iPhone rumour unfounded

The rumour that a $99 iPhone would be making its way to Wal-Mart has been debunked.

Shoe thrower beaten, claims brother

Muntadar al-Zaidi (the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US president George Bush during a press conference) has been beaten in custody according to his brother.

al-Zaidi allegedly suffered a broken hand, ribs, internal bleeding and an an eye injury.

This is despite being hailed as a hero across the Arab world.

Goliath defeated

Word is that Hasbro has abandoned its lawsuit against the developers of the addictive Facebook game Scrabulous after they made changes that distanced their applications from the original Scrabble game.

Social media monitoring

From the research I've done Radian6 seems to offer the best service in this area - which media agency will pull social media analysis together best though?

Murdoch ventures underground

According to a report in today's Media Week, News International may launch a free London paper even if it fails to secure the afternoon distribution contract for the tube. The move would see the paper distributed outside underground stations by hand and in dumpbins. The plan is apparently just awaiting approval from chief executive Rupert Murdoch.

This may come as a surprise to many Americans but Murdoch is actually the lesser of two evils when it comes to freesheets in London. Associated Newspapers, which publishes the morning Metro, the Evening Standard and is favourite to win the evening freesheet on the underground, is anything but liberal in stance.

As Ken Livingstone, mayor of London, recently said of the group: "In reality, it is Associated Newspapers that has a long record of anti-Semitism and support for fascism. It welcomed the Black shirts in the 1930s. It has admitted that, as recently as the retirement party of the last editor of the Daily Mail, two of its staff dressed in Nazi uniforms and were not asked to leave. Associated Newspapers has never apologised for this or its record of support for fascism. "

The Guardian on 1 March 2006 also wrote: “Associated Newspapers have always led the charge against the policies that confront racism and anti-semitism. It praised the Blackshirts in the 1930’s, and admits that as recently as the retirement party of the last editor of the Daily Mail, two of its staff dressed in Nazi uniforms and were not asked to leave.”

And while we shouldn't be judged on the actions of our forefathers, here is what Lord Rothermere (aka Harold Sidney Harmsworth, great-grandfather of the current Lord Rothermere, who owns Associated Newspaper - pictured with his 'hero' above) wrote in a telegram to Adolf Hitler a year before World War II broke out: "My dear Fuhrer everyone in England is profoundly moved by the bloodless solution to the Czechoslovakian problem. People not so much concerned with territorial readjustment as with dread of another war with its accompanying bloodbath. Frederick the Great was a great popular figure. I salute your Excellency’s star, which rises higher and higher. "

Rothermere also wrote an article entitled ‘Hurrah For The Blackshirts’ in January 1934. Suddenly Murdoch doesn't quite seem so bad anymore.

Pollard quits Sky News

BSkyB have announced that Nick Pollard, head of Sky News for more than 10 years, is quitting, after a multimillion pound relaunch which failed to increase viewing figures. Pollard is credited with resisting any attempts by Rupert Murdoch to make Sky News as 'partisan' as sister network Fox News in the US. Admittedly, he has been helped by regulatory laws in Britain, under which broadcast news must be impartial - although anyone who can successfully keep Murdoch at bay for a decade deserves some credit.

Clarke attacks UK media

He argued it was fair that breaches of anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) should be punishable by up to five years' jail. And he claimed the ability to impose Asbos on individuals without trial did not contravene the principle that individuals are innocent until proven guilty.

(Source: BBC)

Charles Clarke today accused the UK media of perpetuating "myths" that his law and order agenda is an attack on human rights and civil liberties. Aside from all the other dubious contentions Home Secretary Charles Clarke makes (including his attack on the three liberal newspapers - the Guardian, Independent and Observer - for showing "general intellectual laziness"), this would appear to contradict everything he states. I wonder if Clarke could explain how the ability to place an anti-social behavioural order on an individual, which could lead to five years' imprisonment, without trial is not "destroying the rule of law"?

England's finest newspapers raise their prices

The Daily Mail and Daily Express have both increased their cover price by 5p.

In today's page two announcement of the increase from 40p to 45p, the Mail says it had put its price up "reluctantly" and reminded readers it was the first increase in five years.

(Source: The Guardian)

Whether this will put readers of The Daily Hate, er, Mail off purchasing England's most patriotic of newspapers only time will tell. Rumours that it is an attempt to price immigrants out of purchasing the "thick, grey tombstone of a tabloid" are strongly denied.

Give Murdoch some credit

Pan-stick palaver

The make-up people at Sky have had, er, a makeover to help them cope with the particular challenges of high definition TV. Traditional make-up, you see, isn't enough to cover the spots and blemishes for presenters on HDTV. So thick is the new stuff that it has to be applied with an extravagant device nicknamed the "blow-job gun" by Sky insiders. Delightful.

(Source: Media Guardian)

While the intention here is to poke fun at the people at Sky News with Monkey's (see the Guardian site) inside 'scope', I think the people at Sky have done a very clever job of conveying the improved quality of picture with HDTV. This is something they failed to demonstrate (for obvious reasons) in the adverts on regular television screens but appear to be more successful at with this 'leak' - which I wouldn't be surprised to see in The Sun or The Times (for similarly obvious reasons).

Welcome back to the free-world Buzz

I wonder if "Buzz" Patterson could explain exactly how Seymour Hersh has potentially placed the lives of US pilots in danger? He hasn't revealed any military secrets or uncovered any hidden government plans. Hersh was merely speculating about what he believes the US government plan to do next and stating his opinion.

Patterson clearly longs to return to the immediate aftermath of September 11 2001, when the American media was terrified of being labelled unpatriotic if it dared question its wise and noble leader George W. Bush. The former Air Force pilot implies that anyone who questions any of President Bush’s military decisions is endangering US troops and abetting the ‘enemy’. Clearly it would seem illogical to Patterson that the man who continues to set tens of thousands of men and women onto the war-path is the one who is risking American lives. Patterson was no doubt taught to never question and always obey those in power and it must be hard for him to ‘return’ to live in a society where people are allowed to form opinions of their own.

I think George W. Bush sums it up best with his now immortal line: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

Global crackdowns on democracy continue

Today brings news of continued silencing of the free media in Morocco, brutal crackdowns on demonstrations in Nepal, plans to increase fines for Iranians with satellite dishes (which allow them to receive foreign news) from £60 to more than £3,000 and also to jail women who are deemed to flout the regime's definition of Islamic morals, and, finally, news from China that Yahoo! helped convict a pro-democracy campaigner.

In the case of Iran it is important to remember that 65% of the population are under 25 and, as a result, are probably not irreversibly anti-West. However, if George W. Bush continues to make such inflammatory statements ("We are ready to consider all options, including military operations in order to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon," Bush said yesterday. "All means are acceptable in order to prevent the danger represented by Iran.") then Timothy Garton Ash's terrifying, but utterly plausible, vision (which I would urge everyone to read) could become a reality.

Bloggers beware

A tale of caution for any blogger that posts scandalous rumours or lies on the internet in the belief that it does no harm, and for any newspapers or TV station that report information found on the internet as the truth without a thorough fact check:

It later transpired he (Ilyas Kuncak, 47, a grandfather who ploughed his bomb-laden truck into the front of an 18-storey HSBC building) was driven to murder by Turkish press reports about American soldiers raping 4,000 Iraqi women. The reports, entirely erroneous, had been based upon a misreading of a blog posted by a Californian "sex therapist".

(Source: The Guardian)

Bloggers aren't breaking news stories just yet

MAINSTREAM media is increasingly monitoring blogs for story leads, according to a journalist-turned-blogger at a forum on free expression and cyberspace in Manila.

With a common goal to expose the truth, the mainstream media have now embracing blogging as means to engage readers in a "conversation," said Rebecca Mackinnon, co-founder of Global Voices, an aggregator of blogs around the world.

(Source: INQ7)

While it would be nice to see a situation in which bloggers are the one's breaking the news, in the vast majority of cases they are simply adding their two cents. Most bloggers lack the money and the resources to lead with new (newsworthy) stories and most are content to comment on what is reported by the mainstream media. That is not to say that it is not possible for a blogger to bring a story to the attention of the press. At a local level, where some newspapers may lack the resources required to send a journalist to cover a local council meeting or another seemingly unimportant event, a blogger may find he or she has an exclusive story on his or her hands. In this case, newspapers and TV stations may turn to the blog to discover what transpired. In the majority of cases though, it will be the mainstream press that breaks the news. However, it is important that media organisations still turn to blogs to see what news matters to its readers and how they react to it. Newspapers or TV stations that may have under-reported or ignored a particular news item may find that it is important to many people and be required or persuaded to report it as a result. The conversation must remain the two-way process that it is slowly becoming and the mainstream media outlets that ignore the voices of their readers, viewers and listeners do so at their own peril.

Kent State bans athletes from Facebook

Kent State University athletic department has joined Loyola University Chicago in banning its student-athletes from using the website Facebook. Kent State athletic director Laing Kennedy claimed that the move was purely intended to keep students safe from "weirdoes".

"In this day and age, there's enough weirdoes out there that we thought we should take a good hard look at it," Kennedy told WKYC.

Kennedy told the Daily Kent Stater that the athletic department's "interest is to protect our students".

"What really got our attention was that we had one student athlete that was contacted inappropriately," Kennedy told the university newspaper. "In checking that out, we discovered that there was personal information by a number of our student athletes on Facebook."

However, anyone accessing the university website can bring up the same information on students, including their home address and permanent phone number. While this information can be removed should a student wish, many probably remain unaware of just how much personal information is available at www.kent.edu. In contrast any information on Facebook is placed there by the user themselves and can be quickly removed. Additionally, unlike the university site, which is open to literally anyone with internet access, Facebook users must log in and can only view details of those who attend the same university or who are their 'friends'. Should we therefore presume that the university is only interested in the welfare of student-athletes?

If this was merely an issue of protecting the interests of the student-athletes the university would be better off educating them about potential dangers, which is exactly what the University of Colorado decided to do (even in light of offensive tackler Clint O'Neal and his girlfriend, cross country runner Jackie Zeigle, being accused of sending a racially threatening Facebook message to Hispanic cross country runner Greg Castro in December 2005).

"We're not going to get into the censorship business," sports information director David Plati told the USA Today in response to the potentially damaging situation. "We're just giving them smart advice."

Kennedy would be better advised to be honest and admit he is protecting his, and his department's, own interests. This is a case of an athletic department censoring its students and removing their First Amendment rights to prevent any potentially bad publicity that may be generated through Facebook. Instead they may just find that future athletes think twice before electing to compete at a school with such seemingly totalitarian policies.

Although in no way comparable, it seems rather ironical that this has taken place at a university which has a history of impinging on the rights of its students.

WKYC article
Daily Kent Stater article
USA Today article

Bloggers increasingly exerting disproportionate influence over society

According to a report by technology research company Jupiter Research, bloggers and internet pundits are exerting a “disproportionately large influence” on businesses and opinion. The study suggests that although ‘active’ web users make up only a small proportion of Europe’s online population, they are increasingly dominating public conversations and creating business trends. Companies like McDonald's and computer firm Dell have both fallen foul of internet buzz in recent years.

“It’s always been the case that vocal minorities are listened to by media organisations, brands, advertisers and marketers - normally because they’re thought to represent a wider swath of opinion,” said Tom Coates, a technologist with Yahoo! and prominent blogger. “TV and radio programmes are censored or pulled on the green-inked letters of a few hundred people, products removed from shelves because of less than 100 complaints. On that basis, these figures start to sound like a pretty large number of people, and probably a much more representative sample than perhaps before.”

(Source: The Guardian)

While it has always been the case that a relatively small number of people exert a disproportionately large influence on society, the advent of blogs and the Internet has given anyone with access to the net the opportunity to be part of that select group. Whereas in the past money and one's position in society determined whether the individual even had a chance to really influence anyone outside of one's immediate group, the creation of the worldwide web has led to an army of potential 'leaders'.

Russians protest against media clampdown by state

A thousand people protested in Moscow on Sunday against the government’s clampdown on independent media, five years after the Kremlin effectively took control of private channel NTV. The protestors, who included well-known television reporters who have lost their jobs, brandished placards reading “Today censorship, tomorrow dictatorship” and “Down with Kremlin-TV”.

The Daily Times reports on the backlash against the government clampdown on independent media in Russia. While this signals a dangerous intent to return to the communist days of total state control, at least it appears as though the Putin-led government is allowing some form of protest to take place. Perhaps the same thing should be happening in Italy now too.

China battles free-flow of information

China's government has told local TV stations not to use video from foreign sources to produce news bulletins. New rules ban the use of footage acquired from foreign satellite TV and other channels that are not state-run. Stations have been told they should only use news reports provided by the state-run China Central Television and China Radio International.

(Source: BBC)

Following the reports of crackdowns on the media in Iran and Belarus, comes the news that the Chinese government has banned local broadcasters from using foreign sources. The Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has reportedly called on the media to show greater "political and propaganda discipline".

Reporters Without Borders have called on members of the World Trade Organization to oppose the media restrictions just adopted in China. President Hu Jintao is visiting the US later this month and the group hopes that President George Bush will raise the issue with his counterpart.

"This reinforcement of protectionism by China is clearly aimed at increasing control of media content and is a new violation of press freedom," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.

After Google's submission to the Chinese authorities, this news appears to be another step back in China's international relations. The government in China knows that the internet and the media represent the biggest threat to their power and are doing everything they can to prevent a free-flow of information. Informed citizens are the biggest danger to an autocratic government and the officials in charge of China will fight any knowledge that seeps through with all the propaganda they have at their disposal.

Bloomberg misleads public over Iran's nuclear capabilities

Bloomberg yesterday ran the headline 'Iran Could Produce Nuclear Bomb in 16 Days, US Says' with the following reported underneath:

Iran, defying United Nations Security Council demands to halt its nuclear program, may be capable of making a nuclear bomb within 16 days, a U.S. State Department official said.

Iran will move to "industrial scale'' uranium enrichment involving 54,000 centrifuges at its Natanz plant, the Associated Press quoted deputy nuclear chief Mohammad Saeedi as telling state-run television today.

"Using those 50,000 centrifuges they could produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon in 16 days,'' Stephen Rademaker, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, told reporters today in Moscow.

However, later in the report Raedmaker reports that the Iranians currently only have 164 centrifuges in operation today and his '16 days' response was to how soon Iran could produce a nuclear weapon once it reached the "industrial scale" capacity. Seven paragraphs into the article, Raedmaker predicts that it would take at least 13 years for them to reach this stage. So why did Bloomberg choose to use such a misleading headline and spend the majority of the article pressing home this sensational statement? While this is something we have come to expect of British tabloids, it is disappointing to see an organisation that calls itself the "leading global provider of data, news and analytics" following the same path.