Did we write that??

Jeff Bliss of the Hoover Institution passes on two interesting websites that speak to media practices. Regret the Error.org is a great site for reading serious and humorous retractions and corrections contained in newspapers and magazines. Some of the more serious mistakes have cost people their lives, like the recent Newsweek story claiming some interrogators of people captured during fighting in Afganistan and Iraq flushed the Koran down a toilet. The magazine had to retract the statement when confirmation of the allegation could not be obtained. Several people in the Middle East lost their lives in riots that broke out after the allegations swept through the region.

Bliss also passes on an ombundsman piece about the sources National Public Radio relies on when reporting on serious policy issues. It turns out more "experts" from the right--like the Hoover Institution--are interviewed than those from the left (a situation which no doubt helps Bliss' job security!).

Want My Opinion? Let me pass the hat first. . .

Investor’s Business Daily (subscription required) reports on the two-month old experiment by the New York Times in which internet viewers must pay to access the paper’s Op-Ed columnists. The imposition of a $7.95 a month fee includes access to the paper’s eight Op-Ed columnists and 14 other opinion writers. The Times’ move is an effort to recoup cash from formerly free internet content. “We created a large user base in less than 60 days with people willing to pay a significant price,” Times president and general manager Scott Heekin-Canedy told IBD. The article quotes one internet research analyst, Barry Parr of Jupiter Research, as saying: “Putting those columnists behind a subscription barrier is going to decrease the NYT’s influence and diminish its brand. Maureeen Dowd available anywhere on the Net is more powerful than Maureen Dowd behind a paid subscription a year.” Obviously in this experiment the NYT is putting a need for profit above the potential influence of its top opinion writers. It’s likely, though, that political and business leaders the Times hopes to influence already pay for a print subscription, or receive daily digests of the paper’s opinions. It’s those of us from outside New York who want to learn good writing from some of the best who will suffer the most. As Doug Tsuruoka of IBD notes, "The question for the New York Times is whether enough people will find its columnists compelling--and if that revenue is worth any resulting decline in influence."