– Politifact defends its lie of the year:
We’ve read the critiques and see nothing that changes our findings. We stand by our story and our conclusion that the claim was the most significant falsehood of 2011. We made no judgments on the merits of the Ryan plan; we just said that the characterization by the Democrats was false.
– Who owns a Twitter account: the employee or employer?
– Michael Medved deconstructs a wonky poll used by media to declare that marriage is dead.
– Only Jay Carney could make an enemy of the media.
– China jails blogger for 10 years:
A Chinese court has handed down a 10-year jail sentence to Chen Xi, the second dissident in four days to be convicted of inciting subversion through online essays …
… The intermediate people’s court in Guiyang, in south-west China’s Guizhou region, tried Chen Xi, 57, on charges linked to more than 30 political essays he published online.
“The judge said this was a major crime that had a malign impact,” his wife, Zhang Qunxuan, told Reuters by phone after the trial. The judge said Chen was a repeat offender who deserved a long sentence, she added.
Chen has insisted he was innocent, but will not appeal. “The court ignored all the points raised by the defence lawyer at the trial, so what point is there in appealing?” said Zhang.
– Google to unveil an “iPad killer” in six months. Yes! Another device upon which to run the clunky, fragmented Android OS! Any hope of an “iPad killer” died when HP screwed the pooch when it tanked its WebOS mobile devices after buying out Palm. So no, save your iPads and media-reading apps. (Steve Jobs disliked unions and was a capitalist, so I feel justified.)
– As Argentina seizes newsprint, freedom of the press suffers:
What’s the oldest trick in the dictator’s handbook? Why, to seize the newsprint. Fresh from a big electoral win, Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez has pulled that hoary stunt, topping even Hugo Chavez.
By a vote of 41-26, Argentina’s Senate passed a law to nationalize all newsprint, of course in “the national interest.”
I try to stay out of the weeds. On television, jargon is the kiss of death. The second you start talking about the Federal Reserve and QE3 you’ve lost your audience. I mean, how many people really know what the Federal Reserve is and does? Far fewer people know what QE3 is. That’s why you’ll never hear me say, “The yield on the 10 year bond is X or Y percent.” Instead, I’ll tell a general audience that Italians are having trouble borrowing money and that’s how you pull them in. One of the differences between CNBC and Fox Business is we’re going after a different market.
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