Komen for the Cure founder and CEO Nancy G. Brinker addressed the organization's controversial decision to cut funding to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in a six-minute interview with NBC's Andrea Mitchell, a breast cancer survivor and friend, in one of her first public statements beyond a video statement released on Wednesday. Brinker says the Komen board's decision to make "grant excellence" a measure for funding led to Planned Parenthood being dropped and denied it was singled out or that Komen's brand has been damaged.

New York-based radiologist Dr. Kathy Plesser threatened to quit Komen's medical advisory board unless the decision was reversed. NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg also announced that he is giving a $250,000 matching gift to Planned Parenthood to help make up for the loss of funding by the Komen Foundation. "Politics have no place in health care," the mayor stated. "Breast cancer screening saves lives, and hundreds of thousands of women rely on Planned Parenthood for access to care. We should be helping women access that care, not placing barriers in their way."

The Atlantic this morning reports that the top health executive at the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Mollie Williams, resigned to protest the organization's decision to sever ties and funding for Planned Parenthood.

The world's leading breast cancer research advocacy organization and brand is in crisis mode this week to repair the damage to its reputation since the news broke. The Atlantic calls the controversy "avoidable" and "regrettable":

An entirely avoidable, and deeply regrettable, controversy has been raging this week over the decision by the (formerly highly esteemed) Susan G. Komen For the Cure foundation, the world's leading breast-cancer research advocacy group, to cut its support for Planned Parenthood, which used Komen dollars (about $600,000 annually) to pay for breast-screening exams for poor people.

Did one of the greatest heavyweight nonprofits in the world just shoot its own brand in the foot — a foot it so desperately needs in the race to cure breast cancer?

Susan G. Komen for the Cure, America's most recognized and funded breast-cancer charity, announced that it will cease its work with Planned Parenthood, a major provider of breast cancer screening. A day after the move, a massive outpouring of outrage has the charity on its heels trying to defend itself.Continue reading...

In a digital, interactive iteration of his predecessor, President FDR’s Fireside Chats, President Obama spent nearly 45 minutes hanging-out in the White House's first-ever Google+ video chat last night, answering questions submitted via YouTube, and interacting live with a chosen few from Texas, Detroit, California, Illinois and New Jersey. Topics ranged from the economy, to foreign policy, education and SOPA.

Other than a 2-1/2 minute delay starting, due to technical difficulties, where moderator, Google+'s Steve Grove, said to the president, "Can you hear me? You can't hear me, guys, you need the speaker on." Obama's voice then came through, "Now I can," the Hangout went smoothly.

The number one most popular question of the 135,000, posted on YouTube was from user jeepersmedia of Connecticut, about British student Richard O'Dwyer, charged with violating U.S. copyright law and facing extradition to the U.S. where he could serve ten years in prison, and what Obama was doing about it.Continue reading...

Social media's tectonic plates are shifting, and the ripples are foreboding.

Facebook’s mandatory Timeline, Google+‘s new privacy policy, and now Twitter, which startled its loyal users and observers with a blog post on Thursday titled “Tweets Still Must Flow.” 

“Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world.”

Forbes.com contributor Mark Gibbs says for Twitter to capitulate to governments with selective censorship would undermine its role as a vehicle for public discourse.

Gibbs commented, “With those words earlier today…the management of Twitter‘s went over to the dark side and may well have dug their own grave.”

As Twitter's video (below) featuring Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim indicates, the site aims to offer a platform for social change. So why the desire now to "reactively withhold" content from a country's citizens?

The impetus, they say, is to manage comments about politics, diverse governments and cultures that can be instantly incendiary or offensive.Continue reading...

The first televised U.S. presidential candidates' debate, the 1960 between Senator John F. Kennedy (D-MA) and Vice President Richard Nixon (R-CA), illustrated the power and sway of the media in American politics. As the lore goes, TV viewers gave the debate to Kennedy while radio listeners gave it to Nixon.

In the midst of the Great Depression, March 12, 1933, the nation was held spellbound as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt assured his countrymen that their country would recover during Fireside Chats where Roosevelt shared his hopes and plans and invited the American people to "tell me your troubles."

Fast forward to 2012, and President Barack Obama and the White House will make digital history (again) as he plans to make himself available in a 45-minute live video chat room (dubbed a Hangout) on Google+ on Jan. 30 to answer questions arising from his State of the Union address delivered Tuesday night.Continue reading...

Opponents of SOPA and PIPA cheered yesterday’s web blackouts as a critical juncture in the escalating debate over copyright protection.

“The Web blackout Wednesday may be remembered as one of the first successful online uprisings in the U.S., but leaders in the U.S. Senate still planned to begin voting on PIPA next Tuesday.”

California Representative Anna Eshoo, Dem., tweeted "I do not support #SOPA! It is overly broad, threatens the Internet, will hinder new jobs & hurt economic opportunities" with a link to her statement: “History is being made by the more than 10,000 websites that have chosen to boycott SOPA by participating in today’s blackout,” and she followed suit by blacking out her own website.

A key factor in the turn was the education made quickly available to the public about the complex issues and alliances involved as shown in the following two videos:Continue reading...

In addition to protests in cities including San Francisco (where MC Hammer spoke) and New York, an estimated 10,000 websites went dark today in a widespread Internet protest to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) now before the U.S. House of Representatives, and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) before the Senate.

The bills target foreign websites that pilfer content and sell pirated and counterfeit goods, forcing U.S. companies to stop selling ads to suspected online pirates, processing payments for illegal sales and refusing to list suspected sites in search results.

Although a number of influential politicians backed down, SOPA's author and lead backer, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), told The Wall Street Journal today that the bill addresses concerns and isn't censorship, commenting: “It’s easy to engage in fear-mongering and it’s easy to raise straw men and red herrings, but if they read the bill they will be reassured.”

Smith, however, lost serious support among his colleagues.Continue reading...