When you get beat by 'em, join 'em

The Associated Press had prevailed in its lawsuit against sued L.A. artist Shepard Fairey for the latter's use of an AP photo as the basis for his "Hope" posters of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. Now comes word that the two sides have settled out of court, with Fairey agreeing to work on a series of Hope posters based on AP images. The two parties will share the profits.

Here's the AP announcement (via Nieman Journalism Lab):

In settling the lawsuit, the AP and Mr. Fairey have agreed that neither side surrenders its view of the law. Mr. Fairey has agreed that he will not use another AP photo in his work without obtaining a license from the AP. The two sides have also agreed to work together going forward with the Hope image and share the rights to make the posters and merchandise bearing the Hope image and to collaborate on a series of images that Fairey will create based on AP photographs. The parties have agreed to additional financial terms that will remain confidential.

Feds charge ex-CIA officer in leak to NY Times

Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, who worked on the agency's Iran desk, has been charged with 10 counts of disclosing classified information to New York Times reporter James Risen.

From the Associated Press story:

The indictment did not say specifically what was leaked but, from the dates and other details, it was clear that the case centered on leaks to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James Risen for his 2006 book, "State of War." The book revealed details about the CIA's covert spy war with Iran.

-snip-

The indictment is the latest move in an aggressive Obama administration campaign to crack down on leaks, even as the administration has supported proposed legislation that would shield reporters from having to identify their sources.

Lonely (maybe) , but not alone

The Economist photoshopped a picture of President Obama to make him look like a lonely man on an oil-tainted beach.

FBI linguist gets jail for leaking to blogger

An FBI linguist will serve 20 months in prison for passing confidential information to a blogger, Politico reports.

From the story:

The sentence for Shamai Leibowitz is likely to become the longest ever served by a government employee accused of passing national security secrets to a member of the media. His case represents only the third known conviction in U.S. history for a government official or contractor providing classified information to the press.

And it reflects a surprising development: President Barack Obama’s Justice Department has taken a hard line against leakers, and Obama himself has expressed anger about disclosures of national security deliberations in the press.

This follows last month's indictment of Thomas Drake for allegedly leaking information about mismanagement at the NSA to a Baltimore Sun reporter and a subpoena of New York Times reporter James Risen over a book he wrote exposing a CIA program against Iran.

Keeping up with...

Flagging revenues and tighter newsroom budgets make the decision to spend money to cover the president as he travels the country and the world increasingly difficult, the New York Observer reports.

Military politics

On Monday, the Fort Bragg Army base in North Carolina will host Sarah Palin, who is on a tour for her new book, "Going Rogue."

In agreeing to the public event, the U.S. Army initially banned the media from attending to ensure the promotion of a political book written by a politician didn't turn political. Army officials assumed the mere presence of journalists would encourage Palin, or her supporters (some of them in uniform, I presume), to criticize President Obama and his policies. So, the theory went, even if Palin or her supporters did say something critical, the fact that no journalists were there to report it would preserve the apolitical atmosphere.

The Associated Press and Fayettville Observer both complained, calling the ban illogical and unconstitutional. For one, they said the Army can't have a public event and then restrict the press. Second, they said the public has things like cameras, personal blogs and mouths with which they could broadcast the day's events. In the end, the U.S. Army relented and agreed to allow media in.

Four today

1. The future's so bright, I don't need to get paid: Arianna Huffington spoke to the students at Ithaca College and told them she is absolutely positively optimistic and upbeat about the future of journalism and is, in fact, saving it. Ithacan Online

2. Time to cut: Time magazine will layoff around 12 editorial employees as part of Time Inc.'s mandate to cut 500 jobs company wide. Fortune magazine looks to be hit hardest, with 24 newsroom layoffs out of a staff of about 80. New York Post

3. Google and the media: Nieman's Zachary Seward talked to Google CEO Eric Schmitt about his love for newspapers, his definition of blog, and the coming Google Wave. Nieman Journalism Lab

4. Obama's brain: Warren Olney will interview Obama's campaign architect David Plouffe about his new book, "The Audacity to Win," and Tuesday's election results on today's "To The Point." Listen live at 12:45 p.m. Pacific here or download is later here.

Award season comes early*,**

The Nobel Committee's surprise award of the peace prize to President Barack Obama certainly tells us something about how they viewed his predecessor, but with only 9 months on the job and a war in Afghanistan to plan, it might be a little premature at best. So what's the best political response? Does he accept the award on behalf of the American people? Or does he respectfully decline it, saying he's got miles to go and should be judged on results? Whatever he does, I'm of the mind that this won't help him make headway with his enemies abroad and will only harden the contempt of his political enemies at home who'll ask what he's done (and probably work in a little anti-elite European criticism). Humility might be the best answer to both.

*Update: Obama accepted the prize. He said he was "humbled" and "surprised," and added: "To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who have been honored by this prize..." The video of his statement is here and the text here.

**Update II: On today's "To The Point," Time's White House correspondent Michael Scherer, Atlantic Media's, Peter Beinart of the Daily Beast, and Robin Wright of the US Institute of Peace, and formerly of the Washington Post, talk about the ramifications of the Nobel prize on Obama's foreign and domestic agenda.

Maybe journalism

In his morning-quarterback analysis of the media's coverage of the public anger displayed at tea party rallies and town hall meetings, Howard Kurtz asserts somewhat passively that: "Maybe journalists have been asking the wrong question." He lays out his list of wrong questions and then offers a new route of investigation. Except the route is one many smart journalists have already traveled - including the three opinion writers Kurtz later quotes in his column. Kurtz then concludes his anger exploration with a second passive assertion: "Maybe the president needs to show just a smidgen of anger himself."

Maybe. Maybe not. Who can say?

Since neither the media nor the right-wing is in the business of supporting President Obama's agenda, maybe a more interesting line of inquiry is why liberals are so uncomfortable touting the president's proposals and accomplishments.

I read it in the papers

Timothy Noah at Slate learned the hard way why good (and accurate) reporting requires journalists to show up, rather than rely on the minutes of meetings.

A little more sunshine

The White House will make public most of the names of people who visit the White House on political business. This is a change from the confidentiality policy of the Bush administration and comes in response to several lawsuits filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. USA Today

Capture the flag

Drudge Report claims a victory in the war over health care reform. White House says not so fast (sorta).

Four Friday

1. World's oldest Sunday paper considers closing. Newspaper Death Watch

2. Mark Halperin at Time magazine doesn't like town hall mobsters (but he still likes Drudge). TIME

3. Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor, has some thoughts on health care reform: Beware the "death panel." Facebook

4. Errol Morris looks at the lies about lying. Part 1 and Part 2

Four in the morning

1. News sites can now track when readers cut and paste text from articles. It should add another dimension to measurement's of story popularity; it's probably also a good tool to track content pirates. Nieman Lab

2. Rubber-neck journalism: A "story" made entirely out of tweets. Universal Hub

3. Something to dampen that Boston pride: two members of the 2004 and 2007 World Series champion Red Sox tested positive for steroids in 2003 - Manny Ramirez, now an LA Dodger, and David Ortiz. Ramirez suffered a 50-game suspension this year for a positive test. NYT

4. Who does the public blame in the Crowley-Gates affair? Most of them blame both men. ABC News

4.5 Some poor decision-making here: The beers of choice for tonight's picnic-table summit: Bud Light (Obama), Red Stripe (Gates) and Blue Moon (Crowley). Chicago Tribune

A speech in Cairo

President Barack Obama spoke in Cairo today. Story and text.