Archive for the ‘Media criticism’ Category

Journalism and the Iraq War

Friday, February 16th, 2007

A Columbia University professor explains why we can't rely on media reports for an accurate Iraq death toll. Meanwhile, the Columbia Journalism Review features an article explaining how journalists are tougher on presidential administrations now than ever before.

Disney uses DMCA to shutter blog critic; may ironically help blogger

Tuesday, January 9th, 2007

In yet another example of the abusive use of DMCA Title II, Disney has effectively silenced a weblog critic who was waging a successful PR campaign against one of its stations for patently offensive content. The blog, Spocko's Brain, posted audio files of right-wing talk show hosts from Bay Area ABC ...

Man sets himself on fire, barely makes a news ripple

Monday, December 4th, 2006

On November 3, Malachi Ritscher set himself on fire near a Chicago expressway in protest of the Iraq war. Police couldn't definitively identify him for days. A friend later got a package in the mail with an explanation, a will, and a key to Ritscher's apartment. The story hit the AP ...

Mark Cuban on YouTube: Why the latest Grokster ruling will ruin technology

Saturday, September 30th, 2006

In a Rueters story this Thursday, Mark Cuban said that "anyone who [invests in YouTube] is a moron." I LOVE YouTube, but I fear that he's basically right. Cuban has two main points. His first claim, that YouTube is on the verge of being "sued into oblivion," is hardly a done ...

Go See “Little Miss Sunshine” Right Now

Saturday, September 23rd, 2006

We spend our share of bytes griping about the media, so here's a highlight: Little Miss Sunshine is fantastic. Funniest movie in years. Poignant, too. Steve Carell deserves a nod for best supporting actor. I say this despite the flick being distributed by Fox Searchlight, the faux indy flick wing of ...

Remix vid mocks MPAA anti-piracy commercials

Thursday, July 6th, 2006

Somebody has done a brilliant job mocking the MPAA anti-piracy commercials (.mov file). If you haven't seen the original, download it here (also a .mov, hosted on this MPAA propaganda website). I'm glad to see somebody do this, because the MPAA propaganda makes me angry. Perhaps worst of all, every time ...

GM’s viral marketing backfires

Tuesday, April 4th, 2006

General Motors has invited the general public to create their own ads for the new Chevy Tahoe. They've provided a decent amount of footage of the new SUV and some sound beds and told folks to go crazy. Thousands of environmentalists and other SUV critics have gone Adbusters and created viral ...

A Quick Lesson in Information Design

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006

Sometimes it is easy to forget just how much control over information graphic designers really get to exercise.

Times’ (slow) tech news: Another example

Monday, March 6th, 2006

Today, another good example supporting last night's thesis: the Times has respectable tech and tech law coverage, as long as you don't mind being a bit behind the curve and missing some of the nuance. Their stuff is uninspiring, and if you're reading it there for the first time, you'd ...

Analysis: Times’ tech news

Sunday, March 5th, 2006

I've long been thinking about--and linking to--Times coverage of technology and tech law; I now share that thought. The Times is a respectable source for technology and tech law news--they don't give the blow-by-blow details of every story, and they're not always the fastest, but they cover almost all the truly ...