Newsweek has caused a big stir this week by running a cover photo of Sarah Palin — clad in rather tight running gear — taken from a Runner’s World photoshoot. Palin herself has labelled the move “sexist”. Is it fair to use editorial photos out of context?
Media
CNN journalist: Detained in China over Obama tshirt
CNN correspondent Emily Chang tells of being detained for two hours by Chinese police after she bought a souvenir tshirt featuring Barack Obama in a Red Army uniform.
The crash of the Brad and Britney economy
The price paid for paparazzi photos by US glossies has plummeting by 31%, according to a survey by The Daily Beast. Has the recession caused the celebrity media bubble to burst, or have celebrities just become more boring?
Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue: the reviews are in…
The most highly-anticipated book of the year, Going Rogue by former Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin is about to hit shelves, and the critics have weighed in. Is it scandalous? Insightful? Coherent? The WSJ wraps the coverage.
PODCAST: What’s next for the ABC?
An interview with the ABC’s director of news, Kate Torney, on the brave new future of our national broadcaster as it steps up its presence in the online world.
Is America’s gay press dead?
Window Media, publisher of the Washington Blade, Southern Voice and other big US LGBT newspapers has filed for bankruptcy, and will cease publishing immediately.
Coke brands buskers
This Christmas in London, out-of-tune hippies torturing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah and little girls squealing Jingle Bells on their recorders will be brought to you by icy cold can of Coke.
Tim O’Reilly: The War for the Web is just getting started
Murdoch’s threat to take News Corp content out of Google’s results in just the beginning, says tech publisher Tim O’Reilly: big players like Facebook, Apple, and, yes, News Corp, are breaking off bits of the Web for themselves — and they won’t always want to share.
Kevin Rudd, Al Jazeera wants you
Al Jazeera’s English-language news network has just hit Australian screens, but neither the PM nor his pals have been willing to make an appearance. Come on Kevin, you’ll do Rove, but not one of the world’s largest news networks?
Qld Hansard a closed book to OpenAustralia
Why won’t the Queensland Parliament allow OpenAustralia to publish the Queensland State Parliamentary Hansards? Crikey intern Michelle Loh investigates.
Looming GE-Comcast deal may out-flank Murdoch
While he has been obsessing about the internet and free content, Rupert Murdoch may be about to be out-flanked by the looming deal between General Electric and Comcast over NBC.
Channel Ten now taking programming direction from the blogosphere
Channel Ten has decided to show the US version of The Office in an earlier timeslot due to pressure from bloggers, according to its new promos, which claim: “You blogged. We listened.”
graph pr0n 
A timeline of global media scares
From Y2K to swine flu, the biggest media scare stories of the past decade and the amount of panicky press they received, laid out in graph form. Who knew asteroid collisions were such a frequent and ongoing threat?
Sarah Palin goes rogue on Oprah: the liveblog
Can’t wait until Sarah Palin’s Oprah appearance hits our screens? Media Alley has a minute-by-minute account, including videos, as Palin talks Levi, 2012, Hillary and her new book.
Is Newsweek censoring its letters page?
After running a cover feature on Al Gore, 74% of the letters Newsweek received in response were negative. Yet, according to NewsBusters, the magazine ran only positive letters in its following edition. And it’s not the first time.
Fiction is dead; long live the autobiography!
What’s with the spate of tell-alls, autobiographies and memoirs lately? According to a new book, it’s all about the “democratisation” of authorship: everyone has a story to tell, and it’s now easier than ever to tell it.
Why Murdoch won’t ditch Google
Rupert Murdoch’s threat to pull all News Corp sites from Google’s search index may not be as dire for the mastheads as many are predicting — but chances are he won’t follow through on it anyway: he’ll just erect even higher paywalls.
Oxford Word of the Year: Unfriend
Oxford University Press has named Facebook term “unfriend” as its 2009 Word of the Year. Other contenders included “hashtag”, “paywall”, “birther” and “zombie bank”.
Is colour a limited resource?
The colour palette is shrinking as brands stake their claim, bit-by-bit, on the exclusive rights to individual tones. You already can’t use Jay-Z blue, or T-Mobile’s magenta. Are we literally selling off the rainbow?
Crikey editor moves to ABC Online
The editor of Crikey, Jonathan Green, has resigned to take up a new post with the ABC. Inside sources say he will be sorely missed.
Australian newspapers following the US in steep decline
The declining revenues of Australian newspapers will spell trouble locally, just as the same trend has resulted in disaster for many US titles, writes Niki Scevak.
National newspapers fall off a cliff, bury news
Australian newspaper buyers have punished the national papers, The Australian Financial Review and The Australian in the latest audit period, but basically spared the rod on their state-based competitors.
leaked SBS: Your chance to come up with ideas for us for free!
An internal email from SBS management announces an exciting opportunity for SBS staffers: come up with some TV show ideas, which may or may not be used, and you almost certainly won’t get paid for. Where do we sign up?
Mexico’s media bloodbath
Mexico is now the most dangerous country for journalists in the Western Hemisphere, with 12 reporters, photographers, editors and radio hosts murdered in 2009 alone, many for covering the country’s brutal and bloody drug wars.
