It is counterintuitive. When industries downsize its usually not good news for new graduates hoping to launch a career. In the past few weeks Newsweek announced it was laying off more than 100 employees; CBS just axed 160 in 13 cities; and the remaining reporters--post layoffs--- at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis received a memo saying management was building a "standup TV studio" and that, " some of you will be tapped to produce content for Strib TV...if you think you have a voice or a presence on camera, here's your chance to shine."

Joshua Michael Marshall, the founder Talking Points Memo, is among the recipients of the 2007 George Polk Awards. We're talking about a blogger winning a journalism award that has street cred with the folks who still pride themselves on knowing what a pica stick is for.

"I know that they did not physically come up to our house and tie a belt around her neck," Tina says. "But when adults are involved and continue to screw with a 13-year-old - with or without mental problems - it is absolutely vile.” (Tina Meier to The St. Charles Journal, regarding what happened to her daughter, Megan Taylor Meier) Tina and Ron Meier of O'Fallon, Mo., mourn their daughter, Megan. In 2006, while her mother prepared family dinner, Megan hung herself with a belt in her bedroom closet after being tormented on MySpace, the victim of cyberbullying and a prank so heinous that it's turned some bloggers and Net readers into a "cyber lynch mob."

On August 2, Chauncey Bailey, a journalist known for his outspoken views and hard-hitting reporting on urban issues was gunned down in broad daylight on a street in Oakland, California.

At 10:30 Chicago time (8:30 SLT), I'll be moderating a panel on Covering the News in Second Life with a fascinating and eclectic group of speakers. Journalism is a burgeoning activity in Second Life, which has become a growing source of hard news and controversy and real-world consequences.