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Andrew Bolt Wednesday, March 07, 2012 at 07:55am

Heres another thing I dont understand about the Finkelstein inquiry, which recommends more government control on a media it clearly disdains:

MEDIA executives and journalists are being offered the chance to attend a $500-a-head workshop.

The workshop will be on the recommendations of the federal governments Finkelstein media inquiry, despite no indication it will lead to a new regulatory regime.

And the co-commissioner of the $1.4 million inquiry, academic Matthew Ricketson, will deliver the keynote address at the event, despite not commenting so far on the taxpayer-funded inquiry.

I have known Matthew for years. His highest achievement is the profession that his inquiry now seeks to have controlled was media and communications editor for The Age from 2006 to 2009.

To be perfectly frank, I did not consider him to be very good in that job. He seemed to break few stories, or offer any penetrating observations. His writing is not sparkling. He was well outshone by The Australians Amanda Meade, for one, and I do not think I am being unfair. I recently spoke to a senior Age executive who endorsed my overall opinion.

So heres my astonishment: how does a man who rose to no great heights in the media wind up as the presiding expert in an inquiry to determine how much freedom to give it?

UPDATE

Tin Burrowes of Mumbrella:

More here:
How did Ricketson become the great media expert?

By JONATHAN M. HICAP

2NE1 and Super Junior (Photos courtesy of http://www.newsen.com)

MANILA, Philippines - The power of social media, including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, is propelling Korean Wave, or hallyu, to new heights and helping the spread of its popularity to North America and other regions.

These social networking sites make it easier for K-pop bands to reach a wider audience in the West, and those fans are turning to the same social networking tools to proclaim their devotion, according to a New York Times article titled Bringing K-pop to the West published March 4.

The NY Times article said the internet is bringing K-pop singers closer to their fans outside Asia.

When bands like 2NE1, Super Junior and SHINee hold concerts in Europe and the United States, tickets sell out within minutes, and fans have used Facebook and Twitter to organize flash mobs demanding more shows, as they did in Paris in May, according to the article.

Indeed, K-pop singers nowadays have their own official Facebook pages, YouTube channels and Twitter accounts where they announce upcoming albums, concerts, appearances and TV shows.

On the other hand, loyal fans translate songs, Korean TV shows where their idols appear on, Korean news articles and posts by the singers on Twitter or me2day into different languages.

The NY Times article said, K-pop bands style is a fusion of synthesized music, video art, fashionable outfits and teasing sexuality mixed with doe-eyed innocence.

It said the Korean music industry focused in digital content and with the increasing influence of social networking sites, K-pop bands began to gain more traction in the West.

Here is the original post:
New York Times: Social networking sites help popularize K-pop phenomenon

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter lit up this week and conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh is feeling the effects.

Soon after Limbaugh spent hours on his talk-radio show bashing a Georgetown University law student over her support of birth control, people from around the U.S. took to Facebook, Google+ and Twitter to vent their anger at Limbaugh. With no organized leadership, they en masse called for sponsors of Limbaugh's radio show to pull their advertising.

Today, in part because of this social pressure, Limbaugh's show has lost more than 20 advertisers, according to reports, including Allstate Insurance, AOL, Citrix, Quicken Loans and Sears.

Social networking sites are quickly being seen as the new medium for protesters of all types.

"Social media has entered into a new era, which is way past the point when it was used to find the best dry cleaner or see if a certain restaurant had fresh seafood," said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. "Now it's become a real tool that is being used to topple governments and even saves lives."

The latest online brouhaha began Feb. 23 when law student Sandra Fluke testified before a congressional committee about the need for insurance companies to cover birth control costs. Limbaugh then called the woman a "slut" and "prostitute" and spent hours discussing her on his radio show.

Word of Limbaugh's actions quickly spread over traditional media and social networking sites, where people were quick to voice their own support or outrage.

For instance, Andy Borowitz tweeted, "Due to remarks of his we consider unacceptable, we have terminated our relationship with Rush Limbaugh. - Satan."

And Stop Rush Limbaugh tweeted, "Please urge Capital One (@AskCapitalOne) to cease advertising on Rush Limbaugh's radio program."

Sensa Products LLC, a weight-loss system company that had been a sponsor of Limbaugh's radio show tweeted Monday: "Rush Limbaugh's comments are not in line with SENSA values so we are pulling our ads indefinitely which shud be down in the next couple days."

Originally posted here:
Social media takes on Rush Limbaugh

President Obama had a simple goal in his first press conference in more than five months: Dont step on his own message(s).

President Barack Obama gestures during a news conference in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, March 6, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)It was clear from the get-go that Obama wanted to accomplish two things with the press conference: First, introduce a series of new housing measures designed to address the foreclosure crisis and second, hammer away at the Republican presidential candidates for their casual (his word) approach to the use of military force.

The challenge for Obama was that he faced a barrage of questions on a series of controversial topics Iran, Israel, Syria, Rush Limbaugh that had the potential to steal headlines from the presidents preferred messaging if he made any sort of news on any of those fronts.

With one possible exception Do you think a president of the United States going into re-election wants gas prices higher? Obama joked at one point in an off-key moment he largely accomplished that goal, virtually ensuring that his tough talk against the GOP candidates on foreign policy matters would be the story of the presser.

Whats said on the campaign trail....those folks dont have a lot of responsibilities, Obama said at one point. They arent commander in chief. At another, he argued: If some of these folks think its time to launch a war, they should say that.

With his rhetoric, Obama was working to make the case that while its easy to call for military action when you are running for president, its much harder to justify it when you are the president and your decision means American troops will be put in harms way.

This was another adult in the room moment for Obama in which he tries to cast himself as someone committed to getting it right while portraying his Republican opponents as interested solely in scoring political points.

(Need more evidence? This is not a game, Obama said at one point regarding foreign policy. And, he repeatedly noted he doesnt undertake the use of military force in a casual manner.)

Even as Obama was trying to make that adult case, he was dodging political pitfalls left and right.

He carefully avoided reiterating his controversial remark that the 1967 boundaries of Israel would be a starting point for negotiations about Middle East peace.

View post:
Obama press conference: Above all, do no (message) harm

The Court has rejected claims made by BT and TalkTalk that the Digital Economy Act (DEA) violates EU laws. The ruling has been welcomed by the Government and representatives of the creative industries, but may yet be appealed by the ISPs to the UK Supreme Court.

We are pleased the Appeal Court has upheld the original ruling that the Digital Economy Act is a lawful and proportionate response to the threat posed by online piracy," a spokesperson for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said in a statement.

The DEA is a controversial law that includes provisions aimed at combating online copyright infringement.

In a judicial review ruling in April last year the High Court rejected claims by the ISPs that the DEA violated EU laws.

According to a summary of the Court of Appeal judgment by a coalition of creative industry bodies, the ISPs argued that the DEA breached EU laws on data protection and privacy. BT and TalkTalk also failed to convince the Court that the Act was "incompatible" with provisions set out in the E-Commerce Directive. The Court also rejected claims made by the ISPs that the DEA was unlawful because the Government had failed to give the European Commission enough time to scrutinise parts of the legislation, according to the bodies.

However, the ISPs did successfully argue that they should not be required to pay 25% of the "case fees" that would stem from ISP customers bringing appeals against warning letters they could receive for allegedly infringing copyright under measures allowed for by the DEA. The ISPs will still have to pay 25% of the costs they incur to comply with their obligations under the Act after the Court ruled that it was lawful to impose the charge on them, according to the creative industry bodies' summary.

The measures were always going to have to strike a balance between ISPs and rights holders and the court has decided that the balance struck by the Digital Economy Act is about right, said copyright law expert Iain Connor of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com. How this will operate in practice remains to be seen.

"Some may argue that BTs and Talk Talks public stance on the issue left the legislators no room to negotiate and so arguably a more conciliatory approach during the Bills passage through Parliament might have been better or at least so it seems with the benefit of hindsight, Connor said.

Both ISPs said they would consider what action, if any, to take next in light of the ruling.

We have been seeking clarification from the courts that the DEA is consistent with European law, and legally robust in the UK, so that everyone can be confident in how it is implemented," BT said in a statement. Now that the Court has made its decision, we will look at the judgment carefully to understand its implications and consider our next steps."

Continued here:
Digital Economy Act not in breach of EU laws, Court of Appeal rules