Terry Heaton: A blogging pioneer calls it quits. And so extortion has won a victory, and the blogosphere has lost a pioneering voice. Peggy is brusk and competitive and has made her share of enemies, but nobody deserves the kind of personal attacks this site apparently distributed. Were the attacks libelous? Or merely insulting? I […]
Posts under ‘News’
Was Boston Globe Victim of Setup?
That’s the suggestion in a complex tale surrounding a technology issue in Massachusetts. We’re hearing about this because of some digging by non-journalists, not because the Globe has pursued it very ardently (though the paper is responding, apparently somewhat belatedly, to queries). This is a great example of the journalism-watchdog role that is so prominent […]
You Know Finance? Help With a Glossary
The Reuters Financial Glossary “has been developed to give you quick and easy access to definitions of terms and concepts related to the financial markets. It is a community-created collaborative project, based upon a published book written and edited by Reuters Editorial staff. Now anyone can edit, build upon and add entries to the glossary […]
More on State of the Blogosphere
Dave Sifry has posted his State of the Blogosphere, February 2006 Part 2: Beyond Search. Summary points: Blogging and Mainstream Media continue to share attention in blogger’s and reader’s minds, but bloggers are climbing higher on the “big head” of the attention curve, with some bloggers getting more attention than sites including Forbes, PBS, MTV, […]
NY Times Blog Behind the Pay-Wall
Not only has the New York Times banished its columnists behind its pay-us-first wall, but it’s done the same thing with the terrific Opinionator blog by Chris Sullentrop. Even more bizarre, each posting has a “Link to This” hyperlink that goes — you guessed it — to the pay-us-first registration page. Can you say “Sheesh…”?
On the Road
I’m hoping to get to Boston sometime tonight, because I’m giving a talk tomorrow evening at Harvard. My nonstop flight from San Francisco was canceled, but I’m now booked at least as far as Chicago, which is two-thirds of a continent better than just waiting around California for a nonstop. Wish me luck…
Department of Growing a Thicker Skin
In “Blog Rage“, Jim Brady, editor of the Washington Post’s online operations, asks, “How did it feel to be mugged by the blogosphere?” Not good, he reports. The piece strikes me as unnecessarily defensive. It makes the mistake of focusing on the relatively few “muggers” instead of the larger reasons why so many people were […]
Paying for a Product that's Taken Away
UPDATED I’ve been a subscriber to the Wall Street Journal’s online edition ever since the news organization started charging for it. The price has risen again and again, but I’ve found the value worth the cost. The site included Barron’s, the weekly financial newspaper that has been a sister publication under Dow Jones parentage. I […]
The Trouble with "Objectivity"
Gregg Zachary: A Journalism Manifesto. Professional journalists can restore their status only by taking radical action. They are getting torn to pieces fighting the wrong battles. Journalists keep telling critics that they are committed to hearing all sides. That they are committed to “objectivity,” which in practical terms means giving ink and airtime to various […]
Your Rights, Being Bartered Away in Global Forum
James Love: A UN/WIPO Plan to Regulate Distribution of Information on the Internet. But what the broadcasters and the webcasters really want has nothing to do with protecting copyrighted works. They want to “own” the content of what they transmit, even when they are not the creative party, and even if they can’t acquire such […]