Lost in the knee-jerk anti-MSM reaction to the recent Belgian copyright case was a distribution-rights development that could be more important in the long run: ACAP, the Automated Content Access Protocol. It's an initiative to define a machine-readable "industry standard to enable the providers of all types of content published on the World Wide Web to communicate information relating to permissions for access and use of that content."

Mike Ward sends word from the University of Lancaster that a "Journalism Leaders Forum" Tuesday will be webcast live, and that one of the key participants, Tim Porter, will appear via weblink "from the States."

Dan Gillmor did a bit of telepresence for the University of Lancaster earlier this year from Hong Kong, as I recall. A few months ago, when I called on Dan to talk with the newsroom of the Savannah Morning News, we pulled it off with a couple of webcams, saving several thousand dollars and a lot of travel time.

Once in awhile something comes along that reduces me to quoting Peter Griffin: "Holy crap!" That's how good Paul Henry's "The War of the Words" is.

The nation's second largest newspaper is in one hell of a mess, and as Jeff Jarvis says, it's become something of a parlor game to answer the question, "What would you do with ...?"

Los Angeles Times Editor John Carroll quit last year in protest of budget cuts. Publisher Jeffrey Johnson defied corporate instructions to cut expenses this year, and was shown the door as his reward.

Bluffton Today has two design-production openings for people who get the whole "community in conversation with itself" thing. One is an online-focused job, one print-focused, but there's no big separation between the media at BT.

The online job requires the expected competencies: HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Flash, audio/video, design, Photoshop, photography -- and a high level of comfort with people and online/offline interaction. Contact lisa.smith (at) blufftontoday.com for details.

On an industry email listserve, someone commented that "the thing that best distinguishes us from the guys trying to start online publications in their basements (besides the really big presses out back and the staff of professional journalists in our newsrooms) is that we have our reader's trust." Here's my response:

That's the official religion of the newsroom. I think it's a dangerous delusion and part of the culture of arrogance that is rotting the foundations of journalism.

Yes, there are people who trust us.

Jane Stevens is showing the Kentucky Derby's website at the Online News Association conference. It pretty much waxed the Louisville newspaper's online coverage, begging the question: Who is the news media these days? The derby site has news, context, community, multimedia, entertainment ... taking advantage of the medium in ways the typical newspaper site, even in 2006, still does not.