Posts from ‘May, 2008’

The Knight Ridder, now McClatchy, Washington Bureau was a singular hero among journalists who value great reporting and honor back during the run-up to the Iraq war and its disastrous prosecution. I was, and remain, honored to have been employed by the same company during that period when so many other journalists abandoned their duties. […]

That’s former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s description of Big Journalism during the Bush administration, especially during the run-up to the Iraq war. With all too few exceptions, it is true — and indelibly stains a craft from which we expect so much more. McClellan is no hero. He might have helped save lives […]

The news so far from the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital conference is Bill Gate’s unintentionally hilarious comment in last night’s show-opening interview, in which he said: “Guys like us avoid monopolies. We like to compete.” Who knew? Ballmer and Gates teased the next version of Windows, showing some multitouch features that have appeared […]

Director Sydney Pollack is has died. He made many excellent films, but the one that journalists remember best is “Absence of Malice” — a trenchant look at big-city journalism and its practitioners. Yes, the picture was over the top in key ways. But it had a core of reality, cloaked in fiction, that went to […]

You’ll find it in New York magazine’s brief Q&A With Thomas Bray, Chair of the Editorial Integrity Committee. Bray and his fellow committee members each get $100,000 a year for their lapdog duties, which involve a meeting every three months and “a fair amount of conference calling and so on…” Actually, it’s amazing that Bray […]

Looks like it: ABC “Exclusive” On McCain and the Anti-Islam Pastor: Was MoJo Robbed?

The YouTube Citizen News Channel wants to highlight citizen videos with news value. Olivia Ma, the site’s News Manager, says on the site’s blog: If you see examples of fellow YouTubers doing great work in journalism and reporting, please let me know. If you’re a citizen journalist yourself, tell me how YouTube could better serve […]

The New York Observer reports that the Wall Street Journal’s “Independence Committee unanimously approves” of the naming of Robert Thomson, Wall Street Journal publisher, as the paper’s managing editor position and Dow Jones editor-in-chief. Gosh, what a surprise. Rupert Murdoch decides, they approve. Do these folks — Susan Phillips, dean of the business school at […]

CNET: Announcing the Totally Unofficial Build a Better Twitter Contest: I have had it with this Twitter situation. I know it’s a free service, and I know that a lot of you are frankly sick of hearing about it, but I cannot keep pretending that Twitter is the savior of the modern Internet, the message-bearing […]

AP: Routine conduct at risk with MySpace suicide case. Think twice before you sign up for an online service using a fake name or e-mail address. You could be committing a federal crime. Federal prosecutors turned to a novel interpretation of computer hacking law to indict a Missouri mother on charges connected to the suicide […]