Is Occupy Oakland crossing the line? Does Amazon want to burn the book business? Gingrich vs. Romney: how do they line up on the issues? The doctors are in.
Is Occupy Oakland crossing the line?
On Saturday, members of the Occupy movement in Oakland staged a daylong protest. But this was no peaceful rally; instead, it was an effort to infiltrate a vacant building to repurpose as a headquarters for Occupy Oakland.
When police deterred the Occupiers from taking over a convention center, the protesters then marched to the Oakland Museum of California, and arrests started to take place. Later that night, the movement marched downtown and broke into City Hall, prompting hundreds more arrests. Throughout the entirety of the ordeal, some demonstrators were throwing bottles, rocks, flares and even a bicycle at the police.
Occupy Oakland’s media committee blamed the officers for not allowing enough time to disperse before making arrests, and they might still be stinging from law enforcement’s initial reaction to the movement in October, which employed tear gas and projectiles on peaceful protesters. However, officials in Oakland are up in arms, as the entire ordeal drew police and resources away from other pressing matters in the city, such as five homicides which occurred during the span of the weekend.
WEIGH IN:
With over 400 arrests and an untold amount of money which will be spent processing arrests and cleaning up the city, has Occupy Oakland stepped over the line? Is this indicative of the entire movement, or is it simply an isolated incident reacting to the pressures of a specific environment? Were the protesters simply pushed too hard initially by law enforcement? Did police have any other option? Later today, U.S. Park Police will be kicking out Occupy D.C. protesters in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza. Will that result in violence, destruction and numerous arrests as well? Or will protesters go peacefully?
Guests:
Gavin Aronsen, Reporter, Mother Jones magazine; Aronsen was covering the Oakland protest; he was one of several reporters arrested.
Omar Yassin, member of Occupy Oakland, attended Saturday’s protest.
Jane Brunner, Oakland City Council Member
Does Amazon want to burn the book business?
Someone once said to Gertrude Stein, "There are readers for you, but no publisher." Soon, this may be truer than ever for more authors. Since 1994, Amazon has been shaking up the book business, but now the e-commerce behemoth is striking at the heart of the publishing industry itself.
Last May, Amazon hired one of New York's best known publishing insiders, Larry Kirshbaum, to run its new print publishing arm. Publishers big and small viewed the move as predatory and highly threatening to their already struggling business model. Amazon executives portray the move as an experiment in the thriving world of e-books, not as an attempt to destroy the Big Six - Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster Penguin, Hachette and Macmillan. But with traditional book sales plummeting and brick and mortar stores going bankrupt, publishers are highly anxious.
Businessweek writer Brad Stone said Amazon's foray into publishing is creating a lot of friction. "You know the publishers — Amazon's their biggest customer, their biggest retailer, and here they are, fairly aggressively courting authors."
According to Stone, they started with niche genres like mystery, romance and science fiction, but after hiring Kirshbaum, they've taken a serious turn towards minting best sellers.
"Amazon has, comparatively, very deep pockets. They can spend a lot and it’s a long term bet; they think the market is moving in their direction,” he said. “They see disruption coming and they want to lead it,” Stone said.
Amazon has attracted some front-list authors – the bread and butter of publishing – with whopping advances. Kirshbaum’s division has already signed authors like self-help guru Timothy Ferriss, actor/budding author James Franco and actress/director Penny Marshall, who got an $800,000 advance for her memoir – cutting out the middleman.
Elaine Katzenberger, executive director of City Lights bookstore and publishing company, said the book business isn’t the only industry feeling pressure; Amazon is trying to dip into every market.
“If you go to Amazon’s website, they don’t advertise themselves as a bookseller. They are a place to buy apparel, appliances, something else and then books,” she added.
Books may have come later in Katzenberger’s list because it’s not Amazon’s most successful product branch. Businessweek writer Stone said he was surprised that Amazon has been so active in recruiting new editors and spending money on book resources. “Amazon sees books as a loss leader and I think that’s true, and it’s a sign of how valuable they see this business is,” he said. “They’re willing to lose a lot of money on it, and get into a business that’s traditionally seen as somewhat inefficient.”
In the current issue of Businessweek, Stone writes, “On the West Coast people cheerfully call this kind of arrangement "coopetition." On the East Coast it’s usually referred to as getting stabbed in the back. Adding insult to injury, Amazon also hopes to sell the books they publish in the very stores they’ve long treated as obsolete and unnecessary.
Critics say Amazon clearly wants exclusive control over the book selling business and will stop at nothing to get it. But not everyone has sympathy, arguing that the book publishing industry is overdue for a makeover. Moreover, people like Oren Teicher, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, don’t believe physical books will ever be ousted.
“The notion that physical books are going to go away is absurd. Back in the 1950’s, folks thought television might put movie business out of business,” he said. “We’re going to have to find what the equilibrium is between electronic content and physical content, but they’re going to complement.”
According to Teicher, bookstores have had the best holiday season in a long time this past year. “For all the quantum leaps going forward in technology, there’s nothing like a bricks and mortar, physical location store to browse and discover and find new books,” he said.
Teicher isn’t the only one who sees e-books in a positive light. Writer Peter Lefcourt recently made a deal with Amazon for his new book, “An American Family.”
Lefcourt said that the medium doesn’t matter. “I think the really important thing is for writer to get their books read, and Amazon enables that. It’s not about the envelope; it’s about the content of the envelope,” he said.
WEIGH IN:
Might this be the end of the printed page? Can Amazon do to books what Apple did to music? Are their business practices predatory and unfair – or smart and forward-looking? What’s more important to Amazon – print books or e-books?
Guests:
Brad Stone, Senior Tech Writer, Bloomberg Businessweek; Author of Businessweek’s current cover story “Amazon’s Hit Man”
Elaine Katzenberger, Executive Director of City Lights, an independent book store in San Francisco and publisher
Oren Teicher, CEO of American Booksellers Association
Gingrich vs. Romney: how do they line up on the issues?
Newt Gingrich wants to balance the federal budget, repeal and replace “Obamacare,” reform entitlement programs, and move toward an optional flat tax of 15%. Mitt Romney also wants get rid of “Obamacare” but he proposes lowering the corporate tax rate to 25%, cutting red tape by eliminating Obama-era regulations, boosting domestic energy production and phasing out hundreds of government programs. The two leading Republican candidates have similar views on the issues but sharp contrasts as well. Are their differences about style or substance? Larry and David Mark of Polico.com do a side-by-side comparison of the positions of Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich on a variety of issues including taxes, immigration, foreign policy, the economy and jobs, energy, social issues, and education.
Guest:
David Mark, Senior Editor for Politico
The doctors are in
AirTalk continues our semi-regular series looking at the top health stories, fads and frustrations facing patients and doctors. Today, we kick off the conversation with a new HPV study that finds that 7% of U.S. teens – and a surprising 11.4% of adults ages 60-64 – carry the virus in their mouths. We’ll also discuss the differences between geriatrics and young peoples’ medicine, the challenges of caring for aging parents’ from afar, the latest on diagnosing and treating dementia and more. Dr. Lachs and Dr. Mosqueda will join Larry in-studio to take your questions and calls – no health insurance or appointment necessary.
Guests:
Mark Lachs, M.D., Director of Geriatrics for the New York Presbyterian Health Care System; physician, scientist, and gerontologist at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City; author, "Treat Me, Not My Age: A Doctor’s Guide to Getting the Best Care as You or a Loved One Gets Older" (Viking Press)
Laura Mosqueda, M.D., Chair and Professor of Family Medicine, Director of Geriatrics and the Ronald Reagan Endowed Chair in Geriatrics at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine