#Gawker Head Nick Denton says @TMZ king of scoops

In what may be a high water mark for a change in blogs and blogging, Gawker's (#Gawker) Nick Denton says that blogs as commenters may be OK, but news-breaking blogging beats it every time. Denton also gives credit to TMZ.com, known as @TMZ on Twitter, for beating it in breaking news stories. Here's a taste of what Nick wrote:

One law of media competition applies as strongly to web properties as it did to their predecessors: scoops drive audience growth. Gawker Media experienced that rule, painfully, as Harvey Levin's TMZ eclipsed our overly bloggy Hollywood site, Defamer. TMZ's growth was built upon three gigantic stories: Mel Gibson's meltdown; Michael Richards' racist outburst; and Michael Jackson's death...We learned our lesson: aggressive news-mongering trumps satirical blogging.

Denton also explains that much of Gawker's most popular stories are spread by Facebook and Twitter, something that has been experienced at Zennie62.com. Indeed, it's because of Facebook and Twitter that Zennie62.com has been able to sustain being off Google News, suffering about a 10 percent traffic drop, whereas other sites were impacted as much as 90 percent.

Associated Press Is Not Only News Originator

Something else important to add. Denton did not state this, but The Associated Press isn't the only originator of news.   Even as The Associated Press seems to have convinced Google News otherwise.  The fact is The AP's four-year old work to diminish blogs and bloggers via accusations of content theft, have chased many away from the AP.  Meanwhile, AP fails to do what it asks blogs and bloggers to do, link to them.

For example, one experience this blogger has had as a CityBrights blogger at SFGate.com, is that TMZ would run a scoop on a celebrity, and rather than use TMZ, SFGate would wait for The Associated Press version of the same story.

When The Associated Press version was released, it would not mention TMZ.com, let alone contain a link to the blog site.  

With that, Google News working with The Associated Press should be considered an effort against blogs and blogging.  All of that as Gawker moves more toward the issuance of original news.   See a coming content war?  

Stay tuned.  Visit Gawker here for the whole Denton post.

Happy Hanukkah 2010: Celebrating Hanukkah in Oakland and Atlanta

Last year, this blogger was in Oakland for Hanukkah, and Mom was in Georgia. This year, finds the Mac Book (now Mac Book Pro) blogging from Atlanta, and it's Hanukkah eve. So, again for those not in the know, what is Hanukkah?

As written before (why reinvent the wheel?)...

This is the eighth day of the Festival of Light on the eve of what is called the commemoration of the miracle of the oil. Each day, one kindles the Hanukkah lights of a special candelabrum, the Menorah which has nine branches, and does this once each day for eight days (December 11th to December 19th), increasing the number of lights each evening. So for this time before sundown we kindle one light. (In the Jewish calendar the day begins at night, then starts the 1st day of Hanukkah.)


The ritual celebrates the victorious battle of the Jewish rebel army the Maccabees over the supposedly much superior Syrians in 165 B.C. and the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. (By the way, there are many variations of this history, so chime in with any variation, if you please.)

Again, if you're in Oakland, make your way to  the place I would visit if I were there.  It's is called Grand Bakery and its on 3264 Grand Ave just up the street from The Grand Lake Theater; the number is 510-465-1110.   Hurry!  Because last year they ran out the first day because they had such a rush.  

Also a great event is this Friday at Temple Sinai where their Hanukkah Dinner and Celebration starts at 5:30 PM at , 2808 Summit Street. And yes, you bring your own dinner and menorah; the Temple provides the sufganiyot.

What about Atlanta? A lot!

Now in Atlanta, where a large Jewish community thrives, there are a vast number of Hanukkah-related events.  Access Atlanta has a great website listing many of them.

Morgan Freeman World Cup Speech Makes Twitter Trend

The Legendary Actor Morgan Freeman is the voice for America's presentation to host the 2022 World Cup, and the news is causing "Morgan Freeman" to become a trending topic.

The USA presentation is underway as this is being written. You can see the FIFA.com live stream here.

The USA team was led by President Bill Clinton, US Attorney General Eric Holder, Big Committee head Sunil Gulati, Carlos Cordeiro, Don Garber and Morgan Freeman.

Later today, FIFA will announce which nation wins the right to host the 2020 World Cup.

Stay tuned.

Google News lets Associated Press take over, kick out blogs

Looking for more clues regarding reasons for Google News' recent Meta Tags Program, that has kicked out many good and liberal blogs? This new one fits right in with the issue of how Google's responding to cases brought forward challenging Internet publishers under the "Hot News Doctrine" that this blogger wrote about here.

In the FlyOnTheWall.com case, Google wrote a "Friend of the Court" brief in support of the news aggregator; writing an opposing one, was, of all media companies, the Associated Press. That was in June 2010.

On Monday August 30th, Monday, August 30, 2010, Josh Cohen, Senior Business Product Manager for Google News, made this announcement on its blog:

We’ve extended our existing licensing agreement with the Associated Press that permits us to host its content on Google properties such as Google News. We look forward to future collaborations, including on ways Google and AP can work together to create a better user experience and new revenue opportunities.

Google has done a deal with a sworn enemy of blogs and bloggers, and that has contributed to the chain of events leading to the massacre of blogs from Google News. Google News has become to blogs, what Anakin Skywalker is to the Jedi.

This Google Meta Tags project started with Google hearing claims from the Associated Press in 2007 that they were not getting credit for news that started with them.  (Of course, this makes you think blogs don't originate news, right?)

Here, Google News was, back then, working to protect The Associated Press from it's own ineptitude regarding the Online World. The issue then was what Google, undoubtedly directed by the AP, called "duplicate content." Google's Josh Cohen, who's emerging as a major player in this issue, wrote:

By removing duplicate articles from our results, we’ll be able to surface even more stories and viewpoints from journalists and publishers from around the world. This change will provide more room on Google News for publishers' most highly valued content: original content. Previously, some of this content could be harder to find on Google News, and as a result of this change, you'll have easier access to more of this content, and publishers will likely receive more traffic to their original content.


Because the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, UK Press Association and the Canadian Press don't have a consumer website where they publish their content, they have not been able to benefit from the traffic that Google News drives to other publishers. As a result, we’re hosting it on Google News.

In other words, Google helped the AP because the AP lacked its own website?  That's nuts, but that's what was written by Google's Mr. Cohen in 2007.   But the point is, at the same time The Associated Press was railing against bloggers and fair-use, it found an ear in the case of Google's Cohen.

The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse were two media companies working against Google Legal in the FlyOnTheWall.com case. But that was not Google News, it was Google Legal. Google News actions seemed to be working against Google's overall legal strategy for some years, until 2010.

Now, Google News actions and relationship with the Associated Press, have been expressed in a new system to kick out bloggers.  What masks this, are blind and stupid claims that Google's cleaning out the spammy publishers.  Even Google's Matt Cutts said this; he's obviously not informed.    Because if Cutts were informed, he would admit that Google News is not being honest, because giant 380,000 person content farms like Associated Content, which do produce spammy posts, are still on Google News.

In other words, a big company like Google does not always have people who work "as one" unit. To state, again, there seems to be deep internal conflicts within Google, but they need to rein in Google News before The Associated Press winds up owning it via squatter's rights.

And a note, for bloggers, use of social bookmarks and Twitter are a great alternative to Google News.  It's worked for Zennie62.com.

Drew Brees Is S.I. Sportsman Of The Year

Congratulations to New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees for winning Sports Illustrated's "Sportsman of The Year" prize.

It's really for all of the support Brees has given to the City of New Orleans, and how the team's Super Bowl win gave a much needed boost to a deserving city.

While the Saints aren't performing as well as Head Coach Sean Peyton would prefer at this point in the season, they're still in the playoff hunt.   But this space doubts the Saints can withstand the surging Atlanta Falcons.

WikiLeaks and Journalist Response

In the 1970s Daniel Ellsberg became known as "the most dangerous man in America." Ellsberg is known for publishing the Pentagon Papers. Some people believe that he is a revolutionist and are grateful for what he exposed, others believe that he is a traitor to America. For those who aren't aware of Ellsberg trial read up on it here.

Currently the most talked about topic (especially amongst New England School of Communications [NESCOM] students and professors) has been WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks has become the "leak resource."

During Ed Rice's Writing & Reporting at NESCom he discussed and compared how the WikiLeaks and Pentagon Papers are related. How should journalists respond to this? Should the journalists that are given these classified documents feel obligated to publish them? 

During Ellsberg's trial the two questions that were posed in order to decide whether or not what he did was illegal were: could the American people understand the documents as they were (meaning without having to look up terms or have the documents explained) and is this a threat to our national security? The answer to both of those questions was no.

Today, journalists are put on the spot as to whether or not it's okay to be posting these documents. Rice believes that if the two aforementioned questions are answered with a no, then the American people should be informed and these documents should be shared. 

Have there been documents posted that answer yes to either of those questions, and should Americans be worrying about documents that could potentially harm the security of other nations?

In Thursday, December 2, 2010's class with Rice students will be bringing in examples that they believe should not have been published (if there are any). This post is a prelude to the post that will be made on Thursday and more in-depth information will be shared. 

How will this impact the future of journalism? Wait and see.

Originally Published at The Future of Journalism.

Sarah Palin on Wikileaks and North Korea: not ready for POTUS

Once again, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who says she's considering running for President of The United States (POTUS) in 2012 and thinks she can beat President Barack Obama, is showing why she's not ready to run the United States. Her lack of understanding of foreign policy details and facts is matched only by her willingness to talk openly and publicly and show it.

First, on Glen Beck's Show last week, Sarah Palin said that North Korea, long an enemy of the United States, is our ally; Beck corrected her, to witch she said "We're bound by prudence to stand with our South Korean allies, yes." Stop for a moment to consider that error. If one's as politically aware and ready to be leader of the Free World, as Palin wants us to consider her to be, how can she think that a leader of the non-Free World would be America's ally.

Even more disturbing is that we, you and I, get a good part of our information from the World around us, including our peers. Palin's error says two things: first, that she wasn't paying attention to what was on the TV news, and second, that her peers weren't either. On top of all that, Palin's angry the media pointed to her error!

The reason people in the media, and in social networks, have done so is because anyone who dreams of being President, and has the reach to express it to millions, should expect that we're going to hang on her every word. Sarah Palin's pedestrian view of America in the World - in other words, she's only paying attention a quarter of the time - is not the stuff of a good presidential candidate, let alone a good congressional elected official. (Remember, Palin wanted to be a U.S. Senator.)

But that doesn't stop Palin from talking almost every day, or from her supporters pushing her. Palin now blames the Obama Administration for Wikileaks' latest cables, and says on her Facebook page that Obama should have "done more," or words to that effect, to prevent their release.

She writes: "We all applaud the successful thwarting of the Christmas-Tree Bomber and hope our government continues to do all it can to keep us safe. However, the latest round of publications of leaked classified U.S. documents through the shady organization called Wikileaks raises serious questions about the Obama administration’s incompetent handling of this whole fiasco."

That statement shows Palin has no clue of the limits of Presidential Power (appropriate to cap here) or understanding of the spread of information in a democracy. Moreover, that statement, combined with the North Korea view, which, while reported to be a "gaffe," I think was a sincere misunderstanding of foreign political geography, prove that the real incompetent is Sarah Palin.

But hubris fuels people to do stupid things, which is why Sarah Palin just may run for President, ready or not.

What's so dangerous about Palin is her lack of willingness to admit when she's wrong.  That's going to come back to bite her in the rear come 2011.