More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com
YouTube, MySpace, Metacafe, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, StupidVideos and Sclipo
I couldn't wait to visit the new Lake Chalet Restaurant at the restored Lake Merritt Boathouse, so I made a plan with my friend Gab to be there when the doors opened for the first time right at 5 PM last Monday, August 17th.
As you may recall, I recently posted a video-blog of the day the ribbon was cut to dedicate the boathouse and Lake Chalet owner Lara Truppelli and Executive Chef Jarad Gallagher were kind enough to give me an interview at the bar as the eatery was under construction. Now, it's open and man is it terrific!
What's so exciting is the setting. The Boathouse is right on the shore of Lake Merritt and a seat at the "Pumphouse Bar" section of the place on a sunny day as Monday was is a treat to the kind of Oakland many of us have wanted to see and cause to happen for a long time. That's where we sat after we arrived. The interior is both modern, futuristic in a way, and warm.
Lara came over to say hello and check on us; she and her husband Gar Truppelli really deserve all the accolades they get for creating a new destination place in Oakland right where it should be at Lake Merritt. As Gar said "It's wonderful. Three-and-a-half years it took to get to this."
We were like kids in a candy store, my friend and I, trying to figure out what to order. So, we turned to Gallagher who said he wanted us to try "something that we normally would not get" and offered several suggestions. Out of those, we ordered two dishes: Brandade Fish Sticks and Herloom Tomato and Buratta Cheese. We also elected to go on a kind of tour of Lake Chalet's cocktail offerings starting with me and Old Whiskey and a kind of mint drink Gab had that I can't remember the name of and I'm not going to bug her to ask about it.
Then Gallagher brought over a nice surprise: his special English Pea Soup. Now I haven't eaten pea soup since I was six, but I never had English Pea Soup with White Truffle Oil, (and found this great blog post about making it!). I hated pea soup; not this time. Not this kind.
The soup and the Herloom Tomato and Buratta Cheese were out of this world! Gallagher said he had the Buratta Cheese delivered from Italy and so wanted us to give him our impression of it and the tomatos. As we said in the video, just great. The meal dances in your mouth.
Since we were part of the first set of patrons to arrive at the Lake Chalet it was a perfect place to talk and to just stop and admire the place. Then the rush came in and the Lake Chalet became a kind of cool center of Oakland.
It seemed as if almost everyone in the town walked in at some point that night: people who live around the Lake, folks young and old, and even celebrity politicos like California Attorney General Jerry Brown, who, Lara told me, was really helpful in helping them get a good lease agreement, my friends the ever-energetic Oakland builder Mike Baines, and Bob and Barbara Schock (Bob's a well-known Oakland-based lawyer), and of course Helen. I think we ended up closing the place down.
Yeah. We did. Thanks Lara and Gar!
Folks, I love this place. You've got to visit it. Soon.
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Salon.com's loss can be a gain for its ex-employees
More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com
This one comes from the Scooby-do "ruh?" files, er, Valleywag.com. John Cook explains that San Francisco based news website Salon.com is laying off six people to become more of a "true website."
Salon CEO Richard Gingras told Gawker they released three editors, one writer, one photo editor, and one producer. After some digging, Valleywag's Cook produced this list:
Jeanne Carstensen, managing editor
Kevin Berger, features editor
Katharine Mieszkowski, senior writer
Joy Press, culture editor
Caitlin Shamberg, multimedia editor
Julie Coburn, photo editor
My recommendation is that all of them start their own blogs and video channels, and then get their own sponsors or sign up as a You Tube Partner, as I have been. My prediction for news in new media is that more and more it will become personality-driven. That is we'll follow people and news about or by people far more than brands, unless the brand happens to be a person.
Do we have this already? Yes. It's in - drum roll please - the entertainment industry. We follow bands and singers less than record labels. It's as if record labels are a dime-a-dozen and performers move from one to the other or start their own. That's where news is headed.
Why?
I think it's a function of how people use the web: to look for information about other people. We like to learn what other people have to say or what they did; it's no surprise that the largest internet traffic draws are people and what they do. Now, very soon, that something's going to be reporting, blogging, or vlogging about the news.
In the wake of this development websites like Salon will die a slow death. Sites like The Huffington Post will survive and thrive because they get that people want to read what, for example, Alec Baldwin thinks about Michael Vick.
Is this a bad development? No. It's more honest. By that, I mean it's more attune to where our culture is going. I really don't like the idea that we had to rely on a few brands to deliver the news. It opens a lot of questions in hindsight, like what other news did we miss because an editor considered it not newsworthy?
The Drudge Report hit the Internet big time after reporting on a story Newsweek buried: the affair between then-President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Now, we know who Matt Drudge is and Newsweek's a shadow of its former circulation self.
With this Drudge the man has become Drudge the brand as much as Rush Limbaugh has on radio. Yes, they're both conservative, but they set the standard for the future of news. And since nature abhors a vacuum, liberal personalities will grow to take on Drudge and Limbaugh on the Internet and radio. Indeed, we already have Andrew Sullivan and his blog, as one example, and Taylor Marsh as another. News by pundit. It's only a matter of time before we have more names that become brands, moving from place to place online or being in many places at once.
Buckle up.
This one comes from the Scooby-do "ruh?" files, er, Valleywag.com. John Cook explains that San Francisco based news website Salon.com is laying off six people to become more of a "true website."
Salon CEO Richard Gingras told Gawker they released three editors, one writer, one photo editor, and one producer. After some digging, Valleywag's Cook produced this list:
Jeanne Carstensen, managing editor
Kevin Berger, features editor
Katharine Mieszkowski, senior writer
Joy Press, culture editor
Caitlin Shamberg, multimedia editor
Julie Coburn, photo editor
My recommendation is that all of them start their own blogs and video channels, and then get their own sponsors or sign up as a You Tube Partner, as I have been. My prediction for news in new media is that more and more it will become personality-driven. That is we'll follow people and news about or by people far more than brands, unless the brand happens to be a person.
Do we have this already? Yes. It's in - drum roll please - the entertainment industry. We follow bands and singers less than record labels. It's as if record labels are a dime-a-dozen and performers move from one to the other or start their own. That's where news is headed.
Why?
I think it's a function of how people use the web: to look for information about other people. We like to learn what other people have to say or what they did; it's no surprise that the largest internet traffic draws are people and what they do. Now, very soon, that something's going to be reporting, blogging, or vlogging about the news.
In the wake of this development websites like Salon will die a slow death. Sites like The Huffington Post will survive and thrive because they get that people want to read what, for example, Alec Baldwin thinks about Michael Vick.
Is this a bad development? No. It's more honest. By that, I mean it's more attune to where our culture is going. I really don't like the idea that we had to rely on a few brands to deliver the news. It opens a lot of questions in hindsight, like what other news did we miss because an editor considered it not newsworthy?
The Drudge Report hit the Internet big time after reporting on a story Newsweek buried: the affair between then-President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Now, we know who Matt Drudge is and Newsweek's a shadow of its former circulation self.
With this Drudge the man has become Drudge the brand as much as Rush Limbaugh has on radio. Yes, they're both conservative, but they set the standard for the future of news. And since nature abhors a vacuum, liberal personalities will grow to take on Drudge and Limbaugh on the Internet and radio. Indeed, we already have Andrew Sullivan and his blog, as one example, and Taylor Marsh as another. News by pundit. It's only a matter of time before we have more names that become brands, moving from place to place online or being in many places at once.
Buckle up.
Robert Novak RIP: he helped kids grow
More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com
I know you're scratching your head over that title because you know of the now-late Chicago Sun-Times Columnist as a conservative and pugilist, and SF Chronicle Editor-at-Large has a great blog post on Novak's missed call on Salvadoran death squads, but "helped kids grow?"
Yes.
I discovered this for myself one day about two years ago when I was looking to write a blog attacking Novak, who died of a cancerous brain tumor today. In searching around I stumbled on a photograph featuring a group of African American kids and adults holding what looked like a plaque and an elderly Caucasian man dressed like...Robert Novak. This photo:
I fell out of my chair.
See, Novak has a well-cultivated and well-deserved reputation as a muckraking "Prince of Darkness" all the way down to the black three-piece suits he wore on television. I saw Novak as the kind of conservative one loves to hate, but I never thought of him as racist, just cold blooded, especially in the way he outed Valerie Plame. But that photo, and this one:
..changed my view of him - Novak has a heart - and then more so when I learned that these picts were from Youth Leadership Foundation (YLF) events, and that Novak was more than just a visitor, he was on the board of directors. Moreover, Novak contributed not a small amount of money to YLF. At their 2005 awards gathering he contributed $50,000.
Now, even if that may not have been all his own money - some board members get credit for causing others to donate - the effort required to raise $50,000 for any non-profit organization is considerable. Plus, the contribution was just for that event; Novak has been involved with YLF almost since its creation in 1997.
What does YLF do? It's based in Washington DC and has the charge of helping young people from DC's poorest neighborhoods between 8 and 15 years old who are "just passing" and need some attention and guidance to help them make the extra effort in school and in life to reach their potential.
Novak was as involved in YLF as he was in giving Washington politicians a headache. Today, you'll read a lot of blogs and columns about Novak, almost all of them referring to his work as a columnist. Well, that's not all there was to Novak. The "Prince of Darkness" as it turned out, was his stage name. It's not surprise that donations in Novak's name are to be directed to YLF, because in reality Robert Novak was a community leader who cared about kids and their growth into the leaders of tomorrow.
I know you're scratching your head over that title because you know of the now-late Chicago Sun-Times Columnist as a conservative and pugilist, and SF Chronicle Editor-at-Large has a great blog post on Novak's missed call on Salvadoran death squads, but "helped kids grow?"
Yes.
I discovered this for myself one day about two years ago when I was looking to write a blog attacking Novak, who died of a cancerous brain tumor today. In searching around I stumbled on a photograph featuring a group of African American kids and adults holding what looked like a plaque and an elderly Caucasian man dressed like...Robert Novak. This photo:
I fell out of my chair.
See, Novak has a well-cultivated and well-deserved reputation as a muckraking "Prince of Darkness" all the way down to the black three-piece suits he wore on television. I saw Novak as the kind of conservative one loves to hate, but I never thought of him as racist, just cold blooded, especially in the way he outed Valerie Plame. But that photo, and this one:
..changed my view of him - Novak has a heart - and then more so when I learned that these picts were from Youth Leadership Foundation (YLF) events, and that Novak was more than just a visitor, he was on the board of directors. Moreover, Novak contributed not a small amount of money to YLF. At their 2005 awards gathering he contributed $50,000.
Now, even if that may not have been all his own money - some board members get credit for causing others to donate - the effort required to raise $50,000 for any non-profit organization is considerable. Plus, the contribution was just for that event; Novak has been involved with YLF almost since its creation in 1997.
What does YLF do? It's based in Washington DC and has the charge of helping young people from DC's poorest neighborhoods between 8 and 15 years old who are "just passing" and need some attention and guidance to help them make the extra effort in school and in life to reach their potential.
Novak was as involved in YLF as he was in giving Washington politicians a headache. Today, you'll read a lot of blogs and columns about Novak, almost all of them referring to his work as a columnist. Well, that's not all there was to Novak. The "Prince of Darkness" as it turned out, was his stage name. It's not surprise that donations in Novak's name are to be directed to YLF, because in reality Robert Novak was a community leader who cared about kids and their growth into the leaders of tomorrow.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Richmond, Ca Mayor on Chevron refinery issue
More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com
On YouTube.com
In the wake of my interview with Chevron employee Dennis Roos I've gotten a number of email and calls updating me on the matter of the negotiations to restart the stopped construction of the improvements to the Richmond refinery.
One of them was this "Meet The Mayor" community meeting held Friday, August 7th at 5:30 PM. Here, one could ask questions of Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin for one hour, but my intent was to attend, film residents who were concerned about the project, pro and con, and after it was over, get the Mayor's direct point of view if she would give it to me. (Take note of that.)
To review, Chevron's planned upgrade of their giant Richmond oil refinery was stalled because environmentalists sued them in court regarding what was viewed to be an inadequate environmental impact report (EIR) regarding how emissions were going to be lessened over current levels. Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga agreed with their view and ordered planed construction stopped until Chevron could create a "better" EIR. The judge's decision threw over 1,000 construction employees out of work and threatened the future of Chevron in Richmond.
So I did arrive and sat next to a white-haired gentleman who as it happened gave me a copy of a letter I'd not seen from Richmond's Mechanics Bank. The letter stressed the importance of keeping Chevron in Richmond and arriving at a settlement to get the plant project going again.
So the meeting started and as the Mayor listened to people introduce themselves I explained that I was a video-blogger who wanted to ask her about the plant matter after the meeting was over if I could. She did say that was fine.
There were only two people who came to the meeting to talk about the refinery issue. The first person, an African American man, said that the Mayor seemed not to care about the people who need jobs and more about her own agenda (this is in the video). The Mayor said that she does did support a support a substitute to the the resolution voted on by the Richmond City Council two weeks ago calling for settlement talks (with California Attorney General Jerry Brown involved) so that all the workers can get back to their jobs and she's working to make that happen. The Mayor said doing this is important because Richmond has a 17 percent unemployment rate.
A few minutes later, and after a number of residents expressed concern for and presented programs to stop the violence plaguing young African Americans in Richmond (which was heart-breaking to see, no matter how many times I am presented with this issue), the man I was sitting next to, who's name was Richard Lompa, asked the Mayor about the bank letter, and explained that he didn't understand "why do we continuously bash Chevron" and quoted the letter written by Mechanics Bank President and CEO Stephen Foster which said the reason given for opposing Chevron doesn't stand up to scrutiny . He said no one would support Chevron putting out more pollution, and that it was as if she was plunging a dagger in the heart of the city.
The Mayor's response was that the judge made the decision and then she threw in that Chevron does not pay its fair share of taxes and talked about the company's court battle against Measure T which imposed a new tax structure for manufacturers like Chevron. She also pointed to Chevron's appeal of its property tax assessment.
After the meeting and people left the room, the Mayor did give me her time and put to rest the idea some have expressed that she was not talking to Chevron, stating that she talks to representatives of the firm every day.
Mayor McLaughlin then essentially repeated her claim that Chevron doesn't pay its taxes in response to my question that as a person trained and who's practiced economic development, tax reductions are a normal part of negotiations to make it easier for employers to maintain their business in a city. She asked if I was referring to the Measure T issue, and repeated what she said before regarding the firm not paying its fair share of taxes. Then, weirdly and after presenting herself well on camera but before I could deactivate it, suddenly turned and said "I have a community meeting" but I turned the camera to show that the meeting had ended long ago. Moreover, the Mayor agreed to give me just a moment of her time, and I gave her a platform to present herself; the Mayor didn't say she had more people to meet when we started the interview. She didn't have to essentially rain on her own parade but that's what happened as one can see and I'm really disappointed that she did that. I turned off the camcorder.
As I went outside, Mr. Lompa was talking to another person, but after he finished gave me his view. "The Mayor," he said, "was being shallow and not grounded with reality" regarding her repeating of the idea that Chevron has a $24 billion profit. He also said that he appeals his tax bill if he thinks it's not valid.
I agree with Mr. Lompa, but I'm really concerned that the good Mayor seems to have more of a personal agenda that may cloud her ability to effectively negotiate with Chevron. It's common practice for businesses to want and ask for tax reductions and its equally normal for city economic development officials (and that includes the Mayor) to structure rates that help businesses.
In all of my years in the public sector I've not seen or met a Mayor that didn't understand that, but Mayor McLaughlin's a new breed of activist city official. That's all well and good for getting elected but it seems to cloud one's ability to conduct the business of maintaining a municipality's economy. One can have their personal beliefs but when a city's unemployment rate is at almost 20 percent as is the case in Richmond, its a recession, and the job base has decreased by over 50 percent in the last two years, it's time to be more pragmatic and less antagonistic.
On YouTube.com
In the wake of my interview with Chevron employee Dennis Roos I've gotten a number of email and calls updating me on the matter of the negotiations to restart the stopped construction of the improvements to the Richmond refinery.
One of them was this "Meet The Mayor" community meeting held Friday, August 7th at 5:30 PM. Here, one could ask questions of Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin for one hour, but my intent was to attend, film residents who were concerned about the project, pro and con, and after it was over, get the Mayor's direct point of view if she would give it to me. (Take note of that.)
To review, Chevron's planned upgrade of their giant Richmond oil refinery was stalled because environmentalists sued them in court regarding what was viewed to be an inadequate environmental impact report (EIR) regarding how emissions were going to be lessened over current levels. Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga agreed with their view and ordered planed construction stopped until Chevron could create a "better" EIR. The judge's decision threw over 1,000 construction employees out of work and threatened the future of Chevron in Richmond.
So I did arrive and sat next to a white-haired gentleman who as it happened gave me a copy of a letter I'd not seen from Richmond's Mechanics Bank. The letter stressed the importance of keeping Chevron in Richmond and arriving at a settlement to get the plant project going again.
So the meeting started and as the Mayor listened to people introduce themselves I explained that I was a video-blogger who wanted to ask her about the plant matter after the meeting was over if I could. She did say that was fine.
There were only two people who came to the meeting to talk about the refinery issue. The first person, an African American man, said that the Mayor seemed not to care about the people who need jobs and more about her own agenda (this is in the video). The Mayor said that she does did support a support a substitute to the the resolution voted on by the Richmond City Council two weeks ago calling for settlement talks (with California Attorney General Jerry Brown involved) so that all the workers can get back to their jobs and she's working to make that happen. The Mayor said doing this is important because Richmond has a 17 percent unemployment rate.
A few minutes later, and after a number of residents expressed concern for and presented programs to stop the violence plaguing young African Americans in Richmond (which was heart-breaking to see, no matter how many times I am presented with this issue), the man I was sitting next to, who's name was Richard Lompa, asked the Mayor about the bank letter, and explained that he didn't understand "why do we continuously bash Chevron" and quoted the letter written by Mechanics Bank President and CEO Stephen Foster which said the reason given for opposing Chevron doesn't stand up to scrutiny . He said no one would support Chevron putting out more pollution, and that it was as if she was plunging a dagger in the heart of the city.
The Mayor's response was that the judge made the decision and then she threw in that Chevron does not pay its fair share of taxes and talked about the company's court battle against Measure T which imposed a new tax structure for manufacturers like Chevron. She also pointed to Chevron's appeal of its property tax assessment.
After the meeting and people left the room, the Mayor did give me her time and put to rest the idea some have expressed that she was not talking to Chevron, stating that she talks to representatives of the firm every day.
Mayor McLaughlin then essentially repeated her claim that Chevron doesn't pay its taxes in response to my question that as a person trained and who's practiced economic development, tax reductions are a normal part of negotiations to make it easier for employers to maintain their business in a city. She asked if I was referring to the Measure T issue, and repeated what she said before regarding the firm not paying its fair share of taxes. Then, weirdly and after presenting herself well on camera but before I could deactivate it, suddenly turned and said "I have a community meeting" but I turned the camera to show that the meeting had ended long ago. Moreover, the Mayor agreed to give me just a moment of her time, and I gave her a platform to present herself; the Mayor didn't say she had more people to meet when we started the interview. She didn't have to essentially rain on her own parade but that's what happened as one can see and I'm really disappointed that she did that. I turned off the camcorder.
As I went outside, Mr. Lompa was talking to another person, but after he finished gave me his view. "The Mayor," he said, "was being shallow and not grounded with reality" regarding her repeating of the idea that Chevron has a $24 billion profit. He also said that he appeals his tax bill if he thinks it's not valid.
I agree with Mr. Lompa, but I'm really concerned that the good Mayor seems to have more of a personal agenda that may cloud her ability to effectively negotiate with Chevron. It's common practice for businesses to want and ask for tax reductions and its equally normal for city economic development officials (and that includes the Mayor) to structure rates that help businesses.
In all of my years in the public sector I've not seen or met a Mayor that didn't understand that, but Mayor McLaughlin's a new breed of activist city official. That's all well and good for getting elected but it seems to cloud one's ability to conduct the business of maintaining a municipality's economy. One can have their personal beliefs but when a city's unemployment rate is at almost 20 percent as is the case in Richmond, its a recession, and the job base has decreased by over 50 percent in the last two years, it's time to be more pragmatic and less antagonistic.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Obama "Beer Summit", Crowley Press Conference - history!
More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com
YouTube ,Yahoo, MySpace, Metacafe, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, StupidVideos, Sclipo and Viddler
Thursday, President Barack Obama held a "Beer Summit", as some have called it, with Harvard Professor Henry Lewis Gates, Jr., Cambridge Police Sergeant Officer James Crowley, and Vice President Joe Biden, bring an end to an unfortunate but necessary event in American Cultural history, and starting a new chapter in American race relations.
It was the first time in American and world history a sitting president met publicly with a white police officer and the person the officer arrested, a black man. And to add to the moment, the president is African American. I think the teachable moment President Obama referred to was that two gentlemen of seemingly different stripes but of one culture can not only meet, but (as they agreed to do) meet again and again.
Sgt. Crowley assists Prof. Gates as President Obama leads the way
President Obama issued this statement:
"Even before we sat down for the beer, I learned that the two gentlemen spent some time together listening to one another, which is a testament to them," the president's statement said. "I have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart. I am confident that has happened here tonight, and I am hopeful that all of us are able to draw this positive lesson from this episode."
And I think everyone did, even if Sapporo, my personal favorite beer, wasn't on the menu, (Obama had a Bud Light, Crowley chose Blue Moon, and Gates had Samuel Adams) it was still gratifying to see the four men sit together and talk. It provides a great example for a country that seems ready to split over differences of opinion. We have to get to the point of communicating openly and often and without fear. While it's hard to know exactly what was said between the men, we can read between the lined in Crowley's press conference - in the video - when he said "We agreed to disagree." It's not hard to determine what they disagreed about.
In the arrest of Gates, basically because Crowley judged him to be disobedient after what turned out to be a case of a mistaken 911 call in since Gates was entering his own home, Crowley said he was "going by the book" or word to that effect. But the whole point of critics of racial profiling is that the "book" argument is used all the time. The "book" is tossed out when an officer uses his or her own personal emphathy, and please don't tell me this isn't done. Water Goldstein over at the Huff Post has a great blog on why white guys like him come away from such encounters gaining the help of an officer, and not handcuffs.
Gates and Crowley say: "time to move forward"
In the website "The Root", Professor Gates, its editor and chief, wrote:
Sergeant Crowley and I, through an accident of time and place, have been cast together, inextricably, as characters – as metaphors, really – in a thousand narratives about race over which he and I have absolutely no control. Narratives about race are as old as the founding of this great Republic itself, but these new ones have unfolded precisely when Americans signaled to the world our country’s great progress by overcoming centuries of habit and fear, and electing an African American as President. It is incumbent upon Sergeant Crowley and me to utilize the great opportunity that fate has given us to foster greater sympathy among the American public for the daily perils of policing on the one hand, and for the genuine fears of racial profiling on the other hand.
In his press conference held after the "summit", Crowley said that both he and Gates would talk again as soon as next week.
That the two plan to meet and seize the moment to create a lesson for America is really exciting. I really believe God made this happen. It's too good to be true that a professor of Black Studies and a police officer who's also an expert in racial profiling are working together and have this exchange to build from. That's a miracle.
Toward American Culture
I hope people realize from this that we really are one people and there's much that binds us together below the surface. I don't know if it's from reduced education spending, longer work hours, or what, but we seem to be less patient with the idea of study and more willing to just go with our prejudices, but that's countered by the ever-more-well-mixed society we live in. We have extremes like the thoughtless Glen Beck (who said the President was racist in a horrible misuse of the term) and the thoughtful Gates and Crowley right before us. With a little communication we'll have more people like Gates and Crowley and far fewer people like Glen Beck.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Erin Andrews voted most influential TV reporter
More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com
From the "You've gotta be kidding me" department, we have the news that ESPN's on-air reporter Erin Andrews has been voted "the most influential TV reporter" in a contest established by website Mediaite.com. If you're wondering just who Erin Andrews is and have been under a rock, first consult my video above, then come back here.
To recap, Erin Andrews is the ESPN reporter that was the focus - literally - of someone taking a peephole camcorder video of her in the nude, in a hotel room. The suspect has still not been identified or captured as of this writing, while some believe it may have been a co-worker at ESPN. With that action, Erin Andrews has emerged from unknown to known, and to "most infuential reporter" in two-weeks. Before we look closely at that, let's see who she passed up to gain the lofty title.
The Mediaite Power Grid contains 290 reporters in its selection field for the category of "TV Reporter". Overall, Mediaite ranks 1,500 personalities in 12 categories. Anyone can send an email to be listed, at powergrid@mediaite.com, but once there, Mediaites' system takes over and its not perfect, at least at first. But I argue that it is depending on how the results are used. Let's look at Mediaite's explanation for how it ranks TV reporters, where Erin Andrews is listed, first:
TV Reporters are individuals who report news stories on-air for a television network. Their rankings are determined based on: appearances/mentions on television as compiled by the media monitoring service TVEyes, ratings of that network or program, Online Buzz of proper name, Blogs Buzz of proper name, and Twitter Followers (if applicable). You might at times see an individual ranked higher than any of their individual metric rankings — keep in mind that our algorithm weights some metrics more than others.
And here's the complete list of metrics used, straight from Mediaite's FAQ page:
Metrics
Twitter Followers – This metric is an individual’s total number of Twitter followers, if applicable. (Individuals who do not use Twitter will not be penalized.)
Google Buzz of Name - This metric is the number of relevant hits yielded by a Google search of an individual’s name. Irrelevant hits, such as those for similarly-named individuals, are filtered out. For instance, the Google Buzz metric for James B. Stewart, the writer and reporter, filters out hits for Jimmy Stewart, the actor, and for James Stewart, Jr., the motocross racer.
Google Blog Buzz of Name – This metric is the number of relevant hits yielded by a Google blog search of an individual’s name. Irrelevant hits, such as those for similarly-named individuals, are filtered out. For instance, the Google Blog Buzz metric for James B. Stewart, the writer and editor, filters out hits for Jimmy Stewart, the actor, and for James Stewart, Jr., the motocross racer.
Google Buzz of Affiliation or Title – This metric is the number of relevant hits yielded by a Google search of a television program, print publication, or online publication. Irrelevant hits, such as those for similarly-named titles, are filtered out. For instance, the Google Buzz metric for Vanity Fair, the Condé Nast magazine, filters out hits for the Thackeray novel of the same name.
Google Blog Buzz of Affiliation or Title - This metric is the number of relevant hits yielded by a Google blog search of a television program, print publication, or online publication. Irrelevant hits, such as those for similarly-named titles, are filtered out. For instance, the Google Buzz metric for Vanity Fair, the Condé Nast magazine, filters out hits for the Thackeray novel of the same name.
Ratings of Columns - This metric is the ratings of this individual’s columns published, either exclusively online or through a publication’s website, over the past 180 days as determined by Technorati.
Print Circulation – This metric can be one of two things. For newspapers, this metric is the total average paid circulation per week. For magazines, this metric is the total paid and verified circulation per issue.
Unique Online Visitors – This metric is the estimated number of visitors to an online publication’s website in the past month, as determined by online reporting site Compete.com.
TV Airtime (through TVEyes) -This metric is the total number of times an individual appears or is mentioned on air in the previous week on a selection of U.S. cable channels, local network affiliates, and international television news operations. These statistics are reported by the media monitoring service TVEyes.
Time slot Ratings - This metric is the total viewership of the program, as extrapolated from Nielsen-reported television ratings.Note: in some cases television ratings have been adjusted for individuals who appear on programs that only air once per week, or are part of a larger ensemble cast.
Network Ratings - This metric is the total viewership for all programs managed by a given television executive, as extrapolated from Nielsen-reported television ratings. In the case of broadcast networks, we are using Prime Time network ratings. Cable Networks, however, we are using the average total day rating. Note: in some cases television ratings have been adjusted for individuals who appear on programs that only air once per week, or are part of a larger ensemble cast.
Radio Ratings - This metric is the average total number of listeners for a given radio program as extrapolated from Arbitron’s radio listenership ratings that are publicly available or self-reported.
Company Valuations - This metric is the estimated total valuation of all media companies in which an individual owns a significant stake. Non-media companies owned by an individual are not counted; however, any media company in which the individual holds a partial stake is counted at full value.
Personal Net Worth – This metric is the estimated net worth of an individual, including media, non-media holdings, and other components of personal wealth.
Number of Employees – This metric is the estimated total number of people employed under an individual, whether at an entire media company, a network, an individual publication, or a television show.
Looking at the list, Erin Andrews shares the stage with such luminaries as ABC's Jack Tapper (ranked number 2 today), MSNBC's Chuck Todd (ranked number 3 today), and others like CBS News' Morley Safer and Mike Wallace (number 4 and number 5 respectively). The highest ranking woman other than Andrews is Savannah Guthrie, White House Correspondent for NBC News at number 6 on the list. The reason Andrews is the most powerful on this list is - and Mediaite explains this - directly related to the buzz she's gotten due to this whole peephole video affair.
But does that mean she's not powerful? Well, yes and no. Let's take the hard-to-stomach yes, first. Andrews has a platform that she and ESPN could use to gain ratings or for her to bring attention to a particular concern she has, like how women should be looked at by a different set of "metrics" in media. Regardless of the fact that she would be advocating for an end to the very thing that gave her a platform, she would have it to use for her soapbox. So far, she hasn't done that, and it's a huge error. Erin lacks a Twitter page, for which she could gain millions of new followers overnight to do with whatever she pleases in much the same way that Ellen DeGeneres used her millions of followers to advance an online petition.
That Andrews may not have liked how she got this platform is perhaps the main reason she's not using it, but it's a big error in judgment because given that her network rankings on Mediaite are at number 45, when the buzz dies down, her drop from number one's going to be a big one unless she has a new appearance on TV once during the next two weeks. So, you may ask?
The "So" is in dollar. Buzz equals bucks, my friend, and people want to see and learn about other people. That's what's missing from the recent blog by San Francisco Chronicle Editor-At-Large Phil Bronstein on the new narcisism in media. Hey Phil, it pays the bills, just ask Rush Limbaugh, who's following of 14 million "dittoheads" has him laughing all the way to the bank with a $400 million contract.
If Andrews plays her cards correctly she can build such a following, but she's got to get over the anger of what happened to her to do so. Whomever made the peephole video unwittingly gave her a weapon to change media for herself - it's up to her to use it. Andrews can parlay the attention into a business that uses her name to help other women in media get noticed the right way, not the nude way.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Henry Louis Gates arrested for being "uppity black man"
More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com
YouTube, Yahoo, MySpace, Metacafe, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, StupidVideos, Sclipo and Viddler
It's all over the Internet: Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested by Cambridge police officer Sgt. James Crowley after trying to pry open the lock, which was already damaged, to his own Cambridge home with the help of his driver, who picked him up from a trip to China. President Obama, in a press conference on his health care initiative, chimes in by saying "the Cambridge Police acted stupidly."
President Obama's totally right. Here's why.
Professor Gates problem was that he was being "an uppity black man" against an officer who looked for "uncommon" versus "common" elements to connect with Gates - no connection, or "uncommon leads to an arrest. On the plane from Chicago to Atlanta yesterday, I was in first class on United Airlines (the luck I enjoy as the son of a former employee). There was a gentleman, white, in his 60s, who looked at the open seat next to me, and me, and kind of frowned. I didn't care. He sat in front of me.
As the drinks he had flowed he started talking loudly about President Bush and Republicans and how Nixon was right, and all that jazz which I though was funny, frankly. But - and I have this on camera - I could not help but notice how he was TRYING to connect with the man next to him, who was white, and older.
By contrast, he never tried to connect with me.
Had the man next to him been black, that would not have happened, and that's the problem. Racism in part is the assumption that you are not like me from the start just because of your skin color. If Officer Crowley had tried to calm Gates down, walked around the house and noticed photos on the walls, etc, he would have quickly picked up that it was Gates home. But because he wasn't looking for common elements or to try and calm Gates - he wanted to have power over him. He was offended that the Professor did not defer to him, and thought "He's not going to dance, so I'll teach him a lesson." So when Gates wasn't calming down and obeying orders, Crowley arrested him.
And that's the rub.
Police officers in the old days knew their neighbors and were more peace officers than military actors. Moreover, there's a common habit, 1) militaristic behavior and 2) of trying to put down someone black who's smart and assertive or just has the appearance of decency. This doesn't happen all the time, but I've been a victim of it, too. In 2006 a California Highway Patrol officer body-slammed me on his car just because I shed a tear after realizing I was going to be arrested after passing a field sobriety test and after going to the officer because a person was tailgating me so close I thought I was being followed (and I didn't say anything to contest the officer, but someone told me "I sound smart"). I'm serious.
On the other hand I personally know a lot of officers - many in the Oakland Police Department and the Alameda County Sheriff's Department and yes on the California Highway Patrol - who have far more self-control and intellect of action and also said the officer who body-slammed me was "out of control". But the bottom line is police officers nationwide - mostly white, a few "of color" - are almost hard-wired to think of a black man as bad "just because", and regardless of the look or background of the person, and that's got to change.
A good friend of mine in law enforcement said the problem is "a lot of these officers they bring in who are white or not black at times, don't have experience with blacks. They may have grown up in the suburbs and then only when they become an officer do they have contact with blacks." And then it's too late.
The lack of exposure to people of color, especially those who's "made it" and don't fit age old stereotypes, is hard to shake and explains why President Obama's so important to our future. Seeing a black person in the role is what America needs to advance. America must move beyond the shackles of racism if the nation is to come together as one people and solve our economic problems - the real big issue before us.
Officer Crowley, if he's an expert in racial profiling and how not to use it, should have known that he should not have treated a distinguished Harvard professor like that, especially someone who's black and walking with a cane! Indeed, he should have known who Professor Gates was right off the bat.
That he didn't is alarming.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)