Clip Art Comes of Age (2003-04-02)
"The news of irony's death was greatly exaggerated in the wake of 9/11," says this Mother Jones' interview with comic artist David Rees, creator of Get Your War On. The online comic dishes up biting social commentary in the form of ironic clip art comics.

DJ get your gun (2003-03-28)
Radio station consultants around the country are advising their clients to make the most of the war in Iraq, according to this Washington Post article. Here's some of their advice:

"Get the following production pieces in the studio NOW: . . . Patriotic music that makes you cry, salute, get cold chills! Go for the emotion."

"If you were the upstart station in town, you might conceivably come at this from a peacenik angle by going on the air with the body count, by pointing out we haven't got Osama bin Laden or Saddam yet, by saying we should end the madness. But we find it appropriate to wave the flag where I happen to be."

"The sense is, if we give too much play to people against the war, it will hurt in the war effort and the people fighting it."

Woohoo. Love that fair and unbiased reporting.

Half an hour ago, the oil filled trenches were put on fire (2003-03-24)
That's the opening line for today's entry in the Where is Raed blog, a firsthand account of life in Baghdad under the bombs. Though writtern under the pseudonym Salaam Pax, I somehow trust this coverage more than what I'm hearing on CNN. "The whole city looked as if it were on fire," writes Pax, "The only thing I could think of was 'why does this have to happen to Baghdad.'"

Press freedom by the numbers (2002-10-24)
Reporters Without Borders just released an index, ranking 139 countries on the basis of their respect for freedom of the press. The First Amendment did not come out first in its free press guarantee: The United States ranked 17th, just under Slovenia, Costa Rica and Switzerland.

Blog On (2002-06-27)
CyberJournalist offers the latest in self-referential meta-discourse, the 'Weblog Blog' -- a blog about bloggers and journalists and the ongoing debate on who's who. It also has links to journalists' blogs. If you're confused by all that, sort it out by perusing their journalism news and Web journalism tips. Or go to The Scoop, where you'll get another dose of news on blogs in the news.
Got that? phew.

Media and human rights report released (2002-06-27)
The International Council on Human Rights released a report last month, 'Journalism, Media and the Challenge of Human Rights Reporting', which claims media professionals don't give their audiences enough background and continuity of coverage to make sense of human rights stories. The full text of the report is available online.