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13 Oct 2009 09:47

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World: Carter-Ruck had the U.K. press over a barrel in parliament

  • The media laws in this country increasingly place newspapers in a Kafkaesque world in which we cannot tell the public anything about information which is being suppressed, nor the proceedings which suppress it.
  • The Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger • Describing a bizarre situation in which his newspaper was not allowed to publish a question about the Trafigura toxic waste scandal. The gag pushed for by the Carter-Ruck law firm, was lifted just a short time ago. Reminder: The U.K. doesn’t have the same freedom of press as the U.S., so stuff like this occasionally happens. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Oct 2009 12:30

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Biz: Dear Associated Press: Our boycott of you is still freaking on

  • We content creators have been too slow to react to the free exploitation of news by third parties without input or permission.
  • Associated Press Chief Executive Tom Curley • Discussing the idea of charging search engines money for finding their content. Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. is also on board. May we just say, as the Associated Press looks to screw over the entire Internet with its greed and lack of foresight, we would like to welcome our new Reuters overlords. (In case you’re wondering: We’re going to continue to post stuff from News Corp., because, come on, Glenn Beck!) • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

08 Oct 2009 22:57

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Politics: Olympia Snowe may be alone on health care, but she doesn’t mind

  • I’d rather have company. But it’s a different political world we’re in. . . Most people represent either red states or blue states.
  • Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine • Discussing her status as the lone GOP member of congress willing to stick her neck out to get health care approved. Unlike a lot of Republicans, Snowe doesn’t really have much to lose. She won with 74% of the vote in 2006, and many are supportive of her stance in the state. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Oct 2009 20:11

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U.S.: The Supreme Court tackles a case only Michael Vick could love

  • It’s not up to the government to decide what are people’s worst instincts. One can contemplate a lot of other areas, where government could say: You are appealing to people’s worst instincts, and, therefore, movies cannot be made.
  • Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia • Discussing a law that bans the sale and marketing of videos that show dog fighting or other forms of animal cruelty. Justice Samuel Alito sarcastically refuted: “What about people who like to see human sacrifices? Suppose that is legally taking place someplace in the world. I mean, people here would probably love to see it.” We plan to redesign our Web site based on Mr. Alito’s suggestion. Hanging in the balance is the fate of Pittsville, Virginia, Robert Stevens, who sold a series of videos depicting animal cruelty. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Oct 2009 21:53

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Biz, Tech: Knight Foundation: Everyone (not just EveryBlock) should benefit

  • Oops, this open source code isn’t very useful on its own! The Knight Foundation, which has been funding startups for a few years as part of their Knight News Challenge, was quite excited at the sale of EveryBlock to MSNBC in August. But now it’s having second thoughts. Why? Because it was released to the public as a piece of open-source code – not a plug-and-play package that newspapers can easily use. So they’re getting a new team to finish up the EveryBlock code which so it can be rolled out simply. Other startups will get treated the same way. We imagine some applicants to the Knight News Challenge (deadline coming soon!) might get turned off by this, but the goal was always to help journalism in general. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Oct 2009 22:07

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World: Is Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi on a mission to suppress the press?

  • We ask the prime minister to stop the campaign of accusations against journalists and to tell the truth.
  • Italian Press Federation head Franco Siddi • On the lawsuits Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been filing against major newspapers in Italy. The PM, who either owns or is related to the owners of many major Italian media outlets, has been suing newspapers covering the major sex scandals against him. Silvio Berlusconi says the protests are a joke. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Sep 2009 21:36

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Culture: Shed some tears for Dan Rather. He lost his lawsuit against CBS.

  • Remember that faked “60 Minutes” piece? Dan Rather does. Years after the blogosphere proved that his Bush National Guard information was suspect (a great story for typophiles, by the way), he’s been fighting a $70 million lawsuit ever since. An appeals court threw it out, saying that they could find no evidence that the network screwed up his future job prospects or reneged on his contract. All this stuff happened so long ago, we forgot Bush was president! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

25 Sep 2009 10:07

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Politics: Anonymous CNN exec: Obama’s not talking about OUR cable news

  • I get the sense, when you listen to what he’s actually saying, that he’s talking mostly about the ideological-leaning networks rather than CNN. He’s talking about the back and forth and sometimes one-sidedness that you might get on other cable channels.
  • An anonymous CNN executive • Discussing Obama’s recent criticism of the cable news cycle and how damaging it is for the political process. Now, we could be wrong about this, but, doesn’t CNN dwell on one issue for six hours just like MSNBC or Fox? If so, you guys are complicit in the crime. This Politico article does a good job breaking down the issue. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Sep 2009 11:07

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Biz: Daily poll: How much are you willing to pay for news online?

Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

17 Sep 2009 20:41

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U.S., World: The U.S. isn’t being selfish with their swine flu vaccine supply

  • 10% of our vaccine supply goes to developing countries source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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