60 minutes, minus the 12 minute blackout.

Last Sunday, a local television station in Huntsville Alabama suffered a 12 minute blackout, which isn't unheard of in broadcasting. The CBS affiliate WHNT-TV was broadcasting "60 minutes", the episode was reporting about the Bush administration's and Karl Rove's involvement in the conviction of the states former Democratic governor.

Don Siegelman, the former governor and many other residents in Huntsville began asking questions of the possible partisan involvement. No, one has been singled-out yet, but the suspicion of "Republican Operatives " still lingers. The station is re-airing the episode of "60 minutes" later in the week in an attempt to ease tensions.

It's worrisome to think that there is even a possibility that political group would as go far as limiting access to information in such away as this one. When thinking about it, the blackout sounds like something that would happen with a state ran television in Iran not Alabama(maybe). Now, even though no one has been singled out as a suspect, questions are still being raised. Events like these show that we should still be vigilant about whats going one even if we live in the domain of freedom of speech.

College Newspaper Break Story Sooner

After last weeks shootings at Northern Illinois University(NIU) that left five dead, CNN wasn't the first to report on the event. But instead it was the Northern Star, the NIU college news paper.

The Northern Star was hit-hard by the lose of Daniel Parmenter, a student who worked as a sale representative for the newspaper. Besides suffering great loses, they were the first to report on the facts about the gunman taking his own life, long before major news outlets.

The staff has also work on other tragedies like Virgina Tech shootings last year. Both of the events are horrible and demoralize students and faculty, and some how they were able to pull together deliver the story.

Delivery of the news was quicker then even the largest based media outlets, but it hits-home-harder.

Contrasts between film and broadcast in the 50's

In the 1950's the United States was turning the heat up on so called communist sympathizers from Hollywood by blacklisting them. Its commonly best referred to it as "McCarthyism" and in my mind, I had mostly only heard about the events of the fifties as being the only time of censorship of communism.

This is article is amazing in the sense that talks about what happened not with Hollywood and the filmmakers, but also what happened with broadcasting. Even though its happened over almost six decades ago, this era of American culture shapes a lot of how we look at the 50's and the cold war today.

It really shows the differences in the roles that the media played back then and how much influence the government had in compare to today. I can say that if I had never heard about the broadcasting side of the story made me always think that the west coast just must of alway been more progressive. But armed with what I know now, it completes a more complete and clearer picture.

It shows how involved the government was in trying to sway the public opinion in one direction away from communism. You can also draw comparisons with the fear mongering done by the current white house admistrastion about terrorism and other mundane issues.

Super Tuesday's Super Stupid Ads

Today 22 states are holding their primaries for both the Democratic and Republican parties, making it one of the most important nights until November 7 when the general elections are held.

News stations see tonight as chance to capitalize on viewer ratings by providing nonstop coverage of the result. One station in particular, MSNBC took full advantage of the mayhem by introducing "Vote-Zilla!" a big green monster, featured in the network's commercials to help capture views' attention.

MSNBC might want to have revised their idea of the "Vote-Zilla" advertising campaign, but its a little to late for that. No doubt though that tonight is going important to help bust ratings for news organizations, but aren't there better ways to approach views? The idea would have been more fitting for last Sunday, but not this Tuesday.

Who exactly are they trying to target with these ads? Fans of Clover field. The primary and caucus turn outs for young adult voters is at an all-time high, making 08' elections a great step forward into the future. The change has been brought by the campaigns ran by Barrack Obama and Ron Paul calling for younger American to become politically involved, not by a big green monsters.

Hidden Out In the Open

STORY link is hiding in HERE!
Last January, the Washington Post hatched a plan to take advantage of unsuspecting commuters at the L’Enfant Plaza metro station. They decided to place world famous violinist Joshua Bell in plain street cloths to play violin, and catch the commuters' reactions.

Washington Post staff writer, Gene Weingarten came up with the idea for the experiment. After, he heard a highly talented keyboardist playing at a metro station without not even getting recognized by commuters.

Weingarten had Bell play inside L'Enfant Plaza for 45 minutes, so, he played leaving his violin case open hoping for donations. When all was said and done 1,097 people walked past and only twenty-seven left tokens of appreciation, totaling to $30.
Three months later, Weingarten's article was published by the Post about the brain dead commuters.

The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) decided to do a recap about this piece in order to probe deeper into the idea of social experiments and journalism. CJR explained the relationship best by saying, "Indeed, Weingarten’s experiment was a recent entry in a journalistic genre with deep, quirky roots."

The idea of social experiments goes back as far as 1887 with yellow journalists like Nellie Bly. Who faked hearing voices to get admitted into a loony-bin in order to do her story. Critics believe these types of experiments to be unethical and lacking of actual scientific content.

Journalism is always pushing the known bonders of what is "social acceptable" making it pioneering field and proving grounds for reestablishing the status quo.

Budget cuts only lead to more termoil for LA Times

Earlier this week the Los Angeles Times had to say goodbye to editor, James E. O’Shea. O'Shea left the LA Times after refusing to follow through with budget cuts. The budgets of American newspaper companies have hit rock-bottom since sales of newspapers have fallen. In response publisher David Hiller demanded to cut cost, this didn't sit well with O'Shea obviously. Have budget cuts cost newspapers their souls? I think so, if editors and journalists lose control over their content to accountants and publishers. The Tribune newspaper executive Samuel Zill doesn't feel that cost cuts are the correct route either, but still sides with Hiller's decision on the matter of financial costs. If sales continue to drop what is to become of the newspaper? It would be a shame if this is a sign for the future.

link to article (Click Here)

Oprah likes discover new success.

Discovery is going to be working with Oprah to help her in a 50/50 venture to launch a new channel called Oprah Whinfery Network(OWN). Discovery decided to dismantle the Discovery Health channel to aid in the effort. Personally I'm stoked to hear this because there is not enough television that is pro socially positive channels out there.

I'm not endorsing Oprah in any way, but its good to see a "celebrity" doing something good. Oprah has done very well for herself in the world of mass media with "O" magazine and Harpo and also the resent opening of her school in South Africa.

Oprah has an awesome grasp on how to turn heads and catch the attention viewers and this is what I think drew Discovery to her in the first place. Her influence can be felt in everything for book sells for NY times best sellers to endorsing Barack Obama in South Carolina. Only time will tell whether it will work out...

Heres the link to the article (click here)