Media News - Monday, October 06, 2008

US: SEC launches probe into phony Jobs heart attack report

The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking for the person who falsely reported that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack on Friday. Jennifer Martin, a CNN spokeswoman said that SEC investigators contacted the cable-news broadcaster seeking information on the person who posted the phony story to iReport.com. The CNN-owned site is dedicated to hosting news submitted by members of the public. The Jobs heart attack story was categorically denied by Apple but not before the company's stock was already in a steep dive. Shares of Apple fell more than 9 percent before rebounding. Apple's share price closed trading Friday at USD 97.07, down 3 percent. Some observers have speculated that someone may have posted the story to manipulate the stock market. In order to submit a story on iReport, a person need only submit an e-mail address. Martin said that it clearly says on the site that most stories are not edited, filtered, or vetted. Those stories that have been checked out are labeled 'On CNN.' This means that the cable network has verified the report and is using it on a CNN-branded TV show or Web site, she said. The Jobs heart attack story never got that label. (CNET News)

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BBC to launch six new YouTube channels

BBC Global News has extended its relationship with YouTube, by signing an agreement to add six BBC video news channels in Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Persian and Urdu to its existing BBC World News channel. In what is the first multi-language deal by a major international news broadcaster with YouTube, users will have access to high quality, independent and impartial news clips produced by the BBC World Service in six languages. Video news stories will run each day across the different language Channels and each channel will be branded and tailored to its specific audience. The videos will also be fully discoverable via Google Video search. The six new language channels are set to launch by the end of this year. (BBC World News Press Office via Media Network Weblog)

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Google, Yahoo delay search ad partnership

Google Inc and Yahoo Inc have decided to delay implementing a controversial search advertising partnership, Yahoo said on Friday. 'The companies have agreed to a brief delay in implementing this agreement to continue our ongoing discussions with the (U.S.) Department of Justice,' Yahoo said in a statement. Google issued a similar statement. The delay was expected to last less than a month, a source familiar with the discussions on the issue told Reuters. The deal, which allows Google to sell advertising for some of Yahoo's online advertising space, is unpopular with advertisers who fear higher prices. Google's web-search market share widened to 63 percent in August, while Yahoo dropped to 19.6 percent and Microsoft Corp slipped to 8.3 percent, according to comScore Inc. (Reuters)

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U.S. to fund pro-American publicity in Iraqi media

The Defense Department will pay private U.S. contractors in Iraq up to USD 300m (EUR 218m) over the next three years to produce news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media in an effort to 'engage and inspire' the local population to support U.S. objectives and the Iraqi government. The new contracts - awarded last week to four companies - will expand and consolidate what the U.S. military calls 'information/psychological operations' in Iraq far into the future, even as violence appears to be abating and U.S. troops have begun drawing down. The military's role in the war of ideas has been fundamentally transformed in recent years, the result of both the Pentagon's outsized resources and a counterinsurgency doctrine in which information control is considered key to success. Uniformed communications specialists and contractors are now an integral part of U.S. military operations from Eastern Europe to Afghanistan and beyond. (Washington Post)

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Iran launches its own Sun newspaper

A new national newspaper, the 'Khorshid' or 'Sun', hit the newsstands on Saturday, published by an aide to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Like its mass-circulation British namesake, the full colour daily will cover all topics from political issues to sport and soap opera. The centrefold of Khorshid is a picture illustrating a current news story. Initial circulation is targeted at 200,000, which publisher Mohammad Paryab hopes to build up later. Khorshid, whose launch has been expected for a few months, has gone on sale only eight months before the country's next presidential elections, prompting speculation it might serve as a campaign tool for the re-election of Ahmadinejad. Paryab denied the talk. 'No, the government has other platforms and as you can see there is only one page about political news in Khorshid, so it is not useful for that purpose,' he told AFP. 'If we wanted to do that, we would have allocated 10 to 12 pages of the 24-page newspaper for political news,' said Paryab, who used to be deputy government spokesman and secretary of the presidency information council. Selling for IRR 1,000 (EUR 0,076), Khorshid tackles social, economic and cultural topics. It is financed by the state-run social security organisation which, according to Paryab, insures around 28 million or 45 percent of the Iranian population. (AFP)

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Dreamworks joins India’s Reliance

The film studio Dreamworks, co-founded by Steven Spielberg, has agreed a joint venture with one of India's biggest entertainment conglomerates. Reliance ADA Group, run by Anil Ambani - the sixth richest man in the world - is already a big player in Bollywood, India's film business. Now the new studio will make movies in the US, putting large amounts of Indian money into America's film industry. It is a story of Hollywood meets Bollywood in a USD 1.5bn deal. This is a happy ending to a tale that could have turned nasty. Dreamworks was bought by movie giant Paramount Pictures in 2006. Under that arrangement, hit films like Transformers were made. But the two sides have been looking to separate for some time and it was thought negotiations would be difficult and protracted. Now, a deal has been struck quickly. At the centre is superstar director Mr Spielberg himself, who as a producer and director, has overseen some of the biggest box office hits including ET, Schindler's List and Jaws. He will become one of the chief executives of the new studio. (BBC News)

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