[LINK] Google's *Real* Threat to 'the Media'?

[Richard Chirgwin]

had to happen...

Back a while, I was railing against what I saw as mindless reproduction, 
along the lines of "lord, the sub-editors don't even change the spelling 
from American any more!" Someone suggested to me - without documentation 
but as an insider - that this is because the agencies' contracts prevent 
liberties being taken with their precious, immortal prose.

So I don't think it's the "real threat to the media" that Google might 
bypass the syndication middleman and host the stuff directly: because at 
least, the long slide into really crappy second-ratism and the 
relentless march of agency-distributed press releases would not be done 
under the imprint of the newspaper running the syndication stories.

It may even turn out a good thing: some newspapers might survive and 
out-compete the fat, lazy, and gullible creatures that the agency media 
have become...

Richard C

Roger Clarke wrote:
> canadianpress.google.com ?
>
> I haven't seen anything like this before.
>
> I saw an article in a Hong Kong newspaper, and went looking in 
> news.google.com for the Canadian original.  The search-string I used 
> was <terrorism law site:.ca>
>
> I thought I'd found it.
>
> But the URL that came up is Google-hosted.
>
> The full copy is at the bottom of this message.  Note the footer.
>
> I can't quickly turn up any information on this domain, or on this 
> legal entity (if there is one), and the local proxy forces me to the 
> google.com.hk site.
>
> Does anyone have any insights as to what's going on.
> _________________________________________________________________________
>
> Originally picked up for forwarding to the privacy list as:
>
> [A further instalment of 'Pseudo-National Security on the wane':
>
> Activists call for end to 'secret trials' and security certificates
> 1 day ago [Dorks.  Equals Sat/Sun 20/21 Oct 2007]
> http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gVgJwTjNzLIKJ-2gnkYJJe5bNKrQ 
>
>
> OTTAWA - Demonstrators in about a dozen Canadian cities Saturday 
> demanded an end to "secret trials" and the controversial security 
> certificate process after the federal Conservatives signalled in this 
> week's throne speech plans to introduce new measures to the country's 
> anti-terrorism laws.
>
> Activists in Ottawa accused the government of crafting a "two-tiered" 
> justice system after the Conservatives vowed in the throne speech to 
> respond to the Supreme Court decision on security certificates through 
> new legislation that would also add new measures to the Anti-Terrorism 
> Act.
>
> "My concern is that the new legislation will not provide the 
> immigrants and the non-status people with a fair trial," Monia Mazigh 
> told a crowd of about 60 people gathered at a human rights monument in 
> downtown Ottawa. "We never expected something like this.
>
> Mazigh's husband, Maher Arar, was not present at the Ottawa event. The 
> Syrian-born Canadian engineer was detained in New York and deported to 
> Syria in 2002, where he was imprisoned for almost a year and tortured 
> on false allegations of terrorist ties before being exonerated by a 
> Canadian inquiry.
>
> The demonstrators called on Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and 
> Immigration Minister Diane Finley to immediately withdraw all security 
> certificates that have been issued and to release detainees currently 
> in jail or under house arrest.
>
> They also demanded an end to deportation proceedings against five men 
> being held under security certificates.
>
> In an e-mail to The Canadian Press, Day's communications director, 
> Melisa Leclerc, wrote that the Conservatives plan on bringing forward 
> legislation next week to "address the particular issues the Supreme 
> Court has asked the government to give attention to."
>
> "The only way a person could be subject to a security certificate 
> would be a person that is not a Canadian citizen who represents a 
> serious threat to Canada," she wrote.
>
> She also took a shot at the Liberals, calling them "soft on terror" 
> while insisting the Conservatives "will not waiver when it comes to 
> safeguarding the security of Canadians."
>
> In February, the Supreme Court overturned the current system of 
> security certificates used by Ottawa to detain and deport non-citizens 
> on public safety grounds, saying it violates the Charter of Rights.
>
> The country's highest court also suspended the full legal effect of 
> the ruling for one year, giving legislators time to rewrite the law 
> and comply with constitutional principles that guarantee fundamental 
> justice and prohibit arbitrary detention.
>
> At a rally outside a CSIS building in downtown Toronto Saturday, 
> organizer Matthew Behrens questioned the credibility of the "secret 
> evidence" CSIS has on the security certificate detainees, given the 
> revelations that arose out of the Arar and Air India inquiries about 
> how CSIS operates.
>
> The protesters say the Conservatives will announce the appointment of 
> "special advocates" to represent those detained under security 
> certificates. Those advocates would have access to evidence brought 
> against their clients, but would not be allowed to share it with them.
>
> The move would not be without precedent, said Martin Rudner, a retired 
> Carleton University professor and director of the Canadian Centre of 
> Intelligence and Security Studies. He said Britain uses special 
> advocates to represent detainees.
>
> However, disclosing all the evidence against a detainee would 
> compromise Canada's intelligence-gathering methods by revealing 
> sources and means used to collect it, he said.
>
> An intelligence agency typically inserts an informant into a terrorist 
> cell or uses technological means to intercept communications, he said. 
> Revealing the identities of informants could jeopardize their lives, 
> while disclosing means used would force the government's hand on its 
> technological capabilities, he said.
>
> "What we're talking about here is the kinds of information which the 
> suspect cannot get for very, very good reasons," he said.
>
> Rallies are to be held over the weekend in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, 
> Edmonton, Vancouver, Fredericton and Halifax and the Ontario 
> communities of Kitchener-Waterloo, London Durham, Orillia, Midland and 
> Sudbury.
>
>
> Hosted by <Google logo>
> Copyright © 2007 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
>
>