Snowfall Time-Lapse Photos - South Shore

Posted on December 19, 2008
Filed Under Main, New Media Friday, News Article | 5 Comments

Here are all of my batch one - in order - of the snow storm photos. These are shots up until 3:30PM today.

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Local Mayor Doesn’t Care if Students are in School until July.

Posted on December 18, 2008
Filed Under Column, For Sale, Main | 3 Comments

A Boston-area politician decided Thursday to declare a snow emergency a full 21 hours before the first flake of snow was expected on his city’s streets.

That seemingly compassionate move was actually short-sighted, stupid and ultimately could put students in that town in school until the first week of July.

You see, in this particular city (like dozens around the Commonwealth) the decision-making process regarding snow emergencies creates a domino effect. First, the city or town hall powers decide to declare a snow emergency. Once the emergency is declared, no resident can park on the roadways so that plows can keep the street clear. These cars have to go somewhere and that somewhere is school parking lots.

But with residents’ cars jamming school parking lots there’s no place for teachers to park. So the school department has to follow suit and call school off. Then the kids get a free day in December.

Friday, all forecasts say that the first inch of snow won’t be on the ground in Boston until about 3-4PM. So, on a day when children could have gone to school, teachers could have been in class, and residents could have avoided the hassle of relocating their cars, one mayor has shaken his personal snow globe and turned the entire town upside down.

And if this same town acts as irresponsibly all winter long - can you say panic-stricken - then students and teachers will be making up lost days for no reason well into the summer.

Another smart move from Boston-area politicians. Another snow-job for common sense.

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French Toast Alert System!

Posted on December 18, 2008
Filed Under Main, New Media Friday | 1 Comment

If you’re unaware, the new way to measure snowfall amounts is with the French Toast Alert System.

Follow the alert levels via Harvey Leonard and the need for French Toast supplies.

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Pirate Cars!

Posted on December 18, 2008
Filed Under Column, For Sale, Main | Leave a Comment

The other day I pulled up beside a Yaris and just wanted to yell “YARIS” at the top of my lungs. It might have been immature and unnecessary, but I thought it funny.

Now I realize after yelling the name in my head repeatedly that it sounds a lot like YARRRIS. And that my friends is exactly the type of car a pirate would drive.

Seriously.

“Excuse me Bluebeard, is that your minivan?”

“Shiver me timbers, no. I drive a yarrrrghis. A pretty red one.”

Yaris. The car for pirates.

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Secret Service going through the motions. Stop the shoe attacks!

Posted on December 17, 2008
Filed Under Column, For Sale, Main | Leave a Comment

When Richard Reed tried to blow up a plane with explosives in his shoes, other passengers and then security were on him in a flash. It might have taken a while for the plane to get to the ground and for Reed to be taken into custody, but nowhere did anyone fall down on the job.

Now we see an Arab journalist (for an Iraqi TV station) throwing shoes at our President at a press conference and nowhere in the frame do we see anyone from the Secret Service tackling, shooting or even glaring menacingly at the perpetrator.

Here’s the video…

Can you tell me that the brave souls in this government agency aren’t as fed up with George Bush as are the rest of the American public?

Seriously. The shoe thrower got off two shoes and some shouts before anyone even came close to him. Luckily, the President is so adept at dodging blame and playing laser tag that he deftly avoided damage from the hurled Hush Puppies.

Tell me what you think. Would Obama be quicker? Palin?

Would McCain have experienced a flashback?

What’s the deal here. I know we’re finished with this President, but do your job already. Take a shoe for the Commander in Chief. It’s your duty.

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The one in which I turn blue trying to explain why I feel bloggers are not automatically journalists.

Posted on December 16, 2008
Filed Under Column, For Sale, Main | 25 Comments

If it were up to me, I would introduce legislation that would require all journalists to be licensed. And a requirement of that licensing process would include at least two years of collegiate study and at least one year of full-time work as a reporter. Further, I would ask that the law require all prospective journalists to provide letters of reference from no fewer than three editors who would vouch for said reporter’s judgment and skill.

That’s not going to happen. Not in an era that sees businesses flocking to the most widely viewed media with story pitches. Not in a time when news organizations (ironically) are the first to lose sight of how important story telling and rich, informative articles are to an informed public. And certainly not in a time when some of the smartest people I know can’t make a distinction between the practice of journalism and the classification of journalist.

Maybe the solution is a simple realignment of naming conventions. We can change ‘journalist’ into ‘media delivery person’ and leave the process of journalism alone. Because in my understanding - developed from 20+ years in the news industry and advanced study in communications and journalism - the process of journalism requires that you have an editor assigning, critiquing and hopefully refining your reporting so that it delivers the most unbiased and informative information to a publication’s readership.

The media delivery people of today - journalists, bloggers, videographers, pundits and even PR flacks - are increasingly creating content for consumers without that layer of refinement. I’ve included journalists here too because newsrooms are being decimated by budget cuts and a lot more content is flying onto newsprint and into the ether without editors touching a red pen to it.

You might ask if we need editors. Can’t people decide what content is good or bad by themselves? Wouldn’t things be much better if there was a shakeout and more competition in the news industry? Maybe both are true.

Perhaps we’d be better off without the reporters who broke the story about the major auto manufacturers flying private jets to Washington. Oh, you read that on a blog. Yeah, you read it there because it was reported first by the D.C. press.

First to the public doesn’t indicate who did the hard work behind the scenes.

Maybe we’d be better off without knowing that Illinois government is for sale. Oh, that was a Federal investigation? Yes it was, but the story was shared by trained journalists who had the respect and the skill to follow that story down and then share it with the world.

Well, if the papers weren’t around, there would be bloggers and new media folks to fill the void. Maybe so. But the reality is that on election night, the majority of the country got its news from four outlets and then re-reported the news of the election. When the major outlets are dead, is Billy the blogger going to have the resources and the reach to inform the entire country about election results?

A friend recently shared with me an article written by Boston University journalism professor Chris Daly. This article - Are Bloggers Journalists? - made me consider my stance and refine my argument re: blogging isn’t journalism.

After taking us from 1760 to present-day America, Daly’s penultamate point is:

Nowadays, when we ask whether someone is a journalist, we may need to refine the question. We should ask: Is this the kind of journalist who presents analysis, commentary, or political rants? Or, is this the kind of journalist who offers the fruits of reporting? Or some of both? The issue is not the job title but the activity.

I agree, sort of. On more than one occasion I’ve been confused by my social-media brethren (including Steve Garfield, Christopher Penn and even Ari Herzog) as to what they feel constitutes journalism. My feeling was that journalism came from a reporter who submitted work to an editor at a newsroom - physical or virtual - and from that came content for a reading/viewing/consuming public.

The stance I received from these, and other people, was that content creators of all kinds should get the same treatment, benefits and access as ‘traditional’ media. And in fact, that in most cases there shouldn’t be a line drawn between the two. That’s the crux of my frustration.

How can anyone, and these people are very smart, assign the title of journalist to someone with access to a piece of technology?

If I hand my iPhone to my nephew and he figures out how to send video to iReport, is he a journalist?

If my cat wanders across my keyboard and creates a blog entry by pure happenstance, is she a journalist?

The trap people sometimes fall into is being too inclusionary and accepting of everyone. Like the paintings made with excrement a few decades back, there are certainly differing opinions as to what constitutes art. The same can be said of what makes an attractive house or a pleasant sound.

The interpretation is less acceptable when evaluating plumbing, driving, reporting and a host of other practices. If you don’t seal the gas main, you’ve done a bad job of plumbing. If you break traffic laws, you’ve done a bad job of driving. If you don’t present a balanced report of events from which an audience can make an informed opinion, you’ve done a poor job of reporting.

Sure, I’m open to the edges of journalism including opinion pieces, commentary, features and even some longer creative non-fiction approaches. But the vetting of an editor, the training of a J-School (or similar field experience) and an understanding of libel, slander and ethics should all be part of a journalist’s background.

Until that occurs, bloggers don’t get my nod as journalists.