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June 13, 2005

Verdict in

: Not that we should care, but the Jackson verdict will be read at 4:30p ET. diablo druid cd key

: It's funny: I was at this Annenberg roundtable thing about high-fallutin' topics like press and democracy and no one was supposed to be interested in the verdict but, still, they put the trial up on the big screen above our heads even as I sat there on a panel pontificating about citizens and media. So we're all tacky....diablo druid cd key

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Input meets output

: Martin Tobias finds a neat little application that tracks the links people click on on your blog. diablo druid cd key

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Our man in Tehran

: Hoder is reporting from Iran (on dial-up with his own domain blocked).diablo druid cd key

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Using the innocents, continued

: I've changed my mind. I don't want to redo the International Freedom Center to turn it from an flagellation fest into a celebration of democracy and freedom in America. diablo druid cd key

No, I want to eliminate it. diablo druid cd key

The memorial at the World Trade Center should say everything that needs to be said. diablo druid cd key

So in the place of the so-called Freedom Center, I want to see the truest expression of American freedom: commerce. diablo druid cd key

I want to see stores that sell scanty clothes, no burkas allowed. diablo druid cd key

I want to see restaurants that serve liquor. diablo druid cd key

I want to see movies that show anything, even sex. diablo druid cd key

I want to see bookstores that celebrate free speech. diablo druid cd key

I want to see stores selling products from all over the world: the fruits of globalization. diablo druid cd key

I want to see life there. Defiant, unapologetic life. diablo druid cd key

: Just to be clear (reacting to a comment): I am not talking about the memorial; I endorse the memorial. It is this -- as Ed Cone put it -- noise around that from the Freedom Center that is bothersome. diablo druid cd key

So don't bother with the Freedom Center, not here. Let the memorial speak for itself. And hand the rest of the space back to the living. That's what I'm trying to say, in my hyperbolic way. diablo druid cd key

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Declaration of f'ing independence

: Esquire rips a web-page out of the Parents Television Council's play book with a declaration of independence you can sign and send to the FCC with a click. Howard Stern is our founding father.

The history of the present Federal Communications Commission is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the airwaves, bringing with it a tyrant's notion of "decency." diablo druid cd key

To prove this, let the Facts be submitted to a candid world....diablo druid cd key

The FCC should be reminded that all radios and televisions have a button. This is called an "off" button, and it can be used when citizens find broadcast content to be disagreeable. It strikes us as tiresome to have to repeat this old remonstrance, but whatever. Furthermore, there now exists all manner of filters and blocks that can be used by parents and guardians to protect children from content that is not suitable for them. We, however, are not children, and we will not be treated as such by our government....diablo druid cd key

...the radio host Howard Stern does not lack for literary merit. Rather, he is part and parcel of a long, ribald tradition of gloriously undignified art that includes Rabelais, Henry Miller, and James Joyce, all of whom discussed "fingerbanging" in one way or another. diablo druid cd key

The radio host Howard Stern does not lack for educational merit. Rather, he is charting the sexual mores of our great nation, much like noted anthropologist Margaret Mead did....diablo druid cd key

In every stage of his oppressions, Howard Stern has petitioned for redress. He has railed against the FCC on his radio show, urging the citizenry to vote against one George W. Bush. He engaged in a tense discourse with former FCC chairman Michael Powell on the air, pointing out that television talk-show host Oprah Winfrey also discusses anal and oral sex in detail but is not equally oppressed because she is beloved by the media aristocracy and gives away motorized carriages to her audience....diablo druid cd key

For when faced with the termination of his astonishingly high-paying job, when faced with censure from his very own employer, Howard Stern refused to do what most of us would do: He refused to make accommodations. Rather, he declared revolution. And this is a great and good thing. This is the very act that defines a hero. This is the very act that defines an American man. diablo druid cd key

And now as a free and independent radio host, he will be able to discuss masturbating to Aunt Jemima at his discretion. It's possible that he will be discussing masturbating to Aunt Jemima to a total of four listeners. But this makes him no less a patriot. God bless Howard Stern, and God bless America, land of the free, home of lesbian porn stars and angry drunken dwarves.

I signed and clicked. In fact, be like the PTC: sign and click often. diablo druid cd key

: ALSO: Here's a very nice vlog showing the absurdity of PTC complaints against Arrested Development. diablo druid cd key

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Brother, can you spare a scoop?

: Updating this post as the day goes on, below. diablo druid cd key

: I'm at an Annenberg event in Philadelphia bringing together mostly journalism academics and others to talk about the role of the press in a democracy. I'll blog it occasionally. diablo druid cd key

Tonight, Chuck Lewis, who founded the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit source for investigative journalism, argued in favor of a nonprofit model for reporting, saying that an organization such as the CPI can dog stories and spend money news companies often can't. diablo druid cd key

I do believe that nonprofit reporting will have a growing role. NPR is invoked by many, with contributions and foundations supporting quality and growing journalism (though it's interesting to me that many newspapers have larger staffs covering one town than NPR has covering the nation and the world, according to the numbers I heard tonight) diablo druid cd key

The questions after his talk raised interesting issues. A few (I among them) cautioned that foundations, too, have agendas and when they pay for reporting that's just another means of using money to control journalism. diablo druid cd key

Others pushed for hybrid models. One academic suggested the need for an Associated Press of investigative journalism and I like that: such an AP doesn't handle commodity news but real reporting... if news organizations can give up their addictions to scoops. Someone who has run a nonprofit journalistic organization for years said that when alternative newspapers goosed the news business a few decades ago, none of them thought for a second of running their businesses on contributions; they supported themselves the old-fashioned way -- with profits -- and ethnic journalism is doing the same thing today. I also, predictably, raised the prospect of individually supported reporting: witness Hoder going to Iran, Josh Marshall going to New Hampshire. diablo druid cd key

: After the wine and before the food, the room introduced itself and there were some interesting moments in that: One academic said, "get rid of objectivity"(I stopped myself from applauding). Another academic argued for the British model of journalism. One TV producer said, "the economic models are hopeless broken." An alternative journalism vet says there should be profit caps on media companies (I stopped myself from hooting). A dean said we need to stop serving "the porridge of journalism, forcing it down people's throats." A newspaperman said we must "stop thinking of our readers as stupid because they don't want us... We must abandon our core products." These were the soundbites I want to hear more about. diablo druid cd key

: LATER: Jim Naughton, former head of Poynter and a nostalgic former editor on the Philadelphia Inquirer, just pushed a proposition that newspapers should advertise the value of journalism to the public: Wearing a Darth mask, he said, "We must go to the dark side, we must market." diablo druid cd key

Arrrrgh. Merrill Brown said what needed to be said (and what I wanted to say) -- that that is moving the deck chairs, that this is a dying industry that should be spending money on changing the product and then we should advertise that. diablo druid cd key

: I'm surprised -- but shouldn't be -- at how much I hear in this crowd of academics and editors disdain for corporations and profits. diablo druid cd key

I, on the other hand, believe that the marketplace is journalism's best hope. diablo druid cd key

: Case in point: Claude-Jean Bertrand, professor emeritus from the University of Paris, says: "A free market is indispensible but it cannot create good media as is evidenced right now in this country."diablo druid cd key

Arrrgh II. This displays an essential mistrust of the public the press tries to serve. What are we all but the marketplace?diablo druid cd key

He puts forward a list of more than 80 "media accountability systems." diablo druid cd key

I'd counter that with three notions that cover it as far as I'm concerned: conscience, good sense, and transparency. diablo druid cd key

: They talk about news councils and such. I blurt out that we have a million press critics and they are our readers and former readers. We have to read them. diablo druid cd key

: Dave Winer would have a screaming fit at an event such as this: One person takes the mike for 40 minutes; one person responds; a few people get to raise their hands in what passes for discussion. In this kind of crowd, the Bloggercon nonconference model would work best: capture the wisdom of the crowd via discussion and a meritocracy of ideas. Rather than have people present papers and propositions, it would be better to present, read, and react to them beforehand online so we can arrive for the center of the discussion rather than the prelude. diablo druid cd key

And, yes, I wish Winer were here. What these journalism confabs always miss on the invitation list is the public they should be serving and hearing. diablo druid cd key

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Sticki wiki

: Via Dan Gillmor at Bayosphere, I see that the LA Time is planning to start wikitorials -- wikified editorials that can be rewritten by readers, one of many interesting changes in the paper's opinion pages. diablo druid cd key

Sounds like a cool idea... but I think it goes up against the essential nature of wikis and probably won't work. diablo druid cd key

Wikipedia brags about its NPOV (neutral point of view) enforced by the wisdom of the crowd and the desire to get the facts right and maintain a valuable resource. diablo druid cd key

An editorial is, of course, not neutral. And so what you'll likely find is a never-ending wikiwar: yes he did, no he didn't, he did, no he didn't, yes he did, no he didn't, nya, nya, nya...diablo druid cd key

Besides, I think this does what papers do too much: It tries to make the paper the center of the discussion. Turn around, guys, and look outside the newsroom and see what everybody else is saying. diablo druid cd key

: Here's editorial page editor Michael Kinsley on the changes, quoted in the NY Times:

"It may be a complete mess but it's going to be interesting to try," he said. "Wikitorials may be one of those things that within six months will be standard. It's the ultimate in reader participation."diablo druid cd key

Mr. Kinsley also started an experimental feature, "Thinking Out Loud," where readers, op-ed and editorial writers hash out tough issues like immigration and traffic. "We hope within a year that we will have a solid, consistent, intelligent and correct position on these two issues and it will result from a process that is not only transparent but readers will participate," Mr. Kinsley said.

: Ross Mayfield says that wikis work best not when the public is offered something baked but something unbaked. diablo druid cd key

: Ernie Miller is also dubious. diablo druid cd key

You know, the best, most open, most bloggy and webby way to do this might have been to post a note saying, "I'm thinking about doing this... what do you think?" And then the best minds online -- Ross and Ernie among them -- would have been happy to share their reaction and wisdom. diablo druid cd key

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Jump out of the stream

: Lost Remote reports that MSNBC served 30 million streams last month. That's great. But I guarantee you that they'd serve many times that if:diablo druid cd key

1. The site allowed you to download and subscribe to video (especially come the days of portable, unwired video). diablo druid cd key

2. The network put up all its stories and segments online so you can watch what you want to watch when you want to watch it. diablo druid cd key

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Sex sells, news doesn't

: Steve Baker of Business Week has a theory explaining why I didn't get many comments on the new newsroom post:

Either commenters are taking the weekend off, or they're far more interested in airbrushed nipples than the future of journalism.

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Where in the world

: Poynter's Larry Larsen wants news orgs to post GPS coordinates for their stories. Yes, that'd be great, along with tags and more metadata. But I can tell you, having spent years trying to get newsrooms to put stories online, that it's hard enough to get a sports story in the sports section. diablo druid cd key

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