Josh Marshall observes the 8th birthday of Talking Points Memo today and suggests there’s even better to come.
TPM is one of the great examples of how new media can work. Marshall is one of the best journalists of our time, helping to reinvent our craft. He deserves our continued support and praise.
Editor & Publisher: API Hosting ‘Crisis Summit’ for Newspaper Industry. The American Press Institute (API) will host an invitation-only, closed-door “summit conference” Nov. 13 in which 50 CEO-level executives will ponder ways to revive the newspaper business.
The newspaper industry’s big issue is pretty simple. It’s trying to move from a monopoly position into a competitive marketplace. That’s incredibly hard even for the best-run companies, but with a very few exceptions newspaper companies are not being run by the best and brightest or anyone even close to that.
The American Press Institute is one of most reactionary bodies on the planet when it comes to understanding how media are changing, or at least doing something useful to help make a painful business transition. A closed-door “omigod-it’s-a-crisis” meeting is the perfect example of how the API continues to miss the point of open media in an open society.
David Cohn, one of the bright lights among new journalists, has launched Spot.us, a site that aims to persuade people from communities to send money to support excellent journalism about specific issues. I’m an advisor to this project and believe strongly that he’s onto something important.
Spot.us describes itself as “a nonprofit project to pioneer ‘community funded reporting.’ Through Spot.Us the public can commission investigations on important and perhaps overlooked stories. Donations are tax deductable and if a news organization buys exclusive rights to the content, your donation will be reimbursed. Otherwise content is made available through a Creative Commons license.
Take a look — and please contribute in some way.
This is the BlogBoat, site of a small gathering this afternoon in Gent, Belgium, where I’m speaking with a group of journalists, bloggers and others in new media. The topic, “Citizen Journalism: Scenarios for the Future,” is as it sounds: a forward-looking conversation aiming to identify where we’ve come — including the successes and failures — and where we may be going. (BlogBoat on Twitter, hashtag)
We’ll be moving over to a local arts center for the evening program. More later…
The AP reports, “Palin derides anonymous critics on Fox as cowards,” a reference to a recent Fox News segment in which a correspondent relayed a variety of negative attacks from, he said, members of the McCain campaign staff against Sarah Palin.
No matter what you think about Palin in general, she’s right in this case. It’s a perfect example of why anonymous critics should not be taken seriously — in fact why they should often be flatly disbelieved.
Consider the source. Remember the avalanche of lies that emanated from the McCain campaign this fall? These folks were spewing untruths as a matter of routine. Now we’re supposed to suddenly start trusting them? Strike one.
Even though Palin betrayed a remarkable ignorance to go along with her arrogance, the notion that she doesn’t know Africa is a continent can’t be taken seriously. Strike two.
And then there’s the refusal of the person who allegedly said this to allow his or her name to be attached to the slander. Strike three.
This isn’t precisely like an anonymous comment on a blog, where we don’t know anything about the person posting it. In this case we know — or, rather, we’ve been told by a news organization that itself is often untrustworthy — that the comments came from a dishonest political campaign.
The anonymous comment on a blog or news article deserves less than no credibility. The Palin attacks, given the source, deserve about as much trust: zero at most.
I know is was supposed to be up there just for a month, but the great Google Search 2001 page now returns: 404 – Page Not Found. What a shame — this was an invaluable feature.
I’m joining Mark Glaser and a cast of folks in an online PBS chat today and this evening. It’s here.
Looking forward to BlogBoat 1.0 on Sunday, Nov. 9 in Ghent, Belgium. The “Meeting of Minds” gathering will explore citizen media and, among other things, its relationship to traditional journalism.
David Ardia at the Citizen Media Law Project has a terrific post, “The Role of Citizen Media in Ensuring Fair Elections,” with a long list of valuable resources. Don’t miss this.
The Houston Chronicle reports a poll that “finds 23% of Texans think Obama is Muslim” but stops there.
If I ran a newspaper in Texas, I’d make it a mission to help that quarter of the population learn a) that Obama is not a Muslim; and b) that, as Colin Powell said (and so few others have said), that it shouldn’t matter if he is.
If we can’t count on traditional media to go on a campaign to debunk outright lies aimed at smearing people or fostering a warmongering climate, then the traditional media don’t deserve to exist.