In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.
- Charles De Gaulle

Brave new world doesn't look too revolutionary

Antonia Zerbisias opines that original journalism is lacking on the Internet. If online journalism is to gain widespread general respect, it has to produce the journalistic goods. I'd say that we've all been focusing too much on presentation -- with buzzwords like multimedia and interactivity -- rather than substance. So, pull money out of the budget line for technical tricks, and use that cash to fund high-quality investigative reporting. Readers come for the story, not the wrapping.
· High-quality investigative reporting [TorontoStar via eMedia Titbits]

California state lawmakers sent more than 12 million pieces of mail to voters in the second half of 2002 at a cost of nearly $2.5 million in taxpayer money, reports Jim Sanders of the Sacramento Bee. Using state legislative records, Sanders shows that many of the mailers went out before the November election, even though such communications are not intended to be used for political purposes. Mass mailing tends to rise in election years nonetheless: In the Assembly, where all 80 seats were up for grabs, each member spent an average of $6,542 per month for mailers between July and December -- more than twice the $2,845 monthly average in 2001.

Should politicians be legally accountable for their election promises?

Nipping Corruption, Fraud in the Bud?
Hotly contested claims are being made that lawyers and police discussed sacrificing a colleague to protect former commissioner Peter Ryan.

Orwell, right or wrong? If the past 17 months have taught us anything, it is that some ideas and the people who hold them are worth fighting over.
· A shiver of revulsion. [1984]