Time Magazine has launched a Washington political blog, where at least one of the staffers posting to the site shows how he doesn’t get the medium at all — and perhaps needs remedial work in basic journalism, too. In this posting, entitled “The Clinton Playbook,” Jay Carney wrote, among other things: In late 1994 and […]
Posts from ‘January, 2007’
More Voices for Conflict Resolution
Sanjana Hattotuwa: The promise of citizen journalism. Often, this new age of citizen journalism lacks the grammar of age-old diplomacy and socio-political norms – the conversation is raw, visceral, impatient, irreverent, pithy, provocative. In Sri Lanka, it is a conversation that’s largely still in English, and also limited to urban centres. The potential of citizen […]
Judicial Education Needed
OUT-LAW.com: Texas court bans deep linking. A court in Dallas, Texas has found a website operator liable for copyright infringement because his site linked to an ‘audio webcast’ without permission. Observers have criticised the judge for failing to understand the internet. The defendant represented himself, and as often happens in such cases he lost. But […]
Digital Age Gives PR Folks Easier Way to Say No
(I originally wrote this for PR Week magazine.) An honorable tradition among lawyers is representing defendants whom they strongly suspect to be guilty, especially people with little or no ability to pay for their defense. When the overwhelming power of the state is brought to bear against an individual whose freedom or even life may […]
How Not to Give a Conference Talk
At the generally fantastic DLD Conference in Munich, where the future of media and communications are the major subjects, the first speaker of the morning gave a demonstration on how not to make a good impression. Andy Wood, CEO of a company called Image Metrics, gave what can only be called a sales pitch for […]
Running for President? "Announce" on the Web
Hilary Clinton is — gasp with surprise — running for president, and made it official on her HillaryClinton.com website. Not in a crowded hall, packed with supporters and TV cameras, but on the website. Of course, it was not exactly news. She’s been making public and semi-public moves in this direction for a long time […]
Father of the Web: Neutrality Vital
Tim Berners-Lee (who basically invented the Web): Neutrality of the Net. To actually design legislation which allows creative interconnections between different service providers, but ensures neutrality of the Net as a whole may be a difficult task. It is a very important one. The US should do it now, and, if it turns out to […]
Consumer Reports Has More Explaining to Do
Consumer Reports has withdrawn a report on infant car seats that incorrectly called many of them unsafe. The mea culpa doesn’t suffice, as it lacks all detail. The magazine needs to come totally clean about this — or risk a major whack to its reputation.
Be Nice, Now, Says White House Press Corps
Editor & Publisher: WHCA Chief Says He Did Not Tell Comedian to Back Off Bush and Iraq. The Las Vegas Review-Journal now reports that (Rich) Little claimed he did not plan to even mention Iraq or to attack the president, implying that these were the wishes of the inviters. But Steve Scully, president of the […]
When Pigs Fly
LA Times: Tribune board’s difficult choice. An offer for Tribune Co. by two Los Angeles billionaires would not require significant cuts at the company’s newspapers, contrary to initial criticism of the debt-heavy proposal, people close to the transaction said Thursday. This is such transparently empty spin that the reporters should be ashamed to have their […]