Citizen Journalism Going Maintsream & More on Media News Monday

Media News Monday!

Media News Monday is a compilation of media news from the past week posted on Monday. Media is an integral part of politics, and I think that it’s important to get to know media and media innovation in order to forecast future ways of campaigning, targeting voters, and disseminating information. If any of you are interested in campaigning, this weekly diary may help you with ideas.  It is also important to keep up with right wing corporate media (RWCM) news.  If you have any media news to add, please do so.  

Previous edition: Apr. 25, 2005
For more previous editions, search my diaries.  

Now for the news from the past week posted today, May 2, 2005:

Note: I’m going to put a %%% next to things that are more interesting or go into things more in-depth.

Citizen Journalism Going Mainstream
Colorado’s Rocky Mountain News will launch Mile-High Citizen Journalism %%% (Colorado Kossacks…get involved!)

Outrage of the Week

Last November, members of the Association of Public Television Stations met in Baltimore along with officials from the corporation and PBS. Mr. Tomlinson told them they should make sure their programming better reflected the Republican mandate.

Mr. Tomlinson said that his comment was made in jest and that he couldn’t imagine how people took his remarks at what he described as “a fun occasion” the wrong way. Others, though, were not amused.

Media Story of the Week
KR’s Baghdad Chief Says Journos Remain in Deep Danger

Featured Media Parody
Faux News: The Most Powerful Smell in News Gotta love parody.

Best Bush Press Conference Review
Dan Froomkin: Not Exactly Must-See TV Ah, but a must-read entry. %%%

Peter Jennings Letter to Supporters
Read it. Truly moving. Very sweet letter. %%%

People & the Press: Study of the Week
link %%%

A national survey conducted by the Missouri School of Journalism’s Center for Advanced Social Research has found that 85% detect bias in news reporting. Of those, 48% believe it is liberal bias, 30% conservative — and 12% both.

Almost two out of three said journalists too often invade people’s privacy. About three in four feel the news is too negative. The same number said reporters tend to favor one side over the other when covering political and social issues.

At the same time, however, nearly two in three call journalism credible. More than half rate newspapers and television news as trustworthy. And a robust 83% say it is vital for journalists to keep pushing for access to information when officials resist.

Media Personalities

• Philly Inquirer photo director talks about fleeing Vietnam over 30 years ago. %%%
• Judy Woodruff leaving CNN… was she going to be demoted?
• OPC Awards Honor Nightline, Woodward
• (Hotline) Arianna Huffington’s “principal business partner” in the “Huffington Post” is ex-AOL Time Warner Ken Lerer (see 4/25 Hotline). “Also contributing both content and financing” are TV producer-writer-actor Larry David and his wife/activist Laurie David. Huffington “has not released a full list of contributors, but she said they included” writer-producer Aaron Sorkin, talk-show host Michael Medved, Playboy CEO Christie Hefner, and actors Harry Shearer and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
• Arianna enlists more than 250 people to write a group blog. Large range of topics including politics, entertainment, sports, and religion.  A “nonstop virtual talk show” that will be one part of a larger breaking news website.  It starts May 9.
• (Hotline) Arianna Huffington’s has lined up “more than 250” group bloggers for what will “essentially” be “a nonstop virtual talk show” on HuffingtonPost.com. Among the participants: Walter Cronkite, David Mamet, Nora Ephron, Warren Beatty, James Fallows, Vernon Jordan, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Diane Keaton, Norman Mailer and Mort Zuckerman. Cronkite, 88: “This gives me a chance to sound off with a few words or a long editorial.” The Huffington Post, which launches 5/9, “will also seek to ferret out potentially juicy items and give them legs.” Huffington “has hired away” Matt Drudge’s “right-hand Web whiz, Andrew Breitbart, who used to be her researcher.” But “unlike the Drudge Report,” the Huffington Post “will be interactive, offering news as well as commentary from famous people and allowing the masses to comment too, although not always directly with the celebs.” Notables “will oversee certain sections,” with Gary Hart “taking the lead on national security issues.” While “many of the bloggers” are on the left, conservatives include Washington Times’ Tony Blankley and ex-Bush speechwriter David Frum. Ex-AOL Time Warner VP Ken Lerer and Huffington will manage the site, which is “being financed initially” by Lerer, Huffington and 10 others. “The bloggers will not be paid”
• Wonkette’s Inside the Bubble Washington Journalism Awards: Final Categories and Nominees David Gregory of NBC is nominated in every single category…either people really like him or really hate him…or maybe he’s self-absorbed and nominated himself in every cateogry.  Stuffing the ballot?
• Winners of the Inside the Bubble awards
• The lawyers for Matt Cooper and Judith Miller. Floyd Abrams and Ted Olsen.
• Wonkette’s hubby gets new job in D.C. at Congressional Quarterly
• Katie Couric v. Diane Sawyer
• Fla. Court Refuses to Hear Limbaugh Appeal
• Laura Ingraham has breast cancer. (various wire reports)
• (Hotline) Conservative talk radio host Michael Savage is “whining that he has been banned” from FNC after “he dissed Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity.” On his radio show, Savage called O’Reilly a “Leper-Con who poses as a conservative” and Hannity “another Republican bootlicker who began as a Rush [Limbaugh] understudy.”
• “Bigger role” for GMA’s Robin Roberts
• Bob Schieffer gives CBS credibility – until he retires
• (The Hill) He may not be another Al Franken, but Mike Erlandson has taken a cue from his fellow Minnesotan by starting his own liberal radio talk show. Erlandson, who splits his time between his job as chief of staff for Rep. Marty Sabo (D-Minn.) and chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, has taken on a third job as host of a one-hour radio show on Air America Minnesota, with is affiliated with Franken’s Air America Radio… Erlandson added, “One of the biggest compliments has been that the Republican Party of Minnesota has jammed up the phone lines trying to get me to say something politically dumb.”

RWCM Watch

• CJR reveals that Corporation for Public Broadcasting paid for polling that showed most Americans found PBS and NPR to be unbiased.  Doesn’t matter, though. Right wingers won’t be happy until everyone parrots GOP talking points. %%%
• CJR Reviews Friday morning Bush Press Conference stories. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
• FNC tells viewers to blame liberals for high oil and gas prices, by jj32
• Prez Press Conference: Coverage Plans
• White House “Tried To Be Accommodating” For The TV Networks
• Bush Press Conference: Jeff Gannon, ready thy softballs!
• ABCNews’ The Note frequently parrots D.C.’s center-right establishment, but Thursday’s edition was just over the top sucking up to Bush and D.C. GOP.  I think Mark Halperin has done enough repenting for the election 2004 memo calling for a recognition that Republicans are purposefully lying during the campaign.
• I had the unfortunate experience of catching Newsweek reporter Evan Thomas on the Don Imus show.  Let’s just say I had to turn the channel when Thomas started spewing all the same GOP talking points (a.k.a. lies) re: the filibuster.
• TPM has a very good rundown of media folk who fell for Republican word games.
• Media Matters list.
• Today Show doesn’t notify audience that Bill Kristol is a right winger, not an objective journalist
• NYT’s John Tierney loves the bullshit.
• Republican opposition to nuclear option is not routinely written about. %%%
• CPB, PBS, and right wing nuts who are suppsoed to run PBS without knowing anything about PBS. %%%
• WaPo Headline & text of article don’t match up.
• MSNBC lets Hugh Hewiit go on the air to give an ‘impartial’ blog roundup.
• Novak Grossly Distorts Dodd’s Views on Bolton Why, Al Hunt, are you friends with that douchebag?
• CJR takes on Cavuto at FauxNews
• Kevin Drum catches the WSJ ed. board in a lie.
• State of Our Media Today: The GOP Lies & It’s OK!
• EJ Dionne is tired of conservatives whining about press coverage of conservatives, if that coverage is not adulatory.%%%
• MD First Lady: Newspapers should be punished. Her husband’s accomplishments haven’t been reported because there aren’t any.
• Media Debating Whether To Ignore Frist’s Lie, by Armando
• GOP Lexicon: The Nuclear Option, by Armando
• Jon Stewart on TDS: “You’re an anchor, for fuck’s sake!”

State of the Media, Trends, Research Reports, Innovations

• Traditional media eagerly eying blogs to boost revenues, profile %%%
• Making TV ratings more exact: Nielsen’s new system of counting viewers is said to improve accuracy, but some critics say it fails to do so for minorities. %%%
• Clear Channel Splitting Up “Clear Channel lit a fire under its long-stagnant stock Friday, setting a plan to spin off one unit, sell shares in another and return cash to shareholders through dividends. The San Antonio, Texas, radio broadcaster said it would sell 10% of its Clear Channel Outdoor unit in an IPO and spin off its entire Clear Channel Entertainment unit to shareholders.”
• Prez Press Conference coverage notes
• CNN’s Jon Klein looking at CNN’s political coverage
• Jon Klein says CNN is “winning the quality war” What’s he smoking?
• USAToday: ABC to NBC: Smell the coffee %%%
• Jon Stewart’s ‘Daily Show’ Heads to DVD Comes out in June. Includes all episodes from the 2004 Dem and Repub national conventions
• Why the Today Show is slipping in popularity.
• Today Show responds: More ‘Today’ than yesterday
• Is CNN Dying? by Rimjob
• How the ‘Contra Costa Times’ Uncovered a Letters-to-the-Editor Scam %%%
• Media priorities and too much Michael Jackson coverage
• Media Struggles to Protect Sources
• White House Whining
• David Shaw is stunned by the level of outrage directed at Albom Albom is a sports columnist who made stuff up.  Course people are going to be outraged.
• Newsweek plans to post more articles online daily in an efforts to get higher traffic.
• Business Week’s new blog is reviewed
• Attracting Young Eyeballs To TV News
• Star Magazine Fakes Photo of Pitt, Jolie I’m soooo shocked that a tabloid faked a photo. (sarcasm)
• (ClickZ article) According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, an estimated 8 million Americans have blogs and 32 million have read a blog, up 58 percent from just 10 months earlier. Technorati, a blog search engine and measurement firm, reports roughly 23,000 new blogs are created every day.
• Study: Best Online Ads Draw From Print Media Best online ads have something animated that draws viewers and directs them to a text message. %%%

Ratings & Circulation:

• Fast national ratings (network news numbers, so the Fox News here, is regular Fox carrying FNC’s coverage) for Bush presser: “CBS News Special” (households: 9.5/16; adults 18-49: 4.8), “NBC News Special” (households: 4.9/8; adults 18-49: 2.4), “FOX News Special” (households: 3.2/6; adults 18-49: 2.0) and “ABC News Special” (households: 4.0/6; adults 18-49: 1.4). Translate the numbers using this: a 4.4 household rating equals 4.4% of 108.4 million television households or 4,769,600 households. With the above in mind, a 2.7 adults 18-49 rating equals 2.7% of 129.9 million adults between the ages of 18 and 49 or 3,507,300 people.
• Cable News Ratings Summary for April: Nancy Grace’s show on HLN outperformed every MSNBC show.  MSNBC shows were ranked pretty low. FNC is #1 in many categories. CNN does better this April than last, but it still trails.  Some of FNC’s top shows get more viewers than all other cable news programs combined.  Since Jon Klein took over CNN 12/2004, CNN’s audience has decreased a bit, while FNC has gained a bit.
• Evening Network News: ABC, NBC tie in the 25-54 demo; NBC Nightly News had the most total viewers.
• 4/18-4/22 ratings: CBS Evening News (with interim anchor Bob Schieffer) drew an average 6.1 million viewers – a record low for the show. (TVGuide.com)
• FNC triples CNN during Bush press conference. Ouch.
• “Klein is being welcomed as a hero within CNN,” says Jaffe Ratings are starting to rise a bit, apparently.

White House Correspondents dinner 2005

Andrea Mitchell & Alan Greenspan

Donovan McNabb, Tom Brady (guests of ABCNews)

Dick Cheney

For more RWCM watch & Media News: Penndit’s News, Media News, and RWCM Watch Links. I get the advertising, public relations, targetting voters information, and media research from a variety of sources other than the links above.  

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