Have you read your electronic news today?
NEWSPAPERS TO CYBERJOURNALISTS: SHALL WE DANCE?
CNet editor Jeff Pelline says when he quit a steady newspaper job
nine years ago to launch CNet's News.com site, his friends and coworkers
thought he was nuts, but it turns out he was just ahead of the curve. "Now
the print media giants are changing their tune -- albeit more from a
defensive than offensive posture. Stuck with stagnant growth and under
pressure from Wall Street, these companies are taking their biggest plunge
yet into the Internet pool," says Pelline. He cites Thursday's announcement
by the New York Times that it's acquiring information portal About.com for
$410 million from Primedia and the Washington Post's December deal to
purchase online magazine Slate from Microsoft as harbingers of a new
détente between old and new media. "This year will no doubt go down as a
time when Internet and print media companies danced like never before,"
says Pelline. "For star-struck Internet companies, it may be a reality
check to have to dance with old timers. But the old timers sure don't mind:
It puts more dance in their step than a new pair of wingtip shoes." (CNet
News.com 18 Feb 2005)

What the mouth says and the body does are often different and a journalist should remind her readers of this fact.
NOT WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cameroon14feb14,0,2420523.story?coll=la-home-headlines
When Paul Biya, "the strongman who has ruled the West African
country of Cameroon for more than 20 years swept to another election
victory last fall, a number of observers quickly questioned the
process." But not the U.S. Association of Former Members of
Congress, who said, "This is what democracy is about." Their
delegation was organized by "a lobbyist for Biya's government," who
"served as the mission's chief staffer and billed Cameroon for his
work. Biya's government also picked up the $80,000 tab for the
Americans' visit. And a month after the group left, one of the six
observers signed his own lobbying contract with Cameroon."
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, February 14, 2005
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