What: Crappy Journalists Getting It
Who they Are, What’s Being Done to them, by Whom:
Matt Smith from SF Weekly, Called an “unfair, unbalanced, malfeasant journalist,” by a variety of San Francisco publications but most eloquently by SFAppeal
We expect our local reporters to have opinions; that’s what makes them flavorful. And to see Smith write another yawn-worthy anti-Kink, anti-porn, anti-BDSM article about Kink just lumps him in with the rest of the unremarkable lot of mainstream media’s lie of unbiased reporting when it comes to porn, and sex for that matter. Within that, it’s not a shocker that Smith couldn’t be bothered to get comments* from both sides of the unchallenged “women as victims” accusations, such as the articulate Kink performers (and writers, speakers and activists) Madison Young, Lorelei Lee or Princess Donna. That would be presenting a balanced picture of Kink’s product, and we know that’s really too much to ask of most mainstream media, and now disappointingly, the SF Weekly.
Jesse B. Watters from Fox News, “Ambushing Bill O’Reilly’s Ambusher,” by Gawker
Watters, as you may have read, likes to sneak up on people without warning and ask them questions so that O’Reilly can air video of his enemies looking aggrieved and flustered…
… If we find him, we’ll post the video as soon as we can. If we don’t, we’ll keep trying, and for that we’ll need your help. What do you know about Jesse Watters? Did you go to college with him? Do you ride the train with him? Do you work at the Starbucks where he buys his coffee? Let us know.
What: Semi-practical applications of interactive technology that may have larger implications for humanity
What they did:
“Just Nuke it, A Google Mapplet that lets you Map Ground Zero” Via Laughing Squid:
From Carlos Labs comes a fun little applet that gives you Godlike power to nuke anywhere on earth, like the Marina for example, and see the blast radius. You can choose from a 15kt “Little Boy” all the way up to a asteroid impact. Makes me want to grab my cowboy hat a ride into oblivion!
“Brain-Twitter Project offers Hope to Paralyzed Patients” Via CNN
What: The Atlantic Monthly Business Channel On Journalism
What they said:
“Finnancial Journalism Shut Out of Pulitzers“ by Megan McArdle
Two sex scandals (Spitzer and Kilpatrick), wildfires, immigration enforcement, OSHA violations . . . but I guess no one was writing anything interesting about finance. Oh, hell, I have to concede, it was a quiet year for those of us on the finance and economics beat, with no big stories to grab a Pulitzer Committee’s eye. But I feel like they might have thrown us something.
“Blogging for Big Bucks” by Megan McArdle
Like basically every other blogger whose seen it, I think this article from the Wall Street Journal on how hundreds of thousands of bloggers are making solid incomes is addled.
The estimates of professional bloggers seem wildly inflated–if you help update the company blog once a week as part of your marketing internship, you are not a paid professional blogger. And the numbers they themselves link to tell a much different tale from the article: most blogs bring in pitiful amounts of money for their owners.
“Is it Time to Charge for Content?” by Derek Thompson
Via Matt Yglesias, I found this list of five tips for charging for content, from Alan Murray, the online editor of the Wall Street Journal. It’s sort of prescriptive, but it’s also essentially a list of “things I do as the online editor of the Wall Street Journal.” But I’m most interested in the Yglesias’ idea that the key to charging for content is finding information that “nobody cares about.”