links for 2009-09-24

Two professors analyzed the 2007-2008 coverage of ACORN by 15 major news outlets and found that more than 60% of all ACORN stories during the two years were published in October 2008, "creating a well-orchestrated 'October Surprise.'" The profs, who didn't receive outside funding, write: "Although the 2008 presidential election is long over, conservative opinion entrepreneurs and the conservative media echo chamber remain fixated on ACORN, and poised to inject their frame about ACORN as an issue in the 2010 and 2012 national elections."

The next generation of online education could be great for students—and catastrophic for universities.

Students starting school this year may be part of the last generation for which "going to college" means packing up, getting a dorm room and listening to tenured professors. Undergraduate education is on the verge of a radical reordering. Colleges, like newspapers, will be torn apart by new ways of sharing information enabled by the Internet. The business model that sustained private U.S. colleges cannot survive.

For Americans looking to get a college degree, online education is one way to side-step tuition fees and demanding lecture schedules. Education experts explain why thousands of Americans are logging on to web seminars and online courses.

If SpreadingSantorum.com is going to remain Google's top hit when you search "santorum"—and it should—then the site needs to come back to life. So I'm looking for a few folks who want to torment Rick Santorum by following every twist and turn of his sure-to-be-disastrous run for the White House on SpreadingSantorum.com. (I may dip in every once in a while and post myself.) It would be labor of love—read: a nonpaying gig—but you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you're driving Rick Santorum and his supporters absolutely batshit (batshittier?).