They’re “bloggers”, so it’s new. According to last night’s Lateline, “A growing number of bloggers are now using the internet to attack the science of global warming. Written by climate change sceptics, the blogs are hosting a new scientific debate over whether the world has become hotter or colder during the past ten years.” The reporter’s evidence for this “new scientific debate”? Andrew Bolt and Jennifer Marohasy. You know, Bolt. The long-serving columnist with a regular gig in the Herald-Sun and Insiders. And Marohasy, the IPA employee whose glass-half-full schtick on the environment has been making its way into the mainstream media for many years. — Robert Merkel, Larvatus Prodeo

Olympics: journalists face harassment. Journalists are having trouble going about their work in advance of the Beijing Olympics. Several reporters, photographers and TV camera operators have suffered harassment, from both police and citizens. C M Yeung, of Hong Kong-based Now TV, says he was attacked by bystanders while filming a dispute among people queuing to buy tickets for Olympic events. Police, who refused to intervene, instead demanded that footage of the incident be deleted and that Yeung and his colleague, Melanie Chau, should sign a form agreeing that the matter was now closed. They refused to do so. The day before Yeung was pulled backwards off a ladder by police while filming ticket queues. — Roy Greenslade, The Guardian.

NBCU sells 96% of Olympics ad inventory. NBC Universal said today (July 29) that it has sold 96% of its Summer Olympics advertising inventory, with the first telecast just 19 days away. NBCU has set an ad revenue target of north of $1 billion for the 2008 Games. — Mediaweek

New inroads for citizen journalists. Stuck with rising competition from Internet-mediated news, traditional media have been reaching out to Web-savvy citizen journalists to expand their online audiences. But only this year have major television networks and their web affiliates begun carving out reporting slots for nonprofessionals on one of their marquee topics: the presidential election. — The Christian Science Monitor

Newspaper sites gain audience. With the newspaper industry in complete free fall as Q2 results arrive, there is some encouraging news: Newspaper Web sites are growing. — Editor and Publisher