Democrats to open hearings on CIA leak
WASHINGTON - Democratic lawmakers are eager to hear from outed CIA operative Valerie Plame as they try to make political fodder out of the 2003 leak scandal. Scheduled to testify Friday were attorney Mark Zaid, who has represented whistle-blowers; attorney Victoria Toensing, who said early on that no law was broken and has criticized the CIA’s handling of the case, and J. William Leonard, security director of the National Archives, who was to discuss general procedures for handling sensitive information. James Knodell, director of the White House security office, also could attend to discuss general security procedures, committee officials said.
C-SPAN coverage begins at 10:00 AM ET.

FCC Looks To Once Again Help Big Media
Well, the industry-friendly Republican majority at the FCC is at it again, calling for what amounts to the complete elimination of local media ownership rules.

Phoenix Woman, regarding yesterday’s headline “Is Google Changing Its Position on Net Neutrality?”:
“If you saw Eric Schmidt on Bloomberg recently, he answers direct questions on the issue and seems to state very clearly that Google is pro-net neutrality. See the video here.”

The Seymour Hersh Mystery
Calling attention to a March 5 New Yorker article by Seymour Hersh that outlines an off-the-books, Iran/Contra-style covert operation (organized in part by Elliott Abrams) against Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah, using Sunni extremists of the kind the U.S. is supposedly at war with. As far as I can tell, no one in the mainstream even blinked on the Iran/Contra angle or the possibility that a vast, secret Middle Eastern operation is being run, possibly illegally and based on stolen funds and Saudi money, out of the vice president’s office.

Experts: Mohammed arrest slowed al-Qaida
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s capture four years ago didn’t shut down al-Qaida or bring the Americans to Osama bin Laden. But if his mega-confession is to be believed, his arrest was a crushing blow to bin Laden’s plans for even more deadly attacks in the wake of 9/11. [Emphasis added.]
That qualification is a huge step for the Associated Press.  Who gave the AP the idea for this story, though?  Who pointed the way to these “experts”, so conveniently saying things so helpful to an administration desperately trying to push the many scandals off the front pages?  Time magazine questions KSM’s confession, too.

How TalkingPointsMemo Beat the Big Boys on the U.S. Attorney Story
Can a mixture of “Web reporting” and old-fashioned investigative work be the wave of the future for journalism?

WSJ misstated Seattle U.S. attorney’s “grounds” for not pursuing voter fraud charges
Discussing the growing controversy surrounding the Bush administration’s decision to fire eight U.S. attorneys, a March 14 Wall Street Journal editorial asserted that former U.S. attorney John McKay — identified in the editorial, apparently falsely, as a Democrat — “declined” to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the 2004 Washington state gubernatorial race “apparently on the grounds that he had better things to do.” In fact, McKay testified that he did not convene a grand jury to investigate the matter because “there was no evidence of voter fraud.”

NY Times article misrepresented Gore statements on sea level, hurricanes; mis-ID’ed global warming skeptic as “rank-and-file scientist”
In its article on global warming, The New York Times used a false comparison to suggest that Al Gore was incorrect about the rise in sea levels and baselessly suggested that Gore made a false claim about hurricanes. The Times also misidentified Don Easterbrook, calling him a “rank-and-file” scientist, when, in fact, he has expressed skeptical views about global warming that put him at odds with the scientific consensus on the issue.

CNN’s, ABC’s Beck on Clinton: “[S]he’s the stereotypical bitch”
On the March 15 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Glenn Beck said: “Hillary Clinton cannot be elected president because … there’s something about her vocal range.” He went on to say, “There’s something about her voice that just drives me — it’s not what she says, it’s how she says it,” adding, “She is like the stereotypical — excuse the expression, but this is the way to — she’s the stereotypical bitch, you know what I mean?”

The Greatest Danger to Journalism…
“…is Fox News,” according to Howard, who reacts indignantly to CEO Roger Ailes’ call to “respect and encourage diversity of thought and speech in the newsroom” because “the greatest danger to journalism is a newsroom or a profession where everyone thinks alike”: If there were an Irony Police, Ailes would be arrested, tried before an Irony Court, and put behind irony bars for the rest of his venal life.

Images Of Fair And Balanced Propaganda
Graphics from FOX News that clearly highlight their bais.

Black Activists Call On Black Leaders To Reject Fox
An online citizens’ lobby of 70,000 members dedicated to advocating for the interests of Black Americans launched a national letter writing campaign calling on the Congressional Black Caucus Institute to reject Fox as partner for their presidential debates.

Rosen’s new website teams amateurs with pro journalists
Jay Rosen describes Assignment Zero as an attempt to bring together professional writers and editors with citizen journalists to collaborate on reporting and writing about the rise of crowdsourcing on the Web. “Inspired by the open source movement, the goal of Assignment Zero is to develop a working model of an open newsroom.” Joel Achenbach describes it as “a bit like Wikipedia-meets-Woodward-and-Bernstein.”

Wiki Screwup A Shock For Sinbad
“Saturday I rose from the dead and then died again,” says actor-comedian Sinbad, who had the disconcerting experience of having an erroneous note posted on Wikipedia announcing his death. He’s fine; faces are red at Wikipedia.

Socializing online luring an older crowd: study
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Teenagers are being joined by more people aged in their 20s and 30s on social networking Web sites as the trend of Socializing online continues to expand, according to a survey.

Controversial S. Korea comic book pulled
SEOUL, South Korea - A South Korean publisher agreed Thursday to withdraw a best-selling children’s book from stores after meeting with a prominent anti-Semitism watchdog group that accused the author of spreading messages echoing Nazi propaganda.