BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis

May 03, 2004

Former American idol
: Best Week Ever reports rumors that Bob Dylan will be a guest judge on American Idol. Oh how the times a-change.

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Effing wonderful
: A census of the number of Fs on Deadwood. [via David Weinberger]

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Next, the FCC will censor the President's name
: I'm not sure I buy this because it's just too perfect but...
The International Broadcasting Bureau set up an anonymizing service to let Iranian web users view sites around the mullahs and their censors but the F filter built in to prevent it being used for porn (why?) allegedly blocks any site mentioning "bush." [via Lost Remote]

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Core
: I'm on the floor of the Soho Apple store after the Denton-Calacanis panel. I won't blog it live. When Anil Dash asked how many people here -- and it's quite crowded -- have blogs, a forest of hands went up. Welcome to our echo chamber and we love it. But there's nothing wrong with this. Bloggers get together at every opportunity. Accountants don't. Funeral directors don't. We like doing this and like the other people doing it. And we also love to blather. So here we are.
Nick and Jason weren't quite as sparky as some may have hoped, but there were moments with flash. I'll look at others' blogs to find them.

: The panel with Choire, Lockhart, Jen, and Felix is by far the most entertaining and charming.

: And here (thanks to a Technorati link) is a blog report on the blog event.

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News is a conversation, redux
: Ken Sands, blogging master of the Spokesman-Review, sends me a great story of news as a conversation -- before the news is published. Here's a case of an editor consulting his audience and asking them what he should do before he does it. Chris Cobler, editor of the Greeley Tribune, writes Ken:

I thought you'd be interested to know we used our e-board and my editor's blog to survey readers before deciding whether to publish the latest disturbing images from Iraq. I sent a query to the 565 members of our e-board shortly after 2 p.m. today. By tonight, we have received more than two dozen e-mail responses and a half-dozen more comments posted to my blog. In the mall e-mail we sent, I referred readers to my
blog at www.greeleytrib.com/triblog to see the three photos distributed by AP.
After listening to our readers, we decided to publish the photo of the human pyramid on an inside page with the jump from a front-page story. With the A1 story, we published an advisory warning readers of the disturbing nature of the image inside and also referred them to my blog for more discussion of the images....
We have benefited greatly from this new conversation with our readers.

Now that is respecting your audience. Better, it's looking upon the audience as the editors. Good work.

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Worldwide domination
: Heiko Hebig, leading German blogger, joins the Loic Le Meur's European team for Movable Type/Typepad.

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Conservatives cut in line, liberals wait in line
: Wonkette Ana Marie Cox continues her sociological and sexual-scatological study of the White House correspondents dinner. From the Bloomberg after-party:

Line is not quite around the block. Jeff Bezos is behind us. Franken about five places behind us, swaying just slightly. Much discussion on whether or not IDs are being checked and whether or not everyone is being forced to stand in line or just those of us who may be famous-for-DC but who are not legitimately famous. Question answered:

• Olsen twins are swept by.
• Chris Matthews goes right on in.
• Joe Scarborough, talking to Marines, follows.
• Bezos takes this as his cue.
• John Podhoretz next, eliciting memorable exchange:

Franken: "I'm telling Page Six!"
Podhoretz: "I am Page Six!"
Franken: "You can't handle Page Six!
Franken proclaims his intention to get to the bottom of this. Marches forward. Returns, announces, "They told me I could get in, but I'm gonna wait in line with you!"

Truly, a man of the people.

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The Daily Stern

: Just got to the op-ed page in the NY Times and found a defense of the First Amendment and, thus, Howard Stern:

It is Mr. Stern's offensiveness that makes his cause so important. The F.C.C. is using his unpopularity as cover for a whole new approach that throws out decades of free-speech law. The talk right now is over the colorful battles between Mr. Stern and Michael Powell, the head of the F.C.C. But when the headlines fade, the censorious new regime will apply to everyone. The danger it poses to the culture is real....
This new legal landscape will stifle important artistic expression, since broadcasters will be afraid of wandering too close to an essentially undefined line. It also raises a real danger that indecency will be used to stifle political dissent....

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Aren't there labor laws about this?
: Choire Sicha assigns the Gawker intern to watch Tina Brown's show.

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More Stern, more shameless self-linking
: I came in on the very end of Howard Stern's mention of the Nation story today. He said he saw himself on the cover and thought it was like being on the cover of Steppin' Out (a reference Stern fans will get that otherwise is not worth explaining). I think that's about all he said. But if you're listening from another time zone, lemme know if there was anything more.

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Free stuff
: The Wall Street Journal is beginning an experiment that should warm the hearts of bloggers. It is putting up a story today on the other side of its pay wall so bloggers can link to it.
The story today: An interview with John Kerry on his economic positions. ("I have historically always been what I would call a responsible, thoughtful Democrat who respects the laws of economics, and how money works, the psychology of the marketplace, the importance of confidence and fiscal responsibility.")
This is the good work of Bill Grueskin, the managing editor of WSJ Online and a blog reader himself (I know because he caught me in a linking mistake; we exchanged email; we had lunch; we exchanged stories about online and 9/11 and blogs). Grueskin gets it.
This is an experiment; the Journal is not going to change the way it does business and get out of the subscription biz. Quite to the contrary, I think this could help build subscriptions to WSJ.com as more stories get quoted and linked and as new readers come to the Journal. This is good for bloggers and good for business. And it's smart of the Journal to care about reaching out to this audience.

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Shameless self-linking
: If you're in NY, be sure to come to the Apple store tonight, where I'll referee Nick Denton and Jason Calacanis.

: Pegged to that event, Gothamist sneaked up on me for its interview.

: Jon Fine writes about blogs and business in Ad Age today. Sadly, it's unlinkable. I blather about the potential for hyperlocal citizens' media; Nick Denton plays the pooh-pooh pooba; Henry Copeland gets a nice quote and blog for BlogAds; Ana Marie Cox is quoted and called scabrous (her family must be so proud).

: And while I'm plugging, go to a chain bookstore near you today and buy a copy of The Nation with my story on the FCC, the First Amendment, and Howard Stern. Imagine their shock if Howard becomes the top-selling cover boy of the year!

: Update: See Steve Rubel on the Ad Age story.

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The Daily Stern

: PRESCRIPTION: Doc Searls weighs in below on censorship and speech:

"Content" from a "producer" that is "loaded" into a "channel" for "transmission" or "distribution" through a "pipe" or a "path" or a "conduit" or a "medium" to a "receiver" for an "end user" or a "consumer" can only be conceived in terms of shipping. And shipping isn't speech. That's why we have so little trouble rationalizing the restriction of it.
So let's call speech what it is, whether it's Koppel, Sinclair, Stern, Searls or Jarvis doing the speaking. *That's* what's protected by the First Amendment.
Otherwise we don't stand a chance.

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