I don't have any problems with it because we didn't breach any ethics. We were advocates for hire, like barristers. Would a QC have taken on both sides? You bet he would.
-Ian Kortlang, PR man, explaining that it was quite all right for him to work for two clients bitterly opposed to each other, 'The Australian' 25/1/01

Media Global Media: chicken-and-egg dilemma

Big media barons are routinely accused of dominating markets, dumbing down the news to plump up the bottom line, and forcing U.S. content on world audiences. But these companies are not as big, bad, dominant, or American as critics claim. And company size is largely irrelevant to many of the problems facing today's Fourth Estate.
Analyzing media coverage is often a chicken-and-egg dilemma: What stimulated the media to cover an event or issue? And if public policy responds to an event the news media cover, does that mean the media (or those who run the media) set the agenda?
Beware when someone claims to be speaking for the ‘public interest.’ In most cases, those who invoke the term really mean ‘interested publics.’ For example, advertisers' sense of which policies on media ownership are in their interest may differ from that of regular newspaper readers or that of satellite tv subscribers.
· Fourth Estate [Foreign Policy]

Language Make no mistakes about it

A few of this year’s clichés and tautologies to bury.
· Submit a Word For Banishment [Lake Superior University]