First a Writers Strike, and now a Bloggers Strike...

Recently Hawaii experienced their own personal sort of "writers strike." Reporters at The Honolulu Advertiser blog under a labor union contract, as well as writing for the print version. The bloggers contract was up during the summer, and months went by before they began to renegotiate them, which really upset the bloggers. To prove their anger, the bloggers went on a Byline Strike, "when reporters insist that their names be removed from their articles." The editor of the paper said that the reporters had every right to go on strike from blogging, but not from writing for print, which is why the bloggers stopped putting their names on their print stories. The labor action ended on Friday, when the newspapers owner decided to go back to the bargaining table.

I support these bloggers 100 percent. With the Writers Strike just recently ending, I believe the reporters gained a lot of support that way, because it was a topic that was still fresh peoples minds. I also think that this is why the owner decided to renegotiate after just three days. I'm sure he saw how long the writers strike lasted, and did not want that happening to his blogs.

Cartoons taking over the news?

CBS Evening News with Katie Couric added a little twist to it's newscast on Feb. 8. Josh Landis and Mitch Butler are the two men behind a three minute segment of the newscast, called Fast Draw, "an animated series created with dry-erase markers that tries to shed light on news developments." This segment of Fast Draw was to try and better explain the political power wielded by superdelegates. Landis said that with Fast Draw, they can easily, and in a more simple way, explain complex topics in the news. As well as the segment during th Evening News, Fast Draw has appeared on CBS News Sunday Morning three times.

I love this! I am the kind of person who learns better if you break things down into "kindergarden terms" and give me visuals, so this would be perfect for me. I think CBS made a great decision to add this to their newscasts, as I feel people will be more inclined to watch it if it can be explained to them, not just read off of a teleprompter.

HarperCollins to offer free book samples

Starting Monday, people can log on to the HarperCollins website to read some books online. The entire contents of five books, including a cookbook, will be available to view online, but only on the HarperCollins website. These books will only be available for one month, and will have the print functions disabled, as well as not allowing readers to download them to a computer. Also, two weeks before hard copies of select books go on sale, 20% of them will be offered on the site for sampling. HarperCollins is doing this because they believe that people will be more inticed to buy the book if they can see what it is about, much like people who are able to flip through books at the library or book store.

I think this is a great idea for this company to offer this. I'm not very big into reading, but if I find a book that sucks me in within the first 15-20 pages, I'm normally sold! With being able to go on this site and read the first 15-20 pages or more, people will know if it is even worth it to buy the book and continue reading.

Bush Has Gone "Mad"

Mad magazine has recruited 10 Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonists to illustrate a 2-page spread in their next issue. The spread, or expose as the magazine is calling it, is titled, "Why George W. Bush Is in Favor of Global Warming." A writer for Mad came up with all of the different reasons Bush likes global warming, such as, “His worries about how future generations will remember his presidency won’t matter if there are no future generations,” and "Other potential upsides are that Iraq could literally be melted off the earth, and rising oceans could submerge lefty strongholds like New York, Boston and San Francisco," and the cartoonists took over from there. Mad's editor, and art director were the masterminds behind finding the cartoonists, and said that all 10 were happy to participate.

I think this is such a interesting spread, and it comes at such a great time, when our nation is all reved up about elections. Mad is known for it's cartoons on politicions, and getting 10 award winning cartoonists to do the spread on Bush, will just give it a little something special. I don't read Mad, but I think I may get this issue, as I am very curious as to what this will turn out like.