Obama zings Cheney

I covered two Obama rallies on Jan. 28, in El Dorado, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo. The KCMO rally was much more laid back, and my camera work was pretty bad, as I was distracted by CNN's Suzanne Malveaux, who was standing next to me. She's not ugly.

Anyway, Sen. Obama rallied the crowd, saying how there would be no Bush or Cheney on the next ballot. He drew lots of laughs with reference to how and he and Cheney are distant relations. Say hey, Obama.

A headline to beat

The Chicago Tribune has the greatest headline I've ever seen, from a story about haikus written on a CTA stop wall:

"Haiku for the walls/at Harrison stop inspire/CTA, students

2 schools in South Loop/turn subway station into/poetry canvas"

Drew Peterson dates the media

Maybe you've heard of the strange tale of Drew Peterson and his wife, Stacy. Stacy, 30 years Drew's younger, has been missing since the fall, and police consider Peterson to be the prime suspect. When the case first broke, a media gaggle camped outside Peterson's home, recording his every movement. He provided great soundbites and indulged the press, while pretending to be irritated by their presence.

This guy. He courts the media and makes himself look like a spotlight-seeking buffoon, trivializing his wife's disappearance. He's been on the Today show twice, he cut off an interview with Fox News' Shepard Smith, he mugs for the camera, and most audaciously called into Chicago radio host Steve Dahl's program, proposing a dating show.


Clearly, Peterson is enjoying his moment in the spotlight. It's hard to tell how much he's mourning the loss of his wife.

On another note, one suburban Chicago paper, the Bolingbrook Reporter, has dedicated a blog to coverage of the Peterson case. It's a pretty unique way to dedicate resources to a case that is big in its readership area.

The Leavenworth Times gets in on THINK

The Leavenworth (KS) Times wrote a story about what I'm doing with THINK. I hope it keeps catching on!

CitJ on display

Geoff Dougherty, editor the Chi-Town Daily News, wrote an intriguing article for Harvard's Nieman Reports about the value of citizen journalism and the Daily News' business model. And he included yours truly as an example of how citizen journalism works, referencing a story I covered after seeing dozens of emergency vehicles parked outside a smoldering high-rise in my Lincoln Park neighborhood.

Geoff's story details the successes and obstacles his start-up faces. It's probably true for many CitJ ventures -- Backfence, for one, folded because of some of the same struggles. But his vision is inspiring for communities that feel underrepresented in the media. "The Wire" had a one-liner that may encompass this feeling, when one reporter wondered by a multiple murders were not being covered by the show's version of the Baltimore Sun: "Wrong zip code."

Good luck, Geoff. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the Daily News takes off. I wonder if any universities are interested in funding the project.

Tight budget could doom vets education bill

Check out my latest entry over at THINK. It's a follow-up to the video I did earlier this week on the Returning Heroes Education Act.

I went to j-school for this? Part III

From Grand Rapids, Mich., comes a tale of religious persecution, which kind of combines the last two segments of "I went to j-school for this?"

Did Dennis Kucinich die?

Because this AP article reads like an obituary. Kucinich has quit the race for president. I kind of feel bad for the guy, because he really put his money where his mouth is. Kucinich was always a long-shot, but you could tell he really believed in what he said. He was never given a fair shake by the media. If you ever watched him during a debate, standing off on the far end of the podium, he'd patiently wait for a question to come his way, then pounce on it and sound intelligent. That is, unless a moderator confronted him about aliens. Low blow, Tim Russert.

Bill Clinton is mad

Bill Clinton is mad as hell and he's not going to take it. The former president has a fire in his belly as of late, and he's going after reporters and Barack Obama. And I think he's hurting his wife's campaign.

This campaign should not be about Bill Clinton. It's about Hillary Clinton. President Clinton wasn't very visible up until a few months ago, and now he's taken center stage. Early in the campaign, when things were still civil among the Democratic rivals, President Clinton would give speeches, but he stayed out of the spotlight, allowing his wife to tout her experience and other attributes.

Now he's all over the the TV, and all over the map. Whether he's slinging mud at Obama or chastising reporters, the president is taking the focus away from the issues his wife needs to promote to be successful in this race.

Young vets in Kansas await bill decision

Young vets here say the G.I. Bill doesn't cover their college costs. I went to see what the deal was with the Returning Heroes Education Act, which has stalled in the state legislature.

Multimedia = Hot naked people

There's been a lot of chatter on the Internets lately about the importance of journalism students having blogs. Hence a renewed interest in this one. But the problem with my blog is that, well, I'm not very interesting and I don't have a whole lot to say.

Well, I do, but I don't think everybody needs to know everything I want to say. We'll see what happens as I develop the Kansas beat for MTV News; I think that will give me a lot more to say. In fact, I think that could make me *gasp* a decent blogger because I'll have some sort of niche expertise about something.

The best blogs are targeted. They offer straight information about, for instance, politics, baseball, your own life, etc. They're not a mish-mash of random samplings of information, as this blog has been. Well, this blog has tried to be about journalism, with a few other musings, but I think it's pretty schizo.

Still, when people say j-students must have a blog, I'm not so sure. They say it gives insight to their unfiltered writing styles and skills. Perhaps. I wouldn't say it's totally unfiltered; we're all responsible for what we say. They say it shows you're an Internet "native," that you're interested in the Web culture, that you're down (or up) with the times...sure, these are all true. But what if you're an empty suit? Or blogger, in this case.

Rare is the time I walk away from a blog post thinking, "Job well done, sir. You are a shining beacon of Internet culture."

I think if you're going to have a blog it should be about something. Not just anything, but something. Having a blog just to say you have a blog is an empty gesture. And to do multimedia just to have a sense of accomplishment is an empty gesture, too. If it's going to be something worthwhile, then it has to be good, especially if it's something an employer is going to consider when hiring me.

To me, it's like nudity in a movie. If it furthers the story (Hello, "Wild Things"), fine. If there are just a bunch of man and lady parts on display for the heck of it (I'm looking at you...um "Wild Things" might be nsfw, but it's pretty tame), that's where it becomes a problem. These new media applications should be necessary components to the story, or else they should add a new, compelling element to them, not just WWWWH.

Just to have a link to a slideshow or movie isn't enough. After all, who's going to watch an audio slideshow about Student Senate or a short movie file about the traffic cops? But you will want to see a slideshow of KU's Orange Bowl victory, or a movie about a traffic cop who has some sort of disease that makes walking difficult. It's got to be well-done.

So, you may ask, what the hell are you doing on your blog? I guess I'm trying to make it worth it.

The back of my head is famous

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

From potholes to wheatfields

So, it's begun. My year-long journey on the campaign trail for MTV has officially started. I spent four fantastic days in New York City getting the lowdown on what this Street Team '08 project entails: everything from legal mumbo-jumbo to listening to AP reporters Ron Fournier and Kevin Roach dish on covering politics.

We stayed at the very cool Time Hotel, right off Broadway on 49th Street. Our first evening in New York, we gathered at MTV studios for a booze-free happy hour, then shuffled into an auditorium, where Sway sang our praises and told us what MTV thought of this project. They're psyched, man. Nobody's ever given regular people the tools to cover an election like this before. MTV's done similar stuff with Choose or Lose, and Huffington Post has "Off the Bus," which is headed up by Jay Rosen of NYU, who spoke to us, as well.

A bleach-haired John Norris gave us interviewing tips and folks from the Knight Foundation (our awesome patrons) and Gannett discussed the importance of our project. Holy crap! These people are seriously excited about what can come out of this. I am too, but I guess I'd forgotten how excited you can get about huge projects like this. Thanks, PR.

Normally, I leave New York and say "eff that." Maybe it's because I lived in Chicago for so long and have a grudge against New York; maybe it's a Midwest thing. I don't know. But I think I like New York now. Believe it or not, it's a wee bit more exciting than this area. Who knew?

I think it's because I got to see more of the city than just the tourist spots. Last time I was there, in 2005, we did Times Square, Central Park, the Dakota, Ground Zero and Wall Street, and the Statue of Liberty. This time, I just went to Union Square and hung out with my gorgeous friend Maria and her gorgeous roommate, Gillian. My j-school friend, Josh, who had a winter internship at Time, Inc., came along and it was glorious. It beats the crowds at Times Square, that's for sure.

So, I'm back now, and filed my first story today. Check it out, and check out the Street Team often to see what's up in the world of politics!