These are some of the things that have caught my attention lately. It’s a more eclectic mix than just the news business, but then so’s life:

• Barack Obama: Calling Bullshit On The Obama Ring Story | Gawker – "President-elect Obama—allegedly a 'man of the people'—is allegedly buying a fancy $30,000 ring for his fancy wife, allegedly! It was in the trusty Daily Mail, and now it's the top story on Drudge, meaning it is the single most important news story in all the world. Elitist Obama drops 30K on bling for his wife during a recession—and this bling will be made out of rhodium, the world's most expensive metal! This story is almost certainly bullshit, and we will tell you exactly why."
• “The Business Is Broken” | CJR – "I’m going to keep doing this until it’s no longer fun, or there’s no one left to hire me, and then I’ll find something else.

  And right now, journalism is just too much fun to give up. Even now. I’ve seen job openings in other fields, but I don’t want another type of job. I love learning new things. I like questioning authority and calling b.s. when I see it. I’m nosy as hell, and paid to be.

  Amid all the gloom about the future of news, nobody seems to mention this: Reporting is a lot of freakin’ fun."

• NPIA Practice Advice on Stop and Search in relation to Terrorism and on the War on Photographers | Spyblog – "The Terrorism Act 2000 does not prohibit people from taking photographs or digital images in an area where an authority under section 44 is in place. Officers should not prevent people taking photographs unless they are in an area where photography is prevented by other legislation."
• That elusive Rusbridger Cross | open Democracy News Analysis – "[A]dvertisers found that the impacts they had been buying from ITV at top of the market prices could be bought much more cheaply elsewhere – so revenue simply drifted out of TV.  In this, the UK was unique – all similar markets saw an average 22% rise in cost per thousand (CPT) over the last five years, whilst the UK suffered an 11% decline…
  What adds to the pressure on ITV in particular is the guaranteed strength of the BBC, which prevents ITV from cutting its spend on programmes (till now, anyway – rumours are it will be cut by over 10% next year), so leaving it with the lowest operating margins of all similar operators in Europe and the US.
  Commercial radio is in similarly poor condition, as the BBC inexorably increases its share of viewing off the back of a massively larger programming budget.
  However much we love the BBC, it is increasingly hard to deny the displacement effect of the BBC's strength."
• Potentially Universal Mechanism Of Aging Identified | Science Daily – "It is remarkable that an aging mechanism found in yeast a decade ago, in which sirtuins redistribute with damage or aging, is also applicable to mammals," says Leonard Guarente, Novartis Professor of Biology at MIT, who is not an author on the paper. "This should lead to new approaches to protect cells against the ravages of aging by finding drugs that can stabilize this redistribution of sirtuins over time."
• The Great Crash of 2008 | Robert Reich – "[C]onsumers have gone on strike.

  Why have they gone on strike? Not because of the difficulty of getting credit. Most consumers can barely afford to pay the interest charges on the debt they're already carrying. Consumers have gone on strike because their earnings haven't kept up."

• Michael Wolff’s new Rupert Murdoch biography accepts the mogul on his own sordid terms | Jack Shafer – "The secret of Murdoch's strength is his lack of shame…"
• Walkley Awards and the writing on the wall | Crikey – "The highest award for the evening, the Gold Walkley, went to Channel Nine’s Sunday program, for a piece by Ross Coulthart and Nick Farrow about the "Butcher of Bega" — a doctor accused of abusing and mutilating the women in his care. The same piece won both the award for Television Current Affairs Reporting, and the award for Investigative Reporting. Yet the program — a frequent winner of Walkley Awards — no longer exists.

  Other winners included the ABC’s Radio Eye program (Best Broadcast feature) which will finish this year, and illustrator Simon Bosch (Best Artwork) formerly of the Sydney Morning Herald, who was "let go" in the Fairfax bloodletting a few weeks ago.

  Among those shortlisted for awards were a Julie-Anne Davies story in The Bulletin, a publication which no longer exists, and an article in Time magazine, a publication that has just announced the sacking of all its Australian journalists and the probable closure of its Australian bureau."

• Rupert Murdoch tale, ‘The Man Who Owns the News,’ riveting – USATODAY.com – "If you can imagine Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol with Rupert Murdoch standing in for Ebenezer Scrooge, you should find it easy to follow the story arc in Vanity Fair media columnist Michael Wolff's important new book, The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch."
• Sharekhan recommends TV18; target price Rs116 – Money Matters – livemint.com – The news, not broken everywhere: "We expect the news business’ revenues to grow by 9.4% and 11.8% in FY2009 and FY2010 respectively, as we expect the ad-rate growth to slow down considerably.
  However, consequent to the increase in the expenses outpacing the revenue growth, we expect the operating margins in the news business to decline from 41.5% in FY2008 to 30.5% in FY2009 and 25.4% in FY2010.
  We believe while TV18 possesses an attractive media model with potential to deliver hefty revenue and profit growth, the near-term performance will continue to be severely impacted by the very weak macro environment across its businesses."