Turning 'dislike' into commercial success

19 July 2011 Last updated at 11:57 GMT By Virginia Brown BBC News Magazine Rebecca Black prompted an outpouring of online bile Rebecca Black - who achieved online notoriety for the awfulness of her first effort at a music video - has released a second single. But how does critical loathing turn into commercial success?

The outpouring of online odium that followed the posting on YouTube of Rebecca Black's Friday would be enough to make many people faint of heart.

The song was ruthlessly criticised online with harsh complaints about her use of Auto-Tune, a device that corrects pitch, the cloying nature of her video, but most of all, the mindbogglingly banal lyrics.

"Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday. Today is Friday, Friday" are the kind of lyrics that don't exactly sit well with a tough crowd of YouTube followers. Some critics went as far as describing Friday as the worst song ever.

But the song ranked top in global trending topics on Twitter, surpassing the Japanese earthquake crisis.

Despite receiving millions of "dislikes" on YouTube, Black's single has sold well as a download. And she has used her brush with unpopularity to release a new single, My Moment. It addresses the "haters" that have goaded the teenager.

So why do people relish Black's song? "Because it's an easy target, because we're cynical and we can unload all of our malice on its stupidity," says David LaGuardia, author of Trash Culture: Essays in Popular Culture.

The Rebecca Black phenomenon has echoes of the equally ridiculed Florence Foster Jenkins.

Continue reading the main story From California, 14 years oldShot to fame earlier this year with self-financed video that went viralReceived death threats Surpassed Justin Bieber as most played YouTube clip of all time - with more than 160 million viewsBlack's song Friday was performed on GleeBlack appeared in a Katy Perry videoThe song peaked at No 58 on the US Billboard Hot 100 list in March This shockingly bad songbird of the early 20th century was adored by crowds despite - or perhaps because of - her utter lack of singing ability. To keep a straight face through the YouTube clip of her mangling of Queen of the Night, from Mozart's Magic Flute, is an achievement.

Jenkins reportedly lived in blissful ignorance, mistaking the audience's laughter for cheers, and as word of her terrible renditions spread, so did her celebrity.

Eventually her fans demanded she take the stage at New York's Carnegie Hall, one that has been graced by superstars from Judy Garland to Billie Holiday.

She finally agreed to perform there in 1944 just before she died - and the tickets sold out in only two weeks.

Jenkins was the viral success of her day. Like Black, her career suggests that critical revulsion can be a help as much as a hindrance when it is raised to epic levels.

There's a long history of "bad" becoming "so bad it's good" and earning a cult following.

Continue reading the main story

Kickin' in the front seat/Sittin' in the back seat/Gotta make my mind up/Which seat can I take?”

End Quote One of the lyrics that propelled Rebecca Black to fame "The degree of awfulness is often a cultish badge that attracts people to the media text in question," says Sean Redmond, co-editor of Celebrity Studies.

"Cultish bad texts provide a space for chatter and shared identification with something that isn't mainstream, polished or sterile.

"So the cultish text is often 'oppositional' in some way, it goes against the grain of the mainstream and the predictable."

For some it's the realm of the guilty pleasure, for others it's something to "do" - to talk about at the watercooler and to play to a friend or a colleague.

"Cultish media often involve participation and active celebration," says Redmond.

Continue reading the main story

Bouquets...

Rolling Stone: "A distinct singer with an alluring sort of anti-charisma"

Huffington Post Comedy: "Fascinating and funny mutation of pop culture"

Brickbats...

Billboard: "Hilariously bad", "straight out of Auto-Tuned hell"

Time: "Train wreck", "hilariously dreadful"

Yahoo! Music: "Mind-meltingly horrific"

Slate's Farhad Manjoo: "Literally the worst song I've ever heard"

There's also a fascination on the part of the audience as to why someone would carry on despite a wall of virulent criticism.

Stephen Temperley, who has written a play partially based on Jenkins's life, says her appeal was a "combination of her ambition and her lack of ability to sing".

"She must have had an innocence about her when she performed and it gave her a kind of vulnerability. The crowd was there to cheer her on while also laughing at her," says Temperley.

Her performances provided a thrill that competent opera singers could not always generate.

"It became a big social event in New York. It gave you a certain cachet and people really competed for tickets," he notes.

There are plenty of films that convert disliking into commercial gold.

Irish pop act Jedward have not always earned critical acclaim

Birdemic: Shock and Terror is a recent candidate for the worst film ever made, but the self-financed romantic action-adventure of 2008 turned this status into ticket sales.

The story centers around a platoon of eagles and vultures attacking a small town. Many people die. A 3D sequel is due soon.

Another film The Room, which has been called "the Citizen Kane of bad movies", is a staple of late night showings.

The YouTube haters think Black is an acceptable target for an outpouring of vitriol.

"There are simply acceptable targets for the hatred people carry around every day," says Rob Manuel, co-founder of the pop culture website b3ta.com. Unfortunate musicians and pop icons fall into that category.

Perry has troubled relationship with tea party (AP)

By STEVE PEOPLES and APRIL CASTRO, Associated Press Steve Peoples And April Castro, Associated Press – 52 mins ago

CONCORD, N.H. – In spite of his thundering speeches against big government, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has a troubled relationship with the tea party, a rift increasingly obvious as he gets closer to a presidential bid.

Tea party groups from New Hampshire to Texas are collaborating to criticize Perry's record on immigration, public health and spending and his former affiliation with the Democratic Party.

"It's real easy to walk into church on Sunday morning and sing from the hymnal. I saw a guy that talked like a tea party candidate but didn't govern like one," said Debra Medina, a Texas tea party activist who challenged Perry in the 2010 Republican gubernatorial primary. "I still don't think he governs like the conservative he professes to be."

Texas conservatives recently shared material on Perry's record with the New Hampshire Tea Party Coalition, which dedicated a section of its website to the Texas governor. The coalition offers links to negative media coverage and videos about the man who it says "was Al Gore's Democrat chairman" in 1988. Perry switched to the Republican Party in 1989, around the same time as other conservative Democrats.

The organization also distributed a series of emails to supporters, including one obtained by The Associated Press warning, "We should be aware there is more to him than meets the eye."

The attacks are quietly promoted by other Republican presidential contenders, who view Perry as a growing threat as he inches closer to a late entrance into the Republican presidential primary. Many of the candidates are competing for the hearts of tea party activists who have generated passion, campaign cash and armies of volunteers from GOP voters nationwide.

A key Perry strategist dismissed the tea party criticism as isolated to a handful of conservative groups in a fragmented movement.

"There's no candidate running on either side of the aisle that has his record and relationship with tea party members," said David Carney. "But the tea party is not one monolithic group."

Carney concedes that Perry has work to do in early voting states like New Hampshire.

"We have reached out to some members of the tea party leadership. But until we get the campaign going, if we have a campaign, and they have an opportunity to talk to the governor, they're not going to know who he is and they're going to be somewhat skeptical," he said.

They're particularly skeptical about Perry's record on immigration, an issue that resonates with the Granite State's tea party movement.

As governor, Perry signed a law making Texas the first state to offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrants, and he blasted a proposed border fence as "idiocy." Texas tea party groups sent Perry an open letter this year expressing disappointment over his failure to get a bill passed that would have outlawed "sanctuary cities," municipalities that protect illegal immigrants.

Texas governors, including Perry and his predecessor, George W. Bush, walk a fine line when it comes to immigration. The state's powerful business lobby, which is reliably Republican, back many immigration rights laws and the state population is more than one-third Hispanic. Landowners along the Texas-Mexico border had complained about the border fence interfering with ranching.

Perry also said that Arizona's controversial immigration law "would not be the right direction for Texas," although he would later support a friend-of-the-court brief defending Arizona's right to pass its own laws in accordance with the 10th Amendment.

"That's a pretty big knock against him," said Jerry DeLemus, chairman of the Granite State Patriots Liberty PAC, when notified of some of Perry's immigration policies.

Conservative activists also have attacked Perry's support for mandatory HPV vaccines for sixth-grade girls and the seizure of private property for a now-defunct trans-state toll road, among other things.

Still, Perry enjoys substantial support from some tea party groups, who say Perry's conservative credentials are strong, even if not perfect.

"I don't think there's a purity test for who is tea party and who isn't tea party," said Ryan Hecker, a member of the Houston Tea Party Society and organizer of the group Contract from America. "Being an executive involves a lot of tough decisions. At times, some tea party people would have liked him to be more conservative. But, generally speaking, he has an excellent record, a far better record than other candidates in the race."

Perry told reporters in Austin on Tuesday that his wife, Anita, was encouraging a presidential run.

"My wife was talking to me and saying, `Listen, get out of your comfort zone. Yeah, being governor of Texas is a great job, but sometimes you're called to step into the fray,'" he said.

Hecker, who has not yet decided whom he will support, said tea party folks in Texas appreciate Perry's early embrace of the nascent group while others considered it fringe. Indeed, Perry was among the first statewide officials in Texas to embrace the movement and appear at tea party rallies where he demanded Washington retreat from state affairs.

That generated some good will that still exists in some camps.

The conservative policy group, New Hampshire Cornerstone, will feature Perry as the keynote speaker during its annual dinner in October.

"Obviously we invited him because we've liked the job he's done in Texas," Cornerstone Executive Director, Kevin Smith, said when asked about the attacks by the New Hampshire Tea Party Coalition. "I've seen some of those emails. My impression is that when I've dug deeper, I've found the folks sending them are on board with another candidate."

Austin Tea Party activist Don Zimmerman, like many tea party activists in Texas and New Hampshire, prefer libertarian Rep. Ron Paul in his third presidential bid. Paul, Zimmerman said, is the true tea party favorite.

"Ron Paul pretty much invented the national tea party," said Zimmerman, a member of the Texas State Republican Executive Committee. "It's really unfair for these other candidates to come along and claim to be the tea party favorite. It's almost like it's starting to lose its meaning."

___

Castro reported from Austin, Texas.

Chile president shakes up cabinet

19 July 2011 Last updated at 08:21 GMT President Pinera made eight changes to his cabinet Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, facing protests in recent weeks, has made major changes to his cabinet.

It was Mr Pinera's second reshuffle in recent months.

The president's popularity peaked after the rescue of the 33 miners in October but his approval ratings have dropped to some 30% amid simmering unrest.

Students have been protesting to demand changes to the education system, while last week copper miners staged a one-day strike over restructuring plans.

President Pinera announced eight changes to his cabinet, including at the economy, energy and justice ministries.

"Our institutions, our leadership, are being tested by citizens who are more empowered, who are demanding greater participation and, above all, greater equality," said President Pinera as he swore in his new team.

Copper promise

Among the main names is Laurence Golborne, who as mining minister had a highly visible role during the miners' rescue.

He goes to the Public Works Ministry, a department which has assumed greater prominence, especially after last year's major earthquake.

Some of the student protests have spilled over into violence

His successor as minister of mines is Hernan de Solminihac.

President Pinera said major investment would be made in the mining sector and he denied there were any plans to privatise the state-run copper company Codelco.

"Codelco is going to remain in state hands, belonging to the Chilean people, but we also want it to be modern, efficient and fully capable of realising its potential," Mr Pinera said.

Felipe Bulnes, the former justice minister, moves to education - a key post as students continue to press for reforms, including lower university fees.

Thousands have taken to the streets of Santiago and other main cities, with some protests turning violent.

Mr Pinera took office last March, the country's first conservative leader for 20 years.

Austria extradites Croatian ex-PM

19 July 2011 Last updated at 11:48 GMT Ivo Sanader was extradited under police escort Croatia has put its former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader behind bars after his night-time extradition from Austria.

He is due to be questioned this week over allegations of corruption and abuse of power.

He was driven across the Croatian border in a silver Mercedes van under police escort, Reuters reported.

Mr Sanader, 57, denies any wrongdoing, and says the charges are politically motivated. He was in power in 2004-09.

He was arrested in Austria in December, on a Croatian arrest warrant, a day after Croatia had lifted his immunity from prosecution.

There are suspicions that Mr Sanader diverted state budget money into a secret slush fund for his conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).

Croatia has been cracking down on corruption, under pressure from the European Union, which it will join in July 2013.

Mr Sanader suddenly stepped down in July 2009, taking Croats by surprise.

He claims the legal proceedings have been initiated by his political enemies.

Correspondents say the case could prove difficult for his former HDZ party colleagues, as they prepare for a general election in December.

Tamgho out of World Championships

Tamgho set the season's best jump of 17.91m in Lausanne in June World indoor triple jump champion Teddy Tamgho is out of next month's World Athletics Championships.

The 22-year-old Frenchman fractured his ankle last Saturday in Ostrava.

Tamgho's leap of 17.98m last year in New York is the third longest in history.

Great Britain's Phillips Idowu will be defending his world title at the Championships, which start on 27 August in Daegu, South Korea.

Tamgho would have been among the favourites for the gold medal, having won the European indoor title in his home city of Paris in March.

He set a new indoor world record with his jump of 17.92m.

The Frenchman sustained the injury during the warm-up at the European Under-23 Championships in the Czech Republic.

Paris crowd go wild for Tamgho's world record leap (UK only)

At the time he said: "It hurts a lot. It looks serious but I hope the season is not over for me."

Tamgho set the leading distance in the triple jump in 2011, with a leap of 17.91m in Lausanne in June.

He was due to participate at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco on Friday, where he would have faced Idowu.

Tamgho finished 11th at the last outdoor world championships in Berlin in 2009, an event Idowu won with a jump of 17.73m.

News Corp shares up after hearing

19 July 2011 Last updated at 20:23 GMT Continue reading the main story Shares in News Corporation recovered ground after Rupert and James Murdoch's appearance in front of a committee of British MPs.

At the close of trading in New York, News Corp shares were 6% higher.

The move recovers some of the losses sustained as the phone-hacking scandal at its newspaper title, the News of the World, has unfolded.

But pressure on the company continues, with another major shareholder questioning the company's standards.

The giant Californian public pension fund, CalPERS, has joined the list of those who are unhappy with the way the company has been managed.

CalPERS (California Public Employees' Retirement System), which owns 6.4 million of News Corp's shares, is in particular unhappy with the shareholding structure that gives the Murdoch family's 'B' shares voting rights, meaning that although they own 12% of the company, they hold the biggest single block - 40% - of the votes.

Other 'B' shares are largely held by unnamed investors.

Family power

More than two thirds of the shares are 'A' shares, which give investors no say as to who sits on the board, let alone major strategic decisions such as whether to bid for another company.

Its Senior Portfolio Manager, Anne Simpson, who heads its corporate governance program, said: "News Corp does not have one share one vote. This is a corruption of the governance system.

"Power should reflect capital at risk. CalPERS sees the voting structure in a company as critical. The situation is very serious and we're considering our options. We don't intend to be spectators - we're owners."

Other financially interested parties have this week reviewed their opinion of the strength of the company.

Continue reading the main story

The Murdochs will probably be seen to have emerged bruised but not broken by today's ordeal - which is why the share price of News Corporation, the parent company, has been stabilised”

End Quote Robert Peston Business editor, BBC News On Monday, the ratings agency Standard & Poor's placed News Corp's credit rating on a negative watch citing "increased business and reputation risks".

Also on Monday, another of its shareholders urged it to raise its standards.

The Nathan Cummings Foundation in New York, a small shareholder in News Corp, wrote to the board asking it to improve its transparency and governance:

The Foundation is concerned about News Corp's political lobbying, particularly payments to organisations that have then campaigned for looser regulation which could potentially benefit its businesses.

News Corp has reorganised its standards committee, set up to investigate impropriety at News International.

News Corporation is the parent company of News International, which runs the Sun, the Times and Sunday Times. Their sister paper, the News of the World, was shut down earlier this month as a result of the phone-hacking scandal.

Yahoo revenue dips in Q2, shares fall (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Yahoo Inc's net revenue declined slightly in the second quarter on weakness in its display advertising business, and shares of the Internet search company dropped nearly 2 percent in after-hours trading.

Yahoo reported net income of $237 million, or 18 cents a share, compared with $213 million, or 15 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter.

The company forecast third-quarter net revenue, which excludes the fees that Yahoo pays to partner websites, of between $1.05 billion and $1.1 billion.

In a statement, Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz said the company saw "softness" in its display advertising revenue during the second half of the quarter due to changes in Yahoo's sales organization aimed at positioning Yahoo for "more rapid display growth in the future."

Yahoo said revenue from display advertising, which represents roughly half of Yahoo's business, inched up 2 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, compared with the 6 percent growth rate achieved in the first quarter.

Search revenue declined 45 percent year-over-year to $467 million.

Last quarter, Yahoo said its search partnership with Microsoft was taking longer than expected to pay off due to some technical imperfections in the search advertising system. As a result, Yahoo said its revenue per search won't rise to levels it experienced pre-Microsoft until the end of the year.

Yahoo is one of the most popular destinations on the Internet and a leading provider of online display ads in the United States, but the company is facing increasing competition from social networking service Facebook and continuing pressure from search leader Google.

Yahoo said net revenue in the second quarter was roughly $1.1 billion, compared with $1.13 billion in the year-earlier period.

The company's shares were down 21 cents at $14.38 in after-hours trade.

(Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Jagan moves SC against HC order for CBI probe into assets - Times of India

NEW DELHI: YSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court challenging the legality of an Andhra Pradesh high court order asking the CBI to conduct a preliminary probe into his alleged disproportionate assets.

The HC had on July 12 had ordered a CBI probe on a letter-cum-petition filed by Congress MLA P Shankar Rao and a separate petition by three TDP leaders, all of whom accused Reddy of amassing wealth much beyond his known sources of income. The HC had sought a report from the agency in two weeks.

Recently elected to Parliament from Kadapa by a huge margin, Reddy questioned the HC order saying the petitions were filed by his rivals wanting to settle political score through judicial forum.

He has cited the apex court's judgment in Lalu Prasad case, in which the court had warned against use of the courts as a forum settling political scores. The SC had refused to order CBI probe against Lalu Prasad.

The HC had said that results of the CBI's preliminary enquiry would ascertain the need for a regular probe. The petitioners had alleged that Reddy had acquired assets worth hundreds of crores of rupees from various companies and individuals as a quid pro quo for the land allotted and licences granted to them at cheap prices for various activities when his late father Y S R Reddy was the chief minister between 2004 and 2009.

The also listed the alleged transfer of money into Jagan's companies such as Bharathi Cements, Jagathi Publications, the publishers of Sakshi newspaper, and Indira Television, the broadcaster of Sakshi TV, etc.

'Massive' uranium find in India

19 July 2011 Last updated at 04:38 GMT Exploration work is underway in Tummalapalle India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh may have one of the largest reserves of uranium in the world, the country's chief nuclear officer says.

Studies show Tummalapalle in Kadapa district could have reserves of 150,000 tonnes of the mineral, Atomic Energy Commission chief S Banerjee said.

India has estimated reserves of about 175,000 tonnes of uranium.

Analysts say the new reserves would still not be sufficient to meet India's growing nuclear energy needs.

Mr Banerjee said that studies at Tummalapalle have shown that the area "had a confirmed reserve of 49,000 tonnes and recent surveys indicate that this figure could go up even threefold" and become one of the world's largest uranium reserves.

The uranium deposits in the area appeared to be spread over 35km (21 miles), he said, adding that exploration work was going on in the area.

Mr Banerjee said the new findings were a "major development", but India's own uranium reserves would still fall short of meeting its nuclear energy needs.

"The new findings would only augment the indigenous supply of uranium. There would still be a significant gap. We would still have to import," he was quoted as saying by The Hindu newspaper.

India is planning to set up some 30 reactors over as many years and get a quarter of its electricity from nuclear energy by 2050.

Hackers tamper with Sun website

19 July 2011 Last updated at 11:10 GMT Visitors to the Sun's website were redirected to this spoof page A group of computer hackers has tampered with the website of the Sun, owned by News International.

At first, readers were redirected to a hoax story which said Rupert Murdoch had been found dead in his garden.

A group of hackers called Lulz Security, which has previously targeted companies including Sony, said on Twitter it was behind the attack.

Visitors to the Sun website were then redirected to the group's Twitter page, before News International took it down.

News International said it was "aware" of what was happening but made no further comment.

Readers trying to access thesun.co.uk were taken to new-times.co.uk and a story entitled "Media mogul's body discovered".

It suggested that Mr Murdoch had been found after he had "ingested a large quantity of palladium".

Disbanding

After that site stopped working, the Sun's address was re-directing to LulzSec's Twitter account, which claimed to be displaying "hacked internal Sun staff data" in one entry.

In another, the group said: "Arrest us. We dare you. We are the unstoppable hacking generation..."

Continue reading the main story Iain Mackenzie Technology reporter, BBC News

The attack on the Sun website is in line with LulzSec's "hacktivist" ethos. Although it claims to do what it does for laughs, the group usually has a point to make.

Often it is trying to raise awareness of the poor security measures put in place by large organisations.

However, some of its hits have been more overtly political. In one case, LulzSec broke into the website of US broadcaster PBS after it showed a documentary that was critical of Wikileaks.

The attack on the Sun website has LulzSec's fingerprints all over it, with the combination of a mischief-making news story, and a target that is seen as being involved in corporate wrongdoing.

Clearly this is not the most significant development in the scandal currently engulfing News International. But the turning of the hacking tables is, at least, curiously ironic sideshow.

It is thought the Times website and the News International corporate website were taken down by the company as a precaution on Monday evening.

BBC technology reporter Iain MacKenzie said the attack on the Sun website was in line with LulzSec's "hacktivist" ethos, with the combination of a mischief-making news story, and a target that is seen as being involved in corporate wrongdoing.

He said: "Clearly this is not the most significant development in the scandal currently engulfing News International. But the turning of the hacking tables is, at least, curiously ironic sideshow."

Last month the hacking group announced it was disbanding.

Lulz Security made its announcement through its Twitter account, giving no reason for its decision.

A statement published on a file-sharing website said that its "planned 50-day cruise has expired".

The group leapt to prominence by carrying out attacks on various high-profile companies.

The first came in May 2011 when the hackers targeted Fox.com in retaliation for calling rapper and entertainer Common "vile" on the Fox News channel.

A month later, they turned their attention against Sony, taking data from thousands of people including names, e-mail addresses and dates of birth.

The group has also cyber-attacked broadcaster PBS, the CIA, and the United States Senate.

As a parting shot, it released a selection of documents apparently including confidential material taken from the Arizona police department and US telecoms giant AT&T.