News Cut: November 28, 2007 Archive

Cyber PutOneOverOnTheMediaDay

Posted at 12:47 PM on November 28, 2007 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

The cable TV business channels have always seemed to have a love-hate relationship with ethics. A few years ago, CNBC regularly put "analysts" on the air hawking a particular stock or two, without disclosing that the analyst or the analyst's firm had a significant interest in the company being hawked.

Now upstart Fox Business Channel has been caught as part of its coverage of the very questionable CyberMonday coverage this week.

Fox interviewed a guy named Peter Perweiler, at the Washington ESPN Zone, as part of some sort of man-on-the-street coverage. Perweiler fairly gushed about online shopping.

It turns out, according to the blog ValleyWag, that Perweiler is the marketing director of the National Retail Federation. That went undisclosed.

And what was he doing at the ESPN Zone? The NRF had organized a media event to show "real shoppers" to the media. The NRF claims the media knew there were more than 20 staffers attending, some as shoppers.

Fox says it had no clue.

And most of the media there didn't disclose that the shoppers were being served up to them at a media event.

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One small step for blogs

Posted at 2:02 PM on November 28, 2007 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

There is a hint today in Minnesota -- just a hint -- that the blogosphere can police itself when it comes to ethics, a step toward meeting the medium's apparent goal as "the new journalism."

True North is a conservative Minnesota blog with several contributors. One of them, who goes by the name of Seventh Son, wrote regularly for the blog until other bloggers started noticing something peculiar: it was their work, passed off as his own.

"I have no tolerance for people who take credit for others' hard work, whether through stupidity or laziness. And together with the Nucleus here at True North we came to a decision. We've removed The Seventh Son as a Contributor, and pulled down all of his posts," wrote True North founder Andy Aplikoski.

Seventh Son turned out to be Michael Barrett, who ran as the GOP candidate in the 7th District in the last election.

The significance, however, is that blogs, already pretty good policemen of others, are showing an ability to police themselves on journalistic principles. Far from muting the debate about whether blogs are killing journalism, they are at least showing a growing sensibility toward ethics.

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An eye on the competition

Posted at 2:45 PM on November 28, 2007 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

They're aghast in Massachusetts today, because a report shows the state, which was the incubator of the computer industry, is now dead last in job creation.

The report from the Center for Labor Market Studies and MassINC, identifies Minnesota as a "competitor state." It says the Massachusetts economy has pretty well tanked; Minnesota is portrayed as relatively mediocre.

Of the 11 states (Massachusetts, and its competitors -- Florida, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, California, Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York), Minnesota ranks 7th in total employment. It's grown only 2.75% since 2001 here.

Minnesota increased its competitive position in high-tech jobs while Massachusetts, California, and Texas were losing their huge share of the sector. And we were able to increase our share of manufacturing jobs compared to the rest of the nation, too.

Other highlights in the report from a Minnesota perspective:

* Minnesota ranked 20th in people leaving. Wisconsin was 26th. People are moving in to Wisconsin. They're moving out of Minnesota.

* The median annual full-time salary in Minnesota: $40,058 (16th)

The report, certainly, is not aimed at Minnesota. But it is an interesting glimpse into how other states view us competitively.

It also may be the last cheery economic pep talk we get for awhile, given the dour predictions of what Friday's economic forecast will reveal.

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Cyberbullying policies: Ready! Fire! Aim!

Posted at 3:49 PM on November 28, 2007 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

The Centers for Disease Control reported this week what many parents, and most school authorities figured out some time ago: bullying isn't just for the schoolyard anymore. Much of it has moved to the Internet.

Youth can use electronic media to embarrass, harass or threaten their peers. Increasing numbers of adolescents are becoming victims of this new form of violence. Although many different terms-such as cyberbullying, Internet harassment, and Internet bullying-have been used to describe this type of violence, electronic aggression is the term that most accurately captures all types of violence that occur electronically. Like traditional forms of youth violence, electronic aggression is associated with emotional distress and conduct problems at school.

What to do about it? The report doesn't really say. It is accompanied by a page of alleged resources, but other than the usual peer-group ideas that have often been debunked as feel-good-but-ineffective (DARE, SADD etc.) there are none offered. Officials haven't even gotten bullying in school under control, and now they're being asked to take care of the problem that usually occurs off school grounds and during non-school hours.

And therein lies the problem. No one has an idea what to do but lots of people are demanding schools do something, even as the justice system is trying to determine whether it's even a crime.

At the behest of AG Lori Swanson, Minnesota lawmakers passed an anti-bullying bill this year that requires school boards to consider anti-bullying policies, including bullying on the Internet.

It provided not a shred of guidance as to how that should be accomplished.

Perhaps one first step is to identify those who are being bullied. Courtesy of cyberbullying.ca, here's what to look for:

*Long hours on the computer
*Closes windows on their computer when you enter room
*Is secretive about Internet activities
*Behavioral changes
*Is always doing homework on the Internet, but always in chat groups and getting behind with school work
*May find unexplained long distance telephone call charges
*Won't say who they are talking to
*May find unexplained pictures on computer
*Trouble sleeping
*Stomach and headaches
*Lack of appetite, throwing up
*Fear of going to out of the house
*Crying for no apparent reason
*Lack of interest at social events that include other students
*Complains of illness before school or community events often
*Frequent visits to the school nurse or office complaining of feeling sick - wants to call Mom or Dad to come & get them
*Lowered self-esteem
*A marked change in attitude, dress or habits
*Unexplained broken personal possessions, loss of money, loss of personal items
*Stories that don't seem to make sense
*Acting out aggression at home
*Missing or incomplete school work, decreased success in class

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