Below the Fold

The Media and JonBenet: the Bottom Feels Fine When You Don’t Have Far to Fall

They don’t do original reporting.

They don’t check facts, are loose with the truth and traffic in rumor.

They have agendas.

They just want attention.

They’re not careful.

They are not professionals.

They sensationalize.

There are too many of them.

They cannot be trusted.

This is how the majority of professional print and broadcast journalists describe “citizen journalist” bloggers. But today, this is also how the Columbia Journalism Review and others are describing many of their mainstream media brethren.

These kinds of statements are born of ignorance, of fear and I suspect not a little bit of envy. So I hope that after today, the aforementioned mainstream media majority listens to its peers. I hope reporters reevaluate and reassess their roles in society and responsibilities to the truth. I hope they will know the difference between journalism and sensationalism – and that they pick the right side.

And I hope – I pray – that someday JonBenet Ramsey will be allowed to rest in peace.

Ten Reasons Why I'm Not an A-List Blogger

(Author's note: the following is meant to be in fun, so please don't ruin my good post-vacation mood by being all serious, like those people who think Snakes on a Plane is a good action movie -- or those who thought I was serious when I wrote this.)

• I had my book deal long before I had my blog.

• I only write once every 7-10 days, and that's if I'm not busy working. I say something when I have something to say.

• I used to be a newspaper reporter, so I can take criticism.

• I don't Digg, Rollyo, Memeorandum or know what OPML stands for. For at least six months I thought Del.icio.us was part of the Food Network.

• I spell check my posts and my comments on other blogs.

• I don't break news -- as I said earlier, I used to be a reporter. I'm more of a columnist now, which means I get to share opinions without doing any real work.

• I rarely go to conferences, seminars or workshops. When I do, I don't alert the world via my blog (e.g., "Light blogging today, traveling," or "At the Beijing airport, they have wireless in the bathrooms," or "Be back in five, gotta Tivo C-Span -- yeah, that's right, I watch C-Span.")

• My journalism career killed any semblance of ego I used to have (I once worked for UPI, which at the time was the journalism equivalent of having an AOL e-mail address.)

• I link when it makes sense to do so, not just to encourage links back to me and increase my Technorati rank. Don't you agree Jeff, Jay, Steve, Dan and Scott?

• My columns (sorry, "blog posts") have a beginning, a middle, and thankfully, as you are about to discover, an end.

Warning: The Following is Not Journalism

Gay Talese, in his seminal journalistic novel The Kingdom and the Power, described journalists as “restless voyeurs who see the warts upon the world, the countless imperfections in people and in places.”

That’s it. No college degree or experience. No pledges to objectivity or serving the Public Trust. All that’s required to be a journalist, according to Talese, is a curiosity and passion to tell stories about the world – their world or that of others.

The result of such journalistic efforts may not be what you would call “journalism” in today’s context. Yet it is still reporting in its simplest and purest form – and I believe it has value, both to “professional” journalists and non-journalists alike.

Then there is the real world.

We like our journalism when it’s branded. We prefer that the news package itself for us, do our thinking for us, make decisions for us. We have no problem following Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, but we have a problem following Global Voices because the latter requires us to be the filter. We believe news is easier to swallow when it’s served cold.

Find the “Real” News
Try this as an experiment: Read the following “news reports” from blogs about the Middle East conflict and see if you can guess which are from professional journalists and which are from amateurs:

• “The scary thing about rocket strikes is that even with the siren sounding you can't see them coming. No streak of fire across the sky. Not a lot of sound. That is, not until the thump when it hits. This time, the thump was very close, and soon, a plume of thick white smoke started to rise…then the siren sounded again. The crowd went from pushing and shoving in the street to huddling together under any cover we could find.”

• “We had 10 sirens today, and finally a new instruction came to stay at least 15 minutes down there after a siren. This might be obscure so I'll explain. What happened in the past few days, and I've talked about this already, is this: Siren goes off, people go down into the bunker, all clear to come back up after a few minutes, then they rapidly fire again. You almost never hear a lone siren by itself, always in pairs or more with short pauses in between. This is designed to hit people when they come out of the bunker. So now we wait for 15 minutes and sure enough, while in the bunker we hear yet another siren again. But since everybody are down there nobody gets hurt the second time around."

• “No matter that Hezbollah hides behind the skirts of women and the cribs of babies, and regardless of your love of Israel, these are pictures that are painful for any parent to see. The dead children of the Lebanese village of Qana, at least 34 of them, some handicapped, all unable to leave the area in the face of warnings, were wiped out in the early morning hours of Sunday by an Israeli air strike.”

• “The current conflict rests atop a sea of unresolved issues that pre-date even the Lebanese civil war. Racism, sectarian animosity, feelings of oppression and neglect run deep in Lebanon. Christian support for Shia refugees is smoothing out some of these differences…if civil war is avoided and if Hezbollah is to be disarmed, it will most likely come about through the person to person bonds being made right now between Christians and Shia.”

Each of these posts sound about as credible as the next, but our perceptions change when we learn that the first post is from Thomas Evans, a CNN producer for Anderson Cooper 360; the second from the “Live from an Israeli Bunker” blog; the third from Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera; and the last from a blog called the “Lebanese Political Journal.” Suddenly Geraldo’s hyperbole seems reasonable and the Israeli Bunker blogger is just an amateur hack with no skills and a chip on his shoulder (never mind that the numbers Geraldo quoted as fact were later recanted by the Lebanese Prime Minster as an exaggeration.)

Perception may be reality, but that also means what is real to one person is a lie to another. Two people can read the same New York Times article but come to completely different conclusions. This doesn’t mean the journalist who wrote the article is biased or misinformed – it means the reader is.

When PR is a Journalist’s Savior, Newspapers Have Gone to Hell

“…In a few years I seriously worry there will be much worth reading in newspapers. I already know I'm getting most of my news off the Web.” – Charles Bingham, 17-year newspaper veteran

In a commentary posted online via Romenesko, the above-mentioned Bingham describes his move from a career in journalism to a new life in public relations. This was not an act of deliberation, but of desperation and disillusionment with the print journalism profession. More significantly, it represents another nail in the coffin of mainstream newspapers – and quite possibly the tombstone itself.

Bingham explains:

“After 17 years as a journalist, I finally was forced to make the leap to public relations last November,” Bingham wrote. “I hated to do it, because I love journalism. But I'm in my 40s and I was tired of the layoffs and low pay. Journalists who are just starting out aren't the only ones who need to worry about the future of this industry. Mid-career journalists also have issues, especially as we see more corporate suits taking over newspapers.”

Later he added:

“I miss journalism, but the time came to move on. For the most part I didn't mind the low wages because I was doing something I loved, but nowadays there's no corporate loyalty and the suits don't respect the tradeoff made by many journalists to be in the field. As much as I love the job, I don't know that I can recommend it to anyone these days.”

There’s nothing wrong with a journalist leaving to pursue a public relations career (I did it and have no regrets.) What’s wrong is when a dedicated, award winning professional leaves the job he loves because there is no money, no respect and no future.

As we read about the demise of newspapers and pressure for profit, remember that every rant, opinion and number you see has a human counterpart. Yes, newspapers are dying, but that’s no excuse for journalism to suffer the same fate.

Journalists like Bingham have a vital role to play in the future of news and in how newspapers will evolve to serve future generations (and they will.) I just hope that when the newspaper industry wakes up, all the good journalists won’t be somewhere else writing press releases.

(Hat tip: Media Orchard)

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Former Santa Barbara News-Press Columnist Speaks Out; N-P Publisher Becomes (Lou) Cannon Fodder

"Wendy McCaw may own the paper, but she doesn't own the news." -- Anonymous Santa Barbara News-Press executive

And on the Seventh Day, it all went to hell.

One week since editors and a long-time columnist walked out on their jobs, Santa Barbara’s media establishment is still firing salvos across a deepening chasm – reporters and community activists on one side, the rookie publisher and amateur owner on the other. The News-Press debacle may just be a bump in the road or a harbinger of greater journalistic tussles to come, but either way, the controversy continues to shine a light on the darker aspects of modern news.

The most detailed account so far of what happened on The Day the Journalism Died comes from Barney Brantingham, the aforementioned columnist (disclaimer: I used to work in Santa Barbara and knew Barney professionally.) Brantingham wrote about the experience in the Santa Barbara Independent, which also happens to be his new employer.

You should read the article for yourself – it’s interesting, revealing, inspiring and sad, and I am sure, knowing Barney, it is also the truth. Here’s a brief excerpt:

Last Thursday, I watched in dismay as (Editor Jerry) Roberts was escorted out of his office by (Publisher Travis) Armstrong. According to one witness, Armstrong barged into Roberts’s office saying, “I want you out of here now,” or words to that effect. This was quite a spectacle: A longtime San Francisco reporter and editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, a journalist of the highest reputation in the nation, kicked out by Mr. Poison Pen.

Many of us in the newsroom that day shook Jerry’s hand. Staffers rushed up, women were in tears, Metro Editor Jane Hulse threw her arms around Roberts, sobbing. Armstrong, widely despised in the community and clearly uncomfortable with the love and respect being shown the editor, growled, “Come on, Jerry, you have to leave the building now.”

As he hustled Roberts down the hall and toward the door flanked by Human Resources Director Yolanda Apodaca, sorrow turned to anger. Hulse yelled, “Fuck you, Travis. Haven’t you done enough?” The gathered staffers took up the chorus: “Fuck you!”

Cannon Blast
Perhaps the most damning comments about the demise of the News-Press, however, are from former Washington Post reporter and famed Reagan biographer Lou Cannon (another disclaimer: I’ve met and interviewed Lou on a few occasions, and consider him to be a real mench.)

Cannon, a Santa Barbara County resident, wrote a letter to Armstrong that was also published in the Independent. Following is some of what Cannon, one of the most respected journalists alive, had to say:

People don’t trust the news when it is merely an expression of opinion. In order to sell more newspapers and raise advertising rates, publishers realized they needed the readers’ trust. That is how modern newspapers evolved.

…It doesn’t take a big-time newspaper to practice honest journalism. Earlier in my career, I worked for the Merced Sun-Star, whose owner, the late Dean Lesher, was often (and accurately) described as idiosyncratic. But he understood the purpose of a newspaper. When one of the community’s most prominent attorneys (who had also represented the newspaper), was arrested for drunken driving, the lawyer wanted the news suppressed. Mr. Lesher refused to do it. Years later when I became editor of another Lesher paper, the Contra Costa Times, I asked what he expected of me. “Treat everyone without fear or favor,” he said.

Lesher was right. Cannon is right, so is Brantingham, and so are the editors who walked out.

Journalism has problems – declining readers and viewers, public mistrust and unprecedented economic pressures, not to mention the Nancy Graces of the world. But journalism still has principles, it has ethics, and it has journalists who are willing to endure great personal hardships to do what they believe is necessary to preserve the public trust.

I have one thing to say to these journalists, wherever they are: Thanks.

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The Santa Barbara News-Press: Another U.S. Newspaper Commits Suicide

We hear the talk and read the statistics: Newspapers are dying, circulation is eroding and readers are turning to blogs and mobile media for their news.

Then there is Santa Barbara, California. I lived in Santa Barbara for five years and worked in the area as a full-time journalist and later as a consultant to local politicians, including current Mayor Marty Blum. In this breezy coastal town, the newspaper is as much a part of the community as beach volleyball and bar hopping on State Street. This is a place where morning coffee is nothing without the newspaper, where journalists still enjoy a modicum of respect.

But all is not well in what was once journalism paradise. Six top editors and a long-time columnist (community icon Barney Brantingham) left the 151-year-old News-Press last week because of the owner and publisher’s alleged meddling in editorial decisions. The journalists claim owner Wendy McCaw and interim publisher Travis Armstrong (a former editorial writer) censored or killed news stories for personal or other reasons outside the conventions of journalistic integrity.

So at a time of newspaper layoffs, declining profits and growing uncertainty, the journalists walked. Their co-workers yelled epithets at the publisher. Heaven is now hell and no one knows when or how it will end.

The Los Angeles Times called the resignations an “editorial bloodbath.” I prefer to call it suicide, brought on, in part, by many of the same societal and technological shifts that are causing other papers to die more natural deaths.

News is bigger than ever, but journalism has become small. Reporters and editors with integrity, like those at the News-Press, now take a back seat to business and corporate interests who, in part because of pressures to assuage advertisers and subscribers, are loathe to run “bad” news.

"Brand" is Dead – Can Local News Be Far Behind?
I’ve said that newspapers have lost their brand identities, and that the “brand value” now lies with the individual journalist and not the institution for which he or she works. The News-Press, however, still had a strong brand within the community. It was the main source of local political news and local businesses still relied on the paper for advertising.

But the powers behind the News-Press misjudged their community. People in Santa Barbara want journalism – real journalism. They don’t cancel subscriptions because the paper runs a “negative” story. Advertisers don’t pull their ads because of something Brantingham writes. The paper is a friend at the table, not an enemy at the gate.

"We need a strong daily newspaper," Marshall Rose, executive director of the Downtown Organization, told the Times. "Business relies on the News-Press to provide current events and as a print medium to advertise.”

Added Cathy McGee, a waitress at local hangout Joe’s Café: "It's sad, because you don't have enough time to check things out at the City Council yourself," she said. "You depend on the newspaper to tell you that."

What’s really sad is you couldn’t read these or any other quotes in the News-Press. According to News-Press reporters, Armstrong killed a staff written story about the resignations. Instead, Armstrong wrote a “note to our readers” in which he said the newspaper would maintain “both the standards of journalism as well as the standards of this community with respect to personal privacy, fairness and good taste." The only other official comments came from the paper’s public relations person, who is based in San Francisco and had not been to the newsroom to assess the situation in person (for some interesting local perspective, check out the Santa Barbara Independent’s Media Blog.)

Is It Time for Citizen Journalism?
Santa Barbara takes its journalism in full – the good and the bad.

The question now is can it take the ugly, or will it become like other small cities that have little to no local news? Will Santa Barbara turn to the Internet and start a citizen journalism project, or will the once knowledgeable residents become part of the Great Uninformed? Will other media like The Independent fill the gaps, either real or perceived, and how will that affect local news and community culture?

One thing is certain: Santa Barbara now knows firsthand what many of us have experienced for some time. Print is not dead, but newspapers are dying. And it is not just from outside forces like the Internet, but from internal business objectives at odds with covering the news. Newspapers are killing themselves and they are doing it in full public view.

The future of news should be the brightest its ever been, with the ability to publish anytime anywhere, and to engage the public as part of the process. This should be newspapers’ renaissance – instead it is the Dark Ages, and the Santa Barbara News-Press is now one more reminder of just how bleak the journalism profession has become.

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Below the Fold: Criminal Justice Edition (or “Dead Puppies Tell No Tales”)

• Use An Arrow, Go to Jail: 2002 “Survivor” winner Brian Heidik was arrested for shooting a puppy he mistook for a coyote. But that’s not the weird part – no, the weird part is that Heidik shot the puppy with an arrow. That’s right, a freakin’ arrow. I’m sorry, but who the hell goes around shooting things with a bow and arrow? Heidik lives in Georgia, not Sherwood Forest. Was he wearing green tights too? I mean, don’t people use guns anymore?

• Coke is It: Three people have been accused of stealing “trade secrets” from Coca-Cola and trying to sell them to Pepsi. Meanwhile, poor Mr. Pibb and Dr. Brown can’t give their secrets away.

• Heart Less: Former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay died of a massive coronary, proving once and for all that you don’t need a heart to have a heart attack.

• Drown for the Cameras: A TV news cameraman was fined for encouraging young teens to ride their bikes across a flooded Ohio bridge. Geraldo immediately called the intrepid cameraman and offered him a job (okay, I made that part up, but you have to admit the thought crossed your mind.)

• On-the-Job Training: I was shocked to learn that Florida’s former prison chief will plead guilty to bribery charges. I mean, where on Earth could he have learned such bad behavior?

Drive-By Journalism, Media Bias, the Case of the Disappearing Client and the Gospel According to John (Wagner)

Being on vacation is great for letting the mind wander. The problem is getting your mind back once you return.

I’m still on vacation, so forgive the following items, as they were written without the benefit of my brain. If you like this better than my usual columns, however, please let me know and I’ll do my best to lose my mind more often:

Drive-By Journalism – People standing at freeway on-ramps selling flowers or fruit is not unusual where I live (Orange County, CA). But in Honolulu, a man stopped our airport shuttle to sell us a local newspaper.

Now, as a distribution model this is fraught with challenges, from lights that turn green too fast to getting your fingers stuck in car windows. Worse, this happened around Noon, so either this was an afternoon paper hot off the presses or a matter of some poor shlub trying to unload a product for hours with no success. Either way, I have seen the future of newspapers, and it’s covered in skid marks. In Hawaii, print is not just where words go to die (as Jeff Jarvis says), but where words get run over.

Is There Anybody Out There? – So a client hires my agency to plan and execute an online grassroots marketing campaign. We get a budget, we put a team together, we ask the client some follow-up questions…and then silence. No communication. E-mails are ignored, calls are not returned. It’s been two weeks, the launch is supposed to be in early July, and I’m about as dumb-founded as I was when I learned that everybody, in fact, did not love Raymond.

Anyone have a similar experience? If so, let me know how you solved it in ways that didn’t involve stalking or curling into a little ball and sobbing quietly.

It’s All in How You Look At It – Bill Bennett and many other conservatives – including President Bush – blasted “the media” for publishing stories about security-related information and jeopardizing ongoing investigations, and then getting rewarded with Pulitzer Prizes. So is this any different than the President rewarding the people responsible for screwing up our security with Congressional Medals of Freedom?

This Internet Thing – A local coffee grower in Kona told us that he has had to hire extra people and rethink their production process because of increased demand from the Internet, which represented a whopping 30 percent growth in the past year alone. Oh, and that’s with no advertising, no blogs or RSS or search marketing wizardry – just word-of-mouth and plain vanilla Google results. And the coffee was pretty good, too.

No Media, All (Okay, Most) of the Time – Yes, I picked up a Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine. I read the local Honolulu paper once (bought it at the hotel, not on the freeway). But other than that I enjoyed a weeklong media blackout, with no daily paper, no CNN, and no RSS feeds. I took a page from the Book of John Wagner and decided to live like a normal person for a while, one not saturated in media, discussions about media, and comments about discussions about media.

It was nice, I admit. I survived and I still feel like I’m part of the planet. Sure, I’ll go back to my media-filled ways next week – after all, it’s my job. But in my version of paradise there are only three things: Palm trees, ocean breezes and Lemon Drop martinis. If you see Anderson Cooper, drop your glass and run like hell.

Aloha – and Mahalo for your time.

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Scoble, Malik, and Carey: Lessons For Their Great Leaps Forward

Some people fear taking that first step. It doesn’t matter what they are moving toward – a new job, a new love, a commitment or a parting of the ways. The first step is almost always fraught with trepidation, like dipping your toes into a swimming pool you know will be ice cold.

I took my first step seven years ago, when I left a big PR firm to start my own company. Dan Gillmor took his when he left the San Jose Mercury News to become a media entrepreneur. Robert Scoble and Om Malik are taking their entrepreneurial steps, too. And now a 17-year veteran reporter, Christopher Carey, is taking his first step into the new Webolution, teaming with maverick businessman Mark Cuban on a citizen journalism web site.

While I’m sure there are brief moments of doubt, I don’t believe these men have any fears about their futures. I never did – in fact for me it was the opposite. Leaving the comfortable world of agency PR for the unpredictable and financially unstable world of new media consulting was easy. Staying was hard.

I’m glad to see so many people diving into the unknown – after all, that’s the only way to discover something new. The greatest threat to innovation is complacency, and too many in the PR, marketing and media business have been complacent for too long.

So good luck Scoble, bravo Om and amen to all who have taken that precious first step into whatever is next. But as someone who has been taking steps for some time, I feel an obligation to tell you the truth.

As you move forward the steps get harder, the weight greater and the path is at times unclear. You don’t know whether you are walking toward something you love or simply away from something you hate. But you keep going, keep moving, because standing still won’t help and going back is impossible. Forward is the way to the pool – the water will get warm, but you have to keep swimming.

Don’t fear the first step. Fear the last.

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Death to “Bloggers” – Long Live Writers

I never liked the word “blog.” First of all, one-syllable words give me the creeps. Why just one syllable, huh? What is the word trying to hide? I think if a word has only one syllable, it’s not trying hard enough.

Second, “blog” isn’t even a word of its own. It began as a combination of “web” and “log,” was shortened to “weblog,” and now it’s just “blog,” as if saying “weblog” took too much time. Pretty soon “blog” will be shortened to a high-pitched whistle only guys who still live with their parents can hear.

But the main reason (i.e., “real reason”) I don’t like the word “blog” is because of that other word it spawned: Blogger.

I’ve said this in client presentations and in public seminars, and now I’m going to say it here. When someone uses a telephone, we don’t call that person a “telephoner.” When someone paints with watercolors, we don’t call them a “watercolorer.” So why the hell is it when someone has a blog, that person is called a “blogger?”

If you write a blog, you are writer. Not a blogger, not a computerer, not a Typepadder, but a writer. Why is that so hard to understand?

It may seem like I’m overreacting, and perhaps I am a bit. But I am trying to make a point, and that is not to associate the platform someone uses to express their art or opinion with the personality traits of that person.

Here’s what I mean. The following is a from a white paper published by Eric Schwartzman, President of ipressroom and host of the always interesting “On the Record…Online” Podcast. In describing "Who are Bloggers?" Eric says:

"They are a sort of self-appointed vigilante, bent on shaping opinions of their own accord. There is no editorial process that they follow, no fact checkers that ensure their accuracy and no formal appeals process when they are wrong. For these reasons, most marketers -- until now -- have chosen not to engage with or empower bloggers, a choice which may be somewhat short-sighted, since these new citizen journalists can have a profound impact on popular opinion and corporate reputation."

Eric, I like you and would enjoy meeting you someday, but that kind of thinking is just so full of crap. It may scare prospective clients into hiring blog relations consultants, but it does a disservice to the communications profession and to the thousands of people who are using or who are considering self-publishing tools like blogs.

I doubt Eric would put his own blog, Spinfluencer, into the category of  “self-appointed vigilante.” And by the way, not all “bloggers” are “citizen journalists,” either.

There is enough misinformation and misconception about blogs out there already, so let’s not keep adding fuel to the fire. Eric should know better than to fan the flames – and so should we all.

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