Bloggasm

Here are some media-related links for your amusement:

1. There have been times when people have emailed me and in the email itself declared something “off the record.” Though so far I’ve honored these requests, I think this is a very dangerous thing to do. Going off the record is a mutual agreement between journalist and interview subject — not a one-way street. I especially detest it when people speak in front of large groups of reporters and declare the conversation off-the-record. It’s a silly thing to do because it’s very difficult to contain that within such a large number of reporters. It looks as if at least one reporter has grown fed-up with these practices and refuses to go off the record whenever Obama requests it.

2. CNBC has grown worried that its viewers will be lured away by the boobs of Fox News female correspondents, so now they’re requiring their own females to change their wardrobes accordingly.

3. Adage has successfully predicted the new corporate logo for Microsoft once it buys Yahoo:

4. A reporter from Politico talks about his experience covering the media, and his having to walk a tightrope and not burn any bridges in the process. That is, the reporter he’s criticizing might one day be an editor with hiring authority.

5. Wow, who knew a weekly college newspaper could get this intense?

6. The New York Times vs the entire blogosphere. Who will win?

7. I’ve written before about the creepy online group known as anonymous. Now it appears that not only are they going after individuals in the Church of Scientology, they’re not too accurate in their targets.

8. Remember the Youtube phenomenon known as Obama Girl? She didn’t even vote in her state’s primary.

9. A comprehensive look at the trials and tribulations of the newspaper advertising industry.

Here are some media-related links for your amusement:

1. Clearasil has started to run some clever magazine advertisements where you’re able to remove “pimple stickers” and place them on all the beautiful models in the other ads.

2. Are you a cable news junkie but tired of seeing 24-hour-a-day coverage of OJ Simpson? This restaurant may be for you.

3. Websites that were once cool but now they suck.

4. Google vs. Microsoft: No longer are they content on competing for search engine business, they’re now fighting over who can be the bigger philanthropist. For once, Microsoft is winning at something.

5. As was predicted, the Church of Scientology has issued take down copyright notices to Gawker for posting their promotional video online.

6. In other news, Digg.com has gone from the website that loves Ron Paul to the website that hates Ron Paul.

7. A cool blog post by Nicholas Carr titled “Is encryption a right?“: “As the Washington Post reports today, the encryption conflict is now coming to a head. A guy in Vermont, accused of storing child pornography on his computer, has refused to provide police with the password required to unlock the encrypted files on his hard drive. He claims that disclosing the password would violate his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination. A judge backed his claim, and the government is now appealing that ruling in the federal courts.”

8. What’s with all the bizarre stories about Hilary Clinton having awkward encounters with her press bus? (via joel)

9. I might write more about this later, but a writer at the Columbia Journalism Review wonders why bloggers don’t form unions.

Some assorted media and journalism links for your amusement:

1.This legal case has some people worried that foreign governments with oppressive free speech laws will be able to successfully sue US bloggers for libel.

2. Reasonable conservative Jon Swift has a round-up of the best blog posts of 2007, as chosen by bloggers.

3. Is Digg.com looking for a big media buy-out?

4. The New York Times found the wrong candidate to piss off by publishing factually incorrect information.

4. CNN, Yahoo, and MSNBC duke it out for most popular news website.

5. I’ve seen this ad system used before with American blogs, and believe me, it just pisses readers off.

6. Polls continue to show that people distrust the media. However, when you poll them on specific newspapers or news organizations, their opinions become more positive, which simply means that Republicans have been successful in attaching a negative connotation to the word “media.”

If you haven’t figured this out yet, these posts are an excuse to collect a bunch of media and journalism-related links that I’ve come across and publish them without much comment.

1. If you think that The New Republic’s “retraction ” of the Scott Thomas Beauchamp stories is the end of the whole affair, think again. According to the NY Observer, he still stands by his writing.

2. Edward Champion’s Return of the Reluctant is closing up shop. I think.

3. Are you a fan of MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson and don’t want to see his show canceled? There’s a website for people like you. Carlson is actually one of the few conservative commentators I can actually stand.

4. Every day I daydream about starting my own online media start-up company. It turns out I’m not the only one, and based on others’ failures, maybe I should keep the day job.

In other news, Bloggasm passed two milestones today. Not only did it receive its 400,000th page view, it also had its 300,000th unique visitor.

I don’t have much time to talk about my endorsements for the 2007 Weblog Awards (which end today), but I thought I’d quickly list them and encourage others to vote. If you comb through our archives, you’ll actually find interviews that I conducted with several of the nominees:

Best Blog: I endorse BoingBoing

Best individual blogger: I endorse majikthise

Funniest Blog: I endorse Jon Swift

Best online community: I endorse Fark

Best liberal blog: I endorse Glenn Greenwald

Best technology blog: I endorse readwriteweb

Best science blog: I endorse Pharyngula

Best video blog: I endorse Crooks and liars

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Related posts:
1. Blog Highlights: Sadly, No!
2. Interview with LiewCF

This is pretty cool. Boingboing, arguably the most popular blog out there, has done a major revamp on their site. They’ve re-added their comments section, redesigned the entire blog, and also added a gadget blog.

I wonder if this will eventually increase their competition against huge gadget sites like Engadget and Gizmodo. In fact, their gadget blogger is a former Gizmodo editor.

The LA Times has a cool article about how local/regional bloggers are having effects on politics, even in small, isolated towns.

via poynter