WHAT'S THE MOST POWERFUL BRAND IN NEWS? HINT: IT'S NOT FOX NEWS, OR EVEN CNN - You could argue whether Apple Computer was truly the most influential brand worldwide during 2004. You could even question whether Google, Ikea or Starbucks deserved to be among the globe's top five.

DEAR SENATOR BURNS - Today's Real Media Riffs guest column is written by George Ivie, CEO and executive director of the Media Rating Council, with a little help from his friends. It is addressed to you, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras, certain other members of Congress, and of course, indirectly, the management of Nielsen Media Research.

KNOW-HOW, NOT CONTENT, IS KING - Here's a demographic statistic that should give pause to any media planner with truly global aspirations: "Ninety-six percent of the world's population is outside the U.S.

J. WALTER MAKEOVER - There are two kinds of people in this world.

IN-FLIGHT MEDIA, MAVEN - The Riff is hearing buzz that Alexander Schmidt-Vogel, the German chairman of Grey Worldwide's MediaCom unit, may be planning to set up shop permanently in the U.S.

TRUTH, JUSTICE AND IRWIN GOTLIEB'S WAY - We always knew that it was one of Irwin Gotlieb's missions in life to make the world safe for media - at least for his clients' media buys, that is - but we never realized how involved he was in making the streets of New York safer as well. It's not that Gotlieb, CEO of WPP's Group M and one of the most powerful media buyers in the world, is moonlighting as a New York auxiliary cop, though we can almost envision him donning brightly colored super hero tights, a cape, a mask …

SIMM CITY AND THE QUEST FOR THE HOLY GRAIL -- If 2004 was, as P&G marketing czar Jim Stengel suggested, the "year of media accountability," then 2005 is shaping up to be the year of "go ahead, prove it." It's one thing to say you want to make media more accountable.

TO BE FREE OR NOT TO BE -- That is the question media muckety-mucks have been mulling for some time, especially newspaper publishers who've essentially been giving away their stores - and stories - online ever since the World Wide Web became a significant place to browse for news. So it was not surprising to read BusinessWeek's coverage this week that the management of the New York Times Co.

HOW MANY CAST MEMBERS CAN YOU FIT IN A LIVING ROOM? -- David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, the Emmy Award-winning team behind NBC's "Will & Grace," are on a five-city search for "talented men in their mid-20s" to star on their new comedy series "Four Kings," which can best be described as "Friends," but with more male bonding. An NBC spokesman said that "Four Kings" is loosely based on the friendships of Kohan and Mutchnick.

MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY E-MAIL -- The marketing team at Yahoo! has always seemed to us to be very creative, imaginative, and at times, quite hilarious. But based on a conversation we recently overheard, we have to question their historical grasp on what would seem to be an especially important aspect of their business these days: spam.