Media
So what will it be today -- a feature on the new Walnut Bridge Coffee House near Penn ("a number of delicious teas can be had") or a photo essay with sound of the Italian Market ("They dont take nothing thats been killed already," a chicken vendor says of his customers demands for freshness).
Lets start with the chicken man.
Two new online publications have debuted in Philadelphia over the past two weeks Dragonfire and Phillyist. They couldnt be more different.
Former 9/11 Commissioner and Navy Secretary John Lehman makes an uncomfortable point in his phone conversation with radio talker/blogger Michael Smerconish:
"When such a bomb goes off, for example, in the Philadelphia subways, there are going to be far more casualties because police and fire have not been allowed to have the kinds of equipment and connectivity they absolutely know they need. They have been articulate in pointing it out, but they have not been getting it."
Lehman credited British planning, practice and equipment for keeping the death toll in last week's bombings to near 50. Said we fall far short when it comes to keeping a proper radio communications network.
We have been invaded from the North by mauve. Gothamist, a slick, snarky New York Cityguide, has spawned replicants in Austin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Paris, San Francisco, Shanghai, Toronto, and Washington, D.C.
And now, Phillyist.
It opened for business today. It's edited by John Carroll, who is no carpetbagger. He's a Philly-reared Penn grad of the most recent vintage. He's worked at 34th Street Magazine and the reborn Evening Bulletin. Has his own blog as well.
Time Magazine to talk. The New York Times to jail.
The two reporters facing prison for not revealing who leaked information about an undercover CIA agent went their separate ways Wednesday. Time's Matthew Cooper woke up ready to go to jail - only to be told by his confidential source that it was OK to tell authorities who it was who told him Valerie Plame, wife of former ambassador Joe Wilson, was an intelligence operative. Cooper told a federal judge he will talk to the grand jury, though not to the public. His publisher's statement.
Meanwhile, Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter who also refused to ID the leaker, was ordered to jail until October. Miller stood up, hugged her lawyer, and was led off. Her publisher's statement.
Will be blogging the Live 8 benefit. Heading down to the Parkway about 7 a.m. Saturday so I can see the London show on the big screens. Look for me, trying to balance a laptop on a lounge chair. Then I'll weigh in throughout the day. Anything you want to know? Email me or post here.
rec
Example No. 346 of why the line between news and opinion is getting thinner all the time:
The Huffington Post will be the first blog to be aggregated on Yahoo's News page.
This is great, some will say. This is further evidence of the end of the world, others will say.
George Clooney really wanted to be on the conference call, but regretted the scheduling conflict.
Instead, we got some political operatives talking circles around our questions, but doing a good job spreading the word among bloggers about the cause behind July 2nd's Live 8 benefit on the Ben Franklin Parkway.
Joe Trippi, the man behind Howard Dean's groundbreaking use of the Web as a political fundraiser/buzz spreader, was veritable quote machine.
This doesn't concern you. You didn't wake up this morning and find your favorite porndog site shuttered. But those magnetized by such places of enlightenment as ratemyboner.com and gapingmaw.com had to be disappointed by a new law aimed at ensuring children are not used in the pornographic industry. U.S. Code: Title 18: Section 2257 took effect at midnight. From now on, such Web sites must keep records documenting that every performer depicted in explicit conduct is over 18. The Those who can't comply are taking down their material, like the Rotten.com folks, who maintain the above two sites, so I'm told.
But this does concern you. Karl Martino, over at Philly Future.org, runs an aggregator - what that does is assemble fresh posts from selected blogs in one place. It's a vivid snapshot of the talk-of-the-moment on a wealth of subjects. And it's in peril, Karl writes:
If I understand correctly, sites that feature RSS aggregators like Philly Future could be at risk. Publishers of other sites post pictures in their feeds. We feature feeds direct from Flickr as well.
We at the corporate swine media regret stepping out of the office yesterday with a notebook in hand and actually observing events. (Note to self: re-read commenter below who accused you of injecting a point-of-view in your report. Go back to inverted paragraphs and 'He said-She said.' Buy one of I Flip-Flop's "Keep Out of Direct Sunlight" t-shirts.)
A variety of views have emerged of yesterday's events, the anti-bio-tech protests, the skateboarders' young-citizen action, the death by heart attack of a 52-year-old police officer.
The Philadelphia Independent Media Center, purveyors of "passionate and accurate tellings of truth," offer pictures of the bio-tech protests. The PIMC also posts interviews with two demonstrators at the event by the Convention Center. (Inky stories of the police officer's death here and here.)
Some bloggers who used to wear old-media hats weigh in on Congress's efforts to slash budgets for PBS and NPR.
"Bagging Big Bird," is how Sally Swift captions her rant against moves in the House to cut in half spending for public television and radio. She's doctored a photograph of ex-librarian Laura Bush reading to children on Sesame Street so now a gun that says GOP points at Big Bird. Expect a vote within days.
Swift, a Philly based former CBS TV editorial director, and winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award for journalism, writes:
- Aquarium Drunkard
- Arts and Letters Daily
- ArtsJournal Blog Central
- Augasm
- Blogcritics.org
- Fluxblog
- Gawker
- I Am Fuel, You Are Friends
- Largehearted Boy
- Metafilter
- Motel de Moka
- NPR Music
- Romenesko
- Said the Gramophone
- Some Velvet Blog
- Stereogum
- The Awl
- THE TOFU HUT
- WFMU's Beware of the Blog
- When you Awake
- Der Spiegel Online
- Economist.com
- Global Voices Online
- Guardian Unlimited Newsblog
- signandsight
- Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things
- Dynamist Blog
- Gizmodo
- Slashdot News for nerds, stuff that matters
- A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago
- A Smoke-Filled Room
- Above Average Jane
- Afro-Netizen™
- artblog
- Attytood
- Balls, Sticks and Stuff
- Beerleaguer
- Blankbaby
- blonde sagacity
- Books, Inq.
- Changing Skyline
- Citizen Mom
- How Appealing
- Mere Cat
- Philadelphia Weather
- Philebrity
- philly
- Philly Burbs Blogs
- Philly Future
- slacktivist
- Suburban Guerrilla
- Swing and A Miss
- The BM Rant
- The Clog
- The Daily Jive
- The Phanatic
- The Smedley Log
- The700Level.com
- TheIlladelph
- This Urban Life
- Tom Gralish's Photo Blog
- Young Philly Politics
- CJR
- editorsweblog.org
- Online Journalism Review
- Poynter Online - Romenesko
- PressThink
- Reflections of a Newsosaur
- Second Draft by Tim Porter
- BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis
- DeepBlog
- Joho the Blog
- Technorati
- The Daily Beast
- 538
- Booman Tribune
- Brad DeLong
- Daily Kos
- Digby
- Eschaton
- Informed Comment
- Instapundit
- Little Green Footballs
- My DD
- Pajamas Media
- pandagon
- Power Line
- The Daily Howler
- The Huffington Post
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