Why the Iraq war proved popular

Former Mercury News editorial page editor Rob Elder wrote an essay in today's Merc on the missing weapons of mass destruction: What did the president say, and how did he say it?

He gets one thing wrong in the lead, that President Clinton almost got impeached. He got impeached, by the forces now running this country.

Elder's bottom line:

Despite the total lack of evidence that Iraq had anything to do with that attack, and despite the failure to find any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in that country, most of the American public continues to regard the war as a good thing. ...

So why do most Americans support George W. Bush and his war? Two reasons: Most of us are too busy to bother with the details. And the president is very, very adept at justifying his actions by invoking traditional American values that satisfy our emotions, whether or not they fit the facts.

A portable mortgage -- but not for refinances

We're paying an embarrassingly low mortgage interest rate for our home, and so we were intrigued to read yesterday about ETrade's new Mortgage on the Move program, the first widely available portable mortgage. Sell your house, carry over your mortgage loan to the new house (one time only), locking in today's 40-year-low interest rates.

Called them today, the first day of the program, only to discover that it applies only to home purchases, not refinancing. Too bad. (And by the way, ETrade's front page and mortgage page make no mention of the program.)

The Mercury News article makes no mention of the refinance angle, even though it must have occurred to almost anyone who read the piece.

Wonder if any of the mortgage giants will step in to take advantage of this huge market opportunity.

ReplayTV strips ad skipping

Reuters: The new edition of the ReplayTV digital television recorder will not include controversial features such as skipping commercials and sharing shows via the Internet.

Journalists used to judging, not being judged

Mandy Grunwald in the Atlanta Journal Constitution asks: "Why does it take Americaís best journalistic organizations so long and so much public embarrassment to come clean about their mistakes?"

A Boston Globe survey of newspaper ombudsmen finds that reader passivity is giving way to an era of media watchdogs in the aftermath of the Jayson Blair scandal.

Thanks to IWantMedia for the pointers.

And in OJR, Mark Glaser writes: Would Howell Raines and Gerald Boyd still be employed if not for Romenesko and the Internet? "I suspect yes," says Jim Romenesko.

APMEOnline's Convergence Award

Online editors of the Associated Press Managing Editors association have announced the second annual APMEOnline Convergence Awards competition. The awards recognize the effective interplay between a story in print and the same story online. Nominations may be made by a newspaper itself or its online partner for work published between July 1, 2002, and June 30, 2003.

Last year's winners were USA Today and www.usatoday.com for a special report "Clearing the Skies: Four Hours of Fear" (over 100,000 circulation); and The Idaho Statesman, with www.idahostatesman.com, for "Rural Idaho: Challenged to Change" (under 100,000 circulation).

Competition details are here. The awards will be presented during the APME national conference Oct. 15-18 in Phoenix.