The Memory Hole’s scoop
April 30, 2004
A small Web site called The Memory Hole scooped every major media organization in the world last week when it published 288 pictures of coffins of Iraq war dead at Dover Air Force Base, Del., along with 73 photos of the coffins of astronauts from the space shuttle Columbia. The Memory Hole had filed a freedom of information request asking for “all photographs showing caskets (or other devices) containing the remains of U.S. military personnel at Dover A.F.B.” from Feb. 1, 2003 - the day Columbia crashed - to the present. Big kudos to The Memory Hole.
Along with the publication of a similar photo by The Seattle Times a few days earlier, the publication has sparked a public debate about whether it’s appropriate for the Pentagon to withhold such photos, as has been its policy in the past. Pentagon officials are now reviewing their policy to see whether it is in conflict with the Freedom of Information Act.
If anyone doubts the power of independent journalists to make a difference — and offer legitimate competition to major media organizations — The Memory Hole’s scoop should serve as a good wake-up call.
News organizations mislabel space shuttle coffins as Iraq victims
April 30, 2004
In their eagerness to take advantage of the first photographs of American war dead from Iraq returning to Dover, several news organizations — including CNN, The Associated Press, Reuters and The Washington Post — broadcast or published images of coffins that actually contained the remains of astronauts killed in the breakup of the Columbia space shuttle, NASA said.
The goods on Google
April 29, 2004
Google filed its IPO plans today, and the documents included more information about Google than has ever been public before. So how does a reporter on deadline track it down?
BBC taps reader reporters
April 29, 2004
BBC News continued its pioneering work tapping readers for information to help report stories online. After Syrian police clasehed with a team of bombers in Damascus Wednesday, Katja Riefler reported on E-Media Tidbits, the BBC published some basics online and asked readers to add more details: “Are you in the Damascus area? Did you witness the blasts? Send us your comments using the form below.” The site then added five reader comments below the updated report, though as Riefler pointed out, the site doesn’t disclose how much editing and fact checking was done by BBC News before publishing — which it should. This is an excellent way for news sites to tap their huge readership to help gather more information from on the ground quickly. However, media outlets have been burned before by blindly trusting readers, so sites doing this should make sure to fact-check information before publishing.
Online search engine usage data
April 29, 2004
Google filed for an IPO today. Here are some key online search engine usage data from comScore Networks…
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Mandela: An audio history
April 29, 2004
The companion Web site to the special report NPR’s All Things Considered is airing every day this week about Nelson Mandela includes Real Audio and MP3 versions of all the pieces; text transcripts of all the pieces; profiles of the people interviews for the reports; and a multimedia timeline with audio clips.
Webcasts: Virtual Communities and Disrupting the News Industry
April 29, 2004
Two interesting panel discussions will be Webcast from on April 30 from UC Berkeley:
Revisiting Virtual Communities
A panel discussion with Criag Newmark of craigslist, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of the Daily Kos Weblog, Mark Pincus of Tribe Networks and Susan Mernit of the Navigating the Info Jungle Weblog on how the Internet is changing social interaction and political activism.
Disrupting the News Industry
A panel discussion with Dan Gillmor of the San Jose Mercury News, Neil Chase of CBS MarketWatch, Vin Crosbie of Digital Deliverance LLC and Ken Sands of The Spokane Spokesman-Review on how media companies are coping with the competing demands of ownership concentration and participatory journalism.
Google IPO Central
April 28, 2004
Here’s a good site tracking the Google IPO — Google IPO Central.
Lost Youth of Lake Leech
April 28, 2004
StarTribune.com has a nice package to go with the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s three-part series about how children on the Leech Lake Indian reservation in Northern Minnesota are being lost to alcohol, drugs, prison and death.
The package includes a series of slide shows in which the children describe their stories of hope and despair.
A lively discussion has already sprung up online about the series.
Nicholas Kristof’s blog
April 28, 2004
The New York Times Nicholas D. Kristof considers his ongoing discussion with readers on his message board a Weblog. At the end of a recent column about the North Korean nuclear weapons, he writes: “After my reports from Africa about ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region of Sudan, many readers have asked what they can do. I’ve put some possibilities on my blog, www.nytimes.com/kristofresponds, in Posting No. 344.”
It’s great to see Times’ columnists referring to their blogs in print.