Media Navel-Gazing by Mark Kollar

A wild week, indeed, and most of it is Off the Wall Street. The House passed the Climate Bill, called “landmark legislation” by The Wall Street Journal, to curb US greenhouse-gas emissions. It was a coup for President Obama, but the outlook in Senate is uncertain for certain. Governor Mark Sanford apologized too many times for his Argentine tangos (and bravo to his wife, who reportedly said his career is not her concern…about time!). Madoff’s wife, Ruth, handed over all the assets, save $2.5 million (another about time!). Steven Jobs had a liver transplant; Farrah died (I still have the poster); Michael died (I have every album or CD); Ed McMahon died (I share his birthday and ironic he passed as Tonight Show passed the torch to Conan and Andy); the Dow lost 1.2 pct last week, ending at 8438.

Jack’s Gonna Be Startin Something
In what I thought was a surprising announcement, the former business titan, Jack Welch, announced on Monday that he was financing and providing his name to an until-now little known educational company called Chancellor University System, to develop online MBA programs called the Jack Welch Institute. Welch said the courses will weave his leadership philosophy into a 12-course curriculum for mid-career execs. Very anti-Ivy with MBA applicants needing a GPA of at least 2.8 and no GMATs, but certainly great news for the Web and online education.

Man in the Mirror
Clearly, the title goes to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who was in the spotlight on Capitol Hill amid concerns the Fed pressured Bank of America in its deal with Merrill Lynch. Last week, the Fed held interest rates steady near zero and said it would keep rates low for “an extended period.” Let’s make that the rear-view mirror, perhaps, to make sure history does not repeat: low rates could trigger inflation and the weak economy has led to massive borrowing.

PYT
Pretty Young Twitter slowed to a crawl (I never saw it crash but some news outlets reported so) on news of Michael Jackson’s untimely death. The news did result in overloads at TMZ and the LA Times Web site, even causing Andrew Ross Sorkin to tweet: “Twitter may already be big but u watch with MJ’s death, twitter is about to take on a new prominence in our society today is the day.” RT that.