Thoughts & Experiences from the Mile High City
I saw this video and watched it. It is video of Katie Couric behind the scenes and the interaction between Katie and everyone it takes to put on CBS Evening News.
A lot of people are being critical of her, but to me this is not bad. It shows the confusion and work that goes into putting on a major news show. Sometimes you just need to liven things up.
Take a look:
http://www.mydamnchannel.com/xml/mdc_embed.swf?episode=367
What do you think?
The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., runs a blog that discusses sports in the region. The have entries for the Washington State Cougars, Idaho Vandals, Eastern Washington Eagles, Spokane Chiefs, and local high school sports. It is called Sportslink.
Last week prior to the University of Idaho/Boise State men’s basketball game, after not having any posts about the Idaho Vandals for some time, writer Greg Lee responded to a comment in the post describing the Vandals previous game. The comment was wondering what had happened to the Vandal coverage.
His response: Continue reading “Spokesman-Review Censors Blog, Removes Post That Had Negative Comments”
Mike Prater, the sports editor of the Idaho Statesman, needs to be fired.
On his radio program yesterday on KTIK‘s Idaho Sports Talk, Prater said that everything associated with the University of Idaho school and athletic program was horrible, including the football team, athletic director, fans, school president, everything.
He even said that “that they should take a bomb, blow it up, and start over again.”
Listen for yourself:
He finished off by saying that David Vobora was horrible. It doesn’t matter that David Vobora was the leading tackler in the Western Athletic Conference for the last two years.
The University of Idaho is the premiere educational institution in the state and far exceeds the other institutions of higher learning in the state.
In addition, to say that someone should take a bomb and blow it up is crazy. It is an irresponsible statement that should be punished. Threatening or encouraging someone to blow something up is a big deal and should not be handled lightly by his editors at the Idaho Statesman and his producers at KTIK.
MIKE PRATER MUST BE FIRED!
Send a complaint to Idaho Statesman
We’re Struck Dumb – washingtonpost.com
This is a great article by Robin Givhan the Washington Post talking about the writers strike affecting broadcast media and the stagehand strike affecting Broadway.
According to the article:
In a complicated, multilayered world, we need simplistic, linear storytelling, jokes that call out for a rimshot and one-liners that require no sense of irony or familiarity with world events. There is a place for silliness that splashes across the surface and provides easy, painless amusement. And there is something cozy and reassuring about entertainment that can be summed up in a tiny, simple word: fun.
We are losing our outlet to just sit and re-charge our brains. No sitting down and laughing to Jon Stewart or Leno, I need my new episodes of the Office, and it would be nice to go to Broadway and have a sing-a-long to Abba at Mama Mia. No wait a minute. See what the strikes are doing to my brain?
The good thing is that I now have alternatives compared to previous strikes. Video podcasts/netcasts are plenty and there is great content out there. If this strike goes on, I may not go back to watching all the shows before. I will just watch for free the shows the independent content producers are developing.
We need to get the producers together with the respective writers or stagehand union and settle this thing. Otherwise there won’t be an industry to come back to and the television networks will roll-out endless garbage like American Gladiator. Wait, they are already doing that.
Marc Ambinder (November 16, 2007) – “Diamonds v. Pearls” Student Blasts CNN (Updated With CNN Response)
Well CNN is throwing softballs and controlling debates these days. Not a good thing for a media company to be doing. It seems to me that they are censuring or controlling questions that can be asked.
The media should be there to provoke thought and discussion, not control what people are going to ask. This question is ridiculous and should never have been asked.
CNN should know better. They are now trying to blame the college student. Yeah she submitted the question and who is not going to turn down a chance to be on national television.
They should have thrown that question out. They need the public to ask the hard questions so we can get to the real issues and stances of the Presidential candidates.
The Rocky Mountain News has revamped their website and I must say I don’t quite like the look.
It is clean and the information is easily accessible, but it is beginning to look like too many other sites. The home page photo used to be quite prominent and really differentiated the website from others, but now it is just small and hard to see. The photographers of the Rocky are some of the best out there and their work needs to be seen, not hidden.
The other opportunity that the Rocky Mountain News missed was in showing links to blogs that discuss a story. This is a great tool and creates for more discussion and traffic to news stories. It would be nice if they would add this feature.
Overall, it is clean, bright, and easy to find the information. It would be nice to see the other features that I discussed.
Bloggers vs PR – The Aftermath | WebProNews
This is a great interview that looks at the state of PR and bloggers.
There are some definite opinions that PR and bloggers should never meet. But in my opinion, I think that there is a place where the two can come together.
PR professionals need to understand the medium while also treating and respecting bloggers like they respect reporters. Bloggers can carry significant clout in a business line or issue. If they feel disrespected or get mad, watch out.
Take a look at the article and let me know what you think.
Well I am the featured blogger again at the Scoop, a Denver Newspaper Agency newsletter.
You can see my answers to their questions here: The Scoop
In figures released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, of the top 25 papers in circulation, only four saw gains.
In the story, First FAS-FAX Numbers: Many Top Papers Take Big Hits, “… for 538 daily U.S. newspapers, circulation declined 2.5% to 40,689,617. For 609 papers that filed on Sunday, overall circulation dropped 3.5% to 46,771,486.”
The newspaper circulations have been declining for a long time. People are beginning to get their news in other mediums and in a more timely fashion. People are not relying on getting their news in their morning or afternoon papers anymore.
Examples of the figures for the last six-month period.
Locally, the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News were down over 10%. The combined Sunday paper was down 13.52% over the last six months. The daily numbers at the Rocky Mountain News were down 11.9% according to another article, ‘Rocky’ Road: Denver Paper’s Circ Plunges — Now Points to Total Audience. Continue reading “Newspaper Circulation Continues Decline”
The Scoop, an electronic newsletter from the Denver Newspaper Agency, has featured the Mile High Soapbox blog in this weeks newsletter.
Welcome to all the new viewers who are visiting and hey to all those who keep coming back.
Mile High Soapbox 