The Tories sponsored a car on the NASCAR circuit. No big deal; that's probably a good way to reach their demographic.

Now, who is the car being driven by?

CP reports that it's none other than Pierre Bourque of Bourque Newswatch fame. An excerpt from the CP story on CTV.ca:

Research on the business model for Bourque Newswatch suggests the federal Conservative party has just guaranteed itself favourable coverage for the foreseeable future by sponsoring Bourque's hobby.

Past and current Bourque clients have confirmed to The Canadian Press that advertisers on the site can expect flattering headlines or links, or headlines and links denigrating their opponents.

The Conservative party refuses to confirm or deny that it employs Bourque's headline service directly. But months of negative headlines and links to scathing blogs about Liberal Leader Stephane Dion on Bourque Newswatch indicate someone with an axe to grind is paying the news aggregator, which openly advertises its headline service for sale.

When the Conservatives announced the NASCAR sponsorship Sunday, they also neglected to mention the sponsored vehicle is driven by Bourque.

Instead, the party's news release referred to Whitlock Motor Sports.

From the BBC:

The alleged kidnappers of BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston have denied that they have reached a deal announced by Hamas for his imminent release.

In a video shown on al-Jazeera TV, a masked man said to be from the Army of Islam said there were "developments" in meetings with Hamas.

But he maintained that the reporter could still be killed if their demands were not met.

The BBC said it was aware of the video and was watching developments closely.

From the NYT:

The likening of the British media to a “feral beast” last week by Tony Blair, Britain’s departing prime minister, evoked some angry reactions from the accused. But it may have failed to provoke the larger debate he may have hoped for.

Most British commentators said that Mr. Blair’s attack, which came during one of his last speeches before leaving office later this month, was nothing short of hypocrisy.

For a man whose “administration will always be synonymous with spin, to question the system he has so often exploited seems a bit rich,” wrote The Economist. The Daily Telegraph listed 10 examples of media spin by Mr. Blair’s Labor Party, and The Independent, which was singled out by Mr. Blair as mixing “opinion and fact,” had Simon Kelner, its editor, ask on the front page, “Would you be saying this, Mr. Blair, if we supported your war in Iraq?”

A 370-member Facebook group called Feral Beasts of the Media has also sprung up in response to Blair.

An old computer scientist (well, 30) is trying to take social news to the next level, trying to ensure that important information has the political impact that it should. So Ian Clarke has invented Thoof to compete with Digg, Reddit and others of that ilk.