Del.ico.us
Things del.ico.us doesn't do:
- Retain content of bookmarked site
- Bookmark fragments of a page
This page is a drop box of sorts for things I would bookmark to del.ico.us, but can not.
Information Control
White House Defends Use of Video News Releases
In news from Washington, the White House is defending its practice of distributing government-funded video news releases to TV stations with the hopes that the stations will air the segments as real news. On Sunday the New York Times featured an extensive front-page investigation detailing the extent that pre-packaged news releases - produced by the federal government - are being used by television stations all across the country. The Times reported that at least 20 federal agencies - including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau - have distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years. Many were then broadcast on local stations without crediting the government as the source of the information. On Monday White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan claimed that the videos are appropriate as long as they are a factual. Last month the General Accounting Office however ruled that the videos violate laws that ban covert propaganda. But the Bush administration is ordering all agencies to disregard the GAO's directive. ( 2005-03-16 ref)
Judicial Watch Sues Pentagon Over PR Project
In related news, Judicial Watch has sued the Pentagon for hiring the public relations firm the Rendon Group to develop an internet site aimed at school children. The website -- called Empower Peace -- was designed to look like it was part of a grassroots peace movement. The website featured interactive web broadcasts between New York and Jordan, as well as Boston and Bahrain, and interaction with school age children of Islamic countries. (2005-03-16 ref)
Kevin Martin Named New FCC Chairman
On Wednesday, President Bush named Kevin Martin to replace Michael Powell as the head of the Federal Communications Commission. Martin is a telecommunications attorney who has served as an FCC Commissioner since 2001. The religious right praised the selection. Brent Bozell of the Parents Television Council described Martin as a "stalwart leader on the issue of indecency." Martin has advocated for the FCC to expand fines for broadcasters who air material viewed as in-decent. Martin has also pushed for the greater consolidation of media corporations. He served as deputy general counsel for President Bush's 2000 presidential campaign and later as an economic advisor to Bush. (2005-03-17 ref)
Hotel Palestine: Killing the Witness - Documentary Exposes the Truth Behind the Attack
We air an excerpt of the documentary, "Hotel Palestine: Killing the Witness," produced by Jose Couso's network, Telecinco, and broadcast on Spanish TV. It includes interviews with numerous journalists who were inside the Palestine Hotel, the AP reporter embedded with US forces at the time of the attack as well as the US tank commander who pulled the trigger. (2005-03-23 ref)
Arab Satellite Dish
Kathleen Cox Resigns From Corporation for Public Broadcasting
In media news, the president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Kathleen Cox, has resigned. Ken Ferree has been named as the interim president. He recently became CPB's executive vice president after resigning from a top post at the Federal Communications Commission. He was a leading advocate for the further weakening of media ownership regulations. Cox's resignation also came just three days after the CPB appointed its first ombudsmen: former Reader's Digest editor William Schulz and former NBC News journalist Ken Bode. Their job will be to "both protect the production of public broadcasting from undue interference and to ensure that it represents high standards in accuracy, balance and objectivity." Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy charged that Cox became a "victim of the ideologues who run CPB." (2005-04-11 ref)
GM Pulls Ads From LA Times Over Coverage
In other media news, General Motors has announced it will temporarily stop advertising in the Los Angeles Times in protest over how the paper has covered GM, the world's largest car company. A company spokesperson explained "It involves news reporting, it involves opinion. It's pretty broad-based, and we've made our objections well known to The Times." The decision was announced days after the paper's Pulitzer Prize winning automobile critic Dan Neil called for the ouster of GM's chairman and chief executive. He also took the company to task for focusing on SUVs instead of more aggressively developing fuel-efficient cars. The Wall Street Journal estimated General Motors has been spending $10 million a year on advertising in the LA Times. GM is the country's second largest advertiser behind Proctor & Gamble. (2005-04-11 ref)
Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp.
A decision by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, which ruled that exact photographic copies of public domain images could not be protected by copyright because they lack originality. (2005-04-16 Wikipedia article)
Videos Challenge Accounts of Convention Unrest
Excerpt: Last week, he discovered that there were two versions of the same police tape: the one that was to be used as evidence in his trial had been edited at two spots, removing images that showed Mr. Dunlop behaving peacefully. When a volunteer film archivist found a more complete version of the tape and gave it to Mr. Dunlop's lawyer, prosecutors immediately dropped the charges and said that a technician had cut the material by mistake.
Full Article: Videos Challenge Accounts of Convention Unrest
Hollywood creates Boy Scout merit badge on copyright
Boy Scouts in Hong Kong now can earn merit badges for learning about the wonders of copyright law -- at least the version described by the Motion Picture Association.
The MPA, the Hong Kong Scout Association, and the Hong Kong government announced the program this week. It's the first of its type anywhere in the world.
"The Intellectual Property Badge Award Program will provide thousands of young people -- future leaders -- with a better understanding of the value of intellectual property and of the importance of protecting it," Mike Ellis, senior vice president of the MPA, said in a press release.
[snip]
It's not clear, though, how much time the MPA's merit badge curriculum will devote to the value of fair use, the problems that region coding on DVDs can create for legitimate purchasers, and the unintended consequences of "anti-circumvention" laws like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. (2005-05-03 ref)
Microsoft bans 'democracy' for China web users
Microsoft's new Chinese internet portal has banned the words "democracy" and "freedom" from parts of its website in an apparent effort to avoid offending Beijing's political censors.
Attempts to input words in Chinese such as "democracy" prompted an error message from the site: "This item contains forbidden speech. Please delete the forbidden speech from this item." Other phrases banned included the Chinese for "demonstration", "democratic movement" and "Taiwan independence". (2005-06-11 ref)
Media Groups Criticize Gov't Dissemination of "Covert Propaganda"
The media advocacy groups, Free Press and the Center for Media and Democracy, are calling on Congress and the Justice Department to prosecute government officials who used tax payer money to buy favorable news coverage for the president's policies. Last week the Government Accountability Office ruled that the Bush administration illegally paid commentator Armstrong Williams to promote the No Child Left Behind Act. The GAO said the government had spent taxpayer money to disseminate "covert propaganda." (2005-10-06 ref)
Clear Channel Seeks Rewrite of Media Ownership Rules
In other media news the radio giant Clear Channel is asking Congress to ease media ownership laws to allow it to purchase more stations. Clear Channel is the country's largest radio-station operator with over 1200 stations around the country. Clear Channel wants Congress to rewrite the rules to allow a single company to own up to 12 different stations in a single market. (2005-10-06 ref)
Secret Service Seizes Photo from NC High School
The Progressive Magazine is reporting that the Secret Service recently entered a North Carolina high school to remove a student's project that was made for an assignment on the Bill of Rights. Students in a senior civics and economics class at Currituck County High School were told to take photographs to illustrate their rights in the Bill of Rights. One student photographed a picture of President Bush with a red thumb tack through his head. He then took the photo to Wal-Mart to be developed. An employee at Wal-Mart called the Kitty Hawk police and then the matter was passed onto the Secret Service. Late last month the Secret Service sent officers to the school to question the principal and teacher. They also entered the classroom to remove the photograph. (2005-10-06 ref)
Other News
Pentagon Formalizes Preemptive Strikes As Official Policy
The Pentagon has made the use of preemptive strikes part of the country's official national defense strategy. On Friday the Defense Department issued new versions of its National Military Strategy and National Defense Strategy reports. According to the Los Angeles Times, the new strategy documents mark a clear shift in military planning since the Cold War. During the Cold War the military aimed to contain Eastern Europe. Now the military's official policy calls for preemptively attacking nations and even terrorist organizations within friendly nations. The new doctrine also appears to move the nation further from reliance on such international coalitions and bodies as NATO and the International Court of Justice. The document reads "Our strength as a nation-state will continue to be challenged by those who employ a strategy of the weak using international [forums], judicial processes and terrorism." Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith explained that some nations could try to criminalize U.S. foreign policy by challenging it in international courts. (2005-03-21 ref)
Up to 300,000 Protest Against U.S. In Baghdad
In Iraq, tens of thousands of Shiite Iraqis demonstrated in Baghdad Saturday to call for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The protesters - organized by Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr - gathered in the same square where U.S. forces pulled down a statue of Saddam Hussein two years ago. To mark the anniversary, the Shiites burned effigies of Saddam as well as President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The crowd chanted "Yes, yes to Islam, No, no to America!" The protesters issued three demands: the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, the release of Iraqis from US-run prisons and for the speedy trial of Saddam Hussein. The Los Angeles Times reported that the crowd was as large as 300,000 protesters. Middle East analyst Juan Cole said even if the crowd was half that size it would mark the largest popular demonstration in Iraq since 1958.
Meanwhile Sunni Iraqis marked the two-year anniversary of the fall of Baghdad with anti-U.S. protests in Ramadi. The Sunni-led Iraqi Islamic Party issued a statement blaming the U.S. for the chaos and destruction that has enveloped the country over the past two years. The statement read QUOTE "The 9th of April is a day in which one tyrant fell so that another occupying tyrant could take his place". (2005-04-11 ref)
NY Man Dies After Being Shot w/ Taser
In Long Island, a 39-year-old man has died after police shot him repeatedly with a Taser stun gun. The incident occurred Friday night after friends of John Cox called police because he was acting erratically. Cox reportedly had not taken his anti-psychotic medication. When police arrived, Cox became agitated and police shot him several times. Witnesses said police beat and kicked the man as well. Medical examiners have found that Cox had cocaine and alcohol in his blood at the time of the shooting. (2005-04-26 ref)
Fallujah: Retina Scans and Fingerprinting
People who want to go back into [Fallujah] have to get retina scans, all ten fingers fingerprinted, then they're issued an ID card. People inside the city are referring to it as a big jail. (2005-04-28 ref)
If pirating grows, it may not be the end of music
Yu Quan, like every music act in China, gets almost no income from CD sales, even though millions of its CDs have been sold. As soon as a CD is made, the pirates are on the street, offering them for a fraction of the retail price. Stores sell pirate copies. Legitimate CDs all but vanish.
So artists have to regard CDs as essentially promotional tools, not as end products. Yu Quan makes money by performing concerts, getting endorsement deals and appearing in commercials. If people hear and like Yu Quan's songs on pirated CDs, at least they'll be more likely to come to the concerts and buy what the duo endorses.
It's possible that this is the future of the global music industry. And even though that sounds dire for music and musicians, surprisingly it might not be. (2005-05-04 Full Article)
With Irreverence and an iPod, Recreating the Museum Tour
With Irreverence and an iPod, Recreating the Museum Tour
Pentagon Set to OK Use Of Nukes In Pre-emptive Attacks
In other news... The Washington Post is reporting the Pentagon is drafting new guidelines to allow the military to use nuclear weapons in pre-emptive attacks. The Pentagon is in the final stage of updating what is known as the Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations that outlines possible uses of nuclear weapons. (2005-09-12 ref)