It's been a slow week here at Soundbitten. Will Monday bring something new, or just more posts like this one? Hard to say. In the meantime, read about an Iranian comic at Lafftracker.com.

The Christian Science Monitor reports:

At least some of the fuel for the anti-American fire, US officials here charge, is being pumped out by new Iraqi media outlets. L. Paul Bremer, the top US official here, says a new edict prohibiting the local media from inciting attacks on other Iraqis - and on the coalition forces - is not meant to put a stopper on the recently uncorked freedom of speech.

The article doesn't give any specific examples of how the papers have been inciting attacks, but does include this paragraph:

To be sure, many papers are full of scathing rebuke for the US forces, and sometimes peppered with far-fetched and incendiary reports. The average Iraqi reader might be led to believe that American soldiers are raping Iraqi girls, and undressing Iraqi women with night-vision goggles. Other reports allege that soldiers steal money during house searches.

Bill O'Reilly on the Internet: "Nearly everyday, there's something written on the Internet about me that's flat out untrue...The reason these net people get away with all kinds of stuff is that they work for no one. They put stuff up with no restraints. This, of course, is dangerous, but it symbolizes what the Internet is becoming."

O'Reilly's right: people do put up stuff with no restraints, and a lot of it's untrue. In his case, of course, what's more damaging than the untrue stuff is the true stuff:

O'Reilly vs. Hip-Hop

O'Reilly Boycotts Truth

Word of Oaf

UPDATE: Comrade Reynolds makes a good point (yes, I'm serious) about the disjunction between O'Reilly's man-of-the-people persona and his attitude toward the Internet.

Fountains of Wayne has a new album out, which I review at the Washington Post.