Answering Back to the News Media, Using the Internet - New York Times

~~ There is a bit of irony to me in the
New York Times reporting on the
Internet's rising power --
through personal blogs and
web pages -- as a growing check
and balance to the mainstream
media powers
{ Of which of course the Times is one.]
Yeah, there has been some
democratization of journalism
because of the Internet, but the blogsphere is still a small fish in the
Corporate Media Ocean.
And the business of actually
reporting the news – what is the
news story of the day --- is
dominated by the same mainstream
Wire & Broadcast services
that where in charge before the
rise of the Internet.

Internet based writers & bloggers,
have yet to become – for
the most -- the “reporters” of
news. The early promise of
Internet muckrackers – like Matt
Druge – becoming a powerful
force , really has yet to
emerge, and may never. As with
the mediums of print, radio
and then television , the power
of gathering and disseminating
original reporting on the web falls into
the hands of mega-media companies,
interested in circulations,
advertising revenues and
ratings, more than independent
reporting of the news that
really matters.
[See this link for a litte more backround]
~~ TP

Answering Back to the News Media, Using the Internet - New York Times

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: January 2, 2006

"Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel, or so goes the old saw. For decades, the famous and the infamous alike largely followed this advice. Even when subjects of news stories felt they had been misunderstood or badly treated, they were unlikely to take on reporters or publishers, believing that the power of the press gave the press the final word.
The Internet, and especially the amplifying power of blogs, is changing that."

Journalist, Cover Thyself - New York Times

~~ Journalist writing about journalist.
Movies about making movies.
Even comic stips about writing comic strips. I think I will start a blog about blogging.

But seriously , a little self-examination is always good, but the main point of journalists today is all too often the medium itself -- to which I plead guilty !!

[OK, so you have caught me in a

cynically self-effacing mood today.]

~~` TP
-----------------------------------------

Journalist, Cover Thyself - New York Times: "In the last few years, with the rise of blogs and a rich supply of scandals at news organizations, including The New York Times, the media have come under intense scrutiny. And many news outlets have turned a critical eye on themselves - a tricky matter rife with conflict that raises the question of whether anyone can report fully and fairly on his or her own employer, particularly for public consumption."

Web Site to Blend Journalism With Blogs - Yahoo! News

~~~ Will this make the American Body Politic better informed . Only if people read it~~~ TP

---------

"Some 70 Web journalists, including Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and David Corn, Washington editor of the Nation magazine, have agreed to participate in OSM — short for Open Source Media"
Web Site to Blend Journalism With Blogs - Yahoo! News:

Internet holds only future for newspapers, experts warn -(AFP) - Newspapers have no future without online and

~~~ The newsprint paper made of dead trees , all the toxic ink , and then disposing of the papers,, make printed newspapers one of the great banes on the environment & municipal waste disposal. As broadband and wireless expand in use and coverage , the less need for printed news.

I for one do not miss the piles of newspapers that used to be in my apartment at every week's end, for now I now get my newspaper fix entirely online. And more and more folks a re joining me each day . ~~~ TP
------------------------

"Internet holds only future for newspapers, experts warn"

Thu Nov 10, 1:11 PM ET

MADRID (AFP) - Newspapers have no future without online and digital services, media executives heard at a World Association of Newspapers meeting in Madrid."

The Internet's Bold Second Act |

CBS News | The Internet's Bold Second Act | October 11, 2005 14:00:05: "This is a far different boom from the dotcom craze of the late 1990s. It is the Web's sober second act, characterized not by soaring stock prices but by forces that are challenging traditional industries — from publishing to telecommunications — to adopt new business plans. Consumers seem to be the only sure winners."

All go for giant comms satellite: BBC NEWS | Science/Nature |

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | All go for giant comms satellite: "n.

The new satellite will improve and extend communications across South America, most of North America, the Atlantic Ocean and part of the Pacific Ocean.

The two satellites will support the London-based Inmarsat company's global broadband network, BGan.

Their onboard technology is designed to allow people to set up virtual offices anywhere around the world via high-speed broadband connections and new 3G phone technology.

Those set to benefit include business travellers, disaster relief workers and journalists."

"Blogs for a Cause", by "Nicole Price Fasig ,- PC Magazine.

~~~ My cause is to inform you.

[And me too, as doing this blog encourages me to read a broader spectrum of the media.]

I hope to contribute to a world with less censorship, more reasoned & peaceful debate, less war , and a cleaner Earth.....

.... and maybe have a little fun doing it too. ~~~

~~ tp
---------------------------

by "Nicole Price Fasig
- PC Magazine
Mon Nov 7, 5:00 PM ET

"International bloggers are increasingly positioning themselves as watchdogs over governments.

In countries with oppressive regimes, weblogs are often the only way to communicate injustices to the international community,,,,

,,, but creating and maintaining an anonymous blog can pose nearly insurmountable challenges." { Tell me about it ! ~` tp }

link:
Blogs for a Cause - Yahoo! News:

the most influential Internet moments of the past 10 years

Dotcom boom and bust tops list of Internet watersheds - Yahoo! News: "NEW YORK (AFP)

- The breaking of the Monica Lewinsky scandal [in 1998 was].... voted among the most influential Internet moments of the past 10 years by organisers of the annual Webby Awards."

The second most influential moment voted by the committee came in 1998 when the "The Drudge Report" -- a then little-known, one-man news site -- beat the mainstream media in breaking the scandal of Lewinsky's affair

How Much Is My Blog Worth?

My blog is worth $564.54.
How much is your blog worth?

, "The role of Novak. "By William F. Buckley Jr.

~~ I am sort of curious about this myself. ~` tp

--------------

By William F. Buckley Jr. Tue Nov 1, 8:11 PM ET

---

The hot-blooded search for criminality in the matter of Cheney/Libby/Rove has not truly satisfied those in search of first-degree venality. Very soon after the indictment of Mr. Libby, the tricoteuses glumly conceded that no conspiracy has been uncovered. It is not alleged that Mr. Cheney whispered to Mr. Libby that he should conceal the truth from the grand jury or the special prosecutor. The great blast of publicity came from the technical exposure of Mr. Libby to (in his case, at his age) a life term in jail, plus a million-odd-dollar fine. If John Jones is hauled in and word is given out that if found guilty he will be hanged and his severance pay confiscated, the public's attention will be drawn to his crime even if it was to double park.

"The great question here is Robert Novak. It was he who published, in his column, that Mrs. Joseph Wilson was a secret agent of the CIA.

I am too close a friend to pursue the matter with Novak, and his loyalty is a postulate. What was going on? If there are mysteries in town, that surely is one of them, the role of Novak."

Court Hears Internet Anonymity Case -

Court Hears Internet Anonymity Case - Yahoo! News: "By ALEX DOMINGUEZ, Associated Press Writer Wed Nov 2, 3:19 PM ET

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The publisher of a financial newsletter told Maryland's second highest court Wednesday that he should not be forced to disclose his subscriber list and other information sought by an Arizona company seeking those it says made defamatory online comments."

I agree with the publisher , that is protected private information. ~` tp

Confused about the CIA leak case? Start here. Christian Science Monitor

~~Nice article here below , for those who have not followed Plame-gate from its start.

Looks like 'Libby' -- the Vice Presidential Chief of Staff-- will be indicted for lying during the investigation.

At least Bill Clinton only lied about haveing sex.

Libby may have lied to obstruct the truth on matters of national-- and even global --- security.

Why ? To protect a calculated lie the President G.W. Bush made during the 2003 State of the Union address. Read below for more.~~ ~ ` TP

--------------------------

The Christian Science Monitor, Fri Oct 28:

"Confused about the CIA leak case? Start here."

By Linda Feldmann, Staff writer of The Christian Science MonitorFri Oct 28, 4:00 AM ET

For almost two years, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has led an investigation to determine whether anyone acted illegally when the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame was made public. After hearing testimony from some of Washington's most powerful figures, a grand jury is expected to issue indictments as soon as Friday. The Monitor's White House correspondent, Linda Feldmann, answers key questions about the case.

Q. How did this affair begin?

At its heart lie questions about the Bush administration's case for war against Iraq. On Jan. 28, 2003, in his State of the Union address, President Bush included these 16 words: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

The implication was that Iraq was developing a nuclear-weapons program. But US intelligence officials had by then - and have since - expressed doubts about that claim. In July 2003, Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador to two African countries and Iraq, wrote an op-ed in The New York Times disputing Mr. Bush's statement.

The CIA, he wrote, sent him to Niger in 2002 to determine if Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Africa. He concluded no. One week after Mr. Wilson's op-ed, syndicated columnist Robert Novak reported that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, worked as "an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction."

At issue is whether Mr. Novak's government sources blew her cover as a CIA agent, in violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982..............
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20051028/ts_csm/aplame;_ylt=AuS0tA5sKD5c2CDnGXU16Wys0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-

Copyright © 2005 The Christian Science Monitor

Yahoo, Chinese police, and a jailed journalist | csmonitor.com

~` We in American tend to forget what a blessing a politically free internet is. ~tp

Yahoo, Chinese police, and a jailed journalist | csmonitor.com: "police, and a jailed journalist
By Robert Marquand | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
HONG KONG – The role of the US Internet firm Yahoo in helping Chinese security officials to finger a journalist sentenced to 10 years for e-mailing 'state secrets' is filtering into mainland China. The revelation reinforces a conviction among many Chinese 'netizens' that there is no place security forces can't find them.

Yet if netizen reaction in China is resignation, the story of Yahoo's complicity in the arrest of Shi Tao, a journalist with the Contemporary Trade News in Hunan, brought a spontaneous uproar among Western human rights and business watchdogs."

By MAUREEN DOWD: "United States of Shame"

~~~ The first

line of this piece is a Grand

Slam sentence ~` TP

=======================

September 3, 2005
United States of Shame
By MAUREEN DOWD

"Stuff happens.
And when you combine limited government with incompetent government,
lethal stuff happens."

CBS News counters bloggers with 'nonbudsman' | Tech News on ZDNet

CBS News counters bloggers with 'nonbudsman' | Tech News on ZDNet: "After a controversial run-in with bloggers last year that helped sink '60 Minutes Wednesday,' CBS has hired a 'nonbudsman' to write a blog that will go behind the scenes at the news division."

Mass Media vs. Mirco-media.

What Blogs, Podcasts, Feeds Mean to Bottom Line - Yahoo! News

~~~ In case you care about this money stuff . ~~ tp

---------------------------------------------------------------------
"What Blogs, Podcasts, Feeds Mean to Bottom Line - Yahoo! News"
---------------------------------------------------------------------

"Web map tracks demand for major news"

"What's next? Web map tracks demand for major news"
By Eric Auchard

"SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - It's debatable how big a deal any specific news event is compared to all the other human mayhem that occurs each day. Journalists, editors, historians and the guy at the end of the bar could probably never agree.

A news mapping service introduced on Thursday by Akamai Technologies Inc. promises to give unprecedented insight into the relative hunger that millions of Internet users have to learn of breaking events minute-by-minute."

~ ~ I hope this does not become the dog wagging the tail.
Just because a newsstory is popular, does not mean it is also "news" worthy. ~~ tp~~~

"Akamai, which helps speed delivery of 15 percent of the world's Internet traffic over its network, is looking to count the sum of page requests across 100 major news sites it serves to rank interest in major events on a scale never seen before.

The Akamai Net News Index provides a map of six global regions and measures the current appetite for news relative to average daily demand in terms of millions of visitors to news sites per minute, per week, within each geographic region."

Spikes in traffic can reveal the next wave of news demand.

Study: More Using Web for Political News

~~~~ Ah , but are they getting substance in their news , reporting that really makes them think about and deeply examine the important life and death issues of our time ?

Or are they using the internet to get just simple minded knee-jerk , Rush Limbaugh-Fox- O'Reilly style junk ??

I report you decide !! ~~ TP

"Study: More using Web for political news"

By ANICK JESDANUN, AP INTERNET WRITER

"It's a channel difference not a substantive difference," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet group and author of the study. "Newspaper executives probably now have to think of themselves less as newspaper people and more as content people."

NEW YORK (AP) - Reliance on the Internet for political news during last year's presidential campaign grew sixfold from 1996, while the influence of newspapers dropped sharply, according to a study issued Sunday.

Eighteen percent of American adults cited the Internet as one of their two main sources of news about the presidential races, compared with 3 percent in 1996. The reliance on television grew slightly to 78 percent, up from 72 percent.

Meanwhile, the influence of newspapers dropped to 39 percent last year, from 60 percent in 1996, according to the joint, telephone-based survey from the Pew Research Center for The People and the Press and the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Nonetheless, Americans who got campaign news over the Internet were more likely to visit sites of major news organizations like CNN and The New York Times (43 percent) rather than Internet-only resources such as candidate Web sites and Web journals, known as blogs (24 percent).

Twenty-eight percent said they primarily used news pages of America Online Inc., Yahoo Inc. and other online services, which carry dispatches from traditional news sources like The Associated Press and Reuters.

"It's a channel difference not a substantive difference," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet group and author of the study. "Newspaper executives probably now have to think of themselves less as newspaper people and more as content people."

The study also found the political news audience more mainstream - more women, minorities, older Americans and lower-income users than before.

Fifty-eight percent of political news users cited convenience as their main reason for using the Internet. This group was more likely to use the Internet sites of traditional news organizations or online services.

But one-third of political news consumers cited a belief that they did not get all the news and information they wanted from papers and television, and another 11 percent said the Web had information not available elsewhere. These individuals were more likely to visit blogs or campaign sites for information.

And blogs, Rainie said, likely had an indirect influence on what campaigns talked about and what news organizations covered.

Blogs, for instance, have been credited with forcing an apology from CBS News anchor Dan Rather for last fall's "60 Minutes" report on President Bush's National Guard service.

Blogs "are having a modest level of impact on the voter side and probably a more dramatic impact on the institutional side," Rainie said. "Blogs are still a realm where very, very active and pretty elite, both technologically oriented people and politically oriented people go."

The study also found that the reliance on the Internet for political news was most pronounced among those with high-speed connections at home - 38 percent among broadband users against 28 percent among all Internet users. Reliance on newspapers was roughly even between those groups - 36 percent for broadband and 38 percent for all users.

Forty percent of Internet users found the Internet important in helping them decide for whom to vote, while 20 percent said the online information made a difference.

The random survey of 2,200 adults, including 1,324 Internet users, was conducted Nov. 4-22 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

==============

"Study warns of junk-news diet" / From Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2005

This Blog is NOT Junk news !!!!!

Free Press News : Printable Format

Study warns of junk-news diet
From Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2005
By James Rainey

American consumers confront an ever-broader river of news from myriad sources, but the standard for gathering and presenting the information tends to be “faster, looser and cheaper” than in the past, according to a survey of the news business to be released today by a media watchdog group.

Internet blogs and cable TV programs have led the trend toward a “journalism of assertion” that relies less on reporting than personal opinion, reported the Project for Excellence in Journalism, which is affiliated with Columbia University.

That trend makes it more important for journalists “to document the reporting process more openly so that audiences can decide for themselves whether to trust it,” the organization concluded in its annual report.

On two of the top media stories of 2004, newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the Internet merited a mixed verdict, the study found.

On one hand, the study’s review of 250 randomly selected stories buttressed the complaint that President Bush got worse coverage than Sen. John F. Kerry in the 2004 presidential race. Coverage of the war in Iraq, on the other hand, tended to be far more neutral than some critics had charged — with 2,200 stories containing roughly an even mix of positive, negative and neutral accounts.

The second annual report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, which is based in Washington, focused more on trends and prospects than on content. The considerable change facing the industry is revealed in a few facts: Online advertising has increased 30% to almost $10 billion in one year and estimated readership of blogs has increased 58% in six months. About 32 million Americans say they have obtained information from the Web logs, or journals, known as blogs.

Tom Rosenstiel, director of the research project, said that with the growth in Internet commentary, the culture of opinion journalism has expanded exponentially. Blogging has its value — exposing, the report said, hasty reporting by CBS News on memos that referred to Bush’s military service during the Vietnam War. But it can also lead the public astray, the report found, such as when it fomented the “unfounded conspiracy theory” that Republicans stole the presidential election in Ohio.

Rather than taking the time to gather and scrutinize each piece of information — the model for the mainstream media — the report said some bloggers hewed to another philosophy: “Publish anything, especially points of view, and the reporting and verification will occur afterward in the response of fellow bloggers.”

Although the traditional media continue to have struggles of their own, the public’s view of the believability of news organizations has stabilized somewhat in the last two years, according to the study, which relied on research by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. About 35% of Americans said the media get the facts straight.

Only better reporting and increased transparency about its tactics will help the media regain credibility, the study concluded.

“Since citizens have a deeper range of information at their fingertips, the level of proof in the press must rise accordingly,” it said. “In effect, the era of trust-me journalism has passed and the era of show-me journalism has begun.”

For its analysis of media content in 2004, the study team partnered with researchers at four universities to review coverage of two big stories and other trends.

The presidential race

Days were randomly selected from throughout the race to profile the equivalent of one month of coverage. Two hundred and fifty stories were then dissected. Any that had twice as many positive comments as negative ones were deemed “positive” and the reverse for negative references. The review found 36% of the stories about Bush to be negative, compared with 12% negative about Kerry. It found 20% positive stories about Bush, compared with less than 30% positive about his Democratic challenger.

The study did not try to assess whether the outcome reflected partisan bias against the Republican Bush, a tendency to view incumbents more harshly, or some other cause.

The war in Iraq

Using a similar methodology on 2,187 stories, the study found reporting of the conflict had slightly more stories with a clearly negative tone than stories with a clearly positive tone — 25% negative, compared to 20% positive. The largest number, 35%, had no decided tone and another 20% were on multiple subjects with no apparent tilt.

Newspaper coverage most closely mirrored that balance, while Fox had the most pronounced slant. The cable TV outlet aired twice as many positive as negative pieces about the war.

That finding may be partly related to a larger tendency at Fox on all kinds of stories that allows on-air personalities to offer their personal opinions. Seven out of 10 Fox stories reviewed in the study included opinions not attributed to reporting. That happened in less than one of 10 CNN stories and in less than one of three stories aired on MSNBC.

Rosenstiel linked the opinionated nature of Fox programs partly to big-name personalities such as Bill O’Reilly, whose programs are built largely around his musings. But even field reporters on the network employ a colloquial style. In one instance, a Fox journalist expressed hope that Iraqi forces, rather than Americans, capture a terrorism suspect. In another, a reporter speculated that Martha Stewart might want to buy back her company’s stock.

Despite the many issues raised about the media’s reliability and challenges in holding audiences (newspaper readership dropped again in 2004 and the audience for cable television stopped growing), the mainstream media continued to be a big moneymaker.

Corporations have been slow, however, to fold that money back into newsgathering. The number of editorial employees at American newspapers shrank by 500 in the most recent year studied. Local TV stations employ fewer news people than they did in the boom economy of 2000.

The study found surprising the lack of investment in websites devoted to news; 62% of those working for Internet news outlets said their newsrooms had suffered cuts in the last three years, far greater than the 37% of news people at traditional outlets who said their staffs had been cut.

The reductions came despite the spiraling Internet audience and seemed tied to a larger trend in American journalism that emphasizes “prepackaging and presenting information, not … gathering it,” the study concluded.

The study recommended that news consumers, like dieters, become more discerning.

“The real crisis may be news obesity,” the study said, “consuming too little that can nourish citizens and too much that can bloat them.”
======================

This article is from Los Angeles Times. If you found it informative and valuable, we strongly encourage you to visit their website and register an account to view all their articles on the web. Support quality journalism.

Reporter's shield bill introduced in House , © 2005 The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

~ ~ ~ The Court ruling that reporters
can be compelled to reveal their
sources is bad news. Luckily,
Congress can fix the situation
A Republican and a Democrat
co-sponsoring a much need

piece of legislation. ~~ TP

Reporter's shield bill introduced in House
© 2005 The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Journalists would be shielded from
being forced to reveal confidential
sources under the
"Free Flow of Information Act."
Reporters must testify in CIA leak probe

BY TOM BRUNEWASHINGTON BUREAU

February 16, 2005

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday that two reporters must testify before a federal grand jury about their confidential sources in a probe trying to determine who in the Bush administration leaked the identity of a covert CIA officer.

In an expected ruling, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a lower court ruling that held in contempt Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Judith Miller of The New York Times for refusing to testify.

Time and the Times Tuesday said ---- { what an intereresting pharse, almost poetic ~~tp ] ---- they would appeal the decision to the full circuit and possibly the Supreme Court, and would seek a stay to keep the reporters out of jail.

The publications had tried to quash the subpoenas based on the First Amendment and reporters' privilege to protect confidential sources under federal common law, which is based on practice than on statutes.

In October, District Judge Thomas Hogan ruled against them.The decision prompted calls from Floyd Abrams, attorney for both reporters, and groups such as Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, for Congress to enact a federal shield law to permit reporters to protect confidential sources.

Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc.
----------------------------------