Alas! The BBC is cutting the pay of its top execs by 25%. How poor shall they now be? "The BBC currently spends about £79 million ($129.4 million) on pay for its 634 senior managers and nine most senior executives." Over $200K each, on average. Urchins.


Michael Wolff: "I picked up a recent column in the Spectator by the British writer Rod Liddle, who, next to me, is the best columnist in the English language." Ho hum, Michael Wolff. Ho hum.


A tipster tells us that Newsweek has shut down its L.A. and Dallas offices. Hmmm. We heard back in February the magazine was shutting down its LA and San Fran offices. So we're not sure how new this is. Or how it will affect the Historical Jesus. We've asked Newsweek to clarify for us, and we'll update when we know.
UPDATE: Newsweek tells us, "The Dallas office remains open. The LA office remains open. We combined the western region sales so it is run out of San Francisco instead of LA." Clarity on staffing levels, TK.
UPDATE 2: "The Dallas office was reduced by three and we still have a sales rep there," they say.


Keith Kelly says that the upcoming $100 million Time Inc. cuts will work out to about 540 layoffs. That's roughly the same as last year's monster Time Inc. layoff round, give or take 50 employees or so. Time Inc. will give, rather than take.

And, yes, we are aware of the whole Chris Langham unfortunateness.

Today Iranian forces evicted the family of Neda Agha-Soltan from their home. They also canceled Neda's scheduled funeral and refused to turn her body over to her family. Further, she was buried in an undisclosed location without the family's knowledge and the government instituted a ban on all mourning on her behalf. It's been also rumored that the Iranian government told Neda's family that she was murdered by a hitman hired by a journalist from the BBC so that he could make a documentary about her. Some of her family's neighbors spoke to the press.

"We are trembling," one neighbour said. "We are still afraid. We haven't had a peaceful time in the last days, let alone her family. Nobody was allowed to console her family, they were alone, they were under arrest and their daughter was just killed. I can't imagine how painful it was for them. Her friends came to console her family but the police didn't let them in and forced them to disperse and arrested some of them. Neda's family were not even given a quite moment to grieve."

The Iranian government stepped up their efforts to crack down on protesters, using guns, tear gas, clubs and, according to some reports on Twitter, axes, to snuff the opposition. The nation's leadership went so far as to cast anyone in disagreement with the results of the recent election as an enemy of the state.

Reports the New York Times:

Witnesses reported scenes of chaos and fear where riot police officers outnumbered demonstrators by about four to one. Many wore masks to conceal their identities. The Basijis stopped people to check their cellphones for video or pictures of the unrest.

"I saw one group of about 100 people who began chanting ‘Death to the dictator' on one of the side streets," said another witness who insisted on not being identified for fear of arrest. "The Basijis attacked them and beat them really bad." Unconfirmed reports of bloodshed and at least one death flooded the Internet.

Instead of heeding calls for moderation, the government has conducted one of the harshest crackdowns in its history. Dozens of former high-ranking officials have been jailed. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported Wednesday that about 240 people, including 102 political figures, were in jail. The government has said that it arrested 627 more people since the protests broke out.

Also under close guard are the foreign media in Iran. Arrested today was a freelance reporter for the Washington Times, and all remaining foreign press credentials were revoked by the government. Meanwhile, many other journalists were still being held captive, while others have been forced to leave the country.

It appears as though the momentum for the protests has been curbed greatly by the iron fist of the Iranian government, while any pretense that Iran is a democracy has all but evaporated.

Here's a report from Rachel Maddow's show tonight filled with even more heartbreaking news, but also a slight glimmer of pride in knowing that American hacker geeks have been fighting a successful cyberwar with the Iranian government, shutting down many government websites.

Scheduled demonstrations today, many in favor of the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prime opponent, Mir Hussein Moussavi, have turned absolutely, completely bloody. Since there's so much to cover, we're just gonna do a point by point:

• A suicide bomber supposedly attacked the entrance to the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Some reports indicate that one person was killed, and two were injured, but BBC's Jon Leyne, in Tehran, thinks it's a lie put out by Iran's state media. If Leyne's right, they're reporting the event and inflating the numbers in order to enrage supporters of conservative Iranians who supported Khomeini. Khomeini was the Supreme Leader of Iran until his death in June of 1989.
  
  
• The current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a hard-line statement yesterday that there would be bloodshed if the protests in Iran continued. His exact quote: "The existence of extremism in a society means each extremist move fans another extremist move. If the political elite want to put the law under foot ... they are the ones responsible for the bloodshed, the violence and rioting." Excerpts from his speech are here.
  
  
• Moussavi supporters set fire to a building in Tehran used by supporters of Ahmadinejad.
  
  
• It's been reported - not Twittered, a distinction beginning to get really important in all of this - that Moussavi's supporters have been dispatched by water cannons, brute force via batons, tear gas, and in several instances, live rounds in Tehran. A BBC reporter has seen a black plume of smoke coming up from the center of the city.
  
  
• Moussavi has, in a letter to the Supreme Council that was re-posted to his website, demanded the election be annulled due to fraud on the part of Ahmadinejad and his supporters, and that the vote was rigged months in advance. The letter is here.
  
  
• The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan - who, again, has been ruthlessly compiling a lot of unfiltered information, including graphic video of murdered protesters bleeding out - has a report he culled from Twitter: helicopters in Iran are spraying a type of acid (yes, acid) at protesters. "Similar to what Mojahedeen used in '78-'82." He also just reported that the Canadian embassy is not accepting injured protesters while the Australian embassy is. Sullivan has turned his masthead green in support of the Iranian people.
  
  
• A ally of Moussavi notes that he was "ready for martyrdom" if it came to that. He's also called for a national strike if he's detained by Iranian authorities.
  
  
• Video supposedly from today. The Lede at the Times gives perspective on the sheer scale of protest support: "If it was shot today, given what we have seen of the severe security crackdown, it shows that the opposition movement has not yet been completely contained."The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.
  
  
• One BBC correspondent reported thousands of police and witnessing a protester's shooting themselves. Another BBC correspondent reports: "The security men were deployed on every street corner, in long lines down the sides of the roads, and in all the main squares. The basijis wore riot helmets and carried big clubs. It was designed to intimidate, and while I was there, it was working. "
  
  
• Right now, there's an abundance of information coming in from all angles - Twitter reports, YouTube videos, foreign correspondents having trouble transmitting (almost every wire report now has some kind of disclaimer noting the difficulty in getting information out of Iran). The trend you're seeing as you're trying to get this stuff down on paper is a lack of filtering, an almost absolutely willingness to get the reports out first and the information in them sorted out later.

• It's going to be interesting to see if a few of the items above (mainly: the shrine bombing, the "martyrdom" statement) actually turn out to be completely true, as variations of them are appearing everywhere. It seems that guys like Andrew Sullivan are fancying themselves part of the battle - and they very much are - and are just trying to keep the lines of information open. We'll be keeping you up to speed as this stuff comes in.

  Image via Getty.

It is important that what is happening in Iran is reported to the world, but it is even more vital that citizens in Iran know what is happening. That is the role of the recently launched BBC Persian TV which is fulfilling a crucial role in being a free and impartial source of information for many Iranians. Any attempt to block this channel is wrong and against international treaties on satellite communication. Whoever is attempting the blocking should stop it now.

Strong words. BBC's reporting of the election results has been nothing short of incredible: John Simpson and his cameraman were actually arrested before filing the following report:

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

And where's the American cable news media on this? Up until today, kind of absent. Flipping through cable news networks, you could've caught some sporadic coverage yesterday - as the events were unfolding - but really, not much more. As mentioned, other people noticed, too: a Twitter hashtag about the lack of MSM coverage on the Iranian elections ("#CNNfail") peaked this morning, and CNN's noticeably ramped up their coverage of the elections since yesterday.

Did the Twitteratti have the impact (and subsequent victory) on the big, bad cable networks they think they did? Normally, I'd say "no, not at all, they're Twittering," but the opinion on CNN's lackluster coverage was so unanimous, it could've been pointed to in a room somewhere as irrefutable evidence that people were turning to other outlets instead of them for the news. Meanwhile, according to Andrew Sullivan, Twitter users in Iran are organizing rooftop protests using the microblogging service. I'm still trying to figure out how to get a bag delivered using it, but to each their own.

Previously: Iran Going Apeshit After Fraud Election Produces Fraud Results

Stop the blocking now [BBC]
#CNNfail: Twitter Blasts CNN Over Iran Election [Mashable]

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Richard Branson says he does not want to buy Playboy. Oh how we wish he did, though. As you can see, he's sad about it. If only there were a rich, horny, middle-aged billionaire out there, who loves models.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.The BBC is launching a channel for kids, right here in the USA. American kids will not be stupid any more.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Jacques is a new quarterly that calls itself "America's only new luxury erotic magazine." Since we know that there are no new magazines or luxurious things in America right now, it's probably true! Anyhow the naked parts are very tasteful and all so check it out.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.NBC got only 4.4 million prime time viewers last week—the lowest-ever total for any network "outside of the summer doldrums of June, July, August or early September." But not to worry: the network's considering creating a new 5 p.m. daily "lifestyle show." Which will turn things around.

It was now past two o'clock. Our American "hosts" were absent without leave. The plane was due to leave in half an hour and we were in the middle of the middle of nowhere with a story that would not even work its way onto the back pages of the local newspaper .

A few frantic phone calls established the worst. The plane had already departed without us because of bad weather heading our way.

Parnell (pictured in Afghanistan) and his camera man made it back to Kabul 21 hours later after an Afghan official lent them a car and a security guard. Way to get positive coverage, America!

• BBC Trust criticises Jonathan Ross over lewd comment to Gwyneth Paltrow [The Guardian]

Earth: The Climate Wars, which was broadcast on BBC 2, was billed as a definitive guide to the history of global warming, including arguments for and against.

During the series, Dr Iain Stewart, a geologist, interviewed leading climate change sceptics, including Lord Monckton. But the peer complained to Ofcom that the broadcast had been unfairly edited.

‘I very much hope [TV watchdog group] Ofcom will do something about this,’ he said yesterday.

‘The BBC very gravely misrepresented me and several others, as well as the science behind our argument. It is a breach of its code of conduct.

‘I was interviewed for 90 minutes and all my views were backed up by sound scientific data, but this was all omitted. They made it sound as if these were just my personal views, as if I was some potty peer. It was caddish of them.’

Ofcom confirmed it was looking into a ‘fairness complaint’ about the documentary.

The BBC stands by its story. [Daily Mail]

[BBC]

[Via EastSouthWestNorth]

Online schedules: NBC's Olympics listings takes a bit of work (you have to enter your ZIP code and select a television provider, even if you just want online listings). However, once you've done the work, it'll send you notifications when events you've selected will be broadcast. Jason Kottke has found Google and iCal calendars, which will allow you a bit more flexibility in setting up alerts, and the New York Times has a schedule as well. And of course, there's an official schedule from the organizers in China, with times listed for Beijing's time zone (16 hours ahead of San Francisco, 13 hours ahead of New York) — probably the best place to go for daily updates, as smog and weather may upset the schedule.

Sling Media's Slingbox: For those with more money than time, the best solution might be a Slingbox. Then you can beam your home satellite or cable signal over the Internet to your laptop, desktop, or iPhone, and remotely switch between NBC and MSNBC.
Pros: You can get great quality, even HD, if your home Internet connection is fast. There is SlingPlayer software available for a range of not just operating systems but handheld devices as well.
Cons: Prices start at $129.99 and your selection of Olympics coverage is limited to what's available from your satellite or cable provider, which means missing early heats and niche events and having to put up with tape delays by the networks.

International proxies: It is possible to watch live streams from other countries, such as BBC Sports from the UK or CBC Sports from Canada, by configuring your browser to run through an anonymous proxy. I recommend using Mozilla's Firefox browser with the FoxyProxy add-on installed. Xroxy has a handy list of proxies which you can sort by country to find proxies in the UK or Canada — which must be anonymous, and preferrably running the SOCKS protocol. Your best bet is to get a geeky British or Canadian friend to install a proxy on their machine for you and your Yankee friends. The latency can be frustrating, but once you get a stream started it will work fine.
Pros: Quality streams from legitimate providers, and if you're accustomed to jingoistic U.S. coverage, the charming accents from the Beeb's announcers and the humble mien of the Canadians can be quite refreshing.
Cons: Takes some technical know-how to set up, and proxies come and go. You might miss an event because you're too busy fiddling with your settings or a proxy fails when too many people sign on.

Video on demand: If you're running Windows Vista, you can download events using TVTonic for "Olympics on the Go." Torrent client Azureus works on any system to help download events after the fact, especially the most popular ones like tennis, football, boxing and basketball — Torrentz cross-site search of multiple BitTorrent indexes should make it easy to find the Spain versus China women's basketball game you might miss tomorrow. YouTube's official channel is blocked — even using international proxies — though a reader came up with a crack that works for now. Other less thoroughly policed online video sites like Veoh, Metacafe, Dailymotion and Megavideo will also have videos.
Pros: Torrents will be high quality and work for anyone, while video-sharing sites will be easiest to use.
Cons: Nothing will be live, obviously, and no one knows how long video clips will remain on sharing sites.

P2P Streams: The way I'll be watching online will is through MyP2P, a site that catalogs live sports and television streams from around the Web, listed by event. It helps to run Windows, though not necessarily Vista, because many streams require software downloads — check out MyP2P's beginners guide for tips, including where to find software downloads and optimization settings. I ended up finding live BBC coverage of the opening ceremonies via Justin.tv, which ran just fine in my browser. If you can't find the channel you want in the media format you prefer, check wwiTV, TV For Us, TV Channels Free, Channel Chooser or BeelineTV among others.
Pros: Free and fairly easy once you've installed most of the media players listed by MyP2P. And it's fun to watch coverage from other countries — I'll be watching all my football with spanish-speaking announcers whenever possible.
Cons: Quality is hit-or-miss, stream links come and go, and you have to think ahead in terms of scheduling to make sure you've got all the necessary programs installed. Also, Mac users will want to install Windows XP through Parallels or Fusion for the widest selection of channels.

[Full speech available here]