Author: tom

A fun read

Doug Marlette: “I Was a Tool of Satan.” I love a swell rant; this is his: With the rise of the bottom-line culture and the corporatization of newsgathering, tolerance itself has become commodified and denuded of its original purpose. Consequently,…

How they spent their Sunday

Mark Glaser at Online Journalism Review writes about how newspapers reacted to the Saddam story breaking at the worst time possible. Mainly it was about getting the sleep out of their eyes. One editor describes how the Web changes his…

Hunter Thompson breaks a leg

In my quest to link every scrap of Hunter S. Thompson news I happen across, I share the following: He’s back in Colorado nursing the leg he broke when he slipped on the bathroom floor of a Hawaii hotel. Thompson…

‘Why I Hate Weblogs’

An irate rant against blogs. Caution: F-bombs abound (for those who know me in person: not that there’s anything wrong with that.) Found via Weblog Hype, a new blog about the hype about blogs. For future reference: the arrival of…

The physics of Santa

Snopes.com points to a commentary which concludes, “If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he’s dead now.”

Rules for media critics

The latest BONG Bull contains these handy guidelines for media critics. Jackman Wilson of the Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard, serving a college burg that, like all college burgs, has a hundred press critics for every working stiff going into the icy…

Wondering about wireless?

Infomaniac points to a special report by CNN and Time. Oh, and just for fun, check out your Geek IQ (Mine was about 116).

BBC newsies must be impartial
in newspaper columns

A new ruling for BBC journalists says they can’t write newspaper columns on controversial issues. Non-controversial stuff like food is OK. Imagine that: Columnists forced to be bland. The great thing about America is that ours do it by choice.

‘Got Him’ and so forth

Testy Copy Editors mull the headlinage on Saddam’s capture. Consensus is that “Ace in the Hole” was a bad idea.