Media

A murder case out of Hayward, Calif., has taken a twist that's got legal experts debating whether a prosecutor has the right to limit what a potential witness puts up about the case on the Web.

The case, which brings up new issues about the role of the Internet during ongoing criminal proceedings, stems back to June 22, 2004, following a long car chase and fatal crash. Police allege that Laura Medina, 24, got angry after spotting her ex-boyfriend in Oakland, Calif., in a vehicle with a new girlfriend. Driving her own vehicle, Medina allegedly rammed and bumped into … Read more

In a sign of the explosion of Web media companies, a two-person company, Newgie, will launch a beta next month of a site that combines aggregated news feeds and end user recommendations.

The co-founders, Jason Windebank and Jacob Rheuban, have no prior media experience. But while developing an unrelated real-estate venture, they found they had trouble collecting news on niche topics.

Earlier this year, the put up the site Newgie.com, which aggregates syndicated news feeds. Where they seek to set themselves apart is letting users delve down into different categories, rank stories, and create communities around topics of their … Read more

Video blogger Josh Wolf, who has been jailed since Aug. 1 for refusing to hand over footage to federal officials, was granted bail on Thursday by a federal appeals court.

In a five-sentence order, two Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges said Wolf was entitled to bail because the government had not shown his appeal of a judge's contempt-of-court ruling to be "frivolous or taken for the purpose of delay."

One of the Internet's earliest video bloggers, Wolf, 24, refused to testify before a U.S. grand jury and also refused to hand over … Read more

Brian Benzinger over at Solution Watch has a very good and detailed writeup about the emergence of "single page aggregators," Web sites that collect numerous content feeds, usually in a particular category, and display all their headlines on one page. Really these sites are just RSS readers, but their focus and clear layouts make them easy to scan.

One of the most popular of the SPAs is PopUrls, which collects geek links from Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us (all of which are also aggregators), and more than a dozen other sources. I was completely hooked on it until I found Original Signal, … Read more

It's no secret that newspapers are having a rough go of it, though a persuasive argument can be made that much of their problems are of their own making.

Still, all hope is not lost--but some drastic and painful changes need to be made just to stay even in the hypercompetitive media landscape. As always, there's no shortage of unsolicited advice to be had for newspaper publishers, the latest coming from a communications consultancy called The Bivings Group.

In a blog post titled, "9 Ways for Newspapers to Improve Their Websites," the Washington-based firm issues pointers … Read more

"Back to school, back to books, back to parents' checkbooks," the adage should go.

Parents were probably happy to hear that many of the English language classics they would normally be forced to buy are now available for free download and print via Google Book Search. In addition to saving money, the printout versions also allow more space for marginalia without the guilt.

But what about free color storybooks for preschoolers? Free books in other languages? Free sheet music? Free maps?

Gary D. Price, a librarian and editor of ResourceShelf.com, has compiled a list of sources where … Read more

Soon people will be able to subscribe to an online-only version of Sirius radio, according to Siriusbackstage.com.

Sirius Internet Radio Plus would offer music and talk channels for about $12.95 a month. The channel listing would include Howard 100 and 101 (Howard Stern's Sirius channels), according to the Siriusbackstage.com report.

Sirius already offers online access for its current subscription customers, as well as a free three-day online trial to anyone who is interested. Channels choices are limited, however, for online trial listeners.

Sirius representatives were not immediately available for comment.

Weight loss should always be this easy: An image of Katie Couric, originally released in May by CBS, has made a late-summer appearance with a very noticeable tummy tuck, just in time for Couric's debut as the anchor of the CBS Evening News.

The doctored photo appears in the September issue of Watch magazine, which just happens to be owned by CBS, according to Mediabistro, which first reported on the alteration. The New York Post and several blogs soon followed with coverage.

A side-by-side look at original photo and its touched-up near-twin reveals a clear difference at the waistline, … Read more

A former Lockheed Martin engineer has taken to YouTube to air charges of corruption in a military contract he apparently worked on. The self-proclaimed whistleblower is Michael De Kort, who says he worked on a $17 billion Coast Guard contract.

Lockheed Martin describes Integrated Coast Guard Systems as a joint project with Northrop Grumman. The contract was awarded in 2002. According to De Kort's 10-minute video on YouTube, there are now boats in service that were equipped under the contract but in violation of the security and safety requirements. Further, De Kort claims he went through all the channels … Read more