Unrealistic but very appealing idea of the week

Lawmakers in Britain and France want to make advertisers put warning labels on digitally altered photos in their ads. The French MP also wants warning labels on retouched editorial photos. Strikes me as unrealistic, but I like the idea anyway. Thoughts, anyone? Demon?

Concerned that girls and women feel excessive pressure to live up to the digitally Botoxed and liposuctioned images of human perfection they see in glossy magazines, lawmakers in Britain and France are trying to push advertisers to get real.

Under their proposals, ads containing altered photos of models would be required to carry disclaimers.

Get out of my way, media!

Chris Anderson, Wired's editor-in-chief says:

Sorry, I don't use the word "media." I don't use the word "news." I don't think that those words mean anything anymore. They defined publishing in the 20th century. Today, they are a barrier. They are standing in our way, like a horseless carriage.

I read lots of articles from mainstream media but I don't go to mainstream media directly to read it. It comes to me, which is really quite common these days. More and more people are choosing social filters for their news rather than professional filters. We're tuning out television news, we're tuning out newspapers. And we still hear about the important stuff, it's just that it's not like this drumbeat of bad news. It's news that matters. I figure by the time something gets to me it's been vetted by those I trust. So the stupid stuff that doesn't matter is not going to get to me.

I don't get how he can think the words "media" and "news" are a barrier and then shortly afterward say he reads lots of articles from mainstream media. It's like he's dissing the very thing he relies on for "important stuff." Right?

And I can understand tuning out inane TV news, but tuning out newspapers? It's kind of like saying, I want to be oblivious. I'll just read what my friends think is neat.

Yes? Or am I the ignorant one here? Please help me understand the ways and thoughts of this Internet wise man.

"this aft 3pm @ the bastille"

Peggy Noonan, reacting to demonstrations in Iran, speculates on what the French Revolution would have been like with Twitter.

A newspaper experiments

The New York Times is brainstorming ways to make more money online and stop the bleeding. Who knows if any of the ideas will work. But at least it's trying to come up with a solution, instead of allowing itself to slowly waste away.

One includes a "meter system," in which the reader can roam freely on the Web site until hitting a predetermined limit of word-count or pageviews, after which a meter will start running and the reader is charged for movement on the site thereafter. ...
Mr. Keller described the second proposal as a "membership" system. In this model, readers pledge money to the site and are invited into a "New York Times community." You write a check, you get a baseball cap or a T-shirt (if it's like Channel Thirteen, a tote bag!), an invite to a Times event, or perhaps, like The Economist, access to specialized content on the Web.