The Web Stained Wretch Blog

Chicago Current's second issue comes out Monday

2009-12-11T12:27:00.000-08:00

Issue Two of the Chicago Current is set to come out Monday, and we're excited to tell you how you can get a copy of the print edition.

The issue features more of the smart political reporting you've become accustomed to on chicagocurrent.com.

A sampling of the second edition, includes:

Political writer Adrian Uribarri examines the current state of the Republican Party in Illinois;

Geoff Dougherty takes a look at the Chicago Police Board's policies;

County reporter Alex Parker asks Todd Stroger why he deserves a second chance;

and correspondent Andrea Zelinski investigates redistricting of Illinois districts.

Now, how can you get a copy of the paper?

We'll be handing out copies from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Monday at the following locations:

City Hall;

the Damen Blue Line station;

and Red Line stops at Addison, Belmont and Fullerton;

and the Diversey Brown Line stop.

So get a copy, join the conversation on chicagocurrent.com, and let us know what you think.

The best and worst hockey jerseys ever: A half-thought through list

2009-12-02T20:28:00.000-08:00

I've had lots of fun reading people's thoughts on my (apparently inflammatory) post on the suckage of the Missouri Mavericks' uniforms.

Some say the colors are great, others say the mascot is cool. The general consensus is that my ideas for a name/color change are ridiculous. I disagree, but whatever.

So, in the spirit of rational discourse, here's my list of the five best, and five worst hockey jerseys out there. Some of this is based on design. Some of it based on emotion. Most of it is just off the top of my head because, let's face it, Thanksgiving is over and I have more important things to do than troll the Internet for jerseys. Which I will start doing now.

Behold:
The five best hockey jerseys:
Chicago Blackhawks
Never mind the fact that I love the Hawks and am ecstatic about their return to glory. This jersey is sharp, distinguished and proud. Just ask Denis Savard about committing to the Indian. (Special consideration to the Hawks' sweet Winter Classic unis. The Wings' were good, too.)

2) Boston Bruins
Another Classic Original Six jersey. It's minimalist, but like all the Original Six uniforms, it's hardly changed.

3) Hartford Whalers
Simply because I love the Whale. I used to go to games at the old Hartford Civic Center to watch the likes of Pat Verbeek, Ron Francis, Kevin Dineen, Dean Evason, Mike Liut, Ulf Samuelsson, Randy Cunnyworth, Paul Cyr, Geoff Sanderson - well, you get the point. I have a soft spot for the old green jerseys, but the newer blue ones were cool, too. Just as long as that wuss Paul Coffey wasn't wearing it. Jerk.

4) Old school Miami University

I'm clearly writing with my heart here. But my alma mater's old jerseys, especially the '99-'00 ones with the red shoulders are classic. Go Hawks!

5) Sweden
The Swedish National Team's jerseys are great. They say a lot without being loud. The three crowns say all they need to: We are Sweden, our women are hot and we will score goals on you.

Honorable Mention: Chicago Wolves, Rochester Americans, old NHL All-Star jerseys

The Worst
This list sums up some fugly minor league jerseys (don't worry. The Mavericks aren't on there, not even their atrocious Harry Truman sweaters).
1) Mighty Ducks of Anaheim third jersey
What the? Why the? Absurd.

2) Buffalo Sabres, mid-90s era
This jersey looks like a tomato and a black marker were put in a blender. Fail.

3) ~~Any Ohio State Buckeyes jersey~~ Atlanta Thrashers
What is this? The NBA. No, thank you.

4) Vancouver Canucks, late '70s/early '80s
'Nuff said.

5) TIE: Kansas City Blades/Chicago Blackhawks
Two of my favorite teams had two of the worst jerseys ever. The sweaters the Blades wore in their final years were an attempt to make them look mean. Instead, they looked silly. I guess I just really liked their original jerseys.

The black "third" jerseys that Hawks wore up until this year were an abomination, and a nod to the lack of imaginative thinking that crippled the team for most of the last two decades.

There you have it. Thoughts?

On hockey jerseys, and why the Missouri Mavericks should change theirs

2009-11-28T18:52:00.000-08:00

This past Friday I checked out the new minor league hockey team near Kansas City, the Missouri Mavericks. It was a good game, with a lively crowd, lots of goals and fights, making for an entertaining evening.

It was nice to see hockey back in Kansas City, which has been without a professional hockey team since the lame Outlaws voluntarily folded a few years ago. Before that, KC enjoyed the IHL's Blades, which folded in 1999. And it was years prior to the Blades 1990 debut that KC had the short-lived Scouts, which by way of Denver, became the successful New Jersey Devils.

The Mavericks game was fun, but the jersey and mascot were lame. The main attraction on the powder blue and orange/gold? jersey is a cartoonish horse brandishing a hockey stick. It's been played out, and some folks have observed its resemblance to the logos of the Kentucky Thoroughblades and the hated Denver Broncos.

(UPDATE: It may interest some readers that the inaugural Thoroughblades team was actually the last Blades team. They pretty much picked up and moved to Kentucky.)

My biggest problem, I think, is that the Missouri Mavericks name has no real tie to Missouri, Kansas City or the town the team plays in, Independence. Not that I can say the ~~Chiefs~~, Royals (though the name hearkens to the old Monarchs of the Negro Leagues), Blades, Outlaws or myriad other teams that have called Kansas City home have either (though the Scouts and perennial ABA start-up Stars do.)

So I've taken it upon myself to start an Internet campaign to change the name of the Missouri Mavericks hockey team to something like the a) Missouri 33s, b) Independence 33s, or c) Independence Independents (Go Indies!).

33s? you ask...Well, Independence is the hometown of our 33rd president, Harry S. Truman. Why not honor the man who has given the town so much? It's a cool name and could make a cool jersey, as evidenced (or not) by my below attempts at Photoshop.

The Independents name is just fun to say.

But all the jerseys I've attempted to design have one thing in common: A red, white and blue scheme that is in tune with the flags of Missouri, Kansas City and the United States. Both names - 33s and Independents - have an air of Americana in them. "33" honors a revered leader. "Independents," like Mavericks (only cooler), refers to the pioneering spirit that helped found the Kansas City area.

So this is it! A grassroots campaign to kill Mav the Maverick (may he join Chilly the Chipmunk in mascot heaven), and to bring on a relevant name for our local hockey team. Plus, it would give Steve Bell a cooler name to say when the team scores. (SIGN THE PETITION!)

Below are what I envision being, in order, the home and away jerseys of the 33s - the away jerseys would resemble the Rangers' uniforms (again, limited Photoshop skills here); and two away jerseys for the Independents, aka the Indies.

"Digg"ing in at the Daily Herald

2009-09-20T14:25:00.000-07:00

Proving once again my mind is filled with brilliant ideas that I will most likely never produce, the Daily Herald uses a unique reader comment feature, which I've always thought would be a fantastic addition to news sites.

Like Digg and Windy Citizen, the Daily Herald allows readers to up-vote or down-vote reader comments. If enough people down-vote a comment, it disappears from from view, though you can read it by clicking a links that says "show".

It's a good way to eliminate (or attempt to, at least) the drivel that populates so many reader comment boards. On the other hand, it can stifle the true nature of the conversations that take place there.

I wonder how many news sites have similar features. I think it's a smart move.

Who is behind ChicagoTribunal.com?

2009-08-30T16:19:00.000-07:00

I often search Google for stories similar to ones I’ve written to see who else is talking about them. Recently, local reporters have been talking about whether or not the city is planning on closing any of its mental health centers.

The Chicago Tribune has written a number of stories, several of which took place at town hall meetings with Mayor Daley.

I expected to see them on ChicagoTribune.com. I did not expect to see those mental health stories – indeed, all of the Chicago Tribune’s stories – on ChicagoTribunal.com.

Chicago Tribunal? It looks a lot like the Trib’s pre-redesign site, and the logo uses the same old(e) English font as the Trib. But it’s not the Tribune. It’s merely a regurgitation of Trib stories on a copycat site.

So who’s behind it? Tough question.

I typed in www.chicagotribunal.com into the form at the powerful domain search engine WhoIs.net.

I didn’t tell me who the operator was, as it does with many sites. Instead it gave me an address and a phone number.

And when I typed the phone number into the White Pages’ reverse directory, it came up one Adriano Galliani, who shared the same address as the WhoIs listing. It also listed a business, AC Milan Online Shop. Galliani, Google tells me, owns AC Milan, the stories Italian soccer club.

But why would a rich Italian sportsman own a copycat Web site? It makes no sense.

Turns out the address, 8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Westchester, Calif, is occupied by WhoIs, and it allows Web site domain owners to hide their real addresses.

WhoIs tells readers to check out ChicagoTrbunal.com’s listing on AboutUs.Org, which tells us it is a Chicago news site, with related sites including ChicagoTribune.com and ChicagoBreakingNews.com, both Trib properties. Its Alexa rankings don’t even register.

A Free Republic article from 2004 shows these elusive domains are quite common, and some of them are hidden by their Web hosts. There is some concern that these sites might be run by terrorist cells. In fact, the Free Republic story notes that one Web host, HostingAnime, lists the Sepulveda address as its home base. But building managers said it is not actually located there.

Should the Trib be worried about this copycat? Probably not. Unlike some aggregators, it has a miniscule audience and next to no outreach, meaning its only readers are probably like me, coming across it unwittingly.

But I wonder if the site will last after TribCo finds out about it. It seems like there would be a case for misrepresentation and unfair use of content. But I’m no lawyer.

By the way, AboutUs recommends a number of URLs which have yet to be purchased. Maybe I’ll gobble up ChicagoTribunet.com or ChicagoTribunen.com. I may just be the next shady dot com media mogul

Does anyone know how or why these sites operate? Chicago Tribunal has no advertising, so what’s the point? Color me intrigued.

In praise of copy editors

2009-08-09T19:19:00.000-07:00

Ah, copy editors. The unheralded saviors of newsrooms everywhere. It's too bad they are casualties of the faltering news business, in addition to reporters. Doh.

My local SPJ chapter is worthless

2009-04-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

As a cash-strapped scribe, I’ve often had to watch where my money goes. But I was adamant that I would continue owning membership in the Society of Professional Journalists, and the local chapter.

The learning opportunities, access to events and networking possibilities still seem valuable to me, but I am very disappointed in the local chapter that I joined (which shall remain nameless).

Even though I’ve since left that market, my dues for 2009 are in and I’ve kept up with goings on in the region.

I think that’s a major difference between me and my SPJ chapter.

My SPJ chapter is a vacuum of nothingness, a few old souls living on a deserted Web site that sometimes offers an oasis of participation, but little engagement.

The board of directors is a group of gray-haired veterans, and the chapter’s membership engagement and online presence may be indicative of why our business is in trouble.

I have not received any email notification of events, nor have I been privy to a chapter newsletter since May 2008. Minutes from chapter meetings are more than a year old, and the chapter’s blog (a big step forward, you’d think), has two – TWO! – entries since 2006.

I received no response when I offered feedback to the organization’s president.

And this in a market that is bleeding journalists, where innovation ,competition, ideas and thorough public affairs reporting are needed, but in my humble and distanced opinion, are not produced to the extent necessary.

What is the value of a local SPJ membership? A discount for awards submissions?

No. It should be a culture of conversation and ideas, a marketplace for innovation, where somehow new thinking might permeate the skull of outmoded news concepts.

And where is the engagement and feedback from the younger set? A Facebook fan page does not suffice.

It is frightening how a journalism organization is proof positive that this business is in trouble.

As for my local chapter, I won’t be renewing my membership and the fact that I no longer live there is only one reason.

In which I take credit for breaking the StreetWise story on Twitter

2009-04-14T17:38:00.000-07:00

Not that it matters, but it was interesting to watch the development of stories about the potential demise of "StreetWise," a paper peddled by homeless Chicagoans.

And I submit that I was the first to say anything about it. Again, not that it matters.

I had a news release from Ald. Manny Flores this morning, discussing his plan to hold City Council hearings about StreetWise, which has suffered from the shoddy economy.

Soon after I read the release, I posted a note on Twitter:

Shortly after that, a few people retweeted the note. And then the media got a hold of it. In fact, the story in on the front page of chicagotribune.com right now.

So this is the "who cares?" moment.

Nobody cares that I was the first to say anything, and they shouldn't. It's just kind of cool to know you're ahead of the curve, and that you were a catalyst in something that everyone's talking about.

I do hope that StreetWise finds the help it needs. It's vendors are part of the patchwork that makes up Chicago. Some are pushy, some are surly, but the best ones - the creative ones - leave an impression and make you want to buy that paper.

In which I talk beat blogging

2009-04-05T20:22:00.000-07:00

Pat Thornton of BeatBlogging.org interviewed me about my new Chi-Town Daily News blog, Chicago Health Matters. We spoke on Friday about why we started the blog - it's what you need to do in an online world - and how we hope to enhance our coverage of public health in Chicago (more reader interaction equals more discussion equals story ideas and maybe sources).

I talked to Pat last year about Schoolhouse Talk, the education beat blog I kept at the Journal-World.

Listen to the interview HERE (or you can read about it, too).

Giving readers in¢entive$ to $ubscribe to newspapers

2009-02-28T13:57:00.000-08:00

The echo chamber of how to save the news business is as loud as it’s ever been.

The recent Chicago Journalism Townhall brought much discussion but few answers to how news organizations in Chicago might survive in the future.

The closing of the Rocky Mountain News Friday and the clouded futures of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and San Francisco Chronicle are underscoring the dire situation in which newspapers find themselves. Broadcast is not immune either, as the closing of bankrupt Tribune Co.’s Washington television bureau shows.

Rumor of the Kansas City Star shuttering some suburban bureaus, following devastating layoffs, bring the issue close to home in that city.

Just this week, Cablevision announced its Newsday would begin charging for online content. Hearst is exploring similar measures. And a lot of people don’t think this tactic will fly.

What other options are out there? Heck if I know, but I wonder if the following would fly:

Give newspaper subscribers another incentive to get the paper: Make subscriptions tax-deductible. This is something I know next to nothing about, but if government appreciates the place the Fourth Estate holds in our democracy, this idea might gain traction. Readers could get some sort of tax incentive from local, state or the federal government to subscribe to the newspaper.

Charge a small annual fee to give readers the privilege of commenting online. It’s often the most passionate (take that any way you want) who comment on news stories. A lot of people get fired up when their comments are removed from sites, claiming First Amendment violations, but the fact remains, it is the news organization’s choice to allow the public to participate in a forum. It is their choice to let people browse for free – or not.

Charge for external components: Tribune Co. is part owner of CareerBuilder, the job search Web site. Having used this site in the past, I can attest that I’ve never paid a buck to post my resume, browse jobs or apply for new gigs. (It may be that CareerBuilder charges for some services, but I can’t determine that) Why not allow people to post their resumes for free, but charge for different levels of access to jobs? This is one example of external companies that are owned by news companies.

I’m a big fan of wacky marketing ideas. Case in point: The Golden Ticket. It sent the world into a frenzy when Willy Wonka announced a lucky few could visit his (creepy) chocolate factory if they found a Golden Ticket. While this idea doesn’t leverage the news so much, I think newspapers could do a lot with the idea of a Golden Ticket. Five newspapers will include Super Bowl tickets/Eagles tickets/a fabulous Hawaiian vacation, etc. The Sun-Times does this periodically, and recently gave a reader a check for $25,000. For some towns, this is a great marketing opportunity for not only the paper, but also for businesses/advertisers.

Could ideas like this save the Rocky? I don’t know. But we’ve got to be open-minded, even if it means appearing close-minded. Too much is at stake.

Constructive criticism for "The Printed Blog"

2009-02-17T18:41:00.001-08:00

About two months ago, I was ruminating about the future of journalism and how I could capitalize off the industry's woes. I realized that I and many other journalists will have to keep plugging away towards something to tip the balance back in our favor, but not before I had a genius idea.

Wouldn't it be great, I thought, if you could take locally produced news and blog content from the Web and repurpose it in print to distribute for free as a commuter tabloid, relying on local advertising? You can imagine my shock and dismay when I read several weeks later about The Printed Blog, a commuter tabloid relying on local advertising that repurposes locally produced Web content for print. Naturally, I think entrepreneur Scott Karp has a good idea here, and it debuted to much fanfare from major media outlets.

I finally got my hands on a copy of the full color, glossy rag, which looks more like Rolling Stone than the Sun-Times (PDF here). I was looking forward to seeing how Karp and his team presented my brilliant idea (with a hat-tip to Karp for putting it in motion...oh, and coming up with the same idea). I am unimpressed, and here's why.

I will concede that The Printed Blog, which is also distributed in San Francisco, is in its infancy, and is still working to add contributors, and is not a final product (in searching for a tagline, its temporary tag reads "Tagline would actually be nice here").

The publication strives to be uber-local, adding advertisers that appeal to crowds at certain L stops in Chicago. That said, I was expecting similiarly local blog content. But when I read the Feb. 17 edition, given to me by a co-worker, I found only one story that even mentioned Chicago. It was written by a blogger that apparently lives in New York.

Only two stories appeared to be written by Chicagoans. One was from a blog called Second City Hockey, and talked about how the NHL should link up with Turner Sports. The other, from The Latest and Greatest, compared the live viewing experiences of Oprah vs. Bozo the Clown.

To recap: Chicago mentioned once in a publication aimed at Chicagoans. Other places mentioned include: Washington, D.C.; New York; Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota and Texas, in a story about states that have decent job markets; and Rhode Island. There's also a story written by what appears to be a British writer. A front-pager dealing with Proposition 8 was written by a New York blogger.

So this seems contrary to uber-localism. There's not one piece of content from some of the well-known local blogs, like Chicagoist or Gapers Block (which may not be signed on to contribute). Seems to me that if you're going to appeal to Chicagoans, your content should deal with issues and themes relevant to Chicago.

I also didn't like how TPB shared links to the blogs. Rather than showing readers they could visit a blog at say, www.webstainedwretch.blogspot.com, it directs to sites like tpburl.com/0rdnq3. If you go there, you'll somehow reach The Latest and Greatest. But tpburl.com is TPB's "link direction system," which I can only imagine leads to more clicks at TPB's Web site. It takes away from writers the opportunity for immediate recognition.

I don't know if it's because my 20s are waning, but I thought a lot of the content in this particular issue was lacking in substance. A rant about stupid band names (Wilco, Nirvana, the Beatles, apparently) by a guy who just discovered My Morning Jacket lacked passion. A Seattle blogger's story on foie gras is old news to Chicagoans. A lengthy detailing of a British girl's attempts at a one-night stand made me cringe. A slightly unpleasant story about kids trying anal sex would do little brighten a morning commute.

There's a lot of good blogging and reporting happening by indie outlets in Chicago. This could be a great place for them to be featured.

Lastly, I am not a big fan of the ultra-glossy paper. I was reading this issue at home and it was difficult to read, since the pages reflected the light in my apartment. I would suspect that newsprint would be easier on the eyes, easier to fold and read, and perhaps even cheaper to produce.

Now, this post is not meant as a slam on TPB, which I think has potential if it thinks more about its audience. And this is a non-scientific analysis of just one issue. If I looked through others, I might find differently. I hope so.

I wish the TPB the best of luck, but I think it needs to take a deep breath and think about how this publication can serve readers and survive.

Enough with the navel gazing: What would readers do?

2009-02-11T21:10:00.001-08:00

To pay or not to pay? That's the question journalists have been asking themselves in an online maelstrom of theory, ideas and criticism in a broad array of think pieces (to use a term that may have reduced relevance today) have accumulated on the series of tubes lately.

The news business is suffering as it rarely has before, and news organizations missed the boat on the Internet. Now people are used to getting their news for free. But, people wonder, how can we get them to pay for our product?

While I've seen a lot of chatter from people in the business, I haven't seen the question posed to the people who have the ultimate choice: Readers. (Looks like the Times got quite a response about the idea, though)

So, readers/users/consumers, if you get your news on the Internet, can you see a way that you would ever pay for it? Would you fork over a subscription fee, as you might with a printed paper? Would you go for micropayments, a debit account for news? Do you support a non-profit model? How could/would you pay to keep your news organizations of choice sustainable?

It is a dire situation. Without adequate funding (from readers and advertisers), news organizations can't report the news in the ways that best serve the community. A lot of papers may die. Others will operate on a skeleton staff.

But the people who might actually pay for these things deserve a seat at the table. After all, if they disappear, so will we.

Word clouding President Barack Obama's inaugural speech

2009-01-20T10:12:00.001-08:00

That might take some getting used to. Vice President Biden, too.

Google, Craiglist and others can make a difference in journalism

2009-01-11T00:52:00.001-08:00

The Internets were aflutter with responses to Google CEO Eric Schmidt's remarks about how Google probably couldn't save newspapers.

Let's not focus so much on the "paper" aspect of newspapers, but the news part. News organizations, thanks to cutbacks and a faltering economy, are less able to serve the public by providing in-depth, across-the-board coverage.

Often other organizations step up to plug the hole. The AP and Reuters did it in the latter part of the 19th century; today Spot.us and GlobalPost (Boston Globe story here) are stepping up. I was a beneficiary, like Spot.us, of the Knight Foundation, working with MTV's Street Team '08, providing political coverage from Kansas. It showed me what an amazing thing a foundation like that can be for journalism and innovation.

Mark Hamilton and Dan Froomkin (and many others, I'm sure) ruminated on Schmidt's comments. Froomkin suggested several ways Google could help news(papers), including endowing a chair to bloggers, adopting newspapers and contribute to non-profit news organizations.

All interesting ideas, but I'm going to suggest another angle.

Create fellowships at newspapers, where news organizations hire journalists to beef up local coverage, paid for with Google's fellowship dollars. Google could denote certain topics these fellows would cover, say public education, and require an application and review process from both news organizations and potential fellows. This would allow news organizations to examine areas where coverage is lacking or has fallen victim to cutbacks while allowing them to grow staff, coverage and authority in those areas.

Perhaps this could even turn into the open-source model Froomkin writes about. Google fellows' content could be distributed for free across the country to other organizations. Of course, giving content away for free may have gotten us where we are today. But that's where we stand.

Many have criticized Google for aggregating content, but that's what it does best. We can take advantage of that, and companies like Google, Craiglist, Yahoo and others that taken us into the information age can give back to the people they serve.

Word clouding KU's j-school

2008-12-29T01:19:00.000-08:00

I saw a cool post on Megan Taylor's blog, exploring j-schools descriptions of their programs. She was inspired to create a wordcloud about the University of Florida's program after seeing something similar on 10,000 Words, which diagrammed programs at Northwestern, CUNY, Berkley, UNC and the Asian College of Journalism.

10,000's Mark Luckie writes:

One of the biggest complaints about modern journalism schools is aren't equipping the next wave of journalists with the skills they need to compete in today's newsrooms. So what are they teaching students? The online course description for several J-schools were run through Wordle.

I decided to see what the University of Kansas' program looks like, in wordle form. Here it is, below, in all its glory. First, the grad program:

Followed by the undergraduate program description, and undergrad course descriptions:

Why I hate my cell phone

2008-12-25T23:50:00.000-08:00

I lost my cell phone. The details of how that happened are unimportant. The bottom line is, I liked my old phone, though can't remember the model, and now Sprint doesn't offer it anymore.

I purchased a Samsung M320 to replace it, and it might be the worst phone I've ever had.

It looks nice and has a camera, so that's good. But the good ends there.

My major problems:

A weak battery: I just went to check something on the phone, and it's dead. It's only been on for about 10 hours, having charged for about 12 yesterday. This happens all the time. How can you rely on a phone that dies more often than the Middle East peace process? My old phone could stay on for days.
Text messaging batching: This may be part of the Gmail effect. My text messages are batched by the people with whom I communicate. That means if I want to find a text message, I have to go the list of who I've recently texted with...if it's still there. The phone has a habit of disapparating texts for no apparent reason.
Lack of notification: One of the best things about having a cell phone is being able to talk to people when they call you. Unfortunately, this phone does not do that. I'll look at the phone at some point during the day, and see that I missed several calls and texts. I'll discover I've missed a call only when I get a notification that I have a voicemail. This is a major problem.

Soon I'll get off my rear to get a new phone. Maybe it'll be a New Year's resolution. In the meantime, I'll keep on hating this phone.

KC Star Web site enters 21st century, doesn't break

2008-12-12T01:31:00.000-08:00

I want to extend kudos to the Web staff of the Kansas City Star for the good looking facelift it recently gave to the paper's site, kansascity.com.

It was a long time coming. In fact, this is the first real significant improvement to the site since I started reading the Star online...in 1999. That year, I went to college and missed my hometown dearly. And with this Internet thing, I was able to stay up-to-date with the goings-on in KC.

Problem was, the Star's site didn't change after that. Sure, there was a tweak here and there, but what resulted was a jumble of content, with breaking news in a corner, surrounded by ads, links, headlines, ads, press releases, pop up ads and even ads that scrolled across the screen. Sections were hard to find, hidden on a sidebar that was difficult to navigate. The day's main headlines were way below the fold, about 3/4 of the way down the page.

They're still there, but with the Star's new layout, you can easily maneuver the site, thanks to section tabs at the top of the page. The Star has also done a nice job in growing its blog farm, with Sam Mellinger's Royals blog at the top of my list. Still, the Chiefs are king in Kansas City (despite their record), and the Star has a nice Chiefs blog (wish I could say more, but my interest in the Chiefs slowed after Elvis Grbac left. For real), Joe Posnanski's gospel, a cool metro blog, and even a community for pet owners. There are many more, as well.

I think its Varsity Zone blog is really cool. It gives stats, scores, photos and news for high schools in the area. It even allows readers to keep their own blogs about high school sports.

The Star's site is getting better. There's still work to do. There's just so much darn content on the front page. Personally, and I might be biased, but I enjoy a nice clean front page.

Also, a big thumbs up to the University Daily Kansan, which, despite the gripes I had with the paper as a student, has a sweet Web site, and just upgraded an already good product.

BeatBlogging to connect with communities

2008-11-17T09:44:00.000-08:00

I'm listening to Pat Thornton's interview with the Trib's Dan Honigman, the man behind Colonel Tribune (and a cool dude to boot), and he's talking about the importance of linking to connect people. And I realized that I didn't even blog about my interview with Pat. He talked to me and LJWorld.com's Jonathan Kealing a few weeks ago, and talked to us individually about the beat blogging going on at the Journal-World.

The news organization is doing a lot in terms of micro-reporting in order to a) expand coverage of Lawrence and b) further connect with our readers -- and beyond. Personally, I found writing my blog, Schoolhouse Talk, to be a great experience. How else would I report so much on mock elections at Free State High School?

Now I'm working the overnight shift (and anticipating not getting any sleep today...body clock is adjusting), and I'm hoping to install a graveyard shift blog. It would be great fodder for stories like this, that hold probably a limited interest for most of LJWorld's readers. Think a blotter/marketplace of random ideas. Who knows? It might be fun.

But, to be honest, Schoolhouse Talk has had limited success. Perhaps for two reasons. First, we don't update it enough. We're still trying to figure out what kind of news is blog-worthy. In a market like Lawrence, most school news is big enough for a full story, and we don't want to blog about the lunch menu at the high schools.

Second, I wonder if our audience is blog-savvy. Do they see blogs as a snark market, full of opinion? Do they take our blogs seriously? We've certainly had some success with story leads coming out of the blogs, and some of them, like our KU blog, do quite well. The opportunity is there...buffering, I guess.

Our audience knows a heck of a lot more about Lawrence than we do...we take that seriously...and we can use blogs, as an informal reporting base, to learn more from them. Now we just need to start talking back and forth.

War, wind farms, Obama and MTV: Street Team '08 concludes

2008-11-12T16:54:00.000-08:00

I posted my final video for MTV News' (EMMY AWARD-WINNING!) Choose or Lose Street Team '08, a Knight Foundation initiative that used 51 citizen journalists (hate that term) to cover the youth movement during the election.

This project was rewarding, though sometimes frustrating. But looking back on it, it provided me with skills, insight and ideas that I never had before. I can edit a video like a whiz, our Election Day-tweets were posted on Times' Square HD board and I interviewed Ralph Nader. Pretty cool.

Here are some highlights, in no particular order:

I saw Barack Obama speak three times, including his first (and only) visit to Kansas, the state where his mother was from. Also twice in Kansas City, including a rally with 75,000 people, where I got patted down by Secret Service.
I embedded with the 1st Infantry Division's Dagger Brigade, as they trained to go to Iraq at Fort Irwin, Calif. I saw first-hand how our troops train for war, reported from the back of a Humvee and had front row seats to some intense combat simulation. I was also invited to embed with them in Iraq, but that looks unlikely.
Great interview with author Tom Frank, who wrote "What's the Matter with Kansas?" and "The Wrecking Crew." Tom, if you're reading, I'll buy you a beer next time you're in Lawrence.
Ralph Nader came to Lawrence to speak. I didn't do a story on him for MTV, but I got to interview him for LJWorld.com's Schoolhouse Talk blog.
My MTV blog, Making Kansas Count, was named one of the state's top political blogs by The Washington Post's Chris Cilizza.
I contributed an article on guerilla journalism to Harvard University's Nieman Reports.
I met tons of exciting, engaged young people who are working hard (on both sides of the aisle) to make Kansas a better place. Most impressive, I think, are the kids at Greensburg High School, who are rebuilding their town as America's first all-green city.
Daily Kos linked to a story I did on State Sen. Donald Betts, who was running for Congress at age 30. He, however, got smoked in the general election.

So it's been a long, crazy 11 months. Many thanks to MTV for choosing me to report on Kansas, and major props to my fellow Street Teamers, who were a source of support (both technically and emotionally).

Twitterank: A case study in familiarity

2008-11-12T16:41:00.000-08:00

My new position at the Journal-World means I got home at 6:15 a.m. and slept to about 4. Just like college.

But that meant I missed out of a lot Twitter chatter, which I've apparently become addicted to. A popular topic on the Twitter boards today was a thing called Twitterank, which purportedly rates your popularity on the micro-blogging site.

Turns out, it might be a phishing scam, stealing your password and distributing content under your username.

I was typing in my Twitter ID to see what this thing is when I read a note saying it's a scam. (PS: Nobody's totally sure yet, but there have been reports of phishing after folks logged on to the site, which asks for your ID and password)

Why would anyone be that eager to share their password with an unknown third-party site? Is it vanity? Or just a familiarity with a community that is by and large congenial, helpful and eager to share information?

I would never give out my SSN or bank account number to a strange third party, but I find myself doling out my Twitter password to a variety of sites to a) see what they are and b) further navigate the social web.

While these tools are utterly cool (if not unpractical for most daily uses), it begs a bigger question about how we use the social web. It's a pretty well-established fact that many parents are wary of their kids using MySpace and Facebook, lest predators view their information and photos. So why are we adults, who should know better, so keen to give out private information?

Stranger danger, right?

People still want newspapers

2008-11-05T12:18:00.000-08:00

After watching hundreds of Obama supporters record the moment by snapping photos of each other and the big-screen TV declaring an Obama victory, I came to work today with one goal: Get a copy of today's New York Times.

I walked into our newsroom and picked up a copy of the Journal-World and the University Daily Kansan. But when I left to walk across the street to Borders on a coffee and newspaper run, I saw that the stack of J-Ws – which is never empty – was, in fact, empty. Our staffers raided it.

So I left to get the NYT, and if possible, the Kansas City Star. They were sold out at Borders. They were sold out at Starbucks. Across the city, honor boxes are empty. And other papers are increasing their runs and making extra copies. People want newspapers as historic record. They want them for their news.

They might go online everyday, but this shows that papers are still relevant. After all, it's just not the same printing out an article to show your kids and grandkids.

Personally, I've sent my friends in Chicago on a mission to grab a copy of today's Trib and Sun-Times.

UPDATE: Of course, I would be remiss not to mention other recent events that have sparked similar rushes on news stands: The Phillies' World Series victory created such a high demand that Philly papers printed more. The Journal-World and Kansan both printed thousands more copies after KU won the NCAA basketball championship. People still like having that tangible thing in their hands...even if they can't admit it.

MTV's Election Day Multimedia Bonanza

2008-11-03T11:21:00.000-08:00

With Election Day finally upon us, MTV's Street Team '08 is gearing up for the day we've been looking forward to for almost a year. And it's going to be awesome.

We have reporters in every state and Washington, D.C., and we'll be filing reports throughout the day on think.mtv.com and chooseorlose.com (they redirect to each other). These will be video reports from polling stations, interviews with voters, analysis of the voting process...and we'll be using Twitter as a primary reporting tool for much of the day.

MTV built a Twittervision platform for Choose or Lose, and MTVNews.com, and we'll be tweeting throughout the day. It's a wonderful culmination of the social media tools we've been working with since January, and is a reflection of the timely reporting we did on Super Tuesday, the RNC and DNC, and the debates.

Give @streetteam08 a follow, be sure to visit Choose or Lose...and don't forget to VOTE!

Did Joe the Plumber father Sarah Palin's autistic baby?

2008-10-16T00:26:00.000-07:00

Another snore of a debate in my book. But McCain kept talking about autism and Sarah Palin. It's as if he thought autism and down syndrome were one and the same.

Sarah Palin, secession, CNN and me

2008-10-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

CNN's Rick Sanchez did a lengthy story today about Sarah Palin, and her husband Todd's involvement with the secessionist group, the Alaska Independence Party. Sanchez interviewed a Salon.com reporter who has completed an investigation into the matter.

As is turns out, I sent Sanchez a note on Twitter last week, about the story I had just completed for MTV's Street Team '08...about the Palins and the AIF. I take full credit for the CNN story. You're welcome, Rick.

I found a way to get the old Facebook back, and I'm happy about it

2008-09-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

I am not a fan of the new Facebook layout. Despite Facebook's claim that it's more streamlined and easier to navigate than the old layout...it's not. It's confusing, too spread out and difficult to look at.

My former KU classmate, Arthur Hur, however told me how to get the old layout back. It's easy, and took me about 30 seconds. Here's how:

Go to:
http://www.new.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2345053339 and add the "Developer" application then go to http://apps.new.facebook.com/?fbnew_opt_out=1

The only problem is, Facebook automatically takes you to the new layout when you log in. To keep the old layout, I entered the second URL, then put it as one of my favorites. Bam. Old Facebook is back. Huzzah!

EDIT: Facebook figured it out. Dammit.

What's the biggest challenge facing young journalists? For me, it's money.

2008-08-24T15:13:00.000-07:00

What is the biggest challenge for young journalists? Well, for me it's realizing that I'm not going to be a young journalist for that much longer, and because of that I wonder if I can afford to be a journalist.

I got into this business not too long ago because I felt it pulling at me. The importance of informing communities, helping people understand their place in their community and the world, the need to challenge those in power...these ideas struck me and inspired me to leave a job in PR that just started paying off financially.

Despite a bump in the road (a graduate program that failed to deliver), I've been pretty happy with my decision to enter journalism. I work at an innovative paper, er news organization, that gives me opportunities to report for print, for the Web and for television; it gives me space to explore lots of stories; it's taught me multimedia storytelling methods and has made me feel as if my decision to enter journalism was the right one. Unlike some outlets, this paper takes chances and encourages innovation and exploration.

But, as countless journalists before me can attest, journalism doesn't pad your wallet very well.

And with the media business free falling at an alarming rate, and no true viable business model on the Web, I'm pretty sure it's going to stay that way.

Add the lack of money to a desire to live in a big city (where jobs are shrinking, not growing), and I have a pretty good reason to wonder if I can afford to be a reporter. After all, I've got debts to pay and it's nice to be able to eat and drive my car.

There are social pressures, too. All of my friends, it seems, are getting married, buying houses, having babies. If a woman will ever agree to it, I'd like to get married someday. My romantic failures aside, the prospects of a reporter's paycheck providing the things I would like in my life are slim.

I am satisfied knowing that I am achieving what I want in journalism. But the future is scary. With 30 on the horizon, I realize that I'm not so young anymore and I'm tired of Ramen noodles, tasty as they are.

Can I afford to be a journalist? I just don't know.

Where was Biden's announcement?

2008-08-23T13:38:00.000-07:00

There's no way Joe Biden and his people would try to overshadow Obama on this day...but given how the Obama camp told voters about the Biden choice, shouldn't Biden's people be doing a similar thing?

While "he" updated his Facebook profile, the only change on Biden's MySpace profile is the profile photo; there have been no comments posted since January. "His" Twitter account is silent.

Maybe it's because Biden was out of the race and is suddenly jumping back in. Or maybe it's because Biden is now part of the Obama brand. But it's a fractured media world, and I would have thought Biden would be announcing the news in some way, shape or form on the Internets.

Obama made news media look silly

2008-08-23T12:51:00.000-07:00

I was supposed to have my annual review on Friday. But it got pushed back because everyone in the newsroom was clutching their phones, waiting for Barack Obama to txt us his choice for vice prsdnt. When KMBC suggested Evan Bayh was the choice, we wondered what happened to Kathleen Sebelius.

We knew Obama had to announce the v.p. choice before his speech in Springfield today, but we kind of figured it would be during a time where we could report on it as it happened.

You had poor Wolf Blitzer standing in his Situation Room, speculating. Kansas City news reporters staking out a company that produces political signs. You had reporters in Kansas staking out Sebelius. We all thought Obama's media machine would come through.

Well, it turned out it was Obama's NEW media machine that took the helm, sending a text message that woke me up at 2:48 a.m. CST to announce Joe Biden is the choice. (By the way, I predicted this months ago neener neener)

Obama made us all look silly. He bypassed the news media by letting people know the v.p. choice in an expressly modern way. It's akin to Twittering the choice, or announcing it via Facebook. It was immediate, it was direct and kept Obama in the news all Friday as people discussed who his choice could be. One commenter at Daily Kos said the speculation allowed McCain to "marinate" in the question, keeping his seven houses in the news.

Is it strange that Obama bypassed the media? Today's front pages were almost devoid of Biden news, though the Journal-World, NY Post got it. The Times didn't. The Wall Street Journal didn't. The Tribune speculated. However, a late-breaking AP story quoted an anonymous source saying Biden was the choice.

Bottom line, is it's fascinating how Obama's play to the people gave the message directly to them, at a time when only bloggers and barflies could learn and disseminate the news.

Though not all bloggers appreciated the "3 a.m. phone call:"

My new beat blog

2008-07-31T21:03:00.000-07:00

Today LJWorld rolled out our new education beat blog, Schoolhouse Talk. 6News education reporter Lindsey Slater and I edit the blog, which we think will allow us to beef up and extend our coverage of schools in Lawrence. It's one of more than 10 blogs our reporters keep.

I've already got a million ideas for the blog, and things that can grow from it. Excited? You betcha.

It's ironic, because I don't do a particularly good job blogging here. I don't think I have many particularly interesting or groundbreaking insights to add to the debates surrounding journalism. Yeah, I have opinions and misgivings and maybe innovative ideas, but who cares what I think?

I have a few blog entries I want to write here, but I'm reticent to post them just because, well, what do I, as a reporter with a year under his belt, have to add?

I don't know. Maybe I'll post them here. All I know is that Schoolhouse Talk is going to be cool and fun. The layout might need some work, but that's a bridge we'll cross when we get there.

Cleaning house: New MTV Stuff

2008-07-31T20:56:00.000-07:00

I've been seriously slacking here:

Here's how Greensburg is turning green, following the tornado:

Young people were leaving Greensburg, Kan., in droves before the May 2007 tornado. Now they're deciding to stick around:

Lastly, some words on T. Boone Pickens and the new wind power debate.

Greensburg keeps growing

2008-07-13T11:51:00.000-07:00

Greensburg, Kan., was devastated by an F-5 tornado on May 5, 2007. Ten people were killed and the town had to start over. Early on, residents of Greensburg decided to rebuild their own "green," using the latest in sustainable technology to turn the tiny town into an internationally-renowned center of innovation.

Here's how the town's teens are contributing:

Nieman Reports, featuring me

2008-06-29T20:12:00.000-07:00

I got my copy of the Nieman Reports today. The one that I contributed to. Yep. I wrote a story about my experiences covering Kansas for MTV's Street Team '08, and how the Web provides a conundrum for citizen reporters, who are not only correspondents, but pundits, as well.

For folks like me, who work at mainstream media outlets, it's a quandary...while this type of guerilla journalism allows for punditry, we walk a fine line of fact vs. opinion. I'll post the link once it's online.

It's pretty cool to see my byline next to the likes of John Harris. Liz Nord, queen bee of ST08, also contributed.

The case for Sebelius as VP: An MTV video

2008-06-29T20:09:00.000-07:00

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius was unknown to many before she gave the Dems' response to President Bush's SOTU speech in January. Since then, her profile has skyrocketed, and now she's high on many pundits' lists for vice president. Here's why people are saying Sebelius could be the next veep:

I drank the Twitter Kool-Aid

2008-06-25T21:17:00.000-07:00

Damn. Damndamndamn. Against every instinct in my body, counter to the feeling of revulsion and rebellion I felt towards Twitter when I first tried to figure out what the hell it was all about a year ago, I find myself checking it multiple times a day, tweeting during work and following random people.

So far it has not benefited me professionally, it's generated no more than a few hits on my MTV videos, but damn if it isn't kind of addictive. This really isn't what I need while working in a newsroom.

I've actually decided to engulf myself in social media for the time-being. I've started using Digg and I'm going to venture into other methods of communication to see if they can boost my MTV views...not out of ego, but of curiosity. And a bit of ego. But mostly curiosity.

But I WILL NOT be found on Second Life. That is one thing I just don't get.

A stand against genocide: Another MTV vid

2008-06-23T21:25:00.001-07:00

Nine Wichita teens ran from their hometown to DC to bring awareness to genocide in Darfur.

Soldiers in their own words: Another MTV video

2008-06-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

It's one of the biggest cliches of the war: Support the troops. But for soldiers in the 1st Infantry Division, with whom I embedded in mid-May, it's true. Here they are, in their own words. This story was picked up the AP Online Video Network (it just makes me feel good to say that).

A glimpse at how the Army trains for war...MTV style!

2008-06-12T19:55:00.000-07:00

Here's my latest MTV video...I recently embedded with the 1st Infantry Division out of Fort Riley, Kan. This video was distributed by the AP Online Video Network.

I also created a multimedia package for the Lawrence Journal-World. Good stuff!

In which I embed with the Army

2008-05-29T15:04:00.001-07:00

I just got back from being embedded with the 1st Infantry Division, out of Fort Riley, Kan., as it underwent desert warfare training at Fort Irwin, Calif. It was an incredible experience, and I walked away with a greater respect for the very professional and mature troops fighting for our country. I'll produce some stories for MTV about the trip, but you can read my blog entries for the Lawrence Journal-World here, and check back at LJWorld.com on June 6 for complete coverage.

School shooting, 20 years later

2008-05-20T15:21:00.001-07:00

The Chicago Tribune has a really interesting story today about a school shooting that took place 20 years ago in the North Shore suburb of Winnetka. It recaps the heartwrenching event, which took place inside Hubbard Woods Elementary School. The story was hampered by the reluctance of those who lived the event to go on record.

For me, it was a must-read. I grew up for a time in Winnetka; my brother attended Hubbard Woods, just five years after the shooting. I knew kids who were there; I knew kids who were shot by the assailant. But we never talked about it. It was taboo. The pain that this community felt was masked by the grind of daily life, but it was there. Why else would nobody talk about it?

It's so sad to think of all the little children, whose lives were changed forever by this event.

Thanks be to the Internet

2008-05-14T11:45:00.000-07:00

It's hard to tell how much play my MTV videos have gotten on the Internets, but Daily Kos has a link to my newest, so that's pretty cool.

George Bush: Make putts, not war

2008-05-13T17:33:00.000-07:00

Our president reveals to Politico how he's sacrificed during the war: He's put down the putter.

"For the first time, Bush revealed a personal way in which he has tried to acknowledge the sacrifice of soldiers and their families: He has given up golf.

“I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” he said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”

Bush said he made that decision after the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. official in Iraq and the organization’s high commissioner for human rights.

“I remember when de Mello, who was at the U.N., got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man's life,” he said. “I was playing golf — I think I was in central Texas — and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, ‘It's just not worth it anymore to do.’"

The comfort this must give the families of fallen soldiers, I'm sure, is immense.

New MTV Video: Wichita's Congressional hope

2008-05-13T13:05:00.000-07:00

Kansas State Sen. Donald Betts is only 30, but he's "had a life." Overcoming homelessness, gang violence and drug-riddled neighborhoods, Betts is serving his sixth year in the state legislature. And now he's running for U.S. Congress. Here's his story, MTV-style:

The Bachelor kills brain cells

2008-05-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

In a move I hope to never reprise, I watched approximately five minutes of the "The Bachelor" last night. I was flipping through channels and saw it was on, remember that a friend of a friend (but a first degree friend on Facebook) was one of the contestants. And this was the episode where the women speak! How could I pass that up.

Sadly, within five minutes, my brain was seeping out of my ears and I wanted to stab myself with a spoon.

This is the third time in a few weeks I've watched or read something about a TV show that holds (or should hold) zero interest to me. I've become dumber every time.

I tuned into MTV's "The Paper" last week. Someday, I'd like to teach high school journalism, so I thought this would be a great glimpse into that world. If it's anything like that when I make it to the classroom, somebody stop me. My God...there was nothing about journalism. Just a group of back-stabbing prima donnas whose voices pierced my eardrums like...something.

Then Rolling Stone comes to my mailbox with a cover story on "The Hills." I don't know who these girls are, but that might be a good thing. I like RS because it has interesting political coverage and turns me on to cool new bands. But this story made me feel empty. Who. Cares?

This coming from a guy who read the entire article. Sigh.

New MTV video: Walking for Mother Earth

2008-05-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

Native Americans are walking from SF to DC to promote awareness of Native American issues. It's called the Longest Walk, and they're finding that reservation water is polluted. Have a look-see:

Web site face lift

2008-05-03T22:01:00.000-07:00

I've grown very disenchanted with Yahoo Small Business and the way it hosts (or doesn't host) my resume Web site. So I've moved to WordPress. It's not as fancy as my Yahoo site, at least not yet. But I've got my main points there. It's sleek and to the point; people can read my clips; my greatest hits, and visit my Multimedia Corner (catchy, no?). It's a start. And it's free! Though I did print up 300 or so business cards with my other URL. D'oh.

A question for Twitter-heads

2008-04-29T21:00:00.001-07:00

OK, so I get the premise of Twitter, but at the same time I don't. While I don't have many important things to do, I know that I do have more important things to do than to subscribe to a Twitter feed. I don't have a Blackberry or a phone w/ Web capabilities. I check the news when I need to: Every few hours I'll check out the Chicago Tribune, Lawrence Journal-World or Kansas City Star to learn what I need to. I see Yahoo's homepage every half hour or so. So, Twitter, what up? What's your deal?

Furthermore, per Mindy McAdams' post about the future newshound, does Twitter provide location-specific feeds? Say I live in Kansas City, Mo., or Lawrence, Kan., or the boondocks of Nova Scotia, can I find feeds from my area? I'm curious. Sell me on Twitter. I dare you. (Also, you can subscribe to my Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/parkeral.

Represent! Another tale from Kansas

2008-04-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

KU junior Clarissa Unger is the only college student elected to represent Kansas at the DNC. Here's my latest MTV piece, telling her story:

Associated Press + me = APsquared

2008-04-26T21:54:00.001-07:00

I love seeing the AP logo next to my work! w00t!

RIP Christy Bradford

2008-04-24T19:29:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite professors here at KU, Christy Bradford, passed away today. She died of a heart attack. I was in the newsroom when I heard the news, and I was shocked. I didn't know Professor Bradford well, but I respected her and enjoyed the conversations we had.

She came to KU from the Detroit News, where she presided as ME over a Pulitzer Prize in 1994. Her experience, in fact, is one of the main reasons I came to KU. This may be one more example of how that was a bad idea. (Here is the News' obituary.)

Professor Bradford and I last spoke last week when I asked her to chair my thesis committee. She declined, citing her desire to take the spring 2009 semester off to relax. She was looking forward to it very much. When I ran some ideas by her, she sat there silently, contemplating, then fired back a million different ideas, that will, eventually, strengthen the product I put out when/if I finish the thesis project. She was a newswoman through and through.

I'll miss her mentorship, and, if I may dare say, her friendship.

Kansas coal plants and MTV

2008-04-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

My latest vid for the em tee vees (MTV)...my hand at drawing the story of the Holcomb coal plant debate.

Noooo! Multimedia Shooter dies again

2008-04-02T22:25:00.000-07:00

Looks like this time it's for good. What a terrible loss for the blogosphere. What a great and helpful site.

Reuters' Iraq package is awesome

2008-04-02T21:10:00.001-07:00

If you haven't seen Reuters' multimedia package on the 5-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, do yourself a service a click HERE. It's pretty amazing.

Cubs Rule. Sox Drool. New RedEye blog proves it.

2008-04-02T20:47:00.000-07:00

My friend, former co-worker, and current Chicago Tribune sports scribe Matt Lynch is setting the story straight in Chicago with his new blog, Oddballs. Hosted by RedEye, Matt will seek to let everyone know that the Cubs rool and the Sox drooool. His friend Ryan will ill-advisedly try to do the same for the Sox.

Check it out!

http://weblogs.redeyechicago.com/oddballs/

CitJ in Kansas City: A dream explained

2008-04-02T11:07:00.000-07:00

Geoff Dougherty, editor the Chi-Town Daily News, wrote a column at Poynter discussing his management of several dozen citizen journalists in Chicago. His use of software to organize his team is pretty interesting, I think.

I'm beginning to plan my thesis project to (finally) graduate from KU. I'm rolling around two ideas in my head: One is a multimedia project about homelessness in Lawrence or a citizen journalism venture in Kansas City. There are a lot of blogs that muse on life and politics in KC, but I think there's a way to bring them all together.

My thoughts are this: Using a model of the Daily News and the Voice of San Diego, a citizen journalism venture would work best by combining user-generated content with the work of professional journalists. You create editorial standards and ensure your writers adhere to them. You use your in-house reporters to cover beats (Geoff had a good list on one of his blog posts, but I can't find it), some breaking news and some features, while relying on citizen journalists -- including high school journalists -- to beef up your coverage.

Then use your site as an aggregator local blogs (the Daily News does this, but I think there are a lot of local bloggers that could be represented. Kansas City has a solid group of city bloggers who are smarter about a lot of things than a lot of people) and media, maybe even using AP stories. Invite local bloggers to participate in online chats or as guest columnists. Heck, see if they'll be regular contributors. Using Yahoo Pipes to automatically expand the scope of stories. Use a front page Twitter-like function so readers and reporters can give updates on stories or traffic jams or the Royals' World Series victory (or not).

It needs to feed the sense of community that lives online and not appear as a monolith, as so many news organizations do. It should encourage community leaders or government officials to participate in op/eds.

Advertising? Um, I don't know much about it. But there's got to be some solution. One could be similar to the Journal-World's Marketplace, which allows businesses to upload info about their business, while paying for some premium features, like photos. The World Company is branching out of Larry to sell the service nationally.

My vision for Kansas City site would be heavy on multimedia: Maps, Google StreetView, lots of video for feature stories, and more.

Of course, I could be totally mistaken about all this. And I'm sure there's a whole helluva a lot more I haven't even thought of. I am not, how you say, a thought leader. That's what you get for musing on late-night visions.

This just in: The Bean is sweet.

Reporting from outside Union Station...

Greetings from the LJ World's News Center

New MTV Multimedia: Parliament's resident protestor

2008-04-02T10:51:00.000-07:00

Since June 2001, Brian Haw has lived -- no, existed -- outside Parliament. He rails against the imperialism of the "United States of Assassins and Genocide Britain;" he mourns the children caught up in the war and wants a swift end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I caught up with him on a snowy day in London.

Me and the Washington Post

2008-04-01T10:49:00.000-07:00

Chris Cillizza, who writes The Fix blog for the Washington Post, was looking for the country's top political blogs, state-by-state. And who did he pick for Kansas? Yep, me.

It's pretty exciting, but I'm certain there was a lack of representation from the Sunflower State. Nonetheless, I've got some work to do to live up to my new-found title as one of the best political blogs in the state. I can't say that I believe that yet; there are some really good ones out there, like Blue Tide Rising, Kansas Voice and Evolving in Kansas. I've had a tough time finding more conservative blogs in the state. Weird, I think, since the only blue spot is here in Lawrence. Nonetheless, I strive to do better, and I think I'll continue to improve my reportage and blogging, especially when I'm finished with the semester.

A tip of the cap the Brian Rich, our Street Teamer from Idaho.

In which my mug graces MTV

2008-03-31T10:33:00.001-07:00

You probably don't know what I look like, so this isn't very exciting to you. But MTV's first "Best of Street Team '08" is airing this week, and yours truly has an ever-so-brief cameo. It's really just a (silent) clip of me talking in the upper right hand corner. They also use a clip of my story on the Minutemen. Good stuff! Check out my fellow Street Teamers in action:

THINK: Obama, Iraq and England

2008-03-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

LONDON -- I’ve spent the last week or so traveling in England and keeping an eye to the British press about their takes on issues important in U.S election. People here are certainly aware of who is running. John McCain was even in London last Thursday, visiting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The most striking coverage of American events has been surrounding the five-year anniversary of the war in Iraq. While there was plenty of coverage – news, editorials, breakdown of costs – there was little on the streets of London to commemorate five years of war. (On Saturday, March 15, sources tell me a massive protest of 40 – 50,000 people marched down Whitehall to Parliament to protest the U.K.’s involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I wish I’d seen it, but it pales in comparison to the hundreds of thousands who marched in protest as the war convened.)

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE!

New video on MTV's THINK site: First name bias?

2008-03-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

I'm in England, and forgot to post my latest video for THINK. It's a vlog, asking why do we call some candidates by their first names, and not others? Hmmmm?

Cheney: Iraq's all good

2008-03-17T09:34:00.001-07:00

Dick Cheney's AirStream trailer landed in Baghdad today, and then he declared the war a success! Woohoo! Mission accomplished! He then told Pat Leahy to go fuck himself and shot him in the face.

I'm heading off to England this afternoon, and I'm going to bring home some analysis of what the British papers are saying about the war, which apparently is going well. I'll be there for the fifth anniversary of the invasion, and will be filming for MTV. Should be interesting.

MTV News Street Team '08, Kansas Style

2008-03-14T22:08:00.000-07:00

So I'm about three months into my Street Team '08 experience, covering Kansas for MTV News' Choose or Lose campaign. So far, it's been a lot of fun and very interesting, but I look forward to broadening my horizons from northeast Kansas.

Mark Glaser at MediaShift wrote about the Street Team today, as well as some of our competitors (?), like HuffPost's Off the Bus and PurpleStates. Overall, he's pretty spot on in his criticisms and praises. We've got some work to do in our reportage (this reporter included). But it's all a grand experiment, and it will improve. I'll discuss this more in an upcoming issue of the Nieman Report.

I thought I'd link to my stories and see if anyone actually reads this blog. Most recent first.

Hussein? Who cares? (video)
What do Kansans think about the Barack Hussein Obama question?
Nader: He's baaaaack (blog)
Commentary on Nader's entry to the race.
Kansas City Clash (v)
Minutemen come to KCMO
Why Pakistan Matters, and Why You Should Care (b)
Pakistani journalist, and KU student, Rauf Arif talks about the importance of Pakistan
And, yea, there was a Huckabee (b)
Republican caucus coverage
Kansas Caucus Wrap-up (v) (blog)
A weak wrap-up to my caucus coverage; we live-vlogged all day on Super Tuesday. For some reason, MTV has not archived that footage.
Young vets await education bill decision (v)
Kansas vets petition the legislature for money to supplement their GI Bill funds
Related blog here: Republican response
All eyes on us...so don't drop the soap (b)
Gov. Sebelius gives the Dems rebuttal to Bush's SOTU
Kansans hope they have a voice at the caucus (b)
Pre-caucus coverage
A singular image? (b)
Kansas: More than what you think.
Kansans rally for Ron Paul (v)
My first video about Lawrencians supporting Ron Paul

Spitzer's girl is pretty pleased with herself

2008-03-13T11:15:00.000-07:00

Ashley Dupre, the call girl linked to Eliot Spitzer, is not ashamed of her place in history, at least according to her MySpace page. But, really, Tom is her only friend, so let's not read too far into this.

Also, the Daily Show's hilarious take:

New video on MTV's THINK site: Hussein? Who cares?

2008-03-12T00:06:00.001-07:00

When reporters attack

2008-03-11T23:12:00.000-07:00

Here's an awkward exchange (towards the end) between a morning show anchor and a reporter. I really have no other words to explain it.

Reporter Fights With Anchor On Camera - Watch more free videos

Apparently, I was in Slate

2008-03-07T21:53:00.000-08:00

During some late-night Googling of myself, I found a blurb on Slate.com from August...apparently this blog was quoted, with regards to the Daily Show's Iraq coverage. Cool!

If only Slate knew I was full of crap!

Anonymous reader comments hurt democracy

2008-03-05T11:18:00.000-08:00

There's been a battle about the use of anonymous reader comments. How can a newspaper, which values transparency above all else, advocate readers masking who they are? These comment board discussions often devolve into name-calling and other unintelligent discourse. It's pretty reasonable to think that discussions would be more high-minded if users were required to provide their real names. We're all responsible for what we say, but not if you use a pseudonym.

I did some research on this in the fall, and concluded that anonymous reader comments hurt freedom of speech and democracy, by subjecting sources to intimidation and ridicule. Sources can be unwilling to go on the record, thus limiting the press' ability to hold others accountable. It's probably more prevalent on a local level.

This is something Doug Fisher will address at a journalism conference this summer in Chicago.

I wonder what others out there think about this? How harmful are anonymous comments?

The Internet is bottomless cup of coffee

2008-03-04T18:44:00.000-08:00

Mindy McAdams has a succinct list of what journalism students need to learn, um, now.

Web stuff (XHTML and CSS, whatever those are...); audio reporting and editing; photo (graphy, editing, shop); video (check) and Soundslides, which is apparently ridiculously easy storyteling.

Bryan Murley suggests maps and blogging, too. Good points, all. I wish I knew what half of these things were without using the google.

It's part of a larger discussion across the Internets about what journalism education may be lagging in. Murley, at Innovation in College Media, even wrote up a syllabus for an all-encompassing multimedia course.

This can only help the journalists of tomorrow -- and today.

After all, everyone's pretty much in agreement that the Web is where it's at.

And isn' that part of a greater conversation about the need for entrepreneurship? I'd be interested to know how many j-schools are teaching students about creating their own news venues, whether they're part of a larger news organization or their own media venture.

They're talking about it in England, where there's a Journalism Enterprise & Entrepreneurship conference next week.

And Mark Glaser writes that journalists need to better exposed to the business side of the...business. Some schools, like CUNY, teach entrepreneurial journalism.

I think of all the possibilities that the Internet provides. Whether its ventures like Rocketboom or the Chi-Town Daily News or the Voice of San Diego, the Web is an bottomless cup of information coffee. I think if you localize a news venture, providing a very Webby product -- more than a blog, less than a newspaper -- you can tap into a niche that has yet to mature.

And thank God for the Web to teach me all about it.

FX tries to keep up morale

2008-03-04T18:32:00.000-08:00

I flipped on FX's broadcast of "Behind Enemy Lines," an Owen Wilson flick where he plays an American pilot shot down over Bosnia. As he and his co-pilot try to figure out where they have crashed, Serb rebels find their plane and celebrate shooting down the plane. They jump on the fuselage and one soldier picks up part of a wing, labeled "U.S. Navy."

But not tonight.

FX cut that shot out.

As the camera pans over the rebels' celebration, we see a brief glimpse of a man holding something above his head before the scene abruptly cuts away.

What is the motive behind this? Why did FX cut the scene of a downed American plane? Would they cut out scenes from "Black Hawk Down" or American soldiers being mowed down on Omaha Beach in "Saving Private Ryan"?

Is the network -- a subsidiary of Fox -- worried about American support for the war on terror dropping by showing a two-second clip of an action flick?

I don't get it, and I don't see the problem.

Any ideas?

The Daily Show's Street Team is totes hip

2008-02-29T13:34:00.000-08:00

The Daily Show's Demetri Martin was trying to tap into the heads of youth voters, and decided a Street Team was in order. I don't know...I'm not a big fan of turtlenecks...

Americans hate the media less

2008-02-28T14:09:00.000-08:00

Even though the majority of America still hates the commie-pinko-liberal-right wing-agenda setters in the "MEDIA," they hate us less than in the past. A Zogby poll reveals few surprises: Republicans hate the media more than Democrats; blogs are important, but not that important; old people don't use the Web. Here's the rundown, via USNR:

—Although the vast majority of Americans are dissatisfied with the quality of journalism (64 percent), overall satisfaction has increased to 35 percent in this survey from 27 percent in 2007.

—Both traditional and new media are viewed as important for the future of journalism—87 percent believe professional journalism has a vital role to play in the nation's future, although citizen journalism (77 percent) and blogging (59 percent) are also seen as significant by most Americans.

—Very few Americans (1 percent) consider blogs their most trusted source of news or their primary source of news (1 percent).

—Three in four (75 percent) believe the Internet has had a positive impact on the overall quality of journalism.

—Sixty-nine percent believe media companies are becoming too large and powerful to allow for competition, while 17 percent believe they are the right size to adequately compete.

—More Republicans (79 percent) than Democrats (50 percent) feel disenchanted with the media.

Ernie Pyle's Miami connection

2008-02-13T23:38:00.000-08:00

I came across a sad and amazing story the other day. A new photo of one of my heroes, Ernie Pyle, was found. It's his death photo. The picture shows Ernie, with a trail of blood leaking out his mouth, arms folded on his chest, lying in a ditch on Ie Shima.

I've been to Pyle's home in Dana, Ind. I've read his books, and biographies. I have pictures and advertisements with his picture. His G.I. Joe watches me when I write. It was like seeing a friend's picture.

But I noticed the article quoted James Tobin, the author of "Ernie Pyle's War," a biography that came out a few years ago. I own the book, and have always loved it. Turns out Tobin, who used to write for the Detroit News, is now a professor at my alma mater, Miami University. Man! I wish I'd been able to study under him. But I'm an old-timer now. (He also used to work at The News with one of my current professors, Christy Bradford, who used to be managing editor).

It was a circle of coincidences. I still get shivers when I see that photo.

Snarking is hard

2008-02-11T21:21:00.001-08:00

Man, it's hard to be snarky all the time.

That's one of my biggest challenges when I blog here and over at THINK. Blogging is a medium that allows, nay encourages, a little snark, a little attitude. But when you're blogging about Mike Huckabee, and you're just a lowly little man like me, it makes it difficult. Huckabee is a funny name, for sure, but I'm not sure what I can add to the conversation in terms of snark.

I like to throw out the occassional zinger in my daily life, but there's a lot of pressure to do it on the blogosphere. I'm no Wonkette, I know that. We'll see if I can get funny.

I love "The Wire"

2008-02-11T20:14:00.000-08:00

Since the demise of "Journeyman," HBO's "The Wire" has become my newest can't-miss TV show. I'm not one for crime dramas. I've never seen "Law & Order" for more than a few minutes, and none of its counterparts have ever been boob tube destinations for me. But, "The Wire" is just good.

And I think I know why I like it so much. It's the newspapers, stupid!

After, no other show on television gives any play to newspapers. There was Bravo's short-lived "Tabloid Wars," but that was over pretty fast.

"The Wire," in case you didn't know, details the crime-ridden world of Baltimore from the eyes of gangsters in the street, cops tired of bureaucracy and the Baltimore Sun, fighting its own battle with the city and the business.

One of the reporters, a self-aggrandizing young newsie named Scott Templeton, scares me. He wants to be good, really good. So do I, but Templeton's moving towards a dangerous plateau. After moving to the Sun from the Wichita Eagle and then the Kansas City Star, Templeton's stuck. And his frustration at making it big is causing him to have some severe ethical lapses.

He's begun fabricating conversations with a serial killer who is murdering homeless men. The serial killer, of course, is a fabrication of the police department's homicide unit, which needs more manpower. It's a train wreck waiting to happen.

Last week, Templeton used a pay phone to call his cell phone, then made up a conversation with the killer. My heart jumped when I saw it. It's scary for me to see someone make such a terrible decision. After all, I'm taking an ethics course right now.

I only get emotional during select TV programs -- "Ed," for one. Great show. -- but I'm so mad at this guy. He's bright, he's young, he's got a future and talent. And he's throwing it away. Look, a lot of reporters have dreams of being great fiction writers. But the newsroom is not the place.

I'm interested to see how this mess will play out. My guess is that Templeton joins the Journalism Hall of Shame.

Live Vlogging: A summary

2008-02-06T19:26:00.000-08:00

Whoa. Yesterday was pretty cool. I live vlogged all day long, using a sweet Nokia N95 phone sent to me by MTV, and using software from Flixster to upload live to the Web. When it worked, it was amazing. But there were a few glitches in the Matrix, and I'd guess the majority of my interviews are zooming around in cyberspace somewhere. But the ones I posted were good, and the energy in the caucus was amazing. Not to mention how innovative this project was.

Every Street Team member in a Super Tuesday state was blogging, vlogging and reporting throughout the day. We had streaming coverage from our states all day long. It was off-the-cuff, it was raw, it was good, fun journalism. Not even CNN or NBC can say they did what we did. I didn't see them in Kansas, that's for sure.

Check out ChooseOrLose.com for our coverage, but be aware that the videos are being archived offline on Friday, Feb. 8.

More to come!

A throw-away question

2008-02-04T20:02:00.000-08:00

Tonight Sen. Clinton held a national town hall meeting, where she answered one question per Super Tuesday state; all the states were linked up via satellite, and supporters met at central locations. Here in Kansas, people gathered in Wichita. Originally they were supposed to meet at a bar and grill, but I believed they moved to a theater.

Anyway, for the first time in my life, I watched the Hallmark Channel, which broadcast one hour of the Senator's give-and-take with fawning supporters. And at 9 p.m. on the dot, Hallmark switched back to its programming. And I still hadn't heard the question that Kansas would ask.

So I rushed back to my room and visited Clinton's Web site, which was streaming the remainder of the program. Finally, it was Kansas' turn.

And what a strange question it was. Last week I was on a conference call with Sen. Clinton's main backers here in Kansas, and they said they'd have to think of back up questions in case all the good ones -- you know, health care, the war, education, etc. -- were taken. Well, they were.

Kansas asked the dubious and curious question of how Sen. Clinton would tackle a national rail system, a la the Bullet Train in Japan or EuroStar in Europe. Seriously?

Clinton was overjoyed at this question (and all the others, for that matter). The Giants fan said she loved trains (!) and would definitely consider looking into creating a national rail system. *Sigh*

I, for one, was not surprised this square state didn't make it into the broadcast. I don't know how they organized it, but it may have something to do with delegates, because North Dakota and Delaware were two other states that didn't make it on-air.

I like trains -- my friend Blair and I took a lovely Amtrack ride from Chicago to Ann Arbor once. But I'm not sure that's the question on everybody's minds this presidential race.

I guess I'll find out tomorrow, when I'm live vlogging Super Tuesday!

Live vlogging Super Tuesday

2008-02-04T14:40:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, I will be live vlogging Super Tuesday from my home base in Lawrence. MTV has sent us these sweet Nokia N95 phones that can broadcast directly to the Internet. So myself and the 20-odd other Street Teamers (Teamsters?) with elections tomorrow, are flooding the Internets with coverage. They'll be streamed live on MTV.com and ChooseOrLose.com, and MTV will be breaking into its programming periodically to show clips from our reports. I'll be filing reports all day long, including at the caucus itself and a Young Democrats watch party at Old Chicago in Lawrence. I'll also be blogging throughout the day. w00t!

This is an incredible way to cover Super Tuesday. Future of media? I think so. Check it tomorrow.

Obama zings Cheney

2008-01-30T20:41:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-30T18:25:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-28T14:17:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-25T21:33:00.001-08:00

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

CitJ on display

2008-01-25T14:21:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-25T11:51:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-24T15:25:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-01-24T14:53:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-24T10:56:00.001-08:00

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

2008-01-22T17:29:00.001-08:00

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

2008-01-16T16:16:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-15T12:00:00.001-08:00

From potholes to wheatfields

2008-01-15T11:36:00.000-08:00

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!

MTV! MTV!

2007-12-21T20:31:00.000-08:00

I've been cutting back on my blogging lately for a number of reasons, but I thought I'd revive the Web Stained Wretch to tell my reader (there's more than one?) that I've been named one of 51 MTV News correspondents for the 2008 election. I'll be covering Kansas for Street Team '08, a band of citizen journalists from across the country, including DC. I'm pretty excited about this opportunity to tell the story of young people in Kansas.

The stories will be uploaded to think.mtv.com, the main Choose or Lose portal. They'll also be broadcast via MTV Mobile and, get this, the AP Online Video Network.

So if any Kansans out there have issues or stories they want to be told, drop me a line. As the dictionary would say, w00t!

How curious...

2007-12-07T17:14:00.001-08:00

Makes sense to me!

Cash Advance Loans

How do I find take-out menus in this town?

2007-11-13T13:07:00.000-08:00

I was starving last Thursday. Famished. Problem was, I couldn't find any take-out menus online. I really wanted Chinese food. Some sweet and sour chicken sounded delicious. Maybe some pad thai. But I was striking out left and right.

I didn't want to order from the last place I got Chinese. It was some of the worst food I'd ever eaten. Lawrence.com had a recommendation for a place called Thai House, which sounded great. So I got on the restaurant's Web site and found some good dishes and called for delivery. After calling several times and getting a buzzing sound that sounded like a modem from 1997, I gave up and hopped in the car to go to the restaurant itself. I was pretty steamed at this point. My aggravation was multiplied by the lack of parking due to a Danzig concert at Liberty Hall. Didn't know he was still around.

I finally found parking and walked to the restaurant. It was closed forever. Argh.

When I lived in Chicago, there was a great site called GrubHub.com, which had menus from hundreds of restaurants in the city that delivered. It was brilliant. I could go online, find my desired cuisine, read the menu on GrubHub, call, order, eat, enjoy.

But even though there are ways to find restaurants here in Lawrence, I haven't found a single central location where I can look at menus and order all in one spot. If I had time, I would start my own little entity and invite area restaurants to submit their menus for a fee. Then I would rake in tons of money and order take-out food with said money. It would be glorious.

FEMA follies show dispect for reporters

2007-11-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

Oh, FEMA. FEMA, FEMA, FEMA. You are not doing a heckuva job.

When the FEMA PR staff decided to put on a phony news conference last week, it highlighted the incompetence of this agency and its top officials. It also displayed the disdain with which this government looks at reporters. There are so many instances of government employees shunning the media and then putting their feet in their mouths, it's almost funny. Too bad it's real life.

Jon Friedman of MarketWatch said correctly that this instance shows how little the feds think of reporters. They think that anyone can be a journalist. Even if they're actually employees of the agency they're "covering."

That brings about the subject of citizen journalism. So many people are crowing about the genius of citizen journalism, but FEMA highlights the exact problem with it: zero credibility. Citizen journalists -- and I have dabbled in it before -- are people who are free to display their bias and generally don't act as watchdogs or responsible dissemination of news. Now, many will see the mainstream media fails at this, too. But the fact is that MSM has some sort of credibility built into the establishment.

When FEMA decides that its PR people (!) can be journalists as well as any trained reporter, they show the value of real news people and the absolute lack of credibility from so many people in this government.

A look at days of yore

2007-10-29T09:55:00.001-07:00

Here's a cool journalism recruitment video from the 1940s. My, how things have changed.

Why social networking is cool

2007-10-19T21:12:00.000-07:00

I resisted joining Facebook and MySpace for quite sometime, but caved last year. I'm glad I joined those programs (but wonder what I could do with all the time I've wasted on them). One thing that truly amazes me is how many friends of mine know other friends of mine independently.

Case in point, last night I was trying to find a Web site for a band my friend Adam used to play in. I found it and, lo and behold, the new bass player is a friend of my buddy, Trip. Today I saw that Trip joined a group celebrating the hilarity of my friend, Dan. Didn't know they knew each other. The bass player was a member of this group. Then I clicked on the profile of someone in the group and saw that this person was mutual friends with Trip and a former co-worker.

What a small green orb.

"I went to j-school for this?!?!?" Part II

2007-10-18T21:27:00.000-07:00

From somewhere in Idaho comes a gross story that requires the reporter to say "leave a log." Seriously, folks. I'm sure this is important to that community, and I'm all for using creative language, but this somehow seemed inappropriate to me. And the visuals are just plain nasty. I guess if you've got to cover this, you've got to do it with a sense of humor.

"I went to j-school for this?!?!"

2007-10-09T20:48:00.000-07:00

From the Ozark region of Missouri comes an in-depth look at a different organization. This affliate, the poor bastards, did a report on a group at Missouri State University called the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

At no point in the report was there a hint of humor. Everything was done with a perfectly straight face. Seriously, how could this reporter not lose it when he said that the group believes natural disasters are a result of fewer pirates in the world?

Where's the integrity? This story would do better buried in the Onion.

CSU editor should have been fired

2007-10-05T08:47:00.000-07:00

J. David McSwain, the editor of Colorado State's Daily Collegian paper, got lucky this week. He's keeping his job after coming up fire for a two-word editorial chastising President Bush.

He should have been canned.

I am all for editorial freedom and I deeply believe in the First Amendment, but McSwain engaged in buffoonery that further tarnishes the reputation of journalists. The editorial, which read "Taser this: FUCK BUSH," was ostensibly in response to the tasering of a University of Florida student at a John Kerry event. Let's be clear: Bush didn't taser the kid. Overaggressive campus cops did and, despite your thoughts on Bush, he didn't encourage their behavior.

So the political statement is lost in a mixed metaphor of sorts.

Why should McSwain be fired? Quite frankly, the editorial was a grab for attention, not a provacative statement. Newspaper editorials should be thoughtful accounts of opinion, not trigger-happy zingers that have no literary value. The paper provided a disservice to its readers...and continues to do so, as advertisers jump ship.

McSwain proved to be an irresponsible editor and that's why he should have been fired.

Times-Pic photogs recount Katrina

2007-10-01T23:46:00.000-07:00

I came across this incredible video put together by the New Orleans Times-Picayune. It's very well-done, and chronicles the experience of the paper's photographers during the storm. I visited NOLA in April for work and was blown away by how desolate it was and by the destruction that remained. I can't begin to fathom what it was like to be there for the big storm.

CNN can't be serious

2007-09-24T06:16:00.000-07:00

I was just watching CNN when a promo for their early morning program "American Morning" ran. In it, the network bragged that it has the most news stories per hour (SPH) than any other station. A news organization, bragging that it shows the most news. I think the Daily Show zinged on this a while back, but I think it's pretty absurd.