But Cairo was not New York, and personal journalism turned out not exactly the right job description.
The agreement by reporters to allow sources to approve their quotes before publication can seem like the final stage of journalism turning into Kabuki, David Carr writes, and can stamp out any trace of spontaneity in an article.
Asking Julia Gillard if her boyfriend was gay, and then asking again, and then quite hilariously saying, "it's not me saying it", Howard took the concept of "journalism", turned it inside out, and wore it like a particularly stupid hat.
There she siphoned off some of her energy into journalism, turning out a column for a local African-American paper that regularly challenged the racist libels of the white press.
Many have condemned the film; TV journalist called India's Daughter "journalism turned upside down," and "unethical" on his show on Tuesday, the BBC reported, while author Nilanjana S Roy warned that the film posed a "very real risk of turning a rapist in to the Twitter celebrity of the day", in an article in the Guardian.
A truly astounding thing happened Thursday night: with LeBron James's "The Decision" universally expected to be a cultural low point, the moment sports stardom turned into pure narcissism and sports journalism turned into pure schlock, it managed to come in under expectations.
This in turn was picked up by the Daily Dot blog, which sort of slipped in a bit a journalism, turning the numbers into news, before heading off into the outer reaches of Black Hat World, where there has been a lively debate on the topic of YouTube view counts more generally.
New values and social functions of media and journalism may turn out as the most fundamental question concerning the new media environment.
Journalism, it turns out, does not change things immediately.
But Al Jazeera's influence has since waned amid perceptions that its journalism has turned partisan.
