Saturday, April 30, 2005



Is there anything more tedious than the editorial page of the New York Times? Yes. There's Paul Krugman's column on the op-ed page of the New York Times. And there's Frank Rich's column every other Saturday on the op-ed page of the New York Times. And there's ... well, it's a long list, and you get the idea. All the News That's Fit to Blog

The Blog, The Press, The Media: The game's up: who is paying the powerful commentators?
As someone contemplating life on the speaker's circuit, it has became very obvious that this is an area where transparency and accountability is sadly lacking. Take powerful Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt as an example. He's recently signed up with a speaking agency called ICM.

When Paul Lyneham was still with the ABC in Canberra for The 7.30 Report he was increasingly distracted by his speaking commitments. At the time it was generally thought that Red Kerry wanted to get rid of Lyneham and the chance came at last when Lyneham flew to Perth early one day.
Just after he left Canberra, Opposition Leader John Hewson's office rang to offer to go on The 7.30 Report with Lyneham to reveal the opposition's position on Mabo. It was a big story at the time but Lyneham couldn't do it and the offer was moved to Nine and Sunday. It supposedly hastened the end of Lyneham's role on The 7.30 Report and Red Kerry, who presumably went completely berserk over Lyneham's unreliability, has been in the chair ever since.


Tracking the journalistic speakers [Call To Action: Secret Formulas To Improve Online Results ; Freedom wanes ]
• · Blogging is having a big impact on American journalism - with bloggers using their posts both to leak to the media and to challenge it directly. Dan Rather, the iconic CBS News anchor who retired last month, is the bloggers' biggest scalp to date. But what impact is blogging having in the Australian media? Jason Di Rosso has our special report. (Title pinched from the good fast company ;-) All the News That's Fit to Blog ; So from Day 1 of the Webdiary, July, 2000, I have written in the first person and I’ve asked all readers who want to contribute to Webdiary to write in the first person too, and the strength I feel I gained from that as a journalist running a space which I want to be a space for conversation among Australians from all different walks of life and from all different political points of view, want that space to be safe, and I feel I can guarantee safety by being very open about what my beliefs are, and publishing genuine criticisms of my beliefs and my opinions and my facts. I think the reader in the end trusts that more than a journalist who’s pretending to be objective. And that has proved to be the case. Since the 2004 election, Webdiary’s been transformed from a basically leftish, small-l liberal site to a much more balanced site, many, many more right-wing Australians are participating, and they feel safe to participate. And they feel that their voices are being fairly expressed. Webdiary
• · · Types of weblogs ; Café Press ; One of the most striking things that hit me in my analysis of the 30 most visited blogs at Truth Laid Bear was the small number of blogs using the Adsense program Why Adsense Is Not Suitable For All Blog Topics
• · · · What if professors could lecture 24-7? Blog culture invades academia ;
• · · · · Catallaxy mention on Radio National ; Radioblogging ; Glen Fuller ; Telstra Turns to Online Television ; Circulation review sparks media spat
• · · · · · Have you ever had to deal with a difficult boss or co-worker? How did you handle it? Were you successful? What did you learn from the experience? ... How to Handle a Screamer? ; PR Agencies Become Blog Amplifiers