Liberals Read Conservative News

And vice versa. It turns out that we don't all live in our own bubbles of conservative and liberal. We do consume our news from a verity of sources. This graph from SSRN shows how 'fair and balanced' the different media sources are compared to each other.



As you can see, when it comes to debating our friends, disagreements are going to be rare. Conversely broadcast news, such as CBS and NBC, do portray a more moderate view.

The paper does point out that Fox News is the exception, offering a diet of conservative news 99 percent higher than the average internet user consumes.

Apple, The New McDonald's

Apple banned Mark Fiore's app for his political cartoons under Section 3.3.14 from the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement. Apparently it's a CYA clause that states:

Applications may be rejected if they contain content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, sounds, etc.) that in Apple’s reasonable judgment may be found objectionable, for example, materials that may be considered obscene, pornographic, or defamatory.

I'm thinking they want to put a hard lock down on anything remotely adult oriented so they can make a bid for putting iPads in the hands of young students. Basically by adopting McDonald's strategy they start generating familiarity at a young age to propagate brand recognition.

It's clearly an effective strategy, but it makes it a less desirable device for adults and media outlets. Will periodicals and newspapers be prevented from making an app because they can't include editorials?

Update: Apple is asking Mark Fiore to resubmit his app after the onslaught of bad press generated by the rejection.

Clearly the hard hitting journalism and insightful audience present here at I Read Stuff had an impact on Steve Jobs personally.