PSoTD

Oh my God. Mention Howard Fineman in a blog entry, and look what happens...

With all the MSM jumping on the Blog Express - NY Times, MSNBC, Craig Crawford, etc., it's time to wonder what "journalists" will become "journabloggers" in short order... and perhaps time to cringe about it. Blogging may not have the "coolness" factor it once was gloried with, but consider some of the "journalists" that currently are not really bloggers that might join our ranks someday...

Howard Fineman
Candy Crowley
Connie Chung
Almost everyone at Fox News

Now that's a start of a pretty discouraging list. Who else might be on the "Cringeworthy Blogger List"?

Scotty was shocked. Shocked!

Q Scott, last night on the Tonight Show, Jay Leno, who apparently is subbing for Johnnie, displayed a video of the President at the Capitol yesterday. In that video, the President walking away from the press lifts his hand and raises a finger. Mr. Leno interpreted it as, shall we say, a finger of hostility. Each of our fingers has a special purpose and meaning in life. (Laughter.) Can you tell us what finger it was he held up?

MR. McCLELLAN: Ken, I'm not even going to dignify that with much of a response. But if someone is misportraying something, that's unfortunate.

Q Well, it was not a finger of hostility?

MR. McCLELLAN: Ken, I was there with him, and I'm just not going to -- I'm not going to dignify that with a response. I mean, I haven't seen the video that you're talking about, but I know the way the President acts. And if someone is misportraying it, that's unfortunate.

He's touring in Alaska now. Apparently it is a bit controversial - his views on the Iraq War aren't popular with everyone...

The lyrics of his latest album, "The Revolution Starts ... Now," focus on his opposition to the Iraq War. They range from the fiery "Rich Man's War" to a playful love song to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, "Condi, Condi."

The announcement that he would appear at the Southeast Alaska State Fair made statewide headlines in June, when a Haines resident responded by placing a full-page ad in the Chilkat Valley News protesting his upcoming show. The ad complained about his left-leaning lyrics and compared Earle to a Nazi.

Now that's a switch. Btw...

Billboard Magazine said his newest CD "will be viewed as the essential political statement of 2004."

Doesn't quite sound like Nazism, does it...

A few other posts about it:

Auctions for Change
left to chance
Barbarian Blog

TV Guide Gets More Stories, Fewer Listings

TV Guide is slashing the circulation it guarantees advertisers by about two-thirds and relaunching itself as a large format magazine with far fewer TV listings and more emphasis on lifestyle and entertainment, the magazine announced Tuesday.

The radical changes to TV Guide come as it struggles to remain relevant in an age where many TV viewers get their listings from on-screen guides provided by their cable companies or online.

And now, time for a little story from my life. I'm sure it's going to make me sound relatively... ancient.

When I was a kid growing up in Indiana, I had a TV Guide route. That's right - a TV Guide route. There was a time when TV Guide was not delivered by mail, and not many stores carried it - it was delivered by delivery kids. This was the late 1960s, and TV Guide sold for 15 cents each per week - of which I would get to keep 4 cents. I would receive the TV Guides on Thursday sometime, and I would ride my bike and deliver the Guides on Friday afternoon/evening, and in some cases on Saturday morning. Once a month I would ride my bike for collections, and then mail the money - the actual money, not a check - to TV Guide's publisher with my invoice.

I had the route for about a year, and at first I found it exciting, but by the end I was sick of it. My route consisted of only 15-20 customers at any one time, and they were spread out through my large neighborhood, so deliveries took over an hour each week. That wasn't so bad, but collections were a pain - I always had to go back to a few houses several times. Before we moved, I gave my route to another kid in the neighborhood.

I still have a couple of old 1969 TV Guides that were part of my delivery that never were delivered for whatever reason. They were put in a box of stuff, we moved and they remained in that box until the early 1980s when my parents' house was sold and the "kids' possessions" were dispersed to us. Looking at it - the descriptions of the shows, the cheesy interview articles, the review by Cleveland Amory - is like stepping back into time.

So, in a way, I guess itis a smidge sad that TV Guide is changing, but I understand completely, since I've not subscribed to their publication, or purchased it, as an adult. That market of the 1960s doesn't exist in a profitable manner for them now, and won't in the current format, so change is required.

I'd rather listen to Scott McClellan than Joe Stinkin' Theismann!

Michaels, Theismann team for 'MNF'
By David B. Wilkerson, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN cable network said Tuesday that the duo of Al Michaels and Joe Theismann will be its "Monday Night Football" broadcast team in 2006.

Maybe the U.S. News Media ought to go study it.

Brazil's aggressive media is playing a starring role in a worsening bribery scandal, breaking dozens of stories during the last two months and triggering high-profile resignations.

But some people fear Brazil's risk-taking media may lose credibility if it makes mistakes in reporting on corruption charges against the center-left government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

...

But reporting errors in Brazil have not generated outcries like the ones in the United States following recent lapses at CBS News, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times. As a result, reporters here may have more leeway when chasing stories. At the same time, a fractious Congress and president's office offer a Pandora's box of leaks.

"A vibrant press (in Brazil), which might pass on a few tips to colleagues in North America, is breaking story after story," International Herald Tribune columnist Roger Cohen wrote this month.

"At a time when ... there's a very disciplined administration here (in the U.S.) and it's been hard to break stories I was just impressed by the way they (Brazilian journalists) were getting some very good material," Cohen said in a telephone interview.

Start the Rio Intern Program!

This showed up today:

Hi there,

Below I've included the official press release for CBS's hot new show, ROCK STAR: INXS. Thought the users of your blog might be interested in learning more about the show.

Thanks!

Nick Lezin

Nick is really reaching to include PSoTD on their media list. Wonder where he culled my email address?

And sorry, won't be watching this.

Snapshot of blogger and journalism attention paid to the Downing Street Memo in the Last 30 days:

On June 22, there were
8031 blogging posts on Technorati on the term
1950 news stories in Google news from the prior 30 days on the term

Today, on July 22, there are:
12570 blogging posts on Technorati on the term
967 news stories in Google news from the prior 30 days on the term

There are just so few real journalists out there digging for new details in this story. And that grossly impacts the number of stories, since the prominent "repeater class" of journalism has nothing to copy.

Wait until August 5. At this point, the "peak" of news coverage on the Downing Street Memo was on July 5. That dropoff is likely to be stupifying.

Re: Judy Miller and the Fitzgerald investigation:

Where was Ahmed Chalabi during Miller's "research" for the story about Plame and Wilson?

Chalabi was in New York in June 2003. He was on PBS NewsHour on June 11, 2003, and had spoke at the U.N. in the day before.

Just wondering.

Hasn't Elvis Costello done about all the interesting music he had in him... and recycled it about three times already?

Also known as the Pennsylvania Cable Network. I received their email alert yesterday about events pending on PCN. Here's some programming notes:

SPECIAL PCN CALL-IN PROGRAM

Monday, July 18, 2005 7:00 p.m. - LIVE Legislative Pay Raise

That sure sounds like it could have been blogworthy...

PCN will make the 2005 Big 33 Football Game available for statewide viewing on Monday, July 25 starting at 7:00 p.m. The Classic - also known as "The Premier All-Star High School Football Game" - pits Pennsylvania's top high school gridiron stars against their counterparts from Ohio.

Again, I bet some folks would blog about that...

Looking at PCN's schedule, I see the following live event for today:

10:00 AM PA Gaming Control Board - LIVE PA House Tourism and Recreational Development Committee

If you're going to do call-in shows, why not do a blog. A note to Brian Lockman, Bill Bova, Debra Kohr Sheppard of PCN - get a blog! It's too easy to ignore the possibilities.

Looks like news peak has been reached. Progress Report on visibility of discussion on the Downing Street Memo:

Blog Posts are determined by Technorati search, News Articles determined by search on Google News.

Google stories drop out of the database after 30 days.

Progress Report on visibility of discussion on the Downing Street Memo:

Blog Posts are determined by Technorati search, News Articles determined by search on Google News.

Google stories drop out of the database after 30 days.

They pitched a shut out over Oklahoma City to win the Inaugural State Crapital Coverage Award.

It's too early to tell for sure, but I have a bad feeling that the Downing Street Memo story just had the clock run out on it. Here's why:

Republicans Rally Around The SCOTUS Flag. There were indications that Republicans in Congress were paying attention to the DSM story in a way that was... not predetermined. That attention will disappear now with the nomination "battle" coming up.

Nobody's going to be asking about DSM. The press will now be dedicating resources to the SCOTUS nomination beyond its regular resource allocation for shark attacks, missing white women, celebrity trials, and Hollywood bizarre antics.

News Media Will Break SCOTUS Nomination into Partisan Soundbites. We're heading into ever deeper "Democrats oppose Republicans, Republicans oppose Democrats, and both will say anything because of that" territory. I think the American public turns that off - particularly the center, which may be the most important group that was absorbing information about the DSM.

There are an upside for the DSM story in this new news environment, though. The majority of the folks that run MSNBC's political talk shows (with the exception of Olbermann) - won't be crapping on the DSM story on a regular basis. They'll be doing the partisan positioning they're sadly expected to do on the SCOTUS nomination.

Same for CNN's folks. And NBC's. Etc., etc., etc.

This can leave the story for a few real journalists, such as Smith, to break advancements. Perhaps the new news environment might allow some additional information to flow from official sources to the news media.

Wishful thinking, probably, and ironic as well.