A troubling account: the Prison Diary of An English Teacher. The story of a visa-less American’s two months awaiting deportation from a Korean prison.

The skeptics and targets of Gawker Media – notably Radar, whose launch has been mockingly hyped by Nick Denton’s flagship blog – are circling over this news: Last month Sploid, the “anarcho-capitalistâ€? news site that Nick Denton vowed would take on the Drudge Report, debuted with a resounding thud. Now Denton’s longtime lieutenant, Choire Sicha, who oversaw the site, is fleeing to the New York Observer. Sources say Sicha has just accepted an offer to edit the...

The story is far from over (we still have not seen what, if any corporate fallout there will be) in the case of Newsweek’s Koran story that wasn’t — and Glenn Reynolds, aka InstaPundit, asks if this latest journalism scandal might be the media’s “tipping point.” Read his whole Tech Central Station column but here are some key excerpts: The blogs have certainly been all over this story, with the tagline “Newsweek lied, people died.” And while that tagline...

With the recent string of exposures of outright inaccurate reporting due to insufficient sourcing, checking, and re-checking, not limited to the recent Newsweek Periscope retraction or the Dan Rather/forged memo imbroglio, is it reasonable to say that journalism “ain’t what it used to be”? Joe Gandelman, the proprietor of this weblog, writes in his recent commentary on reporting: Indeed, Newsweek — like Dan Rather in the memos scandal — seems to have been caught...

Here’s another example of government trying to straighten its citizens out: The federal government will spend nearly $2 billion in the next decade on male impotence drugs under its Medicare program, according to a new cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office that is fueling some lawmakers’ efforts to end that spending. Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican, is sponsoring a bill to prohibit most erectile dysfunction drug sales under Medicare, the government’s insurance...

The Daily Kos has an interesting item: the latest Pew poll results. It shows GWB’s and the GOP’s approval ratings are going down. But the most significant number is on the “nuclear option” to ban filibusters on judicial nominees. It’s clear that there is a large number of undecideds out there. They’re still tuned out, or deciding. You could say this is the “silent center” and it has yet to take a stand. So now it comes down to not just a p.r. “war,”...

…at this meaty blog — A Hamburger Today. Yes: it’s a blog about Hamburgers and the dead meat isn’t Democrats or Republicans. You can read about Tommy’s Original Hamburgers and see some appetizing art of Paris Hilton and a Carl’s Jr Hamburger. It’s a sizzling site whose time has come. Maybe someone will next do a website about ham — oh, wait, William Shatner already has a website… Take A Peek and we’re sure every day (around meal time)...

The Moderate Voice is on the road again today…this time to Gold Beach, Oregon where he will do five school programs on Thursday and a family night on Friday night. During the next few days you will likely see various posts here by our talented and always-independent guest bloggers. TMV will attempt to post but due to time constraints (traveling to the airport, driving, etc.) he will be limited on some days. So we’re also posting some shorter “pointer” and other posts on some...

British politician George Galloway was in Washington yesterday to clear his name in the oil-for-food scandal — and came out with both verbal barrels blazing as he ripped into what he suggested was the hypocrisy of American politicians and the Bush administration. The BBC reports: British MP George Galloway has told US senators who accused him of profiting from Iraq oil dealings their claims were the “mother of all smokescreens”. In a combative performance before a Senate committee,...

A couple of additional thoughts on the Newsweek Koran story fiasco. You clearly see two kinds of criticism of the news magazine and reporter Michael Isikoff. One school of thought focuses more on the journalistic failures and what it says about the quality of reporting and corporate fail-safe systems supposedly in place. Yet another is emerging on talk radio and on many weblogs — an intense politicization of this topic, broadening this case of journalistic failure to allegations that the magazine...

America’s love-affair with Today anchors Katie Couric and Matt Laurer may be coming to an end if the latest ratings are any indication. NBC’s Today show, the venerable cash-cow, prestige morning show that has dominated the network ratings for most of its half-century existance is now beating ABC’s Good Morning America by a hair as thick as the hair underneath William Shatner’s toupee. The New York Times reports: The “Today” show’s lead over “Good Morning...

Starting in September it’s likely you’ll find the New York Times playing a much smaller role on Internet weblogs and the overall conversation for a reason: it now wants money for it to participate. Starting in September, Salon reports, the Times is going to offer — or should we say “require” — TimesSelect to get its columnists online. These columnists have played a key role in many of the Internet “discussions” that weblogs epitomize — and starting...

Blogger and journalism professor Jay Rosen has the ultimate analysis of the Newsweek Koran story fiasco. His conclusion: Newsweek was doing Take-Our-Word-For-It journalism. And, increasingly, it seems like Jay Rosen is right. Trust Me Journalism is a kind of journalism that boils down to this: trust us because we’re reporters. Trust us because we work for a prominent news magazine that has given you reliable information in the past. Trust us because we had to pay incredible dues to get where...

Our occasional linkfest directing you to posts from ALL OVER the Internet. Links are NOT restricted to one political viewpoint and don’t necessarily reflect the opinion of The Moderate Voice or its always-independent Guest Bloggers. SPENDING TIME WITH “THE FILIBUSTERS”: Pennywit (which we think should be Pennywise because he makes so much sense) has a must-read post of traveling around with The Filibusters…college students in the capitol protesting the upcoming “nuclear...

From Newspeak Magazine, FRIDAY: NEWSPEAK MAGAZINE’S PROCTOSCOPE: “News reports that really stick it to them.” By Miguel Isacough Investigators probing police abuses at a rowdy bar mitzvah in Bridgeport, Connecticut have confirmed some infractions alleged in a Temple Mishkan Beth El fund raising letter that surfaced late last year. Among the previously unreported cases, sources tell NEWSPEAK: detectives, in an attempt to rattle suspects, shook them but there was no rattle noise....

After issuing an apology that was basically a retraction, then insisting it wasn’t a retraction, Newsweek has finally done it: it has USED the “R” word and issued a definitive retraction. And, in doing so, it could mean that in the case of the story that claimed the Koran had been descrecrated, heads will roll (no pun intended). Why? Because the first error was the leaky reporting for which Newsweek apologized yet, at the same time, defended. Then there was the fact that the editor...

Many bloggers such as this one got TONS of emails linked to articles in German. And it was part of a new kind of spam — political spam: Some e-mail inboxes filled up with German-language spam over the weekend, as the well-traveled Sober virus was apparently turned into a propaganda machine by its author. Sober has infected millions of computers around the globe since it first launched in 2003, and it’s gone through nearly 20 variations. But this weekend’s version was different...

A new poll finds a big gap between the public and a group of journalists surveyed — and it’ll provide plenty of talk radio, cable and blog material for years to come. In one finding, 43% of the public says the press has too much freedom, while only 3% of journalists agree. And just 14% of the public can name “freedom of the press” as a guarantee in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, in the major poll conducted by the University of Connecticut Department of Public...

The controversy over Newsweek’s story about alleged desecration of the Koran is very much alive. Yesterday the magazine issued a de facto retraction in the form of an apology over the report that had sparked riots in Afghanistan and cost more than a dozen lives. But the magazine’s mea culpa reportedly doesn’t go far enough for many in the Arab world, the White House and for many Internet weblogs. And, if anything, it seems like a new controversy is underway. For instance, in today’s...

Unfortunately, time-consuming problems related to a dying computer prevented me from posting much here or on my own weblog, Random Fate, the past several days, so I have not been as responsible a guest-poster as I would have liked to have been here. I extend my apologies to both Joe and the audience here. Perhaps the missive I have posted today on the recent Newsweek misreporting problem can help make amends. There is more to this imbroglio than first appears, when you look at the fundamentals. UPDATE:...

Afghanistan’s opium crisis might become an opportunity (paraphrasing the Chinese proverb), if only the country had enough resouces to monitor and regulate the plant’s production for legitimate drugs. But it seems our government is none too thrilled with the idea, which is sad but not surprising, given the history of bipartisan shrillness against any drugs with illicit usage.

Be sure to read our extensive roundup of blog reaction to the Newsweek retraction. That link will take you to the post put on this site last night. It’s a big journalistic issue so we’ll keep adding to the blog reaction roundup at the bottom of yesterday’s post throughout the day. If there’s a new twist on the story we’ll do it as a separate post. Also, be sure to check out Jonathan Singer’s interview with Bob Dole (he’s doing what blogs can do —...

A new study in effect says drinking alcohol hurts women more than men: they can get hooked on it faster and suffer brain damage sooner. Times Online reports: A brain-scan study found evidence that women are especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of excessive drinking. The charity Alcohol Concern said that the findings were alarming in the light of reports of increasing problem drinking among British women. Scientists in Germany carried out scans on the brains of 158 volunteers, including 76...

On Friday afternoon, I had the great honor of speaking with former Senator Bob Dole (R-KS) for an interview over at my blog, Basie!. Dole and I talked about a number of issues, ranging from his new book to telecommunications reform to Social Security. The former Senate Majority Leader’s thoughts on the lack of bipartisan comity on the hill are particularly interesting. Jonathan Singer: Now with the situation on the hill seeming to be as bad as it’s been in decades — with the ethics...

The United States has drawn a line in the sand for North Korea on the subject of nuclear testing. Sort of… What the U.S. has done is to warn North Korea that there will be consquences if it conducts nuclear tests….but it doesn’t give any hint of what the dire consquences are. The New York Times reports: The Bush administration on Sunday warned North Korea for the first time that if it conducted a nuclear test, the United States and several Pacific powers would take punitive action,...