This is something I haven't seen any North American publication do: Offer up a chunk of its website as a guide to using freedom of information laws.

You can view it here.

A December-January 2005 column on how the New York Times resuscitated itself from being a financial basketcase in the mid-1970s to being the success it is today.

The recipe? Sometimes, you improve a soup by adding meat and tomatoes, not by watering down the broth.

This is a December-January 2005 American Journalism Review story on how news outlets should handle a crisis: Plagiarism, fabrication, accusations your story sits on a foundation of forged documents ... the sort of thing we've all become sadly familiar with.

About 3:20 p.m. today, I'm standing on Bathurst Street. It's been snowing and there is slush on the roads.

It's my misfortune to be standing there when the light turns yellow (pop quiz: In Toronto, what does a yellow light at an intersection mean?).

Toronto Star media critic Antonia Zerbisias has written a bit of a strange column on whether the media will continue to shine a white-hot light on the tsunami disaster forever and evermore.

I think it's a safe bet to say no, it won't (Read on: There's much, much more!).

Ontario's Attorney General wants to set up a committee so the justice system and the news media can understand each other a little better.

An excerpt from the Toronto Star article:

According to the BBC, the French paper Liberation has said it hasn't heard from correspondent Florence Aubenas or her assistant in 24 hours.

It didn't know whether they had been kidnapped.

The Toronto Star published a list Wednesday of Canadians missing in South and Southeast Asia as a result of the Dec. 26. One relative of some people on the list (who weren't actually missing), was ...   more »

Seems End of the Century (see my review; it plays the Royal again in Toronto Jan. 17-18 and the Revue Jan. 19-20) is opening across the pond, and so the Guardian has interviewed the last original surviving Ramone: Tommy Erdelyi, who now plays in a bluegrass duo (?!?!) called Uncle Monk.

CNN's new president Jonathan Klein says Crossfire will be cancelled and that conservative host Tucker Carlson won't have a continuing home on the network.

An excerpt from the NYT story:

Nicholas D. Kristof supports the claim the U.S. is stingy with foreign aid. Now, does anyone have similar figures for Canada?

An excerpt from his column:

An AP story from Tuesday talked about how a lone Sentinelese tribesman from the tsunami'd Nicobar and Andaman Islands south of India shot an arrow at an Indian military helicopter.

An excerpt:

This is an NYT Magazine piece about how Al Arabiya is trying to position itself as the cool, objective alternative to the tabloid heat of Al Jazeera.

The three men trying to refocus the channel, broadcast ...   more »

This NYT piece talks about why natural disasters of the future will be even more catastrophic than the Dec. 26 earthquake-triggered tsunamis.

An excerpt:

The pickings do not look good for January at my main movie houses, although perhaps all is not lost.

A preliminary skim of the listings for the Royal, Revue and Paradise theatres had me thinking ...   more »

From the Dec. 28 Media Culpa column of the Village Voice.

An excerpt:

Life's funny. Here I am thinking it's been a while since I've read a good Knights Templar/Holy Grail story, and then I click on the Guardian Web site, and lo and behold!

An excerpt:...   more »

From the NYT. It's about a Chinese hamlet whose young women predominantly end up working in the sex trade abroad.

An excerpt:

J. Dennis Hastert is the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, which makes him a key guy in advancing Dubya's legislative agenda.

The NYT profiles him. Here's an excerpt:

A new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project has found while more people are reading blogs, the percentage creating them grew more slowly. And a large majority of American Internet users still don't know what they are (?!?!).

An excerpt:

This AP story (carried by CTV.ca) tells how U.S. newspapers are getting edgier in their visuals than television -- which must worry about offending people while being guests in their living room.

This NYT piece talks about some of the nutty nonsense being sprewed in blogs over the tsunami crisis,  but also provides evidence that in a free-speech environment, reason does stand a fightin' chance.

Some excerpts:...   more »

A.O. Scott, chief film critic for the NYT, has proclaimed Sideways the most over-rated movie of 2004. But actually, he likes the film; it's his fellow critics he's really targeting.

An excerpt:

In this NYT commentary, author Simon Singh notes it is the centennary of Albert Einstein's birth year, which was 1905. As he notes, being a genius doesn't mean the same as being perfect.

An excerpt:

Don Sellar, the Toronto Star's ombudsman since 1992, is taking a buyout and moving on. However, he says the job will be filled again.

Here's an excerpt from his final column:

My journo buddy and fellow blogger John Gushue has a list of some of his favourite Web sites from 2004.

Since I'm too lazy to do my own (and because I tend to do articles, ...   more »

Daniel Okrent, the NYT public editor, wrote his year-ender last week. I missed it while dealing with a tsunami of tsunami coverage:

An excerpt of some of the improvements he noted:

This AP story out of Thailand goes on about how some Western tourists are back out on the beaches and jet skis while bodies are still being picked out of the rubble.

However, it notes some ...   more »

Come marvel at what you, the viewing public, thought was worth clicking on last month in this little section of the blogosphere. I also identify some posts I wish would have gotten more attention:

Those BBCers just can't say enough about blogs. Here's some excerpts from their technology writer's reportage on the phenomenon:

Dear voluntary blog visitor/helpless, compulsive addict: Happy New Year and all the best in 2005! For my first posting of this new year, a little something from the NYT about dominant civilizations that faded....   more »