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The LA Times has now apologized for its story last week asserting that Puff Daddy knew in advance about the 1994 shooting and robbery of Tupac Shakur. It looked bad since The Smoking Gun ran its debunking of the Times' evidence yesterday, but this was a very quick collapse of a very big story. The paper's own investigation is ongoing. And one of the guys named as a conspirator in the story is promising an "epic lawsuit." [LAT]
The LA Times has now apologized for its story last week asserting that Puff Daddy knew in advance about the 1994 shooting and robbery of Tupac Shakur. It looked bad since The Smoking Gun ran its debunking of the Times' evidence yesterday, but this was a very quick collapse of a very big story. The paper's own investigation is ongoing. And one of the guys named as a conspirator in the story is promising an "epic lawsuit." [LAT]
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Wikipedia And Digg Are Exactly As They Seem, Damn It
It seems obvious that Web 2.0 is not as citizen-generated as people would like to believe. So obvious that Slate's recent article, "The Wisdom of the Chaperones," seems too mainstream for the usually contrarian site. Writer Chris Wilson imagines that Digg and Wikipedia are still seen as radical examples of the wisdom of the crowds, and reveals that they're run by a small base of power users. Of course, Slate is wrong. Call it banal, but the user-written news site and encyclopedia really are the work of thousands, even millions of casual users. More »
That Time Warner Breakup
So, Time Warner, which owns the HBO cable network, Warner Studios, Time Inc. magazines and a slew of other properties, was supposed to be breaking itself up under ruthless new boss, Jeff Bewkes. So, what assets will the giant Manhattan media conglomerate shed? It may possibly reduce cable holdings; split up AOL, as long-rumored; and review strategic options for the resulting internet businesses. And 100 corporate jobs are to go. Radical!
So, Time Warner, which owns the HBO cable network, Warner Studios, Time Inc. magazines and a slew of other properties, was supposed to be breaking itself up under ruthless new boss, Jeff Bewkes. So, what assets will the giant Manhattan media conglomerate shed? It may possibly reduce cable holdings; split up AOL, as long-rumored; and review strategic options for the resulting internet businesses. And 100 corporate jobs are to go. Radical!
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Curse Of The Babe
Does having a famous hot chick for a girlfriend make you totally suck at sports? This "Curse of the Babe" theory is being tossed around today by sports columnists, angry fans, and people who care about football only in the sense that it involves celebrities (that would be most Gawker readers). Tom Brady dates slobberlicious super model Gisele Bundchen. And the Post even reported they were sexing it up with sexy sex the week before the game! Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo went on a vacation with Jessica Simpson before his playoff game; he lost, of course. Are celebrity girls really cursed? Or is there a deeper psychological mechanism at work? We know the answer, which we will tell you now. More »
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Quick, Put The Kids On The Internet Where They're Safe
"The Rough-and-Tumble Online Universe Traversed by Young Cybernauts" is not the most promising headline for a NY Times trend piece. Nor is the lede, which reads like rejected copy for Season 1 of "To Catch a Predator." The Times is reporting on a documentary on PBS's Frontline, which
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Facebook Makes For Lowest-Rated "60 Minutes" All Year. No, Wait, Maybe It's The Mass Rape.
Don't pretend the low ratings for Sunday's 60 Minutes segment about Facebook say anything meaningful. Tech blog Silicon Alley Insider concluded that the world at large doesn't care about Facebook, but that's an unfair assumption. The awkward interview with site founder Mark Zuckerberg and a description of a site mostly geared toward college students may not have been the best material for the show's aging audience, but how many of them were even tuned in after the preceding segment, which explored rape and genocide in the Congo? It feels good to draw an obvious conclusion — Surprise! Old people don't care about Facebook — and I can sympathize with anyone squeezing a blog post out of a fake analysis. But the exercise is utterly useless when there's a more obvious answer. More »
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