ARTS & FARCES internet

Law

The US House of Representatives needed a two-thirds majority vote to extend the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act. The provisions in question were roving wiretaps, seizure of “any tangible things” seen to be relevant to an investigation, and the ability to obtain wiretaps against terrorism suspects who are unconnected to any foreign government or known terrorist group. The votes weren’t there and in a 277-148 vote, the measure failed. For now. Almost immediately after the vote, the House took the necessary step of sending the bill through the House Rules Committee. The committee approved the measure in a 7-2 vote and thereby virtually assuring its passage, as it now requires only a simple majority vote.

Media

AOL has purchased the Huffington Post for US$315 million (US$300 million in cash and US$15 million in stock)—not a bad payday for the online aggregator that started with US$1 million in investment capital. Surprisingly, Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post co-founder and publisher, takes control of AOL’s editorial content and becomes president and editor in chief of AOL’s new Huffington Post Media Group. As Jeremy W. Peters and Verne G. Kopytoff, writing for the New York Times opine, “... the deal carries a risk for the Huffington Post, which has had none of AOL’s troubles and is widely viewed as a business success with its own unique voice and identity. Now that it is to become part of a large corporate entity, what becomes of that unique character is an open question.” Erick Schonfeld, writing for TechCrunch, has the internal memo sent by Tim Armstrong, AOL’s chief executive, to staffers. From the other side, Alexis Madrigal, writing for the Atlantic, has the email Arianna Huffington sent to her (mostly unpaid) staff. Tim Rutten has written a scathing op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times, carrying the deck: “To grasp the Huffington Post‘s business model, picture a galley rowed by slaves and commanded by pirates.” Jeff Jarvis tweets that Rutten doesn’t understand abundance economics (ed. note: Link not in original). The most telling part of AOL’s acquisition of Huffington Post? Eric Hippeau, Huffington’s chief executive, bailed.

Publishing

The Washington Post, in a move that just might mark the beginning of a turnaround, has released its corrections/suggestions form. The form is linked from every staff-written article on the paper’s website, making the Post the first major US corporate news outlet to answer the challenge by the Report an Error Alliance, formed by Scott Rosenberg (MediaBugs) and Craig Silverman (Regret the Error). What’s especially interesting is that this is clearly an important issue for the Post. Scott Rosenberg, writing for Idea Lab, reports the feature was originally tied to a content management system upgrade. When the upgrade was delayed, the Post cobbled together an interim solution using a Google Docs form. I’m so taken with that solution, I’m thinking of implementing it myself. It remains to be seen whether or not the Washington Post actually corrects reported errors. But, hey, baby steps.