J-prof Kelly Toughill opined in today's Toronto Star about coverage of the Conrad Black trial by some outlets and journalists who are quite close to the embattled Darwinian capitalist but didn't disclose that fact. One of those journalists, Mark Steyn, tosses a bun back at Toughill.

From the NYT:

Income inequality grew significantly in 2005, with the top 1 percent of Americans -- those with incomes that year of more than $348,000 -- receiving their largest share of national income since 1928, analysis of newly released tax data shows.

The top 10 percent, roughly those earning more than $100,000, also reached a level of income share not seen since before the Depression. ...

The new data also shows that the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans. Per person, the top group received 440 times as much as the average person in the bottom half earned, nearly doubling the gap from 1980.

The disparities may be even greater for another reason. The Internal Revenue Service estimates that it is able to accurately tax 99 percent of wage income but that it captures only about 70 percent of business and investment income, most of which flows to upper-income individuals, because not everybody accurately reports such figures.

Apropos of nothing, I found this on YouTube.

This is a hilarious feature about guys who have been dumped because of their personal digs.

Kyiv is expected to be the scene of large protest rallies this weekend, with demonstrators on the side of pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko and his pro-Russia rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, expected to gather -- and possibly clash. Yushchenko is threatening to call a snap election.

Alistair Johnson is still being held captive somewhere in the Gaza Strip after being grabbed on March 12. More regional voices are calling for his release.

Foreign fighters and local tribesmen in the area of South Waziristan, Pakistan continue to duke it out, with 52 reported deaths Friday.

From the BBC:

Mobile-phone text messaging in Cambodia has been suspended for the weekend, so that users are not bombarded with political texts during an election.

The National Election Committee has asked phone networks to turn off the service until after the polls have closed in Sunday's local elections.

Human-rights and opposition activists have criticised the move, calling the action unnecessary.

With no little irony, users were informed of the move by text message.

From the Western Wing
To the Crawford Ranch
Karl Rove's destroyed
The executive branch!

He's got no scruples
And I don't mean maybe
He said John McCain's
Got a secret black baby!

Fuck dat guy!

Here's Dubya's speech to the Radio and Television Correspondents' dinner.

And here's a YouTube link for the utterly unfunny rap number featuring "MC Rove."

Here's a post or two on Stephen Colbert's lambasting of Bush at the White House Correspondents dinner last year.

Rachel Marsden first gained notoriety in this country by making sexual harassment allegations against a Simon Fraser University swim coach in the early 1990s, when it turned out she was stalking him. And others. She now has a gig on Fox News' Red Eye, a late-night, right-wing alternative to the Daily Show.

From the BBC:

A Swiss man has been jailed for 10 years after pleading guilty to charges of insulting the Thai king.

Oliver Jufer, 57, was arrested last December after drunkenly spray-painting portraits of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in the northern city of Chiang Mai.

Earlier this month he pleaded guilty to five charges under Thailand's draconian lese majeste law. ...

Jufer, who had faced a maximum sentence of 75 years, has lived in Thailand for more than 10 years.

He was recorded on surveillance cameras defacing the portraits on the king's 79th birthday.

Earlier he had tried to buy alcohol but been refused, since such sales are sometimes banned on important days. King Bhumibol, the world's longest-serving current head of state, is a very popular figure in Thailand.

The Beeb corro says the Thai media are staying far, far away from this story.

This was in my email when I got home:

Hello,

I plan to apply to (a) journalism program and their admission process requires me to interview three journalists.

May I please ask you some questions?

1. Besides school what else did you do to get journalism experience?

2. What did you learn outside of school in the field to become a good
journalist?

3. What advice do you have for someone wanting to pursue a career in
journalism?

Thank you,

The answers are as follows ...

From the March 26 BBC story:

Tribesmen in Pakistan's tribal region bordering Afghanistan have promised not to shelter foreign militants.

The assurance came as part of a deal signed by the government and local tribes in Bajaur agency.

Unlike other controversial deals in the troubled Waziristan region nearby, this deal was with tribesmen not militants.

Statistics Canada released a report Tuesday on Canadians and their news media diet, based on 2003 data. CTV.ca also did a story.

There's tons of stuff in it, but here's a snippet that caught my eye:

U.S. newspaper revenues are down big-time when you compare February 2007 to February 2006. Now the big question becomes, is it a trend or a blip?

The NYT's Richard Siklos with some observations about a conference call held by executives with NBC and News Corp. on a new online video service to be launched:

At one point, a reporter for MSNBC posed a question, prompting Peter A. Chernin, the president of the News Corporation, to rib his co-host, Jeffrey Zucker, the chief executive of NBC Universal, that this was one of his employees. “Hi, boss,” the reporter joked.

Soon after that, a writer for TV Guide came on, and Mr. Zucker quickly pointed out that TV Guide was part of the News Corporation megalith. Laughter ensued from Los Angeles, where the executives were that day. The reporter, however, quickly pointed out that Mr. Chernin’s company owned “only 40 percent” of him.

Next, a reporter for The New York Post introduced herself. Again, laughs. Not only is the tabloid owned by the News Corporation, but the paper also has been particularly rough on Mr. Zucker and his company. “All yours,” Mr. Zucker said to Mr. Chernin, suggesting that he field the question.

Starbucks has launched a line of bottled water called Ethos. For every bottle they sell, 10 cents (in Canada, a nickel elsewhere) will go to providing people in developing countries with potable water.

Great, except they're selling the water for $2.49 (tax in). And they scheduled a Walk for Water for today, the same day that the NGO group WaterCan had scheduled a fundraising walk.

Some new studies are finding there are limits to how much human beings can multi-task.

Afghan journalists are wondering why so much was done to help a captured Italian reporter, but not his two Afghan companions.

From the BBC:

Journalists in Gaza have held a rally to call for the release of BBC reporter Alan Johnston and an end to the kidnap and intimation of reporters.

The demonstration was the latest in a series of appeals since Mr Johnston disappeared two weeks ago on his way home from work in Gaza City.

More than 100 journalists, politicians, and others attended the rally.

Palestinian officials have said all possible efforts are being made to secure Mr Johnston's release.

One of the bright lights of the U.S. economy has been the steadily rising value of homes. However, one thing driving the boom has been cheap, high-risk credit, and that particular chicken is coming home to roost. This NYT story is about how Cleveland and some other hard-hit U.S. cities are trying to stave off blight and real estate panic.

From the Guardian:

Smirking at the jury in Conrad Black's racketeering trial, Eric Sussman, the youthful American prosecutor, stumbled and stuttered on his words.

"Ca... col... cal... I don't know how to say that. Can anyone pronounce it for us?" he asked, gesturing theatrically to a word in one of the former Telegraph owner's typically verbose emails.

Lord Black's defence counsel, Ed Genson, had a stab at it in his gruff midwestern drawl before turning to his client with a weary sigh and asking: "Conrad?" The peer, showing no sign of appreciating the mirth around him, sourly replied: "Calumnies."

In bombastic, long-winded emails, Lord Black's words have come back to haunt him. The US government portrays him as a man of limitless arrogance who believed that Hollinger, the media empire he built, was a personal fiefdom. ...

Acknowledging that their client will never be a man of the people, Lord Black's lawyers have admitted that his attitude can be "arrogant" and "snotty".

Musings

"He goes a little too much for rhetorical musings," Mr Genson told the jury, conceding that the peer could be unpleasant in emails written late at night - and sometimes, he joked, in those composed the rest of the day too. "I wish you didn't have to hear them."

Harry Dean Stanton's character Bud, after doing a nasal upload of speed: Look at those assholes over there. Ordinary fuckin' people. I hate 'em.

Emilio Estevez's character Otto: Me too.

Bud: Whadoyou know? You see, an ordinary person spends his life avoiding tense situations. A repo man spends his life getting in to tense situations. Assholes. Let's go get a drink.