No major media company made the Businessweek 50, is this a good thing or a bad thing, and do big media CEOs even care?

By SDH This week’s issue of Businessweek is all about the Businessweek 50 (BW 50). It’s a list of the 50 best performing companies in their respective industries. It is no surprise to see companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon on the list. It’s also no surprise that there are no major media companies on the list. Why? Well with the exception of maybe Disney, media companies haven’t really been performing well at all. Companies like News Corp dropping cash left and right for other companies doesn’t mean all is well. The BW 50 is dominated by companies in tech, energy, beverages and science. So should big media CEOs take this as a sign that they need to ramp up their businesses or do they take lists like the BW50 as just that, a list? We’re sure most of them wouldn’t have mind having their company listed as one of the best performing. Guess they just didn’t meet the requirements.

If you're a media heavy, and steve jobs didn't personally send you an iphone, you aint shit

-By YOSH Media big shots love to hate iGod and Apple CEO Steve Jobs because well, they hate that he controls how and where some of their digital content is delivered and at what price. Michael Wolff's article in the new issue of Vanity Fair talks about this but also touches on how Steve Jobs may be slowly losing that grip to consumers who are gaining more control over what they watch, where and how they watch it,and Google's top secret gPhone. Should Steve Jobs really be worried, or will he always be able to hold his spot in "Gadgetism" and distribution. They say super powers come and go, I mean look at this country of ours. Men with big jobs in big corporations have a word for this anywhere-anytime (let-us-help-you-steal-it) breakdown in distribution norms: anarchy. They’ve, in fact, had laws passed to inhibit it. But more and more, as gadgetism explodes, as it undermines every fixed notion of who delivers what to whom, as the big men with big jobs try to develop their gadget strategies, it’s comedy too. Everybody in charge of distribution channels is running around like a chicken with its head cut off. People at music companies, television networks, movie studios, cable providers, phone companies, and satellite systems are all trying, vainly so far, to figure out their place in a gadget-driven world, and are, mostly, looking like fools. NBC, in a huff, recently pulled its stuff from Apple’s iTunes downloading service because it believes its shows are worth more than $1.99 apiece. Then, in an about-face, the network announced it will give away its shows for free—figuring that somehow they’ll rig it up, those technological geniuses, so that after you download a show to your gadget and you see it once or twice, the show will dissolve or explode, or some such. Generals, Gadgets, and Guerrillas [Vanity Fair]

THE CUNTISMS OF MICHAEL EISNER: CALLS HOLLYWOOD WRITER'S STRIKE STUPID, SAYS STEVE JOBS IS THE REAL CULPRIT

-BY SDH Years after being booted from atop Disney, Michael Eisner still has a hard-on for Apple CEO Steve Jobs, saying that the current writer's strike should be directed towards Jobs and Apple because they are the ones making all the money from digital distribution. never mind that his former company is in bed with Steve Jobs and Jobs is huge Disney board member, Mike Eisner makes no fucking sense. He goes on to suggest that, the movie studios should have kept it quiet on what they are making from digital distribution and the writers wouldn't have went on strike claiming a piece of the pie. Is this dude for real?? What about the real sticking point--the issue of digital revenues? "There's nothing to give," Eisner says, "It's just too early." Eisner blames the studios--for boasting about how big their digital business is, so the writers want a piece of the action. Eisner says the writers should really be striking Apple in Cupertino, since Steve Jobs, not the studios, is the one making money on digital distribution. Yeah but its the studios who hopped in bed with Jobs, and they are getting their cut as well. Jobs is just the delivery man, delivering what the greedy studios ordered. Michael Eisner: Hollywood Writers Should Strike Apple [MediaMoney]

That media savvy iPhone you love so much, could cause you to shoot blanks, or so says a recent report

A recent report suggests that those white ear bud cords you use for your iPhone could cause you a shot at making kids. Sure for some of you this is a dream come true but for most, this is a red alert, or is it? When the first ever iPods came out, didn't they use a similar white cord ear bud as well? Weren't those harmful? Anyway it looks like the best thing to do is , put your self at risk for brain cancer (allegedly) by placing the phone to your ear than risk your shot at making babies. The Mac maker’s popular phone contains a number of substances—internally and externally—at levels prohibited for use in young children’s toys by San Francisco, which has its own environmental standards, and by the European Union, Greenpeace said. “There is no reason why the iPhone could not have been made without toxins like vinyl plastics and brominated flame retardants as Nokia is already doing,” Greenpeace’s Rick Hind said in the report. Can iPhones Make You Sterile? [RH]

Morning Wire: And now some of this morning's worthy media news

Starbucks and Apple team up to give away free music you may have already downloaded from iTunes to your iPod, iPod Touch... whatever! [NYP] Americans may hate this little bastard, but the media sure loves them some Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [Results] Disney puts up with it because they have bigger things to worry about [NYT] You know what we don't understand, why in the world an ad company thinks we really give a shit about getting ads sent to our cellphones. Dudes, we ignore them, put your money somewhere else [NYT] Those Google guys just get richer and richer don't they? Maybe now either Larry or Sergey will go buy their own jet instead of sharing one, then again its not like they couldn't before. [Marketwatch]

Philippe Dogman Dauman would pimp Viacom to Apple

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman is open to opening up Viacom to a content licensing deal with Apple because Apple is in bed with Youtube and Dauman wants to some how join in the fun. Apple said on Wednesday that YouTube's entire video catalog will be made available on its Apple TV set-top box device, which lets consumers view media and listen to music stored on computers directly on their television screens. "We're always vigilant about protecting our copyrights," a Viacom spokesman said. "But we would welcome the opportunity to license our content to Apple as we do with all distributors," he said. Viacom welcomes licensing opportunity from Apple TV [Reuters

Music Wire: EMI to pimp the Beatles and others via iTunes. Where is Roger Ames?

-SHOMARI HINES EMI and Apple has announced a deal many saw coming. iTunes has the green light to sell music from the record company without copy protection software blah blah blah. We will care about EMI news when some real news start coming out of that camp, like the coming of Roger Ames and the outing of Eric Nicoli, not necessarily in that order. EMI said almost all of its catalog, excluding music by The Beatles, is included in the deal.Singles and albums free from copy-protection software and with a higher sound quality will be offered as a premium product, the companies announced at a London news conference. The announcement follows calls by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs earlier this year for the world's four major record companies, including EMI, to start selling songs online without copy-protection software.The software, known as DRM, is designed to combat piracy by preventing unauthorized copying, but can make downloading music difficult for consumers. EMI to allow Apple to sell songs online [AP]

Disney's fake Inquiry on Pixar Grants finds that Steve Jobs did no wrong

Disney called off the prop dogs after their face saving investigation cleared Apple boss Steve Jobs of any misconduct in issuing backdated stock options at Pixar. Its a good thing too because had they found that Mr. Jobs was riding dirty, it would be a huge black eye for the entertainment giant and its biggest shareholder. A brief statement by John E. Pepper Jr., Disney’s chairman, did not mention Mr. Jobs by name. But the statement said that “while options were backdated at Pixar prior to the acquisition, no one currently associated” with Disney was involved in “any intentional or deliberate acts of misconduct.” Mr. Jobs, the former chairman and chief executive of Pixar, is now a Disney director and the media company’s largest shareholder, after Disney paid more than $8 billion last year for Pixar. Disney Inquiry on Pixar Grants Finds No Misconduct by Jobs [NYT] Photo: originally uploaded by LiuLiChang via Flickr

That didn't take long at all

The iPhone isn't even available to drooling consumers and already there is a lawsuit over the name. Cisco Systems sued Apple yesterday claiming the iPod maker doesn't have rights to the name iPhone - its newest and much-hyped device, launched this week.IT giant Cisco launched a line of internet telephone products using the "iPhone" name through its Linksys division three weeks ago and has owned the rights to the name since 2000. Cisco Sues Apple over 'iPhone' Name [MBP]

Afternoon Wire: Disney's Mel Gibson problem, No music to Kim's ears and more....

No music to Kim's ears If you can't bomb him because you don't know what he could hit back with then,stop his music . The Bush administration is banning the sale of certain luxury items to North Korea, including iPods and plasma televisions, aiming to "personally aggravate" leader Kim Jong-Il. The move is believed to be the first-ever U.S. government effort to use trade sanctions to annoy a foreign leader. Is Mel Gibson, Disney's Tom Cruise? Disney has no shame in their promotion game for the upcoming film "Apocalypto"..........oh wait we said that wrong the film is titled "Mel Gibson's Apocalypto" The movie was directed by Gibson, who, in case you've been living under a rock, has gone from being one of Hollywood's most popular stars to persona non grata for launching into an anti-Semitic tirade following an arrest on suspicion of drunk driving in Malibu back in July. But rather than try to hide the fact that Gibson is the director of the film, Disney, whose Buena Vista Pictures unit is distributing the film in the U.S., is going out of its way to remind people that he is the creative force behind it. Company denies News Corp takeover but loves the rumor play on their stock Another company is enjoying a stock spike due to rumors of a takeover by King Rupert's News Corp. Again this seems to be the latest trend where rumors of takeovers are leaked and stocks jump due to the greed of investors hoping to cash in. Fastweb SpA denied a newspaper report saying that it has entered talks to be bought by News Corp's satellite television unit Sky.