By: E&P Staff
In today's edition, the Seattle sheriff's office is taking a dispute with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to a conflicts-resolution group, AOL makes its email and software free, and a writer says that Google's policy of not putting ads on controversial stories is hurting journalism.***
AOL Email Accounts, Software To Be FreeAssociated Press: AOL just gave its customers more reasons to stop paying. In a strategy shift likely to accelerate the decline in its core Internet access business, AOL said Wednesday it would give away e-mail accounts and software previously available only to customers who paid as much as $26 a month. AOL hopes to chase additional online advertising dollars instead.
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YouTube Chasing Hollywood Ad DollarsNew York Post: YouTube, the popular but unprofitable video-sharing site, is going after the big ad dollars. The Internet phenom has inked deals with major advertisers from Hollywood studios to sneaker makers and is busy lining up more in a bid to become a viable business. YouTube just launched a campaign for Lions Gate's new horror flick, "The Descent," after testing the waters a couple of weeks ago with ads for Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" sequel.
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Publishers vs. the CensorbotEast Bay Express: "Google has entered that rarefied tier of corporations whose services or products are indispensable to American life. Its search engine is an essential tool for Internet users, and the ingenious way it matches advertisements to the contents of any given search has transformed the world of marketing," writes Chris Thompson. "As more and more media outlets come to depend on Google, one of its key policies is quietly, systematically punishing ambitious journalism all over the Web. If this trend continues, Google's power and ubiquity could inadvertently cripple an independent press in the Internet era."
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Entangling the WebNew York Times: "It?s tempting to believe that government regulation of the Internet would be more consumer-friendly; history and economics suggest otherwise," writes Timothy Lee. "The reason is simple: a regulated industry has a far larger stake in regulatory decisions than any other group in society. As a result, regulated companies spend lavishly on lobbyists and lawyers and, over time, turn the regulatory process to their advantage."
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Seattle Sheriff: P-I Series on My Department UnfairSeattle Weekly: The King County Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Sue Rahr have filed a complaint against the Seattle Post-Intelligencer with the private, nonprofit Washington News Council, which offers to broker or judge disagreements between people and the press, and the council has agreed to handle the complaint. The complaint is in response to the P-I's yearlong series "Conduct Unbecoming," which has reported on badly behaving deputies and the kind of discipline they received or didn't.
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Responding To RumorPublic Eye: "Rumors on the Internet seem to be pretty much a permanent part of the whole new media' landscape," writes Hilary Profita. "So questions about how mainstream news organizations handle them when they reach a fever pitch have come up before and will come up again. Well, one rumor was prolific enough in the blogosphere (and on everyone?s other favorite repository of unsubstantiated speculation, talk radio) that three news agencies decided to respond to it publicly. "
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Is It Life Imitating Art -- Or Is It Journalism?CJR Daily: "Few subjects in life bring out the trend-mongering instinct in a reporter like misbehaving teenagers," writes Felix Gillette. "Show us a teenager doing something profoundly dumb, and we'll show you some breathy, excitable journalist ready to translate the youthful stupidity into a national threat."
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