The Strategy Review

For fun and insight (rarely seen together at New Year) ...

... read these Top Links of 2005 from Noah Brier.

RIAA = Goliath, but more Davids emerging ...

Piece from chron.com on more misguided skullduggery:

When the music industry comes knocking on the doors of those it accuses of illegally sharing songs online, most of the those receiving these subpoenas swallow hard, reach for their wallets and settle.

But a growing number of people are standing up to the Recording Industry Association of America's lawsuits, and there's increasing evidence there may be some problem with the cases the RIAA is bringing.

Actually, these guys are reminding me of The Spanish Inquisition a la Python, not merely due to their taste for macabre comedy (alongside hack pantomine cackling + nasty suprises for otherwise innocent bods), but also the retro-McCarthyism of their style ...

George Gerbner, father of cultural impact of TV research, dies ...

... and leaves us with much, including a superb quote from 2000.

"I call it (TV) a cultural environment into which our children are born, and which tells all the stories," he said. "You know, who tells the stories of a culture really governs human behavior. It used to be the parent, the school, the church, the community. Now it's a handful of global conglomerates that have nothing to tell, but a great deal to sell."

RIP.

Walking to media freedom in China?

This takes brass balls:

Reporters at a Beijing newspaper known for covering sensitive topics walked off the job after an editor was removed this week amid efforts to tighten press controls, employees said Friday.

The informal strike at the Beijing News was highly unusual for China's entirely state-controlled media. It reflected tensions between communist leaders and media outlets, which have pushed the limits of official tolerance in recent years, sometimes drawing punishment for aggressive reporting on corruption and other politically charged issues.

Would we have the guts to do this? Hmmm... food for thought on the eve of 2006

US citizens stand firm in the face of the awful truth ...

A reassuring poll from Harris as reported in Editor and Publisher ...

More than four years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, 22% of adults believe that Saddam Hussein "helped plan and support the hijackers who attacked the United States on September 11," according to a new Harris Poll. And nearly one in four (24%) of all adults wrongly believe that "several of the hijackers who attacked the United States on September 11 were Iraqis."

This doesn't make me happy - you?

2005's coolest gadgets

Courtesy of Michael Parekh's always useful blog, a list of the coolest gadgets of 2005 from the NY Times.