These are some of the things that have caught my attention lately. It’s a more eclectic mix than just the news business, but then so’s life:

• The BBC’s leadership went AWOL this week | Greg Dyke – Times Online – "The Burns committee came up with the perfectly sensible suggestion that there should be a small outside regulator, “Ofbeeb”, to regulate the BBC and a board of governors responsible for running it. Each would have its own chairman. The trouble was that the Chairman of the BBC at the time, Michael Grade, hated Lord Burns's proposed structure – he would certainly have lost some power – and threatened to resign if the proposal were implemented, which is ironic given that he resigned anyway a year or so later in the forlorn hope that he'd make his fortune at ITV. Having lost one BBC Chairman in 2004 after the Hutton inquiry, Ms Jowell decided she couldn't face losing another just a year later, so instead the current regulatory system was born, a system that even inside the department they admit was a fudge."
• Islamic Bloggers Confront Muslim Brotherhood on Egypt Politics | Bloomberg – The Muslim Brotherhood grapples with 'the conversation': "The Brotherhood acknowledges that blogging has created a division of opinion in the organization. Abdel Moneim Aly El- Barbary, a physician and high official, monitors the bloggers and estimates their number at about 150. He says he belongs to the faction that supports them; still, he wants them to avoid attacking personalities, be polite and keep their critiques positive."
• The Revolution Theme Goes Open Source | DailyBlogTips – Revolution is now free…
• Majority of Allegheny prostitutes are on the Democratic side | Pittsburgh Tribune-Review – "John McCain and Barack Obama, if you're wooing a population of registered voters who are young, female and drawn to men in suits, then Allegheny County has 675 ladies ready to pull your lever.

  They're convicted streetwalkers, escorts and brothel babes collared in 2000 and from 2003-2006, uncovered by the Trib.

  Based on the prostitutes' voter registration cards, they're destined to become Obama girls in November. That's because 78 percent of them registered as Democrats. Countywide, Dems make up only about 62 percent of voters, according to the Division of Elections."

• Armageddon for newspapers? Don’t bet on it | Richard Siklos – "[T]he great publishing blowout is not yet over. And the gigantic risk in all this is that shortsighted cutbacks diminish the relevance of some publications beyond repair. But someone is going to make a lot of money calling the bottom on this one – and the rest will very likely read all about it in one form or another of print."
• Wolff opines on Murdoch again | Mediafile – "Q: Was buying the [Wall Street] Journal a mistake?

  A: I don’t think it’s a mistake for Rupert. I think it’s actually the crowning glory for Rupert. Is it a business mistake? Of course it’s a business mistake. It’s a newspaper!"