Dinner with Amy

The socialist Appeal to Reason newspaper offered yachts, fruit farms and motorcycles as premiums to bring in revenue and subscriptions. Democracy Now! has offered "Dinner and a Show" with host Amy Goodman.

After meeting Amy at a dinner party, Regis (and Kelly) acknowledge their TV show is about "nothing." (Is that a parody of Morning Latte skit on Saturday Night Live?)

Ida B. Wells Anti-Lynching Legacy

In last dozen years, Northwestern University journalism students and their professor have been instrumental in proving the innocence of many prisoners, several of whom had been sentenced to death.

Lynching prompted the classic Billie Holiday song, "Strange Fruit," which she recorded in the late 1930s over the objections of her record company: "Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees

First Indy Publications -- NOT Reader-Friendly

Check out the crowded layout of William Lloyd Garrison's abolitionist publication, The Liberator: here and here. Not exactly HuffingtonPost. No half-naked actors. Cady Stanton's/Anthony's feminist publication, The Revolution, was a tiny bit less dense. Content was king (or queen) back then.

AOL and HuffPost, Clashing values

Boston Globe offered a glimpse into AOL's brand of journalism, a bit different than HuffPost.

Tunisian rapper El General....

...put out this widely-circulated song and video attacking Tunisia's U.S.-backed dictator Ben Ali and urging folks into protests in the streets. El General was arrested for it. Soon after, the dictator fled the country. (H/t to Steve Zunes.)

After Tunisia dictator fled, the bizarre allied dictator in neighboring Libya, Qaddafi, made a speech denouncing the Internet, WikiLeaks, Twitter and Facebook, which he blamed for Tunisia events.

Back in 2007. citizen journalists/bloggers had documented the tourism/shopping trips of the dictator's wife aboard the presidential plane. (H/t Global Voices)

Why is U.S. Public Badly Informed?

A 2008 academic study compared the level of public knowledge about current events in Denmark, Finland, England and the U.S. It found that the countries with TV/radio dominated by public broadcasting -- Denmark and Finland -- were the best informed. Our country, dominated by corporate media, was the least informed. The study's authors suggest that differing media systems play a role in those results.

In a related item: A 2003 study of U.S. public knowledge of facts related to the Iraq War found that misperceptions were greatest among those whose primary info source was Fox News, least among those whose primary info source was public broadcasting. (A Pew poll taken in Aug. 2010 found that almost 1 in 5 Americans believed President Obama to be a Muslim; only 34% knew he is a Christian. 43% chose "don't know.")

French President to Citizen: Get Lost, You Idiot!

President Sarkozy caught on Net video. French politicians having difficulty tolerating the scrutiny from new media, Internet, YouTube -- especially compared to coverage they'd received from traditional media. A conservative cabinet member was videoed dancing with young folks to Black Eyed Peas tune. Our ex caught on video.