On January 18, some of biggest websites on the internet will be going dark to send a message to its users: This is a test. This is only a test. The real emergency, these websites say, would be if the Stop Online Piracy Act (known as SOPA) gets signed into law. more ›

Four advertisers have said they will no longer support KFI radio's "John & Ken Show" following an awareness campaign mounted by several Latino and immigrants' rights groups. Verizon and AT&T Wireless are yanking their ads, reports the Burbank Leader, and grocers Vons and Ralphs, who have run ads on the show in the past, say they will not do so again. more ›

The battle over the exclusive right to install thousands of bus benches in the city for the next 10 years has been won — and the winner is Florida-based Martin Outdoor Media, according to The Daily News. A city council vote on Friday afternoon brings an end to the battle by two sides heavily armed with lobbyists and a cash-strapped city hall looking for a cut of the bench's advertising revenue (they got $2.76 million over 10 years). Caught in the middle were bus riders who like to have a seat while they're waiting for their bus. more ›

A Los Angeles-based startup with a mission to enable multimedia storytelling in communities worldwide that otherwise lack the resources was awarded a $200,000 grant by the Knight Foundation on Wednesday. The Tiziano Project's Tiziano 360 project was one of 16 ideas to win a prestigious Knight News Challenge grant awarded to fund internationally relevant innovative media and digital news concepts. more ›

In the media, the rule is every story has a picture. So when covering the latest Sarah Palin news about the likelihood the Hockey Mom with a creative take on U.S. history will run for President in 2012, Fox News flubbed big time and put up a photo of Palin's best impersonator, SNL alum and 30 Rock star Tina Fey. Oops! more ›

Food trucks owe a great deal of their popularity to Twitter, since the social media site is arguably the most efficient way to get the word out about a lunch, dinner, snack, or event serving stop. But for the second season of The Food Network's "The Great Food Truck Race," Twitter might be the extra ingredient that's spoiling the brouhaha. more ›

Hey, kids--did you hear that former California Governator Ahhhhnold Schwarzenegger knocked up an employee and kept it secret from his wife for ten years? Obviously the media is abuzz today with the news, and because we can't possibly cover it all, we present to you this mini-roundup to help point you towards the Schwazenegger-Staffer Spawngate news you might want to read. more ›

We spoke with AOL's Entertainment Practice Head Debbie Menin at Digital Hollywood Spring 2011 last week at the Ritz in Marina del Rey. We discussed the different ways in which consumers are using social media to inform purchases and decisions and how that in turn is informing the advertising industry. more ›

In part one of a series of interviews from Digital Hollywood, Ooyala's Vice President of Biz Dev, Chris Wong, explains the importance of streaming video solutions providers, why most companies require DRM (digital rights management) to control copyright, and ponders the meteoric rise of Netflix and the potential impact of its competitors. more ›

Here's a little tale of media "b" "s": Apparently typing O-b-a-m-a instead of O-s-a-m-a is as easy to do as it is to not catch before the graphics go up on air. While many were quick to scoff at Fox News and at least one of their affiliates for the typo-blooper, our local ABC television affiliate KABC-7 can count themselves among those for whom the "s" in Osama was replaced with a "b" for Obama. more ›

Attention-starved real estate tycoon and reality television superstar Donald Trump is going to run for president in 2012, according to the media. Visibly embarrassed after being shamed by The President, The Donald, and The Public at large after seeing the clamp come down on a far-right fringe group called The Birthers, the media establishment gladly passed the mic off to Trump on Wednesday. more ›

In a low-profile attempt at armistice, newly appointed Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy joined food revolutionary Jamie Oliver on Jimmy Kimmel's show last night. Before the show even aired, the local "Revolution"-aries were cheering the end of flavored milk in L.A.'s public schools. However, that's not a done deal, and we're still wondering what's up with this sudden change of heart from the new head of the nation's second largest school district. more ›

One of the founders of Los Angeles magazine, Geoff Miller, died last night at his home in L.A., according to the Hollywood Reporter. Miller was 73. Miller, along with co-founder David Brown, are considered the creators of the "city magazine" genre, having began with the local publication "The Southern California Prompter," in 1960, nearly a decade ahead of "New York" magazine on the East Coast. more ›

This morning the Los Angeles Unified School District put on a Food Service Division dog and pony show intended as an obvious response to the criticisms levied against them in last night's Season Two Premiere of the Emmy-award winning "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution." Major television press outlets, English and Spanish speaking, were invited to attend. LA's number one blog? Well, we weren't allowed to go. more ›

Less than 3 months after firming up a lease on at least 100,000 square feet of office space in 3 buildings surrounding the Frank Gehry-designed Binoculars in Venice, Google is buying up more prime office space, presumably to base its growing entertainment and YouTube operations closer to Hollywood. more ›

After spending much of the week threatening the West Coast with radioactive thunderstorms should anyone dare turn the dial, CNN decided to recreate the geography of Caifornia, placing San Francisco a hundred miles or so from the Mexican border and throwing Los Angeles to the sharks, at the tip of a peninsula in Northern California that appears to be all but detached from the rest of the continent. more ›

Just a day after NPR CEO Vivian Schiller was forced to resign following the release of a hidden camera video, James O'Keefe released a second video targeting Betsy Liley, NPR's Senior Director of Institutional Giving. In the 44-minute video below, Liley discusses the details of a potential $5 million gift with O'Keefe operative Simon Templar, who claims to represent a fake Muslim charity. more ›

NPR announced this morning that CEO Vivian Schiller has resigned effective immediately, in the aftermath of recently departed NPR executive Ron Schiller's (no relation) delivery of a big boner to the right blogosphere and Tea Party bandwagoneers via hidden camera. more ›

After a solid year of programming hosted by and featuring potential 2012 GOP presidential candidates including Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, Fox News is starting to realize there may be a conflict in interest. Both Gingrich and Santorum will be suspended -- or at least their contracts will be for 60 days -- pending expected official announcements of their intentions to run for president in 2012, said Fox News. more ›

Huffington, once a vocal Republican and ex-wife of former GOP Congressman Michael Huffington is now well-established as a beacon of the progressive left. Apparently too much to handle for Politics Daily columnist Matt Lewis became the first AOL employee to quit publicly in protest of the deal. more ›

When Keith Olbermann stunned viewers with the news he was done with his popular program "Countdown" and with MSNBC, many speculated that it would not be long before the news biz's left-leaning bad boy announced his next industry move. That announcement came today, with word that Olbermann is headed to the small cable network CurrentTV, where he "will host a one-hour, nightly primetime show" starting later in the spring, and will serve as the network's "chief news officer." more ›

Stepping up its ongoing efforts to regain relevance in a post-dialup world, AOL will acquire Huffington Post for $315 million. As part of the deal, Arianna Huffington will become Editor-in-Chief for all properties of AOL's rapidly expanding content empire, including the increasingly ubiquitous Patch.com hyperlocal news network. Top sites that will be added to Huffington's editorial domain include TechCrunch, Mapquest, Moviefone and the surviving blogs of the Weblogs, Inc. network (including Endgadget, TV Squad, PopEater and Joystiq), acquired by AOL/Time Warner in 2005. Will the internet never be the same again? more ›

Some days it just seems like every media outlet is talking about the same thing. Today, though, they're talking about the same person, but for different reasons. Based on scientific* research, we've determined that there are five things the internet wants you to know about Kanye West right now: more ›

The U.S. House takeover isn't the only change that's happening these days. Here at LAist, we're mixing up things, too. After almost three years as LAist's Editor, I'm heading over to KCET, L.A.'s public television station that will split from PBS in January, making it the largest independent public television station in the nation. To say the least, this is an opportunity and challenge like no other, and I'm ecstatic to join the team to ramp up their blogging effort to make KCET a destination. more ›

Although they endorsed Republican and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina for U.S. Senate, the San Fernando Valley's flagship paper The Daily News endorsed Democrat Jerry Brown for Governor on Sunday. To them, he's not Mr. Right, but rather Mr. Right Now. more ›

AOL's brand of local news websites are growing faster than ever. Just last week, LAist posted about two new Patches in the San Gabriel Valley and today are two more in North Hollywood/Toluca Lake and in Monrovia. more ›

Love 'em or hate 'em, AOL's push for hyper local news took two more steps this week in Southern California. More specifically, Patch.com launched websites in the unincorporated community of Altadena and the city of South Pasadena. Behind the two sites are editors with masters degrees in journalism. more ›

Los Angeles public television flagship station KCET is severing ties with PBS, it announced today. The station, which is located near Sunset Junction, will become the largest independent public television station in the country on January 1st, meaning PBS national content such as "Sesame Street," "Masterpiece," "Charlie Rose" and "NewsHour" will be cut from the schedule. more ›

AOL's network of Patch neighborhood news websites have been popping up over the past year in places like the South Bay, Chatsworth and Venice. Beyond the corporate take on hyperlocal news, there are smaller businesses like blogdowntown and other neighborhood newspapers. Enter Alhambra Source. more ›

Well, if the rain has you down, maybe this video will make you laugh. The Fox News Channel show "Fox & Friends" yesterday reported that "the city of Los Angeles already ordered 10,000 jet packs for its police, paramedics and fire department." At $100,000 each, that's one billion (what budget crisis!?) more ›