Donald Duck Gets Becked
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Category Archives: Media
Lost Another Good One
I'm not sure what happened, but apparently Kim Underwood has left the employ of The Winston-Salem Journal. Since moving to Winston-Salem in '04 I've enjoyed reading Kim's work in the Journal and, more importantly to me, I've enjoyed shooting the breeze with him over a cup of coffee on a few occasions. I even had the opportunity to rub elbows with him for the day job when he covered the Triad Apartment Association's Labor of Love project last winter, and it was a great experience.
Apparently I'm not the only one who is bummed by Kim's leaving the paper. Linda Brinson, former Journal editorial page editor, wrote a "Letter to the Editor" about it:
For many years, his wise and gentle columns touched us all, particularly the columns about his dog, Buster, and the children in his life, Sparkle Girl and Doobins. Kim also is a skilled, highly professional reporterdevoted to fairness, integrity and ethics, qualities that are too often lacking in today’s journalism. He will be missed, and the Journal is diminished by his leaving.
Like I said, I don't know what happened, but I do know that the Journal's lost another good person.
Headlines
Local news operations now publicize their stories through a variety of media including Twitter and Facebook. I have no idea how WXII doles out the responsibility for pushing content from their website to Twitter, but they may want to have a chat about how those 140 characters are used. For a story today the Twitter feed read thusly: "Winston-Salem Jogger Struck By Vehicle http://bit.ly/aB1uqp." On the website the headline was "Job Seeker At Fair Struck By Vehicle" and the first paragraph read:
A man who was running to get in a hiring line for the Dixie Classic Fair on Tuesday morning was struck and injured by an SUV along Deacon Boulevard.
It ain't the end of the world but there's a big difference between jogging and sprinting across the street to a job interview, and I think it behooves the news ops to make sure all of their headlines accurately reflect the content of their stories.
Katy Perry vs. Little Mermaid
Some people are making a big stink about Katy Perry's attire in a video shot for Sesame Street. Basically they're taken aback by her cleavage and are afraid that their rugrats might be scarred for life by the hint of booby existence. I understand what they're saying but I have to ask: how do they feel about their kids watching a cartoon with a scantily clad fishwoman? For that matter do they cover their children's eyes when they go to the pool and subject them to young ladies, and some not-so-young ladies, prancing around in dental floss? I'm gonna call hypocritical BS on this one, but judge for yourself (click on the images to enlarge them):
Here's the video:
Who Are These People?
Ever wonder who the people are that leave lots of comments on local news websites? The folks at the Las Vegas Sun obviously did because they profiled four of their more prolific commenters.
I'm wary to suggest the same type of project for our local news sites, because quite honestly many of their commenters flat out scare me. Still, if they were to profile some of their commenters here are some questions I'd like them to ask:
- Were you absent that day in fourth grade when they went over the difference between there, their and they're?
- Were you absent the day they went over the difference between lose and loose?
- Did you know that insulting subjects of an article, or other commenters, while hiding behind an alias is the definition of a coward? Aliases are for people who are doing courageous things, like blowing the whistle on corrupt politicians. I understand if you want to use an alias due to concerns like people at work seeing what you write, but don't use that as a shield to throw personal bombs at others.
- Did you know that invoking Hitler in an argument makes you the loser of said argument by default?
- Are you aware that the statement "we Americans are guaranteed freedom of religion, not freedom from religion" is nonsense?
and finally
- Did you know that when you're leaving a comment on a story you're not blogging, you're commenting? Blogging requires setting up a blog, writing something on your blog, having people write a comment on your blog and then replying to those comments. Go ahead and try it, you might like it.
Stupid or Evil? I’d Say Both, But I’m Hoping for Irrelevant
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| The Parent Company Trap | ||||
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Seth on Publishing
I pretty much agree on Seth Godin's assessment of the current state of the publishing industry:
Traditional book publishers use techniques perfected a hundred years ago to help authors reach unknown readers, using a stable technology (books) and an antique and expensive distribution system.
The thing is–now I know who my readers are. Adding layers or faux scarcity doesn't help me or you. As the medium changes, publishers are on the defensive…. I honestly can't think of a single traditional book publisher who has led the development of a successful marketplace/marketing innovation in the last decade. The question asked by the corporate suits always seems to be, "how is this change in the marketplace going to hurt our core business?" To be succinct: I'm not sure that I serve my audience (you) by worrying about how a new approach is going to help or hurt Barnes & Noble.
My audience does things like buy five or ten copies at a time and distribute them to friends and co-workers. They (you) forward blog posts and PDFs. They join online discussion forums. None of these things are supported by the core of the current corporate publishing model.
Foxx’s Comfortable Shoes
I swear you couldn't pay me enough to be either famous or a CongressCritter. Who in their right mind would subject themselves to the kind of daily snark and general meanness that modern society inflicts on anyone more famous than your average coat hanger? Case in point: Rep. Virginia Foxx's footwear was the subject of a little online snark during ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews' recent testimony on the Hill. Check out the pic.
Seriously? Foxx having her feet and footwear compared to those of a woman who's paid, in part, to be fashionable and good looking would be like me being compared to George Clooney. Heck, it'd be like me being compared to a hairy mole behind Clooney's knee (he'd still win). In all fairness to Rep. Foxx the lighting and hosiery didn't do her any favors either.
Adjectives and Context
It's always interesting to read about an event at which you were present and to really not agree with how the event is described. This is not to say that the person writing about the event is wrong, or that I'm wrong, rather it highlights the subjectivity inherent to reporting.
A case in point is a meeting I attended yesterday about which a reporter wrote "Contending for speaking time in a room full of raise (sic) voices…" To me that sentence implies that people were shouting, but I can tell you that from my point of view the participants of the meeting were speaking adamantly, but nobody was shouting. It might seem like I'm nitpicking, but I think the context is important. Meeting participants were disagreeing with each other and as I said I thought they were defending their positions stridently, but if what they were doing was raising their voices then my family shouts at each other incessantly.
Again, I want to emphasize that I don't think the reporter is wrong on this point, nor am I. Rather I'm saying that it's interesting to see how two people can see the exact same thing and come away with differing interpretations. Something to keep in mind when you read your daily paper, favorite blogs and other nefarious resources.
Oops there I went and dropped an adjective-bomb.
If the Winston-Salem Journal Did This Esbee Would Lose Her Mind
LancasterOnline.com is charging a fee to browse obituaries:
Fresh on the heels of a story posted by my LR colleague Cory Bergman about paying fees to leave online comments, is news that a local paper in Pennsylvania is charging readers to view death announcements. The obituary section of LancasterOnline.com now has a paywall.
LancasterOnline.com, the online news affiliate of Lancaster Newspapers Inc,. launched the obituary fee on Monday. Out-of-county online readers will be charged $1.99 per month, or $19.99 per year, if they view more than seven obituaries in a month. Local online readers, subscribers, or any out-of-county readers who only look at a few obituaries a month online will not be required to pay a fee.
I would pay good money to see Esbee's face if the Winston-Salem Journal's site did this. I think the head spinning would be Excorcist-esque.
Befuddled 
