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On Friday, Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy welcomed a panel to discuss a new political ad targeting Florida Allen West . RELATED: Attack Ad Targeting Allen West Depicts Him Punching Women, Stealing Cash “Allen west fancies himself a fighter,” the ad tells us. “Maybe so. West hits seniors, voting to end Medicare as we know it. He’s whacked women with his votes for huge cuts in women’s health care funding and mauled middle class families by support ago budget plan that would have supported taxes on the rich. Allen west is a fighter all right. But it’s time for us to fight back and knock him out of Congress once and for all.” As discussion about the ad — which features a boxing glove-clad West punching an older woman at one point — kicked off, Doocy began by asking panelist Jackie Salit , “Jackie, so there is Allen West punching out an old white lady. Can you imagine if it were the dynamic were turned around?” But, rather than speak to hypotheticals, Salit touched upon how as a clos...

Sarah currently works as a writer for TechCrunch, after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Prior to becoming a professional blogger, Sarah worked in I.T. across a number of industries, including banking, retail and software. ? Learn More Senzari, the Pandora competitor backed by $1 million in funding from 500 Startups and others, has just debuted a brand-new recommendation engine called AMP3, which steps up the competition quite a bit between it and other streaming radio providers. The new engine (which we’ll just call “AMP” for short) isn’t like the basic “artist radio” option found in Pandora, or the radio features in other streaming music apps, either. Those, at best, may just include a “more/less like this” slider option for customization purposes. Instead, with AMP, listeners can customize their music by a number of factors, including popularity, tempo, similarity, and discovery. And, says Senzari, this is just the beginning. “We looked at solutions for re...

Ingrid is a reporter for TechCrunch, joining February 2012, based out of London. She comes from paidContent.org, where she was a staff writer, and has in the past also written freelance regularly for other publications such as the Financial Times. Ingrid covers mobile, digital media, advertising and the spaces where these intersect. When it comes to work, she feels most... ? Learn More News Corporation has just reported its quarterly earnings. For Q4 it had revenues of $8.4 billion with earnings per share of $0.32, both down compared to the year before (Q4 2011 the company reported revenues of $9 billion with EPS of $0.35). The company also reported a net loss of $1.6 billion for the quarter, compared to a net income of $683 million in the same quarter a year ago. The company said the figure included a $2.8 billion restructuring charge for its publishing division, which News Corp. is planning to separate from its entertainment division. That includes publications like the Wall Street...

Google’s tools for tracking the upcoming U.S. election later this year mostly focus on the presidential election. It’s no secret that Google – thanks to its various advertising services – also makes a good amount of money from the various political campaigns that compete in smaller contests, including the 435 races for seats in the House of Representatives this year. This year, thanks to the recent redistricting of many congressional districts, quite a few of these races are very different from just two years ago and many districts now include new media markets that can make reaching voters hard. Today, Google launched a new tool that allows political campaigns to simply select their district and ensure that their ads are shown only within their district. This tool, says Google, allows campaigns to “quickly and easily target their search, display, mobile and video ads solely within that particular district’s border.” Google says it “built a sizeable team” that’s helping candidates w...

Billy Gallagher is a writer for TechCrunch. He is also the president and editor in chief of The Stanford Daily. Billy previously worked at The Stanford Daily for two volumes as a managing editor of news. He has also worked in sports and staff development at The Daily. In March of 2012 the Friends of The Stanford Daily awarded him... ? Learn More Hop up out the bed…turn my tablet on? Rapper Soulja Boy has released a branded tablet with Tokova called the “Tiger Shark Soulja Boy Edition.” The tablet has a 7 inch screen, runs on Android and the speakers go hammer. Pause for a second and ask yourself: would I rather have a tablet designed by Soulja Boy or Steve Jobs? Tough choice. Luckily, the Soulja Boy Edition is on sale for the very affordable price of $599, which just so happens to be the price of a 32GB WiFi iPad. I would love to know what goes through people’s heads when they buy something like this (if anyone has? Ever?). Like, what idea lost to this one in a Tokova strategy meetin...

Sarah currently works as a writer for TechCrunch, after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Prior to becoming a professional blogger, Sarah worked in I.T. across a number of industries, including banking, retail and software. ? Learn More WeddingLovely, a 500 Startups-backed wedding planning service, is opening its doors today in an effort to “humanize” the wedding planning experience. It’s no small feat to take on wedding industry giant TheKnot.com, but co-founder Tracy Osborn believes there’s potential to do exactly that because many find TheKnot “overwhelming, confusing and very advertising-oriented,” she says. With WeddingLovely’s how-to’s and vendor directories, there’s more of a feeling of a sister or friend telling you how to get started with all the tasks leading up to your big day, including things like picking a venue, budgeting, finding a dress, flowers, catering, locating an officiant, photographer, videographer, picking out invitations, finding a ba...