DOM

Alrighty, who wants to get together and produce a funny little short about Jason Leopold for Denver Open Media? Anyone? We can make them like campaign style attack ads, use words like 'libel' and 'lies' and 'distruthfulocity.' And then end them with the little girl holding a flower and the atomic bomb explosion.



Together, we can!

~J

Andrew Burt!!!

So for the few of you that were in class today we talked a bit about Andrew Burt, a former horrible DU computer science teacher. I was browsing through boingboing.net after class and came across an article about him! It seems as though he has gone and screwed up one of the, dare I say, nerdiest organizations of our country, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. I couldn't stop laughing through the entire thing. Enjoy.

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/24/science-fiction-writ-4.html

Interesting

So how mush does the internet control your thoughts and opinions about the current election and politics in general? http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/11/new-data-confirms-growing-influence-of-internet-on-politics-but-not-quite-yet-the-deciding-factor/ thsi might help explain. I can't help but wonder what the comparison is with brodcast telivision and how that effects thoughts about the upcoming election. As a student of PR clases the word propaganda is used alot in a positive light. Movies like mickey mouse monopy and the control room make me think other wise about the mass media http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/media/hypoderm.html
this clip really makes me wonder if the kid who said he shot people because he watched Rambo is really true. How much does the meida effect each person? I dont think we will ever know, because it effects each person in different ways.

Why Lie??

So when I think about times in my own life when I have lied, I still feel guilt that I ever said it. I guess I am very different from Leopold who just doesn't know when to fess up. I guess resigning is just the better way to go. I just want to state for the record that I am Chief Editor of this blog post. I guess saying that must make me feel more authoritative. So what I’ve been thinking this whole time about why successful reporters would make up sources, or fabricate complete stories it just makes me think about kids I babysat in the past. Their was a time when I knew one of the kids ate a piece of candy right before dinner when I told him not to. His story that he made up was: that the tooth fairy came down and told him he had been a good kid dealing with tooth pain and he deserved a candy for it. Does it really matter what his story was? No, what mattered was that I caught the kid red handed, and he just couldn’t handle telling me the truth. Leopold reminds me of this 4 year old kid. Is he just afraid that mommy will get mad and send him to his room? I guess digging through the blogosphere for remarks about his journalistic failure is just as bad if not worse than never coming out of time out. I think journalists like Blair, Glass, and Leopold would find creative writing a more rewarding experience. I suggest scriptwriting, not coming to colleges to speak about your failure, or writing a biography. Once a liar perhaps always a liar. Once more I would just think I would have a higher opinion of all of these men if they just chose to take responsibility for their actions, and not blame it on stress. May I ask who these days is not stressed? Not a very good excuse. Maybe try saying that “I am crazy,” that seams to me to be the only truth Leopold could say at this moment.

If you hear this it proves how much Leopold should join fellow crazy train members. Maybe he’ll get to know Britney, one could only hope.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Finally! Someone as crazy as Jason Leopold seems to be.

Stick with it until the end. Or walk away while it's loading, and then cut straight to near the end.




WTF?!?!?! Whiskey...Tango...Foxtrot.

I've just signed up for www.myspace.com/firebilloreilly....soon that'll be off the ground to gain legions of fans!

Riddle me this, how does Kelly Tilghman get suspended for two weeks from the Golf Channel for suggesting that his rivals "lynch" Tiger woods in a back alley, yet Bill O'Reilly says he personally wants to lynch Michelle Obama and nothing happens?! Granted this was recent -- but how is he not on his ass fired already? You have to be kidding me. I'm against political correctness in most circumstances, I think people need to have tougher skin and should learn to laugh more, but I don't understand this double standard. Plus he's talking about

killing the wife of a candidate for the President of the United States.



Let's not be unclear about this. While there aren't many people (myself included) who believe that he would actually commit murder (if for no other reason than they wouldn't let him have a radio show in prison) this is an actual threatening statement. The Tilghman incident was clearly in jest, but this is at the opposite end of the spectrum.

Bill O'Reilly should be fired ANY day now. The fact that Fox "News" allows this to happen is incredibly inappropriate.

It's times like this when I'm glad we have things like the blogosphere and networked journalism -- hopefully NOBODY lets Bill-O escape this one.

~J

Unfolding Now: McCain's Possible Romantic Relations

The Times broke it.

Diggers dugg it.

Anderson Cooper "live-blogged" it.

All almost simultaneously. Interesting phenomenon, indeed. I sure hope the NY Times has the sources, and facts to really back up their attacks on his ethics.

Will update with more on the "formative scandal" and the synchronous mediums.

Admit you got it wrong...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Fun Times Learning about Libel

So, here's the definition of libel.

This is the important fact: The statement(s) alleged to be defamatory must also be a false statement of fact. That which is name-calling, hyperbole, or, however characterized, cannot be proven true or false, cannot be the subject of a libel or slander claim.

Leopold lies. He has no credibility. We only read articles written about him. He's made himself a public figure. No legs to stand on. Seriously, get over it already.

spoiling for a fight

After posting links to a few articles on Jason Leopold on our class blog I got two emails from a disgruntled Leopold. Turns out that he just left Truthout yesterday and apparently he spent the day deep-googling himself. Here are the emails:

Ms. Russell--You defamed and libeled me by posting information about me that is one-sided. That is certainly not the trait of a journalist and as a professor you should know better. I demand you retract your commentary and provide me with the contact information of your superior at the university. I am appalled that such hurtful and damaging commentary would be posted on the web without first even attempting to get my side of the story, which I have laid out in great detail in my book. You cast me as some sort of villain in the world of journalism and have also taught that to your students and that is action for which people pursue civil remedies. I amone of those individuals.

Please contact me soonest.

Jason Leopold

Ms. Russell

I'd like to know if you personally spoke with anyone at Salon who communicated this information to you or whether you gleaned it from previously published reports.

I am taking this very seriously.

I may add that since you assigned your class the CJR story you may also tell them to look at the bottom of said story for a letter that my attorney had sent that publication based on the defamatory statements that journalist had made, again, without contacting me to give me an opportunity to respond.

Jason Leopold

All The News That's Fit To Print

The NYT article on Jayson Blair frustrates me. (this one is a rant, it's not very informative.) The Times seems to distance itself from Blair and act aloof, as if it's simply reporting on an unfortunate incident. The language they use seems to be in an effort to tacitly abdicate their responsibility in the whole thing.

"Not all of what Mr. Blair wrote was false, but much of what was true in his article was apparently lifted from other news reports. In fact, his 1,831-word front-page article, which purported to draw on ''long conversations'' with six wounded servicemen, relied on the means of deception that had infected dozens of his other articles over the last few months."

The last 14 words of that paragraph (start at the word deception) are very telling in that they indicate a refusal by The Times to acknowledge that their lack of proper editing and fact-checking allowed this very thing to happen. This is illustrative of an attitude saturating the entire article with which The Times seems to say "It's not our fault." They treat the incident as something that just happened, as if the only person responsible is Blair.

Sure, he is the one most directly at fault because he is the one lying, but while journalists have a responsibility to tell the truth, outlets for journalists also have a responsibility to check on their employees. No segment I edit for my company makes it on TV without several other eyes watching it and approving it. That is the responsibility of my company -- to make sure their content is correct, accurate, appealing, and meets the standards set forth. The Times completely failed in that responsibility but didn't really seem to give much of a shit.

And because I feel bad there are no pictures or links in my blog entry so far, here are some things that have absolutely nothing to do with anything in class.



And, okay I lied, this one is actually related to journalism. I stumbled for 20 minutes and this was the first thing I found (relevant or otherwise) that I could post without regret!

~J

Reading and listening for next class

On Stephen Glass:
Salon
Forbes
NPR
On Jason Leopold:
CJR
Salon
On Jayson Blair:
NYT
Slate

yes we can/john.he.is

Check out this spoof on the Will.i.am Yes We Can video.



And here's the Yes We Can video incase you missed it.

Networked Journalism

This is a post by Angie

Through all of the reading and explanations, it has still taken me quiet some time to truly understand what the term “Networked Journalism” really means. Ultimately it took a blog entry from Jeff Jarvis on BuzzMachine to make things clear to me. Click here to get to the article.

Basically networked journalism according to Jarvis is professionals and armatures working together to get the real story. I agree with his statement because ultimately anyone can witness the news, you don’t have to be a big-named reporter or professional journalist to make the news actual news. Jarvis also mentions in his entry that the focus of the process more than the product is what makes news. I also agree with this because the process of making news is very important. You have to have your facts, details, questions, perspectives and many different factors all straightened out before you can call something news. The straightening out of all these different things is the process.

I think it is very important for people to think critically about what they see and hear on the news and contribute those thoughts. Jarvis stated in his entry, “We are all in this together.” He is referring to amateur and professional journalists. If this is the case and we all are responsible for creating the news is it very important that we challenge ourselves and each other by thinking critically about our news.

The Internet, to be or not to be?

This is a post by Angie:

Ok, so soon after I wrote my last rant about freedom of speech on the net, I started reading Online News, the required text for the class. In the first chapter Allen quotes Elmer-Dewitt who gives his account of the internet. He calls the internet largely unedited with content that is tasteless, foolish, uninteresting and sometimes plain wrong. Now I understand that many things on the net do have their flaws. I am not saying that we should not asses the information that we get off of the net critically, but the internet is one of the most useful tools in the world. The internet is used for so many important things in our lives and if it were to just disappear tomorrow, we would all be lost. Elmer-Dewitt mentions that the internet is too hard to navigate. I can see how someone who did not grow up with the internet could have a hard time navigating, but really all you have to do is read and click, the rest of the work is done for you. Basically, I disagree with a lot of the things that Elmer-Dewitt says about the internet and I bet if he attempted to become a little more knowledgeable about the internet, he wouldn’t be so against it. So, I guess it’s not to be for Elmer-Dewitt and the internet.

Freedom of Speech

This is a post by Angie

I heard a few people in the class talking about allternet.org and that being a good place to read up on what’s going on in the news, so I decided to check it out. I started reading an article about Bob Johnson, the founder of the BET Network, coming on stage at a rally to introduce Sen. Clinton and in doing so he made a reference to Sen. Obama’s former drug use when he was young. You can check out the article here.

Davey D, the author of this article starts off by calling Bob Johnson an asshole and a hypocrite. He goes on to tell the reader that he is not apologetic for his use of language and that if they don’t like it, they don’t have to read. I was so happy to read this; this lets me know that there is hope for freedom of speech after all. I get so tired of reading writing that is always politely trying to make a point. I wish more writers would just get on with it and say what they mean to say. I think that is what is so appealing to me about internet publications. You can go against the norms of traditional journalism, branch out, and say what you want to say, how you want to say it. If people don’t like what they are reading, they are always free to click on something else.

PBS's Frontline Covers "Growing Up Online"

While not entirely relevant to journalism, it's always interesting to hear about how new media affects everyone. But even more interesting is the paranoia that surrounds the Internet, as displayed by PBS.

It may be laughable how the big bad Internet is portrayed, but at least it's free and online. That's a step in the right direction... right?

Watch the video.

*UPDATE:

Danah Boyd is featured in the film, and does provide a realistic point of view.

Are we like the Soviet Union?

I just read this article about Mike Huckabee's reaction to the Washington state caucuses. The state Republican election official called the race for McCain when he was only leading by a little over 200 votes. Huckabee reacted by saying that this was like the Soviet Union, because he wasn't given a fair shake. I thought this was relevant because we talked about how media coverage has contributed to political apathy. When the race is called before all votes are counted - or even cast - are we doing detriment to the political process? This blog from concernedjournalists.org explains how the networks make the call, but I still think it's important for everyone who wants to vote to feel like their vote will count...even if it doesn't. Any thoughts???

Obama sweeps the Grammys?

The upcoming political race seems to embedding every aspect of our lives. It is not only for journalism, politicians or activists anymore. You can not escape knowing what is going on in this race, and much of that is due to the use of the media to spread the word. Tonight Obama's audio version of his book even won him a Grammy for the "spoken word category. Here is an interesting blog on the that subject and several other campaign issues that I found interesting. Hopefully you find it as entertaining as I did.

Reading the article that Artfuldoger posted with the e-mail from the former LA Times Editor, made me happy to know that top professionals in the news business are worried about where Journalism is going and not just profits. He says that he "had to cut budgets and shrink the staff" which he was not pleased with. He states that he disagrees completely with the way the company allocates resources to its newrooms. He says that, today, it is all about the money, the profit and less about good journalism. He says that journalists are being treated as 'accountants'. In his final statement he says, "When this industry stops relying so much on cuts and starts investing in journalism, it will prosper because it will be serving the best interests of our readers".

Right before reading this article, I had just finished reading an article from my sociology class about Capitalism. This e-mail from James E O'shea makes me realize even more the forceful pressure on all businesses, including journalism, to make a profit and constantly be innovating, improving and changing. It highlights the goal of all businesses to make as much of a surplus as possible by using the smallest and least expensive means possible.

While Journalists are professionals who need to make a living just like anybody else, it is bothersome to realize that everything in our society seems to revolve around money. The article highlights that our capitalist society has forced us to lean more towards an anti-family, anti-community, and anti-self-development society. Everything seems to revolve around work. Longer hours, lowers pay, and less benefits are what we have to deal with as employees today and the field of journalism is no exception.

** I'm trying to figure out how to upload the article from my sociolgoy class..when I do I will post it because it's pretty intersting..

Invest in Journalism

This is a great "article" by former LA Times Editor, James E O'shea. He's that old guy right there on the left.

While it's not exactly an article about politics, or an op-ed on the state of the nation, his farewell remarks upon being let go from his position at the Times deals with many difficult issues within journalism, and of course more specifically within the LA Times.

On the second page he deals with some issues of new media and the ways in which he envisions that print and the 'net can be used together.

I find it interesting that the full-text of the email was published by the NYTimes (that's where the link leads to) but I can find only a standard article about O'Shea's departure.

~J