Newscoma

So, here’s the video of the Denver Alien that was released yesterday.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN-SNd3OYfc]

I have a theory, so bear with me. First of all, this is a country that can’t keep secrets to save it’s life. What I mean is, that if the alien was in Gitmo Bay, we wouldn’t know about it. But if this guy, Stan Romanek, has had this video for five years, I think we would have heard about it. Why?

Here’s the story:

Romanek had allegedly set up a camera in order to catch evidence of a peeping tom whom he’d feared was preying on his daughters. Romanek did not particpate in Friday’s press conference, but did appear Friday night on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” along with Peckman, and other guests.

At Friday’s press conference, although the Romanek video was shown, photographers were asked to turn their cameras away, and not roll while it was exhibited. However, media members were given compact discs with a single, still image from the tape, purporting to show an alien’s head looking in a window of Romanek’s home.

I have to admit that I was watching Doctor Who last night and missed out on Larry King. Well, I don’t know if miss is the right word because, you know, it’s Larry King.

Here’s where I’m cynical grrl.

Money.

Plain and simple, capitalism would drive something of this nature. And, sorry, it does look like a puppet. I agree with the naysayers. I know, I’m usually more optimistic than this but it’s true. Now, there are arm-chair traditionalists like me that would love to see something like this happen and I would love to write for Weekly World News and am still reeling from the sad fact that they aren’t around anymore (Bat Boy, call me.)

Just call me KolchakComa. I even have the hat.

And, let’s keep in mind elusive creatures like the Giant Squid that we know exist but you just aren’t going to see them. Wait, that just changed.

Jeff Peckham, who is trying to set up a extraterrestrial commission in Denver, is also about publicity. My cynicism comes from that there are a ton of paranormal/alien associations and societies across the country. Let’s look at Roswell, NM. The money flows there, FLOWS.

Or is Peckham a believer to put himself out for so much scrutiny?

He says he is.

I’m think it’s arrogant to think that some things don’t exist just because I’ve never see them. I’ve never seen Clay Aiken face to face and he changes his look all the time completely confusing me. I also hear he sings although I have no idea what he croons about. Is he real? I have to make the assumption that he is.

The news, in a small part, has been following this. If Aliens were to land, the news media would shat itself trying to get the footage. Giving reporters a CD with a still photo and asking them to shut off their cameras just doesn’t make sense to me.

If aliens were to arrive, small microbes from space or people who look like Yul Brynner (I’m on a bald kick right now), networks would have alien pundits on the tube faster than you could say E.T., and the tickers at the bottom of the screen would be going wild.

Just saying.

UPDATE: This isn’t the official video going into the documentary. This is something else floating around.

When I talk about media changing, it’s items like this that reinforce that ideology completely.

It’s now been almost exactly a year since we announced (thanks to a Knight News Challenge grant) that programmer-developers could earn full scholarships to study journalism in the master’s program at the Medill School at Northwestern University. We’ve got plenty of scholarship money still available — but we have not been overwhelmed with applications.

Here’s where we stand: Two scholarship winners are now almost midway through their Medill studies. A third candidate will enroll next month. And we still have the equivalent of six full scholarships yet to award.

It’s important to remember the tools of journalism are evolving into new things many of us old-timers did not consider even five years ago. I honestly believe that journalists are going to have to learn how to write code.

And I’m trying to figure it out myself as well.

We always hear about how there is the battle between old ways of covering news and new digital media. Of course, these days sometimes I feel my job is more about being a battering goat for complaints as yesterday that seemed to be the ONLY thing in my job description.  I was also taking care of an awning problem in front of our building that was victim to the winds and age this spring.

That’s not news. That’s housekeeping.

I miss balls to the wall writing news and it’s hard to do that sitting behind a desk at times. I used to love getting out and organically finding news stories. I used to have four deadlines in one day when I was in radio news. I like the feel of busting a news story from the trickle and whisper of it’s conception to when it breaks knowing that I was getting that piece of news to the people.

And, I’m dealing with awning, complaints and personnel issues these days.

I bring this up that sometimes when you get to that point in your career when you realize you are in transition.

I am, however, excited about new concepts in delivering news. I mentioned last week I’ve been following a murder trial on twitter.

I also noticed yesterday that Katie Allison Granju covered minute-by-minute the shooting of a police officer at WBIR on it’s news site.

I realize news is changing.

Fortunately, tomorrow I am covering a hearing of a deputy who killed his estranged wife’s lover. He was convicted a couple of years ago but the case is headed back to court. As I love covering court better than just about anything, it will be a welcome change. If only they had WiFi in the courthouse here then I could report it live.

I need to work on making things like that happen.

I found this site through Brittney G’s fancy new blog in San Francisco.

Big city, little town, it’s all the same.

How can I get on the front page?

This is what Spots says:

“What’s your name?”

“Beth.”

“Who are you with? Newspaper? TV? Website? Media?”

Oy. “The Chronicle.”

“What do we have to do to get on the front page of the Chronicle?”

Oh god. What the hell do I say to that? Beats me, sketch comedy guy. Probably bomb a government building day care center. So I went with the obvious.

“Nudity?”

I mainly did this for my girls, giggling behind me.

Andrew, who had remained on stage then proceeded to undress, making it only as far as his yellow man-panties, which is why he’s only ending up on the Culture Blog.

I have to become more clever when I get this question like she was. Every day. I live in the South in the Bible Belt. No one is going to get nude except that one lady who they keep throwing out of the local juke joints for conducting, let’s say, business practices that aren’t quite legal.

Most men I know don’t wear “yellow man-panties” but if they did, I’d probably put them on the front page.

Yes, we would love to put every story on the front page. But there is, you know, just one front page thus it being called the front page.

Oy indeed.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4pY3QtiGyo]

From the BBC.

Lauren Rabaino writes this at her blog over Wired Journalists. It’s a great piece.

The deadline isn’t 11 p.m. anymore. The deadline is now. She gets the content on the Web, she writes a longer, more elaborate story for print, and continues writing updates for the Web all day. After deadline passes, she’s still not done; she writes a blog about her experience. One reporter is being stretched in different directions, acting as a print reporter, TV anchor, radio reporter and Web guru. Thus, the concept of news “convergence.”

She’s right. Things aren’t just changing, they HAVE changed.

I woke up this morning and did some early morning blogging over at Music City Bloggers while drinking my morning joe watching CNN.

The audio started acting wonky and it sounded like John Roberts was the devil. Of course I don’t want my newscasters to sound like Beelzebub so I turned the channel to, and the irony it burns, Morning Joe.

As it is primary day, I thought watching the news would give me some insight into the election. Joe had Pat Buchanan on.

I have to tell you, Pat B. always looks mad. He looked mad when he was on Crossfire a kajillion years ago. He just has this look of perpetual pissdom.

Well, they played all of the negative ads running giving everyone a freebie on national television and I kinda zoned out because we won’t know until tonight.

Here’s what I think, and I could be wrong, will happen today. Obama has to close the deal if he wants the nomination. Clinton, well, I’m not happy with her at all right now but she’s probably going to do well.

More democrat fighting for six more weeks! Woot. *snark*

Who knows at this point. All I know is I’m still suffering Election Fatigue Syndrome.

So, back to my morning, Tiki Barber and Pat Buchanan are pontificating about Hillary Clinton as I write this.

Huh?

This is a combination of political punditry I would have never considered in my entire life.

Congrats!

Sorry, knee deep in non-virtual life. A little crazy but I had to give a shout out.

Way to go, Pesky and all of your coworkers!

Now back to the lack of a cyber world in Hoots.

And color me happy. I always liked Aaron Brown when he was at ABC in the mornings and I thought he was fine at night until that sexy Anderson Cooper got everyone’s dander up. Don’t get me wrong, I like AC too but there is just something steady and dare I say it, intelligent about our guy Aaron.

He is going to be working on Wide Angle. I also love me some PBS. This is good news.

Anchoring “Wide Angle,” a weekly public affairs series with a global focus, offers the chance “to work in an environment where people just think about making good TV and good journalism,” Brown said.

“By the end (of an episode), you understand the world you live in and how it’s connected to you,” he said Saturday.

Brown, 59, who left CNN in November 2005 during a shake-up that gave his time slot to rising star Anderson Cooper, said he was contractually barred from working in TV until last June. He’s been teaching at Arizona State University as its first Walter Cronkite Professor of Journalism.

“Wide Angle” begins its seventh season July 1. PBS planned to announce Brown’s hiring on Monday.

Brown has distinguished himself as an anchor by avoiding a “booming voice-of-God” approach and instead delivering news as a storyteller, said Stephen Segaller, director of national production at Thirteen/WNET, the New York station that produces “Wide Angle.”

Besides his distinctive on-camera demeanor, Brown has “a good sense of what international stories will mean to American audiences and how the stories will play,” Segaller said.

Brown contrasted the work he expects to do at PBS with how cable television operated at times during his tenure.

“I don’t want to get into the business of indicting cable TV, but some of what went on was just television, not journalism,” he said. Expanding on his comments, he said that cable TV is a tough business that can be pushed into focusing on sensational, “tabloidy stories.”

Welcome back, Mr. Brown.

In the future newspapers might actually be able to pay readers for subscribing. Maybe filling out the bare essentials of a survey would garner someone a free print and Web subscription, but filling out extra questions, or visiting a certain number of advertisers’ Web sites would give them a cash rebate? People are willing to overspend on their credit cards to get ‘cash back’ or other rewards. Why wouldn’t they jump at the chance to read and make money doing so?

The possibilities for profit, performing a valuable service and growing readership are just around the corner. It will take visionary leadership to get there, but history indicates that with great risk comes great reward.

The end?

Times are tough indeed. An ailing economy does not make life any easier for the industry. All that remains to be said is that perhaps some of these ideas will work. Maybe none of them will. But this is a dialog that the industry needs to have amongst itself and with the public often.

Every day that real innovation is passed over to maintain the status quo, every day that the industry fails to innovate, is one day closer to the temporary or permanent failure of one of the cornerstones of a healthy democracy: a free and balanced press.

From Wired Journalists. Believe me, everyone is talking about print media these days. Well, those of us in the news are at least.

A couple of things this morning.

First of all, as one of my favorite bloggers/news guys, I just wanted to say that Michael Silence’s new role at Knox News is inspired. I think this is a great move and he’s on my “must” list daily. If you break it down further, it’s interesting to watch progressive news organizations embracing the online community.

Katie Allison Granju wrote recently about the changes in newsrooms which is a must read as well. I’ve written before about personality driven blogging. I think it’s important.

I think we are seeing that happen although it could be said that Nashville is Talking began it with Brittney and a plethora of guest bloggers (I was one and it was an amazing honor) which began some of the trends here in Tennessee.

But it is evolving. We are seeing a lot of blogging activity out of the Knoxville area. We are also witnessing a shift in the way things are happening online. Joe Lance and Alice are keeping it interesting in Chattanooga with some insightful and targeted blogging which are also must reads. In Memphis, we see a community of folks blogging who have created an amazing network of not only information but who are also friends. Everyone needs to swing by Drinking Liberally on Thursday nights at Dish on the corner of Cooper and Young. It’s always some of the most insightful conversation on a weekly basis. The Drinking Liberally don’t update their site too often, but are very active on Facebook.

Also, I’m eagerly waiting for Kleinheider’s daily return at The Nashville Post. I hope it’s not behind a subscription wall. We bloggers vote but we be poor. So far, so good.

It’s an interesting time here in Tennessee when it comes to your daily dose of politics. If politics isn’t your thing, then here is a picture that I think Lindsey and Killa will appreciate. There is a lot more going on than I listed here. I guess I’m thinking of location today outside of the state’s capital.

Last week, I was feeling like I lost my mojo. I was a bit disconcerted, not a bit of fun to be around and just felt peculiar and odd. It was one of those times that I just couldn’t get my rhythm.

Have you ever gone through that? It’s very strange. I just felt tired and cranky and a bit depressed/angry. Friday night, I felt really strange. It was almost like my head was coming off my brain stem.

Well, there must have been a reason I’m finding out.

Squirrel Queen, the nieces and I have had a lovely bout of the flu this weekend. As none of us could lift our heads off the cool tile of the bathroom, the idea of going to a doctor was not possible.

We are talking a house full ‘o sick.

I feel as bad as bloated up roadkill on one of our roads here in Hoots.

I would give you the lowdown on the nastiness, but I’m thinking you would sort of gross out. God knows I have.

Just hoping the week doesn’t kick my hiney this week. Bronchitis and now this is making me wonder if I need to move to Arizona or seriously forget about a life coach and get a damned doctor’s visit.

Bear with me, campers.

For some very good reading about small business and the election, go see Vibinc.

And then go over to Squirrel Queen’s. And then hit Jack’s for a really good essay on news and the Internet which is fierce.

Going to pass out in front of the game.

Send Squirrel Queen and I reinforcements if you don’t hear from us.