BuzzMachine

Blogbusters
: Joi is making me glad I didn’t go to SXSW: No cameras… no video… fines for plugging in your laptop…. Jeesh….

The Daily Stern, PM edition
: Just saw Bill Maher‘s show. He interviews Sandra Tsing Loh, the NPR commentator fired for letting the F-word go out unbleeped.

Said Maher: “How dumb is this f****** country?!?” And he didn’t bleep himself. He’s on HBO. For now, at least, he doesn’t have to bleep.

George Carlin, quoted below, droned a bit on the topic and then said: “The liberals are just as bad on ths issue as the conservates. Politically correct speech is sheer denial of free speech and their hands are not clean on this issue.” Yup.

He also said that the absurdity of doing what I’ve been doing — f**k — is that you’re allowed to know the idea that’s being conveyed even with two letters missing; the idea has been conveyed; if the idea is what’s evil then how is that better; it’s absurd. Yup.

: By the way, I also saw the return of Dennis Miller this week. Boy, has he turned into an intense, nervous guy who makes me nervous just watching him. He’s like the really geeky kind of person off his meds who stares right into your eyes too long and too intensely. Maher, on the other hand, is more comfortable than he ever was on HBO; he has found his groove. Miller has not.

: Here is a commercial — quite unsafe for work or family here in America — that is on Channel 4’s site in Britain saying the f-word and others with glee. Boy, are things different there. Maybe Howard should move there. Maybe I should, too. [via AroundMyRoom]

What, what, where, when, how…
: Ross Mayfield gives us an eloquently succinct summary of the new methods of getting (and giving) news:

We often pride ourselves as bloggers for how we break news, dig deep, gain sources, carry the story and highlight the details of fast moving events. However, with complex unfolding news, I find myself turning to different outlets for different reasons. We aren’t the best at coverage, we just have a special blend….

Press

Who: Editorial voice

What: Official sources

When: Episodic

Where: Coverage permits

Why: Profit

Blog

Who: Individual voice

What: Opinionated sources

When: Interest piques

Where: Anywhere conversations

Why: Pride

Wiki

Who: Group voice

What: Balanced synthesis

When: Evolving

Where: Common space

Why: Co-creation

That’s a good analysis. But he also says this:

Turn to Press for the official record, Blog for social context and Wiki for the public record.

I will disagree pretty strongly with that last bit.

I don’t go to the press for the official record (I can go to the web for that now). I go to the press — if they’re doing their job — for (as some students at an NYU class said to me yesterday) for succinct writing and good reporting among multiple sources.

I go to weblogs for far more than social context, far more. I go to weblogs to edit the web for me and point me to the best of the press. Weblogs are now my first stop; they are my gateway to the press.

And wikis are new to news but I look forward to seeing how they can improve the presentation of news; they have great potential.

Ross gives examples of each through the tragic lense of the Madrid story: press coverage, blogs (he linked to boingboing; I linked to Technorati), wiki (which I linked to yesterday).

The end of ethnicity
: Joe Katzman says:

Welcome to the 21st century, where the best golfer is black, the best rapper is white, and the best new reggae artist is… Jewish?!?

Buy Martha
: Was in a store and heard all the ladies behind the counter saying they wish they were at KMart, where, apparently, Martha Stewart’s fans were to head today to buy up lots of Martha swag to show their support.