According to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines released yesterday, bloggers who review products should in many cases disclose when those products are given to them for free, but traditional journalists usually don't need to. The guides -- which call for a case-by-case analysis of whether disclosure is required -- are not enforceable, but "serve to put marketers on notice about the type of activity the FTC will consider deceptive," Online Media Daily reports.
Finke gets the New Yorker profile treatment this week in a nearly-8,000 word piece with the subheadline: "Why Hollywood fears Nikki Finke." Finke says the story is "an amusing caricature, only occasionally true but hardly insightful." She adds: "Still, I'm relieved that The New Yorker didn't lay a glove on me. I found Tad Friend, who covers Hollywood from Brooklyn, easy to manipulate, as was David Remnick, whom I enjoyed bitchslapping throughout but especially during the very slipshod fact-checking process."
In July, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) placed Be and Westword on the "worst" section of its monthly Best and Worst of National News for a cartoon that used the term "Gear Fags" to describe camping enthusiasts who spend a lot of money on ridiculous gear. Be responds -- in hilarious fashion -- with this week's cover story, which points out that more than one celebrity who has received GLAAD Media Awards has also used the word the group apparently found so offensive. "If GLAAD claims that their mission is to 'prevent defamation' and to 'ensure accuracy and fairness for LGBT people in the media,' then why are they fawning over these fearless funny women, yet censoring me like some backwoods LGBT bigot?," he wonders. "Maybe if I had a vagina and a cable TV sitcom, I too would be a red-carpet-worthy GLAAD icon."
"Do you have a medical condition that necessitates marijuana? Do you have a way with words?," the Denver alt-weekly asked in a job posting earlier this week. "If so, Westword wants you to join the ranks as our freelance marijuana-dispensary reviewer." As the paper has reported, the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in the area has exploded, so they're launching a weekly column called "Mile Highs and Lows" to review them. Westword editor Patricia Calhoun tells the Wall Street Journal the process of looking for a critic to review drugs isn't any different than looking for, say, a food critic -- they will post the ad and ask for a sample review. "Our restaurant critic, Jason Sheehan, won a James Beard award," she says. "We're hoping we'll have similar success, although there don't seem to be as many rewards for marijuana reviewers."
The White House has told Congress that it opposes federal shield legislation that would protect reporters from being imprisoned if they refuse to disclose confidential sources who leak material about national security, and has proposed changes to weaken that provision of the bill, the New York Times reports. The administration's proposals are being criticized by press groups and at least two Democratic senators who have supported the legislation, Arlen Specter (Pa.) and Charles Schumer (N.Y.). "The White House's opposition to the fundamental essence of this bill is an unexpected and significant setback," Schumer says. "It will make it hard to pass this legislation."
In spite of strong statements from the White House supporting open government, "the secrecy reflex at some agencies remains firmly in place," Associated Press president and CEO Tom Curley said in prepared remarks to a Senate panel examining the state of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) today. Curley, who was testifying on behalf of the Sunshine in Government Initiative, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Obama message to agencies to be more transparent whenever possible has not yet translated into big changes when federal agencies process FOIA requests.
Sophie Blackall uses "Missed Connections" ads from Craigslist and the Village Voice as source material for her "playful prints using Chinese ink and watercolor," the New York Times reports. "I lost about two hours of my life reading them and thought this is just an extraordinary mine of material, ranging from the lyrical, poetic to unintentionally hilarious," she says of the ads. "Many of them threw out ideas for images to me right away." Blackall, who compiled the work on a blog earlier this year and has opened an Etsy shop, says she's also negotiating a book deal for the illustrations.
Washington City Paper has not been available on Catholic University's campus since May, when the alt-weekly ran a story on the school's campus sex ban, "Screw U: Inside the Secret Sex Life of Catholic University." The university's director of public affairs tells the campus paper The Tower that City Paper's removal was brought on by its "hateful article ridiculing our Catholic faith" but declined to provide any further details. "Whether or not that article was a true portrayal of students, we should be able to decide for ourselves whether or not it's worth reading," sophomore Joe McAnaney says. "It's disappointing that I can't just pick up the City Paper in the Pryz [the student center] anymore, even though I understand the University's decision."
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