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April 08, 2004

Iraq updates
: The uncivilized bastards are still holding three innocent Japanese civilians.

Fromthe bloggers:

: Zeyad has many updates from Baghdad: Sistani finally issues a fatwa calling for calm... Zeyad sees frightening parallels to the uprising against the British in 1920 and "it troubles me because that would mean that Iraqis have not matured as a people for the last hundred years" ... more...

: Alaa advises:

I can tell you without any hesitation that you get a much better insight by reading us than all the media reports. Please don’t believe what they are telling you about us. Some of the bloggers are Shiaa like myself, and some are Sunni like Ziad, and about this you will find our feelings are quite similar both regarding the zombies of Fallujah or the thieves of the Mehdi Army. My family is hiding in the house with doors locked and bracing for trouble.
I don’t know if it has been wise to open this front at this particular time. But sooner or later it just had to come. I hope that you all realize that this is the true battle for Iraq, and that the fight against Saddam was easy compared with this. Because now all the demons of peasant thievery and savagery have been let loose, and it will be a hell of a job trying to put them back in the bottle. But if you study history you will find that it is doable, with a bit of firmness.

: Omar reports on the thugs:

:: The "Islamic resistence" called for a general strike in Baghdad next Saturday. A shop keeper told me this morning that the "resistence men" ordered him to close his shop before afternoon and that he should also close the shop on Saturday.
Leaflets have been distributed cotaining a call for a strike with a threat that says "anyone who disobeys this order shall be punished".

: Firas says:

are we staying home? No……Are we seeing any fights in streets? No……... Also we meet people from Sadir city and Adhamiya city every day and they are attending their jobs, and not standing against coalition forces……. Also I hade a phone call from a relative in Basrah and he said its calm and the damn media is lying as usual.

: Khalid jokes:

People are making jokes about how americans won't handle control to Iraqis...cause they dont have it at the first place:)

: Brace yourself for the anniversary.

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The blog reality show
: So now even AOL is creating its own reality show. Donald has a reality show. Mark Cuban has a blog.
So why not combine all this and create an online blog reality show?
You already live your life online and in public on the blog. Add in more players. Add in video. Add in audience participation (let the people decide what you do next). Get publicity. Get advertising. Fame. Fortune.

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The Daily Stern: Bulletin

: FINED: As predicted, the FCC just minutes ago issued a $495,000 fine relating to Howard Stern against -- get this! -- Clear Channel Communications. They got the maximum because they've had so many bad bits late, the FCC said.

Today, the Commission issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture against Clear Channel Communications, Inc., for apparently willfully broadcasting indecent material in connection with the “Howard Stern Show” program.... The Commission proposed a total of $495,000 in forfeitures against these Clear Channel stations, representing the maximum statutory amount of $27,500 for each of eighteen total apparent indecency violations.
The Commission proposed imposition of a forfeiture for the maximum statutory amount because of parent Clear Channel’s recent history of airing indecent programming.

I'm going through the order now. More in a minute...

: The alleged sin this time:

The material at issue includes dialogue between cast members regarding the sexual practices of certain program cast members and a discussion with a guest regarding “Sphincterine,” a purported personal hygiene product designed for use prior to sexual activity.

We can't even joke about sex in this country anymore.

You see, they just love it when they get the double play of sexual and excretory talk. They even got pissed (pardon me) because the show played fart sounds. Nevermind that every third grader in the world makes fart sounds for playground humor. It offends the FCC.

Given the detailed discussion of the sounds and smells associated with excretory activity and oral sex, which were accompanied by the sound effects of flatulence and were dwelled upon, it is clear that the material was used to shock and pander.

I find it odd in so many ways that they went after Clear Channel, which, of course, dumped Stern in February and which -- judging by the ruling -- did not put up much of a fight.

: Stern has an immediate response up on his web site:

"This is not a surprise. This is a follow up to the McCarthy type "witch hunt" of the administration and the activities of this group of presidential appointees in the FCC, led by "Colin Powell Jr." and his band of players. They and others (a senator from Kansas City to a congresswoman from New Mexico) are expressing and imposing their opinions and rights to tell us all who and what we may listen to and watch and how we should think about our lives. So this is not a surprise. It is pretty shocking that governmental interference into our rights and free speech takes place in the U.S. It's hard to reconcile this with the "land of the free" and the "home of the brave". I'm sure what's next is the removal of "dirty pictures" like the 20th century German exhibit in a New York City Museum and the erotic literature in our libraries; they too will fall into their category of "evil" as well.

: Michael Copps, the most frightening FCC commissioner, brags:

For the first time, the Commission assesses a fine against more than a single utterance, rather than counting an entire program as one utterance. In addition, the Commission makes clear that its indecency enforcement will address not only the station that is the subject of a complaint, but also any other station that aired the same programming.

: AND MORE: They also hit Mancow for $14k.

: UPDATE: DROPPED: Well, this isn't news: Clear Channel, which had "suspended" Howard Stern now officially fired him. No big deal. Except... Clear Channel acknowledges that it did so because of the government fines and government pressure. So this is direct government control of what appears on the air.

"Mr. Stern's show has created a great liability for us and other broadcasters who air it," said John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio, in a news release. "The Congress and the FCC are even beginning to look at revoking station licenses. That's a risk we're just not willing to take."

: HUH?: I just looked up Michael Powell's 1999 speech to the Media Institute accepting their Freedom of Speech Award -- oh, bitter irony. Soak in this rousing defense of free speech and condemnation of government regulation of speech a condemnation of just what he is doing now:

You see, in law school I deeply disliked the First Amendment. Its application seemed random and fuzzy. To my mind, it seemed foolishly to sanction reprehensible behavior—KKK demonstrations, Nazi marches, hate speech, violent and profane public displays. I grew up respecting government and could not comprehend how these behaviors and expressions could be valued so highly and the State trusted so little.
In my current position, however, I have gained a deep and profound respect for the wisdom of having an unwavering principle that stands at the summit of the Constitution, and holds: "Government shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech."
When Government compromises this commandment, the Governor enjoys unbridled discretion to favor, and at times direct, the content of the voices we hear and the images we see. Undoubtedly, the Governor that takes such liberty with the Constitution believes he does so out of benevolence, the greater good, or the "public interest." But, this is not the covenant the people made in surrendering limited authority to the State. Benevolent or not, we did not sign away to a Philosopher-King the responsibility to determine for us, like a caring parent, what messages we should and should not hear.
Our forefathers understood that Governors have an innate instinct to misuse power for their own self-interest, and that the power to abridge speech and information is the most potent instrument of all. That self-interest may be direct, like lavishly spending public taxes on personal needs, or subtler like choosing messages that promote the viewpoint of a favored constituency or to curry favor for political gain. Either way, the temptation to do so is too great, perhaps irresistible, and thus the Governor should not imbibe the wine of content control without deeply compelling justifications....
When one looks at the tortured rationale for finding broadcasting uniquely undeserving of First Amendment protection, one gains new respect for the founding father's fears. The reasoning for bending the Amendment is as gnarled and twisted as a foreboding tree on Halloween....
Finally, all of this is not to say that we citizens should not be outraged by violent, sexually explicit, or other offensive sights and sounds. Or, that we have to necessarily endure a barrage of insulting, shameless images in deference to the almighty advertising dollar. We are the customers, it is our preferences that the media must ultimately serve, and thus we must be willing as a society to exercise that power to get what we want. We certainly should turn off, tune out, walk away, and raise our voices when disturbed by what is peddled to us. But, we should think twice before allowing the government the discretion to filter information to us as they see fit, for the King always takes his ransom.

Where's that award hanging now, Chairman Powell? In your bathroom?

: MEANWHILE, AT ASHCROFT'S PLACE: See Eugene Volokh today on what he fears comes next out of the Justice Department's war against pornography. He says either the crackdown will be ineffective because foreign pornographers will provide; or the government will use this as an excuse to impost China- and Iran-like filters on the Internet; or they will go after the consumers instead of the producers. Scary times.

: PREVIOUS DAILY STERN POSTS: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here.

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Air America capitalism
: Man, there are a helluva lot of unpaid public-service spots on Air America. And there are no ads on the AirAmerica web site. Is that because:
(a) Liberals are bad at business and haven't sold the ads,
(b) Liberal businesses are cheap and don't buy ads,
(c) The liberal demographic isn't appealing,
(d) It's secretly a not-for-profit socialistic enterprise.
If I were an investor in Air America, I'd be screaming like a stuck pig. The network got so much attention, I can't believe it didn't get more advertising (even at friendly introductory rates). Hell, you'd think the folks advertising on BlogAds would be advertising on Air America!

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BloggerCon: Making Blogs Make Money

: Here's my description of the BloggerCon session I'll be in on Making Blogs Make Money:

For those who want to make money blogging -- and that is by no means everyone -- this session will do three things:

First, everyone in the room -- and elsewhere, speaking through comments here or here and through IRC during the session -- will add ideas about the value of weblogs and how to make money with them. The broader and longer the list, the better: from selling ads to selling things to selling blogging services to selling access to readers to... whatever. The hope is to create a menu of ideas for creative bloggers to use to try to support their efforts.

Second, we will list what's missing to make this possible. In some cases, that will be services, such as standard measurement of weblogs' audience and traffic. Or that will be alliances, such as ad networks across similar. Or that will be standards or software or... whatever. The hope is to inspire the entrepreneurial and technical and organizational geniuses of the blogosphere to provide what it needs to prosper.

Third, we will list the dangers that lurk in mixing business and blogging -- for example, how to maintain credible distance from advertisers and complete transparency about advertising relationships while taking money from those advertisers.

At the end, we hope to see a white board -- and many, many blogs -- filled with ideas and needs and next steps to support and grow this new medium.

: Please make LOTS of comments here or here with ideas so we start the discussion with tons of them, which I'll compile before the session.

: See Rick Bruner's suggestions for a business model for Boing Boing. See Boing Boing's request for just such ideas.

: UPDATE: Cesar Brea has a fascinating take on the business of blogging and adds up what we're all already spending on this obsession.

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G-mail
: Esther Dyson gets past the hysteria over privacy -- the most overused word of the age, I'd argue -- with Google's G-mail and finds benefit to what they're doing (it's like someone on the street seeing you staring at a map and giving you directions). If you don't want to use G-mail, don't. If you want to get a free service, that's the price.

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Condi
: Condi Rice has been doing a very good job in her testimony before the 9/11 commission. Richard Ben Veniste, on the other hand, is an ass, acting like a prosecutor getting his moment in the TV sun. He's hostile and political. That kind of behavior is both unproductive, it harms the mission of the commission and its reputation and thus the veracity of the report it will issue.

: Bob Kerrey says: "It's not a war on terrorism. It's a war on radical Islam. Terrorism is a tactic."

: Kerrey is acting like Dennis Miller did when he interviewed Eric Alterman. Petulant little boy.

: Kerrey also goes political. Rice said Bush was tired of "swatting flies" and wanted to go after al Qaeda. Kerry asked what flies he swatted and says he didn't swat any. "How the hell could he be tired?"
Rice gives it back a few minutes later and quotes a Kerry speech saying that the best thing we could do after the attack on the Cole was to go after Saddam Hussein. "It's an asymmetic approach... It was a brilliant way of thinking about it. It was thinking about it strategically, not tactically."

:Kerrey says in front of Rice, "We don't want to use the N-word in here." Exactly what N-word are you referring to, Senator?
: Update: Jason Calacanis says it was "M-word" as in "mistake." I made an M-word.

: UPDATE: On Al Franken's Air America show, Michael Kinsley said he hates to say this on Franken's show but he feels some sympathy for Rice and Bush because Washington is a town that engages in "orgies of hindsight."
If anyone truly had known what was going going to happen they would have done something to stop it, of course, he says. A reasonable voice.

: LATE UPDATE: Tom Shales says Condi won:

If it were to be viewed as a battle, or a sporting event, or a contest -- and of course that would be wrong -- then Condoleezza Rice won it. Indeed, the national security adviser did so well and seemed so firmly in command of the situation yesterday, when she testified under oath before the 9/11 commission, that one had to wonder why the White House spent so much time and energy trying to keep her from having to appear....
As usual, Rice was a model of dignity and composure, even when some commissioners got testy.... She probably could have done the whole thing with a teacup and saucer balanced on her head. She's that cool.

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Influence
: John Hawkins at Right Wing News has been digging through the Alexa ratings to find the top political bloggers. But even though Alexa is the only traffic measurement that cuts across all sites -- which is a big issue for this new medium if we want to get attention from advertisers and media -- it is imperfect, for it measures only those who happen to use the Alexa toolbar. Hawkins still wanted to try to rank influential political bloggers, so he switched to another -- and, in some ways, more telling -- measure: links. He went to Technorati, Daypop, Blogstreet, and the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem and counted how many links went to the top 100 political blogs on his list; he weeded out those that didn't make the top 100 on at least 3 of the 4 measuring tools; he threw out the low score; and then he ranked the 29 influential political blogs left. (I'm flattered that you've put me there even though I don't always write about politics.)

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The Daily Stern

: THE NEXT FINE: The Wall Street Journal says Stern is about to get the next fine for as much as $495,000.

: HOLD YOUR HORSES: Republican Senators were trying to push their indecent indecency legislation through on a fast track but they hit a speed bump:

Republican-led efforts to get a quick vote on legislation that would increase fines exponentially for broadcast companies and individuals committing indecent actions on the airwaves appeared to run into trouble Wednesday.
While Senate majority leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., was pushing lawmakers for action, objections by Democrats to a vote with a minimum of debate and lawmakers' desire to leave town for the annual spring recess make immediate action difficult.
Late Wednesday, Frist aides said that he was still hopeful the Senate could pass the bill before they leave, but aides to other high-ranking senators and lobbyists working on the bill thought enough senators were objecting to a quick vote that the effort would stall.
"I think there are enough senators concerned about it that it won't go through on unanimous consent," one lobbyist said....
While the underlying bill raising the fines broadcasters and individuals would pay for indecent broadcasts to a maximum of $500,000 has broad support, there are provisions in it that cause problems.

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