Monthly Archives: December 2007

My year-in-review, the speedy version

Posted on by
Reply

Wow, so 2007 is already over. I know, everyone says that. Just once I’d like to hear someone lament at how their year dragged on and on like a dog with a bad leg. This time however, it is totally true in my case as well.

The short version of this year is basically this — IT ROCKED! Let’s do a quick rundown.

  • Got further along in school, now with an actual graduation date in sight. It’s almost surreal. Gee, considering how long ago it was that I graduated high school I should be a doctor by now. No matter, I am where I am and it’s great.
  • Wrote my first 11, real news stories. This was great, I finally felt like I can actually do this journalism thing instead of it just being a pipe dream.
  • Started writing for the Orlando Sentinel UCF Community blog. This is something I’d had on deck since April and I finally was able to do it at the beginning of November. My fellow blogger Woody and I are really going to slam into this thing next term. We want to try and shake things up since we have the momentum of the Orlando Sentinel behind us.
  • Met some cool, new and interesting friends both professionally and personally.
  • Welcomed a new member to the family (not mine, it’s my nephew). Oh, and a name has been decided upon: Richard Gabrielle Mullis.
  • And the big one, the coup de grâce! I got what pretty much amounts to my dream job at the Orlando Sentinel as an online producer. Sure I’m only a temp now but it is a stepping stone to bigger and better things.

So that’s about it I suppose. If 2008 is half as good as 2007, I’m in for a very good year. Something tells me it’s going to be even better however.

Hope all goes well for everyone out there. Have a good New Year and we’ll see you in the ’08!

FackCheck.org: The Whoppers of 2007

Posted on by
Reply

FactCheck.org has its list of the big Whoppers of 2007. Never pulling any punches and taking shots at both sides of the aisle, FactCheck.org does an excellent job of giving us the facts and sifting through all of the b.s.

Some notable lies:

  • Republican Rudy Giuliani made false claims over and over about his record as mayor of New York, and even about England’s health care system.
  • Democrat Hillary Clinton ran an ad claiming that National Guard and Reserve troops had no health insurance before she went to work, when in fact most of them did.
  • Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee repeatedly twisted the facts when talking about his record on taxes in Arkansas and other subjects. And there were plenty of other howlers from the large field of candidates.
  • Democrats made false promises about their Medicare drug bill in January.
  • A labor union group ran an ad supporting Democrat John Edwards that left the impression that jobs from a closed Iowa plant had gone overseas, when really they had gone to Ohio.

Go and read the full article for more whoppers and in-depth analysis of each one. Don’t worry, there are equal amounts of lies for everybody.

Lojacking Jesus: Headline-of-the-day

Posted on by
Reply

GPS Used To Recover Stolen Baby Jesus

Baby Jesus was kidnapped this week. But thanks to modern technology, he returned home to Joseph and Mary in just a few hours.

The holy infant doll was snatched from his manger in front of the Wellington Community Center sometime late Wednesday. But because of a GPS tracking device planted in the little guy, Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies were able to track him down by Thursday morning.

Wellington's baby Jesus was stolen twice last year, despite being strapped into his manger with a cable. The two missing dolls, which were worth more than $400 each, were never found, said John Bonde, the village's community liaison.

So when Wellington got a new Jesus this year it installed the GPS tracking device. Just in case.

"It was stolen last year and they're expensive," said Paul Schofield, the village's community services director. He said Wellington puts tracking devices on some village-owned property that could be stolen, such as portable generators. Bonde declined to say if the village's other holiday decorations are tagged by GPS devices.

The whole investigation into the latest missing baby Jesus only took a few hours.

We actually laughed about this in the news room on Christmas Eve. Apparently it was money well spent.

Foreign Policy is funny

Posted on by
Reply

Does anyone find it odd that Foreign Policy Magazine’s blog, Foreign Policy: Passport is really funny? The magazine’s mission statement reads:

Equal parts scout and translator, we draw on the world’s leading journalists, thinkers, and professionals to analyze the most significant international trends and events of our times, without regard to ideology or political bias. Whether examining who the winners are in Iraq, determining solutions to save the world, or discovering the states that fail us, we strive to combine original thinking with real-world illustrations of ideas in action.

I mean the magazine is pretty straight-laced, though they are willing to take risks, but the blog is peppered with funny headlines, jabs and quips at national and international leaders and basically has the feel of a more humorous magazine.

I just found this odd but a refreshing change of pace from the more sober, copy-dense and weightier offerings of magazines that cover similar topics like The American Scholar, Foreign Affairs and The Nation.

Carry on.

Are John Stewart and Stephen Colbert scabs for going back on the air?

Posted on by
Reply

In short, no. Keep reading for the long version.

After recently announcing that they would be returning to air, sans writers, John Stewart and Stephen Colbert have been both applauded and chided by colleagues and TV watchers.

A Facebook group popped up and I had a brief and ill-advised “discussion” with one of its members regarding this. Now I won’t go into the details, but we’ll just say that the people that think that Stewart and Colbert are scabs are being completely irrational.

It seems that they want to paint the WGA strike as if it were the labor union strikes of old, with the poor, working class, farm or auto workers fighting against their corporate masters. This strike is anything but.

First, these are Hollywood writers, not destitute workers that are begging for insurance or a slight pay increase. Second, what they are after is money based on Internet residuals for their intellectual property. It has nothing to do with big business or this whole “us vs. them” mentality. Constantly I was cited with historical examples of the power of labor unions and how they have shook the power structure, blah, blah, blah.

Look, none of that matters. All it takes is a little Spock-like logic to figure out why John Stewart and Stephen Colbert should not be treated like they are scabs or otherwise greedy, evil individuals.

There are other people affected by the strike!

It’s not just the writers, talent and the suits that put together a TV show. There are a whole slew of others such as directors, stage producers, lighting techs, sound techs and a whole cluster of other positions. These are people that in no way have a stake in whether the writer’s get paid residuals or not. These are people that were just busy doing their jobs, but are now put out of work and can’t pay their mortgage or feed their kids because the writers decided to strike.

Other hosts have been criticized for crossing the picket line as if they are doing it merely out of personal gain. Some, such as Dave Letterman and Conan O’Brien, paid their employees out of their own pockets for as long as they could while production was stopped. That can’t last forever though.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert putting their shows back in production allows them to pay all of those crew members that put the show on the air and have nothing to gain from the writers striking. That’s it. Right now the writers are being extremely selfish and I think it is a little unfair to make others starve so that your already sizable income can get a little fatter.

I agree that the writers should earn a percentage off of the money made on DVD sales and Internet broadcasts of their creative property. However, I think there could have been a better way to negotiate that outcome than to affect the lives of so many others that have nothing to gain from the strike.

Yes, historically this has happened in the past. On the Facebook board I was thrown all sorts of facts and figures about thousands of people losing their jobs in past strikes and these are the sacrifices that must be made to “fight the man.” That’s all bullshit and does not matter in this instance. Again, these aren’t desperate farm workers, they’re highly paid and skilled writers. It’s a unique situation which requires a unique solution.

So to all who would call Stewart and Colbert traitorous scabs–shut the hell up!

R.I.P: Borat/Ali G

Posted on by
2

Cohen says goodbye to alter egos Borat, Ali G

UPDATE: Apparently there was an Ali G movie, and according to terpischord it was a stinker.

And hopefully the bad Borat impressions will die with it. The character is great, but enough is enough. I will, however, miss Ali G. I think Ali was Sacha’s stronger character and he deserved his own movie. Looks like a no-go now, unless they offer him more money.

The portrait from Iraq

Posted on by
Reply


The Project for Excellence in Journalism has an excellent (pun intended) study on how the media has been covering the Iraq War.
Through the first 10 months of the year, the portrait of Iraq that Americans have received from the news media has in considerable measure been a grim one. Roughly half of the reporting has consisted of accounts of daily violence. And stories that explicitly assessed the direction of the war have tended toward pessimism, according to a new study of press coverage of events on the ground in Iraq from January through October of 2007.

The Portrait from Iraq: Percent of Stories

They bulleted out some key points which you can read in the full story, but two points stood out to me:

  • The coverage overall was U.S. centric in subject matter. About half of all the coverage from Iraq was about American military and U.S. officials. Roughly another 10% was about private contractors, mostly Blackwater.
  • Coverage of Iraqi civilians, by contrast, made up far less, 3% of stories and 5% of overall newshole.

As with all wars, people are being presented with coverage of this war from a mostly ethnocentric viewpoint. The only perspective we get is that of Americans, how the war affects us and how successful we are. Far less coverage occurs of how the war affects the Iraqis, how it is affecting the rest of the world and how we are complicit in some of the more negative aspects of the war.

I’m not saying we need to focus on one more than the other, but in order to paint a broader picture of the war and give people a more accurate perspective, it needs to be covered thoroughly.

Irony, thy name is thee

Posted on by
Reply

Roofing company billionaire dies after falling through own roof

The 91st richest man in the U.S., a roofing company billionaire, has died after falling through his home garage's roof, local authorities said Friday.

Ken Hendricks, 66, was checking on construction on the roof over his garage at his home in the town of Rock Thursday night when he fell through, Rock County Sheriff's Department commander Troy Knudson said. He suffered massive head injuries, according to his company, ABC Supply Co.

| Full Story |

Sam Zell finalizes deal to take Tribune private

Posted on by
Reply

ASSOCIATED PRESS

So today was the day that billionaire Sam Zell took the Tribune Company private (includes video). As some of you may know and many of you may not, I am employed by a Tribune-owned company now, The Orlando Sentinel. Because of this, Zell’s deal and press conference held a little more importance to me than it did before, though even before I had been watching this story.

I must admit, at first I had my doubts about this deal before it happened. It worried me that someone that had no journalism experience was buying one of the biggest media companies in the U.S., something most billionaire do in order to make quick profits and large budget cuts. I was concerned he would do what so many other owners have done to media companies, destroy them in the name of profit.

However, after watching Zell’s presser, the first time I’d ever seen or heard the man speak live before, I am incredibly optimistic. The guy seems like a straight shooter and he has a decent vision for what direction he thinks the company should head. I’m already loving this company and I imagine it can only get better from here.

One of the biggest fears when any owner with a non-journalism background gets involved with a media company is that they will want to exert some sort of editorial control. When asked, Zell responded with candor and wit:

"...in school my english grades were shitty...I have no desire to be an editor."

That sounds like someone that knows what he is and what he isn’t, and that sits very well with me. Some people questioned Zell pseudo-reneging on the fact that he had previously alluded that he would not assume the CEO post. Zell continued:

"But this is a very important transaction of extraordinary relevance ... I spent six months trying to understand how this company runs, and as I watched and got more educated, it became clearer to me that (chief executive) is the role I needed to play. You call it CEO and I'll call it owner."

Once again, I like the cut of his jib. He’s interested in the company for what it can do and for what it is, not just as a money-machine.

The news room, watching Zell on a live video feed, gave him a resounding applause that signaled that this change is being seen as a positive move for Tribune and welcome change from public to private ownership.

I for one think it is awesome. Look how well the St. Pete Times does, it having a similar private ownership structure. It can only get better around here, for the news business and for the integrity of Tribune’s contribution to journalism.

2008 is going to be a good year.

The Dark Knight

Posted on by
Reply

This is going to be awesome. Hopefully Chris Nolan will continue to do a few more Batman movies and not hand it off to some lesser filmmaker down the road (i.e., Joel Schumacher, Bret Ratner) to ruin.

Here are two photos of Ledger as The Joker from a hi-res trailer. He looks awesome, but I am curious how Two-Face (Aaron Eckhart) is going to look.


Why Ron Paul will not win the Republican nomination

Posted on by
1

Two words: Howard Dean.

Everyone is going nuts over Ron Paul raising $6 million over the Internet. Based on this they are now pegging him as a viable candidate. Sorry, but no. They thought the same thing about Howard Dean and his campaign went belly-up faster than a county fair goldfish.

Dean and his campaign manager, Joe Trippi, revolutionized Internet campaigning. They were the first to use blogs and Internet donations to raise money, which they did in abundance. However Dean’s campaign proved one indisputable fact about online campaigning: Internet support does not translate into votes.

People think that Dean’s campaign went downhill after his “scream heard around the world.” This is wrong, his campaign was doomed long before that. He was relying too much on his online support. Here’s the thing, people that sit around on the Internet all day for the most part, aren’t exactly the quickest to get up and go cast a vote. The assumption is that if you gave money online, you did your part. Let the rest of the supporters handle the voting part. This is why raising a lot of money doesn’t equate to real support and this is why Ron Paul raising $6 million does not mean he has a good chance of winning the Republican nomination. It just means his main support base is online and will most likely not get off of their butts when it is time to cast a primary vote.

So let’s stop pretending Paul has a chance, despite what the ‘Ron Paul Revolution’ will have you believe.

Another great moment in photography

Posted on by
Reply


KFC outside of the Grand Mosque in Mecca during the annual hajj pilgrimage.


Talk about the exporting of America. This KFC is located outside of the Grand Mosque and, in keeping with Muslim customs, has separate lines for men and women and all meat is halal (killed in accordance with Islamic law).

Why don’t the marketing and corporate sales teams of major corporations work for the State Department or for the Bush administration? They are apparently better at exporting our ways of life than our government is. Not that I condone the encroaching corporate behemoth that threatens to swallow the world whole and destroy all notion of culture and uniqueness. However if we can force KFC (and McDonald’s and Wal-Mart)on the Middle East, why can’t we bring some semblance of peace there as well?

Oh right, because the ‘War in Iraq’ is not about peace, it’s about money, oil and legacy. Sorry, forgot.