BNN Broadcast

BNN Morning Update

Big Business badies beat at their own game. It is easy to get the impression that big businesses are a threat to online freedom and the blogosphere after fiascos like the Associated Press Cease and Desist letter to The Drudge Retort. But often a little publicity can get them to back down without seeing the inside of a court room — so goes Viacom’s attempt to gather all our IP addresses and the YouTube video’s we’ve watched.

Today’s New York Times tells another story of local prosecutors, subpoenas and enforced silence. It is must reading, particularly for anyone who has an active comment section and covers local politics. (And much as I hate to say it , Public Citizen Litigation Group continues to become the law firm of blogospheric rights.)

From a different angle in Tennessee, local bloggers are crawling all over a local police officer who is trying to use his badge and “disorderly conduct” charges to stop someone taking pictures in public places with their phone.

Getting quoted in the paper. I’ve seen it, so don’t deny it. As much as every blogger likes to complain about the local paper, they’d pretty much all like to be cited in the local paper and have their stories and tips followed. (If only to be able to complain more about how the newspaper was inevitably unfair.) Bloggasm’s interview with the Newspaper Association of America’s leading researcher shows why success might not get you much of a bump in traffic.

The study concluded that website “penetration” is relatively low, with only a fifth of the respondents saying they visited their local papers’ websites within the past month. Approximately 62 percent of the respondents said they have never once accessed the newspaper’s website.

Think about that: Three out of five of your neighbors have never bothered with the local paper’s web site. Think about the field that leaves open for the local blogosphere.