THE SACRAMENTO BEE HAS CAVED TO SPECIAL INTERESTS and muzzled its house blogger Daniel Weintraub. They should be ashamed — and I don’t want to hear any whining from them the next time their publisher is heckled. Utterly lame. And, as Mickey Kaus points out, hypocritical: “If Arnold had complained, do you suppose the Bee would have strapped an editor on DW’s back?”

Of course not That would have been censorship.

UPDATE: Robert Tagorda writes:

I vehemently oppose this decision. It ignores the entire point of blogging. As Weintraub himself noted when he introduced his new format, “Blogs by their nature are more spontaneous than traditional commentary.” The Bee, as well as its readers, clearly knew that his posts would bypass the typical route to publication. With the new policies, the paper might as well just rid itself of the blog.

It also might as well just shoot itself on the foot, because it’s giving up perhaps its biggest recall-coverage advantage over its competitors. One of the main reasons why the Bee has been a better source than, say, the LA Times and the San Francisco Chronicle is its fresh and constant updates via California Insider. The reviews will slow down the news breaks and take away the Bee’s most attractive feature.

Weintraub is the only reason I’ve been reading the Bee.

Matt Welch observes:

Bee Ombudsman Tony Marcano has written a stinker of a column proudly explaining how his paper has caved to Latino complaints about the valuable recall-blogger Daniel Weintraub, who will now no longer be allowed to post without being edited. . . .

Weintraub is an opinion columnist. He is being paid to dispense opinion (albeit, chock full o’ insidery Sacramento observations), and he is being punished in this case for an opinionated assertion, not a botched indisputable fact. And he is being punished as a direct result of an interest group complaining about his opinion. Whether it had been an auto dealer, or the English-Only crowd, or the Latino Caucus, the proper response to such a complaint, in my view, is, “He’s a valued opinion columnist, and this was his opinion. We will certainly pass along your concerns, and even suggest he engage them on his blog. Please consider writing a letter to the editor. Good-bye.”

Welch adds that the Bee is now “one or two notches less credible.” To which I’d add three notches less interesting.

Unthinking political correctness, corporate-mandated dullness, and complete cluelessness, all in one event. If you want to know, in a nutshell, why Old Media is in trouble, this is it.

UPDATE: L.A. Observed is defending The Bee, more or less, and notes that The Bee has set up a group blog on the recall with an interesting disclaimer. Wonder if it’s pre-edited?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Okay, “defending The Bee” may be a bit too strong. Let’s say “adding nuance to The Bee’s position.”

Roger Simon, on the other hand, wonders if this illustrates Big Media’s inherent inability to take advantage of the blog format.

HMM. I THINK THAT TODAY’S DOONESBURY STRIP is probably evidence that outsourcing is likely to be a campaign issue in 2004. I’m not surprised about that.

IT’S A SUNDAY COMICS ROUNDUP over at Begging to Differ.

“DESPERATE SADDAM OFFERS AMERICANS DEAL:” I don’t know if this is true, (it’s from London’s Mirror, a tabloid) but if so it certainly undermines the “quagmire” theory, doesn’t it? I hope, though, that true or not this story is being widely circulated in Iraq:

It is believed the US authorities will simply string Saddam along, aiming to track the go-betweens until they know exactly where to find the rogue leader.

“There’s no doubt the net is closing, and that his supporters’ efforts to get the Americans to pull out of Iraq are not succeeding,” said the source.

“They can cause disruption and problems, but this does not bring Saddam any nearer to coming back to power, and he now knows it. The negotiators will try to keep the line of communication open as long as possible, but the word from Washington is: ‘No deal’.”

Quick, somebody load a C-17 with copies and fly ’em to Baghdad!

UPDATE: The U.S. military says this story isn’t true. Heck, that’s all the more reason to spread copies all over Baghdad.

UPDATE: Jonathan Gewirtz emails:

The idea of using phony stories to weaken his hold on his followers is most plausible: great bang for our buck if it works, costs little if it doesn’t. However, I don’t think Saddam is likely to allow himself to be strung along or drawn out, because I think he’s likely to assume that any overture from us is a trap.

It would be nice to be able to fast-forward a few decades and learn which of these stories are based on real psy-ops and which are mere rumors.

Yeah. It would.

I MENTIONED VERISIGN’S SHENANIGANS EARLIER — now they’re being sued.

BIG ELECTORAL DEFEAT FOR SCHROEDER: Medienkritik observes that “Anti-americanism doesn’t help winning elections in Germany anymore…”

UPDATE: Some interesting thoughts on why Germans don’t “get” 9/11 from German blogger Hans Beeman.

BACK FROM THE LAKE: Had a lovely overnight visit at my dad’s. He’s pretty much fully recovered now. The InstaDaughter drove the boat solo for the first time (yes, they do grow up fast).

HEADING OUT TO SOMEWHERE, WON’T BE BACK FOR A WHILE: Just out to the lake. See you tomorrow.

THIS is disturbing:

An Army Islamic chaplain, who counseled al Qaeda prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval base, has been charged with espionage, aiding the enemy and spying, The Washington Times has learned. . . .

Capt. Yee, of Chinese-American descent, was raised in New Jersey as a Christian. He studied Islam at West Point and converted to Islam and left the Army in the mid-1990s. He moved to Syria, where he underwent further religious training in traditional Islamic beliefs. He returned to the United States and re-entered the Army as an Islamic chaplain. He is said to be married to a Syrian woman.

Sounds almost as if he were planted. Sadly, this will only produce more suspicion toward loyal Muslims.

UPDATE: Phil Carter looks at the military law involved and has some links.

GO VOLS! Gator tastes like chicken. . . .

RICHARD BUTLER:

He said the United States and its allies had no choice but to invade Iraq and overthrow Sadaam Hussein’s government.

Butler likened Saddam to Adolf Hitler and said the evil dictator used the weapons on live people.

“I want to be plain about this,” Butler’s voice heightened. “The overthrow of Sadaam Hussein was justified whether or not there was reluctance to authorize it. … No one could say it is wrong to overthrow a homicidal maniac. The Security Council sat on its hands for 10 years.”

As for not finding these weapons allegedly in Iraq, Butler said he is sure Saddam had them. He said Saddam was addicted to the deadly weapons, and whether they are still in Iraq but hidden, moved or destroyed, they did exist.

“Don’t believe those who say they aren’t there just because we haven’t found them. Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” Butler told the crowd. “Iraq certainly did have weapons of mass destruction. Trust me. I held some in my own hands.”

Nonsense, it’s all a Zionist-Republican plot.

IT’S A KLEIMAN VS. NON-VOLOKH SMACKDOWN! Er, or as close as you can get while discussing the intricacies of New Source Review and the Clean Air Act.

[Why isn’t it a Kleiman vs. Non-Volokh “Cage Match?” — Ed. Because it’s not all on the same blog. Weirdly, that makes sense. — Ed.]

DO THESE GUYS LOOK LIKE ROCK STARS? OR WHAT? Here, too. And don’t miss this rave review from a wholly disinterested party!

BILLY BECK IS blogging while on tour in Japan.

THIS MICHAEL BARONE COLUMN notes a lack of media perspective on Iraq:

Those inclined to make straight-line extrapolations from the events of a few news cycles should read some history. Margaret Mac- Millan’s Paris 1919 shows how the Allied leaders who gathered at the peace conference in Paris were largely clueless about how to reconstruct the defeated nations after World War I. Jean Edward Smith’s biography of Gen. Lucius Clay reveals that the first time he read the government’s plans for post-World War II Germany was on the flight over there to take charge. William Manchester’s American Caesar shows that Douglas MacArthur, however knowledgeable about the Far East, did not have clear ideas on how to rule postwar Japan. Clay and MacArthur improvised, learned from experience, made mistakes, and corrected them, adjusted to circumstances. It took time: West Germany did not have federal elections until 1949, four years after surrender; the peace treaty with Japan was not signed until 1951. . . .

Reports from soldiers on the ground, circulating widely on the Internet but seldom if ever appearing in old media, indicate that the large majority of Iraqis are friendly and helpful and glad that American troops are there. Those may be anecdotes; data come from a poll conducted in August by American Enterprise in four major cities, including one in the so-called Sunni triangle. No one should dwell on the precise percentages, which are subject to error, but by wide margins the results show that Iraqis are optimistic about the future and unfavorably disposed to Osama bin Laden, the Iranian mullahs, and, especially, the Baathist remnants. We cannot be sure exactly how Iraqis’ minds are changing. But the evidence suggests they are receptive to representative democracy and hostile to Palestinians and other Arabs who supported their oppressor.

As Barone notes, the media have a “zero-defect standard” regarding operations in Iraq. Would that they applied such a critical view to their own reporting.

USEFUL FOOLS WRITES that the media were hyping the wrong thing on Isabel:

Contrary to popular opinion and media hype, the majority of hurricane deaths are not caused by wind, but rather by storm surge flooding (which is related to the wind strength, wind area, distance from the eye, and especially topography) or inland rains, or both. These are not necessarily closely tied to the Saffir-Simpson rating (category), which is based only on the maximum sustained winds (normally found in the eye wall).

In modern times. most deaths are caused by inland flooding from the storm’s rains.

Good point. Meanwhile, to those who accuse me of downplaying the event because I’m “safely behind the Tennessee mountains,” I ‘ll suggest that if an event of similar scale happened on this side of the Appalachians, it would barely get noticed. Look at the storm in Memphis that left over a million people without power, and several dead, and got basically no notice at all by the national media, except in the form of an oped wondering why it got no attention. One suspects that it’s because it didn’t affect the lives of Big Media types. Similarly, the D.C. sniper got a lot more attention than the West Virginia sniper because, God forbid, he might have killed East Coast journalists!

UPDATE: Here’s a roundup of blog-coverage of the hurricane, from Michael Silence of the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

RICH HAILEY accuses George Will of Dowdification. That might be a bit strong, but this does call for a correction or clarification.

DOES TERRORISM MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY? Boy, this study must be bummin’ the Al Qaeda dudes out.

I GOT THE LATEST BT ALBUM, EMOTIONAL TECHNOLOGY, TODAY. The cover photo, which shows BT in a rather Elton-Johnish white suit, made me wonder if he was going to go in a discoish — or at least Deep Dish Collective-ish — direction. But no. Overall, the new CD sounds a lot like its predecessor album, Movement in Still Life, especially cuts like “Smart Bomb” or “Madskillz.” My favorite tracks (based on listening to it once in the car) are “Knowledge of Self” and “Superfabulous.” BT sings on quite a few of the tunes, including the Boss Hitbound Single “Somnambulist.” Sadly, Kirsty Hawkshaw doesn’t appear on this album.

The production is classic BT, as are the liner notes: “This track is constructed with Logic Audio synths, EXS24, and Absynth only, and features two swing templated variants of sample accurate, time-corrected loops.” One departure from earlier albums is that several songs have vocal harmonies reminscent of Jon Brion. (You can stream some samples at the links above).

It’s somewhat more pop than Movement, and I’ll have to listen to it a few more times, but I think it’s a winner. BT’s website, by the way, is here.

DAVID ADESNIK COMMENTS on some of my news-from-Iraq posts:

While it’s nice to read these stories, I still wonder whether the frustrated and disappointed GIs are holding back out of deference to their superiors. I know for sure that officers critical of the Administration are extremely reluctant to say anything at all.

Perhaps the truth will come out only after the troops have come home and are able to speak their minds.

Uh, yeah. Like in one of the posts that David links to, which is about returning troops who say things are a lot better there than the news media make them sound. Or maybe like in this post about a report from a returning soldier that things are a lot better than. . . well, you know.

Then there are posts like this one from a Federal judge and this one from a touring musician, neither of whom would seem to suffer under the constraints that Adesnik identifies.

A more valid criticism of my posts would be that they’re anecdotal, and don’t show the big picture. That’s true — and as Daniel Drezner has noted, there may not be a coherent single narrative on Iraq right now.

But that, of course, is my point. The Big Media have created a coherent single narrative (call it Vietnam II: Reloaded) and they’re engaged in selective reporting to maintain that narrative, for reasons I explore here. I’m just trying to let a little air in, by pointing out what they’re not reporting.

REMEMBER: Music piracy hurts the artists. Heh. (Via Something Awful).

WESLEY CLARK, JR. is defending his dad in the comments section over at DailyKos. There are a lot of comments, so search “Wesley” on the page.

Thanks to reader Ali Karim Bey for the link.

PORPHYROGENITUS has a global war roundup with lots of links.

THIS DESERVES MORE ATTENTION than it will probably get: Vaclav Havel, Arpad Göncz, and Lech Walesa take on Castro:

Europe ought to make it unambiguously clear that Castro is a dictator, and that for democratic countries a dictatorship cannot become a partner until it commences a process of political liberalisation.

At the same time, European countries should establish a “Cuban Democracy Fund” to support the emergence of a civil society in Cuba. Such a fund would be ready for instant use in the case of political changes on the island.

Europe’s peaceful transitions from dictatorship to democracy, first in Spain and later in the East, have been an inspiration for the Cuban opposition, so Europe should not hesitate now. Its own history obliges it to act.

All I can say is, hurray for the New Europe.

RAND SIMBERG — who’s covering space so I don’t have to — has a column on Columbia, proposals for an orbital spaceplane, and what’s wrong with the NASA approach.