This is some of what’s caught my attention of late:

• Literary licence and le Carré | Times Online – “I write this in sorrow rather than anger. Mr Liddle says so many kind things about my work. He is an erudite and perceptive conversation partner. We passed a convivial evening together and I would not be taking either him or his editors to task, were not the distortions they have imposed on my words so potentially damaging to my reputation, and to the opinion of my readers inside and outside America.”
• Is the Wall Street Journal losing the plot? | guardian.co.uk – “WSJ.com is clearly trying to attract a more general, more casual, non-paying readership – people like you. It certainly looks nicer, but it also looks more like any other newspaper site. The problem is that it feels a lot slower, which is bad for the professional, information-seeking readership – people like me. Anybody who thinks we’re paying $119 a year for pretty pictures has lost the plot.”
• Ofcom PSB review: 4Subsidy | Ofcomwatch – “Ofcom’s ‘willingness to pay’ research was pretty weak, and there is no suggestion that the government has a ‘willingness to tax’ for PSB promotion in these hard economic times.  I would really be stunned if Ofcom were able to convince the government that any new appropriation of public funds is warranted.  So, the BBC licence fee remains a target.”
• The Great Repricing | Tom Glocer – “[G]reat empires (think Roman or British) ultimately fail not as a result of a decisive military loss, but because their powerful economies eventually become over-extended.  If this is true, the US economy will need to be re-invented to avoid a similar fate for the last super-power.”
• WordPress Developer’s Toolbox | Smashing Magazine – What it says…
• Amid Market Turmoil, Some Journalists Try to Tone Down Emotion | NYTimes.com – This year, the media have been accused of contributing to the collapse of both Bear Stearns and IndyMac, a large California thrift, so journalists are more aware of the risk of stoking fear — and the risk of being blamed.
• The Bank Surge | David Weinberger – The informed public writes: “Since I lack the education and background to understand the crisis and its context, I find myself thrown into rudderless thinking, where I find myself swayed by people who I already tend to agree with (= Krugman), who are able to pain a coherent picture, and whose broad premises seem in line with mine.”