The 25 most liked pages on Facebook

For those of you on Facebook, you know what this means. Being "Liked" just means that someone has clicked the "like" button on your page.

Here's the list of the top 25.

The only surprise on the list, as far as I'm concerned, is Bob Marley (#18). He would have killed for this kind of fan support when he was alive. 28,719,894 have clicked "like" on his page.

And I'm one of 'em.

Zillow

Another internet property that hasn't made money went public this week, and investors snapped it up like candy.

This one is real estate site Zillow.

I'm starting to think that Just One Bad Century should go public, but I worry that because we've actually made a profit investors won't want anything to do with us.

As the Rupert Turns

Investors seemed calmed after the Murdochs testified, at least for that one day.

Since then, not so much.

It appears people are starting to wake up to the fact that this story is far from over. Here's a preview of the next bombshell.

Unless it's this upcoming bombshell.

Oh, and then there's the potential fallout from people brave enough to scrutinize his ridiculous testimony, particularly the part about being a hands-off CEO.

As the Rupert Turns

Here's a summary of what happened yesterday in Rupert's testimony to Parliament.

I watched a lot of this testimony yesterday, and I have to say I'm very disappointed with the coverage by the American press. Fox News was a joke. It must be tough to cover your boss with any sense of objectivity, but under the circumstances was it really necessary to so blatantly kiss his ass? CNN was focused on the mention of their night time star Piers Morgan (a former News of the World editor), and what they considered to be an outrageous claim that he also hacked phones. And MSNBC had an anchor covering this that completely misunderstood what was going on. When the "creampie" incident happened, he said that it interrupted pretty uncompelling testimony. (What?) And virtually all of the newspaper and online coverage focused on the creampie incident.

Really?

Did you guys watch the same thing I watched? Yes, it was interesting that somebody slammed a creampie in Rupert's face. Yes, his wife Wendy does have quick reflexes. But did anybody else notice that Rupert was pretending to be a doddering old man that has no idea what happens in his own company? Anyone that knows anything about News Corp knows that he rules it with an iron fist. He must be pretty scared to pull a Junior Soprano.

This case isn't going away. It's just beginning. The News Corp stock may have survived because Rupert didn't say anything that caused him to be arrested on the spot, but the entire British establishment is in danger. This case involves bribing police. The top two men at Scotland Yard have resigned for cryin' out loud. It involves criminal activity. The top editors and former editors have been arrested! It involves huge payoffs of hush money (approved by James Murdoch himself). It involves the British PM directly--his former spokesperson has been arrested--and an e-mail from his assistant to Scotland Yard implicates the Prime Minister himself. The main whistleblower was found dead this week. And the FBI has even opened an investigation into whether or not the voicemails of 9-11 victims were hacked here in the United States.

This story is not about a creampie. It's not about Piers Morgan. And it's not about Rupert's wife.

RIP Borders

It's all over for Borders. They had hoped to avoid this and keep their 299 remaining stores open, but the announcement came yesterday.

Borders is liquidating.

More than 10,000 employees will be looking for work.

Not a great day in publishing history.

As the Rupert turns

How bad is this scandal for Rupert Murdoch?

The Wall Street Journal (which he owns) speculates he may step down as CEO.

The News Corp Board of Directors had to issue a vote of confidence, even though they are firmly in his back pocket.

Because...

The stock is sliding so fast, the family itself has already lost a billion dollars.

Other than that, things are going pretty well for him.

Rupert faces Parliament

Rupert Murdoch is still in deep doo doo, and he may bring down the entire government with him (British PM David Cameron has close associations with the people involved in the phone hacking). This morning Rupert is testifying to Parliament, and will face a thorough grilling. Not the kind Americans can receive in Congress. A Parliament smackdown takes it to whole different level.

Should be entertaining television.

Boy, you leave for one week and...

...all hell breaks loose.

I didn't follow the media while I was in South Carolina, and holy moly.

In Chicago two stations are completely gone (Fresh-FM and Q-101). Two all-news stations are moving to FM (WBBM simulcasting on 105.9 and a new all-news is coming to the former Q-101). A former multiple Chicago Radio Spotlight interviewee was let go by WLS (Cisco Cotto) soon after his wife had a baby, and was replaced by another former Chicago Radio Spotlight interviewee--and my former colleague--Bruce Wolf. And my former boss Steve Dahl made his big announcement about his future, and it didn't involve any Chicago radio stations (he's charging a fee for podcasts now).

And in the national (and international) media, Rupert Murdoch shut down his 100+ year old newspaper to try to contain damage from the huge s-storm coming down on him in England, and backed out of trying to get a complete monopoly on cable news in Europe (by buying the rest of Sky) to placate the angry officials there, and it still didn't work. His former editor was arrested, and the FBI is now investigating whether or not the New York Post also hacked phone calls. If so, his American media empire is in jeopardy too.

Other than that, nothing much happened.