TRANSPARENCY & NAKED LADIES

WHICH MEDIA CAN YOU TRUST

     If you consider yourself well informed, interested and a user of any form of news media link here to James Asher's piece on Washington journalism.

        Asher is the Bureau Chief of the McClatchy newspaper chain.  Their record of hard nosed and investigative reporting is impressive, despite being in smaller and mid sized markets. Asher deals with a dirty secret of Washington reporting.  

        In other postings you may have noted I find a lot that is wrong with contemporary reporting-print and broadcast.  Standards have declined. So much clap trap is packaged and presented as news when it is promotional hype, celebrity gossip, spin, opinion and shallow content.  

       I started in a large city news room where  the standard was at least two sources to confirm something before we went with it.  We were drilled, and edited, to keep opinion and speculation out of the copy.  We established ground rules with sources.  Later when I directed news teams I insisted that before we used an anonymous source, I knew and vetted the source and in some cases insisted they sign a statement to be used only if it came down to our reporter being jailed for contempt or the company being sued in an action where our counsel thought disclosure of the source would be a good defense tool, but only as a last resort in seeking a dismissal, summary judgement or negotiated settlement. It was a tool for a rare and last stop decision. One must operate  within codes of conduct and cannons of behavior.  The Dirty Secret that Asher writes of is offensive to how journalism should be practiced. One more instance of a slide toward the swamp.

       Many dispute the value of journalism and, sadly, it is hard to defend so much of what we have today, including the partisan FOX News, and MSNBC. However this nation is best served by a non partisan, non ideological journalism that asks hard questions of everyone, demands honesty of everyone, verifys information scrupulously, and does it in a transparent and honorable way, according to canons and codes of conduct.  Anything else is rotten.

    Asher nails the rot that is rampant in Washington journalism. Let me know what you think.

      

DAY FILE

NAKED LADIES
That is what they call these beautiful wild flowers
that just pop up this time of year.

You just never know where a naked lady may show up.
Wow!
See you down the trail.

HELLO, TECH SUPPORT

THE INDIAN PARADIGM

     You've probably seen those pictures making their way around the cyber world-street scenes of cities in India where power and phone lines criss-cross, snake and weave their way in a rats nest, while the captions read as to how this is where we call for "tech support."

      No one is laughing today, as 600 million are without power.  The frightening and economically damaging outage is also a "poster child" for a world where technology leap frogs into new patterns without forethought.  How does a rapidly expanding economy, like India but also think China, manage to continue its growth and yet do so in ways that do not over reach? At least over reach until there are significant break downs, both in services and expectations.

      Money is not so much the problem.  There is plenty of money in expanding quarters of the Indian economy.  The difficulty is in planning-orderly planning and phased growth-as well as government and/or service management.  

     Less serious, but from the same root, is the topic I posted yesterday-old fashioned Network mindsets in a Twitter and social media world.  There is even more fuel on that fire today as NBC is taking more shots for their numb skull promotion cycle, just in advance of their own intent to build drama into a Missy Franklin race. And there is the flap about pulling Twitter rights. Guess we can't have the most rapid media beat the old systems, and on and on and on.

     Planning ahead? Thinking it through?  Making arrangements?  Accommodating new technologies?

     Old systems in conflict with new patterns.  India-though a hot economy, unable to manage into the future.  

      I'm miffed and slightly amused when I see miles and miles of telephone and/or power lines strung along the same route captured in historic photographs.  We can send messages to Mars rovers, satellites and other even more distant space explorers, but we still hang those lines like we did a hundred years ago, or longer.  Yea, OK, I know electricity needs a path, but there are other ways to pipeline it, and there are alternative energy sources. 

      No one believes future technology advances, especially in communications and information sharing, will get less complex or infrastructure dependent, but where do we see evidence of nations, or even hemispheres planning for what is to come?  No one believes we will use less energy, unless of course, the system goes down, like it did in Tech Support Land.

      

     OK, it's time to chill.  Here's something for your blood pressure.

DAY FILE

JUST WATCHING THE WAVES

See you down the trail.

AN OLYMPIC MEDIA DIVIDE

TECHNOLOGY HAS PASSED THE OLD WAY

     It is probably time for Olympic organizers, the IOC, and their media partners to get fully into the 21st Century.  Their old fashioned approach is silly.

       CASES IN POINT

       Viewers are already all over NBC for their multi hour tape delay of the opening ceremony and the rounds of competition.  I was angry, because as a regular BBC Internet viewer/reader, I was unable to see the Beeb's stuff because of the US deal with NBC.  

       Still tape delay in the the age of Twitter creates a real problem as Fred Wilson of AVC writes in this blog.

        Techcrunch.com weighs in on the flap calling the delay STUPID in this link.

       It's a fascinating, even if painful example of how social media platforms have outdated the thinking of Network executives and business hustlers.  Why tape delay in a 24/7 world of instant media?  Sure, the answer is ad dollars are higher if the Olympics play in prime time, instead of real time, which half way around the world could mean the middle of the night or the middle of the afternoon when viewership is down. But that old business model, may be just that-old and out of date.

      PaidContent.org, which watches the economics of digital content reports in this link how Twitter activity has jeopardized broadcast coverage.

        Here is Reuter's take on the embarrassment.

        If nothing else, this Olympiad should signal a new way to approach coverage of the games.  Instead of add ons or afterthoughts, new media platforms should be a key strategy for those nations where time zone differences

are important.

     

DAY FILE

BLOOMS ADD CHEER

See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER :) FUTURE TALENT

THE FUTURE

 HALF FULL

AT LEAST

     Sorry for using the tired old example of "the Glass-half empty or half full?"  But at a time when media seems to dwell on issues, problems and crisis after crisis and when political process has ceased to be dialogue but instead is bombast followed by bombast, it is understandable why people consider the future with less than optimism. 

     I've been working with college seniors and juniors in a leadership training and legislative environment. We've worked 11 hour days in amassing a great deal of information, doing evaluation and rendering critical decisions.  I am in awe of their ability to focus and exercise facility of mind.  There is also a sense of obligation to a set of core values that underpin their action.  I will leave this exercise with a renewed sense of hopefulness and expectation. In their hands, there is a future with capability, and excellence. There is also that horizon bending attribute of youthful potential.

MORE OF THAT

IN THIS WEEKENDER :) VIDEO

     A little context-This is by a student and was done for a 

school video project.  Joe Bush and Zach Hemsey culled the images and wove together this extraordinary timeline.  

     When I was president/ceo of a documentary and media production company I took great delight in "discovering" young talent, people with skills like Joe and Zach.  What boggles my mind is how young these extraordinary visual artists are.

     This is a generation that has grown up with gadgets in their hands, and man can they make them work!

      Enjoy.

See you down the trail.

TOO PICKY? & HIGH ADVENTURE

TWEETED OUT OF THE GAMES

    OK, so the joke about West Nile Mosquitoes wasn't in the best of taste, but neither was it dangerously offensive. It seemed a harmless attempt with an unintended racism, but it cost Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou her trip to the Olympic games and earned her ignominy.

     This is troublesome.  It once again moves private communication, in this case via Twitter, into the public arena.  In truth the joke was intended only for her followers, in a sense a private arena.  However we can no longer pretend that social media, even if directed to specific users, is like an old fashioned snail mail letter.  One more encroachment upon personal space perhaps, but the way it is in this age. 

     But even given the questionable nature of the joke, is that really grounds to ban an athlete from participating?  If she had told the joke just to fellow triple jumpers, or her coach, it probably would not have resulted in her expulsion.

      I question the fairness and proportionality of the move to kick her out of the games.  As another athlete said, it is a new age.  So it is, and if you are an athletic star, I guess you should be on your best behavior- always.  Just like Soccer, NFL Football, NBA Basketball players always are, right?

       I think she could have "scolded", but being expelled is

an Olympic blunder.  

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF

LUKE AND HEMINGWAY

HIGH ADVENTURE

     Luke-climber, hunter, fast and preferring the high ground.

    Tree, car, fence, house-all places from which he can watch.

        Brother Hemingway follows older brother.

    But as far as core competency, Hemingway rests well.  He's an expert at taking it easy.

    Luke, in his solitude.

See you down the trail.

THE JEWEL OF THE DESERT

LINES AT THE BILTMORE

     The Arizona Biltmore is one of those special places. A rich history and an elegance of another age makes it a place

worthy of returning to. It is also a photographer's dream.

    I'm back for a round of meetings and enjoying the visual texture.  People think they see Frank Lloyd Wright's work here. In a sense they do.  The architect was Albert Chase McArthur who was mentored and guided by Wright.

 It's been a hang out for stars since it opened in 1929. In what could be one of pop cultures greatest disconnects, Irving Berlin wrote White Christmas here-in the Valley of the Sun.

 Every American President since Herbert Hoover has stayed here.  One night Sammy Davis Jr, Frank Sinatra and Liza Minelli surprised late night patrons with an impromptu performance in the famed lobby bar.

  Of course this time of year it is a tad warm.  At this writing it is 100.  It is bound for 108.  The evening cool may get down to 86!

   See you down the trail. (in the shade)

LETTING THE CHIPS FALL...

IN THE ARENA OF THE MIND

     "It may be different elsewhere. But a democratic society-in it the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may."

      John Kennedy said that a little less than a month before he was killed.  He was speaking at Amherst College October 26, 1963.

       "In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation."

       I wonder how many writers today concern themselves with such lofty concerns. Maybe they do in little pieces and then over time, taken in mass, it adds up.
        It's  harder to get your voice heard through the mass of signals that fill the public square. Digital media, social networks, cable, broadcast, the whole universe of film and print are choked with content, much of it simply trying to out pace the others.  In some cases outrage and anger get attention. Those may be genuine, but are they the visions of truth JFK spoke of?

       The more I watch Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom the more convinced I am he is serving his vision of truth. Here's why I think so.  
       The modern media, in all of it's iterations, does more to shape our sense of reality, expectations and vision of government than most people make themselves aware of. As consumers of the din we rarely give ourselves the time to ponder the impact of what we consume.  We think more about what we eat, than consider what we put into our heads though we spend hours a day consuming information flow.

        Sorkin's work cuts to the quick.  Some criticize the "preachiness" of it.  I don't see it that way.  I think he is offering a valuable insight into the media machine that shapes our attitudes and affects our sense of destiny. Yes, it is entertainment, but it also holds a mirror to a powerful element of modern life and Sorkin, as President Kennedy opined, lets the chips fall where they may.

DAY FILE

A FUN "SCHOOL"

     Each year, since our move, we make a point to attend

Coastal Discovery Day up at San Simeon.  The Discovery Center, joined by a host of other nature, environmental, park and educational groups hold a kind of carnival overlooking the Pacific.  It's for kids with lots of hands on activities, but each year we learn something and pick up a few interesting shots.  This year I learned about the hearing chambers and ear drums (bulla) of whales, elephant seals and dolphins.  Amazing technology at work in those sonar sensitive relatives.

  The Falcon expert had a couple of beautiful friends.

    An injured wing has grounded this Pelican, now in the custody of a rehabilitation specialist.  He eats 3 pounds of sardines or smelt each day.  He'd eat more if he were burning calories by flying.

    Here are a couple specimens of Elephant Seal skulls.

     In the frame below is the skull of a Dolphin.  The bottom piece, in the shadow, is the kind of sensor bone that transmits sounds from long, medium or short distances, using a different portion of the bone to do so.  The differing signals are then processed in a sophisticated brain.

      Skulls of native wild life.

  While it was sunny and bright up at the cove, south toward
Cambria, another micro climate existed, in the fog.

See you down the trail.