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Category Archives: Journalism

You call this swill chile verde? (Why consumer review services like Yelp are useless)

Posted on 2011.04.15 by winterSmith 8 comments

Whom do we trust when we’re looking for information? Increasingly, research shows that Americans are more likely trust friends, peers and word-of-mouth over “experts.” For instance: A 2007 eMarketer survey of the most trusted sources of information for US consumers was topped by “friends, family and acquaintances” and “strangers with experience.” These sources outranked “teachers” and “newspapers and magazines.” A

Do we really need journalism programs in order to have great journalists?

Posted on 2010.12.26 by winterSmith 13 comments

Back in August, the University of Colorado proposed the discontinuance of its School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Since I hold a doctoral degree from the SJMC, I was more than a little bit interested. The move stood to affect people I know and regard highly, and I couldn’t help wondering how badly shutting the doors would devalue my degree.

Civility and truth: Keith Olbermann lays the boots to Ted Koppel and the myth of objective journalism

Posted on 2010.11.15 by winterSmith 11 comments

A few days ago Ted Koppel uncorked on the “partisanship” of today’s broadcasting news in an op-ed at the once-proud, once-respectable, but now utterly reprehensible Washington Post. In doing so, he attracted a great deal of praise from all kinds of people, including at least one or two of my highly respected colleagues. As I argued in a perhaps ill-tempered

Gallup poll reveals that public questions PR industry credibility: are PR practitioners to blame?

Posted on 2010.11.09 by winterSmith 11 comments

A Gallup poll released in August indicated that the advertising and PR industries aren’t viewed very favorably by the American public. One-third of respondents voiced a positive view of the advertising/pr industry (6 percent “very,” 27 percent “somewhat”). Twenty-seven percent were “neutral.” Twenty-five percent expressed a “somewhat negative view,” while 11 percent were “very negative.” (The rest didn’t venture an

Mainstream media joins Climategate whitewash

Posted on 2010.07.07 by winterSmith 2 comments

Brian noted last week that a Penn State investigation had cleared Dr. Michael Mann of any wrongdoing in the “Climategate” noise-up, which involved as-yet-unidentified criminals stealing private property and attempting to turn it into evidence of a vast climate disruption conspiracy on the part of greedy liberal scientists. Apparently the conspiracy runs deeper than anyone could have imagined. Dozens, if

Journalism ethics: headline of the day

Posted on 2010.07.01 by winterSmith 16 comments

The following two headlines are factually accurate and grammatically equivalent. 1: Spokeo Violates Federal Consumer Protection Law, Group Alleges 2: Group Alleges Spokeo Violates Federal Consumer Protection Law (Story.) However, from a journalistic ethics standpoint, item #1 is problematic. Discuss.

Journalism

Teabagger Jedi Ex Cathedra Journalism: now being practiced in Lynchburg, VA

Posted on 2010.03.23 by Bonesparkle 8 comments

It started innocently enough: A tea party organizer angry over Rep. Tom Perriello’s (D-Va.) vote in favor of health care reform published what he thought was the freshman member’s home address on a blog, in case any readers “want to drop by” and provide a “personal touch” to their views. Unfortunately, mistakes were made:

Of tigers and dogs and the howling jackals of the press: what the Woods trainwreck can teach us about public relations

Posted on 2010.03.18 by winterSmith 2 comments

In case you missed it, Eldrick Tont Woods, the world’s greatest golfer, has been up against some pressing PR issues of late. Pretty much nobody is arguing that he’s handled it well. Begin with the official record. While it’s not yet 100% clear what touched off the fateful events of November 27, 2009, everybody is denying that Elin was trying

Are liberals smarter than conservatives? Our nitwit media strike again…

Posted on 2010.02.28 by winterSmith 16 comments

CNN reported last week on a new study showing that liberalism, atheism and sexual exclusivity in males are linked to higher IQ scores. The findings are intriguing, for all the obvious reasons. Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and

9/11 happened on Obama’s watch! GOP noise machine already hard at work on the history books of the future

Posted on 2010.01.11 by winterSmith 13 comments

Something wicked this way comes. Item: Former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino says “we did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term.” Item: GOP apologist Mary Matalin says President Bush “inherited the most tragic attack on our own soil in our nation’s history.” Item: Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani says “We had

Closing credit wisdom from a dumb sitcom

Posted on 2010.01.06 by winterSmith 5 comments

If you’ve ever watched a Chuck Lorre produced show (Grace Under Fire, Dharma & Greg, Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory) you may have noted the text cards at the end of the credits sequence. They flash by so quickly it’s impossible to read them, but fortunately they’re all archived online. At the conclusion of this evening’s

Predicting the 21st Century: Nostraslammy’s ten-year review

Posted on 2010.01.05 by winterSmith 6 comments

Ten years ago, at the turn of the millennium, Nostraslammy took a stab at predicting the 21st Century, with a promise to check back every ten years to see how the prognostications were turning out. Odds are good I won’t be able to do a review every ten years until 2100, but I figure I’m probably good through 2030, at

Politico misquote of Perriello: sorry, but an apology just isn’t enough

Posted on 2009.10.09 by winterSmith One comment

On September 22, Politico ran an article by Glenn Thrush that egregiously misrepresented the words of Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA). The subject was town hall meetings and racist comments that he had witnessed. In due course Thrush’s “error” was “pointed out” and Perriello’s actual words were substituted. (The original post, corrected, appears here.) Thrush then issued an explanation and apology.

The Summer of Hate provides a watershed moment for “reasonable Republicans”

Posted on 2009.08.24 by winterSmith 19 comments

I’m not a Republican, but I know many people who are. I have GOP friends, co-workers and family members, and for that matter I used to be a Republican myself. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, to be sure. But it’s true. It’s no secret that I don’t agree with the GOP on much of anything

Why American media has such a signal-to-noise problem, pt. 2

Posted on 2009.08.04 by winterSmith 12 comments

Part 2 of a series; Previously: What Bell Labs and French Intellectuals Can Tell Us About Cronkite and Couric The Signal-to-Noise Journey of American Media The 20th Century represented a Golden Age of Institutional Journalism. The Yellow Journalism wars of the late 19th Century gave way to a more responsible mode of reporting built on ethical and professional codes that