« May 2008 | Main | July 2008 »
The Transportation Security Administration
has given the go-ahead for passengers to use newly designed carry-on
bags that will let them pass through security without having to take
their laptops out for the X-ray inspection. The T.S.A. would accept the new
laptop cases as soon as they come on the market.[NYT]
Found this on The Sturdy Soapbox. For Beatles fans only I suspect. A fascinating look behind the recording of the final track on Sgt. Pepper. That this song was recorded on just four tracks is... mind blowing?
"As always, the parade started with the Dykes on Bikes - a contingent of dozens of lesbians on motorcycles who waved, honked and cheered as they roared down Market Street to screams from the crowd. This year, some members of the normally leather-clad group channeled their softer side and rode in wedding dresses and veils, streaming rainbow flags from their bikes." [SFGate.com]
The San Francisco Gay Pride Parade took place yesterday. Barb is in SF for a legal conference and planned to catch the parade and take some pix. Can't wait to see her stuff (so to speak). She's a much better photographer than I. In the meantime, there's interesting images on flickr.
If you can dance in heels, I suppose it's no great trick to run on stilts. Still, I'm impressed. And where do you even find an outfit like this?
Nathan reports he could not get to smays.com from the Kansas City International Airport wireless network. Seems we are blocked due to "Adult Themes, Nudity." This could only have been better if they'd added "subversive."
In April of 2007, John Edwards, Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama were in Iowa, campaigning for the Iowa Caucuses. Radio Iowa News Director Kay Henderson interviewed the candidates and asked each spoke with each who made a point of talking about gun rights and none of the three endorsed such proposals as gun registration or a ban on handguns.
Kay posted portions of her interviews on her blog, which has generated a couple of dozen comments over the past year. Some flaky, but most thoughtful. The one that haunts me is from Sergio (who has an email address in Aruba?):
"As a non-US citizen I can't believe how Americans in 2008 still cling to their weapons while trying to police and moralize the rest of the world. Although the US has a unique culture and history - certainly when it comes to guns - I wonder if Americans ever consider why almost no other country in the world allows people to bear arms, especially fire arms. The US has one of if not the highest gun killing rates in the world for a country that is not at (civil) war.
Do you really believe that weapons make a society safer? Strictly licensed weapon possession for hunting and sports is allowed in most countries of the world, but the 'right to keep and bear arms' is really unique."
I honestly don't know if we enjoy the freedoms we do because of, or in spite of, all the handguns (and assault rifles etc etc). If every man in Zimbabwe had a gun, would Robert Mugabe still be in power? Let's face it, the ballot box is a joke in that country. Sort of like Florida.
The recent Supreme Court ruling has prompted me to think about this topic a little. And make a list of all the reasons I can think of for a private citizen owning a handgun. In no particular order:
That's all that I can come up with at the moment. Self-defense is a popular reason for gun ownership, but I can't recall the last time I heard of someone repelling a robber with their six-shooter. And it seems like there's no end of stories of some youngster shooting his sister (or a dozen or so classmates) with dad's Glock. That's the tasteless interview I'd like to hear.
"Mr. Smith, it's been a year since your oldest boy shot and killed his little brother with the gun he took from your bedside table. Has this terrible tragedy changed your position on hand-gun ownership in anyway?"
I think Sergio is right on one point. We need to stop "trying to police and moralize (to) the rest of the world." It just makes us look like dicks.
Interesting story on NPR this morning about a sports blog called The LoHud Yankees Blog. The blog seems to be a collaborative effort by Journal News beat writer Peter Abraham and a shit-load of fans. According to the NPR piece, a post can get as many as a thousand comments and readers will post to the blog form the stands, in the middle of a game.
I have a theory about blogs like this one. If the Yankees organization tried to create such a successful blog, they couldn't. Wouldn't matter how much money they threw at it. There is some organic quality to really successful blogs like this one that is damned hard for big institutions to foster.
Smart companies will find and encourage and support efforts like this one. Is there a risk that someone will post something unflattering about the Yankees? Of course. But get a clue... they'll do that anyway.
Most of the pro leagues have some sort of dumb-ass policy regarding live-blogging of games by reporters so I'm a little curious how the Journal News is pulling this off. If Mr. Abraham or someone from the paper stumbles across this post, I'd love to know the answer. Could it be the Yankees are smart enough to know a really good thing when they see it?
Apple hardware and software are not perfect. A piece of gear can be defective or stop working... software is, after all, software. I've had very good experiences since getting my first Mac just over two years ago.
But a couple of things gacked up recently. A problem with my Airport (wireless router) and my new Mac Mini. Unrelated. And even His Macness, George, couldn't put things right. So he called Apple support.
I purchased an extended service plan called AppleCare which is a bit pricey but often recommended for switchers.
We wound up calling Apple three times yesterday, speaking to three different people about the two problems. Each time there was zero wait. And each time we wound up speaking with someone that was very knowledgeable. None of those long waits while they try to read the support screens. These folks obviously knew their shit.
And they were all very friendly, but efficient. No time wasted.
But the big "ooh!" moment for me was when the lady helping with the Airport problem resolved the issue and then asked us to wait 5 minutes (until the MacBook went to sleep) to be certain everything was really working correctly.
She didn't want us to have to call back...get a different agent...and go through the whole routine again.
I'm sure others have had different experiences with Apple and I might have a bad one down the road. But I was reminded of all the hellacious support calls I've endured over the years and this was a nice contrast.
There are lots of positives to living on a few acres of wooded land. It's quiet and peaceful. No traffic. The sort of environment where you find deer, rabbits, turtles, wild turkeys and... snakes. (shudder) I am not fond of snakes.
This was found at the bottom of a pile of brush that the lads are clearing out today. I wasn't there when Mark picked this copperhead up and declined his offer to "milk" the venom.
Following this little show-and-tell, the snake was dispatched with a spade. Yes, I know there's never just one snake. [larger photo]
Last December's ice storm destroyed a lot of tree. Parts of our property have looked like an artillery range for the last six months. Today a crew of hard-working lads are cutting down the fatally wounded.
The price tag seemed a little high at first glance, but after seeing the guys 30 feet up with a chain saw roaring in one hand, it seems about right.
I'm proud to say that I gave NO thought to attempting this project on my own.
I've heard good things about slideshare, saw it on Buzz Machine, and decided to give it a try. This is an old (and out of date) presentation but it's the only one I have, so... I believe you can drop in narration audio and I'll give that a try later.
I just like the idea of embedding a slideshow better than trying to email around huge PowerPoint files.
"Here's the deal with Twitter as it applies to fast-breaking news: All it takes is one person with knowledge of a big-deal news event (in this case, anyone in the NBC building who learned about Russert's death) to instantly blast it out via Twitter to blow apart any notion you may have of holding back the tide for a few minutes." Steve Outing, E-Media Tidbits
Mark Ramsey points us to this LA Times story about Chrysler's plans to offer wireless Internet in its 2009 models. Something we all knew was coming. As always, Mr. Ramsey asks the good questions. Here's one of them:
"What does it mean to be "radio" in a world where audio is fully integrated into an experience that includes video, text, interactivity, and personalization? The attraction to these services will not only be that they're supplemental to radio, but that they expand the definition of radio. And that expansion will benefit only those broadcasters and their partners smart enough to recognize that the advantage of a broadcast tower is non-existent in this context."
Or a satellite channel?
Anybody who tells you they don't check their blog stats is lying. I look for the same reason you look in a wastebasket when you hear a noise coming from it.
I moved from Blogger to Typepad about 5 years ago and it has a little stats page. The metric I find most interesting is Average Page Views per Day. One hundred page views could be ten people looking at ten pages or one hundred people looking at one page. But I sort of figure most folks look at the home page for anything new and move on. Page Views = Unique Visitors.
For the last few years I've hovered around 299 PV per day. Always close to 300, but never quite there. Until today. No idea if this number will hold but it's something of a relief to --even for a few hours-- reach that number.
And now that I have, I'm going to try to think of you as those extremely gay, semi-animated Spartans in the movie "300."
The sales staff of our company's news division held their annual retreat this week. Your basic training/planning/role-playing/drinking/cheer leading get-away. I've attended a lot of them but not this one.
With video getting easier to shoot and edit, they decided to record some of the role playing sessions for evaluation purposes. Super Intern Jon Allison was put in charge of AV chores and he was MORE than up to the task. Check out his 5 minute mash-up (produced in iMovie HD).
In a pre-YouTube world, we would have posted a few still images on the company intranet or sent around some lame-ass PowerPoint (a couple of weeks after the event). Jon had this ready to watch before they came home.
Here's my question for managers: Do you have someone on your staff that can produce something like this? [Photo: Jon with Learfield Kahuna Roger Gardner]
Don't bail before the big finish. Worth the wait. [Thanks, Bob.]
Kevin O'Keefe points to an excellent post by Liz Strauss, an expert in corporate online communications.
Whether they say the words or not, many companies are afraid to let their employees blog. Liz wonders "is the blog the problem?"
"Look to the people. Isn’t the issue one of trust and control? The employer is concerned about what employees might write on the blog.
We let employees talk to customers daily — answering email, answering phone call, answering questions at exhibits, and answering letters at the office. We trust what they write on behalf of our company. We once worried in the same way about the telephone and email.
It comes down to hiring and training employees who make good decisions.
If we trust our ability to choose the right employees and to let them know the values that we hold for our company and our customers, the question of whether we should let them blog falls away as an issue.
A blog is a powerful, customer-facing tool. Like a computer, it’s as strong as the people we choose to use it."
Kevin was told recently of one senior lawyer who was told by the firm that they would not be permitted to blog. 'The firm does not allow its lawyers to blog.'
The lawyer responded with a question. 'Why am I working at a place that does not trust me to talk about what I do - about a niche in the law I am passionate about?'
Somebody at Gizmodo shares some very logical reasons for sticking with Windows.
"But really, when it comes down to it, the main reason I still use Windows is this: I'm stubborn and lazy. I don't want to switch because it will amount to admitting that I've been wrong for the last 15 years or so. And it would be just a huge pain to do it even if I swallowed my pride, having to relearn all the shortcuts and commands and little nuances that make an OS tick. I know all those for Windows already. I am just far too lazy to relearn OS X, and I don't care how easy you claim it is. I've made my choice, and I'm sticking by it. At least until I buy my next computer, because I sure as hell don't want to have to use Vista. I mean, I like Windows, but I'm not crazy."
I was NOT a Windows power user (even after all those years) so the switch was easier for me. But completely understand why someone wouldn't.
But for moi, a day doesn't go by that I don't discover some useful new feature in OS X. Or some amazing Mac application that makes my life easier.
Crazy Driver Nearly Killed By Train - Watch more free videos
No matter which direction I point my office webcam, or the time of day or season, it surprises (and delights) me with tiny, empty moments in time. I got all creepy last time I posted on this so I won't do that this time.
This is what my webcam sees, hour after hour. This particular image brings to mind a hospital room in the wee hours. The patient can't sleep and listens to the awful sounds of a hospital floor. Now and then a nurse or orderly passes by. But mostly it's the empty corridor. (shudder)
Man, I gotta aim that thing out the window.
"The professional news tribe is in the midst of a great drama. It has over the last few years begun to realize that it cannot live any more on the ground it settled so successfully as the industrial purveyors of one-to-many, consensus-is-ours news. The land they were living on--also called their business model--no long supports their best work. So they have come to a reluctant point of realization: that to live on, to keep the professional press going, the news tribe will have to migrate across the digital divide and re-settle itself on a new ground, or as we sometimes call it, a new platform."
Professor Rosen has hit upon a pretty good metaphor. You can read his full piece here.
If I were a young person interested in doing journalism, I'd find a wagon train with a good wagon master (like Ward Bond) and a good scout and get on board.
I'm not much on symbols. Like the endless array of ribbons you can stick on the back of your car. Or the little red Fight AIDS ribbons that were so much in vogue. And flag pins for your lapel. Senator Obama caught a lot of shit because he sometimes didn't wear one. So he must not love his country, right. Uh huh.
I sometimes wear a little computer mouse pin in my lapel and it drives people nuts trying to figure out what it is. Sometimes a button that reads: Never Shake. The actual reference is to babies, but I choose to use it as a warning not to shake someone my age (we pee very easily).
I debated pin or no-pin for my photo with Senator Obama a couple of weeks back but finally opted to show my support for Gnomies everywhere.
Feeling a little stiff these days. Muscles don't have the elasticity they once did. So I decided to take a yoga class. A couple of the volunteer instructors are regulars at the Coffee Zone. So I decided to check it out.
There were only five of us in tonight's class and the other four were too polite to laugh out loud when I made little mewling sounds. But I must say I enjoyed the hour and plan to go back. My Christmas card will be me touching my toes.
I've just received the green light to publish the new sales training video we use here at Learfield. Part I above and Part II here.
And for those of you pressed for time in your lives, just skip smays.com and go directly to The J-Walk Blog.
God, how I would have loved to have been in the editorial meeting that generated these stories. Click any headline above to get to The Onion.
If you have an "issue" with weight, skip this post. You won't find it amusing, insightful or nostalgic. It will only piss you off. (Are they gone?)
If turning 60 was a milestone, this week I passed one of far greater significance. I outgrew my Levis. First time.
I've weighed 155 pounds since high school. I've worn the same size Levis --34" inseam, 32" waist-- for more than 40 years. And I have some jeans that are 20 years old. The same age as some of our summer interns.
You can see where this is going, can't you?
I've gained about 5 pounds in the last 6 months, enough to make all of my comfortable, fashionably warn jeans just a little too snug. Oh, I can lie down on the bed, like some supermodel and get them buttoned but they just aren't comfortable any longer.
So this weekend I purchased some new jeans, with a 34 inch waist. Talk about Passages. On the up side, it's a hell of a lot easier to find 34x34 jeans than 32x34, although I'm not sure why.
Still in the last stages of denial, I came home and tried on --one final time-- all my dear old jeans. Only a couple made the cut. The rest are in suspended animation in a big Tupperware crate in the basement.
I have no doubt they could fetch a couple of hundred a piece on Rodeo Drive (assuming straight leg jeans ever make a comeback). But you can't put a price on knowing Jessica Alba's little keester was packed in a pair of my old Levis. Sigh.
Writing in Time Magazine, James Poniewozek has an interesting take (The Beltway-Blog Battle) on the passing of Tim Russert.
"...the press lost its most authoritative mass-market journalist, just as it is losing its authority and its mass market."
The New Meida vs. Old Media argument got tiresome a long time ago, but Mr. Poniewozek offers a fresh take. A few paragraphs to wet your whistle:
"In their original division of labor, the old media broke news while the blogs dispensed opinion. But look at two of the biggest stories of the Democratic primary: Barack Obama's comments that working-class voters are "bitter" and Bill Clinton's rope-line rant that a reporter who profiled him was a "scumbag." Both were broken by a volunteer for the Huffington Post website, Mayhill Fowler.
Traditional reporters were aghast at Fowler's methods--the Obama meeting was closed to press (she got in as a donor), and Fowler did not identify herself when speaking to Clinton. But mainstream media had no problem treating the scoops as big news; if she had overheard both quotes in the same way but told them to a newspaper instead of publishing them, that would have been considered a coup.
The case against Fowler, in other words, was about process and credentials, not content. If sources stop trusting us, reporters asked, how will we do our jobs? But however sneaky her methods, Fowler's stories prove that one reason sites like Huffington have an audience is the perception that Establishment journalism has gotten better at serving its powerful sources than its public. Fiascoes like the Iraq-WMD reporting gave many the impression that the old rules mainly protect consultant-cosseted public officials who need protection least."
[For more on the Mayhill Fowler story, here's a bit of audio with Arianna Huffington, speaking at Guardian News & Media's internal Future of Journalism event on 18th June 2008.]
Mr. Poniewozik poses this rather rude question regarding MSM: "...if 3 million people read Drudge and 65,000 read the New Republic, which is mainstream?"
This I Believe is "a national media project engaging people in writing, sharing, and discussing the core values and beliefs that guide their daily lives. NPR airs these three-minute essays on All Things Considered, Tell Me More and Weekend Edition Sunday."
This morning's essay was by Paul Thorn, a singer-songwriter raised in Pentecostal-type faith in northeast Mississippi where "The people who were trying to get me to God used fear and intimidation like a hammer, beating into submission anyone who dared to question their brand of absolute truth."
Mr. Thorn's essay has a happy and hopeful end. Audio runs just over 5 min.
Guardian.co.uk: "The Huffington Post is planning to expand into local news across the US, founder Arianna Huffington said last night, beginning with a site edited for the community of Chicago. Huffington said the Chicago site would aggregate news, sports, crime, arts and business news from different local sources as well as contributions from bloggers in what will be the first of a series of projects in "dozens of US cities". The Chicago site will initially be curated by just one editor."
I'm a bit bothered by "aggregate news, sports, crime, arts and business news from different local sources." This suggests (to me) that a HuffPo editor in St. Louis, should they expand to that city, would link to stories from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website. Or even our statewide news network, when we do a story with St. Louis relevance.
Which is way the web works, of course. I'm not quite sure what about this plan bothers me. Maybe it's: What can a single Huffington Post editor provide that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website cannot?
Is it a matter of putting an editor in each of the top 50 markets... have them aggregate stories and links to local news sources... and building an online audience that is smaller while accomplishing all of this at a fraction of the overhead?
Or is it that the people behind the Huffington Post just get the web better than most of the other guys?
A St. Louis firefighter attends to a victim of a motorcycle accident after a collision with a pickup truck in St. Louis on Saturday. Two people on the motorcycle were seriously injured. (UPI Photo/Bill Greenblatt)
Sometimes, standing at the pump, I fantacize about getting a little scooter. But then an image --not unlike this one-- forms in my mind and I crawl back in the 4-Runner.
And is Barb right, you don't have to wear a helmet in Missouri now?
"In the history of filmmaking, there is only one movie that Marines like, and that's the first 20 minutes of Full Metal Jacket," Sgt. Eric Kocher says, slicing into a medium-rare steak in a midtown New York restaurant. "After that, it all goes to shit." 
You know I loved The Wire. Probably best series ever. And Band of Brothers gets my vote for best mini-series of all time. We won't be taking evening calls for those seven nights.
It's always fun to showcase talent from "down home." Neal E. Boyd is from Sikeston which is just up the road (from Kennett, MO) in Sikeston, where he's an insurance salesman.
He's also a competitor on American's Got Talent, the show I've (never watched) but always thought of as the poor man's American Idol. Neal sings opera.
And from our Small World File, Neal attended choir camp at Arkansas State University under the direction of my old friend Viretta and he sang at the Christmas Eve service of the Presbyterian Church in Kennett a couple of years back. A gig made famous by frequent appearances by Sheryl Crow. [Thanks, Nancy]
Personal Democracy Forum/techPresident: "Starting tonight, a designated representative of both of the major presidential campaigns are going to participate in a free-wheeling debate on technology and government, moderated by Time magazine blogger Ana Marie Cox and channeled via Twitter."
This is probably one of those ideas that sounds more interesting than they turn out to be. But I'll be following along, just because I have the hots for AMC.
It isn't simply streaming your current morning show. Or putting it online for download. Mr. Del Colliano lays it out -- in ten easy steps -- on his blog. #1 gives you the setup and #7 and #8 my favorites.
1. Start ten morning shows (other than the one that is airing on your terrestrial station). The content should aim at one demographic that is desirable to sell. Example: women 25-54. Ten shows that don’t air on the radio.
7. Hire the right person(s) to host this 45-minute show – not, I repeat, not anyone from your airstaff. Podcasting is not to be confused with broadcasting. You may be a professional broadcaster but it is not in your best interest to make these podcasts son of what is already on your air. Give the host a piece of the show and lock him or her into it for the long term. As it develops it will be a moneymaker for you and for your talent.
8. Do not include traditional spots in the podcast. Commercials have seen there better days. Young people don’t listen – but consider the “live read” approach that goes over very well with young people. If they are hooked on a podcast then they will listen to a “live read” by the host(s) if it is sincere and keeping with the overall approach of the show.
Mr. Del Colliano concludes his post with a bit of insight into Generation Y:
(Gen Y) went through childhood without a love for radio, unlike baby boomers or Gen X. They are attached to their iPods and smart phones – their new radio. If you still want to be in the content business when the last baby boomer passes into The Hall of Fame, learn about the new radio – podcasting.
The "ten morning shows" had me puzzled at first. But I'm guessing you need this many, all aimed at the same demo, to reach the numbers that will be attractive to advertisers. The advertises cares about reaching the demo (Women 25-54 in the example above) and not so much about how many shows he sponsors to reach them, assuming the price makes sense.
So let's assume we have a 25 minute commute to Jefferson City (from Columbia or Loose Creek). Would I be willing to produce five, 25-min podcasts a week for a piece of the show? I would if Mr. Del Colliano was managing the station.
That phrase came to me in a dream last night. People of a certain age might remember it from a Saturday morning TV show (1955-1960) called Andie's Gang, starring Andy Devine.
It's a little difficult to explain the phrase, and Froggie. Someone off camera would say the words, "Pluck your magic twanger, Froggie," and a rubber fog, about 10 inches high, would appear in a cloud of smoke.
I had a Froggie. There was a little noise maker in the heel of one shoe and when you squeezed Froggie, he made a cool croaking sound.
I only mention because the phrase would make for a good T-Shirt. And maybe we can become the number one hit from a Google search (since there are only 6 hits at present).
I checked this a couple of years ago with the same results. The reading level of smays.com is elementary school, according to this website. The high end of the scale goes up college (maybe grad school?) and I think elementary school is the low end (do pre-schoolers read?).
I know it doesn't sound like it, but I think it might be a good thing to write at a level that third graders can follow. I assure you, I'm not trying to write down to anyone. The words you read are the ones in hear in my head. Hmm. See smays blog. Blog smays, blog.
I was talking with a co-worker about Lara Logan's (CBS Chief Foreign Correspondent) recent appearance on The Daily Show. She posed the question, "When was the last time you saw a dead American soldier on TV?" She was making the point that media in the U. S. has been MIA on the war in Iraq (except for that victorious march into Baghdad).
My co-worker's take was: "The only reason to show a dead American soldier would be to turn someone against the war."
Or maybe that war is news and death is part of the story?
Actually, I didn't have a response. I can understand that view coming from W or Rumsfeld (back in the day). But how many citizens feel the same? How many would rather not to see the bloody reality of war on their TV screens?
By this logic, we also shouldn't be seeing the critically wounded at Walter Reed. Or can we translate missing limbs to a "don't-let-their-sacrifices-be-in-vain" message?
So I'm asking myself why we saw more dead troops during the Viet Nam war, and it came to me. We had lots of reporters on the front lines in that war. But not so many on the mean streets of Baghdad.
In the old days, you could make a career filing reports from the front lines. Sure, you could shot, but you weren't likely to wind up the star of a YouTube beheading video.
Naw, American journalism took a pass on this war. Better to let the Brits cover this one.
One more cool thing found on the J-Walk Blog. The Detroit Free Press website is Freep.com. I like that. Click here or the image above to get the 360 view.
More at TVinJapan. [via Boing Boing]
This is one of the reasons I've always owned my own laptops (and most other work-related) toys. Even though the company would have probably provided some of these. I take the "carpenter's tools" view. I know that all hammers are not the same. I want the best.
That was part of a promo I heard on MSNBC tonight. First time I noticed the phrase, "embed video." Even the networks are figuring out it's a good thing to have your video embedded in millions of blogs and websites.
I'm sure there is still a lot of "...no, no! We want them to come to OUR website!" But the web IS the network now and your affiliates are are all those blogs.
The Gizmodo caption for this photo was better than the NY Times': "Last Tuesday, Lori Mehmen looked out her front door in Orchard, Iowa and this is what she saw. She had a digital camera handy, and somehow managed to take this photo before crapping her pants and taking cover. This, my friends, is why always having a camera nearby is helpful." [NY Times]
This NYT story reminded me one of my favorite management stories (The Cleanest Tastee Freeze in Town). A couple of grafs in particular:
"No state was more important to his candidacy than Iowa, but when (Senator Obama) arrived there for campaign visits he stopped aides who tried to give detailed accounts of developments."
“I’d get in the car with him and talk a mile a minute,” recalled Paul Tewes, who was the campaign’s state director. Mr. Tewes recalled that on the candidate’s fifth visit to the state, Mr. Obama interrupted one of his detailed updates, saying: “You know what, Paul? All I want from you is for you to do your best, and I trust you and you know what you’re doing.”
In the years that I reported to Clyde Lear, I heard him say (to me and others) almost those exact words, more times than I can count. I've heard many talk the talk in this regard, but only a few that could walk the walk. Nice to know Senator O is one of them.
Interesting little post at Slate on how people read online (and how to write for them). Readers tend to be "selfish, lazy and ruthless." When you arrive on a page, you don't actually deign to read it. You scan. If you don't see what you need, you're gone.
Springfield Mayor Tom Carlson got all Rottweiler'y on the local press recently and among his complaints, anonymous bloggers:
"On top of that, we have this Internet thing that's going on now, this blogging stuff. Used to be, if you wanted to say something, you had to put your name it ... now, there's this anonymous character assassination that's encouraged, in order to sell newspapers or other media outlets."
It's been a while since I heard/saw "this Internet thing." One of my favorite expressions. But His Honor and I do agree on the anonymous blogging issue. He has no way of knowing if the blogger who is ripping him a new one is his opponent. And we have know way of knowing if the blogger who supports his every action is his press secretary.
An eight-month McClatchy investigation of the detention system created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has found that the U.S. imprisoned innocent men, subjected them to abuse, stripped them of their legal rights and allowed Islamic militants to turn the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba into a school for jihad.
"The McClatchy investigation found that top Bush administration officials knew within months of opening the Guantanamo detention center that many of the prisoners there weren't "the worst of the worst." From the moment that Guantanamo opened in early 2002, former Secretary of the Army Thomas White said, it was obvious that at least a third of the population didn't belong there."
Stories like this one -- and the way those accused respond to them -- raise a troubling (to me) question about American journalism. Why can't we have one news organization that everyone can agree is factual and fair. Just one. "Truthiness" is no longer a joke.
Somewhere in the White House and the Pentagon, men and women are figuring out ways to discredit this story and the people who reported it. I won't try to list the tactics they employee because we are all too familiar with them.
And those who chose not to believe stories like this one need only the flimsiest excuse ("There goes the Liberal Media again." or "Fox News says it's not true.").
Remember how skeptical the world was of the claims by German citizens that they didn't know what was going on in the concentration camps?
"Whoa! Hold on there smays.com! You aren't comparing Guantanamo to Auschwitz are you?"
No. I'm talking about what we, the American people, allow our government to do on our behalf. If we've been holding hundreds of innocent men for five or six years and --in some cases-- torturing (I know, I know... water boarding is not torture) them, will our best explanation be, "We were at war."
Ich bin beschämt
The Kansas Audio-Reader Network is "a reading and information service for blind, visually impaired, and print disabled individuals in Kansas and western Missouri. Services are offered free of charge to anyone in our listening area who is unable to read normal printed material."
Here's an example of the service they provide (about 6 min).
Download/Listen (5 min.MP3)
This would seem to be an invaluable service for those who cannot read a newspaper. I wonder what impact, if any, the Internet is having on services like this. I understand that not everyone has a computer and access to the web but that number is shrinking daily.
I assume the blind or visually impaired can have the text on any web page translated to spoken audio. While this would give the user more control over the information she consumes, it might be more... entertaining? ...to have a human read it aloud. Or why not have both.
UPDATE: Matt points us to similar service in Missouri.
Our news networks in Iowa and Wisconsin have been scrambling to cover the flooding in those states. Unlike newspapers and TV stations, we don't have photographers and videographers to supply "pictures" for the stories we post to our websites. And a flood is a very visible event.
I didn't have to look long on flickr to find literally thousands of photos (and video) of flooding in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids. I pinged one of the photographers (James Lewin) for permission to use some of his images and he graciously agreed.
This is a small example of how reporting might happen from this point on. A loose collaboration of professionals and non-professionals. The news organizations that understand how to tap into these "citizen journalists" will be the winners.
