Martial Media Madness™

From the Guardian Media section:

• New York correspondent Gary Younge on wartime McCarthyism in America
• A guide to the warblogs and a guide to anti-war web sites
• The awkward squad liven things up in Qatar
• Al-Jazeera is at the centre of a new controversy about what it airs, and wins an anti-censorship award.

From the New York Times:

• Journalists from some surprising media outlets, including Rolling Stone, People magazine and MTV, are among the embeeded hacks in Iraq. “It is a recognition that not everyone gets their news from The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal,” Bryan G. Whitman, deputy assistant secretary for media operations for the Pentagon, told the Times. The article also quotes Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner, who said “I know that this is part of a big propaganda machine and they recognize our demographics.”

From the Washington Post

• Media columnist Howard Kurtz, true to form, criticises the BBC for — get this — being objective. The column reads like Kurtz’ Roladex is the culled from the News Corp payroll: he unleashes veteran Beeb-bashers Andrew Sullivan and William Rees-Mogg to spout their usual refrains. Yawn.

From the blogs:

• iWire on the Jo Moore quality of much of the war news.
• Two more blogs have been blogrolled: Cursor.org and The Memory Hole.
• The Iraq Body Count web site is seeking to ensure that the unpleasant truths about warfare are not forgotten.

Another good general source lately has been The Poyner Institute

Update: Some people are suggesting that Iraq Body Count may be a coalition propaganda excercise. No evidence for this yet, but a pinch of salt may be advisable.