Sunday, January 16, 2005

Precedent for an apology from the Wall Street Journal for an inaccurate article about the Dean campaign paying bloggers. 9:54:13 PM    comment []

Chris Nolan views Zephyrgate through the lens of DNC politics. 6:53:40 PM    comment []

Mr. Sun is a Mary Ann man -- as am I -- but Instapundit worries that the Greensboro luminary is veering toward obsession. 6:52:31 PM    comment []

A blogger asks an aggregator to drop his site: "Bloglines' reproduction of my site is a commercial derivative work." (via Dave Winer) Very interesting, and relevant to our local conversation. 11:47:32 AM    comment []

Mathew Gross: "I was the Director of Internet Communications and 'Blogger in Chief' for the Dean campaign. To my knowledge, there was never any internal expectation that either Markos or Jerome would provide anything other than technical or advertising advice or services, and those were the only services they did provide." More from Zephyr. Meanwhile, Hugh Hewitt credits me with fooling Instapundit and Captain's Quarters with my clever "misdirection." I would love to outsmart such luminaries, and then throw my head back with a hearty Dr. Evil laugh...but I think Hugh misreads my stance: I thought Zephyr's original post about the Dean campaign's alleged intent was news, which is why I reported it, just as I report an insider's rebuttal above, and as I've tried to clear up the roles of Kos and Armstrong. And I did feel that Hugh was wrong to agree with Bill O'Reilly when O'Reilly made a blanket statement that "nobody knew about this" (at least parts of "this" were well-documented in the press and weblogs) and wrong not to disagree with O'Reilly's subsequent statement implying a quid pro quo between the Dean campaign and the bloggers -- one of whom wasn't even blogging at the time. Should I have said that O'Reilly and Hewitt "swap lies" in the segment? Probably too harsh, O'Reilly was lying and Hewitt didn't object. Disclosure: I count Matt Gross as a friend. I would describe Zephyr as a friendly acquaintance. I met them both while covering the Dean campaign's innovative use of the web. I have never met Kos, but I admire his work. Ditto for Jerome Armstrong. UPDATE: Another prominent conservative blogger, John Cole, comes out in support of Kos and Armstrong. 11:39:00 AM    comment []

David Wharton: "There is a very strong conservative case for urban planning." 10:41:19 AM    comment []

Jon Lowder has an important post about newspapers and weblogs. Lowder lives in Winston-Salem, subscribes to the local paper, the Journal...but feels closer to Greensboro's N&R because of its blogs. "(I)n a way I feel it is my hometown paper.  And I think it's going to eat the Journal's lunch if the folks at the Journal don't act fast." Lowder's article is discussed in Jay Rosen's post, Bloggers vs Journalists is Over, which is must-reading for anyone trying to figure out what's going on in the news business. 10:39:59 AM    comment []

Allen Johnson: "Filing doesn't begin until July, yet the usually sedate City Council campaign already is percolating." The daily paper's op-ed boss (and soon-to-be blogger) reminds us that he's a reporter, too. Lots of big names and intriguing matchups in the mix. 10:17:00 AM    comment []

John Robinson lays out the News & Record's online strategy for print readers in his weekly column, and he credits local bloggers with paving the way: "The Greensboro story starts with its active group of citizens who blog." JR respects weblogs and their writers. That is a leap for the establishment media. That's the leap that makes the N&R's project worth watching. "Bloggers -- so-called because they write Web logs, which are online journals of news and opinion -- have changed the landscape of journalism and politics. They post stories and observations, and anyone with an Internet connection can read them, link to them and comment on them. Blogs put the power of worldwide communication into the hands of individual citizens." More: "Editors here want the newspaper and its Web site to become a virtual town square, a trusted place where people can read and write the news, share information, talk to each other and engage in community building." Read the whole thing. 10:05:52 AM    comment []

"Responsibility. Obligation. Consequences. Who talks like that in 21st-century America? If he's not careful, they'll throw him out of the television business." My newspaper column visits with old friend Tommy Schenck, who runs the Fox TV station in Raleigh and brings some unusual standards to the job. Read the whole thing. 9:52:29 AM    comment []