Furlough (George Kelly’s blog): If we can’t keep our sense of humor, we’re truly lost. After several East Bay newspapers announced they’ll be furloughing employees as a money-saving measure, Kelly, who is online coordinator at Bay Area News Group/East Bay’s Contra Costa Times, created this brilliant parody of the jazz classic Fever — with apologies to Peggy Lee.
“Never knew how much I missed work
Never seen the newsroom so bare
And when I’m logging into Outlook
I get a shock to find there’s nobody there
They give us furlough
What they call it? Furlough when you hold your pay
Furlough now through April I’ll be off at least five days …
Live, online coverage of W.R. Grace trial (University of Montana School of Law & School of Journalism): Follow intriguing, live online coverage of a significant environmental law trial via this blog and Twitter (follow UMGraceCase). Also follow the Twitter hashtags #WRGrace and #GraceCase.
On Feb. 7, 2005, W.R. Grace & Co. and seven of its executives were indicted on 10 criminal counts, ranging from conspiracy to wire fraud. Since then, the case has been intensely litigated, making its way from Federal District Court in Missoula, Mont., to the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court and back again.
(Hat tip to David Poulson of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University. Check out his Tweets at Dpoulson.)
Media Bloggers Association relaunch: The Media Bloggers Association has launched its new site, which includes a media law course for bloggers in partnership with Poynter’s News University.
The Media Bloggers Association describes itself as “a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting, protecting and educating its members; supporting the development of ‘blogging’ or ‘citizen journalism’ as a distinct form of media; and helping to extend the power of the press, with all the rights and responsibilities that entails, to every citizen.”
Accomplishments of the MBA so far include:
- Representing dozens of bloggers in negotiations, including most recently Joan Stewart in the Oprah Winfrey case (working with Arianna and The Huffington Post’s lawyer)
- Providing various levels of legal support to hundreds of bloggers facing threats
- Obtaining media credentials for bloggers
- Developing a first of its kind media liability insurance for bloggers
- Setting up a legal network of more than 75 attorneys specializing in First Amendment-related work around the country to offer members basic risk consults in the event of legal threats for defamation, privacy violation and copyright violation
- Setting up deals for bloggers with Newsweek, The Associated Press, PBS and others
