The World After WTC I didn’t do anything with B…

The World After WTC

I didn’t do anything with Bjorn Staerk, because I’m not sure what they play in Norway. I should probably look that up.

Marriott Drops Andersen As Auditor Frankly, I’m…

Marriott Drops Andersen As Auditor

Frankly, I’m surprised they have any clients left.

Mercury News | 05/03/2002 | FBI agent warned last …

Mercury News | 05/03/2002 | FBI agent warned last July that Middle Easterners training at U.S. flight schools

I don’t think this is a Great Moment, but the headline is unclear. Translated from the Headlinese, the agent warned headquarters that “several Middle Easterners were training at a U.S. aviation school and recommended contacting other schools nationwide where Arabs might be studying.” There was talk about maybe checking up on them, but nothing came of it.

This will obviously excite the conspiracy nuts, but never attribute to villainy what can be best explained by incompetence. Even that’s not fair; there’s a lot of information out there, and most of it never gets the attention it needs. Eventually, there will be a thriving underground of McKinneyists, parallel to the nuts who think FDR knew about Pearl Harbor ahead of time. Some of them will probably be the same people.

The CORNDOG I don’t care what some people say, …

The CORNDOG

I don’t care what some people say, this is damn funny. Especially “Andrew Stutterer”.

Wrong about the right

Great Moments in Headline Writing

AP Wire | 05/03/2002 | Right-Wing Wins British Elections

May 3, 2002: The Miami Herald (perhaps getting the head from the AP story) makes it sound like a tidal wave of extremism has swamped British politics. While the headline is technically true, it refers to only three council seats in one town, (the BNP ran 68 candidates, and the other 65 all lost) and in fact on a nationwide basis Labour did better than expected.

Extended serial monogamy

Great Moments In Headline Writing

BBC News | SHOWBIZ | Actor Hopkins to divorce again

May 3, 2002: The BBC makes it sound like Sir Anthony changes wives on a constant basis, when he’s been married to his current one for 29 years and has only been married once before.

Great Moments In Subheadings

There are two subsections in this story, entitled “Riches” and “Psychotic”.

I’ve made space in the blogroll by arbitrarily eje…

I’ve made space in the blogroll by arbitrarily ejecting various nefarious furriners to their own sections, and promoting some people from the NIT to the Regionals. I put Tal G. among the Brits on the grounds that they play a lot of soccer in Israel. I’ve also added Evan Day to the roll.

Poynter.org - Jim Romenesko’s Media News A rep …

Poynter.org - Jim Romenesko’s Media News

A rep from Belo, the Dallas Morning News publisher writes to Romenesko:

I just want to clarify that Belo is not on a crusade against deep linking. We understand as well as any media company, or any Web user, the benefits of deep linking. However, deep linking without Belo’s permission is a violation of DallasNews.com’s terms of service, and in specific instances — a small number of instances — we seek to enforce these terms. I think if you look at many other content sites, you will see terms of service that are not dissimilar.

Someone with an electronic publishing background like Jeff Jarvis or Ken Layne would be better able than I to address this, but I’ll give it a try.

As the flack notes, the terms of service do include a prohibition on deep linking. But as he also notes, it’s not normally enforced. My understanding — I am not a legal expert, but an interested layman — is that that sort of selective enforcement is frowned upon. If they allow people to do something for years, even if it’s supposedly not allowed, they can’t start enforcing it all of the sudden. And they certainly can’t simply enforce it against people they don’t like. Moreover, it’s a stupid policy, and is quite possibly illegal anyway. And if they really wanted to, DaMN could easily keep deep links from working at all. That they aren’t indicates that what they’re really interested in is smacking down someone they don’t like.

It may be time to change my email again. Yahoo Ma…

It may be time to change my email again. Yahoo Mail keeps showing me this picture, and it freaks me out.

Bill: TV or Not TV? The BBC is one of the netw…

Bill: TV or Not TV?

The BBC is one of the networks after President Clinton. They want him to host a game show, of all things.