Saw this first at Zerby's blog: Mark Hamilton, a B.C. j-teacher, tried to do a round-up of blogging and Canadian newspapers.

His results are posted at Blue Plate Special.

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Dan Gillmor, who blogs at bayosphere and wrote We The Media, is writing a series of columns on citizen journalism for the BBC website in the coming weeks. His brief description of web mashups is the most interesting thing in this one.

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Americans' view of Islam are worse right now than they were right after the 9/11 terror attacks, a new ABC News-Washington Post poll has found.

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From the BBC:

Asadi denies the charge of offending Islam Yemeni prosecutors have called for a newspaper editor to be sentenced to death for showing cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, his paper says. Muhammad al-Asadi was arrested after his publication, the Yemen Observer, showed the Danish cartoons in February. He denies the charges of offending Islam, under which he is being tried. The English-language newspaper has had its licence to publish suspended, although its staff have continued to produce material online. Prosecutors reportedly requested that the Yemen Observer be closed permanently and have its property and assets confiscated. The paper's website reported that the prosecution lawyers cited precedents from Muslim history when the prophet was insulted by a woman and then praised her killer. The trial was adjourned until 22 March.

The sectarian violence in Iraq has the U.S. ambassador to that country warning of possible civil war. With the kidnappings of 50 security men and other mayhem in recent days, the BBC's Jim Muir tries to analyze the chaos.

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Poor, beleaguered Wal-Mart is trying to get free enterprise-loving bloggers everywhere on its side.

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Knight-Ridder, the U.S.'s second-largest newspaper chain, goes on the block today. And its selling price could say much about what the smart-money people think about the future of the mainstream news media.

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When Chile elected its first socialist as president since Salvadore Allende in January, the political sea change seemed to mark a social one as well.

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This NYT story comes a bit late, seeing as Brokeback Mountain didn't have a big day at the Oscars, but it finds part of the movie's basic theme isn't that uncommon in American life.

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Some of you thought my 10th-anniversary lookback at the Leader-Post's downsizing was in two parts. It wasn't. It was in one l-o-o-o-o-o-ng part.

But the whole thing is done now.

Back now to regularly unscheduled programming. :)

From the BBC:

Protester want John Michuki to go Thousands of demonstrators have been marching through Kenya's capital, angry at a police raid on a media group. The Nairobi protesters waved placards demanding that Internal Security Minister John Michuki "must go". Last week, hooded policemen seized equipment, halted TV broadcasts and burned thousands of newspapers belonging to the Standard media group. The operation has been described as the biggest media crackdown seen in Kenya since independence. Thousands of others are reported to be protesting in the cities of Mombasa, Nakuru and Kisumu. The raid followed a story published by the media group that said the president had secretly met a leading opponent.

Daily Show host Jon Stewart had some oka-a-a-y bits at the Oscars, but I can't say he slayed me.

Personally, I thought he started flat and uncertain. He was trying to read the crowd and failing.

Go big or go home, Jon.

One gag I liked was his praise for Good Night, and Good Luck and Capote as films that dealt with journalism's relentless pursuit of the truth. "Needless to say, both are period pieces."

Taken from George Clooney's acceptance speech after he was awarded an Oscar as best supporting actor:

"We are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood, every once in a while, I think.

"It's probably a good thing.

"We're the ones who talk about AIDS when it was just being whispered. And we talked about civil rights when it really wasn't popular. We bring up subjects ...

"This group of people, this academy, gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theatres. I'm proud to be part of this academy, I'm proud to be part of this community and I'm proud to be out of touch."

Clooney won for Syriana, a movie I blogged about and didn't like.

While I wasn't a huge fan of the movie, I'm glad to see someone like Clooney is trying to educate the American public about certain issues that clearly haven't been canvassed by the U.S. educational or journalistic establishment.

I saw Crash, but I didn't see it becoming named best picture at the 2006 Academy Awards. Yet there it is!

I didn't see Brokeback Mountain (for certain reasons), but it now seems to be very close to Overrated Mountain.

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For whatever reason, I woke up about 6:10 a.m. this morning (I went to bed around the usual 3 a.m.) and used the opportunity to go to the can.

My bathroom is right across from my main door, and just as I'm about to start to do my business, there's somebody outside on the landing with a flashlight trying to look in.

I give my head a WTFF shake.

There's a translucent white shade over my door's window, so I mainly see the outline of a large figure with a bright light from a flashlight piercing the darkness of my foyer (an excellent horror movie image).

I creep beside the door to make sure it's locked. I stand off to the side of the door and try to discretely lift the blind a bit to see what's going on outside. The figure was wearing a tan parka with the hood up. The flashlight didn't look like a cop's; it looked like a household one with an aluminum body and a red cap for the lens.

This person wasn't there that long. He or she crept away without making any significant noise, nor did he or she apparently try to open the door.

I don't think it was a cop and I believe my newspaper generally comes even earlier. In any event, why would a newspaper carrier be checking out my landing like that? Their business is to drop off the paper and skedaddle.

All in all, a weird little episode.

At this exact same time of day a decade ago, I can remember what I was doing: Having a beer with my suddenly ex-colleagues about 5½ hours after one of the biggest downsizings in Canadian newspaper history.

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Stephen Colbert and Ariana Huffington, of the Huffington Post fame, sparred over blogging and other topics Wednesday night on the Colbert Report.

It's worth checking out: Two very bright, very witty people having a great time engaging in verbal jujitsu!

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Warren Kinsella, who recently started writing for the National Post as a media columnist, wrote this on his blog today:

The Toronto Star's anti-CanWest ICBM, Zerb, continues to spread disinformation about the Post to boost sagging morale at One Yonge. She shouldn't. It's not fair, and it's not accurate. I was at one of the information sessions on Don Mills Road yesterday, and here's what I heard: THE NATIONAL POST IS HIRING PEOPLE. Editorial, advertising, you name it. HIRING PEOPLE. That, to me, is not the behaviour of an organization that is in trouble; it's the behaviour of an organization that is growing. Meanwhile, Ed Greenspon this week told the Wall Street Journal that his newspaper is heading towards a "cliff," quote unquote. Why doesn't she write about that? Maybe I will.

Here is some of what Antonia Zerbisias wrote in a posting Wednesday about the N-P:

On the upside: The first half of this fiscal year has been good and the hope is to break even by 2008. There is a new ad strategy ready to go. The online side will get overhauled. There has been some hiring and there will be more hiring in editorial. There be a renewed focus on Toronto.

Downside: No more home delivery in the Maritimes where apparently there are only some 2,000 subscribers. Toronto will be targeted for growth.

That doesn't seem to be particularly unfair to me (Note: I toil in the BellGlobemedia empire). Kinsella didn't link to the post that offended him so. Was that what he had in mind?

As for the Greenspon quote, here it is, taken from the Feb. 27 Wall Street Journal story:

Mr. Greenspon says he doesn't know what kinds of change will result from the staff-driven makeover. But he says he realizes his paper's relative success may not be good enough in the long run. "Newspapers are falling off the cliff," he says. "But we're at the back."

It seems to me that what Greenspon actually said is wildly different from what Kinsella implied he said. That's not accurate.

For background, the WSJ story proclaims the Globe to be the winner of the great Toronto newspaper war, noting its circulation rose five per cent for the six-month period ending Sept. 30, while average daily newspaper circulation in the U.S. fell by 2.6 per cent in that period.

Kinsella didn't mention that. That's not fair.

So who's playing the disinformation game?

Update:

Zerbisias replied at her own blog.

Some prominent Muslim intellectuals, including novelist Salman Rushdie and Canada's Irshad Manji, have issued a public statement warning about totalitarian Islamism.

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The crime of the three, employed by the East African Standard, is quite heinous: They said Mwai Kibaki, the president of Kenya, had a secret meeting with a sacked cabinet minister.

But fear not: Kenya is drafting a new media law as we speak to help protect innocent politicians against such vicious uses of media power.

More at the BBC story.

Update:

Here's more detail from an AP story on globeandmail.com this morning:

Masked gunmen who identified themselves as police shut down Kenya's second largest media group Thursday, two days after three Kenyan journalists were detained without charge for a story about the country's president, the company's editorial director said.

The closings targeted the country's oldest newspaper, The Standard, and the Kenya Television Network. It appeared to be the first time in recent history that a Kenyan government has shut down the operations of a major media company.

Dozens of masked men in unmarked vehicles raided the editorial offices and the Standard's printing plant, taking computers and transmission equipment, damaging the presses and setting fire to Thursday's editions, said an Associated Press photographer who witnessed the raids.

“We believe this is a direct and blatant attempt to undermine the freedom of the press in this country that is guaranteed by the constitution. It is also intended to paralyze our business,” said Tom Mshindi, the chief executive officer of the Standard Group.

Mr. Mshindi said he hoped to have the television station back on the air by Thursday afternoon and the presses repaired in time for a Friday edition.

The Minister of Information, Mutuhi Kagwe, told journalists Thursday morning that he did not order the raid and knew nothing about it. A government spokesman said a press conference would be held later in the day.

Here are some reader favourites from February:

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Two University of Chicago economists reviewed some 1960s data and found that TV watching didn't cause kids' test scores to drop.

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Americans seem to know more about The Simpsons than they do about the U.S. Constitution, a new poll finds.

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The Tyee is launching The Tyee Investigative Fellowships and The Tyee Solutions Fellowships.

An excerpt from the fellowship page:

Here is what your donations will allow us to achieve. Beginning today The Tyee is accepting applications (Fellowship Application PDF) from independent journalists wanting to dig deep into problems faced by British Columbians, or wanting to report on promising solutions to the challenges we share in this province. While the research and reporting must relate directly to BC, the subject matter is open, and may include education, the environment, human rights, economics, workplace rights and safety, poverty, or ethics in science, business or politics.

Fellowship applications, which are due April 9th, will be reviewed by an independent advisory panel who will select the four strongest. Each journalist will receive $5000 to produce a series of at least three stories which will run on The Tyee and possibly in other publications.

First of all, kudos to The Tyee for doing this.

Secondly, Toronto, by and large, hasn't done too badly. We can all agree it's a fairly well-off city. Some of the "alt" newspapers here have made a fair buck off massage parlour and escort ads.

My question is this: Has any "alt" publication tried to establish a similar fellowship program here to fund some journos to take a serious look at the problems facing Ontario?

I can't think of one in the more than five years I've lived here.

A once-fiesty Chinese newspaper supplement is now much more establishment friendly -- a move a former co-editor calls a compromise.

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A judge has tossed out the request of the Hamilton police to see the notes of an interview that Hamilton Spectator reporter Bill Dunphy conducted with a local crime figure.

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