Arab TV network al Jazeera comes under scrutiny once again for its broadcast of the latest bin Laden bile-fest. An update to our coverage can be found here.

Jacko’s in court looking pasty and more freakish than ever. If the metamorphosis continues at its current rate, in 20 more years Jackson will be an albino Chinese girl. Joal Ryan reports from the scene: the King of Pop has regained his regal stride, testifying in his $21 million breach …

A couple of days ago we mentioned the campaign against smoking in films. Horrors! James Bond puffs cigars in the new Die Another Day, which is set in Cuba: The decision to feature cigars in the film, which premieres in London Monday, has outraged the anti-smoking lobby. Bond, better known …

Our Ryan Irelan swears by his iPOD – Paul Boutin sees the iPOD as the real threat to the msuic biz as we know it: The real action in music sharing isn’t online. It’s on foot. Look at the numbers: Industry estimates say 6 billion blank CDs will be sold …

New blog from the mysterious W reporting on treachery, perverse thinking, and Saddam sucking from gay Paree: ‘Les guignols’ is a popular political satire show on French TV Canal Plus (subsidiary of Vivendi Universal [NYSE:V;Paris Stock Exchange code Sicovam 12777]). is a complete rip-off of the British political satire show …

Steve Chapman sounds like a Euroweenie here: Wouldn’t it be nice to be rid of Saddam Hussein? That’s how the Bush administration has managed to frame the debate over war with Iraq. In its cheerful scenario, there really won’t be much of a fight: Our peerless military will crush all …

Europe’s view of Middle East: fearful, clinging to stability, in love with the status quo, “any change can only be worse.” Bush team (now that Powell seems to be on board): bold, looking to a better future, the status quo is corrupt, calcified, infected, inherently doomed to failure, supportive of …

Of course she’s part of it. The Cornell Daily Sun reports: Yesterday evening, Pat Mitchell, president and chief executive officer of PBS gave a lecture entitled “Media Consolidation, Convergence, Connection: The Good, the Bad and the Downright Dangerous” at Ithaca College (IC). ….Mitchell spoke for an hour and a half …

Comics Journal mines it’s archive of audio interviews with Comics notables for a 1989 discussion with Gilbert Hernandez, now one-third of the creative team behind the comic book that launched a thousand indy comics, Love and Rockets. Gilbert discusses his comics-obsessed childhood, his influences, the /Heartbreak Soup/ stories, drawing, how …

David Crotts, of Senator Helms’ office, has passed this on to Blogcritics regarding passage of HR 5469: Small Webcaster Settlement Act of 2002 November 15, 2002 Last night, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives passed Senator Helms’ substitute amendment to HR5469, the Small Webcaster Settlement Act of …