Posts from ‘March, 2007’

The SF Chronicle’s David Lazarus, normally a terrific columnist, digs a deeper hole today in a surprisingly un-sharp response to criticism of another recent column. Here’s what started the debate: “Pay-to-play is one way to help save newspapers.” Please read it and then come back. I was one of the critics of that column. In […]

Jon Garfunkel, in The Talking Points Meme, challenges newly conventional wisdom about bloggers’ roles in reporting the federal prosecutor mess — and notes some sloppy journalism (and blogosphere self-congratulation) as the scandal developed.

Amazingly, the man who concocted the anti-Hillary remix of the old Apple 1984 commercial is proud of himself. After the Huffington Post outed Phil de Vellis, a now-former employee of a consulting firm that has been working for Barack Obama — whose campaign was designed to be the main beneficiary of the ad remix — […]

NY Sun: New Technique Lets Bloggers Tackle Late-Night News Dumps. A time-honored Washington practice of trying to extinguish, pre-empt, or redirect news coverage by dumping stacks of previously secret government documents on the press may be in for some changes after a headlong collision with hundreds of liberal Web loggers in the wee hours of […]

Consumer Reports is a publication that works hard to get things right. In its February issue it ran a dramatically wrong review of children’s car seats — flawed due to poor testing methods — and seriously jeopardized the trust it had won from its readers. But the organization’s response since then has been the finest […]

I’ve just read the galleys of a book that will be published in a few weeks. It discusses the rise of edge-in, democratized media in distinctly unflattering ways. That, of course, is the author’s privilege. But is it his right to misrepresent reality to “prove” his point? The part of the book about which I […]

Last week, March 11-17, was known in journalistic and (some) governmental circles as “Sunshine Week” — a tribute to notions of open government, and a call to action to make it more so. Freedom of information was on tap in all kinds of ways. But now that the official celebration is over, I want to […]

Valleywag points to the incredibly hypocrisy of Viacom, which has sued Google for big bucks over YouTube but encourages its own video “pirates” on a Viacom-owned site. No surprise here, whatever.

Slowly but surely, some U.S. media companies are giving blogs to their audiences. The latest I’ve seen is from MyFoxDC, a Washington, D.C., TV station. As you’ll notice, staff blogs on the right side of the page are complemented with the audience blogs on the left. The quality, as always with such things, is extremely […]

Wall Street Journal: Friends Swap Twitters, and Frustration. Twitter is one of several growing services, including Google Inc.-owned Dodgeball, that tie together instant messaging, social networking and wireless communication. Twitter allows members to use their computers or cellphones to distribute short messages on what they’re doing. Each message is limited to 140 characters, but there […]