MSNBC's "White Ho" reporter

Screen shot of gaffe -via MediaBistro. Oops!

"Massive rally" in Azerbaijan

Did you miss this story from the Guardian (via AP)?

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) - About 10,000 opposition protesters chanted "Freedom!'' and carried pictures of President Bush as they marched across Azerbaijan's capital Saturday, urging the government of this U.S. ally to step down and allow free parliamentary elections this year....Supporters of several opposition parties chanted "Freedom!'' and "Free Elections!'' while holding placards with such slogans as "Down with robber government!'' Some carried a picture of Bush with the inscription: "We want freedom!''

[via Alarming News]

Where are all the Western protesters?

Mugabe bulldozes his way through homes of those who voted for opposition. Story here.

"Nobody watches traditional commercials anymore..."

Advertising on TV in the future will gravitate toward more product placement on shows: "New object-tracking technology allows viewers to click an item in the shot of a TV show -- say, the cool cell phone at the lead character's ear -- and find more information about the product or even buy it with the remote control." [Story is in Wired Magazine ]

Maybe they can also figure out a way the viewer can 'click and drag' on an image of a TV journalist to find out whether they're receiving compensation for their endorsements... [see NBC's Tech Editor on the Take ]

Chip implant makes "Dumbest" list

Applied Digital Solutions' much-trumpeted chip implant for humans has secured a spot on The Street's "Five Dumbest Things on Wall St. This Week." Of course, this will likely have no impact on media's love of producing shallow, uninsightful stories on the chip.

"Freedom Exists in Saudi Arabia for Religious Extremists Only"

So says Dr. Ali Alyami, Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia  www.cdhr.info:

"Religious extremists in Saudi Arabia make up the only segment of Saudi society that can issue decrees (Fatwas), move as they wish and implement their views without any restrictions or retributions. Religious zealots are the only party in Saudi Arabia that is funded by the government and they have unlimited vehicles (mosques) to form, express and implement their venomous views. They decree political, social, economic and religious edicts that typically have dire consequences for the Saudi population and other nations and peoples worldwide. They call for Jihad against people of other faiths, the segregation of genders, and impose a society that severely limits people’s choices and movements.

They view all forms of entertainment -like dance, the cinema or theatre- as bent to corrupt peoples’ souls and distance them from God and the King. The condemnation of the Saudi pop singer is only one small example of the crimes the Saudi religious extremists commit against the captive Saudi population on a daily basis. Contrary to the ruling family’s overt promises to fight extremism and terrorism in Saudi Arabia, the opposite seems to intensify and gain in strength."

Newspaper boots online columnists, goes for "blog-driven approach"

According to a former Roanoke Times columnist (I'll cover this in an upcoming article), the RT booted at least 6 online columnists -"mainly the web-only commentators on life, religion, and politics"- to make room for what it perceives as innovation. The change came with the hiring of a new editor from the midwest. The former columnist I spoke to said "They said people didn't like reading long columns, instead they wanted something more interactive." The columnists were offered the opportunity to start their own blogs, and the paper would link to them, but the newspaper would no longer pay them. Said the columnist, "The blogs on there now are the typical assortment from crap to insightful.  ..I just think they gave up some serious, well-researched columns and replaced them with blogs.  I don't know why they couldn't have coexisted."

Here's the form letter dismissing the columnists: (note the newspaper's assertion that "the day of the narrative, 1,000-word, expository column has largely run its course.")

Here's the blog page on Roanoke Times: http://www.roanoke.com/columnists/blogs.html

On Felt, Watergate

Jim Pinkerton on the great "unidirectional press flood."

E&P's Greg Mitchell on Felt's other legacy: "My Secret Life with W. Mark Felt."

Newspaper: Prison program for 'nostalgic' knitting dropped

'Inmates somehow get contraband.' This [sic]is some of the things they have in the prison…

New journal on national security law & policy

Avid readers in the field of national security may want to check out the new Journal of National Security Law & Policy, a peer-reviewed journal published by the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. The goal of the journal is to facilitate an effective interaction between the legal community and experts in practical aspects of national security. Writes Dean Parker: "First, our domestic legal community -bench, bar and academia -and the legal system they interpret and protect have been poorly prepared for the perilous times in which we live. Within this community there has been only limited appreciation of the practical demands of national security, as well as a lack of understanding of the legal structures that historically have guided our nation's security activities. In short, the domestic legal community has seen national security policy and law as beyond its purview. It has failed to recognize its ability to contribute to orderly solutions in a newly-disordered world. Second, members of our community of national security experts have seldom been students of our constitutional and legal structures and systems. They sometimes possessed only a layperson's appreciation of the often subtle and always complicated features of the law. Thus, they have not been well-prepared to identify and implement national security solutions that give appropriate weight either to international law or to constitutional and domestic legal considerations....."

WashPost Thurs "epic" edition covers Felt in detail

Read more here http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000943837

Also up on WashPost: Deep Throat blog. Soon to be released: book on Deep Throat.

I'll be on "The Right Balance" radio show tomorrow

I'll be on Greg Allen's The Right Balance - @ 11:06 tomorrow. You can listen online here. Or check the Accent Radio Network listings to see station list.

Miss the AIM Radio Report?

It will be broadcast over the next 24 hours. You can listen online at www.rightalk.com

Special thanks go to our guests, terrorism expert and author Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld and Mike Vlahos, who is part of the National Security Assessment team of the National Security Analysis Department (NSAD) at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Go to this site for more information about Vlahos, as well as links to recent papers and monographs. His monograph "Terror's Mask: Insurgency Within Islam" can be accessed online here.

Go here to read more about Ehrenfeld's legal situation. Some more Ehrenfeld links are:

Funding Evil, Rachel Ehrenfeld, IRA + PLO =Terror and the American Center for Democracy.

AIM Report is on the air at 2 today

You can listen online at www.rightalk.com  Joining me will be Mike Vlahos of Johns Hopkins University and author Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld. Vlahos is the author of the monograph "Terror's Mask: Insurgency Within Islam" and Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld is the author of "Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop it." We'll be discussing the big picture of the world-wide Islamic insurgency and how a Saudi billionaire has targeted Dr. Ehrenfeld following her publication of allegations he was extensively involved in the financing of terror operations.

I'm on the radio

On Greg Allen's The Right Balance - @ 11:33. You can listen online here.

Desecration of the Korean

A Reuters correction: Please read in second paragraph "had uncovered Koran abuse"  instead of "had uncovered Korean abuse"

A Chicago Tribune correction: A Page 1 caption Tuesday should have said that a Muslim cleric was protesting the reported desecration of a Koran. Because of a typographical error, the word "Korean" appeared instead of "Koran."

Meanwhile, in the Miami Herald April 17 Travel section, an article described China's Great Wall as ''the only man-made structure visible from the moon.'' Then they posted this correction: "It is not visible from the moon." No, really?

And then in keeping with the Florida theme, the Orlando Sentinel posted this 'stop-the-presses' correction: The "Fred Basset" comic strip on Page E8 of Tuesday's Life & Times section may have created the impression it is safe for dogs to eat chocolate. That is not the case.

[courtesy of Regret the Error, Craig Silverman's very funny blog.]

I'll be on the radio this afternoon

On Blanquita Cullum's Newsbeat. You can listen online here. Time: 2:43 pm.

Gannon's story left critics tarnished, too

Here's a thoughtful Boston Globe piece on the frenzy over Gannon. The comments on how bloggers continued to make conspiratorial allegations with no support are a much needed nuance and provide such a welcome balance to the issue. Some have assumed my articles/blog postings on the issue were a siding with/ ideological defense of Gannon. Not so. They were a defense of responsibility, rationality, accuracy and balance in the reporting. While there was no end to pointless speculation as to who Gannon may have been personally involved with in the political world, the squawkers weren't out there burning shoe leather and coming up with facts/proof. In the blogosphere mere imagination suffices when it comes to 'connecting the dots,' and too often such speculation becomes equated with proof. The former is the stuff of conspiracy theory; the latter, the stuff of real investigative reporting.

I'll be on the radio this morning

On Greg Allen's The Right Balance radio show. Time: 10:06 am. Show runs on 10 Accent Radio Network stations. You can also listen online @ http://therightbalance.org/listen.html

Reading the Newsweek retraction

Craig Silverman of Regret the Error has some interesting (and humorous) comments on his blog about the Newsweek mess.  

Newsweek Editor Mark Whitaker previously said this in an interview: "We're not retracting anything. We don't know what the ultimate facts are." Which led Regret the Error to respond:

"Just so we're clear: you don't know what the truth is with this story, so you're just going to leave it out there without a retraction? This is awful and embarrassing. Whitaker should strongly consider stepping down. The information may have come from an administration official, but Whitaker and his staff decided to run with it, and now they admit to having no idea what the facts are. That's unforgivable."

Silverman also notes that Whitaker began his Editor's Note with this question: "Did a report in NEWSWEEK set off a wave of deadly anti-American riots in Afghanistan?"  Silverman responded: "Whitaker never gets around to answering his own question, so we'll supply the response: Yes, a report in Newsweek set off a wave of deadly anti-American riots in Afghanistan. And it looks like the report wasn't true."

Perhaps Newsweek would prefer "People who said they were reacting to the Newsweek story, set off a wave of protests that turned deadly."

He's also right in noting that Newsweek all along, and with their retraction, has used language indicating they are leaving the door open for further investigation and a "last word" they may be more comfortable with.

"Whitaker is very specific about what they are and aren't retracting. They are retracting the story that 'an internal military investigation had uncovered Koran abuse at Guantanamo Bay.' But they aren't retracting the idea that the Qur'an was used as a tool in interrogations. Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but this retraction suggests to us that Newsweek might dedicate some staff resources to see if they can find anyone to confirm the allegation that the Qur'an was indeed desecrated during interrogations. As sick as it may seem, that's really the only way for the magazine to clear its name in this mess. This retraction leaves the door open for them to do so. We'll see what happens."