Katie Couric: 4 out of 5? Not bad, Katie, not bad. But where's the love?

What does YouTube bring to journalism?

Katie Couric offered an overview in a video celebrating 5 years of YouTube without referring to us here at Zennie's

"I commend all the citizen journalists who are showing us their realities and proving that even Burma, China, or Africa can be just a click away."

~Katie Couric

OK, I'll take that, even though I put a lot less on YouTube than Zennie does. We've been commended, but we didn't make her list. Well, what I mean is, he didn't make it. I'm not surprised that I didn't make it, I use YouTube as a sort of incidental tool.

Zennie, though? Zennie has been partnering with YouTube and attracting the kind of discussions in the reply area that built traffic from the start.

"Raising awareness of human rights abuses and providing first hand accounts of conflicts and catastrophes moments after they strike."

~Katie Couric

She came up with a list of five pieces she thinks are demonstrative of how YouTube can be a catalyst for change.

Actually, it's a pretty good list. Who in the U.S. can forget Virginia Senator George Allen's infamous "Macaca" comment? That certainly put politicians on notice. She included the 2007 anti-government protests in Burma, the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province in China, and the murder of Neda Agha-Soltan during the Iranian election protests in 2009.

Four entirely exemplary videos.

But footage of a lion attacking a water buffalo on the Africa plain? Is that really more important to the story of YouTube than, say, interviews with Cornell West and Tavis Smiley, or footage from Obama's campaign and the convention that nominated him?

Come on, Ms. Couric - where's the love?

What does YouTube bring to your view of the world?

Thomas Hayes is an entrepreneur, journalist, political staffer, and photographer who contributes regularly to a host of web sites on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community. He's been contributing here at Zennie's since prior to the Democrat's National Convention in Denver that nominated our current President in August of 2008, and hereby officially totally apologizes to Zennie for not doing more video -- for real :)

Do the causes of Global warming matter?

Let's try a little hypothetical situation:

You're standing on a riverbank and you see more and more people who appear to be trying to get out of the river, but they're tired and can't swim to shore so they're being swept on out to sea. Do you

1. go upstream and figure out why they're all in the river, or
   
2. blame the policies of the Bush~Cheney Administration, or
   
3. ignore the cause and hope sound-bites on the 6:00 news will make it clear that you're not pointing fingers but definitely in favor of keeping people from drowning?

While you're thinking which of those three you'd suggest, watch this excerpt from a recent interview:

Is that your final answer?

While forming a sub-cabinet to study the issue isn't exactly the epitome of small-government solutions, it is creative. It wasn't, however, one of the choices you were offered.

If you picked "3" you were likely impressed by Governor Sarah Palin's amazing winking soundbite show in what was supposed to be a debate Thursday night. I suggest you move to Alaska where you can rest assured you'll be hearing a lot more sound bites from her in the coming months and years.

If you picked "2" I sympathize, but you'd better be out working to get Obama elected, and working to add forward-thinking progressives who think about energy and the environment in terms of the future to both the U.S. House and Senate or you'll be whining on November 5th.

If you picked "1" feel free to add me to your friends list, we just might have something in common.

We urgently need a comprehensive energy policy for the United State that will, at a minimum:

• Incorporate energy into an overall national security policy.
• Unify energy and environmental policy, recognizing our obligation to act as planet-stewards on behalf of future generations.
• Provide short-term relief to American families facing pain at the pump
• Help create new jobs by strategically investing to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future.
  
• Provide incentives to save more oil than we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela combined.
  
• Put hundreds of thousands of Plug-In Hybrid cars on the road sooner rather than later. Our government must work to encourage those vehicles are being built here in America.
  
• Ensure 10% or more of our electricity comes from renewable sources within 5 years, and aim for 25% within 15 years.
  
• Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to substantively reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Let's talk about the real world

The causes of global warming do matter. And while there is more than one reason people may fall in the river, making sure other people aren't pushing them in and figuring out what the main causes are -- and preventing those -- will save us a lot of time and risk we'll otherwise invest in hauling drowning people to shore. Governor Palin's flippant, sound-bite-ready reaction shows a naive, dangerous lack of understanding.

read more | digg story

Sarah Palin Distracts Voters and Journalists With Her Legs

This video shows that Alaska Governor and GOP hopeful VP Candidate uses her legs to gain an advantage. But we Democrats must undertand that we're all gaining from this process -- eventually people will get tired of the whole deal of seeing her legs and vote for Obama = Biden.

See this on CNN iReport.

Katie Couric Digg's The DNC Convention

Katie Couric's discovered "Digg" for the DNC Convention. See her video-blog here:

Tom Shales Crits Matt Lauer For Weak Larry Craig Interview

Tom Shales is taking Matt Lauer to the wood shed over his weak interview of Senator Larry Craig.

For Lauer, self-important co-host of NBC's "Today" show, the interview was obviously seen as a potential career- and credibility-builder, but even when he did ask an arguably tough question, he essentially apologized for it. He prefaced a question about whether the senator might be bisexual by saying to Craig, "You're going to have to forgive me for this."

What? This is a journalist practicing journalism? Lauer's like a virgin veteran, an old hand who seems inexperienced. Diane Sawyer, to name one example, would have done a much better interview. Anyone on "60 Minutes," Wallace or another member of the vaunted team, would have done a better one. Lauer's former "Today" co-host, the much-maligned Katie Couric, also would likely have done a more effective job.

Well, at least Matt won't replace Katie Couric over at CBS!