Early Stones

The Media Wonk was away from this post recently while pursuing actual paid employment. But now that that’s behind me, it’s time to clear out the folder of stuff-I-meant-to-get-to-when-I-have-the-time. Here’s one item: Last month, a group of archaeologists announced the discovery, made last fall, of a 35-40,000 year old, five-hole flute made from a vulture Read More …

Lipstick on a pig

The Digital Entertainment Group takes the Sarah Palin Rouge-Lipped Hockey Mom Prize this week for slathering lipstick on the runtish snout of the home video market. The industry spinmeisters reported that total consumer home entertainment spending for the first half of 2009 was down a mere 3.9% compared to last year. Not bad, you say, Read More …

Selling the news

The most depressing, if least surprising aspect to the flap over the Washington Post’s now-abandoned plan to sell access to public officials and its own editorial staffers in the form of big-money “salons” for lobbyists was the Post’s naked fetishizing of “those powerful few” who “actually get it done” on Capitol Hill. I live and work in Washington, Read More …

Owning more of the news

In thinking some more about Judge Richard Posner’s controversial suggestion the other day that Congress might need to expand copyright law to prohibit linking and paraphrasing news stories without permission in order to “save” newspapers from the ravages of bloggers and aggregators, I was reminded of a talk given last month at the World Copyright Summit by Read More …