Fated to Be Friends
Sometimes you read a remarkable news story about remarkable people, remarkable events, and remarkable moments in history. This one throws in a more-than-remarkable coincidence and is definitely the tearjerker of my day.
Betting on Hype Tech
I have to get in a little comma-doctoring now and then, and when one of the nation's major dailies gives me the opportunity in the lead sentence of a Page 1 story, I simply won't resist it.
By Kim Hart and Tomoeh Murakami Tse
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 1, 2007; Page F01
For the giddy Apple groupies who spent hours, or days, in line for an iPhone, it all came down to the final reward: snagging a new technology for $600 that has yet to prove itself.
As I wrote not long ago, I really don't look for reasons to write about the people at WWAY, but they seem to try really hard to give them to me.
This is just stunning. Stunning actually doesn't begin to describe my reaction - I wrote earlier about a "news" story about a company award won by the local BMW dealer, but even then I tried to give the benefit of the doubt, and thought perhaps it was just an ethical slip on the part of some junior members of the sales and/or news staff, perhaps born of inexperience. And I thought, when I wrote earlier about "Dancing with WWAY," that it was nothing more than one of the stupidest sweeps series I ever saw.
WWAY TO GO: LIVE, LOCAL, INTERACTIVE
But no, as this article published on TVNewsday, a subscription-only trade website (but almost certainly mostly written by WWAY staff themselves) brags loudly and lustily, they are proud of the success of a new plan to completely disregard the separation between sales and news. The article even reports that the ridiculous failure (as a news series at least) "Dancing with WWAY" earned them $5,500 for that ethical breach. I don't have time to go into the Mother's and Father's Day promotions, which were equally stupid if not quite so annoying, and apparently just as unethical.
Weatherman Chris Phillips was a good sport about it, but nonetheless seemed rather pained to be participating in "Dancing" even before he was actually injured and had to sit out the rest of the "contest." Stephanie Beecken, on the other hand, threw her entire talentless self into it. While it is probably accurate to describe him as one of "two of our most popular news talent," how on earth could they include her in that?
Even after the pretty much complete turnover of the newsroom over the past year, it is ludicrous to claim that yet another imported bottle blonde is even familiar to anyone in Wilmington, much less "popular," after three months here. I had felt sorry for her up till then, definitely including her in the list of those I mentioned earlier who arrive here on their "first or second jobs out of college and spending one contract term here working for their big break somewhere else, or showing us and themselves why they don't have what it takes to get any further." While I wasn't thinking of her specifically when I wrote that, she is definitely in the latter camp. The only talent I have observed in her thus far is an entirely uncalled-for self-esteem. She wasn't bad at the dancing, but who gives a flying flip about that? I just noticed on the WWAY website (no link in order not to give them more traffic to brag about) that even after his injury, Chris still somehow won the contest - that would pretty well underscore the lack of "popularity," then, wouldn't it?
Getting back to the real subject here, the ethical impropriety of selling a news series, I am basically flabbergasted. The slogan "Live, Local, Interactive" doesn't mean that you do news items just for the sake of getting ad revenue out of a sponsor. I used to say that perhaps it's OK to solicit and credit donations of clothing, decorations and services for the news set and anchors, but apparently that was the slippery slope that let these people end up in the ethical swamp at the bottom of anyone's acceptable news ethics guidelines.
They should be ashamed, and in another day, they would be facing FCC investigation, I truly believe.
In case you think I'm exaggerating the absolute wrongness of this practice, see this article on the website of the Poynter Institute, acknowledged as one of the leading sources of journalistic guidance. The article is three years old, but I can't imagine that the wall between news and sales that had existed for decades has fallen in that period of time. Here's the best, most applicable, quote, with my emphasis added:
(I'm pasting this entire article below in case WWAY realizes that this isn't something they want to brag about, and takes it off their website. I've added emphasis on the key points mentioned above.)Candy Altman also views these challenges from the corporate level as vice president of news for Hearst-Argyle Television. She says the news/sales line ethical dilemma "continues to raise its ugly head."
"Thankfully, our company is very clear on this issue," Altman says, "but I still hear horror stories about deals being made to sell news content that should not be for sale."
Market Share by Arthur Greenwald: WWAY TO GO: LIVE, LOCAL, INTERACTIVE
TVNEWSDAY, May. 21, 6:21 AM ET
The ABC affiliate in Wilmington, N.C., is finding success with "just right" promotions that involve viewers and rely on the humblest of new media—e-mail.
By Arthur Greenwald
When it comes to new media, small- and medium-market stations face the classic Three Bears dilemma.
Too few interactive features make a station look dated and permit competitors to gobble up online advertisers.
But too much fancy digital content can waste money and staff time, while delivering a minimal boost to ratings and revenue.
But those clever Goldilocks at WWAY in Wilmington, N.C., have got it just right. The Morris Multimedia ABC affiliate has branded itself as WWAY-TV3: Live, Local, Interactive! They achieve all three with a smart and selective combination of old and new media.
To make certain the station lives up to its slogan, General Manager Andy Combs ordered his team to scrutinize every daypart for opportunities to add a local slant and, when possible, an interactive twist. But there was a catch. Combs insisted that each innovation prove cost-effective.
That was just fine with News Director/Senior Strategist Jack Pagano, who set about refreshing both the station’s newscasts and Web site with the most tried-and-true of all "new media"—e-mail.
"We invite viewers to comment on every story, and they certainly have a lot to say," says Pagano. "We’ve been able to build viewer opinions right into the newscasts, in the form of e-mail [excerpts] and direct viewer polls. (Click here and see what WWAY viewers say about immigration reform and other stories.)
"It worked so well," adds Internet Sales and Marketing Director Charlie Bragg, "that we wanted to see what we could do with ABC primetime."
Not long ago, MarketShare asked why more ABC affiliates weren’t leveraging the network’s solid success with Dancing With The Stars. It turns out that this ABC affiliate was, well, WWAY ahead of us.
"We created Dancing With WWAY," says Bragg, "and we built it around two of our most popular news talent: meteorologist Chris Phillips and reporter Stephanie Beecken." In fact, Phillips and Beecken are the only contestants, locked in a running battle for weekly bragging rights.
Although the newsroom colleagues dance in tandem, "our viewers decide each week who"s the better dancer," explains Pagano. "Chris and Stephanie have to learn the same steps as the primetime contestants."
Making sure they do is Babs McDance, a local dance studio and social hall that Bragg quickly signed up as a series sponsor. "Neither was an especially good dancer before starting lessons," says Bragg. "So viewers could really appreciate their progress as they followed along at home."
And follow they did, thanks to weekly news features, which Internet Director Chase Clark repurposed as online videos on a dedicated Web page. Viewer response was so enthusiastic that tomorrow (May 22) the station will celebrate the season finale of Dancing With The Stars with a live event. All of Wilmington is invited to the Babs McDance studio to applaud ABC’s primetime winner and, more important, to cheer on Phillips and Beecken in their final face-off.
It’s like a combination of a local contest and an Oscar Night Party," crows Pagano. "We’ve even lined up another sponsor, Chelsea’s Wine Bar and Eatery, which is donating refreshments for attendees, just as Babs McDance is donating the location."
Whoever triumphs, WWAY has taken steps to ensure that the real winner is Wilmington. In lieu of tickets, viewers are asked to make a donation at the door. "One hundred percent of the proceeds go to the Lower Cape Fear Hospice," says Pagano, who predicts hundreds of attendees.
According to Bragg, this promotion netted the station around $5,500 in new revenue, on air and online, from Babs McDance alone, not bad for the 136th DMA. The station earned added value in the form of increased viewer interest in the newscast and online. There was even a bonus effect: it seems that eavesdropping on Chris and Stephanie’s lessons inspired WWAY viewers to get up and try it themselves.
"We heard from several senior citizen homes that residents were imitating the steps on their own, and even demanding dance lessons," says Pagano. "Naturally we sent out our crews and got some very nice feature stories."
Indeed, the viewer response to Dancing with WWAY was so encouraging that midway through the promotion, the station quickly scheduled another: a Queen For A Day-style campaign with an interactive twist they called Make Your Mother’s Day.
Jump-started with an appealing promo shot at a local elementary school, the campaign invited viewers of all ages to write to the station and explain why their moms deserved a day of luxury. Over 150 responses soon followed, mostly by e-mail, but some by fax and regular mail.
Charlie Bragg’s team made sure that Wilmington’s Top Mom was showered in prizes, provided by the six local sponsors who also spent a collective $3,500 on airtime and online ads.
The station received so many thoughtful entries that despite many hours of overtime, the newsroom staff was hard-pressed to select just one winner. But choose they did, along with six runners-up who received large bouquets, thanks to the extra generosity of one of the sponsors, Azalea Coast Florist.
(See the Make Your Mother’s Day Promo and winning entries by clicking here.)
Just like Dancing With WWAY, the Mother’s Day promotion resulted in a big boost to the station’s Web traffic. So much so that they’re ready to launch a third promotion for—you guessed it—Father’s Day. But the deadline will be a few days earlier so they can once again compliment a Web-based contest with traditional TV production.
"We plan to surprise the winner by presenting the prizes during our newscast." says Pagano. "We’ll knock on the winner’s door and surprise him live on the air."
Which could lead to yet another interactive feature on administering CPR to a shocked father.
Market Share by Arthur Greenwald focuses on successful station promotions of every shape and size. Have you produced the Mother of All Marketing Campaigns? Don’t keep it a secret. Let us share your success with your colleagues around the country. Write to Arthur at greenwald@tvnewsday.com.
Wilmington Star-News: Police step up post-bar patrols
All I can say, is why has there been such tolerance until now? It's been out of hand for years. I hope this will help de-scent downtown from the aroma of beer, both pre- and post-consumption, and get rid of the more dangerous elements - including those imported from elsewhere and locals who prey upon outsiders, both.
Ted Vaden, the "Public Editor," or ombudsman, at the News & Observer, got snippy about the profession of real estate in answering a question about why the N&O capitalizes "Realtor." And one responder used AP style as a reason for not capitalizing it, incorrectly. Below is my comment in reply.
I agree that the tone of this item is unnecessarily snide.
But, Editor Beth, you know a different AP style than I learned. While I don't have a Stylebook (its proper title, so it's capitalized!) in my hand, this item from the Realty Times puts it the way I remember it, and if you are using lower-case "realtor," rather than "real estate agent," you are not using AP style.
According to the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual, Addison Wesley, a trademark is "a brand, symbol, word, etc., used by a manufacturer or dealer and protected by law to prevent a competitor from using it." According to the guidelines, editors should "use a generic equivalent unless the trademark name is essential to the story." When a trademark is used, "capitalize it," says the news bible.
Today's really the day for the Durham newsroom of the News & Observer. A third blog item, from the education beat reporter, gets all snotty about the local school system using a tricky word wrong, arguably. However, the post, School policy uses poor grammar, is itself wrong out of the gate by using the word grammar to gripe about a usage error.
Here's my post in reply:
The error in the item you are so distressed about is not of grammar but of usage - and by calling it grammar you have committed an equal error of usage.
See Lingua ex Machina, from MIT Press:
grammar Not to be confused with socially correct usage. In order to handle novel sentences, we not only need to access the words stored in our brains but also the patterns of sentences possible in a particular language. These patterns describe not just patterns of words but also patterns of patterns. There are three aspects of grammar: morphology (word forms and endings), syntax (from the Greek "to arrange together" – the ordering of words into clauses and sentences), and phonology (speech sounds and their arrangements). A complete collection of rules is called the mental grammar of the language, or grammar for short.The Maven's Word of the Day from Random House suggests doing what I do - avoiding the word altogether - at the same time it quotes no less literate an author than Saul Bellow as using it the "wrong" way that upsets you so badly.
"Put together the slaughterhouses, the steel mills, the freight yards...that comprised the city" (Saul Bellow).
Even though careful writers often maintain this distinction, comprise is increasingly used in place of compose, especially in the passive: The Union is comprised of 50 states. Our surveys show that opposition to this usage is abating. In the 1960s, 53 percent of the Usage Panel found this usage unacceptable; in 1996, only 35 percent objected.
The News & Observer's Bull City blog, covering Durham, appears to have been taken over by 8th-graders. One entry today made fun of firecracker-safety tips provided by the Durham Fire Department, and another consisted of an informal contest to write a caption for a photo of a man with his head under the tail of the city's large bronze Bull Durham statue.
I posted the following comments on the blog, and after the second item appeared, sent an email including both of the comments to Melanie Sill, the managing editor, and to Rob Waters, the Durham editor. I received two responses quickly: one from Ms. Sill, telling me that she couldn't reply without knowing who I am, and one from the author of the firecracker item, telling me to lighten up. Interestingly enough, he did that only in a direct email, and not as a comment on the blog.
Following is the email exchange with Ms. Sill:
June 25, 2007, 5:40 PM
TO: Melanie Sill
From: Bella Parola
Subject: Is anyone paying attention to the Bull's Eye blog?
This makes two incredibly juvenile posts on that blog today. Are there no adults paying attention?
RE: Firecrackers: The Silent Killer
Are there any adults paying attention to what you people do over there? The tone of this post is completely inappropriate and downright disrespectful for a newspaper that claims to be doing community service - this is not the Lampoon, nor Weekend Update, nor the Simpsons or whatever ridiculous prime-time cartoon that begat your character above. I think people who shoot off fireworks are idiots, but mass media that claim a public-service mission are beholden to at least try to take these kinds of messages seriously.
RE: Insert clever punchline here
How sophomoric and totally inappropriate for the News & Observer. This kind of photo is fine for internal newsroom yucks, but I don't think there is any reason to share it on the website in this fashion. Grow up.
From: Melanie Sill
Date: 2007/06/25 Mon PM 05:50:31 EDT
Subject: Re: Is anyone paying attention to the Bull's Eye blog?
If you'd care to identify yourself, I might be able to reply to this note.
From: Melanie Sill
Date: 2007/06/25 Mon PM 06:09:54 EDT
Basically, I think people who send anonymous email are somewhat cowardly, especially when they are criticizing others. I generally don¹t reply.
RE: Leaping before an onrushing train
This is a very interesting trend. However, I will quibble with your use of the statistic of the number of suicides in Japan vs. the U.S. Raw numbers from one country to the next rarely make for a meaningful comparison - while the rate, dividing the number into the population, does.
I also disagree strongly with your apparent alarm about families who receive a 'sizable insurance payout' from a train-track suicide being required to pay for the resulting delays. Who would you prefer to pay? And why would we not want to give those hellbent on self-destruction, and who are also insured in order to provide a reward for it to their survivors, a good reason to avoid flinging themselves in front of a train? I would think any way to reduce that particular method would be welcome. Carbon monoxide in a parked car isn't pretty, but only a very tiny number of first responders and/or family members are traumatized by it, while hundreds or thousands witness the train-flingings and many thousands are affected by the resulting delays.
G.D. Gearino, the late lamented columnist at the News & Observer, on his website Words Assembled Well, makes a couple of interesting points today about the Nifong spectacle and about journalists and political contributions. He is a heavyweight in the world of verbal sparring, but I don't mind a quick turn in the ring with him. Fortunately, I don't particularly disagree so it's not a real fight, more like trying to keep up the rhythm he started at the speed bag. (That was a long and interesting boxing metaphor, especially when you consider I detest boxing.)
Here's my reply to his post:
Thank you for making clear a mostly unmentioned meaning of the Nifong spectacle. I'm still too mad, and mulling over what how many others have to say about the lacrosse/Gell (as a glaring example, of course not the only instance) conundrum, to have written about it myself. Clearly, the impact of the prosecutorial misconduct is more severe in capital cases - but I believe that ardent supporters of the lacrosse players labor under the worldview wherein people of their class suffer equally, when they are inconvenienced or discomforted temporarily, as do lesser mortals when they are executed or incarcerated wrongfully for the bulk of their adulthood. There is a real belief that people of their station in life are of inherently higher value, and infinitely higher sensitivity. The same dichotomy is also visible to a more ridiculous extent in the discussions of the "persecution" of Paris Hilton.
I would quibble mildly with your assessment of the media political contributions. Don't most media employers prohibit any political activity, certainly including participating in a campaign in any way, on the part of the journalists (if not all employees) in their employ? I find it conceivable that people with strong political views hindered from expressing them in that most visceral of ways, by giving their own money to a candidate who they believe will pursue their views, may be more likely to sublimate those views in their work - not necessarily intentionally, but perhaps with the same result.
While most journalists adhere to the credo of objectivity, and many try hard to remain apolitical, things do change from the beginning of a career through the later years of it. Living and observing and caring all lead to the formation of beliefs more basic to one's being than mere opinion about current events - and while you have said you are a conservative and I definitely am not, I think we both, along with many others who use words to make a living, have no choice but to reflect our beliefs.
That said, I do tend to disagree that there is a liberal media bias - the values of the journalists being nicely balanced, and perhaps overbalanced, by the views of their corporate employers. And I don't think an analysis of media member's political contributions can prove it either way, because of the ban on contributions I mention above.
It's too early to say exactly what the change is, but there are definitely some changes on the anchor desk at WWAY TV.
The hapless humanoid Kaci Christian appears to have been demoted from her three-month or so reign as 6 & 11 co-anchor with the slightly hapless Steve Rondinaro. I'm not sure exactly what his title, "managing editor," means, beyond an ego boost and an excuse to pay a middle-aged white man more than anyone else, but I assume it allowed him to transfer the energy he generated grimacing at her absolute, appalling, lack of ability to relate - to him, the weather people, the camera, the viewers and her subject matter - into a decision to back her out of the main anchor gig.
The long-suffering Ann McAdams, the only member of the adult sector of the newsroom (not counting Chris Phillips, who they definitely need not to force out!) to remain since new management came in swinging the budget scythe last year, has been restored to the 6 & 11 anchor chair next to Steve. She isn't the best anchor the world ever saw, but she is head and shoulders above the imported botox bimbo - and she has one of the key ingredients of an audience-building cornerstone of the newsroom: she is local and she's not going anywhere.
If there has been any mention on the air (which I really wouldn't expect) I have missed it, but the new configuration began the first of this week, I think, and it's reflected on the newsteam page of the WWAYtv3.com website, where Ann's photo has moved up next to Steve's, bumping Kaci down to the second tier of images, and her title has changed from Anchor/Producer to Evening Anchor, formerly the province of Steve and Kaci only. Kaci retains that title right now, but that could change as quickly as Ann's did, the move taking place one day and the title change later.
You don't have to look far to see that continuity and the level of trust and familiarity that come only with years of exposure, combined with an unspoken assurance that she's not spending half her time looking for her next job, are the keys to building and keeping a loyal local news following. Charlie Gaddy at WRAL, Larry Stogner at WTVD, Ken Murphy and Frances Weller at WECT - there's nothing groundbreaking about the rewards of having an authoritative, "permanent" face on your anchor desk. Spread the radius farther, and everywhere you look, the leading news sets in most markets are led by someone with not just years of experience but years in that very chair.
It's a given in this size TV market that the reporters and probably the second-tier anchors will be transients, probably in their first or second jobs out of college and spending one contract term here working for their big break somewhere else, or showing us and themselves why they don't have what it takes to get any further. (Kim Lehman at WECT/WSFX is the best anchor in the market by far, in terms of talent and performance, but at this point I don't think anyone has the feeling she's staying around. If she is, Frances' replacement is in the house!)
The only way to get audience loyalty is by getting and keeping a copacetic anchor team - including the weather folks and, everywhere but WWAY right now, including sports. Get Ann some speech therapy or a dental appliance to lose the lisp, and assuming her doctor-husband is happy here, you've got your main standby. The jury's still out on Steve - if he can tone down his hokey 80s-style selling of every word a little bit, and increase the already hugely improved chemistry with Ann vs. the total lack with Kaci, and if he and the management are both committed to the long run, he may be a keeper too. There is a pretty clear lack of news judgment over there, significantly more effort spent promoting stories than ensuring the reporters have a grasp of the subject they are addressing, so perhaps he can exercise the "managing editor" part more, too.
It's not rocket science, y'all ....
RE: 'We Googled You,' Harvard Business Review Case and response from Danah Boyd
This is a very interesting case, because it bears out what I have been telling people much younger than I am for the past several years: the same wildly interconnected world of information that is making the second half of my own life so much more rewarding is making it no longer possible for those in succeeding generations to live down their youthful mistakes.
When I was 18, the drinking age, for beer at least, was 18. Of course, when I was 16 and 17, I drank beer along with my friends, who were also consuming other illicit substances. We didn't even have fake IDs, because we didn't have to worry much about getting carded - we'd either sneak in or go somewhere else.
In the next few years, I drove home many a night I shouldn't have, spent many a night where I shouldn't have, and generally had a real big time. I didn't get married until I was almost 30, didn't settle into my eventual career for a few more years, and never had children, so my misspent youth was a long one.
I won't say I never got caught doing anything bad, but at the time I got caught, the penalties were current, with only a couple of years of higher insurance premiums and the immediate embarrassment the worst of it. One friend, who had a major marijuana-dealing arrest that resulted in a short jail term and fairly long probation, went on to make lots of money in the fashion business. Another one nearly died of mortification when he was caught embezzling from his fraternal organization, lost his career and spent several months in jail, and today works just a few miles away in a very different field, and no one but his family knows about the crime.
Today, I am a staid, sedate, nigh-on-to prim, middle-aged, middle-class, middleweight lady with a nice professional job, who would be the perfect recruit for Al Qaeda: I am virtually invisible to everyone, and unless the authorities are patting down every single corpus that passes a particular point, I am virtually guaranteed to get by untouched if not entirely unnoticed.
A few old friends and I laugh uproariously when we get to recollecting our wild youths. But for those who have children themselves, the laughter often fades into nervous giggles, when we continue the conversation into the current impossibility of blotting out mistakes.
With the advent of both the internet - mainly the Googlable internet - and digital public records as well as news media, every little mistake has the potential to do what we used to joke about, go on your "permanent record," really. Every kid who gets into trouble for doing something stupid, whether it's buying beer with a fake ID or shoplifting, may pay for it for the rest of their lives. Today, not every little thing like that is recorded and searchable. But 10 years ago, who would have thought you could go to a website that would show you in seconds everything you wanted to know about every registered sex offender in the United States. In fact, some of the worst permanent-record smears young people are getting right now are on those rolls: in many places, a 16-year-old who has sex with someone a few months younger can end up there. I'm thinking that might be a real career-limiting move, before they even know what career they had in mind. Just ask Genarlow Wilson.
I don't know if it's a good thing to live down your past. Maybe if it's harder, people will learn when they're younger not to be so wild, but I'm not sure. I am sure that some people who are in their teens and early twenties right now will become the poster children for the new edition of the permanent record. You can see the draft version on their own places in cyberspace, where they brag about doing the things I mentioned above, with the difference being that the occasional nostalgic weekends my friends and I spend dredging the past out of our ever-dimming memories will be replaced by ever-bright and more or less incontrovertible digital proof, saved somewhere, by someone, maybe to appear when it's least helpful to the cause. I've been trying to warn the young people in my life, but they laugh. And their mothers giggle nervously while we're remembering our wild days.
Getting back to the Harvard Business Review case: I don't care whether Hathaway Jones hires Mimi Brewster or not. I don't much care about any of the people in that world, and my main question about the case as presented is this: Why doesn't anyone think it's wrong that Fred Westen is recruiting his prep-school buddy's daughter? If he would broaden his universe of candidate-seeking, maybe she wouldn't be the only one to choose from. But what do I know? I'm just a middle-aged, middle-class middleweight lady who'd be called matronly if you didn't know I don't have children .... and there's a good reason you don't know my real name!
I'm not sure what I can add to these two news stories. With the parts I have boldfaced as commentary, they are pretty self-explanatory.
Although I would like to add the dictionary definition of "feral," from Merriam-Webster Online:
a not domesticated or cultivated : WILDPoor Fred definitely doesn't meet either of those definitions, and for the wildlife officials to say otherwise is just wrong.
b:having escaped from domestication and become wild
Montgomery, Ala. | An 11-year-old Alabama boy used a pistol to kill a wild hog his father says weighed a staggering 1,051 pounds and measured 9-feet-4 from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail.This story really grossed me out to begin with, but it got worse in the next news cycle.
.....
Regardless of the comparison, Jamison is reveling in the attention over his pig, which has a Web site put up by his father - www.monsterpig.com - that is generating Internet buzz.
"It feels really good," Jamison, of Pickensville, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It's a good accomplishment. I probably won't ever kill anything else that big."
.....
He said he shot the huge animal eight times with a .50-caliber revolver and chased it for three hours through hilly woods before finishing it off with a point-blank shot. Through it all there was the fear that the animal would turn and charge them, as wild boars have a reputation of doing.
"I was a little bit scared, a little bit excited," said Jamison, who just finished the sixth grade on the honor roll at Christian Heritage Academy, a small, private school.
Washington Post
I'm not a businessperson, but I am a vast consumer of news. And except for the top 5 or 6 papers I visit every day regardless, my visits to other media websites - and exposure to their ads - are generated entirely by Google News. Google News doesn't aggregate entire stories, which this story and/or Mr. Zell appear to imply, just a few words.
Mr. Zell is a fool if he thinks that the couple of lines that appear with a Google News hit are stolen intellectual property, worth more than the visit generated to the website where the story actually appears. If not for that referral, the content and its accompanying advertising would be the tree falling unnoticed in the forest to all but the core readership of local subscribers. And I'm pretty sure the comprehensive media website business model depends on far more than their readership.
Independent Weekly
Mr. McKissick does indeed have significant experience and other qualifications for the job.
He also has the significant disqualification of having entered the process under an ethical cloud, which is not a good thing ever, and especially these days. The last politician I remember pulling this trick is Dick Cheney - and he's certainly not the role model for ethical leadership I would want if I lived in the district still.
He should eliminate himself as abruptly as he inserted himself into the race.
Washington Post
I don't watch American Idol, have never seen any of the performances by anyone but the Sanjaya clips on the news, and couldn't care less about who wins it.
However, I did just watch Blake Lewis on Youtube, just because this description sounded so goofy. And I made a remarkable discovery - this description is so inaccurate and negative that I can safely say it's a lie. Stroking himself? He put his hand a few inches inside his jacket, in the neighborhood of the breast pocket, once, for about 4 seconds. Never touched any other part of his body, much less 'stroked' anything, at all. Spinning? He did a sort of little circle dance step maybe 3 or 4 times during the song, not the single slickest maneuver in history but nothing terribly weird or uncoordinated or anything else bad about it.
I have never liked Mack the Knife and think the lyrics are weird, but this is the first time I ever was actually able to understand the whole story of the song. And finally, he didn't confide to Ryan that he didnt 'get' the lyrics - he was asked which was more difficult this week, going first or the lyrics, and he said lyrics. And Ryan said, 'It was a little tough in rehearsal this week - ya got it.'
I think he has a very nice voice, that it was a cool jazz vibe, for that show at least, likewise pretty hip for that show, and not the worst version ever of that song. And I think this exaggerated and snarky summary of the performance borders on the uncalled-for. That's just my opinion, but at least it's based on what really happened.
Washington Post
I was thinking this sounded like a great idea until I got to the part about it being run by the Department of Homeland Security. That's the stupidest thing I've heard since Brownie's attaboy. And I'm not convinced Washington is the place for it - as one who escaped its confines for the hinterlands, I do not think concentrating our best minds in one place to become inbred is a good idea at all. But I look forward to hearing more about this plan nonetheless.
Washington Post
ActBlue is still immature technology - or it was a few months ago when I used it. I am not interested in being a bundler - just in having a convenient page to donate to candidates who appeal to me whether they are in my neighborhood or not.
The main appeal for me would be having my credit card number saved, just as it is at the dozens of online merchants where I shop regularly. Not only was I unable to do that, except perhaps to create a recurring donation to one recipient, which I did NOT wish to do, when I wrote to them to point out that this was a serious flaw, they were defensive. I don't have the response handy, but my recollection is that they seemed to think that was a really advanced idea, when I have had that info on file at some ecommerce sites for nearly ten years now. It's a great idea, but they may want to get some grownups on staff.
Washington Post
I'm generally a fan of the Post, and agree completely with the premise of this editorial. That said, it exacerbates my annoyance with the Post's worldview, as well as with the people profiled in an article last week about Prince William County residents upset that their neighborhood was going upscale too slowly.
The unsatisfactory progress was evidenced by shopping that offers only outlets at Potomac Mills, whose shopping offerings make it the single largest tourist attraction in the state of Virginia and the fact that a promised Jaguar dealership ended up not opening. I include that story here because that worldview carries over to this editorial, unfortunately.
Travel trailers, to the vast majority of normal Americans, need not be set off in quotation marks nor explained as though they were some exotic concept. Travel trailers ARE the campers pulled behind private vehicles, though rarely cars as most are far too big and heavy, and require a pickup truck or SUV as a tow vehicle. Americans bought $11.4 billion worth of recreational vehicles, including travel trailers, in 2004, I just learned from a Google search - this is not a sliver of the population but a big chunk.
And the other trailers mentioned in this editorial are not trailers at all, but mobile homes. They have been too large to be "trailered" for about 35 years now, long enough for astute journalists to absorb the new terminology, I would think. The tone of this sentence reveals that its writer and the editorial board that condoned the writing are far too privileged and removed from the experience of average Americans to know what its like out here in the world - basically, it epitomizes the inside-the-Beltway worldview and attitudes that are a big problem for how our country is managed. I really wish you could do better!!!
Washington Post
This is really a disturbing article. Are people really that upset that there isnt a full selection of dining - if you can call cookie-cutter chain joints like Ruby Tuesdays that - and shopping in their new neighborhood? The idea that an area is a slum without a Jaguar dealer gives me absolute chills.
That pretty well sums up what's wrong with this country, when the front-page story is still about wounded soldiers at Walter Reed. If there is an afterlife, these spoiled yuppy scum will be in the hot section.
Washington Post
Any admiration I had for Secretary Gates evaporated when Gen. Kiley remained in uniform past lunchtime Monday. He should be court-martialed for absolute dereliction of duty and held out as an example to the promotion-hungry politic-ers for promotion at every level in every branch of the service.
And this unbelievable story-management continuing right under the committee's noses, with the patient turned away from empty seats in the hearing room .... the profession of military public affairs has been replaced by the company line. You work for the taxpayers first, the general second, in that profession - and the old axiom, 'Maximum information, minimum delay,' is the most important thing to know about what to tell the media and the public.
