Recently in Blogging Category

I've only been following this from a distance, but apparently Associated Press has a problem with bloggers quoting its articles. They sent nasty letters to Drudge Retort demanding they take down quotes, and the reaction in the blogosphere has been, well, predictable.

The latest round? After appearing to back off, AP set up a tollbooth for quoting as few as 5 words. At $2.50 per word, no less.

I wonder how that affects me. I'm not a non-profit organization, so I wouldn't qualify for their discount. But I don't have ads, so can't be classified as a commercial activity, either.

Fortunately, there may be some relief coming later this week. As a hobbyist, I can't afford the consequences of quoting the article directly, since it was written by an AP reporter. Instead, I'll quote random words and phrases from numerous other AP articles:

New York - The Associated Press, following criticism from bloggers over an AP assertion of copyright, plans to meet this week with a bloggers' group to help form guidelines under which AP news stories could be quoted online.

If you want to read the article I didn't quote, try here.

I hope that AP comes to it's senses soon - this is hard!

Update: Ace counter-offers.

Was to blame for those of you that could not get here over the last day and a half.

Apparently, cPanel mangled one of the server alias lines in the apache configuration during an update. I could see the blog's files through an FTP program, but going to the blog or Movable Type through a browser got a post-installation screen for cPanel.

Once I alerted Hosting Matters, they got right on it and fixed it yesterday evening. Thanks to Annette, who has fixed a couple of glitches for me in the past.

After months of complaining (and getting nowhere), I've noticed that Blogrolling is finally working again. Every ping this week has gotten through with no errors.

To whoever fixed it, thank you.

I mentioned Friday that I had an early work day - well, I wound up staying late, and spent most of the weekend working as well. There are some short notice requirements from a customer driving the workload, and I'll be putting in long days all this week.

Being busier than normal at work is never really a bad thing, because it means job security and an opportunity to pit myself against a few extra challenges. But a byproduct is that my free time is diminished, so I must prioritize what I have a little more carefully. Unfortunately, this means little or no time for blogging.

So, there will be little or no posting here at Don't Go Into The Light until this coming weekend at the earliest. I hope you will all understand and come back once I'm able to resume regular posting.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

LB

Why? Because I have to leave early for work this morning, and today's activities will be keeping me away from a computer for most of the day. That means no posting until this evening - *sigh*.

In the meantime, hope your Friday goes well - here's an albino alligator for inspiration:

Some blogging notes:

It's been a busy time for my family and I lately.

In case any of you wondered where I was in January and February, much of that time was spent on business trips. Thanks to a few readers and fellow bloggers who emailed to ask if I was OK, and thanks to Hube and Elbert for the kind emails welcoming me back. I'll try to be better about updating folks when I'm down for an extended period of time.

Short term, there may be an occasional day or two that goes by with little or no posting. It may be that there's little I feel inspired to comment about on a given day, or maybe real life has thrown me a curveball or two. I do this as a hobby, so I'm not obligated to write a minimum number of daily posts in order to keep advertisers happy.

On the subject of blogging as a hobby... this is all out of my pocket. I've considered putting up advertisements and tip jars, but so far I've resisted. If there comes a time when the hosting fees become burdensome, I may reconsider. Until then, I'm happy with things as they are.

A friend noticed that I was linking to fewer blogs lately. That goes back to being busy - I'm actually reading fewer blogs. Also, I've learned that my trackbacks are being blocked on a couple of sites (and no, I don't know why - my emails go unanswered), so I'm less inclined to do so anyway.

I don't treat my blogroll as a quid pro quo vehicle as some bloggers do. Each are blogs I both read and recommend. So give those folks a visit, OK?

Lastly, March was my best month ever for readership. I'd like to thank everyone for stopping by, you've made my virtual soapbox worth the effort.

Regards,

LB

Got a full schedule, so may not post until this evening.

In the meantime, why not visit a few of the blogs listed on my blogroll?

My ISP (a famous cable company who I shall not name) has been having trouble in my neighborhood, service has been so spotty that I haven't been able to post lately. Sorry.

That aside, with Christmas approaching, posting will still be light, as this is a very busy time for TB and I.

We hope that all of our readers have a wonderful holiday season.

Cheers,

LB & TB

Had some internet trouble this morning, couldn't get to the blog! By the time it cleared up, I had to leave for a doctor's appointment.

Now, TB and I are going to the store with the kids. Hopefully I'll get a post or two in before bedtime. If not, Hope you all had a great day!

LB

As some of you may recall, Blogrolling has not been updating me (along with, apparently, quite a few others as well) in their database when I ping, either through Movable Type or manually through their ping page. Hube (who blogs at Colossus of Rhodey) actually got a response to his email on the issue, in which a "Beenish M." alludes to a sweeping upgrade that will likely fix everything (but he's looking into the problem anyway).

Recently, I got my own email as well:

Sent: Tue 11/13/2007 11:39 PM
From: Jonathan Clarke [brsupport@tucows.com]
To: lb@dontgointothelight.com
CC:
Subject: [#AFM-230578]: Blogrolling Support Request

Hello LB,

If you could provide the username and password for your account we could certainly escalate this situation for you so we can see what is going on with the server.

Jon C.

Domain Direct/Netidentity Customer Service http://www.domaindirect.com/supportform.html
http://www.netidentity.com/Support/SupportMain.aspx
Toll-Free: 1-866-337-8633 (North America Only)
Local: 416-531-2084
Fax: 416.352.0113

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: AFM-230578
Department: Blogrolling Support

Password? Their manual ping form doesn't work and they think my password is going to help? And lets not forget that most reputable web companies, including Mr. Clarke's, tell folks not to give out passwords to anyone.

My reply (Sent: Thu 11/15/2007 5:07 PM):

Jon,

While I appreciate the offer for help, I'm confused about the request for a username and password. It's the inclusion of my blog in other folks' lists that's a problem, and one that existed long before I aquired an account.

LB

Nine days later, still waiting for a reply.

If you didn't know, Blogrolling wasn't invented by Tucows. No, that distinction goes to Jason DeFillippo, who sold Blogrolling to Tucows in 2004. From the Jason's announcement on the Blogrolling website:

The decision to sell the company was a very difficult one for me and after talking to several companies who were interested, I decided on Tucows because they are an extremely upstanding group of guys (they're Canadian, after all!) who will treat all of you with care and respect.

Sure wish Jason could have seen the future...

Still haven't found a new plugin for the blog roll that's compatible with MT4. If anyone knows of one, please let me know. Yes, I know I could use Blogrolling, but I'm having trouble with them right now and would rather wait until they answer my support request before risking its use. Maybe I'll just hand-jam it into the template...

I added Snap Shots - I've seen it on several blogs and thought I'd try it. if I get enough complaints I'll turn it off.

If you have any trouble registering to post comments, please let me know. It worked okay in testing, though.

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

The conversion to MT4 is nearly complete. While the blog is once more functional, I still have a long list of things to tweak. The blog roll plugin I used before doesn't work with MT4, so I'm looking for a replacement. Anyone know of one?

Also, commenters need to register in order to post. This will hopefully keep the spam comments down to a minimum. Registering is quick and painless, and I promise your info will not be shared with anyone. I'm working on a comment policy, so use common sense in the meantime.

If anyone runs into a glitch, please leave a comment or send me an email with the word "bug" as the first word in the subject line.

Thanks for stopping by!

Well, soon, anyway. It's been a long break, and we're playing around with updating the site and doing some housekeeping. Upgraded to Movable Type 4.01 - what a pain that's turning out to be, but it should be to the good after it's finished.

In the next week or two we'll be making regular posts again.

I sincerely hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I took time off to spend with TB and the kids. I think it was one of the most enjoyable Thanksgivings we've ever had.

I've stayed at arms' length from the news and blogs for several days. Did a little catching up this morning, it seems I've missed a little, although no more than I expected.

The previous week wasn't without local glitches, though. The weather on Thursday was awful, the stores were a trial on Friday, and our 5-year old Braun coffee pot died last wednesday.

The coffee pot was clearly the biggest disaster, as Braun stopped making the model we had, and their newer models aren't getting rave reviews. Most of the major retailers in my area have ceased carrying them as well. Wonder why?

After a couple hours' careful research, I settled on this model from Cuisinart. It rates well with Consumer Reports, has a small footprint, and I don't mind that it beeps.

Picked it up from Linens & Things in brushed stainless for 79.99 and they gave me a free pair of 1-liter carafes as a bonus. My only complaints are that the opening to pour water into is smaller than I would like, requiring more accuracy than I can usually muster at 4 A.M. - but it's a complaint I would make about several other models I saw at Linens & Things as well. And condensation collects on the underside of the lid, when opened, it drips down the back side of the unit.

On the plus side, it makes terrific coffee - every bit as good as the retired Braun. It seems quieter than other coffee makers I've owned, too. And best of all, the carafe doesn't dribble - a marked improvement over the Braun.

If you live in the Philly area and haven't taken the kids to see Santa yet, consider going to the American Helicopter Museum in West Chester next Saturday (We went yesterday, next weekend they'll repeat). Santa arrives in a helicopter, it's all very well organized, and not crowded at all. If you have the time and means for it ($35/person), you can also get your kids a ride in a helicopter as well - mine loved it, and so did TB. Note - the Museum's web page is currrently down, not a bad link. Just keep trying. Here's a cached version.

Although not well-rested. Yesterday was my youngest daughter's birthday - 5 years old. As you might expect, it was a big night in our home - decorations, presents, balloons, movies, Barbie dolls, cake, ice cream, and sodas well into the night. It was worth it, though. I'll accept tired - before I left for work, I noticed she was smiling in her sleep.

As some of you know, I try to keep the blogroll short. Over the past few days, I've dropped several, and added several others. There are lots of good blogs out there, the changes are due to changing tastes and discovery of new places to hang out. And it's not an echo chamber exercise - I often disagree with the views on listed blogs, but find them worthwhile nonetheless.

These are blogs and sites I recommend, and I encourage you all to check them out.

LB

Sorry for being down - the hosting service needed to do some maintenance on the server and took a little longer than anticipated.

If anyone emailed in the last three hours, chances are I didn't get it. Please resend!

LB

That's according to an Associated Press-AOL News poll:

WASHINGTON - Increasing numbers of people looking for political news are going online — with more than a third now saying they check the Internet for such information.

That group is more likely to be younger, better educated and male than the population in general, an Associated Press-AOL News poll found.

Hey, that's me! Well, except for the younger part. Sigh.

I found this part interesting considering that both the left and right blogosphere spend a considerable amount of time and energy poking well-deserved holes in mainstream news coverage:

While the online browsers go to a wide variety of sites, they overwhelmingly trust what they see on the news sites.

That's 70% who trust news sites, according to the poll. Of course, they don't specify what defines "political web sites" that the news sites are compared with. I think it's a given that blogs are included, but there are other political web sites as well.

Still, I see this as a plus for the blogosphere. Although some days it doesn't seem that way, the news sites by and large are doing a better job than they were a few years ago because they know how much more closely they're being watched. Eo ipso, the blogs are having a larger effect than the surface numbers suggest.

That's a good thing, folks.

It also underlines the need for bloggers to continue watching and correcting. Even with their frequent errors and proclivity toward bias, the MSM will always score high on this type of poll. No group of bloggers is likely to replace AP or Reuters anytime soon.

For the vast majority of political bloggers, that translates into a hobby with job security. What color lining this gives your clouds is up to you.

Or maybe not. Seems like it was less than first reported.

I don't listen to Rush very often, but what I've heard didn't resemble this.

I largely agreed with Glenn's "premortem", and also with his sentiment from today regarding being taken for granted. I expect my elected officials to spend the time between elections earning my next vote. This Republican Congress has has fallen short in that area. Spending and immigration are the two biggest bumbles in my view.

Nonetheless, I am prepared to pull the handle for them once again. Considering that even two years in charge (in the most rosy scenario) gives the left lots of time to dismantle the things that Republicans did right, and it's simply not worth the risk of sitting it out.

Sometime last night BlogRolling got back up and running. Whatever the problem was, thanks guys, for getting it fixed.

I guess, though, as soon as folks notice then the ping abuse will start again. I know of one blog that rarely makes more than one post a day, usually in the early morning. But you can find it at the top of the 101st list at right repeatedly throughout the day. Wish BlogRolling would find a fix for that...

Has anyone else noticed that Blogrolling isn't updating the group lists? At first, I thought it was just my blog. Checking others, however, tells me this isn't the case.

The blogrolling website has no news about an outage, and their forum is clogged with spam.

Anyone know what's up?

Update: I guess a few folks have noticed, but no answers....

It's become clear to me of late that I simply don't have enough hours in the day to do all the things I'd like to do. Between work, TB, and the kids, I have a full plate - at the moment, hobbies are a luxury I don't have time for.

So I'm going to trim away a few activities I enjoy, and the blog is unfortunately on the list.

I'm not going away entirely - I may post occasionally about items I feel strongly about, and I may yet get TB to post - so for now, I'm leaving the blog up and running. There's just going to be much less activity for a while.

Perhaps as the mid-term elections heat up I'll try to find more time for posting.

In the meantime, I'd like to say thanks to my regular readers for their patronage, especially those who have taken the time to email.

LB

I'm going on the road for a few days (short family vacation), so blogging will be light.

I hope you all have a terrific weekend!

LB

N.Z. Bear is trying to get some ideas moving to mitigate DDOS attacks such as the one that kept Protein Wisdom down recently.

Conversation seems to have died down, though. I hope it picks up again, as it seems to me a worthwhile effort.

But I've been caught up in a few priorities at both work and home.

I should be posting a few items this evening...

There's a new conservative talk radio network that started today - Wide Awakes Radio.

I've been listening for the last 2 hours - it's been interesting. They're having an abundance of first day glitches fueling some added spontaneity. While some might find it somewhat embarrassing, I think it's a fascinating view into just how difficult it is to put together a seamless live broadcast.

Over the coming days, I'm sure the glitches will fade. I'm looking forward to listening in on all of the hosts (schedule here), but particularly the Kit And Heidi show (Euphoric Reality) and Ric Ottiano (Release the Hounds!), representing two of the blogs featured on my incredibly short and highly selective blogroll.

Best of luck, folks, on the new venture!

Update: Apparently they have a limited amount of bandwidth available and they're swamped. So if you're having problems getting to their blog or the live stream, keep trying!

Friday. And a big holiday weekend on the horizon, too.

Yeah, and good morning to you, too.

But at least my internet problems are fixed.

For the curious - it's not a photoshop. That's really my coffee cup.

Here in northern Delaware, there's some sort of wide-spread problem with Comcast's cable internet service.

I'm able to get to a few web sites, but not many.

Since most of my posting depends on being able to link sources, this keeps me from posting much until it's fixed.

Thanks for your patience.

I've pretty much ignored the ministorm between Glenn Greenwald and a number of prominent bloggers on the right (Tom Maguire, Jeff Goldstein, The Commissar, and Glenn Reynolds. There's plenty of painfully wrong things said by Greenwald and his robotic minions at Unclaimed Territory, and harping on minutia only serves to distract from larger issues, like the star author of left blogosphere's disturbing views on the constitution and crime and punishment.

Well, apparently he was right about this one. I'll skip the obligatory colloquial adage about blind squirrels and suggest that he's entitled to bask a little.

But one really has to wonder if the fame is going to his head. After all, nothing says "I am going to do my best to avoid flamboyant displays of celebratory vindication and instead focus on what I think are the substantive issues illustrated by this episode" like a 2,319 word post including phrases like "they wallowed in an orgy of incestuous links to one another" and streching a disagreement about whether an email was fake into a wider rant about Bush:

It is that corrupt dynamic that explains how things are going really well in Iraq; how Saddam really did have WMDs when we invaded; how the chaos and anarchy in Iraq is the fault (and invention) of the news media; how Saddam personally participated in the 9/11 attacks; how terrorists did not know before the New York Times story in December, 2005 that we were trying to eavesdrop on their telephone calls; how terrorists did not know before this weekend that we were trying to monitor their bank transactions; how Bush is really popular and most of the country agrees with him and that data to the contrary is due to flawed and biased polls, etc.

And he manages to put in plugs for a book appearance and a book review for good measure. Classy.

...get the message to a French publisher that stealing photos is unacceptable. It had appeared that they were going to do the right thing by Michael, but apparently they've crawfished on him.

Read this. Then follow the link at the bottom of the post to a page that lets you know how you can help.

I'll be there as well.

H/T InstaPundit.

I deleted a trackback today. No, not a trackback from Viagra or Free Porn, but one from a real blog.

I found it in the junk trackback tab a few days ago - but it was still fairly new. So I rescued it, and and checked the site it came from. Oddly, there was no corresponding link there. So I zipped off a polite email to the proprietor asking if the trackback was in error. No answer. I sent again. Still no answer.

So today I deleted it. Shame, too, as it looked like a good blog.

By the way, is it just me or are more folks just not using trackbacks anymore? I find more links to me from my stats page than from trackbacks lately. Are trackbacks becoming a dying fad?

Also, any other Movable Type 3.2 users out there think that trackbacks in MT don't work very well? Auto discover misses most links, way too many get rejected for timeout, method not allowed, throttled, etc.? And I almost always have success using the Wizbang standalone trackback pinger, even after multiple tries with MT failing...

Just askin'.

today for my 2nd grader. She was almost in tears this morning over the prospect - she really loves her teacher and will miss seeing her friends on a daily basis.

I saw her to the bus a little while ago - she decided to give up her usual jeans and t-shirt for a dress to look her best for her classmates.

They're letting school out early today - 11:30 instead of the usual 3:30. I took today off from work so TB, our 4 yr old, and I can meet her at the bus stop and take her out to lunch at her favorite restaurant (Olive Garden).

So I hope you'll understand if I post a little less today.

Update (7:23 PM EST): She cried for 20 minutes after she got off the bus - worried that her teacher will forget her. She cheered up after learning where we were going for lunch, and I put her on the phone with Grandma for good measure. TB just took the kids up the street to play with neighboring kids, and all is normal again.

And the best part of all, it's BBQ night!

Captain Ed reports good news on the First Mate. In case you weren't aware, she's back in the hospital.

TB and I are keeping them in our thoughts and prayers.

If you stop by, please leave a comment wishing them well.

Somehow his trackback hit the bit bucket, so I didn't know DragonFlyEye had responded to my last post on VNRs until yesterday. Which is a shame, because although this isn't really a burning-bush issue requiring great speed, I really don't want multiple days passing between posts as it makes the debate more difficult both to write and to follow. Oh, well. You blog with the internet you have, as it were...

Please do visit DragonFlyEye's response to my last post here. I'll quote a few things, but I encourage my readers to follow the links to insure nothing is out of context. It also gets me a few emails taking me to the woodshed if I misquote, thus keeping me straight.

One of the subjects I touched on was my bewilderment about the Bush administration's poor handling of the media. DragonFly made an astute observation:

Now, here’s the thing: I’ve heard nothing from Conservatives for years except how the media is the quote “Liberal Media,” and since Bush has come to the presidency, I’ve heard nothing from Liberals but that the media is quote the “Conservative Media,” and I think they’re both basically nuts. I am guessing LB would be inclined to agree with me on this point.

Good guess - to a point. We on the right spend an enormous amount of time whining about the media, and it surprises and amuses many of us when we see the left doing the reverse. I think the media is a lot more complicated than any of us give it credit for, it isn't like a school of fish that changes directions simultaneously without rhyme or reason. While I feel there's evidence that the media leans left overall, some of the negative reporting I see is less about ideology and more about business. If it bleeds, it leads is a very real maxim invented long before Bush took the oath of office, and while it's easy (and perhaps a bit lazy) to automatically assign the dearth of good news coming out of Iraq to ideology, the difficult truth is that opening schools and setting up governments are nowhere near as gripping as blown up bodies, mayhem, and controversy.

Ideology does rear its ugly head too frequently and there are lots of good examples. For instance, who on either side could argue that Mary Mapes or Helen Thomas are objective? And many have noticed the rush to judgement on the Haditha incident. I'll leave it to DragonFly to provide examples from the leftward point of view, I can think of a couple but they may not be as meaningful.

I've also noticed a tendency for us as bloggers to selectively switch hit out of convenience. The New York Times gets skinned alive on a weekly basis by the right, we rip apart every story we don't like - then turn around and use them as a trusted source when something they publish shores up a point we're making (you'll see me do it later in this post!). I see the same trend on the left as well - again I'll leave it to DragonFly to show the best examples, as he's far better equipped than I.

On the meat of the issue - the VNRs themselves, we have a little less agreement. But there is still some common ground here:

I agree with the first portion of this paragraph, along with the tacit acknowlegment in the next para, that this is certainly grey area where legality comes to mind and definitely sneaky. It might be hard to pin the Administration down on this one for illegalty, but of course this has been the Administration’s modus operandi throughout its history.

Sneaky I said, and sneaky I meant. The Clinton administration (calm down, it's not what you think) spent as much as $125 million on VNRs. I don't watch much television nowadays, but I did during the 1990s. I can't recall ever seeing something during a newscast that I labeled as government made. Even if a notice had been given in the segue or in the lower right corner of the screen identified it (and they all could have) I don't remember it. Chances are, most of you don't either. When an effort is made to have a government message seamlessly blend in with the trappings of a professional newscast, it's not unreasonable to assume that the video didn't self identify in an obvious fashion for a reason.

Motive, however, is the proverbial fried rat in the bucket of chicken. I speculated in my previous post that the administration was determined to get their message out in spite of a hostile media. DragonFly agrees in part, but wonders why the stations are so willing to air VNRs without disclosure (emphasis mine):

Follow me through this, if you could. . . The State Department releases a tape that says “Produced by the US Department of State,” right on the box, which has a title in the movie that says “Iraqi’s Really Dig Us. Produced by the US Department of State” and then Joe Smith, Program Director for the Podunk Awake and Semi-Alert at Five televison news broadcast just. . . strips all that information? For what? Esthetic quality?

That’s the dot no one is connecting right now. The Bush Administration department or corporation that put out these VNRs properly identified them, but for some reason, theres a rash of journalists going out of thier way not to let anyone know? And of thier own accord? That doesn’t come close to passing the smell test; indeed, I would go one step further and say that the rot has a specific stench of government/corporatists collusion.

It's good that he mentions the corporations here, as they put out the vast majority of VNRs. Unlike the government, their motivations are simple - they just want to get free/cheap advertising, sell more product, and improve their bottom line. For a business, these are actually virtuous desires, and we're only questioning the methodology. The normal method of achieving this goal involves marketing through paid advertising. Open-air networks - those that don't depend on subscription revenue - make their entire living from it. So why, then do the stations air VNRs - in effect, free advertising? And can we extend that reasoning to government VNRs, which are somewhat more diverse in purpose?

I'm not willing to throw away all of DragonFly's reasoning quoted above. There may very well be some pressure involved - but I'm Missouran about such things - I'd need more than speculation. At least a partial answer that can be sourced comes from this NYT article by David Barstow and Robin Stein - probably the most complete on the subject (side note - the anti-drug example came from here as well):

WCIA is a small station with a big job in central Illinois.

Each weekday, WCIA's news department produces a three-hour morning program, a noon broadcast and three evening programs. There are plans to add a 9 p.m. broadcast. The staff, though, has been cut to 37 from 39. "We are doing more with the same," said Jim P. Gee, the news director.

Farming is crucial in Mr. Gee's market, yet with so many demands, he said, "it is hard for us to justify having a reporter just focusing on agriculture."

To fill the gap, WCIA turned to the Agriculture Department, which has assembled one of the most effective public relations operations inside the federal government. The department has a Broadcast Media and Technology Center with an annual budget of $3.2 million that each year produces some 90 "mission messages" for local stations - mostly feature segments about the good works of the Agriculture Department.

"I don't want to use the word 'filler,' per se, but they meet a need we have," Mr. Gee said.

In this example, the station used the VNRs as a "cheat" to get free programming and avoid full staffing. I suspect that's the case at many other stations as well.

Incidently, I thought the article was a little unfair to the USDA - they make it seem as if the segments exist just to blow Secretary Mike Johanns' horn. However, the USDA is probably the most helpful government agency, with many important and beneficial programs under its control. When Congress passes a relief bill, for example, this is one of the ways the USDA gets word of its availabilty out. That's why it's difficult to take an absolutist view of the subject. Fact is, most of the government VNRs are beneficial. The exclusion of criticism is not necessarily the devil you may think - once a citrus canker compensation program has been passed and funded by Congress, the arguments used against it in debate are moot, and the priority rightly becomes public awareness to notify affected growers. It's not a matter of pushing an agenda, but enacting public policy.

Even with that recognition in mind, I still remain an absolutist as to the ethics of VNRs. Even the beneficial topics can be disseminated adequately via other means. And some agencies have shifted away from the practice since the original flap occurred, which is good news:

At the State Department, Mr. Tappan said the broadcasting office is moving away from producing narrated feature segments. Instead, the department is increasingly supplying only the ingredients for reports - sound bites and raw video. Since the shift, he said, even more State Department material is making its way into news broadcasts.

Providing sound bites and raw video completely avoids the ethical problems of VNRs, and the stations are free to balance them as they choose. All in all, a much healthier approach that I'd like to see the other agencies adopt.

On the topic of propaganda, I'll stick by my guns - the formal definition is entirely inadequate and would include the examples I gave. The inclusion of Harry Reid wasn't intended as a "inflexive jab". Regular readers know that when I'm of a mood to take a cheap shot at Harry Reid, I tend to be far less nuanced.

The word "propaganda", as I hinted in my previous post, has evolved so that it almost always means something negative. Under the classic definition, the Easter Egg Roll (be sure to view the webcast by White House Curator Bill Allman) fits quite well.

With the exception of a cleanup post or two, I suspect that DragonFly and I have debated this issue as far as possible. I'm surprised and pleased that we were able to find more to agree on that I would have predicted - enough so that should this issue become active again (on the government front, that is) we could comfortably collaborate on it. It's interesting to note that some some of that agreement is borne of differing rationales - an indication to me that this type of exercise probably wouldn't succeed for some topics.

It was fun - I hope we get a chance to do it again.

I've been editing the blogroll, adding and correcting a few - some deletions from sites that haven't posted recently or in my opinion are no longer worthy to recommend to my readers. And that's what it's about, really. I have a bookmark list for me, the blogroll is for you.

I've also added a category on the blogroll for liberal blogs. I quote frequently from the left, you may as well know where I browse most frequently.

Regardless of which list a blog is on, inclusion isn't an endorsement of that blog's view. It's there because I feel it's worth reading.

Added: This will be ongoing for a few days. Don't read too much into the changes, please.

There's a bit of controversy about whether P.T. Barnum really said "There's a sucker born every minute". No matter - whoever said it was right.

Andrew Buncombe of the Independent knows it. And he artfully used that principle to stir up the left by livening up this Bloomberg story about corporate video news releases (subscription required, full text quoted here) with some old news, fake news, and innuendo.

Here's the thrust of the original Bloomberg article:

May 25 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin ordered a probe of dozens of television stations after a report found they aired advertisements as if they were news reports, people familiar with the inquiry said.

The April report by the non-profit Center for Media and Democracy found at least 77 stations, including 23 affiliates of Walt Disney Co.'s ABC network and seven Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. stations, ignored an FCC warning to disclose sponsors. The maximum fine for each violation is $32,500, rising to $325,000 for multiple infractions, said FCC spokesman Clyde Ensslin.

Got that? It's about TV stations and corporate-made Video News Releases (VNR). Nothing else. But as we've seen so often in the media, anything can and will become a Bush-bashing story.

The Independent's headline:

Bush 'planted fake news stories on American TV'

Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies' products.

Investigators from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are seeking information about stations across the country after a report produced by a campaign group detailed the extraordinary extent of the use of such items.

Buncombe provides a reference to an administration-produced VNR and infers that it's part of the investigation:

The range of VNR is wide. Among items provided by the Bush administration to news stations was one in which an Iraqi-American in Kansas City was seen saying "Thank you Bush. Thank you USA" in response to the 2003 fall of Baghdad. The footage was actually produced by the State Department, one of 20 federal agencies that have produced and distributed such items.

This particular example occurred prior to the FCC issuing it's warning on the use of VNRs last year, and was not part of the report that prompted the FCC investigation. The report can be found here, and here's an interesting snippet from a NYT writer on its contents:

Three of the 88 releases in the report were done for government agencies but were not broadcast, the report said.

Of course, we've seen this kind of thing before, so there's nothing really unique about this story. I'm documenting it mostly because of the effect this kind of dishonest reporting has. A small but growing amount of buzz has been generated on the left side of the blogosphere, and all of it based on the parts of Buncombe's article that are fake. And while it appears that few bloggers bothered to read the report referenced in the article, a surprising number apparently passed on reading the article they cut and pasted into their own posts. For example, Jason at My Observations quotes most of the Independent article and adds the headline:

Democracy At Work? - Bush Investigated For Propaganda

Which is a claim that Buncombe, even as distorted as his article was, didn't make. And had Jason actually read the very first sentence of the article, he'd know that.

Sean (he's a Libra) introduces the quoted article with:

In the following case, the "corporation" in question is the Bush Administration... and apparently our trusted media outlets didn't feel obliged to make clear that distinction for their viewers.

Sean should worry less about his teeth and more about shaken Libra syndrome when he sees that b-ball coming for him. Another breathless and uninformed headline:

More Media Whores for Bushitler

Barkeep, I'll have some of what he's having... There's also the occasional embellishment - most on the left seem to dislike Fox News, so this seems to be a natural for the dragonflyeye.net blog:

But back to these so-called VNR’s (Video News Releases). That the Administration and Corporate America seem to be engaged in exactly the same types of deception ~ and by all accounts, primarily through the collusion of Fox media outlets ~ is the kind of thing that should give even those cynical of media independence reason to pause.

Never mind that the report's top offenders were ABC affiliates - it's so much fun to bust on Fox, right?

Here's one that obviously had time to get creative with font sizes and animations, but no time to read the article.

I know, the above examples are not the larger mainstream lefty blogs. Okay, How 'bout Digby?

And about that disinformation and propaganda, I think we have a little hint about where that's going in this era as well...

Hook, line, and sinker - if it's anti-Bush, it must be gospel, right, Digby?

When I want the rabid anti-constitutionalist view from the left, I always trot over to Glenn Greenwald's blog. And there's no disappointment here, as Glenn is out on his book tour and Hume's Ghost fills in with a magnificent BDS inspired rant:

Allthough it hasn't managed to garner much attention, the FCC is currently investigating one of the most significant (at least to me) scandals of the Bush administration.

What's stunning is that he links several of the same sources that I use above, and still manages to conclude that the FCC is investigating an administration scandal. And on the left, this is apparently what passes for an influential blog - another blog called Outside the Spectrum links the post and comments:

More news today about the administration’s continued efforts to subvert the media from Glenn Greenwald’s blog. Apparently 77 different broadcast stations have used pre-packaged “news” items without identifying them as such, concerning subjects like how well the Iraq War is really going.

Um, barkeep? Maybe I should pass after all. Blindness and delusions aren't desirable side-effects.

What's sad is that in another month this will be likely become established "conventional wisdom" among the left, taking its place among such intellectually bereft gems as "Bush Lied", and "Domestic wiretapping". No critical thought applied. No research. As ubiquitous as it is dishonest.

Hume's Ghost closes his post with a question - "...why are we still even discussing this?". Because, Ghost, you and all the others want to believe. You went into the light - and ignored the signs that said "Bug Zapper". On one point I do agree with Hume's Ghost, though. No one could possibly mistake him for a pedant.

P. T. Barnum would have loved the modern left.

Update: If you really want to see fake news, try this instead. Michelle has a roundup with lots of real examples.

My schedule is finally starting to lighten up a little. So I'm gonna start posting again.

Thanks to my regulars for visiting often (according to my stats) and being patient.

LB

But it was one of "those" days at work, and I just didn't get a break. We're up against several deadlines, there's a full load of students in house, and stress levels are high. Except for me, of course. I try to keep smiling no matter what.

Lorie Byrd has joined Kevin and the gang over at Wizbang. If you haven't been paying attention, she used to post over at PoliPundit before a recent parting of ways between Poli and his guest bloggers.

I wish her well in her new digs.

At 3:59 PM today, Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) posts:

HP UPDATE: Well, I finally got to someone at HP last night (my slowness, not theirs) and the computer is on its way back for repairs. They were quite nice. Am I getting special blogger-treatment? Possibly, but I've gotten several emails like this one from Gary Wishon: "My HP laptop was picked up FedEx on Tuesday and I was using it again on Thursday PM. With a follow-up call 2hrs after arrival. I'd buy HP again anytime--and have." And I didn't get any horror stories like I keep hearing about Dell...

At 7:30 PM, AP headline:

HP Gains on Dell in Tough Computer Market

We all knew he was influential, but who knew just how much? And should we be afraid?

Update: Welcome Instapundit readers! Thanks for the "Heh", Glenn!

Lorie Byrd:

The fact is that I believe this is the last time I will be blogging at Polipundit.

In my opinion, PoliPundit is one of the best group blogs around, so this news really saddens me.

I hope that there's a chance that PoliPundit reconsider, and I sent him an email saying so. That said, I fear that there has been some gratuitous bridge-burning behind the scenes that may prevent that from happening.

I look forward to seeing PoliPundit's next post - I imagine it will be interesting.

Update: It looks like they're still talking to each other - always a good sign.

Good luck guys. I hope you get it worked out.