Category: Other

Katrina & the Waves

NY Times has a photo of a woman video taping the hurricane Katrina as waves come in next to here. Citizen journalism on acid?

By the way, check out the difference in effect between the first photo of the woman on the beach, and when you click to enlarge the photo. Then you suddenly see her quarter-back boyfriend next to her. Not quite as dramatic is it?

Link via Lost Remote.

Bloggers bite back

There is an episode in the fifth Friends’ season when everybody finds out about Chandler and Monica. The best part is when Phoebe decides to have a little fun with Chandler by pretending she wants to sleep with him. But Chandler realizes it is because “she knows” and plays along, because “they don’t know that we know that they know”. Chandler says:

“Ah yes. The messers…become the MESSEES!”

A person who could have said the same, is Marc Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. He was interviewed via email by the New York Times about the sale of Register.com, a company in which Cuban owns a 13.2 per cent stake. When the article was published, Cuban felt he was grossly mis-represented and decided to publish the email conversation on his blog so that others could decide for themselves.

B.L. Ochman has a good comment on the story:

“Interestingly, the publication of the raw material opens the story to different interpretations by bloggers and other journalists. In the long term, that will add to the credibility of reporting in all its forms.”

Of course, it doesn’t add to the credibility of this particular article, which seems to be a work with a predetermined angle. But in a larger perspective, Ochman is right.

Every blog post is an ad if you are a Kentucky lawyer

Today I’m glad I’m not based in Kentucky, because then I would be walking on very thin ice (because of our blawg). The Kentucky Attorney’s Advertising Commission has decided that each blog post is an ad, which in the Kentucky lawyers’ code requires a “A filing fee of $50.00 for each advertisement” and for every change in the advertisement. How ironic that the blawg who started it all is Ben Cowgill’s Legal Ethics Blog. Hopefully Ben will be able to continue with his blog eventually.

Blogs are mental viruses?

In an unsigned article in Expressen, the signature “Ankan” (the duck) takes pole vault athlete Patrik Kristiansson in defense after overhearing some political editor gloating over his misfortunes. Couldn’t agree more, but why blame this act of schadenfreude on blogs? The journalist writes “Reality shows and blogs are mental viruses that are morally corrupting the brains of Sweden’s intellectual elite.”

“Nej, det är dokusåporna och bloggarna som är de mentala virus som håller på att moraliskt fördärva landets intellektuella elit. De är alla smittade, deras hjärnor blir allt ruttnare, deras samveten är bara svagt tynande lågor.”

Perhaps it’s a joke, but I don’t get it. It’s a bit ridiculous to come from a tabloid that has made it into an art form to exploit reality shows.