This week a man in Moscow has broken the world record for the longest time spent in ice cold water Oddly Enough: The Virtual Amen and Awomen of Ice Cold River Kabbalah
The Blog, The Press, The Media: Orwell rolls over in his grave
The New York Times features an important investigation on the U.S. government's increasing production and distribution of fake news stories to TV news networks across the country
. Any doubt that the current administration yearns for a bigger, better Pravda can be put to rest with some of the mind-boggling hypocrisies chronicled here. Remember last month how the Government Accounting Office (GAO) said federal agencies may not produce prepackaged news reports "that conceal or do not clearly identify for the television viewing audience that the agency was the source of those materials"? Well, on Friday, the Justice Department and the Office of Management and Budget told all executive brand agencies to ignore the GAO findings because they failed to distinguish between propaganda and "purely informational" news segments.
"Purely informational"?!? Have you seen any of these things?
• I just did what everyone else in the industry was doing [Many blogs try to explain things like what is going on in the news and this is what makes them useful to many readers Sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, sometimes drunk; Last newspaper reader is expected to croak in 2040 Newspapers in the digital age ]
• · D. Rogers, SF Chronicle: Because they're surrogates for the public, they can get close to the action when emergencies break out. They benefit from the California Shield Law, which allows them, in most instances, to keep secret sources secret Not Whether Bloggers Are Journalists, It's Which Are ; Blogs and Books Correlate on Politics
• · · Webdiary, you and me ; Should I even be here? asks Borzou Daragahi. Certainly there are high-minded reasons to keep returning. ... If journalists like me stop coming to Iraq and honestly covering this ongoing war, then who will? But I have to be honest with myself about what draws me back to Baghdad again and again, and I've come to the conclusion that it's a kind of compulsive behavior. For its combatants and chroniclers, war is the ultimate extreme sport ... On the Edge: The lifestyle of a Baghdad correspondent is awful
• · · · Fuzzy and Dangerous Logic Revisited ;
• · · · · When I need to work up my nerve to write a tough column, I try to think of myself as Emma Peel in a black leather catsuit, giving a kung fu kick to any diabolical mastermind who merits it. Dish It Out, Ladies ; Gold: Silent majority doesn't buy claims of media liberal bias
• · · · · · No Trust For MSM Until They Police Themselves: If the mainstream media can't investigate their own screw-ups, no wonder they don't understand why the public increasingly doesn't trust them to investigate anything Why Rathergate and Easongate Are Still Open ; The Times They Ain't A-Changin': Will the NYT cut off free access to its site? Can Papers End the Free Ride Online?