Top News:
Nick Bilton / Bits:
The Defense of Computers, the Internet and Our Brains — If you're reading this blog post on a computer, mobile phone or e-reader please stop what you're doing immediately. You could be making yourself stupid. And whatever you do, don't click on the links in this article.
Roger Ebert / Roger Ebert's Journal:
Tweet! Tweet! Tweet! — I vowed I would never become a Twit. Now I have Tweeted nearly 10,000 Tweets. I said Twitter represented the end of civilization. It now represents a part of the civilization I live in. I said it was impossible to think of great writing in terms of 140 characters.
Felix Salmon / MediaFile:
Zach Kouwe fired again — In February, a NYT blogger, Zachery Kouwe, was fired for plagiarism. The proximate cause of the firing was a complaint from the WSJ, but he'd had run-ins with other publications in the past, including nicking a memo from Dealbreaker without attribution.
David Cohen / WebNewser:
The Beautiful Game: Social Media Suits Up for 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa — With 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa set to kick off about one hour after this post, Twitter and Facebook — which meant nothing to the average soccer fan during 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany — are donning their jerseys and painting their faces.
Discussion:
rbr.com, Mediaite, Multichannel, The Daily Beast, Gawker, Speakeasy, Variety, Digits, The Atlantic Online, MediaMemo, PRNewser and Mashable!
RELATED:
J. David Goodman / New York Times:
Now in Blogs, Product Placement — Welcome to quid pro post. — When a marketer representing Absolut Vodka first offered to sponsor her annual blog festival, Louise Crawford guessed how the other bloggers might react. — “Some of them are going to call me a sellout,” Ms. Crawford remembered thinking.
James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:
On the Media: Overdosing on social networking media — (Chris Jackson /, Chris Jackson / / February 2, 2008) — It's hard not to get irritated with a company that urges you to share all sorts of things but makes it hard for you to say who's part of the party.
Discussion:
Kirk LaPointe's …
Adam Tinworth / One Man & His Blog:
What Does Facebook Like Do For Blog Traffic? — The Typepad team have just published a graph of referrals from Facebook since they made Facebook Like available as an option for their users: — Now, admittedly, this is only from a few thousand blogs, and the figures are relative rather than absolute …
Andrew Alexander / Washington Post:
For The Post, anonymous sources remain a problem — Last month, a story about conflicts between parents and childless adults began with an anecdote about an unleashed puppy pestering a toddler in a District park. After the child's father complained, the dog's owner told The Post that parents …
Antonina Jedrzejczak / The Wire:
National Geographic Admits Photo Fraud (Plus: 10 Major Photoshopping Scandals) — Recently, National Geographic ran a photo by William Lascelles that had won the magazine's February 2010 Your Shot competition. — That would be the picture on the right, the authenticy of which some seem readers called …
Business Week:
Spotify: Why Europe's Hit Music Site Isn't Playing the U.S. — Big labels have blocked Spotify—the first site that's “sexy without having the Apple name on it”—from offering streaming music — Sweden has a new music export, and it's attracting an audience way broader than an ABBA greatest hits album.
Steve Buttry / Pursuing the Complete Community …:
New York Times protects its readers from reading about “tweets” — Self-anointed guardians of the English language show an amazing, amusing lack of respect for the language they purport to protect. — Phil Corbett, Standards Editor of the New York Times, decreed this week that tweet was not …
Robin Sloan / Snarkmarket:
The Atlantic rides again (again) — Back in college, the Atlantic was basically my introduction to the world of ideas. I still remember reading this classic article by James Fallows and feeling whole new lobes of understanding come online. This was policy, not politics. Macro, not micro.
Scott Shane / New York Times:
Administration Takes a Hard Line Against Leaks to Press — WASHINGTON — Hired in 2001 by the National Security Agency to help it catch up with the e-mail and cellphone revolution, Thomas A. Drake became convinced that the government's eavesdroppers were squandering hundreds of millions …
Discussion:
Romenesko
RELATED:
Senior Data Journalist, NY — 
Manager - Publishing Editorial, Manila — 
Oil Reporter, Singapore — 
Newsperson - State Govt. & Politics, CA — 
Business Reporter, SC — 
State Government Reporter, WA — 
Climate Crisis Columnist — 
Multimedia Journalist, CA — 
Community Engagement Mgr., DC — 
Senior California Politics Reporter, CA — 
Staff Writer - Business, NY — 
Team Editor - Opinion, ON — 
Assistant Correspondent, DC — 
Climate & Weather Reporter, MN — 
Senior Tech Editor, Remote US — 
Lead Business Reporter, TN — 
Managing Editor, WA — 
Private Credit Reporter, NY — 
Trending News Reporter, TX — 
City Correspondent, London — 
Legislative Reporter, CA — 
Reporter, PA — 
Visual Editor, Remote — 
Staff Writer, MI — 
Senior Political Reporter, DC — 
California Playbook Writer, CA — 
National Investigative Reporter, NY — 
Business & Gaming Reporter, NV — 
Coastal Climate Reporter, SC — 
Environment & Energy Reporter, CT — 
Coordinating Editor, OR — 
Editor, Remote US — 
Business Reporter, WA — 
Editor-in-Chief, AZ — 
