Alt media including blogs and blogging. First from the Inter Press Service News comes an overview of "citizen media" from cellphone smartmobs to blogs and blogging. The author notes the lack of attention in mainstream media to the FBI's confiscation of indymedia servers that I commented on earlier. I was tracking the story as it broke into mainstream media in Australia and Britain, but not the USA. Is it fear that covering the story would be publicizing the competition that put a lid on this story of the trampling of journalistic integrity by a repressive FBI?

Two-dozen websites belonging to Indymedia, a "democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate and passionate tellings of truth," and one of the most well-known "alternative media" organisations were shut down for six days recently. "To date not 'The New York Times', the 'Washington Post' or the 'Los Angeles Times' have seen fit to comment upon it," says Downing. (note: John DH Downing, director of the Global Media Research Centre at Southern Illinois University) "In their cases, it is a classic instance of the selective ethics that permeate corporate mainstream media, and that give the blunt lie to their professions of 'all the news that's fit to print,' the vital role of independence from the state, the scandals of censorship. Nauseating hypocrisy!" he adds.

There is a very good summary of the Sinclair Broadcasting debacle in USA Today that shows how blogs can do what mainstream journalism can't or won't and makes a good case for the symbiotic relationship of professional and citizen reporters.