Hop on past the jump to find out who owns the media, how Gen. David Petraeus wants to handle Israel and why a 13-year-old genius is suing his school.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that 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.

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Corporate entity becomes ‘candidate’, kicks off bid for Congress

Meet Murray Hill, Inc., the first corporation to run for Congress in the United States.

The Great Catholic Cover-Up The pope’s entire career has the stench of evil about it.

How the ‘Lively Arts’ Became ‘the Media’ These days, when I stop at my local newsstand to pick up the New York Times, I almost invariably think about the 1950s sci-fi film, The Incredible Shrinking Man.

State of the News Media 2010 Inside news companies, the most immediate concern is how much revenue lost in the recession the industry will regain as the economy improves. …

Who Owns the News Media? Who Owns the News Media is an interactive database of companies that own news properties in the United States. Use the site to compare the companies, explore each media sector or read profiles of individual companies.

13-Year-Old Prodigy Claims Age Discrimination Colin Carlson, a 13-year-old student at the University of Connecticut, has claimed he is the victim of age discrimination after being denied enrollment in a class that requires field work in Africa, ABC News reports.

The Petraeus briefing: Biden’s embarrassment is not the whole story On Jan. 16, two days after a killer earthquake hit Haiti, a team of senior military officers from the U.S. Central Command (responsible for overseeing American security interests in the Middle East), arrived at the Pentagon to brief Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. …

China’s Take on Human Rights in the U.S. China’s Information Office of the State Council published a report titled “The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2009” [in Beijing] Friday. Following is the full text. …

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