I met Marie Colvin briefly in 2005 at the Full Frame film festival in Durahm, North Carolina. She and Molly Bingham (who went on to become a friend of the blog) were both featured in Barbara Kopple’s documentary about women journalists in Iraq, Bearing Witness. Marie’s hotel room was next door to mine and the celebration party was loud and long, lasting into the wee hours of the morning. My impression was that she was a remarkable woman who knew how to enjoy life.

The Obama Administration has opened the door a crack to the possibility of arming the Syrian rebels. The biggest problem with arming Syrian rebels is that there is no unified opposition to arm. If little was known about the Libyan rebels, we seem to know even less for Syria. As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey said on CNN this weekend, “Until we’re a lot clearer about who they are and what they are, I think it would be premature to talk about arming them.”

Whip me, beat me, take away my charge card, I would like to kiss this entire speech by Digital First CEO John Paton with tongue.

The deluge of sorrow-filled tributes and reminisces that have been written by other journalists already testify to how highly Anthony Shadid was regarded among his peers. But let me add a few words from a blogger’s perspective to explain how special he truly was.

The media organization WikiLeaks reports a conference to be held at the headquarters of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris has not invited any speakers affiliated with WikiLeaks to speak at the event that is scheduled to take place February 16 and 17 — and the major topic is about the impact of WikiLeaks.

You wouldn’t think handling a notebook or a camera could be a hazardous line of work. But according to the latest global Press Freedom Index, abuse and oppression of reporters has made journalism an increasingly risky job in many countries. The past year has even left a notable taint on the U.S. press, despite the country’s mythos as a beacon of free expression.

Meet your government, ladies and gentlemen. Josh Fox, the Academy Award-nominated director of the fracking documentary Gasland, was arrested today on Capitol Hill for attempting to film a public hearing. The GOP Committee did not want Fox filming their latest witch hunt.

At the GOP debate on Thursday will Wolf Blitzer ask Mitt, Newt, Rick or Ron any question with the tenaciousness we see on display in this video at a European Central Bank press-conference in Ireland?

Thrill to the exploits of New York Times Public Editor Arthur Brisbane, aka Truth Vigilante! Watch him wonder if it’s worth it to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Witness him ask around to see if he should run fast than a locomotive!

The opposition to a pair of copyright protection bills that could lead to Internet censorship has grown over the past week. The Online News Association delivered its opposition to the bills, joining the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the State Department is backing off, and the GOP’s Paul Ryan has announced his opposition. But there’s little mainline news coverage.