To market a new video game, Sega built a PR campaign around a hoax. It created a weblog whose host called himself "Beta-7" and claimed that the game caused him to suffer blackouts and uncontrollable fits of violence. In reality, "Beta-7" was a fictional character, invented by the Portland, Oregon advertising agency Wieden and Kennedy.

"Can a journalist be too truthful?" That's a question that some media pundits are asking after Farnaz Fassihi, the Wall Street Journal's Middle East correspondent, sent a private email to friends with an unusually candid description of the deteriorating U.S. control over Iraq and the dangers of doing her job there. A copy of her email began circulating on the internet. "One could argue that Iraq is already lost beyond salvation," she wrote.

If cable TV subscribers paid for just the channels they watch ("a la carte"), instead of paying a flat fee for channel packages, it would "jeopardize an economic model that has helped the industry maintain huge profits." The Center for Public Integrity reports on "a highly sophisticated lobbying campaign" by the cable industry to build anti-a la carte "astroturf." Some of the "seemingly disinterested