Don’t Say Facebook

Suivez-moi?: It turns out, as a result of a decree that was issued by the French government in 1992 that forbids the promotion of commercial enterprises on news programs, TV and radio presenters in France are forbidden from using the words “Facebook” or “Twitter” on air, unless these social media sites are specifically relevant to a news story. This puts news sites in a tough spot; Twitter and Facebook bring lots of traffic to news content, but French news anchors and radio hosts can’t tell their audiences to follow them on Twitter or to check out a story on a Facebook page. Yes, Facebook and Twitter are both American companies, and so some are likening this ban to a reverse of the Freedom fries affair in the U.S. Do you know anyone who still calls French fries “Freedom fries”? No? I didn’t think so. We’ll see how long this ban in France actually lasts. ZDNet

P-mails Coming Your Way: This Friday, 24,199 pages of emails sent between former Gov. Sarah Palin and state officials will finally be released in Alaska as public records. In 2008 citizens and news organizations (including msnbc.com, Mother Jones Magazine, Pro Publica) had requested the release of these emails under the state public records law when it surfaced that Palin had been using a personal Yahoo accounts to conduct state business. The state of Alaska is selling the records at 3 cents a page, or $725.97 total, for a set of the records (which is way down from the originally price quotes of $15 million). There’s a wrinkle in these plans: MSNBC.com said it would scan the records and put them online in a public archive co-sponsored by Mother Jones magazine, so you can read them for free! Get ready for an interesting read? MSNBC.com