Media Navel Gaze: February 17, 2015
The Week Unpeeled
The media were clearly the story last week with the surprising deaths of David Carr (a frequent reference of this post and "Media Equation" columnist) and someone who Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., publisher and chairman of The Times, called "one of the most gifted journalists who ever worked at The New York Times," and then earlier in the week CBS News and "60 Minutes" journalist Bob Simon. That was coupled with the ongoing front-page coverage of Brian William's six-month departure (or as Chris Rock said—paraphrased—where I came from, "that's being fired!") with Lester Holt as replacement and Jon Stewart stepping down from "The Daily Show" (low point/high point as per The Times).
Elsewhere:
- Apple market cap tops $700 billion and in unrelated undercover news admits it has been secretly making an electric car;
- Costco breaks up with Amex and shakes up card industry;
- Expedia and Orbitz agree to merge;
- USA Today extends media footprint with nine papers planning to run content from the national daily;
- Stocks rallied with the S&P 500 up 2 percent to closed at a record 2,096 and the Dow up 1.1 percent to close at 18,019
- LatAm News: Sebastián Dávalos, son of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, resigned from his position as Socio-cultural Director following a bank loan scandal
- A request to pursue a legal complaint has been officially filed against Argentine President Cristina Kirchner under allegations that she helped cover up Argentina's involvement in a 1994 terrorist attack; and
- President Obama uses a selfie stick for Buzzfeed and gets millions (at least 5.4 million) views.