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:

• Rather: Fear Shouldn’t Be in a Journalist’s DNA | Jeff Bercovici – "No one is fearless, but fear shouldn't be in the DNA of an American journalist…. American journalism stands for clear-eyed, well-researched, know the facts, look 'em in the eye, ask 'em the tough question, don't back down, don't back away, just keep coming. That's the kind of coverage the American public deserves."
• 10 reasons why newspapers won’t reinvent news | Xark! – Newspapers don't "own" enough creative technological expertise (programmers, database/mashup designers, XHTML/CSS coders, video editors, Flash animators, graphic communicators, etc) to constitute a viable tech infrastructure. Instead, most newspaper payrolls are bloated with pluralities of resentful Luddites who struggle with the complexities of e-mail.
• Delicious, Upcoming Founders To Show You Political Bias Of News Sites – Another Firefox plugin: "Political sites are usually very biased, but the casual reader often doesn’t know which way a particular site tends to rant. With the new script, also available as a Firefox plugin, sites are shaded towards blue (whiny cowards) or red (warmongers) depending on their linking behavior."
• Why Jeff Jarvis is wrong to blame British journalists | Roy Greenslade – "I'm … with Jeff when he says that our task is to use the new tools to create a new, and better, form of journalism.

  That said, within existing media organisations the central problem in achieving such an ambition remains unchanged. The power lies with the employer. While some owners are encouraging their staffs to be inventive they are, at the same time, reducing staffs to levels that stifle the possibility of innovation.

  So the dilemma for journalists who wish to build a new journalistic Jerusalem is, like everything else in this world, an economic one."

• Al Jazeera English passport rules | The Peninsula On-line – "Al Jazeera English has sent out an e-mail to all its employees alerting them to the new rules and instructions issued by the Ministry of Interior's Passport Department.

  The mail says no employee whose residence permit has expired while outside the country will be allowed to enter Qatar without a letter addressed to the authorities concerned signed by Al Jazeera's External Affairs Office."

• TV ad rates fall to 15-year lows | FT.com – '“Buying a television advertisement is now the same price as it was in 1992 [in absolute terms],” said Nick Manning, chief operating officer for Ebiquity and former UK chief executive of OMD, one of the largest media agencies.'