Embarrassing Sarah Palin: the National Edition

I thought my post about new GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin looking like Tina Fey was borderline disrespectful -- but that seems to be nothing next to the stuff unearthed by my fellow bloggers and political journalists regarding the second woman ever to run for vice president through a major party.

First, I stumbled on the first of many MILF references, courtesy of pal Wayne Garcia's blog at Creative Loafing, whose Palin post was titled, simply, MccCain Picks a MILF. By the end of the day, YouTube had several videos calling her a VPILF. No matter how accurate -- and, okay, it is accurate -- is that a way to refer to our potential first female vice president?

  Then Huffington Post dug up this photo of Palin from her college days -- supposedly provided by her family?? (Thanks mom!) Headlined as a "busty" photo of a young Palin, this photo proves two things: some folks' attractiveness blossoms late in life, and prospective politicians should stay away from cameras in college.

Finally, the old Alaska station where Palin once served as a sportscaster, KTVA, dug up this video of her delivering a sports report from the old days.

You'd think former colleagues might show a bit more restraint. But even they, it seems, couldn't believe that somebody who used to give high school football scores might wind up a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Here's another look at Palin's sportscasting skills, quickly followed by her appearance on Craig Ferguson's show last year, as an unknown local pol handing the Scottish comic an honorary citizenship.

 

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Will the Tampa Tribune soon feature just one section on weekdays?

My inbox has been buzzing with rumors that the Tampa Tribune may soon begin publishing as a one-section broadsheet newspaper weekdays, with very few stories "jumping" or continuing off the front page. Under this scenario, weekend papers would remain the same and some specialized sections might also publish on Wednesdays.

I asked Tribune Executive Editor Janet Coats about the rumor, and she declined to speak about specifics.

"We're looking at a number of options regarding resectioning and redesigning," said Coats, who noted she expected conversations on possible options to gain steam in Tampa and at owner Media General's Richmond, Va., headquarters after Labor Day.

"I think everybody's looking at paging," she added, noting the impact of redesigns at Tribune Co. newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel and Chicago Tribune. "Changes to the paper that we deliver, you're constantly looking at that now. But that's one of those things where, when we come to a final decision, I'll be talking my readers and not yours first."

The news comes amid a tremendous amount of change in the newspaper industry, locally and elsewhere. The Tribune laid off three photojournalists Thursday, with plans to lay off up to 10 editors by the beginning of October (the number may be lower, because some people have voluntarily left the staff recently for new opportunities).

At the St. Petersburg Times, some of the last folks who took advantage of our enhanced retirement buyout left the staff today; 26 people in our newsroom took advantage of the program, among 201 people leaving overall. That means our total full-time journalism staff is now at 320 people, down from about 400 five years ago.

In South Florida, competitors the Miami Herald, The Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale and the Palm Beach Post have announced a three-month trial to share "routine news and features." Miami Herald executive editor Anders Gyllenhaal said the shared stories will be "something that's happened in the last 24 hours or is about to happen in the next 24 hours."   

So things are changing everywhere. I guess I'll just have to keep my eyes sharp and inbox uncluttered.

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Which TV star does Palin most resemble?

John McCain found a masterful way to dominate TV coverage the day after Barack Obama gave one of the most majestic political convention speeches in history:

He nominated a real-life Geena Davis for vice president.

Telegenic Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin not only looks a lot like Davis' Mackenzie Allen from ABC's short-lived series about a woman who becomes America's first female vice president and president, she is poised to follow in her footsteps if elected, backing the oldest man ever to seek the presidency.

TV chattering class seems unwilling to admit what a masterful move this is, politically: Palin is a staunch conservative in ways McCain is not; she's youthful, which McCain is not; she adds the tinge of history-making change to his candidacy. Because the press must explain her, she will help balance McCain's media coverage with Obama. But because there's only a few weeks to the election, she won't get scrubbed raw the way Obama was.

But I'm just struck by how many TV characters she reminds us of.

So is Palin more Geena Davis?

Or Tina Fey?

Or Seinfeld's Elaine?

How will media cover the GOP if Hurricane Gustav hits New Orleans?

For CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, the decision was a no-brainer. When forecasters saw that Hurricane Gustav might threaten the Gulf Coast within days of today’s three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Cooper was ready to travel straight from covering the Democratic National Convention in Denver to the French Quarter.

It's a choice many more newshounds may make next week if the worst comes to pass: Stay in Minnesota and give GOP candidate John McCain saturation coverage equal to his Democratic rivals, or decamp to the Gulf Coast and wait to see if Gustav brings a reprise of Katrina's destruction?

Today, as other cable TV news anchors focus on John McCain’s announcement of his running mate for vice president in Minnesota, Cooper will be preparing to anchor Anderson Cooper 360 from New Orleans, watching weather reports over the weekend to see if he’ll need to stay through next week.

“I’m not torn at all…there’s plenty of reporters covering the Republican convention,” said Cooper, who made a mark with passionate reporting on the failure of government to respond well to Katrina three years ago. “Whether the storm hits New Orleans or anywhere along the Gulf Coast, we’ve been committed to telling the continuing story (there) since Katrina. It’s an important part of our continuing coverage.”

At Fox News Channel, vice president of news editorial product Jay Wallace still remembers producing anchor Shepard Smith’s emotional Katrina coverage from New Orleans in 2005. But he said the storm was still too far away – forecasters’ cone of uncertainty stretched from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle Thursday evening – to make concrete plans for deploying big name anchors.

“We know that conventions these days are mostly for show…if we have a major news event, we’re not going to be able to turn away from a major storm hitting the Gulf Coast three years after Katrina,” said Wallace, noting that political journalists such as Brit Hume and Chris Wallace would remain in Minneapolis regardless of the storm’s impact.

“We’re pretty well equipped to cover both stories,” said Wallace, who has coordinated the newschannel’s planning for Gustav from Denver. “We just have to hope a third big story doesn’t jump up.”

Kate O’Brian, senior vice president of news for ABC, echoed Wallace’s assessment, saying executives there likely wouldn’t decided whether prime time TV coverage of the GOP convention would be affected by reports on Gustav until Monday or Tuesday.

And what if Republicans object next week, saying that breaking into the network’s 10 p.m. newscasts from their convention to talk Gustav would unfairly remind viewers of Katrina and give them less coverage than the Democrats received?

“Since I can’t predict the weather, I can’t predict how much of a story it will be,” said O’Brian, noting that same ABC reporters are already going to the area without affecting the network’s RNC coverage. “Right now, we plan to cover the Republicans the same way we covered the Democratic convention.” (weather graphic courtesy of Bay News 9)

MSNBC anchors squabbling: Partisan tussling or just a clash of big egos?

Here's a couple of clips showing some recent anchor squabbles during MSNBC's coverage of the DNC this week.

In the first, Keith Olbermann challenges Joe Scarborough on his contention that John McCain's campaign has made strides against Obama. In the second clip, Scarborough loses it when correspondent David Shuster refers to the Republican party as his party -- even though the MSNBC host was a GOP congressman elected from Pensacola amid Newt Gingrich's Republican revolution.

Variety cited these clips as evidence that Scarborough may be getting tired of the increasingly left-leaning MSNBC. But they're ignoring another clip where Olbermann also groused about Chris Matthews' tendency to, um, dominate the conversation.

It all reminded me of a conversation I had with a manager at a big media outlet about a star who once worked for him. He said the star was most dangerous when he was doing well, because his ego got so huge, no one could stop him from saying and doing things to alienate people.

Looks like Olbermann may be headed toward that cliff. Again.

Judge for yourself:

New cast for CBS' Survivor includes one Floridian

CBS announced it's cast for the new Survivor: Gabon Wednesday, and as usual, it included one Floridian  -- Naples resident Ace Gordon.

According to his MySpace page, 27-year-old Gordon owns a photography studio down south. According to CBS, he's a born salesman birthed in New York and raised in London -- with the British accent to prove it -- and a career ranging from jobs as a massage therapist to work cooking for an eco resort in Hawaii. Currently, he's a jewelry salesman for Cartier who maintains his own photography studio as well.

Survivor's latest installment takes place in Gabon, a country in west central Africa. Gordon joins 17 other contestants from around the country; CBs plans to kick off the show with a two-hour debut Sept. 25, airing in high definition for the first time.

So, put this together with the woman from Tampa who is competing in The Amazing Race this year, and you have Sunshine State-ers involved in two of the biggest reality show competitions of the fall. Only proves what I've been saying all along -- Reality TV Loves Floridians.

Here's CBS' takes on it all: "Marooned in the wilderness, 18 individuals will embark on an amazing African adventure, battling extreme conditions and interacting with wildlife such as elephants and gorillas, while attempting to forge alliances with strangers from diverse backgrounds.  "In a strange coincidence to Earth's Last Eden - good vs. evil emerges as a major theme this season. I think the audience will quickly identify with one group or the other," host Jeff Probst teases. Will the group of deceitful castaways outlast those individuals who play from their heart or will the forces of evil prevail?   Will temptations interfere with logical decision-making?  More importantly, which side will come out on top?"

A few words from Ace below:

Click below to read the rest of the release:

Tampa Tribune names its 'audience editors' as convergence continues

Like many media companies, Media General's Tampa news outlets -- the Tampa Tribune, WFLA-Ch. 8 and TBO.com, in particular -- are trying to use required staff reductions as an opportunity to revamp, rethink and redeploy its news staffers.

For then, that means taking the next step in convergence by separating the news gathering process even further from whatever platform eventually delivers it to the reader. Employees originally hired as TV station staffers or newspaper writers may find themselves gathering information for stories aired on another platform -- or all of them.

Key to this transition is a new position called the "audience editor" -- defined in a previous memo as "the advocates for the audience and the group responsible for setting daily coverage priorities, ensuring that both quality and quantity standards are met."

This week, staffers learned the names of the new audience editors; here's the memo:

From Duke Maas, Don North and Loren Omoto:

We are pleased to announce the six Audience Editors for the Interactive Newsroom. They are:

Kiely Agliano. Kiely’s current position is Senior Editor/Design and Graphics for the Tribune. Kiely has worked at the Tribune since 1997, when she started as a features page designer. In her current role, she has been responsible for the look and feel of the Tribune, coordinating visual presentations for all news sections. She had input into the final TBO home page redesign, and she is working on the redesign of the Tribune.

Clarisa Gerlach. Clarisa is now the CND day editor. She started on what was then the Tribune’s “Comm Desk’’ in 1993, serving as a Trib page designer from 1995 until 2000. That year, she made the leap to TBO, starting as a news and special projects producer. In her current role, she coordinates news coverage and multimedia content among the platforms and the affiliate newspapers, with a focus on breaking news. She leads the daily 7 a.m. CND meeting, tracks our user traffic and drives interactivity through reader comments.

Ken Koehn. Ken is deputy managing editor for the Tribune, focusing on metro, business, features and weekend coverage. Ken came to the Trib in 1991 as a local government reporter. He covered city hall for five years, worked as bureau chief in Brandon and served as metro government team leader. For three years, he directed our regional coverage, supervising all the bureaus and neighborhood zones.

Susan Newman. Susan is now executive producer for WFLA. She came to WFLA as a planning manager and served as managing editor for that newsroom from 1995 until 2002. She has been executive producer since 2002. Susan has managed short-term and long-range planning projects on everything from hurricanes to Super Bowls. She has worked closely with the CND and the WFLA assignment desk on the merger of resources during the last year. Susan is perhaps the person in the newsroom who has been most directly involved with all of our convergence and cross-platform collaboration efforts during the last nine years.

Vidisha Priyanka. Vidisha is the Interactivity Team leader. We asked Vidisha to lead the formation of that team more than a year ago, when we decided that we needed to focus more on interactive journalism online. Vidisha has been the driving force behind the creation of our database project; under her leadership, Data Bay has grown to include more than 35 databases on everything from baby names to the Pinellas toxic plume. Vidisha came to TBO on an internship in 2001 and stayed on to become a news and special projects producer until assuming the Interactivity Team leader position last year.

Debbie Swartz. Debbie is the assignment desk manager for WFLA. As assignment manager, she prioritizes stories and assigns reporters and photojournalists for WFLA to make sure they are covering the right stories and developing content for the newscasts. Debbie came to WFLA as a photojournalist in 1995. In that role, she field produced news stories, tracked cases through the court system, shot still photos for the Tribune and operated the live truck. Debbie was a member of the team that launched the CND; she has worked to bring the assignment desk and the CND closer in mission and in work flow.

Five ways we hope the new judge upgrades American Idol

The growing backlash among viewers and critics this year made it plain: Fox needs to upgrade American Idol before the franchise gets seriously stale.

So why have the first two changes centered on stuff that doesn’t need alteration – the departure of savvy producer Nigel Lythgoe and the addition of a fourth judge, Kara DioGuardi?

The arrival of DioGuardi -- a singer-songwriter who has worked with Gwen Stefani, the Jonas Brothers, Taylor Hicks, Carrie Underwood and fellow judge Paula Abdul -- is particularly puzzling. Given that the judges’ remarks are often the show’s most leaden part, that’s the last thing that needs expansion.

Whatever. Here’s five ways we hope DioGaurdi actually improves American Idol.

  Pick better contestants – Due respect to David Cook and Jordin Sparks, but the last two Idol seasons have felt hobbled by a collection of mostly underwhelming contestants (yes, Sanjaya Malakar and Kristy Lee Cook I’m talking about you). Fifteen minutes trolling Greenwich Village clubs would net better singers than Idol offers all season; maybe DioGuardi can raise the bar a bit.

Get Paula off the crazy train – or on it, entirely – Stress over competing with DioGuardi (who combines Randy Jackson’s credits and Simon Cowell’s attitude with Abdul’s sex appeal) will either push Idol’s only other female judge completely over the edge or force her to get it together at last. Ratings-wise, female viewers love a good soap opera and male viewers love a good catfight, so everybody wins!

Upgrade judges comments – The judges banality became a serious problem last season, as Jackson was incomprehensible, Abdul was hopelessly trite and Cowell was too egotistical to be entertaining. A fourth judge shortens everyone’s comments; surely someone smart enough to make Paris Hilton sound like a singer can make this group interesting again.

Make the auditions better – We are so over the hours of audition shows ricocheting from intentionally bizarre freakizoids to poignant features on real contenders. DioGuardi built a business on digging up new talent; maybe she can coach some kids with potential into even better audition performances.

Sexual tension – If all else fails, she can flirt with Cowell and watch Ryan Seacrest go all Fatal Attraction on national TV. Because any woman tangles with that bromance at her own peril.

Random thoughts on TV's coverage of the Democratic conventon Monday

Some random thoughts which came while consuming media coverage of the Democratic National  Convention's first night Monday:

-- Enough with the grousing about how the networks should cover the conventions more. This election cycle should make it obvious -- media outlets are doing what they do most effectively. Cable TV is filling great chunks of airtime with opinionating and speculation, public broadcasting is either presenting what happened unfiltered (C-SPAN) or wonking it up big time (NPR, PBS), the networks are capturing the big ticket stuff and summarizing and 50,000 different pieces of the puzzle are available online for anyone who cares to wade through it all. How exactly does all this information equal any kind of loss for consumers -- especially compared to the days when you had to count on four information providers to tell you everything?   

-- As you might expect, public broadcasting offered the wonkiest coverage, with National Public Radio digging deep into policy issues during it's special coverage broadcasts and PBS' NewsHour offering a panel of three historians dissecting the significance of Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy, Barack Obama and The Clintons. Wondering what it means that I found that stuff so satisfying amid the cable networks' blather?

  -- As much as I loved seeing Michelle Obama take center stage for an evening, it felt a lot like watching Hillary Clinton stagger back from her derisive comments about "baking cookies" when Bill was running for president. As much as as some voters may admire a strong woman, it seems our first ladies still can't afford to appear onstage as the fully independent women they clearly are in life.

-- What genius leaned on the wrong button to give us a candid faceful of Charlie Gibson for a long second right in the middle of Michelle Obama's speech?

-- What genius left the bottom quarter of the TV screen obscured on CNN during the tribute video to Ted Kennedy, ensuring that we would not see the names of anyone appearing in the video?

-- Didn't bother me so much, but a friend makes the excellent point that a Democratic party trying to win over working class voters maybe shouldn't have featured a rich guy like Ted Kennedy hanging out on his block-long yacht so much in the tribute video.

-- Fox News and MSNBC lived down to their partisan roots Monday, with Keith Olbermann extolling the virtues of Ted Kennedy on one channel, while Sean Hannity was lobbing softballs at McCain campaign official Nicole Wallace on the other.

-- Predictably, McCain went on Jay Leno's Tonight Show to make an age joke -- "I'm so old, my Social Security number is eight." -- and pushed back on criticism on how many houses he owns by referring to his prisoner of war experience. He better have a better answer by the time the debates come around.

-- CBS seemed to be the only network which offered an early report on the guys arrested and suspected of plotting against Obama's life. The report had the effect of making CBS' first 15-minutes of coverage look a lot more newsy than the competition, though subsequent revelations that these guys were probably just drug-addled yahoos, makes the decision not to highlight their arrest on national TV a valid one. I've always wondered if CBS wasn't a little more aggressive about jumping on news because of their sensitivity to criticism that anchor Katie Couric is a lightweight.

-- Coverage found its own level last night. Much as people complain about the blizzard of information, it seems the type of media ecosystem you'd want at a time like this. And how anyone would expect big media to ignore an event this big -- or present continuous coverage on network TV when so many other TV outlets are doing the same thing -- remains a mystery to me.

Pulitzer Prize winner Tom French retiring from the St. Petersburg Times

  I first heard about this a while ago, and now that he's announced it publicly, I can put this sad news on the blog: Tom French, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and longtime inspiration back here in the features department, is taking the newspaper's enhanced retirement package.

Tom, who shares Hoosier roots with me, got a call from Indiana University offering a teaching gig -- actually, an endowed chair in their journalism department -- and so, after some soul searching, he's decided to take that position, leaving at the end of August.

He joins a list of about 40 people leaving the Times newsroom since the retirement incentive was announced (some in that tally are leaving for non-retirement reasons); 200 people across the company have taken it, overall.

Hired at the Times in 1981, Tom helped redefine narrative journalism in the '80s and '90s, exemplified in his Pulitzer winning 1998 series Angels & Demons, the shattering tale of the murder of a mother and her two children while on vacation here from Ohio, the toll their death took on the surviving husband and the search for the killer. Tom's always written as if he were composing books for the newspaper, offering intensely readable, fact-filled excursions into sprawling, true-life tales. And the work of many narrative aces here at the St. Petersburg Times -- Lane DeGregory and Ben Montgomery, for example -- seems descended from his pioneering touch.

A sample, from Angels & Demons:

"They were on their way to the Magic Kingdom. 

"The highways were filled with them. Couples in subcompacts, debating the wisdom of stopping at Stuckey's for a pecan log. Tour groups in tour buses, fleecing their companions at gin rummy and keeping an eye on their driver in case he nodded off. Myriad configurations of moms and dads and stepmoms and stepdads and napping toddlers and whining third-graders and sprawling teenagers in full sulk and mothers-in-law with pursed lips and embittered outlooks, all struggling for peaceful coexistence inside the air-conditioned confines of their minivans.

"They were pilgrims, embarked on the same passage so many millions had made before. From every corner of the country they came, descending through the lengths of Alabama and Georgia until at last they reached the threshold of their destination."

Tom will be the second Pulitzer winner we lose this year, following editorial board member Jack Reed's decision to take the retirement package as well. There is little doubt the Times will be forever changed.

Good luck, pal.