"Dinner with Amy"

The socialist Appeal to Reason used yachts, fruit farms and motorcycles as premiums for subscription revenue to keep going. On occasion, Democracy Now! has offered big donors a 'Dinner with Amy Goodman."

After meeting Amy at a dinner party, Regis (and Kelly) acknowledge their TV show is about "nothing." (Is that a parody of Morning Latte skit on Saturday Night Live?)

Indy magazine Harper's loses

...its Washington Editor, Ken Silverstein: "Washington and Washington politics has worn me down. Every time I write a story I feel like I wrote it a year ago and five years ago and 10 years ago. Nothing ever changes here." His powerful, depressing "Signing Out" column is here.

Lynching of blacks...

. . .prompted this classic Billie Holiday song, which she recorded in the late 1930s over the objections of her record company: "Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees". One of the last lynchings took place in Poplarville, Mississippi, in 1959.

First Indy Publications -- Reader (Un)Friendly

Check out the dense layout of William Lloyd Garrison's abolitionist publication, The Liberator: here and here and here. Not exactly HuffingtonPost. Cady Stanton's/Anthony's feminist publication, The Revolution, was a tiny bit less dense. Content was king (or queen) back then.

Kate Sheppard, '06 IC grad

Kate has built a career in indy outlets, now working at Mother Jones -- where she blogs on energy and environment news. Her latest piece was outside that beat, about U.S. soldiers being exposed by American contractor KBR to toxic chemicals in Iraq. She appeared on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show last year.

Activists Tell FCC on Net Neutrality...

Quit waffling! A year after the Federal Communications Commission chairman made a speech warning that fast action was needed to keep a free and open Internet, no action has been taken.

Crowd-funded investigative piece...

...just published, thanks to Spot.us.

Public Better Informed in Other Countries?

A 2008 academic study compared the level of public knowledge about current events in Denmark, Finland, England and the U.S. It found that the countries with TV/radio dominated by public broadcasting -- Denmark and Finland -- were the best informed. Our country, dominated by corporate media, was the least informed. The study's authors suggest that differing media systems play a role in those results.

In a related note: A 2003 study of U.S. public knowledge of facts related to the Iraq War found that misperceptions were greatest among those whose primary info source was Fox News, least among those whose primary info source was public broadcasting.

U.S. public misunderstanding seems to be growing: A Pew poll taken last month found that almost 1 in 5 Americans believe President Obama to be a Muslim; only 34% know he is a Christian. 43% chose "don't know."

Global Voice Online, a favorite of mine

Interesting news of the world from bloggers/others who live or hail there! In protest, Chinese professor (and blogger) offers himself up as slave. Online expose of official corruption in India. Earlier this year, a group in Lebanon that was fed up with the reader-unfriendly, unresponsive website of the Daily Star newspaper, offered a redesign of the website themselves.

French President to Citizen: Get Lost, You Idiot!

President Sarkozy caught on Net video. French politicians having difficulty tolerating the scrutiny from new media, Internet, YouTube -- especially compared to coverage they'd received from traditional media. A conservative cabinet member was videoed dancing with young folks to Black Eyed Peas tune. Our ex caught on video.

Video and Blogging for Human Rights

The nonprofit group, Witness.org, distributes video cameras in hopes of minimizing human rights abuses. Their slogan: "See it. Film it. Change it."

Vancouver Film School students created an inspiring video, "Iran, A Nation of Bloggers", and put it online months before the tech-fueled protests over Iran's disputed 2009 election.

Egypt: Internet Use Can Get You Killed

With the Egyptian government dominating all major media in the country, brave Egyptians (citizen journalists) risk imprisonment and torture to blog or tweet about human rights abuses. Renowned Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas interviewed annoyingly by elitist BBC anchor. Abbas (and his mom) were assaulted in their home in April 2009, reported Global Voices Online.

Fascinating video (with far-from-perfect English translation): "Internet Freedom in Egypt"

Profile of blogger Marwa Rakha, born and raised in Egypt. Her blog post on an incident of mass detention of bloggers, including Wael Abbas, to cover the aftermath of a massacre of Egyptian Christians.

Last June, 28-year-old Khaled Saeed was beaten to death in public for the crime of Internet use.

Crowd-funded Journalism

Would you spend $20 to help underwrite a feature or investigative report? Check out Spot.us, a community-funded journalism project explained in this video by founder David Cohn.

As Daily Papers Shrink

Filling some gaps left by shrinking or disappearing dailies are nonprofit news sites -- from the well-funded, well-staffed VoiceofSanDiego.org to Baltimore's smaller InvestigativeVoice.com

"The Young Turks" Doing Good and Doing Well

A totally web-based TV outlet, The Young Turks, is getting $1 million in annual online revenue and 18 million views last month, according to today's L.A. Times.

Obsession with Access Leads to Pulled Punches

Cenk Uygur, host of the successful indy web TV show, "The Young Turks," draws lessons about corporate media from an incident of National Enquirer suppressing a Tiger Woods "expose" in 2007.

Indy Video Shakes Up 2008 Campaign

A Brave New Films' mini-video "McCain's Mansions" got over 600,000 views. This self-promotional behind-the-scenes video, "The Making of McCain's Mansions," shows how the mini-video went up the media food chain into the mainstream diet.

Blogger's Question Launches Controversy

In a blog post for indy media class, former IC journalism student Chris Lisee tells an important story about the impact a single off-key journalist can have.

"Indy Media in a Time of War"

Video made by volunteer collective in an upstate NY Independent Media Center, based on a 2003 speech by Amy Goodman.

Internet Hoax + Limbaugh-Style Spin = Public Ignorance

Any Internet-savvy, educated person would not fall for this Internet hoax, but many non-savvy folks have. Probably ditto for Limbaugh listeners.

Dances with White House/Dances with Wolves?

Here's video from 2007 Radio-Television Correspondents Association Dinner. While these are social events where journalists and newsmakers are expected to have some fun, is this symbolic of too much cozyness?