BuzzMachine

LOL
: Aaron Bailey presents The Bloggy Bunch.

And here you see a little Photoshop phun from one of my very own staph members. Hmmmm. I must not be exuding the phearsome, pherocious authority I had hoped.

Here’s the Photoshop phodder. Have phun.

Because Jews know everything
: Anders reports a real IM conversation. Ya hadda be there. So go there.

But no confederate flag…
: A quarter of professional truckers have laptops with them. And so Sprint is targeting wi-fi at truckstops. Lest you think that this is just a geeks-in-the-office medium.

Always
: This morning, Tony Perkins, the frequently controversial founder of Red Herring and now Always On, held a fancy breakfast — appropriately, at New York media hangout Michael’s — bringing together natives of the blog, social software, and media tribes. Give Perkins his props: He took crap from many (including me) for keynoting a Jupiter blog conference before he knew how to spell the word. But he clearly sees that there’s something big here. He’s clearly eager to learn more. And he’s equally eager to get close to this new magic dust and let it rub off on him. That’s why he’s trying to include social software in his online tech/investment magazine. That’s why he’s covering it there. And that’s why he bought scrambled eggs and OJ.

David Kirkpatrick of Fortune acted as Oprah. The panel included Anil Dash of Six Apart, Clay Shirky, VC Fred Wilson, blog queen Elizabeth Spiers, and the heads of two social-software companies, Tribe.net and Spoke. The audience included reporters from the NY Times, the Wall St. Journal, Reuters, Ad Age, and MediaPost; bloggers; and assorted VCs and related companies.

A few interesting moments [click on the "more" link]:

(more…)

Jessica Lynch
: Before those of you so inclined start going after Jessica Lynch again (pegged to the movie), first read more about the sacrifices and suffering she endured for her country. The Daily News reports today that her book reveals she was raped.

“The records do not tell whether her captors assaulted her almost lifeless, broken body after she was lifted from the wreckage, or if they assaulted her and then broke her bones into splinters until she was almost dead.”

Diller, Karmazin on The Reagans
: There was much discussion of The Reagans at the Foursquare conference. Since it was off-the-record, I didn’t report it. But the New York Post just did.

Populism and the mob
: In the most lively discussion on the Reagan mini cancellation below, some folks think they’re tweaking me, the self-proclaimed populist, because I’m complaining about the mob that went after the network to get this show killed.

No gotcha here, guys.

Populism in weblogs is about everyone having a voice now, about listening to many viewpoints and having the opportunity to answer, about having the platform from which correct mistakes, about having the opportunity to convince an audience, about having a choice.

But this mob was about shutting somebody up, killing a voice, not listening, not allowing others to hear. That is dangerous.

I have not seen the Reagan movie so — unlike so many others — I will not comment on its quality or veracity because I cannot credibly comment. But knowing its venue and its source, I have little doubt that it’s a stinker.

I’m not afraid of that stinker. Let it air. Let the bloggers and critics and columnists and talk-show hosts — all of whom will add up to a much larger audience — have their say in response. Let them use this as an opportunity to saint Reagan faster than Mother Theresa. Fine. I’m not scared of that, either.

But I am scared of pressure groups — mobs — triumphally stopping somebody from saying something because they don’t like what will be said.

That is antithetical to free speech in a democracy.

But more to the point, it is — or it should be — abhorrent in this weblog world, where we believe in the value of all viewpoints having their opportunity to be heard, where we believe in the power of publishing now in the hands of the people and the equal power of linking (or not) and responding to what is said.

This time you kill the cheesey Reagan movie. OK. But what about the next time, when an opposing mob sees what happened here and manages to kill, say, an anti-Clinton movie; I can hear you now screaming “censorship” and “media bias.” Or what if people try to shut you up, blogger, because they don’t like what you say or how you say it? Argue: Yes! Absolutely! Muzzle? No!

That’s not what democracy is about. That’s not what weblogs are about. That’s what mobs are about.

I am at a Tony Perkins blog and media event… WBL….