The sad news of Tim Russert's passing comes today. Since I posted a video this morning here's a video of one of Tim Russert's great interviews on Meet the Press.

It is so very sad to see someone so young pass so early.

My position on Dreamweaver is no secret. Last fall I was talking with a colleague and journalism professor about the need for journalism schools to teach content management principles as part of their programs. A communications professional who knows nothing about Dreamweaver can have a bright future. A communications professional who knows only a little about content management is in big trouble.

After we were discussing the course yesterday evening I opened up Google Reader and read Ken Rickard's post about Amy Gahran's wonderful Poynter Online article about just this topic. Here are some of the high points from Gahran's article:

Apparently, this j-school (like many others) offers little or no training in true CMS-based tools. Their online courses focus on Dreamweaver.

That's a big problem, because tools embody mindsets. Focusing on Dreamweaver teaches exactly the wrong mindset for online journalism: that your Web site is mainly an island unto itself.

Amen. While Gahran's comments focus on online journalism the sentiment applies to everything online. Whether it is the Washington Post, the local social club or MySpace the magic of being online is the connected nature of information.  Read more »

We have had many reasons to distrust the media. Though most reporters and anchors are well-meaning and probably don't aim to lie. But when it comes to covering the media it is increasingly impossible to trust what is said by so-called news broadcasts. A case in point is tonight's broadcast from KATB here in Boise. The local NBC affiliate was covering the return of David Letterman and Jay Leno to doing live shows starting tonight. In painting the situation with an overly broad brush they said that both hosts would return without writers. This, however, is a falsehood. While it is true that Leno will come back without writers, Letterman on a competing network and ownership of his own show will come back with writers. Could one assume that the local NBC affiliate didn't know the difference? The possibility seems so remote as to be impossible since the news has been out for several days already. Instead it seems that there is little way to view this other than a deliberate deception. The question is how many other NBC affiliates ran similar stories tonight?

Our local public radio station is at the end of the second week of it's quarterly fund-drive and with the extra week the donations are still more than $80,000 short. I gave up quite a while ago on the station because it doesn't serve us at all well. The only brief encounters I have are the clock-radio in the morning where I haven't setup a good podcast alternative yet. Apparently KNPR is aware that we listeners will turn to podcasting but there still seems to be a disconnect when it comes to how poor their services are for listeners in Southern Nevada. With that in mind here are some suggestions that might bring listeners back and get our donations to flow to them instead of the stations producing great programming:  Read more »

Though it is heresy for someone with a degree in journalism I have to agree with Unclutterer's assessment that folks would be wise to drop print newspaper subscriptions. As the article points out even in the case of papers that have paid online subscription models (i.e. Wall Street Journal) the online subscription is cheaper and has features you'll never find between the pages in the morning. Candidly the only reason to get a print paper these days would seem to be a form on information snobbery of being able to show you get the New York or Los Angeles Times while the neighbors only get the Las Vegas Review Journal. Even with commutes and assuming not everyone has an iPhone there are tools like Google's offline news reader, not to mention countless desktop RSS news reader programs. The time has clearly come that if one's interest is really in information that the laptop has replaced the newspaper. If image is worth killing trees and you don't mind not having information on a business trip and the clutter a newspaper adds then by all means keep on with the print subscription.

When I first heard the story of a fraud being perpetrated using a "horseback ride" I started blogging about it. I went in search of other sources online and found newspapers pointed to a previous scam that was similar to the current version. When I contacted those papers they stood by the stories they had written and didn't do anything about the evidence they'd been duped. It was then I thought that this scam should end now. It should never be repeated. It should not be possible for anybody to not know about the fraud or the scam artist behind it. A comment here this weekend suggests it has worked, at least once. A great day for blogging.

Adam Curry says the video of Saddam Hussein constitutes a MSM tipping point. "Recorded on a cellphone by a single citizen in Iraq, seen worldwide the very next day," Curry's blog post said.

Call me cynical but I am not buying it. First, where are the videos shot by "single citizens" in Iraq? If the citizens of Iraq are taking video with their cell phones and posting it to the internet why are we not seeing the videos elsewhere? And why would an event as tightly controlled as the execution of a brutal dictator be so uncontrolled as to have someone show up without it being planned. Somewhat conveniently said video was pointed out to the main stream media and picked up and aired within hours.

Somehow we are to believe that the fingerprints of the mainstream media are not all over this "happenstance."