Outside Cable News

Via Guardian
By Will Buckley
There’s news, American news, and then there’s Fox News

>By the title, I thought this was going to be an interesting read.. But, don’t let my opinion get in the way. Do you think Will Buckley has any valid points concerning Fox News?

America: where watching sport on television began and was perfected. In those soulless bars on the outskirts of bland towns, men would sit in a line at the bar drinking beer and watching sport; any sport; all sport. Drinking and watching and watching and drinking - and talking stupid. More often than not the volume is muted and a ticker service runs across the bottom of the screen conveying the commentary in text. There is no need even to listen. All you need do is stare. At the baseball, at the basketball, at the golf, at the Nascar, at different baseball, different basketball… If John Cheever or Richard Yates or James Salter were writing today their stories would be filled with lost men spending lost evenings staring at meaningless sport in anonymous bars.
(more…)

Via Engadget HD
by Darren Murph
TWC rolls out seven new HD channels in Hudson Valley region of NY

When Time Warner Cable dropped its HD bombshell on New York and New Jersey earlier this month, we were told that the whole gang of newcomers would filter over to the Hudson Valley region later in the year. Judging by an update on the carrier’s site, a small portion of those will be joining the EPG in the aforementioned area in just weeks. Effective April 30th, users in and around Kingston, Middletown, Newburgh, and Poughkeepsie can expect to see Food Network HD (736), Fox Business News HD (758), Hallmark Movie Channel HD (784), HGTV HD (763), Versus / Golf HD (773) and Travel Channel HD (780). Just a day later, Fox News HD will be arriving on slot 762. Sure, it’s nowhere near 50, but it’s a solid start. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

Via China View
American Chinese demand apology from CNN for insulting Chinese

>EXCERPT

LOS ANGELES, April 11 (Xinhua) — American Chinese have launched an online campain, demanding an apology from the Cable News Network (CNN) and its Situation Room program for insulting Chinese.

“We are truly stunned and shocked by a recent racist and hatred remark on the Chinese people by your news commentator Jack Cafferty, ” said a petition which has won 7,614 signatures since it was posted online on Friday.

In Situation Room aired on April 9th, Cafferty charged the Chinese people with a highly despicable assault by saying, “They (Chinese) are basically the same bunch goons and thugs they have been in the past fifty years,” according to the petition.

“It’s not common to witness such a blatant discrimination against an ethnic group of people with such a derogatory connotation in a national TV program,” said the petition, “We believe his remark clearly exposed his hatred and bigotry against Chinese people as a whole. Without doubt, many people feel hurt, especially, the Chinese people, by this shameless assault.”

>Video after the jump.
(more…)

April 11, 2008 NYC Protest

Voters Protest Mainstream Media Hate Speech Against Senator Hillary Clinton
Friday, April 11, 2008 8 AM Rockefeller Plaza (MSNBC) and 48th Street
“We’re mad as hell, and we’re not gonna take it anymore!”

>I’m sure this has been covered elsewhere. However, I received a tip with a link to pictures.

Update: I just realized this is the same link from Inside Cable News.

via Canyon News
Disgrace In America
By Tommy Garret
>EXCERPT

But then there are the faces of evil. One in particular is Warren Jeffs. How Americans like me, who support the war in Iraq and believe that Saddam’s son’s rape rooms were unacceptable in a civilized world can turn a blind eye to the rampant pedophilia and child abuse as well as abuse and brainwashing of women starting from birth right here in America, is beyond me. FOX News is ranting on and on about Americans boycotting visiting Aruba because of the apparent death and cover up of Natalie Halloway. CNN is ranting about the planet in peril. All the while we forget that we have thousands of missing young girls and people in America and no one is boycotting any of our cities. Ridiculous. Viewers become fixated on an almost brainwashing mantra that Lou Dobbs, Bill O’Reilly and others spew on a daily basis and forget about the innocent among us. Those who have no voice or have no powerful media talking heads fighting for their rights get no attention. I get thousands of emails every week, but not one of them mentioned this horrific situation in Texas. Nor is there any interest in Americans to realize that it is going on in epidemic proportions not just in Texas, but Arizona, Utah and Colorado. That these pedophile sects are now becoming entrenched in South Dakota, Mexico and Canada as well.
(more…)

Via CitizensVoice
BY BRIAN JARVIS
Local homeless vets to be featured on CNN

When Luzerne County native Robert Zarnoch returned home to West Pittston after a year-long tour in Iraq, he never expected to find himself living under the Market Street Bridge.

“I went four and a half months without a shower. It was like living out of an Army rucksack,” Zarnoch recalled. “The irony is that I would hear soldiers I used to serve with marching over the bridge during parades.”

A systems mechanic and military policeman with the 109th Field Artillery Unit of the Pennsylvania National Guard, Zarnoch’s life took a downward spiral when the former nurse’s aid realized he was suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, prone to sudden twitches and outbursts.

Eventually his wife left him. He couldn’t get his old job back. He bounced around homeless shelters due to overcrowdedness or conflicts with management. Soon, even menial labor jobs were tough to find.

“Veterans don’t deserve carpets and crowns, but we deserve more respect than we’re getting. I can’t even get teeth,” said Zarnoch, opening his mouth wide to prove his point. “Here’s my problem. I’m a combat vet with 68 confirmed kills. I’ve taken rounds to my helmet and to my chest and back on a bulletproof vest. Now people think I’m a nut and I’m crazy. Do you think I can’t mop a floor?”

Digging through trash cans in search of half-smoked cigarettes near the Kirby Center, Zarnoch was eventually introduced to Homeless Advocate Michael Keslosky.
(more…)

Via Canada.com
By Chris Cobb
‘Citizen journalist’ often there first to snap photos
>EXCERPT

In the words of New York University’s Jay Rosen, one the first to recognize the potential of citizen or “standalone” journalism, the fundamental obstacle that divided mainstream news media and the wannabes and mightbes, has disappeared.

“The tools for media production have been distributed,” he says. “They have left the building.”

CNN’s IReport.com, a YouTube-style site, began in a relatively limited form in August 2006 and since then has received 100,000 news clips.

It’s also testament to the quality and relevance of the submissions that the company’s main Internet site, CNN.com, and its main news cable channel, have used fewer than 10 per cent of the contributions.

However, among that 10 per cent was footage from last April’s Virginia Tech campus shootings - CNN received 420 video clips from students at the school - and 11,000 images from the California wildfires.

“It starts with the audience,” Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide, told the media news service MediaWatch. “Audiences are more and more comfortable participating in news.”
(more…)

Via CNN
By David Reisner, 360° Digital Producer

We’re Webby Award Nominees!

Bloggees, we have some great news to report.

We’re Webby Award Nominees!

“You liked us! You really, really liked us!” (More to come on what we’ll say if we win)

So where was I…. oh yes… We are Webby Award Nominees!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the award, it’s the leading international honor for the Web. The NY Times has called it the “Oscars of the Internet.”

The Webby Awards honor excellence on the Internet, including Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video, and Mobile Websites.
(more…)

Via B&C
By Michael Malone
Internet Broadcasting’s David Lebow Sharpens Stations’ Web Focus
IB Manages 75-Plus Partner Stations’ Web Sites, Launching Web Application Slantly

Q: IB’s partnership with CNN is coming up on one year. What has it meant for your news coverage?

A: It’s added credibility to both sides. It’s added localism to CNN and, in our case, it’s a tremendous opportunity in the same way CNN works for television stations: A local story breaks, the reporter is on CNN, and CNN’s brand is national. They’ve generated tremendous traffic for us and our partners. It’s early, too — there’s a lot of other interesting stuff we can do. They’re going to continue to grow their reach, and we’re doing more modular products. But at the same time, we have to earn our way in. They’re a world-class brand, and they’re going to take the best options available to the market.

>Read the rest at B&C.