BuzzMachine
by Jeff Jarvis

March 31, 2005

Making Google transparent

: Private Radio's routine that scrapes and analyzes GoogleNews' sources keeps getting better and better. free dounloads psp

Pope worsens

: I'm at MSNBC's Connected at 5p ET. Was going to do more Schiavo blog links. Sudden switch to the pope as his condition worsens. If you see any good blog notes, please do leave a link the comments. free dounloads psp

: Note that bloggers are quoting CNN saying that the Pope received last rites. A theologian called the producer of the show as I hung out saying that's wrong; he received rites for the infirm (I may be getting the exact name wrong). No confirmation either way on this question but it is a question. free dounloads psp

: Later: Not being Catholic, I clearly got the paragraph above wrong. FoxNews said this is known as the last rites. free dounloads psp

Bad taste award

: FinkTank3000 discovers that the American Family Association puts up Terri Schaivo merchandise. Get your bumperstickers: "Remember Terri Schaivo. www.stopliberaljudges.com".free dounloads psp

Oh, and by the way, if the judges strictly interpreted law and supported state's rights, what makes them liberal?free dounloads psp

Terri Schiavo dies

: She has died. I'll be doing the MSNBC blog roundup at noon. I'm seeing many prayers but also much anger.free dounloads psp

: MSNBC just reported that Bush will make a live statement about Schiavo at the start of a statement about WMD. He doesn't make live statements about the soldiers who die in Iraq but he makes a statement about this. free dounloads psp

Her death is political to the end. free dounloads psp

: A few of the links I'm finding:free dounloads psp

GlennBeck.com goes all black: R.I.P. Terri.free dounloads psp

This site has a photo, graphic tributefree dounloads psp

Blogotional.com prints the lyrics from the hymn What Wondrous Love is This.free dounloads psp

RobBushway.com says: "Our society has shown its true colors for allowing this to happen and the true after effects of 25 years of Roe v Wade."free dounloads psp

EternalPerspectives.com says: "Truly, the death of Terri Schiavo diminishes us all."free dounloads psp

Mobyrebuttal.blogspot.com says that Terri's will prevailed. 'I believe that you prevailed. I will not say rest in peace, you have rested in peace far too long, bound to this earth in a broken mind and body. But now you are free to soar, to walk again and talk with your maker."free dounloads psp

Keepstumblin says: "I suspect she will posthumously become the poster child for the cause, her husband will continue to be demonized by these people, and her parents will be portrayed as long suffering (which they are, but not for the reasons they should be) and saintly. It's my hope that everyone involved in this unfortunate situation will come to terms with both Terri's death and the actions of those on both sides of the debate. It would be too bad if this entire saga only resulted in more misunderstanding, mistrust, and anger."free dounloads psp

On media coverage:free dounloads psp

A comment at Catch.com: "And perhaps some mention is warranted that regardless of what her wishes may have ultimately been -- I strongly suspect that to spend her dying days at the centre of a media circus was not among them."free dounloads psp

Tributaries says: "May she rest in peace. GOd knows the living shan't from now on."free dounloads psp

A lonely impulse of delight at getifa.com:
"I’d like to go a day without seeing a woman who has been brain-dead for 15 years on the front page of the newspaper and the MSN home page on my computer."free dounloads psp

The Bull Speaks says:
"Perhaps now Terri’s parents can let her go and perhaps the Nation can begin to heal from this media-driven horror story."free dounloads psp

: LATER: Intolerant Elle quotes Bush on the death of Terri Schaivo: "The essence of civilization is that the strong have a duty to protect the weak."free dounloads psp

A good reason to support universal health insurance. free dounloads psp

Giving God a bad name

: The front page of The New York Times today reports that religious leaders from Islam, Judaism, and Christianity came together in a rare meeting and rarer agreement in Jerusalem to unite in a single cause. free dounloads psp

What cause could that be? Peace in the Middle East? Regaining God-given freedom in the Middle East? An end to economic despair in some parts of the Middle East? A call to condemn terrorism as murder? free dounloads psp

No. Gay bashing. Bigotry. Hatred. That's what brought them together. They oppose a gay pride event in Jerusalem:

"They are creating a deep and terrible sorrow that is unbearable," Shlomo Amar, Israel's Sephardic chief rabbi, said yesterday at a news conference in Jerusalem attended by Israel's two chief rabbis, the patriarchs of the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches, and three senior Muslim prayer leaders. "It hurts all of the religions. We are all against it."free dounloads psp

Abdel Aziz Bukhari, a Sufi sheik, added: "We can't permit anybody to come and make the Holy City dirty. This is very ugly and very nasty to have these people come to Jerusalem." ...free dounloads psp

When the first WorldPride festival was held five years ago in Rome, religious opposition came from the Vatican, while secular opposition came from a neo-Fascist group that vowed to hold a counterdemonstration. But the neo-Fascists canceled their demonstration, the march came off peacefully, and even a few center-right politicians joined many thousands of marchers.free dounloads psp

One day later, however, Pope John Paul II appeared on a balcony over St. Peter's Square and delivered a message expressing his "bitterness" that the gay festival had gone forward, calling it an "offense to the Christian values of a city that is so dear to the hearts of Catholics across the world."

For shame. free dounloads psp
March 30, 2005

Your correspondent

: I continue to enjoy reading AfghanWarrior. Waheed reports on the trials of everyday life -- people simply cannot afford to buy meat, for example -- and in his latest post, he answers questions, including:

11. Waheed, if someone said to you five years ago that the Taliban would be out of power, Afghanistan would have democratic elections, Kabul would be being rebuilt and blossoming, women would be actually allowed to protest for their rights, new schools would be being built, you would be working for the U.S. Military and telling the world about Afghanistan through your Blog on the Internet, would you have believed them?free dounloads psp

During the Taliban regime we wouldn't have believed that the US Army would come to Afghanistan, but we were hoping that one day Afghanistan will be free. But when the US attacked, everything changed very quickly. I wouldn't have believed that one day I would be working as an interpreter and we would have 4 TV channels and women would have their ministry and protest for their rights.

The contributions to Waheed to help him get a laptop and pay for access have leveled off. free dounloads psp

Go there now and give him some payment for being your corresponent in Afghanistan. I don't have a tip jar. SO give to Waheed instead, please. free dounloads psp

What to do tonight

: EVDB, a new events data base service from Brian Dear, launches. Looks good. free dounloads psp

Ouch

: If I worked on his tech team, I think I'd pull out my feeding tube now. free dounloads psp

mcdonalds.jpgWith three billion pickles on that

: Technorati is about to pass 1 billion links served. free dounloads psp

Pass the soap

: A flack crows about something I wrote yesterday. I don't know why, but it makes me feel a little dirty. free dounloads psp

Freedom to Connect

: I'm at the Freedom to Connect conference in Washington. free dounloads psp

: David Isenberg, who put this all together, gave a stirring rap (and I mean rap) saying that our freedom to connect is not political enough. He said that thanks to a six programmers somewhere in Europe (read: Skype) had eliminated the need for phone companies ... and paying them $1 trillion dollars. So what will we do with that trillion, we people? Feed people? Solve the energy problem? What?free dounloads psp

Lee Rainie of the Pew Internet project gives stats just in from their latest study (which will be up on their site shortly):
: 136 million American adults use the internet -- 67 percent of adults.
: 87 percent of teenagers use the internet
: 59 million Americans have high-speed at home, just over half of users.
: 40 million Americans used the internet to get news online yesterday -- half the number who got it from TV, two-thirds of the number of who got it from newspapers.
: 4 million Googled someone they were about to meet.
: 1 million googled themselves.
: Lee also told me that they asked about use of Craigs List and online classifieds and found very high usage.
He says "the internet has become the norm in America." They're having trouble asking people when they use the internet because it's so much a part of their lives in so many ways now. free dounloads psp

: Susan Crawford is unbloggable. She comes out with ideas that require digestion and by the time you've digested it to blog it she is on to the next idea. So I don't try. One questioner got up and said, "You're even better than your blog." You get the idea. free dounloads psp

I finally figured out one of her points: If you want government to help you fix something (e.g., kill spam) you also open the door to government regulation of other things you don't want (e.g., email). So beware governmetn involvement. free dounloads psp

When the First Amendment is 'the other side'

: CJR Daily goes after The New York Times, as I did the other day, for writing about new FCC National Nanny Kevin Martin and the so-called Parents Television Council without going to anyone -- anyone -- who defends the First Amdment against them. The Constitution is now the unheard other side.

Relying exclusively on quotes from the PTC's president, L. Brent Bozell, Martin, and a few pro-fine Congressmen, the Times ignores any hint of opposition to the proposed new rules.free dounloads psp

There's little question that there is a significant movement afoot to increase indecency fines, but the Times fails to report that an equally passionate movement has arisen to resist the proposed expansion of the FCC's mandate.

[via SpeakSpeak]free dounloads psp

Star blogging

: In one of the worst-kept secrets around, Arianna Huffington, blogger and blog lover, is starting an online thing -- group blog, zine, whatever -- that is supposed to be attracting big names to little media. Writes Greg Lindsay:

Based in New York and staffed with a full complement of editors, the Huffington Report appears to be a culture and politics webzine in the classic mold of Salon or Slate. It will have breaking news, a media commentary section called "Eat the Press," and its most interesting innovation, a group blog manned by the cultural and media elite: Sen. Jon Corzine, Larry David, Barry Diller, Tom Freston, David Geffen, Vernon Jordan, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Harry Evans and his wife, Tina Brown. That's just to name a few, and Huffington is still recruiting.free dounloads psp

Her business partner is Ken Lerer, the head of AOL Time Warner corporate communications until Bob Pittman lost and Dick Parsons won.

PaidContent also found a connection to Jonah Peretti of Eyebeam. Lerer, Peretti and others worked together on projects for the Million Mom March. free dounloads psp

Of course, the punchline here is that Tina Brown, who loves to dis blogs, could blog. But that assumes that these guys will be blogging. It's more likely they'll be dropping their political bon mots when they want. But it's a smart move to create the bon-mot-catcher to take advantage of that: Send an email to Arianna and have it published to the world. It's a lot easier than having to go into Air America or Bill Maher's show. free dounloads psp

To the barricades, bloggers -- again

: No surprise: Add Syria to the list of countries jailing or intimidating -- or rather trying to intimidate -- bloggers for exercising their God-given right to free speech (that list so far includes Iran, Bahrain, Maylasia, China...).free dounloads psp

Syrian author and blogger Ammar Abdulhamid was hauled in for questioning:

“So, you believe in American democracy eh, - the democracy of torture and fucking as we can clearly see from Abu Ghraib and Guatemala [sic]?” exclaimed the interrogator.free dounloads psp

“Pardon me, but did you say Guatemala?” The heretic inquired ever so innocently. “I see. Can I be interrogated by someone higher up the fuck chain?” He pleaded.free dounloads psp

The heretic got his wish, and he seems to have made the right call indeed. For the higher fuck was a bit more “sophisticated,” for the lack of a better word, and the interrogation went somewhat smoothly from then on.free dounloads psp


This was the first round of investigation by this particular apparatus, Branch 235 as it is known, but it will not be the last, that’s for sure. I will have now to submit a report on my “dubious” activities and contacts during my fellowship at the Saban Center for Middle Eastern Study at the Brookings Institution, and then I will be interrogated again.free dounloads psp

So be it. So be it.

[via Tim Oren]
free dounloads psp

Journalism is a verb, not a noun

: Many knickers are twisting into knots over the questions ofwho is a journalist and how to save journalism. But those are the wrong questions.free dounloads psp

Journalism is not defined by the person who does it or by the medium or the company that delivers it. free dounloads psp

Journalism is not a thing. It is an act: The act of informing is journalism. It's a verb, not a noun. free dounloads psp

And no one owns journalism. It is not an official act, a certified act, an expert act, a proprietary act. Anyone can do journalism. Everyone does. Some do it better than others, of course. But everyone does it. free dounloads psp

Realizing that -- embracing that -- will be the key to saving journalism: its quality and its business.free dounloads psp

: Cut the act of journalism into its component pieces:free dounloads psp

Witnessing: Seeing news happen is usually the beginning of the act of journalism. Used to be, witnessing news didn't matter, it wasn't heard, unless the witness was a reporter or was interviewed by one. Now, thanks to technology and connectivity, any witness can share the news. Within minutes of yesterday's Indonesian earthquake, I went online and found eyewitness accounts that beat any news organization by hours, even days. As we learned in the tsunami, photos and video will also come from witnesses. free dounloads psp

Asking: Seeking information you don't have and want to know is also known as reporting. This was supposed to be the domain of the pros but more and more we see just people with sufficient knowledge or curiosity reporting. free dounloads psp

Editing: Everyone edits. We select, we correct, we package, we present in the media we choose. (Some call this censorship but it's not, of course; it's just editing.)free dounloads psp

Commenting: Giving news perspective is also part of journalism and everyone does that, too: We say what we think about a story or we criticize a movie. It's the journalism absolutely anyone can do. free dounloads psp

Distributing: Until a decade ago, this was where journalism was held hostage: If you didn't own the press or the broadcast tower, you couldn't do journalism; it wasn't real, official, trusted (said those who owned those assets). It wasn't heard. But now, of course, even a guy in Afghanistan can broadcast to the world. free dounloads psp

When you slice journalism into its atomic elements, and generously define the acquisition, distribution, and consumption of information as acts of journalism, it's apparent that, as Dave Winer says, either everyone is a journalist or no one is. free dounloads psp

Now this analysis leaves out a few critical functions of the journalistic process up until now: Today, the journalistic organization invests in acquiring information, aggregates, selects, edits, vets, presents, and distributes. Can these functions be performed outside the journalistic organization? Yes. Do they have to be? No. Should they be? Well, you'll decide that. free dounloads psp

Right now we have people fretting over just those questions: Can journalism be saved? I think that's the wrong question. Maybe we shouldn't save the old way. Maybe, now that we have new opportunities, we should find a better way. The right question is: Can journalism be improved? Can journalism be expanded? Can journalism be exploded?free dounloads psp

I believe -- no surprise -- that a key to the future of journalism is embracing the idea that everyone does journalism. This doesn't mean that all journalism is equal or good or of interest. We still need to find ways to aggregate, select, edit, present, and distribute information in ways that are efficient, effective, and reliable for each of us. We still need to find ways to support these functions financially, whether they are performed by, as Chris Nolan says, stand-alone or corporate journalists. We especially need to find those ways in the face of declining -- no, disappearing -- revenue.free dounloads psp

Old journalism is facing three crises: free dounloads psp

1. Flat or declining audience. I am confident that the total time spent on news is actually increasing, but with more competitors, the time spent on big journalism is not. And I'm not talking just newspapers, of course; look at TV news as well.free dounloads psp

2. Declining revenue. Classified is going pfffft. TV upfronts will no longer support ever greater prices for ever smaller audiences. Radio is a flat line. As Jay Rosen points out, it's still profitable. But that's not the same as growing or investing. free dounloads psp

3. Declining trust. Enough said. free dounloads psp

But turn this around and look at how exploded journalism faces new opportunities: By embracing all this new journalism people are doing, there is a no limit to the news that can be reported and there is tremendous efficiency to it. In this new world, the reporters are also the marketers. And once again, trust is something that is earned rather than protected. Here's a vision of the future of news where that happens. free dounloads psp

Rather than looking at all that as a competitor to be stopped, old journalism needs to see how to embrace the new but the new will go on whether or not it is embraced because everyone will be doing it. free dounloads psp

So if old journalism were smart, it would find ways to support the new: Train the everybodies doing journalism; share financial support with them; share trust with them; find the best of them; aggregate them; share the spotlight with them; take advantage of the work they do; respect them. free dounloads psp

We won't save journalism the way it was. We shouldn't if we could. The business must change. Some in newsrooms think they should not change, that change is sacrilegious. Of course, that's ridiculous. From a consumer perspective, if the habits, needs, and abilities of the audience change, then so must journalism. From a business perspective, if every other industry in this country has gone through restructuring as it finds new ways to do business, then why shouldn't journalism? From a journalistic perspective, well, wouldn't you hope that journalists would be the most curious, the most eager to explore the new? OK, that last one is a straight line. free dounloads psp

But here's the news: I am starting to see executives in old, big media figure this out and seek out this change. Will it work? Who the hell knows?free dounloads psp

: Sorry this has been so generalized, so basic. I was going to write a short post responding to all the links in the first paragraph above: a provocative essay by Jay Rosen arguing that journalism is starting to eat away at its own body; Dan Gillmor responding to Rosen; Jack Shafer giving David Shaw the slap he deserves; Phil Meyer as the ghost of journalism future; and Ken Auletta mourning the death of the cash cow that is advertising. But as I tried to tackle the beast, I kept coming back to the most elementary analysis: free dounloads psp

This isn't about the old journalism of people and things. It's about the new journalism of acts. free dounloads psp

March 29, 2005

Closed captioning -- and metadata! -- for vlogs and online video

: Go take a look at this version of the vlog I put up the other day to demonstrate the form for TV and newspaper folks. (The link works only in IE with Microsoft Media Player). free dounloads psp

Chicago Captioning Corp. added closed captioning to the video. free dounloads psp

They did that in an effort to serve the 10 percent of Americans who are hard of hearing. And that's great. free dounloads psp

But I see another important use that is of value to 100 percent of Internet users:free dounloads psp

By attaching a script to the video, we get metadata associated with it. That makes the video searchable via Google et al. That means that the content of the video can be analyzed. That means we can link to specific content. free dounloads psp

That's big. free dounloads psp

Now it so happens that because I was using Visual Communicator, I had a script in the teleprompter (aka my laptop) that is timed specifically to my reading of the script. To me, that means it'd be trivial to publish the script as a closed caption file timed to the video. free dounloads psp

I even wonder whether URLs could be associated with the graphic files inserted into the video -- or simply with text -- so people could go to addresses. More metadata. More interactivity. free dounloads psp

I got email with that link from Steven Knoerr at Chicago Captioning and emailed him back this bit of excited blathering. I have no idea what Chicago Captioning's business proposition is; I'm not trying to sell them. free dounloads psp

But I do think there's something important here for citizens' video (and TV news video brought online): If we can associate closed captions and scripts with video, we make that video far more accessible not only to the hard-of-hearing but also to Google searchers. free dounloads psp

: UPDATE: Mark Randall of Serious Magic (the Visual Communicator and VlogIt folks) emails me to report that there is a free plug-in for the latest version of the software (which, regretably won't work on my machine) that automates the creation of closed captions from the teleprompter script. I hope they include this in VlogIt (hint) and encourage all vloggers to use it. free dounloads psp

Metadata, man, metadata.free dounloads psp

Talk is cheap

: A few weeks ago, I was a chump. Well, I'm often a chump but in this particular case, it's about a call I got from a futurist marketing think tank -- read: bullshitshop -- that asked me attend a session with other smart people -- ah, but they flatter me -- to talk about trends we see in media and society. Somebody's actually asking me to blather? Well, sure, I said. But what I found when I got there was that I was merely part of a focus group and I was paid $200, plus cookies, for consulting. That is consulting for which I should have charged much more (doesn't mean they'd pay it but at last I'd have found myself in a transparent marketplace instead of talking with a nameless company's paid middlemen). It was my fault that I fell into their trap, so I played along. But I was the chump. free dounloads psp

The irony is that I give opinions for free every day. Right here. Pity you. If somebody wanted to see what I said, they could have come here. They could have emailed me or even left a comment -- better yet -- to spark a conversation with all of you, where they'd find the real wisdom. They could have dealt with me and us directly. Instead, they paid a middleman and stayed behind the mirror. free dounloads psp

Well, as President Bush says, once burned is... uh, what'd he say again?free dounloads psp

So today I got email from another such organization wanting me to fly out of New York for a talk with three or four other smart people -- ah, now I see through your flattery -- for an unnamed client. When I said I wasn't interested in being part of such a focus group, they protested that "an Expert Panel is NOT a focus group. The tone is more that of a living room setting." So the chairs are stuffed. It's still a focus group. If this were a true living-room setting for me, I'd be on the couch with feet up on the coffee table and laptop on lap conversing via blog. free dounloads psp

The email also said their firm "is in the newness business. We help our clients gain fresh thinking and insights. We are experts in the process of stimulating new thinking and in designing and facilitating engagements that result in exciting new strategies/plans/products that people are committed to implementing." free dounloads psp

What a hock of hooey. "Newness business"? Sounds like they're in produce. free dounloads psp

It's at moments like this that I find blogging has affected my worldview profoundly. Yes, it has made me grumpy and opinionated and disagreeable. But I don't mean that. I mean that it has made me expect transparency and direct conversation. free dounloads psp

If this unnamed client were smart, they'd do the same thing. Oh, I'm not suggesting we'd all give them consulting for free. But we all would give them opinions for free if they'd just enter into an open conversation. You want people to reinvent your product in new ways, unnamed client? Well, why don't you try asking your customers to do it for you; they're the ones who'd know best. Start a blog. Start a conversation. Read others blogs. Join in the conversation. Ask people what they think. Surprise: They'll tell you. Then all you have to do is listen.free dounloads psp

And you can save on the cookies and the newness gurus.free dounloads psp

Getting past the shouting

: MSNBC's Connected has a good show on right now trying to get past the shouting and have on experts who debate the issues, ethics, and facts about whether there is a chance of recovery in a case like Schiavo's and whether a feeding tube is medical treatment.free dounloads psp

Just finished watching the whole show. It was good because it used the form -- talk -- to get past opinion and shouting and tried to find the facts and inform (ain't that journalism?). Of course, there was disagreement. But the show was grounded in an effort to inform. free dounloads psp

: LATER: See also Cathy Young getting down to facts at Hit & Run. free dounloads psp

Blog campaigning

: Corzine's gubernatorial campaign is planning to do up blogs and Joe Territo has the exclu. free dounloads psp

Hey, man

: Fred Wilson tells David Byrne to get with it. free dounloads psp

How to piss off your customers, chapter 476

: I just got an invitation to join a beta of Yahoo 360. I'd heard good things about it and wanted to. But when I went to sign into my Yahoo account, I was "deactivated," which sounds painful, eh? Well, it's more painful for them than for me. Yes, I hadn't used the account much because it became a spamagnet. And I never was big on personalization. But here I had a reason to return to Yahoo and what does Yahoo do? It tells me to buzz off. So buzz off, I do. What would it cost Yahoo to keep that account there? Nothing. What does Yahoo gain from killing the account? Nothing. What does Yahoo lose? Me. free dounloads psp

Another Republican response

: The Moderate Republican also responds to my Jumping the shark for Jesus post:

Sometimes I wonder though, aren't the theocrats the "mainstream" of the GOP these days? As an old-style Republican (I sometimes think I'm the lovechild of Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller), I feel kinda like the odd duck in the party these days. I guess it leads me to wonder if Jarvis is right. In the past I believed that if the party realized how nutty the theocrats were, they would drop them like a hot potato and move towards the center. But the GOP has come to dominance because it catered to these yahoos or at least the leadership would like to believe that. I want to believe that the GOP will see how dangerous these people are to our democracy, but I'm not certain they will.free dounloads psp

It's not like the Democrats are any better. Now that the Michael Moore/MoveOn group has taken over, the party really out in Left field.

: LATER: Glenn Reynolds says:
Hugh's right that it's hard to ascribe the Congressional legislation to "theocrats" when it was supported by Tom Harkin (and Ralph Nader!). There's much more going on than that; this is a matter on which all sorts of people, of all sorts of persuasions, can be found on both sides.free dounloads psp

On the other hand, here's some advice, very similar to advice I gave to the antiwar movement: If you don't want to be confused with a movement led by theocrats, don't let actual theocrats be seen as your spokesmen. It may be impossible to shut Randall Terry up -- though if I were Karl Rove, I would have tried really hard -- but he needs to be loudly and regularly denounced as a nut. Otherwise you're in the same boat as lefties who don't want to be identified with Ward Churchill, but happily use him when they want to draw a crowd.free dounloads psp

(In fact, the Terry / Churchill axis is surprisingly close -- they both view 9/11 as a necessary chastisement for a sinful America. If that's not a distinguishing mark of full-bore idiotarianism, I don't know what is).

We can only hope that both parties start fighting like cats and dogs over the moderate middle of America rather than trying to suck up to the lunatic fringes. Emphasis on the plurals. free dounloads psp

: LATER: Common Room, a home-schooling blog, uses my post and Hugh's post as an exercise in writing and reading. I'm not going for the grade. I'm auditing this course. free dounloads psp

: LATER STILL: Linking to Micah Sifry's review of Hugh Hewitt's Blog book will be seen as a political act, but it's not: I like both both of them. free dounloads psp

: FILM AT 11: Glenn Reynolds does the blog report on MSNBC Connected and mentions this very disagreement. Political Teen has the video. free dounloads psp

March 28, 2005

Our freedoms

: Bill Hobbs gives you a quiz: Can you name the five freedoms enshrined in and guaranteed by the First Amendment?free dounloads psp

A response from the right

: Just got back to a connection and saw that this morning, Hugh Hewitt responded to my Jumping the shark for Jesus post. Crazed doing important things like eating dinner so I don't have time to respond but wanted you to see the link.free dounloads psp

Quake: 'Bloggers are morons'

: Peter Tan blogged during the earthquake, reporting that "my apartment is shaking." More:

I had just finished posting my latest entry when I felt my wheelchair moving. I thought I was dizzy because I have not been getting enough sleep lately. A short while later, I realised that it was another earthquake when I heard my door rattling. I quickly woke the maid up.free dounloads psp

My neighbours were fast. They had already locked their apartment door and were waiting for the elevator. I chose to stay in the apartment. There was no point rushing to get down since everybody else will be waiting for the elevator too. This is in fact a bad move since they could get trapped in the lift should the building tilt.free dounloads psp

This temblor is stronger than the one on Boxing Day and lasted longer. It began at approximately 0011 and lasted a good two minutes or more. When the taskbar clock showed 0013, the apartment was still swaying. The water in the tank in my toilet sloshed about and spilled over the edge. I looked down from my window and saw many neighbours lingering in the driveway, barely 5 meters from the buildings that are 22 storeys high....

And this great post:
Bloggers Are Morons
Blogging has fried our brains. Instead of evacuating after the tremor, we, bloggers staying in high rise apartments, sit here n blog about it, oblivious to the risk should the building topple over or collapse. I, for one, was furiously typing away as the floor swayed under me instead of making plans to leave my apartment. Should I laugh or cry at this stupidity that has befallen me?
: Amazing how quickly news from ground-level comes up on the internet. Shortly after the earthquake off Jakarta, blogs started updating. See this:
I've just been messaged by my mom who's with Oxfam in Sri Lanka and she says that the tsunami warning sirens have been sounded 2 hours ago. The country's emergency serivces have been put on standby. I've phoned my volunteer coordinator at VolunteerSriLanka in Habantota on the South Coast of Sri Lanka - and some IDP camp residents have been evacuated about 5km away from the coastal areas - thats about 3 camps I've heard so far.free dounloads psp

Meanwhile Peter Griffin & Dina Mehta have rallied and sent out an email to all current SEA EAT volunteers in the region and those still involved with the relief operation to standby to start blogging alerts via txt msgs & email....free dounloads psp

Phone lines have apparently got jammed once again in Sri Lanka & everyone is just panicking instead of remaining calm until we all know what's going on. Shall keep you all posted as i get news....free dounloads psp

UPDATE - 10.18PM - Bahrain Time (+3GMT) :
All Sri Lankans living on the coast have been asked to move away from the coast within an hour. This was about a half an hour ago. The information has been distributed fairly widely. The Commissioner of Police has also stated that they are taking steps to stop traffic on the Galle Road. People fleeing also asked to watch out for looters.
-SMS from Sanjaya with the Daily News in Sri Lanka ...

: The TsunmaiHelp blog is keeping up on the news. free dounloads psp

: Jeff Ooi, the Maylasian blogging wonder, is on the story again. free dounloads psp

: Another eyewitness blog report:

So I’m in bed with Hubby, when suddenly I felt my world start to rock.free dounloads psp

We’re mid-way through an episode of Frasier when suddenly we felt the tremors. It was pretty freaky! We were watching telly in bed and I heard loud creaks and felt my bed swaying back and forth. For a nanosecond I almost thought my cat was playing under the bed again — yes, and she had gained super strength… Look, it’s past midnight, I’m sleepy, my brain’s not all there, ok?free dounloads psp

Turns out there’s a quake measuring 8.5 on the richter scale near North Sumatra. And we felt it all the way here in Punggol....free dounloads psp

I hear dogs barking incessantly. I’m remembering all the movies and tv shows about animal instincts and I’m getting weirded out. Meanwhile, Hubby goes “hey, this is so fun”. I stare at him like he’s grown a third eye....free dounloads psp

brown suggests I get a camera phone, so that : “can snap pic with phone, send via email to flickr plus also to blog. Too cool. macam ‘Live from Mordor’ ”

The "brown" she refers to is a blogger here. free dounloads psp

: Eyewitness reports on an MSNBC community blog. free dounloads psp

Free speech for free speech, please

: The Times today talks about censorship under the reign of Kevin Martin, new chairman of the FCC. They quote Brent Bozell, self-appointed head of the so-called Parents Television Council. free dounloads psp

But they don't quote anyone from the other side. free dounloads psp

The other side needs another side. We need an Americans Free Speech Council. We need to stand up for the First Amendment. And when reporters write stories such as this, they should see that their stories are incomplete if they don't hear from the other side, the side of free speech and the First Amendment. free dounloads psp

Google views

: Dana Blankenhorn says that the demonization of Google has begun. He says they need an editor and he applies. free dounloads psp

I'm not so sure that solves their problems. An editor chose the neonazi hate site they had. A business strategy has to deal with Agence France Presse. Customer relations have to deal with hiding basic business terms from ad partners. A corporate policy of transparency is needed. free dounloads psp

It's really about attitude. I'm seeing in Google the same sort of aloof arrogance I saw in Yahoo and so many other online giants in their day. free dounloads psp

What we're really seeing his the humbling of Google. And Google needs it. free dounloads psp

Not again

: A large, 8.2 quake has hit near Jakarta. Tsunami warning issued. Command Post is on the case. GoogleNews feed here. free dounloads psp

The new CBS News

: Even before CBS News is redone it is redoing itself. In a comment on the post below, Andrew Tyndall of the Tyndall Report says he studied the show for Broadcasting & Cable and sees big change already:

Less than three weeks after Dan Rather's departure from the anchor chair, Schieffer has already markedly revamped the job description, showcasing a more inquisitive, interactive style than his predecessor or his competitors....free dounloads psp

This anchor approaches his role more as a viewer's representative than as a reporter's leader [yes! - ed]; Schieffer's emphasis is more on summing up a story than on introducing it.free dounloads psp

Specifically, Schieffer's CBS Evening News actually makes constructive use of the live sign-off that often ends a correspondent's taped report. In the TV news business, the live sign-off tends to be just an ornamental transition, but Schieffer makes it a valuable access point, posing follow-up questions to reporters on a couple of stories each night. He reminds the reporter that, like the viewers at home, he has just watched the preceding package himself. He drives home the story's lead. He cites the angle that interested him most. He uses vernacular, even blunt language, to ask for more...free dounloads psp

The before-and-after is striking. Schieffer's live interactive style was used in 40% of CBS' items (ABC used it 9% of the time, NBC 3%); in Rather's final days, CBS used those techniques only 11% of the time (ABC 17%, NBC 3%)....free dounloads psp

The questions that Schieffer asks out loud are the same routine ones every anchor and executive producer asks of correspondents before a story is filed. What CBS Evening News is doing is showing that Q&A in action, rather than simply weaving its results into the on-air report.free dounloads psp

So Schieffer makes more of the anchor's behind-the-scenes job visible for all to see. How modish is that? At age 68, our oldest rookie news anchor is not only interactive, but transparent, too.

I've been of the view that CBS News can change with Schieffer in the anchor chair. free dounloads psp

It's not about what's before the camera but what's behind the camera -- changing it and showing it. free dounloads psp

It's not about new faces but new voices. free dounloads psp

It's not about format but attitude. And it sounds as if the attitude is changing. free dounloads psp

Wikicities

: The Wall Street Journal writes up Jimmy Wales' Wikicities business (another free link). It's just starting so it's hard to tell whether this will work as well as Wikipedia. I think that wikis work best when they try to gather the ongoing wisdom of the crowds on lasting topics; they work when they hit a critical mass of interest, people, contributions, and time. That's why I remain dubious that Wikinews will work; it's too transient: By the time enough people swarm around a topic to add their collective wisdom, the world has moved on. Wikipedia did, in fact, do a good job collecting news during the tsunami, but that had enough interest, people, and time to make it work. WikiCities is a third model: A portal where people can create free, ad-supported special-interest wikis. On the one hand, I wonder whether people won't just do that on their own sites, in their own communities. On the other hand, perhaps special-interest wikis need a portal to gather that critical mass of contributors. We'll see... free dounloads psp

Godcom

: The Wall Street Journal reports (free link) that TV programmers are trying to exploit this God thing said to be sweeping the nation:

Judging from several comedy and drama pilots now in progress that are already getting close consideration, America's couches will be turning into pews.free dounloads psp

A splashy drama called "Book of Daniel" is in development at NBC, a unit of General Electric Co., while Viacom Inc.'s CBS is building a supernatural thriller around a character described as "a brilliant physicist with strong religious beliefs." News Corp.'s Fox, meanwhile, has "Briar + Graves," which the producers describe as "The X-Files" goes to church....free dounloads psp

"We try in the entertainment business to find veins of interest to tap, and religion is a huge one that is currently very underserved," says Kevin Reilly, president of entertainment at NBC, which is set to begin airing "Revelations," a six-part apocalyptic miniseries, next month.free dounloads psp

Also weighing heavily on programming executives' minds is President Bush's re-election. In addition to giving religion a starring role, several shows this development season are set deep inside "red" states and feature ultraconservative characters in the mix. In fact, Walt Disney Co.'s ABC is looking at "Red & Blue," about a conservative grandfather.

An essential rule of entertainment: If a show (or magazine or any media effort) starts with a creative vision that clicks, it will succeed. If it starts merely trying to pander to a demographic or a trend in polls, it's likely to fail. But network programmers never learn that. free dounloads psp

Having that said, a religous reality show would be a hoot. Churches are filled with drama, politics, what the American TV audience loves best: humiliation. I can't wait for ConfessionalCam.free dounloads psp

: See also my post yesterday: Jumping the shark for Jesusfree dounloads psp

Command and control-key

: Fascinating discussion of the military using blogs to get to what's really happening in command. This is about more than media. It's about new ways to communicate and inform and manage... and take over the world. See Sgt. Stryker here and Joe Katzman's follow here. free dounloads psp

Vlogging again

: I just put up a new vlog I made to demonstrate citizens' TV for the Radio Television News Directors Association. I was invited to be on a panel at their Vegas confab but had a conflict and suggested blogcasting and vlogging (it is a TV conference, after all). To any who've been subjected to my blatherings on ciitzens' media and exploding TV and all that, there's nothing new here but it's a brief demo. I hadn't used Visual Communicator since I made these Fred Flintstone attempts more than two years ago. I had problems getting the newest version to work on my Bedrock laptop but the prior version works well; it is a neat tool. Serious Magic, creator of the software, say they will have the lite VlogIt version out in a few weeks.free dounloads psp

New news

: Cory Bergman at Lost Remote notes changes in the CBS Evening News already -- and likes them. free dounloads psp

March 27, 2005

Deader trees

: Michael Malone at ABCNews.com plays taps for newspapers:

Needless to say, I still read the news, much of it coming from the newspapers I used to religiously read. But I am not reading the "paper," either literally or figuratively, that the publishers want me to read. Throughout the day, I construct my own newspaper in cyberspace, a real-time assemblage of wire service stories, newspaper features, blogs, bulletin boards, columns, etc. I suspect most of you do, too. free dounloads psp

In any other industry, a product that lost 1 percent of market share for two decades — only to then double or triple that rate of decline — would be declared dead. The manufacturer would discontinue it and rush out a replacement product more in line with the desires of the marketplace. So, let's finally come out and say: Newspapers are dead. They will never come back. By the end of this decade, the newspaper industry will suffer the same death rate — 90-plus percent — that every other industry experiences when run over by a technology revolution. free dounloads psp

So why do newspapers linger on? Why do so many papers refuse to accept reality and metamorphize into real Web presences rather than merely online downloads of their print copy? free dounloads psp

One answer is that most newspapers are unbelievably retrograde. They grew up in a world of newsprint and that's where they intend to stay. They cannot believe an institution as venerable as the newspaper can ever go away.... free dounloads psp

This is the last great divide, and my sense is that few newspapers will be able to make the crossing. If they kill their print editions now, they won't have the revenues to make a smooth transition to cyberspace; but if they keep wearing their paper albatrosses, they'll have less of a chance of succeeding in the new world. Thus, if all of the old-fashioned newspapers are going to die, nearly all of the forward-looking ones will too. Before it is all over, the number of "newspapers" left in America will probably be less than 10 — and they might not be individual papers but rather new entities created out of the current large chains. They will become the primary sources of national and international news, delivered into multimedia form. free dounloads psp

As for the local papers: they will be shut down, their presses depreciated and scrapped, their offices leased out and the newsroom reporters scattered to the four winds of blogdom and specialty Web sites … where they will provide local news, commentary, movie times and maybe even those long lost Little League box scores.

Now about broadcast news.... [via Bill Doskoch]
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Jumping the shark for Jesus

: Many say that the Schiavo episode is splitting the Republican party; others say is it splitting Democrats, too; others say it is dividing America. But I think something more fundamental is happening:free dounloads psp

The religious right is separating itself from the rest of America. The theocrats may have finally gone too far too often. free dounloads psp

They have been aided and abetted --- but ultimately undermined -- by a media that bought their PR and presented the loud voices of a few as the voice of the nation marching to the right and up to the altar. But the overdose of overdoing it that we're seeing on TV these last few weeks may just be the catalyst that causes a backlash, that reminds us that we are a secular nation of churchgoers and that we value separation of church and state over either church or state: That is our mainstream.free dounloads psp

In the case of Terri Schiavo, we have heard angry, even frightening rhetoric from the religious right: people in Florida and in Congress accusing judges of murdering Schiavo; the Schindlers and their advocates, many of them ministers, turning on even their allies (even on Jeb Bush if he doesn't do enough to satisfy them, if he doesn't do the impossible); online advocates saying that the laws and the courts should be damned; and conservatives throwing over their political philosphy opposing federalism and government interference in service of their religous philosophy. free dounloads psp

It's not just Schiavo. free dounloads psp

It's also about the FCC and censorship, where we have a few, a very few religious nannies trying to tell the rest of us what we cannot hear and see. And, again, the religious conservatives throw away their allegiance to small government and their opposition to government interference in citizens' lives in favor of their religous orthodoxy. (And religous Democrats ignore their belief in free speech -- not for religious principle but instead for cynical political gain ... which, I could argue, is worse, for it is unprincipled.)free dounloads psp

Of course, it's about abortion as well: Every time I drive my kids to their orthodontist, I pass what must be a clinic and see protesters standing outside not just protesting but trying to shock with their images and words. They don't appear to be merely protesting or just angry; they look extreme. free dounloads psp

And it's about sex: At the same time they oppose abortion, the religious right opposes sex education beyond pushing abstinence with young people; in the age of AIDS, that's doubly dangerous.free dounloads psp

Finally, it's about attempts to stake claim to the moral high ground. See also David Brooks in The New York Times this weekend trying so very hard to be Mr. Reasonable. But, in the end, by taking what he calls the high moral ground, he accuses those who do not agree with his stand of being ammoral, or at least less moral:

The socially conservative argument has tremendous moral force, but doesn't accord with the reality we see when we walk through a hospice. The socially liberal argument is pragmatic, but lacks moral force.
He is arguing that only one side holds a moral argument. No, both sides have moral arguments but they are different arguments. There is not just one-true-way, or at least there's no way for us to know what it is... yet. free dounloads psp

It's about some people telling the rest of us how we should live -- and this comes from the people most resent being told how to live. It's self-righteous and shrill. And I'm betting all that is turning off more people than it is converting them. That is jumping the shark culturally. free dounloads psp

But it's happening politically, too, as the theocrats stand apart from their own political principles and from the rule of law and the voters who reject their actions. free dounloads psp

I think that those factors alone -- shrill media appearances and hypocritical political actions -- are enough to spark a backlash against the religious fringe. free dounloads psp

This will have impact on politics: I will not be surprised to see the mainstream of the Republican party disassociate itself from the fringe -- especially if the polls continue to scream that they should and especially if the Democrats stop acting politically fringy and self-righteous themselves and start inviting that mainstream in. free dounloads psp

I hope there will be impact on the press: The press repeated again and again, 24 hours a day, that we are divided on this issue but, in fact, we are not: Most people backed Terri Schaivo's husband's efforts to do what he believed she wanted. (Hear On The Media this week on this.) A vast majority of people objected to Congress' intervention. But the press got that wrong in its running commentary, just as they get wrong the notion that we are a nation of red vs. blue extremes when, in fact, we are the nation of the vast maintream, a mainstream of individuals who all hold their own beliefs. Just as the Congress should looks at this episode and the polls and realize they blew it, so should the press. free dounloads psp

And I hope this has cultural impact: We need to see a renewed defense and appreciation of the First Amendment: of free speech and separation of church and state. This is not about one true religion ruling the day; that is what our ancestors left so many years ago. This is about the democratic tension that occurs as our society struggles with what is right. That struggle is never over but we are blessed to be in a nation that allows us to struggle freely. free dounloads psp

Mind you, I am writing this after leaving my church on Saturday setting up the lillies and pansies for the dawn of Easter sunday. And I am posting this on Easter morning as millions of Americans go to church -- huge numbers of them who may not be devout in media terms and, in fact, go only once or twice a year. These are the reasonably religious, not the zealots, not the theocrats, just Americans. free dounloads psp

Easter is about celebrating a new day. free dounloads psp

: LATER: Frank Rich bangs this same drum today. free dounloads psp

: LATER STILL: Joe Gandelman joins in. free dounloads psp

It comes to Britain

: Both the Observer and The Times of London write about the religious right coming even to Britain, where, says the Observer column, only 16 percent say religion is very important to them:

The worldwide Anglican communion is in disarray, and only 16 per cent of Britons say that religion is very important to them. Yet God is suddenly the referee of choice for a secular nation. Leading churchmen want to take abortion to the ballot box and though the Prime Minister warns evangelical Christians that faith and politics don't mix, the religious right smells power.
Says the Sunday Times Review:
Meanwhile, Michael Howard had made abortion an election issue and suddenly secular Britain found itself in the distinctly weird position of having to “do God”, of having to face the fact that, like it or not, the Big Guy is back.free dounloads psp

These are, of course, tentative steps. Howard and Blair know perfectly well that playing the God card in the modern, know-nothing, believe-nothing UK is a high risk move that is likely to be met with blank stares from the masses. Fewer than 8% of us go to church, since 1968 the number who believe in God has fallen from 77% to 44% and the number who positively do not believe in God has soared from 11% to 44%. If secularity can be defined as the destruction of conventional religion then we are, indeed, a secular nation.free dounloads psp

Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, seems therefore to be right, though not for reasons that would make him particularly happy. Backing calls for a reform of the abortion law last week in this paper, he wrote: “The idea that raising the issues here is the first step towards a theocratic tyranny or a capitulation to some neanderthal Christian right is alarmist nonsense.”

A debate begins but on a different scale. free dounloads psp
March 26, 2005

The wind blows through Bahrain

: Robert Mayer at the world-changing PubliusPundit reports freedom marches in Bahrain demanding government reform.free dounloads psp

: Also, Babbling Bahraini has more on the release of the jailed Bahraini bloggers. The struggle is not over. free dounloads psp

Abdul's Heroes

: The BBC has pix of a tunnel dug by prisoners escaping a U.S. prison in Iraq. free dounloads psp

Hmm. If even a Nazi POW camp could become a sitcom, I wonder whether Abu Ghraib could be someday. Naw....free dounloads psp

Whereabouts: tech hell

: I've spent/wasted an incredible number of hours in the last day on technology headaches. I reinstalled Visual Communicator to start making vlogs again (and it's working now and I still do love the program). And my son's brand new Dell laptop suddenly died (spent an hour and a half waiting on hold for Dell but then the gave me incredible service and so, try as I might, I can't complain). But in the end, I couldn't work or blog or live; I teched. If the toilet died, I wouldn't go through that; I'd call the plumber. What we need in this world is butt-crack geeks who can just fix this crap for us. free dounloads psp

Against the grain

: Conservative radio talk-show host Neal Boortz breaks from the pack on Terri Schiavo with a religious argument that we have rarely heard:

Where do your concerns truly lie, with the eternal soul of Terri Schiavo, or with her earthly body?...free dounloads psp

Is it possible that the soul of Terri Schiavo has been floating – held in some prolonged and excruciating limbo – waiting for doctors to stop interfering with the process of her death? I believe that this is so, and that is why I have supported her husband’s desires to have her feeding tube removed. Terri Schiavo isn’t being murdered. She’s being allowed to die. Death will not be an end for Terri Schiavo, it will be a beginning. She will finally be allowed to claim the reward that ultimately we all seek, a reward she’s earned and deserves.

: LATER: Nuclear Dann corrects me and says he is a libertarian and not a conservative and is, indeed, staying with the grain of libertarians who say that government imposition of medical treatment violates individual rights. Boortz, though, put himself in the club of nonliberal talk-show hosts and is certainly against the grain among them. I quoted it less for the political graininess than for the religious view we've seen infrequently. free dounloads psp

Will the first blogging president be... Iranian?

: Hoder reports that a candidate for president of Iran is blogging. If he wins, would he be the first blogging president in the world? Isn't that ironic? Well, actually not: It's a testament to the cultural change Hoder brought to Iran with citizens' media. It's also, as Hoder notes, a commentary on the Iranian leadership that the site is now down because Hoder sent them too much traffic. As we Americans say: Heh. free dounloads psp

Whose fault is the fakery?

: Jay Rosen praises the Boston University journalism faculty for condeming the use of "fake reporters" in video news releases. free dounloads psp

Joe Territo says the fault here isn't in the White House but in the newsrooms that run them. free dounloads psp

: More fakery: I got email headlined "Innovative Companies Interview Request on Forbes Radio Channel." Well, shucks, we're flattered. free dounloads psp

But reading down to the seventh paragraph, I find the reason this smelled fishy: They want to charge $5 grand for the privilege of being "interviewed."free dounloads psp

: UPDATE: Jay educates Joe. free dounloads psp

March 25, 2005

Paranoia springs eternal

: James Miller at TCS tries to argue that mainstream media is behind the FEC's threats to regulate political blog links and every other fear befalling blogs. I think he's crafting a tin hat. In truth, every mainstream media executive I know -- and I do hang out in that crowd, in the daytime -- is trying to figure out how to embrace blogs. At worst, some are still ignoring them. Blame the FEC on the FEC. [via Glenn Reynolds]free dounloads psp

The cost of free speech

: The Congressional Budget Office estimates the FCC will collect $10 million in fines over the next decade. free dounloads psp

TV explodes on Amazon

: From PaidContent's digital jobs list, Amazon is doing more in video:

: Amazon.com is looking for a Content Acquisition Manager (CAM) for our forthcoming Digital Video Store. The CAM's job will be to find and license content from content owners near and far.
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A word from our sponsor

: Here's a free link to a Jessica Mintz story in the Journal on ads and blogs. I'm running out now for a day with the family so I haven't had a chance to read it... but I thought you'd like to. See you later. free dounloads psp

It ain't over when it's over

: If you think media has overdosed on coverage of the Schiavo case, just wait until she dies. What should be a sad moment in a tragic story, a private mourning for her family -- yes, all the family -- will become, instead, a most public spectacle, you can be sure. free dounloads psp

The rhetoric of the people before the cameras in Florida and Washington has gotten hotter and hotter. The crowds in Florida are growing. I fear the Schiavo riots, I really do. free dounloads psp

There are a lot of ministers and people trumpeting Christianity down there. I hope some of them remember that this is a religion of forgiveness, grace, and peace -- remember that turning the other cheek thing, folks. Unfortunately, though, it is the men of the cloth who've been the angriest on TV. free dounloads psp

I'll bet we'll see shrines beyond those for Elian Gonzalez. This story will not end soon.free dounloads psp

What I'm really afraid of is that Fox will bring back John Edwards, the flim-flam TV man who says he talks to the dead -- yes, they interviewed even him on this story. Then we'll hear Terri speak. free dounloads psp

Jon Stewart says: "The Schiavo feeding tube will soon be removed from the cable news networks." (Make sure to watch it.)free dounloads psp

Now, of course, I was part of that feeding frenzy, doing reports on what the blogs said about Schiavo for MSNBC. I did that once, earlier in the story, and found lots of prayers and really nothing being said on the other side; there wasn't an other side online TV wants another side. They asked me to do it again, later, and I protested that we wouldn't see anything new, just more prayers; we wouldn't see two sides and cable news wants two sides. But I was wrong. In the meantime, Congress got involved; the story was now not just a media spectacle but also a political spectacle. Now there was plenty of talk on the blogs about the politics, the ethics, living wills, media. The comments in this blog alone exploded with discussion. The people were indeed talking about the story. So I reported it... more than once. (I leave it to you to judge my culpability in adding to the spectacle.)free dounloads psp

Last night on Connected, I was glad to see Ron Reagan go after the people who've issued the most inflammatory rhetoric, accusing the judges in the case of wanting to murder Schiavo. Ron also asked one of the guests during the same segment in which I reported, again, on what the blogs were saying: Is media overdoing this; is this spectacle media's fault? I think he was as shocked as I was at the answer: The guest said no; the people were talking about this case and so it's OK for media to talk about it. free dounloads psp

Hmmm. Chicken: Meet egg.free dounloads psp

This, we are learning, is the nature of 24-hour news. It's no longer about picking the top stories and packaging them in a paper or a show. I've said before that we used to wait for the news to come to us and now the news waits for us to come to it. So now we turn on the TV and expect to see the hottest story. And each cable channel fears being the one on right then without the hottest story. So we all get the hottest story all the time. And the problem is that all "hottest stories" become equal: war = Terri Schiavo = Michael Jackson.free dounloads psp

I'm not sure what the solution to that is. I'd like to see one of them try a format that guarantees the rest of the news, what else is happening in the world. I'd watch that. free dounloads psp

In the meantime, in the Schiavo story, I hope we see some restraint from the participants and from the media. We'll see....free dounloads psp

Stern's restraint

: Howard Stern was remarkably restrained this morning gloating about the Wall Street Journal story that reported on an investigation into the Imus Ranch and the PVS jock not paying the charity that runs the spread for his personal use of it. Howard, who has harped on this for years, played his Imus theme -- "I'm a Fake Cowboy" -- only a couple of times. The Journal story is a great read that also shows restraint: It doesn't accuse Imus of anything but let him paint an amusing self-portrait. But today, the Journal also had to report that the investigation is over. It's not scandal. But it is comedy. free dounloads psp

March 24, 2005

Off-air

: Just got off MSNBC's Connected. free dounloads psp

We talked Schiavo links and I'm glad to see Ron and Monica talk about how the rhetoric -- especially from Congress -- is getting overheated. BlogsForTerri is calling for people to fly to Florida. I hope that is just for a vigil but I fear that the anger is getting red-hot. I also mentioned a petition on MoveOn telling Washington to butt out (funny, you'd think it'd be the Republicans saying Washington should butt out of state business). And I mentioned the split in the Republican party, blogged below, quoting Andrew Sullivan and Joe Gandelman. free dounloads psp

: On a general blogging segment, I reported the news on GoogleNews, below, and mentioned the good news of blogs in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. free dounloads psp

And I got to mention the growth of vlogs, pegged to the release of OurMedia.org as a new home for citizens' multimedia. And we played RocketBoom on the air. Now that's cool: citizens' TV on mainstream TV. free dounloads psp

Ron said he'd be leaving early to see his vlogging coach. free dounloads psp

Good Google news

: GoogleNews has dropped the nazi site. Says InternetNews:

"Google News does not allow hate content," said Google spokesman Steve Langdon. "If we are made aware of articles that contain hate content, we will remove them."free dounloads psp

Langdon said news media must apply to be included in Google News and that they are evaluated by editors before inclusion. He wouldn't provide a list of news media that Google News indexes, nor would he give details of the evaluation process or criteria for inclusion.

I still want them to be transparent on that list and on their criteria. And note that some editor did decide to include the nazi site in the feed. free dounloads psp

But it's gone now. Good for Google. free dounloads psp

See also GoogleBlogoscoped.free dounloads psp

: MORE: This is great... John at Private Radio put up a script that is scraping GoogleNews to discover its news sources. Great work! List is here.
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Schiavo

: MSNBC just said that the Supreme Court refused to order reinserting the tube. free dounloads psp

Blog confessions

: Steve Rubel wants Oprah to have bloggers on the show. That's a scary vision. free dounloads psp

GOP meltdown?

: There's increasing buzz among -- what should I call them? nonleftist? -- commentators that the Republican party is splitting over the Schiavo case. free dounloads psp

I'm not sure the -- what should I call them? progressive? -- other side should start singing "Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead" quite yet. Bush has Teflon. I don't think Congress does, though. free dounloads psp

Nonetheless, there are clear issues of inconsistency and ideology for the right: fights over whether religion trumps political philosophy. free dounloads psp

And that should yield opportunities for Democrats -- not by yelling at nya-nyaing at the the Republicans over this too-sensitive story but instead by finding new middleground that; I'm not seeing that yet but I hope I will. Or to put it another way: With this case and others, the Republicans do not stand on clear principle -- or they can't decide what principle to stand on. So the Democrats have the opportunity to stop being a party of complaint and start being a party of principle.free dounloads psp

All that said, the opportunity to nya-nya is, of course, irresistable. As Kos says, inspired by a poll that shows 82 percent of Americans opposed Congressional interference in the Schiavo case:

This is turning into a disaster of epic proportions for the GOP. They thought they had the Dems wedged, and instead they have wedged themselves from the American public. Congress is being exposed as the cynical, power-mad, ethics-free zone that it has become under DeLay's leadership.
On the melting GOP, Andrew Sullivan says:
We're getting to the point when conservatism has become a political philosophy that believes that government - at the most distant level - has the right to intervene in almost anything to achieve the right solution. Today's conservatism is becoming yesterday's liberalism.
And he continues:
It's been clear now for a while that the religious right controls the base of the Republican party, and that fiscal left-liberals control its spending policy. That's how you develop a platform that supports massive increases in debt and amending the Constitution for religious right social policy objectives. But the Schiavo case is breaking new ground. For the religious right, states' rights are only valid if they do not contradict religious teaching. So a state court's ruling on, say, marriage rights or the right to die, or medical marijuana, must be over-ruled - either by the intervention of the federal Congress or by removing the authority of judges to rule in such cases, or by a Constitutional amendment....free dounloads psp

Again, the demands of the religious right pre-empt constitutionalism, federalism, and even the integrity of the family. When conservatism means breaking up the civil bond between a man and his wife, you know it has ceased to be conservative. But we have known that for a long time now. Conservatism is a philosophy without a party in America any more. It has been hijacked by zealots and statists.

Glenn Reynolds quotes blogger Mark Daniels:
In taking jurisdiction over Terri Schiavo's case from the state courts, where conservative Republicans would have previously said it belonged, and handing it to federal judges, the Republican Party arrogated to the federal government breathtaking new powers that would have made Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan wince.
On his MSNBC.com, Glenn looks at this from various angles, and says this is causing a split between Republicans and libertarians in the party.
Congress's involvement in this case seems quite "unconservative" to me, at least if one believes in rules of general application....free dounloads psp

Quite possibly. National security is the glue that has held Bush's coalition together. The war isn't over, and we haven't won yet, but it's going well -- Austin Bay notes that it's a war that we are winning -- and this is allowing the divisions to show. All of the people I've quoted are on the right, and they're all unhappy. One may argue that libertarians and small-government conservatives aren't a big part of Bush's coalition, but his victory wasn't so huge that the Republicans can surrender very many votes and still expect to win. So this is a real threat.

And Joe Gandelman -- who has a great roundup of posts on this here; he is the best rounder-upper around -- sums it up this way:
The genie is now out of the bottle: this wing of the GOP is at variance with process conservatives and many libertarians — and is defining the party as the party of theocracy.
In other words, if God is on your side, the voters might not be....free dounloads psp

: LATER: Of course, this is hardly the only issue to split parties. Hardly. Iraq was hardly unanimous in either party. And I like this description of the political splits in indecency from this week's Time cover story:

Granted, conservatives and liberals tend to be offended by different things. Conservatives tend to see a culture glorifying promiscuity and drug use. Liberals get more concerned about violence and degradation of women. The right sees the machinations of amoral Hollywood. The left sees soulless megabusinesses dropping their standards to court the coveted 18- to 34-year-old male demographic.
Here, too, there is a religous angle, by the way. free dounloads psp

Google nazis

: I honestly do not understand those who don't understand the problem with GoogleNews including a nazi site in GoogleNews. Michael Zimmer writes:

The whole point of GoogleNews is that you have a wide variety of sources. You can read, filter, process, absorb what you want, and ignore the rest. A plurality of voices, perspectives and, yes, even biases is a positive feature of web-based news aggregation. Readers might actually learn something about the world (and themselves!) by reading about how people they don't agree with (including anarchists, socialists, leftys, communists, etc) see an issue.
Here's the comment I left there (pardon the caps for emphasis; it's easier than bold in a comments box):
I honestly don't understand how you don't understand this: An EDITOR (or someone fufilling that function) at GoogleNews makes a SELECTION of sites to include in a NEWS service (read: JOURNALISM) and selects a NAZI site that actively goes on about hating people who are not white and Christian. This is not Google itself, which should vacuum up everything. This is a NEWS site. Is there no definition of news at all? Or more to the point, is there no definition of decency? Would you include Ku Klux Klan news? Would you include North American Man Boy Love Association news? These are choices and there are responsible and irresponsible choices.
So we start getting to the definition of news: not in a sense of certification (official news) but in a sense of value (worth knowing). free dounloads psp

Is it worth knowing what nazis think is news? No, it is not. In no universe.free dounloads psp

On the other hand, is it worth knowing what al Qaeda thinks is news? They, too, are hateful, murdering nut jobs. Well, I could see a debate there because there is value in knowing what this enemy says. free dounloads psp

But there are questions about the line you draw -- and GoogleNews cannot avoid that because it is making selections -- and also about presentation: When you present hate sites as news you redefine news. free dounloads psp

I stand by my contention that including a nazi site is irresponsible. free dounloads psp

Meanwhile, BlogHerald thinks this is about blogger jealousy: They included nazis but they didn't include blogs. No, if they never included a single blog, they certainly should not include nazis. free dounloads psp

Neverdock thinks it's still about GoogleNews liberal bias. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd think that somebody who thinks he's funny at GoogleNews is saying to those who complain there aren't enough conservative sites in the service: 'OK, here is a right-wing site: a nazi site.' But I'm not a conspiracy theorist. And I think that the right/left bias is a different and still-fascinating issue because it assumes you can catalogue right v. left and I say that's a helluva lot more difficult than it sounds. free dounloads psp

Oh, and if Agence France Presse wanted to pull its content out of GoogleNews wouldn't a better, more Euro-PC rationale have been that they didn't want to be associated with nazis?free dounloads psp

: LATER: Michael Zimmer says in the comments that we should be clear that earlier in his post he said this: "I'm not here to defend or support the actual content of these various news sites...." Yes, to be clear, I'm not saying that Michael is defending nazi sites: He's questioning my questioning of their inclusion and I'm questioning him back ... and no, I'm not trying to be cute in the way I said that; believe it or not, I'm trying to be clear. free dounloads psp

March 23, 2005

Les Moonves speaks

: Still at the ANA confab and CBS boss Les Moonves is being interviewed by Scott Donatan of AdAge. Asked about the future of CBS News, Moonves said:

Obviously, this has not been a banner year for CBS News... We're making changes that probably should have happened a long, long tie ago. One of hte problems with being the Tiffany tnetwork was that people at CBS News still thought that Edward R. Murrow was down the hall and still alive....
All the networks have been operating the same way for 25 years in how they do the news and there's a new thing called cable news... We're looking at doing something somewhat different... We're looking at changing the format somewhat, makig it a bit more relevant, faster paced...
We've said this before: that single anchor voice of God.. may be over or certainly we should veer away from it.
: On the American Idol voting glitch, Moonves jokes: Do you really think they had a problem or they wanted to stretch it out? "I wish I'd thought of it first for Survivor."free dounloads psp

Fighting for the First Amendment

: I'm at an Association of National Advertisers' meeting on TV in New York and Bob Corn-Revere, the leading First Amendment attorney (whom I'll be interviewing at the Freedom to Connect conference) is speaking to the industry:free dounloads psp

He is subbing for an FCC speaker and he's doing so because, he reveals, when Kevin Martin got the chairman's job at the FCC, people in the agency were told to cancel all speaking engagements.free dounloads psp

He lists new content-control initiatives: on violence (see the post below), on children's TV and ad limits (including even the inclusion of URLs for network promotions), on advertising of food ("the new tobacco?"), on product placement, and, of course, on indecency and profanity.free dounloads psp

Media on Media

: Will be on MSNBC at about 9:15a ET on nazi sites (out of the high-school shooting murders); plan to mention the GoogleNews dustup. free dounloads psp

The value of aggregation

: Tribune, Knight Ridder, and Gannett buy a controlling stake in Topix. Unlike the idiotic Agence France Presse (hey, what do you expect... they're French), these companies -- like The New York Times, which bought promotion on Topix -- recognize the need for (a) aggregation of news for consumer convenience, (b) getting audience from such services, and (c) the distributed nature of news and media in the future. free dounloads psp

A Saudi blog

: The country that may need blogging more than any other -- Saudi Arabia -- has a new blogger working in both English and Arabic. See SaudiJeans (Arabic blog here). He says that forums are still big in the Arab world but he bets that blogs will explode. We came across each other in links because he found Spirit of America's Arabic-language blogging tool. And he points to a story in the local paper about blogs. He says:

I think blogs could make a real difference, especially in the Arab World, where the lack of freedom of expression is a main barrier to progress and development. And to encourage more Arab users to start blogging, I'm glad to announce that I'm ready to give away the design of my Arabic blog...
About another reporter's story on blogs he reports:
She also said the word "blog" is not translated to Arabic yet, which is wrong because the word "مدونة" (Modawanna) is a perfect translation, coined and approved by Arab bloggers.

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Indecent

: Lots of news on the indecent indecency front:free dounloads psp

: ANOTHER INDECENT BILL... Sens. John D. Rockefeller (a Democrat... for shame) and Kay Bailey Hutchison introduced an indecent indecency bill that is even more constitutionally abhorrent than the House version. free dounloads psp

They would extend FCC censorship to violence, not just indecency. How the hell they're going to define violence is beyond me. So Saving Private Ryan can go on the air even with the F word but it has to go off again because it's violent? And let's get rid of the news, of course. Wave as you go down the slippery slope, senators: First, you want to censor indecency. Then profanity. Now violence. Warning: Political speech is not far behind. free dounloads psp

And they would extend FCC censorship to cable and satellite. Warning: The internet is not far behind. free dounloads psp

They also require full-screen, 30-second warnings every 30 minutes for any "violent and indecent programming... on broadcast, cable, and satellite programming [sic]." Since no one knows what violent and indecent programming is, the warning should just go up on every show. free dounloads psp

They require more children's programming. So they want children to watch more TV, eh?free dounloads psp

And they raise fines up to $3 million per day with a provision that appears to allow the FCC to double fines if the violation was scripted or if it occurs on a show with a "viewing or listening audience ... substantially larger than usual, such as a national or international championship sporting event or awards program..." Henceforth known as the Jackson Clause. free dounloads psp

: IT'S THE CONSTITUTION, DUMMY... Even national nanny and FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein knows that this bill is unconstitutional:

"Right now it's not in our rules to go after any material that's broadcast over cable or satellite," Adelstein said. If Congress were to make such a law, "it would likely be held unconstitutional in the courts. The courts have told us to be very careful about what we say is indecent and they recognize that we’re walking a tightrope between the First Amendment and the need to protect children from hearing this kind of thing.free dounloads psp

"If it’s a cable system, or a subscription service like satellite or cable, people are paying for it," Adelstein continued. "They’re inviting it into their homes. And the basis for the broadcast restrictions is that it’s pervasive… But taking that into cable or satellite, the courts would probably look askance at."

: CNN NOT FUCKED.... Just yesterday, the FCC turned down a complaint for a dropped F bomb on CNN during convention coverage because... well, duh, the FCC doesn't censor cable... yet. free dounloads psp

Here's the Washington Post's take. free dounloads psp

: ON TIME... A few notes on Time's cover story (not really online) on the indecency kerfluffle:free dounloads psp

: THE SURVEY SAYS... A poll asks, "Should government ban it from TV?" Note that in no case does a majority say yes:
: Violence? 36 percent yes.
: Cursing and sexual language? 41 percent yes.
: Explicit sexual content, such as nudity? 41 percent yes.
: Drug and alcohol abuse? 33 percent yes.
Well bring on the naked, cursing, drunk ninja ladies!free dounloads psp

: OK, then, how about that supposed national consensus of outrate over Janet Jackson's breast? Asked whether they were offended by the incident, only 31 percent said yes. Well, then, were they offended by the Desperate Housewives promotion on Monday Night Football? Only 24 percent said yes. free dounloads psp

Asked whether any of these things were "never suitable" -- bare breasts; frontal nudity; bare buttocks; implied sex, no nudity; same-sex couple kissing; advertising for sexual potency drugs -- none gained a majority. free dounloads psp

: DISNEY IS EVIL... The story drew to my attention the fact that a Disney executive just broke ranks and favored FCC regulation of cable -- because it's preferable (for Disney... to hell with the Constitution and free speech) to the alternative suggestion that cable customers should be able to buy only the channels they want. Says Broacasting & Cable:

Of course, anytime you hear a media company volunteering for tighter government controls, it sets off the old Follow the Money alarm bells. As it happens, some lawmakers are suggesting an alternative to the content restrictions: forcing cable operators to allow “ŕ la carte” channel shopping so that parents can opt not to receive channels they don’t want their kids to see. Mostly wholesome Disney doesn’t have much to fear there. Ah, but ŕ la carte selection would also allow millions of subscribers who don’t like sports but do like cutting expenses to dump ESPN—one of the priciest items on cable’s prix fixe menu.
Disgusting Disney.free dounloads psp

: DAMN, DAMN, DAMN... Time follows around an "analyst" from the so-called Parents Television Council, Kristine Looney [note my restraint], as she catalogues even uses of the word "damn" in a data base covering the naughty bits in 100,000 hours of TV. Naughty includes "every incident of sexual content, violence, profanity, disrepect for authority, and other negative content." free dounloads psp

Disrespect for authority is now indecent?free dounloads psp

: I WISH THEY'D CLEAR OUT OF MY HOUSE... Time says that "almost single-handedly, the PTC has become a national clearinghouse for, an arbiter of, decency." free dounloads psp

Whoa! These bozos appoint themselves to that role and Time swallows it. Even to the FCC, the PTC is not the arbiter of decency; even the FCC turns down many of its prudish yelps. free dounloads psp

: DAY IN COURT... A court test of indecency law and enforcement is long, long overdue. Time says that "industry sources tell Time" that broadcasters are considering a court test case. I thought that was already underway with Viacom's refusal to pay the Janet Jackson tit tax and Fox's decision to fight the record Married by America fine that led to my FOIA (quoted in Time). Maybe they have another case. Good. More = merrier. free dounloads psp

"There are difficulties" that the FCC faces, a broadcast executive tells Time. "One is that extreme [regulatory] positions are going to run into constitutional problems. The second is inconsistent and vague rulings are going to run into contstitutional problems."free dounloads psp

March 22, 2005

Pathetic little troll

: There is a pathetic little troll I banned who is coming into various posts typing "poop" and snickering like the first grader he is. This the guy who has the bad taste to call himself Gandhi. He went overboard once too often. If he had taken his meds and behaved, I might have let him back. But instead, he went on a "poop." So intelligent. So mature. So friggin' pathetic. He is no longer welcome here. Just to the kind of guy I am, I'll link to him here so you can go read his fine prose in his house. And my advice to him: Get a life. But get your meds first. free dounloads psp

: Just Barking Mad uncovers the whole conspiracy. free dounloads psp

: UPDATE: I continue to play wack-a-mole with this little boy with no life. And to answer his questions stupid innuendo: I have no financial relationship whatesoever with anyone he lists (apart from making contributions to SoA... and he doesn't seem to understand that so I'll make it clearer: no one but my employer pays me); I've explained many times that ITM are the friends of one of the early bloggers in Iraq with whom I communicated; I never heard of the other organizations he tinfoil-hats about; and I do still wish this poor, pathetic little troll would get his meds. free dounloads psp

GoogleNews II: What's missing?
:
: Below, I ask you to list questionable/wacky/offensive sites included in GoogleNews. Here, I ask you to nominate sites that are not included but should be. Please leave comments on this post. free dounloads psp

GoogleNews: Whose news?

: Let's start reporting on GoogleNews. As you find questionable sites scraped by Google, please list them in the comments on this post. See post below on Google's nazi site. If Google isn't transparent, let's report on Google. Obviously, we won't all agree on what's questionable but let's use our collective effort and wisdom to judge GoogleNews' judgment. I'm not suggesting that there should be an orthodoxy of news or certification of news, but some of these sites are just ridiculous. free dounloads psp

Case in point:

Geologists in the East and West coasts are busy understanding a new theory that shows possible underground UFO bases all around the world....free dounloads psp

According to this theory, the UFO bases need to be deep under the ground because the UFO crafts need to be close to the mantle of the earth. Servicing of these crafts can be done in that electromagnetic environment only.

Film at 11. free dounloads psp

Antisocial media

: Engadget reports that iPods are banned in a school as antisocial. My son just told me that in his school all the kids bring iPods to lunch but -- get this -- they're not allowed to bring books to lunch. Now, to be reasonable, I'm assuming that's because books are big and clunky and iPods aren't. Time to digitize the textbooks (and lighten those backpacks!). [via InstaPod]free dounloads psp

Schiavo today

: The judge refuses order that Terri Schiavo's feeding tube be reconnected. free dounloads psp

One moral to this story: You can't game the system. After all the grandstanding in Congress and at the White House and on TV news, it still came down to one judge charged with following the law. It's a system and most of the time, it works. If you don't like the outcome, that doesn't mean you can win by gaming the system. free dounloads psp

Version A, Version B (for Bias)

: I hear more rumbling about the Associated Press' announcement that it will issue two leads on stories to its newspaper clients. free dounloads psp

The grumbling comes out of the examples given in the Editor & Publisher story:

Traditionalfree dounloads psp

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) A suicide attacker set off a bomb that tore through a funeral tent jammed with Shiite mourners Thursday, splattering blood and body parts over rows of overturned white plastic chairs. The attack, which killed 47 and wounded more than 100, came as Shiite and Kurdish politicians in Baghdad said they overcame a major stumbling block to forming a new coalition government.free dounloads psp

Optionalfree dounloads psp

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) Yet again, almost as if scripted, a day of hope for a new, democratic Iraq turned into a day of tears as a bloody insurgent attack undercut a political step forward.free dounloads psp

On Thursday, just as Shiite and Kurdish politicians in Baghdad were telling reporters that they overcame a major stumbling block to forming a new coalition government, a suicide attacker set off a bomb that tore through a funeral tent jammed with Shiite mourners in the northern city of Mosul.

And there should, indeed, be grumbling about that: One straight, one overdone and eeyorish, reading into this attack something that's not there. free dounloads psp

It looks as if they need to issue a third version: Version C (for Conservative):

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) Despite a horrendous terrorist attack that killed 47 and injured more than 100 innocent Iraqis in a funeral procession, the nation's march to democracy continues as Shiite and Kurdish politicians in Baghdad said they overcame a major stumbling block to forming a new coalition government.
Pretty good, if I do say so myself. free dounloads psp

That's one problem with this AP plan: Adding writerly atmosphere will add, uh, perspective and that will add complaints. free dounloads psp

But for most news media, I've said that we need more perspective so long as we are more open about it. Not for the AP, though. free dounloads psp

I have a different problem with this plan: It wastes readers' time. free dounloads psp

The problem with too much newspaper writing these days is that the writer shows off his writing for so many paragraphs you can't find what the story is about until well after the jump. It's a game of lead-lead-who-can-find-the-lead? free dounloads psp

Meanwhile, online, we have clearly learned that readers want to find the information they're seeking quickly and directly and they hate whatever gets in their way. That lesson should be learned not only online but also in print: Stop wasting readers' time showing off your writing and get to the point. free dounloads psp

And that is all the more relevant to the stories we're talking about here: The news the AP delivers is -- not to put too fine a point on it -- commodity news. This is the news everyone will have precisely because the AP does such a good job delivering it. free dounloads psp

New organizations spend too much resource redoing that news even though the audience already knows it -- thanks to online, TV, radio, SMS bulletins, blogs... -- and that not only costs money that could be put toward the efforts that make these news organizations uniquely valuable (i.e., reporting and local news), it also tarts up a simple news story and makes it less convenient: It adds leads just like the example above. free dounloads psp

We won't see many of these leads online because the AP is delivering them only to newspaper clients, so it will be hard to compare and contrast here. But I'm sure you'll manage to find a way. free dounloads psp

Between crisis, panic... and opportunity

: The Guardian stitches together a bunch of quotes about American media in crisis:

"It's somewhere between crisis and a panic," says Todd Gitlin, professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University, New York. "The generation that lived through Woodward and Bernstein and Vietnam has almost gone. They had an idea that they could make a difference and that they were a force. It might have been pompous but it was there." ...free dounloads psp

"There is a perception that the media has failed," says Michael Wolff, a media commentator and Vanity Fair columnist. "There is a general understanding that something has gone radically wrong here." It is a feeling coming from both outside the industry and from within. Gitlin was recently invited to a meeting at the Times to discuss how to combat the erosion of confidence and stagnant sales. "There was a real sense of urgency," he says. "They were asking some fundamental questions. It was not a casual exercise."

I think we're moving onto the next phase, having gone through the stages of denial, resistance, and panic. free dounloads psp

Whether at those darned conferences or in conversations with people I know, I now see big media looking -- some eagerly, some desperately -- for ways to embrace the new ways. It's more than a blogs-are-hot fad moment. I'm starting to see a realization that this is about a new relationship with the public, new ways to gather news and information, new ways to involve diverse viewpoints, and -- at long last -- new business models.
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March 21, 2005

Demand Google News transparency

: We're demanding transparency of mainstream news. free dounloads psp

Well, it's high time we get transparency from GoogleNews. free dounloads psp

Instapundit and LGF point to a nazi site -- complete with "love your race" graphics -- that is part of Google News, while mainstream sane blogs are not. free dounloads psp

Enough. free dounloads psp

Google: Release a complete list of your news sources now. And institute a means for questioning those choices and for suggesting other choices now. free dounloads psp

Google: It's bad enough that you won't share information about ad revenue sharing. But not to share information about your means of selecting news sources is inexecusable... in this case, evil. free dounloads psp

: UPDATE: Roger L Simon killed Google ads for two reasons. free dounloads psp

The scariest thing about this...

: ... is that instead of waking up to music or a buzzer like a normal person, Matthew Yglesias wakes up to politics. So he does, indeed, eat, sleep, and dream this stuff. free dounloads psp

: Meanwhile, David Weinberger needs more sleep. free dounloads psp

The illusory political appeal of the Schiavo case

: An ABC poll shows strong opposition to Congressional and Presidential interference in the Schiavo case:

The public, by 63 percent-28 percent, supports the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube, and by a 25-point margin opposes a law mandating federal review of her case. Congress passed such legislation and President Bush signed it early today.free dounloads psp

That legislative action is distinctly unpopular: Not only do 60 percent oppose it, more — 70 percent — call it inappropriate for Congress to get involved in this way. And by a lopsided 67 percent-19 percent, most think the elected officials trying to keep Schiavo alive are doing so more for political advantage than out of concern for her or for the principles involved.free dounloads psp

This ABC News poll also finds that the Schiavo case has prompted an enormous level of personal discussion: Half of Americans say that as a direct result of hearing about this case, they've spoken with friends or family members about what they'd want done if they were in a similar condition. Nearly eight in 10 would not want to be kept alive.free dounloads psp

In addition to the majority, the intensity of public sentiment is also on the side of Schiavo's husband, who has fought successfully in the Florida courts to remove her feeding tube. And intensity runs especially strongly against congressional involvement.free dounloads psp

Included among the 63 percent who support removing the feeding tube are 42 percent who "strongly" support it — twice as many as strongly oppose it. And among the 70 percent who call congressional intervention inappropriate are 58 percent who hold that view strongly — an especially high level of strong opinion.free dounloads psp

Views on this issue are informed more by ideological and religious views than by political partisanship. Republicans overall look much like Democrats and independents in their opinions.free dounloads psp

But two core Republican groups — conservatives and evangelical Protestants — are more divided: Fifty-four percent of conservatives support removal of Schiavo's feeding tube, compared with seven in 10 moderates and liberals. And evangelical Protestants divide about evenly — 46 percent are in favor of removing the tube, 44 percent opposed. Among non-evangelical Protestants, 77 percent are in favor — a huge division between evangelical and mainline Protestants.free dounloads psp

Conservatives and evangelicals also are more likely to support federal intervention in the case, although it doesn't reach a majority in either group. Indeed, conservative Republicans oppose involving the federal courts, by 57 percent-41 percent.

[via Joe Gandelman]free dounloads psp

Turning the tide in Iraq

: Note well that The New York Times noted on its front page a tide turning against the insurgents in Iraq. John Burns writes:

In the first 18 months of the fighting, the insurgents mostly outmaneuvered the Americans along Haifa Street, showing they could carry the war to the capital's core with something approaching impunity.free dounloads psp

But American officers say there have been signs that the tide may be shifting. On Haifa Street, at least, insurgents are attacking in smaller numbers, and with less intensity; mortar attacks into the Green Zone have diminished sharply; major raids have uncovered large weapons caches; and some rebel leaders have been arrested or killed.free dounloads psp

American military engineers, frustrated elsewhere by insurgent attacks, are moving ahead along Haifa Street with a $20 million program to improve electricity, sewer and other utilities. So far, none of the work sites have been attacked, although a local Shiite leader who vocally supported the American projects was assassinated on his doorstep in January.free dounloads psp

But the change American commanders see as more promising than any other here is the deployment of large numbers of Iraqi troops.

The story is well-reported, getting down to details of tactics fighting insurgents in this one place. free dounloads psp

But this is a trend we've been hearing elsewhere. Last week on MSNBC, the military analyst made a convincing case with numbers for the declining activities of the insurgents.
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Blogvision

: USA Today features the blog segment on CNN's Inside Politics and that's good. I'm delighted that CNN has given bloging a regular berth on the air. And let's also note that Jon Klein, the head of the network, does, indeed, like and respect blogs. free dounloads psp

I think they also should have noted the constant blog segments on MSNBC since last year -- now aggressively presented on Connected -- plus blog-happy TV personalities such as CNBC's Larry Kudlow.free dounloads psp

It's odd, by the way, that Fox is not a leader in blogs. They were early on -- online. Remember that Glenn Reynolds blogged for them until the internal booster left and he switched to MSNBC.com. You'd think that blogs would be perfect for Fox: independent (and, yes, often conservative) voices and inexpensive programming; a great fit. free dounloads psp

: MORE: Andrew Tyndall adds in the comments:

Fox News Channel made news last year in all the publicity around Outfoxed about how disciplined its top-down message-of-the-day operation was at presenting a unified line across all dayparts. Although I personally was not as outraged as others about the instructions for framing stories that those memos contained, they were certainly no evidence of love for "independence" at FNC. A diverse panel of independent bloggers would be anathema to FNC's renowned message discipline.
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More Schiavo

: See Mark Kleiman on the irony of other cases involving the Texas Futile Care Law signed by Gov. George W. Bush himself. free dounloads psp

: Matthew Yglesias sends us to a good post by Rivka on the medical claims in the case; see another on the ethical issues. And Rivka recommends a post by Hilzoy, which includes a picture of a scan of Terri Schiavo's brain. free dounloads psp

: Barbara O'Brien says (relevant to the economic points I made below):

We need a list of politicians and commentators, including bloggers, who have been calling for cuts in Medicaid but who now have joined in the "save Terri Schiavo" cult. These people need to be challenged to take her off Medicaid and pay for her maintenance themselves.
[via Kevin Drum]free dounloads psp

: My views today here. free dounloads psp

: Below, I said that the connection would not be made between this case and the death penalty. But right now on MSNBC's Connected, Sister Helen Prejean talks about the Catholic church coming out strongly against the death penalty. free dounloads psp

Suncasts

: Joe Territo makes a very good suggestion: podcasts of congressional debate. free dounloads psp

A soldier's tales

: Just got email sending me to a pretty amazing blog by a soldier in Baghdad. I now see that the email came from that soldier. Glad he sent it. Just to take one post as an example, the bloggers writes about helping a soldier under his command with an SAT question and the soldier comes back in later to ask an uncomfortable question:

What SPC Frances said as he sheepishly stood before my desk staring at the floor was “Sir, you’re like, ummmm, you know, really smart. And you’re doing this when you could ummmm, you know, so many other things. Don’t you wish you were, ummm doing something better?”. free dounloads psp

The question is one I’ve heard from several well meaning individuals, but never, ever from a soldier.... The first deadly lie is that soldiers are stupid. The second is that the Army is a dumping ground for people with no other options....free dounloads psp

...I told him about how part of my heart chipped off when I looked into a mass grave in Bosnia. How for days after my dreams were clouded with an image of the very earth opening a yawning pit to engulf the dead, only to choke on their numbers and leave them on the surface half swallowed.... And the story that did not need telling, the story of our ongoing struggle with insurgents who revel in the misery and deaths they cause our forces and the Iraqis.free dounloads psp

...I told SPC Frances to close his eyes and I would tell him why. As he closed his eyes I told him to imagine his young wife, his beautiful infant daughter and the future he wanted for them. He paused a moment and a smile slowly creased his face. As he looked up I caught his eyes and told him a simple truth. I told him that the thin line that separates the two realities isn’t a line on a map or the signature block on a document filled with hollow proclamations. The dividing line between the two kingdoms is a long line of soldiers. And that is why I’m proud to call myself a soldier. Its not about a lack of options, or the size of my paycheck. Its about what kind of world I want to leave for my children if I am lucky enough to be a father.

free dounloads psp

Going tab

: The New York Times reports today on the switch to tabloid just announced for The Jersey Journal, the paper published out of the building where I work most days. free dounloads psp

Apart from sometimes bragging about some bloggy things happening at my day job or asking questions of you all for a project, I try to make a point of not getting into discussions of company policy on this blog because it's a clear conflict; apart from the sport of watching me tie my tongue in knots, it wouldn't be of much value. That, by the way, is why I disagree with Debbie Weil and Rick Bruner when they ding Boeing and GM executive bloggers for not immediately gabbing about public controversies in their companies. Especially in public companies where their words could have an impact on stock prices, there is only so much they are allowed to say and they should not try to use their individual platforms to set company policy. free dounloads psp

Anyway, that's not the point of this post. Neither is the tabbing of the Jersey Journal, which I'm delighted to see happen (the prototype is great and the format is perfect for that paper). free dounloads psp

Now, at last, I'll start getting to the point: The Times story is written by Kit Seelye, a good reporter on the media beat whom I read all the time, and when she called there was a moment's awkwardness, for it was a story cowritten by her that set me off in my, shall we say, theatrical complaint about some Times' coverage of bloggers, which led to the email exchange with Times Executive Editor Bill Keller. So now she was calling on a story regarding my day job, which presented an interesting new conflict in the double life of MediaMan and BlogBoy. free dounloads psp

She was extremely nice, saying that they tried to get the essence of my quote. I rather fell over myself to be cordial back just to get quickly past that awkwardness. (And, no being nice wasn't going to get me treated better in the story; that is the advantage of dealing with professional, dispassionate reporters; they will most likely fall over themselves to be fair in such circumstances.) And the truth is that I have no problem with the reporters who wrote that story and I frequently link to and quote their work; I did have a problem with that story and, Lord knows, I had my say. free dounloads psp

It occurred to me that this is like being a critic: I absolutely love some shows by David Kelly and I don't like others and neither judgment has anything to do with Kelly himself but only with his work and my individual view of it. It's not personal. As a critic though, I never met Kelly and for all these reasons didn't want to; I wanted to maintain some separation and remain just a member of the audience, not a would be friend. But in this small world, we bloggers could very well run into folks we write or snark about (at one conference or another) and though that can cause a moment's awkwardness, we still should say what we think. Should I say it less theatrically sometimes? Sometimes, yes. free dounloads psp

But that's still not the point. Here, at long, long last is the point: Blogging is also not like being a critic because most of our criticism tends to be negative, at least when it comes to the press. When I was a TV critic, I wrote about shows I liked and shows I didn't and I argued that the more valuable reviews for my readers were the positive ones (who wants to waste time on a piece of junk?). That's why I instituted the grades that became Entertainment Weekly's critical conceit, so readers woudn't have to waste their time figuring out what we thought of a "D" show. free dounloads psp

In this new intersection of citizens' and professional media, I think it would be valuable to give positive reviews, too. Of course, we often do that simply by linking to a good story. But when we write about the press and how the job of the press is done, it's usually to find fault. That is valuable, I believe, and it should continue to give ballast to the hot-air balloon that the press has become. But it's also important to value good reporting, or many fear we'll start to lose it. free dounloads psp

Will I do that? I have no idea. I'm not taking a pledge for I'll probably fall down on it. But as I thought about this analogy of blogger to critic, it made me think that it's also important to recognize good work and to say it more often.free dounloads psp

There: That was my point. And I did a damned bad job of getting to it. I give myself a D. I'm going to go to a mirror and rant at me now. free dounloads psp

: Oh, and by the way, I think I should be very proud to have gotten the word "cooties" into the New York Times. free dounloads psp

How news spreads... now

: Doc has neat stats on how the news of Yahoo's purchase of Flickr spread on the internet vs. MSM:

Technorati finds 1853 yahoo flickr results, mostly about Yahoo buying Flickr. Google Web finds 350,000 results, starting with old reports, mostly on blogs, of rumors that Yahoo might buy Flickr. Google News finds 22 results, of which only this blogcritics item has current news on the matter. That's at 5pm, Mountain time, today. [Sunday]


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Citizens' media finds a home

: This is a big deal: OurMedia.org has launched as a home for citizens' media. This matters mostly because distributing audio and video you create can cost you a fortune in bandwidth. Now here's a place to put it. I don't think this is about being a portal to citizens' media; the entire point of this new world is that it's distributed. But it allows more people to serve more stuff. I've watched some videos; some are good and, of course, some are crap: nature of the beast. What will make this work, of course, will be the links to individual pieces from weblogs and news sites. free dounloads psp

Congratulations to J.D. Lassica, Marc Canter, et al for making this happen. It is a very good thing. free dounloads psp

: LATER: Mostly Muppet says:

“Our media” should be fully distributed using a leader and innovator in P2P software - BitTorrent. Hosting large multimedia files on a web server is so Web 1.0.
free dounloads psp

Schiavo fallout

: As Congress and the President rushed into their exploitation of Terri Schiavo, they set off a bomb that will have considerable fallout, I think:free dounloads psp

: Without incredibly explicit instructions directly from the patient -- and even with explicit instructions from the spouse or guardian -- I can see doctors and hospitals refusing to take people off life-support for fear that some family member can come forward and start suing. free dounloads psp

: Not that moneyu should be a factor in matters of life and death -- though, of course, it is in the insurance industry -- but we are going to end up with who-knows-how-many-more vegetative patients who will be kept alive out of fear of litigation and the high cost of maintaining them will fall to the people through insurance and taxes. free dounloads psp

: We now have the federal government -- and not just the federal goverment but both houses of Congress and the President himself -- inserting themselves into an individual medical, legal, family dispute. Watch the avalanche of individual cases that will now fall upon Washington: You did it for Terri, why not for my cousin?free dounloads psp

: The Republicans set some odd precedents in matters of state's rights and government interference in individuals' lives that may come back to haunt them. free dounloads psp

: You can bet there will be attempts to extend what happened last night as a principle of life into the debate over abortion. free dounloads psp

: You can bet you will not see attempts to extend this principle into the debate over the death penalty, however. free dounloads psp

: You will see Terri Schiavo continue to be used as a political hostage as any Democrat who dared question the wisdom and legality of this action will be accused by opponents in the next election as being against life. free dounloads psp

What else?free dounloads psp

This is not the result of deliberative government and the rule of law. This is the result of the fog of media and cynical politics. free dounloads psp

: MORE: I also believe that this will have an indirect impact on the issues surrounding right-to-die and euthenasia. I do agree that starving a person to death -- or choking them by withdrawing a resperator -- is potentially cruel (the arguments about whether a person without a brain feels pain are, of course, inconclusive). I would be scared of agreeing to die that way. But if I were eased into death with drugs, that might be a different matter. [Note to the future: Do not take this as my living will. I'm not sure yet.] But to ease me into death with drugs -- in other words, to kill me with medication -- is illegal in all states but Oregon. And so we are forced to choose what certainly seems to be a crueler means of ending life. It's not wrong to draw the parallel many have (one commenter on this post, one blogger I quoted on MSNBC last week) to death-penalty treatment: We also cannot be sure whether they suffer (there is debate about that) but even if they do, it is for a far, far shorter time than starving someone to death or choking them (which is terribly frightening to me). So more fallout of this case -- quite unintended by those who set off the bomb -- could be more liberalization of laws regarding medically assisted death. Or put it this way: If I wrote my living will with explicit instructions [again: I'm not going that yet] saying that I would want life support removed but only with sufficient narcotics to cause death, what would doctors and courts do then? free dounloads psp

: Joshua Claybourn discusses the constitutionality of the legislation just signed. Here's a link to the Senate bill. See also Joe Gandelman's analysis of the politics.free dounloads psp

The star Bittorrent made

: By now the story is everywhere: Fiona Apple's unreleased album is spreading all over the internet thanks to Bittorrent (I just downloaded it and what I've heard so far is good). Sony wouldn't release the album but I wouldn't be surprised if they did now. free dounloads psp

Cuff 'im

: We're wasting an ankle bracelet on Martha Stewart.free dounloads psp

How much better it would be if we slapped that ankle bracelet on a sex offender. free dounloads psp

The slime who confessed to kidnapping and murdering Jessica Lunsford was a sex offender who was not where he was registered; he was across the street from the poor little girl and that's where he killed her. free dounloads psp

Registration, unfortunately, is not enough. Something more needs to be done. So shy shouldn't sex offenders be cuffed with electronic bracelets and tracked for the rest of their lives? free dounloads psp

March 20, 2005

Another popular movement for freedom

: Rebecca MacKinnon reports that Chinese students are protesting online censorship.free dounloads psp

Yahoo buys Flickr

: The news is on Flickr's blog. Discussion here, where honcho Caterina Fake explains:

So you're asking: why are you being acquired? Why Yahoo?free dounloads psp

We thought about lots of ways to keep Flickr going, growing, and
getting better. We considered taking VC money, more angel
investment, bootstrapping it and selling.free dounloads psp

When Yahoo first approached us eons ago, we were pretty
skeptical. But after meeting the people on the Yahoo team and
getting a picture of where they were going, we got religion.
Maybe that's too strong. We realized we were all eating at the
same church potluck.free dounloads psp

The things that were important to us were: being open, building
innovative stuff and kicking ass. Were these people OUR people?
Yes. See the stuff Yahoo's announced recently (including, of
course,this)? They're evolving in really interesting ways --
and from our look inside, we know know that there's a lot more
coming.free dounloads psp

Yahoo won't be the Yahoo you've come to take for granted.
Competition (with that other company with two O's in its name)
has done great things for Yahoo. Dude.

I wonder whether this could be the antibubble: rather than going for the next round of financing and the IPO, they sought haven in a big (still kinda new) company with benfits, adminstration, and cool hats. I think that bodes well for other smart start-ups: It's no longer just about an exit strategy. It's about a safety strategy. And that will work only if the acquiring company is smart enough to let the acquired company grow: Everything AOL bought disappeared. Everything the old Yahoo bought (see: Broadcast.com and the billions that allowed Mark Cuban to become an obnoxious rich man) disappeared. But when Google bought Blogger, it got better. Can happen. Let's hope. free dounloads psp

: More from Jeremy Zowodny and Jeff Clavier. free dounloads psp

: LATER: Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Barry Diller is buying fifth-rank search-engine ASK for $2 billion. free dounloads psp

: On Flickr and Yaho, Dave Winr says it should have been the other way around. free dounloads psp

Skype goes every-which-way

: Skype just added Skype-In numbers: You get a phone number so anyone can call you on your PC. It costs 30 Euros a year. Skype already had Skype-Out, allowing you to call any phone. And, of course, Skype is free PC to PC. free dounloads psp

I can't wait for Skype video. free dounloads psp

Help Jay Rosen

: If anybody out there is an Economist suscriber (do I hang in such a tony crowd), Jay Rosen needs to see the text from this story: The government's “news” broadcasts. Can you help him? (I let my subscription lapse, sadly.) His email is listed here.
Thanks. Mission accomplished. free dounloads psp

Critical mass

: Rick Bruner discovers that Blogspot blogs alone get more traffic than NYTimes.com (according to the iffy Alexa). Makes the About.com purchase make more sense, eh?free dounloads psp

Boys vs. Girls is so third grade

: Maureen Dowd can't get out of the playground. free dounloads psp

Annan's new U.N.?

: Kofi Annan's plan to reform the U.N. here. Good luck. I still think we'd be better off shifting some resource and authority to a concil of world democracies. free dounloads psp

Bloggers are journalists under FOIA

: Phil Yanov beat me to hearing this week's On The Media and heard this bit of good sense:

On The Media reported in an interview with GOP Senator John Cornyn that bloggers, just like mainstream journalists, would have fees waived under the new Faster FOIA (Freedom of Information Act.) The Senator says "It is not government's responsibility to try to decide who is and who is not [a qualified journalist.]" He continued "They, as citizen activists ... need to be able to get access to information as well."
: See also the Rocky Mountain News arguing that bloggers are journalists who deserve shield-law protection:
Count us among the growing legions who embrace the notion that Web bloggers deserve the same shield-law protections accorded to other journalists. But a California case has reminded us just how vulnerable Colorado journalists are whose work appears on the Internet.
We should be seeing news organizations across the country making exactly the same argument. We're waiting...[via Steve Rubel]free dounloads psp

Help the Afghan blogger

: The first Afghan blogger, Waheed, continues to post up a storm. The Australian coworker who convinced him to start the blog, Paul Edwards, inserts a post asking for help on behalf of Waheed:

Waheed really needs a laptop and a digital camera, but he's too shy to ask for it. Two people offered a digital camera, but they didn't provide an email contact. If you have either of these two items available, could you please send an email to Waheed. The items can be posted to a US address (which will be provided) which will get through to Waheed's US boss in the military. Also, PayPal has been added to the account, thanks to Tom Villars. It costs Waheed US$3/hour to access the internet...
Go to it. free dounloads psp

News meets the people

: When I do those MSNBC what's-on-the-blogs gigs, I try to find new voices and new names because I think that's the point: This should be about finding the authentic voice of the people and in this medium, that means the voices of many people. (See a few of the links from Friday below.) free dounloads psp

That is why I'm glad to see MSNBC and CNN quoting bloggers. That is my response to the quota counters. And that is my response, too, to Chris Nolan, who wonders why I bother to appear on big media when I am so triumphal about small media. One answer to her question is obvious: Ego -- raging, unquenchable ego. free dounloads psp

But the other answer is that what fascinates me and encourages me about the future of news is seeing these media intersect: the reporting resources -- and, yes, megaphone voice -- of big media meets the many small but real voices of the people in blogs, and together I hope they can give us a better view of not only the news but also of news the public cares about. free dounloads psp

But there are risks. In the short time available to get ready for a news segment, I find blogs commenting on the story du jour via Technorati and Pubsub and I try to find those that are articulate and seem to have some history and links. free dounloads psp

On one of the segments Friday, they found and interviewed a blogger I hadn't seen who'd been writing about the Shiavo case and that seemed fine until, at the end of it, he said that people were saying on his blog that as Terri's feeding tube was taken out, she suddenly started talking and begging them to stop. Uh, well, that's hardly news and obviously not fact; it's downright nutty. But here it comes on a news show. free dounloads psp

And that's the risk: You could argue that the reputations of both the news network and bloggers are now touched by this guy. But I think the risk is worthwhile. For I believe the public has the good sense to judge the voice of the occasional loopy blogger for what it is. It's no different, really, from going out for random man-on-the-street interviews, or picking up the phone on talk radio: Some people are worth listening to, others aren't. And if you quote blogs, you can quote that which makes sense; if you interview bloggers, you may hit the occasional one who doesn't make sense once he opens his mouth. That's life. It's worth the risk to hear new voices, new viewpoints. free dounloads psp

News meets entertainment

: Friday afternoon, I was interviewed via blogcast by MSNBC's Contessa Brewer and then, because of technical burps, I came into the studio and saw her just as she ended her shift. We said hello and I got a chance to tell her what a good job she is doing at the network's news anchor on its Imus broadcasts from Secaucus. It's not easy, I said. She has to deliver the news with a straight news face and also be part of the "fun" of Imus. She doesn't have the Robin Quivers option: She can't be one of the boys on Stern because she has to still be a news network anchor. Neither can she play the ramrod-straight newsperson, because then Imus et al would treat her like a stuck-up stick-in-the-mud. She has to balance the two and though I don't watch Imus much (being a Stern man) I have to say that I'm impressed at how she does balance it. So I said so. free dounloads psp

So much for ayatollah.blogspot.com

: Blogs are not Islamic. [via Nick Denton]free dounloads psp

Iraq: Two years on ... in a blog

: Some reflection on the two years since the war began from Democracy in Iraq (whose author had to take time off after his cousin was killed in the largest terrorist bombing):

It has been now two years since the United States, UK and other countries invaded our nation. It has been two years since Iraqis have had to live with daily violent attacks and rampant terrorism. It has been two years since our nation began being turned upside down. It has been two years since the road to democracy began.free dounloads psp

It has been a very hard two years. So many people have died, so much has been destroyed, so many drops of tears and blood have been shed, so many have been robbed of loved ones, and so many words have been spoken about Iraq, it's future, and this war....free dounloads psp

Two years is about 730 days. In those days what have I seen. My eyes have seen more than I had ever hoped, more blood, more death and more pain, then I ever imagined or hoped I would have seen.free dounloads psp

In those days I have seen the worst of humanity, the animal that lives in all humanity, the ability of humanity to destroy at will others, and rob the life given to others by God almight himself. free dounloads psp

So you ask me, Husayn, was it worth it. What have you gotten? What has Iraq acheived? These are questions I get a lot....free dounloads psp

Now I answer you, I answer you on behalf of myself, and my countrymen. I dont care what your news tells you, what your television and newspapers say, this is how we feel. Despite all that has happened. Despite all the hurt, the pain, blood, sweat and tears. These two years have given us hope we never had....free dounloads psp

Iraqis see the finish line, the finish line of freedom and democracy and a functioning nation. We can smell it, taste it, and like a sprinter, one who has broken his legs, but who has a heart full of passion, we will crawl there no matter what the cost. No matter what we must endure, we have realized what we can become, and that is the biggest result of the last two years....free dounloads psp

March 19, 2005

The Nobel

: Tom Friedman pushes Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for the Nobel Peace Price. Here is Iraqi blogger Riverbend's take on the same notion. free dounloads psp

Libertarian liberation (on the Schiavo case)

: On last night's Connected on MSNBC in the segment about blogs and the Schiavo case, I noted that liberals hadn't had much to say until Congress and Bush invaded and politicized the case (see Kevin Drum on a "nauseating ...abuse of Congressional power," and individ and Dude Abides: "Here we have another instance of our President taking a "complex issue" and boiling it down to black and white. Did we elect him President, or did we elect him Moralist?"). On the inappropriateness of Congress' politicizing the matter, Ron Reagan and Monica Crowley agreed (as did I). free dounloads psp

I also said that libertarians were siding with Michael Schiavo because they oppose government imposing unwanted treatment on us; I mentioned Samizdata and Virginia Postrel (who'd been on the network saying this shortly before I was on). Monica asked whether this was causing a split in the red-state blogs. free dounloads psp

I replied that this case will prove libertarians' argument that they're not conservatives; they're their own thing. free dounloads psp

: Other links from all the MSNBC segments:
: Catscape saying that Scott Petersen will have a more merciful death (and he emailed me today wondering how the heck I had found him... I replied: Technorati and Pubsub).
: Wesley J Smith saying that it has been hard to kill Terri Schiavo because the videos of her on the internet humanized her.
: RepublicanUnionGuy wishing President Bush could issue an executive order sparing her life; if Clinton could pardon felons, he asks, can't Bush do this? And he adds: "I thought I married badly."
: La Shawn Barber wishing for a blogger swarm to somehow save Schiavo.
: Musing Minds asking: "What is the standard of proof required to ends someone's life? What should it be? In the criminal context it's "beyond a reasonable doubt".... What is the weighty factor that sits opposite life on the scale of justice? What is the harm in keeping her alive?"
: Ace of Spades saying "this is not the typical right-to-die case."
: Mansfield Fox wishing for a stay from the Supreme Court or for Jeb Bush to send in the National Guard (!). free dounloads psp

: My stand on Schiavo, by the way: I agree with the liberal bloggers that Congress is way out of line. I agree with the libertarian bloggers that this has long been settled in the law and in the courts. free dounloads psp

Personally, I'm still not sure where I would stand for myself. I do believe that we have the right not to have treatment. I do believe that the law is clear giving a spouse the right to decide in a case where clear instructions are not left. But on a medical level, I do think it's cruel to starve a person but the answer is not, I think, to keep them alive in a vegetative state forever but instead to bring death quickly and mercifully with narcotics. free dounloads psp

: UPDATE: The evening news just said that Congress is trying to keep her alive to push this to the federal courts. Congress was out of line and is now even further out of line. free dounloads psp

: LATER: Tom Watson says:

Tom DeLay needs to keep Terri Schiavo alive in the worst way, because her tragic plight is a political feeding tube for his comatose, scandal-ridden career.
Jim Wolcott says:
Just as bad is the almost pornographic glee with which ghouls like Dan Burton and Bill Frist and Peggy Noonan insist that Schiavo is a conscious being because she smiles and responds. They're treating this poor woman as if she were their personal pet rock. I suprised Peggy hasn't urged canonization for Terri, to declare her the first martyred saint of euthanasia.free dounloads psp

One of the side-effects of the 2004 election revealed by this despicable exploitative schmaltzfest is that the media has to tippytoe around making any disparaging remarks about religious fervor and its pathologies.

(By the way, in that same post, Wolcott proudly wears the mantle of Eeyore.) free dounloads psp

'News itself rules the kingdom now'

: The Wall Street Journal's Dan Henninger notes the end of the anchor era:

For all the pious right-mindedness that gushed out of the three networks, Barbara Walters and Lesley Stahl never had a snowball's chance of sitting in those anchor chairs, while now most of cable's anchors seem to be women.
I was just thinking that. On cable news -- especially on MSNBC -- men are in the minority. For those keeping count... Dan also says:
This week, when grand images poured out of Lebanon of a million people massed against an occupier, it was reported by whichever cable anchor was on shift that hour. News itself rules the kingdom now, so there's no longer much call for an Anchorman Chronicles. Goodnight, Peter. Goodnight, Tom. Goodnight, Dan.
free dounloads psp

Make them follow the money

: After I posted about the Advance Democracy bill, I kept thinking that we're not using the economic power of the developed world in the right way to spread democracy and freedom. free dounloads psp

Simply put: We should be rewarding countries that are democracies and withholding those rewards from countries that are not. free dounloads psp

Now here's CNBC's Larry Kudlow on the same topic (my emphasis):

There’s no question Paul Wolfowitz would make a fine World Bank president. But let’s be clear: the issues confronting the Bank are financial and economic in nature. Crucially, the Bank has to quit making loans to third world countries with totalitarian leaders who steal the money and never undertake appropriate reforms. New steel mills and mining factories will only work within the context of a free-market environment that emphasizes private property laws and other conditionality requirements, such as tax, regulatory, and trade liberalization. Bank lending policies must emphasize capitalist conditionality. And hopefully Mr. Wolfowitz will ask why the Bank should make loans to dictators and despots. In other words, freedom and democracy should be a condition of bank aid. Bank policies should be consistent with Mr. Bush’s broader pro-democracy and pro-freedom foreign policy vision....
: Still catching up.... See also Kudlow's post applauding the Ebbers jury:
Their conviction of Mr. Ebbers was a great victory for investors and the general public. The Ebber’s jury contributed to a new era of rising standards for corporate ethics....free dounloads psp

The dumbo defense is finito.

free dounloads psp

Dinosaur roars

: Agence France Presse filed suit against Google News for "using" its content. Now old-media of them. New rule in life: If you're not in Google, you're not news. free dounloads psp

Blog on stage

: Riverbend, the Iraqi blog, is a play and The Times reviews it... lukewarmly. The problem isn't the opinions (of course). What the critic complains about is the staging:

While Riverbend has a fascinating voice, this production, adapted by Kimberly I. Kefgen and Loren Ingrid Noveck, never makes the case for her blog as a piece of drama. What is lost is the sense of one singular, idiosyncratic personality, which, of course, is exactly what emerges so vividly from the blog. Instead of building a character, the show includes readings of her words from three women and one man, which adds to the muddled feel.free dounloads psp

When not speaking, the actors pace in a triangle or perform synchronized gestures that make them look like backup singers to a 1960's pop band.

: The Times notes that this is a new form: the blog play. And yes, I imagine that one or more people reciting a blog is not going to be compelling. For that misses the essence of blogging: conversation. How much better it would be to hear multiple voices -- and multiple viewpoints -- from the Baghdad bloggers: how they see the same scenes differently, how they disagree with each other, and how they link to each other. free dounloads psp

: I also wonder whether the producers are paying Riverbend and, if so, whether they have contacted her and have confirmation that she is in Baghdad. free dounloads psp

: See also Flickr photos here. free dounloads psp

: And from the comments, I learn that she has a book coming from the Feminist Press. free dounloads psp

Podcasts grow like dandelions

: Newsweek has a podcast. So does Brian Lehrer's show.free dounloads psp

One complaint -- nay, suggestion -- for Lehrer: Don't JUST put up podcasts; also put up MP3s so we can download any show without necessarily subscribing to a podcast feed. Please. free dounloads psp

The public's right to know meets the public's right to inform

: Glenn Reynolds is right: This is a stirring defense of citizens' journalism:

Whether one has journalistic protections should depend less on job title and more on function. Anyone, like Mr. Ciarelli, who gathers news on a subject of public interest and disseminates it to a waiting audience is entitled to the protection of a journalist. ThinkSecret has 2.5 million to 5 million page views a month.free dounloads psp

A few years ago, there was an absurd debate about whether online reporters should have the same status as print reporters. The argument about bloggers will seem as frivolous - and irrelevant - in a few years.free dounloads psp

Already, bloggers have played a key role in a number of important news stories, including Sen. Trent Lott's racist remarks at Sen. Strom Thurmond's birthday, CBS's flawed report on the president's military record and Eason Jordan's resignation as a CNN vice president for briefly suggesting U.S. soldiers might have targeted journalists.free dounloads psp

The democratization of the news media through the blogosphere is the inevitable product of technological development. The principle of the public's right to know doesn't depend on who is gathering the news. The American people are entitled to read and hear all of the information that enterprising newshounds, including bloggers, legally can pry from the clutches of corporate and government officials.

I've been saying lately that what's interesting about media today is the content consumption has crossed with content creation (the iPod playlist you create to listen is the radio station you've created to broadcast). free dounloads psp

This principle must be reflected in the law:free dounloads psp

The public's right to know meets the public's right to inform.free dounloads psp

Iraq: Two years on

: In the two years since the Iraq war, we have indeed seen the winds of freedom begin to, what?, waft through the Middle East. free dounloads psp

It's fair to wonder whether those wisps would be a windstorm if some things had happened differently in Iraq: If we had maintained security there... If we had quashed the insurgency before it began with greater force while we were still at war... If fewer Iraqis and American soldiers had died... If, as a result of living in security, we could have worked to rebuild the country's infrastructure... If we had been able to start buildig the nation's economy as well... If the terrorists there had not been able to frighten and intimidate anyone from voting.... If they at least had electricituy 24 hours a day... If we had not tortured -- and murdered -- Iraqi prisoners... free dounloads psp

If all that had happened, would we see other citizenries in other nations embloldened as those have been in Iraq and Afghanistan to vote, in Lebanon to rise up and demand self-determination? Would we have seen more popular movements take on the courage to stand up not only to tyrants but also to terrorists as we have seen with the Lebanese dare to Hizbullah and the voters' dares in Afghanistan and Iraq to the thugs who would have stopped their elections? Would we have seen more steps, abeit baby ones, toward democracy such as we've seen in Palestine, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia? Would we have seen other, larger steps toward democracy from dictators backed against the wall by their people? Would Americans be more united in the humanitarian cause of nurturing freedom in the world? Would our on-and-off allies in Europe be eager to help?free dounloads psp

Fair questions, all. Answers, of course, exist for none. free dounloads psp

I wish things had gone better in Iraq; who wouldn't? Others wish the war had not happened, of course. But not me. I believe the world is a better place without Saddam Hussein in power. I certainly believe the world is a better place with democracy and self-determination and popular movements taking hold in the Middle East. And, yes, I believe that in the long run, the world will, indeed, become a safer place. free dounloads psp

That is my view, two years on.free dounloads psp

: The New York Times editorial page had a quite different view, of course. free dounloads psp

It is an exercise in Eeyorism. The editorial, of course, complains about WMDs as a rationale for war (it never was mine). It reluctantly ackowledges that the real reason may, indeed, have been installing democracy in the Middle East (the one Tom Friedman so often articulated only a page away): "...overthrowing Saddam Hussein would shake up the hidebound, undemocratic regimes in the Middle East and free the natural democratic impulses of Arab and Islamic people. This rationale may still hold up. Iraqi and Afghani voters marching stolidly to the polls was by far the most hopeful image in the past two years." But it qualifies even that, arguing that Iraq isn't directly related to the positive events in Lebanon and Palestine. I'd argue with that. But having made that qualification, it comes back, heels dragging, to concede: "With all that said, even the fiercest critic of George Bush's foreign policy would be insane not to want these signs of hope to take root. That would not excuse the waging of an unnecessary war on false pretences, but it could change the course of modern history." free dounloads psp

Well, however reluctantly, they did acknowledge that good came of the war. Pulling teeth out with your bare fingers would be easier. free dounloads psp

There's a lot more from that perspective, under the dark cloud. But this is what struck me:

The Enduring Principles
Like a great many Americans and most Europeans, this page opposed the invasion of Iraq. Our reasons seem as good now as they did then. Most important is our belief that the United States cannot work in isolation from the rest of the world. There are too many problems, from global warming to nuclear proliferation, which can be solved only if the major powers collaborate. Americans need both the counsel and restraint of other world leaders. The White House has almost unthinkable power, and the rest of the globe has the right to take a profound interest in making sure it is exercised wisely.
No, making nice with France is not the real lesson, "The Enduring Principles."free dounloads psp

The enduring principles of Iraq and Afganistan are these: free dounloads psp

People want to be free.free dounloads psp

Democracy is a natural right.free dounloads psp

Given the slightest chance to grab freedom and self-determination themselves, any people will do that. free dounloads psp

The greatest gift we can give them is that chance.
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Blogcast help

: What alternatives for videoconferencing from a PC can you all suggest? free dounloads psp

To blogcast out on MSNBC, we have been using Microsoft's instant messenger: It's easy and works quite well... when it works. Yesterday, minutes before I was to go on air, we couldn't get the video connection to work. At first, I thought it was because I had the Logitech camera software up (that will cause conflict); but even after rebooting, the video connection kept dropping. They had to delay the segment while MSNBC's amazing production whiz, Anthony, and I switched to the antiquated Microsoft NetMeeting and it worked, though the quality isn't as good. I don't know what cause the IM problem; we suspect it was IM service itself. And we do have a backup in NetMeeting. free dounloads psp

But I have to think there are better backups (besides buying Macs for everyone in the world). Any suggestions? Thanks. free dounloads psp

It's an addiction

: I've been suffering from blogging withdrawl. The symptoms aren't pretty. free dounloads psp

Avocation --> Vocation

: Steve Rubel cleverly puts in a search for jobs involving blogging. He finds lots. free dounloads psp

March 18, 2005

Whereabouts

: Been in meetings and other stuff all day. Will be back blogging on the other side of dinner. It's Friday. That's pizza night!free dounloads psp

Numbers

: What with all the heated talk about whether there are enough women on op-ed pages and in blogs -- and precisely how many is enough, by the way? -- Chris Geidner, the law dork, looks at the shelf and finds few books by women. This could go on all day -- every medium imaginable doesn't pass one test or another. free dounloads psp

But why are race and sex the only tests? Once upon a time in America, wouldn't the test have been whether there are "enough" Irish or Italians or Germans or Poles or Catholics or Jews? These days, shouldn't other tests be whether there are "enough" gays or lesbians or rich or poor or suburbanites or urbanites or educated or uneducated or disabled or addicted or divorced or immigrant or Muslim or Hindu or Asian or Hispanic or homeless or fat or... free dounloads psp

I am reminded of Soledad O'Brien interviewing Vin Diesel sometime ago on Today and how together they reveled in being multicultural. They defied us to label and pigeonhole and count them in one column or another: is Soledad black or Hispanic or Irish or what? They are the melting pot. They are America. No, actually, they simply are what they are. They are individuals. free dounloads psp

That is the way I look upon this new medium: As much as old-media thinkers try to categorize and count us one way or another -- white/nonwhite, male/female, right/left -- we don't fit because, finally, here is the medium that does not lump us into masses. free dounloads psp

Jay Rosen likes to quote Raymond Williams, sociologist and critic, who said: "There are no masses, there are only ways of seeing people as masses."free dounloads psp

All this talk about quotas counts us as masses. That is not only inaccurate, it is esentially insulting. It refuses to recognize our individuality. free dounloads psp

This is a medium of individuals. free dounloads psp

This is a medium of individuals who choose to publish in it. To complain that not enough people of one sort or another do so is akin to complaining that not enough disabled people eat ketchup. Either you like ketchup or you don't; it's up to you. free dounloads psp

The other complaint, of course, is that big media don't pay enough attention to this kind of blogger or that kind. But that's not the bloggers' fault, is it? Isn't it big media's?free dounloads psp

But even that misses the point of the medium. It values this medium of individuals as if it were a medium of masses: the biggest voices are the only ones that are heard as if they speak for all the rest, the only ones that count. No, that's the way it was with old media, when only the few and the rich and the powerful could afford the printing press. Now, as I repeat (too damned) often, anyone can own a press. And this brings us many, many more voices, a far more diverse world of voices than ever could be heard before. We should not make the mistake of hearing those voices as a mass again. free dounloads psp

The mass is dead. Actually, it never really lived outside of mass media.free dounloads psp

The real test of diversity should not be the demographics of the author but the quality of the thought: Did we hear new thoughts, different views, worthwhile information, good ideas?free dounloads psp

: Oh, and by the way... I have no idea whether Chris Geidner, who wrote the good post to which I link above, is a man or a woman. Chris is a law student. Chris is gay. Chris writes this on the about page (my emphasis): "A person doesn't become a better writer unless he is constantly sharpening the skill. Likewise, I thought, a student of the law -- it made sense -- would be most helped in fine-tuning that skill by opening up her mind to criticism of her logic and analysis."free dounloads psp

So I don't know. And I don't care. Oh, I suppose it could be relevant on this topic. But even here, I don't care. I never would have bothered to look if it hadn't been for the topic. I still don't know Chris' gender or race or anything else about this person except that he or she writes well and said something worthwhile. That's what counts. free dounloads psp

Media on media

: Doing a last-minute MSNBC hit on blogs regarding Terry Schiavo at about 10:45a ET.free dounloads psp

LATER: Was also on at 3:45 with a glitch that made us switch from Microsoft IM to the antiquated NetMeeting; not wanting to take a chance, I came into the studio for another on Connected between 5 and 6p ET.free dounloads psp

March 17, 2005

Can a Men's Studies Department be far behind?

: In reply to all the gender-defending going on lately, Dave Winer vows to post some positive male images. free dounloads psp

Pot calls kettle hot

: Tina Brown -- who made her career on the foibles of celebrity -- now laments that everybody can find foibles; it is no longer the exclusive calling of the tony-cocktail-party-throwing editorial elite:

We are in the Eggshell Era, in which everyone has to tiptoe around because there's a world of busybodies out there who are being paid to catch you out -- and a public that is slowly being trained to accept a culture of finks.
Finks, formerly known as reporters; busybodies, formerly known as sources.
We're always under surveillance; cameras watch us wherever we go; paparazzi make small fortunes snapping glamour goddesses picking their noses; everything is on tape, with transcripts available.
And without the paparazzi, where would magazines be?
No matter who you are, someone is ready and willing to rat you out. Even the rats themselves have to look over their shoulders, because some smaller rat is always waiting in the wings. Bloggers are the new Stasi. All the timidity this engenders, all this watching your mouth has started to feel positively un-American.
If bloggers are Stasi, then magazine editors are, what, the politburo? I write this off to petty jealousy. But Dana Blankenhorn has a fit fit for Buzzmachine. free dounloads psp

Regaining the environmental lead

: There's a warning to liberals in Dick Morris' column: He says that Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking the lead on alternative energy. And he says this isn't an environmental issue; of course, it is now an issue of national security. We must must must reduce our dependence on dangerous oil; we've said that for years and done squat about it; so the Saudis have us by the balls and we have been too wussy to push them toward democracy as we are beginning to push other countries. free dounloads psp

Just making smaller cars isn't the answer because they don't save enough and, as we saw in crash-fatality stats released this week, they're less safe than the big cars the market wants. No, the solution is supporting radical solutions, like new engines. Says Morris:

Start with the War on Terror. While President Bush hunts the terrorists down and pressures nation-states to give up their sponsorship of terror gangs, Schwarzenegger is working to solve the problem of Islamic terrorism once and for all — by ending our dependence on foreign oil and stopping the worldwide economic and climatic distortions that global oil usage causes.free dounloads psp

He's doing it by providing aggressive state leadership to open the way for hydrogen fuel cell cars. While President Bush speaks of the advent of these vehicles in the indefinite future, Gov. Schwarzenegger is bringing them to the here and now by converting gas stations along California's interstate highways to provide hydrogen fuel as well as gasoline.free dounloads psp

With financing projected to come one-third each from federal, state and private sources, California will offer hydrogen fuel every few miles in urban areas and at least every 20 miles along the highway system by 2010. Eventually, he and the leaders of Washington, Oregon, Baja California and British Columbia will work together to create a "hydrogen highway" that will run from B.C. (British Columbia) to B.C. (Baja California).free dounloads psp

The Schwarzenegger plan calls for state-subsidized production of hydrogen and for tax incentives for those who purchase hydrogen cars.free dounloads psp

Replacing gasoline engines with hydrogen-fuel cells would eliminate two-thirds of America's need for oil — a demand that we could meet entirely with domestically produced oil.free dounloads psp

Since California accounts for 20 percent of U.S. new-car purchases, the tail will wag the dog and a national hydrogen grid will become almost inevitable.

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Alterman & Wolfowitz

: I find it intriguing that Eric Alterman does not join in the blanket vilification of Paul Wolfowitz engaged in by others. A week ago, Alterman went to a tony party (is there any other kind?) thrown by Tina Brown and Harry Evans and he wrote:

Though he was clearly the celebrity guest of the moment... Paul Wolfowitz was more whispered about than talked to last night. So I felt bad for the guy when I saw him standing by himself [note how I resisted the tempation to mock that moment of humanistic hubris -ed] and went over to see what cocktail party banter might yield in the way of global understanding. (I began with, and remain committed to, the admittedly controversial hypothesis that Wolfowitz is a genuinely misguided idealist—perhaps the only one-- in the administration’s top echelon.) In any case, I knew we had nothing to discuss vis-ŕ-vis Iraq, or even George W. Bush, so I steered the conversation toward matters we might engage.
They want on to chat about lots of things, including Juan Cole (inspiring visions of bad sushi... go read it for yourself). Compare and contrast that with Juan "Prof. Eeyore" Cole (or should we use the Wolfowitz/Alterman image: Prof. Juan "Bad Sushi" Cole instead?) with his usual deft and oh-so-subtle touch:
It is a typical strategy of the Neoconservatives to smear those with whom they disagree as "unreliable" or "purveying crap" or morally inferior ("pond scum"), as a way of sidestepping issues of substance. I have nothing personally against Wolfowitz, whom I've never met. I just disagree profoundly with the man's political philosophy, which appears to hold that the US and Israel should engage in naked military aggression to achieve foreign policy goals, and that it is permissible actively to mislead the public in order to convince them to go along with the aggression. Warmongering and lying have never been virtues in my political vocabulary.
Note that Cole goes after Wolfowitz, not Alterman for talking to him. After I met Wolfowitz, I took just such an Ollie Volley when he asked me (dispslaying a Colesque gift for subtle allusion) how I could wipe the blood off my hands. And even Alterman had to suffer such liberal scrunch-faced disgust from another quarter:
I asked my truly left-wing friend William Osborne to have a look at Alterman's item. This was his response, which pinpoints what's wrong as I could not:
The ironic subtext is that Alterman is very proud of himself for being invited to such an elite party. As Chomsky has noted, a principal function of elite universities is socialization in elitism itself. The status to get to these parties is what people like Alterman live for....
: Now fast-forward a week and Wolfowitz has been appointed to the World Bank. Alterman's best shot: "Meanwhile, the rule seems to be, prosecute an easily predictably failed war, get to run the World Bank..." If it's not obvious, that's a reference to McNamara. free dounloads psp

He's not attacking Wolfowitz and his appointment. I'm surprised Ollie hasn't demanded that Alterman be drummed out of the party just for that (Ollie is tearing the buttons and epaulets off Joe Lieberman's jacket as we speak because the senator was rude enough to steal Ollie's line and turn it around, saying that "Dean was wrong about the war"... how dare he?). Sorry for that detour. Here's my point:free dounloads psp

I'm impressed with Alterman on this. Of course, he doesn't agree with Wolfowitz on Bush or the war in Iraq. But he is recognizing that even Wolfowitz, vilified as the warmongering Kissinger of our age by some, can be motivated by idealism.
Alterman is finding common thread with Wolfowitz. That is not trivial. That is about recognizing that no matter how much any of us may disagree about the means, the end of spreading freedom is still the goal of optimists, idealists, liberals, and Americans. I'd like to hear more discussions that begin there. free dounloads psp

So I salute you, Eric. free dounloads psp

Publius Pundit reporting

: There were rumors of a coup attempt in Syria. Publius Pundit debunked them. free dounloads psp

Volksmedia

: How do you like that name for all this: Volksmedia?free dounloads psp

Yesterday, I was reading a big story about citizens' media in Focus, the German newsmagazine -- about Flickr, blogs, and all that -- and they translated the phemon into the german as Volksmedien. free dounloads psp

I like that. It has a funky, retro, populist, Volkswagen feel, of course, with that buggy attitude. NYTimes Executive Editor Bill Keller complained that "citizens' media" -- my moniker of choice, was a bit pretentious or at leas presumptuous. I don't disagree. He proposed "people's media," but that seemed all too Internationale to me. I once called it "populist media," but that brings too much baggage.free dounloads psp

So how about volksmedia?free dounloads psp

: LATER: Well, this one laid an egg, judging by the comments. free dounloads psp

I'd be curious to hear German bloggers react to the reaction. free dounloads psp

: NIGHTTIME UPDATE: Well, a couple of German bloggers don't like the idea. free dounloads psp

: Jim Treacher proposes "wedia." [I was lazy and didn't give him a link so here is a link, a very long link....]free dounloads psp

The new national nanny: Another FOIA

: I filed a Freedom of Information Act request for correspondence from FCC commissioners to Brent Bozell, head of the so-called Parents Television Council. Here are excerpts from a letter to Bozell from Kevin Martin, the new chairmanof the FCC:

First, I want to thank the Parents Television Council and the many organization with which you are working for alling attention to the issue of indecency on our airwaves. I share your concern about the increasing courseness of the programming on television and radio.free dounloads psp

The FCC plays an important role in protecting Americans -- particularly children -- from obscene and indecent material...."

It's his right, but I'm uncomfortable with Martin thanking Bozell; it puts him on Bozells side; it encourages him. free dounloads psp

I also have trouble with him saying that he is protecting adults, and not just children, from indecency. free dounloads psp

Martin tells Bozell he supported reducing the requirements for filing complaints (no longer requiring tapes or transcripts). And he pushes to count every utterance of an alleged indecency as a violation to pump up the fines: "Classifying each indecent utterance as a separate violation could result in significantly higher fines for many complaints."free dounloads psp

Nothing damning there, mostly echoes of Martin's statements (see a complete list of them here). free dounloads psp

: Among the other letters, there are a few interesting notes.free dounloads psp

Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy sends what appears to be a form letter but then adds in her handwriting: "Happy Holidays. I'll see you in the new year!" Almost sounds as if they socialize. free dounloads psp

: LATER: Terry Heaton sends along a link to this good edwardpig analysis of Martin's relationship with Bozell:

Martin worked for Ken Starr during the witch hunt against Clinton, and when the Florida fix was in danger of falling apart in 2000, "Martin left for Miami so quickly he didn't pack a bag. Working round the clock, he could be seen on TV peering over ballot counters."free dounloads psp

The possibility of having a Bush rubber stamp in the position of FCC chair is bad enough. What's worse is that Bush's primary motivation for naming Martin is to throw a bone to the cultural conservatives. Specifically, Brent Bozell, the head of both the Media Research Center (MRC) and the Parents Television Council (PTC), strongly endorses Martin for the post....free dounloads psp

But the fact is that Bozell, for all of his conflicts and sleaze, is about to wield considerable power at the FCC. Not only do PTC members account for 99.8% of the complaints filed with the FCC in the past year, Martin seems favorably disposed to heed those complaints and act on them in a big way. Furthermore, Martin does not appear to be content with simply regulating broadcast television. He has suggested that he'd like to explore broadening FCC authority to regulate satellite and cable TV as well.

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March 16, 2005

Blog@work

: Cool number: "More than 1,000 of Sun’s 32,000 employees blog about their work (most at blogs.sun.com)."free dounloads psp

New FCC, same as the old FCC

: Kevin Martin is to be appointed the new chairman of the FCC. It won't improve. It likely will get even worse. More later...free dounloads psp

White male blogger III

: Getaloadathis: Now Juan Cole, Prof. Eeyore (yes, I've changed his nickname... do you all like that one better?), has decided to depart from his usual role of spreading dark clouds of gloom over Iraq and the Middle East, to comment on Steven Levy's gross generalization about white males and the blogosphere and my entertainingly overwritten response. free dounloads psp

Even I was suprised with Cole's take. I shouldn't have been. But get this:

Jeff Jarvis, the Republican in Democrat Clothing, replies that there is nothing wrong with being a white male. free dounloads psp

Of course not. But white male Americans, at least, disproportionately voted for Bush, supported the Iraq war, favor racial profiling, favor tax cuts for the wealthy, favor capital punishment, oppose gay marriage, etc. Of course they are diverse, too, but their statistical center of gravity skews right in American terms, which means Pretty Far Right in the terms of the rest of the world. If they dominate a medium of news and information, it won't give a balanced view of the world.

Don't you love it? If you're white male, in Cole's view, you're more likely to be Republican and that means you're more likely to be a bad guy. free dounloads psp

This is the logic of an academic? free dounloads psp

This is the respect for fact of an academic?free dounloads psp

Well, professor, I'm not Republican, no matter what you and your pals say; I do not support racial profiling, tax cuts for the wealthy, or capital punishment and I favor gay marriage. Oh, yes, and I also supported the Iraq war. And, of course, that's the problem. Cole is a one-issue man. free dounloads psp

And, professor, note that you are making gross generalizations based on gender and sex. Larry Summers got in some hot water for that, don't you know. You might want to be careful trafficking in racial and sexual stereotypes. free dounloads psp

As much as I'd love to, I don't have time to dive into the rest; I may later after I go off to my secret meeting of the White Male Power Bloggers Association. So dive in yourself. Bring some popcorn. It's a good show. free dounloads psp

Let's not give them any ideas...

: I'm all for transparency and sharing information. free dounloads psp

But I'm still pretty damned hinky about sharing it with terrorists. free dounloads psp

The NY Times today has a story on a report about terrorist scenarios that goes into detail about what weapon could kill how many where. The report was meant to scare security officials; that's fine. It ended up on a web site accidentally; well, that happens. But now it's on the front page of The Times with a handy-dandy terror graphic. free dounloads psp

Was it really necessary to go into that level of detail? Was it helpful? Could it be harmful?free dounloads psp

So much for Bono

: Paul Wolfowitz will be the next head of the World Bank. To his seething detractors, look at this way: He won't be armed. free dounloads psp

So much for the Duh Defense

: See the picture on the right column in The Times' story about Bernie Ebbers' guilty-guilty-guilty verdict. This is a man who know's he's toast. free dounloads psp

: Speaking of toast: Ken Lay. free dounloads psp

Inside the what of a paparazzi?

: VanityFair.com has an excerpt of the new book by Peter Howe (long-ago colleague and friend) that delves into the mind of the paparazzi. free dounloads psp

: Oh, but to heck with that, I just discovered Vanity Fair's swimsuit issue video. free dounloads psp

Next, they come after the internet...

: I've warned you that after the national nannies attack broadcast, they'll come after cable ... and then the internet. free dounloads psp

Sen. Ted Stevens, the aging fool who vows to censor cable, now hints that he'll go after our medium. free dounloads psp

But in all honesty, it's hard to tell whether he's targeting the internet... or whether he's just an ignorant, confused, old fool. He says:

We ought to find some way to say, here is a block of channels, whether it’s delivered by broadband, by VoIP, by whatever it is, to a home, that is clear of the stuff you don’t want your children to see.
Well, of course, VoIP is voice over internet protocol -- that is, it's the next-wave phone -- and unless the addled fool plans to start censoring your phone calls -- who knows? he could get that in his cobwebby head: no more phone sex! -- then it seems to be this dangerous dinosaur is just confused about one technology or another: Broadband. Cable. VoIP. Broadcast....It's all just so much newfangled whippernsapper stuff, you know. Oh, I do certainly believe that Stevens would censor the internet, given half a chance. But I don't know whether that's what he's trying to say here. free dounloads psp

The rest of the transcript is sadly inarticulate. A few other goodies: On cable:

I intend to try and level the playing field. I take the position that at the time the Supreme Court made its decision about cable, cable was just one of the ways for public access to television products. Today 85 percent of the television that is brought to American homes is brought by cable and I believe that the playing field should be leveled. We have imposed this as a standard on local broadcasters. Under the law, we compel cable to carry those local broadcasters.
First, the right way to level the playing field is to acknowledge that broadcast is no longer ubiquitous and special and that the exception to the Constitution carved out for broadcast censorship is no longer valid and all media should have First Amendment protection. The level playing field should be a field of free speech and control by the marketplace, not government censors. Second, must-carry regulations, love them or leave them, have nothing to do with the FCC's indecency authority or the Supreme Court rulings in this arena. You're mixing apples and kumquats, Senator. free dounloads psp

He says he wants a rating system for cable as the movies have. He says that without that rating system, they would have censored movies. Try that these days, bud!free dounloads psp

He says he delayed markup of the bill because he's going on his honeymoon 25 years after getting married. Leave the Viagra at home, fella: If we can't have fun, niether can you. And...

As I said to that group downtown a couple of weeks ago, I’m not a prude, I like to watch the Sopranos once in a while. I turn them off once in a while, too, but I was sitting there the other night signing my mail and I had on this one program and all I heard was four letter words and participles. Now, when I served in World War II most of us didn’t have very good vocabulary, so that’s why we used those things, those four letter words, but they’ve got better writers than that. They can say the same thing without doing that.
Those nasty participles!free dounloads psp

Senator, I want to introduce you to a fancy newfangled device: It's called a remote control. It has an off button and a channel button and you can hit either of them whenever you want. You don't want to hear them danged particples, fine, change the channel. Maybe I do want to hear those participles and the people who say them want to say them. So who the fuck are you to say what I shouldn't hear? And who the fuck are you, Senator, to judge how writers write and what they write? Our founding fathers did not envision that you should become the national nanny, the national editor, the national censor, the national critic, or the national grammarian. Run the damned government, man, and leave the culture to the culture. That is not, never has been, and never should be your job. Yet more:

I think that standard ought to come back in our life – no just to protect children, but let’s get off of this stuff of using, we see it everywhere now. As a matter of fact, many people that I know use four letter words and participles more than we did in the Army. I just don’t understand why we can’t be more of a civil nation. Ok? And, I’m getting old, so I can say those things. All right?
And if I want to say fuck I will say fuck. free dounloads psp

He'd be sad and funny if he weren't so dangerous. free dounloads psp

White male blogger II

: There are tons of comments on the post below (naturally; isn't that why Steven Levy chose this topic)? This one really irked me:

And sorry but I don't agree with Jeff Jarvis' rant about "so what if I'm a white male blogger." That's akin to saying, "So what if Harvard president Larry Summers says something derogatory about women's innate abilities in math and science... he's just trying to be provocative." Summers' comments do matter. They reveal his prejudices and his point of view. And he's in a unique policy-making position. And, yes, I'm a Harvard grad of the female persuasion. Eegads, did I really say that on my blog? Well what the heck... it's true. Now link to me, dammit!
Well, damnit, don't you see that by lumping me in with Summers you are doing to me exactly what Summers is doing to you: You are making assumptions about me just because of my gender and race. You go after Summers because of what he says. You go after me because of what I am. free dounloads psp

If that's not a case of white female bigotry, it is at least a case of hypocrisy and sloppy thinking. free dounloads psp

Harvard, eh?free dounloads psp

: Oh, and here's my report card from Halley. free dounloads psp

March 15, 2005

Vloggers take over the world

: Here are amazing instructions on how to build your own teleprompter. free dounloads psp

: I'm installing the latest version of Serious Magic this weekend (I used the earlier version for my now more-than two-year-old primitive vlogs.)free dounloads psp

I'm crushed, I tell you, crushed

: You'd think she'd prefer shtick, being so shticky. Oh, well. I have to find a way to write more posts involving KY, it appears. free dounloads psp

Here's my link to a woman's blog today

: How could I have missed Rosie O'Donnell blogging? free dounloads psp

Train wreck time. free dounloads psp

Here's her tagline for the endeavor: "*the unedited rantings of a fat 42 year old menopausal ex -talk show host * -married mother of four- read at your own risk - my spelling sux (add * ocd * adhd * lmnop * suv * dvd * y not me)"free dounloads psp

Go to the about page (she's one of the rare bloggers who actually fills it in). Favorite music: "joni mitchell - eminem - kanye west - robert downey jr". What, no Boy George?free dounloads psp

Go to her home-movies section and see her stitching together bathtub video of her 2-year-old daughter with bloody pictures of war wounded, exploiting her kid to make her point. It's like Kathie Lee: The Dark Side. free dounloads psp

And the posts are half-uncapitalized free-form unverse things:

...michael jackson in his pj's made me cry
why has mario quit american idol?
the shick intuition razor is the best invention
since the tampon multi-pack free dounloads psp

i went to sommerville this weekend - a suburb of boston
to raise money for the public elementary school
they need books - in a public school - in america
it does not make the newsfree dounloads psp

stories of teachers buying chalk and paper
out of their un-imaginably small salary
students sharing desks - text books
here in america - democracyfree dounloads psp

we are force feeding this ideal
to the world via violence
with a cooperating corporate mass media
as nixons crimes pale to white
in comparisonfree dounloads psp

we impeached himfree dounloads psp

i am waiting for my 20 something
woodward and bernstein
to make their way to the surface
and claim their place in historyfree dounloads psp

in todays world dan rather gets fired
for his attack on g's character
his mistake - he thought the fax was real
out he goes - traitorfree dounloads psp

we live in dangerous times
when our childrens childrens
will ask us
"what was it like then - when democracy almost died"free dounloads psp

and i will tell them of the heros
who were smart and brave enough
how they worked together
how they saved our country
from itself

What was it like then, when democracy almost died? Have you seen the blue fingers, Rosie? Have you seen Martyr's Square? Have you caught the news from Palestine? Ukraine, maybe?free dounloads psp

And some executive gave her a magazine to run? [via world o' crap]free dounloads psp

To the barricades, bloggers: An update

: The jailed Bahraini bloggers have been freed, al Jazeera reports. No word on the fate of their online activities. [thanks, PJ Swenson]free dounloads psp

Blogging white male

: Steven Levy has a column about blogs in Newsweek -- fallout from the last Harvard confab -- that I think is, well, not to put too fine a point on it, a crock. free dounloads psp

The head: "Blogging Beyond the Men's Club: Since anyone can write a Weblog, why is the blogosphere dominated by white males?" And he asks: "Does the blogosphere have a diversity problem?"free dounloads psp

A few responses:free dounloads psp

First, what's wrong with being a white male? I'm white and male. Not much I can do about it. Not much I want to do about it. I'm sure as hell not going to apologize for it. I'm white. I'm male. I blog. You got a problem with that? Tough. free dounloads psp

Second, I hate to break the news to you, Steven but... you're white and male, too! And you sit there in a Big Big-Media Job that is not held by someone unwhite and unmale. Should you ask why that is? Should you feel guilty? Should you quit? Should someone ask these questions of you?free dounloads psp

Third, anyone can blog. Anyone. If you're not white or not male or not American or not powerful or not rich or not anything, you can still blog. This is not like Big Media, where there's a gate to keep and a ceiling to hit. This is a wide-open medium where anyone can blog. This old quota talk is outmoded and irrelevant. Hell, people in Iran can blog -- a heckuva lot of them women, by the way. People in Afghanistan and Iraq and Lebanon and Bahrain can blog even though there are efforts in all those places to stop them. But nobody's stopping anybody here from blogging. So if you don't think there are enough unmale or unwhite or unanything people blogging, go convince some of them to go to Blogger and sign up! It's that easy. free dounloads psp

Fourth, in the blogosphere, nobody knows you're a dog... or unmale... or unwhite. There are plenty of bloggers I read who are demographic mysteries to me. I honestly don't know the race or gender of many bloggers and commenters I read and -- listen carefully now -- I don't care. When I was raised in this country, we were taught that it was a goal of our culture -- melting-pot nirvana -- to get to the point where race and gender didn't matter. Well, we've finally created a medium where that's possible. But now we're trying to make race and gender matter again. How crazy is that? That is, to paraphrase my West Virginia father [you see, I'm hillbilly, actually], bassackwards. free dounloads psp

Fifth, don't judge the blogosphere only by 100 blogs on top of some list. That's so old media. There are eight million blogs -- and 7,999,900 of them that get more traffic and more links and more interest than those mere 100. Judge their diversity.free dounloads psp

Sixth, so if there aren't enough unwhite and unmale bloggers blogging, am I supposed to stop? Is it my fault? No, it's not. My friends Halley and Rebecca are white, too. Should they do anything differently? I certainly hope not. free dounloads psp

Seventh, see the post below about Hillary Clinton and Condi Rice. Welcome to the post-post-feminist era, folks. free dounloads psp

When Halley Suitt and Rebecca MacKinnon suggested at the Harvard confab that we should all find new voices and link to them and blogroll them, I agreed because I love to find new voices.free dounloads psp

Note that I said new voices. Not unmale voices. Not unwhite voices. New voices. It's the voice that matters. It's the person that matters. It's the message that matters. Not the race or the gender. free dounloads psp

I don't want to reduce these amazing people I'm meeting in this medium to a simplistic, one-dimensional definition. free dounloads psp

This week -- thanks to fellow bloggers -- I was delighted to find a new Afghan blogger (who, by the way, writes about women finally free to get an education... you want to talk feminist issues try that one!). I found lots of new Lebanese blogs here, here, here, here (and even here) celebrating the possibility of self-determination. I learned a lot from an Egyptian blogger. I worried over the fate of Bahraini bloggers in jail (I think they may be male... does it matter?) I watched a blogger get excited after I quoted her on TV and now she's appearing on TV (by the way, she's unwhite and unmale and -- here's the real shocker -- unleft). I went to an event in D.C. and met a blogger who fits a similar description. I became addicted to a new blogger who covers nothing but freedom all around the world. Thanks to a blogging friend -- yes, unmale (but ungay) -- I found a new page devoted to making money for unstraight bloggers. I watched a Muslim, lesbian, female, Canadian journalist on TV and linked to her. I linked to the most decidedly unmale blogger alive. I linked to a bunch of bloggers I don't know criticizing big, bad big media and I have no idea what they look like, only what they're saying. I defended an unmale journalism student getting in trouble for questioning very male jocks. I attacked two guys who appear to be male and white. I celebrated la difference. Oh, yeah, and I fought for the right of an unmale star to hug an unwhite star on national TV and not get in trouble with the FCC over it. All that since the aforementioned Harvard confab. free dounloads psp

You want to talk diversity? That's diversity!free dounloads psp

Diversity is no longer just an issue of gender or race or of hiring. Now it's often just an issue of reading... and maybe linking. It's also an issue of finding support (helping Iraqi bloggers blog... helping bring attention to the plight of jailed Iranian or Bahraini bloggers... helping bring ad revenue to bloggers of any description...). free dounloads psp

So can't we get past this simplistic quotaspeak?free dounloads psp

Steven Levy called me before he wrote his column and I said much of this. I said it is a mistake to presume that the blogosphere has a "diversity problem" just because the blogs you read aren't diverse (hell, there are eight million of them -- so find some new blogs to read; that's what Halley and Rebecca are really urging, I think). I said that we can all be better at finding more new voices in a medium that is growing by 40,000 new voices a day. I said 10 new voices was far too few. I said some of this at the Harvard confab -- namely that if Iranians and Iraqis can blog, anyone can -- when the topic came up there. And I'll say it again here:free dounloads psp

In this medium of all media, we must get past throwing our fellow citizens into big, messy buckets: left, right, male, female, white, not.... The lesson of this medium is that we're individuals and we don't fit those broad and shallow definitions: Read us and you will hear more diversity from every voice than you have ever heard in any medium that ever came before. free dounloads psp

And can we use more diversity? You bet we can. But that's not a problem. That's an opportunity. free dounloads psp

"Diversity problem?" Kneejerk crock, that. free dounloads psp

At the end of his column -- after lumping all this in with the Estrich-Kinsley shrill media shriekfest -- Levy challenges the blogosphere to find 50 new voices to link to. I'll turn it around, Steven: Let's see you and Newsweek find and quote and listen to and link to 50 new voices never heard before in mainstream media every week. free dounloads psp

: LATER: I just finished writing this post when I went to Romenesko (which finally has an RSS feed, which means I'm finally reading him more often) and saw him link to the Levy piece and then add a link to a Chicago Tribune piece about the Harvard confab. Romenesko's bitchy link, picked up not out of the Tribune story but apparently out of his nose:
"MSM turn to white bloggers Jarvis, Rosen when they need a quote (CT)"free dounloads psp

OK, OK. I'm white. Very white. Pale white. Pasty white. Wonder-Bread white. Gray-haired, white-bearded white. Never-in-the-sun white. Just white. That picture up in the corner is color-corrected to give me the appearance of a healthy tone. It's a Photoshop lie. Actually, I'm vampirish. Bloodless. Practically transparent. Colorless. Odorless. Tasteless (just ask the FCC). White. free dounloads psp

And so what's your point, Romenesko?free dounloads psp

Quote that.free dounloads psp

: LATER: Of course, Doc says it way, way better than I could or did ... on 1/1000th the word count:

My own 2˘: Nobody dominates the blogosphere. What makes the 'sphere is indomitability. Of anyone. By anyone else.
: And by the way... Regarding the PC arguments about people who can't afford cable modems.... Let's remember that only a decade ago, the only way to speak to the world was to own a printing press or broadcast tower. One helluva lot fewer people could afford those than can afford to blog!free dounloads psp

: Dave Winer, white male, takes the theme and runs with it. free dounloads psp

: I asked Dave Sifry to answer Michelle Malkin's question. He did, with data he'll release on his blog tomorrow, as part of his continuing (and always fascinating) report on the state of the blogosphere (aka Sifry infoporn). It will show (to give you a preview) that, indeed, most of the traffic and attention and links and conversation happens not in the "top" "A-list" blogs but in the tail. Stay tuned. free dounloads psp

: Roger L. Simon issues another challenge to Levy.free dounloads psp

: Chris Nolan's two cents. free dounloads psp

March 14, 2005

Turn it off

: I wish sites using blogrolling.com would just turn it off. Some glitch there is causing some of my favorite blogs (Rex, are you listening) not to load. free dounloads psp

State of the art

: The Project for Excellence in Journalism has its new report on the state of media, 2005. It is, once again, big and will take time to digest. So start chewing. Its five ubertrends:
1. There are now several models of journalism, and the trajectory increasingly is toward those that are faster, looser, and cheaper.
2. The rise in partisanship of news consumption and the notion that people have retreated to their ideological corners for news has been widely exaggerated.
3. To adapt, journalism may have to move in the direction of making its work more transparent and more expert, and of widening the scope of its searchlight.
4. Despite the new demands, there is more evidence than ever that the mainstream media are investing only cautiously in building new audiences.
5. The three broadcast network news divisions face their most important moment of transition in decades.
There's this, too:

The problem is that the traditional media are leaving it to technology companies - like Google - and to individuals and entrepreneurs - like bloggers - to explore and innovate on the Internet. The risk is that traditional journalism will cede to such competitors both the new technology and the audience that is building there.
: Howie Kurtz highlights this:
In covering the Iraq war last year, 73 percent of the stories on Fox News included the opinions of the anchors and journalists reporting them, a new study says. free dounloads psp

By contrast, 29 percent of the war reports on MSNBC and 2 percent of those on CNN included the journalists' own views.

And when you combine those stats with the ratings, what do we conclude? Perhaps that the priesthood doesn't approve of opinions, but the audience does. free dounloads psp

And, by the way, as I was listening to Lou Dobbs on CNN (via Sirius) tonight -- returning from an on-air visit with the opinonated Larry Kudlow -- I heard him give clear opinions and you know what? It's a welcome change. At the too-oft-afore-mentioned Harvard confab, we said it's time to call bullshit bullshit. free dounloads psp

Post-post-feminism

: On Kudlow's show tonight, talk turned to the apparently ever-more-scant possibility of a Hillary-v-Condi presidential race. free dounloads psp

I said that the important thing about this talk is that we're not in the token feminist era of Geraldine Ferraro: Wow, a woman can run for vice-president!free dounloads psp

Nope. These are two strong, smart, capable, powerful women and no one is looking at them as the products of quotas or tokenism or condescension. They are politicians in their own right. free dounloads psp

We've come a long way, baby. free dounloads psp

The Purpose-Driven Hostage Negotiator

: The amazing woman who soothed the homicidal soul of the Atlanta judge-killer read him The Purpose-Driven Life. No surprise: The self-home tome is now No. 3 on Amazon. free dounloads psp

Boy, I bet Dr. Phil is jealous!free dounloads psp

Your government censors at work

: The FCC rules that the Desperate Housewives promo was not indecent and illegal. free dounloads psp

Well, duh. free dounloads psp

But it took all kinds of lawyers and tax dollars to conclude:

We conclude that the material in question is not patently offensive, and thus, not indecent. In particular, the “Monday Night Football” segment, although sexually suggestive, is not graphic or explicit. wens is fully dressed throughout the segment, and, with the exception of a moment when her bare back is exposed to the audience, Sheridan is at all times fully covered with a towel. No sexual or excretory organs are shown or described, and no sexual activities are explicitly depicted or described. Furthermore, the scene where Sheridan drops her towel and jumps into Owens’s arms is brief. Although the scene apparently is intended to be titillating, it simply is not graphic or explicit enough to be indecent under our standard.
And what damned business is it of the goverment's if something is sexually suggestive or intended to be titillating? They seem disappointed it was not explicit enough to get a slap. How much is enough? Only your FCC knows for sure. free dounloads psp

Media on media

: Supposed to be on Larry Kudlow's show tonight at 5p ET with Roger L. Simon. I really enjoyed my last visit and conversation with him. Hell, he's a blogger, of course I would.free dounloads psp

: UPDATES: I do like doing Kudlow's show. He is genuinely enthusiastic about blogs; he reads them and likes them and appreciates them. free dounloads psp

Here's a transcript of the show. Considering how fast I talk sometimes, I don't want to read it....free dounloads psp

What liberal media?

: There's a most curious story in The Times today about Democrats.com's efforts to have media join a conference call to hear their side of things. They have no idea whether media actually called in. I've not seen any stories about the call. So there's no way to know whether this is a success. Yet The Times devotes considerable attention to it on the front of the business section. free dounloads psp

The larger story is a good and interesting one: Are conservatives doing a better job than liberals at using the blogosphere to investigate and spread stories and get them into mainstream media? free dounloads psp

But this conference call thing is just a blip.free dounloads psp

I called into one of them -- subject: Jeff Gannon -- because MSNBC was going to have a discussion mentioning it with Bob Cox and Ameriblog Americablog and I was to join in via blogcast. It all got preempted when the Pope burped. I got into the call a bit late and also hung around after the official part was over and I heard the participants asking with great anticipation whether any reporters had actually called in. None showed themselves. free dounloads psp

So it just seems odd to me that this odd venture gets so much attention in The Times. That's all I'm saying: It's odd. free dounloads psp

: By the way, I never did compliment The Times for its story last week on the Apple-v-blogger case: It was a good and blogsmart story that went to great sources, including Susan Crawford and Jack Balkin (quoted again today). free dounloads psp

: Joe Gandleman comments on the conference-call story. free dounloads psp

Take that, terrorist rats!

: The scene in Lebanon today is miraculous. I'm watching it on Alhurra right now. I don't understand the words. Don't have to. The camera is filled with Lebanese celebrating a free future. PubliusPundit has all the details: "A human 'tsunami' covers Beirut."free dounloads psp

Between 800,000 and 1.3 million people have jammed Martyr Square and roads leading to it to answer Hizbullah's pro-Syria rally, which was half the size (and filled with Syrians, by many reports). When Hizbullah had its rally, various eeyores said, see, that's bigger than the pro-freedom opposition rallies that have filled Beirut. Well, take that. And as one speaker says, quoted at Publius:

From Nayla speech:
“we are here 100% lebanese..
is there any one non-lebanese between us?…… people: NOO!
I say to Hizbullah that they do not exist to defend this regime..
I call upon them to complete the liberation of the south..
Beirut Spring quotes a friend's report from Tripoli:
Lebanese Flags on all houses, people desperate to go to the Beirut Demo and not finding places on the hundreds of buses lined up. Loud speakers in every street blarring nationalistic music. Some gas stations offering Benzine for free for cars going to beirut... such a lively bee-hive Tripoli has become (bye bye lethargy), i never felt so proud i am from there...
: Here's a blogger covering the creation of a gigantic human Lebanese flag this weekend. free dounloads psp

Publius sums it up so eloquently: "Assad must be shitting in his pants."free dounloads psp

: The Lebanese Blogger Forum (slogan: "we heart lebanon") quotes Rampurple:

I am watching the masses of people in Lebanon on their way to the Martyr's Square. There must already be over a million people at the square already. The square is full, and the masses have reach Riad Al Solh Square.free dounloads psp

People are still on their way to the square and are having difficulty getting there because of the traffic of people heading towards the square. It just took my brother 2 hours to get from nahr il kalb until the forum (he really hasn't even reached the forum). Usually this path does not even take 10 minutes....free dounloads psp

Today's event is to mark 4 weeks since the death of former PM Hariri along with 16 other people. The truth of the explosion has not been covered yet. No one knows how the explosion took place and who created the explosion. We need our answers, and we won't let go this time. It's time assassinations stop being part of our society and daily lives.free dounloads psp

I am tingling all over...

: Read Angry Arab to see the pathetic sputterings of a Syrian ally: They call the creating of a human flag "North Korean." free dounloads psp

: SaveLebanon.org is posting videos. free dounloads psp

: Lebanese Bloggers shouts:

OH MY GOD!!!free dounloads psp

I AM IN DISBELIEF!free dounloads psp

THE ENTIRE LEBANESE POPULATION IS IN BEIRUT!!!!free dounloads psp

ROADS INTO THE CITY ARE STILL CLOGED WITH TRAFFIC...free dounloads psp

SOME HAVE DECIDED TO USE BOATS INSTEAD OF THEIR CARS...free dounloads psp

I HEARD THAT THERE IS A CONVOY OF 70 BOATS THAT LAUNCHED FROM BYBLOS...free dounloads psp

THE MEDITERANEAN IS MIRRORED BY A SEA OF RED WHITE AND GREEN!!!free dounloads psp

I AM SO PROUD!!!free dounloads psp

HEY... PLANET EARTH: DO YOU SEE???? DO YOU SEE???

: See this eloquent post from Renatoobleidsworld:>blockquote>THE QUIET STORM ACROSS THE NATION
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy
-HL Menckenfree dounloads psp

Hundreds of thousands of people are gathering in central Beirut for an opposition rally one month to the day since Prime Minister Hariri was assassinated.
Although it has been erroneously called a counter-demonstration to last week's loyalist rally (CNN), it is in fact a counter counter-demonstration as last week’s rally (which it has dwarfed) was itself the irrelevant counter-demonstration to daily opposition rallies (a quite intifada) that have been occurring since February 14th.
As to the view from Harisa today, Arlo Guthrie’s famous “The New York Thruway is closed man!” exclamation at Woodstock 36 years ago comes to mind – the Beirut bound lane of the Beirut to Damascus Highway is packed with bumper-to-bumper traffic as far as the eye can see (and has been since around 10.am this morning). With the rally set to culminate in about fifteen minutes, they might not all make it, but they don’t need to – today the whole country is the protest venue.

: Al Jazeera's coverage is, well, muted. free dounloads psp
March 13, 2005

Open-source ad tags calls: Followup

: A few notes on my call for an open-source ad tag:free dounloads psp

: I called them open-source ad tags because that's common media jargon now. But the word "tag" is so loaded with flickers of Flickr that I think it's a misnomer. This is really just about putting a call (an include) on a page to insert an ad, with data about the opportunity attached. So how about "open-source ad call"?free dounloads psp

: Amy Langfield sent email letting me know that BlogAds' Henry Copeland has started some specialized ad networks. [I can hear Henry growing: If you'd call once in awhile, Jarvis, you wouldn't have to hear these things second-hand. But more on that in a minute.]free dounloads psp

Blogads now has a specialized network for New York blogs and another growing network for gay blogs. Each is just a start but a great start. free dounloads psp

Advertisers will want to buy networks of similar blogs to get to a critical mass of audience that's worth their effort. This means that being part of a network beats selling ads alone. free dounloads psp

When other folks have asked me how I think they should start such ad networks, I've sent them to Henry and I'm delighted he's starting them. free dounloads psp

: I want to make sure I'm clear on one point about my open-source ad call notion: This does not in any way replace existing networks -- BlogAds, Burst, etc. Instead, I hope it would send more business their way. free dounloads psp

Let's say you're a New York blogger in the BlogAds New York network but you also write about travel (hello: Amy) and along comes an advertiser wanting East Coast blogs about travel. Let's say the advertiser wants 100 of them and there's no established network, like the New York one, that already exists and, besides, the advertiser wants to pick the blogs on a number of criteria (traffick, topics, location, Technorati authority, and so on). The idea is that with an open-source call, you could join that network through the BlogAds network; it simply makes you eligible for more (and if they're properly targeted, better) ads. free dounloads psp

Sitting out there on your own and trying to sell ads on your lone weblog won't work. Handing over space to Google AdWords will get some revenue -- but on the lowest rung of the value chain. It's far better to join a BlogAds or a Burst. And it's better yet to also be able to join in ad hoc quality blog networks agencies, advertisers, and media companies could put together ... if there were a standard, open-source ad call. free dounloads psp

See the post below for more. free dounloads psp

: Fred Wilson likens the open-source ad call to sell-side advertising. Not to quibble, but they're actually two different things:free dounloads psp

In sell-side advertising, the advertiser puts an ad out on the web and publishers (bloggers, media companies) select the ads to place on their sites and they get paid only if the ads perform with clicks. In this case, the publishers are selecting the ads.free dounloads psp

In open-source ad calls, the publisher (blogger, media company) makes an ad space available to advertisers (or their agencies). In this case, the advertisers are selecting the publishers' sites. free dounloads psp

What open-source ad calls allow is for advertisers, agencies, and media companies to put together selected, quality ad hoc (which is to say temporary) networks of sites based on any number of criteria (data that will be associated with the site and its ad call). free dounloads psp

I know from meeting with advertisers in my BlogBoy routine that they want to do just that, only the means don't fully exist today to allow it. And that means we're leaving money on the table, as they say. free dounloads psp

: Searchviews says there's a danger of spam. Well, in life today, there's always a danger of spam. But I'm not so sure that's a killer problem here for two reasons:free dounloads psp

First, in either sell-side advertising or with open-source ad calls, I imagine that most advertising will pay only on a performance basis. The fraud, in that case, is about manufacturing clicks, but that's a different problem. free dounloads psp

Second, I would bet that most of these ad hoc networks using open-source ad calls would be put together manually by agencies and media companies wanting to offer advertisers "safe" and "relevant" networks. So you could spam and say you have a site about great art. But when it turns out to be tattoo art, someone will see it. free dounloads psp

: Susan Mernit also weighs in. See also AdJab.free dounloads psp

: Mark Pincus has a not-unrelated concept about open-source people tags. free dounloads psp

: Finally, if I do all this speculating about ads on blogs, how come I don't have them? I'm lazy and disorganized and I have a day job. I was also going to redesign the site first, but I'll get around to that sometime after I clean out my in-box and my car. free dounloads psp

But I do realize that to learn about how this really works, I need to start taking ads. So I'm about to sign up for BlogAds [yes, Henry, I'll call!] and I'll experiment with others (Burst, AdSense, Kanoodle, FeedDirrect RSS ads [full disclosure: I'm on the Moreover board and Moreover is behind FeedDirect]). free dounloads psp

Just one question: I have no idea what to charge. I once accused Glenn Reynolds of devaluing the CPM for all of citizens' media, but it appears on that he has raised his rates. I'm curious whether anyone has analyzed existing rates on citizens' media ads. free dounloads psp

The news gap

: Following up on the cable-news discussion in the Maher post below... Broadcasting & Cable analyzes some Tyndall Report data to find a huge gulf between the kinds of stories on cable news and those on network news shows. This stands to reason -- one crams the world today into 18 minutes, the other fills 24 hours -- but it's striking nonetheless.

TV news has developed a split personality—and Michael Jackson proves it.free dounloads psp

The King of Pop made quite a spectacle of himself when he turned up late for court last week in his pajamas. The cable news networks—barred from the courtroom itself—made this latest wrinkle in his sex-abuse trial their drama of the day....free dounloads psp

Yet none of the Big Three broadcast networks' half-hour nightly newscasts led with Jacko's pajamas that evening....free dounloads psp

But those same broadcast networks, it would seem, have a completely different set of priorities each morning. During February, when the Jackson case was only in the jury-selection phase, it was the second-biggest story on NBC's Today, ABC's Good Morning America and CBS' The Early Show. It did not even rank among the top 50 monthly stories on those networks' nightly newscasts....free dounloads psp

Last month's totals show that there are now two parallel news universes. Only one story—the ailing Pope John Paul II—appeared in the top-10 rankings for both morning and evening. Not a single Iraq story broke into the morning programs' list (these numbers measure time devoted to each morning program's feature and interview segments, outside the summary newscasts at the start of each hour)....free dounloads psp

In the evenings, on the other hand, Jackson's case was not even the most newsworthy event in the world of arts and culture. The obituary for playwright Arthur Miller and The Gates in New York's Central Park both received more attention.free dounloads psp

This schism between mornings and evenings has serious implications for the network news divisions....free dounloads psp

As two separate sets of news agendas develop, it may be hard for one brand to cover both with credibility.free dounloads psp

Apparently, this split is not only TV's problem. It's cropping up online, too, according to BuzzMachine's Jeff Jarvis. Last week, he went “trolling for blog posts” on the Jackson trial and found few. “Not as plentiful as the Bankruptcy Bill” passed by the Senate, he mused.

Or it could just be that somebody's news judgment is off. But whose?free dounloads psp

One lock at a time

: PubliusPundit -- a new favorite blog in this era of spreading freedom -- reports that Egypt's opposition leader has been freed. BigPharoah has great coverage. free dounloads psp

The Maher report

: On his Friday show, Bill Maher went after cable news for its news judgment this week:free dounloads psp

"Yesterday was just Michael Jackson and today was just some nut in Atlanta," he said. Neither was a big story, he argued, both were bull. The news networks "have as much to do with news as MTV has with showing videos."free dounloads psp

The competitive overkill on both stories this week was, well, striking. Once one did it, they all did it, afraid to be the one who didn't do it. That's the flipside of a competitive media landscape, eh?free dounloads psp

Of course, I was part of that festival myself: I gave blog reports about Michael Jackson. Yet I also got to read from blogs that were critical of this very overkill; I got to say that the blogs -- the people -- were much less interested in Jackson than the nets were. free dounloads psp

Mere rationalization? you say. Well, of course, it is. I confess my sin and I will say 10 our Murrows in penance. free dounloads psp

But it is notable, I think, that by including comments from citizens' media inside big media, there is an opportunity to sometimes hear that small dissenting voice or at least a different viewpoint. So I read David Weinberger, who eloquently mocked the journalists taking part in this OD and called it "outlandish pandering;" I said that was a challenge to us there. And no one objected to me saying that. I said it again the next morning when I taped another such segment and read more such criticism (there was plenty of it in blogs) along with other posts that said other things, most funny, a few serious. But -- sweet irony -- that segment was preempted by the next day's obsession, the Atlanta story. Here's more irony for you: The day before, I was set to do a segment on the OD du jour, Dan Rather, but that was preempted by Jackson. free dounloads psp

Apart from the tawdry context, I do find it interesting that the sudden and healthy interest in blogs by networks is really about letting the voice of one medium inside another and that will yield diverse viewpoints and sometimes criticism. I think that's a good thing.free dounloads psp

Oh, by the way, the one person on Maher's show who defended the coverage of Jackson was Andrew Breitbart. His ID: a contributor to Drudge. free dounloads psp

: Separately on Maher.... Bill delighted in playing against the party line at every opportunity this week.free dounloads psp

He said that private accounts for Social Security might be a good idea since the return on the invesment in Social Security is so crappy. free dounloads psp

And then there was discussion of the good news coming out of the Middle East, the democracy spreading in waves or ripples all over, and the fatwa against bin Laden. free dounloads psp

"The revolution has started," Maher said. "Is there any turning back?"free dounloads psp

Irshad Manji, the author of the wonderful Trouble with Islam Today, agreed: "I actually think the world has turned, the Islamic world.... Since the purple finger of Iraq, more and more liberal voices are being heard."free dounloads psp

Maher quotes someone saying that the fact that Bush -- like Reagan before him -- had so little knowledge of foreign affairs turns out to be an advantage, for he can dream up a world no one else dares imagine. A backhanded compliment but a compliment from Maher nonetheless. free dounloads psp

Last week, Maher drove me nuts, among other things, pushing his Why They Hate Us Pavilion idea on, of all people, the brother of a victim of 9/11. This week, he says: "The answer to why they hate is not that we intervened too much, but too little."free dounloads psp

Richard Belzer tried to argue the old antiwar line -- saying that the Muslim world has 7,000 years on us and we can't "shove democracy down their throats" -- but no one agrees with him; the audience doesn't even cheer the way they do. Manji the Canadian lesbian Muslim journalist goes after him: "You are such a paroduct of the culture of instant gratification in America ... If you don't have freedom tomorrow then obviously it's a big, old failure." free dounloads psp

A tide has turned. free dounloads psp

: Playing against type remains the theme for the night: Maher sounds like an old church lady complaining that "we've lost the thread back to what is good and decent."free dounloads psp

And the comes Camille Paglia stunning the panel with her rave review for The Bachelorette. free dounloads psp

: Maher, of course, delights in the unexpected... until the unexpected is expected. free dounloads psp

March 12, 2005

Neuter

: I hope you've all seen the ridiculous Norwegian PC argument that the figures in Ikea's instructions should not all be male, while Ikea argues that it can't have women in instructions in Muslim countries. Wow: a PC war. free dounloads psp

From now on, all Ikea furniture will be built by Pat. free dounloads psp

One step foward, one decade backward

: Adrian Holovaty took out after the Missourian's PDFy online misstep and now Vin Crosbie piles on. free dounloads psp

Free speech spreads

: The first Afghan blog. [via IraqTheModel and Tim Oren]

My name is Waheed. I am a 20 year old male from Afghanistan and I have been working with the US Army in Kabul, Afghanistan as an interpreter for the last 2 years.... free dounloads psp

During the Taliban we didn’t have internet system in Afghanistan but now there are about 25 net cafes in Kabul, and also some in Herat, Kandahar and Balkh provinces. People are really interested to use the internet but its too expensive for people to use it - only rich people can afford it.

Sounds like an opportunity for some wonderful foundation out there. free dounloads psp

Waheed also reports that 4,000 women are taking vocational training and that the country has its first women's fitness center. free dounloads psp

The single most frustrating link on the internet....

: ... is the "view complete profile" link on Blogger blogs. No one ever fills that out. free dounloads psp

Whew

: I love reading pissed-off posts by people who went to conferences I didn't go to. It makes me feel as if I just got two bonus days not wasted in life. Rex Hammock wrote just such a post about the Online Politics confab in Washington. And he says:

My admiration for certain of my fellow bloggers who appear on lots of panels has grown. I don't know how they can endure appearing on a panel called something like, "How to cope with those crazy bloggers" and not jump over the table and slap the hell out of the next guy who has obviously never read a blog but is an expert on how blogs have already reached their zenith.
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Advancing democracy

: Thanks to PubliusPundit, I took a read of the Advance Democracy bill introduced in the Senate and House about a week ago. It would make it U.S. policy to advance democracy in the world. I hope no one can argue with that notion. Or to put it another way: If North Korea doesn't like it, it must be good. free dounloads psp

There is some good and stirring language worth flying on the flagpole in the bill (which you can find by going to thomas.loc.gov and searching on "advance demoracy"; sadly, I can't figure out how to get permalinks out of Thomas). A few excerpts:

It shall be the policy of the United States --free dounloads psp

(1) to promote freedom and democracy in foreign countries as a fundamental component of United States foreign policy;free dounloads psp

(2) to affirm fundamental freedoms and human rights in foreign countries and to condemn offenses against those freedoms and rights as a fundamental component of United States foreign policy;free dounloads psp

(3) to use all instruments of United States influence to support, promote, and strengthen democratic principles, practices, and values in foreign countries, including the right to free, fair, and open elections, secret balloting, and universal suffrage;free dounloads psp

(4) to protect and promote fundamental political, social, and economic freedoms and rights, including the freedom of association, of expression, of the press, and of religion, and the right to own private property;free dounloads psp

(5) to protect and promote respect for and adherence to the rule of law in foreign countries;free dounloads psp

(6) to provide appropriate support to organizations, individuals, and movements located in nondemocratic countries that aspire to live in freedom and establish full democracy in such countries;free dounloads psp

(7) to provide, political, economic, and other support to foreign countries that are willingly undertaking a transition to democracy ;free dounloads psp

(8) to commit United States foreign policy to the long-term challenge of promoting universal democracy ; andfree dounloads psp

(9) to strengthen alliances and relationships with other democratic countries in order to better promote and defend shared values and ideals.

One could argue that that has been our policy for a long time and that we don't need an act of Congress to make it so. But perhaps we do. free dounloads psp

And the bill does take some action that I hope is more than adding to bureacracy. It calls for the creation of an Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs to monitor and nudge (my legislative term) democracy and also for a special assistant to the President who'll watch over this. It calls for annual reports on the state of democracy in the world. It creates an internet site devoted to spreading the word. And there's this golden nugget:

It is the sense of Congress that establishing a more formal structure for the Community of Democracies may eventually be necessary in the future, at which time the United States should guide and strongly support such a development. It is the sense of Congress that, if properly funded and supported, the Community of Democracies can achieve great success toward the global promotion of democratic principles, practices, and values.
Amen.free dounloads psp

Also of interest is the definition of undemocratic:

The Secretary shall categorize a country as nondemocratic if such country fails to satisfy any of the following requirements:free dounloads psp

(aa) All citizens of such country have the right to, and are not restricted in practice from, fully and freely participating in the political life of such country regardless of gender, race, language, religion, or beliefs.free dounloads psp

(bb) The national legislative body of such country and, if directly elected, the head of government of such country, are chosen by free, fair, open, and periodic elections, by universal and equal suffrage, and by secret ballot.free dounloads psp

(cc) More than one political party in such country has candidates who seek elected office at the national level and such parties are not restricted in their political activities or their process for selecting such candidates except for reasonable administrative requirements commonly applied in countries categorized as fully democratic.free dounloads psp

(dd) All citizens in such country have a right to, and are not restricted in practice from, fully exercising the freedoms of thought, conscience, belief, peaceful assembly and association, speech, opinion, and expression, and such country has a free, independent, and pluralistic media.free dounloads psp

(ee) The current government of such country did not come to power in a manner contrary to the rule of law.free dounloads psp

(ff) Such country possesses an independent judiciary and the government of such country generally respects the rule of law.

Of course, it will be troubling to see which of our current allies do not meet these criteria. free dounloads psp

I leave you with the first two of many points made at the start of the bill:

(1) All human beings are created equal and possess certain rights and freedoms, including the fundamental right to participate in the political life and government of their respective countries. These inalienable rights are recognized in the Declaration of Independence of the United States and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations.free dounloads psp

(2) Political legitimacy derives from the consent of the governed, whether expressed directly or through representatives chosen by free, fair, and open elections.

Yes, sure, this comes out of Bush's recent speeches. But I hope that in this democracy, we can all agree at least that democracy and self-government are the right of every human being on earth. free dounloads psp

: UPDATE: Thanks to a commenter, here's a permalink to the legislation. free dounloads psp

Do we smell a trend here?

: Two important things happened this week, I think:free dounloads psp

1. Spanish Muslims issued a fatwa against Osama bin Laden. At long damned last, someone did it. free dounloads psp

2. The majority of the European Union parliament declared Hezbollah to be a terrorist organization (for which Hezbollah, of course, blames the U.S. and Israel). [via the amazing Publiuspundit]free dounloads psp

Is this another icejam breaking? First, the people in the Middle East start to assert their rights. Now Muslims and Europeans are recognizing the real bad guys in this world today. It sure smells like good news. free dounloads psp

Whereabouts

: Going out to the movies with the kids this afternoon. Back blogging later. Sorry that I've been light on blogging the last week. The irony of talking about blogging on TV is that it took up the spare time I devoted to blogging. Still, it has been cool to watch the two media meet like rivers around Cleveland (and so far, the rivers aren't burning). See you shortly....free dounloads psp

: FOLLOWUP: The Pacifier is a truly awful movie. It's as if a few guys sat at a white board and wrote things up there -- he could do this and this and this and this -- and then they wrote them all down and made the movie.free dounloads psp

Come to think of it, in the old days, I saw whole companies created that way.free dounloads psp

March 11, 2005

Matter meets antimatter

: Blogger uses the words "gravitas" and "Wonkette" in the same sentence. free dounloads psp

Media on media

: The Journal Editorial Report has a story tonight on trust of big media nd blogs' impact and all that. I may be on. In New York, it's on WNET at 9p ET. Elsewhere here. free dounloads psp

Citizens' journalism loses the Apple case... big time

: So the judge decided that Apple can go ahead and subpoena the the sites that reported on its business to find out their sources. Which is to say that bloggers are not protected by California's shield law. Which is to say that this judge just said that bloggers aren't journalists. Which is to say that we just started a program of certifying official journalists in this country. Which is to say that we lose. Big time. free dounloads psp

Said the judge:

"Unlike the whistleblower who discloses a health, safety or welfare hazard affecting all, or the government employee who reveals mismanagement or worse by our public officials, (the enthusiast sites) are doing nothing more than feeding the public's insatiable desire for information," Kleinberg wrote.
Hello: "the public's insatiable desire for information" is also known as news. Or it was. free dounloads psp

ZDNet adds:

In the ruling, the judge largely brushed off the question of whether the publishers were journalists and therefore protected from facing contempt charges for refusing to divulge sources under California's shield law. "Defining what is a 'journalist' has become more complicated as the variety of media has expanded," he said. "But even if the movants are journalists, this is not the equivalent of a free pass."free dounloads psp

That aspect of the decision will likely be viewed with dismay by traditional media outlets, which themselves often publish confidential information about corporate plans.

But it is also viewed with dismay by all the rest of us. free dounloads psp

What if you tomorrow find information about a scandal in government or in industry or in a church... whatever. Now a judge will decide whether that's really news or just the insatiable desire. free dounloads psp

And once that happens, then a government official can refuse to give you access to a press conference -- at, say the White House -- because you're not really news. free dounloads psp

One major problem with this entire discussion is that it judges who is a journalist rather than what is a journalistic act. Informing the public is journalism. Period.free dounloads psp

And the problem with all this is that -- just like the FCC on indecency -- this puts government in the position of judging speech. And when one form of speech is seen as inferior to another form when it comes to such things as legal protections -- whether the First Amendment or local shield laws -- then that becomes a form of censorship. free dounloads psp

The judge continued:

"The public has had, and continues to have, a profound interest in gossip about Apple," the judge ruled. "Therefore, it is not surprising that hundreds of thousands of 'hits' on a Web site about Apple have and will happen. But an interested public is not the same as the public interest."
And now this judge is defining the difference. That is dangerous. free dounloads psp

Laura Sydell -- a reporter whose work I greatly respect on NPR -- emails this:

I was looking at your site and I wanted to point out to you that the California case didn't actually deal with the blogger issue. Arguably it's worse. The judge found that no journalist --blogger or mainstream -- has the right to protect a source who was breaking the law by revealing a trade secret. He never actually decided on the issue of bloggers versus mainstream journalists. Just thought you'd want to know for the record.
Yes, that's most troubling is that the judge decided what news -- no matter who reports it -- is worthy of protection. It's that line about "the public's insatiable desire for information" that's so troubling. He doesn't like the insatiable part; he thinks there is some limit on the definition of news. That is precisely what is so troubling. And, so, yes: When a reporter for a mainstream outlet reports on something that the judge thinks is too much from the insatiable desire -- too long-tail -- then that doesn't deserve protection, but other "news" does? Yes, it is troubling for all journalism. free dounloads psp

I'm clearly not saying it well but my concern is that the court should not be deciding what is news and what isn't, what is journalism and what isn't, who is a journalist and who isn't. That is what troubles me here. free dounloads psp

: Eugene Volokh also writes about this. free dounloads psp

Keep in mind that citizens' media is not just weblogs. It is also forums. It will be podcasts and vlogs. It will be impossible to define media. Media is speech and speech is media. free dounloads psp

: UPDATE: Buslaw blog says I got this completely wrong. The judge specifically did not try to distinguish between journalists and bloggers, Buslaw says. free dounloads psp

Yes, counsel, but didn't he try to distinguish between the kinds of information and he called the kind bloggers get reporting that only "satisfies the public's insatiable desire for information" and he found that unworthy of protection. free dounloads psp

I've been arguing that we should not worry about whether a person is a journalist but whether an act is journalism. So I got my knickers in knows above on just this point. So to try again: He did not say who is a journalist. But didn't he decide what is journalism? Didn't he decide whether this act is worthy of the label journalism and thus worthy of protection? And if you don't practice journalism, you're not a journalist, eh? free dounloads psp

He also says, again, that "the interested public is not the same as the public interest." That, too, is about him judging the act of journalism; he decides what is worthy to be called journalism. That is what troubles me. free dounloads psp

: SATURDAY UPDATE: Dan Gillmor (who sees the ducking of the blogger-journalist divide as a small favor) adds this:

Reporting on business, if this bad ruling is upheld on appeal, will be a great deal harder in the future. Companies will simply slap "trade secret" protection on everything they do, and any reporter who gets a scoop on anything the company doesn't want the public to know about will be under a legal threat.
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The danger of insanity

: As I came through Jersey City's Journal Square -- a kind of reality-show version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest -- early this morning, I heard some guy shouting and singing and dancing wildly. Of course, I charted a course around him. I didn't want to get anywhere near him. He could be dangerous. He's a nut. You know it. I know it. But society won't admit it. He's out on the street. We think that's his right, to be insane -- though, of course, he's too insane to be able to judge that he wants to be sane. We have no idea what to do with the insane. And that hurts them -- and the people around them. It's even dangerous. free dounloads psp

I wrote about this a few weeks ago when we thought that a homeless person had started a fire in the subways in New York that was going to take years to fix (and none of that turned out to be true: they couldn't show that's how the fire started and the subways were back in days). free dounloads psp

Now there's a better case to discuss this issue: The murders of Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow's husband and mother by Bart Ross who, it turns out, was quite insane.

The man, Bart A. Ross, 57, had sued the federal government and a raft of others for $1 billion, saying they persecuted him with "Nazi-style" and terrorist tactics as he pursued a medical malpractice claim stemming from the severe disfigurement of his cancerous jaw....free dounloads psp

Neighbors of Mr. Ross, an electrical contractor who changed his name from Bartilomiej Ciszewski upon emigrating from Poland a quarter-century ago, said he was an angry loner whose huge black dog terrorized children on their quiet street in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago. They recalled his disrupting a block club meeting several years ago to solicit support for his suit, and said that early last month, facing eviction, he asked neighbors to adopt his dog and cat because he could no longer afford to feed them.free dounloads psp

Soon after, they said, he packed his belongings and left.free dounloads psp

"When I looked out this morning and saw all the police tape, I said to my husband, 'It has to be Bart Ross,' " said Jennifer Fernandez, a neighbor. "He obviously had a chip on his shoulder about this."free dounloads psp

Lawyers involved in the case, in which Mr. Ross represented himself, said that his physical and mental condition had deteriorated through the years and that they had fretted for their own safety around him.

That's not the usual neighbor quote, is it -- the "he was quiet; we're surprised" spiel. free dounloads psp

Everybody knew he was nuts. He was dangerous. The danger turned out to be all too real. But nothing was done to help him or protect others. free dounloads psp

Now, of course, we say we can't find ourselves in in a real-life version of Minority Report, preemptively arresting people before they've committed the crimeswe somehow knew they'd commit. free dounloads psp

But look at the case of Ross: He was clearly insane; he was dangerous; nothing was done; the only way this story could end was the way it ended: in needless tragedy. Yes, society failed him. But it sure as hell failed Judge Lefkow's family more. The priorities are wrong. free dounloads psp

Look at today's tragic shooting of a judge in Atlanta. I doubt that this is about insanity; it's about raw criminality: A man on trial and facing forever in jail with nothing to lose is able to grab a gun because he was dressed in civilian clothes without handcuffs or shackles, they're saying on TV now -- so he wouldn't look guilty to a jury. Two good people are dead and others are injured when their safety should have come first; they needed to be protected from a dangerous and deseparate man. The priorities are wrong. free dounloads psp

I'll even bring Michael Jackson into this -- not on a legal basis but on a cultural basis. The guy is clearly nuts. You know it. I know it. But we won't say it out loud. It wouldn't be politically correct. Now I'm not saying that Jackson should be arrested because he's nuts or even forced into treatment -- God knows what kind -- just because he's nuts. I wouldn't know how to adjudicate that. But I am saying that our treatment of him in his family, among his handlers, in his industry, and in media does him -- and possibly the children he has entertained -- no good. To use a bit of PC language myself, society has enabled his obvious insanity by not daring to call him insane. To me, this, too, is about the wrong priorities. free dounloads psp

This is not just about getting help for the insane or keeping the dangerous in handcuffs. It's about an attitude that gives priority to the safety of the sane. free dounloads psp

Bumped

: Got up at the crack of dawn this morning to pretape another blog segment about Michael Jackson for MSNBC dayside. Then came breaking news in Atlanta: a shooting in the courthouse (killing a judge and a court reporter). I heard the anchor who'd interviewed me say that they were waiting for the helicopter shots. Oh, no, when the helicopter arrives, that's it: wall-to-wall coverage. So reaction to Michael Jackson in court got bumped by murder in court. Can't argue with that news judgment....free dounloads psp

To the barricades, bloggers

: Bahrainis protest the arrest of bloggers. More reports here and here. [via Instapundit]free dounloads psp

We must keep attention on the plight of bloggers jailed in Bahrain and Iran. Spread the word. free dounloads psp

Whew

: I'm glad Wonkette watchs CNN, not MSNBC, for she makes fun of reports from the blogosphere on TV. free dounloads psp

Hell non

: Yesterday, the NY Post gave Lance Armstrong hell for siding with Paris to get the Olympics. Then last night, John Gibson on FoxNews turned to Armstrong for his ending commentary and I thought he'd follow the same company line. But, no: He said Armstrong's right. I agree. Let the French have the steroid festival. Let the French deal with the disruption and expense of security for the terrorists. New York doesn't need the Olympics. New York doesn't need the publicity. New York doesn't need a stadium, either. So right on, Lance. Right on, John. free dounloads psp

March 10, 2005

The deaf TV critic

: Atrios turns TV critic... with the sound off. free dounloads psp

He gives me a bad review. free dounloads psp

I'm thinking he's just jealous because I was talking about Kos instead of him. Bitchy, bitchy, bitchy.free dounloads psp

Bipartisan blogging

: Yesterday, here and on MSNBC's Connected, I celebrated the bipartisan blog opposition to the bankruptcy bill and now it's an official movement from Politology, backed by both DailyKos and Instapundit. free dounloads psp

: This will be a topic on a blog roundup again today... after Michael Jackson, of course.free dounloads psp

All Jacko all the time!

: I was supposed to be on MSNBC this afternoon to talk about blogs and Rather the morning after, but I got bumped by continuous Jacko coverage: Dan's final indignity. free dounloads psp

Just turned on the TV and saw that Jackson came late and there was a bench warrant for his arrest. 'free dounloads psp

He showed up wearing pajama bottoms (aha! he's a blogger!) and slippers. free dounloads psp

A legal analyst just said that the judge may revoke Jacko's bail. He said we'd get some indication whether that has happened when he goes to the bathroom, for he is usually accompanied by his bodyguards, but if he's accompanied by sheriff's deputies, then we'll know he's under lock-and-key. free dounloads psp

And, yes, we are getting to the point of covering Michael Jackson's bathroom visits. free dounloads psp

Turns out I'm now going to be on MSNBC today, after all: All Jacko, all the time.free dounloads psp

Trolling for blog posts (which are not as plentiful as, say, bankruptcy-bill posts) I found this, for your amusement. free dounloads psp

: There's a thread of complaint in blogs about coverage of Jackson. See David Weingerger, lolling around in a posh European spa:

I'm in a hotel room in Madrid listening to CNN. What's the lead story? Michael Jackson was late to court.free dounloads psp

How do the journalists there -- people who got into the business because they are committed to an informed democracy -- feel about this outlandish pandering?

See Nashville Files:
No wonder people are not paying attention to the main stream media anymore.
See Monkey McGee:
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I know this isn’t a unique sentiment by any stretch, but if we could get 25% of the media covering Michael Jackson and Martha Stewart to do reporting on important issues (and there’s certainly no shortage of those these days), things would be different.
No, they wouldn’t. Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood would just get better ratings.
/cynical

But then again, see Cobolt420 at LiveJournal:
I remember back in 2001 in the wake of the WTC disaster, when pretty much all of us were shell shocked, I said "I miss the time when ridiculous things like Michael Jackson's activities made first page news".free dounloads psp

So here I am today, rather bored and home (not because I'm sick but off) watching mindless tv and my show gets interrupted to tell me that a warrant has been filed because M.Jackson has not shown for court. I groan and say "you've got to be kidding me!". But then I sit back, smile, and am glad for this kind of Hollywood stupidity. I'd much rather this then something blowing up, somebody being killed etc etc etc. We've all seen too many etc's in our day.free dounloads psp

When Michael Jackson is all they can scrounge up as "news" we're all doing okay for the moment. I guess we should enjoy it while it lasts.

: See also this amusing song parody.
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And then there was none

: On yesterday's MediaCenter webcast called The Vanishing Newspaper, the author of a book by the same title, Philip Meyer, gave lots of illuminating stats from his study of the relation between quality and credibility on one axis and circulation and success on the other. free dounloads psp

He showed a chart with declining newspaper readership and said that if you continue that line, the last reader recycles the last paper in 2040 -- April, 2040, to be exact. free dounloads psp

I joked that I think that's about the time Social Security will go bust. There'll be a lot of very hungry former reporters. (It's hard to get a laugh on a webcast.)free dounloads psp

Meyer also said that these charts tend to level off but he could also see it accelerating. free dounloads psp

TV needs link-love, too

: I've been doing these MSNBC Connected blog reports for a few weeks now and I've noticed something interesting happening: Folks who get mentioned are mentioning it on their blogs... but only if they have something to link to. Trey Jackson, Crooks & Liars, and Ian Schwartz put up the video or I put up links and then people have something to link to and they do, giving this new show the publicity it wants. The moral to the story: TV needs permalinks, too. TV news operations should be putting up every story -- not show, story -- with text and links so they can join in the conversation. free dounloads psp

March 09, 2005

Online killed the video star

: The obit has been written many times. Tonight we buried the body. free dounloads psp

This was the end of the era of the anchor, of news as a lecture, of one-size-fits-all media, of journalism on a pedestal. free dounloads psp

That's not Dan Rather's fault. Other things are, but that's not. tonight, he's merely a symbol of an era that's over. free dounloads psp

I see no cause for regret. The era of the reporter -- brave, swashbuckling, aggressive, eager -- is not over; there will always be Dan Rathers who will stay on top of the big story and shout about it. free dounloads psp

But the era of one-way news is gone. And in a sense, we have Dan Rather to thank for that. If his last mistake had been a little less obvious, if his response had been a little bit quicker, if his tone had been a little less arrogant, he'd be back on the news tomorrow night. free dounloads psp

What matters isn't that he's gone. And what matters isn't that bloggers got his head. free dounloads psp

What matters is that bloggers have to be listened to. What matters is that the people will be heard. free dounloads psp

Though I was hardly was his greatest fan, I have to admire Rather's dogged energy and I have to feel some sympathy for ending his amazing run with a stumble. free dounloads psp

But no one else would have provided the contrast he did: old v. new, big v. small, controlled v. open. By that contrast, we see the future of news. free dounloads psp

The only problem for Rather was that his last big story was Rather. free dounloads psp

: More reaction...free dounloads psp

: It takes a special breed of balls to end the last broadcast with the word "courage." I honestly don't know whether he is all that hokey or whether he has a wicked sense of humor. free dounloads psp

: Lone Ranger, a broadcast journalist, says:

Call me sentimental, but I watched the last minute of the CBS news tonight. It was the first time I'd watched Dan Rather in 20 years. But then, I had a box of chicken the day Colonel Sanders died too. Nothing dramatic happened. It was just chicken.free dounloads psp

Oh, and nothing dramatic happened on the CBS news tonight either. He didn't put a gun to his head, the staff didn't break out in a spontaneous rendition of "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead," not so much as a single tear slid down his cheek.

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Connected links

: Here are the links I'm likely to use on this afternoon's Connected on MSNBC at 5p ET:free dounloads psp

: We'll talk about Dan Rather's last night, of course. Joe Gandelman at The Moderate Voice joins much buzz about Walter Cronkite's snarky remarks about Dan (he'd have replaced him years ago... he says Rather played a role). Says Joe: Rather was "a bit infected with the Geraldo Rivera syndrome... look and see how it impacts me and how brave and how much I care."free dounloads psp

Lost Remote reported that a Michigan station was holding a poll to let viewers decide whether to air a Rather tribute. But they suddenly took it down: "We were simply trying to maintain the great tradition of local viewer input that is the foundation of our modern day broadcasting system. It was never our intent to embarrass Mr. Rather or the CBS Network. We have always valued our over 50 year relationship with the CBS network and look forward to many more years of our affiliation." Nevermind.free dounloads psp

JiBlog has a lullaby for Dan:

Wherever you may go
No matter where you are
Blogs never will be far away
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: I'll talk about the furor over the bankruptcy bill coming from both left and right, much of it aimed at this sweetheart deal for credit-card companies. DailyKos is taking names of hinge-heeled Democrats and says that Biden -- now representing the state of MBNA -- has screwed his presidential ambition. free dounloads psp

Talking Point Memo's fill-in bloggers have been doing a great job rounding up the opposition .free dounloads psp

And I'll quote Glenn Reynolds' opposition to the bill and that of the Republicans. Glenn says it is "consistent with the worst stereotypes about corporate-friendly Republicanism." free dounloads psp

What's great about this is not only that we have the right and left in agreement -- the people vs. the powerful -- but also that we have liberals criticizing liberals and conservatives criticizing conservatives. What echo chamber?free dounloads psp

: I'll also talk about the case of Hiawatha Bray. free dounloads psp

Bush on Rather?

: At his photo-op just now, a reporter asked Bush to comment on Dan Rather's exit. Did anybody catch what Bush said? I couldn't hear it. free dounloads psp

A call for an open-source ad tag

: I want to make a proposal for an open-source ad tag.free dounloads psp

We need to enable advertising across citizens' media, to support our new medium, and to serve marketers more efficiently than we possibly can today. free dounloads psp

The problem today is that you have to pick the ad call you put on your site and that's fine -- except that let's say an advertiser comes along wanting to buy ads on, say, the top 100 food blogs. Well, today, some of them will have BlogAds ad avails, others Burst, others Google, others Kanoodle, and so on. The advertiser can't buy the best and largest network they want and they won't bother going to each blog. So they lose the opportunity to reach this audience of smart influencers. And we miss the revenue. free dounloads psp

It's true that you can shift from one network to another: I recently spoke at the Burst company meeting and they explained that their publishers can set their tags so that, if Burst doesn't have an ad to serve, the call can go to one of Burst's competitors. But that still doesn't really allow the advertiser to come in and create a customized network of the best sites to meet its goals. free dounloads psp

I've been fretting about this for more than a year. One solution to this would be to create a citizens' media ad network and infrastructure and work like hell to make it the ad network of choice. But that's unlikely to work and it only presents another choice in a world where people are getting good revenue from BlogAds and Burst and Google. free dounloads psp

So I started thinking about this idea of an open-source ad tag. I'm sure I'll mess this up and others who know a helluva lot more about this will come in correct me -- that's what we do, eh? But try this on for size:free dounloads psp

: You put the open-source ad tag on your site and it pings some central server (or is scraped by a spider) to announce itself, to make itself available to the network. free dounloads psp

: Perhaps the ad can be associated not just with a site or a page but with a post and tags describing its content. That is targeting nirvana. free dounloads psp

: You post data about your site with standard tags: topics, author, the kinds of ads you won't take, etc. free dounloads psp

: You also agree to put on your site a standard identifier so traffic, audience, and demographics of your audience can be collected (you can opt out, but you'll sell less). You serve standard cookies to enable this. free dounloads psp

: This standard identifier is also used with other data services so advertisers can put together ad hoc networks according to an amazing array of requirements -- more than in any other medium: With the traffic data and with, say, Technorati, they could determine the 100 top food blogs as defined by (a) audience, (b) traffic, (c) influence, as defined by incoming links, (d) meme starting, as defined by your spot on the progress of stories. Or they could choose to buy blogs not by the demographics of the audience but instead by the demographics of the authors (sell a new album on blogs written by teenage girls, for example). This kind of targeting will be a key differentiator vs. other media. free dounloads psp

: An ad agency or publisher or another organization can put together "quality networks" of selected sites, vetting them for quality, content, safety, whatever. So an agency can find the most influential sports blogs. Or a publisher can find compatible blogs to extend their reach or to bring in influencers for joint sales to advertisers. Or a church could vet blogs that are OK for Bible publishers or kids. This solves the problem of advertisers not wanting to be on "unsafe" content. free dounloads psp

: You can accept or reject any ad. You can set your tag to take ads from the highest bidder. Or you can choose to approve every ad. You can set a time period to review ads so you can accept the best bidder. Or you can automatically accept ads from sources you trust. Or you can accept only ads that pay over a certain rate. I'm not sure how the bidding process works: Perhaps advertisers can start with a low price and increase it only if they don't get takers. free dounloads psp

: You can be paid on various models: sponsorship (cost per time period); CPM (cost per audience); performance (cost per click or per sale). free dounloads psp

If this is done and if it becomes ubiquitous, then anyone who wants to sell or buy advertising can. The universe of sites for advertising -- via networks or not -- increases. The pool of money coming into advertising on citizens' media explodes. The marketplace is efficient for buyer and seller and gives each maximum control of what matters to them. free dounloads psp

I have been saying for a year that advertising on citizens' media will not grow to its potential until we have three things:free dounloads psp

: Metrics: How big, who, how they behave, etc. free dounloads psp

: Serving: The ability to put together ad hoc targeted networks and place ads on them with no effort and high reliablity. free dounloads psp

: ROI: The ability to measure return on investment and tune ad campaigns accordingly.free dounloads psp

Again, one could build a network that does all that but it only competes with -- rather than helps expand -- the incumbents. And at the end of the day, as one VC friend said, you may end up with the DoubleClick of citizens' media... except, in his words, "DoubleClicks' business sucks."free dounloads psp

So I had my 'ding!' moment and decided that this should be an open-source solution. The goal is to get the ad call on any site that wants it and to collect the data advertisers want and to enable efficient buying and selling. free dounloads psp

The net result of this -- the good reason to do all this -- is that it supports citizens' media, bringing more revenue to it, allowing more people to be able to afford more quality media and I think that's a good thing for those who want it. free dounloads psp

I'm eager for feedback on how to make this happen, on whether it's a good idea, on how to improve it. Pass the word....
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The Week after wine

[Wrote this last night at The Week's dinner; posting now....]free dounloads psp

: After dinner, they're having a panel on whether media elite is out of touch with America. free dounloads psp

The answer is yes and the panel is over. free dounloads psp

Oh, if only. free dounloads psp

God knows why they have Pat Robertson on this panel. "Are we elite?" he asks. No, you're a bigot who gives God bad PR, Pat. It's driving me nuts that he's there. free dounloads psp

Also here are Margaret Carlson of Time, Ed Schultz of radio in one Dakota or another, and Tina Brown of ... Tina Brown.free dounloads psp

Brown: "The media elite are all on the run, terrified of Pat Robertson."free dounloads psp

Robertson: "You should be."free dounloads psp

I digress... I was supposed to be at a table with Jonathan Adelstein of the FCC, whom I audio-fisked only a day ago. He didn't show up. Wimp.free dounloads psp

This guy Schultz is giving radio spiels. He's talking about how he's going to the talk-radio convention this week. What a fun bunch that must be. free dounloads psp

Now Robertson is bitchslapping him. It's like bad cable. free dounloads psp

Brown: "I'm in the middle of this sort of testosterone fusillade."free dounloads psp

She says that she'd "like to see the media elite get a little more elite, please... The elite is supposed to lead."free dounloads psp

I'm sitting next to legendary editor Geneva Overholser. She gives up and leaves. I'm going to do likewise...
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Eeyores

: Of course, Robert Fisk sees Syria's withdrawl from Lebanon as bad news. free dounloads psp

March 08, 2005

The Week Opinion Awards

: I'm at The Week's second annual opinion awards and a couple of forums cosponsored by the Aspen Institute. Will live-blog as deserved....free dounloads psp

: Walter Isaacson says that in the old days, Washington pundits were not independent; post-Watergate, they were "feisty and independent," and now he asks whether being independent works. free dounloads psp

Ana Marie Cox says it's not necessarily about staking out a position but about being shrill. Her case in point: Coulter. If you're tall and blonde and shout, you get attention, she says. You also get attention from sodomy jokes, she adds -- but that's about being clever. free dounloads psp

She says bloggers pride themselves on their ideological independence. free dounloads psp

Arianna Huffington says she goes after both conservatives and liberals -- after liberals mainly for being "spineless." free dounloads psp

Peter Beinert of The New Republic: "I actually want to be pigeonholed. The problem is that people on my side don't want me in their pigeonhole."free dounloads psp

I know the feeling with my pigeons. free dounloads psp

He argues that we should not throw out the terms "left" and "right" for that is "to discard history." free dounloads psp

Isaacson says the new media forces this and he issues his mea culpa doing that at CNN, pigeonholing people on the left and right to put out Crossfire.free dounloads psp

David Brooks: A straight reporter, he says, is always curious. An opinion journalist wakes up in the morning with an assumption and goes to bed with a conclusions. free dounloads psp

Simon Jenkins of The Times of London says that 10 years ago, opinion journalism was almost dead but the audience shows "they want opinion, they want to know what you think."free dounloads psp

Ana Marie says the strength of American journalism is that it is noncredentialed. For years, a J-school degree was a proxy for a credential. But now blogging brings back uncredentialed journalism. free dounloads psp

Huffington says the blogosphere takes on a story -- like Dan Rather -- and sticks to it. Isaacson says that it's like cable news taking on O.J.free dounloads psp

AMC says that bloggers stick on only partisan stories. free dounloads psp

Brooks says British journalism is influenced by the tradition of Johnson: conversational. American journalism is influenced by the spirit of Walter Lippman: heavy, earnest, and self-important.free dounloads psp

Beinert said the problem with Fox is not that it is a conservative network but that it is a Republican network. free dounloads psp

Brooks: "I have never met an elected official who reads a blog... They're not in the conversation." He says he reads blogs. But he says that blogs are at a war among themselves and there is a different conversation -- the one that matters, is the implication -- among elected officials. free dounloads psp

I think that's looking at it the wrong way: Do the people in power care to listen to what the people say?free dounloads psp

Beinert argues that the value for speed means that bloggers don't say things to remember.free dounloads psp

AMC says the reason she has a blog is because no one would print her.free dounloads psp

Jenkins argues that blogs are just opinion but the "process of editing and mediation" at papers is why people turn to them. Insert standard argument here. free dounloads psp

Huffington says big media is about not rocking the boat and the blogosphere is about rocking the boat. free dounloads psp

Beinert says there is a real value in people writing about people without having to meet them.free dounloads psp

Jenkins says that if the future of our journalism is going to be the web -- unmediated and often not truthful, he says -- we will miss newspapers. free dounloads psp

Beinert says that many of the liberal blogs "are mainly interested in enforcing discipine." Uh, yeah. "There is a great desire to have people in lockstep." But he says there has not been a conversation about what it means to be liberal while on the right, that conversation on for years before the lockstep discipline began on that side. free dounloads psp

Jenkins says we are "at the virtual collapse of the American newspaper industry." He says the current debate on the web is very much like the growth of newspapers around 1900 when they were all affiliated with parties and ideologies and over 50 years a standard of professionalism emerged. He predicts the same will happen with the web. He is reminded of the founding of the Guardian when it was said that opinions are free but facts cost money. He says that people will be drawn to sites that offer facts.free dounloads psp

Brooks says he is tired of generalizations about the blogosphere and mainstream media. When Arianna champions the blogosphere, he says "that battle is over, the blogosphere is around."free dounloads psp

Brooks says that you have to choose how to use your time and if you have a choice between blogs and books, he'll take books. free dounloads psp


: Then there's a panel about Iraqi coverage. I'm getting blog fatigue. But I love this line from Salameh Nematt, D.C. bureau chief of Al-Hayat: "Saddam himself was a weapon of mass destruction." free dounloads psp

Then there's this: Geraldo Rivera is asked whether he was convinced there were WMDs and he replies, "Kind of." Close enough for Geraldo.free dounloads psp

Asked whether he bears some responsibility for the euphoria right after the invasion of Iraq, Geraldo says yes. He says that he and his colleagues were cheerleaders and were patriots. Richard Perle tells him, "there was every reason to cheer."free dounloads psp

Geraldo says that the people in Iraq were all shouting, "Boooosh Boooosh."free dounloads psp

Interesting to see bitchslapping between the D.C. outposts of Al-Hayat and Al Jazeera. Now there's bitchslapping between Geraldo and Al-Jazeera.
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A sheep in Wolfie's clothing

: For his column today, David Brooks may lose his title as the conservatives liberals like to like for his column today -- and by agreeing with him, I will only solidify my title as the liberal liberals like to dislike:

Let us now praise Paul Wolfowitz. Let us now take another look at the man who has pursued - longer and more forcefully than almost anyone else - the supposedly utopian notion that people across the Muslim world might actually hunger for freedom.free dounloads psp

Let us look again at the man who's been vilified by Michael Moore and the rest of the infantile left, who's been condescended to by the people who consider themselves foreign policy grown-ups, and who has become the focus of much anti-Semitism in the world today - the center of a zillion Zionist conspiracy theories, and a hundred zillion clever-Jew-behind-the-scenes calumnies.free dounloads psp

It's not necessary to absolve Wolfowitz of all sin or to neglect the postwar screw-ups in Iraq. Historians will figure out who was responsible for what, and Wolfowitz will probably come in for his share of the blame. But with political earthquakes now shaking the Arab world, it's time to step back and observe that over the course of his long career - in the Philippines, in Indonesia, in Central and Eastern Europe, and now in the Middle East - Wolfowitz has always been an ardent champion of freedom....free dounloads psp

His faith in people probably led to some of the mistakes in Iraq. But with change burbling in Beirut, with many young people proudly hoisting the Lebanese flag (in a country that was once a symbol of tribal factionalism), it's time to take a look at this guy again.

If we liberals were smart, we'd be coopting the issue of freedom and human rights -- the way that conservatives coopted it from us... and the way the Bill Clinton coopted fiscal responsibility from conservatives. free dounloads psp

Agree or disagree about how we got here. Agree or disagree about what comes next (read Brooks' column: even Wolfowitz says that Iraq must be the military exception). I don't even care if you don't want to give credit to Wolfowitz and Bush; I just don't want to see the fruits of their strategy rejected just because it is their strategy. free dounloads psp

There's a hole in the dam of tyranny in the Middle East and freedom is flowing. Damnit. We should be holding the United Nations accountable for spreading freedom and not standing in the way. We should be figuring out how we can support movements of freedom -- without invasion -- in Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain..... free dounloads psp

One small way to do that is to give voice to the freedom-loving people of those nations. That's the small thing we can do. free dounloads psp

As I've mentioned before, Wolfowitz himself is an aggressive reader of weblogs. He reads them in Iraq and Iran because they sometimes give him better intelligence about what's really happening than his own intelligence forces. And he clearly reads them because he likes to hear the voice of freedom. free dounloads psp

So there: That's something about which every one of you can agree with Paul Wolfowitz. Don't let that scare you. free dounloads psp

We should be doing a better job reading these voices and spreading their word. Halley Suitt, Rebecca MacKinnon and others at the last Harvard confab want to get lots of people to vow to find 10 fresh new voices and blog and blogroll them. I think 10 is light; it's a discipline we need to follow all the time. free dounloads psp

And we need to find better ways to support those who are being oppressed because of their speech. I despair to find better ways to bring attention to the bloggers arrested in Iran and threatened in Bahrain and Maylasia (and God knows where else). free dounloads psp

If you don't like the way Wolfowitz is trying to spread freedom in the world, then try to find new ways. But standing back and not trying is not acceptable. Freedom is the best cause of all. free dounloads psp

Bassackwards

: The Boston Globe ombudsperson -- and the critics who complained to her -- get it exactly wrong when they go after Globe tech reporter Hiawatha Bray for expressing his political opinions in comments on blogs. free dounloads psp

I say we should be celebrating his openness, his transparency, his honesty -- for now his critics are free to disagree with what he says and thinks -- not just what they think he thinks. free dounloads psp

Oh, I know that's a minority opinion -- even sometimes a reviled one -- in the halls of journlaism. But I have come to believe that journalists' refusal to acknowledge that they are human and are citizens and have opinions is a sort of lie by omission and we have to find better ways to deal with it than gagging them. Journalists are in the business of uncovering truths, not covering them; journalists demand to know what everyone else in the world thinks, yet they hide their own thoughts. Isn't that a disservice to the public? For it does not allow the public to judge the messenger, as is their right. free dounloads psp

Now, of course, this leads to many sticky questions: Do you take someone who hates Bush and have her cover Bush? Do you take someone who admires Bush and have him cover Bush? Well, but doesn't that happen already? It's not that we're putting the opinionless on these beats; we're merely hiding their opinions. free dounloads psp

I'm not saying that a White House reporter should turn his or her reports into screeds or hosannas. It is still the job of a reporter to report the facts, to be fair, to be complete, to be accurate, to leave those opinions at the door and tell the story to the best of his or her ability. What I'm really suggesting is that it's fair to know that that reporter voted for Reagan one year and Clinton the next. free dounloads psp

I also know this is very difficult water to navigate in a business that has believed the opposite for so long. But things have changed (and I won't rechart that sea again; we know all the shoals: FoxNews, blogs, the Guardian, yadayadayada). And we need to have an open discussion about this and find new rules that serve the public and serve our credibility. free dounloads psp

But the case of Bray isn't even that complicated. He's a technology reporter who expressed political opinions against Kerry (opinions I disagree with, by the way). But that's what set MediaMatters and the paper and the ombudsman after him. MediaMatters argues that he still covered politics as it related to the convention. I'd say that's a stretch. Bray says he doesn't cover politics. free dounloads psp

So let's take this out of the realm of politics -- loaded as it is -- and ask instead: Is it OK for a reporter to have an opinion? Well, guess what, they all do and short of hypnosis or a lobotomy there's not much you can do about it. So is it OK for a reporter to express that opinion in other areas? free dounloads psp

I don't know Bray's opinions on technology, so these are hypothetical. But let's say that he doesn't like Microsoft and Bill Gates and says so. Yes, that colors his coverage of technology. But it also allows us to judge that coverage. And when he says something good about Microsoft, it makes even that all the more meaningful. And you know what? Dan Gillmor -- one of the most respected journalists alive -- has done just that. And it only enhances his credibility; we know Dan and what he thinks but we also know he is fair and accurate and professional. free dounloads psp

And there are dangers to pushing the precedent of this complaint and reprimand: Does this now mean that if you've ever had a political opinion publicly expressed, you can't be a journalist? Does this mean that a news editor is going to have to plumb the depths of every freelancer's blog and comments to see whether to assign a story? In a world of citizens' media and distributed reporting, this becomes a bigger issue: Are opinions cooties in journalism? I sure hope not. free dounloads psp

The other danger is that if you go after Bray for his anti-Kerry opinions, do you have to go after other journalists for their anti-Bush opinions? By this logic, shouldn't MediaMatters also be going after Frank Rich because, after all, he's letting political opinions seep -- no, flood -- into the arts section? Of course, not. free dounloads psp

In the case of Bray, there's a lot of kneejerking going on: MediaMatters wants another head and I disagree with them about this. (And, yes, I know this will sure another volley of Ollies but I don't care.) And the paper is going with old assumptions that don't take into account new media and the conversation it enables. free dounloads psp

MediaMatters does point out the industry hypocrisy of firing others for having the opposite opinion to Bray. I agree, that's inconsistent. But I disagree with their conclusion: None should be fired for having opinions per se. Anybody can be fired for being a dolt or incompetent or unprofessional. But having an opinion is not, in itself, a capital offense and should not be. I hope we get to the point where not revealing that opinion is seen as a misdemeanor. free dounloads psp

Of course, David Weinberger says all this better -- and with greater brevity -- than I do:

I think it's safe to say that Chinlund meant to say that Bray's political writings were at odds with the appearance of impartiality, which raises the question: Just how stupid does the Globe think its readers are? Do we really believe that tech writers and sports writers and style writers don't have political views? Do we think that out of the office they go slack-jawed when asked who they're voting for? No, we understand that because they're professional journalists, they do a reasonable job of keeping their personal political views out of their writing.free dounloads psp

Transparency works better than reprimands. I'd rather know a reporter's views so I can understand where the journalist is coming from and can compensate for those views if they affect the journalist's writing.free dounloads psp

Today, the ombudsman reports Bray as saying: "I make no apology . . . for my opinions. But I do apologize for expressing them in a venue that might lead some to suppose that my employers share them."free dounloads psp

Hiawatha, you have nothing to apologize for. No one thinks that just because you support Bush, so must The Boston Globe. Hah! And if there's ever any doubt who a reporter is talking for on her blog, all she has to do is put up an explanation: "This is my personal blog. I'm not speaking for The Boston Globe." Transparency is as good as sunlight.free dounloads psp

I truly hope we're seeing the last of this foolish idea that journalists are such pure priests of information that they must remain celibate. It is a fiction, and it demeans journalists and readers alike.

And for the record, David is no Bushie. No way. free dounloads psp

Here's what Globe ombud Christine Chinlund says:

Last November the Globe learned that technology reporter Hiawatha Bray was posting his political views on a web log. The editors warned him not to continue. Even with no explicit Globe rules at that point governing what's OK in the largely uncharted, semi-public/semi-private world of blogging, Bray's anti-Kerry and pro-Bush rhetoric was at odds with the impartiality expected of journalists. Bray agreed to stop.free dounloads psp

End of story -- until last week, when a liberal online media watchdog group reported what Bray had written. That brought dozens of angry e-mails to this office; some said fire Bray.free dounloads psp

Responds Baron: ''Mr. Bray is a technology reporter and did not cover the presidential campaign, other than a minor technology-related story on very rare occasions. That said, his blog postings were inappropriate and in violation of our standards." Thus, the November warning.free dounloads psp

Said Bray: ''I don't cover politics for the Globe and figured that gave me a fair amount of leeway. I'm a lowly tech writer; who'd care what I thought about the election? Turns out, a lot of people did."free dounloads psp

''I make no apology . . . for my opinions. But I do apologize for expressing them in a venue that might lead some to suppose that my employers share them."

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A rare treat

: Be sure to sign up for the Media Center's webcast: The Vanishing Newspaper. It's on Wednesday at 2p ET. Details here. free dounloads psp

The folks talking are great. The list of people "attending" is also amazing; the pity of the form is that we can't hear from all of them, but they'll be the ones asking questions. free dounloads psp

The added bonus: I'm only moderating so I'll talk less than usual. free dounloads psp

March 07, 2005

Videoblogfest

: Trey Jackson puts up video of MediaBistro D.C. blogger Garrett Graff after his first day as an official White House correspondent plus video of my MSNBC blog report.free dounloads psp

Dinosaur blog

: I won't ruin the punchline. [Thanks, David]free dounloads psp

Reporter, report thyself

: On the current On the Media, former CBS Correspondent Tom Fenton promotes his new book, Bad News, and complains that he couldn't complain about the news business while he was still in it because journalism is, oddly, so thin-skinned. free dounloads psp

But, of course, it's about more than just complaining. And it's about more than just complaining about your own institution. free dounloads psp

This is about the press recognizing the press is a story now. free dounloads psp

The press usually tries to duck being the story. The old argument -- filled with self-serving false humility -- was that stories about the press were inside-baseball and boring (though, of course, that is also often true). But the truth is that reporters are usually smart enough to know that they don't want any reporters dogging them. Reporters are smart enough to know that when a reporter calls, it's usually bad news. So the press hasn't covered itself. free dounloads psp

But now the press is a story because of all the controversy about it, because of the upheaval in the medium, and because bloggers have made the press the story. free dounloads psp

So it is time for the press to criticize itself. free dounloads psp

The usual reaction to this is to appoint an ombudsman who criticizes and mediates complaints about his or her own institution. I don't think that's the right approach, for it still makes that institution the center of the story; it's still a form of institutional ego. free dounloads psp

I say the press needs to get used to covering and criticizing not only its own product but those of its colleagues and competitors. free dounloads psp

Dan Okrent is, in my view, doing a great job as The Times ombudsman, but he is best when he's not writing about The Times but instead about the business, about the practices of the press, about how things do and should happen. I suggest that Dan's successor should be not just an ombudsman but a press critic free to criticize any end of the media -- and not just institutions but also citizens practicing the craft and officials trying to spin the news (see Frank Rich's column and Jay Rosen's post this weekend). free dounloads psp

Another good response is to open up the process: Show people how the sausage is made. We've discussed that before. free dounloads psp

And finally, you know I'll put in a plug for having the journalists blog because it opens up a conversation and lifts the veil. I don't expect those journalists to be the best at criticizing their own institutions. In other words, would Fenton have said what he said in his book on a blog? No, probably not; there are obvious conflicts of interest. But talking about how stories get on the air and what works and what doesn't, being a little self-critical and listening to the reaction of the public you serve -- that's to the good. free dounloads psp

More podcast play

: I've played with another podcast response: This brief (five-minute) 'cast takes quotes from Democratic FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein's interview with Brooke Gladstone on On the Media . It was a good interview but I couldn't resist adding my own answers to Adelstein's answers. I'm not so sure this one works; hear what you think. free dounloads psp

: I wish this is what the opposition party would do to, say, the State of the Union speech. Rather than that cardboard response the Democrats gave to the last SOTU, how much better it would be if they gave Bush an audio fisking: Respond to his stands, point-by-point, back-and-forth in a podfisk!free dounloads psp

White House blogging

: So Media Bistro's D.C. blogger gets official access to the White House press room today. Hope they can bear the boredom. free dounloads psp

March 06, 2005

International

: It's a big deal that Sony, the Japanese giant, is about to name Sir Howard Stringer as its CEO. free dounloads psp

You know you're getting old when...

: One of those incredibly safe, old-fogey music specials on PBS actually appeals to you. No, it's not Yanni or, Lord knows, Lawrence Welk. It's the Mamaps & Papas. free dounloads psp

: Somebody in the voiceover is calling Michelle "the slurp of the age." free dounloads psp

First the weather, then the world

: My son just blogged about Google's new weather feature: search on "weather" and a place and you get the forecast. So who needs Weather.com? This is how Google will attack every commoditized content niche, I predict: scores, stocks, prices, news.... free dounloads psp

Audio fisking of Bill Maher and Ward Churchill: A Buzzmachine Podcast

: So here is my first podcast. I kept waiting for the right opportunity to try something that needed audio and this weekend I think I found it in the Ward Churchill appearance on Bill Maher's show.free dounloads psp

So I put together an audio fisking. free dounloads psp

The podcast is here. I haven't put up an RSS feed for podcasts yet, since I have only one. free dounloads psp

I want to thank Crooks & Liars for recording the Maher show, providing the audio grist for my grumbly mill. free dounloads psp

Let me know what you think; I know you will. free dounloads psp

The future of news

: I'm writing this post on the train returning from perhaps one symposium on the future of news too many. They can be very frustrating, howing the same rows over and over until you find yourself stuck in a rut: Who's a journalist? What's journalism? How do we support newsgathering? How can blogs be trusted without editors? How can big media be trusted without bloggers? Why is the sky blue? What do women really want? Arrrrrghh! So why do I go? It ain't for the food. It's because I care about the news business and know we need it; I want it to survive. And I care about citizens' media and know we need it and want it to grow. I believe the two must do that together. And so I come and do my schizo dance (to the point that Merrill Brown had to ask me more than once when using the first person whether I was speaking as MediaMan or BlogBoy). This one began like all the others and ended like all the others, in the dreaded small-group sessions (no, no, anything but that, oh, god, not the easel!). But at least and at last we started to talk not about the love of what had been or the fear of what is now, but instead about the possibilities for what news can be. In this small group -- among them, the AP's Jim Kennedy, Susan Mernit, Halley Suitt, MIT's Michael Schrage, and others whose names I'm sorry I don't have with me right now -- we batted around new models for the future, acting as if we were in charge of a local news business in five years. Try this on for size:free dounloads psp

So imagine that a local news organization -- one of the incumbents or a new competitor -- becomes an aggregator of:free dounloads psp

: News -- Staff still reports, writes, and edits what they do best. But we also link to, syndicate, promote, and support the work of citizen journalists. To the public, we provide a means to get all the news we can find (a new slogan in the About.com era). We are the starting point (for some), the organizer (for some). But we no longer pretend to do it all. It's distributed news. We even help citizen journalists to join together to report stories: The one tangible suggestion out of this confab came from Jay Rosen, who said that one reporter somewhere will show how open-source journalism will work, bringing together the effort and expertise of the crowd. We can provide support to these "information entrepreneurs," as one of the group called them: advertising revenue (see below), tools, training (the BBC is starting a journalism school for the people; shouldn't and couldn't any local newspaper be that?). And they need not only write stories. Their reporting could be videotaping the board of ed meetings; it could be getting a senior citizens' club to report on prices in every grocery store; it could be pulling together Little League scores.free dounloads psp

: Trust -- Yes, it sounds wonky, but we should aggregate trust. Old news organizations did it among few sources; Craig's List and eBay do it among many. Let's say that five people cover the school board. Whom do you trust? It might be the one with the most links, or the most positive reviews, or the most traffic, or the most experience, or the fewest corrections and complaints, or the one who has the contempt of the people in power you hate, or perhaps training, or even editing. It may also be the reporter -- staff or independent -- who is the most transparent, who tells you how she votes