Google the Advertising Giant

Mostly due to revenue from ads, the Web firm will rake in $60 billion this year, making it bigger than both the newspaper and magazine industries; the hypocrisy of British Prime Minister David Cameron announcing extended austerity from a golden throne sickened more than one; meanwhile, The New York Times is losing talent left and right.These discoveries and more below.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that have found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

Google Is Now Bigger Than Both The Magazine And Newspaper Industries Google has become so big that sometimes it’s difficult to understand just how big it is.

Nuclear Plant Security to Be Designated as State Secret Information on the way Japan’s nuclear power plants are guarded by police and security officers will be designated as a state secret by a government-sponsored confidentiality bill, said Masako Mori, minister in charge of the legislation.

Graduate School Enrollment on the Decline at the University of Minnesota As education leaders debate the cost and accessibility of a bachelor’s degree at the University of Minnesota, the number of students entering graduate school there has been quietly dropping.

WikiLeaks Releases Major Trade Agreement Draft Chapter The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement — an international trade agreement some years in the making between major world powers including the U.S., Canada and Japan — has seemed in some minor jeopardy over revelations that the NSA has secretly been spying on ally world leaders.

It Was Hard to Stomach David Cameron Preaching Austerity from a Golden Throne As a waitress at the lord mayor’s banquet, the contrast between what Cameron was saying and where he was saying it felt particularly chilling.

Corporate America’s New Scam: Industry P.R. Firm Poses as Think Tank! When scholars at University of California, Berkeley, recently released a study finding that low wages in the fast food industry cost taxpayers $7 billion every year in social supports to subsidize salaries of low-income workers, they ran into a respectable-sounding opponent.

House Stalls Trade Pact Momentum The Obama administration is rushing to reach a new deal intended to lower barriers to trade with a dozen Pacific Rim nations, including Japan and Canada, before the end of the year.

Now Even Some GOP Members Reject Fast-Tracking A Bad Trade Deal Giant corporations are trying to get Congress to give up its Constitutional obligation to consider and amend a trade treaty that requires our country to give up its sovereignty.

‘A Colossal Wreck’ Is Alexander Cockburn’s Take on America The radical Irish-American journalist Alexander Cockburn — he called himself Marxish, not Marxist — liked to bomb around America’s blue highways in large, decrepit cars, preferably convertibles, faxing in and later emailing his rowdy political columns (for The Nation, The Village Voice and elsewhere) from the road.

Fit to Sprint: Top Talent Exits The New York Times The New York Times is suffering a brain drain.

A Different Israeli Take on Iran Despite Netanyahu’s hard line, many Israelis believe diplomacy can work.