And Never Shall They Meet

I share Bil Herron's consternation at not making the cut for the latest local-media dip into the blogosphere. Unfortunately, neither Anchor Rising nor Dust in the Light nor The Ocean State Blogger has Bil's obvious reasons to blame. No, in our case, it's not a lack of effort; it's just us — the price of being counterculturalists.

The only three blogs that Jen Senecal mentioned in her Providence Monthly piece were Providence Journal blogger Sheila Lennon (of course), woneffe ("a mix of urbanism, politics, and gay issues in and around Rhode Island, along with some wonderful photographs"), and The PRESSblog ("a source for marketing news, ideas, and ad reviews, all focused on the Rhode Island marketing scene"). With the exception of PRESSblog, which appears to be politically neutral, the common theme of all the others (including those to whom woneffe links to "spread the wealth") is easy to spot.

Oh well. I suppose it's best, when working for change, not to be too cozy with the keepers of the status quo. Being a good sport, though, I will offer one bit of advice to the folks at Providence Monthly. If you're going to make some of your content available online, putting up the piece about things on the Web might be a good idea. I'm sure the folks at PRESSblog would agree.

News Scope in the Internet Age

The Los Angeles Times, is "folding its daily national edition". Will the next tier of papers down the news chain (in scope, not quality, necessarily) take a cue from this?

As a news consumer, I would have increased interest in the Projo if it devoted less space to reprinting wire-service stories -- which I can get in a more timely fashion from other places on the web -- and devoted more space to actual local news, where the range of sources for information is much more limited.

Jump ahead of the curve, and give us more local news Projo!!!!

International Troops Enter Iraq

It's entirely possible that my media-cynicism adjuster is tuned too high, but whether rightly or wrongly, the following caption for the photo currently on the Providence Journal's home page surprised me. In big, bold letters on the picture itself is the word "Captured," and beneath it:

In this image from television, troops oversee captives at a hospital on the western edge of Fallujah, the Sunni insurgent stronghold being stormed by international and Iraqi forces today.

I'm glad to see the international community joining us over there in Iraq! The linked headline that follows is "Thousands of U.S. Troops Storm Fallujah," but that might be the Associated Press's handiwork.

I'm also glad to see the Iraqis getting into gear. Here's Prime Minister Ayad Allawi sending his troops off to battle:

"The people of Fallujah have been taken hostage ... and you need to free them from their grip," he told Iraqi soldiers who swarmed around him during a visit to the main U.S. base outside Fallujah just before the attack began.

"May they go to hell!" the soldiers shouted, and Allawi replied: "To hell they will go."

Well, wherever the insurgents end up, may God watch over the troops fighting to wrench the city from them.

ADDENDUM:
Mere minutes after I'd posted this entry, I noticed that the AP headline has been changed to "Troops Storm Fallujah in Major Assault." The tone is changing more quickly than I'd thought, even with my media-cynicism adjuster set to eleven!