June 27: Look back at Blair

The Blair years
Gordon Brown is Great Britain’s new prime minister, replacing Tony Blair, who had the job for a decade.
Blair got the top spot after a campaign in which he modeled himself after Bill Clinton. In fact, his economic policies (with the help of Brown) were modeled after the Clinton Administration’s as well, and kept Britain economically successful for much of his run. He can also claim a great deal of credit(along with Clinton) for peace in Northern Ireland.
However, Blair entered into an unholy, unwise and unpopular partnership with the Bush Administration in Iraq. Blair may have done so to be a control on Bush, but sadly and tragically, he couldn't control the Bush streamroller any more than anyone else has been able to.
Now, Blair moves on to try to figure out the Middle East mess. Good luck.....

It doesn’t pay to pay, part 1
The controversy over whether network news divisions should pay for interviews continues in the wake of NBC withdrawing from a Paris Hilton interview and denying offering $1 million to the heiress to appear on the Today Show.
Network news divisions who build their stories and reputations on the public’s trust should not, not, NOT pay for interviews. Period.
Paid interviews arenothing but very expensive press releases, with no glory but a whole lot of grief – ethical and otherwise– for the news divisions and their reputations. It's not worth the ratings if the result also includes leeching the integrity of a news operation.

It doesn’t pay to pay, part 2:
Here’s a link to Bill Dedman’s followup at MSNBC.com about journalists contributing to political campaigns. At least one has gotten the heave-ho:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19415989/