People Magazine Exclusive From Lakeland's YouTube Fight Victim: "It Feels Like Something's In My Ear."

People magazine on Friday unveiled its exclusive interview with Victoria Lindsay, the teenage cheerleader underneath the white dot in a now-world-famous video, showing her being pummeled by a gang of girls in Lakeland.

Dubbed by People as "the girl fight seen round the world," the incident has brought adult charges of assault for the six girls and two boys involved -- all teens ranging from age 14 to 18 -- along with a media dustup as outlets such as the Dr. Phil show tried to lock up the stories of various participants through whatever means possible.

It's unclear yet what People did to gain its exclusive with the victim, a friend and her parents, but it seems the primary benefit was visual -- as the magazine published a page-size photo of Lindsay's face and a group shot with her father and stepmother (according to the magazine, Lindsay's mother is serving a 10-year prison term for a fatal stabbing).

Citing a gag order imposed by the judge overseeing the case, People only has a few quotes from Lindsay in its six-page story, focused on how she feels after the attack: "I was in a lot of pain...It feels like something's in my ear." And after observing that Lindsay was living with the family of one of her alleged assailants after falling out with her parents, the teen said "Your Number 1 friend is your family. Don't trust anybody." (the gag order also seems to allow Polk County sheriff Grady Judd a lot of leeway to describe the crime without competing accounts from the accused)

Unfortunately, the case seems more about children from troubled homes acting out and clueless parents still unable to accept what their kids have done.  More than once, the story quotes adults blaming the Internet for what the kids did, with little acknowledgment that something besides overheated MySpace messages may have fueled this beatdown.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Sermon in Context

When the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's sermons first came under fire, I didn't even want to bother arguing about them. I was raised in a black church. I knew how good preachers would use hyperbole and aggressive statements to make their point during sermons aimed at teaching bold lessons to parishioners.

But then, of all people, Bubba the Love Sponge hipped me to some postings on YouTube, where an enterprising videographer found larger clips of the most notorious sermons quoted by TV news outlets in the stories which kicked off the controversy about his speeches. And I was ashamed.

Because Rev. Wright deserved a better defender than I -- or, frankly Barack Obama -- have been during this nonsense. A look at these clips, which present much larger excerpts of Wright's speeches, shows that his seemingly damning statements came during passionate speeches about America's history of racial oppression and America's history of killing innocents while exacting military revenge against enemies.

One of Rev. Wright's most controversial comments -- the statements about "chickens coming home to roost" after 9/11 -- was his quote of a white ambassador speaking on Fox News Channel. Why didn't the TV news reporters tell us this?

It is true that Wright has also made some strident charges which aren't true. In a phrase within his GD America speech, he says the government injected black men with syphillis. Presumably, he is referring to the legendary Tuskegee Experiment, in which nearly 400 black men who already had syphillis were led to believe they were being treated for it when they were really being observed by government physicians noting the effects of the disease's advancement. (ironically, the story was broken in 1972 by Jean Heller, a former St. Pete Times reporter who was working for the Associated Press at the time)

He's also said the government has given drugs to black people, a possible reference to a widely discredited theory that the CIA helped establish the drug pipeline which first brought crack cocaine to Los Angeles, as a method of funding the Nicaraguan Contra rebels. This theory was the subject of a 1996 three-part series in the San Jose Mercury News and a book. But the newspaper backed off the story after it was published and the reporter, Gary Webb, eventually killed himself in 2004.

What is clear here, is that Wright is articulating the suspicions and cynicism of many black people about the motives of a government led mostly by white people. I think his characterizations can sometimes be simplistic and off base, but I don't think he's the raving racist some pundits have made him out to be.

Check these two excerpts of his speeches from YouTube and see if they don't make you think twice:

The State of the News Media in 2008: More Unraveling Ahead

The Project for Excellence in Journalism yesterday released its latest, comprehensive survey/analysis of the news media. And like most news about big institutions these days, it's mostly frightening.

The big headline: Many things we thought we knew about how digital media is unraveling traditional news media outlets aren't really true. More individuals aren't really creating meaningful news content, the diversity of news platforms (online, podcast, web video, etc.) isn't really translating into a diversity of subjects covered. And while newspaper newsrooms in particular are trying hard to experiment and reinvent, the advertising and marketing department which are expected to generate the revenue which pays for their efforts are lagging behind.

The scariest part of their analysis: news and advertising are decoupling.

Many people don't realize it, but modern news consumers almost never directly pay what it costs to gather the information they absorb. TV, radio and newspapers make most of their money selling their audiences to advertisers, allowing them to offer the news product which creates the audience for free or almost free to the public.

Digital technology is pulling that model apart, like an insistent child tugging on a woven sweater's loose thread. Cynical critic that I am, I think the hidden truth here is that digital media removes a lot of doubt about who is consuming what; on a newspaper website, for example, you can see how many users are reading each story and whether they are local consumers. So advertisers have much more information to lower and target their advertising dollars, which limits revenues for publishers.

Other high points from the PEJ study:

* News is less a finished product and more a continuing service. This is something I've only noticed in part of our work -- namely, the breaking news stuff we do on the Web. But our most popular stuff tells people something they didn't know, or helps them do something they couldn't before.

* Citizen journalism and blog sites are nearly as resistant as old school media in allowing public posting. The hidden truth here is that creating media content is tougher than it looks, especially in news. Most sites are recreating the "gatekeeper" model, where a relatively small circle of contributors create content.

* While newsrooms are working hard to innovate, advertising and marketing departments are having trouble changing their game. This is something I've seen locally; as the established adversing model unravels, business side departments are having a tough time finding new methods to earn the same dollars.

* Story subjects have narrowed in American news media. This is something else I've seen up close. We have more platforms than even here at the Times, but we're chasing a harder-to-reach audience. So our efforts are focused on subjects and approaches which we know our audience finds compelling. Nationally, the PEJ found that more 25 percent of news coverage in 2007 focused on two stories: Iraq and the presidential election.      

Multimedia Journalism Workshop in Tampa March 8

Sometimes I worry about the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists.

Mostly, I worry that because of our name, journalists who are not black or people who don't consider themselves journalists will not want to get involved with our programs.

It's an odd concept to explain, but the name of our group -- which is a local chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists -- mostly describes the focus of our organization. Anyone of any ethnicity who is in the media or communications field can join our group, and you don't even have to join the group to participate in our programs.

So it is in that spirit that I roll out a big welcome for TBABJ's second annual session focused on Multimedia reporting on March 8, featuring members who have done extensive work translating their newspaper or TV work into online platforms.

On deck so far: Ken Knight, multimedia reporter for Media General; Demorris Lee, reporter for the St. Petersburg Times, who recently completed a multimedia reporting fellowship at the Knight Digital Media Center; Boyzell Hosey, photo editor at the St. Petersburg Times and Eric Deggans, St. Petersburg Times TV/Media critic and editor/creator of The Feed blog.

Scheduled for 11 a.m. March 8 at the Tampa Tribune, 200 S. Parker St. Tampa, this seminar is free and open to anyone who wishes to attend.

During the panel discussion, we will talk about ways to think about expanding traditional journalism work to multimedia platforms, the advantages and challenges of blogging for journalists, the resources available for those who hope to learn more about this kind of work and more...

Last year, we got a great response from area bloggers of all ethnicities and had a chance to turn it into a wide-ranging discussion. Even if you don't consider yourself a journalist, but would like to learn more about this new field, please feel free to attend.

As we all work to try and understand these new media platforms,sometimes the most fun comes from getting together and swapping ideas on what it all means. And fellow bloggers, feel free to post this on your blog somewheres...

NBC's Quarterlife: The Groundbreaking Internet-To-Network Series That Isn't

Last year, when thirtysomething creators Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick debuted their birthed-on-the-Internet twentysomething drama Quarterlife, I cranked out a snarky blog post noting that the most revolutionary thing about this series was it's delivery system.

And now that NBC has used the writer's strike as an excuse to boil the 30 or so snippets aired online into a network TV series, which they've circulated to know-it-all critics like me, I'm prepared to second my first emotion -- with a huge side order of "told you so."

Thanks to its cyberspatial pedigree, Quarterlife has an almost irresistible patina of cool as the first series to make a backward migration from online to TV. Standing centerstage is Dylan, a boyish, thrift-store-fashion-wearing heroine who reveals her friends’ innermost secrets on her confessional video blog.

Fans of Herskovitz and Zwick's previous series will recognize the self-obsessed angst which permeates the show; the kind of overwrought navel-gazing which used to drive critics of thirtysomething crazy -- substituting the “quarterlife crisis” facing just-out-of-college Millenials for Baby Boomers’ existential worries.

Fear is the subtext drilled into every scene: from the terror of Dylan’s actress roommate Lisa, who is afraid to really perform, to Dylan's guy pal Jed, who worries about his romantic feelings for Dylan’s other roommate, Debra.

And almost all the male actors seem to be afraid of razor blades, sporting the kind of unruly beards guys  first wear after they realize they can grow facial hair. The result feels mostly like Dawson’s Creek: The Post-Graduate Years, right down to the knowing observations set to poignant, singer-songwriter tunes.

Indeed, it’s the stuff surrounding the program that’s truly revolutionary. Producers are developing a Quarterlife community around the show’s Web site, where fans can upload photos, videos, music and other creative projects to be shared or even used in the show.

There’s also a space for people who know you to talk about who you are, just like Dylan dishes on her friends. No wonder creatives like Eric Stoltz (Mask) are on board directing episodes.

But this also makes the TV product frustrating. Because Quarterlife isn’t nearly as groundbreaking as the process that created it, which suggests Zwick and Herskovitz may have missed the point along the way.

Why Are So Many Big Time Political Reporters Apologizing?

Time magazine senior political analyst Mark Halperin joined a small, yet growing club this week, when he issued an apology for saying John Edwards considered Barack Obama "kind of a pussy" on a satellite radio talk show.

Part of Halperin's words are here: "In a live radio interview this week, I used a word I shouldn’t have. The fact that I was conveying other people’s words is no excuse for my lapse in judgment."

When I first heard about this exchange yesterday, I wondered about the journalism end of it. If Halperin heard Edwards call Obama the p-word, shouldn't he have reported it in Time? If Edwards said the word to him off the record, why did Halperin recount the exchange in public?

And if Edwards didn't use the p-word, why did Halperin tell the story to make it look as if he had -- putting the worst sort of profanity in the mouth of a guy he presumably is still covering?

But it struck me this morning, after reading the apology, that there is more going on here. The rules have changed a bit for political reporters, especially those with high profiles, and some players haven't realized it yet.

Already, MSNBC anchors Chris Matthews and David Shuster have had to apologize publicly for using language that was particularly insulting to women on their shows. Matthews basically said Clinton's career as an elected official came courtesy of sympathy generated by her husband's philandering and Shuster wondered if daughter Chelsea was being "pimped out" by her parents in making calls to celebrities and superdelegates.

In all three instances, you have people making boneheaded statements using inappropriate language. On one level, all these guys seemed to forget that they weren't bellied up to the bar with their fellow reporters after a deadline, but speaking to national audiences on professional broadcasts.

But beyond that, the presence of a black man and woman as important presidential candidates is forcing these guys to rethink how they talk about politics. And some of them are failing miserably.

Another big sign: How most media outlets talk about race. Beyond making predictions and observations about how black and white people are voting, I haven't seen much talk about race -- which is surprising for a contest which could produce America's first black president.

Instead, the media and political insiders seem to be playing a game of hot potato -- each side is waiting for the other to talk about race issues in a way which gives them license to speak, too. The most recent example of this odd dynamic was Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell's comments to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's editorial board talking down the possibility of the state's voters supporting Obama.

My pal and PG edit board member Tony Norman quotes Rendell saying: "You've got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate," he said bluntly. Our eyes only met briefly, perhaps because the governor wanted to spare  the only black guy in the room from feeling self-conscious for backing an obvious loser. "I believe, looking at the returns in my election, that had Lynn Swann [2006 Republican gubernatorial candidate] been the identical candidate that he was --well-spoken [note: Mr. Rendell did not call the brother "articulate"], charismatic, good-looking -- but white instead of black, instead of winning by 22 points, I would have won by 17 or so."

Leave aside that he's comparing the candidacy of a black Republican football star who had never held public office to a sitting Democratic Senator who has already won a number of tough primary battles. Rendell later complained on Matthews' show Hardball that it was the media which was obsessed with race and that nothing he said would have helped Clinton, anyway.

Riiight. So far, Obama has avoided race talk by confounding assumptions. Think he can't get white votes? Then he'll win primaries in Idaho, North Dakota and Connecticut. Think he's not black enough? Then he'll win 80 percent of the black vote in South Carolina (frankly, I think a lot of black people just wanted to see whether he had a serious chance. Once he won Iowa, they were ready to line up).

But I do think that one question I asked in a story last year has barely been addressed -- How will black people feel if Obama doesn't champion black issues in ways they expect? And that's partially because the mostly-white press corps covering the campaigns can't figure out how to ask the question without getting criticized.

I took some criticism of my own after writing a blog post about the lack of diversity among those covering the election. Because I cited MSNBC, I heard from folks at NBC News including Keith Olbermann, who felt I was being unfair by not noting all the female and black correspondents and guest pundits they had on air.

Fair enough. But the anchors are the focus of most political coverage, especially on cable TV. They direct the conversation, they highlight subjects or ignore them, they choose the guests and set context and they ultimately serve as the voice of the channel.

On MSNBC, that list of election night anchors includes Olbermann, Matthews, Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw, Joe Scarborough and Tim Russert. That seems to echo MSNBC's general lineup, in which every show hosted by a name anchor is a white male: Tucker Carlson, Dan Abrams, Matthews, Olbermann and Scarborough.

On CNN, the evening lineup is Wolf Blitzer, Lou Dobbs, Larry King and Anderson Cooper, though NBC expatriot Campbell Brown has an 8 p.m. show coming at some point. On Fox the afternoon and evening anchor crew is Shepard Smith, Neil Cavuto, John Gibson, Brit Hume, Hannity and Colmes and Bill O'Reilly, with Greta Van Susteren adding a little gender diversity at least.

But if we do wind up welcoming a President Obama or Clinton, all these folks will have to learn a new way of talking about a great many things. I'm starting to think that the candidates aren't the only people facing some serious tests this election season. 

Black Cartoonists Use the Same Joke to Make Their Point

Loyal blogreaders may remember a piece I did a while back about black cartoonists staging a protest in which several of them would draw the same strip on the same Sunday. The point being: Though editors and some readers may think their strips are interchangeable, they are not.

Here are a few of the strips which were published yesterday -- 11 cartoonists in all agreed to participate -- as part of that effort. Since humor is the most subjective art on the planet, I leave it to you to decide whether the strips are actually funny. But the point about differences in the strips seems well made (because I had to reduce these strips to make them fit on my blog, I suggest you click on the cartoon to see it in full, undistorted glory).

     

Keeping a Light On for HBO's The Wire

I know ratings are down and critics seems to be the only folks still excited, but I'm still keeping a light on for HBO's The Wire.

Pound for pound one of the best TV shows ever, The Wire seems dedicated to producing television that challenges its audience. And while stepping on the treadmill last night I stumbled on a cool tribute to that attitude: The Wire Pre-quels.

They are way-cool scenes featuring some of the show's coolest characters in long-ago setting. We see Prop Joe's early childhood as a dealmaker, Omar's first steps as a heistman with an unusual moral code, and the first time Bunk and McNulty share a bottle.

For fans, it's the ultimate bon bon; tasty morsels of programming which only reinforce the stuff we've come to love about these complicated cats. Click through to Amazon's home for these clips -- you can also download them as video podcasts from iTunes -- for something to get you through the dark days of American Gladiators and Celebrity Apprentice.

Here's Prop Joe's prequel:

Omar's Early story is here:

See Bunk and McNulty meet here:

Sarasota Dude "Crazy James" Zinkand Tapped for Big Brother 9

It seems to be a federal law or something: Every reality show on TV must include at least two people from Florida.

Usually, I get lucky and they're from South Florida or the Orlando area, but the cast list from CBS' latest incarnation of Big Brother includes 21-year-old "Crazy James" Zinkand, a guy who claims roots in Sarasota who has spent a serious amount of time riding around the world on his bicycle.

According to a Creative Loafing story from January, Zinkand is a Sarasota High alum who spent seven months last year biking across the world with just $100 in his pocket, developing colorful stories about flopping on strangers' couches and occasionally urinating on them. He's got a wacky MySpace page -- WARNING, this site is filled with profanity and provocative images -- a pink mohawk and penchant for posing in pink underwear.

Turns out -- surprise -- Crazy James has a bit of history. He was among the four teens who taped themselves jumping from the roof of a building into the pool at the Sarasota Surf and Racquet Club in 2003. They made national headlines when one of them (not Crazy J, of course) missed the pool and broke both legs, fractured his arm and cracked his pelvis. I think this is the video here.

Zinkand shared some insights on his trek with Creative Loafing's Sarasota arm here. He also seems to have  founded a collective of folks posting prank videos on YouTube called Pink Bus. Oh yeah, there's a guy from Del Ray Beach who is also on the new Big Brother named Adam. (I didn't even bother figuring out his last name)

This Big Brother edition, which debuts next Tuesday, is the first to debut during a regular TV season -- something else to thank the Hollywood writers' strike for. It will also feature a record 16 "houseguests" cooped up in a makeshift home on CBS' Studio City complex for months.

We can only hope a strike resolution is found quickly enough that the returning scripted series bury this godforsaken reality TV concept once and for all. (See a sample here.)

Or is that a little too harsh?

Check out Crazy James explaining his philosophy of life on this video clip. Judging by the stuff on his MySpace page, he's got just the right combo of crazy and exhibitionist to make CBS producers' hearts swoon:

And here's a link to a pretty explicit video of Crazy James partying with his buddies in Sarasota. BE WARNED: lots of cursing, drinking and even some on camera vomiting takes place here.

Super Bowl Hangover: Deggans Worst Ads of 2008

One of the most tired rounds of hype in television centers on Super Bowl ads.

Studies may show that sizable numbers of viewers only want to see the commercials (and I'm still waiting to see those numbers). But the hype over these bite-size bits of commercialism has grown faster than the game itself, mostly serving to help networks justify an outrageous $2.7-million per 30 second spot charge this time around.

Fortunately, those of us who used to mostly watch the game for the ads have a savior: MySpace.

Thanks to its new Super Bowl ad space, which offers the chance to check out every ad during the big game according to when it aired, I could check out every commercial within a 30 minutes time and determine that this year's ad hype was mostly overblown.

Ain't modern technology wonderful? anyways, here's my list of the worst Super Bowl Ads I saw:

Doritos and the Giant Rat

Why would a guy opening a bag of nacho cheese Doritos attract a guy in a giat rat suit, who then proceeeds to beat him up? And why would that make you want to buy Doritos? I'm not sure, but the ad exec who convinced the company to spend millions on this dud must have cojones the size of Missouri.

Amp Energy Drink

It's something that probably sounded funny in the pitch meeting. But it turns out, watching a fat guy jump start a car by attaching jumper cable to his nipples isn't really funny, just a little disgusting.

Bridgestone Tires Nearly Kills Richard Simmons

Now if the car would have actually hit him on that dark road -- well that's award-winning stuff, there.

Naomi Campbell Dances With Lizards for Sobe Water

Turns out, watching a supermodel shake it to Thriller with a roomful of animated lizards doesn't really make me want to drink expesive "life water." Campbell should smack whoever thought of this ad with a cellphone -- it would have made a better commercial.

 

Live Blogging Rather: 2nd Ratherism of the Night

By 8:30 p.m., we had our second homespun Dan Rather quote, when the Texas native noted "you can't put a cigarette paper" between warring Republicans John McCain and Mitt Romney.

Local pols such as Herb Polson, Earnest Williams and Jamie Bennett sat in the audience at Eckerd College's Miller Auditorium. Demand prompted the college to open up its much larger Fox Hall for observers to watch a simulcast.

So far, the discussion has been informative, if low key and a bit wonky. George Lemieux, a former staffer for Gov. Charlie Christ, joined the two political consultants with Rather onstage, drawing chuckles when he noted that officials had a bit of trouble with touch screens in Palm Beach County -- deja vu all over again! -- but expected few glitches besides. (he also stressed the touch screens will be gone by November's presidential election)

Rather also offered an update on his voting machines story.

With 44 percent of precincts reporting, McCain still has 34 percent compared to Romney's 32 percent. Lemieux claimed 40 percent of people questioned in one poll said Crist's endorsement of McCain changed their vote (I know we have a popular governor, but really!) He also noted that McCain's ability to take Giuliani votes and Romney's ability to take Huckabee votes may decide the contest.

Each consultant also had at least one good line. Red stater Mike Murphy noted the high volume of robotic phone calls, saying "I always though the one tax a candidate could run on was a tax on automated phone calls (applause); people hate them, but they're really cheap." Democrat Donnie Fowler noted blue staters were 10 times more pessimistic about the economy "because Republicans watch Fox News, which tells them everything is great...maybe you believe what you want to hear."

Fowler also read off emails from both the Obama and Clinton campaigns spinning the election results (Obama's people called a tie with Clinton; both got zero delegates). He also found it surprising that Hillary Clinton hasn't yet earned more than 50 percent of the vote, despite status as the best know candidate in a field which didn't campaign here.

Fortunately, the commercial breaks are short, giving Rather lots of time to speak on the unfolding drama. Prepared pieces on the I-4 corridor and election machine controversies also helped keep the evening humming along.

Murphy's big prediction: both Romney and McCain are going to try and get Giuliani and Huckabee out of the race, to try and get voters friendly to those candidates to turn their way during Super Tuesday. No wonder these guys get six-figure consulting fees!

Live Blogging Dan Rather in St. Petersburg: Early Call for Clinton and McCain Looking Good

Former CBS anchor Dan Rather brought a stripped down show to Eckerd College tonight for reporting on the Florida primaries -- but he seems to like it just fine.

In a converted classroom staffers jokingly call their "war room," Rather whiled away the minutes before his broadcast joking about longtime pal and Texas Tech baskeball coach Bobby Knight, along with plans for his own Web site, as a way of helping out with HD Net's lagging, bare bones online platform.

Despite his hope of playing down polling in coverage, Rather opened his broadcast here at 8 p.m. noting that early projections give Clinton a big win in Florida and exit polls show Giuliani placing third with about 18 percent of the vote. McCain seems to be doing well with Hispanics, senior citizens and -- though not as much as you would expect -- military veterans.

Rather told me before the broadcast his figures showed more absentee ballots cast by Democrats than Republicans and more absentee votes cast now than for the 2006 election.

Democratic strategist Donnie Fowler just compared Clinton to Peanuts' Lucy Van Pelt, lifting the football from Charlie "Obama" Brown every time he tries to kick the nomination into the goal posts (would that have anything to do with his past as a Clinton strategist?)

Republican Mike Murphy points out Clintons presence in the state allows her to mount a victory party, despite the fact that no Democratic candidate has campaigned here. Obama will "have 100 press secretaries calling reporters and saying 'come on, it's just a beauty contest.'

Murphy says Romney seems to be losing Brevard County, Pasco County and Sarasota. He also gives romney credit for flying in big donors to Florida, so they can either "have a big party with champaign, or have a serious meeting."

The crowd here seems earnest. engaged and a little star struck. Every joke gets a healthy laugh, especially Fowler's comment that "Democratics are loking forward to running against any Republican."

And we can now note the first Rather-ism: He just said "this race is loser than hairs on a frog." Soon after he asked whether is was time "for their fingernails to start sweating." I can die happy now.

 

Gayle Guyardo's Gasparilla Moment Spreads Across the Media

The story has appeared everywhere from MSNBC.com to TV industry Web sites and the pages of the Tampa Tribune.

And WFLA-Ch. 8 morning anchor Gayle Guyardo remains upset by reports recounting how she was briefly removed from coverage of the Gasparilla parade Saturday after viewers complained about her slurred speech and seemingly disoriented comments.

Guyardo, 41, who has co-anchored parade coverage for 14 years, said she resented the implication of some critics: that she was drunk. Instead, the anchor said she had been sick with the flu since early last week and that her illness may have affected her performance.

  “The only feedback I’ve gotten is from e-mails by people who have been extremely supportive,” said Guyardo, who was in tears Saturday after the two-hour Gasparilla broadcast, when she realized what some people were saying. (This photo, taken shortly after Guyardo was informed of the calls from viewers, was shot by Times photgrapher Willie Allen)

The anchor insists that she did not even take medication before the show, forwarding to me e-mails from encouraging fans and a doctor. It was a close call for me on whether I should write a story, but after I saw how other media picked up on the issue, my editors and I decided to pull together a story for Tuesday's paper and this blog item.

“No one could say that they saw me consume any alcohol, because I didn’t,” Guyardo said. “Channel 8 would not let me go up there if I was showing signs of being drunk... I was burning up with fever, my throat was closing up and it was clear that I was sick.”

Guyardo’s co-anchor during the parade, Bill Ratliff, supported her. “I’m not covering for a friend … I never noticed anything,” said Ratliff, who has also co-anchored WFLA’s morning and midday newscast with Guyardo for years. “If she had come to the parade inebriated, I would have told her to get some coffee or you’re not going on.”

MSNBC.com on Monday linked to the Tribune story, which noted “some (callers) urged she be relieved of parade duties to avoid embarrassment.” The local TV-focused Web site Newsblues.com bluntly asked “Was Tampa anchor drunk during Gasparilla broadcast?”

WFLA news director Don North could not say how many complaints the station received about Guyardo, but he did remove the anchor from coverage long enough to speak with her by telephone and determine whether she could finish the broadcast. He allowed Guyardo to rejoin coverage for the show’s end around 4:30 p.m.

North also said he didn’t expect the incident would have any long-term impact for Guyardo at WFLA. Both the Tampa Tribune and WFLA are owned by Richmond, Va.-based Media General.

Guyardo said some viewers complained when she appeared on WFLA’s morning and midday newscasts while ill early last week, suggesting she stay home and recover. The anchor — who eventually took last Wednesday off to rest — wondered whether Gasparilla’s hard-partying image led viewers to assume the worst Saturday.

“I watched (a videotape of parade coverage)…and I was not on my ‘A’ game,” she said. “If I had it do over again, I would have called in sick 1,000 times over.”

PolitiFact Hits the National Stage; But Emphasis on Polling Remains Media Flaw

It's been great fun to see the hard-working folks from the Times' political fact-checking site, PolitiFact, expand the brand. At a time when presidential candidates are slinging all sorts of charges, CNN, MSNBC, the Dallas Morning News and a wide assortment of bloggers have regularly turned to Politifact to sort truth from fiction.

Wondering what the make of the charges and counter-charges thrown around during last night's GOP debate? Check Politifact's nearly live coverage of the event, featuring several assertions vetted with admirable speed (Times editor in chief Paul Tash even managed a good zinger, asking Giuliani why he spends so much time talking about how immigrants should learn to speak English, and then drafts campaign commercials for Florida in Spanish?)

But you can't have a compliment from a critic without a little qualification. And what's bugging me about recent coverage of Florida is our continued reliance on polling to forecast the results.

Pundits and anchors spent weeks apologizing for the mess that was New Hampshire coverage, admitting  that Obama's performance in Iowa's caucus, and polls suggesting he might find similar success in New Hampshire's primary, faked them into believing an Obama surge would overwhelm Hillary Clinton.

Now we have polling suggesting that Giuliani is about to lose big in Florida, dooming his campaign amid a risky strategy to focus on this state as his first real proving ground. Our own poll, conducted with the Miami Herald and Bay News 9, was widely quoted Thursday as proof, with folks saying he's fallen "faster than the Dow Jones average."

Giuliani, asked about the poll results Thursday, neatly compared himself to the New York Giants rather than use the most recent political example of resurrection and poll defying success which comes to mind -- namely, his nemesis Hillary Clinton.

I think the Huffington Post may have the best idea here, vowing to treat polling results with the same amusing superstition we reserve for astrology columns and fortune cookie predictions (I'm not, however, down with their advice that readers should hang up on pollsters and refuse to participate).

How many times do journalists need to get bitten by this issue before we put polls and horse race predictions in the proper perspective?

Dan Rather to Report Florida Primary Results From St. Petersburg

If you're a local fan of former CBS anchor Dan Rather, I've got good news and bad.

The good: Rather will brings his election primary coverage to St. Petersburg on Jan. 29, presenting live reporting and analysis of Florida's results from Miller Auditorium at Eckerd College for his latest employer, the HD Net high definition TV cable channel.

The bad: Unless you know somebody, you're probably not going to watch his coverage in person.

So far, the general public won't be admitted to the Eckerd College site, which will only hold a select crowd of about 200 people. But fans can watch the coverage on Bright House Networks HD channel 705 or see the channel's Web site, where the anchor's reporting on New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries is already available via streaming video.

An Eckerd College official tells me Rather's people were led to their auditorium by the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club, which was contacted by the anchor's producers and asked for a suitable space.

I don't think the broadcast will be available live on the Web, but it should appear online shortly after his report, scheduled from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. His reports will also feature political consultants Mike Murphy (Republican) and Donnie Fowler (Democrat).

Gotta say, I'm more excited than a porcupine in a balloon factory. Or something like that.

Oprah Winfrey to Make Discovery Health Channel Her OWN

I'm convinced that, when the dust settles on the new media revolution, Rupert Murdoch, Steve Jobs and Oprah Winfrey will own everything in sight.

Winfrey and Discovery Networks announced today that the Queen of All Media will take over their Discovery Health Channel in a cashless transaction which essentially transfers her brand to the outlet under a new name: The Oprah Winfrey Network.

It's a deal which makes sense. DHC is a channel with tremendous reach -- available in 70-million homes, thanks to Discovery's aggressiveness in securing carriage for its subsidiary channels. But it has low name recognition, and one of its biggest stars is a Winfrey creation: Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Under this deal, DHC programming become Winfrey's playground and Oprah.com becomes a part of the media platforms featuring OWN content. As with Winfrey's channel on XM satellite radio, I don't expect to see much of the Queen herself on this new channel. Instead, surrogates such as Oz, Gayle King, personal trainer Bob Greene and psychologist Robin Smith will likely get TV outlets to match their radio shows.

My question: What will happen to health issues which don't fit the female-friendly vibe Winfrey has mastered? And what about the Oprah reruns now on Oxygen?

Here's the press release:

Chicago, Ill. and Silver Spring, Md. — Tuesday, January 15, 2008 — In an unprecedented deal, Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications announced plans today to create “OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network.” The new multi-platform media venture will be designed to entertain, inform and inspire people to live their best lives.  OWN will debut in 2009 in more than 70 million homes, on what is currently the Discovery Health Channel.  The venture will also include the award-winning digital platform, Oprah.com.

“Fifteen years ago, I wrote in my journal that one day I would create a television network, as I always felt my show was just the beginning of what the future could hold,” said Oprah Winfrey, who will serve as chairman of OWN.  “For me, the launch of ‘The Oprah Winfrey Network’ is the evolution of the work I’ve been doing on television all these years and a natural extension of my show.”

You may contact OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network directly at:
9150 Wilshire Blvd.
Suite #240
Beverly Hills, CA 90069

E-mail: OWN@oprah.com

Eight Media Faces to Watch in '08

The Writer's Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers -- Their dispute over a new contract has served as an example of the forces tearing the TV industry apart, sidelining Hollywood's entire creative community just when they need to be proving their worth to an increasingly fragmented audience. Already, the clock is ticking -- if the strike lasts into March, the next year's TV season may not survive and audiences driven from free network television by reruns and reality TV may never return.

Rupert Murdoch -- While the world is distracted by Sam Zell's purchase of Tribune Co., the owner of Fox News Channel and the New York Post just cemented his dream of controlling the gold standard of business journalism, the Wall Street Journal. What he does with this brand over the next 12 months may affect what we learn about everything from the effect of inheritance taxes to the operation of China. Can the man who created a sycophantic cable TV news channel for conservatives be trusted with the most hallowed name in business journalism?

Bubba the Love Sponge Clem -- Cox Radio is paying him nearly $2-million to try taming his x-rated  satellite radio act for Tampa and Jacksonville free radio. If it works, he'll not only make history as the first jock to succeed in both places, he'll pave the way to building an even more lucrative syndication deal for himself in other markets. Can he pull it off?

Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson -- Last year, it looked like American Idol was poised to Jump the Shark with a predictable slate of finalists and a winner who once again offered a dog of a debut record. But with the writer's strike paralyzing Hollywood, Idol could wind up an even bigger hit with an audience starved for new TV.

FCC Chair Kevin Martin -- He's fighting public advocacy groups on all sides, members of Congress from both parties and most of his fellow commissioners in a bid to relax media ownership rules which will surely play out in 2008. Who knew there was somebody who could run that agency worse than Martin's predecessor, Michael "Colin's son" Powell?

Apple CEO Steve Jobs -- Most experts agree the last frontier in media is finding a way to meld the computer (active media use) with the television (passive media use). And even though his Apple TV hasn't yet turned that corner -- only works with TV stuff downloaded through iTunes and is still a little too complex -- Jobs is best positioned to produce the killer app that unites PC and TV, perhaps this year.

Meredith Attwell Baker, acting assistant secretary for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration -- I'd never heard of her or this group before, either, but it turns out the NTIA is responsible for advising the president on communications issues -- and will be responsible for helping 20-million TV viewers use a voucher handed them by Congress to upgrade their TVs when the nation's television signals switch entirely to digital. About 20-million people don't have cable, satellite TV or digital TV sets, and will see their ability to access TV signals disappear on Feb. 18, 2009. How well the FCC and NTIA helps these people -- many of them poor, elderly and living in rural areas -- may dictate how well the digital TV transition goes for everyone.

YOU - At the risk of repeating the mistake Time magazine made a year ago, the future of nearly every media platform rests in your hands. You will decide whether to keep reading newspapers in enough numbers to keep the business model alive; you will decide whether parking it in front of the small screen every night in huge numbers makes any sense; you will decide whether to buy music from established outlets or steal it for nothing. The digital revolution has put the future of nearly every entertainment media platform in your hands -- use that power wisely over the next 12 months. Please. 

Deggans' Nine Media Mistakes in '07: Part One

I was surprised as anyone to find I had written one of the most-viewed stories featured on Tampabay.com this year. Imagine my greater surprise when I realized the story in question wasn't about Don Imus, or media consolidation or Barack Obama's unique handling of race or the tragic deaths of local media luminaries: it was about shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge's wedding.

I'm happy for the honor, really. But this also underscores a serious concern: In an era where the St. Petersburg Times' most popular online stories involve unstoppable hiccups, an armless driver eluding police and Bubba, where is the future of serious news?

In that spirit, taking up where my post on the death of the local anchor king left off, here's my list of nine more media mistakes from 2007, split into two parts:

  9) Local Media Cutbacks -- The Tampa Tribune has laid off more than 70 people companywide; the Sarasota Herald-Tribune laid off more than 20 people before offering all its over-50 employees buyouts; the St. Petersburg Times closed its Citrus County bureau, moved its Largo edition from daily to twice weekly and slimmed its own workforce significantly. WFLA-Ch. 8 has used an automated production system to eliminate many of its technical workers and WTOG-Ch. 44 moved much of its operations to an out-of-town control facility. How long before every local media outlet finds itself doing less with less?

8) Sopranos Finale Ends HBO's Innovative Streak -- Forget about the debate over whether the Sopranos finale was any good or not (longtime blog readers know where I stand on the subject); the end of this legendary mob drama also caps HBO's long streak as TV's most innovative channel. While upstarts such as Showtime, AMC and FX brought the year's most compelling new series, HBO gave us a dreary take on modern sexuality and David Milch's worst series since Big Apple.

  7) Media frenzies Over Celebrities Behaving Badly -- Yes, this comes from the guy who argued Britney and Anna Nicole Smith were legitimate news stories. But cable TV news in particular has overgorged on these news tidbits, like a 400-pound guy who can't lay off the Big Macs. And the result is newscasts clogged with a lot of inconsequential gunk masquerading as hot reporting.

6) FCC Ignores Public Outcry Over Media Consolidation -- Even newspaper companies agree that the newly loosened rules passed by the Federal Communications Commission allowing media companies to own a TV station and newspaper in the same market probably won't help much. And despite no real data to the contrary and loads of pulbic hearings filled with average folks decrying the move FCC Chair Kevin Martin pushed it through, anyway.

5) Local News Deaths Amid Scandal -- It would have been a bad enough year locally if WFLA weather forecaster John Winter and former WTVT news anchor Hugh Smith had simply passed away. But both deaths -- which took away popular news figures admired by many locally -- also had the bitter whiff of scandal. Winter killed himself shortly after admitting an affair; Smith's 27-year career as a seminal local anchor was cut short by a second prostitution arrest -- something every local news outlet had to acknowledge in his obituary.

More to come in another post. In the meantime, feel free to post your own suggestions here.    

Pushing Deggans: How to Respond When the Media Critic Gets Critiqued?

For a guy who spends his days criticizing others, I get remarkably little criticism myself (not counting some of the bigger pains who occasionally post comments on this blog).

So it was a little odd to stumble on this criticism of my work, posted on the local blog Pushing Rope. Starting with an offhand comment I posted on the Creative Loafing blog disputing use of the term censorship to describe blacking out a few four-letter words in a police report displayed online of Jessica Sierra's arrest, Rope blogmaster Michael Hussey goes on to accuse me of going soft on the newspaper's initial decision to pass on publishing a rumor about Mark Foley.

He wrote: "Deggans is a media critic that never sees fault with his employer. Case in point is the Times handling of sitting on the Mark Foley story."

     What I wrote then: "It's enough of a judgment call that I don't blame our reporters for deciding not to run the story -- though I wish we had gotten to the bottom of this before other media outlets did.

The Times' government and politics editor filed a long-ish blog post Saturday explaining why we never wrote a story on Foley's milder emails to a page last year, even though we learned of them back then. Of course, it's easy to second-guess such judgments in hindsight, but if a similar flap earlier this year involving allegations against Charlie Crist proves anything, it's that we move carefully when it comes to explosive allegations which might be a disguised political attack, especially close to an election."

What Hussey doesn't point out, for some reason, is that the Times was among a host of Florida and national media outlets which got the same tip -- an ambiguously uncomfortable email exchange between Foley and a former Congressional page. But because the tipster didn't have concrete proof of wrongdoing and was hesitant to go on the record, no news outlet published the story.

According to Poynter Online, "At least seven news organizations had the e-mails...The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times and The Miami Herald got them a year (before the story broke). Harper's Magazine and Roll Call had the messages in the spring (of 2006). And AmericaBlog, The New Republic and Time magazine got them (in summer 2006)."

ABC News reporter Brian Ross published a 356-word story on the network's investigative news blog, days after another blogger published the story in September 2006. Fortunately for Ross, the small story prompted other pages to step forward with much more damaging instant messages which ended Foley's career.

But what bothered me, then and now, was that Ross didn't know those emails existed or that Foley had done anything beyond a weird email exchange when he published his story. And since then, both Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz and the New York Observer have published material wondering if Ross' scoops are all they seem to be.

So, much as it bothers Pushing Rope, I was standing up for the idea that journalists need to make sure they have a fair and accurate story before they publish something that, if it turns out to be untrue, could still wreck a Congressman's career.

I have taken issue with some of my employer's actions, especially regarding the coverage of WFLA weather forecaster John Winter's death.  I also disagreed with a rosy New York Times story on my employer here. But given that my main job isn't even covering newspapers, I've tried, especially on the blog, to weigh in when it makes sense.

More than anything, I'm wondering if i'm victim of a slow news day in Rope-land. (And here too, apparently.)

Mass Confusion: Bright House Channel Changes Start Today

As you may already know by now, tons of channels are changing on Bright House Networks in every one of its Tampa Bay area cable TV systems in seven counties. Pinellas County has been hit the hardest, with 42 different channel changes, including moving the government and public school channels into the high definition tier. It's all in the name of standardizing channel numbers in every market.

There's also a bunch of new high definition channels -- eight debuting tomorrow. Some, including the ESPN channels, have appeared before their scheduled start, but I'll include the information anyways.

The new HD channels in Pinellas (name/new channel number)
Discovery HD / 721     Discovery Science HD / 722    Animal Planet HD / 723                                      The Learning Channel HD / 724       Food Network HD/ 731      HGTV HD / 732
History HD / 734     ESPN HD / 707   ESPN2 HD / 704     National Geographic HD / 727

The channel changes (name/old channel number/new channel number) Click here to see Bright House chart on the changes.

AMC / 22 / 64    BET / 65 / 19     Bravo / 54/ 51    Cartoon / 62 / 58    City Govt. / 15 / 615
County Govt. / 18 / 622      CMT / 58 / 45     CNN / 40 / 29    C-SPAN / 99 / 15
C-SPAN2 / 50, 96 / 24    Discovery / 51 / 34     Discovery Health / 72 / 20    Disney / 68 / 40
E! / 37 / 14         EWTN / 46 / 70     Fox News / 67 / 37     Fox Sports / 69 / 39
FX / 39 / 60       Golf / 32/ 67    Hallmark / 49 / 68     Headline News / 41 / 30
History / 64 / 25    TLC / 34 / 46      Lifetime Movie / 73 / 50    Movie Plex / 66 / 62
MSNBC / 30 / 41     MTV / 44 / 66      National Geographic / 71 / 65   Oxygen / 74 / 44
Pin. Co. Schools 14 / 614     Public Access / 96 / 949     QVC / 29 / 22
SciFi / 60 / 59       Shop NBC / 24 / 98     Spike / 53/ 43      St. Pete College / 19 / 620
TCM / 59 / 53       Telemundo / 76 / 97      Travel / 43 / 54      TV Guide / 98 / 99
TV Land / 75 / 49       USA / 25 / 32    VH1 / 45 / 71    WE / 70 / 69     WGN / 20 / 18
Source: Bright House Networks

I also got this email from the good folks at Verizon:

Our channel line-up for PEGs is already "in order" and will not be changed. The link below provides you with our overall line-up. The PEG channels are available to both analog (Local Package on this list) and digital customers in the same location. The overwhelming majority of our FiOS TV customers take the digital Premier package. One, it is the foundation of our bundled offerings; and two, at $42.99 for standalone (STBs, taxes and fees are extra), it is priced very competitively to Bright House's analog and digital packages.

Click here to see their channel lineup.

Peabody Awards Organizers Define a New Media Culture

Regular readers may recall last month that I wrote about taking part in a special seminar on the future of television convened at the University of Georgia by the same folks who hand out the prestigious George Foster Peabody Awards for excellence in broadcasting.

Our goal: to somehow distill all the changes facing our TV culture and come up with some insights on how to maintain Peabody-level quality, even as digital media technology ravages the business model of every media outlet in sight.

What we came up with is now displayed on the Peabody Web site, and can be summed up in a single phrase: The need for a New Public Media Culture.

Here's a sample: "The ideals of public service in the interest of public culture must continue to inspire what we create and what we watch.

The links between communication and community must be remembered, reinvented, and deployed.