"Death to tyranny" reads one of the t-shirts offered from right wing radio host Glenn Beck's new denim and clothing brand, 1791. The tyranny shirt is sold, online only, alongside jeans and other message shirts with shallow, jingoistic messages of Americana including cherry trees and Native Americans. All products are, of course, made in America.

The 1791 brand, which launched as a charity clothing line 11 months ago, is the latest extension of a dwindling Beck empire. It is also the latest brand line from a right wing radio host looking to leverage popularity to fill his own pockets. The problem for Beck's particular endeavor is that the market is currently filled with a glut of Tea Party-focused products.Continue reading...

ABC dismisses rumors of Pan Am's demise.

Amazon continues being coy about Kindle sales.

Apple's Siri can handle Viagra but not abortions.

AT&T disturbed by FCC report.

Audi finds success with youthful marketing.

BBC web redesign goes live in the UK.

Carlsberg acquires Vietnamese brewer.

Google and Facebook ordered to de-index counterfeit domains.

Jack Daniel's holiday campaign celebrates brand's Lynchburg, Tenn. roots.

Janet Jackson teams up with Blackglama to design luxury fur line.

Microsoft Office is reportedly coming to the iPad as Windows tablet hopes fade.Continue reading...

On August 24, US Fish and Wildlife Service agents — armed US Fish and Wildlife Service — executed a raid on a business suspected of importing illegal materials. That business was the iconic Gibson guitar. The suspected crime? Using illegally harvested hardwoods.

But in a twist, Gibson's plight has been picked up on by the increasingly vocal smaller-government movement of the conservative right. Gibson, these activists say, is a prime example of government overreach and business-strangling regulation, and at all levels from grass roots activists to top leaders in Congress, "Gibson" has become a call to battle.

And yes, there will be a rally.Continue reading...

There was a subtle but significant tinge to Fox News’s lineup of moderators for the big debate of Republican presidential contenders last week: Bret Baier, Chris Wallace and Megyn Kelly don’t hail from the network’s robust lineup of red-meat, all-American conservatives.

Apparently that casting was part of a larger “course correction” Fox News has been undertaking as the nation moves heavily into 2012 campaign mode. Fox News head Roger Ailes has “quietly adopted” a bit of a tack toward the center recently, according to media reporter Howard Kurtz in The Daily Beast – a move that also has included parting ways with bomb-thrower Glenn Beck and paying less attention to the Tea Party movement.Continue reading...

As Dow closes down 634 points, the S&P downgrade of U.S. probed by Congress.

AIG sues Bank of America and its subsidiaries, Merrill Lynch and Countrywide.

BlackBerry cringes at association with U.K. riots, as violence continues to escalate.

Spotify reportedly has 1.4 million U.S. users, and now valued at $1.1 billion.

BMW leads global luxury auto brand sales through July, followed by Audi.

CenturyLink brand launches in former Qwest markets.Continue reading...

Sure, there have always been the brand-mocking clothing of dumb punks, be it North Face-skewering "South Butt" or the wit of "Mountain Don't."

Now, usually reserved conservatives are getting in on the fun. Below, a collection of corporate-spoofing t-shirt designs that promote the politics of the right.Continue reading...

American political debate has become so dysfunctional that partisans have finally begun speaking with each other solely through Post-it notes, like a nearly-divorced couple that can't bear to look at each other.

In a new anti-Obama campaign that is picking up steam in the US, frustrated fuel consumers have taken to posting sticky notes on gas pumps with messages such as "How's that hope and change working for ya?" and "Nobama 2101!"

Clearly, there can only be one winner here.Continue reading...

This is the video that yesterday brought down the head of fundraising — and today, the CEO — of NPR.

It's a self-styled bit of muckraking — a covertly taped conversation with Ron Schiller, who until yesterday was president of the NPR Foundation and SVP of development (read: fundraising) for America's National Public Radio. His was a critical role, as NPR has been fighting to maintain funding and political support in the face of criticism from the political right in the US.

Today, he was followed out the door at NPR by Vivian Schiller, no family relation but certainly related as a fellow executive at NPR — one also caught in the crosshairs of rising political tension between the left and right in the US.Continue reading...