I almost broke up reading this one on air

Strange but true. As a woman is freed after two years sitting on a toilet seat in Kansas, "the seat went with her to the hospital." Her legs had appeared to atrophy.

How reporters got the story here.

The world must be upside down

Two stories, same day. Were they from the same planet?

FIRST -- WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House says President Bush will veto legislation on Saturday that would have barred the CIA from using waterboarding - a technique that simulates drowning - and other harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects.


Then, incredibly -- WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush chastised most other countries Friday for "a sad and curious pattern" of doing little to speak out against human rights and political abuses in Cuba.

Questions that should have been asked five years ago

It's been five years this week since George W. Bush held a press conference on the runup to the Iraq invasion.

What questions should have been asked that night but were not? Our colleagues at Editor & Publisher, the newspaper trade magazine, raised the questions then and replay there here. It's worthwhile reading.

Circular blogs

Interesting how the blogsphere works.

First, I interview them.

Then, they quote me quoting them.

Then, I'm quoting them ... quoting me.

uh, oh: more media consolidation?

From the trade publication Editor and Publisher"

A bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday introduced a resolution to thwart a rule that loosens media ownership restrictions in the nation's 20 largest cities.

They fear the new rule would leave newspaper readers and TV viewers with fewer choices to get their information.

The "resolution of disapproval" was introduced by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., _ along with 13 Democratic and Republican co-sponsors _ to stop the Federal Communications Commission from implementing the new rule that the agency approved in December. The FCC released the formal order on Wednesday.

It's been a year since ...

...I first wrote a memo. And the blogosphere continues to bring it up.

It was a memo to the news staff, asking them not to read wire service or newspaper stories with unattributed quotes by high administration officials talking about Iraq or any of the Axis of Evil powers. Why? There had been too many set-up stories, promoting the administration's agenda.

Was I ever surprised when that memo went around the world. It's still out there.

As I said at the time in a media interview: "Why am I being interviewed? I'm in the media, after all. Isn't this what we do -- check it out? Am I the only guy hanging out there alone?

Still, it's a curiosity that my memo is still being quoted, as in this blog, exactly a year later.

This public broadcasting trade magazinewrote about it at the time.

Needed: Pub broadcasting to separate from universities

When the Santa Fe Community College wanted to sell its public radio station license, the community rose up in arms. Out of that came the not-for-profit foundation that penned a management agreement with the college to operate KSFR radio independent of the rest of the college. The college retained the license.

We didn’t know it at the time, but this method of saving the radio station also gave it a great strength – its total independence.

More public broadcasting stations should examine whether they are truly independent under their current organization as part of a university or college. When crunch time comes, they may be under pressure from whatever administration is in charge of the school at the time.

Imagine the public broadcaster having to report, objectively, on a savory matter bubbling up inside the academic institution. Inevitably, there would be the pressure to succumb to playing the school’s tune about the matter.

There’s always the possibility the local college might try to strong-arm KSFR if push came to shove. But they wouldn’t get very far. We don’t work for them.

Now, public television in New Hampshire is splitting off from the University of New Hampshire to be an independent nonprofit. They don’t cover the point of journalistic independence in their statement about the move. But that’s what they’ll have. And that’s a mighty beneficial thing.

More public broadcasters should take this approach.