John McCain's campaign supposedly broke news of Sarah Palin's daughter's pregnancy to ease attacks from the liberal blogs, which drummed up a conspiracy theory that Palin's fifth child was actually her granddaughter. But now McCain — seen here in an intentionally cropped photo — is turning on his "base," saying it's more than the blogs causing him migraines, but the mainstream media as well. And taking a misguided cue from Hillary Clinton, he's gone on the attack against the press. Again. CONTINUED »
Jim Romenesko's column for the Poynter Institute's homepage is, for the most part, the only reason to visit the site. Built for journalists, Romenesko's link tidbits are the talking points that keep industry chatter flowing. But after a redesign of Poynter's site, Jim & Co. find themselves subjected to more backlash than usual. Is Romenesko just a dumping ground for he-said-she-said arguments and Sophie's Choice news about layoffs? CONTINUED »
So far, ya know whose DNC coverage we're enjoying the most? Not MSNBC's, even with the in-fighting. Not the Washington Post's, even with Howard Kurtz is talking about his makeup. Rather, it's Playboy magazine's, which truly understands the "man on the street" approach to this clusterfuck of politicos, reporters, and party crashers is the best way to cover the beast. CONTINUED »
Jon Stewart is the Most Awesomest Guy in the world, everybody agrees. The Times hands out puff profiles on the guy — just 'cause. The kids love him and laugh on command, even though he sometimes traffics in Dad Humor, and that's the worst. But he's scored big points among viewers for skewering politicians, and among the media elite for skewering … the media elite. But as with all good things — Mad Men, memorializing Tim Russert, Michael Phelps — inevitably, there comes backlash. So far, Stewart's avoided it. But no longer.
It's time to admit you've grown tired of Stewart's tired routine. Splicing clips where politicians contradict themselves? Fine. But finding new examples of media screw ups every day is our job; Stewart's brand of "You Are Fools And Let Me Show You Why But Won't You Still Love Me?" has run its course. CONTINUED »
From the get-go, we've already taken a dump on the possibility of authenticity-by-algorithm news site Newscred and its attempt to suss out what sources are trustworthy. But here's more evidence that the site isn't worth its tagline ("All the world's credible news, in one place"): Every source is being treated equally. CONTINUED »
Now that they've tied the knot, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi have finally made it - to the cover of People. The tabloid will release some exclusive shots from the lady's wedding this Friday.
Did you ever Digg or Stumble or Twitter or Tumble across a juicy lead, only to have the unverified source come back to haunt you later on (whoops, Montauk Monster)? Now there is a news aggregator site that uses an algorithm to determine the credibility of user-submitted stories, which would (in theory) allow commentators to work as their own self-cleaning system of news truthiness; weeding out the more dubious stories by voting them with a low credibility rating. But can Newscred realistically run on a system of fair play?
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There was a time, not so long ago, when crazy people had to go on public access shows at 3am to get their voices (and all the ones in their head) heard. Then came YouTube, and it obliterated the competition. It was cheaper (FREE!) and allowed your message to reach a wider audience than a television spot on a local station. But now media technology has come full circle with the advent of SaysMe.TV, a user-generated site that let's you pay as low as six bucks to have your message broadcast on the tele. For some zany reason, the site is currently being marketed as a political commentator soapbox instead of what its obvious purpose: an advertising boon for local businesses without the budgets to create actual infomercials. Right now, "politics" is selling a smidge better than news of half-priced avocados at the farmers market.
The Russia-Georgia conflict won't just test President Bush's ability to man up and defend one of the few countries willing to support his war in Iraq — it's also testing the media's ability to survive the conflict. So far, we've counted at least three attacks on journalists trying to cover Russia's invasion of Georgian territory. CONTINUED »
So this classifies as bad news, right?
• Media conglomerate Cox Enterprises is selling the whole kit and kaboodle (except for three holdings)
• The McClatchy Company announced a year-long wage freeze. Then they started selling off their assets.
• Gannett Company Inc, (the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S.) plans on cutting 1,000 jobs to avoid going under.
Between the Democratic and Republican national conventions this year, some 30,000 reporters are going to make use of their employers' travel budget to attend. Except are they really heading to Denver and St. Paul to get an Obama or McCain scoop, or just to party at network? What is this, the Beijing Olympics?
Political conventions are to the media what happy hour — or 11am — is to Don Draper. Here's JackShaf on why reporters waste their time and their media companies' dwindling budgets:
They fight their colleagues for the honor to attend because a political convention is a gas to cover. It's like a vacation, only no spouses! There's free food, plenty of booze, nice hotels, lots of pals in the press and politics dishing gossip, and the assignment is easy to report. Ferguson concludes that political conventions exist only to make the second convention—the "journalists' convention"—possible. "The parasite has consumed the host," he wrote.
So … see you there, Shafer?
The press corps accompanying President Bush to China for the Olympic opening ceremonies had their chartered Northwest Airlines plane delayed by Chinese officials for nearly three hours upon landing. Normally, the press accompanying the president are allowed to deplane and head straight to their hotels while government officials work out immigration issues. Not this time. Journalists were required to go through immigration one-by-one and have their bags screened individually. Officially, the White House blamed "logistical problems" for the incident. Yeah, like having the Olympics in China.
If you want to see a movie that will make you ashamed to be an American, you should definitely check out Swing Vote. The new Kevin Costner feature asserts that the average American male takes 31 sick days a year, let's his 11 year old drive him home when he's too drunk, and doesn't know what the word "civic" means, let alone "responsibility." This movie could have been used for Al Qaeda training video.
But there was one reoccurring theme in the film: the blue-collar fear of job "insourcing," where the U.S. imports illegal Mexican immigrants to wash our dishes, pick our tomatoes, and torment Lou Dobbs. It's a play on another of America's fears: The outsourcing of American call-centers, and bloggers, to India.
But like the fly in your Chardonnay, the irony here is that "insourcing" is already happening — in India no less. There, English-speaking American journalists are flocking (by the dozens!) to escape the death of this nation's print journalism industry. CONTINUED »
Slate.com, the left-y political and pop culture website that enjoys throwing convention to the wind for the sake of an interesting coverline, in January launched a black-interest website called TheRoot.com. (A personal finance site, The Big Money, is on the way from Slate's Washington Post Co. owners.) We had high expectations for The Root, given the names attached to the thing, like Henry Louis Gates Jr., Lynette Clemetson, and Malcolm Gladwell. But ever so slowly, we've watched the site turn from a sea of well-informed opinion into a cesspool of rhetorical questions that should never be asked. It's sad, too, because we publish the black-interest website Stereohyped, which looked at The Root's arrival not as a competitor, but a welcome addition to a frighteningly small pool of black-oriented web publications.
Today, The Root let Jeff Winbush publish the article "Can Black Journalists Be Trusted to Cover Obama?" We expected this to be a Slate-esque trick: Pose a question that the article will seek to disprove. (On Slate.com right now is the coverline "I'm Stockpiling Cheap Gasoline in My Garage. Am I an Idiot?" The article answers, "No.")
Instead, in trying to argue that the white journalists who are criticizing their black colleagues for not being impartial are fools, Winbush outs himself as a completely biased black journalist. CONTINUED »
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