It sounds like something out of a sci-fi B-movie, but it is true that Thomson Financial news service now has found a way to replace human beings in the newsroom and is using computers to write some of its stories.

To anyone who reads news releases, it’s hardly news that often such releases tend to be poorly written, verbose, hyperbolic and muddled.

This fall, the Federal Trade Commission will begin a series of hearings entitled “Protecting Consumers in the Next Tech-ade,” which intends to explore the issue of whether the use of viral videos by marketers constitutes advertising.

The definition of wariness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, so it’s particularly dismaying to see – after demands to change coming from all quarters – the bipartisan Congressional Government Accountability Office’s report that the government’s attempts to communicate its message to a Middle Eastern audience has still been found to be sorely lacking.