The Beeb's Paul Reynolds opined that Israel's strike on Qana would pressure the U.S. into pushing for an early ceasefire.

He would appear to be wrong.

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NATO is now responsible for military operations in southern Afghanistan. Here's the BBC story.

Here's a BBC streeter with Afghans asking about the presence of foreign troops on their soil.

From globeandmail.com:

Some solace for traditional news outlets worried about how to compete with the Internet: A survey finds slowing growth in the number of people who regularly go online for the news.

Almost three in 10 adults, or 31 per cent, regularly log in for news, a rate roughly the same as two years ago, according to the survey released Sunday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. People in their 40s were more likely to go online for news than the younger adults.

“The online news audience is maturing and at this point is wider than it is deep,” said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center.

“We have as many as 31 per cent who say they read news online regularly,” he said. “But they don't spend as much time doing it as they spend with more traditional media like newspapers, TV and radio.”

Here's the full report.

Some U.S. newspapers have signed up with an online news aggregation company to deliver content from competitors onto their own websites.

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The new Will Ferrell comedy about a NASCAR driver figures prominently in both the editorial and advertising sections of the Aug. 4 issue of The Sporting News.

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Increasing numbers of American men between 30 and 55 who got chopped in various downsizings are choosing to give up on work rather than take a demeaning gig. While those predominantly affected are undereducated blue-collar men, the ranks include dot-com-ers from the boom times and former executives.

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If you go away, say on a Friday, and return on a Sunday evening, and it's August, and you live in Toronto, and it's hot, and you don't have air conditioning in your place, make sure your dehumidifier was completely drained on that day of departure and ready to suck moisture all weekend long.

Otherwise, you will return home to a fetid sauna.

Canadian journalist Blake Lambert, whom the Ugandan government punted out of the country in March for doing his job, saw my original post on a BBC editor's musings about how the despite the far higher human carnage in Congo, for example, the Middle East will dominate in the news.

He sent me a lengthy note that was pretty informative. I asked him if I could post it, and he graciously said yes. Here it is:

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In AP stories posted on CTV.ca, the point is made that the ferocious Israeli assault on Hezbollah is making the Shiite militant group folk heroes throughout the Arab world, especially its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. In response, even pro-U.S. governments find themselves forced to shift their criticism to Israel. Part of the irony is that Hezbollah's popularity had been on the wane in south Lebanon in recent times.

Here's a BBC analysis that finds much the same thing:

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In the middle of the Mideast carnage came another bombshell of a (boy band) story: Lance Bass of 'N Sync revealed he's gay.

"There you have it, folks. Singer Lance Bass: Gay at 27," smirked Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, on Thursday night.

Stewart noted that People magazine, which broke this history-altering bit of news, had Bass on the cover. But the New York Daily News had a photo of Lance with ... Spongebob Squarepants -- a cartoon character who has been the object of rumour and innuendo.

"You may wonder how the paper managed to find the gayest possible picture of Lance so quickly," Jonno asked rhetorically.

Stewart said that when famous people died, there was often a complete, well-researched retrospective available within minutes. That's because newspapers and TV write and produce those obituaries in advance, he said.

Well, with celebrities who may well be gay, but aren't yet out, it's pretty much the same thing, Stewart said.

"It's just good journalism, for God's sake!" he said.

This isn't the case in newsrooms where I've worked, but I'll bet Stewart's item will have some editors thinking. :)

To see The Daily Show clip, go here and click on 'Boy Band Bombshell.'

Vancouver author Deborah Campbell wrote an article for The Tyee on what she sees as some of the essential books on the Middle East.

A few weeks ago, CTV.ca got an email from a Canadian fellow offering to tell about his UN posting in south Lebanon.

After checking it out, the guy seemed legit, and so we posted his story.

Tragically, Major Paeta Hess-von Kruedener was the Canadian who is missing and presumed dead following the Israeli bombardment of that post on Tuesday.

Update

The major's wife, Cynthia Hess-von Kruedener, spoke to the media today. Story and video at CTV.ca.

Update 2

Over at MyBlahg, Robert McLelland points to a post from LGFWatch about the incident. I went to Little Green Footballs myself to see if some of what was being quoted was accurate. If those who made those comments are honestly expressing their beliefs, then there's some mighty hateful people hanging out at LGF. Some examples:

#37

Texas Never Whispers  7/25/2006 05:22PM PDT

I'm finding it hard to feel bad for these so-called peacekeepers. Most of them blindly shilled for Hezbollah while attacking Israel. I do not believe that Israel intentionally targeted them, but even if they did, their anti-Israeli propaganda made them a fair target in this war. Much like the trial and execution of people like Lord Haw Haw and Tokyo Rose. Anything that would help bolster Hezobllah's morale has to be seen as a weapon.

38

baldylox  7/25/2006 05:23PM PDT

I know it sounds a bit harsh, but I wish that it were deliberate, and that Israel came right out and said so. All the UN seems to do is rape children, enable terrorists and act openly hostile towards Israel, If I'm Israel, I say any UN 'Peacekeeping' teams in the region will also be subject to attack. Sorry.

#39

sms111  7/25/2006 05:23PM PDT

Dear Mr. Annan, GO FUCK YOURSELF. There is nothing more that needs to be said to this criminal.

#40

Catttt  7/25/2006 05:25PM PDT

War is hell, Mr. Annan. You get that? Me, I'm shocked at the UN peacekeepers who damaged their penises after trying to fuck goats. Silly of me to be shocked, after all the raped civilians, child abuse, abandoned children, and spreading HIV, but there you are.

#57

ted  7/25/2006 05:33PM PDT

4 Less child molesters in the world...

#94

RTLM  7/25/2006 06:05PM PDT

4 less UN terrorist collaborators. Good Job IDF

What can one say, except "wow." :(

Update 3

The major was eventually found dead. His remains arrived back in Canada on Aug. 4. CTV.ca got some email from ex-colleagues of Hess-von Kruedener and others on why Israel may have struck that UN outpost. You can find that here.

While NATO soldiers ramble over hill and dale, seeking to engage the Taliban, the insurgents are targeting soft targets like schools in an attempt to destabilize the country.

A Canadian, Mike Frastacky of Vancouver, has been one victim of this tactic. This BBC story looks at the bigger picture.

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Craig Oliver, editor of the BBC's The Ten O'Clock News, makes the following point:

 Here are some stark statistics:

• Around 30 to 40 people are killed every day in the current Israel/Lebanon conflict.

• About 100 people are killed every day in the violence in Iraq.

• And 1,200 people are killed every day in the war in the Congo.

All three of these stories are due to appear on tonight's Ten O'Clock News. They will probably run in that order - with the Middle East getting by far the most attention.

Does this say something about how we value human life? It's a fair question and one I worry about.

More in my comment below ...

Miles Davis: Kind of Blue.

Just two days ago, I had a post about Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf's international and domestic political problems -- and how the two were related.

Now, a group of retired generals is advising PPM that it would be a good idea if he weren't both president and chief of staff of the army.

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The European Court of Human Rights is to rule on the case of a Chechen man who disappeared in 1999. One of the reasons there is a case is because TV cameras captured a Russian general giving orders to shoot the guy.

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Shannon Rupp, contributing editor with The Tyee, wrote a piece on July 25 reviewing the case of Vivian Smith and the Victoria Times-Colonist.

Here's an excerpt:

The firing put a "chill" on the newsroom, according to insiders who spoke on the guarantee of anonymity. They asked what this instance might mean for future reporting. Might politicians who run campaign ads be above questioning? Would government ads mean that reporters can't question elected officials who authorize them?

"This is ridiculous: we're talking about flowers!" said one insider. "It's demoralizing for reporters."

TC journalists also worried about the implications for readers: CanWest is the largest media company in Canada and owns the Vancouver Sun and The Province.

News of Smith's firing did not appear in the Sun or Province. In fact, few mainstream news media on the West Coast picked up the story.

But Smith's firing attracted the interest of Geoffrey Stevens, a columnist for two TorStar-owned papers: the Kitchener-Waterloo Record and Guelph Mercury, and a former managing editor at The Globe and Mail. On July 17, he listed Smith's termination as among the examples of how concentration of media ownership has turned "pretty good operations into shoddy but profitable ones."

Finally, Sean Holman of Public Eye Online, who got the whole ball rolling, offers a clean-up post that has some interesting comments attached to it.

I don't find much reason to talk about CAJ business these days, but sometimes, its board of directors does something to put a smile on my usually taciturn face.

The latest is their usual professional job in responding to the Vivian Smith affair.

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A human eating machine in India's Kerala state has been told by his doctors to slow down, and local restauranteurs are rejoicing.

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The NYT looks at a Bravo miniseries on the newsroom of the New York Daily News -- something that's surprisingly sympathetic to its subjects.

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The NYT's David Carr on how even big-time writers are trying to develop side Web projects as a hedge against economic turbulence.

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Crash, a movie I didn't particularly like, cost $7.5 million to make and had worldwide revenues of $180 million. Writer-director Paul Haggis has made a whopping $300,000, and the eight principal actors -- Matt Dillon, Don Cheadle and Sandra Bullock among them -- have recently been cut cheques for $19,000.

And what did they do wrong? They worked for a slice of the "profits."

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Poor President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan. To his west, he has Afghanistan bitching that he's providing a Taliban sanctuary. To his east, India accuses him of supporting militant Kashmiri Islamists. And that's not even mentioning his domestic difficulties.

Respected Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid tries to make sense of it all.

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