links for 2009-03-01

"If you take my own home patch of Haringey - it's been a council with more than its fair share of scandals and tragedies over the years, but it's also been exceptionally rare for any of the local newspapers to have broken news based on investigative reporting. I don't blame the journalists generally - I know how many words have to be written in how few hours - but in the case of Baby P it was largely only when the case went national, bringing in national news organisations, that journalists started shedding the light on all sorts of things". My MPs take on the news supply debate

Pet Shop Boys giving away a hits/new album promo CD with the Mail On Sunday. I like the idea of the Mail On Sunday targeting the wistful slightly camp artsy demographic.

I initially thought this headline might be from The Onion but "A report intending to portray the iPhone as 'hated' in the Japanese market turns out to have been built upon fake quotations from industry writers and observers who were misrepresented by remarks attributed to them that they never made". Seriously, just never write anything bad about Apple, it just isn't worth the wrath of the fanbous ;-)

"You may or may not be aware of the weekly science Podcast 'The Skeptics Guide to the Universe'. In this week's episode amongst the usual stories, the commentators have a go at the Sun's coverage of scientific issues, specifically its recent articles about 'Atlantis' appearing on Google Earth and Cat-Boy. The Sun doesn't get favourable coverage. Its Atlantis coverage is accused of faking a quote from an expert (Dr Charles Orser)"