Tuesday, August 10, 2004



As the blogosphere keeps growing competition for gaffs and definitions has become cutthroat. Civility seems to be dead. However, our enemies are innovative and resourceful - and so are we...

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Hidden in the annex
American Journalism Review recently asked why the American media took so long to report on prisoner abuse in Iraq. There are reasonable excuses (dangerous conditions in Iraq made a lot of first-hand reporting almost impossible) and inexcusable ones (fear of bucking the patriotism police), but one was especially disheartening -- the press couldn't believe that our military would do anything bad.
I'm skeptical. Even a reporter with no interest in history must surely know something of the history of his profession, and in the pantheon of journalistic heroes how many people rank higher than Seymour Hersh, and his coverage of My Lai? Are there really no reporters left who remember (or at least have read of) My Lai and want to be the next Hersh -- other than Hersh himself, that is? How is it possible for anyone who doesn't depend on Fox for all his knowledge of the world to believe Americans never do anything bad?

Were reporters naive, or willfully ignorant? [ courtesy of Body & Soul ]
• · Here’s a guide to discern what journalists really mean when they write certain things.
• · · On how the Web makes the Szirine zine
• · · · The blog busters Mighty corporations ignore the whispers on web diaries at their peril
• · · · · Syndication sold like viagra: The RSSEqualizer.com site is a piece of blisteringly cheezy marketing aimed at selling RSS to non-technical people as a site-traffic-builder
• · · · · · What is your daughter reading? A casual thumb through the August editions of Australia's top four girl glossies is revealing