#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.

Brittany Powell From SafetyGeeks SVI

Brittany Powell is a breath-of-fresh air, who's also an actress who blew in to my view from her nearby Comic Con 2010 Autograph Area booth to see what was happening at the booth for the stars of the movie Hatchet II.

Noticing that this blogger was toting two camcorders, and remembering that her own program was filmed in 3D, Ms. Powell lined up both devices to create the clips for a 3D video. Meanwhile, she explained that she's a friend (good friend? girlfriend?) of Rick McCallum, a stuntman who plays one of the hunters in the movie (and who gets hacked by the balls with the World's Largest Chainsaw by The Monster / AKA Victor Crowley.) She also talked about the program she was at Comic Con to promote: Safety Geeks SVI

Safety Geeks SVI is what you get when you combine Benny Hill, Monte Python, and Rocketboom. An online production, it features the video antics of Dave and Tom, who explain that what they do is this...

The P.O.S.H. (Professional Occupational Safety Hazard) team investigates safety violations and accidents, ineptly causing more damage as a result. P.O.S.H. provides an obscure, well-meaning service. Unfortunately, they are a bunch of idiots. The world of P.O.S.H. is very unsafe, largely due to them.

Safety Geeks SVI gained a bunch of awards in 2009, including rated the best of Internet Television by Clicker, and the 2010 LA Web Series Festival. Here's the video players presenting the episodes from their silly yet highly sexy and entertaining series:




For 2010, SafetyGeeks SVI has gone 3D, making it, as Brittany Powell explained, the first online video series to be created entirely in 3D. You can check that out here: SafetyGeeks 3D.

Who's Brittany Powell

But who's Brittany Powell? Ms. Powell - for some reason I want to say Ms. Peel - hails from Germany, but has an extensive American acting background. She's starred in Girlfriends, NCIS, Phil of The Future, Xena: Warrior Princess, Beverly Hills 90210, Weird Science, Titans, General Hospital, and in films like That Thing You Do, Fled, Airborne, and Dragonworld.

On top of all that Brittany Powell's a devoted mother who invests a lot of her time doing charity work in Los Angeles.  That is, when she's not teaching video-bloggers how to make 3D videos!

Apple iMovie 11 ships with two-year-old audio bugs. Why?

Just over one week ago, this blogger purchased an Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch computer from the Apple Store at Lenox Mall in Atlanta (where I spend about half my time of late when I'm not in Oakland, and here helping my mother).

The computer buy was of need, as the motherboard of my three-year old Black MacBook was compromised by a rain of two teaspoons of orange juice from a distance, that hit it just right.

At any rate, one software offering I used on my "old" Mac was iMovie 6 HD. Yes, an old version of the video editing system that comes with each Apple Mac purchase - and for good reason. iMovie 6 just plain works.

A number of bloggers (most famously the NY Times' David Pogue), users, and techies have complained about Apple's still unexplained switch from the old version of iMovie, which stopped at iMovie 6, and featured the large presentation screen at the left, a multi-function page at the right, and a video clip timeline below. The new-style iMovie is more like that of the Final Cut video editing software, that Apple also produces. But the similarities stop there, because Final Cut reportedly works...properly.

To cut to the chase, The new Apple iMovie series, from iMovie 9 to the present iMovie 11, has one really massively annoying bug that the company ran by CEO Steve Jobs should have fixed long ago. The audio portion of videos uploaded to YouTube just plain cuts out after six minutes of play after a video is uploaded.

For the last day or so, I've worked to upload a 12 minute video of my experience at my first football game at The Georgia Dome since the 2000 Super Bowl. Then, that was a "fam" trip as I was working to bring the 2005 Super Bowl to Oakland. The NFL provided four tickets to the game pitting the St. Louis Rams against the Tennessee Titans, and in all, it was a fantastic experience. I was jazzed to go to the Atlanta Falcons vs. Green Bay Packers game, and give my viewers a 12 minute taste of what it's like there. (Pretty awesome.)

The Apple iMovie 11 software worked fine for short videos of up to 4 minutes in length; there was no reason to think it would fail in uploading a 12 minute video. The final file played well in iMovie 11 and in Quicktime, but three different YouTube uploads all had one problem: the audio stopped after six minutes.

Back action research revealed no problem to cause this. Even with that, sound settings were adjusted before each reload. Still, the same problem. So, a little research was in order, and that's where the news that this wasn't a new problem came up.  

If it wasn't audio cutting in and out, it was audio not playing on an iDVD burn, and various discussions about that, then it was a slew of examples similar to mine.

In many cases, others have suggested workarounds, but it's really terrible that Apple first insists on pushing a type of iMovie on it's fans that few really want, and then working to eliminate us from using the popular iMovie 6 HD.  

Moreover, it's really, really upsetting to have to make an unplanned expenditure of  $1,200 during the holidays, when dollars are tight already, only to have the product, or a key part of it, and of importance to this video-blogger, not work properly.

iMovie 6 is a sweet product.  Again, it just plain works.  Apple really should go back to it, or let its fans upload it, and fix iMovie 11.   Some of the audio bugs identified in the discussion forums have been apparently passed on from iMovie 9 to iMovie 11.   Why?  

Apple really needs to work on this.

A's Ballpark subject of December 1st Oakland Planning Commission Meeting

Want to show your support for new ballpark for the Oakland A's? Show up at the meeting of the City of Oakland Planning Commission tomorrow, December 1st, at 6 PM PST at Hearing Room 1, Oakland City Hall, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland, CA.

If you want to speak in favor of the new ballpark proposal and talk about the creation of an Environmental Impact Report for the proposed new A's ballpark at Jack London Square - of course you do - just get there at 5:30 PM, fill out a speaker card, and give it to the Oakland Planning Commission's secretary.

Right now, according to the meeting's Facebook page, 156 A's fans plan to attend.

Be there.  Aloha!

Extending UI Deadlines WILL NOT HELP the 99ers

Congress extending the UI deadlines this or any week will not help the millions of 99ers in America. Let’s be clear here: No bill under consideration in the Senate (Including Max Maucus’ proposed 1 year extension S3981) will help the 99ers unless it adds extra weeks of benefits - not simply extends filing dates.

It will be a blue Christmas for millions more Americans, if Congress does not pass legislation to extend current unemployment insurance provisions, which are set to expire today.

Nationwide, 800,000 more unemployed Americans will exhaust their benefits this week and 2 million additional unemployed in the U.S. will exhaust their benefits in December, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. That will bring the total of unemployed in America without UI benefits to about 8 MILLION. Of those, at least 5.4 million are people who are “99ers,” which are individuals who have received the maximum 99 weeks of benefits and are not eligible for benefits even if the emergency unemployment legislation is extended.

Most UI “exhaustees” are already experiencing hunger, eviction, depression and suicidal ideation. Many of us just keep on fighting until there is nothing left to fight with at all.

I am facing just this situation myself. Unable to find any job (including all the fast food places in my area) and exhausting my 99 weeks in March this year - I will be cut off from the fight by losing my phone and internet very shortly. If my articles suddenly stop, you will know what happened.

Many are considering giving up their children to prevent them from living in the streets. One such brave soul is Rhonda Taylor of Rhode Island.

Rhonda appeared on CNN’s Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room yesterday and tells the 99er saga like no other before her. [view video below - bring a tissue]

Unless Congress gets off it’s over paid dead ass and helps the 99ers survive, then Washington will be guilty of the largest preventable social holocaust in history - because: Extending UI Deadlines WILL NOT HELP the 99ers. Only a Tier 5 will!

[The donation button below is for me, Paladinette. If you like what I write please donate so I can keep on fighting for the 99ers! Thank You!]

2010 Oscar Screen Credits and Music Entry Forms Due December 1

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) reports via press release that 2010 Oscar Screen Credits and Music Entry Forms are due December 1. That's tomorrow, and at 5 PM, PST. (The great news is that if you're on the East Coast, the docs are actually due at 8 PM EST.)

This is very important to get it, because if AMPAS doesn't receive the Official Screen Credits (OSC) by tomorrow, a feature film like Iron Man 2 will not be eligible for an Academy Award for Best Picture. (Of course, Marvel Entertainment's on top of this, and has been; just using Iron Man 2 as an example.)

AMPAS says:

For a feature film to be considered for the 2010 Awards, the film’s distributor or producer must file an OSC form with the Academy by 5 p.m. PT on December 1. If a feature film is released in Los Angeles County in 2010 and the completed OSC form is not submitted by the deadline, the film will be ineligible for Academy Awards in any year.

OSC forms may be submitted online only, at http://aiwosc.oscars.org/aiwosc/. Information about submission and feature film eligibility can be obtained by contacting Credits Coordinator Howard Loberfeld at (310) 247-3000, ext. 113, or via e-mail at hloberfeld@oscars.org.

For an achievement to be considered in the Original Score or Original Song category, the principal music writer(s) for a feature film must submit an official music submission form by 5 p.m. PT on December 1.

To request music submission materials, contact Dave Hanson at (310) 247-3000, ext. 151, or via e-mail at dhanson@oscars.org.

While the credits submission deadline is December 1, feature films have until midnight, December 31, to open in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County and begin a minimum run of seven consecutive days to be eligible for 2010 Oscar® consideration.

Entries in the foreign language, animated feature, documentary, and short film categories are subject to special rules and must meet other qualifying criteria. The entry deadlines in these categories have already passed.

Complete 83rd Academy Awards rules are available at http://www.oscars.org/rules/. The 83rd Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 25, 2011, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

The Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2010 will be presented on Sunday, February 27, 2011 at the Kodak Theater at Hollywood and Highland Center, and televised live on the ABC Television Network.