Should we know the name of Bryant's accuser?

New in OJR: Mark Glaser says the mainstream media have a longstanding tradition of not publishing the names of alleged rape victims, but no such code of behavior governs the Internet.

Meantime, in case you missed this AP story: Officials: Bryant Accuser Was Hospitalized.

A dangerous mind

NY Times: House majority leader Tom DeLay will travel to the Middle East and take with him a message of grave doubt that the region is ready for a Palestinian state.

DeLay, a former pest exterminator from Sugar Land, Texas, is bringing his right-wing zealotry to "the world's most complex and troubled region," as the Times put it. The fact is, the Middle East has been ready for a Palestinian state for about five decades; it has just never had the full backing of a U.S. administration.

Welcome to the Big Darkness

Sheila also points us to Hunter S. Thompson, who's back with a vengeance: Welcome to the Big Darkness, the gonzo journalist's first ESPN column since June 10. In it he touches briefly on Kobe Bryant ...

You thought O.J. was bad? Wait until we get a taste of the K.B. scandal. It will be like a feeding frenzy and a long parade of cannibals.

... before moving on to other matters:

The American nation is in the worst condition I can remember in my lifetime, and our prospects for the immediate future are even worse. I am surprised and embarrassed to be a part of the first American generation to leave the country in far worse shape than it was when we first came into it. Our highway system is crumbling, our police are dishonest, our children are poor, our vaunted Social Security, once the envy of the world, has been looted and neglected and destroyed by the same gang of ignorant greed-crazed bastards who brought us Vietnam, Afghanistan, the disastrous Gaza Strip and ignominious defeat all over the world.

New journalism collides with old

Following up on last night's news that Jeff Jarvis killed the piece he was writing for Nieman Reports and instead published it on his blog, Sheila chimes in: Sparks fly as new journalism collides with old.

RIAA leaning on kids' parents

AP story in Wired News: RIAA Leaning on Kids' Parents

Parents, roommates -- even grandparents -- are being targeted in the music industry's new campaign to track computer users who share songs over the Internet, bringing the threat of expensive lawsuits to more than college kids.

Within five minutes, if I can get hold of her, this will come to an end," said Gordon Pate of Dana Point, California, when told by The Associated Press that a federal subpeona had been issued over his daughter's music downloads. The subpoena required the family's Internet provider to hand over Pate's name and address to lawyers for the recording industry.

Seeing double

Looks like the Washington Post has found a new way to beef up its content: Run a story on Hollywood's anti-piracy efforts on Tuesday, and run the same story with a different headline on Wednesday.

Researchers uncover 'huge flaws' in e-voting system

From the EFF:

In response to today's release of research about critical security flaws in e-voting systems, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged immediate passage of e-voting legislation to prevent election fraud.

Security researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Rice University announced today that they have discovered numerous serious security flaws in what they believe is one of the leading e-voting systems in the country -- the Diebold Electron Systems' e-voting terminal.

Among the security flaws discovered were several ways in which individual voters could vote multiple times in a given election. The researchers also uncovered methods permitting voters to "trick" the e-voting machines into allowing them system administrator privileges or even terminating an election before tallying all legitimate votes. ...

A first for moblogging news in Japan

OJR: A clip of breaking news video sent in from a camera phone airs on Japan's NHK network. A trucker videotaped a huge pileup on a busy expressway with his cell phone, and he called the clip in to NHK. A few minutes later, he's live on the phone while his grainy video of the deadly accident plays on the air. "Moblogging" is poised to change the dynamics of news coverage forever. OJR reports from the First International Moblogging Conference, held in Tokyo earlier this month.

'The Restaurant' outsmarts TiVo

Lost Remote: NBC's innovative new reality show, "The Restaurant," takes product placement to a new level, helping "TiVo proof" the broadcast. The show is also testing a new funding model: American Express, Coors and Mitsubishi are financing the show in exchange for extraordinary on-air presence. "I think the audience will decide if it's a good model," said Ben Silverman, who helped conceive the show. As for the restaurant, its eight phones are ringing off the hook and reservations re booked well into the immediate future.

Recall election set for Oct. 7

(Democratic) California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante has set Oct. 7 as the date for the election to recall (Democratic) Gov. Gray Davis, a day after (Democratic) Secretary of State Kevin Shelley certified that enough signatures had been gathered.

Already notice the difference here between the Dems are doing in California and what the Republicans did in Florida?

I'm no Davis fan, but the recall vote -- financed by a right-wing congressman with a criminal history -- makes a mockery of the political process. (Davis was re-elected just 9 months ago.) Even folks like conservative commentator David Brooks say it's an abuse of the democratic process. And it'll cost us $30 million while wreaking havoc on election officials.

If the Republicans think they're immune from exteme partisan politics, they're dreaming. This, I fear, is the opening salvo in a protracted, bloody political war in the Golden State.

As for the media? You can bet they'll have a field day with Ahnold throwing his size 18 hat into the ring.

'A Blogger is His Own Editor'

Oh, oh. Not sure what I started. In early June I was approached by the editor of Nieman Reports, who told me she wanted to publish an issue on weblogs, and could I suggest some of the leading lights in the field. Jeff Jarvis, Doc, Dan, Sheila and Tom Regan were some of the names at the top of the list. Most of them have been approached.

But Jeff has some issues with how his manuscript has been edited. (I'm finishing mine up now.) Sorry about that, Jeff. The flap is fairly interesting, judging by the two dozen postings on his "world without editors" item. Excerpt from his rant:

Journalism still needs to escape its closed, think-tank think and get out there and use the tools the audience is using. They need to read what the audience is writing. They need to listen. That's what is so damned exciting about weblogs. Weblogs give you the chance to hear your audience and what they really care about -- if only you are ready to listen.

And now Ed Cone and Dan weigh in.

I disagree with Jeff, who thinks the only good editor is no editor. I've had some great editors over the years. But some pretty overbearing ones, too, who want you to write the story in their head. That's called a taskmaster, not an editor.

Google Images question

For the heck of it, I plunked in a couple of search terms in Google images.

I didn't find what I expected.

And I found what I didn't expect.

The first was RIAA president Cary Sherman. I've seen some really second-rate photos of Cary, who's really a dashing fellow, in the media. So I figured some media outlet might be interested in purchasing this photo (the original is larger).

Anyone know why this photo wouldn't turn up on a search of "Cary Sherman" in Google Images? I don't know how Google does its algorithm, but the other images on this page don't all contain the word Cary.

Google says this about its image indexing, but I don't know if I quite believe it:

You can search more than 425 million images on the Web with Google's Image Search. However, there are many more images on the Internet that Google has not yet added to its index. Google is working to crawl more images to increase the quality and quantity of images returned when you search, so it's likely we will add the image you're looking for in the near future.

Images that I had on my WELL site are still up there, even though I pulled the plug on my WELL site in March. And none of the hundreds of images on jdlasica.com seem to be up there, even though they went up at the same time. Also, none of the dozens of photos on my weblog seem to be up there, though I don't know if Google indexes blog photos.

Meantime, Alta Vista Images seems to do a much better job, turning up shots of mine like this, while Lycos Multimedia does a poor job.

Next I plunked in the term "Chacala," because a national magazine just emailed me asking for photos of this coastal Mexican village. My own images of Chacala didn't turn up -- but some folks I know who run the non-profit Mar de Jade resort and Spanish language immersion school there borrowed my photos. (I would have said yes if they asked.) Five of the six photos on this page are mine.