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Had the Republicans been slightly less successful in the midterms, legions of expense-account reporters would now be in New Orleans, chronicling Mary Landrieus effort to save her seat.

With Democratic control of the Senate at stake, there would be an avalanche of stories about how the underdog from one of Louisianas most storied political families was fighting for her life in next months runoff.

Instead, shes got this: Mary Landrieu: Dead Woman Walking?

Thats not a right-wing attack. Its a headline on the liberal site Talking Points Memo.

The media narrative is that the senator is toast, and that may well be true. Landrieu edged Republican congressman Bill Cassidy in the primary, 42 to 41 percent, but another 14 percent went to another GOP candidate, Rob Maness. So it doesnt take a rocket scientist to gauge that Cassidy should pick up most of Maness votes in the Dec. 6 runoff.

Whats more, the Democratic Party has yanked its financial support from Landrieu. Politics is a cold business.

But media coverage matters. Some of Landrieu's supporters may stay home if shes deemed to be a goner. Indeed, NBC reporter Kasie Hunt came out and asked her, "Are you a lost cause?"

In an effort to salvage her candidacy, Landrieu, from an oil-rich state, has successfully pushed for a lame-duck Senate vote on the Keystone pipeline. But House Republicans have countered by having Cassidy sponsor the bill that would be sent to the White House--a vote could come today--and Landrieu says she doesnt care if her name is off the legislation as long as the pipeline is approved.

What this is really about is separating herself from the president, since a major theme of Cassidys campaignindeed, of many GOP campaigns--is that Landrieu voted in lockstep with Obama.

Heres the aforementioned TPM story:

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Even the liberal media say Mary Landrieu is toast

Bertelsmann Chairman and CEO Thomas Rabe

Bertelsmann posted its third-quarter financials Thursday, boasting its highest revenue figure in seven years with sales topping $14.7 billion (11.8 billion) after an 18-month shopping spree that has seen the German media giant acquire music label BMG, merge its books division Random House with Penguin and complete a takeover of publishing group Gruner + Jahr.

Sales were up 4.3 percent year-over-year and operating profits (EBITDA) hit $1.92 billion (1.54 billion), up slightly from the same period last year. Group net profit, however, was down sharply, at $355 million (285 million), down 53 percent from $835 million (623 million) this time in 2013, driven by weaker results at TV arm RTL Group and merger integration costs.

Read more Media Group Bertelsmann Says Hungarian Government Out to Destroy Its Business

Bertelsmann is in the midst of a seismic strategic shift, masterminded by chairman and CEO Thomas Rabe, that wants to see the company move away from its traditional, and slow-growth, base in old media in Europe.

The company has been pouring money into digital companies, recently buying a majority stake in Denver-based SpotXchange, a leader in digital video advertising, for $144 million plus possible additional payments; and paying $107 million for a controlling stake in YouTube multichannel network StyleHaul. Both companies are now controlled by RTL.

Bertelsmann is also looking to leverage its old media business in new ways.

Random House has a film division, Random House Studio, which recently renewed its partnership with Focus Features through 2016, and Penguin Random House has signed a first-look deal with Focus parent company Universal, the studio behind the adaptations of the publishers' best-sellers Unbroken and Fifty Shades of Grey.

Bertelsmann has also been active in the less-sexy e-learning market, acquiring U.S. online education provider Relias Learning.

Overall, we have exceeded our expectations, said Rabe in a statement. Bertelsmann is growing, is very profitable, and is making good progress in the implementation of its strategy...We will resolutely continue on our course to ensure that Bertelsmann becomes a faster growing, more digital and more international company long-term.

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Bertelsmann Shopping Spree Boosts Revenue, Profit Drops

Illustration by: John Holcroft

This story first appeared in the Nov. 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

The mogul-built media conglomerates Time Warner, CBS, Walt Disney, Viacom and 21st Century Fox were inherited in the new millennium by a cast of baby moguls, employees rather than entrepreneurs and creators. Now these leaders are nearing traditional retirement age, and in a situation usually alarming to shareholders, none of them has an evident heir. At this seemingly most-existential moment, with an uncertain and perilous future just over the horizon, no media company has put in place the person who will manage it there. Instead, each top executive has become more singular and entrenched.

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Time Warner's Jeff Bewkes, 62, having fought off Rupert Murdoch's bid for his company, is more public than at any previous time in his career and personally has committed to advancing his share price. Leslie Moonves, 65, has achieved near-mogul standing, almost as synonymous with CBS as its founder, William Paley, once was. In October, Disney's board extended 63-year-old Robert Iger's retirement date a third time. Philippe Dauman, 60, is as close to replacing Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone who sounded near death Nov. 5 during a CBS earnings call as an executive ever has been. Chase Carey, 60, with the division of the Murdoch holdings into newspapers and entertainment, has become at the latter company ever-more autonomous and crucial.

This is, notably even transformationally the first business generation in which being in one's 60s doesn't necessarily suggest retirement. In fact, each of the media chiefs looks almost preternaturally on top of his game. The builders of the great media companies were forced by age, the reach of their ambitions and attendant controversies to turn over operational control to a strictly managerial generation. These execs were supposed to create more rational, less personality-dominated businesses. Instead, in the process of building more deliberate media empires, each company has become a striking reflection of its operator's logic.

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Bewkes, rising at Time Warner after CEO Jerry Levin's hubris-addled fall and caretaker Richard Parsons' interregnum, sold off the many nonharmonious parts of the company and doubled its share price. Moonves, in addition to launching the CSI and NCIS franchises, single-handedly established broadcast's huge retransmission fees after taking control of CBS in its 2006 spinoff from Viacom. Iger bought Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm (and has been lucky to preside over ESPN's rocketing growth) and is the quiet yin to his Disney predecessor Michael Eisner's Sturm und Drang yang. Carey, while in name the COO who reports to 83-year-old Fox CEO Murdoch, has managed a sports and cable leviathan and, as well, his proprietor and his difficult family. (Carey reportedly was the strongest voice in splitting the Murdoch holdings.) Dauman, too, taking over Viacom after Redstone's temper-tantrum ouster of Tom Freston, has demonstrated singular ability to manage his 91-year-old patron; with his other hand, he has turned Viacom into the leading millennial marketing company.

Most importantly contradicting the influential thesis of investment banker Jonathan Knee in his book The Curse of the Mogul that the long-term prices of media conglomerates inevitably lag the market each man has seen during his tenure a market-beating rise.

It also is very clear that none of them wants to go. Why would they? Not only is running a media company like being prince of a rich nation-state a lifestyle as well as personal-wealth bonanza, with each of the major media CEOs ranking among the most well-paid U.S. executives but also there is a sense that television, the essence of their businesses, is poised for an ultimate golden age.

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Michael Wolff on Big Media: Where Are All the CEO Heir Apparents?

Steven Althaus's moment of digital truth came this past spring. BMW's global director of brand management stood in front of top management, telling them the automaker was about to use a drift mob to help market their new car, the M235i.

Five professional drivers were set to go behind the wheel of the M235is and driftor drive at high speeds, hit the brakes, and turn the steering wheel to spin the car abruptlyaround a traffic circle in Cape Town, South Africa. Their aim was to simulate a flash mob; a staged but seemingly spontaneous performance.

BMW executives fired off questions to Althaus that veered toward disbelief. I presented the idea of a drift mob and they said: 'Is this really going to work?' I had to say, I dont know. Nobodys done it before, Althaus recalls.

BMW wouldnt launch the video as a commercial, but pushed it out through /DRIVE, a popular YouTube channel dedicated to cars. The drift mob was part of a proposed new social media marketing strategy for BMW. Up until that point, the company had done a reasonable job with the first wave of social media tools.

Of course were on Facebook, Twitter . . . says Sebastian Schwiening, a 29-year-old digital marketing manager. He started at BMW in 2010, fresh out of the University of Kiel business school in Germany.

The German automobile company has more than 19 million Likes on Facebook, 602,000 Twitter followers, and a YouTube channel with more than 400,000 subscribers.

But as of early 2014, the company hadnt so much as put a Twitter hashtag into its advertising. Schwiening occasionally found himself having awkward conversations with senior marketing management over social media tactics he was trying, like a short video of two BMWs kissing that went up on Instagram. The video didnt fit in with BMWs self-image, but it did draw 70,000 hearts, Instagrams version of a like.

Hearts werent in upper managements lexicon, though. Normally, we just report use on things like our channels and website, Schwiening says. For me its tricky to explain that its better to have uplift in social engagement than clicks on our sites.

Althaus says he was intrigued by what Schwiening and BMW's online marketing department head, Florian Resinger, were trying with social media. Althaus had noticed during the 2014 Super Bowl that almost all of the other advertisers14 out of 20were using hashtags in their commercials. He wanted to see BMW adopt hashtags in its branding.

How could BMW explore this? Companies know the risks of engaging on social mediathey can damage their brands by pandering to trends, while consumers can say damaging things about brands that go out over a specific hashtag. Adopting hashtags meant BMW would loosen control of its brand messaging.

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The Man Who Convinced BMW To Rethink Social Media

MAINSTREAM MEDIA CONTROL - CFR (US) - RIIA (UK)
COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS has a HUGE Influence on those linked to the President OF The US (POTUS) - Vice-President (VP) and the Cabinet - Chairman Emeritu...

By: youHumanRights

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MAINSTREAM MEDIA CONTROL - CFR (US) - RIIA (UK) - Video