Romenesko points to Jon Friedman's column on MarketWatch, where he asks why C-Span categorizes callers by political affiliation? He says:

"When people choose to call in to C-SPAN and comment about the day's news, they can use one of three phone lines: one supporting President Bush, one for the Democrats in the audience and one for people with other political beliefs. ...I think this idea is potentially polarizing at a time when America has never been more divided along political lines."

I've always wondered that too; and I guess the reason is so they can have a rough balance of opinions over the hour, and make sure that mass callers are filtered out as far as is possible, but the principle (a controlled marketplace of ideas) has always kind of sat badly with me.


I was having a pretty good Friday until now.


We all know the hotel sector is desperate to fill rooms right now, but how can one resist this amazing feature ..... on the Hotels.com web site about the Sheraton in Baltimore's Inner Harbor: "Coffee addicts can indulge in their pajamas, as in-room coffeemakers are a standard amenity."

Indulging in one's pajamas cannot be over-rated, I find.


Great headline on AP this evening: "View from Katie Holmes’ hometown: what are the nuns thinking?"


Here's a tip-ette for all you PR types out there... Like newsdesks everywhere, we get bombarded every day with press release emails. It helps us not put your pitch straight into the recycle bin if the subject line is a tad more interesting than this:

"PatchLink Scanner Integration Module™ to Support Microsoft Baseline Security Analyser (MBSA) 2.0"

A grabber, huh?



However, here's some techie news that is pretty interesting:

Next version of Windows will include support Internet data feeds
By ELIZABETH M. GILLESPIE
SEATTLE (AP) Microsoft Corp. said Friday that the next version of its Windows operating system will have built-in support for Internet data feeds, an increasingly popular way to get news and other information channeled straight to a computer.
snip
In the long-delayed Windows upgrade, code-named Longhorn and expected to be released late next year, an RSS icon will appear in the Internet Explorer Web browser to make it easy for people to find, much like Apple Computer Inc. has done with its Safari browser.





Whoo...er, Hooo! (and it would have to be 'Big Boy Productions', wouldn't it?)