Library of Congress

This is about a month old, but I haven’t heard much talk about it. The Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act was created when American teenager Megan Meier committed suicide after a cyberbullying incident which led to a bit of a media firestorm. You can read a selected part below:

`(a) Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

`(b) As used in this section–

`(1) the term `communication’ means the electronic transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the user’s choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received; and

`(2) the term `electronic means’ means any equipment dependent on electrical power to access an information service, including email, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones, and text messages.’.

Basically, if anything someone puts on a blog counts as emotionally distressing the author could face two years in prison. This is a little bit extreme in my opinion. I’m sure I can go to any radical site and find something that would stress me out emotionally. Besides that, what about the first amendment and the right to hate speech? Come on, congress!

It should be noted this was only introduced and has not yet passed. If you’re the activist type, I’d suggest that you call your local representative and ask them to vote down this bill.

You can check out the whole article on the Library of Congress’ website here.

Time Warner Cable Cannot Possibly Compete With The Small City Of Wilson, NC

An interesting story,

After the small city of Wilson, NC got fed up with high prices offered by Time Warner they decided to implement their own fiber optic network. Customers can receive cable, digital phone service (With unlimited long distance), and internet service with 10mbps u/d rate all for $100. An introductory rate for the competition allegedly costs about 140.

However, the kicker of the story is that Time Warner Cable and Emarq are in North Carolina’s legislature to propose a bill that would outlaw community owned ISPs, because they would no longer be able to compete.

Really guys?

The full story can be found here.

KABC Covers Strip Club Opening

I’m really not sure what to think of this.

KABC in Los Angeles decided to cover a Strip Club reopening after a fire shut down the club. The team not only showed the outside of the club, but went inside and showed a bit of clothed (barely) pole dancing.

To be honest, I can’t really think of what to say about this. I don’t even know where it belongs. As a feature, it’s distasteful at best. As hard news, it’s not even tabloid material.

Watch the video clip over at TMZ by clicking the link here.

NYT Co. 1Q losses worsen as ad sales plunge 27 pct

The New York Times continues to hemorrhage, as advertisement revenue is down 27%. Other majors papers (The Boston Globe, International Herald Tribune among other) are in the same boat, with the total loses for the New York Times Co. approximately $74.5 million dollars.

Beyond the typical humm-drum of the recession, I found one quote interesting.

“Although she firmly believes advertising is the best way to make money on the Web, Robinson said the Times Co. is considering charging fees for more of its online content.”

It seems in an attempt to Monetize the Internet, the Times might end up charging for online content. I don’t know how successful the Gray Lady will be in this should it try, but it would make sense that they would be the only newspaper (Wall Street Journal aside) that could do this.

Read the full story here.

OPINION: The White House Press Corps is the Problem

Eric Boehlert’s piece over at the Huffington Post asks an interesting question: is the White House Press Corps the problem? (Spoilers: He thinks so.)

The supposedly best-of-the-best journalist are assigned to Washington, which is a fairly cushy job once you’re in from what I understand. However, instead of filling the watchdog role it seems style and feature stories seem to be more prominent. With our country facing an economic crisis, growing debt, corruption, war, and a shiftless public one might think more attention is paid to such subjects than Obama’s Portuguese Water Dog.

This isn’t aimed towards all Washington reporters. Statistically speaking, many of them are doing a good job. It would be nice if herds of them didn’t simply wait for the White House to throw cookie-cutter stories and asked hard questions more often though.

The full story can be found here.

Layoff Victims Among Pulitzer Honorees

It seems having winner of the Pulitzer Prize on your resume is no longer sufficient to keep your job.

Paul Giblin, who was one of the recipients of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for local reporting was recently laid off from the East Valley Tribune, which has lost 40% of it’s staff, and has reduced to a thrice-a-week publication.

Patti Epler, who was similarly laid of, had an interesting comment on the matter:

“It’s almost like I’m glad we’re not at the Tribune anymore because we’re doing our own thing and it’s pretty cool. And even though we’re not making any money, journalistically and professionally it’s really great and satisfying.”

The full story can be found here.

Wikipedia for Spies: The CIA Discovers Web 2.0 – TIME

It seems even secret governmental agencies are joining the Web 2.0 trend. The CIA and other associate agencies have created intellipedia – a wiki for sharing classified government material. Similar to how Wikipedia user’s collaborate to build articles – intelligence agents will collaborate independently of one another to create pages on intellipedia. While I see the point of sharing information, this does seem to be a bit of a silly way to do it – for me at least. Hopefully the CIA won’t start tweeting anytime soon.

The full story can be found here.

AFP: Time offering ‘customized’ experimental magazine

Time Magazine will be offering an experimental customizable magazine called “Mine,” in an effort to reinvent itself. This would allow readers to put together their own personalized magazine.

231,000 print and online copies of “Mine” will be available to readers, and it will publish bi-monthly for 10 weeks.

The sole advertiser for the magazine would be Lexus, who will place four single-page ads for luxury automobiles.

Readers can go to http://timeinc.com/mine and choose from titles for their own free 36-page customized magazine available in print or online.

While inventive- will this be enough to pull Time out of it’s downward spiral of print advertising and circulation loss?

Read the full story here.

Comment / Analysis – When newspapers fold

“It’s odd to cover your own funeral,”

That was a tweet from a journalist at the Rocky Mountain News after being told last month to work on the final edition of the newspaper.

“Bad news about America’s newspapers is tumbling out too fast for their presses to keep up.” says the Financial Times Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson.

It is ironic, in a dark sense, that newspapers all over the nation are simultaneously writing each others obituaries. Newspapers in business over a century are being forced to stop the presses for good, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be over soon. Hearst Corp said it might close the San Fransisco Chronicle (Though Nancy Pelosi has something to say about that) and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is going to be made into an online-only. Companies like Gannett are also slashing left and right at dividends and costs, trying to lightened the load to stay afloat. However, this unfortunate jetsam takes the form of journalists and dedicated staff.

Some blame monopolist, others blame the newspapers themselves. Whatever the cause may be, it doesn’t seem like anything can stop this domino effect anytime soon.

A lengthier analysis of the newspaper business can be found here on the Financial Times website.

30 Staffers of the former Rocky Mountain News, which ceased publishing last month, plan on starting an online newspaper. However, they will only do it if they can get 50,000 paying subscribers by April 23rd – which coincides with the 150th anniversary of the newspaper.

The site itself will be free, but subscribers can pay $4.99 to access premium content – a common feature in most online newspapers. Subscribers could access chats, columns, and other such goodies.

The site for the planned online paper is http://InDenverTimes.com.

The story can be found here.