News Cut Category Archive: Media

The Future of News redux

Posted at 11:13 AM on November 20, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Media, News

Earlier this week, MPR hosted a day-long forum on The Future of News. Colleague Julia Schrenkler, who handled most of the online action, has posted the video of the keynote, which featured Ken Doctor. He runs the Web site Content Bridges.

He's also written a post about the conference and, in particular, the one portion where teeth were bared. Star Tribune Publisher Mike Sweeney and his editor-in-chief, Nancy Barnes, declared that MPR was engaged in a "land grab," because it had advantages as a non-profit over the Star Tribune.

Doctor's take:

Some participants had joked about how MPR was putting on a self-serving conference, one that asked the question about the future of news and came pre-equipped with the two-word answer: Public Radio. Not untrue, but the conference managed to bring not only Sweeney and Strib editor Nancy Barnes into the room and onto panels. It is also brought in Joel Kramer, publisher of MinnPost (as well as Voice of San Diego's Scott Lewis), knowing that Kramer might be (and was) vocal about MPR's unwillingness to partner with MinnPost.

If Sweeney came concerned, he might have left more worried. Yes, Public Radio's legacy business is radio, and, more recently, audio, via podcast and streaming. What Sweeney heard, though, was a larger Who, public radio's nascent attempts to assert itself as a major online (and then presumably mobile) news player throughout the country.

You can find the whole Future of News Web site here. Incidentally, I didn't see this fabulous piece of work until yesterday:

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Today in flu

Posted at 1:44 PM on November 6, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Health, Media

It seems like only yesterday when the news media was being skewered for overblowing the H1N1 flu (which for some reason is increasingly being referred to as the "swine flu" again). Now, a survey by Pew Research Center suggests the news consumer can't get enough.

According to the survey of the Pew Research Center for People and the Press:

About three-in-ten (29%) name reports about the fast-spreading flu and its vaccine as the story they followed more closely than any other last week, according to the latest weekly News Interest Index survey, conducted Oct. 30-Nov. 2 among 1,001 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Somewhat fewer mention news about health care reform (22%) or the economy (17%) as their top story.

But a second survey, from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ), shows a disconnect between what the people want and what the people are getting:

The national news media devoted 5% of the newshole to swine flu, much less than the coverage given to the health care debate (16%), Afghanistan (13%) or the economy (12%).

Let's see if we can adjust that a little bit. Here's some H1N1 news:

Most people who are looking for the H1N1 vaccine can't find it, Harvard reports today.

Since the H1N1 flu vaccine became available in October, 17% of American adults, 41% of parents, and 21% of high-priority adults have tried to get it. Among adults who tried to get it for themselves, 30% were able to get the vaccine and 70% were unable to get it. Among parents who tried to get the H1N1 vaccine for their children, 34% were able to get it and 66% were unable to get it. Among high priority adults who tried to get the H1N1 vaccine, 34% were able to get it and 66% were unable to get it.

So far Minnesota has ordered more than 460,000 doses of vaccine from its share of the federal supply, MPR's Lorna Benson reported today. The state health department has been using a random lottery system to select sites from among thousands of clinics who'll get the vaccine.

Officials are worrying that people are getting frustrated in their search for the vaccine, and will just give up looking.

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Are sportswriters the same as reporters?

Posted at 11:33 AM on November 2, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Sports

Tomorrow is Election Day in Minnesota. Would you expect a political reporter in the Twin Cities to predict a winner in either of the big-city mayoral races? Obviously, not (even though most newsies do have predictions).

So why is it OK for newspaper sportswriters to predict the outcome of games? If you follow football, for example, you've no doubt seen the Friday comparisons of two teams ending with a prediction of who will win.

Those days are over in Denver, apparently, where the Denver Post has banned the practice.

"We did not get a single complaint from outside," (Editor Greg) Moore continues, "but I did look at the predictions before the San Diego game. Obviously, I had seen these for years. And it occurred to me that it must be making it hard for news reporters, especially when they pick against the team they cover. In an equal vein, these beat reporters don't want to seem like homers, always picking the Broncos. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed an unreasonable position to put these reporters in."

Moore says it's a matter of ethics.

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Behind the scenes of A Prairie Home Companion

Posted at 10:46 AM on October 29, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Icons, Media

CBS Early Show host Harry Smith was one of the guests on A Prairie Home Companion last Saturday and produced a nice piece for his show this morning on what it's like to be a guest, including the pitfalls of a last-minute Keillor re-write of a song Smith was scheduled to sing.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Here's an extended Smith interview with Keillor.

In his segment on TV today, Keillor offered this piece of advice to Smith: "Wherever you go in broadcasting, never take calls from the listeners.

Or as we like to say here in the newsroom: The public. At least in these cubicles, we love to hear from you.

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Hoax of the day

Posted at 2:16 PM on October 19, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Media, News

Perhaps it's time to change the name of newscasts to hoaxcasts.

Today's hoax-as-news event occurred in Washington where someone pretending to be from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced the organization was endorsing climate change legislation.

The event at the National Press Club ended when a real spokesman for the Chamber burst into the room.

"Whoops," says The Guardian:

In today's instant news era, that wasn't quite soon enough. Several green organisations tweeted or blogged on the about-face. Reuters news agency put out a straight news story about the Chamber's apparent U-turn, and the Washington Post and New York Times put the story on their news sites (both later removed the stories from their websites). CNBC actually sought - and got - comment from analysts. It also broke its programming to have a reporter read out the fake press release.

The hoax was carried out by The Yes Men, a group which has perpetrated similar nonsense in the past, and.which has a new movie out about its "work."

There once was a saying in newsrooms, "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." It might be time to bring that baby back.

Coincidentally, the New York Times announced today it's cutting 100 newsroom jobs. No word yet if one of the positions affected is the one that determines if a story is real.

(Update 4:55 p.m.) - The Chamber rattles the legal sabers.

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The value of not making money

Posted at 10:38 AM on October 12, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (4 Comments)
Filed under: Media

As I see it, there are now approximately two types of media.

First, there's the media outlet that has an open, or at least an unhidden, political agenda. Your Fox Newses and MSNBCs and your Huffington Posts and Drudge Reports.

Then, there's everybody else, just trying to grab a slice of the online-traffic mongering, banner-ad clicking revenue pie.

I'm kidding (mostly), but there is an interesting space in which the average, struggling media machine is trying to fit. A space where the organization can produce quality content while still making money.

That's why this announcement from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is so interesting.

Going forward, our board will use its unique position to work for readers in pursuing with candidates the issues that are critical to the future of our community. The board will provide readers with clear, concise information about candidates' positions and records. The AJC will no longer endorse political candidates.

In an era where journalism is "non-profit," the AJC's move might literally be a step on company's path to becoming a non-profit company. Whether the move is a viable one remains to be seen; MPR, along with National Public Radio, are among the few bona fide successes in non-profit media. Newspapers have been operating on a member-based model — instead of tote bags, a paper shows up on your doorstep every morning — and that model hasn't exactly been thriving lately.

For the sake of discussion, if the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, Duluth News Tribune, the St. Cloud Times, or even your hometown rag became a non-profit, would you support it?

See also: Imagining a future without journalists

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Pioneer Press: Go Star Tribune!

Posted at 8:37 AM on October 4, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Here's something we didn't expect to see in the Sunday Pioneer Press - an ad talking up the competition Star Tribune, which emerged from bankruptcy this week:

That should stoke the speculation that there's already a dance underway that might lead the Twin Cities to becoming a one-newspaper town.

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Our dereliction of duty

Posted at 9:57 AM on October 3, 2009 by Bob Collins (11 Comments)
Filed under: Media, News, War

Every now and again -- when I'm speaking to some group -- someone will ask, "how do you determine what news is?" They're looking for a definition I can't give them. It's not an algorithm (sorry, Google); it's a feeling from your heart to your head. You know it when you see it or when you feel it.

You have to be some sort of heart-dead or brain-dead person not to see the stories within the story of Pvt. Travis Hafterson, whom I've been writing about this week (here, here, here, and here). The 21-year-old Marine from Circle Pines left Camp LeJeune in North Carolina on leave last month only to find out his orders had been rescinded. He was looking for help for post traumatic stress disorder and his mother suggested he come home to get it.

We can argue -- and we have, respectfully, in the posts I've made on News Cut this week -- about whether he should have done that, but one thing cannot be denied: Travis Hafterson is a broken human in need of help and we did this to him.

We sent a kid off to war -- twice -- with all the bravado we could muster on lawn signs, bumper stickers and radio talk shows, and while we lived a comfortable life supporting our troops here with our yellow-ribbon magnets, Hafterson and thousands of other combat soldiers were accumulating memories that turn into nightmares.

Here's just one of several I lifted from a psychological report he underwent last Saturday:

"He watched as an Iraqi police member opened the door of the house, only to have the back of his head explode from enemy fire. He tossed a grenade into the home. ... Though (the enemy) had lost limbs, he was still alive. So Hafterson had no choice but to kill him with a knife through the throat."

Hafterson's primary story isn't the only one that went largely unreported this week. So was the amazing story of how Minnesota's system worked. Psychologists and psychiatrists gave up their days off last weekend, social workers stepped in, attorneys donated their time, court-appointed experts reacted with diligence, a Ramsey County judge and the staff of the Civil Commitment Court acted swiftly, sensitively, and urgently, purely because they recognized the need to help a kid -- "one of our own," you might say -- who came home for help.

On Thursday, the Marines swept in, grabbed Hafterson before he could get it, and sent him to a military prison. He's disappeared into the closed society of the military again, and the public symptoms of a wider mental-health scandal disappeared with him.

The Marines couldn't have done it without the indifference of the news media in the Twin Cities.

Almost a year ago to the day, another Minnesota soldier also had a problem. Gwen Beberg befriended a dog in Iraq but had to leave "Ratchet" behind when she returned to the states. The local media sprang into action. The local newspapers carried the story on page one. Local TV news personalities wouldn't let the story die, and finally the military relented. When the dog came home for a happy reunion, the TV stations were there live.

No such luck for Pvt. Hafterson or, for that matter, the hundreds or maybe thousands of soldiers like him who may exist if only we in the news media were interested enough to find out. No TV station picked up the Hafterson story this week. The Pioneer Press was the only newspaper to do so. The Star Tribune, which announced a "military affairs" beat just a week ago, ignored Hafterson's plight. The Associated Press took a pass. The Huffington Post rejected the story as did National Public Radio. The alternative online news sources around here who fancy themselves the future of journalism -- MinnPost, The Uptake, and City Pages, for example -- proved that they can shrug their shoulders as well as the big boys. Of all alternative online sources of news, only Rick Kupchella's new Bring Me the News "covered" the story.

If the news media here had treated Pvt. Travis Hafterson like a dog, it would've been an improvement.

While the Hafterson story was playing out in the Twin Cities this week, a summit on the future of journalism was being held in San Francisco, where the San Francisco Chronicle noted the theme:

Key to survival in the digital media age is rapidly responding to the preferences that consumers reveal every time they click a link, view an ad, read a story or post a comment, said Michael Franklin, professor of computer science at UC Berkeley. He is also the founder of Truviso, a San Mateo company that creates tools for analyzing consumer data.

Each online action represents clues that media companies can use to customize content, products and ads to particular consumers. That, in turn, can increase customers' engagement with the site and the likelihood of responding to marketing, he said.

Fancy talk, indeed, but it leaves out the two most important elements of journalism. It needs to employ people who give a damn and it needs to make you look, when your instinct is to turn away.

At some future point, the PTSD story will resurface in the form of some tragedy, and the media wags will ask "how could this happen?" When it comes time to ask the question, we should be looking in the mirror.

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Perils of the photo op

Posted at 2:01 PM on September 17, 2009 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Media

"Photo opportunities" are always risky business for a president. The demands of office put you in some pretty weird situations, especially with the media constantly looking for the "money shot."

This was the "money shot" in most newspapers today.

President Obama was promoting Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Olympics during an event on the White House lawn. Somehow, someone happened to have a light saber handy.

Depending on your political views, you either thought "Hey, cool! The president is a regular old Stars Wars fan," or "The president is diminishing the decorum of the office."

Lots of opponents of George Bush circulated this video under the latter category...

... and few of them know that what President Bush was promoting that day was Malaria Awareness Day.

Yeah, well, whatever. I'm in it for the laughs. So are the newspaper photo editors, which is why this picture wasn't on the front page:

That's Joel Pool, Louis Schaab, center, and Nate Murray, right, all with the National Rehab Hospital sled hockey team, a sport which I've never heard of before.

Sled Hockey -- I've since learned thanks to this picture -- "is played on a standard size ice rink with standard size nets and pucks. There are six players on the ice for each team -- three forwards, two defense men and a goalie. Subs may be made when stopped or on the fly. Most of the same rules for hockey played in the United States apply to Sled Hockey." (See Web site)

You can learn a few things from a good photo op.

(AP Photos/Charles Dharapak)

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Is Keillor coming or going?

Posted at 11:28 AM on September 17, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Garrison Keillor is planning to retire, the Star Tribune says:

"A Prairie Home Companion" host Garrison Keillor said Wednesday that he is "not counting on doing it [hosting the show] more than a couple more years." He added that he would like to see the show continue with more of a musical focus, and that he would love to serve as that show's producer.

No, he's not, the Associated Press says:

A couple of friends "made a serious attempt" to get Keillor to retire, he said. "They gave me a beautiful sales pitch. They drew a lovely picture of what it would be like, and I could work on writing books and I could write at my own speed, and I could travel, except I travel now," Keillor said.

Keillor was unavailable to comment to MPR today.

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Making the news

Posted at 11:13 AM on September 11, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Media, News

CNN today framed a Coast Guard training exercise on the Potomac River near the Pentagon as "felony stupidity." But the case actually shines a light on the journalistic rules of CNN.

A few minutes after the president appeared at a ceremony honoring the dead in the 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon, CNN reported that the Coast Guard had fired shots at a boat on the Potomac, sending the nation, apparently, scurrying for word of a terrorist attack.

It turned out to be a training exercise, which sent the CNN anchor team into hyperbole over the Coast Guard decision to have a training mission on 9/11, where it could be mistaken for an actual terrorist attack.

"Is there any admission on the part of the Coast Guard that they made a terrible mistake?" a CNN anchor asked a reporter. But the mistake was CNN's. There were no shots fired, and along the Potomac, there was little indication anything was wrong, and a Coast Guard statement suggested the training exercise was primarily on a radio frequency. A CNN staffer heard the words "bang bang" on a newsroom scanner, and the news organization went with its report.

Later, a CNN reporter cited "sources in the newsroom" while saying the news network put the story on the air before calling the Coast Guard -- or anyone else -- to ask what was happening. It once was a well-observed rule in the news media that journalists don't report anything heard on a news scanner without verifying its truthiness.

"Coast Guard Confusion: Training Exercise Sparks Panic on 9/11 Anniversary," the headline on ABC News' Web site screamed. Well, no, it was CNN that caused whatever panic might have ensued (Note: There's actually no indication anyone outside the CNN newsroom had panicked.)

Try as CNN might in the aftermath to focus the spotlight on the Coast Guard, Washington officials weren't biting. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says if law enforcement felt there was a need for the exercise it's "best not to second-guess." the Associated Press reported.

Gibbs sharply criticized CNN for airing an inaccurate report that shots were fired during the exercise, saying "before we report things like this, checking would be good."

As an old colleague-comic in a newsroom used to say, "Never check the facts, son. You ruin a lot of good stories that way."

(AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

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Ira on Ira

Posted at 11:31 AM on September 9, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Media

PRI just posted this video of Ira Glass of This American Life accepting the Edward R. Murrow Award.

Begin your Ira Glass impersonation now.

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What's the story?

Posted at 9:49 AM on September 9, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media, War

The rescue of a New York Times reporter in Afghanistan is providing a glimpse into how several news organizations have different headline takes on the same story.

Sometimes, apparently, there are different views within the same organization.

The headline on the New York Times around 6:30 this morning said "New York Times Reporter Freed in Afghanistan." But only within the story itself was it noted that Stephen Farrell's translator was killed. That, Al Jazeera notes, is a huge part of the story.

At 9:50 a.m., the headline was changed.

NPR, using Associated Press copy, went with the "freed reporter" headline.

The translator's death was below the headline.

But even that only tells part of the story. A British soldier was killed, too. The Guardian, on the other hand, views the story differently... from its perspective:

But that's not the whole story, either. The BBC -- and apparently only the BBC -- played the story without injecting a perspective.

The number dead is not entirely clear. It's lost in a hail of other parts of the story. Whose bullets killed whom? And how did the women die?

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Did NPR whitewash Ted Kennedy's career?

Posted at 10:48 AM on September 2, 2009 by Bob Collins (13 Comments)
Filed under: Media

National Public Radio ombudsman Alicia Shepard has blown the whistle on her employer's news staff for its coverage of the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy:

But on that first day, in the 23 on-air stories, only one mentioned the name Mary Jo Kopechne and 5 mentioned Chappaquiddick.

Shepard was responding to complaints from listeners who suggested the network was whitewashing Kennedy's biography:

Kennedy may have been a great legislator. He may have been a wonderful uncle, a terrific father, a faithful friend and rejoiced in his second marriage, but there were warts too. He got kicked out of Harvard for cheating. He was known in his younger years for womanizing and drinking too much. In 1991, he was carousing with his son, Patrick and nephew, William Kennedy Smith in Palm Beach. Later that night, a woman accused Smith of raping her. Smith was tried and later acquitted.

Not everyone loved Teddy Kennedy. He was a complex man with a family history that defies belief when all the tragedies are strung together. To accurately portray any man or woman, it is just as important to fully include what is unpleasant or unflattering -- especially since those events for Kennedy went a long way toward shaping who Teddy Kennedy was when he died.

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Notes from Planet Journalism

Posted at 12:28 PM on August 6, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Two items testing ethical waters in journalism today.

CLUNKERS VS. KATRINA

NPR's ombudsman, Alicia Shepard, takes NPR's Mara Liasson to task for this:

Says Shepard:

Nearly 2,000 people died and thousands more were injured or lost their homes during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The Bush administration's inability to help hundreds of thousands of people in New Orleans after Katrina is considered one of the greatest recent examples of government incompetence.

It is inconceivable anyone could compare that disaster to Cash for Clunkers, which simply gives people a voucher worth up to $4,500 to trade in an old car for a newer, more fuel-efficient vehicle.

Liasson, meanwhile, is contrite. "I said something really stupid, which I regret," Liasson told Shepard.

NAMING VICTIMS

Anytime a news organization plays the "withhold the name/don't withhold the name" game, it runs into a minefield of ethical questions.

Generally speaking, news organizations in these parts withhold the name of people who have been arrested until they've been charged. But most apply the guideline inconsistently.

One canon that the Associated Press has is not naming victims of a sexual assault.

But the AP couldn't see the case of the Wisconsin man coming who, apparently, played around on his wife with four (or more) women, and then was attacked by them. The AP did not name the man because he's a victim of a sexual assault. So far, so good.

Then he got himself arrested on an allegation of child abuse. Now is he a victim? Or a perpetrator who can be named? This morning, the news organization named him once he was charged.

But by afternoon, the AP issued this advisory:

Please note BC-US--Cheater Assaulted, 1st ld-Writethru, which makes an important change deleting the suspect's name because he is named as the victim of a sexual assault in another case.

The AP named three of the women charged in the case, but didn't name the fourth.

Because he's the man's wife, identifying her would identify him.

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Newspapers without the paper

Posted at 11:15 AM on August 5, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Media

In a world of a 24-hour news cycle, If you're not publishing daily, are you still a newspaper?

The Red Wing Republican Eagle announced today that it will publish only two days a week starting in September.

"We will deliver more local news to subscribers -- but twice a week in larger newspapers instead of in five smaller papers. This change will allow our staff to concentrate only on the local market," publisher Steve Messick said on the Web site today.

It's another attempt to save money but right off the bat, revenue from subscriptions will drop by about $50 per subscriber.

It's not a new concept, of course. The Capital Times of Madison switched to a twice-a-week print schedule more than a year ago, also promising to put more energy into its Web site. The Detroit Free Press publishes only three times a week.

More than 100 newspapers nationwide have made the cut, according to Editor & Publisher magazine. So far, nobody's died because of it, and most of the problems the move causes seem generally to involve the comics and Friday night high school football scores.

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Ink, dead trees and you

Posted at 9:42 AM on July 29, 2009 by Ken Paulman (6 Comments)
Filed under: Media

On Midday today, host Mike Edgerly will be discussing the future of newspapers with Rick Edmonds, a former reporter, editor and publisher who is now a researcher for the Poynter Institute, and Ken Doctor, former managing editor of the Pioneer Press.

We all know the simple version of the story. The web is displacing newspapers as a mass medium, newspapers therefore are doomed. Various offshoots of that narrative tend to blame the content - because the "MSM" is too liberal/conservative, they've alienated their readers who are now turning to the vast cornucopia of perspectives available on the Internet. Or something like that.

But in reality, newspapers don't have a content problem, they have a business problem.

It's important to distinguish newspapers as an advertising vehicle and newspaper journalism. Demand for the latter is higher than it's ever been, but it's the advertising - the print advertising - that has always paid the bills (and still does). As I've noted on this blog before, a good chunk of the journalism you're reading online is subsidized by those ads. Fewer readers = fewer ads = fewer reporters = fewer readers, and on we go.

The paradox should be familiar to media-watchers by now: Absent a new revenue model for newspapers, most of the newspaper journalism we read online goes away. No such thing as a free ride.

When you compare a printed paper to the web as a means of transmitting information, the printed paper is impractical to the point of being absurd. But, for the sake of discussion, let's put practicality aside for a moment. Are there things that the printed newspaper does that technology can't displace? And are those things valuable enough to allow newspapers to continue as a viable commodity?

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'Nightline' fights back

Posted at 8:11 AM on July 28, 2009 by Ken Paulman (3 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Remember "Nightline"?

When Ted Koppel left the late-night news program in 2005, it was written off for dead. A news show, without the star power of its lead anchor, had no hope of competing against Leno and Letterman, or so went the conventional wisdom at the time.

But according to a story in the New York Times, the program is not only holding its own, it sometimes comes out on top.

Granted, a lot of those ratings can be attributed to coverage of the death of a certain pop singer, but the executive producer also notes that the program beat the talk shows with a show about Afghanistan and an interview with President Obama.

"Nightline" is not exactly Charlie Rose. It's not even "60 Minutes." But amid such topics as "Does Satan exist? Debating the Devil" and "Hookers for Jesus preach to unlikely flock" you'll find segments on consumer protection, endangered species and the Iranian election.

A common refrain is that with all the Internets and the Tweeters and whutnot, we've become so preoccupied with pop culture that we're no longer in touch with important issues (as opposed to a generation ago, when people ignored such temptations as "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "Laugh-In" and instead gathered the family around the woodstove to recite the speeches of Abraham Lincoln). So on one hand, the fact that people are switching off Letterman and turning to the news instead is a Good Thing. But one could also argue that TV "magazine" shows give short shrift to serious issues in favor of slick, candy-coated segments designed to draw an audience, and that we end up less informed as a result.

But in the end, can the fact that one of the major networks still sees journalism as one of its top contenders be anything but positive?

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Trust

Posted at 11:36 AM on July 22, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Media

It took a few days but "Cronkite backlash" has started. The backlash in the wake of the deaths of icons, comes after a period of hyper-testimonials (See Russert, Tim).

It's Jack Shafter at Slate who argues that you can't trust trust:

If Cronkite were working in today's news environment, painting the news from the same palette he used when he anchored the CBS program, would viewers still invest their deep trust in him? (Assuming, of course, that the public did regard Cronkite as the nation's most trustworthy man.)

I doubt it. The news business has both expanded and fragmented in the post-Cronkite, post-Fairness Doctrine era. The news monopoly the three broadcast networks enjoyed for two decades has been shattered by the three cable news networks, all of which embrace (and thrive on) the controversy that Cronkite eschewed. The Web, which can make the cable news channels look positively Cronkitian, has only reshattered the shards.

Yeah...yeah, but let's get to the money quote:

Beware of those who fetishize trust, Monck and Hanley counsel. "Trust is a shoddy yardstick. It doesn't gauge truth, it gauges what looks close to the truth: verisimilitude," they write. It's not just the naive and undereducated who end up trusting people and institutions that they shouldn't. The sophisticated and the well-schooled are vulnerable, too.

Be skeptical, news consumers, especially of the journalists you trust most. It will make you smarter and keep them honest.

Trust your spouse. Trust your dog. That ought to do it.

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Is the radio obsolete?

Posted at 10:55 AM on July 20, 2009 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Media

An article on a journalism blog has Public Radio and the future of "old" media in its crosshairs.

The question comes down to this:

Do we still need radio?

Public Radio Dangerously Close To Making Public Radio Obsolete on PaidContent.org argues that smart phones and apps to to turn phones into "radios" have made the old transistor obsolete:

Now with the addition of what's playing on my favorite stations right now, I have a lot more choices in one screen that I had previously: so instead of enduring "A Prairie Home Companion" on the weekend (not my cup of tea), I could try "On The Media" on at the same time on WBEZ Chicago public radio. And if I happen to join a show after its start, chances are I can get the latest edition of the show on demand (helpfully linked from the live version). In the car, where a lot of public radio consumption happens (especially in SoCal) with one of the options to connect the iPhone to the radio speakers, it makes the local public radio station redundant, to a large extent. Of course you can argue this is only true for the 20 million or so iPhone users, but you can see this playing out on other smartphones like Android and others, when the same app launches of their platforms.

Rafat Ali frets that the funding mechanism for Public Radio -- primarily local pledge drives -- would suffer because people don't have a connection to their local station.

The future will be the death of us all. And therein lies the Catch 24 for all media in the digital age. Content is still king and content still comes from local stations. If people enjoy the breadth of possibilities across the Public Radio spectrum and stop supporting their local stations, it seems likely that the content they enjoy would begin to disappear. So the key, one supposes, is whether the audience in this environment understands that.

American Public Media, the parent of MPR, is one of the entities that helped develop the application. Incidentally, MPR News has an IPhone app. You can learn more about it here.

I'm not exactly in the iPhone app demo. I don't have a smart phone. I do have an iPod stuffed with all sorts of great music that I listen to while I'm mowing the lawn or am stuck in a big aluminum tube somewhere. I've tried using podcasts but I can't get into the habit of updating them enough nor listening to them regularly. So even with this "tool," I have not found I listen to less radio; I actually find myself listening to more.

How about you? How do you see your digital future?

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On Cronkite

Posted at 8:11 AM on July 18, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Icons, Media

I've written -- twice -- about Walter Cronkite in the last month or so. You can click the "icons" category over there on the right and find them. So I won't go into his death too much. But I left out a couple of obvious videos that marked his career:

The death of Martin Luther King Jr.

And the moon landing:

A lot of people this weekend will lament that Cronkite was the last vestige of the "just the facts" newscast. And it's true, each story he introduced may have appeared to have no underlying message. But the dirty little secret of journalism -- one of them -- is that why a story is chosen to air is every bit as important as what a story says, and you can't make that decision without having an opinion about why a story matters enough to be told.

At the National Scholastic Press Association workshop at the University of Minnesota on Friday, a high school journalism teacher asked me how she could get her students to understand "objectivity" (a word I don't use, I prefer "fairness"). "Don't explain it to them" I suggested. "When they turn in a story, just ask them 'why?'." Why they pursued the story? Why they took a particular angle? Why one sentence appeared before another? Why they talked to the people they talked to? As they answer each question, the part of us -- the personal us -- that is part of the process, will be more clear.

Cronkite, it is said, influenced thousands of people to get into journalism. That's probably accurate. But I didn't find Cronkite to be the most inspiring journalist on the show. I found the person who was always at the end of his broadcast to be the most compelling:

News is supposed to be a snapshot of our world. He knew that a single note from a piano, for example, can still make us cry. And that 90 seconds of video of the world just being the world, can lead us to contemplate it far more than a babbling head. His stories were consistently the most memorable and I always wondered what it was -- and still is -- about journalism that kept them from leading the news.

I often wondered whether anyone asked Cronkite that question.

The part about us that's good, is every bit as newsworthy as the part about us that isn't.

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How a Minnesota man blew the whistle on the New York Times

Posted at 11:58 AM on July 8, 2009 by Bob Collins (37 Comments)
Filed under: Media

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Sign of the Franken

Posted at 12:42 PM on July 6, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media

They came. They saw. They made a big fuss. Al Franken, the beneficiary (sort of) of eight months of seeming non-stop coverage, draws a crowd even when he's not there. At the Capitol, a worker put a sign up outside his new office, and a gaggle of reporters was there to document its every word.

It had no comment. It is the most heavily photographed sign at the U.S. Capitol since former Sen. Mark Dayton closed his office because of terrorism fears.

As for Franken, he met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and then met the media, saying nothing he hasn't said before to reporters there to cover him saying it again. The national news media duly reported that Franken did not make any jokes.

Meanwhile, the Senate Web site still lists only a single Minnesota senator. But the franken.senate.gov Web address is ready for him, although it currently redirects to the Senate home page.

Franken will be sworn in on Tuesday.

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The 'T' word

Posted at 3:27 PM on July 1, 2009 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Media, News

Catching up.

When NPR ombudsman Alicia Shepard was on Midmorning a few weeks ago, she said the Public Radio audience was angry that NPR won't call waterboarding torture. She said she'd have an article about that by the end of the day, but she didn't and I forgot to check.

She explained the policy last week:

... the problem is that the word torture is loaded with political and social implications for several reasons, including the fact that torture is illegal under U.S. law and international treaties the United States has signed.

That earned over 400 comments, most of which did not agree with Shepard. She wrote a follow-up post yesterday, noting that she brought the audience concerns to the editors and that NPR is apparently resolute on the matter:

One can disagree strongly with those beliefs and their actions. But they are due some respect for their views, which are shared by a portion of the American public. So, it is not an open-and-shut case that everyone believes waterboarding to be torture. Many in NPR's audience obviously believe it is, but others do not.

The main argument of my column was that NPR should describe waterboarding rather than use coded language to characterize it. Another alternative is to quote responsible officials who have described it as torture, for example President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder.

Media critic Dan Kennedy, who writes Media Nation, took Shepard to task last week for "getting it so wrong."

Perhaps NPR can eschew the T-word and instead describe waterboarding as "an interrogation technique once considered so heinous by the United States that it hanged Japanese officers for doing it to Americans."

To which, he says, Shepard responded...

I'm not trying to say what is and is not torture, but is every abuse classified as torture now or are there degrees? When a police officer throws a suspect to the ground and handcuffs them, is that torture or simply abuse?

And to which he -- Kennedy -- responded today:

As John McCain and others have pointed out, the United States executed several Japanese military officers for waterboarding American prisoners of war after World War II. And as I wrote last week, if NPR really can't bring itself to use the T-word, perhaps it can describe waterboarding as "an interrogation technique once considered so heinous by the United States that it hanged Japanese officers for doing it to Americans."

So yes, if I were an editor at the Boston Globe, you're damn right I would refer to waterboarding as torture. That seems about as solid as referring to oil as a fossil fuel, or baseball as a sport. By eschewing the term "torture" to describe a practice that the entire international community regards as such, NPR is not being neutral. Rather, it is embracing a euphemism that places the network squarely on the side of the torturers and their enablers.

NPR should not use enhanced interrogation techniques on the English language.

On Midmorning, Shepard said she's not just NPR's omudsman, she is "the ombudsman for Public Radio," which seemed to be news to the people at MPR News I talked to.

So, is there an MPR policy preventing reporters and hosts from using torture instead of waterboarding? No.

FYI, Ms. Shepard will be on Talk of the Nation on Thursday at 1:40 p.m. (CT) to talk about the issue.

(Photo: Getty Images)

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News conference choreography

Posted at 3:06 PM on June 23, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Media, News, Politics

The very tail end of President Obama's news conference today provided the best glimpse into the workings of the White House press corps.

Listen to the comment shouted at the end of the president's remarks. (Listen)

After Obama had bid everyone "adieu," an unidentified reporter whined "No questions about Iraq?" It seemed an odd complaint to a president, coming from someone responsible for asking the questions, one of which, by the way, included "how many cigarettes do you smoke a day?"

I wondered about that on Twitter, when Kevin Watterson, the Minnesota House Republican Caucus' communications boss, suggested coordination between Obama and the press corps over what questions would be asked.

He wasn't the only one. Writing on the Politico blog, Michael Calderone noted that Obama invited a question on Iran from Huffington Post's Nico Pitney.

Reporters typically don't coordinate their questions for the president before press conferences, so it seemed odd that Obama might have an idea what the question would be. Also, it was a departure from White House protocol by calling on The Huffington Post second, in between the AP and Reuters.

CBS Radio's Mark Knoller, a veteran White House correspondent, said over Twitter it was "very unusual that Obama called on Huffington Post second, appearing to know the issue the reporter would ask about."

Knoller says a news conference shouldn't "be choreographed," although presidents historically have had a "go-to" reporter to call on when questioning gets tough -- the kind of reporter who might ask about, for example, a new dog or the number of cigarettes he smokes a day.

Most of the questions asked today seemed to follow the issues that currently have our attention -- Iran and health care. It's not clear what question about Iraq the lonely reporter with the complaint would have asked had he been given the chance.

On that subject -- the news agenda -- a survey of what we're interested in (by way of the news media) speaks to our short attention spans.

Here's the graph for the last week, compiled by Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism:

And the week before that:

And the one before that:

Iraq hasn't registered on the PEJ's news coverage index since the third week in February.

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

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School newspaper flap

Posted at 12:02 PM on June 23, 2009 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Schools

Another flap over the direction of a school newspaper has broken out in the region.

In West Fargo, Jeremy Murphy, the student newspaper and yearbook adviser, has been removed because of "how negative the paper was," according to the Detroit Lakes Online Web site (reg. required).

Murphy, a former reporter, didn't hold back in a letter he sent to the North Dakota Newspaper Association. "Administrators simply want an adviser who will restrain students from reporting on certain topics and I wasn't willing to compromise their freedoms to that extent," he said. "Although they didn't have any specifics, I just think it was the fact that students covered both sides and that negative perspective really wasn't well-received by district officials."

The paper -- The Packer -- won top honors in this year's Northern Interscholastic Press Association competition.

The paper's Web site has a great sample of stories including the bankruptcy of a company that was handling the French class trip, the one-person race for student body president, and a student who's moving to Kenya. Its opinion page features a column wondering why some of the teachers became teachers and one that questioned administrators for canceling a school trip because of blizzard fears.

School newspapers have always presented a dilemma for administrators who balance the teaching of a subject area -- in this case, journalism -- with the needs of their teachers.

In Faribault, Minn., the school district's superintendent closed down the school newspaper last December because the school paper wouldn't let him pre-read an article about a teacher. The students simply started publishing the paper online.

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When should the media keep secrets?

Posted at 8:57 AM on June 21, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Media

David Rohde, the New York Times reporter, escaped the Taliban over the weekend, which is surprising because we didn't know he'd been kidnapped seven months ago. It was the second time he'd been kidnapped in a war zone. In 1995, he was taken by Bosnian Serbs (photo above is a 1995 Getty Images photo after his release).

Buried several paragraphs into the Times' story is this nugget:

Until now, the kidnapping has been kept quiet by The Times and other media organizations out of concern for the men's safety.

"From the early days of this ordeal, the prevailing view among David's family, experts in kidnapping cases, officials of several governments and others we consulted was that going public could increase the danger to David and the other hostages," said Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times. "The kidnappers initially said as much. We decided to respect that advice, as we have in other kidnapping cases, and a number of other news organizations that learned of David's plight have done the same. We are enormously grateful for their support."

You can see what's coming next, right?

Did the Times -- and 40 other news organizations who knew (and which ones were those?) keep a story out of the newspaper out an ethical standard of conduct? Or was it because it was their reporter or a guy in their business?

The answer may lie in the math. According to the Times, "Mr. Rohde, along with a local reporter, Tahir Ludin, and their driver, Asadullah Mangal, was abducted outside Kabul, Afghanistan, on Nov. 10."

Two escaped -- Ludin and Rohde. Three minus two, leaves one behind, whose future is just as endangered, it would appear, by publicity about the kidnapping. If there was concern about the life of a kidnapped person, why publish the story now with one person still being held?

There is no editor's note attached to the story to explain the double standard.

"You have to respond in the way that puts the person who's been kidnapped in the least vulnerable position," Tom Fiedler, dean of Boston University's College of Communication, told the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz. "Trying to second-guess the decision by the New York Times to withhold that would be unfair."

Would it? If only we could get Mr. Mangal's answer. (He was reported by Rohde to have joined the Taliban)

Update 5:26 p.m. "I think that is a weak spot in the underbelly of the decision making in these cases. We show a preference for one of our own in journalism generally by holding back a story or elements of a story compared to how we might cover the kidnapped oil field worker or diplomat or tourist. In those cases, we might not bring as serious a deliberative process to how we're going to cover it," the Poynter Institute's Bob Steele told the Christian Science Monitor.

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Twitter in Iran

Posted at 8:00 PM on June 15, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Twitter had planned a network outage on Monday evening, but has now postponed it until Tuesday because people were depending on it too much for coverage of the events in Iran.

"Our partners are taking a huge risk not just for Twitter but also the other services they support worldwide--we commend them for being flexible in what is essentially an inflexible situation," Twitter officials said.

The outpouring of reaction over Twitter's initial plan to pull the plug may be the biggest repudiation of mainstream media news sources in the U.S. ever.

It's not hard to see why. During Monday evening's original down time for Twitter, CNN was broadcasting Larry King's interview with American Idol David Cook and comedian Jeff Foxworthy.

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What front pages reveal about us

Posted at 12:30 PM on June 11, 2009 by Bob Collins (12 Comments)
Filed under: Media

The struggles of the newspaper industry have been well -- perhaps too well -- documented in recent years but today's front pages of Minnesota newspapers show how they're trying to adapt to survive in a world of breaking news -- de-emphasize it.

Yesterday's top story -- the shooting at the Holocaust Museum in Washington -- got little front page attention around the state today.

The Pioneer Press and Star Tribune put the story below "the fold." The Pioneer Press emphasized a fine profile of a Vietnam vet with post-traumatic stress syndrome. The shooting played third banana to that and the continuing flap over the St. Croix bridge.

The Star Tribune headlined the legislative auditor's report on the apparently out-of-control Metro Gang Strike Force and the presidential elections in Iran.

The Duluth News Tribune played the shooting -- or at least the Minnesota connection -- big.

The Mankato Free Press found no room at the top of the front page:

At the bottom of the page, Miss California and the shooting vied for space. Miss California won.

The St. Cloud Times was one of the few newspapers that gave it top-story attention:

You are the editor. How would you have placed the story?

Nationally, it wasn't much different. The New York Times played it low-key.

... which makes Bill Keller's comments in this spoof all the more interesting.

Meanwhile, over at the Huffington Post -- said to be the biggest threat to newspapers -- the story is still playing big with an obvious second-day lede.

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More newspapers try to be TV stations

Posted at 4:03 PM on June 1, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Media

I worked in television in Boston once, between radio gigs. I hated it, though, because I was a TV fish out of radio water. "Write to the pictures!" was the mantra and I still don't get it. It was hard for a non-TV person to master. The Boston Globe's Bob Ryan was at the station around the same time, and quit to go back to newspapers for pretty much the same reason.

Newspapers, however, seem bent on figuring it out. A few months ago, the Star Tribune started a daily "TV-style" newscast. Today, the Duluth News Tribune premiered DNTV (registration possibly required), a similar attempt. It's obviously too early in the project to judge, but I still don't get it.

I can tell good use of video from bad, however, and the New York Times shows that newspapers can produce high-quality video in storytelling with its documentary tracing the decline of General Motors.

It's a good example of what the newspaper TV stations are missing. There's plenty of talking head newscasts on television, but there aren't many well-produced documentaries. The New York Times is filling a niche. The Duluth News Tribune is not.

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The Saberi tapes

Posted at 12:37 PM on May 28, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice, Media

Journalist Roxana Saberi has given her first in-depth interview to National Public Radio. An edited version airs this afternoon on All Things Considered. Or you can just listen to it now via NPR's Two Way blog. (mp3).

She says she confessed in Iran to being a spy but later recanted. "To this day I'm still not sure what they arrested me for," she told Melissa Block. "It wasn't for buying alcohol; it wasn't for reporting without a press pass. My interrogators claimed that I was spying for the U.S., and however much I told them that I was not -- that I was simply writing a book and doing interviews for a book, which I hoped to use to show English speakers around the world a more balanced and complete picture of Iranian society -- however much I told them this, they told me I was lying and that I was a U.S spy."

(Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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Watergate's birth

Posted at 8:40 AM on May 25, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media, News

Historical insight or long-lasting sour grapes?

Two ex-members of the New York Times say they had the tip on Watergate first. They say it came from former FBI chief L. Patrick Gray, the Times reports today.

If true, the revelation also means that the top two officials at the FBI were trying -- it would appear, desperately -- to get the media to follow the break-in story. W. Mark Felt, the associate director of the agency, has already been identified as "Deep Throat," the tipster who guided the Washington Post through the biggest story of a generation.

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Why is torture seductive?

Posted at 1:59 PM on May 13, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Media

"What is it about torture that is so seductive to our mainstream media?" Rory O'Connor asks on his blog today. He's taking on the media which, he suggests, has gone to great lengths to defend the use of torture.

That makes US accomplices? I think not - remember, the same media figures told us, falsely, that "Some torture clearly works," that "we need to keep an open mind" about it, and that "we'll have to think about transferring some suspects to our less squeamish allies, even if that's hypocritical." After all, my fellow "accomplices," as Alter wrote in his Newsweek column shortly after 9/11: "Nobody said this was going to be pretty."

But nobody ever said it would get this ugly, either! As if the calls for torture and the claims that prosecution will "be too hard legally and politically and too easy morally" weren't infuriating enough, we now find the latest media/torture depredation: The Philadelphia Inquirer has had torture architect John Yoo on its payroll as a columnist since last year!

Maybe not all the media:

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After Saberi

Posted at 11:37 AM on May 11, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Salon.com's Glenn Greenwald finds journalistic hypocrisy in the backpatting going on following the release of journalist Roxana Saberi.

He suggests perhaps the media should be interested now in the plight of journalists being held without charges by the U.S. and/or allies,

Many people scoff at the notion that the American media propagandizes the American citizenry, but here one sees the vivid essence of that process. Our establishment media loves to point to and loudly condemn the behavior of other governments as proof of how tyrannical and evil they are -- look at those Iranian mullah-fanatics imprisoning journalists/look at those primitive, corrupt, lawless Iraqis and their "culture of impunity"/look at the UAE and their tolerance of torture -- while completely ignoring, when they aren't justifying, identical behavior by our own government.

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How much is the Web worth?

Posted at 1:52 PM on May 7, 2009 by Bob Collins (11 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Media

Would you pay for content on the Web?

Rupert Murdoch, the money behind Fox and the Wall St. Journal, expects to start charging you for access to his Web sites within a year.

"We are now in the midst of an epochal debate over the value of content and it is clear to many newspapers that the current model is malfunctioning," he says.

It's the sort of thing newspaper owners dream of during periods of REM sleep. But it's been tried a few times, with fairly mixed results. People will pay for porn; they won't pay for news.

Is there any scenario that you'd pay for news on the Web?

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Loss of community?

Posted at 10:20 AM on May 7, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Media

"Hyperlocal" is the new buzzword among newspapers heading for -- or in -- bankruptcy. The theory is that people are more interested in the local spelling bee champ than the Taliban in Pakistan.

But the demise of two community newspapers this week suggests it's not entirely a panacea for what ails the business. The Stillwater Courier and Lake Elmo Leader have gone belly up.

Now, The Bridge, the "longest running community newspaper in Minneapolis," has ceased publication and will go online only.

Hello Seward Listees,

As you can imagine, after twenty years, I've been profoundly troubled by having to pull out of publishing the newsprint version of The Bridge. Unfortunately, the 30% drop in advertising revenue this year made the move a bit more urgent -- OK, a lot more urgent. The good news is, an online publication as a community-building device just makes a
heckuva lot more sense.

Hopefully, delivering The Bridge as an online publication will be a more sustainable model that can deliver richer content, and more opportunity to participate in the storytelling of our neighborhoods. I think you folks on this forum know that better than most.

About half of our budget, ~$8,000, goes towards printing and distributing what was amounting to eight (of 16) tabloid pages of content. Once a month. That's nuts. Don't get me wrong, the marketplace of ads plays an important role, too, but really, its the
journalism we're after.

To make this work, we need to transition half of our average print advertising to online. This will be a challenge, but we are hearing encouraging reactions from many of the hundreds of advertisers who have supported us over the years and can now continue to do so, but less expensively. Also, we hope to find an uptick in financial contributions from users.

If we can bring in $8-$10k per month, we'll be able to keep our editor and ad rep working the same hours and have some left over for content, admin, and web development. Triangle Park Creative will continue to cover shortfalls in overhead and website development costs as best we can.

The nonprofit Southeast Publications board (or a derivative of it) will continue to provide critical support and oversight. The board will also be trying to recruit members from all ten of our Bridgeland neighborhoods. We envision that each neighborhood will eventually have what resembles their own news bureau.

Yes, we will miss sitting with a paper in our lap, but we will not miss the limitations of eight pages of storytelling space once per month. And then there's that increasingly harder-to-justify act of distributing 10,000 pounds of paper throughout the 'hood. We've always dreamed of a more current publication, and now that is possible by shifting our resources to the internet and doing things like broadcasting weekly eNewsletters.

Honestly, in the twenty years I've provided publishing resources to the lineage of the Seward Profile, I've never been so jazzed about the potential of this publication to build connections within our community. Even though combining the Profile and SE Angle was
promising and bought us a couple more years of publishing, this could be a far more sustainable model for delivering hyper-local, diverse, participatory, and timely stories.

Also, as our core business at Triangle Park Creative is shifting to web design, we can better support the project in some extraordinary ways, just as we did with the paper version for half of its 40-year existence. I'm not sure we are ahead of the curve now, but with your help, we can turn this crisis into a remarkable model of web-based community journalism.

So, please, please, PLEASE help us register as many online subscriber/supporters as you can. Send your network to: www.readthebridge.info (.com, .net, .org) and ask them to create a user account. We're not asking for money at this time, just a couple of check marks in boxes.

We think a key to success is gathering a critical mass of subscribers to leverage marketing, and frankly, justify the effort. What that number is, we don't know. We're guessing 7,500. Since you are on this list-serve, I suspect you already recognize the potential and how it will help what you are doing here, as well.

Let's keep the longest running community news publication in Minneapolis alive.

Thoughts?

Dan Nordley

One of the problems of community newspapers is there isn't much "community" around anymore. Some neighborhoods and cities, of course, are closer than others, but fewer and fewer people identify with where they live.

(h/t: Julia Schrenkler)

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Are journalists class clowns on swine flu coverage?

Posted at 3:27 PM on May 6, 2009 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)
Filed under: Health, Media

One of the harshest criticisms about coverage of the swine flu comes today from a journalist. Stacey Woelfel, the chair of the Radio Television News Directors Association, calls journalists "class clowns" for their coverage.

Now, let me get it on the record here that I think there is some news value to this story. Any time there is a communicable disease on the loose that can make the sufferer uncomfortable for a time, it's worth a report or two. Since death is rare (there's only been one in the entire United States so far), it's not like this is as serious as a major foodborne illness like Hepatitis A. Remember the outbreak in Pennsylvania in 2003 when a Chi Chi's served some bad green onions. Six hundred fifty people got sick and four people died--all from one bad batch of green onions in one city. Compare that to the 226 cases and 1 death we have as I write this. The green onion/hepatitis story was a big one about a threat than anyone could face in the grocery store or restaurant. The swine flu story just isn't. Note this sentence from the CDC website on the swine flu: "It is expected that most people will recover without needing medical care." That's right. If you get swine flu, you probably don't even have to go to the doctor to get it looked at. It's a virus. It has to run its course. Only those in special at-risk categories even need to worry about it. So why all the coverage?

Why all the coverage? It could be, perhaps, because the characteristics of the flu that Woelfel describes as fact, have only appeared to be fact in the last day or so, and that quite often coverage of the flu involved relaying the comments of the experts who were trying to figure out what was going on.

While Woelfel says "the swine flu story just isn't," no responsible journalist could make that declaration a week ago when the nature of the strain hadn't even been determined yet. It was only Tuesday that officials announced, for example, the flu is not as bad as first thought. So saying the story was worth only one or two mentions stretches credibility somewhat.

Woelfel says death is rare. Last week, the people who were telling us the flu story is not a story because 36,000 people die from the flu each year, this week are saying it's not a story because death is rare. You can't have it both ways.

To be clear, there's been some really terrible coverage. But critics are being sweeping in their condemnation by not naming specific journalists or news organizations they allege are being unethical in their coverage, painting all journalists with a broad brush. Most ethical journalists -- and that's the majority -- have done nothing more than what good journalists do: tell you what is known and what isn't.

On National Public Radio's Morning Edition on Tuesday, Gary Schwitzer, the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communications professor who writes the Health News Blog (and who called my attention to the RTNDA article via his blog), said "When you start fear mongering in all of your messages on air and on your Web site, I don't think we're serving the public in the best way." No argument there.

The story on NPR also criticized CNN reporter John Roberts, for asking the question:

"Is this the killer virus that we've all been hearing about. Is it just a threat? Is it like 1986 when we had a small outbreak, or is it like 1918 when 20 million people died worldwide?"

With the benefit of a week since the story broke, that might be low-hanging fruit for media critics, but it ignores an important point: There's nothing wrong with asking a question if the answer to it is something we want -- if not, need -- to know. What offended sensibilities was any following speculation that pretended to have an answer different than the one the experts were offering.

While I give CNN a pass on the question, it's hard to argue with criticism of the network. When I asked him about what TV outlets he considered "class clowns" Schwitzer cited CNN's "Bracing For the Worst" and "Outbreak of Fear" graphics. Good examples.

But when you ask critics who level allegations on an entire industry for specifics -- in this case the media -- they almost always cite CNN or Fox or a major TV network. The problem with that, as I mentioned yesterday, is that there's much more to journalism than CNN or Fox or a major TV network, a fact that usually surprises people who work at CNN, Fox, or a major TV network.

"If only RTNDA and its chairman and its website and its terrific code of ethics seemed to make any difference with its members!" Schwitzer wrote on his blog post today. He comes by his expertise honestly, he once headed CNN's medical unit.

But he hasn't watched any of the coverage with which he disagrees, he confirmed for me in an e-mail this afternoon. "I still haven't watched one minute of TV coverage. All the examples I gave you were things I read about from newspaper TV columnists across the country like Howard Kurtz, James Rainey, David Zurawik, Al Tompkins and others. I have no reason to question the accuracy of their accounts of the specific instances they've written about."

It's a pity all of them have chosen to ignore some of the solid reporting on the story.

(Photo: Getty Images)

update 9:13 p.m. - The RTNDA chair who said TV reporters are "class clowns" and who said the flu story is a story that isn't, is news director of KOMU TV in Columbia, Missouri. Let's check and see what the top story on the station's Web site is this evening:

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MN Daily update

Posted at 6:41 AM on May 6, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Media

The leadership of the Minnesota Daily, the newspaper of the University of Minnesota, today responded to an "open letter" from two of its editors yesterday that criticized the awarding of some bonuses at the paper.

The OP bonuses are part of the established compensation package for the president, editor-in-chief and business manager - an agreed-upon contract for paying and evaluating those employees through the year.

As such, the OP bonuses are not perks. When the bonuses were first introduced, in fact, OP pay rates were actually reduced throughout the year. The bonuses were intended so the board could "reinstate" those pay cuts if performance merited them.

Read the full response.

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When newsrooms fight

Posted at 4:15 PM on May 5, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media

A controversy that has broken out over a few thousand dollars at the University of Minnesota Daily newspaper.

In an "open letter to readers" today, two editors -- Andy Mannix and Mike Rose -- criticize the decision to give $3,000 bonuses to the paper's president and business officer, while noting that the editor-in-chief didn't get a dime.

"These bonuses come at a time when the Daily is facing dire financial hardship," they wrote. "The most impactful budget cuts made to the Daily this semester include massive pay cuts (reaching 50 percent for some), discontinuing a Friday print edition and cutting entire departments and sections of the newspaper."

The brouhaha has spilled over into the paper's comments section, which mostly favored the bonuses, but for those of us worrying about young whippersnappers coming into the profession from college, we were shocked to learn that college journalists appear to be equally worried about the young whippersnappers coming from high school.

The problem with most newspapers is the journalists. Don't let yourself think there arent hundreds of younger, smarter kids graduating from High School right NOW who would gladly fill your shoes.

Would you rather they divied up their salaried bonus and you kids all walked away with $3.00?

Get off your high horse and find something better to cover.

(h/t: Anna Weggel)

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The flu formerly known as swine

Posted at 3:02 PM on April 30, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (6 Comments)
Filed under: Health, Media, Politics

What's in a name?

We've moved beyond the "panic" stories to the politically tinged debates over what to call that nasty virus traversing the globe.

World Health Organization officials today begin referring to the virus formerly known as swine flu as "influenza A (H1N1)." (Though the WHO has shown it isn't above industry meddling.)

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has this note posted on one of its flu pages:

This is a rapidly evolving situation and current guidance and other web content may contain variations in how this new H1N1 virus of swine origin is referred to.

Over the coming days and weeks, these inconsistencies will be addressed, but in the interests of meeting the agency's response goals, all guidance will remain posted and new guidance will continue to be issued.

But they might have trouble switching things up as they've been giving out cdc.gov/swineflu as the site for information.

The City of St. Paul just sent out a press release titled "Information available on H1N1 (swine) flu threat."

Then there's the World Organization for Animal Health which, so far, has the most novel approach:

No current information in influenza like animal disease in Mexico or the USA could support a link between human cases and possible animal cases including swine. The virus has not been isolated in animals to date. Therefore, it is not justified to name this disease swine influenza. In the past, many human influenza epidemics with animal origin have been named using geographic name, eg Spanish influenza or Asiatic influenza, thus it would be logical to call this disease "North-American influenza".

MPR received a letter from a pork producer representative that laid bare the industry's objections to calling it swine flu:

[Please] reference the present flu virus by its appropriate name, the 2009 N1H1 flu.

Referring to the present flu virus as "swine flu" is not only damaging to MN pork producers, but demonstrates an uneducated, reckless approach, which is undoubtedly uncharacteristic of MN Public Radio.

The negative connotations to swine, unfairly made and scientifically unsupported, affect consumer confidence and therefore have a significant negative impact on pork production.

There is scientific evidence that the virus is genetically connected to pigs, but you cannot get the flu by eating pork products. It's not like we're not calling it bacon flu, though. To be fair, when your industry is under sudden and near total onslaught, you have a right to be defensive.

When it comes down to it, the media, at least for now, will likely stick with swine flu.

Today on Talk of the Nation, host Neal Conan was asked by a caller why he was not using the term "correct" term of H1N1. Said Conan, "We call it swine flu because that's what people call it."

So... what do you call it?

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The changing flu landscape

Posted at 10:05 AM on April 29, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (0 Comments)
Filed under: Health, Media

What you knew yesterday about the swine flu might not be true today. Are you keeping up with the information fast enough? Have you passed on information that's incorrect?

Mexico's death toll appeared to be rapidly accelerating, some reports yesterday had put the total at more than 150. But...

Only 26 cases, including seven deaths, have been definitively confirmed to be swine flu, [Mexico Health Secretary Jose] Cordova said.

The virus is suspected in 159 deaths, and other reports suggest that some of these might be caused by unrelated respiratory ailments.

And then there's the big number, you know, of people who die from the flu every year.

U.S. officials stressed there is no need for panic, noting that flu outbreaks are quite common every year. The CDC estimates about 36,000 people in the U.S. alone died of flu-related causes each year, on average, in the 1990s.

Do the math, that's just shy of 100 a day.

We were also told yesterday to call it "H1N1" and not "swine flu," because "this really isn't swine flu," as Agriculture Secretary (and former Iowa governor) Tom Vilsack said. The name change was ostensibly because the virus had genetic components from humans, birds and swine, and not to assure the weary consumer that pork is safe. But...

The deadly H1N1 influenza virus that's fueling fears of a global pandemic is a hybrid of two common pig flu strains, scientists who have studied the disease told Wired.com Tuesday. Earlier reports called it a combination of pig, human and avian influenza strains.

"This is what we call a reassortment between two currently circulating pig flu viruses," said Andrew Rambaut, a University of Edinburgh viral geneticist. "Why it's emerged in humans is anyone's guess. It hasn't been seen before in pigs as far as I know."

Sorry, pork producers, you're probably just going to have to tough this one out. "Swine flu" is easier to say and understand than "H1N1."

So, to some it all up: Take caution, but don't panic. But you haven't been watching 24-hour news channels, right?

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Pity is not a business model

Posted at 3:00 PM on April 20, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (4 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Speaking of the New York Times and this morning's post, this really irked me in the comments section of the Afghanistan story:

Of the nearly 200 comments NYTimes.com readers left on a very poignant and important story, an editor assigns the vaunted "Editors' Selection" badge to a comment boo-hooing the decline of the newspaper industry.

I wonder if that comment will make its way into the dead-tree version of the Times?

(Nevermind the fact that the unknown editor works for the Times' online crew...)

My sense is that this sense of (impending) loss is all but lost on the large contingent of news consumers who have already given up on newspapers in their paper form.

Pity is not a business model.

Related: Why does the New York Times need to have 6-700 journalists?

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Sex sells (and wins Pulitzers)

Posted at 2:06 PM on April 20, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (2 Comments)
Filed under: Media

This year's Pulitzer Prizes were just announced. Here's the bulletin from the AP:

The New York Times took five Pulitzers on Monday, including one for breaking the call-girl scandal that destroyed Gov. Eliot Spitzer's political career.

And the Detroit Free Press won for local reporting for obtaining a trove of sexually explicit text messages that brought down the city's mayor.

Is this all that's left of top-notch journalism? Surely there's more to great reporting than politicians getting their jollies...

(Yes, I realize Kwame Kilpatrick's sexting adventures came in the context of a felony investigation.)

Update: More uplifting copy from the AP's story...

No Pulitzers were awarded for coverage of the biggest financial crisis since the Depression. And despite a rule change that allowed online-only news organizations to compete for Pulitzers for the first time, none of them won any prizes.

The awards were announced after one of the most depressing years the newspaper industry has ever seen, with layoffs, bankruptcies and closings brought on by the recession and an exodus of readers and advertisers to the Internet.

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America's stiff upper lip

Posted at 2:24 PM on April 9, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Media, News

It's usually interesting to see how others view us. Matt Frei, who hosts the BBC's World News America, has noticed that the (primarily) cable TV newsies are growing more "emotional" (in evaluating that term, remember that the English called World War II "the unpleasantness").

But we the American public are not:

The collapse of the economy, the outrage of unwarranted bonuses, Ponzi schemes and designer trash-cans have brought the pitchforks out of the cellar. We are finally getting a genuine bonfire of vanities.

And yet I am surprised how generally calm and collected the American public has behaved, despite the best efforts of some of my colleagues to tease out their fury.

Perhaps it is because they have just had an opportunity to express their feelings where it matters: at the ballot box.

Perhaps it is because they still believe that judicious government can fix things.

Or maybe it is because all the ranting and raging is being done on their behalf. On air.

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Elitism vs. populism

Posted at 10:09 AM on April 2, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Former NPR ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin never shied away from a good fight. He's now a visiting professor in Toronto and writes quite a bit about the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation vs. National Public Radio.

On his blog this week he takes on a sore subject -- the allegation that public broadcasting is "elitist." As usual, he makes few apologies.

As my friend and former CBC colleague Karl Nerenberg says, "Some think CBC may have already hurt itself by being too populist. But it has always been a tails they win, heads you lose situation for CBC TV. If they focus on quality and do not get big audiences, they're too elitist and not worthy of public $$. If they try for bigger gross tonnage with more "pop" fare -- then, the response is: who needs to pay them to do what commercial broadcasters already do! In a way, CBC can't win."

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Shining a light on Capitol access

Posted at 1:02 PM on March 16, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Politics

This is Freedom of Information Day and it's also Sunshine Week, the week where journalists advocate -- more forcefully than usual -- greater access to government data and the secrets that government tries to keep.

And yet, journalists still argue that some of them should have more access than others.

The question of who should be allowed on the floor of the Minnesota House of Representatives came up today during a discussion on MPR's Midday broadcast, featuring Rich Neumeister, a citizen lobbyist and winner of the 2009 John Finnegan Award (MPR story about him here), and Mark Anfinson, the longtime attorney for the Minnesota Newspaper Association.

The controversy, simmering for years, has percolated at the Capitol this session as online-only media (which on a national scale was joined today by the Seattle Post Intelligencer) has asked for, and been denied, the same access to the House floor as mainstream media.

Neumeister advocated for the online journalists today. "There was a bill introduced dealing with criminal intelligence gathering. Law enforcement could gather intelligence on people who may or may not be a terrorist," he said. "I called a number of these bloggers, one of them decided to print the the story. Then Politics in Minnesota picked it up.I approached other people (mainstream media) and it was, 'Well, we're doing this,' and they don't have as many reporters anymore."

"The bigger change and the thing that's driven the Capitol and hearings is not fewer reporters, it's many, many more journalists driven by the online community," Anfinson said. "This same issue popped up during the Republican National Convention when the local law enforcement had a tough time distinguishing between mainline and people who called themselves journalists."

Anfinson says the controversy at the Capitol arose because "practical applications went smack against the doorway and the echo is still reverberating. You can't have everybody who claims to be a journalist going on the House floor. You just can't. We need to come up with solutions, but we can't rush them."

"In the good old days," he said, "the number of credentialed reporters were fairly limited. That allowed some familiarity to develop. They were allowed. What if 500 people want access? I'm not saying they should be excluded, but you can't approach this in a simplistic way."

Neumeister's solution, however, was to start by granting access to the online organizations that everyone agrees should get access, citing Politics in Minnesota (which rarely has had a problem with access because it was started by prominent lobbyists) and Minnpost.

He also said bloggers and online journalists should get the same access at committee hearings that members of the public do, let alone other journalists.

"I think bloggers should be able to go to committee hearings without credentials and do what they need to do to get the message out," he said. "Citizens do this all the time."

"Whether you call them citizens, journalists or citizen-journalists, they're coming to the courtrooms, the committee rooms and the statehouse to report on the government," Jane Kirtley, the University of Minnesota professor of media ethics, wrote in the Pioneer Press on Sunday. They have every right to be there, because you have every right to be there. It's your government at work. It's your business."

And because it is, Neumeister, as MPR's Tim Nelson pointed out, is "one of the state's foremost authorities on what Minnesotans know about the government and what the government knows about them."

What's bad about that?

Listen

Recommended reading: The State of the News Media 2009 (just out today.)

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Do you really want more positive financial news?

Posted at 7:31 PM on March 15, 2009 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Media

Clark Hoyt, the editor of the New York Times, is the latest big-name journalist to try to respond to complaints that the news media is overemphasizing bad economic news, depressing consumers confidence and prolonging the recession.

Consumers and their media are in a "you go first" staredown on the subject.

In Hoyt's words:

This is an old argument between a newspaper and its readers: journalists see their job as reflecting the world as their reporting tells them it is, but many readers want reporters to look harder for good news to balance the bad. Ellenson said he wants news organizations to go even further. "Tell consumers not to worry," he said. "Go out and spend as if there is no recession."

Maybe there are more opportunities to emphasize silver linings. The demise of flower shows in the recession was front-page news; Broadway's surprisingly strong box office was not. But The Times is not about to do what Ellenson suggests -- and should not. As David Leonhardt, a business columnist, told me: "The problems we have are not psychological. They are hard, real problems. None of them can be resolved by waking up tomorrow and thinking we're going to be happy about them."

Of course the Times shouldn't do what Ellenson suggests. There's plenty of reason to worry. I know it. You know it. The '27 Yankees know it. And so do many of the consumers who are asking the news media to step back from the brink. So why respond to the extreme?

A few weeks ago, Don Shelby similarly overreached in describing the request:

But, the old story of the ostrich comes to mind. It sticks its head in the sand believing that if it cannot see a threat, the threat cannot see the ostrich. We could just keep the bad news to ourselves, but then, people who would like a little warning of approaching danger, would rightly say, we didn't do our jobs

What are people really saying when they voice their complaint? It's not that they want the news media to ignore reality or pretend something is what it isn't. It's that they want the news media to take just as seriously, the stories about what people are doing to overcome the tough times. To tell the story without the constant numerical equivalent of hand-wringing.

AIG handing out big bonuses? Unemployment at record levels? A state budget deficit widening faster than the politicians ability to close it? Of course that has to be -- and should be -- reported.

So what are people asking for? A little hope. A little inspiration. Perhaps a few stories every now and again like those President Obama told in his address to a joint session of Congress a few weeks ago:

But in my life, I have also learned that hope is found in unlikely places; that inspiration often comes not from those with the most power or celebrity, but from the dreams and aspirations of Americans who are anything but ordinary.

I think about Leonard Abess, the bank president from Miami who reportedly cashed out of his company (note: see a story ABC did on this guy a few days later), took a $60 million bonus, and gave it out to all 399 people who worked for him, plus another 72 who used to work for him. He didn't tell anyone, but when the local newspaper found out, he simply said, ''I knew some of these people since I was 7 years old. I didn't feel right getting the money myself."

I think about Greensburg, Kansas, a town that was completely destroyed by a tornado, but is being rebuilt by its residents as a global example of how clean energy can power an entire community - how it can bring jobs and businesses to a place where piles of bricks and rubble once lay. "The tragedy was terrible," said one of the men who helped them rebuild. "But the folks here know that it also provided an incredible opportunity."

And I think about Ty'Sheoma Bethea, the young girl from that school I visited in Dillon, South Carolina - a place where the ceilings leak, the paint peels off the walls, and they have to stop teaching six times a day because the train barrels by their classroom. She has been told that her school is hopeless, but the other day after class she went to the public library and typed up a letter to the people sitting in this room. She even asked her principal for the money to buy a stamp. The letter asks us for help, and says, "We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, congressmen like yourself and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina but also the world.

We are not quitters.

My colleague, Julia Schrenkler, was following the conversation on Twitter during that portion of the speech last month and noted that it was at that point when the most snarky comments were posted. "See, I think it is interesting that folks snark a bit at these individual stories...but also complain that the news media only reports bad news. Isn't this a version of positive experiences?" she said on the live blog I ran that night.

It was a great observation. Do people really want the "positive" stories they say they want? Is the media convinced they don't? Does "positive" news have to be synonymous with "fantasy?"

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Should the media try to make a difference?

Posted at 4:03 AM on March 6, 2009 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)
Filed under: Media

If you think that's a stupid question, you're probably an old-fashioned journalist, or at least old fashioned. But Nick Coleman, the long-time columnist at the Star Tribune, says he think the media is too afraid to make a difference these days.

He never got much of a chance to say goodbye to his readers -- some of whom hung on his every word, and some who exalted in the opportunity to hate what he wrote. Back in the day, that's what columnists did -- they got people riled up. Those days are pretty much over at newspapers, who can no longer afford to alienate anyone. Coleman took a buyout from the Star Tribune.

He talked with MPR's Cathy Wurzer. (The audio is below the fold)

Q: Why didn't you take the job that was offered, writing for the variety section?
A: I worked on the variety staff 26 years ago, before I became a media critic. I've done that. After 3,500 columns, I'm set in my ways.

Q: What was the rationale behind the Star Tribune's eliminating your column.
A: I don't know. I wasn't given any explanation. I suggested other possibilities but they were never discussed.

Continue reading "Should the media try to make a difference?"

Things you may have missed

Posted at 6:54 PM on March 2, 2009 by Steve Mullis (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media, News

While Bob is away, News Cut is on a pseudo vacation as well. But, that doesn't mean we're gonna let you News Cut readers go without a fix, so I thought I'd share some interesting reading with you. Here's a quick smattering of things you may have missed during your hectic day, both on Minnesota Public Radio and around the Internet:

• The DOW finished below 7K for the first time in over a decade - Pretty sure the next roller coaster at a Six Flags near you is going to be called DOW. "You must be this in debt to ride this ride."


• A journalist, originally from Fargo, was arrested in Iran - If it were indeed because of the bottle of wine, how is it that you can buy wine in a country where it is illegal to buy wine? Head, begin spinning in 3...2...1


• The Norm Coleman team rested their case today in the Senate election trial - MPR's Elizabeth Stawicki recaps the past five weeks, yes FIVE weeks, of the trial. Wrap your head around that folks, five weeks, and now it is finally the other team's turn. /facepalm


• Call Guinness, AIG's $61.7 billion loss is the largest in corporate history - I believe the section of the record book is in the back, under the "D'oh!" category.


• Obama will meet British Prime Minister Gordon Brown tomorrow - I'm curious if they will have as cozy of a relationship as Bush and Tony Blair had.


• This company re-created the Hudson River plane landing in a computer animation - Interesting stuff, and cool to see that pilot at Obama's address last week. That guy has it made, I forsee a book deal or made-for-TV movie in his future.

That's all I have for now. Bob, hurry back, the News Cutterites are going to get restless!

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Rocky down for the count

Posted at 12:16 PM on February 27, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (6 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Media

It was shocking to read of the sudden closure of the Rocky Mountain News. The writing, presumably, was on the wall, but to come to work to find out that the institution you work for — and the Rocky was an institution (the paper was shuttered 55 days before its 150th birthday) — will cease to exist tomorrow.

The paper's staff put together a documentary of sorts that seems to be directed more to the paper's owner, The E.W. Scripps Co., than to its Colorado audience.

Twin Cities readers and writers might see the words of Scripps President and CEO Rich Boehne as an omen: "Denver can't support two newspapers any longer."

Update: I left this in a comment but it seems worthy of noting in the entry itself.

Apparently the Rocky folks wanted -- and tried -- to continue on as an online-only 'paper' but the company's joint operating agreement with the Denver Post wouldn't allow it.

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On Campus: The online journalist

Posted at 7:06 PM on February 25, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Media, News Cut on Campus

It was fitting that I talked to Mark Matsuura of Burnsville on a day when San Francisco was about to become the first major American city not to have not daily newspaper.

I sat up straight when Matsuura told me about his career track: Online journalism. He is the first journalism student I've encountered in 35+ of doing this who told me he wanted to be an online journalist.

That in itself is a lesson in the economy. Whose job will he get when he graduates from Minnesota State University Moorhead in a couple of years? Probably a journalist who doesn't want to do online journalism. "It has more future than print," he said. In other words: It has a future. Adaptability is a plus.

During my stop at the school at part of the News Cut on Campus listening tour to gauge the effect the economy is having on students, Matsuura said he'd like to write about technology issues.

He says he hasn't found the economy to be much of "a challenge" paying for school. "I pay for half and my parents pay for half," he said. "I'm not too worried about loans; I'll deal with it later. You make a choice to go to school and you can't just stop because you don't have the money right now."

Some students I've encountered during this two-month project have said they're somewhat worried about their parents' jobs, and the possibility a layoff might disrupt their own schooling. Matsuura says he has no such worries. His dad is a big cog for a small company; his mother just survived the latest round of layoffs at her business.

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Where are the economists?

Posted at 7:00 AM on February 23, 2009 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Media

Conservative and liberal groups don't agree on much, but they agree on this: TV did a very questionable job covering the economic stimulus bill signed by President Obama last week.

The liberal Media Matters for America said of the 681 people who appeared as guests on cable news and Sunday TV talk shows, only 6 percent, were economists, said the Associated Press.

While Media Matters didn't survey the network evening news shows, the conservative Media Research Center did, and found that only 13 percent of those interviewed were economists.

The rest were the usual suspects -- reporters, political "experts" and talking heads.

The producer of ABC's This Week said the guest selections mirror the need for news shows to have verbal battles between contrasting viewpoints.

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A quiet death

Posted at 8:40 AM on February 21, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Did the New York Times suggest John McCain had an affair with a lobbyist? The issue became a moot legal point this week when Vicki Iseman dropped her lawsuit against the newspaper over an article last year that many people -- myself included -- thought bent over backwards to make the suggestion without offering a shred of evidence.

In exchange, the paper agreed to publish an op-ed piece from her lawyers.

Let's the revisionism begin!

In its "Note to Readers" on Friday (also part of the settlement), the Times said:

The article did not state, and The Times did not intend to conclude, that Ms. Iseman had engaged in a romantic affair with Senator McCain or an unethical relationship on behalf of her clients in breach of the public trust.

Let's look at what the article said again:

Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself -- instructing staff members to block the woman's access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

That was the story's second paragraph.

When the article came out, every major journalism critic and blog covered the story. When the issued died this week, it died quietly, almost as if it didn't matter in the first place.

(h/t: Dan Kennedy)

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Cartooning Obama

Posted at 2:04 PM on February 20, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Most of the talk in newspaper circles these days is about how to stay employed at dying companies. But in the cubicles occupied by editorial cartoonists, there's a different conversation going on: How to draw Barack Obama without appearing to be racist.

In his blog post, Read Obama's Lips, Washington Post cartoonist and critic Michael Cavna, says "For every Steve Benson or Mike Luckovich who is zeroing in on a swell, spot-on Obama, there seems to be a cartoonist who invokes 'caricature' in the most grotesque sense of the word.

So, do we (and the Toronto Star) read too much into this? Are too many cartoonists not subtly skilled enough to draw a deft caricature of our first African American president? I seriously doubt that's it. When you truly study art, you delve deeply into all shapes and sizes and learn to "see" -- and learn to see skin not as one single hue, but often as more than a dozen hues (subtle reds, flecks of green, etc.). Of course, perhaps a few cartoonists aren't looking deeply enough at Obama.

Yet even the most highly trained comic artists are quite fallible. As Comic Riffs contributor David Betancourt says of one comic giant: "Drawing large lips on an African American is a huge debate -- I couldn't read any of Will Eisner's original 'Spirit' strips because I couldn't stand the site of the way he drew [grotesquely caricatured] Ebony Ivory."

Nate Kreuter, who writes the Viz blog, says many cartoonists are emphasizing Obama's height and skinniness, and avoiding racial overtones, but not everybody.

Daryl Cagle, a cartoonist for MSNBC.com, figures the issue to get stickier over time:

The cartoon version of Obama will continue to evolve quickly. If we ever actually see him smoking a cigarette, he will always be smoking in cartoons. Obama may turn different colors, and he'll grow or shrink with his performance. Obama's ears will keep growing no matter what he does. As Obama's honeymoon passes and the caricatures become more severe, I expect the complaints about racism in the cartoons will also grow more severe.

He probably won't have to wait long. In an Associated Press story on the subject today, Mike Lester of the Rome News in Georgia didn't shrink from a poke in the eye.

Lester...said that when he was growing up, "if we didn't make fun of you, we didn't like you."

Perhaps race relations would improve, Lester said, if black people lightened up a bit: "They're not too good (at being) made fun of. We can all take a joke.

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Picture of the year

Posted at 12:44 PM on February 17, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Media

I'm prohibited by copyright law from showing you the winner of the contest for the best news photograph of the year as chosen by the World Press Photo. Lots of online sites appear to be ripping the photographer off, but I'm not going to be one of them. You'll have to look for yourself here.

It is a chilling image of a Cleveland police officer, gun drawn, making sure the people who lived in a foreclosed-upon home are out of it.

It's a sign of the times in the journalism industry, too, that the world's best news photo ran only online, and that the photographer who took it is having trouble finding work.

Another online site -- The Raw File -- won first place in the "stories" category for its photographs accompanying a profile of Troy, New York.

I couldn't find the photographs on the Web site, but did find this photographic story about Troy which further documents the declining economy.

Upstate Girls - What Became of Collar City from The Raw File on Vimeo.

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Furloughs at local newspaper

Posted at 4:07 PM on February 5, 2009 by Bob Collins
Filed under: Economy, Media

The spreading economic woes in the newspaper industry have reached a new level at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Members of the paper's Newspaper Guild will vote tomorrow on whether to accept one-week unpaid furloughs

The paper's corporate parent, Media News, has ordered the furloughs for non-union employees and management at its newspapers, and is asking its unions to accept them as well.

According to a memo to Guild members, the union asked the newspaper for assurances the furloughs "will prevent or even delay layoffs," but the request was denied.

At other Media News newspapers, the furloughs are to be completed by March 30, but the union asked for -- and received -- a delay for their completion until the end of April.

The company says it's following the lead of Gannett, the giant media company that is forcing thousands of its employees to take the one-week furlough.

Update 4:46 p.m. - Here's how the furlough works:

1. This is a one-time agreement that is intended to apply only to this furlough (Feb. 9, 2009-April 30, 2009).
2. Seventy (70) percent of the furloughs in the Guild bargaining unit will be accomplished by March 31, 2009.
3. Employees will sign up for five (5) furlough days on or about February 9, 2009.
4. The furlough is five days for full-time employees. Part-time employees are required to take a proportional furlough (for example, an employee who works four days per week is required to take four days). Furloughs can be taken in increments of one day, or in consecutive days.
5. All furloughs shall be unpaid. Employees may not use paid vacation or sick leave during furloughs.
6. Operational considerations will be taken into account when approving furlough days/schedules. Employees and their managers should work together in scheduling furlough days. In the event a plan cannot be agreed upon, the employee, a Guild representative, a representative of Human Resources and the manager will immediately meet to develop a schedule for the employee. Any scheduling conflicts between employees in selecting furloughs will be determined by seniority.
7. Employees can, with management approval, take additional unpaid time and donate time to a coworker, assuming that the employees’ pay is comparable and it does not create an operational hardship. Management approval for such donations will not be unreasonably withheld.
8. Employees can convert previously scheduled vacation time to furlough time.
9. Employees on furlough will continue to accrue vacation and sick leave and will continue to be eligible for all healthcare and related benefits.
10. During their furlough, employees shall not perform any work on behalf of the Company. Furloughed employees shall leave an outgoing message on their voicemail stating they are not at work, their return date, and that any matters needing immediate attention should be forwarded to an active employee to be named by their manager. The same procedure shall be followed for email.
11. Employees who are salaried exempt must take their five (5) days in one week.
12. Certain departments, at the discretion of the Company, may be exempted from the furlough program due to operational considerations. No individual exemptions within departments will be made.
13. Any covered employee who is laid-off from employment during the term of the furlough shall be paid for any and all unpaid furlough days taken on behalf of him/herself during the furlough period. Unpaid days taken on behalf of another employee (see item # 7 above) shall not be converted to paid days as would otherwise be provided by this provision.
14. If called to work while taking a scheduled furlough day the employee will be paid a full day for working and will not be required to reschedule an additional furlough day.
15. Freelancers will not be used to displace bargaining unit work while bargaining unit members are on furlough.

Update 4:48 p.m. - David Brauer has some union reaction and background.

A return to the right

Posted at 9:51 AM on January 29, 2009 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Politics

CNBC's resident curmudgeon Mark Haines let talk show host Rush Limbaugh have it today. The media has suddenly rediscovered Limbaugh, and has taken him to task for saying he hopes Barack Obama fails. Limbaugh, has a commentary in today's Wall St. Journal called "My bipartisan stimulus."

"I'm just trying to build roads and bridges to the administration for bipartisanship and fairness," he said in his introduction.

Nobody will ever confuse Haines with the liberal media, so this exchange was significant.

Haines: I'm sorry, but a week after the inauguration, you said you "hope he fails." Are you now admitting that that was a stupid and mean-spirited thing to say?

Limbaagh: No, it was an accurate thing to say. It was an honest thing to say. It came after...

Haines: How is that bipartisan?

Limbaugh: Well,let me explain...

Haines: Well, so far you haven't.

Limbaugh: You're being contentious with no reason. It came after a thorough explanation on my part that liberalism, which is what Obama represents...

Haines: (Somewhat off microphone) Ah, geez....

Limbaugh: ... destroys the free market, destroys capitalism. This stimulus plan is all about re-FDRing America... the new New Deal and as a conservative, I want liberalism to fail. i want the country to succeed and that's what I meant and that's what I said over and over again. You've got to stop reading these left-wing liberal media...

Haines: I just listen to you, Rush, I don't listen to anybody. I listen to you, and what I hear is hypocrisy. You are saying in this piece, you say :

The American people are made up of Republicans, Democrats, independents and moderates, but our economy doesn't know the difference. This is about jobs now. The economic crisis is an opportunity to unify people, if we set aside the politics.

Haines: ... and yet the first thing out of your mouth is politics, about liberal and conservative and Republican and Democrat.

Limbaugh: (Stumbling) You know, this vote that happened in the house yesterday is actually a failure. The bipartisan vote was the defeat; 11 Democrats, 20 Republians. The partisan vote was all Democrats. He wants Republicans on the bill, Mark, because he knows this isn't going to work. He wants Republicans so he has cover, so they can't run for re-election, saying this wasn't his debacle. I'm trying to propose something here that will work, for the best of the country. How can that be hypocritical.

Eventually, Haines' co-host, took over the interview from Haines, reassuring America that what Limbaugh really meant was that he hopes liberalism fails.

But before ending, Haines got one more shot in.

Haines: Here's something I find interesting. You talk about the vote being roughly 54 to 46 in favor of Obama... but when the vote was 51-49, I don't remember you being this concerned about Republicans.

Limbaugh: I think bipartisanship is a joke.

The resurrection of Democrats in Washington is the best thing that could have happened to right-wing talk radio -- and Limbaugh's career in particular. It's led some to suggest that Limbaugh, rather than party leaders, is now the new face of the Republican Party.

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The Star Press?

Posted at 8:37 AM on January 17, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Media

Maybe the bankruptcy of the Star Tribune newspaper means the end of the Pioneer Press brand. Maybe not.

MPR's Martin Moylan's story on this week's bankruptcy filing of the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune documents the likelihood of this two-newspaper town becoming a one-newspaper town:

"Bankruptcy is often used to effectuate a sale. That is not out of the realm of possibility. I'm not too sure if those arrangements have been explored. But I can assure you the lenders have given it thought," (bankruptcy attorney george singer said. The most logical buyer of the Star Tribune would seem to be Media News, which runs the smaller Pioneer Press.

If that happens, which name lives? The Pioneer Press? The Star Tribune? The Star Press? The Pioneer Tribune? The Pioneer Press Star Tribune?

Of course, that's a big if. The company that owns the Pioneer Press -- Media News -- has its own financial struggles. And its competition in another two-newspaper town may be drawing its immediate attention.

Any combination of the two local papers would most certainly result in some lost jobs at both locations. It may well be that hopes for a healthy Star Tribune, may be highest in the cubicles at its local competition.

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The media war behind the military war

Posted at 7:28 AM on January 7, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Media

What is the role of the media in war?

The question is getting a good going-over today as the war in Gaza continues.

Israeli forces have arrested Khezir Shahin, a reporter for an Arab-language news organization because he reported that Israel had launched the ground offensive on the Gaza strip. Shahin wasn't wrong. The offensive had started. But Israeli military imposes broad censorship power even in times of relative peace.

Today's New York Times reports that three times in the last week, reporters were told to assemble near the Gaza border -- in compliance with a Supreme Court ruling overturning a ban on foreign journalists entering Gaza. Three times they were denied.

Says the Times:

Like all wars, this one is partly about public relations. But unlike any war in Israel's history, in this one the government is seeking to entirely control the message and narrative for reasons both of politics and military strategy.

How's that working out for Israel? Not so well because it's not 1967 anymore.

YouTube, the most influential media source in the world now, has turned the tables on Israel, banning some of the video the Israeli Defense Forces uploaded on its own YouTube channel.

Israel didn't like the idea of censorship very much.

"We were saddened earlier today that Youtube took down some of our exclusive footage showing the IDF's operational success in operation Cast Lead against Hamas extremists in the Gaza Strip," said a release from the IDF.

Hamas sympathizers had flagged the videos as inappropriate.

"Keeping the foreign journalists in Israel, sources say, is good for Israel's image because the media is experiencing the war from the Israeli side," Gili Izikovich writes on Haaretz.com. "As soon as the IDF gets a hold in the Strip, it is expected that the IDF Spokesman will let Israeli and foreign journalists in with the army. For the time being, the only presence documenting events is the spokesman's office."

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Will the media cutbacks affect you?

Posted at 9:01 AM on January 2, 2009 by Bob Collins (22 Comments)
Filed under: Media, News

In the first hour of MPR's Midmorning, we're going to talk about how to handle tough times in a particular business -- ours. With the worsening economy, news organizations are cutting staffs. How is a commitment to a viewer, listener, or reader to be maintained? What ethical challenges do these times pose? Do you care?

I'll be live-blogging in the studio with Kerri Miller and we'll be joined on the program by Alicia Shepard, the ombudsman for National Public Radio and Clark Hoyt, Public editor for the New York Times.

I'll be reading your comments and insight during the broadcast.

You might also be interested in reading former NPR ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin's latest blog post comparing public radio in Canada and the U.S.

Live-blogging

9:02 a.m. - We're starting with Alicia in the first half hour. Kerri says she's been taking a lot of heat over the budget cuts at NPR. Apparently people have been suggesting NPR used the economy to get rid of shows and people it wanted to get rid of. Some have suggested a racial motive, which as least gets to the concern that a decades-old attempt to make newsrooms more diverse will be wiped out in this economy.

9:07 a.m. - Recommended reading: The future of journalism.

9:08 a.m. - Why didn't NPR use buyouts instead of layoffs. Because NPR was afraid they'd lose people they didn't want to lose, says Shepard. She says buyouts are a more humane way of eliminating people. "But I'm out of my pay grade in talking about those specifics."

9:10 a.m. - Where did the Joan Kroc money go? The St. Paul native gave millions of dollars to NPR (none to her hometown public radio operation, for the record). "The perception was that NPR is rolling in money and that's not true," she says. The Kroc money went into an endowment that was to generate $10 million a year. Here's Shepard's column on the cutbacks.

9:16 a,m. Shepard is defending NPR's acceptance of Homeland Security underwriting. She gives props to listeners for responding quickly when they hear something they don't like. She mentioned WalMart underwriting announcements.

9:20 a.m. - We're going to get to Gaza coverage in a minute. In the past, this has been a huge debate at NPR.

9:22 a.m. - Caller on "underwriting issue." Sounds like local underwriting on MPR... spots promoted clean coal. When membership renewal time came up, she was aggravated. "It was boosterism for clean coal, which I think is an oxymoron." She e-mailed in her complaint asking what the guidelines are. Got a response back she said was unsatisfactory; that corporate sponsorships were important to the budget. She has not renewed her membership and acknowledges she listens to the programming.

The underwriting messages, however, came from NPR, Kerri says. So what do listeners to about that. The impact of the caller not renewing is taken out on Minnesota, while the responsibility for the problem is with NPR. What's a listener to do?

9:26 a.m. - -- Kind of wondering where the future of journalism discussion went.

9:28 a.m. - I've been waiting to relay a reader comment on diversity, but they've gone back to the phones. Would like to get it on before Alicia is cut loose.

9:29 a.m. - Shepard says an ombudsman would never do any lobbying. Then the connection to NPR went down. Budget cuts.

9:30 a.m. - Clark Hoyt joins us regarding coverage in the Times of the Israeli bombing of Gaza. Gotta give Kerri credit here. Hoyt is answering her question, Kerri is talking off mic to the producer about what happened to Shepard, Hoyt completes his answer and Kerri smoothly goes to her followup question. She obviously was listening to Hoyt's answer while talking.

9:33 a.m. - Hoyt says "there's a great awareness" in the newsroom that people are skeptical of news organizations. "They (editors) are very concerned about presenting a true picture of what is happening."

9:34 a.m. - Shepard rejoins the discussion. I have assumed the role of potted plant.

9:35 a.m. - Shepard says NPR has created a Middle East page on its Web site in order to say to listeners, "look at the totality of our coverage" whenever there's an accusation of bias in an individual story from the Middle East. She says it's difficult in a 4-minute piece to provide all of the elements and context of a story.

9:37 a.m. - Should people who report the news also give their opinion? Hoyt says this came up in coverage of the meltdown. He was troubled by having reporters covering aspects of the bailout, and writing columns on the same pages about what should happen. "To me that poses an insoluble conflict."

This has been an issue for me, too. But in a different way. The columns do nothing more than make public an opinion that may be held by a reporter. Not publishing it doesn't eliminate the opnion, it just eliminates your knowledge of it. That's not saying the opinion influences the reporting, however. Quite often, just the opposite is true.

9:40 a.m. - Shepard says allegations of bias occupy most of her time. "There may be bias," Hoyt says, "but the only way you can judge that is only over a period of time." He notes a recent front-page article in the NYT on Bush's role in the housing problem. "I got lots of messages saying 'this is outrageous. There goes the Times... Bush bashing."

Here is the article. Hoyt says nobody apparently considered that "this was Part 16" of a series.

9:43 a.m. - The problem of live-blogging. My question on diversity now won't fit where the conversation is. Bummer.

9:44 a.m. - Reading comments and thinking that a valuable discussion would have is if people don't renew memberships to public radio stations, how that does anything but increase the likelihood the person -- who usually still listens to public radio -- will grow more dissatisfied because resources are further removed from news or programming because of declining budgets?

Methinks public radio should do more to give the public more options on how to influence programming without destroying it.

9:47 a.m. - Hoyt is talking about the story in the New York Times that -- to my analysis -- clearly led people to assume McCain was having an affair. Apparently there's a lawsuit filed over this so Hoyt can't talk about it. I've talked about it quite a bit.

9:53 a.m. - I popped in on the show to ask how people can influence a newsroom short of destroying the journalism therein. There must be a way short of "the nuclear option," as Kerri says. "People go immediately to maximum power," says Hoyt. "People go to angriest option right away." He blames the Internet. "It's not a proportionate kind of response, usually," he says.

Shepard says there's a powerlessness among listeners and readers. "At the end of the conversation, someone will say, 'thank you for listening.' People want to be heard," she says.

Let me point out here that I think this blog just served a valuable role in an otherwise broader conversation, and it came as a result of what you wrote. Newsroom blogs, it seems to me, are the avenue for a better relationship with the news consumer.

"Reporters can be very thin skinned and resistant to criticism. We need to thicken up the skin and engage with readers more directly," says Hoyt.

"Journalism is done with the greatest sense of integrity," says Shepard. "But mistakes will be made."

This concludes the program. I don't think we really ever got to the journalism aspect of things. -- the business of journalism, perhaps.

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Media layoffs

Posted at 10:51 AM on December 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Energy, Media

The axe is falling on more media personalities.

Nat Hentoff was let go yesterday by the Village Voice, so everyone pretty much knew firings were coming at City Pages, which is owned by the same company.

Bingo.

James Norton and Assistant A-List editor Ben Palosaari have been let go, according to media analyst David Brauer at Minnpost. He also notes that WCCO-AM has dismised overnight talk host Al Malmberg and his fill-in, Brad Walton.

One of the questions for 2009? Is there any local media that will escape the budget-cutting axe?

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The newsroom circus

Posted at 10:14 AM on December 30, 2008 by Bob Collins (35 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Michael Getler, the ombudsman for PBS, has written the longest online column -- ever -- about a remark NewsHour's Jim Lehrer made recently:

Among the things Lehrer told the gathered students was to stick to the basics of news. "If you want to be entertained, go to the circus," he said. "Don't watch the NewsHour."

Those of us who came to public broadcasting by way of commercial radio better understand the philosophy than those of us who have spent a lifetime in public broadcasting. Here's the underlying theory: If you're boring and you put the same faces on a panel to say the same things day after day, it must be a deeper, more insightful form of journalism.

Balderdash.

Getler doesn't exactly say so -- he's too good for that -- but he acknowledges what Lehrer doesn't. There's a lot of journalistic real estate between some of the nonsense on network TV news and the static inner-Beltway interpretation offered by NewsHour, and it's not heresy to say so.

Many people who responded to Getler's column, by offering suggestions for improvement said so.

Reduce the number of panels in which Democratic and Republican strategists simply contradict each other, often leaving the viewing audience numb and angry. There are simply too many of these in which the viewer is sacrificed on the altar of "balanced" news coverage that actually does not inform. This extends beyond politics to many other subjects. Sometimes, of course, this is necessary. But the key to making these segments useful is the interviewer, who must be prepared to challenge guests, not just with the other person's opinion, but with facts and alternative analysis that helps viewers judge what is being said. Challenge and confrontation often does not seem to be in the NewsHour playbook.

Getler, in a courageous move, takes on the 800-pound gorilla that exists in most news organizations: The "indisputable sense of sameness."

Nevertheless, it seems to me and those who wrote, that both the NewsHour and Washington Week would benefit from bringing at least some new faces, voices and settings into the mix. That's not a reflection on the current staffs at all, and it doesn't mean I don't enjoy the commentary of Mark Shields and David Brooks (I do but they each have their critics within the viewership) or the always well-informed and trustworthy journalistic guests on Ifill's Washington Week program. To be sure, there is a slightly varying cast of characters now. But there is an indisputable sense of sameness on these programs; the same formulas, the same approach to news and the way it's presented, mostly the same people. Rarely does the off-beat or non-mainstream news item or analysis that may actually have broader resonance make it through the gate. To borrow a line that MSNBC's Chris Matthews uses on his show: "Tell me something that I don't know" or let me meet some people that I don't know.

That's a hard thing for news show producers to do. There's nothing quite so comfortable as that which you've done before. The role of journalism is not to be a comfortable pair of slippers.

So let's take Getler up on his request for suggestions. Whether it's NewsHour, or MPR, or the local TV station you watch: What would you like to hear, see in the coming year that you're not hearing or seeing now?

Be tough, but don't be insulting. And, as always, if you have a person you think is doing great things that should be in News Cut, let me know. I'll go anywhere, anytime for a good tale.

(By the way, on Friday at 9 a.m., MPR's Midmorning will feature the ombudsmen for NPR and the New York Times. I'll be live-blogging the show.)

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MPR cuts

Posted at 3:31 PM on December 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Media

I blogged about NPR dropping two shows because of budget cuts last week, so I can't very well ignore an MPR press release today.

American Public Media™ is cancelling weekly production and distribution of Weekend America® as a result of the current economy's impact on station carriage and sponsorships. The final broadcast will be January 31, 2009. Thirteen full- and part-time positions will be affected. Weekend America is carried on 134 stations with a weekly audience of about 657,000 listeners.

American Public Media is proud of the many accomplishments of Weekend America's talented staff. They have produced personal, thoughtful, funny and challenging journalism that you couldn't hear anywhere else. The program topics ranged from in-depth reporting on the fallout from the Iraqi war, multi-part series on foreclosure and immigration, and the lessons of racism. The hosts and reporters also engaged people all across America on their weekends, skydiving or dancing or giving concerts or celebrating the diverse cultures and festivals of our country.

MinnPosts's David Brauer reports more cuts are coming:

Margaret Ann Hennen, APM's VP of Corporate Communications, says, "Yes, there will be further reductions, but we don't know when or what. This is part of the alignment of revenues and expenses ... that has been going on for the last year. We continue to make very methodical decisions."

As Linda Ellerbee used to say, "and so it goes."

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More on Mischke

Posted at 1:41 PM on December 18, 2008 by Bob Collins
Filed under: Media

More on the reaction to the still-unexplained firing of Tommy Mischke this month from KSTP Radio.

The Atlantic's James Fallows recalls an article he wrote on the St. Paul humorist here, and calls our attention to a video that was posted last weekend.

Fallows is now based in China, so it's amazing how far the ripples of people's lives can travel.

I asked a colleague -- well connected in KSTP-land -- last week what the story was with Mischke's firing. "I have no idea," he said. I believe him.

Update: David Brauer has an interview with the man.

Students get a lesson in 'press freedom'

Posted at 12:57 PM on December 15, 2008 by Bob Collins (17 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Schools

Free speech ends at the school doors, the Supreme Court has ruled several times.

But it's being tested in Faribault today, the Faribault Daily News reports, where the school superintendent has closed down the school newspaper after its journalist-students refused to let him preview a story on the investigation of middle school teacher Shelly Prieve, who has reportedly been under investigation for inappropriate communication with students.

Says the Daily News:

Though the Prieve article is at the center of the controversy, (School Superintendent Bob) Stepaniak said it has evolved into something greater than the words in that story. Instead, he said, it is about the fundamental question of whether a district's administration has the right to review articles prior to publication.

Stepaniak insists he does. Zwaggerman and Hildebrandt insist he doesn't. Each side is backed by legal representation.

Stepaniak points to the powers under a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier, that upheld the right of public high school administrators in a suburban St. Louis, Mo., school district to censor articles about teen pregnancy and the effects of divorce on children from a school-sponsored student newspaper.

The school newspaper's, known as The Echo, faculty advisor Kelly Zwaggerman says she's prepared to be removed from that role.

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Cuts at NPR

Posted at 1:05 PM on December 10, 2008 by Bob Collins (11 Comments)
Filed under: Media

The big media recession hit National Public Radio today. Two shows -- News & Notes and Day to Day -- are being dropped and 7 percent of NPR's staff is being laid off.

It's the organization's first widespread layoffs in 25 years, the Washington Post says.

NPR had hoped News & Notes would attract more African Americans to its audience. The Post says the cuts represent a retreat from NPR's goal to diversify its audience:

Combined with the elimination of "Day to Day" and "News & Notes" the cutbacks constitute a retreat from NPR's efforts to reach new listeners, especially young people and members of minority groups who are not part of NPR's "core" audience. The diversification effort started in 2002 with the opening of NPR West, the organization's first major production facility outside of Washington and New York. The facility will remain open after the cutback, but with about half of its 60 employees.

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The Bachmen vs. Lizard People

Posted at 10:06 AM on November 21, 2008 by Than Tibbetts (29 Comments)
Filed under: Media, News, Politics

Take a moment and look at these two ballots.

Let's compare. Does everyone have their copy of 204C.22 ready?

Our first stop will be Subdivision 1: Ballot valid if intent determinable.

In both cases, the only marks in the ovals are next to a bona fide candidate. I will vouch for the voter's intent with the "X" mark, he/she used it consistently across the full ballot (see Subdivision 10, Different marks).

(We're going to operate under the assumption that it doesn't matter what was in the write-in field, despite what David Icke might say.)

The problem facing the state's Canvassing Board might be reconciling Subdivision 4:

Name written in proper place.

If a voter has written the name of an individual in the proper place on a general or special election ballot a vote shall be counted for that individual whether or not the voter makes a mark (X) in the square opposite the blank.

I've polled a few people around the office and consensus seems to be that this is an overvote, meaning the ballot should be discarded.

Aside: I suppose the Franken camp could mount a challenge by saying that "Lizard People" is not the name of an individual, though I doubt "voter intends to be funny" is one of the criteria the Canvassing Board will assess. Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 crew, by the way, wonders alike.

Several questions arise: Should the county have accepted the Franken vote? Does the voter consider Al Franken equivalent to the Lizard People? Is Lizard People a collective, or just one person like Cat Power? (Hat tip to the Minnesota Independent, which points out who put Lizard People on the map.)

What this also means — assuming the above holds true &mdash is that a lot of the people who played election judge have an unfounded preference for the Franken ballot, legally speaking.

So, there you have it. A pretty straightforward look at some challenged ballots through the prism of the law. Not so hard, was it?

D'oh!

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Nothing to say, but saying it anyway

Posted at 12:29 PM on November 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Media

The Internet has given any person with a decent connection the ability to make his/her voice heard. It was supposed to -- and I think certainly has -- enhanced dialogue surrounding news and other issues. It's added new perspectives from people who aren't just like us.

It's also, of course, given a megaphone to people who have nothing to say, but say it anyway and this week the Mankato Free Press is the latest news Web site to say "enough."

"In particular, I was hopeful we would have a civil discourse on matters where we disagreed," publisher Jim Santori said in a story on the newspaper's Web site. "Unfortunately, allowing anonymous posts on the forum opened up the opportunity for people to attack others with impunity. It got so bad that, in some cases, I found people fearful to engage in dialogue because of the actions of others."

Last October, MPR's Tim Post tackled the issue in a story about reader comments at the St. Cloud Times and other papers.

Mainstream publishers have wondered for years whether reader comments associated with news stories put a newspaper's credibility -- one of the few assets that still has value -- at risk.

(h/t: Bob at alamn)

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The future of NPR

Posted at 11:25 AM on November 11, 2008 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Those of us who blog (new media) in established media companies (old media) certainly noticed today when National Public Radio dipped into the digital world to name a new president. Might this be a significant moment in the changing media landscape? Yes. Maybe. She comes to the job from the New York Times, where she headed nytimes.com. She's a new media person from the old media.

But it's a minefield out there. Just ask the previous full-time president -- Ken Stern -- who, the Washington Post reported at the time, clashed with NPR's Board of Directors over Sterns' insistence that NPR invest in new media, while some station managers saw the Web as competition.

PaidContent.org calls the appointment today "a shocker."

Here's the press release from NPR:

Washington, D.C. - November 11, 2008 - The National Public Radio ("NPR") Board of Directors announced today that it has named Vivian Schiller, 47, as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective January 5, 2009. Ms. Schiller joins NPR from The New York Times Company where she is Senior Vice President and General Manager of NYTimes.com. She succeeds Dennis L. Haarsager, who has served as interim CEO since March.

Ms. Schiller has more than 20 years of experience in the media industry. During her tenure at The New York Times, she led the day-to-day operations of NYTimes.com, the largest newspaper website on the Internet, overseeing product, technology, marketing, classifieds, strategic planning and business development. Before joining NYTimes.com, Ms. Schiller spent four years as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Discovery Times Channel, a joint venture of The New York Times and Discovery Communications. Under her leadership, Discovery Times Channel tripled its distribution while achieving critical acclaim for its award winning journalistic programming. Previously, Ms. Schiller served as Senior Vice President of CNN Productions, where she led CNN's long-form programming efforts. Documentaries and series produced under her auspices earned multiple honors, including two Peabody, two DuPont and five Emmy awards. Ms. Schiller began her career as a simultaneous Russian interpreter in the former Soviet Union, which led her to documentary production work for Turner Broadcasting.

Howard Stevenson, Board Chairman, said, "Vivian is a talented and proven leader with superb skills and broad experience in the media industry. Her roots in the news business, as well as her inclusive management style and operational expertise make her an ideal fit for NPR. These are crucial assets for partnering with our member stations and generous donors who care about and support excellence. Vivian has generated quality programming and superior results at every step of her career, and we look forward to continuing the important work of extending NPR's reach under her leadership."

Stevenson continued, "On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Dennis Haarsager for his dedication and effective leadership as interim CEO. Dennis has been instrumental in guiding the continued success and strong performance of the company during a period of transition."

Dave Edwards, Vice-Chair of the Board and Co-Chair of the Search Committee, said, "During a rigorous eight-month search process, the Board met with many highly qualified candidates, and we unanimously concluded that Vivian is the right leader for NPR at this time. As a visionary executive, she will work closely with independently operated member stations to maintain the relationship with an audience of over 26 million listeners throughout the United States. Vivian possesses the editorial judgment and sensibility to harness the intellectual firepower and diversity of public radio."

Carol Cartwright, Board Member and Co-Chair of the Search Committee, said, "We are at an important phase in NPR's development, especially as the media world continues to manage through profound changes. Vivian understands the importance of radio as the foundational strength of NPR, and has the right skills and strengths to successfully navigate the company through a multiplatform world where the traditional broadcast business and content businesses on the Internet are central to long-term success."

Vivian Schiller said, "NPR is among the nation's most vital and trusted news organizations, unique in its original programming and distinctive voice. I couldn't be more honored and excited about the opportunity to join such an important institution and its many talented and dedicated people. I look forward to working with the stellar management team, station managers and associates across the country to build on NPR's solid foundation and grow its audience base of listeners and users."

.

.. we do not believe that a robust Web site is bad for our newspaper. A chorus of doomsayers has heralded each new form of media in the last 100 years. But radio did not supplant newspapers; television did not supplant radio; and there's scant evidence that the Internet is fast replacing any existing form of legacy media, including print. In fact, the Internet has allowed us to increase our audience exponentially.

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News rack war

Posted at 7:32 PM on November 7, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Media

The news rack war has returned.

The Minneapolis City Council today introduced an ordinance to charge newspapers fees for newspaper racks. According to WCCO:

"There'll be a fee, yeah. There'll be a fee imposed, $39 per box, per year," said Minneapolis city councilmember Ralph Remington.

For the free Downtown Journal -- with more than 100 boxes -- that adds up.

"What's it going to do to me if I got to shell out, you know, half a salary on news boxes that I haven't ever had to shell out before? I'm either going to raise my advertising rates or I'm going to lay somebody off," said Downtown Journal publisher Terry Gahan.

This could be a battle of attrition, literally. There are some fees already in place in St. Paul. But in the past, this has been a contentious issue that ends up in the court in a battle over the First Amendment.

Atlanta, for example, tried imposing fees on newspaper racks during the Atlanta Olympics, according to the First Amendment Center:

The appeals court also struck down an Atlanta license-fee plan for news racks as imposing too high a price to pay for the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. Citing an earlier decision, the appeals court reasoned that cities can charge licensing fees as long as the fees do not cover more than what is needed to offset administrative costs.

Times have changed since the big court battles of the '80s and '90s, though. Cities don't have the money to waste on lawsuits, and newspapers don't even have the money left to get the news, let alone go to court.

So the solution will likely be the "new economy" way of doing things -- the two sides will cut a deal.

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Embedding

Posted at 10:29 AM on November 6, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Politics

Here we go again.

Newsweek is out with its "How He Did It" series which offers these insights:

No history in the headlines

Posted at 9:15 AM on November 5, 2008 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Politics

Are you one of those people who likes to save newspapers on historic occasions? If so, you have to be pretty disappointed with what the major papers stuck on our doorsteps today.

Is there some sort of axiom that says "when in doubt, just put the guy's name in big font?" OBAMA is what the headlines say locally today. OBAMA, what? That's the best they could do? No toying with a campaign theme. "Yes, he did!"? "It Happened with Hope"? "Obama Turns Hope into History"? "Young Black Dude Beats Old White Guy"?

I guess not.

For pure "savability" (what are we supposed to do when newspapers die, print out Web pages?), the Pioneer Press wins the local race hands down.

Take a shot at this. If you were a headline writer, write a headline that would make a reader want to toss the paper into the same pile where now sits newspapers with headlines like "Man Lands on Moon" and "Ford to New York: 'Drop Dead.'"

Here's one from Toronto, for example:

You can browse the world's front pages at the Newseum Web site.

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The right (not) to vote

Posted at 4:02 PM on October 16, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Politics

Should you be publicly shamed if you don't vote?

A Nashville newspaper is publishing the names of people who didn't vote in the 2004 presidential election.

"We have people over here who won't go out and vote," said Rosetta Miller-Perry, president and publisher of the Tennessee Tribune. "It's ridiculous. It really hurts."

But voting isn't a requirement and when the Constitution granted the right of people to vote, it also granted them the right not to vote.

Still, the idea achieved the results Miller-Perry wanted when it was tried in a 2006 Senate race. Turnout almost doubled.

If you have any friends in Nashville, you might be interested in seeing if they're on the list.

(h/t: David Brauer via Twitter)

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The challenge of 'citizen journalism'

Posted at 8:42 AM on October 4, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Citizen journalism is all the buzzword in mainstream media these days. The theory -- one I subscribe to, for the record -- is "just plain folk" are better connected in the big scheme of things than a handful of people in a newsroom, isolated as they are from reality by both world view and geography.

MPR has its Public Insight Network to break down these barriers, although the pathway to the listener/reader still requires things to travel along the "old-fashioned" route.

Some other mainstream media eliminates the middle-man altogether. On Friday, that didn't work so well when iReport.com, a "citizen journalism" site with ties to CNN reported Apple boss Steve Jobs had a heart attack.

The report sent Apple's stock tumbling to a 17-month low, and brought out the citizen journalist naysayers.

"It's a classic example of letting the Internet genie out of the bottle before proving if it's true," said Tobe Berkovitz, associate dean of Boston University's College of Communications. "The advantage you have with citizen journalism is you have a wide net of sources, but the problem is there's no gatekeeper."

But the fools are the ones who believed the post, suggests Dan Gillmor, who runs the Center for Citizen Media. "This is precisely the same warning that should (but doesn't) come with comment boards on major newspaper websites. But you have to believe that no one with a shred of common sense takes the random ranting below, say, a Washington Post article as anything terribly serious."

Is this some sort of watershed moment for citizen journalism? Probably not; mainstream media has been getting stuff wrong for years, but usually not deliberately. Still, says Sarah Perez at Read Write Web, it's an important moment for mainstream media to consider how it integrates citizen journalism.

We're interested in seeing how will CNN respond to this muddying of their good name. Will they disassociate themselves a bit from iReport? Or will they just be happy for the pageviews it brought? And will this give pause to other news outlets thinking of launching citizen journalism sites of their own? It's very possible. In these tough economic times, news reports that affect how the markets move are taken very seriously.

An obvious step in the right direction is that real names be used in citizen journalism. And the legal process itself might well solve the problem. The person that seeded the clouds with the Jobs story? He may go to jail.

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Live-blogging: Journalists and cops: What's next?

Posted at 5:06 PM on September 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (17 Comments)
Filed under: Media, The political conventions

Last week's announcement that St. Paul won't prosecute journalists who were swept up in the Republican National Convention protests by police really hasn't alleviated a lot of the hard feelings. On the one hand, police have said it's too difficult to tell "credentialed" journalists from the "self credentialed" ones. On the other hand, it wasn't that hard once they were detained. All the cops had to do was read the credential.

Tonight, the Society of Professional Journalists in Minnesota is holding a forum with several journalists who were arrested, as well as Asst. Police Chief Matt Bostrom of St. Paul and Deputy Mayor Ann Mulholland.

Al Tompkins from the Poytner Institute is moderating and says he wants these questions answered:

* What do the police want media to know about their mission in events like this.
* How can journalists cover important stories like this and not get arrested.
* Should be tiered credentialing for traditional and non-traditional media.

If you're into drinking games, I suggest "Amy Goodman" as the keywords. I look forward to a good discussion with you in the comments section below.

Live-blogging at 7 p.m.

6:58 p.m. - Looks like about 100 people in attendance, at least one Minneapolis police officer in the audience. I suppose it's a discussion for another day but if you ever want to see an example of the lack of diversity in the media, forums and journalist get-togethers are a good start.

7:04 p.m. - Nicole Garrison-Sprenger of the Pioneer Press opens with a nod to Rick Kupchella of KARE -- the former SPJ president. "This has been an eye-opening experience... the whole RNC," Kupchella says. "We seldom see ourselves on a stage like this and seldom see the friction we saw on the streets of St. Paul." Introducing panel, and emphasizing that most journalists covering the RNC weren't arrested.

Jonathan Malat, photographer for KARE, is also on the panel. He was arrested on final night of RNC. Says the KARE Web site:

"I never saw any excessive force other than it was just loud and chaotic," said Malat about the tactics used to push people toward the bridge. Earlier police had given several orders for the crowd to disperse. "I was just there to cover the event," explained Malat.

7:09 p.m. - Al Tompkins of Poynter Institute is moderating. "We not here for a witch hunt," he says. "We can learn a lot if we listen to each other." He tells Mulholland and Boston, "it took a lot of guts for you to be here."

7:12 p.m. - Tompkins is playing various media Web site video of protests, including the breaking of the window at Macy's on Monday of the RNC. Video from Fox 9 shows cop being knocked down and pepper-spraying the crowd.

7:16 p.m. - Jonathan Malat (KARE photographer) describes the Thursday protest near the Capitol. The protest was running late, he says. It didn't get going until 4:30 and 15 minutes later the police said the permit expired at 5 p.m. "My goal was the same that day as every day: to document what was going on in the community." He says he had no indication he would be arrested. (See Kupchella's blog | Video )

7:21 p.m. - "What didn't we see in the video?" Tompkins asks deputy police chief Matt Bostrom. "When there is an opportunity to march and people don't take that -- it was intentional that the marchers didn't leave on time nor on the designated march route -- ... they made it clear early on that this would be the particular rally not to bring your kids too." (I think he's referring to this)

"No one from this group asked for an extension or a new route. We were prepared to grant permits on the fly," he said. "They wanted to turn us against each other."

7:25 p.m. Tompkins displays a quote from MinnPost from Bostrom (which he says "is close") from last December in which he appeared to criticize Boston in 2004 for muzzling protest.

Bostrom says officers in St. Paul are trained to allow the media to do their job.

7:27 p.m. - This would be a good time at the forum for Tompkins to ask, "hey, what happened?" Instead, he's laying a court-like foundation on what is freedom of the press.

Mulholland says Mayor Chris Coleman believes the officers did what they felt they needed to do to maintain public safety. "Should they be treated specially and different than anyone else in a public safety incident is what we need to talk about," she says.

"There's a special role to make sure media has access and the information they need. Having watched many hours of video, I am hard-pressed to think we didn't give great access to the media during the course of the convention," she said.

7:32 p.m. Tompkins shows op-ed piece in Pioneer Press from Mayor Chris Coleman, in which Coleman refers to his feeling while "watching news stories." How would the mayor have felt that if it weren't for the press, Tompkins asked. Gotcha.

Mulholland says there were 10,000 people exercising their right to have their voices heard, but were overwhelmed by a small group. Tompkins asked if her boss believes there was a legitimate reason for the journalists to be "there."

"I believe it's important for the journalists to be wherever people gather lawfully," Mulholland says.

Bostrom says the video Coleman referred to wasn't from journalists, it was from those spy cameras the city erected.

So here we are: Do journalists have a right to be in a place where a crime is being committed? "How close? And when does it impair public safety" Mulholland asks.

7:36 p.m. Mara Gottfried of the Pioneer Press is asked why she wasn't arrested. She notes that she, too, was one of the "ride-along" journalists on Thursday. But she says she was able to watch the protest at which Amy Goodman's producers were arrested without a problem. She also covered the Rage Against the Machine concert in Minneapolis. At one point she was blocked by police, and was joined by two PiPress reporters. The two reporters with her were ordered to the ground. They complied. When they told police they were reporters with the Pioneer Press, "they were released within a minute," she said.

7:42 p.m. - How do you know who the "real" photographers are? Tompkins puts up a picture with different-looking people taking pictures (I've done this riff already). Deputy Mayor Mulholland: "I don't know who the journalist is, so we treat everyone the same."

7:44 p.m. The story of Evan Vucci, the head of AP's Washington bureau is being discussed. He was "picked up and slammed to the ground" but when he showed his police credentials (White House, Secret Service), he was released. AP Minneapolis boss

"What kind of discretion does an officer have?' Tompkins asked Bostrom. "If someone disobeys a lawful order, they shall be arrested," he says. "But the officer... has discretion."

"What would it take for a journalist to preserve such a thing," Tompkins asked.

"If they were to release someone who was a criminal hiding behind a media credential, they have to be accountable for that," he answers... sort of.

Pyle says an AP photographer who was arrested, may have been a victim of a suburban police officer. He also noted that the photo that the photographer -- Matt Rourke -- was used by St. Paul police in a public call to help find information about some criminal activity during the protest.

7:59 p.m. "A lawful order," that's the key phrase so far. First Amendment attorney Mark Anfinson says if police issue a "lawful order" to disperse, journalists have to disperse and "very much like a combat zone, journalists take on the risk... It's hard to see where police violated rights."

Malat points out that when they were told to disperse and he asked where they should go, police officers told him "the way out is the (Marion St.) bridge." That's where he was arrested.

7:55 p.m. We're sort of flailing around issues here. Now we're on "who's a journalist?" again. Anfinson says journalists adhere to ethical codes of behavior, I don't think you can bestow that upon people who just call themselves 'journalists' for convenience."

7:57 p.m. Caroline Lowe from WCCO is up now. She's both a journalist and a sworn police officer. She, too, says she and her team were given clear orders but many of the journalists were not given a "clear way out." She says an officer called her the next day and said she thought she'd have to hit Lowe with her stick.

7:59 p.m. - Bostrom giving more details of the number of times protesters were warned they were engaging in "unlawful assembly." He says they made two announcements, then walked around the people in the street and told them to sit down, they were under arrest."

Another group then took a run at Marion Street and were turned back. They then blocked University. "No one was getting arrested for going east or west," he said.

Malat disagrees. He says officers were advancing from both the east and west. Bostrom disagrees with his disagreement.

Bostrom reveals that guns were taken from some in the crowd.

"That's a lie," someone in the audience yells, before Caroline Lowe says she saw one.

8:06 p.m. Back to "who's a journalist?" again. Chuck Olsen from The Uptake is talking about his live video via cellphone. He identifies himself as a "citizen journalist" and Tompkins asks him what that is. "Do you adhere to a code of ethics?" Tompkins asked.

I guess where we're going here is: are The Uptake journalists journalists?

"Yeah," Olsen said.

Mulholland doesn't answer the question. "I would ask the journalists in the room," she says.

Tompkins doesn't let her off the hook. "Was the mayor talking about him when he talked about journalists?"

"I think the mayor was talking about people trying to tell a story," she responds.

8:11 p.m. Tompkins is now playing a video from Pepperspray Productions, a group with an agenda, of course. Are they journalists?

"Is Fox News?" someone shoults.

Comment: Since the St. Paul cops have already mentioned that the reason so many journalists got swept up is because they couldn't tell who was a "real" journalist and who wasn't, it doesn't make a lot of sense here to run Mulholland and Bostrom through some sort of rhetorical exercise designed to make the point that it's hard to tell?

8:16 p.m. - Charlie Underwood jumps up from the audience. He asks Tompkins if he's trying to establish a separate category for people who don't get pepper sprayed. "If what the police did was wrong to you, it's wrong" to everybody."

8:18 p.m. - "All of us have a right to be on the street. I'm a member of an alternative media and I have a right and responsibility to communicate (the story)," Ed Felien from South Side Pride says. "Anyone who is vetted by the police department has given up a point of view."

8:22 p.m. - About a half dozen people have jumped up to the audience microphones to speak. I presume they're interesting in speaking to the allegation that if you get a press pass, you're in the pocket of whomever gave it to you.

8:24 p.m. Jonathan says "police acted very responsibly, given the high intensity level. I put myself in this situation." An audience member, who says she edits Twin Cities Daily Planet, says that treatment wasn't extended to others. "This was largely the province of alternative media. If the alternative media are not out there covering it, can we be sure we're going to get the coverage?"

8:27 p.m. Jason DeRusha of WCCO says "many of us came to a discussion on who gets to be to the 'in' crowd, while the alternative media attendees are advocating no special protections" for that same crowd. So do we journalists get special treatment?

It's a good question which, for some reason, Tompkins chose not to pursue at this time to get more audience reaction.

8:32 p.m. - Audience member who says she used to be an FBI "person " (Update: Jason DeRusha writes to say it was Coleen Rowley) says the independence of the reporter is at crossends of "this special status" you're talking about here.

I'm starting to realize that mainstream journalists seem to be on one side of the room, alternative media on the other. I'm sitting way up in the back, on neither side, by the way.

8:35 p.m. - There doesn't seem to be any argument in the room that if the police tell you "you have to get out of here," then you have to get out of there. So why are we still messing with the 'special attention' thing?

8:37 p.m. - Dan Feidt of Politics in Minnesota asks about the Saturday raid on journalists on Iglehart Avenue. Bostrom refuses comment after saying "a judge signed the warrant." He makes clear that this isn't the discussion he came here for.

8:40 p.m. - Michael of St. Paul asks journalists why people feel such a need to go to alternative media? Makes a big pitch for alternative media. Oh, goodness, what are we doing on that question?

8:42 p.m. - Ron Eibensteiner, former GOP boss in Minnesota says "the St. Paul Police Department did an outstanding job. " So noted. I'm suddenly wondering how that kid in Blaine is doing before the Anoka-Hennepin School Board that might get expelled for having a boxcutter for work in his car at school?

8:50 p.m. Brian Madigan, freelance reporter who says he was caught in "the scrum" on Thursday. He wasn't able to get his material back from the police for several days and wonders why the KARE 11 cameraman was able to get his gear in time for the 10 p.m. news. "They were processing people from one end of the bridge to the other. I was in the middle," Malat said. "When they were about to take me, (Ramsey County) Sheriff (Bob) Fletcher arrived on the scene and asked who were journalists. I raised my hand and a bunch of others raised their hands and there seemed to be a decision that if you had RNC credentials you were put aside from the others."

"it's the first time in my career that so many journalists were involved at the scene of a crime," Bostrom said. "What would you have me do after 4 hours?"

"That's the question of the night," Tompkins says. These SPJ things always get going about 5 minutes before they end. Still, nobody takes Bostrom up on his question.

8:54 p.m. - Photo editor of the Minnesota Daily "testifies" he was treated well. So here's where we are after two hours: "Mainstream journalists" seem pretty satisfied with the way things worked. "Alternative media journalists" are not.

8:56 p.m. - We're back on the merits of embedded reporters. The Twin Cities Media Alliance says the embeds were selected by police (always disquieting to hear people identifying themselves as journalists speak publicly about facts without fully checking, but there you go.) "Why was the embedding program secret?" she asks. "We've seen the results of embedding in Iraq."

Mara Gottfried says she was never told it was secret.

9:02 p.m. KFAI reporter goes off on corporate media. Says mainstream media is lazy and "that's why independent media is happening." Tom Lindner of KARE says he passed on "embedding" because "the rules were so cockamamie. You cover something on Monday, you couldn't air it until Friday." An embedded reporter says he was free to step out from the role at any time.

We're done here. Very little accomplished but it was a good try. In his final comments, Bostrom said "I have zero interest in arresting someone that hasn't done anything" and he seems disappointed -- appropriately so -- that he wanted some suggestions to take back. He didn't get them and it wasn't because he didn't ask.

The continuing conflict between alternative and mainstream media is an intriguing and important discussion, but the effort to make the distinction forced the journalists to defend themselves to each other, when what they should have been doing is standing as journalists to the authorities and trying to recognize a solution to the changing medium landscape.

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SNL comedy sketch was Franken's brainchild

Posted at 4:38 PM on September 21, 2008 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Politics

Is Al Franken a comedy writer (his past life) or a Senate candidate (his current life)?

Franken, according to Gawker, was the big hitter on the Saturday Night Live skit on John McCain.

According to the Politico Web site:

Franken's input to the show blindsided his campaign staff, who have been forced to explain away some of the more crass and profane parts of his past writing and acting that have been used as fodder against him in a state known for its polite manners.

(h/t: Chris Worthington)

5:52 update - Headline rewritten

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Journalists won't be charged in RNC protests

Posted at 10:12 AM on September 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Media

St. Paul has announced it won't prosecute any of the journalists who were rounded up in the various protests during the week of the Republican National Convention.

The announcement comes just a few days between the Society of Professional Journalists is to hold a discussion with journalists and law enforcement officials about the arrests.

Still unclear is how the police are going to approach the situation next time. St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington has said one of the biggest problems his department faced was determining who was a credentialed journalist at the RNC, and who was 'self credentialed.'

The decision will only affect people identified as journalists who face the misdemeanor charge. Recognizing the growing media profession in print, broadcast and the Internet, the city attorney's office will use a broad definition and verification to identify journalists who were caught up in mass arrests during the convention. It is not known how many cases this decision will affect.

Does this include, for example, the person Chief Harrington said claimed to be a journalist but turned out to be a clerk at Walgreen's?

Some of the journalists discuss their arrests here, here, here, and here.

Update 1:34 p.m. What's the definition of journalist? MPR's Laura Yuen talked with city attorney John Choi about that and got this:

"We're going to apply a broad definition of it. That's one of the things that the city attorney is going to take a look at: who is claiming to be a journalist, and what's their basis for their claim? We will try to apply it as broadly as possible, knowing that journalism is changing very dramatically and very quickly. It is no longer the kind of traditional three media outlets in a town. You have a lot of different sources and a lot of different people who are acting as journalists."

What about bloggers? Mayor Chris Coleman said the city would have to look at each case individually.

Laura will have a story on tonight's All Things Considered.

Update 3:17 p.m. The "Free Press" organization sends a news release:

The news from St. Paul City Hall is certainly welcome regarding the decision to drop charges against journalists who were arrested and cited during the RNC," said Mike Bucsko, executive officer of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild Typographical Union, who spoke at the press conference. "However, it is essential the elected officials in St. Paul and Ramsey County examine the circumstances that led to the needless detention and harassment of journalists to ensure this type of indiscriminate behavior on the part of law enforcement does not happen again."

And provides a link to the group's news conference.

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Do a crime victim's political beliefs matter?

Posted at 10:55 AM on September 16, 2008 by Bob Collins (22 Comments)
Filed under: Media

The two major daily newspapers in the Twin Cities played the story differently of a delegate to the Republican National Convention who was allegedly drugged and robbed by a woman he took to his room.

The Star Tribune played it straight, although it left out a key element -- the man was single -- that might've prevented a leap to the assumption that it was just another family values guy cheating on his wife and family.

However it also included this salient point: there is no indication the crime had anything to do with prostitution.

In other words, Gabriel Nathan Schwartz, 29, was the victim of a crime in Minneapolis, same as 203 others in Minneapolis at roughly the same time.

The difference? Their political beliefs weren't the story. In the St. Paul Pioneer Press this morning 14 of the 31 paragraphs in the story were about Schwartz's politics.

A paragraph in which Schwartz said he didn't want to comment on the theft "because the case is still under investigation" was followed by one which said, "During the convention, Schwarz wasn't shy about talking to the media."

The headline in the morning paper, "Republican by day, Romeo by night, robbed in the morning," was changed online (the online version initially used the original headline) to "GOP delegate's hotel tryst goes bad when he wakes up with $120,000 missing," a somewhat milder, less judgmental approach.

The story also cited a video of Schwartz saying the U.S. should "bomb the hell out of Iran," that protesters in St. Paul should "get a job" and that he donated $2,300 to John McCain.

Clearly Schwartz's views set him somewhat at odds with a number of Minnesotans (they're hawkish enough where you almost wonder if the guy was pulling the interviewer's leg) , but what was the takeaway: that getting drugged and robbed served him right?

If so, the paper's readers got the hint. A sample comment attached to the story said...

To me, anyone who walks around with $60K of bling is asking for it. My guess is that he chatted up his "friend" by making sure she knew how much everything cost... and he probably told her that he had lots more where that came from. And then she went to work doing to him what he clearly wanted to do to her.

...but not everyone bought into it.

I've never seen so much biographical information about a crime VICTIM in my life! The next time some woman gets raped, will the PioneerPress investigate who she voted for in recent elections, or what jewelry she might have been wearing? I'll admit the guy sounds like an overly outspoken jerk, but does that make him deserving of the ridiculous tone of the article? Wow.

The Associated Press, which distributed the story after rewriting it from the Pioneer Press, removed all references to the man's political beliefs.

Messages to the editor and reporter on the story have not yet been returned but I'll post their perspective when it's available.

Update David Hanners was kind enough to send along his thoughts in an e-mail this afternoon:

As I'm in the Minneapolis office, the only discussion I'm personally aware of was between my editor and myself, and I believe it is generally inappropriate to speak publicly about such in-house conversations. I don't know what discussions, if any, may have taken place between my editor and his superiors.

That said, I wouldn't agree with the supposition that it is "unusual" to see a crime victim's politics mentioned in an article. It depends on the article and the facts at hand. Every situation is different, and there are situations where it is wholly appropriate to make reference to the victim's politics.

In this case, the guy was in town because of the convention, and he spoke to the media while here. While the crime itself may not have been politically motivated (the public portion of the police report is silent on that matter) he was in town because of his politics. He seemed an interesting person.

Sometimes, we do articles on extraordinary events that happen to Average Joes, or we do articles about routine events that happen to noteworthy people. The size of the theft here was extraordinary, and he was somewhat noteworthy because of politics. Those circumstances added up to a story.

Update Thom Fladung, the editor at the Pioneer Press responds:

1. The reported loss of $120,000 in the robbery. That doesn't seem like a typical Twin Cities robbery to me. And as the Minneapolis police sergeant put it, such a loss is "very, very, very rare." Your story notes that Schwartz was the victim of a crime "same as 203 others" in Minneapolis around the same time. If some of those were robberies or burglaries that resulted in losses of $100,000-plus, I'd like to see us do stories about those, too. And did these other crimes involve convention delegates?

2. The victim was a delegate to one of the highest-profile events ever in the Twin Cities. As such, it seems to me, that further separated him from other crime victims.

3. A person who reportedly loses this kind of money at an event like a national political convention under these circumstances would then naturally seem to be an interesting person. We reported more about him, and his political positions and public statements about politics were part of that reporting. What's the relevance of his politics? That they added more background about the person. We also reported that he was single and an attorney. I certainly didn't have any "takeaway" from the story that he deserved to be drugged and robbed for his political views.

Update 4:04 p.m. According to the Associated Press, the victim has released a statement:

"It's embarrassing to admit that I was a target of a crime," Schwartz said in a statement Tuesday. "I was drugged and had about $50,000 of personal items stolen."

Schwartz said news reports that he had been taken for as much as $150,000 were inflated and based on an inaccurate police report.

"As a single man, I was flattered by the attention of a beautiful woman who introduced herself to me. I used poor judgment. If there is any good that can come from this humiliation, it is to caution others that date rape drugs can be used on men, too," he said.

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Shooting the messenger

Posted at 12:18 PM on September 9, 2008 by Bob Collins (13 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Call it a bounce, call it the inaccuracy of polling, but more than a few Barack Obama supporters are sweating bullets now that polls are showing that the Republicans aren't just going to hand the White House over.

Somebody must be blamed. Former Saturday Night Live writer Adam McKay has found just the suspect -- the press.

What is this house advantage the Republicans have? It's the press. There is no more fourth estate. Wait, hold on...I'm not going down some esoteric path with theories on the deregulation of the media and corporate bias and CNN versus Fox...I mean it: there is no more functioning press in this country. And without a real press the corporate and religious Republicans can lie all they want and get away with it. And that's the 51% advantage.

Think this is some opinion being wryly posited to titillate other bloggers and inspire dialogue with Tucker Carlson or Gore Vidal? **** that. Four corporations own all the TV channels. All of them. If they don't get ratings they get canceled or fired. All news is about sex, blame and anger, and fear. Exposing lies about amounts of money taken from lobbyists and votes cast for the agenda of the last eight years does not rate. The end.

Blink. Blink.

Enter the wayback machine. Let's dial in last Wednesday evening. Destination: St. Paul.

"But here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion - I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country. Americans expect us to go to Washington for the right reasons, and not just to mingle with the right people."

That was Sarah Palin, of course, rescuing the good ship McCain.

And it worked, according to the Rasmussen polling firm:

... fully 68% of voters believe that "most reporters try to help the candidate they want to win." And -- no surprise -- 49% of those surveyed believe reporters are backing Barack Obama, while just 14% think the media is in the tank for Sen. McCain.

Conservative commentator James Pinkerton see the same reality in the evils of the media, that his ideological opponent -- McKay -- sees:

In seeking to rally a majority of the voters, McCain has put forth a clear definition of the elite: It's the media, including all those who make up the "chattering class" of commentators, think tankers, opinion leaders, and activist socialites. This is a significant shift for McCain, who once cultivated those same chatterers; as recently as three years ago, he could joke that the press was "my base." But over the past few years, he seems to have figured that being the liberals' favorite conservative--appearing on the cover of Esquire magazine, guest-hosting "Saturday Night Live"--was fun, but that was no path to the White House.

In a story today, Time Magazine says a review of press coverage of the two candidates found 31% of the stories about Obama rated as "negative," only slightly less than the 38% described as negative about McCain.

A quote in that story from a GOP strategist, however, is worth noting:

"Attack the media is what you do when you're losing."

If both camps are laying into the press, who's winning?

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Embedded reporters at RNC

Posted at 5:01 PM on September 5, 2008 by Bob Collins (24 Comments)
Filed under: Media, The political conventions

I learned today -- perhaps the same way you did -- that MPR had an embedded reporter within the police ranks during the last part of the Republican National Convention: I read it on Tim Nelson's RNC convention blog. He described Thursday's confrontations:

I was variously ordered to get down and to leave immediately. I was inadvertently struck by pepper spray and by "stinger balls" from an explosive thrown at my feet. But per our agreement, I was never forced to leave the scene.

I don't know the exact count of journalists detained. I heard numbers last night as high as 18. I did see some people with credentials issued by the Republican National Convention among the handcuffed detainees. But I also saw people with handmade "media" insignia and several students claiming to be with a college paper in Iowa.

Tim was riding along Thursday with one of the mobile police units. He was one of 8 reporters in the Twin Cities media to be so accomodated at times during the week. He could share the information he acquired after the convention ended. (Update, Sat. 9:23 a.m.: The Star Tribune's perspective was printed this morning)

For the record, his deal was unknown to all but a very few news officials in his company.But now that he has written about the arrangement, it's fair game.

These sorts of agreements pose difficult questions for news organizations. We invite you to discuss it in the comments section below in the interest of being transparent about them:

If a news organization makes a deal with law enforcement for special treatment and an agreement to stay silent on certain issues for an agreed-upon period of time, does the news organization have a responsibility to tell the audience that the report being delivered is part of an agreement with the officials he/she is covering not to be chased from the scene in exchange for.... something?

It's unclear why credentialed journalists were swept up on Thursday night. Police Chief John Harrington said it was difficult to tell the "real" journalists from the phony ones. But from the advantage of his position, Nelson wrote, he could see some of the journalists being picked up had RNC credentials. The police didn't have to figure out who was who: the Secret Service had already done that when it did a background check on everyone who applied for those credentials.

On the air with MPR's Cathy Wurzer on Friday morning, Nelson clearly had some after-the-fact insight into how everything went down on the cops' side, but we made a mistake, perhaps, in not disclosing the arrangement that allowed him to acquire it. Asked about the arrests of local journalists, he said that police had clearly ordered people to move.

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On his blog, he answered the question of why some people were arrested and some weren't in a slightly different way:

Because last week, the St. Paul police offered the media -- or at least those who showed up to a meeting at the Western District police offices -- the opportunity to accompany the officers among St. Paul's "mobile field force" teams.

St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington told MPR News today that all local news organizations were offered the embedded positions, but the protections that Nelson suggests it afforded, did not extend to all journalists -- real journalists -- at Thursday's night's events. Listen

"News organizations took volunteers, and I guess not everybody wanted to do that. We just offered the chance to be embedded over the four days, and we had 8 slots to offer people, and all slots were filled. We made that an open opportunity," he said. Some local news organizations declined the offer. Why?

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Late on Friday, MPR News Director Bill Wareham further clarified the arrangement between Nelson and the St. Paul police:

He signed a liability waiver.

He agreed that if he went on a ride-along for a day, he wouldn't publish/broadcast anything about it until the end of the convention.

In his words, "The agreement was that they would let me do my job if I let them do theirs and didn't disclose their methods before the end of the convention. I was not in the area when the order to disperse was given, and never there without a police escort." Also, "The sergeant told me that the safest place was behind their line and that if I got in front of them I would not be allowed to cross back into their lines. 'You're on your own out there,' I believe she said to me."

Because of the post-convention embargo, we decided that if we took advantage of the ride-along opportunity, it wouldn't be until Thursday so the information wouldn't be stale. We did take advantage of the opportunity Thursday, but all of his protest coverage earlier in the week had no arrangement with the cops attached

Meanwhile, Amnesty International joined in the chorus of criticism against police force this week:

The organization's concerns arise from media reports, video and photographic images which appear to show police officers deploying unnecessary and disproportionate use of non-lethal weapons on non-violent protesters marching through the streets or congregating outside the arena where the Convention was being held.

Police are reported to have fired rubber bullets and used batons, pepper spray, tear gas canisters and concussion grenades on peaceful demonstrators and journalists. Amnesty International has also received unconfirmed reports that some of those arrested during the demonstrations may have been ill-treated while held at Ramsey county jail.

The human rights organization is calling for an investigation. On MPR's Midmorning today, Mayor Chris Coleman said there would be "a review" of the police performance, but when pressed on how he felt about it, Coleman said "I feel great."

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Pick the journalist

Posted at 2:33 PM on September 3, 2008 by Bob Collins (16 Comments)
Filed under: Media, The political conventions

In the picture, pick out the journalists. You can click on the image to make it larger.

Even in the relative calm when this picture was shot, it's difficult to determine who is a journalist, who is a protester with a camera and who is actually a protester but is saying he/she is a journalist.

Add a little action into the mix, and smaller credentials aren't much help.

A news release from the people in charge of the police today appears to suggest that the police aren't going to waste much time this week trying to determine who's a real journalist, and who are the posers.

Law enforcement responsible for security and public safety in the Twin Cities area would like to remind members of the media of the proper procedures for staying safe during unlawful assemblies. When police officials request the breakup of an unlawful assembly by announcement to the gathered crowd, that order applies to all individuals, including the media. A quick and orderly dispersal is more likely to help people, including media personnel, stay safe and avoid arrest.

Because still cameras, video cameras and other recording equipment are commonplace at large events or gatherings, it can be difficult for law enforcement and others to differentiate between credentialed media, un-credentialed media or others who may carry similar equipment. While law enforcement in no way wishes to restrict First Amendment rights, members of the press must also follow police orders to protect their safety, the safety of police and others.

(Photo via Getty)

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Bloggers are ready for 'prime time' in St. Paul protest coverage

Posted at 11:11 AM on September 3, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Media, The political conventions

Two area bloggers are doing a bang-up job (that's probably the wrong phrase) documenting the two major protests that have degenerated into scuffles with police in St. Paul over the last two days.

The Adventures of Johnny Northside blog has a compelling blow-by-blow description (that's probably the wrong phrase) of the action outside Mickey's Diner:

At 10th7th and St. Peter, in front of Mickey's Diner, a group of protesters taunted police. At one point, police appeard to push the crowd or lunge at the crowd. A half-filled plastic water bottle came sailing through the air toward the officers. Police appeared to spray something into the crowd, but no distinctive pepper spray odor was apparent. There was a discussion among some members of the crowd whether "bunk gas" was being utilized: something made to seem like pepper spray to scare off a mob, but without much actual physical effect.

Meanwhile, highly-regarded local blogger Aaron Landry documented the scene on Monday at one of St. Paul's hot spots -- Jackson Street -- where he and a friend convinced a woman to give them a ride out of the danger...

The most unnerving moment was on our way out. A man in a gas mask stood in front of the SUV staring at our driver to her the face, refusing to move. The ugly face of terrorism was standing in front of her vehicle. She froze, with her hands on the wheel and did not honk or try to move. It was a frightening scene. I yelled, "go around him" and Stacy opened her door and yelled, "Get the **** out of the way, we're press" and another man yelled, "if you're press, ****ing cover this!" Meanwhile, the mob was coming up behind us.

Stacy's a concert photographer, lawyer and music blogger. I'm an IT Manager for a design firm, social media consultant and blogger. We were doing citizen photojournalistic roles and the situation changed where we decided that our safety was more important than covering the event.

Both blogs are an example of journalism at its finest, especially during a difficult story. They both also prove that the written word remains the most powerful medium.

(Update) Media watcher David Brauer has an excellent first-person account from AP photographer Matt Rourke, who was detained on Monday, but who's gotten little notice because his parents didn't name him Amy Goodman.

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The longest line of the day in St. Paul

Posted at 4:39 PM on September 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Media, The political conventions

... is the group of people waiting to get into the taping of The Daily Show in St. Paul. If those people had a sense of humor, they'd all bring kiwi fruit in with them.

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Is the blogosphere ready for prime time?

Posted at 7:54 AM on September 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (13 Comments)
Filed under: Media

No, but it's playing in prime time anyway, and it's not going to change now.

Yesterday's announcement that Sarah Palin's daughter is pregnant came because of "rumors spreading on the Internet" that the youngest child of Palin was actually that of Sarah's daughter.

The controversy has raised questions about how well Palin was vetted by the McCain campaign.

But there's a more important question: Who's vetting Daily Kos, where the rumor picked up steam, was regurgitated and was never properly checked out?

There are, as you might expect, dueling reactions to the "new journalism" today, but it's mostly based around the "old journalism." Should the mainstream media have paid any attention to the rumors?

No, says media critic Dan Kennedy. But he lets Kos off lightly:

Who was hurt by Daily Kos? No one, really, because there's all sorts of misinformation percolating in the tubes (I thought an Alaska reference would be appropriate). What you hope is that the solid stuff will rise to the top, and that it will be proven or debunked. And if it's debunked, it ought to be done somewhere other than in the mainstream media.

As for what "millions of people" who know about the rumor would think if the media stayed silent, well, I don't hear any complaints over the lack of an investigative series on 9/11 conspiracy theories. Most people are smart enough to understand that the media would not shy away from a story like Palin's fake pregnancy if it were true and could be verified.

PoliGazette (in the Netherlands), however, sees little role for the "new journalism"

... it is too late to backpeddle, apologize and move on for those who brought up this
subject and who have now already done tremendous damage to Palin's image and reputation. After all, in the end rumors are heard by many more people than the news that the rumors are false.

The issue itself speaks ill, not of Palin but of the blogosphere and partisan 'citizen journalists' who are more than willing to publish stories that unfairly destroy a person's good reputation, simply because doing so may help their favorite candidate or because it will help them get some more hits.

Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post pushed Markos Moulitsas (the creator of Daily Kos) on the subject and got the stock blogger answer to questions surrounding what defines responsible journalism for "citizen journalists."

"Our people are doing the vetting. Even if some of it is hitting dead ends, other ones are striking direct hits," Moulitsas says. His role, he adds, "is to sit back and let the citizen journalists do their job, and I amplify the stuff that shakes out.":

In other words, if you throw enough stuff against the wall,some of it will stick. Moulitsas focuses on the stuff that sticks. Others says the danger is the amplification and effect of the stuff that doesn't.

Many bloggers like to point out that other bloggers will "fact check." But that didn't happen in this case. Nobody in the blogosphere investigated the rumors, or made phone calls, or lifted much of a finger to confirm (or deny) a damaging accusation that turned out to be entirely incorrect.

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Inside these cubicles...

Posted at 12:26 PM on September 1, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Media, The political conventions

The Daily Show is being created. The show has taken over the basement of the McNally Smith College of Music in the History Theatre, 10th and Exchange streets downtown.

Early gossip on tonight's show. The show will focus on today's protest march which is happening just outside the taping area. Staff, however, is watching it on TV.

(More later)

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The Twitter convention

Posted at 9:49 AM on September 1, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Tech, The political conventions

Twitter, the "micro-blog/instant messaging" program is proving to be an excellent way to follow the convention from a variety of perspectives.

For the delegates/bigshot view, check out @sanuzis. It's coming from Saul Anuzis, the chairman of the Michigan Republican Party. The delegation is also writing a blog, but it's nowhere near as interesting as the Twitter feed.

However, we do get word via that blog that the Michigan delegation is starting a blood drive at the Northland Inn, where the delegation is staying. The drive, of course, is directed at the victims of Hurricane Gustav, although it seems that the only people in harm's way are the TV reporters, standing out in the middle of the street, telling us to get out of harm's way.

Another state party chairman -- Chris Healy of Connecticut -- is Twittering (tweating?), but mostly just to call attention to the blog posts Healy is writing (Today a Medal of Honor winner spoke to the delegation).

For the well-connected-but-not-a-delegate view, the A-List is headed by David All, a Washington communications consultant (@DavidAll).

Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin, Twitter gets props from media analyst David Brauer, for coverage of Friday/Saturday police raids.

For comedy -- the intentional kind of comedy -- you'll want to follow @TheInDecider. It's Michael Kraskin of The Daily Show on Comedy Channel. He, too, is also writing a blog.

If you've got a favorite, please add it below. (And please use html to do so if you can)

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Elections and the media

Posted at 12:05 PM on August 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Media, The political conventions

At the Science Museum in Minnesota this (Sunday) morning, the political media aristocracy is holding court, discussing the elections and their role in it.

David Brauer is Twittering about it and is providing the salient take-aways.

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Follow-up: The Gloucester 'pregnancy pact'

Posted at 1:30 PM on August 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Schools

Remember the story about the high school girls in Gloucester, Mass., who made a pact to get pregnant? It was a heck of a story until people started checking the facts and found no evidence that it was true.

What's happened since then? Plenty. The principal of the school, cited as the source for the pact claim, has resigned effective tomorrow. He says the mayor of Gloucester and other officials slandered him by refusing to invite him to a news conference back during the height of the controversy, and questioning the existence of the pact, a word Sullivan says he never used. As with any small city newspaper, the "comments" section of the newspaper article on the subject provides more insight than the article itself (Worth noting, by the way, that a post comparing Gloucester to the rest of the state and, oddly, Minnesota, could've only come from News Cut).

An editorial in the paper provides a glimpse into the politics of it all:

Sullivan has said he doesn't recall using the term "pact," but then again, he was never really given the chance to confirm, deny or explain. When the media storm broke, Sullivan -- like all other school personnel -- was ordered by (School Superintendent Christopher) Farmer not to comment. He was barred from participating in any of the multiple press conferences. Mayor Kirk spoke for him, saying Sullivan's memory was "foggy," and that he couldn't recall what he had told the Time reporter.
...

Not only was he ordered to remain silent while his reputation was tarnished, but since then he has not been consulted or even involved in the discussions that will eventually lead to policies on birth control and sex education for the school. These may well prove to be policies he might not support, but would be expected to enforce. That is not only insulting, but as Sullivan realized, it made it impossible for him to continue. No administrator can function effectively when he is being undermined and muzzled by his superiors.

Media critic Dan Kennedy writes today that the story here isn't the "pact," it's the poor reporting from a national magazine, that cost a man his job.

Still, it has struck me as exceedingly odd that here, in Oprah Nation, not one of these young women would step forward. Let's not forget, too, that one pregnant 17-year-old Gloucester High student appeared on national television and denied there was any such pact. Rather, she said some of the students became close after they got pregnant, a claim that comports with some inside knowledge I had picked up around the same time.

Time magazine shouldn't just be given a pass on this.

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No news at the conventions?

Posted at 11:20 AM on August 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Media, The political conventions

Like the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game, the lament that there's no news at a political convention officially kicks off the convention coverage season.

Jack Shafer, writing in Slate, has tossed the first pitch.

A still better way to improve convention coverage would be to withdraw all reporters and force the curious to rely on a C-SPAN feed: Unless a brokered convention threatens to break out, these political gatherings tend to produce very little real news. Yet the networks, the newspapers, the magazines, and the Web sites continue to insist on sending battalions of reporters to sift for itsy specks of information. According to Forbes, 15,000 pressies are expected to attend each of the conventions. Slate, I'm embarrassed to admit, is sending a team of eight to Denver and six to St. Paul. Attention! Don Graham! We're spending your cash like it's Zimbabwean bank notes!

Shafer is correct, at least to the extent that far too many mainstream journalists -- and even more in the blogosphere -- believe that convention coverage involves sitting in a darkened hall somewhere and waiting for someone to deliver a tinkle of news. But why would they? It's a rehearsed infommercial, and this isn't 1968.

So what's a reporter to do? Leave. Look for a better location to learn the real stories behind the script from which the Dems and Republicans want the media to read. Eventually, they reveal their true selves and deliver a far better story.

I've used this story before, but Shafer hasn't heard it, obviously. It's Boston 2004, the Democrats have trotted out the image campaign to make John Kerry a war hero. The former Fleet Center was bedecked in pictures of Kerry in Vietnam, all intended to provide some salve to the wounds inflicted by the Swift Boat Veterans.

The message: Democrats are patriotic, too. It was a carefully crafted message swallowed hook, line, and sinker by the major media. But on one morning, after a late-night convention session, an event was scheduled on Bunker Hill -- a salute to veterans. Most reporters didn't go, figuring there was no news to be had. That, and it was a mile away from Fleet Center.

They were wrong.

Thousands of Democratic delegates stayed away from the event. Had reporters spent more time looking for these angles instead of lamenting the lack of news, perhaps more than one news outlet would've told you the story of the convention that was reluctant to "salute the vets."

Fast-forward to New York City weeks later. The Republicans draped themselves in 9-11. Widows speak to a hushed convention. "We will not forget," becomes the rallying cry.

A day later, Minnesota delegates to that convention refuse to take the time to talk with another group of widows and survivors -- the ones whose loved ones' remains are buried in a Staten Island garbage dump; the ones who can't get sympathy from either the Republican mayor or the Republican governor of New York. As they're touring the site, I tell the delegates about the group of families. They return to their buses instead.

Here's the slideshow I put together at the time (Sorry it's in RealAudio format, it was 2004.)

In San Diego in 1996, a "Faith and Freedom" rally became a metaphor for the party as a whole. The far-right evangelicals were allowed in; the moderates stayed home.

In Boston, we started a dialog on whether Catholic Democrats have an obligation to their Church and faith that supersedes that to their constituents? That didn't appear on any agenda.

And in New York, Laura McCallum was one of the first people to analyze the possibility of a national role for Gov. Tim Pawlenty. That was four years ago, and people going into that convention forget that it was Sen. Norm Coleman, not Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who was considered a rising star of the party. Pawlenty got the love tap from the head of the Club for Growth, the ultra-conservative kingmakers.

By looking for news, MPR did an outstanding job finding the stories, and we're poised to provide even more over the next few weeks.

We're obviously not the only ones looking -- and finding -- these stories. And, sure, it's unclear whether we'll find their equals in Denver or St. Paul. But if we don't, it will only be because we didn't look hard enough.

It's our job to ignore the infommercial. But Shafer's suggestion -- staying home -- isn't the way to do it.

Update 12:13 Media lecturer Jeff Jarvis gets his licks in, too. But remember, that's a journalism "expert" advocating journalists stay home and just steal other people's work. If you haven't looked for the news, how do you know it's not there?

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The Edwards affair

Posted at 5:57 PM on August 8, 2008 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Politics

That's a fascinating local angle -- or maybe it's only fascinating to media types -- surrounding the affair that John Edwards has finally admitted to with vlogger Reille Hunter.

Local filmmaker Chuck Olsen (The Uptake) had some footage of Hunter in a film he shot. He posts a still image of her here, and wrote:

She was very outgoing, maybe even flirtatious, but really nice. I asked how she got the gig filming webisodes, and she said she met him in a bar and they clicked, and she proposed some online documentary showing his authenticity. She told me about some Hollywood sitcom writing and other weird projects she'd been involved with - nothing I'd ever heard of.

Chuck's Twitter page documents how quick the big media moves in to wrap up the rights to the photo.

Edwards statement on the subject reads like a Microsoft Word template for political apologies. There isn't one, of course, but there probably should be.

In 2006, I made a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs. I recognized my mistake, and I told my wife that I had a liaison with another woman, and I asked for her forgiveness. Although I was honest in every painful detail with my family, I did not tell the public.

I was and am ashamed of my conduct and choices. With my family, I took responsibility for my actions in 2006, and today I take full responsibility publicly.

As for Ms. Hunter's video capabilities, judge for yourself:

Where men are concerned, there really are two Americas: those who cheat and those who don't.

Edwards isn't running for anything now, of course. But a lot of folks saw him as an attorney general candidate in a Barack Obama administration.

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Select an Anchor

Posted at 10:26 AM on August 6, 2008 by Bob Collins (11 Comments)
Filed under: Media

We've gotten a lot of praise over the years for the MPR Select A Candidate quiz that's intended to get people to know, at least, the names of the people running for office. In Chicago, the same idea is behind a novel way to introduce people to news anchors at WBBM in Chicago -- the "Which anchor are you?" quiz.

Some of the answers are pretty lame. For example, under the question "Who do you most admire?" the answers are "My mother, my grandmother, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Theresa." Fathers? That's so Public Radio, I guess. (Like Select A Candidate, the options are only as good as the answers given by the candidates, err, anchors)

Apparently I'm most like Rob Johnson, whoever the heck he is. But he's got nice hair and good teeth, so that's encouraging. It's a pity he doesn't think much of old Dad.

How long do you think it'll be before WCCO picks up this idea?

Update: There's a flaw in this. It would appear it's predetermined what anchor you're matched with. There may, in fact, be no relevancy in your answers at all. Too bad. With the SAC quiz program, I could set something like this up for MPR's hosts in a couple of minutes. Hmmm....

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The department of corrections

Posted at 2:17 PM on August 4, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Far more interesting than reading some of the entertaining corrections the Associated Press issues each day, is imagining what it must be like on the copy desk when the editors are alerted they let something slip through.

This one is the kind of thing that might end up on Jay Leno, if it weren't attached to such a sad story.

(Stations: Please substitute the following for V4798, slugged Novak-Brain Tumor, which moved at 2:10 p.m. Eastern time. The new version CORRECTS last graf to restore dropped word 'tumor'.)

CHICAGO (AP) - Conservative political commentator Robert Novak has announced his immediate retirement after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported on its Web site Monday that Novak's prognosis is "dire."

The 77-year-old Novak told the paper that the tentative plan is for radiation and chemotherapy but details are being worked out with doctors this week.

Novak has been a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times for decades. He announced late last month he has a brain tumor. The revelation came days after he struck a pedestrian with his Corvette and drove away.

(h/t: Susan Leem, Marianne Combs)

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Hall of Fame broadcast inductees

Posted at 12:38 PM on July 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Media

The Museum of Broadcasting today announced the 2008 inductees into its Hall of Fame today.

Jason Davis
of KSTP TV's On the Road

Lynn Dwyer
"Roundhouse Rodney"

John Gordon
Voice of the Minnesota Twins

Ron Handberg
of WCCO TV and WCCO Radio

Brad Johnson
Twin Cities Radio Program Director & Sales Leader

Chuck Knapp
Twin Cities Morning Show Host and Program Director

David Knutson
of KDLM / Leighton Enterprises

Chick McCuen
of WCCO TV and WTCN TV

Pat Miles
of KARE 11 and WCCO

Mel Paradis
of Paradis Broadcasting

Distinguished Service Award
Marion English Watson
of KUOM Radio and the University of Minnesota

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Hall of Fame broadcast inductees

Posted at 12:38 PM on July 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Media

The Museum of Broadcasting today announced the 2008 inductees into its Hall of Fame today.

Jason Davis
of KSTP TV's On the Road

Lynn Dwyer
"Roundhouse Rodney"

John Gordon
Voice of the Minnesota Twins

Ron Handberg
of WCCO TV and WCCO Radio

Brad Johnson
Twin Cities Radio Program Director & Sales Leader

Chuck Knapp
Twin Cities Morning Show Host and Program Director

David Knutson
of KDLM / Leighton Enterprises

Chick McCuen
of WCCO TV and WTCN TV

Pat Miles
of KARE 11 and WCCO

Mel Paradis
of Paradis Broadcasting

Distinguished Service Award
Marion English Watson
of KUOM Radio and the University of Minnesota

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Fear and loathing in America's newsrooms

Posted at 8:54 AM on July 21, 2008 by Bob Collins (14 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Media, Politics

My post last week about the economy struck a nerve, judging by some of the comments that were posted.

The question is whether the constant drumbeat of negative economic news creates an impression that the economy is worse than it really is. Keep in mind, that's a far different statement from saying the economy isn't in bad shape; it is.

A poll out from Rasmussen today says 50% of those surveyed think the media is making the economy seem worse than it really is. This is despite the face only 34% think the U.S. "has the world's best economy.

Only a quarter (25%) think reporters and media outlets present an accurate picture of the economy and 18% believe they actually portray it as better than it is. Just 34% trust reporters more when it comes to news on the economy, and 32% see stockbrokers as more reliable.

A plurality of Americans (41%) similarly believe that the media has tried to make the war in Iraq appear worse that it really is, while 26% say reporters have made it look better than reality and 25% think they've portrayed it accurately.

This poll is one of several Rasmussen released today, purporting to show the media are biased -- or at least that people think they are.

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Air security for Twin Cities

Posted at 11:59 AM on July 16, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media, The political conventions

I can't help but point out the breathlessly delivered "investigation" last night by KSTP on air safety requirements for the upcoming Republican National Convention....

.. contained an awfully lot of facts available to News Cut readers 2 1/2 months ago.

What will happen if a pilot strays too close to the Xcel?

This...

First the fighter jets will try to contact the pilot by radio. Then they'll get serious by dropping flares. Then they'll get really serious.

And, no, the pilot of the plane above wasn't being stupid. He was flying along -- legally -- when the pilot of the fighter jet asked if he would mind being used for intercept practice.

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The end of public radio?

Posted at 10:41 AM on July 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Conservatives have been fairly consistent in the last few decades, railing -- as it were -- against public radio and light-rail.

Who knew that one could be used to get rid of the other?

Jeffrey Dvorkin, who once was the National Public Radio ombudsman, writes on his blog today that the radio folks are worried that mass transportation will lead to a decline in radio, especially public radio.

But there is one aspect that deserves a little mulling - the complex relationship of Americans and their automobiles. People who were stuck in their cars during their long commutes to and from work were captives of NPR programs. After all, there is only so much of Blue Oyster Cult that can be endured.

During my stint as NPR's Ombudsman (2000-2006), I noticed that a lot of email came in around 9 am local time. I concluded that listeners who heard the program in their cars would arrive at the office, steamed about something they had heard. They turned on their computers and fired off an email usually to express some level of exasperation about NPR's "Morning Edition."

Dvorkin points to an article in the Toronto Globe and Mail. In it, Richard Florida declares the era of urban sprawl over.

While we are in the early development of this new economic geography, one trend is clear: The history of economic development and of capitalism revolves around the more intensive use of urban space. The coming decades will thus probably see greater concentrations of people, increasing densities, and further clustering of industry, work and innovation in a smaller number of humongous cities and mega-regions globally. Alongside that will come ever more concentrated economic opportunity and deepening social and economic divides between people and places.

Florida doesn't exactly say that this new economic age will eliminate the long commute and then -- as Dvorkin theorizes -- public radio.

I always got a cheap laugh when I said that NPR's success was based partly on the listeners' addiction to their cars and that there would be trouble if people decided to start taking the bus. Hence "public radio hates public transportation."

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Off to camp

Posted at 9:48 AM on July 12, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Media, Tech

It's a beautiful day in St. Paul, so we're spending it indoors.

PublicRadio Camp is in session. MPR and MinneBar/MinneDemo pulled together the best-and-the-brightest from the online world, just to try an experiment on changing the way information is used.

High falutin' stuff, to be sure. And, like any experiment, it may succeed, it may fail, but ultimately something will come of it that may impact how you process information. The results may pop up on some of the more innovative Web sites.

The larger group has broken down into groups of various interests and they've been given a CD full of data -- audio of an unedited interview with a band on The Current, for example. Each group is kicking around ideas in such areas as user-generated content, political information, maps, using timelines, media sharing, laying content out in a different way, etc.

There are some Twitter feeds among the group members and I'll try to find a link to them.

In the meantime, stop back from time to time and see what they've come up with.

Updates

This group -- Jon Gordon and Julia Schrenkler of MPR are shown -- is noodling on user-generated content. Bruno Bornstein points out an important element of this. Media companies who want to do user-generated content, are going to have to "share the secret sauce," and give the audience -- you -- access to servers and content that traditionally companies have guarded. But when you think of it, what could be more public than that?

I was just with this group diagramming how a radio story is produced. Now we're talking about worldwide editing, and trying to figure out the challenge of meeting standards, without beating the creativity out of the author.

Note to self: Check with this group later.

This is the flaw of having your News Cutter telling you about this stuff. I'm decidedly not tech savvy. But these folks (above) are considering the power of metadata. They're talking about geocoding, for example. One of the notes on their board says "violent agreement." We'll check back.

update 10:45 Twitterers here (Tweeters?) include Andy Beger, the brains behind apps such as Select A Candidate (@thrym), @juliaschrenkler; Phil Wilson (@philson)

10:54 a.m. - This group has selected Neuvo Radio as its idea. I have nothing against radio, of course. I've been in it in one fashion or another for 35 or so years, but I long ago stopped thinking it was going to carve out a significant new role in the American media landscape. As one of this group's goals is "keeping/making the medium relevant," I'll keep an open mind.

But I bet what they come up with makes some use of online. We'll see. It's worth noting this group has -- at least for now -- the most members.

11:09 a.m. - The folks who were working on data have apparently merged with the "visualization group.

By the way, how would I feel with I were an old-school newsroom editor/executive? Not too good. We -- the societal "we" -- are just now beginning to recognize that "news" and "content" is becoming much more collaborative. "The people" have the tools and, for the most part, the knowledge. Traditional news media has said "we'll tell you what the news is when we've finished it." But those days are ending and it's alternately frightening and exciting to go through this change.

Take this blog, for example. And take last night's weather posts. It's run by a media company, of course, but it had no problem directing you to other media that had information (like that Willmar photo). That wouldn't have happened 5, 10 years ago; media companies were interested only in the content that they developed themselves. Now expand this a bit, and add non-traditional media sources. Voila!

Can standards of integrity and traditional journalistic values survive this? Of course. How? I don't know.

By the way, if you're looking for the model of today's event. You can read about it on the Minnov8 site.

11:27 a.m. -- Did I mention what a gorgeous day it is in Minnesota?

11:38 a.m. - One question I've been thinking about. How do you accomplish opening up this era of a more collaborative media environment, and not have it be more Twin Cities dominant. Outstate Minnesota -- possibly by choice -- is disconnected from this process as it exists now. Is it that outstate Minnesota isn't interested? Is it that the infrastructure doesn't exist. I think there are tons of stories outside of the Twin Cities and this process is perfect to get to them.

11:47 a.m. The "data" group has broken off from the "visualization" group again. I still don't know exactly where they're headed, but from the looks of things, it's going to be interesting.

I was just remarking to Phil Wilson (remaincomm) that this is the group that makes me think that if I'd paid more attention in school, I could've made something of myself. The gentleman in the black is Ivan Stegic, known on Twitter as @ten7. It takes 5 -- maybe 6 -- seconds of talking to him before you realize he's a genius.

12:26 p.m. We're wrapping up with a "science fair." The various groups are telling us what they came up with.

The "Fun with Data" group -- Says MPR needs an API (application programming interface). All of MPR's content and data could become available to all who desire it. The API would have a location, timerange and a keyword. People could use the API to develop applications surrounding MPR content.

"I think there's a lot of cool applications," Ivan said. "You could generate a cloud of words that describe content and the size of the words vary depending on their importance. You could draw a rectangle on a map and then see what all the words are for an area on a map that are important to that community. The API would reveal all of the relevant information. They could be articles or Twitter feeds. As you move a rectangle around on the map, the words would change."

Jon Gordon wonders whether MPR produces enough "localish" content to create geographic specific content. But with collaborative content, users could contribute to this. I
Bob notes: This is really an example of media companies are going to have to think in a new way -- that their content is part a whole, and not the whole.

User generated content - MPR is a "well-oiled journalism machine," so the idea is to give people tools to create content in general and, possibly, for MPR. The group went over the current process by which content is created, and analyzed where the collaborative point is. One big idea was creative copyediting. Also putting the editorial process into the hands of people, whether or not they contribute it to MPR. A key part of this is a how-to guide somewhere on the MPR site regarding how to write, produce, interview, edit etc. "It's franchising an idea," Julia Schrenkler said.

"There are a lot of things to think about in considering a story," Renee Schaefer said. What form does a story take? Is it better online? Different on the radio?

Part of this isn't really difficult. What if, for example, we simply told you -- the audience -- what stories we were working on and then asked for help. In some ways we do that now, but the editorial process happens behind closed doors.

Jason DeRusha is, perhaps, the media member doing this on a small scale now with his Good Question, segment.

If people were to contribute content to MPR -- or anyone else -- how do they get paid? Do they get paid? Maybe it's a different way of being a Public Radio member.

Where this process can make a difference, is the ability of the public to produce follow-up stories. Presently, we put out a story and then move on to another, but there's usually a wealth of information that comes back to us as a result of a story that should find its way almost immediately into another story.

Visualization group - If you're a regular blog reader, you've probably seen these applications (I think the NY Times does this) where a group of keywords get larger and smaller based on their importance. This group considered an idea where what people are talking about would make itself apparent online.

WCCO is doing something like this outside of its building in Minneapolis, with a series of projected words and such that change as the "tone" of the news changes.

This was demonstrated with something called "wordle."

So one of the people here created a version of this with colors. He took various MPR RSS feeds and found the words that occurred most often and assigned importance via colors.

These would change from minute to minute and hour to hour. Someone remarked this is the new version of the old "weather ball."

Here's an example of this sort of visualization:

code_swarm - Eclipse (short ver.) from Michael Ogawa on Vimeo.

This is called "code_swarm" that represents a collaborative software project, showing people involved and changes made.

Neuvo Radio group - Keeping radio relevant. The group says it morphed into opening up radio and production and distribution mechanisms to users to create their own content and disseminate that content.

Jon Gordon had a "radio coffee shop" idea where people could go not only to have coffee, but also to use computers and other equipment to create radio, which would then be broadcast. This is an easier process now with the advent of high-definition radio.

Phil Wilson outlined ideas for radio to become a more integrated member of the community. "What was interesting was we started talking about that could happen, and Jon and I joked about taking the 'dying medium of radio' and the 'dying industry of libraries' and putting them together."

Wilson says as they talked, they realize all of this comes down to more user involvement. Is the future of radio as a social media? "It has to be more controlled by the audience," he said.

Another idea was an audioi stream of some fashion from a place like MPR that people could download as raw information, and use it to create their own stories.

An example: the MPR series on University Avenue. It would've been even more relevant to people on University Avenue, one presenter said, if part of it were written by a resident. So why not make elements available to initiate that follow-up story. That's not to say the original wasn't relevant -- it was, to a wider audience.

Here's an interesting idea outlined by Wilson: Getting radio away from being enslaved by the clock. "Does Future Tense really need to be on at the same time every day? What if it moved around from day to day?"

It was a fascinating four or five hours and, ideally, will result in more noodling on the changing media around us. Perhaps we can start in the comments section below.

Update 2:54 p.m. At Julia Schrenkler's suggestion, I ran News Cut through wordle:

That would make a great coffee mug.

Not to throw water on things but on the way home today I remembered hearing a conversation in the newsroom this week. One person was asking another person what's the point of having text-messaging on a cellphone.

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An ailment for what ails newspapers

Posted at 5:43 PM on July 10, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Far too much time is spent lamenting the decline of the newspaper industry. If people other than news writers really cared, the newspaper industry wouldn't be in decline. Sad, perhaps, but true.

So let's just file this under the "frivolous lawsuit of the day" category.

Lawyer Keith Hempstead of Durham North Carolina has filed a lawsuit against the Raleigh News & Observer because the newspaper announced the layoffs of 70 staff members and cuts in news pages after he renewed his subscription.

"I wanted to get the newspaper's attention and the news industry's attention," said Hempstead, who is a former reporter at the Fayetteville Observer, adding that he loves The News & Observer.

"I hate to see what companies that run newspapers are doing to the product," Hempstead told the newspaper. "The idea that taking the most important product and reducing the amount of news and getting rid of staff to me seems pointless to how you should run a newspaper business."

Tucked away in the newspaper article's comments section, though, is an interesting challenge to newspapers: Just run your business the way you want government to run its.

Maybe instead of cutting staff and coverage the N&O should implement policies it advocates for the government to do. Such as increasing its price (raising taxes), increasing its payroll (as it advocates with state employees and teachers), and paying more taxes (which it advocates people and business to do). In fact, it should forgoe (sic) its sales tax exemption on papers sold in the machines and start charging sales taxes on those sales. Hey, if it works for government as the N&O steadfastly claims it will and does, why wouldn't it work for the N&O? And maybe after the N&O runs up a sizeable legal bill defending itself against this baseless lawsuit, they will start advocating a Loser Pays system.

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Birds and babies

Posted at 9:20 AM on July 10, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Is there some newspaper axiom somewhere that says birds sell newspapers? Three different newspapers in Minnesota today have front-page stories -- different stories -- involving birds.

First, the Bemidji Pioneer reports a hawk has been released back into the wild in Foley:

In Duluth, the newspaper reports that some bird is nesting on some guy's boat...

And in Willmar, the West Central's Tribune's front-page is dominated by the story of a magic show featuring -- you guessed it -- birds...

In the Twin Cities, however, birds take a back seat to babies. It's a big story when a hospital has a busy day and a woman -- 16 of them -- give birth.

A public relations person at the hospital is, no doubt, happy as a lark today.

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Jesse being Jesse

Posted at 9:57 AM on July 9, 2008 by Bob Collins (13 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Politics

I'm going to write this, and I'm going to walk away from the computer knowing there's a 50-50 chance it'll be outdated within seconds.

Such is the nature of the "now you see me, now you don't" personality of Jesse Ventura, who has been floating the notion that he's going to run for Senate in Minnesota.

The Ventura watch began this morning when ABC News is said to have reported he's definitely in. But links to the story -- a blog post -- regurgitate the "he may be in" data that we've gotten pretty used to up here in flyover country. The ABC story is said to have attributed things to David Welna of NPR (Jesse doesn't talk to any local media except, perhaps, Gary Eichten). Welna's interview doesn't yield a lot that we haven't heard before -- lots of factoids you can take to the bank if you don't mind the distinct possibility that they'll bounce.

Today's flurry then set Ventura up perfectly, giving him an opportunity to stay in the news cycle without actually doing anything other than denying anything's changed, by saying he was speaking hypothetically.

Nobody can play the media like Jesse Ventura.

Is Ventura using Brett Favre's playbook? Or is Favre using Ventura's?

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Ironworld's pedigree

Posted at 11:52 AM on July 8, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Media

Memo to KSTP (Channel 5): Don't mess with the Iron Range.

A story last night, purported to be an "investigation," asked how many taxpayer dollars are being spent to keep Ironworld, the Iron Range tourist attraction open. "Even if you've never heard of it, it's costing you money," the station said.

The story raised the dander of Iron Range writer Aaron J. Brown:

KSTP makes it sound like the state taxpayers are paying for Ironworld when that is just not true. Mining taxes pay for Ironworld and these taxes are paid by the mining companies in lieu of local property taxes. These funds are funneled through a state agency, Iron Range Resources, but the money belongs to the region, not the state. So the people who have the right to be angry about Ironworld are the residents of Iron Range cities, and most of them recognize the unique role Ironworld plays in preserving and sharing Iron Range culture.

.. and...

But none of that came through in the story. Instead, Reporter Bob sticks a microphone into the face of strangers in the Twin Cities and asks them if they've "heard of Ironworld." They hadn't of course, but then again not many Iron Rangers have "heard" of KSTP. Then he sticks the microphone into the face of Iron Rangers and the worst he could find was someone who hadn't been to Ironworld in "a couple years." When's the last time you paid to go to the zoo, Bob?

For a little history on the IRRRB, including background in the politics of it all and the criticicism that the "taconite tax" has been used for things outside its original mission, see this 1999 MPR story.

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Ironworld's pedigree

Posted at 11:52 AM on July 8, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Media

Memo to KSTP (Channel 5): Don't mess with the Iron Range.

A story last night, purported to be an "investigation," asked how many taxpayer dollars are being spent to keep Ironworld, the Iron Range tourist attraction open. "Even if you've never heard of it, it's costing you money," the station said.

The story raised the dander of Iron Range writer Aaron J. Brown:

KSTP makes it sound like the state taxpayers are paying for Ironworld when that is just not true. Mining taxes pay for Ironworld and these taxes are paid by the mining companies in lieu of local property taxes. These funds are funneled through a state agency, Iron Range Resources, but the money belongs to the region, not the state. So the people who have the right to be angry about Ironworld are the residents of Iron Range cities, and most of them recognize the unique role Ironworld plays in preserving and sharing Iron Range culture.

.. and...

But none of that came through in the story. Instead, Reporter Bob sticks a microphone into the face of strangers in the Twin Cities and asks them if they've "heard of Ironworld." They hadn't of course, but then again not many Iron Rangers have "heard" of KSTP. Then he sticks the microphone into the face of Iron Rangers and the worst he could find was someone who hadn't been to Ironworld in "a couple years." When's the last time you paid to go to the zoo, Bob?

For a little history on the IRRRB, including background in the politics of it all and the criticicism that the "taconite tax" has been used for things outside its original mission, see this 1999 MPR story.

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Anatomy of a news story

Posted at 1:37 PM on July 7, 2008 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Media

There was a story floating around this weekend that makes a wonderful exercise in ascertaining the difference between solid newspaper reporting and TV/video news fare. Perhaps the medium really is the message.

One story, one news organization. Two different messages and tones -- one that is relatively scholarly,and one that is simply meant to scare the devil out of you.

See if you can figure out which is which.

The Associated Press story documents the increase in routine maneuvers at airports called "go arounds," which -- as the name implies -- is when a pilot decides to abort a landing and go around for another crack at it. This can be warranted when another plane hasn't cleared the runway or the approach just isn't to the pilot's satisfaction.

Here's the "print version" carried by many newspapers (the Star Tribune carried a severely edited version of it). Nothing you're about to read will make any sense if you don't click the link and read the full story.

Here are the take-aways from this version of the story:

Anatomy of a news story

Posted at 1:37 PM on July 7, 2008 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Media

There was a story floating around this weekend that makes a wonderful exercise in ascertaining the difference between solid newspaper reporting and TV/video news fare. Perhaps the medium really is the message.

One story, one news organization. Two different messages and tones -- one that is relatively scholarly,and one that is simply meant to scare the devil out of you.

See if you can figure out which is which.

The Associated Press story documents the increase in routine maneuvers at airports called "go arounds," which -- as the name implies -- is when a pilot decides to abort a landing and go around for another crack at it. This can be warranted when another plane hasn't cleared the runway or the approach just isn't to the pilot's satisfaction.

Here's the "print version" carried by many newspapers (the Star Tribune carried a severely edited version of it). Nothing you're about to read will make any sense if you don't click the link and read the full story.

Here are the take-aways from this version of the story:

The secret war in Iraq

Posted at 11:03 AM on June 24, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Media, War

It was an odd day in American journalism today. A story about the war in Iraq made the front page. "Report rips post-surge planning for Iraq," said the Pioneer Press. "Progress in Iraq, but it's tenuous, U.S. audits find," said the Star Tribune. Of course, both stories about Iraq did not come from Iraq.

What's going on in Iraq? Good luck finding out.

The Project for Excellence in Journalism found that "In the first three months of 2008, coverage of the campaign outstripped coverage of the war by a margin of nearly 11-to-one (43% of the newshole compared to 4%). In an environment in which newsroom cutbacks and decreasing resources may make it more difficult for news outlets to stay atop two ongoing mega-stories, the media, for now, have made their priorities clear."

On this morning's Midmorning, MPR's Kerri Miller tried -- mightily -- to find out why this is.

"The campaign has taken up the news hole," one guest said. But how's this for circular reasoning? According to the tens of thousands -- 669,916 as of this morning -- of people who have taken MPR's Select A Candidate, it is ranked as the most important issue of the campaign. So how can the most important issue of the campaign not be covered because journalists are too busy covering the campaign?

David Folkenflik, National Public Radio media correspondent, responded to Kerri asking why she's not hearing Anne Garrels on the air much anymore (side note: Has it really been five years since she did her media tour through the Twin Cities?) by saying it's too dangerous for reporters to go out, something that doesn't seem to be stopping Leila Fadel, the Baghdad bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers.

The excuses continued to the frustration, I'm guessing, of most listeners. One suggested that because Americans haven't been asked to sacrifice, they're not interested in the war. But don't 99.4% (that's an actual statistic!) of the people who rated it on Select A Candidate as important or very important tell us that's not it, either?

Finally, Sean Aday, a professor of media and public affairs and international affairs at George Washington University, offered this: Once the surge started working (At least in terms of reduced violence, many of the goals of the surge have not been met), Democrats stopped talking about it.

And reporters stopped asking.

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How NBC got beat on the Russert story

Posted at 3:38 PM on June 23, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media

How did the New York Times and other news organizations beat NBC in reporting the death of Tim Russert earlier this month? A staffer for a Twin Cities company with whom NBC contracts to maintain its Web site. According to the Times, the unidentified employee of Internet Broadcasting Systems in Mendota Heights heard about Russert's death and updated Russert's Wikipedia entry.

Looking at the detailed records of editing changes recorded by Wikipedia, it quickly emerged that the changes came from Internet Broadcasting Services, a company in St. Paul, Minn., that provides Web services to a variety of companies, including local NBC TV stations.

An I.B.S. spokeswoman said on Friday that "a junior-level employee made updates to the Wikipedia page upon learning of Mr. Russert's passing, thinking it was public record." She added that the company had "taken the necessary measures with the employee and apologized to NBC." NBC News said it was told the employee was fired.

Eleven minutes later, someone else at IBS deleted the entry, but by then it was too late. The news was out before NBC could announce it.

The blog, Silicon Alley Insider says the employee may have been suspended rather than fired, but nonetheless sees a corporate conspiracy at work.

It's one thing for a news organization to decide to delay reporting news of a staffer's death out of deference to his or her family (this makes sense). It's another for the organization to expect other organizations to follow the same policy. And it is yet another thing for someone to deliberately strike accurate facts from a collective record to appease an upset client, which is what someone at IBS apparently did.

A bigger lesson here is the value of the new landscape for breaking news. Wikipedia and Twitter appear to be as capable -- and perhaps more so -- of delivering news to a large number of people as the large media companies who may wish to sit on it. I posted Russert's death at 2:33 that day. And I wasn't even the first since I prepped a News Cut entry first. It had circulated for 40 minutes before Tom Brokaw did a special report on NBC.

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KSTP and the News Council

Posted at 2:15 PM on June 23, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Following up on a couple of posts last week. When I was live-blogging the Minnesota News Council hearings (here and here), a commenter asked why KSTP wasn't at the council hearing to defend one of its stories.

The answer came today:

We traditionally do not participate in the news council. Our news department has more than a hundred journalists with hundreds of years of experience. Long before the news council was created, KSTP had a history of credible and ethical reporting. We continue to have the highest ethical standards for all of our stories.

Thank you,
Lindsay Radford

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Live blogging Minnesota News Council - The limits of MySpace

Posted at 1:13 PM on June 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Media

This is a continuation of live-blogging the Minnesota News Council hearing. The first "case" (against KSTP) has been decided. Follow along here.

The next case is bound to be heart-wrenching for everyone(Update: Here's a PDF file of the story documents). A father complains that a TV station unfairly used the death of his soldier son in Duluth as a case of post-traumatic stress syndrome and inappropriately used information on MySpace. Using MySpace information is increasingly common for newsies. Journalists are being encouraged to use it as a source -- as this article from the American Journalism Review attests. It's not without risks, however.

The general parameters of this case are covered in an earlier post here. There are also some very insightful News Cut reader comments attached.

One of the pieces of "evidence" attached with the packet for News Council members is a hand-written letter and a picture of his son's grave.

(Latest blog entry is at the bottom)

1:22 p.m. - The story video is being played. The Sheda family has left the room. The story is mostly about PTSD. There is a reference to Sheda, that he may have suffered from PTSD, citing an entry on MySpace.

1:27 - "They never called us," Tony Sheda tells the News Council. "If they did, we could have told him what a happy-go-lucky guy he was. He made some mistakes that night. The pain they caused our family is terrible.

He had a blood alcohol content of .24. "Adam didn't go in there, waving a gun and saying, 'kill me.' He waved $100 bill and asked to join the party. They took his money, beat him, and then shot him.

"The worst is the slander they did to a fine American soldier. Just imagine what we felt like around the holidays. Just imagine if they'd said that about your son or your daughter. Adam wasn't perfect, but he didn't have a death wish."

"He was in Iraq and when he'd come back from a mission, there was a 10 meter diving board that was off limits. The last week he was there, he climbed up and jumped off. They caught him and he was busted to E-5. That was Adam."

Mrs. Sheda: "She (Reporter Barbara Reyelts) used Adam to make a point. She never talked to any psychologist. How could she make that statement that he was having post-traumatic stress disorder? I'm not saying he was or wasn't, but how could she say that?"

1:38 p.m. David Jensch, news director of KBJR speaking. Says the station did contact the Shedas early on, but they declined to talk. Says veterans assistance group asked the station to do the story because PTSD was not being covered or talked about in Duluth.

"The Sheda story was covered by all media outlets, and was the best example of all veterans experiencing emotional wounds. It wasn't about PTSD. Our story never said that Adam Sheda suffered from PTSD; we could never have known that.

Was it fair to report he had a death wish based on a MySpace post. What was reported, the manager says, is he may have had a death wish. "Barbar Reyelts has never reported that Adam Sheda had a death with."

"Responsible journalists seek both sides of the story, which is what Barbara Reyelts did," he said. "Responsible journalism seeks input from all sources. This was done. This story has merit. It was produced in cooperation with people who work with veterans who think these issues are still being ignored."

Sheda rebuttal: "Here we go again. When Adam was killed, we refused interviews. But that was in July, five months before he was killed. They could've called us then and told us they were running the story."

"They never asked," Mrs. Sheda said.

Disputes KBJR manager's assertion that the issue was mentioned on blogs. "I've seen some scary stuff written on blogs," Mrs. Sheda said.

Mr. Sheda says he was drinking because they couldn't drink in a Muslim country. "I've written stupid stuff and that was a stupid thing. But I've written that 'cookies are to die for,' but that's not a death wish."

"Why did eshe need to use Adam?" Mrs. Sheda said. "It was pretty sensational."

"You speculate on blackjack. You speculate on a horse? You don't speculate on a fine young man like that," Mr. Sheda said.

1:50 p.m. Half of council members are looking down.

1:52 - David Jensch, news director: More involved than just a MySpace posting.

Council member Jane Berg asks if there's any other soldier's family that was willing to have their soldier's story told?

"Not that I'm aware of," says Jensch.

1:55 Council members are asking when a veterans agency official asked them to do the story. Jensch said he didn't know. Mr. Sheda says he knows the official, he presented the flag to the family at the funeral.

1:58 Council member asks if any media asked to interview them in the months after Adam's death. "Last summer was lost to us," Mr. Sheda says.

He's asked if the reporter had contact him, would the family have spoken.

"If she said Adam had a deathwish and we would've known that context, it would've been nice to give our side of the story, but if she'd called and done that, there would've been no story," he says. "

2:03 - Member Lorin Robinson to Shedas: Asks about a $40 an hour job. Did he plan to go back to work?

Mr. Sheda: Yes. Then talks about Adam donating a medal worth $1,000 to the air museum in Duluth. Says Channel 6 covered the ceremony despite being asked not to attend. "And they shoved a microphone in my face." (See story here)

2:09 Council member: Had the whole incident not happened and Adam not have died, would the series have been done?

Jensch: "Yes." But says he doesn't know if the person who works with veterans pitched the story to the station because of the Sheda case.

2:12 "Was Myspace writing used in any other media?"

Jensch: "Extensively"

"In hindsight, would you have called them in October and November and said, 'we're doing this?"

Jensch: "Yes. I don't think the reporter expected this level of sensitivity in the case. Everything that could be said about the Sheda case had been said. This reporter's story was focused on the other couple. If I'd been editor, I'd have caught that but I wasn't."

Sheda to Jensch: "Did you say awhile ago that Adam struggled in Iraq..."

Jensch: "It appeared that...."

Sheda: "What does that mean, 'it appeared?' He loved being in the service."

Justice Gilbert says, "we're not going to get in an argument here."

News Council comments

Elizabeth Costello - I appreciate the story because we don't do enough to show what these young men do in Iraq. Says she's not sure Adam was the best choice to show the kind of problems soldiers are experiencing. The Shedas were not contacted for this piece, "I think it would've been prudent to do that and give them the opportunity to talk about their son. Maybe it would've made the story richer."

"As journalists, it shouldn't be up to us" to make the determination that the MySpace writing was indicative of emotional issues.

Roberta Johnson -- I think there's a liberty that journalists take to interpret data in a way that it shouldn't be interpreted. You really have no right to make a conclusion because youre' not an expert. Ethically, that shouldn't be allowed. "It isn't your choice." Psychologists are trained; journalists are not. (Bob notes: Scroll back to the archives of News Cut and find "elusive local connection.")

Steve Schild - I don't think the story is perfect, but I don't question that there's a connection between PTSD and the troubles in people's lives. "It's an important story and Adam Scheda was a part of that story."

Noelle Hawton: "I don't see the link between PTSD and his murder. You can't make a judgment based on one MySpace entry. They inferred he had it and there was no proof he had it."

Heather Harden: "PTSD is an important story to do. Part 2 of the story was excellent. Part 1 was bothersome to me. Mr. Jensch you said the story never said he had PTSD, but that's disingenuous... In my opinion Adam Sheda was just plain murdered. What the media will not say that we all now is a drunk 26-year-old is a pretty normal event."

"I've seen media drawn to a drunk 26 year old like rabid dogs to raw meat." Calls the use of MySpace to conclude Sheda had a death wish "embarrassing."

Issa Mansaray: "I don't see the link in how he was killed in PTSD. It creates a problem for journalists coming into the profession. How should they cover stories like this?"

Al Zdon: "I think Mr. Jensch is careful to draw the distinction that the story... generally was about re-entry into the community after combat." Says the use of MySpace was "pretty crummy journalism."

Sheda rebuttal - "Done professionally, a story on post-traumatic stress would do a great story. Have it done with doctors. You don't have to use a certain person. The minute Adam Sheda's name was mentioned, it was like flies to dead meat. They could use that same time and have a good story and maybe it would help veterans. But a story like this didn't help veterans."

Mrs. Sheda: "I realize you need a hook when you do the story, but using the same footage as when Adam was murdered doesn't make any sense."

Jensch rebuttal - "It's an important story and it's hard to get the public's attention. The local angle is an important way to drive home a point."

THE VERDICT

1. Was it fair to use Adam Sheda as an example in a story about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)? Yes: 8 No: 9

2. Was it fair to report that Adam Sheda had a death wish based on a posting he made on his MySpace account? Yes: 7 No: 10

Analysis - Very scary (to me) that there are 7 people here who thought saying someone may have had a death wish based on a single MySpace posting by a soldier in Iraq was fair.

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How the news media polices itself

Posted at 8:24 AM on June 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Early this afternoon, I'll be live blogging two "cases" at a meeting of the Minnesota News Council, a group in which members of the news media voluntarily participate. Here are two cases. Before the council starts debating it, you decide. Then we can compare notes this afternoon. (Narrative provided by the News Council)

Case #1

Tony Sheda called the News Council in December 2007 to complain about a news story (Bob: I couldn't find the story on the station's Web site.) that was broadcast on Duluth station KBJR-TV. In July 2007, his son Adam had been fatally shot just days after returning from service in Iraq. In November 2007, KBJR-TV reporter Barbara Reyelts referenced Adam's death in the context of the "The War at Home," a story on depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among Iraq war veterans.

Tony Sheda complained that the story tarnished his son's memory and was sensationalized. "Adam may have been lonely, but he didn't have a 'death wish,'" Sheda told the News Council.

In January 2008, Barbara Reyelts, who is also KBJR's news director, offered a response that cited sources for the story. Her sources included police records, statements from the county attorney, and Adam Sheda's MySpace page, which read "my plans when I get back are to drink until my heart stops."

Hearing Questions

1. Was it fair to use Adam Sheda as an example in a story about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?

2. Was it fair to report that Adam Sheda had a death wish based on a posting he made on his MySpace account?

Case #2

Steven Devich is the city manager for Richfield, MN, and complained to the News Council after a story aired on KSTP-TV featuring a letter he wrote to a Richfield citizen.

A Richfield resident complained to Devich about noise coming from an air exchange generator located in the roof of the Richfield Middle School. Devich wrote back to the citizen, addressing their concerns.

KSTP-TV obtained a copy of Devich's letter of response, and featured quotations from it in "Richfield Residents Frustrated Over Noise," a news story they did about the noise coming from Richfield Middle School.

Devich complains that he was not contacted for comment by KSTP, and was unable to explain the contents of the letter. As a result, Devich believes the story was misleading.

Hearing Question

1. Was KSTP's usage of Steven Devich's letter misleading in a 4/20/08 story about noise levels coming from Richfield Middle School?

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The science behind the showbiz

Posted at 7:29 AM on May 21, 2008 by Bob Collins (47 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Why do we care so much about what TV weatherpeople think about climate change/global warming? If there's a scandal to be had, perhaps, it might be that with all the electron-sucking, radar spitting, neutron enhancing gear, determining what the weather is going to be 24 hours from now is a giant crapshoot that the weatherpeople quite often get wrong. We accept the consistency of inaccuracy and we love them anyway. But when it comes to global warming, all bets are off.

Next to the Chanhassen Dinner Theater (btw, interesting story today on Republicans preventing it from moving to the expanded Mall of America, which appears to run counter to the "too much regulation on business" mantra.), there's no more popular showbiz in these parts than the 5 minutes of TV weather.

On last night's news -- thrown in somewhere among the segments on why people are late and how to save for your kids' college -- WCCO meteorologist Mike Fairbourne -- the last meteorologist standing after Paul Douglas got canned -- defended himself against criticism spawned by a Star Tribune article that outed him as one of 31,000 "scientists" claiming the human impact on global warming is overblown.

"I'm amazed people won't allow me an opinion," Fairbourne said. "'I'm not debating global warming."

Huh?

The WCCO weather offices must've been a fun place to work back when Douglas and Fairbourne were both in it, because Douglas toes the American Meteorological Society line on global warming: it's happening, it's real, and the enemy is us. Douglas, in his Star Tribune articles, would also occasionally relay how much fun he has on his snowmobiles and ATVs, two contributors -- one might argue -- to an increase in carbon emissions.

On her blog, WCCO reporter Esme Murphy posts an e-mail on the subject from Douglas:

My attitude: all of us are certainly entitled to our opinions, but I tend to defer to the professional climate scientists on matters of the atmosphere extending beyond 15 days or so. There are thousands of (peer-reviewed) climate scientists all saying pretty much the same thing, man is having an impact. How big? Don't pretend to know, but to just cover your eyes, put your hands over your ears, and make believe that a 38% spike in greenhouse gases (from man) won't have any impact at all on the atmosphere seems like a leap of faith...and believability."

Smack.

Media watcher Brian Lambert posits that this whole ruckus is more about politics than science:

The fundamental issue in this "debate" is, of course, politics, not science. Fringe groups such as the OISM, to which Mike Fairbourne lent his name, are invariably politically conservative--deeply conservative --and attack "consensus science" of actual experts, as opposed to TV weathermen, bio-chemists, and whatever from a partisan political perspective much more than one based in science.

... but Lambert gives the TV weather folks who have made their opinions known, credit for doing so. He doesn't explain, however, why a weatherperson's opinion matters so. They're not climatologists.

As for tomorrow's weather? Your guess is as good as theirs.

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How would you reform the media?

Posted at 6:15 PM on May 20, 2008 by Bob Collins (36 Comments)
Filed under: Media

If you could reform the "media landscape," what would it look like?

For Josh Silver, it would mean an end to corporate ownership of the media diverse and independent media ownership, newspaper owners who live in the city in which they publish, political coverage that focuses on issues, an open Internet, more public and community radio and TV and hundreds -- thousands? -- of small TV and radio stations springing up from your computer.

It's not a pie-in-the-sky vision, he insists. "In St. Petersburg, Florida, there's a community-organization-owned daily newspaper that does a great job, has laid off relatively few reporters in the last decade and turns out some of the best local coverage in the county," according to Silver, who heads Free Press, an organization that wants to reform the media and is hosting a conference in Minneapolis next month.

(Bob interjects: Last month the St. Petersburg Times eliminated its business section)

Considering "reform" of the media, however, inevitably invites a "what comes first" discussion. Did the media dumb down the people who consume it? Or did the people who consume the media dumb down the media? Nobody will be surprised that two semi-talented singers competing tonight on American Idol will garner more ratings than the coverage of the Kentucky and Oregon primaries, right?

"When you do turn on your cable news and you watch the shows covering the primaries, it's all horse-race coverage," Silver says. "You have very little debate and analysis on what the candidates actually stand for ... There is such a lack of the kind of hard-hitting questions that shows like Hardball or Fox News pretend to throw at the candidates. The coverage is pretty pathetic. It's kind of a rational decision to pick American Idol."

Speakers at the National Conference for Media Reform (June 6-8) include: Bill Moyers, Dan Rather, former anchor of CBS News (question: Does the guy who invented '48 Hours' really have the authority to lecture on media reform?); North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan; FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein; Arianna Huffington of HuffingtonPost.com; Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, co-hosts of Democracy Now!; Naomi Klein, author of No Logo and The Shock Doctrine; law professors Lawrence Lessig of Stanford and Tim Wu of Columbia; Van Jones of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights; Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation; and media scholar Robert W. McChesney, co-founder of Free Press.

A small -- and fairly liberal -- list of what is actually a pretty substantial lineup.

"I do believe that conservatives are going to catch up with liberals on this notion of making a workable business model online. The debate in this country has swung so far to the right over the last 10, 20 years that even the notion of just a functioning education system or health care for every American has become some sort of radical, left-wing conspiracy -- or at least certainly a very liberal idea -- when, in fact, it's not," he says. "We're talking about civil society, basic rights of every human being. We're going to see a redefinition of what is left, and what is right. And what we're going to find is those on the right, who are reasonable and what I would call real conservatives, they're going to figure out how to make viable news outlets flourish online, too."

Of particular interest to conference organizers is the increased use of video on the Web. They've come to the right place. Local efforts such as The Uptake, for example, have done some very impressive work (News Cut interview), and are providing stories the "legacy media" are not.

Audio segments of the interview with Josh Silver (mp3 ):

Wanted: Weather anchor

Posted at 8:59 AM on April 25, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Hat tip to commenter Tim T. for catching this ad looking for a weather anchor on WCCO, which, of course, fired Paul Douglas a few weeks ago.

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A poke in the 'eye'

Posted at 10:30 PM on April 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Can the Paul Douglas saga get any weirder?

Let's review. Douglas Paul Kruhoeffer, popular weatherman with WCCO TV, is fired by Channel 4 while he's on vacation. He's asked to stay through the end of May. He declines and then, shall we say, doesn't go out of his way to dispel the uproar from fans who reached the conclusion that he'd surely say goodbye to them if it weren't for CBS.

Tonight he pops up on TV, this time on KARE 11, whom he left years ago in search of fame and fortune in Chicago. KARE 11 is going to make Douglas the centerpiece of its Extra segment on Thursday, giving it an opportunity for a ratings boost and a chance to rub the competition's nose in it.

Meanwhile, the Star Tribune, which bumped then KARE 11 weather dude Ken Barlow from its weather page when Douglas returned from Chicago, gives Douglas a less-than-lukewarm reassurance that "for now," Douglas' weather column will stay. Where's the love for Paul?

The attention seems to undermine the notion that the era of the "celebrity" newscast personality on TV is over, at least in the Twin Cities, which should, no doubt, make weathercasters at WCCO's competitors nervous.

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Is there a (photo) doctor in the house?

Posted at 2:05 PM on April 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Media

Is this offensive? On the blog Visual Editors, a site for people mostly in the design/photojournalism end of the news business, there are a couple of controversies being debated. One is the doctoring of images to enhance their impact -- a subject I'll leave alone, and the other is the picture shown above.

The site says the Business & Media Institute has carried several objections to the photograph -- mostly from Iwo Jima vets, who call it "a disgrace." Is it the picture? Or the assertion that global warming is likened to World War II?

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Is there a (photo) doctor in the house?

Posted at 2:05 PM on April 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Media

Is this offensive? On the blog Visual Editors, a site for people mostly in the design/photojournalism end of the news business, there are a couple of controversies being debated. One is the doctoring of images to enhance their impact -- a subject I'll leave alone, and the other is the picture shown above.

The site says the Business & Media Institute has carried several objections to the photograph -- mostly from Iwo Jima vets, who call it "a disgrace." Is it the picture? Or the assertion that global warming is likened to World War II?

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The 'more to the story' story

Posted at 3:24 PM on April 18, 2008 by Bob Collins (13 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Media

There are a couple of intersecting stories in the news today; the thread between them is that there's always more to the story.

Item #1

The story: Katherine Kersten's article "Teacher questions Muslim practices at charter school," documented the experiences of a substitute teacher to conclude that Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy in Inver Grove Heights is "an Islamic school, funded by Minnesota taxpayers."

The "more to the story" - MinnPost's David Brauer reports the sub was a conservative Republican activist in college, who had been shown a previous Kersten column on the school by her parents.

Item #2:

The story: During the presidential debate on Wednesday in Philadelphia, a video of a woman was shown, in which she asked Barack Obama if he "believed in the American flag."

The more to the story: McClatchy reports that the woman appeared in a feature in the Washington Post awhile ago, critical of Obama for not wearing a flag pin. ABC tracked her down specifically to ask the question, as opposed to having randomly submitted video questions from which this was plucked.

For the record, the "more to the story" doesn't render "the story" false. But when the full story isn't told, it makes it far too easy to question the motives involved, even though they may be pure. Plus, in the age of blogs, it's really a dumb idea not to disclose these things.

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The 'more to the story' story

Posted at 3:24 PM on April 18, 2008 by Bob Collins (13 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Media

There are a couple of intersecting stories in the news today; the thread between them is that there's always more to the story.

Item #1

The story: Katherine Kersten's article "Teacher questions Muslim practices at charter school," documented the experiences of a substitute teacher to conclude that Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy in Inver Grove Heights is "an Islamic school, funded by Minnesota taxpayers."

The "more to the story" - MinnPost's David Brauer reports the sub was a conservative Republican activist in college, who had been shown a previous Kersten column on the school by her parents.

Item #2:

The story: During the presidential debate on Wednesday in Philadelphia, a video of a woman was shown, in which she asked Barack Obama if he "believed in the American flag."

The more to the story: McClatchy reports that the woman appeared in a feature in the Washington Post awhile ago, critical of Obama for not wearing a flag pin. ABC tracked her down specifically to ask the question, as opposed to having randomly submitted video questions from which this was plucked.

For the record, the "more to the story" doesn't render "the story" false. But when the full story isn't told, it makes it far too easy to question the motives involved, even though they may be pure. Plus, in the age of blogs, it's really a dumb idea not to disclose these things.

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I've got a secret

Posted at 6:08 PM on April 16, 2008 by Bob Collins (11 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Let's suppose you saw a boatload of people overturn not far from shore. You could save their lives by wading out a short distance. Would you do it? It's a no-brainer. Of course you would.

So does it say something about the problem with the journalistic community that it caused some outrage in 1979 when the late Ed Bradley, who was covering the boat people escaping from Vietnam, waded into the water to help people get to shore after Malaysians on the beach started stoning them? There's a clip of it here if you can stand waiting for the commercial to end.

"You shouldn't get involved in the story," was some of the milder criticism. To the journalism community's credit, the criticism died down after the documentary won just about every award for journalism.

I'm reminded of the Bradley story because an incident in Ohio this week shows that there's still a mentality that it's ethical for journalists not to get involved in certain stories, even if people get hurt because of that conviction.

The way my blogging friend, Dave Gamble, tells it, the reporters and editors at the Columbus Dispatch newspaper got a tip that Skybus Airlines would go belly-up at midnight earlier this month. Sensing a story, the paper bought tickets and...

They didn't tell any of the passengers departing on flights on the last day of the company's operations that their trips were now involuntarily one-way. In other words, they knowingly and deliberately allowed passengers to get on an airplane and fly hundreds of miles away without telling them that they would be stranded with no way back....

Dispatch editor Benjamin Marrison confirmed in his column earlier this week that his reporters were not allowed to tell anyone that they were about to be stranded far from home:

But because we agreed to the 9:30 embargo, (Reporter Amy) Saunders was told to keep quiet about the looming airline shutdown. Her assignment was to report on passengers' reactions after learning Skybus had folded. When the plane landed, Saunders knew she could tell the passengers. "I was anxious," she said, because she didn't know how they'd take the news.

Marrison's rationalization?

We don't interfere with the course of news except in extreme circumstances, such as when our silence on an impending event would put someone in harm's way.

But wouldn't that require the editors/reporters to know all of the passengers ahead of time on all of the flights, to be able to determine whether their being stuck away from home puts them in harm's way?

On Monday, in the face of criticism that wouldn't go away, Marrison took another stab at it:

In summary, we don't violate embargoes or source agreements.

If only Ed Bradley were still around to straighten them out.

Update 9:36 a.m. Thurs. - Another angle, there's a financial connection between the newspaper and the airline. See the comments.

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Doodling the news

Posted at 11:04 AM on April 16, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Politics

Have you ever wondered what guests on MPR's Midmorning do while they're on the show? Me neither, but we get our jollies from different sources.

Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel is in town today, pushing his book, "America: Our Next Chapter." His appearance on Midmorning was fascinating. Listen to the interview here.

More fascinating than the doodles he left behind? You decide.

On the air, Hagel referred to Iraq as a "noble cause." On the doodles, it's a "Nobel Cause."

Doodling, All Things Considered host Tom Crann reminds me, is a very presidential thing, as evidenced by this collection gathered on an NPR story a couple of years ago.

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Lukewarm on the weatherman

Posted at 10:19 AM on April 13, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Weather

Even more than a week later, the News Cut entries (and here) on the Paul Douglas firing/layoff at WCCO TV are among the most heavily-trafficked pages, a testament, I guess, to the popularity of Douglas.

The Star Tribune has carried a daily blurb from Douglas since he returned from his misadventure in Chicago and people have wondered whether he'd still have that gig after exiting WCCO.

Keep wondering.

Here was Strib editor Nancy Barnes' assessment in her Sunday column today:

We are working with Paul to determine the future of that column, and I'll let readers know where we end up. For now, the column will remain.

It's just business, dollars and cents - I get it. My only real regret: not saying goodbye to viewers and radio listeners, who I am indebted to for a glorious 22 year career in this market. I leave with fond memories, having worked with the best anchors, reports, producers, directors in the industry, people who I count as irreplaceable friends as well as colleagues.

Justin steered clear of examining the Douglas-Star Tribune relationship.

Unrelated, by the way, in the same Barnes column is a story I guess I missed (I generally avoid both C.J. and Hartman's stuff) when it happened. But Barnes apologizes for the botched apology regarding gossip columnist C.J. apparently following conjoined twins she spotted at the Mall of America.

"Now, there's something you don't see everyday," I remarked to Walker, returning to our previous conversation as the twins walked by Barnes & Noble. Seconds later, they came into view for Walker, who instantly became the personification of flappable: "Did I just see that? Did I just see what I saw?"

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A part of the job

Posted at 7:04 PM on April 9, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Bridges and roads, Media

Nobody, for the most part, likes to go into a room and be the person nobody wants to see. Newspeople, as far as I know, learn to accept it and we tell ourselves it's part of the job and a small price to pay for preserving truth and democracy and whatever other blather we come up with.

But the real truth? People in my business need to stop rationalizing traumatizing innocent people over some fictitious justification. And they need to figure out a way to do that while still being able to tell people what the heck is going on.

At the conference in Brooklyn Park on Wednesday (see several entries below), public safety and behavioral health professionals analyzed the I-35W bridge tragedy and planned for the next big disaster, considering challenges such as counseling, food, shelter, medicine, rescue equipment, organizing volunteers and cooperation among the dozens of entities that are involved in these sorts of things.

The I-35W bridge disaster brought out the best in these emergency workers of all stripes, especially given the bureaucratic nightmare of it all. "It was a federally-owned bridge, operated and maintained by the state, which fell into a river controlled by the county, and the riverbanks were owned by the city," said conference organizer Jonathan Bundt .

But a common theme emerged among many speakers on the psychological footprint of disaster -- the trauma inflicted by reporters.

Granted public safety folks and journalists have always had an adversarial relationship, and there's usually a good reason for that. But when a bridge falls down, and families are in unimaginable pain, we -- the media -- shouldn't be making it worse.

"The media has got to fill the time," said Bundt, "but every time they'd report something, we'd get inundated by the families and 75 to 80 percent of the time, the information was inaccurate."

Bundt said the real problem last August with the family assistance center he set up, is that it was set up at the Holiday Inn, near the bridge, a site too accessible to the public and reporters.

"All the families had to walk through the lobby to get to the room," Bundt said, invoking an image of a gauntlet of reporters anxious to know what it feels like to think your loved one may be dead. The public has a right to know, one supposes. But doesn't the public already know the answer to that question?

So in addition to the other challenges the behavioral health specialists faced that August night, among the biggest was the psychological trauma inflicted by reporters.

"The news people are never, ever on your side," Rev. Jeffrey Stewart told the attendees on Wednesday, as he described racing the media to be the first to tell a woman that her husband was dead. (See post)

Leesa Dentinger, whose cousin, Christina Sacorafas died in the collapse, told the group that among the best things the family assistance center did, was "keeping the media away from us."

A Minneapolis police official, the group was told, surreptitiously arranged a secret visit to the bridge site for family members, so that they could look over the side of the 10th Street Bridge and not worry about the media. She said he got in trouble for that.

Another person told me a reporter posed as someone who was related to a bridge victim to try to get into the area where the families were.

To be sure, not every journalist was -- or is -- a jerk. Bundt said many gave him their business cards, and he put them on a wall with a sign for the families that if they wanted to talk, they could take their pick. "Some people need to tell their story," he said. It was a remarkably civilized and effective way to get a story, and perhaps it should be part of planning for the next disaster.

Behind the scenes, Bundt was dealing with the "diversity" of the families. Not just ethnic and racial, but rural people who didn't understand the city; and families of divorce coming together in a not-always-pleasant way. "When trauma hits, you can't hold it in," he said, noting that often family members had to get away from other family members.

It's a long-standing dilemma for journalists: how to cover a story and not make it worse. Before leveling the criticism on Wednesday, each person prefaced it with "the media was just doing its job, but...." And perhaps that's the first step journalists can take to prepare for the next disaster: getting it through our heads -- and yours -- that making things worse isn't part of the job.

"I hope you didn't take my comments personally," Rev. Stewart said to me afterwards. I did... but not for the reason he thinks.

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For your discussion: The news cycle

Posted at 9:18 AM on April 7, 2008 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Media

In this business, like so many others, you never exhale and get comfortable. As the Paul Douglas layoff at WCCO showed last week, the end can come at any time. As many have pointed out, Douglas will be fine. But he was only one of several to get the boot. He had the benefit of being the face in front of the camera. A bunch of others at WCCO are similarly going to be chopped through buyouts.

Around the CBS empire last week, lots of people lost their jobs, and a lot of flaks -- spokespersons -- had to reassure the public that nothing will change, which sounds like one final insult to the dearly departed.

For example. In Boston, 30 people were let go last week. Said a spokeswoman:

"There have been staff reductions stationwide as a result of our restructuring for efficiencies and streamlining our operations while maintaining quality programming and service to the community."

In San Francisco, five journalists were among those eliminated. And the San Francisco Chronicle reported...

KPIX spokeswoman Akilah Monifa said the cutbacks won't affect the station's coverage or any of its newscasts. Last month, the station added another 30-minute newscast to its lineup, producing a 10 p.m. program on sister station KBCW, staffed by their prime-time parent news team.

It's a familiar theme: "we're getting rid of people, but it won't affect our coverage." How is that possible unless those let go weren't contributing quality programming in the first place? And nobody seems to be saying that.

The term "quality," of course, is a definition in the eye (or ear) of the beholder. On the first night after announcing the cuts, WCCO provided a story on the history of the hockey puck. Two other stories in the newscast were provided by the same reporter.

The Star Tribune and Pioneer Press have cut back their staffs in recent years. Has it made a difference? The Pulitzers are being announced today and the Star Tribune is in the running for one based on its coverage of the bridge disaster.

If it has, then what we have here is a Catch 22 situation, the depths of which aren't yet clear. Cutbacks change the quality, the change in quality means a loss in readers/viewers/listeners, which results in lost revenue, which inspires more cutbacks.

How can that cycle change?

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