Reading Around on June 25th

Some additional reading June 25th from 11:50 to 14:04:

  • Flickr as an Interior Decorating Tool – Gadgetwise Blog – NYTimes.com – "Flickr as an Interior Decorating Tool
    By SONIA ZJAWINSKI"

    Just because you can steal, doesn't make it right. And not something the NYT should allow to be published without at least checking with in-house counsel. I hope Ms. Zjawinski is printing a little tag with the photographers name on every image she steals. And I bet if she left a comment on the photos she borrowed, most often the photographer would be satisfied. Just taking without asking is a bit presumptuous though.

  • UPDATED: Why the Village is so mad at Nico Pitney | Media Matters for America – Within hours of online writer Nico Pitney asking a single question at a WH presser, the WashPost's Milbank swooped into action, loudly mocking Pitney's involvement as being terribly troubling and phony. But please note that in 2005 when it was revealed that right-wing partisan James Guckert had been waved into the WH press room nearly 200 times without proper credentials, wrote under an alias (Jeff Gannon), and asked Bush officials softball questions, Milbank remained mum. (He wasn't alone.)

    According to Nexis, Milbank never wrote about the Gannon story.

    But Pitney, the national editor for one of the most-read and widely respected online news outlets? His singular WH presence sent Milbank into an immediate tizzy.

  • Media Recap: Credulous Press Ate Up Spin From Sanford's Office | TPMMuckraker – It feels absurd to have to point this out, but politicians and their staffers frequently have reason to dissemble, about issues far more important than an extra-marital affair. Too often, though, the press treats public statements from elected officials' offices — especially those purporting simply to provide information, like the Appalachian Trail line — as self-evidently accurate. It's as if, despite everything, some in the press can't quite bring themselves to believe that politicians might try to mislead people.

    Part of this is structural. There's almost no acceptable way for a mainstream reporter to explicitly tell readers that the information being put out by a powerful office-holder may be false or misleading. But the only way that this structural flaw will change is if individual reporters are willing to stick out their necks to change it.

    Until then, people will read blogs for stories like these.

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