The Breakfast Meeting: Obama on the News Media, and Madonna Speaks Out in Russia

By NOAM COHEN

Barack Obama has more than a spectator's interest in how the news media does its job, Amy Chozick notes as she describes the president's typical news diet. Press coverage helped propel him to the national stage when he was a state legislator, and three and a half years into his presidential term he sees news coverage as frustrating his ambitions to change the tone of political debate. His most persistent complaint is what he calls the news media's belief in a “false balance,” in which two opposing sides are given equal weight regardless of the facts. (A note of caution from Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism: “I think we've learned through history to beware of presidents playing press critic. They're not press critics - they're people trying to advance a political agenda.”)

• Still, Mr. Obama is a voracious consumer of news, reading newspapers and magazines on his iPad and in print a nd dipping into blogs and Twitter. He is inclined to communicate via small sit-downs with columnists or beat reporters specializing in economics or foreign policy, or to niche Web sites. The one group he tends to shun is political reporters, whose coverage he often considers frivolous, Ms. Chozick writes.

• The party planners for the Democratic National Convention next month in Charlotte, N.C., say they are concerned about their ability to book big musical acts for the event because of the timing of MTV's Video Music Awards, The Hollywood Reporter writes. The award show is set for Sept. 6, the Thursday when President Obama will deliver his acceptance speech at the convention, meaning many A-list acts will be tied up in Los Angeles. The network, The Reporter article says, will shift the show to 8-10 p.m. from its traditional 9-11 p.m. slot to avoid conflict with the convention's proceedings.

The federal judge who heard the Google-Oracle court case o ver copyright and patents on Tuesday ordered the companies to disclose the names of journalists, bloggers and other commentators who were on their payrolls, Reuters reports. The case, which was decided by a jury in San Francisco in Google's favor in May, hints “at the possibility of a hidden world of for-pay press coverage,” Reuters writes. The judge, William Alsup, said the information, which is due Aug. 17, “would be of use on appeal” and could “make clear whether any treatise, article, commentary or analysis on the issues posed by this case are possibly influenced by financial relationships to the parties or counsel.”

Madonna used her sold-out concert in Moscow to speak out for the three women from the feminist punk band Pussy Riot who on trial over an anti-Putin stunt they staged at the altar of a Russian Orthodox cathedral, David M. Herszenhorn writes. If convicted, the women could face seven years in prison. Madonna told the crowd: “I know there are many sides to every story, and I mean no disrespect to the church or the government. But I think that these three girls - Masha, Katya, Nadya - I think that they have done something courageous. I think they have paid the price for this act. And I pray for their freedom.”

An ambitious cultural and entertainment district planned for Shanghai in 2016 will have DreamWorks Animation SKG, the Hollywood studio behind hits like “Shrek” and “Kung Fu Panda,” working with a group of Chinese partners, David Barboza and Brooks Barnes write. The $3.1 billion project will also include Oriental DreamWorks, a new $350 million China-United States joint venture. Such projects offer American companies access to China's growing middle class, while strengthening China's media and cultural industries.

• On Wednesday, the director James Cameron, introduced his joint venture with Chinese partners in Tianjin to bring his 3-D technologies - used famously in his global hit “ Avatar” - to a high-technology industrial park there, Jonathan Landreth writes.