People with news, and people who want news

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Those are two points of view examined in a recent post by Dave Winer.

“If the people with the news can publish it themselves, and they can; what’s to stop the people who want the news from reading it directly.”

Which puts me in mind of High Street Beat, a blog written by the mayor of Jefferson City. Ultimately, his readers get to decide if what he writes is “fair and honest,” but he can speak directly to them, as well as through MSM.

“When professional news people consider the Internet they think of it replacing them. Not so. It reduces their role to a bare minimum, makes them less necessary. I still want soundbites from the sources, but I want them to link to the full blog post behind the quote.”

“If reporters are to remain relevant they have to recast themselves, more humbly. Don’t think about “deputizing” us to do what you do. Instead think of the value of your rolodex, your sources. Cultivate and develop that rolodex. To the extent that you know who to call when a bit of news breaks, that’s the extent of your value in the new world, the one we live in now.”

Most of the reporters I’ve known and worked with work very hard. For not much money. But more than a few of them have viewed the companies they work for a the necessary infrastructure that makes it possible for them to report the news.

While the people running those companies viewed the newsrooms as a cog –a BIG cog, but a cog– in a machine whose purpose was to turn a profit. A classic dog and tail situation.

I’m reminded of that classic scene in Network where Arthur Jensen explains things to Howard Beale:

Jensen: The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale! It has been since man crawled out of the slime, and our children, Mr.Beale, will live to see that perfect world in which there is no war and famine, oppression and brutality –one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you to preach this evangel, Mr. Beale.

Howard: (humble whisper) Why me?

Jensen: Because you’re on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday.

One thing, not the only thing, but one important thing that has distinguished reporters from their readers/viewers/listeners is the reporters had a platform or medium from which to report. That distinction has blurred, if not disappeared.

YouTube switches to 16:9 player

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I’ll have to play with this some more but, at first look, here are my options: If I want the ease and quality of the YouTube capture mode on the Casio, I have to go with 4:3 and get the vertical black panels in the new, wider YouTube player. The Casio has an HD/wide-screen setting, but it’s not YouTube ready. I’ll have to jump through all of the encoding hoops to get anything like the same quality. Easy choice.

Scott Adams: Recession

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“No one wants the economy to crumble. But having a reason to love your neighbor a little better doesn’t suck. If we can feed everyone – and I think we can – things will be fine. And as I have said here before, some kid in a garage has already figured a way out of this.”

–Scott Adams Blog

Inauguration of President Obama

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I don't like crowds. And I don't like waiting in line. But if Our Source comes through with tickets, Barb and I plan to attend the inauguration of President Obama on January 20. Barb has a friend who has graciously invited us to stay with her (no hotel rooms for miles and miles).

I really don't expect to see much. Or even as much as we could see on TV. But it's one of those historic events that even I can't pass up, given the opportunity. Should be a blog-rich environment. And the experience might make all future airport check-in's seem like a walk in the park.

"People attending the ceremony and parade can expect to be searched by machines, security personnel or both. Precautions will range from the routine — magnetometers like those used at airports — to counter-snipers trained to hit a target the size of a teacup saucer from 1,000 yards away. Plus undercover officers, bomb sniffing dogs and air patrols.

The Secret Service — the agency coordinating the security — also has assigned trained officials to identify and prevent cyber security risks. And, as it does at every inauguration, the service has mapped out escape routes for the 44th president.

In addition Washington's 5,265 surveillance cameras, spread around the city, are expected to be fed into a multi-agency command center." [Article at RawStory.com]

This could still fall through. Our Source is a Republican big wig and they aren't swinging as much weight as they once did. Stay tuned.

Another Bourne movie

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The three Jason Bourne films, starring Matt Damon, are near the top of my list. Sort of hoped they wouldn’t push their luck and try for a fourth. But since the first three grossed more than $1 billion, Universal Pictures has signed Damon and director Paul Greengrass for another one, scheduled for summer 2010 release.

MGM got the rights to The Matarese Circle, another Ludlum Cold War thriller with Denzel Washington, due to begin production next year. And Paramount has the rights to The Chancellor Mansuscript, with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Alison

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I’m not a good photographer. I take a lot of photographs but I don’t think or worry much about the quality of the images. Good enough is good enough. That’s not to say I can’t recognize and appreciate the photographic artistry of my friends Henry and Nick.

Not to take anything away from their art, but I think some people have “a good eye,” when it comes to taking pictures. A natural talent for getting that good shot.

For example, the photo above… taken by my brother’s wife, Tonya. I’m not qualified to speak to the technical aspects of the photograph, but this image feels powerful to me.

Allison is 12 and the sweetest kid you’d ever want to meet. Her open, innocent, steady gaze is captivating. You could take a thousand shots and not get one this perfect.

You ain’t seen the last of the GOP!

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It’s pretty easy for me to avoid and ignore most of the die-hard McPalin/Bushie neocons who are non-stop whining about losing the election. They’re like the Japanese soldiers holed up in caves for years, unaware the war was over.

But I have a few friends who fall into this category and I can’t/don’t want to avoid them. I’ve been careful not bring up the subject of politics but they delight in baiting me. They’re Ernest T. Bass to my Barney Fife.

“Ernest T. was an ignorant and obstreperous mountain man with a penchant for rock throwing, who was known to wreak havoc on the otherwise quiet town of Mayberry. A wild, belligerent hillbilly, he had a scruffy appearance, a maniacal laugh, and often spoke in rhyme. When threatened with the law, Ernest T. would generally run off yelling his famous catchphrase, “You ain’t seen the last of Ernest T. Bass!” — Wikipedia

I understand that my friends want/need to complain and vent. But I don’t want to listen. So I’m printing up some little pocket cards to hand out.

This man feels your pain. He agrees with you. He doesn’t want you to be hopeful or happy. He needs your anger.

Please, call/email/write him. Get it off your chest and then we can talk about the weather or hockey or that girl with the cute butt.

Seth: What do do about Detroit

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“What we don’t need are giant companies with limited choice, confused priorities, private jets and a bully’s attitude.

I’d spend a billion dollars to make the creation of a car company turnkey. Make it easy to get all the safety and regulatory approvals… as easy to start a car company as it is to start a web company. Use the bankruptcy to wipe out the hated, legacy marketing portion of the industry: the dealers.

We’d end up with a rational number of “car stores” in every city that sold lots of brands. We’d have super cheap cars and super efficient cars and super weird cars. There’d be an orgy of innovation, and from that, a whole new energy and approach would evolve. Betcha.” Full post

This makes sense to me. So many of our institutions are broken or outdated or corrupt. But the people running them are too invested to ever change. So –painful as it will be– maybe it’s good a lot of stuff is crashing. We won’t get better government or financial markets or car companies until the old ones are gone.

Dave Winer on proposed Big Three Bailout

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“And they have to retire their fleet of corporate jets. And all their execs take pay cuts down to less than $1 million per year. If they choose to quit, so be it and good riddance. And since we’re going to own them, a new rule — no more commuting from Seattle to work in Detroit for the CEOs. We’re bailing them out not because we think they’ve done anything remotely like a good job, we’re doing it so that we don’t have to feed and house their remaining employees and bail out their suppliers when they go bankrupt. We’re doing it to save our country, not to save the auto industry as its currently configured, which is rotten and dangerously short-sighted.”

— Scripting News: 11/20/2008.

Casio Exilim EX-Z300

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Hmm. Not too bad. I’ll be curious to see if I lose anything by running the video through iMovie, which will be 99% of the time. But if someone wanted a camera that output files you could upload straight to YouTube, this is pretty good. I was really surprised by the quality of the audio on this test. The camera was sitting 3 feet away and the audio sounded damned good to me. I’ll get some stills in coming days and see if I can tell the difference between the previous model (3 megapixel?) and this one (10). They’ve also made some improvements in button placement and size. A very nice camera. Casio has done it again. More at Casio.com.