Beyonce has come out with a new fragrance —

Beyonce revealed her new line of fragrances in the Dream Hotel — oh yeah on the Penthouse level. Not only did Beyonce reveal the new fragrance but she also wore a stunning new blue sequin dress that covered the growing little baby bump.

You can check out the new perfume here http://www.beyonceparfums.com/ interestingly Beyonce bleu sequin dress matched the center Pulse fragrance bottle.

Some great progress has been made at Umoja.com and a new version is coming in the next month!

From time to time I write on the economics of paid content on NetNoir.com. As NetNoir.com moves into more regular production of articles and opinion, I have had to deal with the daunting aspects of creating a strong revenue model.  During the course of the research I often read about the struggles that newspapers are having –trimming costs and increasing revenue.

As a result, I think that newspapers really need to focus strongly on providing great local news content, and stop spending significant amounts of money on opinion, even syndicated opinion, which is often the worst type of warmed over mushy opinion.

Instead, newspapers should be allowing local people to talk about local issues, views and ideas in order to improve the integration between the local environment and the newspaper’s service to the community.

Time magazine has come out with their annual 100 “people who most affect our world.” The Time Magazine list is always interesting because it helps to reflect how the media views who influences their thinking; however, I do not view the list as any indication of the people who actually affect the majority of the world. For instance, the list tends to skew heavily towards people who captivate the imagination of a section of the media as opposed to those who actually affect real policy, politics, economics, or scientific discoveries that are known in their field but not the popular media at large.

Anyway, I take the list with a grain of salt… but I did try to pick out African-Americans on the Time 100 list.

1.) Barack Obama (naturally), written up by DAVID REMNICK.

2.) Serena Williams By BILLIE JEAN KING

3.) Oprah Winfrey By PHIL DONAHUE

4.) Prince By USHER

This list may not be exhaustive, but it is definitely interesting. I think the most interesting part of the Time Magazine list, is that the words are supposedly penned by peers.

Interestingly enough, Glenn Beck’s write-up was penned by Sarah Palin…

Fox News incredibly misrepresents Sarah Palin hosting “Real American Stories,” by trying to represent Palin interviewing guests such as:

Toby Keith — Country Music Star
James Smith (LL Cool J) — Hip Hop Musician
Jack Welch — Former G.E. C.E.O.
A Congressional Medal of Honor Winner

However, it turns out Uncle L blew the whole operation out of the water with a simple tweet:

“Fox lifted an old interview I gave in 2008 to someone else & are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote Sarah Palins Show. WOW” LL Cool J

To which Fox News, responded with class right? :

“Real American Stories features uplifting tales about overcoming adversity and we believe Mr. Smith’s interview fit that criteria. However, as it appears that Mr. Smith does not want to be associated with a program that could serve as an inspiration to others, we are cutting his interview from the special and wish him the best with his fledgling acting career.“

Brett Michael Dykes @ Yahoo.com [emphasis added]

Folks need to remember that Fox News behaves just like a political organization, rather than respond and say simply that James Smith (LL Cool J) was correct, Fox went out of their way to personally attack him even though Fox was clearly in the wrong.

HuffingtonPost has more:

Likewise, Toby Keith never sat down with Sarah Palin, Keith’s spokesman told HifFix. “We were never contacted by Fox,” Keith’s spokesman said. “I have no idea what interview it’s taken from. They’re promoting this like it’s a brand new interview.”
…
“If someone at Fox News Channel wishes you well, watch your back,” the AP’s David Bauder wrote in 2006. “The seemingly benign sentiment is a creative signature of Fox’s public relations, usually accompanied by a kneecapping. It’s something like a kiss from a Mafia don.”

POTUS Barack Obama did one of his few interviews on Fox News tonight, which really shows that we are at the end of the health care debate. It seems the Whitehouse has a strategy of explaining positions on Fox news at the very end of the issue, as opposed to worrying about the mainly Republican network at any other time.

The transcript of the interview is available here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,589589,00.html

I don’t think any new material was covered during the interview. Brett Baier seemed to be interested in talking about the “process” used in the passage of health care and the “special deals” present in the bill.

Columbia Journalism Review has an interesting feature article, “An Icon Fades” by Don Terry, that conducts a bit of analysis on the failure of Johnson Publications to transition from print publications of their flagship Ebony and Jet magazines into a strong position on the Internet.  Mr. Terry leads into his analysis of the African American icon with a brief bit of history.

Born November 1, 1945, Ebony showed off her glamour and vitality for decades. But she is tired now, debt-ridden and seriously ill, her once crystalline voice a raspy whisper. The black celebrities who once courted her now have other media suitors, thanks in no small part to the trail Ebony blazed. Too many readers and advertisers have followed them. “An Icon Fades” by  Don Terry.

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h/t HelloNegro.com

As much as people dislike Howard Stern’s radio grandstanding and incredibly boorish behavior on the radio, it seems he alone has chosen to brutally critique the uniquely Hollywood spectacle surrounding Oscar nominated Precious star Gaborey Sidibe. Stern takes Hollywood — a place that celebrates beauty over talent almost daily for engaging in such an awkward circus.

Listen for yourself:

While I don’t agree with Sterns choice of words, or his out-right skewering of Sidibe, I do agree there is a heavy dose of hypocrisy from Hollywood during the Oscar process. Beyond the Oscars spectacle I found the movie ridiculous for several reasons…

1.) A very similar book was written 40 years ago by Toni Morrison — “The Bluest Eye.” I have read the book and Precious immediately seemed to be an inferior knock-off 40 years too late; yet, very few people pushing the “Precious” movie have bothered to point out the amazing similarity to Morrison’s much more complex master-piece.

2.) Ishmael Reed’s New York Op-ed that summed up the Precious Movie for me:
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