(TheNextWeb) – In a letter to its members last week, Associated Press made the announcement that bloggers should be cited as a news source. This is a significant move from the AP, given that they have a history of not exactly ‘getting on’ with bloggers. Given that such a large news organisation has made a point of recognising bloggers as a viable news source, which they should have done a long time ago, it has much wider implications on how bloggers affect the news agenda and overall news industry. Read the rest of this entry »

(KurtNimmo) – In the video clip below, CNN talking heads Kyra Phillips and John Roberts discuss internet journalism and the Sherrod case. “Imagine what would have happened,” says Roberts, “if we hadn’t taken a look at what happened to Shirley Sherrod and plumbed the depths further and found what had been posted on the internet was not in fact reflective of what she said.”

Too bad this self-righteous attitude was nowhere to be found when it was discovered that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. It was obvious well before Bush and the neocons invaded Iraq that Saddam Hussein did not have nuclear and biological weapons. Iraq had nothing to do with al-Qaeda. It did not buy yellow cake in Niger. Read the rest of this entry »

(CNN) – Anchors Kyra Phillips and John Roberts discussed the “mixed blessing of the internet,” and agreed that there should be a crackdown on anonymous bloggers who disparage others on the internet. Video Link Here

(June 2) – Calls Increase for Government to Regulate Internet Journalists and Bloggers Read the rest of this entry »

(KurtNimmo) – Outrage is rising over a Michigan lawmaker’s plan to introduce a bill to license bloggers and internet-based journalists.

“State Sen. Bruce Patterson is introducing legislation that will regulate reporters much as the state regulates hairdressers, auto mechanics and plumbers. Patterson, who also practices constitutional law, says the general public is being overwhelmed by an increasing number of media outlets — traditional, online and citizen generated — and an even greater amount of misinformation,” Fox News reported on May 28. “Legitimate media sources are critically important to our government,” he said.

The establishment idea that “legitimate” media sources “are critically important to our government” is hardly a new idea. Read the rest of this entry »

(ABC27) – Harrisburg, Pa. – The state attorney general’s office has issued a subpoena threatening officials of the social networking service Twitter with arrest unless they reveal the names of two bloggers who have been critical of Attorney General Tom Corbett and his public corruption investigation.

The subpoena orders Twitter’s custodian of records to provide “any and all subscriber information” pertaining to the accounts “bfbarbie” and “CasablancaPA,” including name, address, contact information, creation date, and Internet protocol address.

The accounts have criticized Corbett’s use of grand juries, suggesting he used the investigations for political gain and to go after political opponents.

The Twitter representative was supposed to appear before the statewide investigating grand jury on May 14 to “give evidence regarding alleged violations of the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.” The court document does not specify what crime is being investigated. Read entire article

(Telegraph) – The American blogosphere is going increasingly “viral” about a proposal advanced at the recent meeting of the Davos Economic Forum by Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer for Microsoft, that an equivalent of a “driver’s license” should be introduced for access to the web. This totalitarian call has been backed by articles and blogs in Time magazine and the New York Times. Read the rest of this entry »

(Telegraph) – The American blogosphere is going increasingly “viral” about a proposal advanced at the recent meeting of the Davos Economic Forum by Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer for Microsoft, that an equivalent of a “driver’s license” should be introduced for access to the web. This totalitarian call has been backed by articles and blogs in Time magazine and the New York Times. Read the rest of this entry »

(ShellyRoche) – Since I’m following various recent assaults on our Internet freedom & privacy pretty closely, I found this… interesting (or maybe I’m just another, er, “crazy blogger”): Read the rest of this entry »

(ShellyRoche) – Since I’m following various recent assaults on our Internet freedom & privacy pretty closely, I found this… interesting (or maybe I’m just another, er, “crazy blogger”): Read the rest of this entry »

(MeetThePress) – Message from Meet the Press: the Internet is disinformation, the corporate media is the truth. Read the rest of this entry »

(Reuters) – U.S. health authorities are turning to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in a bid to prepare people to be vaccinated against the pandemic H1N1 virus. Read the rest of this entry »

So yet another Bush administration Cabinet-level official has petitioned to get his conscience and reputation back. This time, it’s Tom Ridge, former secretary of Homeland Security. The one-time Pennsylvania governor admits in a new book that he felt political pressure from the White House to issue bogus terror alerts before the 2004 presidential election. Read the rest of this entry »

In a move destined to garner less attention than cap-and-trade or health care, Barack Obama’s choice for the position of Information Czar could have drastic implications for the conservative blogosphere. Read the rest of this entry »

Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, may soon have the power to classify millions of Americans as domestic terrorists. An amendment to H.R. 2647 (the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010), introduced by Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida, would grant Holder absolute authority to decide who is a terrorist. Read the rest of this entry »

A stinging attack by John Hartigan, the CEO of Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited, labels bloggers and alternative media outlets as “political extremists”. Hartigan implies that bloggers should be jailed as they are in oppressive police states like China and Burma. Read the rest of this entry »

Why has the stock market been on a 3-month tear when the economy is undergoing the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression? The S&P 500 has shot up 40% from its low on March 9 and the Dow Jones Industrials have followed close behind. Is this a typical bear market rally or is the invisible hand of the Fed goosing the markets? Read the rest of this entry »

HR 1966 has cleared the House and now faces the Senate as S.909, the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (officially, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act). The bill is expected to sail through the Senate as it did in the House. It will provide federal assistance to the states, local jurisdictions, and Indian tribes to prosecute hate crimes, and for “other purposes.” It creates special protective status based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability. Read the rest of this entry »

What has happened is that bloggers have blown the support columns out from underneath traditional media and the people who run the show don’t like that.

Dprogram Needs Your Support – Please Donate So That We Can Continue to Bring You Expansive Coverage of the Days News Read the rest of this entry »

(Mike Whitney) – The trouble started 24 months ago, but the origins of the financial crisis are still disputed. The problems did not begin with subprime loans, lax lending standards or shoddy ratings agencies. The meltdown can be traced back to the activities of the big banks and their enablers at the Federal Reserve. Read the rest of this entry »

(BBC) – Iran continues hostility to western media, threatening harsher action if ‘interference’ in country’s affairs continues Read the rest of this entry »

(Times) – Thousands of bloggers who operate behind the cloak of anonymity have no right to keep their identities secret, the High Court ruled today Read the rest of this entry »

Proposal ‘comes close to making it federal offense to log onto Internet’

A new proposal in Congress is threatening fines and jail time for what it calls “cyberbullying” – communications that include e-mails and text messages that “cause substantial emotional distress.” Read the rest of this entry »

A Tory who criticised Gordon Brown to his face in a brutal personal attack has won an army of fans worldwide.

A video of MEP Daniel Hannan delivering a withering assessment of the Prime Minister’s handling of the economic crisis has become a surprise hit on the internet. Read the rest of this entry »

A Tory who criticised Gordon Brown to his face in a brutal personal attack has won an army of fans worldwide.

A video of MEP Daniel Hannan delivering a withering assessment of the Prime Minister’s handling of the economic crisis has become a surprise hit on the internet. Read the rest of this entry »

If the cable and phone companies that transmit Internet data are allowed to charge higher rates to some producers for faster service the result will be “a ten pin strike against political freedom,” a prominent legal authority warns.

That’s because the change will enable the wealthy to “quickly take over the high speed transmissions (for their trash commercial content) just as they completely monopolize radio and TV, and just as their incredibly greedy profit-seeking has had a very deleterious effect on print journalism,” writes Lawrence Velvel, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover.

Read the rest of this entry »

If the cable and phone companies that transmit Internet data are allowed to charge higher rates to some producers for faster service the result will be “a ten pin strike against political freedom,” a prominent legal authority warns.

That’s because the change will enable the wealthy to “quickly take over the high speed transmissions (for their trash commercial content) just as they completely monopolize radio and TV, and just as their incredibly greedy profit-seeking has had a very deleterious effect on print journalism,” writes Lawrence Velvel, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover.

Read the rest of this entry »

Israel has announced that it is setting up a network of bloggers to combat websites deemed “problematic” by the Zionist state, presumably to propagandize about the necessity of killing babies and infants in the name of self-defense. Read the rest of this entry »

Further evidence has emerged revealing how the Pentagon is in the business of responding to blog posts critical of the U.S. government. Noah Shachtman, writing for Wired, posts an Air Force flowchart used for “counter-blogging” purposes. Read the rest of this entry »