NewscomaRural Media, Pop Culture, Politics And Bigfoot

I was off-line for roughly 26 hours during the holiday but my eyeballs were glued to CNN as I watched the crisis in Mumbai. Anytime I head to the farm, you drown in the silence as you look at the acres behind the house and sometimes the computer and it’s sexy ways are just not what you need.

I watched the news though with abandon. As a person that tries to understand why things happen, my main question was, and still is, regarding the motive of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

And when I did return to Casa Coma, I started reading Twitter, seeing the flickr pages that were set up with photos of Mumbai and perusing international newspapers getting their take on what was going on. There appears to be a lot of unprecedented issues happening in this situation from a military perspective as well as a media one. As I write this, the violence, explosions and bloodshed continues. I also saw a story on CNN critical of Twitter during the crisis which I pondered over. The CNN story focuses on misinformation on Twitter. My thoughts on that as that it was a place where people wanted to share information quickly and were looking for some sort of thread on why the hell this was happening.

I think CNN’s story was a bit bitchy more so than actual critiquing what is honestly the future of how news will be delivered in the very near future. MSM still is the go to guy so the story was silly in my opinion.

Then Kirk Varner hit it on the head (he’s been kicking tail on social news media this week) with this post.

What Tom and others might not realize is that Arrington is correct, because he calls Twitter a news source, rather than a source of news. News sources are often wrong, and that’s why journalists learn early in their training that multiple sources are needed to report anything as absolutely factual. The oft-quoted motto of the late City News Bureau of Chicago is the illustration here: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”

The point is that anything or anyone can be a news source.

I started out in radio as Kirk did and I was spotlighted by that radio station recently on how I was the only person in town that had the AP wire. The radio hosts (I didn’t hear it) spoke of how we went from the teletype machine buzzing and honking to the AP coming directly to my mike in my office as I read the news. At the time in 1991, it was revolutionary.

Now, everyone has a news wire on their computer. In following Twitter and online news sources regarding Mumbai, I am joining everyone who utilizes that news source regarding breaking news. As someone who has worked in news for a long time, I don’t believe everything I see but much of it is accurate from what I can see.

And there is room for every one of these things and I think we will probably look back at 2008 as the year of Twitter to a large degree because there has never been anything like it. And Jack Lail has some statistics of the new generation of news watchers.

As for Mumbai, I have watched with horror as everyone else has. I still am trying to understand motive but I think that I’m going to be waiting a long time for that to be answered.

Great quote regarding MSM in the couple of weeks since the election.

When politics becomes entertainment, we get addicted to the gossip. The prospect of governing seems difficult and deliberative, definitively un-sexy. We’ve fast-forwarded from instant nostalgia to instant projection.

I was talking to a couple of journalists last week about this very thing. Everyone was so caught up in the election that we were drowning in it with every nuance of what might happen being dissected by our overloaded brains.

Now that it’s over, we are finding ourselves sort of readjusting our jock straps (I don’t have one but my buddies might. I don’t know.)

The economy still sucks. Most folks ideology hasn’t changed. I still like cheese. The moon is still in the sky. Lou Dobbs is still being paid and I’ve decided that his mere presence still annoys me. Thanksgiving is still inconvenient for me as it is every year. Christmas will be present-lite this year.

You see, the world has a new president-elect, but not a lot has changed. Now we are being bombarded by what kind of puppy the Obama family will get. I just know that Mabel is not available but would be a fine presidential dog. I don’t know what’s going to happen, life just keeps moving forward yet somehow stays in place at the same time.

I have no ideas about projecting what’s going to happen, but I realized I have been pulling an Anderson Cooper. And that is that this weekend was filled with mindless watching of bad reality television, French films, slothlike behavior on my part and burned chili.

No, I didn’t watch the Obama interview on 60 minutes. I think my cranium demanded that I take a break from it all.

You can only do so much before you become a political zombie.  So I pondered yesterday why Tyra Banks is called a diva and Donald Trump isn’t because I think they are basically the same in many ways.

Deep thoughts? Not so much. Political overload?

You betcha.

David Letterman is right.

Keith Olbermann’s head looks like it came out of a video clip that JibJab produced.

And Ben Affleck did a great job of impersonating him last night.

That is all.

Andrew Sullivan writes for The Atlantic Online on how blogging for journalists has evolved.

Anyone who has blogged his thoughts for an extended time will recognize this world. We bloggers have scant opportunity to collect our thoughts, to wait until events have settled and a clear pattern emerges. We blog now—as news reaches us, as facts emerge. This is partly true for all journalism, which is, as its etymology suggests, daily writing, always subject to subsequent revision. And a good columnist will adjust position and judgment and even political loyalty over time, depending on events. But a blog is not so much daily writing as hourly writing. And with that level of timeliness, the provisionality of every word is even more pressing—and the risk of error or the thrill of prescience that much greater.

No columnist or reporter or novelist will have his minute shifts or constant small contradictions exposed as mercilessly as a blogger’s are. A columnist can ignore or duck a subject less noticeably than a blogger committing thoughts to pixels several times a day. A reporter can wait—must wait—until every source has confirmed. A novelist can spend months or years before committing words to the world. For bloggers, the deadline is always now.

The entire read is a good one and I suggest it whole heartedly. The one thing he says in the excerpt that caught my eye is about the deadline being now.

And that’s what’s breaking the back of traditional news media. Online is instant.

And people who read blogs or news sites on line, they want news as it’s happening.

It’s quite a thing to behold. But Sullivan also says this is a golden age for journalism. And it is.

News, as I’ve said before, is news regardless of if it is on the printed page or the computer screen.

Well, we mourn the end of Times Select. Well, actually, no. I want my MTV. Wait, I want my free New York Times.

The New York Times will stop charging for access to parts of its Web site, effective at midnight Tuesday night, reflecting a growing view in the industry that subscription fees cannot outweigh the potential ad revenue from increased traffic on a free site.

The move comes two years to the day after The Times began the subscription program, TimesSelect, which has charged $49.95 a year, or $7.95 a month, for online access to its columnists’ work and to the newspaper’s archives. TimesSelect has been free to print subscribers to The Times, and to some students and educators.

And the Times, they are a changing. (Please hear my rendition of Bob Dylan with a yodel and cowbell.)

UPDATE: Rex Hammock also approves. Booyah!

So, I met Mike McWherter last night. I’ve seen him around through the years, but never chatted with him. I know his sister who is a philanthropist in the area, but not him.

And being all Brenda Starr and all, I asked him a couple of questions, because, you know, that’s what folks like me do.

I asked him when and if he was going to announce. There was a bit of the political shmooze thing and he said he wasn’t avoiding my question.

I said I thought he might be.

It was all quite pleasant.

He said that he was going to Washington this week and then he should have an announcement right after that.

I asked him if Fred Thompson finally announcing was critical and he did say he was watching that although he did think Fred jumped in the race a bit late. I asked if it was being taken into consideration that a Thompson announcement might give Lamar Alexander some momentum. He agreed that was a consideration. To his credit, he spoke of this with a great deal of candor.

He said it was crucial to make a decision soon so if he wasn’t going to run, then another democratic candidate could get in.

Now remember, talking to a reporter in a situation like this where there are homemade sandwiches and pies in the armory named after his grandparents is a bit different than talking to candidates in an urban setting. I actually much prefer this way of doing it.

But, let me say this and I’m editorializing here, why would McWherter have come to a Weakley County Democratic Rally and not be considering jumping in soon?

Now, let’s break it down over the past couple of months from across the state, shall we?

Ken Whitehouse has his comprehensive background from the Nashville Post from June 22.

If you don’t know McWherter, here is a summary written by Whitehouse.

No stranger to the political world, McWherter has been intensely involved in Tennessee politics throughout his life. Well known among the state’s Democratic activists, McWherter served most recently as treasurer of State Sen. Lowe Finney’s successful campaign that unseated party-switcher Don McLeary. He has been a longtime political advisor to West Tennessee Democratic Congressman John Tanner.

From 1987 to 1995, Ned Ray McWherter served as Tennessee’s governor. Arguably one of the most popular politicans in recent Tennessee history, alongside Republicans like former U. S. Sen. Howard Baker and the late East Tennessee Congressman Jimmy Quillen, the elder McWherter still looms large over Tennessee’s political landscape. In the years after he left office, it was not uncommon to see “I miss Ned” bumper-stickers on cars throughout the state.

John Tanner and Lowe Finney were also at the rally last night as was Sen. Roy Herron.

Jackson Baker at the Memphis Flyer wrote about McWherter, also back in June of this year.

R. Neal wrote in Facing South that there might be another name being tossed around for a democratic nominee for the Senate seat. And that would be Bill Purcell. His post was from just last week.

Tom Humphreys of the Knoxville News Sentinel interviewed former Gov. Ned McWherter in an excellent article on August 25. Here’s what he wrote about Mike’s father talking about his son’s political aspirations:

If Mike McWherter follows his father’s advice, his decision on running for the U.S. Senate may hinge on Fred Thompson’s decision on running for president.

“He’s got the itch to do public service pretty bad,” said former Gov. Ned McWherter of his son. “I told him I don’t know where he inherited that.”

In a telephone interview, Ned McWherter said the two had a “long talk” on the possibility of a race against Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander next year. While promising to “organize and do whatever I can do” to help if his son runs, the former governor said he also counseled caution.

“Next year is going to be a dangerous year for Democrats,” he said, adding that Tennessee is shaping up as “a whole different ball game than nationally.”

And from An Enduring Democratic Majority, a good point about how an announcement from McWherter might shake things up.

If Mike McWherter jumps into the race, it instantly becomes competitive. Governor McWherter was one of the most popular leaders in Tennessee history and the name “McWherter” alone would give Mike a huge boost in name-recognition and favorability.

In addition, Alexander isn’t overwhelmingly popular in Tennessee right now. The most recent Survey USA Approval Ratings for Tennessee put Alexander just over 50 percent, at 53. Considering that Alexander is still serving his first term and is not a deeply entrenched incumbent, there should be reason for alarm among Republicans.

Last November DLC candidate of choice Harold Ford Jr. came within an eyelash of defeating Senator Bob Corker in an open seat competition. Ford Jr., who ran a campaign of trying to be more conservative than his Republican counterpart, may have sealed his fate by being too reactionary and alienating the minority of liberals in the state, who perhaps did not show up to vote. The final vote tally was:

Corker (R): 51%
Ford (D): 48%
Choate (I): 1%

And, finally, here is a video from NashFlix, also from June, with McWherter talking about a run against Alexander.

And Adam Kleinheider has been writing about him for months. Here’s a round-up.  

Especially this one, where ACK breaks it down on whether McWherter has a chance to beat Alexander, responding from a post from David Oatney.

My opinion on whether he’ll run.
He’s in.

If he doesn’t run, then I’ll own that, but I think he’ll announce by Oct. 7th.

Why Oct. 7th?

No other reason than its my birthday which doesn’t have a damn thing to do with anything, but pleases me to say anyway.
I expect presents. Like an interview or something.

Found at Brittney Gilbert’s abode on the cyber highway. (Do they use that term anymore? I am so behind the times.)

The NBC2 investigators have uncovered more controversy in the Collier County School District. Honors journalism students are not only getting graded on how they write, but half their grade is determined based on how many ads they sell for the yearbook.

Collier County School Board Member Linda Abbot says she was shocked to find out students at Naples High School are graded based in part on sales.

“I was very surprised,” said Abbot.

The controversy started when a school volunteer emailed her concerns to the school board.

“It’s not a good situation to me at all - I do not need to condone that,” said Abbott.

The syllabus says $600 will get you an A, $500 will get you a B, $400 gets a C, $300 gets a D and less than $300 worth of ads sold will earn a student an F on the assignment.

I seriously am going to get out of news. Damn Weekly World News for not hiring me to write fake stories.

Maybe I should buy a suit and go into sales. Or not.

This is the way it is?

Yeah, it is.

H/T to Brittney Gilbert

I am finding myself very interested in this story.

Fark, of course, is not a blog, it’s just, well, Fark. (You should read the comments on this story. Highly entertaining.)

But the whole story about mainstream media using Fark/online media (although Fark is mainly tongue-in-cheek on news stories from around the globe) doesn’t surprise me although according to Mediaverse, there isn’t any indication that Darrell Philips was working with his employer, WHBQ Fox13 out of Memphis.

I think the Memphis folks are probably watching this closely. They tend not to miss a beat.

The other thing that I found to be very interesting is about the way that media needs to recognize there isn’t any transparency about your actions in the world of ISP numbers.

According to Mediaverse, this story is still developing.

I couldn’t hack a coke machine, so all of this is intriguing to me.

H/T to Jack Lail who has a breakdown 

I always kind of liked Merv Griffin. He was a big part of my childhood because he was on the telly everytime I turned it on at my Grandmother’s house.

Griffin died of prostate cancer, according to a statement from his family that was released by Marcia Newberger, spokeswoman for The Griffin Group/Merv Griffin Entertainment.

From his beginning as a $100-a-week San Francisco, California, radio singer, Griffin moved on as vocalist for Freddy Martin’s band, sometime film actor and TV game and talk show host. His “The Merv Griffin Show” lasted more than 20 years, and Griffin said his capacity to listen contributed to his success.

May he rest in peace. 

I was wandering around the blogosphere this a.m., and found this article about what presidential candidates really CAN’T, or won’t rather, say while being on the campaign trail, and in all honesty, what they can’t do because of the status quo.

I found it to be very interesting. The writer cites that candidates are not going to get too “passionate” about certain things. They want us to think they are leaders, sure, but they only want to touch on things just enough to get our hineys out to the polls on that infamous day in November.

We don’t know what they’ll do in all honesty. Did we expect what we have now as a nation?

Some of the things the post discussed where items like illegal immigration (where they come out and say NO, we can’t get 12 million folks out of this country in a mass sweep cause it just isn’t going to happen) or that conspiracy theories become urban legends that the media reports as facts.

They are going to say what the majority of people who actually vote or going to buy. Retail, of course.

Interesting. Some of the list of the 20 things candidates won’t talk about will most likely make folks mad, but it’s an interesting dialogue to say the least.

Here is a snippet:

What’s sort of weird about all this is that a lot of people actually seem to agree with the “fringe” candidates – those who confront some of the taboo topics on my list. Ron Paul has had some luck pressing forward with ideas and positions that are considered taboo. He’s the breakout “fringe” candidate this year, but fringe nevertheless. And substantial numbers — maybe even a majority — of Democratic primary voters like Dennis Kucinich’s positions on the issues better than those of Clinton or Obama. But Kucinich’s campaign has never even caught a light breeze.

Obviously, perception trumps content. Voters may agree with nearly everything a fringe candidate says, but when the media echo chamber dismisses that candidate as “fringe,” they are drawing a big “L” for Loser across the candidate’s face. And while voters will eventually develop some measure of contempt for the actual President, loser candidates are beneath contempt, and can’t really be taken seriously.

The idea of retail politics gives me a case of the wiggums. Because it’s a selling technique and that’s about it. It also works on the theory that the squeeky wheel gets the oil.

I think I would add the quote “Mission Accomplished” to that list as something that will never be uttered by a president for the rest of this country’s days.

Ironically, I found this post on Fark.

Just saying.

I know, I know.

I’ve given Shepard Smith crap in the past. (Remember the “ROWR” incident from a couple of weeks ago.) Fox News just gives me the wiggums, quite frankly, but I read this interview with him this morning and I have to say, he sorta made some sense.

I’m not even on Meth Benedryl anymore, although I might have to be if I don’t quite sneezing.

I digress. Here’s what he said:

But [the candidates] are not going to tell us. If you try to get answers from people these days, they turn it around and make you a villain. And I’ve run into this. If a liberal comes on and won’t answer questions and you pound and pound, you’re a right-wing nut. If a conservative comes on and won’t answer questions, you’re a crazy lefty. All you do is alienate people and you don’t get anywhere. If there were a way to make someone answer a freakin’ question, I’d be interested in doing it.

I can’t believe I’m giving credence to Shep Smith (although he did pretty well during Hurricane Katrina.)

Who knew?

But I still don’t want to be “ROWRED” at, and honestly I don’t watch him.

I’m not changing my mind on that one.