Media

There are 262 posts filed in Media (this is page 13 of 27).

Hallie’s IMatterYouthNC video ad

Frank Eaton films Hallie

Frank Eaton films Hallie


Friday afternoon, we spent a few hours with Raleigh documentary filmmaker Frank Eaton at the N.C. State Arboretum. Frank volunteered to make an informational video for Hallie’s IMatter Youth NC climate-change march she’s organizing for Sept. 28th in Raleigh. Along with our friends the Maugers, we set up a shooting location among the greenery of the arboretum while Hallie recited her lines for the camera.

Frank is an expert videographer and a fun guy to be around. He really connected with the kids, too, making it a fun experience.

The video came out beautifully and Hallie’s climate change rally is quickly generating attention. We hope the momentum continues to build through 28th!

If you’d like to know more, check out the IMatter Youth NC website. And if you’d like to look good on camera, check out Frank’s Bully Documentary Company.

N&O still miffed about closed sessions

I sure do wish the News and Observer would let the Raleigh City Council do its due diligence in hiring a city manager. Saturday’s front-page teaser about a closed session last week made me mad:

nando-front-page-council-blurb-2013-09-07

McFarlane holds closed City Council session

Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane presides over a non-public session that raises questions about compliance with the state’s open meetings law.

Um, no it doesn’t. It pertained to the city manager hiring process and the mayor was correct in calling for a closed session.

I’ll say it again: making job candidates public puts them in a precarious position with their current employers. Raleigh has had dozens of candidates respond to the city manager listing. Each of them might be fired from their current job if word got out that they were looking.

I’ll say another thing again: if the media expects city officials to respect the parts of Open Meetings that benefit them, they must also respect the parts of Open Meetings which allows city officials to conduct their personnel procedures in private.

Hiring a city manager is the most important decision a city council can make. The city manager is only one of two direct reports to the council. Why can’t the News and Observer leave the city council alone and let them pursue the best person for the job?

Al Jazeera disappears from American viewers

I learned tonight that part of Al Jazeera’s deal with what precious few cable companies that will carry it’s new Al Jazeera America channel involves completely removing its Al Jazeera English channel from American airwaves. My friend Doc Searls laments this change in a recent blog post:

On that last topic, I have to wonder what the calculus of the “deal” to kill the live AJE stream was. That was not only an awful lot to pay for very little in return; but it isn’t even clear who it was paid to. Comcast? Cox? AT&T? None of them carry @AJAM at all. And the others hardly seem to give a damn about the channel anyway. I can imagine this dialog between Al Jazeera and the U.S. cable companies:

AJ: We killed our firstborn so it would not offend you. Will you carry our channel now?

CABLE GIANTS: No.

CABLE SECOND-TIER PLAYERS: Um, okay, maybe on one of our high-priced tiers, in lo-def.

AJ: Okay.

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N&O unfairly portrays Russ Stephenson

Speaking of the N&O, I’m perplexed at the N&O’s portrayal of Russ Stephenson in recent stories, all written by municipal reporter Colin Campbell.

I like Colin. He and I both volunteer for Little Raleigh Radio, bringing an LPFM station to downtown Raleigh. He’s also interviewed me on occasion on Parks board matters and does a good job in his reporting. Still, his reporting on Russ has raised some questions.
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Criticism and praise for the N&O

The News and Observer has gotten me talking about it, which in my view of the media is usually a good thing.

The criticism

Earlier this week, N&O Executive Editor John Drescher defended T. Keung Hui’s reporting on the Wake school superintendent search, a story on which he extensively quoted former board member Ron Margiotta. Margiotta must have been in on confidential board discussions, and some allege boardmember John Tedesco was the source. Says John:

Margiotta’s comments angered some board members, including chairman Keith Sutton. The board members didn’t dispute the accuracy of Margiotta’s comments. But they were upset because they believed a board member must have told Margiotta, who left the board at the end of 2011, about the vote for Merrill.

I am a staunch supporter of our “Sunshine laws” and the First Amendment. Anyone doing public business need to answer to the public for their actions. That said, the most important decision a public board can make is the hire of the administrator who will actually carry out its decisions. The law provides an exception to the Open Meetings law for these personnel decisions and rightfully so. Job candidates take a huge risk in interviewing for these positions because the likelihood is high that word will get back to their current employer.
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Zimmerman trial

The jury in the George Zimmerman trial reached a verdict of not guilty last night. Many of my lefty friends are outraged and, while I haven’t followed the trial at all, I’ve found the emotional reactions most alarming.

Many people have thrown common sense to the wind and are calling for vigilante justice against George Zimmerman, yet these same people condemn Zimmerman for taking the law into his own hands. It’s crazy to hear all the calls for more blood.

Gun violence is a scourge on humanity. Racial profiling is shameful and wrong. It’s a shame that Trayvon Martin is dead. So many people think they know exactly what happened during that encounter and yet none of us really do. Those who are second-guessing the verdict are as guilty of jumping to conclusions as they accuse Zimmerman of being.

I had no investment in the trial’s outcome but I am appalled at how this incident has stirred some frightening reactions, divorced from all reality. I’m appalled at how the media hype surrounding this incident has been used to further divide us rather than to bring understanding.

Don’t buy into the hate. Don’t buy into the violence. Let go of the stereotypes that blind you to the truth. If we can learn to do this, perhaps we can salvage something useful from this tragedy.

Terrorism by any other name

Yesterday afternoon, some coward blew up bombs on a crowded Boston street near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. At this point three people have died and over 100 were injured. It was a horrific ending to what should have been a triumphant moment for these runners, their families, and their friends. So far President Obama has stopped short of calling it terrorism. Others suspect it’s terrorism and some are even speculating that it’s domestic terrorism.

I am aghast that anyone could think it’s anything but terrorism.

Wikitionary defines terrorism as:

The deliberate commission of an act of violence to create an emotional response through the suffering of the victims in the furtherance of a political or social agenda.

Yeah, I know I should never quote a wiki but it’s a good definition.

I would say that murdering innocents is always considered terrorism. Any time some disturbed person goes on a deadly shooting rampage, it’s terrorism. Any time an American with a chip on his shoulder detonates an explosive-laden truck near a crowded federal building, it’s terrorism. Any time some coward leaves backpacks on a crowded Boston street to kill innocent people, it’s terrorism.

There is no such thing as “domestic terrorism.” It’s terrorism. If someone kills someone I love, I’m not inclined to treat them differently based on where they live: it won’t bring my loved one back. Whether a foreigner with a twisted sense of justice blows someone up or a fellow American with a twisted sense of justice blows someone up doesn’t matter. They are both killers and both cowards.

They way to defeat terrorism is to go on living and refused to be cowed by these cowardly attacks. That, and do all you can to bring the bastards to justice.

Time Warner Cable drops Current after Al Jazeera sale

Current TV, an independent TV channel owned in part by Al Gore, was sold to Al Jazeera this week. Time Warner Cable immediately responded by pulling Current TV off its lineup.

I’m one of the few Americans who can watch Al Jazeera on my television, thanks to my Free to Air satellite dish. Al Jazeera is everything CNN used to be. It offers plucky, daring reporting and strives to report the truth. It is also not beholden to Wall Street. It’s signal is broadcast above America completely free and clear.

What’s more, so much of America’s foreign policy involves the Middle East. Al Jazeera covers the Mideast better than any other network, hands down. I will always recall being transfixed at the live images Al Jazeera beamed from Tahir Square during Egypt’s Arab Spring. Al Jazeera is arguably more successful in spreading democracy than even the U.S. military.

If Americans discovered an independent, reliable news channel existed outside of the monopoly that controls American media, why, they might start paying attention to the important issues of our world. Can’t have that, can we?

Can you edit better than a third grader?

I don’t know what it is with the N&O’s editing, or lack thereof. It seems particularly bad for the sports section. It may due to my bias for the N.C. State Wolfpack but it seems there’s a general lack of knowledge for State coverage. I don’t know because I usually only skim the Duke or UNC stories.

N.C. State’s basketball team beat Western Michigan yesterday in a game in Raleigh. Sports writer J.P. Giglio wrote a good story on the game, but because Giglio referenced last week’s game against St. Bonaventure, whomever supposedly edits the sports page listed St. Bonaveuture as yesterday’s opponent on the front of the sports page.

Giglio wrote:

Just like the previous game against St. Bonaventure, Richard Howell fouled out Saturday against Western Michigan.

… and this is what appeared on the front of the sports page:

The Pack played Western Michigan, not St. Bonaventure.


Fewer than two weeks ago, the sports page flubbed the name of N.C. State’s basketball coach in a photo caption on the front of the sports page, calling him Mike Gottfried instead of Mark Gottfried. This error didn’t get by my eagle-eyed 8-year-old son, Travis, so why in the world did it get by the paper’s editors?

The N&O has a chance to offer the best coverage of local sports, and generally the paper does. For many subscribers, sports coverage is very important. That’s why I’m mystified that the N&O has let its sports editing get so bad. It may be enough to drive people away from the newspaper.