Friday, April 22, 2005

Truth & Rec spokeswoman Joya Wesley: Thank you, City Council. 6:16:22 PM   permalink   comment []

David Weinberger quits MSNBC gig. I'm not there yet, but I hear what he's saying. "In the ninety seconds MSNBC gives over to blogging, they want to pair A-Listers into a he-said/she-said report on a Major Topic. Yippee for the A-Team!," says Dr. Weinberger. My feelings on that: the TV audience doesn't know a lot of bloggers, so citing A-listers isn't as limiting as it might be at a blog, but then again it's important to show the audience the breadth of this medium.  They haven't told me I can only use certain bloggers, and they haven't suggested I do anything heinous like present a defense of spitting tobacco on people -- a dumb Guckert/Gannon take that I had some fun with was the worst thing I've had to do. It's TV, for better and worse. I'd like to make the segment better, and there are things I wouldn't do, but right now I see it as a work in progress. The rigid format did bite me this week, when they told me I couldn't talk about blog reactions to anti-Semitism at the Air Force Academy because there weren't two sides of the story presented (in an earlier show, they went with my suggestion to cover bipartisan blasting of Senator Cornyn's threatening remarks about judges). In this case, I argued that it was one of the most interesting blog topics of the day, and that I wasn't interested in presenting a pro-anti-Semitism POV if I found one (not they suggested I do so), but to no avail. I lose fights with editors all the time; this week's example struck me as limiting the quality of our product, but not as a hill to die for.   That said, like David, I've been doing this for free (they did buy me a web cam and headset). The experience has been worth it, but I can't see continuing to do it on a frequent basis for nothing. UPDATE: Jeff Jarvis weighs in. Jeff has preternatural energy, but where does he find the time? 5:42:00 PM   permalink   comment []

Business Week cover story on blogs. Respectful and good for what it tries to do. Props given to Dave Winer for his pioneering work. But I think a soon-to-publish article I wrote for ZD will add some new stuff to the coverage of business blogging... 5:05:03 PM   permalink   comment []

One of Greensboro's anonybloggers outs himself, and the results are divine. 8:46:52 AM   permalink   comment []

Sandy Carmany issues an apology to her fellow City Councilwoman at her blog: "I sincerely apologize to fellow councilmember Claudette Burroughs-White for my previous comments on this blog about her 'violating a negotiated agreement' not to introduce a motion concerning the TRC at Tuesday night's council meeting." We are going to have plenty to talk about during the local politics session at BlogNashville. 8:43:41 AM   permalink   comment []

Krugman: "The United States spends far more on health care than other advanced countries. Yet we don't appear to receive more medical services. And we have lower life-expectancy and higher infant-mortality rates than countries that spend less than half as much per person." 8:22:20 AM   permalink   comment []

Lex Alexander will be a guest on Joya Wesley's radio show, Table Talk, this morning from 10-11. 90.1 FM, call-in is (336) 334-7952. Joya says the topics are "citizen journalism, journalism and democracy, and the possibilities for the future." Live webcast here. 8:16:40 AM   permalink   comment []

Jinni Hoggard is headed in for surgery this morning. She's a heroic freelance health educator and a kicker of cancer's ass. 7:05:20 AM   permalink   comment []

Gate City is not surprised that the City Council botched the Truth & Rec issue: "Have we forgotten St. James II, the Greensboro Generals, and the War on Crack already? (By the way, did we win or has a truce been declared?) Let's also not forget Mayor Bostwick's grand plan to heal the racial rift by doing - lunch." 6:59:28 AM   permalink   comment []

Chris Nolan, guest-posting at PressThink, on Rupert Murdoch, Craigslist, and stand alone journalism. Worth the time. 6:52:19 AM   permalink   comment []