In last week’s This American Life, host Ira Glass lived one of my fantasies. He sat in on an editorial meeting of The Onion, “where there’s one laugh for every 100 jokes.”
“They start with over 600 potential headlines for their fake-news newspaper each week, and over the course of two days, in the very tough room that is their editorial conference room, they select 16 to go in the paper.”
I really hope this is a promotional gimmick for a movie (I think of life in terms of good movies and bad movies). Here’s how I see this one unfolding.
“I am going to kill myself in 90 days. What else should i say? This blog is not a cry for help or even to get attention. It’s simply a public record of my last 90 days in existence. I’m not depressed and nothing extremely horrible has lead me to this decision. But, does it really have to? I mean, as an atheist I feel life has no greater purpose. My generation has had no great depression, no great war and our biggest obstacle is beating Halo 3. So, if I feel like saying “game over”, why can’t I?”
Jane starts a blog to chronicle her final 90 days. Along the way she meets someone (or something happens) to change her mind. At least that’s how my “Old Yeller can’t die!” movie ends. I sort of hear a voice-over reading her blog posts, a la You’ve Got Mail.
The thing that makes me suspicious is the video of Jane shopping for her “suicide dress.” We get a good look at Jane in her undies and she just looks too fine to kill herself. (Yes, I am naive and sexist)
Moral dilemma: Do I follow Jane’s blog? Will I feel like a chump if/when this is revealed as a marketing scam? Will I be depressed if she does “it?”
PS: One last thought on this. Jane says she is an atheist. In the unlikely event this is legit… is it ironic that religious nuts kill half a dozen strangers before killing themselves…while an atheist goes alone?
UPDATE: Not a movie tease. An art project. The site has been taken down. [Thanks to John for letting us know]
Meet Vinay Vaz. Vinay works for the Missouri Democratic Party. His job is to show up at GOP events and shoot video.
Missourinet reporter Steve Walsh ran into Vinay at this weekend Lincoln Days in Springfield, MO. (It’s the big annual get together for Missouri Republicans.) Steve introduced himself and asked to speak with Vinay, who responded: "I’m not authorized to speak to the media."
I suspect the Republicans have their own guy(s) out shooting video at Democratic events. Absolutely nothing wrong it. The practice came to national attention when Senator George Allen gave a shout out to a young man shooting video at one of his events.
Like Steve, I would love to interview Vinay. What sort of moments is he looking for? How does he edit and archive the video. Who makes the editorial decisions? Is "tracker" your official job description?
As Steve mentioned in his blog post, the trackers are now being tracked. Did Vinay shoot video of Steve taking his picture… well, you get the idea.
The Generation Iowa Commission, with help from the Iowa Department of Economic Development, has launched a website designed –among other things– "to keep young people from leaving the state."
GenerationIowa.com will eventually include written material, photos and videos submitted by young Iowans. "We really wanted to make it a user generated content site. We want young folks across Iowa to send their stories, their photos, their videos…and really make it their own website," Rolland said. "We don’t want it to just be a state marketing website." [More on the story at RadioIowa.com]
One of the stories on the site ("High Life, Low Price") describes the advantages of living in Iowa compared to Manhattan. Amanda Brend cautions:
"Don’t let the bright lights of New York City blind you — the city is fabulous when you have a New York City-size paycheck. Here’s the download on my life as a New York City intern versus my current gig as a Des Moines entrepreneur."
"Here’s the download?" "My current gig?" Hmmm. I smell older person trying to write hip.
But wait. One of the comments displayed on the home page reads:
"Hi, This is Amanda Brend from Indianola. While I would like to take credit for such a well written article, I can’t, because I did not write this. I have never lived in NYC. I’m not sure why my name is posted on here, but I did not write this. I am, however, a huge advocate for Iowa and maybe someday I’ll be able to post MY story. Amanda"
Oops.
Here’s a screen shot of the home page and the story in question.
I like Iowa. But if you want to keep young people from leaving, you’re gonna need razor wire. Lots and lots of razor wire.
MSNBC is airing an episode of their Headliners and Legends series from October 20, 1999. It’s a profile of Hillary Rodham Clinton. It’s accurate, as far as I know, and so flattering it could have been produced by her campaign. I tried –unsuccessfully– to find it online.
I’m watching and thinking, “Wow! You couldn’t buy that kind of publicity.” Then it hits me. Is NBC doing damage control?
“Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday morning ripped MSNBC over reporter David Shuster’s suggestion that Chelsea Clinton was “sort of being pimped out” by the campaign.
The Clinton campaign immediately demanded an apology and floated the possibility that Clinton would no longer participate in an MSNBC debate, scheduled for Feb. 26. The campaign did not explain under what conditions Clinton would participate in MSNBC’s debate.” — The Politico:
How about if NBC runs an hour-long special in the middle of a hotly contested primary campaign? This pre-empts the regularly scheduled programming, a show called Deadly Encounter.
How flattering was this profile? I’m voting for Obama but this segment had me thinking that HRC might be a good president. I’m okay now, but for a few minutes….
Sales trainer Chris Lytel points to a Wall Street Journal interview with Ram Charan, a business professor turned consultant and author (What the Customer Wants You to Know).
“It has become very hard to differentiate yourself in the eyes of the customer, for business to business sales. So salespeople should not sell the product anymore. They should find out what the customer needs, which will be a combination of products and services and thought leadership.”
“In the old game, one person could do the selling. In the new game, you need a team from your company. The reason you need a team is the solution you’re going to create is going to come form different parts of your company. That means salespeople have to be good leaders, to lead their team, and also persuade the customer team. Because customers also buy in teams.”
Thought leadership. Interesting concept. Increasingly, our “network radio” sales reps are finding that their clients want more than 30 second spots. I suppose you could say they always wanted more than spots… they wanted the sales or mind-share those “spots” could bring.
These days, it’s rare that the prospect doesn’t bring up the subject of the web as part of their marketing strategy. Knowing a little something about blogging and podcasting has been very useful.
Mark Ramsey points us to an interesting piece by “The Long Tail’s” Chris Anderson on how his listening behavior to public radio has been transformed by podcasting.
“I realized that I don’t really support my local affiliate. I love some of the shows it broadcasts and hate others. My attachments are to individual shows, not to a broadcast station. My engagement with public radio is at a more granular level than the affiliate.
Now that I get my radio via podcast, I don’t have to take the bad shows with the good. I’ve got an a la carte menu, and I assemble my own schedule with what I want and when I want it.
But look at the arc of history here. The podcast model is getting cheaper and more ubiquitously available (who doesn’t have a cellphone?), and it serves individual needs and taste better. Meanwhile the broadcast model, which is all about one-size-fits-all taste, is based on human labor costs and costly transmission equipment and is only getting more expensive. You can see how this story ends.”
I’ve had the same guilty thoughts about my own listening habits. I like a lot of NPR programs but listen to them as podcasts. And I would be willing to pay for the best shows (This American Life, for example).
And my morning listening routine has improved with the purchase of a small speaker/doc for my iPod nano. Each evening iTunes downloads any new podcasts to which I’m subscribed, and syncs to the nano. In the morning I pop the nano into the speaker dock and listen to a perfectly customized line-up of progams.
Google News now allows you to localize a section of the stories. Scroll down just beneath the fold for the box to type in your city or zip code.
“This is pretty huge, folks, and it spotlights the need for everybody in the local news business to adopt best practices when it comes to unbundled distribution,” writes Terry Heaton. True enough, as Google News ranked #9 in Nielsen-Netratings for December — higher than USAToday.com and WashingtonPost.com.
If you’re a local news guy and look at this and say, “Ah, but they missed some stories!” … you’re missing the point.
Arianna Huffington on Tuesday night’s speeches:
“As luck, and poor scheduling, would have it, Barack Obama and John McCain gave their Super Tuesday victory speeches at roughly the same time last night, causing cable news directors across the dial to go split-screen, then finally jump from the tail end of McCain’s speech to the first part of Obama’s.
The overlapping oratories could not have been more dramatically different. One soared; the other plodded. One caused goose bumps; the other caused eyelids to flutter shut. One felt newly minted; the other could have been given by Herbert Hoover (and maybe was).
For some reason, I kept picturing a singer like Perry Como standing in the wings during the old Ed Sullivan show, watching the Beatles hit the stage, and thinking: “What do I do now?” or “Oh. My. God.” or “The world just changed, didn’t it?” or “Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
A Wisconsin man convicted of beating his wife to death and forcing part of an Easter bunny-shaped dish down her throat was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without a chance at early release.
Patrick Zurkowski has maintained all along that he killed his wife June in self-defense after she came after him with a paring knife. He asked the court to “let him go” during a sentencing hearing, saying there’s no need for him to sit in jail for the rest of his life. [Wisconsin Radio Network/WSAU]
This reminds me of the story about the guy that tried to kill his wife (girlfriend?) by shoving her cell phone down her throat. His defense was she tried to swallow the phone to keep him from seeing who she’d been talking to. I thought I posted it but can’t locate.