Four in the morning

1. Liberal columnist Frank Rich bails on New York Times, goes to New York magazine. NY

2. A map of 17 "muckraking" bloggers having an impact on world affairs. Daily Beast

3. The Denver Post continues to sue bloggers for using its content without permission - and catches a destitute writer in its dragnet. Westword

4. Los Angeles Times reporters Jeff Gottlieb and Ruben Vives win the Seldin Ring Award for Investigative Reporting for their city of Bell stories. USC

Who blogs?

According to the infographic here, bloggers are mostly college-educated men who make too little money at their real jobs.

Sounds right to me.

(found via a female blogger at fishbowlLA)

This blog brought to you by...

Bloggers who plug products on their blog or provide product reviews in exchange for free swag will have to report what they're up to under new rules laid down by the Federal Trade Commission.

From the New York Times:

The F.T.C. said that beginning on Dec. 1, bloggers who review products must disclose any connection with advertisers, including, in most cases, the receipt of free products and whether or not they were paid in any way by advertisers, as occurs frequently. The new rules also take aim at celebrities, who will now need to disclose any ties to companies, should they promote products on a talk show or on Twitter. A second major change, which was not aimed specifically at bloggers or social media, was to eliminate the ability of advertisers to gush about results that differ from what is typical — for instance, from a weight loss supplement.

For bloggers who review products, this means that the days of an unimpeded flow of giveaways may be over. More broadly, the move suggests that the government is intent on bringing to bear on the Internet the same sorts of regulations that have governed other forms of media, like television or print.

“It crushes the idea that the Internet is separate from the kinds of concerns that have been attached to previous media,” said Clay Shirky, a professor at New York University.

The story does not say what constitutes full disclosure. Time will tell if the tougher rules will send advertising dollars back to legitimate news sites.

A touchy subject

A well-known artist who made his bones in the street and who's been arrested 15 times for tagging - his latest arrest ended in a plea deal just last month - decides to apply an anti-graffiti coating to his Echo Park studio to protect the brick facade from taggers.

A laid-off former Los Angeles Times reporter who now blogs about the Echo Park neighborhood points out that a well-known artist who's been arrested 15 times for tagging has put a coating on his Echo Park studio to protect it from graffiti.

The artist, a self-described defender of free expression, lashes out at the blogger, calling him "desperate" and a "slime."

Forget the artist's intemperate words. There's an interesting story here about changing definitions and worlds. Here's a rising artist, Shepard Fairey, who still perceives himself as an outsider and who's struggling with the fact that he may no longer be "street" (consider the symbolism and scope of his plea deal); who's probably wondering if he's trapped in the mainstream now that his artwork has achieved mainstream status (consider the genesis and appropriation of his signature artwork); who's contending with changing values as he gets older and more established; and who now finds that he's no longer the instigator of outsider action, but the target - even though Jesus Sanchez's blog post was about as gentle a poke as could be delivered.

Or maybe its just an Echo Park dust up.