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journalismism
Trends
Local TV Reporters Smoke On The Mic Like Smokin' Joe Frazier
One awkwardly rapping local television reporter might be written off as a crackpot. Two might simply be a coincidence. But six different videos of TV reporters breaking into rhyme? It's a trend that has spanned decades, but has only recently been teased out into the open by the hard work of YouTube skimmers. Complex puts together a definitive list of this painful but hypnotic media meme. We've included just one example for you after the jump: an apparently 17-year-old traffic reporter from North Carolina delivering her morning traffic report in the form of a spasmodic (drug-fuelled?) freestyle rhyme. Let's battle, girl: More »
evil corporations in action
McDonald's Buying Off Local Newscasts
To pimp its sugary, 200-calorie iced coffees, fast food giant McDonald's offered to pay some local TV newscasts for product placement. And of course the newscasts went for it, since local TV journalism is where ethical standards go to die. Meredith Corporation is putting the drinks in front of anchors at the Fox affiliate in Las Vegas (pictured) and at two CBS affiliates elsewhere. Tribune Company has the coffee at its Fox affiliate in Seattle. Even national Fox News is playing ball, placing McDonald's product at the News Corporation-owned station in Chicago. Station operators offered the Times any number of excuses, but the best has to be from the news director at the Las Vegas affiliate: He argues the placement is ethically OK because it is restricted to the "lighter, news-and-lifestyle" portion of his morning news show. Sounds like the portion of the program that might normally be given over to, say, segments on weight loss, fitness or preventing kids from becoming obese. But these days, if the station wants to do any reports that might upset McDonald's, it is supposed to yank the lucrative cups: More »
40-Pound Beaver Is Rescued From East River
We can't actually improve on that headline. Kudos, City Room. But yes, a giant beaver was pulled to safety this afternoon by NYPD scuba units, who "were patrolling the United Nations in connection with the visit of Pope Benedict XVI and said the beaver appeared to be struggling to swim." Also: "It was not known if the beaver was male or female. ('It has pretty big claws,' Lieutenant Harkins said.)" [NYT]
Port Authority Stooge Resigns
The Executive Directory of the Port Authority—the nebulous but reliably corrupt and incompetently managed organization that owns all New York's airports and the WTC site, soon to be home of the Target Presents 9/11 Memorial Office Park and Citibank Playground at Ground Zero—resigned this morning. Anthony Shorris, appointed by hooker-lovin' ex-guv Eliot Spitzer last year, "told his staff that he has advanced every goal he tried to set for the agency—including growth at the ports, upgrades to the PATH commuter rail system and buying a fourth airport for the region." He advanced them all from "daydreams" to "fantasies." He was forced out because current adulterous New York Governor David Paterson is replacing everyone Spitzer appointed, and also because of 9/11. [NYT]
journalismism
Scary Monsters (and Super Creep): Busted Perv Sez 'Bigfoot Made Me Do It'
Earlier this week, dangerous fiend Gene Morrill was convicted of 20 charges of sex crimes involving minors. At his sentencing hearing in Stafford County, Virginia, yesterday, Morrill offered a stunning defense: a sasquatch molested him in the woods of New Hampshire. The heroic journalists at Washington DC's WJLA led with this story on yesterday's 5 p.m. newscast. Reporter Jessica Weinstein actually contacted experts at the Bigfoot Field Research Organization to ask whether Bigfoot had ever been spotted in New Hampshire. This is why blogs can never replace genuine shoe-leather reporting. The ABC7 report is attached. [WJLA] More »
old school odes
"If I Have to Teach You How to be a Reporter, Ollie, I'll Do That Later"
The attached clip shows local news at its absolute finest: a hothouse of over-serious but under-talented egos, squabbling with each other over the responsibility of real journalists to cover broken elevator stories as thoroughly as possible. The anchor, venerable old Jim Ryan, forced into retirement from WNYW in 2005. The reporter, former New York Daily News assistant managing editor Dick Oliver. They have a bit of a history. Clip after the jump. More »
spoofs
Entire Internet Falls For Fake Reporter Bird Poo Video
OMG, did you see that video, the one where a television reporter gets bird shit in his mouth on camera? We did too! Because 800 gullible people sent it to us. The clip is a fake. "That's not our guy. That's not our guy at all," a surprised guy named Chuck said when we called up WXYZ, the local Detroit news station identified by the Huffington Post as the video's producer. "That's not even our microphone," he told us. Yeah, we thought we smelled a rat when we heard the crowd of people laughing in the background. Come on, HuffPo, have you ever seen a local news team out in the field with more than like, a camera guy, and if they're lucky, the van driver? Us neither.
UPDATE:Oh, HuffPo. Editing a credulous item about a fake video with a blase update implying you knew it was a spoof all along is just silly. Especially when your changes get recorded in our RSS feed:
everyblock
Web 2.0 Makes A Local News Site That Doesn't Suck
Local journalism isn't a hot Web 2.0 field. Journalist Dan Gillmor learned that the hard way when he had to sell his unsuccessful citizen journalism site Bayosphere to a similar venture, Back Fence, which itself has barely grown past a few communities in Maryland and Virginia. Turns out people get their local news from old outlets just fine, or they turn to specific blogs. That makes sense; why would I need my local news to share a platform with everyone else's local news? The only way to add value is to aggregate already-existing local news and let the user pick the geographic and topical scope they want. That's exactly what EveryBlock, which launched this week, aims to do. More »
Who Had The Worst Christmas Ever?
Anemic sales and high gas prices mean America's retailers might've had the worst Christmas ever! "Perhaps the season's biggest loser was women's apparel," says the Wall Street Journal. On the other hand, they didn't spent an hour stuck upside down in a tank full of shit.
Anemic sales and high gas prices mean America's retailers might've had the worst Christmas ever! "Perhaps the season's biggest loser was women's apparel," says the Wall Street Journal. On the other hand, they didn't spent an hour stuck upside down in a tank full of shit.
