Carrying the Lantern

I was discussing this with my brother and thought I'd post my logic more widely. The topic is how very poorly Eason Jordon was treated by CNN. Seems like CNN management sure threw him to the wolves. He made a mistake, but this is how you treat / support a 20 year employee?

NPR segment On the Media (available as a podcast, i.e., RSS enclosure via WNYC) had a short segment where they interviewed two people who were at the panel discussion in Switzerland where Jordon made his comment. Bret Stevens from the WSJ and Rony Abovitz over at Forumblog.org.

Abovitz is the person that first wrote about what transpired (in English at least - it was an international crowd and others may have reported first). His entry is still up and worth reading. The irony is this was his first blog entry ever!

I wonder if this isn't an example of what I think of as defensive awareness. Human nature is such that we tend not to pay attention to things we don't like or disagree with. But sometimes you need to pay attention so you know enough to defend your own position. Kind of like bad-mouthing a book --- which you have not read. Here we have CNN who apparently doesn't understand blogging (or bloggers or etc.), so they ignore it -- to their peril.

When a blogswarm hits them they are clueless; don't know how the blogosphere works; don't know how to react. So they try to play by their rules and throw out some chum (Eason Jordon) to the sharks (bloggers - and really only a swarming subset) then slam the door closed till the crowd disperses. They have no defensive awareness of blogswarming.

What sets me off is how poorly CNN reacted when one of their long-time employees was attacked. No transparency, no openness, no reprimand & stand by him. I truly respect some bloggers, but I also respect companies who value their employees. Sorry to say, CNN is not one of them.

Eason made a terrible mistake, but CNN is really at fault for the way they handled the whole thing. Someone should send Jim Walton, president of The CNN News Group, a copy of Dan Gillmor's new book We the Media.

- Posted by William A. Riski - 6:15:45 PM - comment []

The history of Podcasting actually begins some time ago with audioblogs, but the current rave began pretty much with Dave Winer & Adam Curry last summer. And now look at what people are asking for!

Hello Detroit! Anyone listening? Doc Searls wrote ...

I got so hooked on listening to podcasts in rental cars with mp3 CD players that I went to a car audio shop yesterday to see what the aftermarket had to offer. When I told them I'd want a unit that allowed fast-forwarding and rewinding within selections (the players in the Ford Foci I've been renting only jump from file to file), the salesguy showed me a bunch of Alpine units that do exactly that. Some also support the customer's choice of Sirius and/or XM satellite radio, rather than just one or the other (imagine a radio today sold with AM or FM, but not both), which is nice.

But dig what happened when I brought up the reason I need fast-forward/rewind: "I listen to a lot of —"

"Podcasts?" he said.

"Right."

"Yeah, they're the hot new thing. All the makers are starting to pay attention to podcasting."

- Posted by William A. Riski - 9:02:44 AM - comment []

Ed Cone has a good entry on some suggested blogs to check out if you're new to blogging. At first I was going to say these were like his recommended Springtime list of books to read, but blogs are different than books. They are more like conversations you happen to step into. What you do then is up to you. You can stay and 'listen', leave, or join the conversation. So here's his starting point for some interesting conversations...

- Posted by William A. Riski - 9:01:41 AM - comment []