Sago & Geraldo–A Victim or Bad Journalism?

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
UPDATED: Perhaps this is off the mark of this blog, but...Blogs are often attacked by big media for unprofessionalism. But nothing is sadder than the professionals closing ranks to pretend that they are not at fault for massive failure. I just saw FOX's Geraldo Rivera say that (paraphrase) "the media were victims" at the Sago mine story. What? WHAT? Because you ran with a life or death story without CONFIRMING IT? The NYT's take: note all the sources of "they're alive" are folks who heard it from folks. Did the reporter face anybody official and ask the question: Is this 100%? Many editors are defending their wrong headlines.... But one tiny local WV paper held back, in part because they could not confirm story. (They were an afternoon paper, as well, so were not under as much pressure to publish fast). Pulitzer, please? Here is the editor explaining what good journalism is all about: "I feel lucky that we are an afternoon paper and we have...
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Lessons of Sago Disaster–For New Media and Old

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Editor & Publisher just put up an op-ed of mine* about the media lessons of the twin disasters at the Sago mine in West Virginia. Again, I think what I say here applies to all forms of media. MINE RESCUE LESSON: JUST SAY 'DON'T KNOW' By David D. Perlmutter/Editor&Publisher.com (January 05, 2006) In the wake of the Sago mine disaster, perhaps a new category of Pulitzer Prize should be created to honor the journalists or news managers who caution that a story is not ready for prime time or publication. We must re-evaluate how journalism produces and delivers the "first draft of history." "Journalism," claimed former Washington Post publisher Philip Graham, "is the first draft of history." But when I set my students, as an exercise, to factually verify initial media reports of major news events they are shocked. From the Tiananmen uprisings and government crackdown to the flooding of New Orleans, they find the same sad tale. The first draft is full of...
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Why Politicians Should Blog–Part 1

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
I am developing my own such list--but of reasons both why and why not--a politician should blog. Here is one via Loic Le Meur Blog. It is a well known Euroblog, and so most of the examples are from there. Interesting that most important reason to blog for an Amerian politician is not listed outright: TO BYPASS COMMERCIAL MEDIA, to avoid its editing, potential negative commentary, and so on. 10 reasons why should a politician blog (from Loic Le Meur Blog) Why politicians should have blogs ? 1. To get closer to their audience, their supporters 2. To create a permanent open debate with them 3. To test their ideas easily and quickly, to enrich them and get new ones 4. To switch the way they talk to people usually from institutional to more personal 5. To better understand the criticism of the people against their ideas 6. To spread their ideas easily if they are supported by many people, in a decentralized way 7. To raise funds for...
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Hillary, Polls and Blogs: Her Possible Blog Strategies

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Very good--as usual--discussion and analysis of Senator Hillary Clinton, her poll numbers, and the blogs at Mystery Pollster. Mark "MP" Blumenthal mentions some issues of leftblog dissatisfaction with HC and "are bloggers the people" and "who do bloggers represent" raised here at policybyblog earlier. Some key points from MP: The primaries and caucuses are still a long way off.  Second, the overwhelming majority of Democratic identifiers and especially liberal Democrats are certainly opposed to the Iraq war.  On a recent CBS News poll most Democrats say they either want to decrease the number of US troops in Iraq (36%) or withdraw altogether (40%).  Third, adults who self-identify as Democrats are not the same as the much smaller pool of Democratic primary voters, much less the even smaller number of activists and donors. We will need larger samples of Democratic primary voters to get a handle on those populations.  Fourth and finally, these results tell us nothing about Senator Clinton's skills as a...
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Bird Flu Blogging: Truth to Power

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
UPDATED: 01/09/06 Big media are not as big as we need them to be. A thousand reporters herd to the Michael Jackson trial, but not enough seek out places where really important news is breaking. The number of fulltime foreign correspondents working for so called "major networks" and newspapers has decreased in recent years [1] as has the amount of of money and resources mainstream media spends on foreign newsgathering. [2] Tom Fenton, the veteran foreign correspondent for The Baltimore Sun and CBS News just noted: "American news organizations [have] so depleted the ranks of hard news reporters over the years that they suddenly had to send out whatever lifestyle, fashion, and gossip types they could muster on a moment's notice." [3] The mainstream reporter, as well, often stays in capitals and major cities. Bloggers, however, can specialize, look at nooks and crannies big media don't care or don't know about, or don't have any focus on. Take Bird Flu: Those two words are getting major big media coverage and government attention. Here...
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KABC Los Angeles Interview

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Your PBB editor was just interviewed by Kim Serafin of KABC Radio Los Angeles about the Sago media controversy. Key point she made that is that in news rooms, panic sets in when some other news org is first with a story. My thought: "No member of the public cares who is first with breaking news unless it is (a) a real emergency (chemical tanker spill in town) or (b) a big investigative piece (WP on Watergate)." People do care about accuracy: who gets the facts right. That applies to blogs as well. Apparently my call for a Pulitzer for reporters and editors who did not go with false story was mentioned on Fox News Watch. Originally posted January 7, 2006 at PolicyByBlog ...
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Are Blogs an Echo Chamber?: Do Political Bloggers Only Read Blogs That They Agree With?

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
[UPDATED] Frank Athens of the Washington Posts makes an accusation that one hears often cast against blogging: "[The most] troubling trait of the Internet [is that] Rather than opening minds, it can close them, thanks to echo-chamber Web sites and blogs. We like to read Web sites and blogs that we agree with and that reinforce our opinions. Aside from the few of you who practice "know your enemy" browsing, how many of you liberals read http://www.nationalreview.com/? How many of you conservatives frequent http://www.thenation.com/? His implication is that blog consumption is ideologically self-referential: liberals read Daily Kos; conservatives read powerlineblog and so on. And never the twain do meet. (See comment by Jeff Jarvis). Is this true? First, Athens' unstated premise is that "neutral platforms" like, say the Washington Post, are superior content providers because they offer an internal marketplace of different, competing ideas, each given equal weight. Well, I'm not sure how many people, left or right, truly believe that the Washington Post, or any...
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Blogs as Political Educators

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
If one paid attention only to the most sensational postings and most acerbic bloggers, it would be easy to stereotype blogs as unleashing, from the pits of Mordor, an army of frothing, torch-wielding hobgoblins who will propel America toward a Balkan tragedy. But many blogs are political educators of the best kind: teaching a new generation of people concerned about and involved in democracy and activated to serve their country and their community. One such example is Watchblog, which describes itself as "a multiple-editor weblog broken up into three major political affiliations, each with its own blog: the Democrats, the Republicans and the Third Party (covering everything outside the two major parties." The creators of the blog explain, "Let's face it, politics is confusing. Sometimes it's difficult to know who to believe, who to listen to and who to support. We're here to help. Posting on a regular basis are editors representing each major party. Stay informed." Each of the two major parties...
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Do Bloggers Wear Political Blinders?

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
UPDATED Earlier I discussed the issue of whether bloggers wore political blinders, that is they tended to only read, quote and trust other blogs of the same political feather. By bloggers, of course, we mean both people who edit blogs, that is have their own blog and the greater number of people who read and/or comment within blogs. I argued that while this stereotype was in part true, based on my studies of my students, it was not a black and white world, of, say, conservative blogs and blog editors and readers never reading Daily Kos or MYDD. One research study on this question--which did not look at blog readers but blogs themselves--reinforces the view that partisan readership is a tendency not a chasm. A study by Lada Adamic (of HP Labs) & Natalie Glance (of Intelliseek) of posts and blogrolls of "A-List" liberal and conservative blogs between the period of August 29, 2004 and November 15, 2004 found that partisan bloggers tended...
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