Journalism

Over Rated

This entry was posted in Journalism on by

Kevin Drum rates common sources of news from worst to best:

1. Supermarket tabloids
2. Talk radio
3. Local TV news
4. Small local newspapers
5. Chain newspapers
6. Network newscasts
7. Major national dailies, including the New York Times
8. The very best of the glossy magazines

This seems to be pretty much correct except that Talk Radio might be ranked one notch too high.
And I’d put National Public Radio right up with the major national dailies though Kevin may not have thought them big enough to be ranked. NPR gets hammered a lot by the highly rated talk radio folks but most this seems to be based on their perception of NPR’s political orientation and not NPR’s factual quality.

Misleading Headlines Trolling for Readers

This entry was posted in Economics Internet Journalism Marketing Spam on by

I am often annoyed by the stretched attemps of journalists and their editors (and your current host) to tempt readers with stupid puns, alliterations and the like. For some reason, yet to be explored, this does not bother me so much when bloggers are the perps.
I am doubly annoyed when they lie at the same time. Today C/net published an article with this headline:

‘Phishing’ scams luring more users

I have a few samples of Phishing scam emails locked away in a folder and, yes, the headline lured me to the article to see if there was new info. Especially the bit about the apparent growing success of these scams.
But it turns out they have no clue. Here is the meat:

…said Monday that in September 2003 the company encountered just 279 phishing e-mails. In January 2004, this figure reached 337,050 and then dropped back to 215,643 by March. The company said it is impossible to estimate exactly how many people have been fooled by the phishers.

You read it right. The rate is down and there is nothing to substantiate the headline’s allegation that these scams “‘are luring more users.” Argggghhhh….
All this aside you might want to make antiphishing.org a regular stop for the latest scam updates.

FCC headed in Wrong Direction

This entry was posted in Capitalism Culture Democracy Journalism Libertarianism on by

Atrios states:

Some day our country is going to have to take a long hard look at itself and wonder why it tolerates massive amounts of violence on TV, but a single Boob is capable of driving us collectively insane.

And Jaquandor asks the same quesion this way:

why are we so incredibly tolerant of things in our popular culture like bullets shredding bodies, limbs being severed, and massive explosions killing hundreds — and yet so incredibly scandalized by a wide-angled shot, lasting for mere seconds, of a female breast whose nipple isn’t even exposed?

The FCC, to the extent it should do anything at all, would do well to ‘take a long hard look’ at this issue.

awol Disclosure

This entry was posted in bush Election 2004 Iraq Journalism on by

bush needs to clear up his military record now. He can not afford to have it haunt him through the next 9 months which it will without complete transparency.
The story has legs. See this the Washington Post here and here; see this Daily Howler piece.
It is not at all clear how w got the pass last time around. Yea, Gore wasn’t a combat veteran but his record shined more brightly then w’s. If bush end’s up facing a Kerry or Clark this will be an issue whether the candidate pushes it or not.
bush needs to provide his entire record in unredacted form to the public immediately. Starting a policy of truth and transparency now may be all he can do to salvage his administration.

Gazing at Blog’s Navel

This entry was posted in Blogging Democracy Journalism Marketing on by

Whither blogs? is a question posed by both PinkDreamPoppies, Alas, a Blog, and Bilmon, Whiskey Bar. Bilmon writes after attending a session on blogs at the World Economic Council in Davos.
If you are interested in such things go read the posts. In the meantime here is a bit from each. First, from PinkDreamPoppies

I’ll make a prediction on the future of blogging: We’ll see fewer and smaller independent blogs as large, corporate-sponsored blogs eat up the readership, and in some cases the writers, of smaller blogs. And that’s all I’ll commit to. I think that, as Bilmon fears later in his aforementioned post, the Golden Age of free-for-all blogging is just about up.

Now Bilmon may fear this but I don’t think he expects this:

I suppose the key question is whether the technology of the Internet will be enough to keep the blogs from going the way of the ’60s counterculture. Rock bands and radical writers could be squelched or bought off because the corporations controlled the means of communication — the record labels and the magazines and the major publishing houses. But while the Man can, if he wants to throw some money around, buy up individual blogs, he can’t buy the blogosphere. New voices can always set up shop to replace those that move to the Dark Side.
At least that’s what I hope. The potential of blogging is something I’ve come to believe in passionately — as passionately as I once believed in the mission of professional journalism. I’d hate to be wrong twice.

There is more in these posts then just this. They also take a look at corporate marketing, political power, the future of journalism and more.
Oh and take a listen to The Blogging of the President 2004 where Atrios, Josh Marshall, Andrew Sullivan, Jeff Jarvis, Jerome Armstrong, Ed Cone, Gary Hart, Richard Reeves, and a few others discuss the impact of blogs on mass media and the presidential campaign. Doc Searls blogged this show live.