Online Journalism Review gives newspapers some guidance on how to manage a blog.

Newspapers represent all that is old and moldy about journalism: printed on dead trees, distributed by underpaid teens, and read by an aging audience. Weblogs represent all that is edgy and hip about journalism: written in a personal voice, encompassing divergent modes of thought, and distributed on a global platform. But is the commingling of newspapers and blogs like chocolate and peanut butter, or chocolate and pine tar?

The guidelines include…find your topic and find a trustworthy blogger.

Many newspaper sites, however, are queasy at the thought of posting unedited copy online by anyone. Editing a blog makes it stronger, in their opinion. Paul, of the Sacramento Bee, says everybody could use an editor. “That’s the difference between a professional writer and an amateur,” he said. “The professional knows he needs an editor, and the amateur thinks he doesn’t need editing.”

The article also suggests getting everyone on the same page and using lots of outside links.

These “best practices” are obviously a work in progress. No one has strict answers to everything related to Weblogs, and newsroom cultures vary from newspaper to newspaper. But perhaps the lessons learned by the early adopters can help mainstream news sites that want to hop on the blogging bandwagon.

No WMD’s in Iraq?
The BBC has released a story today regarding the upcoming conclusions of the Iraq Survey Group. The top secret group comprised of about 14 hundred weapons experts and scientists is supposed to release it’s findings next month.

This information has supposedly been leaked from an inside source.

…….it is highly unlikely that weapons of mass destruction were shipped out of the country to places like Syria before the US-led war on Iraq.

…….Saddam Hussein mounted a huge programme to deceive and hinder the work of United Nations weapons inspectors

…….the report will say its inspectors have not even unearthed “minute amounts of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons material”.

…….not uncovered any laboratories involved in deploying weapons of mass destruction and no delivery systems for the weapons.

And Reuters says CIA spokesperson Bill Harlow says the report will make no firm conclusions or rule anything in or out.

We’ll be hearing a lot more about this in the weeks to come.

Hells Angels
It would be nice if this were more than a PR project.
About 1 hundred thousand dollars of about 4.1 million dollars confiscated from the Hells Angels in Quebec is being used in a four month project to assist Montreal’s prostitutes.
Montreal residents, police, and medical staff believe that the 500 or more prostitutes on the cities streets need better and more co-ordinated resources to get out of the trade.

Downtown resident Serge Plante said he sees the pain and suffering of drug-addicted prostitutes up close in his neighbourhood. Many are beaten by drug dealers and pimps and become verbally abusive when residents intervene.

“We want a positive solution,” said Plante, who was among a group of downtown residents whose complaints to city hall led to the four-month test project.

“We don’t want the police to send them all in(to) jail because we know this is not going to solve the problem.”

The City of Montreal received over 8 hundred thousand dollars to fund 8 crime prevention projects.

Air India Trial
The most complex trial in Canadian history is being delayed while lawyers work out funding problems.

In 1985 an Air India jet with 329 souls on board went down off the coast of Ireland. The two men on trial in Canada for that bombing have also been charged with a suitcase bombing in Toyko that day that killed two baggage handlers.

It’s a legal system, not a justice system……

Bush and the UN
Blogger Mark Byron sees President Bush’s speech to the UN as postive.

Schism - the oldest tradition
Living Room looks at loving critique (or not) between the emerging church and the mainline church.

Unfortunately as we trace these instances back through history we also see that these can be times of pain and even of splitting within the body. In nature we often see that its in such painful circumstances (even to the point of death) that change and new growth comes.

Perhaps we find ourselves with somewhat of a paradoxical calling?

Voting
It’s one thing to discuss an election with friends, but to me it is quite another to ask a minister how to vote in an upcoming election. People really do that?
Yes, sadly they do, and this minister had some good questions for them.
And sadly, there are a lot of ‘christian leaders’ and ‘organizations’ out there, all too willing to ‘tell’ others instead of encouraging people to engage their own critical thinking skills.

Idea Joy is having fun with the interview meme…he’s asking some good bloggers good questions. :^)