Monday, January 17, 2005

Dave Winer: "I strongly recommend that Harvard find someone who is more on the sidelines of the debate to moderate the conference." Meanwhile, the conference organizers have added a free, open session on Saturday afternoon. Of course this will make everyone happy and the uproar will subside. Not. A little history: Dave asked me to put together the journalism panel for the  original BloggerCon back in 2003. It was a great group: Josh Marshall, Glenn Reynolds, and Scott Rosenberg. What did we hear? That we'd assembled a right-wing gabfest (Instapundit supported the invasion of Iraq), that we should have invited Atrios (he was still anonymous at the time, I guess he could have worn a bag over his head...) Last time around, another free, open conference, this one at Stanford...and there was concern that it skewed too liberal and conservatives weren't welcome. One fear about this conference voiced by many commenters is that any residual Big Media cluelessness about blogs will be unchallenged or even reenforced. One look at the list of participants makes that seem highly unlikely. But I guess we'll find out soon. 6:26:13 PM    comment []

I'm still waiting for Hugh Hewitt to apologize to Jerome Armstrong for not challenging Bill O'Reilly's statement that Armstrong "just threw nice stuff about Dean" onto his blog for money -- Hewitt didn't say anything on the air, and he hasn't at his own blog. But Jerome wasn't even blogging then, so how could he throw nice stuff anyone's way? C'mon, Hugh, I said I regretted my overly-harsh words about your role in the exchange. And I'm flattered that you think I fooled all those conservative bloggers who agree you got this one wrong. I don't know that I would have had the presence of mind to correct O'Reilly mid-rant, either. But what's right is right. Isn't it? 5:29:43 PM    comment []

A moving article about Martin Luther King, Jr. from the WSJ opinion page. Iranian immigrant Roya Hakakian on King's role in making her feel like an American, and on his example to the world: "To tell the story of the Civil Rights Movement is to tell the story of how arrogance was made to give way to justice by none other than a man who advocated peace. Against the grim and infallible image that is painted of America, this will be a truer portrait: colorful and human." 4:25:27 PM    comment []

I did a podcast interview with Audio Activism's Brian Russell, and you can listen to part one here. We talked blogs, journalism, Greensboro, etc. 12:03:04 PM    comment []

A full-page ad in this morning's N&R supporting Greensboro attorney Manlin Chee, who some say is under attack for speaking out against the Patriot Act. Chee has copped to two charges of immigration fraud; supporters claim the investigation was improper and politically motivated. The N&R article about the ad is not posted. UPDATE: Here's the News & Record article, by Jim Schlosser. The story quotes the ad: "'We believe that in singling out Manlin for investigation and prosecution the federal government is attempting to chill dissent and our constitutional right to free speech, as well as sending a threatening message to attorneys and other defenders of immigrants,'"...The ad also criticizes the news media's coverage of the case. "The ad, sponsored by The Manlin Chee Defense Committee, is signed by about 70 people, including friends and family." 9:41:55 AM    comment []

The BizJournal's article about the N&R web effort is now online. Reporter Mark Tosczak,a veteran blogger himself, does a fine job of explaining what's going on. Same issue, Justin Catanoso's column, Winston-Salem Journal publisher Jon Witherspoon says his paper has no plans to make big changes to its own website, which is managed from afar by parent company Media General, anyway. ""We have a definite business model," says Witherspoon, sounding as confident in his course as the captain of the Titanic. 9:31:22 AM    comment []

No less an authority than displaced Jersey girl Mrs. Cone.com declares that Vito's has the best pizza she's had in Greensboro. Caveat: that's pizza pizza, not frou-frou pizza, for which she prefers PieWorks. UPDATE: Mrs. Cone.com reports that she found last night's pie from Vito's to be less wonderful than previous versions. I, on the other hand, liked it better than before. This disputed analysis follows a pattern established in our courting days, when she favored the cheese-laden offerings from Ray's (the one on 11th and 6th Ave) and I liked the saucier fare from Stromboli's on University Place. We have remained happily married for 15+ years despite this tension, although yesterday she told me out of the blue that my distaste for "I Love Lucy" still gives her pause. 9:13:25 AM    comment []

Take Back the News is a "grassroots effort enabling news consumers to determine for themselves which stories and topics are worthy of attention." 9:02:24 AM    comment []

Perpwalk is a new group blog written by six North Carolina college and grad students. 9:00:50 AM    comment []

William Safire is not completely clueless about blogging and journalism...but he still misses a couple of key points in this morning's NYT column. For one thing, he significantly understates the reporting power of bloggers, the global network of on-site observers that the web empowers -- he's stuck in the blogs-as-opinion mindset, and the bureau-and-reporter model of info-gathering. So when he says, "In crises, large media gathering-places are needed to respond to a need for national community," I say, Bill, you heard about that tsunami, didn't ya? And all the first-hand reports and video and photos that bloggers made available in ways the pro press alone never could? And when he says, "On national or global events, however, the news consumer needs trained reporters on the scene to transmit facts and trustworthy editors to judge significance," well, yes, we need those, too, but the global network isn't meant to replace the current info-stream, just to vastly improve it. (This 2002 article about journalists and blogs discusses the new reality of the ad hoc foreign correspondent.) Another key point is that however much blogging and bloggers are mainstreamed and paid and invited to Georgetown dinner parties, there will always be independents who DON"T WANT to be part of the establishment and will continue to operate as they please, and that these bloggers will be as important or more important than the mainstream wannabes. Halfway out the door to retirement, Safire is still trying to map the new media landscape, and for all the flaws in his analysis he's still ahead of many younger colleagues. 8:55:07 AM    comment []

John Robinson on blogging as a competitive edge in the newspaper biz: "(W)e can't afford a staff of reporters in Winston writing for the News & Record. But with the new dawn of distributed journalism and open source journalism, we're coming to a time where we can get news and commentary from Winston." 8:25:26 AM    comment []

Diary of a Soldier: "You hear the shot, wait about 20 seconds, and then you hear the impact. As bad as it feels to be on the receiving end of their stuff, it really has to suck being on the receiving end of ours." An upbeat report from a North Carolina National Guardsman in Iraq. 8:22:36 AM    comment []