At last someone says it: US media have lost the will to think for themselves

I’n no great fan of the British media — especially the UK tabloids. It seems to me that they have a relentless dumbing-down effect on political debate and public argument. And I was taken in for years by the conventional wisdom that US journalism had higher standards of objectivity and editorial quality. But since 9/11 I’ve been rethinking that position. Firstly I see precious little real diversity in the mainstream US media: the only newspaper which still seems capable of publishing stuff which is seriously critical of the ‘war’ on terror and the upcoming campaign against Iraq is the venerable old NYT. Secondly, a lot of mainstream US journalism is, well, boring and uninspired. Last time I was in Washington, for example, the Post used to send me to sleep.

How nice to see, then, that an English hack resident in the US, Matthew Engel, has finally penned a piece which is highly critical of US journalism. “The worldwide turmoil caused by President Bush’s policies”, he writes, “goes not exactly unreported, but entirely de-emphasised. Guardian writers are inundated by emails from Americans asking plaintively why their own papers never print what is in these columns (in my experience, these go hand-in-hand with an equal number insulting us for the same reason). In the American press, day after day, the White House controls the agenda. The supposedly liberal American press has become a dog that never bites, hardly barks but really loves rolling over and having its tummy tickled. “

Good stuff. And there’s lots more in the same vein. The bottom line is this: a working democracy requires vigorous, independent and critical media that reach the majority of citizens. The US doesn’t have those at present. The Fourth Estate has emasculated itself: an important check on political and corporate power has evaporated. And it’s not just in relation to political power that this matters: look at how the corrupt hyping of dot-com companies went unremarked; and where were the watchdogs of US financial journalism when Enron’s swindling was at its height? And as for the Savings and Loan scandal of the Reagan years, well… words fail one.

How are the mighty fallen: Steve Case dumped
NYT story.

“Stephen M. Case, the former chief executive of America Online who engineered its acquisition of Time Warner, resigned tonight as chairman of the combined company, AOL Time Warner, bowing to shareholder anger over the disappointing results of the merger. He will remain as a board member.

Mr. Case’s sudden resignation is the culmination of an 18-year rise on the crest of the Internet boom that took him from founding an obscure start-up betting on the future of an unknown medium to becoming the top executive of the world’s largest media company. Now he becomes the latest media empire builder to resign from the helm of a communications conglomerate, following the departures of Jean-Marie Messier from the chairmanship of Vivendi Universal and Thomas Middelhoff from the top job at Bertelsmann. ”

Steal This Book? A Publisher Is Making It Easy. Prentice Hall is publishing a line of computer books under the Open Publication License which allows people to copy, modify and redistribute works.  [New York Times: Technology] [[ t e c h n o c u l t u r e ]]

The Irish browser story:

From Karlin Lillington’s Blog: Ok folks, here’s the scoop. I am just back from talking to one of MIT Media Lab Europe’s researchers, who both checked out the browser and talked to Adnan. He says the browser is ‘absolutely extraordinary’. He says that what Adnan has done is re-engineer the efficiency of how a browser operates, which allows it to run up to six times faster (but usually not that much faster — two to four times faster is more common). So it’s not managing bandwidth but managing the way the browser itself handles and presents information.  The researcher (whom I know and will vouch for) says that instead of simply tinkering with existing code he went down to the socket layer and reworked it at the protocol level (now, many of you guys will know the significance of this better than me, I’m just reporting the conversation). He added that it is incredibly clever work and stunning that a 16 year old has done this (I am not scrimping on the superlatives because that is what was said). (NB: A conversation in a group ensued that this work perhaps suggests that because the browser market is a virtual monopoly, there’s been little incentive to improve efficiency in this way — indeed, it might be beneficial to product development to just eke out a leeeetle more efficiency now and then and advertise it as continuing innovation… but I leave that to further discussion among the well-informed).

And Adnan has indeed worked in all the existing media players AND a DVD player so you can watch a DVD while surfing. And incorporated in a voice agent that will speak web pages, for young children or for the sight-impaired. The improved efficiency angle got the notice of the few media reports done on this so far, but it’s really not what Adnan himself was emphasising — it’s the whole package, said the MIT guy.

Not surprisingly Adnan now has more than one university interested in him. And he has apparently told the numerous companies who saw the browser in action and who wanted to commercialise it that, at least for now, he has no interest in commercialising it.

I will note that the MIT researcher had a big grin on his face and it was clear he found the whole project a pleasure to talk about. He also said he’d heard about the browser before he arrived at the Young Scientist exhibition and made a beeline to see it. Adnan apparently didn’t really think it would necessarily win an award –the researcher told me it was clear that it HAD to win. So there you go. I’m sure we’ll hear a lot more about all this soon.

And yes, he has copyrighted it.

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1,001 useful things you can do with a DMCA: Number 65

According to The Register, “Lexmark has invoked the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act in a legal action against a firm that makes chips that permit third party toner cartridges to work in its printers.

The printer company is suing Static Control Components for violation of the Copyright Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act regarding the Static Control’s Smartek microchips. Normally litigants would use patent laws in such cases but here we see another example of the surprising applications of the DMCA.

In November stores used the DMCA to defend the copyright of pricing lists, now its been applied to printer cartridge microchips.”

“What next?” asks The Register. Just so.

Kim Jong Il — crazy name, crazy guy?

His country’s broke and descending in to the Dark Ages, yet this cookie seems to have the world’s greatest power on the end of a string. How come? This Newsweek profile is an attempt to explain what lies behind the moniker.

DaveNet: First essay of the year. [Scripting News]

The inevitable American imperium: the case for recognising the inevitable — and its limitations

Fascinating, thoughtful New York Times Magazine piece by my former Observer colleague, Michael Ignatief, explaining why the US is becoming an imperial power, and what the dangers of that will be. Quote:

“Those who want America to remain a republic rather than become an empire imagine rightly, but they have not factored in what tyranny or chaos can do to vital American interests. The case for empire is that it has become, in a place like Iraq, the last hope for democracy and stability alike. Even so, empires survive only by understanding their limits. Sept. 11 pitched the Islamic world into the beginning of a long and bloody struggle to determine how it will be ruled and by whom: the authoritarians, the Islamists or perhaps the democrats. America can help repress and contain the struggle, but even though its own security depends on the outcome, it cannot ultimately control it. Only a very deluded imperialist would believe otherwise. ..”.

Nothing new here, perhaps, but the case is put thoughtfully and eloquently.

DeCSS case fails in Norway. Just as well they’re not in the EU
Register story.

“The entertainment lobby has failed to persuade a Norwegian court to convict a teenager for creating a utility for playing back DVDs on his own computer.

Jon Lech Johansen has been acquitted of all charges in a trial that tested the legality of the DeCSS DVD decryption utility he produced, Norwegian paper Aftenposten reports.

Norwegian prosecutors, acting largely on the behest of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), argued in court that Johansen acted illegally in sharing his DeCSS tool with others and distributing it via the Internet. They claimed the DeCSS utility made it easier to pirate DVDs.

The court rejected these arguments, ruling that Johansen did nothing wrong in bypassing DVD scrambling codes that stopped him using his Linux PC to play back DVDs he’d bought.” NYT version.

Well, that’s one small step for mankind. But the DMCA is being incorporated into the laws of all EU countries as a result of the European Copyright Directive, so if anyone tries the same thing here then they will go to the slammer or face a huge fine. What I’ve never understood is how the Norwegian authorities were conned into bringing the case in the first place.

At last — the computing industry fights back
Mercury News story.

“The high-tech industry plans to launch a sophisticated new lobbying campaign later this month to strike back against Hollywood in a battle to shape rules of the road for new digital technologies.

The Business Software Alliance and Computer Systems Policy Project — two prominent high-tech trade groups representing Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and other industry heavyweights — are forming a new coalition and working to enlist support from consumer and business groups.

They hope to convince Congress that strict copy-protection legislation that sets technological mandates would stifle innovation, harm consumers and threaten an already suffering tech industry.

“These things have a very big impact on our industry and on Intel,” said Intel lobbyist Doug Comer. “It’s not just about, `Are we driving up the price of the chip?’ It’s about what kind of future is being created for digital consumers.”

The entertainment industry had the upper hand in the battle last year, with a carefully orchestrated lobbying campaign and bills introduced by powerful lawmakers. Hollywood-backed legislation filed by Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., and Rep. Howard L. Berman, D-Los Angeles, would embed copy protection into PCs and an array of consumer devices.

But the legislation had consequences that Walt Disney and other backers hadn’t bargained for. It served as a rallying cry for consumer groups and tech companies to fight for consumers’ rights to make copies of CDs, DVDs and other digital works for personal use, as they do with TV shows and audio tapes…”