In the aftermath of the massacre of 20 young schoolchildren and six school staffers last December in Connecticut, the word was that this shooting spree was somehow going to be different from all the rest—different from Virginia Tech and Aurora, Colo., and Columbine and Luby’s Cafeteria back in ’91 and, well, all the rest that keep on happening far too regularly. This time, America was going to look at itself in the mirror and change.

So far, though, the Sandy Hook shootings haven’t caused much change. The “national conversation” has dragged on and senators will finally introduce new gun legislation soon. This will be the “first time in years” Congress takes a look at “significant gun control legislation,” NBC reports. But the inaction and relative toothlessness of the legislation has kicked New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg into gear.Continue reading...

What does a 28-year-old billionaire with the world’s largest social networking website do next to influence the world?

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is taking a lead role in a Silicon Valley SuperPAC organized by his former college roommate, Joe Green. Reportedly, the group will focus on education and immigration reform, two pressing issues in Zuckerberg’s own backyard in order to maintain a steady stream of talent. 

First reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, Zuckerberg has committed as much as $20 million to the effort which will most likely be nonprofit.Continue reading...

Making a play to scoop other news services in their on-site political coverage, Bloomberg is publishing "Bloomberg Insider," a daily magazine, during the Republican and Democratic Conventions. The slick publication is running hard-hitting articles and commentary and will be distributed at no charge at each convention as well as in the Washington, DC area.

As an example of the type of reporting typical in Bloomberg Insider, the August 29 cover story, entitled "SuperPachyderm," carries the subhead, "A few mega-donors are investing millions in the Romney campaign. What do they want in return?" The article discusses financial contributions made by Sheldon Adelson, Harold Simmons, and David and Charles Koch, among others. The magazine concentrates heavily on news related to the Republican Convention, but it includes other political stories as well. It is published in partnership with the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

While the August 29 issue carries a few outside ads, Bloomberg's own properties, including Bloomberg Television, are prominently promoted. In fact, Bloomberg Insider editor Tim Franklin told Women's Wear Daily that the publication is designed to "elevate the visibility of Bloomberg and showcase all the various resources we have. ...It's one thing to have a Web site or an app; it's another to put a printed copy under someone's nose."

Bloomberg does have a lot of brands to pitch. In addition to owning Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg Businessweek, and operating its own news service, the media conglomerate offers specialized products that target the Washington political scene, including paid services Bloomberg Government and Bloomberg BNA. Continue reading...

It may be 79 degrees and sunny today in Atlanta, but we're guessing storm clouds quickly gathered over One CNN Center after the collosal correction the cable newscaster was forced to make on-air and online corrections today.

CNN misreported the historic 5-4 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld Obamacare and affirms the individual mandate portion of President Obama's healthcare law. (Update: its PR team has issued an apology.)

Below, the before and after of the ratings-challenged network's breaking news flub this morning — and to be fair and balanced, Fox News got it wrong, too.Continue reading...

Today, 24-hour news network CNN unveiled new branding for 2012 political campaign coverage. CNN's new motto states that its political coverage makes it "America's Choice 2012," a tagline that "reflects our commitment to helping American voters make that choice."

CNN is not joking. But Jon Stewart was when The Daily Show used the exact same branding in 2008.Continue reading...

There was a subtle but significant tinge to Fox News’s lineup of moderators for the big debate of Republican presidential contenders last week: Bret Baier, Chris Wallace and Megyn Kelly don’t hail from the network’s robust lineup of red-meat, all-American conservatives.

Apparently that casting was part of a larger “course correction” Fox News has been undertaking as the nation moves heavily into 2012 campaign mode. Fox News head Roger Ailes has “quietly adopted” a bit of a tack toward the center recently, according to media reporter Howard Kurtz in The Daily Beast – a move that also has included parting ways with bomb-thrower Glenn Beck and paying less attention to the Tea Party movement.Continue reading...

The reaction to the latest twists and turns in News Corp.'s phone hacking scandal — which yesterday compelled Rupert Murdoch to withdraw his BSkyB bid, and today led him (and son James) to decline to testify? (Update: they've agreed to testify.)

Naturally, it runs the gamut from mocking (such as the eBay UK listing above), the cultural (musician Billy Bragg expressed his feelings about Murdoch's tabloids in song), to social media outrage (one prominent tweeter: former deputy Labour leader John Prescott). 

The story is also making waves in Murdoch's adopted homeland of America. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is calling for a US inquiry, while Hugo Dixon, Editor of Reuters Breaking Views, told the BBC that "politicians in America are starting to beat the drum."

Update: this afternoon comes word that the FBI is investigating News Corp. following allegations that 9/11 victims were targeted.Continue reading...

Problems with brand extensions eroding the core brand are not just a problem exclusive to consumer products. Award-winning media brands can also suffer the degenerative effect of a poorly managed brand extension.

This is something Politifact is currently discovering in Wisconsin, where one of the project's most valuable sources has stopped taking its calls, charging political bias.

The website was started by the St. Petersburg Times as a journalistic project where reporters "fact-check statements by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups."

PolitiFact had the added hook of the catchy "Truth-o-Meter," a small gauge that, at the end of the article, rated the fact-checked claim as true, partially true, or, in worst cases, "Pants on Fire," a rating where the meter itself was humorously engulfed in flames.

Politifact was awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for "its fact-checking initiative during the 2008 presidential campaign that used probing reporters and the power of the World Wide Web to examine more than 750 political claims, separating rhetoric from truth to enlighten voters."

Following this success, Politifact licensed its brand to other newspapers, starting with the Austin American Statesman and continuing on to the Miami Herald, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and others. Then the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel got its Politifact license a year ago.Continue reading...