based on race, I stuck to my theory
that demographics are secondary to
regional considerations. After the jump,
we'll put you all to the test and see how
you stack up against Pew's white
Democrats, and chew over the survey's
results.
OK, now, answer as honestly as you can.
Results from the Pew Study after the poll.
I am a White Democrat White
Republican Non-white Democrat Non-
white Republican White Independent Non-
white Independent Vote
We have gone too far in pushing equal
rights in this country Agree Disagree Not
sure Vote
I think it's all right for blacks and whites
to date each other. Agree Disagree Not
sure Vote
Women should return to their traditional
roles in society. Agree Disagree Not sure
Vote
In general, men are better leaders than
women. Agree Disagree Not sure Vote
We should be willing to fight for our
country, whether it it right or wrong. Agree
Disagree Not sure Vote
The growing number of newcomers from
other countries are a threat to traditional
American customs and values. Agree
Disagree Not sure Vote
Without further ado, here are the results
of the Pew Study.
I was pretty shocked even by these
questions, let alone the results. I call it a
Pew study because I have to hold my nose
when I read it. From the Pew summary:
Overall, 61% of white Democratic voters
ABC - This Week( George
Stephanopoulos): with Governor Ed
Rendell(D-PA), U.S. Senators John
Kerry(D-MA) and Joe Liberman(I-CT).
CBS - Face the Nation( Bob Schieffer):
24/03/08 - 30/03/08
completely agree that it's "all right for
whites and blacks to date each other." But
fewer than half of non-college and older
white Democrats completely agree (44%
for each group). Notably, about one-in-five
in each of these groups disagrees with the
idea that interracial dating is acceptable.
By contrast, just 6% of college-educated
Democratic voters, and just 3% of younger
white Democrats (ages 18 to 44), find
interracial dating unacceptable. Then,
with Governor Bill Richardson(D-NM),
Philadelphia Mayor Mike Nutter, and
Democrat strategist Joe Trippi.
CNN - Late Edition( Wolf Blitzer): with
Chilean Ambassador Heraldo Munoz and
LibertyNewsprint.com U.S.
there's this: Few Democrats believe that
women should return to their traditional
roles, or that men make better leaders than
women. However, younger and better
educated white Democrats are even more
likely than others to disagree with these
notions. About three-quarters of college
educated (76%) and younger Democrats
(73%) completely disagree that women
should return to traditional roles, compared
with 48% of those who have not attended
U.S. Senator Bill Nelson(D-FL).
Fox - News Sunday( Chris Wallace):with
U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham(R-SC) and
Jack Reed(D-RI).
NBC - Meet the Press( Tim Russert) with
college, and 56% of Democrats ages 45
and older. Similarly, 57% of Democrats
with college experience completely
disagree that men are better leaders,
compared with 40% of Democrats who
have not attended college. Finally, there's
the war question, which, while less
disgusting than the other questions, was far
more disturbing in the outcome:
Democrats are nearly equally divided over
the statement that "we should be willing to
fight for our country whether it is right or
wrong" (50% agree and 46% disagree).
However, 52% of Democrats who have
attended college disagree with this view,
compared with 37% of non-college
Democrats. There are no significant age
differences on this question. What
conclusions can be drawn from this? Well,
without comparative data, I can only glean
from this is that a party is made up of
people, and that some of them are deeply
flawed. I would love to see how
Republicans would do in a poll like this.
Although the proportions might be
different, I would expect similar
relationships between these questions and
the age and education level of the
respondent.
I would also love to see numbers from 25
years ago, to see if this is a messaging
issue. In any case, this was an eye-opener
for me. Your thoughts?
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CIA Director Michael Hayden.
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2 Politics *
Democrats, Bush Squabble over
Housing
By Mark Impomeni (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 2:45:00 AM
Filed under: President Bush, Bush
Administration, Democrats, Economy
Democratic heavyweights in the Senate
clashed with President Bush yesterday
over the Administration's actions to help
ease the housing market. The Senators
think that the White House has not gone
far enough in its efforts to put the brakes
on foreclosures. Their comments came as
the president traveled to suburban New
Jersey to visit a debt-counseling center that
is participating in the Administration's
initiative to get struggling homeowners
help with refinancing options. Sen. Charles
Schumer (D-NY) said that the
Administration's moves thus far amounted
to nothing more than fiddling while Rome
burns.
"The administration refuses to step up to
the plate and do what's needed. The
administration joined by [congressional
Republicans] in their Herbert Hoover-like
attitude of do nothing, twiddle your
thumbs while the economy gets worse,
especially in the housing area, is not going
to sit well with the American public."
Senate Democrats, led by Schumer and
Sen. Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate
Banking Committee, want Congress to
pass a series of mortgage reforms that
would allow governments at all levels to
buy up foreclosed properties or provide
financial backing for loans in danger of
foreclosure. The plan would also allow
bankruptcy judges to change the terms of
mortgages in trouble, lowering payments
and adjusting interest rates. The
Democrats' plans, however, would have
the opposite impact on the housing market
from what they intend. They would likely
raise interest rates and artificially prop up
home prices. Both need to be allowed to
come down to market levels in order to
avoid a worse housing crisis.
At his stop in New Jersey, President
Bush countered the Democrats by stressing
that the Federal government's role is to
help "responsible" homeowners and
warning that too much government
intrusion in the market would make things
worse.
"There are some homeowners who have
made responsible buying decisions and
who could keep their homes with just a
little help.
We have a role to play at the government
level, and that is to help lenders and
borrowers work together to avoid
foreclosure. The housing market problems
are complicated and there's no easy
solutions. But ... we will help responsible
homeowners weather a difficult period."
The president's dwelling on the word
responsible underlines the key difference
between the Administration's and the
Democrats' plans for the housing market.
The White House is taking personal
responsibility into consideration in
deciding how and whom to help.
Speculators, for example, who bought
homes on bad terms hoping to turn them
around for a quick profit, would not come
in for assistance in the Administration's
view. Neither would homeowners who
bought bigger homes than they could
afford by utilizing creative mortgages
offered by unscrupulous lenders. Those
categories of homeowners, and the lenders
who financed their purchases, would have
to bear the consequences of their decisions.
That is a policy that would allow for a soft
landing in the housing market, as just
enough downward pressure on prices
would result from eliminating poorly
financed mortgages from the market, but
not so much as to affect the values of the
majority of home loans that were taken out
under traditional terms.
Democrats, on the other hand, see the
issue in terms of rescuing unwitting
homeowners from the underhanded
practices of mortgage lenders. They
believe that predatory lending has played a
part in helping to create the mortgage mess
and want the government to step in to help
regardless of the circumstances behind
individual loans. This view is shortsighted
at best. It would probably help to reduce
the number of foreclosures in the
immediate future, but would also
essentially validate the poor decisions of
some borrowers and lenders. The danger is
that without some pain in the short term,
similar bad decisions will be made in the
future, and the problem will only repeat
itself at a later date and in a bigger way.
With their focus squarely on the short run
consequences of the mortgage crisis,
Democrats seem to be proposing a solution
tailored to assist their electoral chances as
much as the housing market.
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McCain Ad Controversy?
By Mark Impomeni (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 7:30:00 AM
Filed under: Republicans, Ads, John
McCain, 2008 President Sen. John McCain
is set to release his the first television ad of
the general election campaign on Monday.
The ad, titled " 624787," will air statewide
in New Mexico, neighbor to McCain's
home state of Arizona and which President
Bush carried by a small margin in 2004.
Now the Washington Post reports that
the ad's last line is causing an online
controversy. Some commentators find it to
be an indirect shot at Sen. Barack Obama.
The script of the ad follows.
JOHN MCCAIN: Keep that faith. Keep
your courage. Stick together. Stay strong.
Do not yield. Stand up. We're Americans.
And we'll never surrender.
ANNOUNCER: What must a president
believe about us? About America? That
she is worth protecting? That liberty is
priceless? Our people, honorable? Our
future, prosperous, remarkable and free?
And, what must we believe about that
president? What does he think? Where has
he been? Has he walked the walk?
INTERVIEWER: What is your rank?
JOHN MCCAIN: Lt. Commander in the
Navy.
INTERVIEWER: And your official
number?
JOHN MCCAIN: 624787.
ANNCR: John McCain. The American
president Americans have been waiting
Nader to Hillary: Hang In There!
By Christopher Weber (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 3/28/2008 11:30:00 AM
Filed under: Hillary Clinton, Primaries,
2008 President, Media, Ralph Nader
Politico had it first: On his web site today,
Ralph Nader has a little advice for Hillary
Clinton. Senator Clinton: Just read where
Senator Patrick Leahy is calling on you to
drop out of the Presidential race. Believe
me. I know something about this.
Here's my advice: Don't listen to people
when they tell you not to run anymore.
Your Click and Print Newspaper
for.
JOHN MCCAIN: I'm John McCain and I
approve this message. The Post reports that
the phrase "American president" is being
interpreted by some as an oblique
reference to the various controversies
surrounding Obama: from his Kenyan
ancestry; to the false allegations that he is
Muslim; to the incendiary and anti-
American remarks of his pastor, Rev.
Jeremiah Wright. The whole line seems
designed to counter Obama's, "We are the
ones we've been waiting for." message.
But does a candidate referring to himself
as an "American" necessarily mean that his
opponent isn't?
McCain's campaign has not commented,
yet. But the campaign may welcome
questions about the ad should they come.
As the Democratic nomination battle drags
on through the summer, the McCain
campaign increasingly finds itself in a
position where it has to generate free
media coverage in order to breakthrough
the media's focus on the Democrats. A
controversy about an advertisement is
tailor made for that effort. It would
increase the ad's visibility, thereby
highlighting McCain's military service
record, as the ad intends. If the ad's last
line wasn't a planned swipe at Sen. Obama,
it could prove to be a very fortuitous
coincidence for Sen. McCain.
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That's just political bigotry. Listen to your
own inner citizen First Amendment voice.
This is America. Just like every other
citizen, you have a right to run. Whenever
you like. For as long as you like.
It's up to you, Hillary. Just tell them - It's
democracy. Get used to it. Yours truly,
Ralph Nader More evidence that politics
makes strange bedfellows. If Hillary's
lucky, maybe Nader will consider her for a
cabinet position.
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Your Click and Print Newspaper
U.S., British Troops Back Florida Senator: 'Reform
Iraqis in Basra Elections'
By Mark Impomeni (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 5:00:00 PM
Filed under: Bush Administration,
Breaking News, Iraq As the standoff
between the Iraqi Army and police and
firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's
Mahdi Army continues in the strategic
southern Iraqi port of Basra, U.S. and
British troops have engaged in supporting
government forces. U.S. jets were
dropping precision-guided bombs on
Mahdi Army strongholds inside the city,
while British ground troops, which had
patrolled Basra until withdrawing to bases
outside the city, handing over control of
Iraq's second largest city to the Iraqis, fired
artillery in support of Iraqi Army units.
Al-Sadr, who is backed by Iran, told his
followers to defy the government's order to
turn in their weapons. Iraqi Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki, who is in Basra and has
unwisely vowed to stay there until the
unrest is quelled, originally set a deadline
of Saturday for militia members to
surrender their arms. That deadline has
since been extended to April 8th. Sadr
supporters accuse the Maliki government
of attempting to eliminate the rival Shiite
group ahead of provincial elections this
fall. Sadr's decision to call his army to the
streets now may be the opening salvo in
what is a sad grab for political legitimacy.
Maliki has staked his government's
reputation on its ability to bring Sadr to
heel in Basra. If government troops are
seen as backing down, it will only
encourage more trouble making by Sadr
and various other ethnic factions. Further,
it could cause the Kurds in northern Iraq to
depend much more heavily on their own
forces, known as the Peshmerga, for
security, threatening to split the already
semi-autonomous north from the rest of the
country. The United States and Britain,
perhaps fearing the political consequences
of seeming to take the lead in the clashes,
initially stood by while Iraqi forces began
the planned offensive. The entrance of
coalition air and ground power signals that
Iraqi forces are not quite ready to take on a
challenge the size of the Basra operation
on their own.
But the fact the Maliki was willing to
make the move to rout the Mahdi Army
out of Basra does indicate that his
government is feeling more secure in its
position. President Bush called the
decision "bold" earlier this week. Maliki
has been lobbying Washington for greater
freedom to control security operations in
Iraq for some time. Although he may have
bitten off more than he can chew in Basra,
the fact that Iraq is moving to solve its own
security problems will eventually prove to
be a positive step.
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By Jay Allbritton (Political Machine)
Submitted at 3/28/2008 11:32:00 AM
Filed under: Senate, 2008 President
Democracy has had its ups and downs in
Florida. From the butterfly ballots, hanging
chads and Brooks Brothers riot of the wild
2000 presidential election to the current
controversy over the state's Democratic
delegates, if there's a problem with an
election and you're not in Ohio, you're
probably in Florida.
Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson
has had enough. He wants an entirely new
system--a new primary system for the
democrats and a new system for the
general election.
What would Nelson's system look
like?Nelson proposes six, rotating
interregional primaries. Nelson's
legislation would bring early voting to
every state, provide a paper trail and make
voting absentee an option for all voters.
The bill also proposes funds to research
mail-in and internet voting.
Nelson also called for the elimination of
the electoral college. As unpopular as the
electoral college is now, it's actually much
more popular since the 2000 election than
it was before it. Having said that, it's an
undemocratic recipe for disaster--as we
Rush Limbaugh Safe
By Dave (Political Machine)
Submitted at 3/28/2008 2:17:00 PM
Filed under: Republicans, Primaries, 2008
President
I never doubted it, but now I have a little
more backup, via the Columbus Dispatch:
"We have no intention of prosecuting
Rush Limbaugh because lying through
your teeth and being stupid isn't a crime,"
said Leo Jennings, a spokesman for
Democratic Attorney General Marc Dann.
When asked whether she has concerns
about what Limbaugh did, Secretary of
State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat,
saw in 2000.
The only part of the plan I'm wary of is
the early voting. It depends on how long of
a period we're talking about. A few days
will allow more voters to make it out to the
polls. If the window is extended into
weeks, then voters are in danger of making
a decision they may regret because
conditions may change. For example, a lot
of early voters in California voted for John
Edwards before he dropped out of the race.
What if the kind of scandal that took down
Eliot Spitzer hit the news a day or two
before the election after millions of people
already voted?
A far better idea would be to make
election day a national holiday.
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replied, "I think it's very bad form, but I
think most voters are intelligent enough to
make their own decisions."
I wonder what Mr. Jennings thinks about
lefty blogger Markos of DailyKos, who
was running his own little Operation Chaos
back in January.
Now here's the thing -- without a real
Democratic contest on the ballot, and a
lack of party registration in Michigan, this
is an open primary. Anyone can pick up a
Republican ballot. So Michigan Democrats
and independents who want to see the
Republican battle royale continue should
just take a few minutes on Tuesday,
Politics * Business * 3
Bad Penney
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 3/28/2008 6:00:00 AM
In a stark illustration of the weakness in
consumer spending, J.C. Penney has cut its
forecasts for the first quarter, saying that
sales through Easter were "well below
expectations."
The company says it now expects to
report earnings of 50 cents per share,
below last month's forecast of 70 cents to
80 cents per share.
The bleak outlook will heighten fears
that the economy is in a recession and that
consumers are cutting back their spending
as a result despite a $186 billion
government stimulus package.
"Consumer confidence is at a multi-year
low," said Myron Ullman, III, Penney's
chief executive. "J.C. Penney counts half
of American families as its customers, and
they are feeling macro-economic pressures
from many areas, including higher energy
costs, deteriorating employment trends,
and significant issues in the housing and
credit markets."
Related Links
A Bad Penney
Stocks: We Have Liftoff
Shop Til the Deals Drop
January 15th to cast a ballot for Mitt
Romney in the Republican primary.
If you know someone in Michigan, send
them the email I've included below the
fold. If you don't know someone in
Michigan, send the email to your liberal
friends and see if THEY have friends in
Michigan. Get the word out, whether by
blog, mailing list, MySpace or Facebook
page, or whatever.
If this is a crime, Rush would be far from
the only one in trouble.
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4 Politics * Business *
Gore?
By Dave (Political Machine)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 5:02:00 PM
Filed under: Democrats, Breaking News,
2008 President, Al Gore
With apologies to Queen, is this the real
life, or is this just fantasy?
I'm voting for fantasy, but that doesn't
mean that the Gore option won't burn a
bunch of news cycles between here and the
convention. Jay posted on Thursday, and
the story has gotten a few more legs since
then. This article is sourced to "former
Gore aides":
Former Gore aides now believe he could
emerge as a compromise candidate
acceptable to both camps at the party's
convention in Denver during the last week
of August.
Two former Gore campaign officials
have told The Sunday Telegraph that a
scenario first mapped out by members of
Scalia Takes Liberal Media To Task
By Justin Paulette (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 4:40:00 AM
Filed under: Media, Supreme Court
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
criticized the news media this week for
presenting court decisions as policy
judgments rather than textual
interpretations of the relevant law. Scalia
singled out the New York Times as
particularly offensive, citing the Grey
Lady's wont to cast decisions based on law
as hardly possible.
This slant in coverage reflects a
What's Up With Lehman?
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 3/27/2008 11:30:00 AM
Now that Wall Street has taken a deep
breath and relaxed over the fate of Bear
Stearns, it apparently needs to start
worrying about someone else.
Shares of Lehman Bothers have been
battered today by rumors of a possible
Bear-like run on the bank. A spokeswoman
for Lehman denied that there was anything
to the rumors and the stock, which was
Mr Gore's inner circle last May now has a
sporting chance of coming true.
Added to this, we have the chin-scratcher
of Gore's appearance on 60 Minutes. "Why
now?", inquiring minds would like to
pervasive ideological foundation at liberal
news outlets. The courts have long been a
refuge wherein liberal policies could be
imposed in contradiction to the popular,
democratic will. Recognizing the courts as
instruments of social justice (read: liberal
policy implementation), the news media
naturally sense injustice when the courts
do not reach liberal results.
It requires a prevalence of character and
dignity to accept that the result of a
principled adjudication of the law should
sometimes produce a conclusion contrary
to personal preferences. The outrage which
accompanied the miscarriage of justice in
down by 10 percent earlier, recovered a bit
by mid-afternoon, trading at $39, down 8
percent.
Also on Portfolio.com:
The Debt Shuffle New questions emerge.
Burned on the Street Why investors
should stop listening. Earlier in the day,
April options to sell Lehman at $30 were
very active. As the headline on the Wall
Street Journal's MarketBeat blog put it:
"Your Weekly Scheduled Bank Stock
Freak-Out"
know.
To the former Gore aides, this could be
anything from a couple of guys speculating
with a reporter at a bar, to a serious study
commissioned by Al himself. Or anything
in between. Given his unwillingness to
oxygenate any presidential rumors so far,
I'd bet on the former.
The big point to remember about an Al
Gore candidacy is that we'd go from either
Hillary or Barack supporters being very
unhappy, to both Hillary and Barack
unhappiness. Both sides would have to be
convinced that Gore is an acceptable
alternative to their candidate winning in
their own right. And we're not there yet at
all. Barack has a lead in the delegates, and
Hillary still thinks she owns the
nomination.
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Roe v. Wade was not attributable solely to
the Court's permitting of infanticide, but
also to the imposition of a political policy
Kerrie Cohen, a spokeswoman for
Lehman Brothers, told Reuters, "There are
a lot of rumors in the marketplace that are
totally unfounded. We are suspicious that
the rumors are being promulgated by short
sellers of our stock that have an economic
self-interest."
Lehman, which like Bear has been a
huge player in the mortgaged-backed-
securities business, has in recent weeks
been very vocal in emphasizing that its
liquidity position is much stronger than
Lehman Bros. hit by fraud
By Douglas McIntyre
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 6:40:00 AM
Filed under: Deals, Bad news, Scandals,
Lehman Br Holdings (LEH), Bear Stearns
Cos (BSC)
There has been concern for several
weeks that Lehman Brothers(NYSE: LEH)
might have problems similar to Bear
Stearns(NYSE: BSC). Customers might be
worried about Lehman's financial health
and, if they were to withdraw large sums
of money, the brokerage could face
liquidity problems.
Just as those concerns appear to be
falling, Lehman has been hit by a fraud
that may involve amounts as great as $250
million.
According to The Wall Street
Journal(subscription required), "swindlers
by means of an illegitimate judicial decree.
Liberals wail and gnash their teeth when a
conservative president takes actions which
they regard as exceeding executive power
and contravening legal standards - and yet
they rejoice when liberal judges do the
same.
Justice Scalia's righteous indignation is
not warranted simply from a judicial
standpoint, but from a love of democratic
liberty. Were it that more on the left shared
his sentiments.
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Bear's was.
Still, questions about Lehman persist.
Jesse Eisinger last week gave a skeptical
assessment about Lehman's balance sheet,
noting that its leverage and assets rose in
the first quarter. More troubling, Eisinger
said, was that the firm changed the way it
defines "tangible equity" or the hard assets
that it has left over after subtracting its
liabilities.
To be sure, when it comes to market
worries, Lehman is not the only financial
Your Click and Print Newspaper
used forged documents from one of Japan's
biggest trading companies to bilk it out of
as much as $250 million." The money was
to go to a division of Japanese firm LTT
Bio-Pharma. The capital was secured by
certificates from Marubeni, a huge trading
company. Marubeni may have to pay
Lehman back the capital, but that is not yet
clear.
One consequence of the news is likely to
be that investor confidence in Lehman will
be eroded again. Why the brokerage would
extend the money without complete due
diligence is certainly a fair question for
shareholders to ask.
One more straw on the pile of Lehman's
troubles.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at
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Fee for All
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 3/27/2008 11:00:00 AM
Edgar Bronfman Jr.'s Warner Music
Group has tapped industry veteran Jim
firm. Shares of Merrill Lynch were down 5
percent today after analysts forecast a lost
for its first quarter.
Related Links
For the Record
Subprime: It's Not About
Creditworthiness
Illiquidity and Insolvency in the
Commercial Real Estate Market
Your Click and Print Newspaper
FEE
continued from page 4
Griffin to spearhead a controversial plan to
bundle a monthly fee into consumers'
internet-service bills for unlimited access
to music.
The plan—the boldest move yet to keep
the wounded entertainment industry giants
afloat—is simple: Consumers will pay a
monthly fee, bundled into an internet-
service bill in exchange for unfettered
access to a database of all known music.
Bronfman's decision to hire Griffin, a
respected industry critic, demonstrates the
desperation of the recording industry. It
has shrunk to a $10 billion business from
$15 billion in almost a decade. Compact
disc sales are plummeting as online music
downloads skyrocket.
Also on Portfolio.com:
MySpace and Friends Need to Make
Money
The answer may lie in creating "social
ads."
Future Pop
CDs are history. U.S. labels should look
to Jin-Young Park if they hope to
survive."Today, it has become purely
voluntary to pay for music," Griffin told
Portfolio.com in an exclusive sit-down this
week. "If I tell you to go listen to this
band, you could pay, or you might not. It's
pretty much up to you. So the music
business has become a big tip jar."
Nothing provokes sheer terror in the
recording industry more than the rise of
peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. For
years, digital-music seers have argued the
rise of such networks has made copyright
law obsolete and free music distribution
universal.
Bronfman has asked Griffin, formerly
Geffen Music's digital chief, to develop a
model that would create a pool of money
from user fees to be distributed to artists
and copyright holders. Warner has given
Griffin a three-year contract to form a new
organization to spearhead the plan.
Griffin says he hopes to move beyond
the years of acrimonious record-industry
litigation against illegal file-swappers,
college students in particular.
"We're still clinging to the vine of music
as a product," Griffin says, calling the
industry’s plight "Tarzan" economics.
"But we're swinging toward the vine of
music as a service. We need to get ready to
let go and grab the next vine, which is a
pool of money and a fair way to split it up,
rather than controlling the quantity and
destiny of sound recordings."
Warner Music Share Price
In the last year, the Recording
Association of America, the industry group
that represents the major labels, has sent
5,400 threatening letters to students at
more than 150 schools, and reached
settlements with more than 2,300 them. It
has filed formal lawsuits against 2,465
others, who did not respond.
"I don't think we should be suing students
and I don't think we should be suing
people in their homes," says Griffin. "We
want to monetize the anarchy of the
internet."
Griffin says Warner Music is "totally
committed to this." The fundamental issue,
he says, is whether music consumers will
buy songs and albums individually, or
whether they will subscribe monthly to
access a "universal" database of songs.
Will Tanous, Warner Music's
communications chief, said Griffin's
initiative is part of Warner's "ongoing
effort to explore new business models in
the music industry."
In recent weeks, major music industry
players have signaled their interest in the
"music as a service" model.
Sony BMG Music Entertainment is said
to be developing an online music
subscription service that would give users
unlimited access to its catalog.
Apple is reportedly negotiating with the
major record labels to offer consumers free
access to the entire iTunes library in
exchange for paying a premium for Apple
hardware.
Warner's plan would have consumers
pay an additional fee—maybe $5 a
month—bundled into their monthly
internet-access bill in exchange for the
right to freely download, upload, copy, and
share music without restrictions.
Griffin says those fees could create a
pool as large as $20 billion annually to pay
artists and copyright holders. Eventually,
advertising could subsidize the entire
system, so that users who don't want to
receive ads could pay the fee, and those
who don't mind advertising wouldn't pay a
dime.
"Ideally, music will feel free," says
Griffin. "Even if you pay a flat fee for it, at
the moment you use it there are no
financial considerations. It's already been
paid for."
While few of the plan's details have
emerged, critics have begun their attacks.
David Barrett, engineering manager for
peer-to-peer networks at Web content-
delivery giant Akamai, says he's opposed
to it on principle. Griffin's plan, he says, is
tantamount to extortion, because it forces
everyone to join.
"It's too late to charge people for what
they're already getting for free," says
Barrett. "This is just taxation of a basic,
universal service that already exists, for the
benefit a distant power that actively
harasses the people being taxed without
offering them any meaningful
representation."
Griffin, who in 1994 was part of the team
that made Aerosmith's "Head First" the
first song available on the internet, goes to
great pains to emphasize that the collective
licensing plan is not "his" plan.
"This isn't my idea," says Griffin. "While
I would gladly take the credit, blanket
licensing has over 150 years of history
behind it."
"Collective licensing is what people do
when they lose control, or when control is
no longer practical or efficient," Griffin
says. "A pool of money and a fair way to
split it up replaces control."
Griffin was quick to point out that the $5
figure is arbitrary.
"We negotiate in every place," Griffin
says. "Clearly $5 per month would be an
insane number in China or India. If you
could get a nickel a month you could grow
the business tenfold in those countries. In
another country that had a high G.D.P., a
nickel per month would be ridiculously
cheap. So you negotiate. Fair is whatever
you agree upon."
Griffin says Bronfman and Michael
Nash, the company's digital-strategy chief,
brought him into Warner to create an
organization to negotiate collective
licensing deals. But Griffin's ambitions
extend far beyond just Warner Music.
"We're building a [as yet unnamed]
company inside Warner that is not
intended to be solely owned by Warner,"
Griffin says. "We hope all of the rights
holders will come in and take ownership
with us, and Warner will not control it. Our
goal is to create a collective society for the
digital age."
Meanwhile, critics have already attacked
the plan as a kind of mandatory "culture
tax."
"Jim will vehemently deny the 'tax'
label," says Akamai's Barrett. "But it's a
tax nonetheless. It'll be a government-
approved cartel that collects money from
virtually everyone—often without their
knowledge—and failure to pay their tax
will ultimately result in people with guns
coming to your door.
"Jim's proposal does nothing but direct
money to the very people that tried to
prevent this future from coming to be,"
Barrett adds, "while further legitimizing
the terror being waged in the courtrooms
against their members."
Griffin dismisses such criticism.
"I understand what David is thinking, but
I assure you, we have no such interest in
government running this or having any part
of it," he says.
Griffin says that in just the few weeks
since Warner began working on this plan,
the company has been approached by
internet service providers "who want to
discharge their risk."
"But more important than the risk for an
I.S.P. is the marketing," Griffin says,
drawing a comparison to Starbucks'
marketing of "fair trade" coffee.
"I.S.P.'s want to distinguish themselves
with marketing," Griffin says. "You can
only imagine that an I.S.P. that marketed a
'fair trade' network connection would see a
marketing advantage."
Gerd Leonhard, a respected music-
industry consultant who has advised
Sony/BMG, which recently announced
plans for a flat-rate-subscription model for
digital music, rejects Barrett's argument
that the monthly fee amounts to a tax.
"This is not a tax," says Leonhard. "It's
bundled into another charge."
"People should not be too harsh on Jim
for trying to get the ball rolling," says
Leonhard. "At this point, 96 percent of the
population is guilty of some sort of
infringement, whether they're streaming or
downloading or sharing.
"What we have here is the widespread use
of technology that declares all of the
population to be illegal."
Related Links
The Pirates Can't Be Stopped
Coming Down Hard on Downloaders
Splitting the Apple Online
Business * 5
Lehman
Gets a Boost
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 3/28/2008 5:30:00 AM
Plagued by market speculation that it
could become the next Bear Stearns,
Lehman Brothers has received a vote of
confidence from Citigroup, which raised
its rating on Lehman shares to a "buy."
Also on Portfolio.com:
Lehman’s Debt Shuffle Questions
remain.
Burned on the Street Why investors
should stop listening. In a note headlined
"Reality Will Trump Fear," Citigroup
analyst Prashant Bhatia says that Lehman
has "ample liquidity."
"With $34 billion in liquidity at the parent
company, the ability to get access to over
$200 billion in liquidity from the Fed's
primary dealer credit facility, and its
ability to tap the term auction facility,
access to liquidity is a non-issue, he said.
In addition, he said, pointing to the
diversity in the firm's earnings "We
estimate that, write-downs aside, Lehman
had its second best fixed-income trading
quarter ever."
Shares of Lehman fell 9 percent on
Thursday on rumors of a possible run on
the bank. Activity in options to sell
Lehman were active. OptionsMonster
noted on Thursday that "The type of put
buying seen is reminiscent of the put
buying in Bear Stearns just before the axe
fell."
Lehman said on Thursday that the
liquidity rumors were unfounded, adding
that, "We are suspicious that the rumors
are being promulgated by short sellers of
our stock that have an economic self-
interest."
Related Links
Leveraged Super Senior Trades and the
Liquidity Put
Credit Losses: The Good News
Awaiting Citi's Big Number
6 Business * Your Click and Print Newspaper

Earnings highlights: Adobe, ConAgra, Killer Diller

(Portfolio.com: News and Markets) could testify that a "catchall" veto was
Lennar, Oracle, Tiffany, Darden and Submitted at 3/28/2008 2:30:00 PM

After a week of high drama in the

communicated to the Diller team.
The case boiled down to the parties
conflicting interpretations of the veto
others Delaware Chancery Court, John Malone
has lost his dispute with longtime partner
Barry Diller, the chief executive of
provision—"the centerpiece of this
litigation," in Lamb's opinion.
In that opinion, the vice chancellor
By Trey Thoelcke (BloggingStocks) second-quarter results MON
IAC/Interactive Inc., an internet examines scenes from the deteriorating
beat estimates and it raised its outlook. ) raised its
Submitted at 3/29/2008 8:40:00 AM
• Fortress Investment Group second-quarter and full-year conglomerate that Diller has built into a $6 marriage between Malone and Diller.
Filed under: Earnings reports, Walgreen (NYSE: guidance. billion enterprise with Malone's backing. Lamb pegs the "deterioration" of that
Co (WAG), Penney (J.C.) (JCP), Adobe FIG • Oracle Corp. Malone and his company, Liberty Media marriage to 2005, a period that coincided
Systems (ADBE), Tiffany and Co (TIF), ) remained upbeat despite (NASDAQ: Corp., lost claims that Diller violated with the appointment of former Microsoft
ConAgra Foods (CAG), Darden a fourth-quarter loss ORCL contracts with Malone by proposing to spin executive Greg Maffei as the C.E.O. of
Restaurants (DRI), KB HOME (KBH), . ) merely off IAC into five separate companies with Liberty.
Lennar Corp'A' (LEN), Oracle Corp • Guess Inc. met earnings expectations a single-tier stock structure. Such a move Lamb's opinion notes that Diller told
(ORCL), CKE Restaurants (CKR) (NYSE: , sending shares lower. would eliminate the supervoting shares Malone that the choice of Maffei for the
Here are some highlights from this past GES • Tiffany & Co. Liberty owns in IAC, effectively wiping position was "poor."
week's earnings coverage from ) (NYSE: out its majority control of the company. The vice chancellor addressed what
BloggingStocks: record fourth-quarter results TIF Under a proxy agreement in their 13-year became something akin to the discovery of
• AAR Corp. beat Wall Street expectations. ) posted partnership, Diller has had the right to vote infidelity between Diller and Malone: A
(NYSE: • Inter Parfums Inc. better-than-estimated fourth-quarter Liberty's IAC stock. The court ruled that Wall Street Journal article under the
AIR (NASDAQ: results right permits Diller to vote Liberty's shares headline "Can This Marriage Be Saved?"
) posted IPAR and raised its outlook. against Liberty's interests. In the article, Malone repeatedly
record third-quarter earnings ) posted • Usana Health Sciences Inc. "The court concludes that Liberty has criticized Diller. In his opinion, Lamb
and revenue. better-than-estimated fourth-quarter (NASDAQ: failed to demonstrate that Diller breached pointed out: "The article greatly upset
• Adobe Systems Inc. results USNA or threatened to breach any contractual Diller. Diller testified that, combined with
(NASDAQ: and raised its outlook. ) posted duty he owed to Liberty," Vice Chancellor Malone's previous negative comments
ADBE • Jabil Circuit Inc. lower-than-expected first-quarter results Stephen Lamb wrote in an opinion issued about IAC and it's lack of management, the
) posted (NYSE: . this afternoon. "In particular, the court article was nothing short of an outright
better-than-estimated first-quarter results JBL • Walgreen Co. rejects Liberty's claim that the proposed attack on his abilities and a thinly veiled
and raised its outlook. ) beat (NYSE: single-tier spin-off gives rise to any right threat that Liberty would not fairly
• CKE Restaurants Inc. second-quarter expectations WAG of consent on LIberty's part. It follow that negotiate a breakup of IAC."
(NYSE: but lowered its guidance. ) posted the proxy remains in effect." Lamb also ruled against LIberty's claims
CKR • JC Penney Co. Inc. solid second-quarter results In his 79-page opinion, Lamb rejected that the IAC board, by hearing a proposal
) posted (NYSE: , including same-store sales growth. Liberty Media's claim that its "veto" rights, on the spinoffs from Diller and his
third-quarter results JCP Also, auction-rate securities issues may as contained in the governance agreement lawyers, had violated their fiduciary duty
that missed estimates. ) lowered its hurt some tech company results. Analysts between Malone and Diller, contained a to shareholders.
• ConAgra Foods Inc. first-quarter outlook keep cutting earings estimates for the big "sweeping" catchall provision. Lamb The vice chancellor concluded that those
(NYSE: on weaker-than-expected sales. banks, but some are eyeing Yum! concluded that the "only sensible claims were "unripe" because the IAC
CAG • KB Home Brands(NYSE: YUM) earnings prospects conclusion" for interpretation of the veto board has given "only general (and
) (NYSE: as it expands in China, as well as Archer right was that it applied to "regulatory ununanimous) approval to the spinoff, but
third-quarter profit surged KBH Daniels Midland(NYSE: ADM) on soaring matters." has not considered or acted on any final
as strong sales offset commodity prices. ) swung to a demand for commodities. From the outset of the relationship, details of that plan."
• Darden Restaurants Inc. larger-than-expected first-quarter loss Upcoming results to watch for include Liberty was concerned with the Federal "Most importantly," he adds, "the IAC
(NYSE: on write-downs. Best Buy(NYSE: BBY), Monsanto(NYSE: Communications Commission's rules on board has not yet made any decision about
DRI • Lennar Corp. MON), and Research in cross-ownership of broadcast companies. the voting structure of the spincos."
) (NYSE: Motion(NASDAQ: RIMM). Malone said he left the details to his And so this partnership, such as it is,
beat third-quarter expectations LEN Visit AOL Money & Finance for more lawyer, but Diller, on the witness stand, lives on to fight another day. Like many
and offered guidance. ) posted a earnings coverage. Permalink| Email this| testified that"alarm bells" would have gone (unfortunate) marriages, it is a war without
• FactSet Research Systems Inc. smaller-than-expected first-quarter loss Comments off if he thought the Liberty veto applied to conclusion, at least for now.
(NYSE: . more than regulatory matters. Related Links
FDS • Monsanto Co. Lamb's ruling is a win for Diller's Smacking Down a Plaintiffs' Law Firm
) (NYSE: lawyers at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Diller on the Stand
Katz. Diller presented well as a witness, Malone on the Ropes?
and in the end, no one from Malone's team
Your Click and Print Newspaper
Comcast Backs Down
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 3/27/2008 9:30:00 AM
Comcast, the nation's largest cable
company, said today that it will change its
controversial network management
practices and work with file-sharing
services to address complaints that it
unfairly blocks certain peer-to-peer traffic.
But consumer groups weren't buying it.
The Federal Communications
Commission is currently investigating
Comcast over charges that it stifles legal
peer-to-peer traffic on its network.
Consumer groups and network-neutrality
advocates have been pushing the F.C.C.
and Congress to forbid Comcast to
discriminate against legal traffic on its
network.
Today's announcement is a stunning
turnaround for a company that until just
months ago denied it engaged in any Web
blocking at all. After the Associated Press
caught Comcast blocking certain traffic,
the company was forced to admit that it
"delays" certain peer-to-peer traffic, but it
defended the practice as "reasonable
network management."
Comcast said that by the end of 2008, its
network-management policy will be
"protocol agnostic"—meaning it will not
favor one type of traffic over another—and
will instead focus on users who consume
the most bandwidth.
"This means that we will have to rapidly
reconfigure our network-management
systems, but the outcome will be a traffic-
management technique that is more
appropriate for today's emerging internet
trends," Comcast chief technology officer
Tony Werner said in a statement.
Comcast will also expand its network
capacity to better accommodate rapidly
increasing bandwidth consumption, said
John Schanz, a Comcast Cable executive
vice president.
The Wal-Mart Weekly: Why do many hate Wal-Mart?
By Brian White (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 4:40:00 AM
Filed under: Wal-Mart (WMT), Columns
Welcome to the 55th installment of The
Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to
bringing you insight, wit, facts, results,
opinions, and just a bit of everything else
"We plan to more than double the
upstream capacity of our residential
internet service in several key markets by
year end 2008," Schanz said.
Comcast also said it had agreed to work
with file-sharing service BitTorrent in an
effort to address the best way to manage
peer-to-peer traffic, one of the most
bandwidth-intensive activities on the Web.
"Recognizing that the Web is richer and
more bandwidth-intensive than it has been
historically, we are pleased that Comcast
understands these changing traffic patterns
and wants to collaborate with us to migrate
to techniques that the internet community
will find to be more transparent," said Eric
Klinker, BitTorrent's chief technology
officer.
Meanwhile, consumer groups reacted
warily to Comcast's about-face. Nicholas
Reville, co-founder and executive director
of the Participatory Culture Foundation,
wasn't buying what Comcast was selling.
"Comcast is taking a page right out of the
auto-industry playbook: Car companies
deny the importance of global warming
while using announcements of future
technology to block meaningful
environmental protections," said Reville.
"Comcast can see that public demands for
net-neutrality protections are
growing—this announcement is a
transparent attempt to distract from that
debate."
"The announcement from Comcast and
BitTorrent has absolutely nothing to do
with the need for net-neutrality protections
and BitTorrent certainly does not speak for
other torrent technology companies,"
Reville added.
Gigi Sohn, president of consumer rights
group Public Knowledge, called Comcast's
agreement with BitTorrent "irrelevant,"
and said in a statement that it does not
have "any bearing on the complaint and
petitions pending before the Federal
when it comes down to a very hot topic
these days: Wal-Mart.
In this week's Wal-Mart Weekly, I'll be
looking at what seems to be second nature
to many Americans in this day and age --
hating Wal-Mart Stores Inc.(NYSE:
WMT). Like many divisive issues these
days (think Democratic candidates), many
Communications Commission on what
rights users have on the internet."
"The F.C.C. should continue to reinforce
its principles of internet access and should
continue to work for the benefit of
consumers regardless of any particular
arrangements made by the private sector,"
Sohn added.
Markham Erickson, executive director of
the Open Internet Coalition, which lobbies
for net neutrality, said that "despite the
welcome news that Comcast and
BitTorrent are working together, the
F.C.C. still needs to reinforce these efforts
by establishing the basic rules of the road
for BitTorrent users and all internet
consumers by defining permissible
broadband network-management
practices."
"Time and time again, when the telcoms
and cable companies engage in
discriminatory behavior against certain
types of speech and content—as we've
seen with AT&T, Verizon, and most
recently with Comcast—a familiar pattern
emerges," Erickson said.
"First, a spotlight gets focused on the bad
behavior," he said. "Then, when exposed,
the companies state such action is within
their power as network operators. After
that, the F.C.C. and Congress focus on
these discriminatory acts, and finally, the
companies do a U-turn and apologize.
"While it's always a positive step when
these companies admit the error of their
ways," added Erickson, "it's a bad way to
run the internet."
Related Links
Comcast Has Plenty of Room for Video
— Its Own
F.C.C. Warns Comcast Over Web
'Blocking'
Crackdown: Comcast Blocks Peer-to-
Peer Web Traffic
Americans I have met either love or hate
Big Banks Shuffle
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 3/28/2008 4:30:00 AM
Amid estimates that they will report
billions of dollars in additional write-
downs for the first quarter, the two largest
U.S. banks by deposits are preparing for
their post-subprime futures.
Citigroup has a new chief for its U.S.
consumer business, David Enrich of the
Wall Street Journal reports, while Bank of
America has agreed to pay $28 million to
David Sambol, the chief operating officer
of Countrywide Financial, to stay on when
the two companies merge.
Terri Dial, who runs the retail banking
business of Lloyds TSB of Britain, will be
Citi's new chief of U.S. consumer
operations, succeeding Steven Freiberg,
the Journal says. Freiberg will now run the
bank's global credit-card business.
Dial, 58, was a highly regarded Wells
Fargo executive when she joined Lloyds in
2005.
The Financial Times' Alphaville blog
notes that the situation at Citi's consumer
unit, a sluggish business plagued by rising
defaults, is similar to what she stepped into
at Lloyds.
Citi is also ousting the chiefs of its global
finance and prime brokerage business.
Nick Roe will replace Ali Hackett and
Tom Tesauro, according to an internal
memo, Reuters and Bloomberg News
report.
The shakeup is part of Vikram Pandit's
effort to overhaul troubled bank giant since
he took over from Charles Prince as C.E.O.
in December.
"For Pandit it's the case of a new broom
sweeps clean," Rupert Della-Porta, the
chief operating officer at Atlantic Equities
in London, told Bloomberg News. "You
Wal-Mart. There seems to be little to no
middle ground. I can very much
understand the love many customers have
over Wal-Mart. But the hatred?
Who is to blame for all the hatred
towards Wal-Mart? The retailer itself?
How about the customers who keep it at
the top? These are questions that
Business * 7
should expect a rotation of people, and
prime brokerage is an area that people are
focusing on, including Citigroup."
Bank of America, meanwhile, is facing a
number of doubters about its planned $4
billion acquisition of Countrywide
Financial, the largest mortgage lender in
the country. Countrywide continues to
suffer from mounting foreclosures and it
faces criminal and regulatory
investigations.
But Bank of America is going full-steam
ahead. It has already announced that
Sambol would be the chief of the
combined mortgage businesses of the two
companies, a move that Senator Charles
Schumer, Democrat of New York, asked
that Bank of America reconsider. Now, the
bank has disclosed its incentive to keep
Sambol.
According to a filing on Thursday with
the Securities and Exchange Commission,
Sambol will be due a $20 million bonus to
be paid in two parts, on the first and
second anniversaries of the merger.
He also gets $8 million in restricted stock
in three installments. In addition, Sambol
gets to keep his Countrywide fringe
benefits until the end of next year, which
include use of a jet, car, and financial-
consulting services, as well a country-club
dues.
All in all, Sambol gets a much richer deal
than Bank of America's chief executive,
Ken Lewis, who received $20.4 million in
compensation.
But did he have a better year?
Related Links
Was B of A Blindsided by Countrywide
Lawsuits?
Countrywide Gets a New Home
When Banks Diversify Internationally
constantly see emotion overtaking logic
when the questions arise. Let's take a look
at them a little more closely today.
Continue reading The Wal-Mart Weekly:
Why do many hate Wal-Mart? Permalink|
Email this| Comments
8 Business *
When Genius Fails Again, and Again
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 3/28/2008 3:00:00 AM
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
Was this the motto for Long-Term Capital
Management alumni?
It certainly seems that way. But perhaps
it's time to find a new one.
It turns out that Long-Term Capital
founder John Meriwether isn't the only
survivor of the hedge fund that imploded
spectacularly in 1998 who is having
trouble surviving today. Eric Rosenfeld, a
former Salomon Brothers trader who
helped Meriwether start both L.T.C.M. and
J.W.M. Partners, has his own troubled tale
to tell, Portfolio.com has learned.
Rosenfeld parted ways with Meriwether
to start his own fund last year. He reunited
with L.T.C.M.'s former chief financial
officer, Robert Shustak, and the fund's
former controller, Bruce Wilson, to start
Quantitative Alternatives L.L.C. in Rye
Brook, New York.
The plan, according to reports, was to
use statistical models for trading strategies
much like those employed by the ill-fated
L.T.C.M. It had hoped to start trading by
Harvard's New Stockpicker
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 3/27/2008 9:30:00 AM
Look out, Harvard. There's a new girl in
town.
Actually, it's a familiar face to the
Crimson crowd. After an extensive search,
Harvard has hired Jane Mendillo to
oversee its $35 billion endowment.
Mendillo spent 15 years at Harvard
Management Company before leaving in
2002 to manage the endowment for
Wellesley College. During her five years at
the women's school, the fund grew from $1
billion to $1.7 billion, and had annualized
returns of 13.5 percent, according to an
announcement by Harvard.
She returns to Harvard to run the
country's largest university endowment, a
the end of last year.
But that day would never come. The
fund never got off the ground, and the
three partners decided to fold the operation
at the end of last year. But unlike the
dramatic finale of L.T.C.M., Quantitative
Alternatives exited the scene in silence.
"The capital-raising environment was
very challenging," says Shustak, who was
reached by phone in his new office at QFS
Asset Management. "At the end of the
year, we just decided it wasn't the right
time to raise a new quantitative fund. We
didn't feel it was appropriate."
No one knows about today's challenging
environment better than Meriwether, who
is now struggling to keep his nine-year-old
hedge fund solvent, the Wall Street Journal
reported yesterday. Meriwether started
J.W.M. Partners with five other principals
of L.T.C.M., including Rosenfeld, and its
biggest fund is down 28 percent so far this
year.
As for the defunct Quantitative
Alternatives, Shustak declined to say how
much money the trio raised before quietly
calling it quits. He landed on his feet at
QFS earlier this year, and Shustak says
position that was vacated by Mohamed El-
Erian last year. El-Erian returned to the
giant bond fund Pacific Investment
Management Co.
Mendillo worked at Harvard from 1987
to 2002 in a number of different
management positions. During most of that
time, she worked under the legendary
investment manager Jack Meyer.
When Meyer joined Harvard in 1990, the
endowment was worth $4.7 billion. Under
his oversight, aggressive fundraising
efforts and more diversified investment
strategies helped it grow to nearly $23
billion by the time he left in 2005. Meyer
launched an investment strategy that's still
paying off handsomely today—one that
relies less on stocks and bonds and more
on alternative investments like real estate
Wilson is now working for Third Point
Partners, an activist fund run by the
outspoken Daniel Loeb.
Rosenfeld, however, is still "exploring
his different options," Shustak says. Efforts
to reach Rosenfeld both at home and at the
former offices of Quantitative Alternatives
were unsuccessful.
So is there a Long-Term Capital curse?
When two or more former L.T.C.M.
traders enter the same room, does lightning
strike?
Shustak doesn't think there's enough
evidence that the shared experiences at
L.T.C.M. have anything to do with the
success or failure of a new joint venture.
And he has reason to hope that's true.
One of the principals of QFS, Shustak's
current firm, worked in the back office for
L.T.C.M., according to his bio.
Related Links
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Meriwether Decimates his Partners'
Capital, Again
Another Hedge Fund Tracker Launches
and hedge funds.
He left to start his own investment firm
with several of his top managers from
Harvard after a firestorm erupted over the
compensation packages of the fund's
employees.
As a protégé of Meyer's, Mendillo
should be a welcome sight to the
endowment office, which has been without
a leader during one of the most tumultuous
market cycles in its history.
Related Links
Back to the Beach, as Heir Apparent
Harvard Gets It Right Again
El-Erian Leaves Harvard, Returns to
Pimco
Ringside: Bringing social
networking to all
businesses
By Tom Taulli (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 10:40:00 AM
Filed under: Next big thing, Small
business, Technology
With the popularity of Facebook, bebo
and MySpace, companies are trying to find
ways to leverage social networking.
However, it can be expensive to build out a
strong platform.
Well, things are getting easier; that is,
Ringside Networks has launched an open
source server to build social networks (it's
in the beta mode).
True, there are other systems on the
market. However, in the case with
Ringside, it allows for seamless integration
with other sites, such as Facebook. In other
words, it will help companies migrate
users to their own platform.
What's more, Ringside allows companies
to keep their own branding and the look-
and-feel of their own websites.
Oh, and some of the co-founders of
Ringside -- Bob Bickel, Rich Friedman
and Mark Lugert -- were instrumental in
Option Update: Cal-Maine Foods
volatility elevated into EPS, $3
dozen eggs
By Paul Foster (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 5:40:00 AM
Filed under: Options
Cal-Maine Foods(NASDAQ: CALM), a
producer and marketer of fresh shell eggs,
is expected to report Q3 EPS on March 31.
CALM shares have rallied 173% over the
past 12 months. CALM will initiate a
variable dividend policy during Q3 to
replace a fixed dividend policy. According
to NASDAQ, CALM on March 14 had a
short interest of 12,436,184 shares with
average daily volume of 585,828 shares.
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the development of JBoss, which turned
out to be one of the most successful open
source projects in tech history.
To get some perspective on this, I talked
to David DePaolo, who operates
WorkCompCentral.com. He has known
about Ringside for some time. His take: "It
makes sense that someone would start this
up as they have with other technologies,
and just in time. As technology progresses,
we find that it is not all about the
technology and patents, it's the application
of that technology to a specific market."
Tom Taulli is the author of various
books, including The Complete M&A
Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to
Decoding Financial Statements. He also
operates DealProfiles.com. Permalink|
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CALM April 35 straddle is priced at $7.
CALM May 35 straddle is priced at $9.
CALM May call option implied volatility
is at 87, puts are at 103--above its 26-week
average of 68 according to Track Data,
suggesting larger price movement. Puts are
price higher than call because CALM is
difficult to borrow.
Option Update is provided by Stock
Specialist Paul Foster of
theflyonthewall.com. Permalink| Email
this| Comments
Your Click and Print Newspaper
The real victims of a
housing industry bailout
By Zac Bissonnette
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 2:40:00 AM
Filed under: Housing
Yesterday I received a great comment
from long-time reader Dr. Michael
Schneider of barrelomoney.com. He wrote:
Every market has buyers and sellers-- so
far it seems the remedies for the housing
mess have been directed at helping the
banks and homeowners (sellers) and,
rightly or wrongly, propping up housing
prices. This has the effect of helping those
who created the mess or who profited from
it while possibly hurting potential buyers--
including 1st time home-buyers who may
have to pay higher prices for homes that
may still be overpriced.
This may seem like fairly obvious point
but it has profound ramifications: it's been
completely missed by the people who are
supposedly working to solve these
Barron's: BlackRock's CEO looks into the
crystal ball
By Tom Taulli (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 7:40:00 AM
Filed under: General Electric (GE),
Boeing Co (BA), United Technologies
(UTX)
About a year ago, I had a chance to hear
a presentation by Laurence Fink, who is
the CEO of BlackRock(NYSE: BLK),
which is a mega money manager. Simply
put, he was a bit concerned about the
markets. With the huge amounts of
leverage, he thought that investors weren't
getting enough premium for the potential
risk.
Yes, it was a good call. And the upshot is
problems. Propping up home prices delays
the inevitable reversion to something
resembling intrinsic value, and prices first
time home buyers out of the market.
This was one of the effects of the
subprime bubble as well: lax lending prices
that made homes available to people with
brand new SUVs and double-digit FICO
scores made it difficult for people who
wanted to do it the right way: work hard,
save money, and make a 20% down
payment on an affordable home with a 30-
year fixed mortgage.
When you think about it like that, you
have to wonder why there is so much
resistance by supposedly reasonable
politicians to just letting the darn prices
come back down to earth: it's a zero-sum
game, and lower home prices will help just
as many people as they hurt. Permalink|
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that BlackRock has been a stellar
performer.
Well, now Fink is more sanguine. In fact,
in this week's Barron's[a paid publication],
there is an interview with him.
What's his take? First of all, he think
investors should dip into equities, such as
the big caps that benefit from global
growth. Some of his choices include:
General Electric(NYSE: GE),
Monsanto(NYSE: MON), United
Technologies(NYSE: UTX) and
Is Paulson using the credit
crunch to deregulate Wall
Street even more?
By Peter Cohan (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 3:39:00 AM
Filed under: Market matters, Politics,
Headline news, Federal Reserve
The last time Washington took a
fundamental rethink of how best to
regulate the financial markets was during
the 1930s. Now it's decided to try again.
The New York Times reports that on
Monday Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson
will announce a plan to substitute an
alphabet soup of regulatory agencies with
three new ones.
I think it's a clever way to use the current
credit crisis to loosen regulation on the
financial industry while doing little to fix
the current problem or prevent future ones.
A better way would be to nip future
problems in the bud by changing
financiers' incentives -- requiring them,
rather than taxpayers, to foot the bill for
Boeing(NYSE: BA).
He also likes high-grade mortgage debt.
Basically, the spreads are attractive (and
seem to account for the risk levels).
Finally, Fink is bullish on overseas
markets, especially commodity-based
counties like Brazil.
Tom Taulli is the author of various
books, including The Complete M&A
Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to
Decoding Financial Statements. He also
operates DealProfiles.com. Permalink|
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the bad deals they originate -- and
shedding far more light on their dealings.
Paulson's proposal brings many
questions to mind:
• Would the proposed scheme have
prevented the current credit crisis?
• Could the scheme actually be passed by
Congress?
• Would it prevent future crises?
• Is there a better way to manage the
capital markets?
I think the answers are no, no, no, and
yes. Before addressing these questions,
though, let's examine what Paulson is
proposing. Specifically, he wants to create
three new agencies detailed as follows:
Continue reading Is Paulson using the
credit crunch to deregulate Wall Street
even more? Permalink| Email this|
Comments
Cayne Sells Out
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 3/27/2008 2:00:00 PM
It's over.
Any hope that there will be a deal other
than J.P. Morgan Chase's $10-per-share
stock offer for Bear Stearns should now be
finally dashed.
James Cayne, the chairman and former
chief executive of Bear Stearns, has sold
5.6 million shares of Bear for $10.84 a
share, or about $60.1 million, on Tuesday.
It's quite a comedown for a man who was
a billionaire about a year ago, when Bear's
stock price was near $160. He had been
among Bear's largest shareholders.
The Securities and Exchange
Commission filing indicates that Cayne's
wife sold 45,669 Bear shares.
Related Links
The Age of Reregulation
Will Asking Mortgage Servicers to
Modify Mortgages Have Much Impact?
Bear Funds Being Liquidated: Who
Wants to Buy?
Business * 9
Oregon newspaper
claims JP Morgan Chase
memo of dubious intent
By Gary E. Sattler (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 9:40:00 AM
Filed under: Rumors, Management,
Newspapers, Rants and raves, Scandals,
JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Housing
Jeff Manning, staff writer for The
Oregonian newspaper, released a story
Thursday, March 27, 2008, that claims the
paper has come into possession of a copy
of an internal memo from JP Morgan
Chase(NYSE: JPM). According to The
Oregonian article, which hints at unsavory
or even fraudulent mortgage processing
practices, the memo indicates that loan
processors can (not should) use creative
data entry to alter automated underwriting
system results. The Oregonian writer
entertains the "dark side" scenario in the
tone of his article.That's a real convenient,
time-tested ploy for selling newspapers.
Kudos for his attempt.
However, representatives for Chase
mortgage operations have dismissed the
memo as nothing more than a strategic
angle on automated process. While no one
has actually come out to say they created
the memo or why, the company allegedly
admits that the document is genuine. I get
no sense that anyone from the company
who commented on the situation has
anything to hide. In fact, company reps
appear to be quite forthcoming on the
matter.
Continue reading Oregon newspaper
claims JP Morgan Chase memo of dubious
intent Read| Permalink| Email this|
Comments
10 Business * Tech Gadgets *
Comfort Zone Investing: Creative halts unauthorized
Can stocks get much worse? distribution of homegrown
By Ted Allrich (BloggingStocks)
Vista drivers
Submitted at 3/29/2008 3:40:00 AM
Filed under: Comfort Zone Investing
Ted Allrich is the founder of The Online
Investor and author of the just released
book: Comfort Zone Investing: Build
Wealth And Sleep Well At Night. In this
weekly column, he'll offer advice to
investors who are just getting started.
Of course they can. But they can also get
much better. While the stock market, as
measured by the Dow Jones Industrial
Average, has rallied from its lows, can it
sustain the gain or will investors take this
opportunity to reap smaller losses (who has
profits these days?) or step up and buy?
Here's what will influence them.
It seems all economic news is bad.
"Credit crunch" is more common than
Captain Crunch around the breakfast table.
Banks are hemorraging from bad loans.
They're reluctant to make new ones unless
the credit is so good and the loan so small
that it would be impossible to lose money
on it. Most likely the best terms are for
Linux becomes only OS to escape PWN 2 OWN
unscathed
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 7:48:00 AM
Filed under: Laptops
After a week full of Red Bulls, Fruit by
the Foot and dreams of In-N-Out, the
mighty Sony VAIO loaded with Linux
stood as the only machine unhacked by the
end of the PWN 2 OWN hacking contest at
CanSecWest. As you're well aware by
now, the MacBook Air on display was
seized in two minutes by the presumably
well prepared Charlie Miller, and after two
BlackBerry service outages keeping your weekend interesting?
By Paul Miller (Engadget)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 6:18:00 AM
Filed under: Cellphones Having some
those borrowers who deposit all the money
they need in the bank first, then borrow it
back, but not all of it. The banks want that
extra cushion of safety these days. Don't
look for the banks to change lending habits
soon. More losses are coming. Until they
stop, banks will keep credit tight.
Continue reading Comfort Zone
Investing: Can stocks get much worse?
Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
full days of work, Shane Macaulay and a
few of his 1337 associates managed to
crack the Vista rig on Friday. Reportedly,
BlackBerry troubles? You're not alone,
we've been receiving some sporadic tips on
the subject, and some forum users have
reported outage trouble as well, though for
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 9:52:00 AM
Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Audio
Chances are that if you do your duties on
Vista and rely on one of Creative's sound
cards to get your dance on, you may have
become frustrated by the firm's inability to
offer up a driver package that lived up to
those loosed for Windows XP. 'Course, if
that rings a bell, you're probably not too
concerned -- you know, thanks to those
unofficial (but totally functional) drivers
brought to you by Daniel_K. Unfortunately
for users suddenly excited to gain some
extra utility from their device, Creative has
hopped on the offensive and is forbidding
said compiler from distributing the firm's
technology / IP (not to mention collecting
donations), and it's also scouring the 'net to
remove other links to the software.
Granted, we fully understand Creative's
desire to disallow the distribution of
untested, potentially harmful third-party
drivers, but until they release the drivers
customers expect they should be a little
Shane and his pals weren't expecting to do
battle with the extra protected SP1 version
of Vista, and while the exact loophole
won't be divulged, we are told that it was a
cross-platform bug that "took advantage of
Java to circumvent Vista's security." In the
end, it was reported that some folks on
hand had discovered bugs in the Linux OS,
but many of them "didn't want to put the
work into developing the exploit code that
would be required to win the contest."
[Image courtesy of TippingPoint]
Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
other users it seems just fine. Let us know
more cautious about shutting down third
party patches.
[Via Slashdot, thanks to everyone who
sent this in]
Update: It seems Creative has decided to
allow Daniel_K to continue with one
particular endeavor at least, noting that "as
long as no intellectual property of Creative
is distributed, [it] will have no problem
with it." Thanks, Aaron!
Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
how your service is doing. Or don't -- this
might be just the chance you were looking
for to ditch work email and get a start on
that spring tan. We won't tell a soul.
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Video of the
iPhone Pwned
project in action
By Nilay Patel (Engadget)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 1:38:00 PM
Filed under: Cellphones
Those crafty kids on the iPhone Dev
Team have already hacked the 2.0
firmware, but now they're getting ready to
release the oh-so-creatively-named
PWNED tool, which takes iPhone hacking
to the next level by patching the bootloader
to let you load any firmware image you
want -- even images not signed by Apple.
That means custom patched firmware can
now be loaded directly from iTunes, which
simplifies the jailbreaking / unlocking
process tremendously, and also means that
a patched version of the 2.0 firmware is
coming soon. We're putting the tool
through its paces right now and we'll have
a hands-on with it (and the Dev Team's
patched 2.0 firmware) as soon as we get it
all working, but check out some highlights
after the break, and hit the read link for
more info.
Continue reading Video of the iPhone
Pwned project in action
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Your Click and Print Newspaper
Hackers embed flashing
animations on epilepsy support
forum
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 1:50:00 PM
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets Shortly after
hearing a sad tale of a 7-year old cancer
patient having his medication and PSP
stolen whilst en route to treatment comes
yet another story of the world's meanest
preying on the helpless. This go 'round, a
group of griefers (assuming to be members
of Anonymous) managed to invade a
support forum established by the nonprofit
Epilepsy Foundation and use JavaScript
code and messages littered with flashing
animations to effectively assault dozens of
visitors who suffer from the disorder. The
Foundation managed to catch wind of the
problem within 12 hours of the attack, and
while the boards were closed down
temporarily to purge it of offending
messages, many readers (such as RyAnne
Biosensing nanodevice could
hasten security checks, health
screenings
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 5:13:00 PM
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets We'll go
ahead and warn you: if you're hoping to
purge your mind of all things science this
weekend, this post isn't the one to be
reading. For the rest of you knowledge
seekers, Arizona State University
researcher Wayne Frasch has developed a
biosensing nanodevice that could possibly
revolutionize health screenings and speed
up that grueling airport security process.
Put simply (well, as simply as possible), he
discovered that the enzyme F1- ATPase
can be equipped with an optical probe and
"manipulated to emit a signal when it
detects a single molecule of target DNA."
Fultz, pictured) experienced headaches and
seizures before rescue arrived. Let's just
say we sincerely hope the culprits get
what's comin' to 'em.
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Currently, a prototype of the DNA detector
is already being worked up, but there's no
word on when (or if) the device will escape
the lab and hit the commercial realm. Still
not geeked out? Hit the read link and hold
on for dear life.
[Via Physorg]
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Nyko's wireless Wii nunchuk
adapter hits the FCC, itself with the
ugly stick
By Nilay Patel (Engadget)
Submitted at 3/28/2008 10:42:00 PM
Filed under: Gaming
No matter how we might try and stop it,
Nyko's wireless Wii nunchuk adapter /
abomination ceaselessly advances upon the
unsuspecting American consumer,
stopping at nothing to ruin the delicate
aesthetics of the Wii controllers and pump
us full of even more unnecessary RF. The
adapter and its receiver have just hit the
FCC, and our nation's government has
managed to use every ounce of
photographic skill at its disposal to render
these mutant hunks of plastic in as
flattering a light as possible -- just look at
that stained blue backdrop. Seriously, is
anyone going to drop $20 on this thing?
Isn't that money better spent on games?
Explain yourself in comments, in ten
words or less.
[Thanks, Mickel]
Read- Wireless adapter
Read- Receiver
Permalink| Email this| Comments
Tech Gadgets * 11
Mesiro Merium
media PC has sleek,
sexy down pat
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 12:44:00 AM
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media
PCs
Those on the hunt for a pre-fabricated
HTPC can't complain about a lack of
choices these days, but if you've yet to be
taken aback by anything out there, why not
give Mesiro's Merium a glance? The
standout feature here isn't the 1.66GHz
Core 2 Duo T5500 processor, 250GB
internal HDD, dual-layer DVD burner,
GMA950 graphics accelerator, WiFi, 5-in-
1 multicard reader or the bundled MCE
remote -- oh no, it's the interchangeable
chassis covers (weird, right?). Yep, you
can swap out the covers on this rig
whenever you feel the urge, ensuring that
there's a case for every occasion.
Unfortunately, those in America who'd like
to get in on this won't appreciate the €999
($1,578) price tag, and those €55 ($87)
faceplates aren't any easier to swallow.
[Via MoCo Loco]
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12 Tech Gadgets * Technology *
South Korean police aiming to
equip all new handsets with GPS?
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 5:40:00 AM
Filed under: Cellphones, GPS
Presumably taking a note from Japan, it's
being reported that South Korean police
are backing a highly controversial plan that
would equip each new mobile sold in the
nation with a GPS chip. Reportedly, Song
Kang-ho, chief of the investigation bureau
of the National Police Agency, has stated
that the government has "already submitted
a related bill to the National Assembly,"
WordPress Gets Major Overhaul
By Duncan Riley (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 4:04:11 PM
WordPress 2.5 has been released with a
major overhaul to the interface and a range
of new features.
The biggest change is in the appearance
of the administration backend, which is
described as being a “Cleaner, faster, less
cluttered dashboard.” The WordPress
dashboard is now widget friendly, and
users can include items such as stats,
offering similar functionality to
MovableType.
Other new features include multi-file
and the general idea here is to crack down
on the rise of kidnapping and various other
crimes against children and women (not
much different than we Americans having
such a chip for E911, really). Granted,
there's not a lot of supporting evidence that
this is actually set to go down, so until we
see it inked in stone, our skeptic hats are
remaining in place.
[Via textually, image courtesy of The
New York Times]
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uploading, one-click plugin upgrades, built
-in galleries, salted passwords and cookie
encryption, media library, code friendly
WYSIWYG, concurrent post editing
protection, full-screen writing, and
improved search.
A demo video from Automattic’s Matt
Mullenweg above, and further details on
the WordPress blog here. CrunchBase
Information Automattic Matt Mullenweg
Information provided by CrunchBase
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile
Gadgets and Applications, Delivered
Daily.
Nintendo's Wii Wheel priced at $14.99
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 11:15:00 AM
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals We've
known that Nintendo would be bundling a
single Wii Wheel in with the forthcoming
Mario Kart Wii title, but now it seems that
folks riding shotgun (or riding your tail)
can grab one of their own. According to a
recently released flyer from GameStop,
extra Wheels -- should the plethora of
steering apparatuses already out there not
suffice -- will be sold for a cool $14.99
each. April 27th just seems so, so far away,
doesn't it? Check the flyer in full after the
jump.
Newspapers' Real Problems
By Kevin Maney (Portfolio.com:
Tech Observer)
Submitted at 3/28/2008 5:53:25 AM
Newspapers aren't dying because of the
Internet. Newspapers are dying because of
two reasons that usually go unspoken:
most newspapers suck, and almost all
newspapers aim at the wrong audience.
Throw in screw-ups like the Los Angeles
Times' Tupac mess, and you get a train
wreck.
The New Yorker has a lengthy story
delving into why newspapers are dying. It
names all the usual suspects -- Craigslist,
Google, disinterest among the young to
read anything on paper.
If those are the culprits, though, how do
you explain the success of college
newspapers? You'd think, since college
kids are so wired, they'd rather pick up a
cow pie than a printed paper. Yet a 2006
survey showed that 44% of college
students read their campus paper twice or
more a week -- a market penetration city
newspapers only dream about. Advertising
revenue for college papers increased 15%
in 2007.
College newspapers are indispensable
parts of their communities. They're written
by students for students. They're often
courageous, whether taking on the
administration or running sex-advice
columns. Most college papers have Web
sites, but students still read the print
version, actually enjoying a break from
their computer screens.
[Thanks, Pat]
Continue reading Nintendo's Wii Wheel
priced at $14.99
Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
So why can't city newspapers have that
kind of success? Well, for one, outside of
maybe the 10 biggest papers, they don't
have the talent for it. Most city newspapers
have seen their newsroom budgets
squeezed tighter and tighter for the past
decade or two. They're left with too few
people. The salaries that newspapers pay,
coupled with the conventional wisdom that
the medium is dying, prevent them from
luring or keeping the brightest newcomers.
In short, newspaper companies have not
seriously invested in improving and
updating their product in years -- for the
most part, not since the move to color.
With rare exception, newspapers are dull
and bound to outdated traditions. (My old
employer, USA Today, busted out of that
container 25 years ago only by starting
with a clean slate -- but then increasingly
adopted newspaper traditions over these
past 25 years.) In a Pew survey, less than
20% of journalists named the quality of
coverage as something that journalism "is
doing especially well these days." Along
the way, newspapers portray themselves as
purveyors of trusted professional news,
and then suffer scandals, like the LA
Times linking Sean Combs to Tupac
Shakur's death based on false FBI
documents. No wonder papers are losing
customers.
And then, if you want to accept that
younger people won't read a newspaper
(which the success of college papers seems
to counter), or if you want to accept that
newspapers need to hold onto their
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Glam Makes Big Cuts In
Publisher Payments - “Up
To 80% Drop In Revenue”
By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Advertising network Glam is putting an
Submitted at 3/29/2008 12:09:41 PM
traditions, then newspapers keep trying to
win the wrong audience. They constantly
talk about appealing to younger readers --
but they shouldn't. Newspapers might do
better if they consciously play to older
readers.
Surveys show a generation gap in the
way people get news -- particularly
national and international news. In one
Pew survey, the median age of the three
categories of news consumers least likely
to turn to the Net is around 50. The
information "omnivores," who use the Net
for most everything, has a median age of
28.
Newspaper executives tend to covet a
generation of readers they can't win while
taking for granted the readers who could
become loyal fans. It's completely
backwards. Logic says that newspaper
companies should give their customers
what they want: aim the print product
squarely at people, say, 40 and older, and
aim the Web site at 40 and younger.
That could create some branding
tensions. But what else are newspapers
going to do? Everything they've tried over
the past decade has not worked.
Related Links
Idle Chatter: All Eyez on the 'L.A.
Times'
Late Breaks: About that Diddy-Shot-
Tupac Story...
The Incredible Shrinking Newspaper
Business
Your Click and Print Newspaper
GLAM
continued from page 12
end to at least some of its guaranteed
payments to publishers, just a month after
raising an$85 million round of financing.
Scott Swanson, Glam’s GM and Vice
President, told publishers in an email (full
text below) that “house ads” that were
served for unsold inventory were being
discontinued as of March 25, except to
fulfill “minimum commitments that Glam
has contractually agreed to.”
The email says the change was made to
give publishers “more choice when it
comes to how you use your unsold
inventory.” But according to one large
publisher partner to Glam, this is actually
nothing more than a way for Glam to
dramatically cut payments to partners. He
said“While they’re spinning this as
positive news, it sucks for publishers.
Publishers were previously guaranteed $3 -
$5 CPMs for house ads. By no longer
running any house ads, that revenue dies.
And, given Glam’s fill rates retwork wide
are only 30%, that’s 70% of traffic (for
most publishers) that’s no longer earning
revenue from Glam…It’ll basically cause a
30 - 80% drop in revenue for publishers”
Glam’s business model is to guarantee
minimum flat payments to publishers. A
medium sized blog will receive, say, a
guaranteed payment of $10,000 monthly.
Glam then sells ads into those blogs, and
placed house ads with a high CPM for any
unsold inventory. If the blog’s page views
grew, those additional payments over the
guarantee could really add up. Some
publishers, with 3 or more ad units on a
page, could guarantee a $15 or higher
RPM (revenue per thousand page views).
Microsoft Succeeds in Making Vista Even Worse
By Kevin Maney (Portfolio.com:
Tech Observer)
Submitted at 3/24/2008 6:08:57 PM
Windows Vista is already perhaps the
most frustrating product Microsoft has yet
heaved onto the computing public. But
now its Service Pack 1 update, which is
supposed to FIX holes and squeaks in the
Vista code, seems to be making things
That’s an awesome advertising income for
blogs, particularly blogs targeting women
generally (highly specific niche blogs can
command higher rates, but usually only at
scale).
So why is Glam doing this? Three
reasons, probably.
First, they need to get costs down. Last
year the company lost $3.7 million on $21
million in revenue. They’ve promised
investors that 2008 would bring in $150
million in revenue with $40 million in
profit. The only way to get there is bring in
a lot more publishers, sell a lot more ads,
and keep a larger share for themselves.
Second, Glam really needed to keep all
those bloggers happy last year while they
were raising capital. There’s no better way
to do that than to send them big checks
every month. Now that Glam has raised the
big round, they don’t need the small
bloggers at all, and they certainly aren’t
going to be losing money on them.
Third, Glam is actively acquiring many
of the blogs that they currently sell ads for,
and they want them cheap. By cutting their
revenue dramatically and quickly, many of
those blogs will immediately be in a very
tight cash position. They may be forced to
sell. And with revenues down, Glam can
pick them up for a song.
What does all this mean? It means if you
are a Glam publisher, you’ve served your
purpose and the good times are over. Move
along, please. They have a company to
build. And if you’re counting on those
guaranteed payments after the termination
date on your contract, well, you’re as
dumb as Glam hopes you are.
worse -- so much worse that venerable
publications like Computerworld are
running stories about how to get SP1 off
your machine. InfoWorld has a piece about
how Vista users are blasting Microsoft on
Microsoft's own Vista blog. The headline
on T he Washington Post's story says a lot:
"Vista SP1: Threat or Menace?"
For what it's worth, for Microsoft's much
I’ve emailed Glam for a comment, but
haven’t heard back from them yet. The
company has raised a total of$114 million.
Update: Scott Swanson replies in the
comments:
As GM of the Glam Publisher Network,
my team’s #1 priority is to ensure the
success of our publishers and to help them
secure high-CPM brand advertising.
Unlike most other networks we do not
compromise on our rate card and as a
result, our partners benefit from high CPM
brand advertising. When we’re unable to
deliver a paid ad, we have traditionally run
a Glam house ad (i.e. a current house ad
announces our upcoming Glam Network
blogger awards). Publishers have requested
more choice for the impressions that our
house ads would normally fill. This default
ad technology simply replaces the Glam
house ads with a host of options. This is
similar to standard network ‘default’
technology that’s been in general use for
years.
I want to acknowledge that Glam is
successful because of our publisher
partners. As a company, our focus is on
convincing the brands to engage in new
ways with a media landscape made up of
independent premium publishers with
passionate audiences. We welcome the
ongoing dialogue.
CrunchBase Information Glam Media
Information provided by CrunchBase
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-ballyhooed power, its stock traded at
around $25 a share five years ago today.
Image Recognition Problem
Finally Solved: Let’s Pay
People To Tag Photos
By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 6:46:35 PM
Most people have thousands of digital
photos sitting on their hard drive. And the
vast majority of those photos aren’t tagged
or searchable. Want to find the 300
pictures of your youngest son amongst
10,000 others? It’s not going to happen.
Unless you’ve been diligently tagging and
categorizing those photos over the years,
and who does that?
The problem is obvious. The solution,
not so much. A trail of failed startups have
tried to tackle the problem with a fairly
serious application of technology,
including: Riya(now focused on
ecommerce via Like.com), Ookles(never
launched), and Polar Rose(in private beta
for nearly a year), among others.
And now suddenly TagCow appears,
which allows users to upload photos and
have them tagged within a few minutes.
The technology appears to be “magic,”
meaning there’s no explanation of it.
If there’s a mountain in the photo, it’s
tagged. A dog? yep. A yellow cup?
Absolutely. It does people, too. Upload an
image of a person and say who it is, and all
other images you upload will be tagged
with that person, too. The service also
integrates with Flickr and will auto tag the
photos you have on the service.
Thomas Hawk, the CEO of photo site
Zooomr, tried the service and declared
it“really, really cool,” although he wonders
how it works.
Last I looked, it was at $29, with some
relatively minor ups and downs in
between. You'd have gotten just about the
same performance from an electric power
company, like Con Ed.
Vista, the stock price -- something's
clearly not going well in Redmond. Think
buying Yahoo will help?
(Microsoft vs. Con Ed, courtesy Yahoo)
Technology * 13
The answer is, humans do it. I note that
the TagCow site is careful not to say
anything about the tagging process, and
never use the word “automated” or
anything else that would suggests
computers are doing the work. Munjal
Shah, the founder of Riya/Like, agreed,
noting that it recognized a witch in
Thomas’ photo - he says this just isn’t
something a computer can do today.
I haven’t confirmed this yet. I’ve emailed
the company for a description of how the
service works but have yet to hear back.
Until we do, I’m betting that humans are
the taggers. Note that Google has
effectively thrown in the towel and uses
humans for this kind of work, too.
TagCow appears to be offering the
service for free, so the cost side of the
business may be a problem for them down
the road. And the business is definitely a
little sketchy. Worried about the privacy of
your data? Just don’t click on their Privacy
Policy or Terms of Use: “Privacy policy is
TBD.” and “Legal stuff TBD.” Not exactly
a way to build confidence. CrunchBase
Information TagCow Information provided
by CrunchBase
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Related Links
Idle Chatter: Sumner 'n' Tom, Together
Again
Ballmer: We're Not Behind on Search;
Just Waiting to Make Our Move
Parsing Eric Schmidt: Microsoft is Evil,
Google is Not
14 Technology * Your Click and Print Newspaper

Motorola: The Loss of a Once-Great Company

By Kevin Maney (Portfolio.com:
Tech Observer)
Submitted at 3/26/2008 7:05:40 AM
Motorola is pitching its split into two
companies, announced this morning, as a
chance to re-focus and grow. It smells
more like the death of a great American
company.
It certainly feels that way to the Galvins -
- the family that built and ran the company
for most of its existence. Paul Galvin
founded Motorola; his son Bob Galvin
made it huge; and the grandson, Chris
Galvin, was CEO from 1995 through 2003
-- when the board forced him to resign.
Motorola had a spurt of growth just after
Chris Galvin left -- which Galvin and a lot
of others believe came from products
Galvin had teed up -- and performed pretty
well through 2006 under CEO Ed Zander.
Since then, Moto's cell phone business has
sputtered and lost market share while its
stock price has gone off a cliff.
Chris Galvin recently told me that his
family has sold 99% of their Moto
holdings -- a devastating vote of no-
confidence. "Motorola as an innovator is
dead and cannot be retrieved," he said.
Yes, of course, that could sound like sour
grapes -- except that he might be right. An
investor, Carl Icahn, has succeeded in
putting short-term shareholder gain above
everything, forcing Motorola into pieces
that surely can't have the cultural strength
or market impact of the whole.
Fourteen years ago, when Jim Collins
and Jerry Porras wrote their
groundbreaking book Built to Last, they
included Motorola among just 18 global
companies that had enduring top-shelf
success. Moto was especially cited as a
company that had a built-in mechanism for
renewal. It periodically dipped into a
difficult time, but found new businesses
and exited old ones and got going again. It
could do that because it had patient
management -- the family that built the
company. Once that was gone, crass
shareholder returns took the lead.
Splitting into pieces doesn't seem like the
same recipe that got Motorola onto the
Built To Last list.
Motorola's individual businesses might
do fine. Perhaps they'll surprise everyone
and bounce back. But at the moment, the
split seems like a giant step back from
greatness -- and maybe a step toward that
Montgomery & Co.
place where you'll find other once-iconic
names like Polaroid, Westinghouse and
Raises $50 Million
Sears.
(A disclosure and bit of trivia: The quote
For Realtime Worlds
on the front of most paperback copies of By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Built To Last, attributed to USA Today, is Submitted at 3/28/2008 4:14:53 PM
me.) Related Links
Motorola: Maybe the Problem Isn't Scottish game developer Realtime Worlds
Zander has raised $50 million in a third round of
Motorola Splits financing led by Maverick Capital, says a
Replacement Value source with knowledge of the deal.
The company previously raised
nearly$33 million in capital from CIM
Fund and NEA. We’ve also heard that
Montgomery & Co. were advisors on the

YouTube Insight: Underwhelming deal.

By Kevin Maney (Portfolio.com:
Tech Observer)
Submitted at 3/27/2008 7:48:48 AM
Google's YouTube announced a tool,
called YouTube Insight, but it doesn't seem
all that great. The company says it can
"give a lot of context around the
performance of video over time, where are
your audience coming from, and how your
message is connecting to your audience."
It's gotten a ton of coverage from the
media.
But while the information you get is
interesting, it's so broad that it strikes me
as underwhelming. I tried it out on the
most popular video I ever uploaded --
popular, I should add, for reasons that are
unfathomable to me. Its title is"Loudest
Car at CES," and I posted it from the
Consumer Electronics Show in January
2007. It has since had 46,833 views.
The Insight tool shows me that it first
broke 100 views a day on May 19, 2007 --
five months after the video was posted. I
can follow a timeline and see that it passed
300 views a day on October 26, and even
now gets nearly 200 views a day. I can also
see that almost every viewer comes from
the U.S.
I can see some other geographic oddities
-- like, on Oct. 30, it was a very popular
video in Namibia! (Like...huh??)
But that's about it. That's all I get from
Insight. No idea why this video got popular
when it did or where. I suppose a band
might be able to find out that its music
videos are extremely popular in some far-
flung nation, and could make decisions to
market or tour there. I'm sure there are
other ways this is useful to marketers and
potential YouTube advertisers. But
hopefully YouTube will eventually give us
more refined ways to slice and dice this
stuff.
(YouTube Insight map)
Related Links
I Don't Want My Web TV
Watching for the Next YouTube
Internet Video Growth: It's All YouTube
-ish
Realtime Worlds is behind a number of
game titles on a variety of platforms,
including Mobile Forces, Crackdown and
the upcoming All Points Bulletin.
Montgomery & Co. is an extremely busy
dealmaker these days. They are also
reported to be working with Meebo on a
big new round of financing, as well as
doing mergers and acquisitions work for a
number of well known startups. They also
represented Club Penguin in their$700
million sale to Disney in August 2007.
CrunchBase Information Realtime Worlds
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Your Click and Print Newspaper
Dash GPS/Wi-Fi Gadget
Lives Up to Billing
By Kevin Maney (Portfolio.com:
Tech Observer)
Submitted at 3/27/2008 6:33:47 AM
I've been following and writing about
Dash Navigation since early in its
inception, and much of the tech world has
been anxious to see it go live. Finally, it's
here -- and reviews say it's the in-car GPS
unit to beat.
But always, the thing about Dash is that
if it catches on and gets critical mass --
certainly not a guarantee -- it could bring
about a dramatic shift in how people think
about getting around by car. Dash
aggregates input from all of the Dash units
out there -- gathering anonymous info
about exactly where each Dash car is and
how fast it's moving -- and feeds it back to
Dash users. If thousands of cars are driving
around with Dash units in a given city,
Dash owners will get pretty decent up-to-
the-second information about how traffic is
moving on roads they're heading towards
or intend to take.
It could be a classic case of information
shedding light on something that was
previously opaque. People mostly guess
what traffic will be like using models
they've built in their heads about what it's
usually like at certain times of day. Dash
promises to stop the guessing -- we can
know what traffic is like RIGHT NOW on
the roads ahead.
Interestingly, while states struggle to
fund roads to relieve congestion and cities
like London come up with schemes to
reduce peak traffic -- Dash might be one of
the best solutions of all to congestion. If
everyone had Dash, drivers would make
better decisions about routes and could
disperse traffic more evenly around
highways and cities. Dash is probably, in
fact, the cheapest way to do that.
Related Links
Survey Confirms iPhone Users are Hard-
Core Internet Junkies
Code Black: Portable Email Network
Crashes Again
How Apple Got Everything Right By
Doing Everything Wrong
Yahoo’s New Rock Star
Retention Program
By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 2:38:27 PM
Yahoo, in the midst of a fight to remain
independent, is granting “golden handcuff”
stock options to key employees. The stock
options are given to “key contributors”
among the rank and file - senior executives
are not eligible.
These stock option grants are on top of
the previously announced changes to
Yahoo’s severance plans. That provided
for accelerated vesting of employee stock
options and severance pay following a
change in control (an acquisition by
Microsoft, for example) and a termination
of employment, and it applied to all Yahoo
employees.
The new plan applies only to a select
group of key Yahoo employees - the “rock
stars,” as one source put it. They are being
given special (and large) stock grants over
and above their normal allotment. The size
of the option grants is discretionary, but
may be almost as large as their existing
grants. One in twenty or so Yahoo
employees will be getting these grants,
says one source.
Zillow's Business During a Real Estate
Meltdown
By Kevin Maney (Portfolio.com:
Tech Observer)
Submitted at 3/25/2008 7:38:42 AM
Rich Barton, CEO of popular real estate
site Zillow, passed through town yesterday
and met me for coffee at my satellite
office, Jamie's General Bean.
Zillow has grown like crazy in the two
years since it launched and now gets 5
million visitors a month. It makes its
money strictly on advertising. (Still
private, it doesn't release financial figures.)
So I had to ask: Now that real estate is in a
crisis mode, what's that doing to Zillow?
"We're growing 30% year over year,"
Barton said. He thinks the site is getting
even more traffic now that it's a buyer's
The options are also on an accelerated
vesting schedule. Normal options are
granted with a four year vesting schedule.
If you leave earlier, those stock options
disappear. The Rock Star options, though,
vest over just 18 months. And they are also
subject to the same acceleration provisions
that Yahoo announced in February, so if
the company is acquired and the employee
terminated (or quits under certain
conditions), they get all the stock.
It is apparently fairly well known within
Yahoo that some key employees are being
given these special stock options, although
we haven’t heard much grumbling from
the vast majority that didn’t get them.
Perhaps they’re too busy worrying about
job security to spend much time on envy.
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market. "People take time to research
because they have the time -- it's hard to
take the time to research when the market
is in a buying frenzy and you have multiple
bids on a house."
The site also keeps adding features and is
"dipping its toe into home improvement" --
perhaps showing people how a certain
remodeling project would affect a home's
price in a certain neighborhood. When real
estate goes sour and people stay put, they
tend to remodel what they own. It will
soon launch mortgage marketplace on the
Technology * 15
Andreessen,
Worthwhile
Reading
By Kevin Maney (Portfolio.com:
Tech Observer)
Submitted at 3/27/2008 7:14:06 AM
Marc Andreessen has a new company,
Ning, and seems to be active in business.
But really, he seems to be morphing into
something of a scruffy
philosopher/preacher pumped up on
massive quantities of Red Bull. Somehow,
he manages to find time to pop out long,
well-argued blog posts that would
challenge most professional writers.
Marc has started on a series that riffs on
theories espoused by Charlie Munger, who
is the quiet business partner of Warren
Buffett. It's quite a start, and will be
interesting to see if Marc will the see series
through.
It
Related Links
Andreessen's Truth-Telling, and Lots of
Andreessen's Amazing Blog, Cont'd
Sowood: Long Debt, Short Equity
site.
My guess, too, is that if housing prices
are diving, a lot of people want to keep an
eye on that. Zillow is a good way to watch
what's happening to your home's value --
or the prices of homes in a place you want
to live.
Zillow recently picked up another $30
million in financing in the fall. "I raised the
last round not because we needed the
money, but for a rainy day," Barton said.
"A rainy day (in terms of being able to
raise money) is kinda here."
Related Links
Prying Eyes
House Poor
Peter Schiff on the Housing Market and
the Rescue Plan
16 Technology *
Adobe AIR Desktop App For Decline Of US Newspapers
FriendFeed Coming Accelerating
By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 6:37:23 AM
FriendFeed released their API just a few
days ago, but third party developers are
already scrambling to build on top of the
service.
We just heard that Howard/Baines will
be releasing an Adobe AIR application for
FriendFeed in the next week or so. So far
all we have is the screen shot and a
confirmation from Baines that his team is
working on it. The application will be
called Alert Thingy (I assume the site will
be here).
If this is anything like Twhirl, an AIR
application for Twitter, it’s likely to be a
hit. Since it’s AIR it will work on both
Windows and Macs right from the start. If
the application also allows users to
comment on items, post directly to
FriendFeed, flag items as “liked,” etc.,
users will have little need to visit the
FriendFeed site directly. And that should
be fine with FriendFeed, since users will
have persistent interaction with the service
on the desktop.
Other early applications built on the
Google Risks Muslim Backlash
By Hosting Fitna
By Duncan Riley (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 3/28/2008 7:25:21 PM
Google is currently hosting controversial
film about Islam Fitma.
The film has made tech headlines after
Network Solutions suspended the site the
film was to debut on, then Live Leak was
forced to pull it following serious threats
against the company from Muslims
unhappy with the film. Live Leak’s
explanation video above.
The film, ripped from Live Leak, is now
available on Google Video here in full, and
FriendFeed API are coming out, too. See
this Wordpress plugin and FriendFeed
Stats.
CrunchBase Information FriendFeed
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can also be found on YouTube. Warning
on the film: there are graphic scenes in it.
What Google does now will be an
interesting test for a company that claims
“do no evil” as its company mantra. The
video is hosted in the US, and we presume
with part or full support of the creators of
the film negating any copyright
considerations, so ultimately it will be up
to Google to decide between free speech
and global jihad.
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By Duncan Riley (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 3/28/2008 8:09:55 PM
Figures released by the Newspaper
Association of America show that the
decline of newspapers is more rapid than
previously thought, with total print
advertising revenue in 2007 plunging 9.4%
to $42 billion compared to 2006, the
biggest drop in revenue since 1950, the
year they started tracking annual revenue.
Online provides some solace for the dead
-tree business, with internet ad revenue
growing 18.8% to $3.2 billion compared to
2006, but a rate significantly lower than
the 31.4% growth the year before, and not
even close to replacing the losses from
print. Online revenue now represents 7.5%
of total newspaper ad revenues.
Newspapers do have a future, but as I
wrote in November, we are yet to see a
major consolidation of print in the United
States. Declining revenues will ultimately
force consolidation across print media in
LinkedIn Now Offering Network RSS
Feeds
By Duncan Riley (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 3/28/2008 8:47:55 PM
LinkedIn is now offering RSS feeds for
network updates.
The feature allows users to track updates
and connections across their LinkedIn
network via their favorite RSS Reader. For
example the feed shows when people in
your network connect with other people,
make recommendations or update their
LinkedIn status.
As Ben Barren points out, it’s a handy
way of keeping up to date for those who
Joost in the Browser
By Kevin Maney (Portfolio.com:
Tech Observer)
Submitted at 3/25/2008 5:52:02 AM
A few blogs have pointed out that there
was a bit of news buried in my story on
Joost in this month's Portfolio magazine.
the United States, and many of those that
fail to embrace change will be on
borrowed time.
(via E&P)
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live in their feed readers “because if its not
in my google reader it doesnt exist to me,
so now I’ll see what people are doing.”
Access to set up the feed on LinkedIn
here. CrunchBase Information LinkedIn
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(Working for a monthly, I didn't know
whether the news would be out before my
story ran -- but as it turns out, this is the
scoop, as they say.)
Anyway, it's the bit about Joost soon
playing inside the browser, rather than
only in a special Joost player that must be
Your Click and Print Newspaper
Turn Your Lights
Off, Google Needs
Extra Power Today
By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 9:34:03 AM
As we noted two days ago, Google is
taking its home page black in support of
Earth Hour.
We criticized Google when we first
posted about this because, it turns out,
black web pages actually may use more
power than white ones (based on a study
that Google itself cited last year). So
Google is, ironically, causing people who
visit their site to use more power to
celebrate Earth Hour than they would on a
normal day.
Google changed its message to users to
note the disparity (compare to what they
said to Israeli users two days ago), but I
still find this all very funny.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile
Gadgets and Applications, Delivered
Daily.
downloaded. Joost did not say exactly
when this will happen -- only "later this
year." But clearly it's important to CEO
Mike Volpi.
Your Click and Print Newspaper
Google and Its Click-Through
By Kevin Maney (Portfolio.com:
Tech Observer)
Submitted at 3/28/2008 7:58:24 AM
Google is getting some press about a dip
in its click-through rate, but the news is not
evidence of Google being in trouble. It's
about a change in the way it generates
clicks, and most analysts say it's a
temporary blip. Certainly Google s tock
Ballmer: We're Not
Behind on Search; Just
Waiting to Make Our Move
By Kevin Maney (Portfolio.com:
Tech Observer)
Submitted at 3/25/2008 10:50:27 AM
In a quickie interview on 24/7 Wall
Street, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
maintains that Microsoft's search situation
is more like a distance runner waiting to
make his move past the leader -- i.e.
Google. And he says a little -- very little --
about Yahoo and Microsoft's future as
provider of software that sits on PCs.
Related Links
The War for the Internet
Ballmer's Big Play
Search Mission
March Madness On Demand breaks traffic records!
By ncaahoops
Submitted at 3/26/2008 10:16:57 PM
We already mentioned the Compete story,
but now we have more hard numbers on
isn't suffering. It's up about 4% today.
If you want more Google, dip into the
interview of CEO Eric Schmidt by my
colleague Russ Mitchell.
Related Links
Google's Fortune Cookie Says...
The $1 Executive Club
Doubts Spread About Google Earnings
Sweet 16 Preview and Predictions, Day 1
By ncaahoops
Submitted at 3/26/2008 4:33:00 PM
You can get a two hour preview of the
NCAA Tourney games on CSTV, today at
2pm pacific (5pm eastern), but you can
also get a preview right here. For all the
TV stuff, be sure to check our March
Madness TV listings.
West Virginia vs Xavier
The first wave of games tips off with a
good old rivarly, Bob Huggins vs Xavier.
As you may recall, Huggins was the head
coach at Cincy, and they had an annual
intense rivarly game every year. We now
love West Virginia even more, after they
beat up the Dookies, and we are planning a
blogging celebration for them later today :)
And because of that we want West Virgina
to win and move along. But Xavier, just
like Texas, is one of those crazy teams that
can beat anyone and can lose to almost
anyone. They already showed early
tournament onions by making comebacks
against Georgia and Purdue.
But ultimately we think the combination
of outside shooting, Joe Alexander, and
Bob Huggins toughness will get the
Threepointers over the top and send the
Musketeers home. And the X-men will
have to worry some more, as their head
coach may be poached by one of the BCS
schools. Indiana is not the only major
program looking for a head coach, and the
impressive success of Herb Sendek at
Arizona State may tempt other Pac-10
schools to go after one of his former
March Madness OnDemand, courtesy of
PaidContent.org.
The numbers went through the roof
compared to last year, with a total of 3.7
million hours watched! All the numbers
Roy Williams Commits NCAA Violation!
By ncaahoops
Submitted at 3/29/2008 11:40:14 AM
But not what you think :) During the
press conference before the Louisville vs
North Carolina game, Roy Williams
committed an NCAA violation, in front of
everyone, the media, the cameras, the
reporters, and ESPN News!
assistants. We are talking potentially
Oregon, California or USC. But let's leave
that for the coaching carousel discussion :)
North Carolina vs Washington State
In the other game, North Carolina will
face Washington State. This is the ultimate
contrast in style, although the young singer
is not a ...dick like his dad, he lets his team
run when they have the advantage. We've
said all along that Washington State, just
like Wisconsin, are operating in a narrow
band. They usually beat the teams they are
supposed to beat, and lose to the teams
they are supposed to lose to.
If you don't think so, be sure to check
Washington State's record, courtesy of Ken
Pom RPI. They are 0-5 against Sweet 16
teams (UCLA, Stanford), but they beat up
NCAA teams that lost in the first week
(Baylor, Zags, USC, Oregon). Arizona is
an exception because when they had their
full complement they were playing like a
Sweet 16 team. But injuries and such
derailed them. But that's a story for another
day.
Ultimately we think that UNC will
overmatch Wazoo. Derrick Low may give
them some headaches, as neither Lawson
or Q are ideally suited to guard him. Kyle
Weaver on the other hand will have his
hands full having to deal with Ellington on
defense and Ginyard and Green on offense.
Hansbrough will probably be limited by
the Wazoo interior play and defensive
scheme, but the combination of Lawson
and Green/Ellington, and possibly Deon
Thompson's bank shots will be the
across the board went up up and away.
Also of interest in that story, ESPN and
CBS Sports had about the same number of
entries in their online bracket
competitions!
What was the violation? He pulled out a
Coke bottle and poured it into his blue
NCAA-logo cup. This is a violation
because the NCAA does not want any
other marketing logos to appear in their
press conferences.
This is further complicated because Coca
Cola is one of the premier North Carolina
sponsors :)
difference.
Louisville vs Tennessee
This is a game we have a hard time
getting a read on. Both teams are deep,
both press and run and gun. We would
have preferred that this was a Final Four
game instead of a Sweet 16 game.
But let's consider Tennessee's history in
the NCAA tourney in the Bruce Pearl era
and Pitino's history. That does not look
favorable for Tennessee, but one could
have easily made the same argument for
Texas A&M vs Louisville last year at
Rupp Arena, and Billy Clyde Gillispie
pulled out a tough win at his future home
court beating Pitino on his former home
court. Or to use Pitino-speak, his former
home cot :)
But there's something else that goes
against Tennessee: Consider how they did
not only in past NCAA tourneys under
Bruce Pearl, but also in other tourneys.
This year they got blown out by Texas in a
pre-season tourney in New Jersey. Last
year they lost to Butler in the pre-season
NIT. They haven't done well in the SEC
tourney either.
Obviously the three point shot can be a
determining factor and if there is a big
difference in the shots made, we think that
the team with that advantage will probably
win the game.
Other than Lofton - if he is having a wild
shooting game - we don't see any potential
matchup advantages for the Vols.
Ultimately we think that Padgett and T-
Will will be able to make up for the
But remember, every time you fill in a
bracket, Coach K eats a kitten for breakfast
;-)
Technology * Sports* 17
Will this amount to anything? Probably
not :) Is this worth talking about? Probably
not!
PS> In the same press conference, Roy
Williams revealed he said "NO" to NBA
teams eleven times, including three NOs to
the Los Angeles Lakers. Take that Coach
K ;-)
potential shortcomings of the Cardinals
guards crumbling under the Vols pressure,
and Derrick Caracter and Earl Clark will
be too much for the Vols big men to
handle. Louisville will win, we predict, but
it could be a very close game.
Western Kentucky vs UCLA
We badly want Western Kentucky to
win, but we are afraid that UCLA will be
too much. Duke West has been getting a
series of "friendly" calls by the zebras, not
just the highly visible controversial calls,
but also the multiple fouls per possession
the UCLA wrestling-forwards commit on
screens on offense and double teams on
defense.
We have enough material now to convict
Ben Howland of ruining the game of
basketball. You have two of the fastest
guards in the country in Collison and
Westbrook, and the most smartest (LOL)
big man in Kevin Love, and yet you try to
win the games in a slugfest, the same way
a desperate low-major coach of a 300+
RRI team is clinging on to dear life. For
crimes against basketball, Ben Howland,
you have been convicted to lose in the
Elite 8, and never make it to the Final Four
again :)
Friday's Games
We will be posting our preview and
predictions for the four day two games
later today! Update! The time is Later!
Here is the preview and predictions for day
two of the Sweet 16 (Friday).
18 Sports*
2008 March Madness TV Listings
By ncaahoops
Submitted at 3/29/2008 11:54:51 AM
If you enjoyed our regular season TV
listings, and our 2007 March Madness TV
listings, you will be thrilled by our 2008
March Madness TV listings!
2008 NCAA Tournament TV listings
The National NCAA tourney TV listings
were just published (March 17) at CBS
Sports. The tourney games will be on CBS,
CBS-HD, and CSTV (now CBS College
Sports).
The play-in (cough cough opening round
game) tips off on Tuesday night on ESPN
and ESPN-HD, and squares off Mount
Saint Mary's with Coppin State, the team
with the 20 losses.
The CBS studio hosts will be the same as
before (Seth Davis, Bryan Gumbel and
Clark Kellogg), and the eight announcer
teams are the usual faces, but with one
addition. Youngster Carter Blackburn of
CSTV will be "trained" by Dick Enberg
(old enough to be his great grandpa) and
Jay Bilas (tall enough to be his grandpa).
Action begins on Thursday at 9am
pacific (noon eastern), and CBS decided to
start things off with an intriguing game,
Xavier facing off the Georgia Bulldogs,
aka the Georgia Miracles!
You can also watch games live or repeats
on your computer for FREE at
NCAA.com. This is what they call March
Madness On-Demand. They also have a
"video library" of previous games and
events. Or so they claim ;-)
The 2008 NIT TV listings
The TV listings are embedded in the
brackets at the NIT website(embedded
PDF file). Direct link to the PDF file right
here(PDF file). Every single NIT game (31
total) will be carried by the ESPN family
of networks, including ESPN, ESPN2,
ESPNU, and ESPN Classic.
For more details on the NIT tourney,
check the NIT website.
The inaugural CBI TV listings
The games are available online and at
Fox College Sports. Details here. Action
tips off on Tuesday March 18, 2008 with
two games, and continues on Wednesday
with two more games. We are not sure
which games will be available on local
channels or regional FSNs.
Detailed daily TV listings(ALL TIMES
PACIFIC)
Monday March 17, 2008
6pm, Black Magic Part #2, ESPN
(commercial free; will re-air on ESPN
Classic later on)
730pm, College Gamenight, ESPN2
9pm: ESPNU Inside the Polls, ESPN2
Midnight: CLASSIC, 1993 Arizona vs
Kentucky, in the Maui, ESPN Classic
various time: Debut of College Sports
Tonight on CSTV (CBS-CS). This is a
daily one-hour show that recaps the world
of college sports. Think of it as
SportsCenter for college sports but not by
ESPN.
Tuesday March 18, 2008
11am, 1987 NCAA Final: Syracuse vs
Indiana, ESPN Classic
12pm, repeat: P10 tourney: Arizona vs
Oregon State, Fox College Sports
1pm, 1998 NCAA Final: Texas vs
Oklahoma, ESPN Classic
130pm, repeat: 2008 SEC tourney final,
Georgia vs Arkansas, the miracle, CSTV
(aka CBS College Sports)
4pm, NIT game: UNC Asheville at Ohio
State, ESPN2 (7'7" giant Kenny George
visits Value City arena)
4pm, 11pm, CBI game: Richmond at
Virginia, Fox College Sports
430pm, NCAA Opening Round: Mount
St Mary's vs Coppin State, ESPN
6pm, NIT game: Oklahoma State at
Southern Illinois, ESPN2
6pm, NIT game: Akron at Florida State,
ESPN Classic
6pm, 1am, CBI game: Houston at
Nevada, Fox College Sports
630pm, NIT game: Minnesota at
Maryland, ESPN
630pm, 1130pm, NAIA D2 tourney
final, CSTV (CBSCS)
8pm, NIT game: Alabama State at
Arizona State, ESPN2
Wedn March 19, 2008
Pregame press conferences on ESPN
News throughout the day!
midnight: Classic: 1987 TipOff classic:
UNC vs Syracuse, ESPN Classic
10am: CLASSIC 1966 NCAA Final:
Texas Western vs Kentucky, ESPN Classic
11am: CLASSIC 1989 NCAA Final:
Seton Hall vs Michigan, ESPN Classic
1pm: CLASSIC 1990 NCAA final:
UNLV vs Duke, ESPN Classic
1pm: March Madness Central (3 hours),
CSTV (CBS CS)
4pm: NIT UAB at VCU, ESPN2
4pm: NIT Morgan State at Virginia
Tech, ESPN Classic
4pm: CBI Cincinnati at Bradley, Fox
College Sports
6pm: CBI Valpo at Washington, Fox
College Sports
6pm: NIT Charlotte at Nebraska, ESPN
Classic
6pm: NIT San Diego State at Florida,
ESPN2
8pm: NIT New Mexico at California,
ESPN2
Thur March 20, 2008
*** check local CBS station for listings
in your area ***
*** all times pacific ***
7am to 9am: SportsCenterU, ESPN
9am to 2pm: NCAA Tournament
begins!, CBS, National schedule
9am to 145pm: March Madness Central
on CSTV (CBS CS)
11am to 1pm: Tourney Gameday,
ESPN2
145pm, 1am: NCAA tourney from
Anaheim: Cornell vs Stanford, CSTV
(CBS College Sports)
4pm to 10pm: NCAA Tournament
afternoon session, CBS
4pm to 10pm: March Madness Central
on CSTV (CBS CS)
All night: March Madness Highlights
(one hour long), CSTV (CBS CS)
9pm: NIT Second round: Southern
Illinois at Arizona State, ESPN2 (first one
to 39 wins!)
Fri March 21, 2008
*** check local CBS station for listings
in your area ***
7am to 9am: SportsCenterU, ESPN
9am to 2pm: NCAA Tournament Round
1 Day 2!, CBS, National schedule
9am: NCAA Tourney, CSTV (CBS
College Sports)
11am to 230pm: College Gameday,
ESPN
2pm, 1am: NCAA tourney from
Anaheim, CSTV (CBS College Sports)
4pm to 10pm: NCAA Tournament
afternoon session, CBS
1am: NCAA tourney repeat, CSTV
Sat March 22, 2008
*** check local CBS for your area ***
*** all times pacific ***
9am: NIT round 2: Akron at UMass
10am: Road to the Final Four, CBS
11am: NCAA Round 2 Day 1, four
games [1-2-2-3], CBS, National schedule.
11am: WEST VIRGINIA vs Duke, CBS
120pm: Kansas State vs Wisconsin or
Xavier vs Purdue, CBS
340pm or so: Notre Dame vs
Washington State, or Marquette vs
Stanford or UNLV vs Kansas, CBS
6pm or so: Pitt vs Michigan State or
Texas A&M vs UCLA, CBS
9pm: Gameday on ESPN (1 hour long)
Sun March 23, 2008
*** check local CBS for your area ***
*** all times pacific ***
6am: Game of the week repeat: NIT,
Rhode Island at Creighton, ESPN Classic
630am, Outside the Lines: Pat Summitt
vs Geno Auriemma, The Drama, ESPN.
Video preview.
9am, NCAA Round 2 Day 2, three
games, CBS, [1-4-3], National schedule.
910am: Siena vs Villanova
1120am or so: Miami vs Texas or Bulter
vs Tennessee or Davidson vs Georgetown
or Western Kentucky vs San Diego
130pm or so: Miss State vs Memphis, or
Oklahoma vs Louisville or Arkansas vs
North Carolina
9pm: Gameday on ESPN (1 hour long)
All Nite: March Madness Highlights,
CSTV (CBS CS)
Mon March 24, 2008
*** good news, NCAA games repeating
on CSTV! ***
9am: Three NCAA game tourney
repeats, CSTV (CBS College Sports).
That's right, if you missed any games or
your local CBS kept switching out, you
can watch them in a full two-hour edit
window!
9am: full-game repeat: BELMONT vs
Duke, CSTV (CBS CS)
11am: full-game repeat: UConn vs San
Diego, CSTV
1pm: full-game repeat: Drake vs Western
Kentucky, CSTV
11am: Two Classic NCAA Tournament
Finals on ESPN Classic
11am: 1991 NCAA Final Duke vs
UNLV Kansas, ESPN Classic
1pm: 1993 NCAA Final Michigan vs
North Carolina, ESPN Timeout Classic
4pm: NIT game, ESPN
4pm: CBI game: ODU at Virginia, Fox
College Sports, CBI schedule
6pm: NIT game, ESPN
6pm: CBI game: Utah at Tulsa, Fox
College Sports
920pm: College Gameday, ESPN (20
Your Click and Print Newspaper
minutes)
1am: full game repeat, not sure which
one, CSTV
Tue March 25, 2008
9am: three full NCAA Tourney game
repeats: UConn vs San Diego, Drake vs
Western Kentucky (2.5 hours long), and
Davidson vs Gonzaga, CSTV
11am: Two Classic NCAA Tournament
Finals, 1994 Arkansas vs Duke, and 1995
UCLA vs Arkanas, on ESPN Classic
230pm: March Madness College
Coaches, FSN
4pm: NIT game, ESPN2
6pm: NIT game, ESPN2
Wedn March 26, 2008
8am: Three repeats of full NCAA games:
Davidson vs Gonzaga, Butler vs
Tennessee, and Xavier vs Purdue, CSTV
(CBS College Sports)
1020am: Gameday repeat (20 minutes),
ESPN
2pm: March Madness Central (2 hours
long), CSTV (CBS College Sports)
4pm: CBI semifinal #1, Fox College
Sports
4pm: NIT Quarterfinal, ESPN
5pm: NCAA repeat: Texas A&M vs
UCLA slugfest, CSTV (CBS College
Sports)
6pm: CBI semifinal #2, Fox College
Sports
6pm: NIT Quarterfinal, ESPN
630pm, 2008 McDonalds All American
Game, ESPN. Preview at Recruiting Wars.
8pm: NCAA repeat: Xavier vs Purdue,
CSTV
11pm: NCAA repeat: Butler vs
Tennessee, CSTV
Thur March 27, 2008
8am: NCAA repeats: Butler vs
Tennessee, Xavier vs Purdue, Stanford vs
Marquette, CSTV (CBS College Sports)
2pm: March Madness Central (1 hour),
CSTV
3pm: NCAA Division 2 tourney,
semifinals (two games), CSTV
4pm: NCAA Tourney, Sweet 16 Day 1,
CBS National sked.
4pm: Washington State vs North
Carolina or, West Virginia vs Xavier
(around) 630pm: Louisville vs Tennessee,
or, Western Kentucky vs UCLA
10pm: College Gameday, ESPN
1130pm: NCAA repeat: Stanford vs
2008 page 19
Your Click and Print Newspaper
2008
continued from page 18
Marquette, CSTV
Fri March 28, 2008
8am: NCAA repeats: UCLA vs Texas
A&M, Memphis vs Mississippi State,
Davidson vs Georgetown, CSTV
10am: College Gameday, ESPN
2pm: March Madness Central (2 hours),
CSTV
4pm: March Madness Central (5.5
hours), CSTV
4pm: NCAA Tourney, Sweet 16 Day 2,
CBS National sked.
4pm: Stanford vs Texas, or, Davidson vs
Wisconsin
(around 630pm: Villanova vs Kansas, or,
Memphis vs Michigan State
10pm: College Gameday, ESPN
1130pm: NCAA repeat: Davidson vs
Georgetown, CSTV
Sat March 29, 2008
*** all times pacific ***
*** Elite 8, Day 1, CBS (two games) ***
1130am: March Madness Central (30
minutes), CSTV
1130am: Division 2 final, CBS
2pm: Road to the Final Four (90
minutes), CBS
330pm: NCAA Tourney Elite 8 Game
#1: Xavier us UCLA, CBS
around 6pm: NCAA Tourney Elite 8
Game #2: Louisville vs North Carolina,
CBS
Elite 8, the Final Four is just around the
corner!
By ncaahoops
Submitted at 3/29/2008 11:00:50 AM
We posted our preview of today's Elite 8
games yesterday, so be sure to check that
out. Xavier and UCLA will tip off at
330pm pacific, and North Carolina vs
Louisville will tip off around 6pm pacific.
For more on that, be sure to check our
march madness tv listings.
Our predictions for day two of the Sweet
16 went 2-2, but we were glad to be wrong
on Davidson and see Davidson advance to
the Elite 8!. If any coach at a non-BCS
school deserves a run in the NCAA
tourney, it is Bob McKillop. We did
predict that Memphis would have an easy
430pm: March Madness Central (3.5
hours), CSTV
9pm: College Gameday, ESPN
Sun March 30, 2008
*** all times pacific ***
*** Elite 8, Day 2, CBS (two games) ***
10am: License to Thrive, Title 9 at 35,
ESPN2
11am: March Madness Central (5 hours),
CSTV
11am: NCAA Tourney Elite 8 Game #1,
Memphis vs Texas WOW!
around 130pm: NCAA Tourney Elite 8
Game #2, Kansas vs Davidson, Go
Cinderella!
930pm: College Gameday, ESPN
Mon March 31, 2008
8am: NCAA repeats: Davidson vs
Georgetown, and more, CSTV
Tue April 1, 2008
4pm: NIT semifinal #1, ESPN2
630pm: NIT Semifinal #2, ESPN2
Thur April 3, 2008
4pm: NIT final, ESPN
6pm, repeats at midnight: College
Basketball Skillz (2 hours), ESPN
More coming later on
*** all times in this post are PACIFIC,
unless otherwise indicated ***
victory of Michigan State, just like we
predicted Michigan State would beat Pitt.
A number of analysts including Bob
Knight and cheerleader Vitale were just so
wrong on this matchup, when it was fairly
obvious how the match ups would pan out!
Speaking of Vitale, it was so cool to see
Steve Lavin call Vitale an ACC Homer,
when they were both doing the Friday
night College Gameday scoreboard on
ESPN! Go Lavin! Lavin of course is
learning under the master, as he may end
becoming the next Dick Vitale! Unless he
takes the California job? :)
CBS must be crying after last night's
game, as they had four relatively not-very-
close games, but at least they had a
Daily Tourney Talk:
Sweet 16 day 2, and Elite 8
coming tomorrow!
By ncaahoops
Submitted at 3/28/2008 12:40:09 PM
We went 3-1 in yesterday's Sweet 16
predictions. We don't want to tout our
horn, but we predicted that the
Lawson/Green/Ellington trio would be
what gave UNC the victory over
Washington State. We missed the West
Virginia loss to Xavier as we were
betrayed by the ThreePointeers outside
shooting. Now we are 100% behind
Xavier's attempt to beat UCLA and get to
the Final Four.
As you may recall in 2004, the Thad
Matta X-men would have made the Final
Four had it not been for extreme Duke
favoritism by the zebras in that game. And
last year the X-men also lost an NCAA
game on a controversial call, ironically to
Thad Matta. After all the crapola UCLA
has put "basketball" through, they deserve
to lose to the X-men, and we predict that
Xavier will beat UCLA in overtime. That
game will be played tomorrow, in the Elite
8. That will be the first game.
Cinderella Magic Moment in Davidson.
Will the success of Bob McKillop in the
NCAA tourney have mid-major programs
from all across the country running to New
York to get New Yorker coaches? :)
Already Cal used the geo-tagging feature
to go after Jamie Dixon of Pitt, after the
success of Ben Howland at UCLA, and
Herb Sendek at Arizona State!
And what about the talk that Pete Newell
is promoting Bob Knight as the next head
coach at Cal? Well, he would fit real well
with the Berkeley crowd, but he won't be
the craziest one of the lot for a change ;)
We also had a good read on the
Louisville vs Tennessee game, and it's
really sad that these two teams had to meet
in the Sweet 16 instead of the Elite 8. It is
also sad that Louisville will have to face
North Carolina in the Elite 8, instead of the
Final Four. Both are Final Four caliber
teams, and one could make an argument
that they are two of the best three in the
country at the moment (the third being
Kansas). So it will be sad from a basketball
perspective to see one of them go home
without a trip to the Final Four. We predict
that, partially thanks to the home co(ur)t
advantage, North Carolina will beat
Louisville in an instant classic.
And now that we got tomorrow's Elite 8
games out the way, here are our
predictions for today's four Sweet 16
games. Will we go 4-0 this time? If we do,
it will be upset city baby!!!
And don't forget to check our on-going
TV listings, as well as our March Madness
shopping segment.
MLB Extra Innings
free preview on
Comcast!
By ncaahoops
Submitted at 3/27/2008 11:47:41 AM
Comcast (and maybe other cable
companies too) will be having a week long
free preview of its baseball pay per view
package MLB Extra Innings. The preview
will start on March 31st, and end on April
6. The free preview includes all the
available channels, up to 10 games running
in parallel, depending of course on what
games are scheduled each night.
You do usually need to have access to
digital cable, as the cable companies are
moving from analog to digital, for various
reasons. But that's a story for a different
blog :)
Sports* 19
Ben Braun
officially fired by
California Berkeley
By ncaahoops
Submitted at 3/26/2008 5:01:59 PM
As we predicted a few days ago, Cal-
Berkeley head basketball coach Ben Braun
was fired after 12 (not 15) seasons as the
Chief Bear. Story at Sports Illustrated.
More on this story at regional website
SfGate.com. And also at the university
newspaper, the Daily Californian.
So our first of two predictions came true.
Which one was our second prediction?
Randy Bennett riding his second wave of
NCAA Tournament selection success a
few miles down the road to take over Cal-
Berkeley.
One of the pluses of Randy Bennett is
that he looks a bit like Herb Sendek, and if
Sendek was able to reboot ASU in just two
years...
Ironically this is the second coach Herb
Sendek unintentionally managed to get
fired. If it wasn't for Sendek's success in
Year Two at ASU, the other coaches (Jay
John, Ben Braun) could have gotten more
out of the usual excuses (tough conference,
not easy to do it, east coast bias, etc). But
if Sendek turned ASU into a promising and
rising program, what exactly has Ben
Braun being doing in Berkeley?
But in our opinion the firing offense was
poor recruiting decisions. How can you
have a team loaded with big men, and yet
fail to get enough guards around them?
And why was Jordan Wilkes not even
given a chance to play through the season
when the team was struggling? And the
"Omar Wilkes bolted out a year earlier"
excuse does not hold water. Wilkes was a
wing. The team badly needed a point
guard. Both Knezevic and mini-me Randle
are backup guards at best. Christopher is a
nice Pac-10 caliber player but he is more
of a wing-guard.
20 Sports* TV * Your Click and Print Newspaper

Outside the Lines: Tyler Bob Knight on today's Outside

Smith and Duke's Blues
By ncaahoops
Submitted at 3/27/2008 11:06:37 AM
Today's Outside the Lines, on ESPN2
(330pm eastern) has a distinct College
Basketball flavor. First up, Duke's Blues as
Coach K gets his second early exit from
the NCAA tourney! Thank you VCu, thank
you Belmont, thank you West Virginia and
Bob Thuggins! Outside the Lines re-
examines the Duke/North Carolina rivalry
with Raleigh Radio Host, Bomani Jones.
Some love for Coach K
As we mentioned a few years ago, in
October 2005, at our sister blog, Recruiting
Wars, that the return of Roy Williams at
UNC would significantly alter the
dynamics of the rivarly. Don't look now if
you are a Duke fan, but look now if you
are not! A national championship, an elite
8, a current run in the sweet 16, an
amazing job on the year after the
championship when he didn't have the
usual Kansas/UNC talent, and such. More
on that in January 2006.
What has Coach Ratface K done? He
stockpiles Mcdonalds All-Americans,
plays only half of them, and wastes the life
and potential of almost all of them. Look at
where DeMarcus Nelson's career has gone!
He was a scoring machine that could have
been a whole lot more in college had he
played elsewhere. At Duke, just like most
players, their life force is drained by the
Ratface K, and their game just evaporates
into floor slaps.
The second feature, the centerpiece, is
the story of Tennessee's Tyler Smith, told
by Tom Friend.
the Lines!
By ncaahoops
Submitted at 3/28/2008 11:05:56 AM
Well well well, if you like Bob Knight on
your TV, whether it's because you are a fan
of his, a hater or just waiting for his next
outburst, you are in luck as the ESPN
family of networks is giving us a steady
stream of Knightalia!
So today, at 330pm eastern (12:30pm
pacific), on Outside the Lines, on ESPN,
Bob Knight discusses hoops. Details on the
OTL page. This will also have a sneak
preview of the Rece Davis interview with
the trio of headcases, Bob Knight, Bill
Parcells, and the softball coach of the Bird
League ;-)
Knight will also preview today's Sweet
16 games, and recap yesterday's action...
It is interesting to see how Rece Davis's
star continues to rise in the ESPN World,
as now he has been "blessed" by the
General who hates the media. But as
Digger Phelps told him "You are
MEDIA!". Bob Knight tries to think of
himself as a "consultant" on TV.
By the way it is Rece Davis, not Reece
Davis, he is not a peanut butter cup ;-) This Conan does Leno but
is a good way to remember how to
properly spell his name :) they don't talk about
2009 - VIDEOS
Filed under: Late Night, Video,
Celebrities, Talk Show
BySo
Bob Sassone
Conan (TVshowed
O'Brien Squad)
upSubmitted
on Jay
Out of the Blogosphere
Leno's show last night. Late Night is in
By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 3:06:00 AM

What's On Tonight: Naruto, Torchwood, Mad TV Filed under: Industry, Programming,

By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 9:04:00 AM
Filed under: Programming, What To
Watch Tonight
• Yup, CBS has
March Madness
all night again.
• At 8, FOX has a new
Cops
. Torchwood
• TLC has two new episodes of
Flip That House
starting at 8, followed by new episodes
of
Trading Spaces
and
Moving Up
. at 9.
• At 9, FOX has a new
Jack Klugman sues NBC over Quincy profits
By Allison Waldman (TV Squad)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 2:41:00 AM
Filed under: Industry, Celebrities This is
a very odd story, and not because it
involves one-half of TV's most enjoyable
sitcoms ever, The Odd Couple, but it's not
about that show. It's about his other
Web, Celebrities
• Lifetime has the new movie What's happening on other blogs via the
The Double Life of Eleanor Kendall interweb.
at 9. • Henry Rollins wants to know
• ABC Family has the new movie what's up with Carrot Top
The Cutting Edge 3: Chasing The Dream .
at 9. • Ben Stein
• There are two new episodes of loves the women of the FBN.
Naruto • Time.com's James Poniewozik has some
on Cartoon Network at 9. questions about
• Also at 9: BBC America has a new Lost
while we wait for new episodes.
. • Speaking of
• At 11, FOX has a new Lost
Mad TV , check out
America's Most Wanted , then a new this funny postcard
. Talk Show with Spike Feresten (and the one that features Giles from
• CNBC has a new . Buffy The Vampire Slayer • Ken Jennings
Suze Orman Show Check your local TV listings for more. . interviews
Permalink| Email this| | Comments • Simon Baker ( a former
The Guardian Jeopardy
/ writer.
Smith
) is returning to CBS as
• What if everyone died in the finale of
Battlestar Galactica
from Quincy, M.E. The oddity is that the The Mentalist ?
show hasn't been in production for 25 . Permalink| Email this| | Comments
years and this hasn't come up till now! • I'm so glad I don't watch
Continue reading Jack Klugman sues Celebrity Fit Club
NBC over Quincy profits .
successful series. Jack Klugman has filed Permalink| Email this| | Comments
suit against NBC Universal over profits
Your Click and Print Newspaper
Saturday Morning: 1965 -
VIDEOS
By Richard Keller (TV Squad)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 3:44:00 AM
Filed under: Video, Animation, Children,
Retro Squad
If the years 1960 to 1964 were a time
when the networks put their toes in the
Saturday morning waters to see what it
was like, 1965 was the year where they
took a few steps in. Not completely enough
to submerge themselves, mind you...that
would be left until the Fall of 1966. But,
just enough to feel comfortable enough to
dive in.
Like the nation, television was changing
in 1965, and the shift could be felt on
Saturday mornings. Gone were many of
the post-primetime, live action shows that
filled the schedule during the first few
years of the 60's. In its place was more
animated fare. And, that programming was
geared to current fads that were taking
place in pop culture during that time. It
was also the year that a certain animation
studio known for its primetime and
CONAN
continued from page 20
repeats this week and O'Brien was out on
the West Coast for some reason (maybe
checking out his new studio?) and he
appeared as the first guest. And it was
kinda funny, but mostly dull.
I didn't expect some long discussion
about O'Brien taking over for Leno when
Leno steps down in 2009, but I did think
they'd at least bring the topic up at some
point. The only thing said about it all night
was a one line joke by Leno in the
monologue ("Conan O'Brien is on the
show...is it 2009 already?"). Instead,
O'Brien just rehashed his Good
syndicated fare took its first tentative steps
back into original Saturday morning
programming.
%Gallery-19311%
Continue reading Saturday Morning:
1965 - VIDEOS
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Housekeeping recipe story and told stories
about the Emmys and Jerry Lewis. It was
odd they didn't address the issue (and it
was made even more weird by the fact that
Leno did make a joke about it at the start
of the show).
Video of the appearance is after the
jump.
Continue reading Conan does Leno but
they don't talk about 2009 - VIDEOS
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Talk Talk: John Larroquette, k.d. lang,
Carole King
By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 3/28/2008 10:00:00 AM
Filed under: Late Night, TV Royalty,
Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show
Here's who's on the late night shows
tonight.
• Charlie Rose:
a discussion of integrative health
• The Late Show with David Letterman:
Charles Barkley and Bill Burr (repeat)
• Jay Leno:
John Larroquette and
k.d. lang
• Jimmy Kimmel Live:
Kate Bosworth
, Spencer Grammer, and Serj Tankian
• Tavis Smiley:
Carole King
• Late Night with Conan O'Brien:
Jerry Seinfeld, David Ortiz, and Sondre
Lerche (repeat)
• The Late, Late Show with Craig
NBC's Jeff Zucker: Funny or no?
- VIDEO
By Anna Johns (TV Squad)
Submitted at 3/28/2008 11:25:00 AM
Filed under: Video, Watercooler Talk,
WGA Strike NBC Universal CEO and
president Jeff Zucker might be funny... or
just a prick. He appears in a new
promotional video to air on April 3rd
before a new episode of My Name is Earl.
Zucker plugs NBC.com, where people
can catch up on their favorite shows that
are about to return after being on a long
hiatus because of the strike. He includes
what could be considered as digs toward
writers, including asking viewers to watch
the videos within the first 17 days of
posting. The new WGA contract allows
studios to stream content for 17 days
before they have to pay writers royalties.
Plus, there's a little dig at the writers when
he's talking about My Name Is Earl-- how
Ferguson:
Tom Selleck, Dario Franchitti, and Ziggy
Marley (repeat)
• Last Call with Carson Daly:
Brooke Burns and Shiny Toy Guns
(repeat)
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Earl gets hit by a car again in the
cliffhanger. "Writers refer to it as a
'callback'. I call it getting paid twice for
writing the same thing."
Continue reading NBC's Jeff Zucker:
Funny or no? - VIDEO
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
TV * 21
Will Project Runway
winner be fierce with
Ugly Betty?
By Allison Waldman (TV Squad)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 2:02:00 AM
Filed under: Celebrities, Project Runway,
Ugly Betty, Casting You know that movie,
When Worlds Collide? Okay, maybe it
won't be like that, but still. Project Runway
season 4 winner Christian Siriano is doing
a guest spot on ABC's Ugly Betty,
according to TV Guide. As anyone knows
who watched this past season -- which was
fabulous! -- Christian was one of the most
funny and articulate designers in quite a
while on the show. And his designs weren't
bad either! He's already become famous
for his use of the word "fierce." Kinda like
Rachael Ray has made EVOO her own
trademark term. You watch, someday soon
Christian Siriano will name his label Fierce
Fashions. (Do I get a piece of the action for
that idea?)
Continue reading Will Project Runway
winner be fierce with Ugly Betty?
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
22 TV * Movies
Big Brother 9: Live feeds report -
March 28
By Jackie Schnoop (TV Squad)
Submitted at 3/28/2008 11:43:00 AM
Filed under: OpEd, Big Brother (US)
We're in the busy days of Big Brother 9
right now. Since the live show on
Wednesday, there has been a food
competition, nominations, and today is the
power of veto competition. After today,
there isn't anything except the power of
veto meeting. Then it's a mix of doldrums
and drama until the next live eviction on
Wednesday.
Natalie is doing her artwork in the image
here. I've been surprised that BB is
allowing that as they aren't allowed to
write. In other seasons, they had nothing
with which to write. She's using nail
Simon Baker returns to CBS &
Wheeler gets a greenlight
By Allison Waldman (TV Squad)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 4:29:00 AM
Filed under: Pickups and Renewals,
Casting As someone who was a regular
watcher of The Guardian, it makes me
happy to see that the star of that show is
coming back to the home screens. Simon
Baker will star in the CBS drama The
Mentalist. The pilot has been given the go-
ahead by the network, which mean Simon
could be back on the schedule by next fall
(if the show is picked up).
The Mentalist sounds like it should be
something like a Kreskin extravaganza, but
it's not. Instead it's described as the story of
Patrick Jane, a man with heightened skills
of observation who uses his talents to solve
The Queen's Peter Morgan Moves On to 'Hereafter'
By Eugene Novikov (Cinematical)
Submitted at 3/28/2008 1:32:00 PM
Filed under: Horror, Thrillers, Awards,
Deals, Dreamworks Peter Morgan,
screenwriter of The Queen, The Last King
of Scotland and The Other Boleyn Girl, is
fast becoming one of Hollywood's hottest
commodities. Variety tells us that his
latest, a supernatural thriller called
Hereafter, has been sold to Dreamworks
polish. For show spoilers, read on past the
jump!
Continue reading Big Brother 9: Live
feeds report - March 28
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
crimes.
Continue reading Simon Baker returns to
CBS & Wheeler gets a greenlight
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
for seven figures. Morgan's prestige no
doubt helped the sale, though Dreamworks
may also have had a Pavlovian response to
the fact that the screenplay is pitched as
being "in the vein of The Sixth Sense."
Morgan has a unique and very valuable
talent for telling stories that are hugely
entertaining and "respectable" at the same
time. The Other Boleyn Girl was a steamy,
melodramatic soap opera that managed to
worm its way into the arthouses,
Is Hayden Christensen the
New Superman?
By Erik Davis (Cinematical)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 5:02:00 AM
Filed under: Action, Casting,
RumorMonger, Fandom,
Comic/Superhero/Geek Take from this
what you will, but Cinema Blend is
reporting on a tip they received from
someone who was hanging with Adam
Brody in a bar up in British Columbia.
What's Brody doing there? Well,
apparently some of the cast is with George
Miller scouting locations for Justice
League Mortal. (Not sure why they'd be up
there with the director scouting, but let's
roll with it for now ...) Anyway, Brody,
Miller and a few others were in a bar,
getting wasted, when this girl (who wrote
into CB) asked him what they all were
doing there. Naturally he said they were
scouting for Justice League Mortal(which
recently had to shift production from
Australia to Canada). Then it gets
interesting.
Here's her full quote: "George is our
director. He said he's playing The Flash,
Common is playing Green Arrow (or
Lantern, one or the other), Armie Hammer
(sounded like Arm and Hammer) is
Batman, someone from "mad max" is
Martian Man-hunter (didn't catch the
name) and Hayden Christensen is
Superman. Brody also nodded to the
presumably because of its historical
grounding. His play Frost/Nixon was a
political gabfest that became a Broadway
sensation and is now being adapted for the
screen by Ron Howard. The Queen took a
dry subject and transcended demographics
on its way to several Oscar nominations.
Studios understandably flock to him. I'm
very interested to see if he can bring the
same sort of aura of dignity to a ghost
story. Maybe Hereafter's biggest similarity
woman to his right and said "she (he said
her name but I didn't catch it) is in it too".
Oh, and they had lots of drinks." While I'm
very reluctant to believe this one, on the
other hand I could totally buy them
wanting Christensen to play Superman.
He'd bring some more "celebrity" to the
cast, even though the fanboys who hated
him Star Wars would hate him again --
even more this time -- for Superman.
Should be interesting to see this one play
out, as Justice League Mortal is supposed
to begin shooting this summer.
What do you think about Hayden
Christensen playing Superman? Permalink|
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to The Sixth Sense will be that Morgan,
like M. Night Shyamalan, will get the
supernatural thriller genre some rare Oscar
attention.
No more details about Hereafter are
currently available -- it has nothing to do
with this David Strathairn film-- but I'm
keeping my eye on it. Permalink| Email
this| Comments
Your Click and Print Newspaper
Don't Fear the Subs:
'Kiltro' and 'Them' -- Chile
and France Kick Butt
By Peter Martin (Cinematical)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 11:32:00 AM
Filed under: Action, Foreign Language,
Thrillers, New on DVD, Home
Entertainment, Cinematical Indie Both of
these movies come highly recommended --
by other people, because my personal
copies have not arrived yet (Grrr!!!). Still,
I've heard from such a wide cross-section
of trusted friends and complete strangers
that I feel completely confident in
suggesting you check these movies out.
Both were released in Region 1 DVD
editions earlier this week.
Kiltro was one of the movies that people
were raving about at Fantastic Fest last
fall. As as our own Scott Weinberg noted
at the time, Kiltro is an action flick from
Chile starring "stuntman-turned-hero
Marko 'The Latin Dragon' Zaror." Michael
Gingold of Fangoria wrote that, despite a
multitude of kung-fu movie conventions,
Kiltro succeeds "due to a tongue-in-cheek
approach that tweaks the genre's
requirements ... and the charisma and
abilities of Zaror." The DVD from Magnet
Releasing includes deleted scenes,
bloopers, fight training and behind the
scenes footage, and storyboard action.
Continue reading Don't Fear the Subs:
'Kiltro' and 'Them' -- Chile and France
Kick Butt Permalink| Email this|
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Your Click and Print Newspaper
Sacha Baron Cohen's
Bruno Nails Ben Affleck
By Erik Davis (Cinematical)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 6:32:00 AM
Filed under: Comedy, RumorMonger,
Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom,
DIY/Filmmaking So it appears as if Sacha
Baron Cohen is still causing quite the mess
here in the United States as his alter-ego
Brüno; getting kicked out of airports,
showing up to an Easter play at a church in
Kansas wearing chains, and the list goes
on. First off, for those not familiar with
Brüno, he's a gay Austrian fashion reporter
who's wildly flamboyant in every way. The
film, which marks Cohen's follow-up to
Borat, will be called (deep breath) ...
Brüno: Delicious Journeys Through
America for the Purpose of Making
Heterosexual Males Visibly
Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay
Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt. Needless to
say, I cannot wait to hear my local news
coughing up that title when it comes time
for the weekend box office figures.
But back to Ben Affleck. Seems Mike
Walker from the National Enquirer called
into Howard Stern last week saying that
Affleck called friend Sarah Silverman
following an interview with Brüno.
Affleck was told Brüno was a "very
famous openly gay fashion journalist," but
that didn't stop Ben from admitting it was
"the weirdest sit-down he has ever had
with a reporter." Eventually, Silverman
coughed up his name and only then did
Ben realize he'd been had. Part of me
doesn't believe this at all, because I can
only imagine the hoops one would need to
jump through in order to get an actual sit-
down interview with Ben Affleck. Then
again, perhaps Cohen's crew have
perfected their little joke by now. Either
way, I'm sure Affleck will be making an
appearance in the film.
For more, as well as a brief video of
Brüno's crew dancing in an airport, head
over to Slashfilm. Permalink| Email this|
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Fan Rant: The Trouble
With Today's Spoofs
By Eugene Novikov (Cinematical)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 1:02:00 PM
Filed under: Comedy, New Releases, Fan
Rant
As Scott pointed out in his review, you
need not fear that this week's Superhero
Movie is another brainchild of Jason
Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, whose
satanic perversions of the parody genre --
Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the
Spartans-- have been terrorizing
unsuspecting audiences every year since
2006. Superhero Movie was actually
directed by Craig Mazin, a protégé of the
Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker dream team
responsible for Airplane! and The Naked
Gun, and produced by David Zucker
himself. But it, too, is plagued -- albeit to a
much lesser degree -- by what's turning out
to be the problem with the entire modern
generation of spoofs going back to Scary
Movie: relentless pop culture specificity.
The basest incarnations of this, of course,
are the Friedberg-Seltzer monstrosities,
which may be worthless as comedies but
which could prove valuable to historians
because they indicate precisely what
dominated the American zeitgeist in the
few months before their release. It's too
generous to call these films' vulgar spasms
"jokes," but to the extent that's what they
are, they depend entirely on either
audience members' awareness of US
Weekly-type factoids such as Britney
Spears' shaving her head or their recall of
particular scenes and characters in recent
box-office hits. That's not to say that these
kinds of jokes can't be funny -- the
problem with Friedberg and Seltzer, as
others have pointed out, is that they think
throwing something current on the screen
("Look, Paris Hilton!") constitutes humor.
But they do limit comedies' universal
appeal and staying power.
Continue reading Fan Rant: The Trouble
With Today's Spoofs Permalink| Email
this| Comments
Movies 23
Review:
Shotgun Stories
- Jeffrey's Take
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
(Cinematical)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 2:32:00 AM
Filed under: Drama, New Releases,
Theatrical Reviews, New in Theaters,
Cinematical Indie
A man sits on his bed in the half-light,
shirtless. On his back is a series of little
bumps, perhaps scars, possibly cigarette
burns, or buckshot wounds? His co-
workers at the fish hatchery take secret
bets as to their origin. But for Son Hayes (
Michael Shannon), they are part of a
hurtful past, one that he is forever trying to
get beyond. Son's name, as well as those of
his brothers, Kid ( Barlow Jacobs) and Boy
( Douglas Ligon), no doubt came from
their awful father, a kind of branding that
they can never escape. We never meet this
father. He dies at the beginning of Shotgun
Stories. Son, Kid and Boy attend his
funeral, and that's when the trouble starts.
If not for that, life in this Arkansas small
town probably would have gone on as
always, with Kid sleeping in a tent in Son's
backyard, with Boy living out of his van,
and with the three of them getting together
for beers. (There is a lot of beer drinking in
this movie.)
Continue reading Review: Shotgun
Stories - Jeffrey's Take Permalink| Email
this| Comments
24 Movies Your Click and Print Newspaper

Lionsgate Puzzles Over

'The Last Equation'
By Monika Bartyzel (Cinematical)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 10:02:00 AM

Filed under: Action, Thrillers, Deals,

Scripts Proof may have failed to wow
audiences, but it looks like math is coming
back to the big screen, mixed with science,
adventure, and intrigue. No, I'm not talking
about 21, but rather a new adaptation that's
on the way. The Hollywood Reporter has
posted that Lionsgate films have picked up
the film rights to Stuart Gibbs' debut novel,
The Last Equation.
It's all based on "the mystery surrounding
Cinematical's Friday
Pandora, Albert Einstein's last equation. It
had the potential to solve the world's
Night Double Feature:
energy problems, but it so drastically
simplified the process of harnessing atomic
It's Just a Game!
Lionsgate's Mike Paseornek says: "Stuart
energy that it essentially made it possible Gibbs has written a novel that has By Monika Bartyzel (Cinematical)
for anyone to create atomic weaponry. everything you need for a first-rate action- Submitted at 3/28/2008 2:02:00 PM

Review: Superhero Movie Because of the risks, Einstein either hid or

By Scott Weinberg (Cinematical)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 3:31:00 AM
Filed under: Classics, Comedy, MGM,
Theatrical Reviews, The Weinstein Co.,
Comic/Superhero/Geek
It ain't high art and it sure isn't "brilliant
filmmaking," but the arrival of Craig
Mazin's Superhero Movie is actually a
(small) cause for (minimal) celebration.
And here's why: Over the last few years,
the word "spoof" has become synonymous
with the phrase "wretched non-movie."
One need only pick through titles like Date
Movie, Epic Movie, The Comebacks and
Meet the Spartans to see that the spoof
movie is one good place to hide if you're
very lazy. Just about every movie freak I
know was skeptical of Superhero Movie
because they've been burned too often by
this sort of schtick -- but I'm pleased to
note that Superhero Movie actually
represents a (slight) upswing for the oft-
maligned sub-genre. It's sure as hell no
Airplane!-- but it sure as hell isn't Date
Movie, either.
Written and directed by Scary Movie(s)
scribe Craig Mazin (and produced by two
of the guys responsible for not only
Airplane!, but Top Secret!, Hot Shots, and
The Naked Gun, too), Superhero Movie is
a colorful mixture of the old-school spoof
style (thank god for Leslie Nielsen) and the
more current crotch- and fart-addicted
sensibility. It's very broad, very silly, very
episodic, and frequently very sloppy, but
(and here's a big but) Superhero Movie
succeeds over many of its cousins for one
simple reason: It's pretty funny.
Continue reading Review: Superhero
Movie Permalink| Email this| Comments
destroyed the equation before his death."
Zoom forward to the present day. The
government gets the help of a fugitive
criminal (Snake Plissken!) and a math
genius (John Nash!) to find the equation ...
dum, dum, dum ... before it falls in the
wrong hands. What is it about bad guys
that makes them the only savior when
potentially terrible things happen?
The Aftermath of Minghella's Untimely
Passing
By Eugene Novikov (Cinematical)
Submitted at 3/29/2008 8:32:00 AM
If you are a fan of the late Anthony
Minghella, take a look at this
heartbreaking Variety article about the
professional void left by his demise. Some
prominent folks have some very nice
things to say about the extremely
accomplished and respected writer-director
-producer, including the fascinating tidbit
that the final shots of Atonement, with
Robbie and Cecilia on the beach, arose out
of his conversations with Joe Wright.
The piece also offers a status report on
the fates of the projects he left behind as
thriller, starting with an ingenious premise
about a mathematical formula that could
either save the world or destroy it." It
could be good, it could be bad. All I know
is that I'd like at least a little camp to it.
The world needs a new, great good bad
guy. Read| Permalink| Email this|
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one half of Mirage Entertainment, the
other half being the currently ill Sydney
Pollack. The ones that made it far enough
through development remain on track,
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Fandom,
Home Entertainment, Games and Game
Movies, Friday Night Double Feature
Everything is coming up parties and games
this week. I've been busy making a kickass
birthday cake for a friend, planning for the
party, and finally picking up a belated gift
including Minghella's contribution to the
short-film compilation New York, I Love
You, which Shekhar Kapur has taken over,
and the Stephen Daldry-directed The
Reader, which still has Scott Rudin to
shepherd it through post-production.
Productions in earlier stages, such as an
untitled David O. Russell project and
Minghella's own planned adaptation of Liz
Jensen's psychological thriller The Ninth
Life of Louis Drax, may well collapse.
Continue reading The Aftermath of
Minghella's Untimely Passing Permalink|
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Your Click and Print Newspaper
CINEMATICAL'S
continued from page 24
of Scrabble for another friend. Top that off
with news stories about Kevin Kline and
chess, and getting sent pictures of really
cool Blue Velvet cakes, and, well, I've got
games and parties on the brain.
Picking this week's films was a bit of a
challenge, but it all depended on the angle.
Did I just want movies with games in
them? Did they have to be performed at
parties? Would I consider the likes of
Bobby Fischer or Jumanji? Nah. Instead,
25
we've got two films that boast insanely
great ensemble casts, have some pretty
fierce competition, and yet are wonderful
for completely different reasons: The
Anniversary Party and Clue.
Continue reading Cinematical's Friday
Night Double Feature: It's Just a Game!
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