Interesting story from The Root, considering this is a publication that covers race pretty extensively. It generated a lot of discussion on MSN yesterday. Raises some good points.

Quoted: Some of us are too pre-occupied with taking offense. We should be careful about limiting free speech, since we may be the next victims.

Point taken. While Tim Russert was fantastic, I suppose the press wasn't exactly objective in weighing the significance of his death relative to other news, as well as the obit coverage of other accomplished leaders in other fields...

Quoted: I have nothing against Tim Russert. He hosted two decent programs, Meet the Press and the less-watched Tim Russert, and ably helmed NBC News' Washington bureau. According to his colleagues and competitors, he was a conscientious journalist and a fine leader.

This article is right - the loss of classifieds is what's sunk newspapers, and the Craigslist model isn't easy to copy. But I'm uneasy with the idea of a corporate "savior" like Wal-Mart when we're supposed to have a free press.

Quoted: Wal-Mart doesn't know it yet, but it may be the savior that local newspapers have been praying for. The big-box retailer launched a new service last month and dubbed it Wal-Mart Classifieds.

I never realized he had made this prediction. Well, looks like he was onto something.

Quoted: In 1993, novelist Michael Crichton riled the news business with a Wired magazine essay titled " Mediasaurus," in which he prophesied the death of the mass media—specifically the New York Times and the commercial networks. "Vanished, without a trace," he wrote.

Jack Shafer takes the position that there's actually a silver lining in the newsroom buyouts - younger, newer blood comes into the field. But that's only true if the publications stay afloat long enough to hire new full-timers!

Quoted: Advertising revenue at newspapers has fallen off a cliff. Average circulation is down, too, and the combined trends are prompting publications to say goodbye with a wad of cash to their most experienced and decorated hands. Yet, good news can be found inside the bad news.

Important for any of you who have to talk to the press. Once a journalist has AGREED that a conversation is off the record, then it is unethical for them to use anything said after that point. However, if there is no such agreement, it's fair game.

Quoted: Samantha Power stepped down from her position as Barack Obama's foreign-policy adviser Friday, after she was quoted in the Scotsman calling Hillary Clinton " a monster, too—that is off the record—she is stooping to anything." How do you go off the record with a journalist?

I agree - plagiarism blows!

Quoted: Readers have stormed my inbox, accusing me of "picking nits" in the latest of my two columns about the plagiarism of New York Times reporter Alexei Barrionuevo ( Feb. 27 and March 5). One reader found my charge "hyperactive."

This has been a real crap week... year... (okay, few years) for journalism and book publishing in terms of plagiarism and fraud. I wonder if it's just that more people are getting caught, or if this is a growing problem.

Quoted: When a journalist gets caught plagiarizing the first time, he can usually duck the charge by claiming that the theft was really an accident. I mistakenly mixed my own notes and a Nexis dump. Or, It was a cut-and-paste error. But when a journalist gets caught plagiarizing a second time, it's much harder for him to plead to a mere blunder.