THE BLOGGING JOURNALIST

News Corp Has Big Plans for MySpace.com

A March 31, 2006 Reuters/Hollywood Reporter report says, "While News Corp.'s recently acquired online community destination MySpace.com is thriving in its current form, the media giant already is devising plans to make the site even stickier and more profitable, possibly by acquiring so-called "Web 2.0" properties, enabling transactions between members and adding subscription offers."

To read more, please see "News Corp. has grand plans for MySpace."

Why MySpace Removed 200,000 Profiles

"MySpace.com removed 200,000 "objectionable" profiles from its network to address fears of Internet security, the Financial Times reported," according to United Press International.

"The site removed profiles containing either hate speech or risqué content," the wire service said in a March 31, 2006 dispatch to its clients. For more, please see "MySpace removes 200,000 profiles."

Good Advice for Young Bloggers

"Be it the details of a weekend drinking binge or the intimacies of a personal relationship, young adults should think twice before telling all online, experts say," according to Gail Koch in a March 30, 2006 article in The Star-Press.com, "the online news source for East-Central Indiana."

For more, please see "Bloggers Should Think Twice Before Telling All."

Bloggers and Privacy

Michael Seringhaus, described by the Yale Daily News as "a fifth-year graduate student in molecular biophysics and biochemistry" whose "column appears on alternate Thursdays," says in a March 30, 2006, article:

I've had it with blog users and their double standard of personal privacy. The reasoning goes like this: Bloggers are free to choke the Internet with drivel and pepper their tedious memoirs with keywords that ensnare innocent Google users. But if a stranger should stumble upon their blogs and actually read what they have published, this "trespasser" stands accused of invading their privacy.

"This happens more than you might think," Seringhaus added. "On one blog I used to read, the author proudly declared that an abundance of law school fee waivers had allowed her to buy a $500 pair of shoes. When some uninvited reader commented that such behavior perverted the intent of fee waivers, she freaked out, squealed about shattered privacy and deleted her entire blog."

I seriously doubt Seringhaus' scenario applies to all bloggers. Besides, bloggers are not a separate species. Everything you find in the non-cyber world you find in the blogosphere, including people who can dish it out but can't take criticism. That's the world in  general.

Is the Blog as a Rebellious Medium Dead?

A March 31, 2006, article in the National Post and Financial Post of Canada contends that, "Without being too melodramatic, the blog as a disruptive and rebellious medium could be dead. Perhaps the most obvious indication blogs are becoming part of the mainstream is Time magazine's recent decision to hire two high-profile bloggers -- Ana Marie Cox and Andrew Sullivan -- to write for the magazine and the Web site."

"Instead of being dismissed as just forums for online rants or digital diaries written by broken-hearted teenage girls," Mark Evans asserts, "blogs have quickly emerged as credible communication tools."

That's why bloggers shouldn't worry about the naysayers. Blogging is and always has been a credible communications tool. A study of history shows that, every revolution is met with resistance by the old guard until the new order emergences. Even then, there will continue to be resistance and people in the new order will drop out. But, that's ok. Revolutionaries don't make good politicians anyway.

For more, please see "Time's bold move into blogs."

Why Tony Ridder Didn't Buy the San Jose Mercury News

"Tony Ridder wanted to buy the San Jose Mercury News, the newspaper where he spent most of his career in journalism, but he has given up his plans to avoid a minefield of potential conflicts of interest," reports the Sacramento Business Journal.

"I did want to buy the Mercury News," Ridder told reporter Timothy Roberts in a telephone interview. "But I don't any more. The lawyers have advised me I can't negotiate to buy it while I'm still CEO."

Roberts' March 30, 2006, article, headlined "Potential conflicts keep him out of Knight Ridder bidding, CEO says" has news about others interested in buying one or more of the 12 Knight Ridder newspapers that McClatchy Company, who bought the 32-paper Knight Ridder chain March 13, 2006, does not intend to keep.

Transcript of Baghdad Television Interview With Jill Carroll

After holding her captive since January 8, 2006, Christian Science Monitor Special Correspondent Jill Carroll's kidnappers decided to release her March 30, 2006, as you've probably heard of read. As might be expected, the release generated considerable commentary in the U.S. and abroad. Her release prompted the Monitor to publish "A statement from the Christian Science Board of Directors on Jill Carroll's release." package of articles today on Carroll's release.

The Monitor has another interesting

Here's a CNN transcript of Carroll's father, Jim Carroll, speaking to reporters on March 30, 2006. Here's a CNN transcript of a Baghdad Television interview with Jill Carroll.

Jane Hamsher Analyzes 'Domenech's Downfall'

"The brutal three-day career of Ben Domenech, the WashingtonPost.com's newest ex-blogger, was characterized by Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell as "a f****n' disaster." Nobody is quite sure how it came to pass," writes firedoglake's Jane Hamsher in a March 30, 2006 post at Alternet.

To read more, please see "Domenech's Downfall." Note: The Domenech and Washington Post links were added to give readers background on the Domenech affair.

Post's John F. Harris Comments on 'Red America' Blog Debacle

On March 30, 2006, Editor & Publisher reported that, "In one of his regular online chats today, Washington Post national political editor John F. Harris criticized the paper's Web site for hiring short-lived "Red America" blogger Ben Domenech, pointing out, among other things, his lack of credentials."

E&P published "the entire exchange, kicked off by a reader's question." To read it, please see "'Wash Post' Political Editor Hits Domenech Web Hiring."

Note: Links are not in the original article. They were added to give readers background on the Domenech affair.

Did Bloggers Influence Kidnappers to Release Jill Carroll?

K.C. Jones at TechWeb News reported March 30, 2006, that "Web links from 193 bloggers aided in the efforts to free American journalist Jill Carroll, according to Technorati." Does this mean that Carrroll's kidnappers were influence by the blogs?

For more, please see "Nearly 200 Bloggers Helped Free Journalist, Three More To Go."

Kentucky's WTVQ Interviews Bloggers About Blogging Cops Case

Mark Nicholas, proprietor of BlueGrass Report in Lexington, Kentucky and Leland Conway, publisher of the Conservative Edge political blog, were interviewed by WTVQ Channel 36 in Lexington for their perspectives on the case of the suspended blogging cops.

According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, Six Lexington cops were, "administratively charged" March 29, 2006 "after an internal investigation into comments and photos they posted on the popular Web site MySpace.com."

Recommended: 'The Shifting Legal Landscape of Blogging'

Jennifer L.Peterson, "an associate at LaFollette Godfrey & Kahn" in Madison, Wisconsin, has an important article in the March 2006 issue of Wisconsin Lawyer headlined "The Shifting Legal Landscape of Blogging." I strongly encourage every Blogging Journalist reader to carefully study it as it you've been hit with a defamation suit. Her conclusion:

Blogs are changing the way people communicate. By their nature, however, blogs may not fit neatly in the private/public figure distinction in defamation law, established more than 30 years ago, or the framework of the Communications Decency Act, passed fewer than 10 years ago. Although the law has yet to catch up with this new technology, everyone should be aware of their blogging rights and responsibilities as well as the rights of those they criticize and discuss in blogs.

Peterson, a member of LaFollette Godfrey & Kahn's "litigation and media law teams," according to the bio accompanying her article, also wrote:

As a practical matter, every blogger should know and understand basic defamation standards and the parameters of immunity applied pursuant to section 230. Future blogging defamation cases likely will refine the parameters for liability and immunity with courts basing their decisions, at least in part, on the context of the blog at issue.

Again, I highly recommend Peterson's article. Also see "Local Legal Experts Warn Of Potential Risks Of Blogging."

Mini-Microsoft Takes a 'Blog Break

Who da' Punk, a Microsoft employee who publishes Mini-Microsoft , a blog that agitates for a Microsoft to become a "lean, mean, efficient customer pleasing profit making machine!," announced March 29, 2006:

I'm going to take a bit of a blog break and let things cool down here. It's been a heck of a couple of weeks and I, for one, need to recharge. I'll check-in occasionally to moderate, but I'll be far more focused on the deeper meaning of Red Hook than blogging. Cheers to you.

I wish Who da' Punk would reconsider. Mini-Microsoft is a good counterpoint to Robert Scoble over at Scobleizer. Scoble does a good job of evangelizing for Microsoft. However, an alternative voice is always good. I guess I'll give some of the other Microsoft bloggers a try.

By the way, I wonder whether Who da' Punk is feeling heat from his employer.

Journalist Jill Carroll Finally Released

I'm pleased that Christian Science Monitor Special Correspondent Jill Carroll  was released from captivity in Iraq on March 30, 2006. Her release, after being held since January 8, 2006, prompted the Monitor to publish "A statement from the Christian Science Board of Directors on Jill Carroll's release."

Carroll's interpreter was killed during her kidnapping.

According to Editor & Publisher, Carroll's mother, Mary Beth Carroll of Evanston, Illinois, said she owes "a debt of gratitude I could never repay to the staff and editors of The Christian Science Monitor both here and around the world for all their work on her behalf." She also thanked Reporters Without Borders for their help. Many Muslims also worked to free Carroll.

See the blog Mental Mayhem for very good coverage of Carroll's release.