My Northeastern colleague Walter Robinson’s students once again lead the Boston Globe, this time with a first-rate investigative story on expensive shift-swapping abuses within the Boston Fire Department.
Way out of bounds in New Haven
The New Haven Register does not enjoy a stellar reputation. In my experience, though, it gets something of a bad rap. It’s thin but reasonably solid. There are several top-notch reporters on staff.
That said, this is a disgrace: an online poll headlined “Who’s the hottest local female television personality?”, complete with photos available for purchase. A database search reveals that it did not appear in the print edition.
The Laurel, a Connecticut media blog, rightly calls it “a new low.” (I should note that I found out about it through the Valley Independent Sentinel’s Twitter feed, and that the Valley site is part of the New Haven Independent, the Register’s main local rival.)
One online commenter wrote, “Try this poll Whos’ Going To Hell and How Hot Will It Be? These women that you chose should be insulted.”
Many of us remember when Howie Carr would engage in such degrading stunts on his radio show. The Huffington Post trolls for traffic with such fare even today. But the Register is a major metropolitan newspaper — the paper of record in Greater New Haven. The journalists there must be mortified. I suspect we have not heard the end of this.
Obama’s solid State of the Union address
In my latest for the Guardian, I argue that President Obama’s State of the Union address was aimed at the public rather than the pundits — and that early returns suggest that he succeeded by emphasizing what keeps middle-class families awake at night.
The Googletron blinks
As you can see, Google ads are back — at least until I can replace them with the locally based sponsors I’ve got lined up. Maybe I’ll find another spot for them on the page. Here’s the e-mail I received a little while ago:
Hi Dan,
Please disregard our previous message. After thoroughly re-reviewing your AdSense account, we’ve decided to reinstate your account. However, there will be a delay before ads start running on your website, as it may take up to 48 hours before all of our servers are informed of the change.
We appreciate your patience, and apologize for any inconvenience. If you have any questions, please visit our Help Center at http://www.google.com/adsense/support, or contact us at http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/request.py.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
Still no explanation of what went wrong, though I have it on good authority that a Google employee discovered my account had been hacked.
I’m glad that this has been resolved, of course. But what really needs to happen is that when Google’s computers detect a problem and shut you down, you should be able to access technical support and message an actual human being to find out what’s going on.
No doubt Google would have to hire a few more people, but I really don’t think that’s too much to ask.
Bella English’s long ride back
Not long after my bicycle accident last Sept. 19, I heard that Boston Globe reporter Bella English had crashed on her bike the same day. I know Bella a bit. We’ve been in touch off and on over the years, and we even had lunch at India Quality in Kenmore Square once. So I reached out to her via Facebook.
It took a while for her to get back to me, and I heard from others that her injuries were much more serious than mine. Now she has told her story — about her fractured skull, her memory loss, vertigo and cognitive difficulties, and her rehab for multiple broken bones.
Best wishes to one of the Globe’s stalwarts. The good news is that Bella is on her way to a full recovery. Amazingly, she says she may hop back on her bike again. Not me.
What’s next in the cable news wars
Three quick hits on the continued fallout over Keith Olbermann’s departure from MSNBC:
1. It looks like MSNBC’s response has been to give promotions to everyone rather than consider what might work best. The network is feeding Lawrence O’Donnell to the wolf (i.e., Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly) at 8 p.m. And Ed Schultz at 10? Really? Aren’t all his viewers in bed by then?
If I were MSNBC honcho Phil Griffin, I’d move Chris Matthews to 8. Matthews is much maligned (I’ve maligned him myself), but he’s still weirdly compelling after all these years. His energy and passion are likely to hold Olbermann’s losses to a minimum. Let Schultz have the 7 o’clock hour and see what he can do with it.
I agree with Griffin’s decision to keep Rachel Maddow at 9. I realize she would do better against O’Reilly than anyone else, but she’s now the franchise, and protecting the franchise is important. If her ratings were to drop below Olbermann’s, it would demoralize the whole operation. And I’d keep O’Donnell at 10, too.
2. CNN, which has slipped behind MSNBC in the prime-time ratings, has an opportunity to take advantage of the Olbermann mess. I’ll confess I haven’t seen Piers Morgan’s new talk show yet, but the clips look very promising — a huge step up from Larry King.
I’ve always liked Anderson Cooper better than “Anderson Cooper 360.” Whatever’s wrong with the show can be fixed. And here’s what’s wrong: inconsistency (you never know whether you’re going to get a solid newscast or tabloid trash) and the two-hour length, which has led CNN to use much of the 10 o’clock hour to flog what’s coming at 11.
The solutions are fairly simple. Cut the newscast to an hour, rebroadcasting Piers Morgan at 11; and up the intelligence quotient.
CNN executives will still need to deal with the toxic-waste pit that is “Parker Spitzer” at 8. I’d move John King’s politically oriented newscast to that slot and cross my fingers.
3. Barring any unexpected bombshells, Bill Carter and Brian Stelter’s take on why Olbermann left seems pretty definitive. But though Comcast, the incoming owner of NBC Universal, appears to have its corporate hands clean, my expectation is that at some point the company will blow up MSNBC.
Maybe it will happen soon. Maybe it won’t happen until Comcast wants to curry favor with a new Republican administration in the White House. But it will happen.
Kennedy hypocrisy harms the public interest
Central to the idea of censorship is that it’s an action taken by the government. But it appears that the Kennedy family may have come up with a new form of censorship: suppression of government documents by a private person.
Boston Globe reporter Bryan Bender writes that Max Kennedy, one of Robert Kennedy’s children, has barred full access to his father’s papers dating back to his time as attorney general. Historians tell Bender those documents could prove embarrassing given what they might reveal about RFK’s actions with regard to Cuba and civil rights.
For censorship aficionados, Max Kennedy’s e-mail to Bender is a classic:
There are many requests to see them, and frankly, many of those requests come from people with poorly-conceived projects. It is my responsibility, as custodian of the papers, to grant use responsibly. That does not mean that every book must be cloyingly positive; I do not think that for a moment, and I would be doing a disservice to my father if I acted that way. But I do believe that historians and journalists must do their homework, and observe the correct procedures for seeking permission to consult the papers, and explain their projects.
In other words, freedom of information is too precious to grant it to just anyone. What a repulsive example of hypocrisy.
Those papers were created at public expense and belong to us. It’s been 50 years. I’m not sure why Max Kennedy even has a say in the matter. But since he does, it’s long since time for him to put the public interest above the possibility that his father’s legacy will be tarnished.
Update: Martin Callaghan points out that Bender does not explain why the Kennedy family rather than the government gets to decide who has access and who doesn’t. The story demands follow-up, and I hope that explanation is forthcoming.
Interested in sponsoring Media Nation?
I don’t consider myself at liberty to disclose where I got this, but I’ve been reliably informed that a Google employee looked at my AdSense account, determined it had been hacked and is in the process of restoring it.
That would be great, but Google really needs to find a way to deal with this problem in a systematic way. In my case, I knew somebody who knew somebody, which is good for me, but ultimately no way to run a railroad.
In any event, the experience has got me thinking about what I ultimately want to do with what’s now a blank space at the top of Media Nation. Even if Google does make good, I would rather sell that space on my own. It would have to be a very simple transaction — more of a sponsorship than a true ad.
If anyone is interested, please drop me a line at (oh, irony of ironies) dkennedy56 {at} gmail {dot} com.
What’s behind Keith Olbermann’s departure?
The talk of Twitter tonight is Keith Olbermann’s surprise announcement that he is leaving MSNBC. His sign-off was short, reasonably gracious and completely unexpected (video here).
We’ll need to wait for the facts to come in before we know exactly what was behind Olbermann’s departure. But there have been signs for some time that he and MSNBC might part company, starting with the hiring of Lawrence O’Donnell to host what had been a 10 p.m. rebroadcast of Olbermann’s 8 p.m. show. (I hadn’t seen much of Keith since the move.) New York Times reporter Brian Stelter tweets that the O’Donnell hire was a “hedge” against the possibility that Olbermann would leave.
Given Olbermann’s reputation for being volatile and difficult, I thought he might quit after he got suspended last fall for making political donations without permission. He came back, but he seemed diminished after that. In recent months, Rachel Maddow has emerged as the face of MSNBC, hosting a series of public events at the 92nd Street Y*. Her hour-long exchange with Jon Stewart was the most intelligent conversation about the news that I saw in 2010.
Cable giant Comcast, as we all know, just won approval for its acquisition of NBC Universal, which includes MSNBC. Could this be one of those Comcastic moves we all love? Not likely. For Comcast executives to move against Olbermann so quickly would suggest an unimaginable political tone-deafness. And I can’t picture Olbermann signing off without saying anything if that were the case.
MSNBC executives tonight should be thanking their stars that Olbermann came along when he did. It was he who led the way toward transforming the operation into a liberal alternative to Fox News — a profitable network that, though still far behind Fox, kicks CNN’s tail in the ratings.
Maddow, who’s friends with Olbermann, will be live on Bill Maher’s show in a few minutes. I don’t subscribe to HBO, but perhaps she’ll shed some light on what happened.
*Correction: I originally referred to the “92nd Street YMCA.” In fact, it is affiliated with a Jewish organization, the YMHA.
Photo (cc) by Adam Fagen and republished here under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.
The Taylors make another run at the Globe
News that Ben and Steve Taylor have signed on to businessman Aaron Kushner’s bid to buy the Boston Globe has changed the dynamic. The Taylors, of course, are prominent members of the family that owned and ran the Globe for more than 100 years. Ben was the publisher before he was ousted in 1999. Steve was executive vice president.
The Taylors, who are cousins, fell short in a bid to buy the paper back from the New York Times Co. in 2009. The reason was never announced, but the buzz was that their group was undercapitalized, and that the Times Co. would have had to accept a ridiculously low price in that year of economic crisis. The Globe would undoubtedly be worth more now, but how much more is hard to say.
The significance of the Taylors’ involvement is that there now will be support within influential circles for the Times Co. to return the Globe to local ownership.
Would Times Co. chairman Arthur Sulzberger sell the Globe? By placing the Globe, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and their associated websites on the block in 2009, he made it clear that he would if the price was right and if he and other Times Co. executives were comfortable with the buyers.
I suspect the big question they’ll now have to answer is whether they can get the price they want — or if, instead, they think they can get more by hanging on to their New England properties for another few years.
The Globe first reported Kushner’s interest last October.
