Don’t use headlines to create alternative universes: For all I know, this article found at the Columbia Journalism Review’s website could be objective and fact-filled. However, I couldn’t get beyond the headline, “How evangelical Christians are creating an alternative universe of faith-based news.”

I find the use of the term Alternative universe outrageous in a headline about this topic.

Of course, I’d be just as outraged if I saw above an article about a hispanic-American-focused news operation, the headline, “How hispanic Americans are creating an alternative universe of hispanic-based news” or, “How black Americans are creating an alternative universe of African American-based news” or, “How liberal Americans are creating an alternative universe of left-leaning-based news”

Apparently, the headline writer has a lock on some wisdom of what universe is correct for us: All others are “alternative.”

I enjoy living in one common universe that can be interpreted from alternative points of view.

I’ll leave it to science fiction writers, rather than editors/reporters, to determine what is, and is not, an alternative universe.

Blogging is her “tuning fork”: On her blog, Management Craft, Lisa Haneberg says, “Blogging is my tuning fork…Blogging and reading blogs keep my mind sharp and give me ideas that are more likely to work.”

I really like that and share its sentiment.

Unfortunately, I know some folks who apparently view their weblog as a pitch fork.

A magazine editor responds to a negative NYT story — using the magazine’s blog: Please , excuse me. My blog worlds are colliding.

Yesterday, I blogged and pointed to this piece in the NY Times by David Carr that said, in rather hyperbolic tones, that general business magazines are (let me ad-lib here) all washed-up, especially Fast Company!

Today, the editor of Fast Company! responds to the New York Times column and chooses to use the magazine’s weblog as his platform.

For the record, I agree with the editor. In fact, the other day I explained that I thought the Inc. and Fast Company! franchise values are way higher than zero in a comment thread on this post of a weblog called, Business Pundit. ”

This achy breaky sucks: Presenting the summer, 2005, Billy Ray Cyrus memorial novelty music fad: Cowboy Troy and hick hop. Wake me up when this nightmare is over.

As for me (and this may surprise anyone who hasn’t seen my iPod): I like my rap, old-school (authentic) and my hip hop, Missy Elliott (fun and intelligent). I like my country unplugged and bluegrass.

Hick hop takes everything predictable & formulaic about rap and everything clichéd and overproduced about country music, and mashes it up into something that sounds like a Weird Al Yankovic recording.

Deep Throat: “W. Mark Felt, who retired from the FBI after rising to its second most senior position, has identified himself as the “Deep Throat” source quoted by The Washington Post to break the Watergate scandal that led to President Nixon’s resignation, Vanity Fair magazine said Tuesday.” (That he was Deep Throat has been a leading theory) for a long time.)

More on how money goes poof: The cautionary tale of Daniel Webster’s* Brewster’s $560 million spending spree with other people’s deutschmarks to purchase Inc. & Fast Company.

*Update: Thanks, Staci (see comments), for that correction of my humorous mind-slip.

Just because my son will be wearing one of those T-Shirts: On Saturday morning, I’m dropping off a friend’s son at a local high school so he can take an SAT II exam. Because the test is across the street from the mall where this will be taking place, I think there’s a chance I and my 14-year-old will go pick up free T-Shirts that endorse a company that sues bloggers.

Kurt Andersen knows he should be flattered…That Radar is a knock-off of Spy, the magazine he co-founded. But he’s not.

(via: the other rex)

Kurtz does Jarvis: Okay, so maybe no one reads the newspaper on a holiday, but the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz did a swell profile of Blog Boy today.

Quote:

Jarvis, who seems to attend every conference on new media held in the continental United States, differs from many bloggers in that he loves the old media, despite their flaws. He argues that traditional outlets can thrive by embracing this growing army of commentators, which is why he continues to advise big corporations. Not that he’s defensive about it: He says he “sold out to The Man” 30 years ago.

Just another reason I like him so much, I guess.

Business models we don’t get: Ever wonder how those people who sell books for a penny on Amazon.com make money? Volume, according to the WSJ’s Startup Journal.

Bad Business for Magazines About Business: David Carr’s byline is back on a magazine-industry story in the business section of today’s NY Times.
A long story. A story worth reading. A must-read story if you’re in the
general business magazine field. I wonder why it’s running on the
lite-reading holiday?

Quote:

(Thanks, David.)

Longtail of NCAA sports:
The NCAA men’s lacrosse championship
game between Duke and Johns Hopkins is being played right now before a
near Eagles-size crowd (well, perhaps not the upper decks, but a big crowd in the part of
the stadium you can see on TV) at Lincoln Financial Field in
Philadelphia and live on ESPN & ESPN-HD.
As I’m watching the game on TV with a 14 year old who attends the
Hopkins lacrosse camp each summer, I’m pulling for the camp counselors.

Update: Yeah! The camp counselors won.

Update II: The NY Times on how lacrosse is exploding in popularity.
They note that the 40,000 who attended today’s NCAA championship is the
second largest crowd to see the finals of a Division I NCAA
championship this year. (47,000 saw the men’s basketball finals at the
Edward D. Jones Dome in St. Louis.)

Ironic conventional wisdom developing about Freakonomics’ success: I’m one of those bloggers who received a review copy of Freakanomics (but for a reason other than my blogging) and blogged it early and positively. But actually reading the book causes me to be amused by any punditry at this point that suggests a specific reason the book is successful. Chapter-by-chapter, the book debunks such “conventional wisdom” regarding why certain things happen the way they do, and concludes that such obvious “causes” are rarely correct but are likely, at best, corollaries. My suggestion to bloggers (even the ones who I almost always agree with) who may be tempted to use Freakanomics as a case study for showing cause-and-effect of anything: “READ THE BOOK FIRST!” and you’ll know why you should keep your day job and not go into economic analysis.

Just some more Nashville news: A mother faces criminal charges after she hired a stripper to dance at her 16-year-old son’s birthday party. The drug store where she took the photos to be developed turned her into authorities. “”Who are they to tell me what I can and can’t show to my own children?” the mother said.

Yahoo! mindset search: Goes beta. Buzzword alert: intent-driven search.

(via: Business2Blog)