Media Equation from The New York Times' David Carr is weekly required reading. It's often old hat to some of the most attentive media participants and spectators, but it holds up as a good standard.

This week's column has particular insight into what Barack Obama is confronting early in the presidency when issues materialize. It's a strong condemnation of traditional media's reticence to eschew vox populi. And it's, as one might expect from a traditional media writer, not entirely generous to the new traits and techniques of the Web in furthering and fomenting policy discussions.

Still, it has some nice touches in examining today's technological context of governance.