In case you missed it, here is a link to the Democracy Paper edit that ran Monday. The edit dealt with another assault on open records. The edit follows a Times story about the Washington Cities Insurance Authority, a public agency, threatening to pull Monroe's liability insurance because city officials wanted to make it easier for the citizens to obtain public records.

I have believe that washingtonpost.com is one of the best newspaper Web sites. Easy to navigate, and I love their Q&A sessions.

The Dow Jones wire service and Harold Feld at Wetmachine both have stories getting at the speculation as to why Frontline dropped out of the spectrum auction that began Thursday.

I wrote in a recent column about the media in China, and the country's need for some personal freedoms. The Washington Post has a story today about Shanghai's middle class doing something rare; demonstrating. The protesters are speaking out against a maglev train that they fear will disrupt their neighborhoods.

A nifty new Web site launched recently. EveryBlock allows people to find the news of their block.

Sam Zell did not waste much time shaking things up at the Los Angeles Times. LA Times publisher David Hiller fired the paper's editor, James O'Shea, who had only been on the job for 14 months.

Two op-eds ran in today's Opinion section of the Seattle Times are worth checking out. One deals with network neutrality, the other with the future of newspapers.

Here is a link to an editorial in today's Seattle Times. The edit is about the 700MHz auction that begins today.

A recent post on Blogging Beijing resonated with me. Daniel Beekman, a Fulbright researcher in Beijing who is penning the blog for seattletimes.com, wrote about the many journalists that are showing up in Beijing for this summer's Olympics.

I related to many of his observations of "parachute journalism" and the difficulties facing reporters in China. I have been reading stories from China with a much more skeptical eye since returning from a work related trip there in September. It did not take me long to understand the Chinese government's obsession with controlling the message.

I stumbled across a intriguing new Web site yesterday called Big Think. The site incorporates video interviews with social networking. The line up of interviewees is impressive. Mitt Romney, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, the list goes on.

The site's creators have made watching the interviews manageable by breaking them down by question. Click on the person you want to hear from, then click on the question you want to hear answered. Viewers can also participate with comments, and if registered you can submit questions to be asked.

There is a new blog on seattletimes.com that complements Daily Democracy. Editor At Large Mike Fancher launched Press Here today. Fancher's blog will shine a spotlight on the collision of the press, public and technology.

I am excited that Fancher has taken on Press Here. It will allow us at the Times to better hear what readers have to say about issues we are obsessed with in the newsroom. Readers will be well served by having a journalists of Fancher's considerable skills writing about the press, public, and technology daily.

Fancher says it better than I could. Head on over to his blog. Enjoy!

Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat had a good column in Sunday's paper about a Web site devoted to West Seattle news. Westneat's column can be found here.

West Seattle Blog feels strangely familiar for a couple reasons. One being that the news is the nuts and blots stuff people need. The second reason it felt familiar to me was the content. I edited a weekly section in my previous gig as an assignment editor in Maine. The section, which was called Your Neighbors, was filled with much of what you find at West Seattle Blog. Small business stories. Stories about class projects. Lot's of traffic related pieces.

The final installment about my September trip to China ran as the cover to Sunday's Opinion section. It can be found here. The first two columns dealt with college students, and translators. This piece reflected on my experience as an American journalist in China. I will not go into a long summary, but am curious to hear reader feedback. Especially if you have spent time in China.

I was struck by a New York Times op-ed about the violence following Kenya's election. Aidan Hartley, a columnist for The Spectator, touches on how the violence has affected his family's farm in central Kenya. His observations about the situation is interesting, but what got me was this graf:

"Kenyan democracy has failed because ordinary people were encouraged to believe that the process in and of itself could bring change. So Kenya's leaders - and often international observers - interpret democracy simply in terms of the ceremony of multiparty elections. Polls bestow legitimacy on politicians to pillage for five years until the next depressing cycle begins.

In the campaign rallies I attended, I saw no debate about policies, despite the country's immense health, education, crime and poverty problems."

A couple posts back I suggested that journalists should speak out against media consolidation. My colleague, and fellow Seattle Times blogger, David Postman responded with a different point of view. Here is his comment on my post:

"Ryan, I have to disagree. There is a political line for journalists, and speaking out about consolidation and the FCC is on the other side of that line from good reporting. I think reporters should refrain from giving their political opinions, even if it is something that might help our business.

The Newspaper Guild has spoken out against consolidation. The union and the Blethens are on the same side of that issue I think. There have been instances where the union wanted members to take political stands. There are some who think we should even be able to work on political campaigns.

There have been issues, certainly the estate tax comes to mind, that management of the Times believes is about the survival of our industry. If reporters speak out about consolidation should they also be free to express opinions about tax policy? I don't think so.

We have an editorial page that can do that, and an owner, a publisher, press organizations, the union leadership etc. Adding reporters to the list would only compromise our independence."

Rob Pegoraro from the Faster Forward blog at washingtonpost.com has an interview with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin. The interview can be found here. Pegoraro caught up with Martin in Las Vegas at CES.

Everybody has an opinion about the press. Even The Simpsons. FishbowlDC has a funny post about a recent Simpsons episode that partly deals with the press. I would argue with everybody but Moe's take on journalists.

U.S. News and World Report had a piece last week about the Federal Communications Commission and cross-ownership, which can be found here. No revelations for anybody who follows the FCC and the press. It is a good piece for newbies.

The nice thing about having a blog is that I can promote my ink on paper work. I have an op-ed column in today's Seattle Times about ABC News and Fox News banning some candidates from debates this weekend. The column can be found here. I would give more detail but that would defeat the purpose of getting you to the column. Happy reading.

The ACLU released its best of/worst of civil liberties lists today, which can be found here. Reading through the worst of list is depressing. Enough to make an old KGB agent reminisce for the good old days in East Germany.