While in the library the other day, the man next to me was looking at A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. His laptop buzzed and he quickly abandoned his reading continuum for a short blast of finger pulses transmitting data to followers everywhere across the cyber universe. He...

A while back, as a nice gesture, a publishing pal gave me George Saunders' (at the time) new book, The Braindead Megaphone. Exciting: here in my hands was one of the few perks of being in a publishing-related field -- an advance copy book! And free! Plus, I like...

It seems to be coming to this: Was he a Muslim or a nutcase?

The nation's two most sententious conservative columnists have weighed in with their view. Both David Brooks, in the Times, and Dorothy Rabinowitz, in the Wall Street Journal, believe that the evidence--ie, he was a practicing...

From music to movies to newspapers, the media industries are struggling to figure out how to use the Internet without losing their shirts. With some combination of envy and disgust, they've watched from the sidelines as the pornography industry seized every opportunity to get before the wider audience all of...

Google is stepping up its mobile tracking services. The company added a Location History feature to its Google Latitude application, which specifies locations users have visited, as well as a Google Map which outlines where users can receive flu shots....

When a couple of white kids shoot up a school, it is a tragedy, and a search for mental defect. Bring on a shooting at a military base that involves an Arab-American though, and the media does everything that it can to shout "TERRORISM" without really saying it.

Sadly, in...

A year ago today, the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America, with the Ad Council, launched a big campaign to welcome new veterans home and help 'em...

Rupert Murdoch is now trying to backpedal after saying in an interview with Sky News that Glenn Beck was right when he called President Obama a "racist." Now that he's been called out and the spotlight is squarely on him, Murdoch says he doesn't agree with Beck, but he...

While search and display are far bigger categories than online video advertising, the digital advertising sector that is hot right now is online video advertising around premium news content.

The Wall Street Journal's sale of pre-roll advertising...

So, Carrie Prejean is having a bit of week, isn't she?

I mean, one week you're the darling of the conservative movement, and the next thing you know, you're being called a hypocrite as your image as a high-falutin' blonde ball of judgment stops meshing with the low-falutin'...

On this day, a special tribute to two of the most memorable, and remarkable, veterans I've ever encountered. It comes just two days after President Obama -- perhaps under new pressure as a Nobel Peace Prize winner -- said he would like to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki during his presidency....

I have a huge problem with Sean Hannity. And we all should. He is anything but the "great American" he and his brainwashed listeners delusionally call each other every five minutes. In fact, to the contrary, he's about as unpatriotic as they come. He roots for America to fail just...

If you used to read Ramparts, raise your hand. You probably would enjoy A Bomb in Every Issue, Peter Richardson's biography of Ramparts magazine. If you hated Ramparts, don't bother; this book will probably raise your blood pressure. If you never read Ramparts, read this book, because it tells the...

In the immediate aftermath of the breaking-news of the massacre at Ft. Hood, a shocked nation and media scurried to find out who did it, how many were killed and injured and why? As is true in all such tragedies, in the initial chaos surrounding such events, facts are hard...

It's a scene that is becoming all too familiar as yet another magazine closes and more space opens up on the newsstands. The formula is simple -- a bad economy means consumers aren't spending therefore no advertising which equates into fewer and fewer editorial pages and less money -- you...

Executives and employees alike at digital startups, media agencies, and television networks should still build their personal brands.

That's the advice of Gary Vaynerchuk, the multi-million dollar businessman, uber-popular video star, and now New York Times bestselling author....

We're entering a sort of Fox News Era where media outlets -- where alleged news organizations -- essentially co-sponsor political campaigns. We've moved well beyond the time when Fox News, for instance, leaned right and gave conservative candidates more air-time and tossed them lots of softball questions. We're now watching...

As I write this, I realize I am about to do something that, for the most part, is never done. I am going to criticize a critic. Filmmakers are never supposed to respond to a critic about their work. It's an unspoken rule of engagement. But in this case, I...