Dear Bill Keller
Dear Bill Keller,
You’ve got to be kidding me.
I had hope. I’ve been to the new Times newsroom, I’ve seen your awesome web infographics, I’ve talked with your developers, I’ve watched videos of your futurism department. There are many, many, smart people working for you.
When I asked one of your employees, why he had given up a well-paying job to come work for you he told me “…when the Times calls, you answer.”
I was emboldened when I read your byline from Iran. You, a manager, reported from the heart of what continues to be the world’s biggest story.
You sir, are in control of one of the finest journalism producing institutions in the world. Yet, people like you are pissing it away.
I was heart broken when I heard that the New York Times, which I have a deep respect and love for signed it’s intent-to-file-chapter-11 forms.
Nonetheless, I have a deep appreciation for experimentation, and I hope that your endeavors will teach the rest of us a thing or two about how to make money on the web.
Then, I read a Q&A that you did in TIME magazine. Even though the copy had to fit on one page, and your answers are brief, I’ve never seen a journalist sound as much like a politician as you did in that article. (And I use the word 'politician' that in the out-of-touch, slimy, refusing-to-be-held-accountable sort of way.)
Apologize for your mistakes. Transparency is all it’s cracked up to be.
You admitted that journalists in this country had failed as the Fourth Estate. The flat-out bad reporting when ex-President Bush took this country to war against Iraq was in-excusable. The argument for war was based on lies. To this day, the media hasn’t made a resounding statement saying as much.
You didn’t apologize.
You blamed us, the people, for creating “conventional wisdom” for you to ‘float along’ with.
If you want us to trust you, we’ve got to have an honest relationship! Tell us when you get something wrong. We’ll be mad, but we’ll trust you more because you came clean.
The smell of ink doesn’t justify its cost.
You said that print still has “a lot of life left in it.” I’m not sure if that was the diplomatic answer but I think most of us would have been more impressed to hear that you were actively looking for ways to move your operation digital; that print was on its way out as the foundation of your business.
Make a commitment to doing journalism online because the myth that, “the best of online journalism is rooted in mainstream media,”
won’t last long. I’m not sure what you define as “mainstream,” but you ought to consider re-evaluating your premise. The MSM isn’t the only group of people capable of doing journalism. Read the rest of this post →
Links for January 11th
These are my delicious links for January 11th from 08:06 to 22:57:
- UNCUT: Barkley, Wife at Their Gated House -
- From: Jerry YangSteve. Why do you keep ignoring my Facebook... -
From: Rod Blagojevich
How do you delete email that’s already been sent?From: Barack Obama
AirforceOne needs an XBOX. Hint, Hint. - New Media Douchebags Explained -
How to blog, Twitter, podcast, poke, write on Facebook walls and become a new media douchebag. More at http://cinnamonpants.com. - New Web-based news agency going live on Monday - AFP-MediaWatch - New Web-based news agency going live on Monday - AFP-MediaWatch: The Global Post is a new newswire-like service for world news, focuses on new media and beat reporting, the project has exciting implications because it employs a freemium business model, along with…
- Skirting Laws, Iran Buys Bomb Parts From US Firms - World news | Newser - Skirting Laws, Iran Buys Bomb Parts From US Firms - World news | Newser: Are you kidding me!? I don’t know if I’m more embarrassed by the companies that will do anything to make a buck or by the inability of our government to NOT SELL WEAPONS TO THE EMENY.
- Avoiding The Big Yellow Taxi Moment - Avoiding The Big Yellow Taxi Moment: Do bloggers just opine while reporters do ‘journalism?’ The comments are particularly interesting, but present the same problem blogs do: They are a raw source of material — a source — that require a…
- "You are one of the millions of people who sit at a computer all day. Every hour you have 10 minutes..." - ““You are one of the millions of people who sit at a computer all day. Every hour you have 10 minutes where you’re not doing anything productive at work, and you can’t look at porn. So you make a comment and fulfill this desire to show yourself off as a smarty-pants.””
- —Marshall Poe, a professor of history and new media at the University of Iowa, who has studied Internet communities.
All-Stars of the Clever Riposte - New York Times
- "People are doing it [commenting on blogs] for the same reason another generation of people called in..." - ““People are doing it [commenting on blogs] for the same reason another generation of people called in on talk radio.””
- —Shel Israel, a social media consultant and a columnist for Blogger & Podcastermagazine
All-Stars of the Clever Riposte - New York Times
- Here Comes Another Bubble v1.1 - The Richter Scales - Here Comes Another Bubble v1.1 - The Richter Scales:
Winner of the Webby Award for Viral Video! Full credits at http://richterscales.com/bubble_credits Web 2.0 had it… - Crunchies 2008 - The Richter Scales - Crunchies 2008 - The Richter Scales:
The Richter Scales perform their new song at The Crunchies 2008.Views:
4468
- Skirting Laws, Iran Buys Bomb Parts From US Firms - World news | Newser - Are you kidding me!? I don't know if I'm more embarrassed by the companies that will do anything to make a buck or by the inability of our government to NOT SELL WEAPONS TO THE EMENY.
- Avoiding The Big Yellow Taxi Moment - Do bloggers just opine while reporters do 'journalism?' The comments are particularly interesting, but present the same problem blogs do: They are a raw source of material — a source — that require a curator (pro. journalist) to make readable for the average person.
- New Web-based news agency going live on Monday - AFP-MediaWatch - The Global Post is a new newswire-like service for world news, focuses on new media and beat reporting, the project has exciting implications because it employs a freemium business model, along with content sharing.
Apparently Reports, Editors and JUDGES Decide Newsworthiness
The judge wrote that he expects Gertz "will be prepared to testify regarding the newsworthiness of this case and, more particularly, the reasons why maintaining the confidentiality of his sources is critical to his ability to engage in investigative reporting."
-Judge Tells Reporter To Explain Spy Story - washingtonpost.com
The US is not a particularly great place to be if you're a reporter trying to protect sources. This latest ruling is just another example.
It seems as though the national security is more important than a free press for the public good in nearly every case. At what point does national security gain more by the advancement and continuation of the free press than the suppression of information and the increased secrecy of the government for and by the people?
Update:
Greenslade writes that Judge Cormac Carney has protected Bill Gertz from identifying his sources. At least the ruling was favorable.
Ooooo Shiny!
Warning: This post a rant. It is highly political, and … well, I really just want to get this off my chest.
Spurred by the continued housing crisis, turmoil in financial markets, spiking oil prices, disappearing jobs and shrinking retirement savings, the nation and its political leaders have begun to sour on the notion that the current market system [the free market] is the key to a fair, stable and efficient society.
-Americans may be losing faith in free markets - Los Angeles Times
I've blogged several times (1, 2, 3, more) in the last couple of weeks on the success of the free market in correcting downward trends in the news business. I've got a lot of faith in the law of supply and demand to eventually correct itself.
That's the keyword: eventually.
Markets don't correct themselves overnight. There is no such thing as a quick fix when it comes to economics, but it seems that the US populace has become so enamored with instant feedback that we expect everything to just happen.
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Loading a web page: just happens.
Finding out the names of Bardgelina's twins: just happens.
9 soldiers dying in Iraq Afghanistan (oh right, we already forgot about that war): just happens.
Global warming doesn't just happen.
The energyoil deficit doesn't just happen.
The Presidency eroding constitutional rights of the Congress, the Judiciary, the Press, and the People, doesn't just happen.
An economic recession doesn't just happen.
A robust economy doesn't just happen.
This society, that so needs instant gratification, needs to learn that there are limits to what technology provides.
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Just because the cell phone lets us say "I'll just call you," instead of planning ahead,
Just because you can text message, twitter, facebook status, IM, or blog,
Just because you can find, meet, date, engage, online,
Just because we can watch live pictures of our tanks rolling across foreign boarders,
It doesn't mean that technology has solved all the world's problems. Our country, our society, has a system in place that works. Yes, the system needs to be changed from time to time, we've done it a lot. But do we need to abandon our Constitution, our economic policies, our way of life just because there are bad times?
The free market works. It goes in cycles of good and bad times, but it works. It's natural. Please, please, just because we've allowed our government to abandon its system, don't think the economy needs to change. It's not worth it! It's not right!
STOP with the ADD! The grass is not always greener, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Try not to pick up every shiny object that comes your way, sometimes, it's a chainsaw.
Murdoch Moving to Buy Newsday for $580 Million – New York Times
Rupert Murdoch is moving to tighten his already-imposing grip on American news media, striking a tentative deal to buy his third New York-based paper, Newsday, and getting his first chance to appoint the top editor of The Wall Street Journal, after the resignation of the editor on Tuesday.
-Murdoch Moving to Buy Newsday for $580 Million - New York Times
Woah. This deal is surprising to say the least, but I rather like the way the NYT covered this. It's biased, no doubt about it, but I think this is a rare case where being biased is a good thing.
News Corp. buying Newsday puts it in control of another of the nation's top 10 newspapers (the other being The New York Post), both in the New York area. The article does state that "a takeover of Newsday by News Corporation, which also owns two New York City television stations, could face trouble with regulators."
The article fails to mention that the NYT is also in New York City and will have to deal with the fallout from the takeover as well.
That said, I'm a big fan of Outfoxed, a big critic of the Murdoch Effect (though I actually like some of the 'infotainment' principal), and against media conglomerations. Though this article was a bit more news analysis than it should have been, I'm pleased that the tilt was so anti-News Corp.
Pakistan: Great US Ally?
Maulvi Omar, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, said his group had demanded Mohammad's release in discussions with the government.
"We hope the government will take more such confidence-building measures," he said.
-Pro-Taliban Leader Released by Pakistan - washingtonpost.com
So much for not negotiating with terrorists: the Pakistani government strikes again. First they ask us not to cross their borders – they will take care of their terrorist problem on their own thank you very much.
Well, looks like their way of taking care of it, is to release prisoner in exchange for talks. I understand that Pakistan doesn't want the US "meddling" in what are admittedly, their affairs, but this is just another problem that the US has and cannot control.
[House Speaker Nancy Pelosi] added that Bush needs to tell the American people how keeping 140,000 troops in Iraq will help reduce the threat the nation faces because the U.S. military is bogged down in Iraq, what conditions will be needed for further troop withdrawals beyond July and how much longer the threat from extremists hiding along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border will be allowed to "grow because our resource commitment in Iraq makes is impossible to respond adequately."
Curious How Much of a Mess Iraq Is?
U.S. and Iraqi troops clamped down on Sadr City after fighting spread and attacks against the Green Zone intensified in the wake of the offensive. Four Americans were killed in near daily shelling.
Iranian Ambassador Denounces U.S. - TIME
This TIME article does a pretty good job showing how much of a mess Iraq is right now. The Iraqi army is attempting to be effective, but they still rely heavily on the US and the UK to do their job. Their job of course, is to try to maintain some sort of status quo between themselves and the insurgents. Iran is not helping matters at all, with their ambassador calling for the end of bloodshed – but only for those on his side. US soldiers continue to die without accomplishing their mission. And, concrete walls are still being constructed in an effort to secure the green zone.
Right. It's been said before, but: "mission accomplished." Right.
China Spurns Apology, Keeps Pressure on CNN – washingtonpost.com
China's fight with CNN is part of a broader effort to challenge those who question its response to last month's protests in Tibet or criticize the Olympic torch relay, which traveled Thursday through New Delhi under heavy guard on its way ultimately to Beijing.
China Spurns Apology, Keeps Pressure on CNN - washingtonpost.com
There's a great example of how free the Chinese media is – no word of protest against the regime is to be tolerated. Granted, CNN certainly editorialized in their coverage – cropping a photo to eliminate protestors.
Nonetheless, this latest 'offense' took place on the show The Situation Room which is a FOX inspired show on CNN. That is to say, it's full of opinions and not facts.
The Chinese media seems to make a habit of taking a bit of truth (usually a rightful complaint) and spinning to the point where it's unrecognizable.
