In just six years, the Personal Democracy Forum has become one of the few truly indispensable annual gatherings -- devoted to the nexus of politics, media and technology, as viewed through the prism of the digital revolution that is rapidly transforming the way we create, communicate, campaign and even,...

Was it policy or pressure that led Lamar Outdoor Advertising to tear down billboards featuring a pro-Palestinian political message?

Judge for yourself. Lamar, which operates over 150 outdoor advertising companies in more than 40 states and Puerto Rico, entered into an eight week contract in April with a local New...

Okay, so he's one of the "sexiest men alive" -- but what does Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney in Chicago and Special Counsel in the CIA leak case, have against us poor, unsexy journalists? It's bad enough that Fitzie won't answer my questions: ("Rory. I just wanted to get...

"I'm a liberal -- and I'm not running from that word!" exclaims Ed Schultz, the latest lefty star in the cable television news-and-opinion firmament. Schultz, America's top-rated progressive radio talk show host, has just finished his first month as host of the eponymous Ed Show on MSNBC, which is attempting...

Garrison Keillor claims to be a liberal. He - and we -- should know better. Keillor has just joined the already large and ever-growing list of allegedly 'liberal' media figures who either advocate or apologize for torture.

In a recent column, (syndicated by the New York...

What is it about torture that is so seductive to our mainstream media?

First, our leading (and often "liberal") commentators and analysts, writing in supposedly respectable publications such as Newsweek and The Atlantic, tried to appear as tough-minded believers in realpolitik by siding with such REALLY tough-minded believers as Dick...

On April 6, 1977, David Frost was having a particularly difficult time interviewing former President Richard Nixon. Frost's colleague James Reston, Jr. suggested a new line of questioning, one used earlier in the trial of former Nixon aide John Ehrlichman: Were there no limits to what a president can do,...

Ever wake up in a funk, just spoiling for a fight?

Me too -- and when I do (despite my best Buddhist intentions) I invariably reach for the New York Times and turn to the latest column by Tom Friedman, that Op-Ed gift that keeps on giving such deep-rooted...

Eileen McNamara had it right. McNamara, a Pulitzer Prize winning former columnist for the increasingly beleaguered Boston Globe, wrote a recent Op-Ed in the rival Boston Herald wherein she noted, "From the moment The Times Co. purchased The Globe in 1993 it has treated New England's largest newspaper like a...

With mainstream media brands in tatters, a tsunami of information inundating us online, and "quality journalism" in decline (at least as defined by legacy media executives such as New York Times editor Bill Keller), how can we be sure that the news we see and hear is really true?...

When Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently called the Internet a "cesspool" of false information, he also claimed that corporate brands such as his own are necessary filters needed to help us sort through the muck. "Brands are the solution, not the problem," Schmidt said. "Brands are how you sort out...

CEO Eric Schmidt believes the Internet is a "cesspool" of false information, and that filters are needed to help sort through the muck and mire. Most observers agree that some sort of credibility/trust delivery filter for news and information is now necessary -- how else can we be sure that...

Miriam Metzger, associate professor at the Department of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara is one of a New Breed of new media researchers who believes, "social media can definitely play a role in trust filtering." Metzger, whose research centers on Internet credibility issues, says, "There is an...

For media makers and consumers alike, the game changing power of online social networks is simply this: they greatly decrease the cost of creating so-called "bridging social capital." By facilitating easy group formation -- thus making it easier than ever to stay in touch with more people with more disparate...

The severe economic crisis now gripping the United States -- and hence the entire world -- has been labeled by the Paper of Record as the "financial equivalent of 9/11."

In its severity and overall impact, the comparison may hold true. But when it comes to media coverage, a...

I spent much of last fall at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government as a Fellow at the Shorenstein Center for the Press, Politics and Public Policy. While there, I researched issues related to journalism, trust and credibility - and in particular what role emerging social media might play in addressing...

Wouldn't it be cool if you could instantly access all the richness and multi-dimensionality of the Internet -- any relevant digital media concerning any subject you're interested in, including text, stills, audio, and video -- without ever leaving the site you're on?

The dream of the so-called 'semantic Web' is...

I spent much of last fall at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government as a Fellow at the Shorenstein Center for the Press, Politics and Public Policy. While there, I researched issues related to journalism, trust and credibility -- and in particular what role emerging social media might play in addressing...

I spent much of last fall at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government as a Fellow at the Shorenstein Center for the Press, Politics and Public Policy. While there, I researched issues related to journalistic trust and credibility - and in particular what role emerging social media might play in addressing...

Ever since Bernie Madoff with all the money -- fifty billion-with-a-b, apparently - the journals and airwaves have all been abuzz with references to his alleged securities fraud as a "Ponzi scheme." But few accounts have delved into the back-story of who "Ponzi" actually was, what he did -- and...