Immigration Debate Involves Media Beyond News Coverage

Are people who enter the country illegally "illegal immigrants," "illegal aliens," "undocumented workers," or "economic refugees?"

This is one of the issues which has emerged as media grapples with the escalating debate on immigration -- a debate uniquely fueled and influenced by media outlets themselves.

Three of the nation's largest organizations representing journalists of color -- the National Association of Black Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists -- have asked news outlets to refrain from using the terms "illegal aliens" or "illegals" in favor of the mushier-sounding "undocumented workers" or "economic refugees."

It's a debate that brings to mind the discussion over use of the term "refugee" to describe victims of Hurricane Katrina displaced from their homes. In both cases, these journalism organizations fear the prejorative nature of the colloquial terms, asking new outlets to find language that seems less dehumanizing.

But even some members of the journalism groups have questioned this call, noting that the subjects referred to by the terms have entered the country illegally -- an element which the groups' preferred terms neatly avoids.

Though I have been vocal about the need for media to be sensitive to such issues, I wonder if there isn't a middle ground possible. Indeed, "illegals" and "aliens" do sound dehumanizing; I've always used the term "illegal immigrants," which captures the law-breaking aspect without adding a xenophobic flair which makes me uncomfortable.

There's plenty of room for grandstanding on both sides of this issue, as nationwide protests and growing questions over security and use of government resources forces the nation to face its own hypocrisy on this issue. And what strange bedfelllows this issue makes -- with progressive advocated for immigrants aligned with business interests depending on the cheap labor from undocumented workers, while keeep-em-out conservatives are moving close to advocates for poor and disenfranchised American citizens, concerned their causes may be forgotten in the rush to deal with immigration.

Most interesting from the media pespective, is the role Spanish-language media outlets played in getting out the word on protests which took the English-speaking part of America by surprise last week and pushed the issue of immigration reform to the front burner. As Spanish-language stations ran promos on the upcoming rallies and covered their development, audiences that often outstrip the size of network newscasts were urged to join the events.

Few issues have the power to unite Hispanics across cultural lines like immigration, and the turnout of 500,000 protesters in Los Angeles alone sent a powerful message to politicians facing bruising midterm election prospects.

Many Hispanic journalists have written on the issue, including Gilbert Bailon, publisher and editor of Al Dia, former executive editor of the Dallas Morning News and secretary of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, who noted: "Many radio talk show and cable television hosts have shown great reactionary form. Put these "illegals" on the next train to Mexico and arm the border. Build huge walls and moats to keep them out. The vitriol gets so heated it seems they lose track that they are talking about human lives."

Indeed, CNN anchor Lou Dobbs has made a personal crusade of the illegal immigration issue, featuring regular reports titled "Broken Borders" and featuring a quote from TeddyRoosevelt on his web site which reads, in part, "We should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American."

It seems obvious we can't continue a system in which 500,000 illegal immigrants a year sneak across Mexico's border, and we can't close our eyes to employers who pay them less to work less safe, less regulated jobs.

It also seems obvious that the media which covers this issue best will be inclusive and open-minded, without pandering or apologizing: a tough task, to be sure....

Jill Carroll Released Alive, But Questions Remain

Good news yesterday that kidnapped reporter Jill Carroll was released alive and unharmed, though questions remain about why and how she was released. Both government sources and her employer, the Christian Science Monitor, have denied there were any negotiations or money paid to secure her release. Carroll herself has told interviewers she has no idea why she was released.

And while some -- including me -- crtiticized media outlets' decision to withhold news of Carroll's abduction for two days, a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times in Baghdad now says the delay gave them time to present a public image of Carroll as a pious, professional and noteworthy journalist, which may have saved her life.

Even though several journalists who havbe covered Iraq have told me they provided similar courtesies for non-journalists who were kidnapped, I can't help but wonder if they would have gone to similar lengths to help someone who wasn't one of their own.

Cartoons, Condi and Considering Katherine Harris

It hit me this weekend, while I was marveling at how well the Wachowski brothers had kept what worked from the V For Vendetta graphic novel, but made the necessary changes to create a Big Hollywood Movie: Comic books are respected now.

Not just as great fodder for big money popcorn movies, though there is that. But comic books have now gained respect as a grown-up, honest-to-goodness creatively valid medium for storytelling worthy of Hollywood's appropriation.

It's something I noticed while checking out the trailer for the new Superman movie, Superman Returns. Even in this abbreviated preview, there were visual images taken straight from Frank Miller's classic reimagining of the Superman/Batman legend, The Dark Knight. Likewise, with last year's hit Batman movie, Batman Begins -- only their source material was Miller's groundbreaking retelling of the Caped Crusader's origin, Batman Year One (the opening shot of a young Bruce Wayne falling down a well is recreated almost exactly from the comic).

I know this isn't the normal media stuff I blog about. But sitting there in a darkened theater, watching the guys who invented the Matrix bring one of the comic world's most subversive, downbeat tales to life, I was in comic book geek heaven.

I always knew these books had a storytelling power other mediums lacked. And now the rest of the world does, too.

It is no coincidence that, for the most part, the most successful movies to tap this new storytelling engine are those which take the source material seriously. Ang Lee's attempt to turn The Hulk into a highfalutin' commentary on father/son issues only birthed a muddled mess of a movie; Catwoman couldn't decide if it was a carefree popcorn superhero film or a saucy satire -- it wound up making audiences forget Halle Berry ever got near an Oscar.

But the films which dare to embrace their comic book lineage -- Sin City, Spider Man, the X-Men films -- are rewarded with thrilling action tales of substance. Small wonder Hollywood is turning to Miller and Alan Moore, two of comic's great visionaries, for ideas which breathe new life into superhero films.

Now, in V for Vendetta, we have a movie based on a comic written 17 years ago which resonates today -- the tale of an authoritarian regime drawing power by scaring its populace into allowing horrific breaches of civil liberties. And the ultimate lesson: What the people give, they can also take away. A trenchant tale for our times, to be sure.

True enough, there are lots of folks who just liked seeing the guy in the freaky mask take out the bad guys with his cool swordfighting moves and kung fu. That's always been the beauty of comic books -- storytelling on whatever level you can handle.

Condi Has No Problem With Coon Talk...and, Surprisingly, Neither Do I

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accepted the apology of a radio talk show host fired for mistakenly calling her a coon on air, saying "My understanding is that he apologized, said he didn't mean it. I accept that, because we all say things from time to time that we shouldn't say or didn't mean to say."

And although this may surprise some folks who read this blog regularly, I just might agree with her.

No doubt it was a stupid slip of the tongue when KTRS-AM host Dave Lenihan described why Rice would be a great NFL commissioner, saying, "She's African-American, which would kind of be a big coon. . . a big coon?' Oh my god. I am totally, totally, totally, totally, totally sorry for that. OK? I didn't mean that. That was just a slip of the tongue."

Given that there seems to be no proof that Lenihan acted on purpose, I'm concerned about the message sent by firing him. Dismayed as I am that anybody would even fleetingly place coon next to Condi's name on air, it seems that delivering the ultimate punishment for a mistake may be too harsh.

Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age. But if we want to talk about race honestly, we have to do it in a climate where people won't fear losing their career for a momentary slip of the tongue -- no matter how awful the mistake.

The Bay Area's Conservative Paper Gets Tough on Harris

Is it me, or is the Tampa Tribune out for Katherine Harris scalp?

I've been watching the paper's coverage of her disintegrating campaign, and it has been tough and uncompromising -- from contrasting previous promises of openness with foot-dragging on releasing documents related to her relationship with a defense contractor guilty of bribery to Tuesday's story on Adam Goodman leaving her campaign.

The departure of Goodman, a savvy insider who gave Harris' campaign an early boost, was relegated to a brief in the Times Tuesday. But the Tribune put his departure on the front page, offering a story filled with speculation on how she may have been affected by her father's death in January -- making her unbalanced enough to accuse Goodman of leaking a damaging story to the media over the weekend.

Brusing coverage like that in the Times would be enough to get conservatives gnashing their teeth about what a liberal rag we've become yet again (heck, my blog posting making fun of her awkward announcement that she wasn't dropping out of the race drew that kind of reaction). But in Nixon-goes-to-China kind of way, the Tribune has been able to challenge Harris in each story -- pushing a woman who seems woefully unprepared for her own candidacy.

Wonder how many readers have accused the Tribune of being a hitman for establishment Republicans?

A New Argument Against Katie: It's the Demos, Stupid

I know I'm like a dog with a bone on this one. But I can't stop thinking about how bad an idea it is for Katie Couric to take over as anchor of the CBS Evening News.

Perhaps it's because big outlets such as USA Today can't stop talking about it, either. At least one big name journalist on the receiving end of her charms thinks she'd be good for the gig (as someone who has been on the receiving end of that high-wattage smile once, I can say it is warming and blinding). And regardless of her decision when her contract ends May 31, it's gotta be fun keeping the media world on pins and needles for so long.

Still, the arguments against her move are lengthy and logical and they have no clear successor at Today (Campbell Brown is too cold, Natalie Morales is too inexperienced and Meredith Viera has been off the TV news scene too long -- it's notable that few are really mentioning current Today newsreader Ann Curry as a possible successor, probably because she's too inept).

But I think there's another reason Katie wouldn't work moving to CBS: niche audience journalism.

As I noted in my earlier post, digital technology is turning media into a niche business, with all sorts of implications for entertainment and news. And CBS has cornered the market on the niche for traditional TV viewers.

I haven't dissected the ratings demographics, but I wouldn't be surprised if Bob Schieffer's boost in viewership has come from traditional newscast viewers reassured by his experience, traditional journalism values and grandfatherly style. This is exactly the type of audience which will reject Couric for her roots in infotainment, her lack of journalistic achievement and her celebrity status.

Imagine listening to a country and western station for 18 months, only to find it has suddenly switched to classical music. Will you hang around to see what the new format is like, or will you head to a place more accomodating to your tastes?

CBS seems to be thinking Couric's celebrity will draw a big enough crowd to replace those who have spent months growing to like Schieffer's avuncular style, but that's broadcast thinking. I believe network news itself is now a broad niche, and that niche prefers gravitas and authority to celebrity and glamour.

If network TV were ruled by reason instead of ego, Schieffer would stay for at least two years while CBS grooms someone to take the job, and Charlie Gibson would do the same at ABC, while the network prepares Elizabeth Vargas with lots of reporting gigs covering the best stories (besides seeing her co-anchor wounded in Iraq and learning a new pregnancy would sideline her by summer, Vargas had the unfortunate luck to be promoted into an anchor job for which she hadn't been well groomed to assume in the first place).

Of course, the only predictable thing about the TV news biz is that money, power and ego trump all. So expect Couric to make headlines as the first solo female network TV anchor at CBS, simultaneously ruining NBC's morning franchise and CBS' evening newscast.

As an old boss of mine used to say: It may be bad for the industry, but it's great for the columns.

Good News From Iraq: A Presidential Dodge or Attainable Goal?

Hand it to the Bush administration: in another bit of media jujitsu, public statements from the President, Vice President and Secretary of Defense accusing the news media of underplaying so-called "good news" in Iraq has blunted attention to their own policies.

On the war's third anniversary, when reporters would normally be recounting the litany of missteps which got us into Iraq, parts of the news media have instead been asking about the fairness of coverage. And those questions have, of course, energized those GOP stalwarts who are dying to support this president and this war -- if only to avoid the growing pessimism about a conflict which has cost more than 2,000 American lives so far.

As Gayle Taylor from Columbus Ohio said during a press conference Wednesday: " "They just want to focus ... on another car bomb or they just want to focus on some more bloodshed or they just want to focus on how they don't agree with you and what you're doing, when they don't even probably know how you're doing what you're doing anyway. But what can we do to get that footage on CNN, on Fox, to get it on Headline News, to get it on the local news?... It portrays the good. And if people could see that, if the American people could see it, there would never be another negative word about this conflict."

It has become the question of the moment: everyone from Lou Dobbs to AOL asking consumers if the media is underplaying good news from the war (as if people whose only knowledge of the war comes from news reports can judge whether those reports are complete). What they are really asking, in this world of custom-built news, is whether the reportage from Iraq comports with what consumers expect or want to hear -- a much different question.

This is the challenge journalists face as news media move from a broadcast model to a niche model. In a broadcast world, those who gather content control the conversation, collecting news and presenting it to the biggest audience they can find. But digital technology has turned news into a niche game, where outlets must draw a smaller, specialized audience demanding news the way they want to consume it.

I looked at news coverage among the major TV networks on Tuesday, the day President Bush spoke about insurgents using the media to transmit their message, and indeed the news from Iraq was grim. Insurgents attacked a prison, freeing 30 inmates and killing 19 Iraqi policemen. A former guard at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison was found guilty of illegally using his dog to torture inmates. President Bush implied American troops would be in Iraq until after his term ended in 2008. And military authorities were investigating allegations U.S. soldiers had killed 11 members of an Iraqi family in retaliation for an attack.

In a day of news like this, would a story about an electrical plant opening or school rebuilt get much traction, anyway?

In a poignant column for American Journalism Review, a former press attache for the American embassy in Baghdad detailed the challeges facing all Western journalists trying to get a handle on Iraq: limited knowledge of language; limited ability to speak with Iraqi people for fear of kidnapping or attack; a lack of reliable statistics and information; Iraqi officials who couldn't grasp how to collect or release accurate information to reporters; and the paradox of bringing danger to areas simply by reporting on them.

"For example, we stopped taking reporters to the inaugurations of many reconstruction projects because, as we quickly learned to our dismay, publicity might invite a terrorist attack," wrote Robert J. Callahan. "On several occasions, one involving a school, terrorists struck the site and killed innocent people the day after an article or television story appeared. We concluded that good publicity simply wasn't worth the cost in lives and damage, and we stopped advertising them. It was frustrating, to be sure, but prudent."

Despite the danger, the fact that 91 journalists have been killed in Iraq so far and many more wounded (including ABC news anchor Bob Woodruff just recently released from the hospital), pieces like Richard Engel's excellent story on the dangers of reporting from Iraq can still sound a bit defensive. (Keith Olbermann took such umbrage to new heights, lambasting Laura Ingraham for suggesting reporters are phoning in Iraq coverage from hotel balconies, calling her "desperate" and "stupid.")

It seems obvious that tremendous practical limitations are making it tough for journalists in Iraq to do more than concentrate on the biggest news there -- a low-grade, guerilla-style civil war which may derail all our attempts to install a new government there. I predict we will see efforts to report on more "good news" from the region, if only to try balancing Americans' picture of a country where there is reconstruction and achievement alongside vicious violence and warfare.

But it's tough to turn your eyes away from the dead and dying, particularly when there is so much at stake.

Olbermann vs. O'Reilly: Mutually Assured Prosperity

I wasn't going to write about this. Believe me.

But the feud between MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann and Fox News Channel gasbag Bill O'Reilly has heated up in recent weeks, with O'Reilly threatening to sic Fox Security on any callers who mention Olbermann's name and the Countdown host retaliating by naming his lanky nemesis ""worst person in the world" just about every week.

Seemingly begun as an ideological struggle, this feud is now clearly personal. And since O'Reilly has named me during his "most ridiculous" segment -- putting both the St. Petersburg Times and MSNBC on his hit list of news outlets to be boycotted by his sizable audience -- and I occcasionally trade emails with Olbermann, I felt a bit too conflicted to wade into it all. Now O'Reilly has named us 5th on his list of newspapers which protect child predators because we dared to criticize his criticism of prosecutors work in the Jessica Lundsford case -- this guy sure does like lists, don't he? (check out TV crit Chase Squires' artful dressing of O'Reilly as a clown on his blog!)

Then a pal called from the Los Angeles Daily News seeking some quotes for a story, offering the conventional wisdom that O'Reilly is screwing up by picking on a guy with a fraction of his ratings. And I stepped up with one, hardly original observation: this feud is a boon for both guys -- besides allowing them to vent their feelnigs about the other, it's just good business.

Olbermann has admitted as much, telling Brian Lamb from C-SPAN: "When I attack Bill O’Reilly or criticize him for something that he said on the air...if I punch upwards at FOX News, the clever response, the cynical and brilliant response is to just ignore. Like, well, 'why do we have to worry, they have one-seventh of our audience?' (But) they attack. Bill O’Reilly’s agent calls the head of NBC week after week saying, you have got to get Olbermann to stop this, as if for some reason there are rules here."

Indeed, as David to O'Reilly's Goliath, Olbermann has nothing to lose by attacking the larger guy. And because O'Reilly's show works on a different level than other broadcasts -- conflict is the high-octane fuel which powers his success -- this public fight with Olbermann works for him, too.

Being a bully, O'Reilly often picks unfair fights, cutting off callers to his radio show, interrupting guests or threatening to turn off their microphones and siccing his fans on smaller media outlets. In his universe, he is the populist truth-teller ""lookin' out for you" against all comers, even a guy on a mickey mouse cable network which earns a fraction of his ratings.

As testament to the effectiveness of this "no-spin" spin, consider this: I wrote a Q&A with CBS anchor Bob Schieffer in which I introduced Olbermann as a "smart-guy anchor," and quoted him saying something nice about Schieffer. I got about five emails from people incensed that I dared compliment such a flaming liberal.

Really.

Because each guy is speaking to his own crowd, this feud works for both. People who hate O'Reilly have a new champion in the snarky, often-amusing Olbermann. People who love O'Reilly but are tired of hating Al Franken, now have a new object of scorn. And Fox News has more evidence of the liberal media conspiracy which has managed to hand conservative Republicans control of the White House, both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court. Hmmmm.

It's like a New York Media-based version of the 50 Cent/Game feud. Except in this fight, the battle is fought with biting scripts and clever video clips. Somehow, I respect the hip hop way of settling scores a little better.

Nicolas Lemann makes these points and many more in a riveting, incisive meditation on O'Reilly for the New Yorker. Here's a sample: "Network news is—even now—about authority, and cable news, increasingly, is about itself...(Fox News' slogan) 'Fair & Balanced' had always been a code whose meaning—here’s news that gives you the world as you already see it—was perfectly understood by the Fox audience...Mainly, O’Reilly, like every political talk-show host with a big following, is a populist, who, in his beyond-irony way, is a rich, middle-aged white guy aligned with the ruling party, and who has the guts to stand up to the élitists who run (but also hate) this country. To say that that doesn’t make any sense is to deny oneself the pleasure that a close study of O’Reilly affords."

Pure poetry. And Lemann also explains why we find such behavior so fascinating to watch, despite its contradictions. Never underestimate the power of telling people what they want to hear -- or of a good, ol' fashioned, public spat.

Statewide Black Newspaper Makes Strong Debut -- If You Can find It

The Cherry brothers, Glenn and Charles, have brought their statewide black newspaper to the marketplace -- but finding it may be a challenge.

The Florida Courier debuted March 3 with a strong visual design and lots of copy from the Associated Press and other news services. Among the original pieces: a story on the destructive side of bootlegging, a look at the PBS series "Negroes With Guns" and a travel page story on Glenn and Charles' trip on radio DJ Tom Joyner's week-long Fantastic Voyage Caribbean cruise (I smell a tax write off here).

Developed with help from a graphic designer who works for the Times (he was working as a freelance consultant), the Courier offers a strong visual design and interesting collection of stories. But it is hard to tell sometimes which communiy is represented in each story, and taken together, the pieces don't offer much community connection.

It can also be challenge to find the Courier, which seems to still be working out distribution channels. Books for Thought in Tampa had some copies of the first issue, and now some copies have appeared at the Enoch Davis Community Center in St. Petersburg.

The Cherrys, who also own own two black newspapers on the state's east side, WTMP-FM in Tampa and a host of other radio stations, have struggled to produce issues -- the debut was pushed back many times and te second Courier edition is dated two weeks after the first one. It will be interesting to see if they can develop an appetite for a newspaper which reads more like a general-interest black-focused magazine than a newspaper with in-depth community information.

NPR Becomes a Player by Funding Journalism Others Won't

The New York Times had a wonderful story Sunday about National Public Radio and how a $230-million donation from the widow of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc has given the organization its first financial breathing room in a while.

It was an eye-opening account for someone like me, who has only been listening to NPR since it has become a major journalism outlet. Longtime reporters talked about covering news by interviewing reporters who were actually covering the news in the '70s; but for me, NPR was the place where Nina Totenberg broke news about Anita Hill's allegations against Clarence Thomas, Anne Garrels provided amazing coverage of the start of the war in Iraq and a host of reporters offered thought-provoking stories on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

For me, NPR has never been a second-rate news organization.

Still, one dynamic struck me more than any other in this story: the migration of serious journalists from mainstream news outlets to niche players.

I've already written how a host of ABC News expatriates have landed at NPR, including Robert Krulwich, Michel Martin, Cokie Roberts and Ted Koppel. As the NYT story points out, former Baltimore Sun editor Bill Marimow has poached a fair amount of former newspaper folks from his old paper and the Los Angeles Times first as managing editor and now as vice president of news for NPR.

This is a troubling trend: As the drive for profits increase, goals are often met by jettisoning the more experienced reporters, or closing the bureaus where they worked. It's a short term solution to a long term problem -- sacrificing editorial quality and reporting reach for immediate budgetary advantage -- but it is a trend many big newspapers and Tv networks seem stuck on.

The upside is that NPR and Discovery Channel and niche outlets are getting much better talents for their documentary and news programming. The downside is that some of the sharpest, most experienced voices have been excluded from the biggest outlets, just when these places need quality reporting, distinctive voices and exceptional material most.

The phrase, cutting off your nose to spite your face comes to mind...

New Site Features WFLA Video

Groundhog TV, a new web site allowing people to scan through local TV news clips features a whole lot of footage from WFLA-Ch. 8, thanks to an agreement with station owner Media General. Unfortunately, the most popular clips seem to include stuff like anchor banter over Kevin Federline's new record, celebrity couples and weeks old weather reports.

For folks like me, who track local TV reportage, this site is an interesting aid. But given the availability of clips and reports on WFLA's own website, its tough to know why this outlet is needed.

Arianna Apologizes

Following the deluge of criticism from bloggers and media experts, Arianna Huffington has apologized for her reaction to Clooneygate. "I now realize that I made a big mistake in posting a blog without clearly identifying that the material in it didn't originate as a blog post but was pieced together from previous interviews," she admitted Saturday.

This probably won't pacify people who have a hard time with Huffington's liberalism, or her infatuation with celebrity or her cultural opportunism, but it's a great example of the blogosphere rising up to spank one of its own. With luck, HuffPost will learn its lesson; certainly, this incident has proven that its crediblity is most certainly at stake.

Is Arianna Talking Out Both Sides of Her Blog?

I can only assume she doesn't WANT to get it.

By she, I mean Huffington Post creator Arianna Huffington, who electrified the worlds of blogs and politics by crafting a pointedly left-leaning collection of blogs with posts from notables such as Steve Martin, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner and George Clooney.

Wait a minute. Maybe not George.

Turns out, Clooney's recent, controversial HuffPost blog criticizing Democrats for not strenuously opposing the war in Iraq was actually cobbled together from interviews the salt-and-pepper-haired star gave to Larry King Live and the Guardian newspaper.

Huffington, who was one of New York Times reporter Judith Miller's biggest critics, admits she or her staff pulled together the quotes into a blog posting, sent them to his publicist for approval and then posted them on the site, with no acknowledgement of where the material actually came from.

Clooney admits he okayed the cobbling together of quotes, but didn't know they were going to be published without telling the reader where they came from.

And now Huffington has posted her second blog item on Clooney's blog item -- presumably written by her -- saying "some have asked, is a blog still a blog if it contains repurposed material? My answer is: absolutely. Who cares if the ideas were first expressed in a book, a speech, a play, or an interview? The medium isn't the message; the message is the message. With the right medium providing the needed amplification."

I've interviewed Arianna once and have blogged for Huffpost myself a few times. I know she's a smart lady who understands how media and journalism works. Which is why I have a hard time accepting she really believes this bilge water she's pushing.

She may not acknowledge it publicly, but one reason people are perusing her blog is for the star quality -- the change of spotting a post from a celebrity that makes a potent point. Her blog has always left users with the impression that celebrities are creating their own posts -- if not themselves, then with the help of tech savvy assistants. News that her people cobbled together a blog posting with about as limited contact with the celebrity as possible, only leads to another important question:

How many other posts are fakes?

It's too bad. I liked posting on HuffPost and enjoyed reading the work of others. But I -- and many others, I'll wager -- will never read an item from a well-known author quite the same way again.

And Arianna only has herself to blame.

Murder is the Case for Journalists in Iraq

The Committee to Protect Journalists has been keeping an eye on journalists' deaths in iraq, discovering -- surprise! -- murder is now the leading cause of death for journalists, and Iraqi reporters are the hardest hit.

Among the 91 journalists and media support workers killed in Iraq since the war started, 71 of them have been Iraqi -- an understandable situation, given that many western news organizations have begun using Iraqi reporters to go where they cannot.

Already, the iraq war has proven the most dangerous conflict for journalists in recent memory. And there seems to be no end in sight.

FCC Fines Only Raise More Questions

Imagine a world where calling someone a d---head is considered less offensive than using the word shit in casual conversation.

Or where a detailed description of the slang term "tossing salad" (oral/anal sex, as described on Oprah Winfrey's talk show) is considered less explicit than a scene in which a character jumpes on a river raft and looses the s-word, "Oh, shit."

Welcome to the wonderful universe of the Federal Communications Commission, where officials weighed such abstractions in coming up with the millions in fines they levied against broadcasters this week.

The FCC released detailed descriptions of the reasoning behind its many fines, allowing the public to see exactly why a teen group sex scene warranted a $3.6-million fine against dozens of CBS stations, while a scene depicting a husband fantasy of shooting his wife in the face did not.

The devil lies in the commission's very specific definition of indecency, in which depictions of sexual organs, the intent to titillate and the frequency of the references all play into the FCC's decision to fine or not.

So, WJAN-TV in Miami gets a$32,500 fine for a comedy skit in which a buxom model appears in a open-front dress with her nipples covered. To the FCC, even if sexual organs are covered by jewelry, blurring or pixillating, they are still fair game for fining. That meant WBDC-TV in Washington D.C. was stuck with a $27,500 fine for a sexy pool party depicted in the WB's reality series the Surreal Life 2, despite the fact that sexual organs were blurred.

The Commission found the words d--- and d---head "are not sufficiently vulgar, explicit or graphic descriptions of sexual organs or activities to support a finding of patent offensiveness." So no fine for KMBC in Dallas for airing the NYPD Blue episode which contained them.

But KCSM TV in San Mateo, Calif. got a $15,000 fine for airing scenes in the PBS documentary The Blues, in which interviewees said "What's your job? you stupid m

As Usual, Katherine Harris Gets It BassAckwards

When then-presidential candidate George W. Bush wanted to avoid embarassing questions from a national campaign media out for blood, he would schedule a collection of interviews with local TV stations -- talking over the heads of the national media directly to voters through local anchors who often didn't know enough to ask the right, pointed questions.

Leave it to Katherine Harris to turn that strategy on its head.

Avoiding a state press corps which has savaged her off-balance Senate campaign, Harris ran to Republicans' favorite TV refuge -- Fox News Channel -- to announce she was funneling $10-million of her inheritance money into her ill-advised run for office.

In the same way vice president Dick Cheney ran to Fox News when catcalls about his shooting accident grew too loud, Harris chose to try righting her floundering effort on the conservative-friendly program Hannity and Colmes (curiously, it was an August 2005 appearance on that show, in which she shamelessly flirted with the very married Sean Hannity, that first sparked talk among big name Republican donors that she might be out of her depth).

Nevermind that a poll released hours before her appearance showed her 20 points behind incumbent Bill Nelson. Or that her campaign lost three important staffers this week: finance director Mike Miller, pollster Ed Goeas and fund-raising consultant Anne Dunsmore. Or that she's not yet fully explained away illegal donations she received from defense contractor Mitchell Wade.

Expect a lot more of this tactic, as Harris plays to her strengths -- blind loyalty from the Republican faithful and a vague attactiveness -- by courting GOP-friendly national media and buying lots of commercials. Here's hoping the good folks in Nelson's Senate district realize that if a bubble-head like this gets elected, everybody loses.

Trapped in a Media Feeding Frenzy

For Stacey Kelley, the last straw was the reporter who wanted to follow her to her doctor's appointment.

Kelley has been the subject of intense media interest since news broke last week of her fight with a neighborhood association to keep her Support Our Troops sign in her front yard -- despite rules in the development which prohibit it. She's appeared on CNN, Good Morning America and a host of media outlts from Tampa to Iceland to plead her case, which involves a demand that the association allow her sign in tribute to her husband, an Army private serving in Iraq.

But she had to tell the reporter tailing her to the physician's office to knock it off; she'd speak with him later. Now, she says neighbors are upset because a host of local and national media outlets are staking out her home, and the confusion even sparked a brief feud with a local radio station.

Kelley says she agreed to appear on WQYK-FM's Cledus T. Party show, as the jocks there were raising money for her legal bills. But when a producer showed up claiming to be from "the radio station" she went long, not realizing it was someone from rival Skip Mahaffey's US103.5 FM morning show until it was too late.

For a time, she wasn't sure if the folks at WQYK would even release the funds they'd collected on her behalf; she now says that's been resolved. But Kelley stands in the middle of a self-created media storm that has lasted more than a week now -- the price she's paying for using international media attention to put pressure on her local neighborhood association.

"They're all very nice, but you can't just pop out of nowhere and scare me (with questions)," she said, noting that her husband has grown upset that the flood of emails Kelley receives makes their online communication more difficult.

She's also unable to work her job -- Kelley won't say where -- because her media-unsavvy boss doesn't understand all the attention she's been getting.

"He didn't really believe this was all over a sign this small," Kelley said.

I know how he feels.

Pundit Alert!

I gave National Public Radio's audience a piece of my mind Tuesday, filling in at the last minute on Ed Gordon's News and Notes roundtable with Mary Frances Berry, former head of the U.S. commission on Civil Rights and Roland Martin, executive editor of The Chicago Defender. The topics this time: the verdict in the federal trial of Atlanta's former Mayor Bill Campbell, and reaction to the bouncer suspect in the highly publicized murder of a graduate student in New York City.

Pundit Alert, Take 2!

I also showed up on Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting's radio show Counterspin on Monday, talking about my story on the mainstream media's inability to kick off a national dialogue on the larger issues raised by Hurricane Katrina. It's always gratifying to have your work recognized by a national media outlet -- especially the discerning folks at the lefty advocacy group FAIR.

Where Will Your Google Trail Lead?

The woman, a former VH1 "veejay" and Food Network host from Clearwater, had one request for me, should I ever write about her again.

Could I please stop disclosing her age?

It seems this bubbly blonde was dating men who would plug her name into Google and check out her background. When her true age popped up, Game Over.

Which got me to thinking...are we all aware of our Google Trails?

USA Today had an interesting story recently about how students have been kicked out of school, lost scholarships and even arrested based on information contained on their pages assembled for social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Xanga.

Bob Thompson, a professor at Syracuse University and an expert on pop culture, predicts it won't be long before political candidates find they have a Google Trail which causes problems. Post a caustic review on an Amazon.com bulletin board or unload your beliefs on a hard-hitting blog page or Web site while you're a college student in your 20s, and you may see those comments resurface many years later.

The most dramatic demonstration of this dynamic was in the suicide of James Dungy, son of former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Tony Dungy. James maintained a MySpace page filled with references to gangsta rap, curse words and violent images -- a marked departure from his clean-cut image -- which were excavated following his death last year. Dungy had even accessed his page the day before he killed himself.

As the government presses Google in court today for access to records on what people are searching for, expect this question to only grow in importance. Search data could reveal trade secrets, personal quirks, hidden health problems, sexual orientation and more.

What might your Google trail reveal?

Media Helps Bring Attention to Two Controversial Crimes

I noticed it this morning, while listening to a report on National Public Radio about the results of a second autopsy for Martin Lee Anderson, a 14-year-old who died at a Panama City boot camp.

The announcer said a press conference was underway live; I switched on cable channel Bay News 9, and there it was -- a typical example of how media has worked in publicizing the Martin Lee Anderson case.

Indeed, there probably wouldn't even have been a second autopsy without the media, which broadcast a videotape showing camp guards beating Anderson, who is black, while a nurse looked on. The images generated a tsunami of outrage, forcing a state investigation and widespread questioning of the irst autopsy, which concluded Anderson died of sickle cell trait.

Local media has also looked hard at the case of Jean Claude Meus, a Haitian truck driver serving 15 years in prison for an accident which killed two people in Wauchula. WTVT-Ch. 13 reporter Doug Smith presented a story Monday noting that another trucker, Thomas Smith, had a similar accident in 2002, plowing into a group of cars and injuring an 82-year-old man who later died.

Three differences: Smith admitted falling asleep at the wheel, while Meus said he was cut off by another driver. Smith received a traffic citation from the same Highway Patrol investigators who concluded Meus was guilty of vehicular homicide.

And Smith is white, while Meus is black.

In both cases, media outlets have been able to pierce layers of bureaucracy and obfuscation to try shining a light on some questionable outcomes. It's enough to make you proud to be a journalist.

60 Minutes Legend Slows Down

It took until just before his 88th birthday, but 60 Minutes correspodent Mike Wallace has finally decided to slow down.

CBS announced today Wallace will serve as Correspondent Emeritus -- keeping an office in the building but dropping out of the regular lineup of reporters.

It seemed only a matter of time before such a move came -- 80-something executive producer Don Hewitt was pushed into retirement 18 moths or so ago, and the program has been featuring younger faces such as Lara Logan. According to CBS brass, Wallace has already filmed six pieces for the show, so his year's allotment was already half done.

I couldn't help thinking of the time I interviewed Hewitt during his last days on 60 -- stepping into an office filled with old school memorabilia (framed, 60s-era Esquire covers, plush leather chairs, a shelf of Emmys) enjoying his gruff, energetic, commanding attitude. He worked the room like Sinatra, with a crafty confidence and knowing charm -- with he and Wallace mostly out of the mix already, 60 Minutes feels like a very different beast.

Anyone taking bets on how long before they replace Andy Rooney with Jon Stewart?

*Apologies for the lack of images, but blogger doesn't seem to be allowing me to upload photos...

The State of the Media 2006: More Outlets Covering Fewer Stories with Reduced Staff and Making Less Money

The best news for newspaper industry types in the Project for Excellence in Journalism's State of the Media 2006 study falls in this quote: "For now, the evidence does not support the notion that newspapers have begun a sudden death spiral."

The bad news: That's about as good as it gets for newspapers, which are shown in the PEJ's exhuastive study to be nibbled to death by inches -- small, yet significant circulation decline of 3 percent; stock price of publicly held newspaper companies down 20 percent; staff reductions totaling 3 percent or so. Bad as 2004 was for newspapers, the study concludes, 2005 was three times worse.

The PEJ is a media think tank which assembles an exhaustive report on the state of the media industry each year. Totalling more than 700 pages this year, the report on media in 2005 -- to be released today -- describes an industry fragmented by the spread of digital technology, which allows consumers a greater voice in what they consume and even allows them to create their own news media.

"Journalists need to redefine their role and identify which of their core values they want to fight to preserve -- something they have only beun to consider," reads one sentence from the report's overview.

The big points:

* Today's media offers more outlets covering fewer stories
Thanks to cable and the Internet, we have more news outlets than ever. But they are often manned by smaller staffs covering the same few news stories thought to be of highest public interest. This can make news media more controllable, as authorities manipulate journalists' access to newsmakers to influence coverage of stories.

* The hardest-hit type of newspaper is the big-city metro paper
The largest newspapers in the country -- USA Today, New York Times and Wall Street Journal -- didn't see big circulation declines in 2005. Instead, it was big-city metro newspapers -- the Atlanta Journal-Constitutions, Boston Globes, Los Angeles Times and Miami Heralds (the St. Petersburg Times is also at the edge of this trend) which have been hardest hit -- trying to deliver quality local news, suburban coverage, national and regional news all at the same time.

* No More Room for Idealism
Journalists have been fighting the bean counters for years in newsrooms, arguing for resources to produce journalism which may not make money, but informs the public. That battle, the report says, is now over in many newsrooms. Because of rising newsprint costs, newspapers are shrinking and stories are shorter; TV outlets air less longform reporting as well, focusing their shrinking staffs on subjects they know will draw viewers. The idea of journalism purely for the public interest is a shrinking notion.

* An Acceptance of Technology
More news outlets are accepting the notion of covergence and the need fr a strong online presence. Especially at newspapers, where revenue from online platforms may slow or halt economic declines, leaders are finally realizing the need to integrate online platforms significantly into their products and monetize (or, make money off of) them.

* News is more transitory
Stories covered one day might not be covered two days later; many stories, especially on TV, had just one or two sources; consumers need to spread their news consumption over many different types of media to get a well-rounded picture of the day's news.

The PEJ report offers much more detail for wonks like me to digest, including a look at how a single day, May 11, 2005, unfolded in news coverage across TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and more. Many of these conclusions are things the good folks at PEJ have been saying for months and years -- see my media diet story for example -- but it is always good to see such conclusions verified through data collection and evaluation.

Got any observations of your own?

Knight Ridder Bought By McClatchy -- NYT

According to the New York Times, the McClatchy Company -- owners of the Sacramento Bee, Minneapolis Star Tribune and 10 other newspapers -- has been approved to purchase the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain for $4.5-billion.

It's a classic good news/bad news scenario for the industry. Good news, because the purchase price was 25 percent above Knight Ridder's stock valuation when the drive to sell was announced. Bad news because McClatchy was the only newspaper company to submit a final bid, indicating a weakness in the sector.

Employees at the Knight-Rider owned St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press are also reeling, afraid that longtime competitor McClatchy will close or merge their paper with the Star Tribune to create one big metro newspaper there.

Indeed, as McClatchy struggles to assimilate a chain nearly three times bigger than itself and pay off the debt incurred to purchase it, it may streamline operations, sell newspapers or trim staffs in many places. Life in the print journalism world is about to get a lot more interesting.

Sunshine Law Brings Light to Local News Reports

They have been around so long, you can take them for granted: like a parent who is forever cleaning your messes.

But the state and federal network of Sunshine Laws are much more than a bureaucratic aid to journalists' snooping; they are an important tool in helping keep average citizens aware of what important institutions are -- or aren't -- doing.

In my own case, I've used public records to indicate the Florida Aquarium bought an advertising sponsorship at WTSP-Ch. 10 which included news coverage and to find a Clear Channel executive to comment when the station started airing a show which included racial slurs.

A Freedom of Information Act request by Susan Taylor Martin resulted in Saturday's story looking hard at former Abu Ghraib commender Former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski's claims that a shoplifting arrest at MacDill Air Force Base was trumped up. Our records guru Jeff Testerman teamed up with reporter Melanie Ave to craft a story looking at how the Hillsborough School District often overpays for land it buys -- to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars per parcel. Fortunately, Florida's open records laws are among the nation's broadest because of a simple concept: presume records are public unless there's a compelling reason to make them secret.

At a time when polls show a majority of America believe the government is secretive (and 7 of 10 believe open records keep government honest), it becomes even more important to recognize the value of laws requiring public officials operate in public and keep records open. Today kicks off Sunshine Week, a celebration in which folks are encouraged to learn more about open records laws and resist attempts to keep public records secret.

Yeah, I know. Sounds like a lot of eat-your-broccoli news nonsense. And as someone whose job involves using public records to unearth big stories, I have a vested interest in pushing this perspective.

But now, as government officials use the war on terror to cloak more of their activity -- including, say some, a war on journalists -- it becomes more important for the public to help fight attempts to shield government from the glare of public scrutiny. (There's a few ideas here)

Lee Hamilton, the vice chairman of the 9/11 commission, put it well in a column published by the Asbury Park Press today: "Several senior officials have estimated that 50 percent of classified information does not need to remain secret. During the 9/11 Commission, the chairman, former New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean — not accustomed to dealing with classified material — asked me scores of times: Why is this material classified? I never had a satisfactory answer."

Believe it or don't, the press really is the public's surrogate when it comes to sorting through all the attempts to subvert public money and public power to individuals' ends. Help us keep everyone informed by resisting politicians' tendency to keep government -- and the people it serves -- in the dark.

As Knight-Ridder Goes, So Do Newspapers?

Word is expected Monday on whether newspaper chain Knight-Ridder will accept offers for a sale urged by its largest shareholder, Naples-based Private Capital Management, LP. Oservers say it will determined how much a mardon-day newspaper chain is worth. Journalists fear it weill only serve as further proof that public companies which own newspapers cannot meet the demand for profit from Wall Street and the demand for quality by the industry at the same time...

Schieffer's Victory Lap and Some Other Stuff

When I first heard about author James Frey's problems with all the fiction piled into his non-fiction memoir, I thought of CBS anchor Bob Schieffer.

Not because Schieffer's been making up Bush quotes during his stint as interim anchor on the CBS Evening News -- although, if you're reading this Bob, feel free (note to the humorless: this is just a joke). It's because, when the 69-year-old anchor sat own to do HIS memoir, This Just In, he went back and interviewed more than 80 people to make sure he got all the details right.

I caught up with Schieffer last week to interview him for a story Friday on his one-year anniversary as Dan Rather's replacement (read my take on why he should stay on the show at least another year or two here), and we wound up talking about that very issue.

"That's good recall on your part -- I had not planned to do much reporting on that. I thought, I'm going to mostly tell stories about me. But as I got into it, I started to check my own version of things, I started calling people up - I wound up doing 85 formal interviews for that. It not only gave the book much more texture than it would have had otherwise, it gave me a chance to reconnect with people. The fact is, you can't trust your own memory any more than you can trust anyone else that tells you something because people forget things. (For the book), I once spent one whole afternoon with Eugene McCarthy. He could barely speak above a whisper, but he had total recall. He was just as funny as he had ever been, he hated Bobby Kennedy as much as he ever did...It was a great experience. The fun of reporting is not always writing the story, it's being out there and seeing it.''

Another question I had: in a recent column for CBS' media blog Public Eye, I noted he seemed a little uncomfortable introducing Assignment America, a new feature where the audience would help pick feature reporter Steve Hartman's stories. His reply:

"I think the jury's still out on that. These pieces he's been doing are terrific. I worry whether giving viewers three choices -- I wonder if we need to do that. I wonder if people think it's a little gimmicky. We thought we'd try it for a while, and it might be fun. I know one thing, we're going to keep Steve Hartman doing just the kinds of pieces he's been doing. Whether we're going to change how he gets his assignments, is still something to be decided. He's just a great storyteller -- and we want to take advantage of that, but we want to make sure we showcase it in the right way. We're looking for ways we can interact with our viewers. But what I don't want, is...I don't want the fact that we're telling people to vote and all that kind of thing, to ever overshadow the kinds of pieces he's doing.''

The part where we talk about the whole anchor thing will run in tomorrow's Floridian.

Shout Out to My Times Colleagues

We're hitting the time when major journalism awards are being announced, and some friends of mine at the time have done well. Feature writers Kelly Benham and Lane DeGregory, photographer John Pendygraft and our Jennifer Porter series were recognized in the National Headliner Awards bestowed by the Press Club of Atlantic City. The Associated Press Sports Editors also recognized Damian Cristodero, Lou Hau, Gary Shelton and Marc Topkin. Congrats, dudes.

Nerissa Prest Has Left the Building

Those insominiacs checking out WFLA-Ch. 8's weekend newscast will note that co-anchor Nerissa Prest is gone; Sunday was her last day at the station. Prest supposedly left the building out of frustration that she couldn't get a shot at anchoring weekdays.

WFLA certainly has an odd setup in its anchor ranks. All the people of color who anchor at the station are stuck in the weekend jobs, in part because Ch. 8's lineup of weekday faces hasn't changed in many years. Top anchors Bob Hite and Gayle Sierens have been WFLA employees for 29 years, and have anchored the station's 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts for 21 years.

Every so often you hear rumors one or the other is about to retire, but they have no clear successors -- backup anchors Keith Cate and Stacie Schiable aren't nearly as popular -- and with local news viewership in such a freefall, no executive wants to be the guy who split up Bob and Gayle and cost WFLA its Number One status in the market.

Unfortunately, that makes WFLA the only station which doesn't have a person of color anchoring during the week, with all of its minority anchors in weekend jobs. (I once wrote about how the phenomenon of minority anchors getting stuck on weekend duty is pervasive enough in the industry that folks sometimes call those shifts the "weekend ghetto.")

Personally, I'd love to see weekend guy Josh Thomas move to weekdays alongside Schiable. That would give WFLA a chance to try some new faces on the weekend and add new blood to a seriously stagnant anchor lineup.

But as long as WFLA maintains its precarious lead in the ratings, they'll be far too cautious to try anything so risky.

Bubba Holds His Tongue

He's known for being one of radio's biggest bad boys, but folks representing Bubba the Love Sponge have admitted that the threat of litigation will keep him from loosing a bombshell he's promised since debuting on Sirius satellite radio in January: the dirty laundry on his former bosses at Clear Channel Radio.

The Sponge stopped by WSUN-FM (97X) this morning, in a highly-hyped appearance the Cox-owned station billed as Bubba's farewell to his fans on traditional radio. But the station had also promised some dish on Clear Channel, thinking that the Feb. 28 expiration of Bubba's severance payments would free him up to talk trash.

But Clear Channel begged to differ, sending a letter to the station asserting that Bubba will never have the right to disparage them in public. Unwilling to deal with the kind of legal battle a deep-pocketed radio conglomerate can muster, Bubba's reps have conceded that he's probably not going to say anything harsh in public about the company that fired him and nearly destroyed his career.

Guess that rebel spirit only goes so far when big dollars are at stake.

Finally, A Confirmation...

After weeks of ducking phone calls, officials at Tampa WB affiliate WTTA-Ch. 38 have finally admitted they will dissolve the station's news department and discontinue its 10 p.m. newscast on March 31, confirming rampant rumors.

The change will affect 18 to 20 staffers at the station, owned by Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group, according to WTTA general manager Julie Nelson. They will try to find jobs for them at other Sinclair stations, she said.

The closing, combined with agreements to farm out or shut down news operations in Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Birmingham, Rochester, Raliegh and other cities has left some wondering if Sinclair is backing away from its News Central concept -- where newscasts were established for the first time at many stations, with nearly half the material provided from Sinclair's headquarters in Hunt Valley, Md. Nelson said the company remains committed to local news.

Nelson blamed ratings dips in the WB's prime time shows for decreasing the viewership funneled into their low-watched 10 p.m. newscast, established in 2003 to gain access to advertisers who don't patronize TV stations without news. But WTTA is probably still smarting from Warner Bros' decision to merge with UPN and create the CW network, yanking their affiliation. The station will instead join Fox's My Network TV operation for cast-off WB and UPN stations on Sept. 5.

Dana Reeve, National Hero?

Yes, it is crushingly sad that Christopher Reeve's widow died at age 44 of lung cancer so soon after her husband passed away. And yes, it is important to let people know the importance of regular checkups and testing to catch such deadly diseases early.

Still, CNN seemed to go a bit overboard today eulogizing Reeve, conducting live interviews with Larry King and Kathie Lee Gifford -- two folks who had interviewed her at various times -- with imported-from-CBS John Roberts looking awfully out of place quizzing cancer experts in tones normally reserved for deceased heads of state.

Surely America's news source can do better.

tbt* Hits the Market, Continues Redefining News at the Times

Now that the first two editions of the five-day-a-week tbt* is on the stands, it's time to put my career in jeopardy, and provide some thoughts on the product.

Piggybacking off the weekly tbt's strong format, the new publication presents a good framework for a quick news read. The cover presentation is clear striking and informative -- packing info on four or five different stories without looking too cluttered.

And best of all, the stories which have been nabbed from the Mothership newspaper and edited down for inclusion in tbt* don't read badly. Consumers reading the tbt* version likely will not feel they are getting a truncated version, which backs editors' contention that repurposing stories for the new format doesn't necessarily mean eviscerating them.

A few nits to pick though:
-- In two pages of Oscar coverage Monday, there was nothing on the biggest question of the night: How did Jon Stewart handle the hosting gig? Also, there was no critical analysis on the awards given, which was especially important given that so many of the nominees were politically charged films.

-- After the first 10 pages or so of Monday's edition, the next 10 pages were filled with material from wire services. That's to be expected, given that daily tbt* "repurposes a lot of stories from the main newspaper and has no staff writers of its own. Still, that is a lot of acreage to devote to outside material, which can make it tougher to develop a local feel.

-- With just two local columnists featured in the first issue, tbt* could also use more local columnists (and I'm not just saying that because I'm a columnist). It seems youth-oriented tabloids such as this work best when they are closely connected to the community. And stong, local columnists are a great way to build that kind of connection.

-- The other great characteristic of good youth-oriented tabloids is a snarky, challenging voice. It is, of course, very early going for the new tbt*, but developing such a voice -- with the willingness to challenge sacred cows in the community -- is also key to cultivating that elusive youth audience. I call it the Daily Show dynamic: young consumers want news that is entertaining, challenging and fearless in pointing out hypocrisy.

But those are just the nits. So far, tbt* seems a promising entry to the Tampa Bay area's news mix (it was fun to watch the Tampa Tribune pull up to Lykes Gaslight Park in Tampa and hand out free copies of their regular newspaper Monday and Tuesday, just to blunt the impact of the free coffee and giveaways going on there; in a newspaper war, consumers are sometimes the biggest winners).

I just hope that our new foray into short, snappy, youth-oriented reports doesn't pull us too far away from the aggressive, challenging journalism that we also need more of at the Times.

Black. White. Confused.

As you can see from my review of the new FX show Black. White., I was a little disappointed that the program was so much more about the people participating in the channel's race-swapping experiment than the society they're moving in (I had originally hoped to do a point/counterpoint piece with TV critic Chase Squires, but Chase decided he didn't really have a strong enough opinion about the show).

Still, there are some compelling moments in this six-episode series, though you really have to watch many uncomfortable and predictable scenes before you get to the meaty stuff. Unfortunately, producers R.J. Cutler and Ice Cube did so much publicity months before the show aired, people may be sick of the concept already.

The Los Angeles Times also has an interesting article noting that -- surprise! -- reality TV producers manipulated some of the events to fit their storylines. They have two good examples -- the poetry slam class young Rose Wurgel (shown here in black makeup and as her true race) attends was filled with black students at producers' request, and the black father who gets a bartending job without a background check while posing as a white guy was employed through a similar deal with producers.

I can't help feeling FX missed out on the chance to spark some serious social discussion. And I'm wondering why all those news outlets which ran stories batting around the show's concept when it was announced, seem to have slept on talking about the show, now that its actually going to air.

What I Couldn't Fit on the Page Fits Here

One of the growing frustrations in today's newsroom relates to a simple issue: space.

Or, more precisely, the lack of it.

For today's story about the New Orleans Times Picayune newspaper, I spent four days hanging out in the Crescent City, logging countless hours with staffers at the paper and long stretches traveling through the myriad neighborhoods of a town which Hurricane Katrina nearly wiped off the map.

And although I got nearly 40-inches of space in today's newspaper to tell the amazing story of how the newspaper left their newsroom for weeks following Katrina's impact and returned to keep putting out a newspaper, there were lots of things I had to leave out. But thanks to the blog, I can still get them before a few eyeballs.

One thing, was the rhythm of the Crescent City, nearly a half-year past the worst disaster in its recent history. Many traffic lights still lack power, temporary four-way stop signs hastily posted at intersections; visitors can drive through a mostly intact neighborhood and turn onto a street where devastated homes stretch for miles. And the city's frustration over the
slow pace of rebuilding is almost palpable.

One of the people I cut down in my story was Jon Donley, editor of NOLA.com, the web site which also features material from the newspaper. During a reporter's visit to his downtown office, Donley flipped over his laptop to show a moving video he assembled of the newsroom's evacuation, displaying still photos and camcorder footage over his emotional narration and The Tragically Hip's 1989 tune, ""New Orleans is Sinking.''

Even then, five months later, watching the images brought tears to his eyes. (Listen to Jon's emotional narration here).

""It's tough seeing your city so destroyed when we don't have any assurance it will be rebuilt,'' said Donley, who wound up featured in a G.Q. photo spread dubbed Heroes of the Storm. ""The mayor's pretending, so he can convince people to come back. Even though many of them have nothing to come back to.''

Another person I had to clip from my piece was Leslie Williams, a reporter at the newspaper. Leslie, a brilliant writer, was sent to Bay St. Louis to cover the likely landfall of Hurricane Katrina. Cut off from his newsroom -- unaware they had evacuated to Baton Rouge -- Leslie said he became a "feral reporter" scavenging for supplies with family members around their ruined ancestral home while editors dispatched a reporter to determine if he was alive or dead. Read his story here.

While hanging out with a crew of Times Picayune employees who gather each weekend to help gut the homes of fellow employees, I met Ullrich Darensbourg -- a 30-year employee of the newspaper who helps out at guttings since the crew worked on his home. Ullrich was sweeping rubble, despite a metal prosthetic leg which made navigating the ruined home's interior difficult.

A big, barrel-chested guy who runs foot races despite his physical challenges, Ullrich also contracted Hepatitis while getting blood tranfusions during his amputation and struggles with diabetes. But his eyes didn't tear up until he started talking about the way his fellow employees banded together to help him clean out his ruined home.

""This situation is like having a handicap,'' said Darensbourg, who lost his leg 25 years ago when a car hit him while he was delivering bundles of the Times-Picayune. ""If you let negative thinking progress, it will deteriorate everything and bring your whole life down. We can use this to bring life back to our life together, and prosper.''

Truer words were never spoken. And after many days spent chronicling the amazing story of the Times Picayune's survival, I found their continuing perserverance and relevance to readers a bit inspiring. If they could reach inside during their deepest challenge and find strength to do such work, surely other