« July 07, 2004 | Main
| July 09, 2004 »

July 08, 2004

Let's play Whom Do You Trust?

: Go read these two posts by Glenn Reynolds showing why we should and do trust Iraqi bloggers more than major media covering Iraq. And read this from Iraqi blogger Omar:

It seems that some people in the major media still think they’re the only ones who have eyes and ears and cameras and that ordinary people cannot have access to the information except from the major media outlets. They underestimated the prevalence and the effect of the internet in connecting people to each other and making the readers in direct contact with real eyewitnesses at the scene of events. I hope this will serve to make them more careful in the future on what to report, or make sure that they report from a place in which there are no bloggers. Here is the L. A. Times correction.
Thanks to all the bloggers who helped to reveal the truth this time, and thank God for the Internet.

And thank God for you, Omar.

LINK | Comments (30)

A picture is worth a thousand censored words

: The mullahs have blocked even Hossein Derkhshan's photoblog.

LINK | Comments (16)

Times puffery

: Can't believe the puff piece The Times gave to Amplify, a service that lets you cut and paste pieces of sites onto a proprietary page format and share it. First, this has been tried a half-dozen times before with absolutely no success; no mention of that. Second, this is an invitation to violating copyright: People can copy pieces of your site and call it theirs. This, from reading The Times story, it appears that the elements aren't actually stored on the "amp" but are direct-linked (that is, if you put a popular photo on your site, these amps, it seems, call the photo from your server without going to your page with your name and brand and advertising and so you get all the bandwidth costs and none of the glory).

Naive editing.

If Circuits editors read Rafat Ali and Steve Rubel, they would have at least provided a few "buts" in the story.

LINK | Comments (79)

Terror alerts become terror yawns

: CNN on air is harping on Tom Ridge's announcement that terrorists might strike before the elections. But there's no news in that. Nothing new. No specifics. Just another maybe with a low credibility alert.

LINK | Comments (50)

Blogging the convention, followup

: I still want to see a complete list of the bloggers who got credentials to the convention (and those who did not). This is an issue of skewing coverage: Imagine of the Democrats tried to keep FoxNews out; it's just as bad keeping a right-wing blogger out. I want to see all perspectives.

Michele left the troubling news in the comments below that Command Post didn't get credentialed and that's shocking and just dumb, for it is the best citizens' news weblog out there.

More updates in the comments here.

Come on, DNC: Cough up the lists.

: UPDATE: Kevin Aylward at Wizbang reports that two bloggers were disinvited from the convention. Bill at INDC Journal writes about his disinvite here. And John Tabin writes about his here.

Come on, DNC, this is the age of transparency. Show up the other guys by not only inviting bloggers but by not being afraid to invite bloggers who may dare to disagree.

DNC: Reinvite them.

: UPDATE: Susan Mernit reports these folks are in:

Dave Weinberger and Aldon Hynes are among the bloggers who have been credentialed by the DNC--and they will be blogging the convention. Dave Winer , Jay Rosen, Taegan Goddard and Kos are going as well.

: UPDATE: Jay Rosen has a letter from the DNC saying it was all logistics, not leanings: They accepted too many bloggers and then had to reject some. I don't buy it. The equation is quite simple: We have this much room; we're going to invite this many. Transparency, folks, transparency.

: CyberJournalist is keeping a list of those going. I also want to see a list of those turned away.

: UPDATE: Some useful convention notes from Aaron Bailey, who's putting together a convention aggregator and who reports there'll be no wi-fi on the floor because TV interferes.

LINK | Comments (21)

WSJ & RSS

: The Wall Street Journal writes about RSS today and they made the story a free link.

LINK | Comments (11)

Insurance inefficiency

: Health care better become an issue in this campaign, for the state of things keeps getting worse as it gets more expensive and inconvenient. But it's not just doctors and hospitals that need reforming; it's insurance companies. They are adding more and more rules in its effort to save money by harrassment -- if we make it really tough and expensive to get this prescription, maybe he won't take it, goes the logic. But what this really does is add more work and thus more expense in doctors' offices. It's a vicious cycle and it's not getting better.

In Todays' NY Times, Jeff Madrick writes:

Americans spend some 14 percent of gross domestic product on health care, while other advanced nations spend an average of 8 percent. In the United States, the proportion may rise to 18 percent by 2013.

Yet in general, judging by life span and infant mortality, most developed nations are healthier than the United States....

What may surprise readers, and certainly surprised this writer, is that Americans, by paying so much more, do not have many more services. In fact, according to recent research, they typically have fewer. Consider the number of doctors. In 2001, the United States had 2.7 doctors per 1,000 people, compared with a median of 3.1 in the countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. France, accused of having a doctor shortage in last summer's heat wave, had 3.3 per 1,000.

Also, consider the number of hospital beds. The United States has only 2.9 hospital beds per 1,000 people, compared with the O.E.C.D. median of 3.9. Germany has 6.3. The United States is also behind in the actual days spent in a hospital and hospital admissions per capita. These are not necessarily bad in themselves, but the question is why we spend so much.

The reason for the high level of American spending, argue the researchers - Uwe E. Reinhardt of Princeton and Peter S. Hussey and Gerard F. Anderson of Johns Hopkins - is that American doctors and hospitals charge much more. Americans also usually pay significantly more for drugs, they say, and administration expenses are exorbitant.

Administration expenses are exorbitant.

I can't wait until Hillary is president. We will get health care reform then. Just as Bush the younger finished Bush the older's job in Iraq, I hope Clinton the Mrs. will finish Clinton the Mr.'s work -- and her own work -- in health care.

LINK | Comments (49)

Yelling F you is OK on a landline, though

: MobileWhack finds that Sprint has a guide to mobile phone etiquette:

Don't display anger during a public call. Conversations that are likely to be emotional should be held where they will not embarrass or intrude on others.

F that.

LINK | Comments (12)

The mostest

: I enjoyed this counterpoint of superlatives this morning:

: In the LA Times, Tim Ruttan wails about the state of journalism today -- ahem -- and decrees:

Its slogan notwithstanding, Fox News is the most blatantly biased major American news organization since the era of yellow journalism.

: Meanwhile, over at aforeslammed FoxNews, Bill O'Reilly decrees:

The Kerry-Edwards ticket is the most liberal ever.

: And I will decree: Media competition is causing media people to use the word "most" the most times ever.

LINK | Comments (18)

Wonkette's a star! She'll be bigger than Martha Quinn!

: MTV hired Wonkette Ana Marie Cox to cover the conventions. I've been pushing for AMC to go on TV since I first met her. Smart move. Now they'll have to hire on extra censors....

LINK | Comments (10)