I have no personal insights, but here's a snippet of a June 21 Ouimet posting:

Last night at the Drake Antonia Zerbisias explained to a packed room why she won't be writing a column on media criticism any more. It was all off the record but from what I understand it was a cracking good monologue and she also talked about media concentration and the big boys telling you what to think and do.

And so, today she starts her Living column and that's it for media criticism in Canadian newspapers.

Incidentally, the headline on Zerbisias's last media column was Diversity in TV ownershp protected, at least for now.

Addendum

I found this from a March 14, 2007 Tyee article, talking about why Zerbisias's blog was put on hiatus:

Lesson one: she's not the one who pulled the plug on her blog for the Star, which ground to a mysterious halt last Christmas. No, she's simply "on hiatus" -- although she took a 10-week leave of absence because of family issues.

It's the new administrative arrangement that is to blame.

"The current management doesn't see the economic value in it," she explains, noting the paper's bigwigs want to focus on the printed newspaper over the electronic one -- a bizarro business strategy given Zerbisias is read by practically everyone who cares to stay informed about media issues in Canada. So, among other things, she's keeping herself to a print column these days.

"It's been awkward," she says. "It's kind of ludicrous that the media columnist for the biggest newspaper in Canada -- in 2007 -- doesn't have a significant online presence."

Lesson two: Zerbisias has suffered bouts of blogger fatigue. Not because posting multiple times a day is gruelling, but because many of the denizens of the digital universe can be, well, a big pain in the ass sometimes. Especially in the comment threads.

"A lot of things got hijacked," she says of her now-defunct blog. "It seemed like 10 comments in, we always ended up on Israel. It was ridiculous."

Refusing to pull punches, Zerbisias was met with a torrent of ruthless abuse from determined attackers, the kind of stuff that went far beyond anything she'd experienced in her career as a print journalist.

"I felt like I was being targeted by certain people who just live, you know, to come and troll on certain pet peeves and certain pet topics."

Like many, Zerbisias couldn't refrain from replying to the crudest and most ignorant commenters. She spent hours answering all her hate mail, where she put clever ploys into action to try and irritate her attackers (like telling them the Star was paying her a nickel per response, which was of course a lie).

"I would just mock them, you know, 'Thank-you very much for your trenchant comments.... You know, whatever.'"

Tony Long, copy chief for Wired News, defends the thesis of Web 2.0 critic Andrew Keen; namely, the Internet is a refuge for "mediocrity and dilettantism." (thanks, Kevin!)

From the BBC:

Fans of MySpace and Facebook are divided by much more than which music they like, suggests a study.

A six-month research project has revealed a sharp division along class lines among the American teenagers flocking to the social network sites.

Sometimes justice does prevail! From the Washington Post:

The D.C. administrative law judge who sued his neighborhood dry cleaner for $54 million over a pair of lost pants found out today what he's going to get for all his troubles:

Nothing.

In a verdict that surprised no one, except perhaps the plaintiff himself, a D.C. Superior Court judge denied Roy Pearson the big payday he claimed was his due.

Delivering her decision in writing, Judge Judith Bartnoff in 23 pages dissected and dismissed Pearson's claim that he was defrauded by the owners of Custom Cleaners and their "Satisfaction Guaranteed" sign.

It was a pointed rebuke of Pearson's claim, and it may not be the end of his troubles.

Financially, Pearson could soon be on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees incurred by the owners of Customer Cleaners, and professionally, Pearson could find himself out of his $96,000-a-year job as an administrative law judge for the District government.

But for the moment all he's out of is the tens of millions of dollars that he demanded when he filed suit in 2005 against Soo Chung and her husband, the owners of Custom Cleaners.

The Guardian's Glastonbury 2007 home page.

BBC Online - Glastonbury 2007 (includes video of sets)

BBC News - Festival season 2007

The Independent - Sure it's a bit corporate at Glastonbury. So what? (commentary, Mark Ellen, editor, The Word magazine)

From the BBC:

Nato has said it needs to do better in its operations in Afghanistan, after coming under criticism from Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Mr Karzai accused Nato and US-led troops of failing to co-ordinate with their Afghan allies, thereby causing civilian deaths.

A Nato spokesman said Mr Karzai had a right to be "disappointed and angry" over the scale of civilian casualties.

It came after a week in which up to 90 Afghan civilians were killed.

More civilians have been killed this year as a result of foreign military action than have been killed by insurgents, correspondents say.

From a Saturday Globe and Mail story on the drought hitting the southern and southwestern United States:

Worst of all for some, the Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg, Tenn., has warned it may have to reduce or suspend production, because the iron-free spring waters on which it relies are flowing as much as two-thirds below normal.

Here is what a Chattanooga, Tenn. TV station reported on June 15:

We visited the distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee to ask the Master Distiller, Jimmy Bedford what exactly was going on. He says that the rumors of stopping production are totally unfounded. The cave spring still has PLENTY of water to make the distinct flavor of Jack Daniels whiskey.

The Jack Daniels distillery is located in southern Tennessee, in rolling hill country that was beautifully lush and green when I visited there in 1992 (I always thought it would be an awesome area for a bicycle or motorcycle vacation -- winding roads and gorgeous scenery. Even the apparent sighting of a goat in somebody's living room off one backroad had its charms).

I went on a tour of this icon (stopped in at the Jim Beam distillery in Kentucky too), and I would highly recommend it to anyone passing through the area. The tour guides were hilarious in a southern, deadpan way.

The guy took us to the fabled springs. "We tried to find the source of it," he said, then listed the many techniques they used, including the use of dyes. All attempts failed. "Then we thought, 'What does it matter, so long as it keeps comin'?'" he said to chuckles all around.

Well, what if it doesn't keep coming at some point? That wasn't an issue 15 years ago. The big question is, will it be one 15 years from now?

PS

While I like their whiskey, the obnoxious links policy on the Jack Daniels website has me feeling snarly with respects to the corporate entity behind it.

The JD website doesn't address the water supply issue. Just lots of soothing, brand-enhancing bromides.

From the NYT:

While the networks tussled over which would land the first interview with Paris Hilton after her release from jail, the upstart Web site TMZ.com was breaking most of the news.

On June 3, TMZ.com was the only media outlet to capture on video Ms. Hilton’s surrender at the Los Angeles central jail for men, while other outlets waited outside the Lynwood women’s jail for her to arrive there. When Ms. Hilton was released early by the Los Angeles County Sheriff, Lee Baca, and when Judge Michael T. Sauer ordered the sheriff to take her back to court, TMZ.com was first to report that Sheriff Baca had initially refused to follow the judge’s order.

TMZ.com has so dominated the coverage on Ms. Hilton that Larry King, who is scheduled to interview her on CNN Wednesday night, will turn over tonight’s one-hour show to TMZ.com’s anchor and managing editor, Harvey Levin, the man who may represent the future of celebrity journalism.

And as a result, some French journalists are feeling the chill breeze of self-censorship blow across the backs of their necks.

From the BBC:

The kidnappers of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston have released a new video of him in which he is wearing what he says is an explosives vest.

In the tape, Mr Johnston says his captors have said they will detonate the vest if force is used to try to free him.

It is the second such video released since Mr Johnston was abducted in Gaza on 12 March. ...

In the tape, posted on a website used by militants, Mr Johnston is seen wearing a device around his torso and attached to shoulder straps.

"The situation now is very serious. As you can see I have been dressed in what is an explosive belt, which the kidnappers say will be detonated if there was any attempt to storm this area," he says.

Mr Johnston appeals for a peaceful resolution to his situation, saying talks had reached an advanced stage.

"Captors tell me that very promising negotiations were ruined when the Hamas movement and the British government decided to press for a military solution to this kidnapping."

Earlier, Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said Mr Johnston's captivity could not carry on.