23 Jun 08 George Carlin

(May 12, 1937 - June 22, 2008)

Twenty-three comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, TV shows and multiple great appearances on Saturday Night Live. Somehow that still doesn’t seem like enough.

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Tags: obits, people

14 Jun 08 Cedar Rapids, Iowa

I think that front page says it all. Kudos to the Gazette for managing to still put out a good product both online and in print despite being directly affected by the flooding.

Good thing I’m moving closer to that area soon…*gulp*

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Tags: news, news business

22 Apr 08 Randi Rhodes resigns from Air America; the Internet strikes again!

Randi Rhodes, progressive radio talk show host for Air America, has resigned due to comments she made about presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. She apparently called Hillary a f**king whore and it was all caught on tape and put up on the great equalizer, YouTube (Warning! Some foul language).

Mark Green, president of Air America Media, told FOXNews.com that Rhodes terminated her contract Wednesday after she refused to apologize on air for her remarks.

“We sought an apology, because of what she had said…like Imus, like David Shuster,” Green said. “She refused and instead last night informed us she was terminating her contract with Air America, which she has the option to do.”

He said she was not forced out — “She exercised her option.”

The Internet takes down yet another radio personality. The reason this is somewhat justifiable is that the radio station was sponsoring the event, so Rhodes was held accountable for her comments. Again, though I am all about the First Amendment, we are representatives of our media organizations and must be conscious of our words.

This raises that questions though, when a radio station hires a polarizing figure for a public position, should they be punished for being offensive and/or polarizing? (i.e. Howard Stern, Will Kristol, Imus, Limbaugh).

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Tags: First Amendment, journalism, radio

16 Apr 08 Robert Niles: ‘There is no such thing as “off the record” anymore.’

So says Online Journalism Review editor Robert Niles. Niles says this in the wake of the huge stink made over Barack Obama’s comments at a recent gathering where journalists were not allowed.

Huffington Post writer Mayhill Flower was there, she recorded what Obama said and the rest is very recent history. What’s funny is that the bigger story is what Obama said, which wasn’t that big of a deal, but that he was in a venue that was supposed to be forbidden to journalists.

Why?

He’s a presidential candidate, a potential leader of the free world. Every place he speaks and every word he says is in the public interest. Speaking to an exclusive group of rich fund raisers isn’t the best way to shake that ‘elitist’ stigma, but I digress. We’re talking about journalism here. Says Niles:

With so many people publishing to blogs, Facebook pages and discussion boards, any professional news reporter who agrees to respect an “off the record” request at a meeting is committing an act of unilateral professional disarmament. I say… bag that. Don’t tell organizers that you’re a reporter. You’re a citizen, too. Get in, and report on what you see, just like any other citizen would.

In fact, the Obama incident provides a compelling argument why news reporters ought to contribute to political campaigns, to buy themselves access to more events that they can cover.

I agree. In the blogger/online journalist/grassroots journalism age, nothing is “off the record” for those in the public eye. Politicians, lawmakers and even celebrities need to know, we are the media and we are watching.

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Tags: news, online journalism

14 Apr 08 Rupert Murdoch and Sam Zell named to AP Board

Everything I just said, I take it back. We’re all doomed.*

Other reads for today:

• How to use RSS feeds and social media for news gathering
• Citizen Journalists Get Syndie Show: YouNewsTV
• Sun-Sentinel’s Tom Jicha on MTV’s ‘The Paper’ - Yes, reality TV coming to journalism. *Cough*, sound that doom bell again.
• Geneva Overholser to lead USC Annenberg’s School of Journalism - Annenberg is THE place for online journalism (so I hear). Overholser has a wealth of experience and will no doubt bring a lot to the school. She also inspires us online j-tech heads with this quote:

“Ensuring that the essential values of journalism are carried forward into the unsettling but enormously promising new world of media is a challenge that all of us in the craft, the journalism academy and the concerned public share. USC Annenberg is blessed with extraordinary resources, from its setting in Los Angeles, to its exceptional faculty and students, to the innovative leadership of Dean Wilson. I can’t wait to begin.”

*I’m only half joking, half.

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Tags: journalism, media, news

13 Apr 08 News reporting can be dangerous stuff

Time for a little levity, though painful levity.

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Tags: news, videos

13 Apr 08 Online features round up

I think this will be something of a feature I want to do once or twice a week. Just a quick round up of the current online feature or breaking news stories using some sort of online-exclusive component. This could be anything; a flash piece, audio, video, graphic or even clever use of photos.

• Catholic Views, Catholic Voices (NY Times) - A piece that uses Flash and audio interviews to get Catholic views and opinions on the even of the Pope’s U.S. visit. I’ve been impressed with the NY Times’ use of audio and would be curious to see what sort of ROI they get on their pieces (meaning hire me please.)
• Al Jaffee Fold-ins, Past and Present (NY Times) - This was is a few weeks old actually but I felt the need to mention it. A clever use of Flash that let’s readers go through about a dozen of MAD Magazines famous fold-ins by artist Al Jaffee. This went along with a larger profile of the 80-year-old artist.
• Deaths in Iraq (USA Today) - This is a very intensive database/Flash piece that that I imagine USA Today has been consistently updating. It’s not only searchable, but each block represents a soldier and when you rollover them with your cursor, an information block pops up for that particular soldier. I’d be curious to know how diligently they track down the photos and other detail not released by the military and what the update process is. Probably not much different, but far more complicated, than our own homicide map at The Orlando Sentinel.
• What’s Old is New at the Newseum (USA Today) - The USA Today interactive team must have been working overtime. This is an interactive graphical walk-through of the Newseum that opened in Washington D.C. The buttons detail each floor with small information boxes. But, if you’re feeling lazy, you can just click on the video tour instead.
• Another country by Scott Strazzante (Chicago Tribune) - Tribune photographer Scott Strazzante chronicled the life and death of a farm near Lockport, Ill. They used a Flash slide show to do side-by-side comparison photos spanning seven years. I liked the idea but It feels like it was released prematurely (despite being seven years worth of photos). They should have had a audio component, perhaps some of the people narrating aspects of life on the farm, playing over the photos. Flipping through them in silence is a little creepy.  The navigation could have used some work too. Not being able to skip ahead multiple photos is a bit of a chore.  Last nit pick, if there is a feature story that goes along with the photo story, it should be linked somewhere on this page for continuity. They are great photos however.

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Tags: news, online journalism, Sunday, technology

12 Apr 08 Newseum opens in Washington D.C.

The LA Times has en excellent photo gallery of the Newseum opening in D.C. yesterday.

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Tags: journalism, news, news business

12 Apr 08 Sunday talk lineup; Nancy Pelosi, Robert Gates on ‘Face the Nation’, Stephen Hadley hits ABC and Fox

Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:
———
ABC’s “This Week” — Former President Jimmy Carter; National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.
———
CBS’ “Face the Nation” — Defense Secretary Robert Gates; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
———
NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Democratic strategists James Carville and Bob Shrum; Republican strategists Mary Matalin and Mike Murphy.
———
CNN’s “Late Edition” — Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., Joe Biden, D-Del., Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
———
“Fox News Sunday” — Former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.; Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter; Hadley; Olympic speedskater Joey Cheek; Alex Ovechkin, left wing player for the Washington Capitals hockey team.

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Tags: Sunday talk, TV

11 Apr 08 Cheney’s sunglasses, mystery solved

Bob Collins, of Minnesota Public Radio’s News Cut blog, shows us that sometimes a rod is just a rod.

See, what’s again turning a non-story into a story just clogs the news-o-sphere. Hey, I’m no Cheney fan either, but common sense would dictate that if there were something malicious or incriminating reflected in his sunglasses they wouldn’t go and post it on the Whitehouse.gov Web site.

You don’t Spock to tell you that. Come on people, let’s get back to the important stories, like Britney Spears and who just got booted from American Idol.

*Sigh*

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Tags: news, photos

10 Apr 08 Daytona Beach News-Journal going up for sale

In the wake of a lawsuit from corporate shareholders, Cox Enterprises, the owners of the Daytona Beach News-Journal announced today that they would put the paper on the market. From the Orlando Sentinel:

A sale of the newspaper has become the only option in light of the latest legal loss against Cox Enterprises, the Atlanta-based corporate partner.

“We do not yet know the form this sale will take or the timing, but we know that it will be sold as a going and continuing business,” reads the letter posted on the newspaper’s Web site and jointly signed by board members.

The News-Journal has been ordered to pay Cox $129 million to buy out its shares and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal denied the News-Journal’s last request to rehear the case.

I got $5 on it!

I wonder who will be the first to make a bid? Murdoch? Gannett? Hearst?

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Tags: journalism, news, news business

10 Apr 08 Newseum to open Friday

Update (9:10 a.m.): Gen. David Petraeus and Co. are doing a press briefing from the Newseum right now. It looks like they are on Jeopardy. “We’ll take ‘Horrible Quagmires’ for $1000 Alex.”

The $450 million Newseum is opening in Washington D.C. this Friday. For some reason, I have mixed feelings about this place. On the one hand, it would be a great place to see artifacts and examine the history of journalism, on the other hand it’s a $450 million museum that features Anna Marie Cox’s slippers as part of an exhibit.

Gross waste of funds, or necessary addition to the museums of D.C.?

Either way, I’ll probably try and make a pilgrimage to the place this summer or by the end of the year. One thing is for sure, the place is hella cool looking.

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Tags: journalism, news

09 Apr 08 Iraq War, cost breakdown

In the wake of testimony by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker to both the Senate and the House regarding the state and future strategy of the Iraq War, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi posted an Iraq War cost breakdown on her blog (yes, she has a blog):

The Cost of Iraq War Broken Down

Second: $3,919
Minute: $235,160
Hour: $14.1 million
Day: $338.6 million
Week: $2.4 billion
Month: $10.3 billion
Year: $123.6 billion

There’s a little perspective for you.

C&L has more.

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Tags: commentary, Iraq War, politics

08 Apr 08 Art meets news with Larry Roibal

Larry Roibal is a freelance illustrator who has been displaying his quick, amazing doodles that he does directly on news stories relating to the subjects. Though I am hard-pressed to call them doodles because of the quality of some of the drawings. What’s amazing is that he just uses a simple ballpoint pen and some of his work is almost gallery worthy. From his about page:

I draw sometimes for the sake of drawing, sometimes to practice my drawing, or just to pass the time. For years, I’ve been doing morning drawings, done over coffee or on the train. They’re done quick without corrections and off they go into the recycling bin without fanfare. There’s something liberating about drawing something you know is being thrown away. It’s not meant to be art, but having drawn pretty pictures for over twenty years, these doodles hold a strange appeal to me, you know, one man’s trash…

The guy is really amazing.

Credit: Drawn!

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Tags: art, news

08 Apr 08 Morning reads, both journalism and non

• Sam Zell: A Tough Guy in a Mean Business - I’ve had mixed feelings about Zell since he became my current pseudo-boss. On the one hand he is willing to take risks and branch out in new directions (so he says). On the other hand he is only willing to do that if it increases the bottom line, not if makes for better journalism. That’s the nature of the news business though, there’s no way around it. (p.s. I love the picture above, courtesy of the New York Times.)
• Tribune Turns to Radio to Revive Empire - Another article about Zell/Tribune-deal. For some reason this whole thing fascinates me. I’d always read about the other deals big deals (McClatchy buying Knight Ridder, Tribune buying LA Times, Gannett deals), but have never had the privilege of watching one evolve from the inside out. Hopefully deals like this won’t completely destroy the business I love so much.
• Inside Word at Pulitzer Announcement: Entries Down, But Online Up - The day a Pulitzer Prize is given to a story that is an Internet-only package is the day online journalism will have truly arrived (if that hasn’t already happened).
• In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop - If ‘Death by Blogging’ ever becomes a common thing, our world will have truly gone off the deep end. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind blogging for a living if the subject were something I was really into (i.e. journalism, technology, news, politics). Then again, being forced to post can hinder the quality of the writing I am sure.
• Commentary: It’s time for the newspaper industry to die - Not what you think. A commentary from Online Journalism Review contributor Robert Niles.
• ‘Washington Post’ Captures 6 Pulitzers, ‘NYT’ Takes 2 - Go WaPo! Special mention to the Chicago Tribune staff, for winning the ‘Investigative Reporting’ prize for stories on faulty government regulation of toys, cribs, car seats.

Now it is time for to go and play journalist for a bit. Interviews, notes, transcribing and more interviews. I love this game.

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Tags: journalism, news, news business