News bulletins this morning are reporting that President Bush was briefly unconscious yesterday. Question: how did they know?

The American media have been dumbstruck since September 11 as they struggle (so far unsuccessfully) to strike a critical, detached note without alienating a public that currently sees everything in black and white. (They are also astonishingly complacent about how well they are doing. ) This may be one reason why the Guardian web site has taken a huge number of hits from the US ever since the September attacks: they had a suspicion that their newspapers and TV stations were not giving them the full story. There is, however, one exception to this: Andrew Sullivan’s website. But then , he’s a Brit who just happens to work in the US.

My column on the copy-protected CD is here. Have already had a message from a reader saying that “Natalie Imbruglia’s White Lillies Island, released late last year, is the most notable of a growing number of CDs to have copy protection . Purchasers of the CD kicked up such a fuss that BMG records offered free replacements”.