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Nov

9

Strickland endorses Clinton

Filed Under Politics | 8 Comments

Lefty Blogs will read like that right down the line soon.  From the Baltimore Sun:

Hillary Clinton has scored the most coveted Democratic endorsement from arguably the most important swing state in the nation: Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio.

…

Strickland is a pro-gun former Methodist minister who broke a 16-year Republican hold on the governorship last year. He won huge swaths of normally red rural Ohio, which analysts call key for a Democrat seeking the state’s 20 crucial electoral votes.

Strickland’s support could provide a counterpunch to Clinton’s rivals’ claims that she is too polarizing to win a general election. A new Ohio Poll from the University of Cincinnati today pegs the governor’s approval rating at 69 percent, including 65 percent among Republicans and 68 percent among independents.

Strickland and Clinton go way back: They worked together on her ill-fated universal health care plan in the 1990s, when Clinton was First Lady and Strickland was a congressman from southern Ohio. Strickland has long called Clinton a personal friend.

Last year, Ohio Democrats estimated Clinton raised nearly $500,000 for Strickland and Sherrod Brown, the then-congressman who unseated Sen. Mike DeWine. Bill Clinton raised at least $225,000 more for Strickland.

Alrighty then.  Not much else out there on it yet.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:47 pm November 9th, 2007 in Politics | 8 Comments 

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Nov

9

The Next Generation: USF student SPJ members explore whether bloggers=journalists

Filed Under Blogging, Media, Wide Open | 8 Comments

From Wendy Withers’ report of the event on Sticks of Fire (out of Tampa, FL):

There were about 25-30 people in attendance at any given time, made up mostly of USF’s Society of Professional Journalists members, USF mass communications staff, and mass comm students trying to get extra credit in other classes.

…

The question of whether or not bloggers are journalists was answered right off the bat. The consensus between the panel members was this: bloggers are journalists when they’re reporting news. Not all bloggers are committing journalism all the time, even if they’re journalists in real life. Blogs come down to conversation; sometimes the conversation strays from reporting.

Withers goes into depth with an account of the back and forth on the topic. It’s a very interesting read.

These gatherings are what will determine the next generation of how we get our news, how we find news, how we define news, how we offer up news.

Again, any entity in the news gathering, dissemination or consumption sector that isn’t paying attention to what these folks think – which isn’t always the same thing – has his or her head in the sand.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:02 pm November 9th, 2007 in Blogging, Media, Wide Open | 8 Comments 

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Nov

9

Recovering Journalist on “The Cleveland Kerfuffle,” McClatchy editors on discomfort

Filed Under Blogging, Business, Media, Politics, Wide Open | 5 Comments

I do hate that word “kerfuffle” but it certainly applies.

From Mark Potts, at the Recovering Journalist:

…Jeff [Jarvis] has a terrific post on the fiasco in Cleveland in which the Plain Dealer hired some partisan bloggers (good idea) and then fired one when he got a bit too partisan (bad idea).

The resulting fallout, as well-documented and analyzed by Jeff, is amusing and sad—a classic case of a newspaper so stuck in the old ways of doing things that it shoots itself in the foot when it ventures into something new. The paper’s management has rolled itself into a defensive ball over something that shouldn’t have been an issue in the first place, making things worse in the process, and naturally, the controversy is rife with hypocrisy and ignorance on the part of the paper’s leaders.

Anyway, go read Jeff’s post. I’ll get back to my series on what newspapers should be doing to survive in a couple of days. But suffice it to say that what the Plain Dealer is doing is an object lesson on what not to do. [emphasis mine]

Is it ojbect or abject? Or either?

Then, Potts links to this piece at the McClatchy editors’ blog, Etaoin Shrdlu (I have no idea what that’s about – something very insider journalist??), called, “Feeling Uncomfortable Yet?”:

And by now you may also have learned that one of those opinion bloggers once got fired by the politician she’s now criticizing, or that the guy co-hosting the Outdoors blog was convicted of hunting out of season 14 years ago, or that …. well, you get the drift.

Are you feeling uncomfortable yet?

If not, I’m worried about you. If you’re not squirming in uncertainty from time to time nowadays, you must not be close enough to the edge. In response to a question in the Sacramento Bee newsroom last week, Melanie Sill said, “If you’re in a newsroom and the editor doesn’t say that change is needed, you should leave.” I think that same sentiment applies to our need to loosen up, let go of some control and learn to play by the changing rules of the new game we’re in.

You know, that idea – that people most often seek mental health intervention only after they’ve become so uncomfortable that they can no longer exist – is very applicable here.

If you were a behavioral organization management guru, what would you say to the Plain Dealer?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:46 pm November 9th, 2007 in Blogging, Business, Media, Politics, Wide Open | 5 Comments 

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Nov

9

The Ohio Poll numbers, news

Filed Under Campaigning, Elections, Ohio, Politics | Comments Off

I haven’t had time to review any of this, but you can at least review it for yourself and let us know what you think.

Here’s the latests, from the University of Cincinnati’s The Ohio Poll.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:23 am November 9th, 2007 in Campaigning, Elections, Ohio, Politics | Comments Off 

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Nov

9

It’s alive! Blogging for your boss while still being transparent & independent

Filed Under Blogging, Business, Marketing, Media, Wide Open, Writing | Comments Off

Thanks to Mike Gesing for sending me a link to this post by Terry Heaton on The PoMo Blog. In that post, Heaton compares and contrasts about how one newspaper might say that financial support is verboten, but another one gives ink to what amounts to just as much if not more support:

These two stories are different sides of the same coin, and they both make a case for the return of argument to journalism. They point out the silliness of the line between personal, paid support and corporate editorial support. Purists will argue that the person who wrote the Post editorial didn’t or hasn’t supported an opponent of the governor, but I would argue that this is semantics because support is support, whether its in the form of cash contributions or otherwise. Others will argue that the Post editorial was well thought out and agreed upon by the editorial board of the paper — that elite group of educated and informed people who guide the decisions of the paper. No name-calling; just thoughtful prose. Not.

The best part of his blog, however, is at the very top of his left-hand sidebar, where you can see the word “Transparency” over his face. Click on it and start to read:

I am employed by Audience Research & Development, and my writing is considered a work-for-hire. That means AR&D “owns” the blog, but I maintain it. However, the ideas and opinions expressed herein are mine alone and are not necessarily those of AR&D. The company has given me the freedom to keep expressing myself, and I accept the responsibility that comes with such liberty. [emphasis mine]

Now that is a beautiful thing.

Sigh of relief.

See???? There are people and companies and money-making ventures that get it. And give it – trust that is. To the readers and the writers.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:21 am November 9th, 2007 in Blogging, Business, Marketing, Media, Wide Open, Writing | Comments Off 

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Nov

9

Picture, 1000 words: “The Plain Dealer Politics Blog” v. “Wide Open”

Filed Under Blogging, Media, Ohio, Politics, Wide Open | 3 Comments

Just to be clear about projecting a connection between Wide Open bloggers, their gargantuan political donations and, subsequently, the concern that people who read Wide Open might impute bias to the PD from us:

Now you see it:

Now you don’t:

It was that way from day one.

This Cleveland Free Times piece includes a concern voiced by PD writer, Sabrina Eaton:

Eaton points out a potential problem with partisan online features at a traditional daily’s Web site: “If you get to it through Google, it just leads you to that page and you don’t know that that writer has a bias. It just says Plain Dealer Wide Open. A politician could take a quote from Wide Open and put it in their literature and attribute it to the Plain Dealer.” It’s a valid concern, yet anything in the paper, from an op-ed to a quote from a fanatic can be – and in instances has been – taken out of context and attributed to the paper it appeared in.

Her concern is that when people do a Google News search, say, on “plain dealer” “imam ahmed,” they get this result, among others:

Imam Ahmed Alzaree and the Islamic Center of Cleveland Follow-up …
The Plain Dealer – cleveland.com, OH - Oct 26, 2007
Don’t Plain Dealer Readers and the Community Deserve to Know if the Islamic Center of Cleveland’s New Imam Is the Same as the Old Imam? …

But when they click on the blue hyperlink, readers will go to the Wide Open blog – without the words “Plain Dealer” appearing anywhere.

That’s all true, the concern being that people will remember the PD part from the Google News search result, and not remember or think about or realize that they are on a cleveland.com site or otherwise hybrid product.

But that problem is a function of the relationship between Cleveland.com and the PD, not a function of anything the bloggers were doing. As others have said, repeatedly, there are many solutions to that specific problem that have nothing to do with telling a blogger, who was hired to be political, to either stop writing politics about certain races and people, or leave.

Susan Goldberg did not pursue any other options. To believe that she might have entertained other possibilities would imply that the one she chose was not pre-ordained. And then, again, we’d still be left with the fact that the one she chose penalized only Jeff Coryell, rather than attend to this ethical dilemma they saw across the board.

I’m still asking: What is with that? They have yet to say word one about that approach.

And, then, there’s the fact that no one from the PD, among those who have written or spoken about the situation, has indicated that Goldberg should have done anything differently in her approach to re-setting the rules with us. At least no one who is on the record about it.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:50 am November 9th, 2007 in Blogging, Media, Ohio, Politics, Wide Open | 3 Comments 

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Nov

9

Bush should oppose Bhutto arrest, media blackout

Filed Under Blogging, Civil Rights, Elections, Foreign Affairs, Government, Media, Politics | 1 Comment

Insanity around Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan’s latest curtailment of freedom of the press.

What say you, President Bush? I can’t find anything yet. What good are elections in February 2008 if we don’t condemn what’s happening now?

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s moves would never be acceptable here.  Why are they okay there? The crackdown on media and Bhutto aren’t about getting a grip on terrorism – Musharraf needs to get a grip on democracy – except that, he appears terrified to embrace it.

Sounds like a familiar theme around here.

You can read the White House press gaggle’s coverage of Pakistan from yesterday here. Here’s the post with a bunch of Pakistani blogs.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:54 am November 9th, 2007 in Blogging, Civil Rights, Elections, Foreign Affairs, Government, Media, Politics | 1 Comment 

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Nov

9

The Impact Group’s three female mayoral candidates, & their websites, win

Filed Under Campaigning, Government, Marketing, Media, Ohio, Politics, Women | Comments Off

Remember this post about how three muni race candidates, all women, were spending thousands of dollars on websites? The article linked to from that post gives the numbers and services breakdown. It also tries to profile the men behind the company, Tom Speaks and Don Polyak.

All three Impact clients won. They are:

Twinsburg Mayor Katherine Procop (her site)

Moreland Hills mayor-elect Susan Renda (she was a councilperson) (her site)

Orange Village Mayor Kathy Mulcahy (no site for her; the group did literature according to the article)

Now – was it them, their website, both, or…what?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:48 am November 9th, 2007 in Campaigning, Government, Marketing, Media, Ohio, Politics, Women | Comments Off 

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