Saturday, April 09, 2005
Worldwide Post Secrets
Luke at wotisitgood4 "turned me on" to a blog called POSTSECRET which allows you "to anonymously contribute your secrets" by creating a postcard with an image and secret on one side and mailing it to an address in Maryland (hey, Jeff Gannon, go for it!).
More details: "Each secret can be a regret, hope, ,experience, unseen kindness, belief, fear, betrayal, desire, feeling, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before."
Ordinarily, I don't check out blogs like this but Luke intrigued me so I took a peek for myself. This is the one that led me to blog about the blog:
A "legal notice" on the blog reads "No image from this site may be used for any purpose without expressed written authorization."
Um, sorry dude (the blogger's anonymous; I consider "dude" a multi-gender term), but according to Section 7 of the Copyright Law of the United States of America (link for Postsecret lawyers), the "the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright."
Speaking of secrets...
Via Eschaton , I learned of an Editor and Publisher article about a Daily News article about a reporter who may have been fired for revealing secrets to the wives of other reporters. All of the reporters were part of the dysfunctional family at The New York Times.
Lloyd Grove at the Daily News reports/gossips: "The perils of Iraq have nothing on the nasty fracas erupting between former New York Times Baghdad Bureau Chief Susan Sachs and her ex-colleagues, Times Baghdad correspondents Dexter Filkins and John Burns. The Gray Lady's management has just fired Sachs, a widely respected and experienced journalist who has tangled bitterly with Burns and Filkins, over allegations that she sent anonymous letters and an E-mail to their wives alleging bad behavior with women in the war zone."
The Daily News also notes that Susan Sachs strenuously objected to Dexter Filkins' Geraldoish insistence on packing a piece which puts all journalists in peril.
Editor & Publisher's Joe Strupp (who doesn't return e-mails and is apparently unconcerned about the rampant plagiarism that existed at Talon News proven here - multiple times - though that is what they normally cover) has an interview with Susan Sachs at the aforementioned link.
I immediately informed The Common Ills about this story, partly because it's the best blog (or Website or source or anything) in the world when it comes to Times-related stuff, and partly because we have had a long-running e-mail discussion on the quality of John F. Burns' "journalism." Now C.I. writes: "I've praised John F. Burns' reporting here many times...But Burns has gotten sloppy."
At some future time I'll blog about why I think John F. Burns sucks and can't be trusted.
The Common Ills addresses the sacking of Sachs in Let's talk New York Times.... Meanwhile, I'll see if I can dig up anything else on this story, because I'm sure that it's far from over.
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