Stuff White People Like

Christian Lander on campus tonight chronicled his rise from blogger amusing himself to huge community to major book contract to NY Times bestseller in about six months.

Big Media "Hall of Shame"

"Hall of Shame" video from the media reform group Free Press highlights media corporations caught censoring web or cellphone traffic, and engaging in other misdeeds.

Examples of Web Censorship

Wikileaks.org, which posts documents leaked by whistle-blowers inside repressive countries, corporations or government agencies was ordered to be shut down (ineffectively) by a federal judge's order in Feb. 2008, after complaint from none other than a Cayman Islands bank! The judge removed his order after 10 days.

Inner City Press, a monitor of Wall St. and the United Nations, temporarily is delisted from Google News. The de-listing happened soon after Matt Lee of Inner City Press questioned Google's commitment to free expression.

In 2007, the consumer rights group CommonCause was blocked from placing an ad on My Space, owned by Rupert Murdoch, that challenged media conglomerates using a photo of Murdoch and the caption: "This is the face of Big Media."

Maisntream TV news is so formulaic. . .

. . .that a BBC TV correspondent did a segment making fun of the samey nature of stories on BBC and other TV networks. Hopefully, independent outlets can offer alternative approaches.

Oregon blogger...

...trying to get access to city council executive session UPDATED.

"Iraq for Sale" documentary

Here's trailer for the Iraq for Sale doc that was unusually pre-financed by thousands of folks making small donations.

Limits to Indy Voices in Corporate Media?

Here is a fascinating discussion between two media figures -- Keith Olbermann (MSNBC) and Michael Moore -- who have used corporate media or corporate distribution to strongly criticize the power of big corporations. They suggest, near the end of the interview, that their critical speech is allowed within mainstream media if it's not totally effective speech.