Airborne Combat Engineer

The M-1 was a sniper rifle? Who knew?

An article by Ryan Lenz of the Associated Press reported on the shooting of two sheriff’s deputies in Georgetown, Indiana by a teenager, who subsequently killed himself. The article, entitled "Officials: Teen used WWII-era rifle," identified the weapon used in the shooting as a "sniper rifle" in its lead sentence. Two paragraphs later, the weapon was specifically-identified as M-1 Garand. [pictured at right, photo via MemorablePlaces.com]

News Busters

Whatever weapon is used, reporters tend to label it by such pejorative terms as sniper rifle, assault rifle, or black rifle.

CNN: "Most trusted name in propaganda"

[LINK] Rich Noyes, News Busters

On CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday, CNN’s senior international correspondent Nic Robertson added all of the caveats and disclaimers that he should have included in his story last week that amounted to his giving an uncritical forum for the terrorist group Hezbollah to spout unverifiable anti-Israeli propaganda.

Goodbye, again, Dan

[LINK] CBS

Dan Rather is leaving CBS after 44 years with the Tiffany Network.

He issued a statement Tuesday critical of CBS' handling of the contract talks. Rather said his early departure "represents CBS's final acknowledgement, after a protracted struggle, that they had not lived up to their obligation to allow me to do substantive work there. As for their offers of a future with only an office but no assignments, it just isn't in me to sit around doing nothing."

Media coverage of the War on Terror

[LINK] Rantingprofs

This blog specializes in watching media coverage on the "War on Terror."

The author, Cori Dauber, is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies (and of Peace, War, and Defense) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

I've not yet read enough of it to ascertain if it has a bias. But just having one link with this focus saves time. Like her by-line suggests: She'll rant. You decide.

A study in media bias

[LINK] Dayffd at Big Lizards

Comparing AP and Reuters stories on the same incident provides insights.

The explosive growth of citizens media

Donata Communications (via Hobbs Online) speaks of the evolution of media to involve citizens.

As an example of where things appear to be heading, take a look at Bluffton [SC] Today, which is ENTIRELY citizen generated.

It's design objectives:

• Everyone gets a blog. Not just staffers, but everyone in the community.
• Everyone can contribute events to a shared public community calendar.
• Everyone can contribute recipes to a community cookbook.
• RSS feeds are everywhere -- all the blogs collectively, all the blogs individually, classified ad search results and so forth.
• For people with Windows XP, we're giving away BT Reader, a branded, customized RSS application that fully supports podcasting.

If you just want a visual glimpse into the lives of others, check out photolog.net.

With the advent of cell phones (many able to take snapshots and video clips), e-mail, message boards, blogs, and such; we can all be reporters. We don't have to get our news (and interpretations of the news) from the media priesthood.

The trick would seem to be a good way to separate the news and features we want from the mountain of contributions, and a way to verify the accuracy of reported "facts."

Good night, and good riddance, Dan Rather

When you get too big for your britches, you shouldn't be out in public.

War, Truth, and Videotape

Several bloggers have teamed up to form the WT&V site with the specific purpose to get to the truth about what happened at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
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The tape is currently in possession of Mark Adams, Head of Media of the World Economic Forum. The claim has been made that the conference was “off the record”, however evidence exists that this conference was indeed on the record.

H/T: Blackfive

1222Z SAT 19FEB05

A-C-E received 1169 hits yesterday (Zulu time day: 1200Z to 1200Z)
Total hits to date (since late Nov 2003) are 390,568
I'm now calculating daily hits based on total hits, as the daily hits reported by Typepad appear inflated.

Al Jazeera hiring for global media network

In November, 2005, Al Jazeera will launch a new English-language international network based in London, Washington, Kuala Lumpur and with headquarters in Doha, Qatar. The new network will carry a truly global agenda to a world audience.

It is looking for four current factual [and they use that term VERY LOOSELY] programme executive producers based in Washington, DC. They will be people with considerable experience of live current affairs broadcasting and with the talent to develop programme strands across many factual genres, including business and economics. They will possess a global news and current affairs perspective and be unafraid of controversy.

1311Z FRI 18FEB05 JournalismJobs.com via Right Thinking Girl

Optional, unsolicited ACE opinion in the continuation

Civil war breaks out inside SeeBS

Drudge and Fox (Is Drudge the investigating arm for Fox AM News?) report several involved in the Dan Rather scandal are refusing to resign as requested, and are instead have hired lawyers, as they continue to draw their salaries.

Howard has also indicated to colleagues that he would subpoena specific CBS documents, including the e-mails of top executives.

This DEVELOPING story could get VERY interesting... or not.