Monday, January 31, 2005

Payola to "journalists," and now this...Who is Jeff Gannon? (via O-dub) 6:20:27 PM    comment []

Howard Coble spoke bravely about our lack of planning in Iraq...now he's hinting that he may not back Bush on Social Security. Go Howard. 6:17:54 PM    comment []

September, 1967: US encouraged by Vietnam vote turnout despite Vietcong terror threat (via Dave Winer). You can tell I'm heartened by yesterday's results. But let's remember that we haven't won yet. 6:12:48 PM    comment []

Greensboro 101 announces editorial board. Online alt-media continues to define itself. 6:09:50 PM    comment []

GOP briefing book on Social Security reform. Enjoy! UPDATE: Josh Marshall is reading it carefully. 6:06:08 PM    comment []

I think the US Soldier is off base, so to speak, with this post from Iraq saying the media was wrong to harp on the dangers facing voters yesterday. Not covering the threats would be irresponsible, and I can't imagine that the possibilty of carnage was any kind of surprise. His closing line is more on target: "I hope everyone at home is as jacked up as we are about how things went yesterday." 6:03:04 PM    comment []

ACC Hoops: Carolina caveat "Carolina has not yet proved itself in a really tough road game, or against a top-notch opponent playing its best (GA Tech is good, but they were beginning a swoon when they came to Chapel Hill). So let's not award the Tar Heels any titles just yet." 12:54:57 PM    comment []

Doug Clark, middle-aged white guy, seems an unlikely advertisement for newsroom diversity. But Clark, a conservative editorial writer for the N&R, represents something often perceived as lacking at newspapers: ideological diversity. His new weblog shows how the web might begin to remake a paper's image. However diverse newsrooms actually are, they are almost certainly more diverse than they are perceived to be by the public, or than can be conveyed under the old rules of limited space and stylistic uniformity. Those surveys showing the preponderance of liberal journalists create a false picture of uniformity, because they don't tell you much about the particlar views held by individuals on specific issues. They don't tell you how people come to their conclusions. That's changing. Doug Clark's voice is already part of the News & Record, but it's been heard only in unsigned editorials and once-a-week columns. Now he can sing solo. A reader who hits Doug's blog, and reads his comments over at religion writer Nancy McLaughlin's blog -- itself a welcome addition to Greensboro's conversation, and another window into the N&R's own internal culture -- starts to see that the newsroom is already a more complex and interesting place than the daily print edition can show. More comments from more readers, and more blogs from staffers, should continue this process of discovery and connection. 12:21:00 PM    comment []

N&R: Letters as blog entries Beginning Tuesday, letters to the editor that are published in the News & Record also will be available online in a Web log format daily at blog.news-record.com/staff/letters/. We're adding this feature for two reasons. First, the blog format will enable readers to discuss and comment on each individual letter. Second, it will enable bloggers and other online writers to link directly to an individual letter, rather than just to a Web page containing multiple letters. We hope this change will make the online version of our printed letters to the editor more useful as reference material and as topics for public discussion. Anyone wishing to post comments online directly may do so at one of the News & Record's forums. The links are listed at www.gotriad.com/forum/forumlist/9/?UserSectionID=13. 7:13:50 AM    comment []

NYT: "Message from Iraq" (lead editorial): "And in an impressive range of mainly Shiite and Kurdish cities, a long silenced majority of ordinary Iraqis defied threats of deadly mayhem to cast votes for a new, and hopefully democratic, political order. That is a message that all but the most nihilistic of the armed insurgents will have to accept...For now at least, the multiple political failures that marked the run-up to the voting stand eclipsed by a remarkably successful election day." 7:10:43 AM    comment []

Eric Muller goes to work on Thomas E. Woods and his best-selling  "Politically Incorrect Guide to American History." Muller: "Woods' book is like Malkin's, except that its thesis is that everything most people know about all of American history is leftist garbage. "No small task, eh? And Dr. Woods does it in just 246 pages. With wide margins, no less!" Woods, feted on MSNBC and Fox News, is a co-founder of the League of the South, a neo-secessionist group with some unseemly ideas about race and American culture. Lots of links and background at IsThatLegal. Muller: "With an eager and sycophantic right-wing media machine to bring Woods' words to an enormous audience, the Old South has reason for optimism." UPDATE: Instapundit continues the beat-down. "As a political force, neo-Confederate sentiment is pretty trivial at the moment, even compared to the decaying remnants of Marxism. But that's no reason not to smack it down when it appears." He also points to negative reactions to the book cited by Powerline. 7:06:59 AM    comment []

Triangle blog conference, Chapel Hill, less than 2 weeks away. 6:33:04 AM    comment []