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Apr

18

From the Sometimes I Get Paid Department: More on Passover

Filed Under Announcements, Culture, Holidays, Jewish, Religion, Writing | 2 Comments

All Holiday Cafe piece on the imminent holiday that’s provoking Pre-Parental Unit Arrival Panic Accompanied by Procrastination-driven Posting (check out the next edition of the DSM for that), Same Old, Same Old – Bring It On!

Thanks to Sandy Mitchell and Chag Sameach.  Watch for post-panic event photos and Flip video Sunday.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:55 pm April 18th, 2008 in Announcements, Culture, Holidays, Jewish, Religion, Writing | 2 Comments 

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Apr

18

PD’s Susan Goldberg, You go girl! (You go, too, Henry and Mark)

Filed Under Cleveland+, Government, Media, Politics, Writing | 16 Comments

Well, I’m pleased as punch to read Plain Dealer Editor Susan Goldberg’s reaction to Cuyahoga Councy Commissioner Jimmy Dimora’s ejection of two PD reporter, the very loveable Henry Gomez and Mark Puente (whom I don’t know) after they asked questions about a public employee, during a public meeting:

Plain Dealer Editor Susan Goldberg said Dimora was out of line.

“It is unacceptable that our reporters would be evicted from a public meeting for daring to ask a question,” Goldberg said. “I fail to see how asking an elected official about the role of a public employee — whose salary is paid by taxpayers — is grounds for removal from the meeting. These illegal, strong-arm tactics have no place in a free society. We strenuously object to this outrageous conduct.”

Now, how that will be followed up, I can’t say but let’s stay on that and hope.

But I am disgusted at what provoked the ejection. Do you think he will really “get out of this business” like he says?

The press pines over Marc Dann’s anger when his children are involved? More borderline to me. But they should be calling attention to Dimora’s decorum, or lack thereof as they do here.

You go girl.

And you know, I think Dimora needs a blog, don’t you? When I’m unhappy with the PD, I just write and write and write.  Works pretty well.  I even offer to give him free lessons. In a very public setting.  Where there are lots of people around.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:13 am April 18th, 2008 in Cleveland+, Government, Media, Politics, Writing | 16 Comments 

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Apr

18

(Web) Designing Women: Few or many or in between?

Filed Under Blogging, Tech, Women | Comments Off

Hattip to a blogger who pointed this post about whether there are or are not few women web designers on one of my listservs. Hopefully there will be a follow-up post with a round-up from the comments, but the entry already has about 15 – most worth your time if you’re interested in this topic.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:41 am April 18th, 2008 in Blogging, Tech, Women | Comments Off 

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Apr

18

Study of what attracts readers to political blogs wins Broadcast Educ. Assn. top prize

Filed Under Blogging, Culture, Debates, Marketing, Media, Politics, Research, Results, Social Issues, Wide Open | Comments Off

Here’s something every campaign consultant, advisor, strategist, director or whatever they call themselves should read, from Idaho State University:

Noting the growing popularity of blogs as an information medium, [assistant professor in the James E. Rogers Department of Mass Communication at Idaho State University, Daekyung] Kim focused on blogging’s political impact. Blogs are online diaries or commentaries that readers can respond to and easily pass on to friends.

Kim’s study surveyed online political users to explore why users access political blogs after he wondered, “What motivates bloggers?”

“I found that many Internet users are attracted to political blogs, where they can freely express their opinions and communicate with like-minded people,” Kim said. “This seems to show the potential of blogs as an interactive forum with few controls. This study may offer useful insights into the roles of blogs during presidential elections and in politics in general.”

Note the “freely express their opinions and communicate with like-minded people.” That doesn’t bode too well for sites like RedBlueAmerica or Wide Open for that matter, unless people are using such sites as merely tools for information gathering. But for interacting? Maybe not so much or at least not crossing over to discuss with those who aren’t of a like-mind.

I’ve emailed Professor Kim in hopes of seeing the report.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:43 am April 18th, 2008 in Blogging, Culture, Debates, Marketing, Media, Politics, Research, Results, Social Issues, Wide Open | Comments Off 

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Apr

18

MSM’s reporting on blog niches unabated

Filed Under Blogging, Media, Parenting, Politics, Women, Writing | Comments Off

In the latest of the MSM coverage of blogs (just google news search on “mommy blogs,”  “political blogs,”  or “food blogs” – I’m sure there are many more), the New York Times gives front page below the fold attention to blogs written by ex-spouses that talk about their ex-spouses.

From, “When the Ex Blogs, the Dirtiest Laundry Is Aired,”:

This week, the potential of the Internet to expose and disgrace when marriages fall apart came into stark relief as Tricia Walsh Smith, who is being divorced by Philip Smith, a theater executive, put a video on YouTube announcing that they never had sex, and yet she found him hoarding Viagra, pornography and condoms.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Smith’s lawyer, David Aronson, called the video “appalling” and said: “Mr. Smith is a very private person. This is obviously embarrassing.”

But in an era when more than one in 10 adult Internet users in the United States have blogs, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, many people are using the Web to tell their side of a marital saga. Despite the legal end of a marriage, the confessions can stretch toward eternity in a steady stream of enraged or despondent postings.

I can honestly say that I’ve never written about any of my ex-spouses.  Which is really unfortunate given the traffic these folks get:

“People tend to think that they are blogging for a small group of friends or that they are anonymous,” she said. But that is not really the case, she said, because “all it takes is one friend posting a link to your blog to out you.”

Laurie, a Manhattan mother, started podcasting DivorcingDaze.com during her divorce in 2006. Each week Laurie and a divorced friend have a glass of wine and tape their discussions of the day’s topics — spas, their boyfriends, Eliot Spitzer — and then post to the web.

Laurie never told her ex-husband she was doing the programs because they were meant as advice to others and not as retribution, she said. She does not use her last name or her ex-husband’s in her talks and asked that both names be withheld for this article.

Still, Laurie maintains no pretense of impartiality. The 10,000 monthly listeners she says download DivorcingDaze episodes have heard Laurie say that she discovered her ex-husband was having an affair with his boss from e-mail on his BlackBerry, and that he had told their older daughter he wasn’t cheating because the marriage, in his mind, was already over[sic]

And, of course, there are the lawyers:

…when her [Laurie from the previous section of this post] husband did find out about the podcasts last year, he sued her. He argued that they included statements that were “obnoxious, derogatory or offensive” and that they violated the terms of the divorce settlement that she not “harass” or “malign” him.

In a decision only weeks ago, however, a justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York said his complaints were not grounds for blocking the podcast. While Laurie’s statements may be “ill-advised and do not promote co-parenting,” the court wrote, they were covered by the First Amendment.

Obviously, divorce lawyers are taking note. Deborah Lans of Cohen Lans, a Manhattan law firm with a thriving matrimonial practice, said, “The last thing you want to see is angry people making uncontrolled statements.”

Ms. Lans said her divorce agreements included a confidentiality provision that forbade either party to publish even fictionalized accounts of the marriage, but not every lawyer insists on that. The judge in Laurie’s case explicitly noted that her agreement did not have such a provision.

Earlier this year, a court in Vermont did tell William Krasnansky to take down his lightly disguised account of his divorce, in which he described his ex-wife in an unflattering light and blamed her for forcing him to sell their home at “a ruinous loss.” Mr. Krasnanksy’s ex-wife had complained that it was “defamatory.” But weeks later, after a firestorm of criticism, the court reversed itself and gave him the right to continue to publish.

I’d agree that no one is thinking about the kids:

But this kind of brutal honesty is not a good idea for children, especially since most harbor feelings of guilt about their parents’ divorce anyway, said Irene Goldenberg, a professor emeritus of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“It is not good for children to get personal information in that way,” Dr. Goldenberg said. “And people have to consider doing things in the heat of the moment. The way they feel now will not be how they feel in two years, and there is no way it can be retrieved.”

Ms. Trunk disagrees.

“It is a generational issue,” she said. “We think it will be a big deal, but it won’t be to them. By the time they are old enough to read it, they will have spent their entire life online. It will be like, ‘Oh yeah, I expected that.’”

Ms. Trunk must be expecting to get child support for the therapy her kids will be needing while they make themselves numb to all this crap.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:22 am April 18th, 2008 in Blogging, Media, Parenting, Politics, Women, Writing | Comments Off 

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Apr

18

MediaPost What’s a Blogger survey results

Filed Under Blogging, Media, Research, Results, Tech, Writing | Comments Off

Last week, BlogHer.  This week, Media Post.  Discuss amongst yourself.

I find the Media Post report missing some info – for example, it says more people are looking to political blogs and breaks them down by party affiliation.  But they don’t tell you what percentage political blogs are of all blogs out there (last I read from Pew, it was about 11%).

Political blogs are becoming increasingly common, especially in this election year, where 24.6% of registered voters say they regularly or occasionally blog. Political affiliation of regular/occasional Bloggers look like this in 2008:

37.6%     of Libertarians regularly/occasionally blog
26.9%     of Democrats
25.7%     of Independents
22.9%     Republicans

Fun note: they capitalize “Blogger.”  Cool.  No one capitalizes “Journalist.” But maybe it’s just the usage here. I couldn’t find any more detailed info on the survey firm’s page in a very short look.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:07 am April 18th, 2008 in Blogging, Media, Research, Results, Tech, Writing | Comments Off 

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