Last update: February 27, 2007 08:56 PM (All times are in UTC)
February 27, 2007
For most press photographers standing in the rain is an occupational hazard; even so the equipment we use does not operate well when wet. Imagine then the challenges faced by news photographers when torrential rain floods a nation’s capital city, leaving more than 340,000 people displaced and knocking out transport and communications. After 24 hours of [...]
February 27, 2007 06:00 PM
New Orleans Times-Picayune: News photographers denied access to LHSAA’s girls state tournament. Several newspapers, including The Times-Picayune, were denied access to photograph the state girls high school basketball championships Monday night when they refused to sign a document limiting the right of newspapers to resell their photos to the public. If I was the editor of [...]
February 27, 2007 05:59 PM
Two kid-centric media giants, Disney and Nickelodeon, have recently launched new online interactive social networks that target the 14-and-under crowd with games and customization — and placate parents with secure, kid-safe chat functions.
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February 27, 2007 05:35 PM
For the past several years, in every talk I’ve given about what traditional journalism organizations could do to involve communities in the reporting, I’ve suggested a “Pothole Map” — a mashup where citizens post the location of street potholes. Bakersfield.com has done it – well, part of what I suggest. The other part would be to [...]
February 27, 2007 04:36 PM
They call it the “city of lights,” and we saw a whole line of new creations at a Paris fashion show yesterday in which the models wore their own elaborate light fixtures. Why didn’t somebody think of this sooner? If you’re a chick who likes to be in the spotlight, take the spotlight with you! There [...]
February 27, 2007 02:16 PM
Dear Blog Guy, You must see a lot of gross stuff in your line of work, what with foreign reporting and everything. I know foreigners eat a lot of strange things - what’s the weirdest dish you’ve heard of recently, and how far would you have to travel to get it? Food Lover Well, Food Lover, this week [...]
February 27, 2007 02:11 PM
OpenCongress “brings together official government data with news and blog coverage to give you the story behind each bill” before the national legislature. Lots of intriguing ideas, and well worth a look. (Note: One of the site’s funders, the Sunlight Foundation, has provided funding to us for a separate project.)
February 27, 2007 01:06 PM
Tonight was round two of our classroom interviews. Choire Sicha sat down with us; he’s the “Managing Editor” of Gawker, but he doesn’t really like the title. After an 18 month hiatus, Sicha returned to the position after writing for the New York Observer.
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February 27, 2007 05:31 AM
Hollywood’s big party is now over, and the town can put the Oscar race of 2006 behind it. There is no doubt that the best film win by Martin Scorsese’s crime thriller “The Departed” left many movie fans happy. Scorsese, who has helmed movies such as “Raging Bull” and “GoodFellas,” also won the Oscar for [...]
February 27, 2007 12:10 AM
February 26, 2007
The red carpet is one of fashion’s big nights. Here’s a look at what some are saying about last night’s choices and more pictures from show here: Penelope Cruz InStyle magazine said the Best Actress nominee was the best dressed of the evening, calling her ”stunning in a Versace gown, braided chignon and Chopard diamond earrings.” USA Today praised her [...]
February 26, 2007 06:05 PM
It was the most diverse Oscar night ever, certainly by the nominations. Plenty of awards were won by foreigners, too. Best Actress was Brit Helen Mirren, who played Queen Elizabeth in “The Queen.” Seven of the ten vying for best actress and est supporting actress were foreigners, New Zealand’s TVNZ noted ahead of the ceremony. Graham King, producer of Best Picture ”The Departed,” [...]
February 26, 2007 05:47 PM
Wow. Good times. We all remember the classic I Love Lucy episode where Lucy really wanted to meet Liberace, so she stuffed lots of peacock feathers and other camouflage in her belt and crept onto his stage, but it turned out she was dragging that curtain with her, and his candelabra caught the curtain on [...]
February 26, 2007 05:24 PM
It turns out a 107-year-old guy in Hong Kong has attributed his longevity in part to decades of sexual abstinence, according to a newspaper report. Chan Chi was quoted as saying he gave up sex when he was 30. Now, this isn’t going where you think it is. No cheap comments like without sex maybe [...]
February 26, 2007 05:16 PM
If you decide to go on a date with somebody you met on the Internet, it’s probably easier to hide the fact that you’re already married than it is to keep pets a secret. There’s hair on everything you wear, you have those sticky lint rollers in your car, and when you dig in [...]
February 26, 2007 04:36 PM
The telecast of the 79th Annual Academy Awards didn’t win many fans among some TV reviewers. What did you think? Share your comments below. Washington Post critic Tom Shales called the telecast “alternately a bore and a horror.” He said “the number of big, emotionally rewarding moments was infinitesimal,” and that host Ellen DeGeneres did “a crisp [...]
February 26, 2007 03:50 PM
Automatic espresso machines and streamlined store designs are symptoms of the furious growth to 13,000 stores at Starbucks Corp. - and, it seems, the loss of some cafe magic. Or so considers Chairman Howard Schultz in a memo to executives posted on starbucksgossip.com last week. The company has confirmed the authenticity of the memo, Nichola Groom reports, with some suggestion from a [...]
February 26, 2007 10:58 AM
I wanted to say a little about the launch last week of a new Reuters Africa website and to answer some of the points already raised by bloggers and journalists. Under the Reuters Trust Principles we’re committed to covering the world in an even-handed fashion. Africa tends not to make the international headlines outside war and [...]
February 26, 2007 10:33 AM
Pressure on Romney to firmly address Mormon faith It bans alcohol, caffeine and tobacco, maintains that no one goes to hell, the dead can be baptized and God speaks through living apostles and prophets such as the church’s current president, Gordon Hinckley. In the recent article about Romney you said that Mormons maintain that no one goes [...]
February 26, 2007 03:01 AM
Please relay my appreciation to Dylan Martinez for his absolutely wonderful photograph of the Queen and her grandson, Prince Harry, on the (deserved) front page of this morning’s Los Angeles Times. It is such a sweet image of a proud grandmother and her just-as-proud grandson. It doesn’t get better than that. Beautiful, Mr. Martinez. Thank you. Kathleen V.
February 26, 2007 03:00 AM
Things can’t be that bad, right? I mean, here! Look! One union was able to reach a deal between workers and owners of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette just hours ago! So, that means everyone’s happy, right? Not if you look at the fine print on the contract.
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February 26, 2007 01:56 AM
The New York Sun wants to shine all by itself. The broadsheet hopes to launch a national political blog with a hometown spin.
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February 26, 2007 01:23 AM
February 25, 2007
Yesterday’s Beyond Broadcast session on the future of public access TV was a valuable conversation. As expected, my earlier suggestion, which I hoped would generate a lively conversation — to phase it out with a blast of training for citizen media creators — wasn’t greeted with universal praise (ahem). It was definitely lively, and we talked [...]
February 25, 2007 11:34 PM
Net Neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet. However, activists fear that telecom companies may also use this power to discriminate between traffic types, charging tolls on content from some content providers.
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February 25, 2007 08:40 PM
The BBC News’ profile of Perez Hilton offered some rather scathing commentary on his blog. While the piece mostly functioned as a basic profile of Perez, I couldn’t help but notice Briggs’ description of his commentary.
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February 25, 2007 06:50 PM
I’m not sure the last time a middle-aged man with fuchsia pink hair, an inane sense of fashion, an alter-ego, and a blog following in the millions was a remote definition of "normal," average or routine – but hey – this is America.
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February 25, 2007 06:46 PM
Britney, Anna, and Nowak. What do they all have in common? The have the ability to capture headlines for days on end. Britney Spears chops of her hair and we all of a sudden have in -depth coverage of her antics.
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February 25, 2007 04:59 PM
A recent post from one of the blogs on Urbanhonking links to a Business Week article in which music exec Dave Allen claims that no one on earth is capable of making a living off blogging.
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February 25, 2007 04:52 PM
Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay's blog is still plugging along. This isn't news per se, but the blog's description is just great.
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February 25, 2007 04:42 PM
I'm not sure if I'll even watch the Oscars this year, especially after last year's Best Picture winner.
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February 25, 2007 04:11 PM
Is it just me or does it seem like the media catches on to one new restaurant and then sticks with it until way past the time when the audience is either bored of hearing about the latest food craze or completely interested and dying to try it?
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February 25, 2007 04:03 PM
This week XM and Sirius, the two main satellite radio companies agreed to merge. Considering there aren’t really any other radio satellite companies out there, this is a big deal.
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February 25, 2007 03:14 PM
Pierre Bayard’s book “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read” helps non-readers to do just that. His book is already so popular that it’s already a candidate for translation. Bayard supposedly addresses the funny need to know everything and explores the psyche and guilt or embarrassment of NOT reading in a well-read culture. Who knew reading and non-reading was so traumatic? Not I…nor do I have much sympathy.
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February 25, 2007 02:52 PM
Senators aim to revise Iraq mission, reduce troops In October 2002, the then Republican-majority Congress authorized Bush to take military action in Iraq primarily because of what the Bush administration said was a threat of weapons of mass destruction. Your story contains misinformation. You claim the Republican controlled Congress in 2002 gave Bush the war authority. [...]
February 25, 2007 02:06 PM
The article titled - “”Miracle” ends hiatus for gospel singer Armstrong” that I just read has a picture of the wrong Armstrong. The article is speaking of gospel recording artist Vanessa Bell Armstrong but there is a picture of Lance Armstrong (of no relation). I wanted to know if the correct picture of Vanessa can [...]
February 25, 2007 02:04 PM
Univision will be hit with a record-setting $24 million fine over content labeled as educational programming for children, content which did not meet the FCC's standards.
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February 25, 2007 01:35 PM
Let’s face it: protests are bad publicity for politicians. So when the press attempts to cover protests inside the office of this Rochester congressman, the solution is easy: ban the media. Fortunately for us, someone got a camera in anyway. Check it out after the jump.
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February 25, 2007 01:27 PM
There’s only room for one Eliot Spitzer on the Internet. Just ask the man himself. Spitzer is poised to steamroll his opponents yet again—this time, over web real estate. More after the jump.
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February 25, 2007 01:22 PM
Gawker’s video creates a (partially inaudible) buzz. More after the jump.
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February 25, 2007 01:16 PM
February 24, 2007
Jack Shafer, in “When bad financial news for newspapers is good news for journalism,” thinks the implosion in stock value of newspaper companies — and newspaper sales for well below what they’d have brought only a few years ago — is potentially good news for journalism. It pops the bubble that had carried newspaper valuation beyond [...]
February 24, 2007 09:39 PM
I’m at the Beyond Broadcast conference in Cambridge, Mass., where MIT professor Henry Jenkins, author of the important recent book Convergence Culture, was keynote speaker. I’ll be co-heading a workshop latger about the future of public-access television — the channels on local cable systems that carry locally generated programming, generally by non-professionals. Jason [...]
February 24, 2007 04:15 PM
A travellers looks out from a train window as she leaves the railway station of Hefei, Anhui province, after the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays February 22, 2007. A number of migrant workers who was back home for Lunar New Year have left home again and began to return to their working posts for livelihood [...]
February 24, 2007 03:17 PM
Just wanted to let you know that yours is the only site where I can quickly view equities that I trade on non-US exchanges (such as TSX). I really appreciate the fact that I can get a current quote on these issues with no trouble whatever, and it keeps me coming back to the Reuters [...]
February 24, 2007 03:14 PM
Inflation worries and forecasts for a dry U.S. summer sent shivers through CBOT markets this week, with corn reaching a 10-year high and soybeans at 2-1/2 year top. Traders expect volatility to keep climbing as we move into the spring planting and summer growing seasons — traditionally the most volatile times of [...]
February 24, 2007 12:19 AM
60 Minutes creator Don Hewitt may be a year older than Alaska Sen. Ted “Trucks and Tubes” Stevens, but he’s down enough with the Internet that he’s pitching online video to the students at New York University. The Village Voice reports that Hewitt “is plotting his next news magazine. Only this time, it’s going to be online, created for [...]
February 24, 2007 12:03 AM
February 23, 2007
The producers of “The Producers” have decided to close up shop. The show, which broke box-office records and won more Tony Awards than any other show in Broadway history, will close on April 22, three days after its sixth anniversary on the Great White Way. The 12-time Tony winner was an instant smash when [...]
February 23, 2007 09:48 PM
It’s hard to imagine ever improving on that great movie, E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial, and yet, here they are filming what obviously will be a shabby, low-budget remake, in Chile. The old magic just doesn’t seem to be there this time around, especially in the movie’s most breathtaking scene… Wait, maybe that’s not what’s going [...]
February 23, 2007 06:53 PM
BusinessWeek’s latest edition kicked JetBlue out of its first-class seat, but its baggage stayed on board. The magazine’s March 5 cover story profiles the top 25 companies in terms of customer service, as ranked by consumers polled by sister company J.D. Power & Associates. JetBlue, before the hours-long tour of the JFK tarmac it gave a [...]
February 23, 2007 05:54 PM
Wimbledon buries another old custom Billie Jean King’s reward for capturing the 1968 title was 750 pounds ($1,463) while Australian Rod Laver received 2,000 pounds for his triumph. While Laver received 37.5 percent more than King on that occasion, the pay gap between 2006 champions Roger Federer and Amelie Mauresmo equated to just 4.6 percent. Do you have [...]
February 23, 2007 04:46 PM
February 22, 2007
Reuters: Egyptian blogger jailed for insulting Islam. An Alexandria court sentenced an Egyptian blogger to four years in jail on Thursday for insulting both Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Abdel Karim Suleiman, a 22-year-old former law student who has been in custody since November, was the first blogger to stand trial in Egypt for [...]
February 22, 2007 10:36 PM
Big, big news in journalism today: First, read this press release from Reuters about the launch of its Reuters Africa site. The mission: to cover Africa in detail and from all angles, to give a wider sense of the issues and their contexts, and to explore the individual countries and cultures. Reuters Africa will target both those [...]
February 22, 2007 04:36 PM
