Oil, Nigeria, CNN, Reuters

Reuter's says:

Oil roars past $70 on Nigeria concerns

CNN says:

Oil settles above $66 on Nigeria concern

Source Diverse Blocked in China

USA Today vs. NY Times

Both the USA Today and the New York Times allow users to search the news by their most popular news of the day, broken down in various categories, e.g., most emailed.

Top 3 New York Times most emailed, last 24 hours:

1. "The Incredible Flying Nanny Granny"
2. "Psychiatrists, Children and Drug Industry's Role"
3. "A No-frills Kitchen Still Cooks"

Top 3 USA Today most emailed:

1. "'Black Death' found in Denver Squirrels"
2. "Sin City uncovered: Vegas strips down to reveal its naughty side"
3. "Michelle Obama: Campaigning her way"

Right away, it's easier to tell that people are not emailing each other the big stories, because, presumably anyone that cares can already find those easily enough. I'd assume people are emailing their friends stories they may not otherwise read. Looking further, and I honestly don't have a real idea about this, but I would assume (small sample size to be sure) that readers of the NYT are probably, on average, a little older than those of USAT, judging by the content of the stories. Now, one problem with that assumption is the selection bias inherent in the comparison. People who read the NYT may be older, or maybe it's just that the news at the NYT is more sophisticated.

Headline comparison

Source Diverse reader Chris H. points out:

Fox News headline: Bush Warns Democrats to Give Troops Funding or Face Disaster
CNN headline about the same story: Bush says he's OK with Iraq benchmarks

Interesting Daylife searches

Here's one way to approach the news from a different perspective. Obviously, you can always just search for things that interest you and generally get good results, but sometimes being a little more vague can be just as rewarding.

For example, if you take pleasure in other's misfortune try these searches:

• "Mistake" - appears to give consistently solid results and a good mixture of opinions (e.g., Spider-Man 3 - most mistake filled movie of the year) and facts (e.g., mistake at Great Salt Lake).
• "Oops" - you may be amazed at how often this makes it into a headline.
• "Negative" - like "mistake," this also gives a good mix of results, and not all of them are bad.

For less emotional slanting, aim for the random:

• "Dog" - seems like it could be as good as anything, although perhaps it's a tad specific with too narrow a scope of results.
• "Sandwich" - surprisingly, this actually provides some decent range.
• "General" - right now, you get a mixture of war coverage and election coverage.

These are just a starting point, try your own. Be sure to also check out Daylife's blog, where you can learn other neat search tricks.

Republican Debate Media Comparison

Reuters focuses on the republicans as a collective unit, saying:

"Republican White House contenders offered strong support for the military effort in Iraq but voiced qualms about the Bush administration's management of the war during a quiet first debate on Thursday. The Republican debate at the California presidential library of conservative Republican hero Ronald Reagan produced few confrontations or memorable moments but exposed some differences among the 10 candidates on social issues like abortion."

It was CNN that decided to focus on the abortion differences, which as a result gave Guiliani the headline space ("Guiliani bucks GOP field"). CNN led by stating: "Rudy Giuliani broke with the other nine Republicans in the party's first debate of the presidential campaign, saying that it would be OK if the Supreme Court overturned its ruling on abortion rights but that he respected a woman's right to choose."

Of course the Republican Debate features prominently on most source's landing pages this morning, however I utilized the Daylife search function to get a little more depth on the matter. The EvolutionBlog, for example, offers "[o]ther tidbits from" the debate. Jason Rosenhouse, wrote:

"Next came an amusing segment where the candidates were asked whether they felt the day that Roe v. Wade was overturned would be a good day in American history. Judging from the responses, it might as well have been Stephen Colbert asking, 'Great day? Or, our greatest day?'"

Rosenhouse included the candidate's responses:

"MR. ROMNEY: Absolutely.
SEN. BROWNBACK: Be a glorious day of human liberty and freedom.
MR. GILMORE: Yes, it was wrongly decided.
MR. HUCKABEE: Most certainly.
REP. HUNTER: Yes.
MR. THOMPSON: Yes.
SEN. MCCAIN: Repeal.
[MODERATOR ]MR. MATTHEWS: Mayor...
MR. GIULIANI: It would be okay.
MR. MATTHEWS: Okay to repeal?
MR. GIULIANI: It would be okay to repeal. Or it would be okay also if a strict constructionist judge viewed it as precedent, and I think a judge has to make that decision.
MR. MATTHEWS: Would it be okay if they didn't repeal it?MR. GIULIANI: I think that -- I think the court has to make that decision, and then the country can deal with it. We're a federalist system of government, and states could make their own decisions. "

Luckily for us, Rosenhouse also translated Giuliani's response to "Can we please stop talking about abortion and talk instead about how heroic I was on 9/11?"

BlogCritics Magazine wants to make sure we know who does not believe in evolution, and described the situation like this:

"I just have to say - did you see that three Republicans raised their hands to signify that they did not believe in evolution? And, once again, the camera did not move in close enough. From what I could see, it wasn't Giuliani or McCain and I'm pretty sure it wasn't Romney at the other end. But three others Republican candidates did raise their hands. (They have been identified as Sen. Sam Brownback, Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Rep. Tom Tancredo.) The mind boggles - I thought for a second I was watching The Tudors, except then it would have been more entertaining."

Daylife also culls some pertinent quotes here.

"(Adjective) (Subject) (Verb)" (says Source)

News ad-libs, taken from headlines:

"Embattled Bush to veto" (says AFP)
"Secular Turks vow" (says International Herald Tribune)
"Murdoch's New's Corp makes" (from African News Dimension)
"Female voters set" (says CNN)
"Prototype toy reads" (says KGTV, San Diego)