Monday is a great day for a media column! Today: The good news is more international reporting; the bad news is black people (and bloggers!) are still fighting the power, in the US of A:

GlobalPost.com has launched! It's a big new Boston-based news site (65 foreign correspondents!) that will focus on international enterprise journalism. "This is the perfect time [to launch] for many reasons," said the editor. "Most of all, there is an enormous void in foreign coverage by the American news media." That is absolutely true and anyone who believes in journalism should pray for the success of this enterprise, although there's a better than average chance that this is in fact a horrible time to launch. [Boston.com]

Guess who just got some official press credentials from the NYPD? Some bloggers! They almost had to go to court for them, though. The key beneficiary: civic gadflies. [City Room]

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer officially has 60 days to live unless somebody buys it, which, you know, unlikely. Staffers are sad. Idea: see if GlobalPost.com is hiring. [Seattle PI]


Howie Kurtz reports: even though we have a black president, there aren't that many black White House reporters! As much as we would like to mock Howie Kurtz, this is true, and deserves to be pointed out once in a while. Next, stories on how even though we have a black president, there aren't that many black people in advertising/ media/ academia/ corporate America/ the NHL. [Washington Post]


Israel is trying to win the PR war by barring reporters from Gaza (the army also has its own YouTube channel). So you know who has the best access to this war? Al-Jazeera! You know who watches Al-Jazeera in the US? Just about nobody, due to the general bitchassness of cable companies. [NYT] Well here's some for you: