Tuesday, 12/11/01

Since Salon put Jake Tapper behind the curtain, I've been reading a lot more of Slate. In addition to a particularly great Supreme Court reporter in Dahlia Lithwick, and they've got a refreshingly inquisitive relationship with numbers. Last year they trotted out regression to the mean to explain why Barry Bonds wasn't going to break the home run record (good try), and today there's a great piece about how poorly the annual percentage rates of check-cashing outlets compare with those of neighborhood loan sharks.

Elsewhere, the resolution of National Bank of Mexico vs. Narconews, a NY Supreme Court opinion explicitly recognizing Internet-based news with the same libel protections extended to print and TV. The EFF, which filed its usual amicus brief, says it's "tickled that the court heeded our advice," which struck me as sort of a punch-drunk thing to say in public. I can't remember the last time EFF had such a clear-cut victory. 10:28AM «

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