Mad Men vs. The Newsroom: 'tis truer to advertise than journalize

Are you there, Peggy? It's me, Don. From Spoilertv.com. 

WARNING: This article contains spoilers from the sixth season of Mad Men. 


I'd rather hang with Don Draper than Will McAvoy. Does that make me a bad person?

It's a question I've asked before and I'm considering again as we find ourselves in the one-week no man's land between the end of another awesome season of Mad Men and the beginning of what will probably be another shitty season of The Newsroom.

In theory, journalism is all about exposing the truth and advertising is all about hiding it - just ask any new TV reporter! - so we should probably identify more with a journalist doing God's work than an advertiser doing clients' work, right?

In practice, though, Mad Men's conflicted and imperfect Don Draper is so much more interesting and authentic than The Newsroom's self-righteous and -important windbag Will McAvoy, whose job is ostensibly to uncover the truth.

At its heart, the problem with The Newsroom is that it believes its own "self-righteous myth-making" (thank you Conrad Black). Like its characters, the show has its head so far up its own arse, it has no idea how dumb it actually is.

The series kicks off with anchorman McAvoy making a public declaration that America is not the greatest country on Earth (gasp!). After a three-week "vacation," he goes back to work and is shocked to discover that his new boss is his ex-girlfriend. Boing.

If it's lame that our hero's big moment of truth is just a setup for an equally big TV cliche, the series also asks us to believe that, among other things, a tell-it-like-it-is anchorman is OK dismissing seeing his girlfriend as a hallucination, a hardened war reporter doesn't know how email works, and young journalists not only read The Rock's tweets out loud to each other at parties, but the tweets actually foreshadow the news.

The Newsroom also isn't above chiding tabloid and online journalists at the same time it treats us to an episode about the Gabrielle Giffords shooting that actually ends with a Coldplay "Fix You" montage, as though the shocking news needs a big, fat cliche in order to make it more authentic.

What makes McAvoy (and the show) so unappealing is that he's the anchor dedicated to "the truth" while he believes his own lies; he not only fails to see that empty PR cliches wouldn't work if he didn't report them, but even embraces them himself. He's a quick-thinking, tough-talking smart guy who's dumb enough to get burned by a tabloid journalist.

Will: he ever learn?

Don Draper is the advertiser who proves my favorite line: "advertisers are more honest about their dishonesty." Mad Men season six was all about Draper losing his stomach for the lies he sells to others and himself in order to create the illusion of happiness.

Mad Men season six ends where The Newsroom season one begins: with our main character finally telling the truth. It's no accident that Draper spills his guts in a boardroom pitch with Hershey's: an iconic American product (or is it a religion?) coming face to face with the awful reality of day-to-day American life.

The truth doesn't set Draper free: America prefers the seeming authenticity he creates in boardrooms to the actual reality of his life. To his colleagues, Draper's "shit the bed" and they force him to take an undefined leave of absence that puts his career and marriage in question.

On The Newsroom, the truth is as manufactured as a Hershey's Bar. On Mad Men, the truth has consequences. You want the truth, Will McAvoy? You can't handle the truth.

Choose your communication major based on the car that goes with it

1. Journalism

2. Advertising

3. Media Production

4. PR

What car do you think a PR person should be driving? Imagine it here: 

The four most unintentionally dirty headlines of the year

The Newsroom finds the future of journalism - on TV!

Aaron Sorkin has seen the future of journalism, and it's Keith Olbermann.

Boing!

The Newsroom, Sorkin's new HBO show, is about a fictional cable news outlet that discovers how awesome journalism could be if anchors just spoke their minds on TV instead of giving their viewers the same-old partisanship disguised as objectivity.

Watch the full episode on YouTube.

Our hero, Jeff Daniels, is a Tom Brokawesque figure who finds his inner Keith Olbermann at a college forum. He shocks everyone when he says that America is not the best country in the world (for Canadians, this is less shocking - har, har!) and has a pretty great statistics-fueled rant at the ready.

Every freshman in the building knows a good story when he or she hears it, so out come more iPhones than the last time Coldplay sang "Yellow." When our anchor comes back from the resulting three-week "vacation," he's shocked to learn his crew has gone on to other things and the new producer is an ex-girlfriend played by Emily Mortimer.

Computer bad, people good

From there, the Newsroom picks up where the film Network left off: an on-air anchor who's "mad as hell and not going to take it anymore." But Network was a comedy, and it had something to say about the future of journalism.

The Newsroom is not a comedy, though it has some laughs, and it's not very clever about the state of the news biz. The show has a strange anti-Internet thread - strange, because Sorkin wrote the acclaimed the Social Network. There's disdain for YouTube, blogs, email(!), and the computer that shows if news is important when the color turns from yellow to orange and red.

The not-so-compelling message: computers bad, people good.

A more interesting show would have Daniels play a Julian Assange-like character who knows where the future of the news lies, but finds himself fighting for freedom of the press against an establishment that won't acknowledge he is the press. Just a sec: I'll call my agent.

The show's target is a good one, if a little obvious: lazy TV journalism. But the idea that we, the viewers, need someone to snap us out of our Matrix-like cocoons ignores that we already have that person in the brilliant Stephen Colbert.

Like Sorkin's the West Wing, the Newsroom is full of self-important idealistic people that at times plays like a satire of self-important idealistic people. While this tone worked in the confines of the White House, it leaves something to be desired in a TV newsroom. Is there anything worse than a new TV reporter who thinks he or she is doing God's work?

The Newsroom is His Girl Friday by way of the Brady Bunch Movie. The show ostensibly takes place in the real world, but it's unrealistic, and the characters don't know it. It's a conceit that leads to such plot devices as the jaded, cynical anchorman who's also comfortable dismissing something he's seen as a hallucination.

The Golden Age of Journalism: two years ago

The biggest cheat is that, 15 minutes in, we find out the Newsroom is actually a period piece from April 2010, also known as the first day of the BP oil spill. It's a cheat, because it allows our journalists to quickly realize "this story is bigger than people think! They can't cap the well! There's more oil being pumped into the water than they're saying!"

Within two minutes, the gang has the entire story cracked, and before you know it, Daniels is on air live, sans cue cards, weaving together a brilliant news show that's only possible when:

1. You know what the news will be before it happens.
2. You've memorized Aaron Sorkin's lines.

When the show ended, my first impression was, "I like it!" There's snappy dialogue, an expensive set, great HBO production standards, and the always-awesome Jeff Daniels. After some thought and a faceslap, I thought, "But none of it makes any sense!"

So, in a backward kind of way, the Newsroom proves its point: it's a TV show that delivers some thrills, as long as you don't think about them for very long. Given the questionable state of TV journalism and the future of journalism itself, it could've been so much more.

My favorite mobile apps for summer 2012

Hashtag app for Twitter and Instagram searches. 

Summer's here, and the time is right for apping in the street.

The mobile apps that are rocking my phone's world this summer:

1. Hashtag for Twitter and Instagram

This cool, little app lets you to follow Twitter and Instagram topics at the same time using hashtag searches. Even better: when you're done searching, you can pick and choose the tweets and photos that interest you and create a Hastagraphic for reporting, storytelling, and sharing.

2. Tweetbot with Storify integration

Tweetbot was already the best mobile Twitter app on the market, but it's now integrated with Storify, so you can capture Twitter conversations, create a Storify story about them, and share it with planet Earth.

3. Waze

This social-mobile-map app is supposed to be for "drivers" to make real-time updates to live maps. Yeah: bad idea. However, for car passengers and bus riders - like me - this app is nothing short of awesome. You can report construction, traffic jams, radar traps, and hazards in real time as you commute, giving everyone else a heads up before they head out.

4. Voxer

Roger, roger. Voxer turns your iPhone into a walkie-talkie. Text messages, photos, and - new! - audio, in real time or to play back later.

5. ReaddleDocs with Dropbox and Box integration

One of the great smartphone apps, ReaddleDocs saves documents from emails, the Web, Dropbox, Box, and the storage service of your choice, so you can access them anytime from your iPhone or iPad.

6. CardFlick

Digital business cards you can customize and share ("flick") from smartphone to smartphone or by email.

7. The new Foursquare

The mobile check-in app underwent a big facelift last week. I never much cared for being "the mayor" of McDonald's, and I guess neither did anyone else: the app's new focus is on recommendations, not sticking it to your friends because you eat more McChickens than they do.

8. Video-sharing apps: Socialcam, Viddy, Bambuser

Welcome to the new wave of apps vying to be "the Instagram of video" - filter, share, and (in the case of Bambuser) stream your video to friends, family, and your adoring publics.

9. MindMeister

Build your mind maps for creative, business, or organizational purposes (or Euro 2012) and share them with your friends and colleagues online.

***

What mobile apps are you lovin' these days?

The Greatest Story Ever Told (in a community newspaper)

The humanity! And that's just the sentence structure.

This awesome article is from a Canadian community newspaper, which shall remain nameless. Paragraph breaks are mine. We can blame the writer for everything else:

"God Picks No Favorites is what comes to mind when you see the damage done to the First United Church on 3rd. Ave. N.W.

"Saturday nights winds left approximately Forty to Fifty thousand dollars damage to the Church which houses many memories for the people that accompany it.

"Upon walking inside the church the first thing you see is 1/2 of the North wall lying on whats left of the Floor. The area where the choir stands as well as the Priest was destroyed from the falling brick, also causing damage to the basement below.

"Nobody new about the damage until Sunday mourning and luckily there was no-body inside the Church at the time.

"By luck the Organ which is situated against the centre of the inside north wall received only a scratch while everything around it was crushed. There is also considerable damage to the south wall from the wind. The large front window will have to be rebuilt due to it being pushed and bent from the large gusts of wind.

"One person at the church was commented as saying that the damage in one word was shocking. It would be safe to say that the public should stay well away from the North and South wall of the church since there is still chance of more bricks to fall.

"Sunday service will now be held in the large Auditorium for now and if anyone may have any other questions concerning services you may call (number)."

Journalism could use some good PR right about now

Darth Murdoch: "Apology accepted, Captain Brooks."

Journalist: expose thyself! On second thought...

As any PR teacher or practitioner will tell you, one of the things that happens when you start working in the PR business is that your reporter friends tease and harangue you about working for "the dark side."

My stock retort: "PR people are more honest about their dishonesty."

Not a bad laugh line if I do say so myself - and that's what I said before the Rupert Murdoch phone-hacking scandal. But as the scandal threatens to spread to the New York Post, FOX News, and Piers Morgan's liver, I'll say something else I've said all along:

"Journalism could use a little PR."

PR and J = tasty!

If your head just exploded, hear me out:

• PR is supposed to be about doing what's right for your organization's publics, not just doing damage control after you've screwed them over. For Mr. Murdoch, good PR would have been to not hack into murder victims' phones in the first place.

• PR isn't just about publicity, it's also about employee communications and engagement, research, fundraising, non-profiteering (new word!), speech writing, investor relations, social media, and marketing.

• PR advocates two-way communication between an organization and its publics. A good media outlet, like any good business, always communicates with its publics - readers, viewers, listeners, the community, staff, shareholders, advertisers, protesters, suppliers - and is rewarded for anticipating, listening, and responding to what they say. The goal: mutual understanding.

PR people recognized the importance and power of two-way communication before there was an Internet (though we know that Al Gore invented it).

One of the problems that caught up with the traditional media (phone hacking aside) is that most were slow to react to what "the kids" were up to on the Internet, and beholden to the gatekeeper mentality: selling morsels of information to a public that couldn't get it anywhere else.

These days, media outlets have to practice PR in order to survive. The Public Editor at the New York Times, for instance, reports to readers on the goings on at the Times.

The Public Editor's ombudsman role is classic PR. (Ironically, the Public Editor recently revealed himself to have a somewhat outdated understanding of PR - though earns points for admitting it and inviting us to tell him how it works.)

More examples of PR and J:

• The Winnipeg Free Press News Cafe
• Special events, speakers, and seminars at the News Cafe 
• Responding to readers' comments online 
• Distributing your paper for free at seniors' complexes
• Posting an online poll
• Asking readers for story ideas
• Making donations to charitable causes
• Holding editorial meetings in public
• Offering a journalism award at Red River College
• Criticizing one's own newspaper for getting a story wrong
• Awarding or praising a journalist for a great story
• Covering the news that's most important to readers
• Ensuring that every community gets covered by your media outlet
• Holding a focus group
• Monitoring social media
• Writing and making available a mission statement and code of ethics.

Give in, my reporter friends. You do not know the power of the light side!

How to write good: Part IV - Covering the news

As everyone knows, there are only three ways left to cover the news:

1. Hack into phones.
2. Aggregate the reporting of other journalists, who hacked into phones.
3. Expose other journalists who hacked into phones by hacking into their phones. 

I've left out "tweeting," because you don't need to hack into any phones to tweet, and there are only subtle differences between how a "normal citizen" tweets and how journalists tweet:

Normal person: "Had eggs for breakfast this morning."
Journalist: "Wish I could afford eggs for breakfast this morning."

But what are you supposed to do if you actually have to write an "article" from scratch based on "the facts?" Lord, no!

First of all, forget all about inverted pyramids, meat before attribution, names making news, being objective and dispassionate, the five Ws, verifying that your mother loves you, and finding balance, which are strictly for suckers.

Nope, if you want to cover the news, you just need a shirt, tie, notepad, and as many of these 50 journalism chestnuts you can cram into your story:

1. People say
2. Experts say
3. Sources say
4. Sources close to (someone important) say
5. Spoke on the condition of anonymity
6. Did not wish to be identified
7. Jaws of life
8. Ducats
9. Remains to be seen
10. Tweeted his Weiner
11. Aftermath
12. The white stuff
13. Bogus
14. Go Jets Go!
15. Politics makes strange bedfellows
16. The elephant in the room
17. Tensions flared
18. Had at press time not returned our calls
19. This journalist (referring to self)
20. Clashed with police
21. Death toll
22. Shooting spree
23. Broke her silence
24. Carmageddon
25. (Noun)-gate
26. Allegedly
27. Every parents' nightmare
28. At the end of the day
29. Uneasy calm
30. Political correctness gone awry
31. Winter of discontent
32. Sent shockwaves
33. Bracing themselves for more (fees or whatever)
34. Fat cats
35. Man's best friend
36. Perfect storm
37. Fleecing
38. Making a difference
39. Raised eyebrows
40. Up in arms
41. About face
42. Flip-flopper
43. Outpouring
44. Near miss
45. Horror
46. Downtown crime
47. Thugs (England: yobs)
48. Burn in Hell
49. If you're a fan of (noun), then you'll love (noun).
50. Off of drugs, and high on life.

How to write good: Part I - the intro

Stephen King says that anyone can be a good writer if they write for 30 minutes a day.

I say it seems like a huge time investment. Why not simply buy the TypeDrawing iPad app and draw the word "good" out of many little "goods"(see above)?

Over the next five or six blog posts (or maybe seven or 10 - I haven't planned it out, because planning is the natural enemy of the writer), I will provide all of the advice anyone needs to write good. Sorry: goodly.

In the immortal words of my seventh grade English teacher, Mr. Harrington: "That's not a zero on your term paper, it's a plum." 

Part I: the intro

Dead. 

Now that I've got your attention: the most important part of your writing is the intro.

The intro should grab your readers by the throat and kill them - well, not literally kill them, because dead people don't buy books - but jolt them out of their humdrum lives and force them to read on.

To do this, start in the middle of the action, like the Dukes of Stratosphear (aka XTC) do with the narration at the beginning of their song, "Have you seen Jackie:"

The puffin sipped on his herbal tea and sighed, "You can't get the buttons these days."

Readers: "Puffins drink herbal tea? And sigh? And have trouble finding buttons? I must read on!"

Other classic intros:  

1. Moby-Dick - "Call me Ishmael."
Readers: "OK, and should I call the whale Moby or Dick? I must read on!"

2. Anna Karenina - "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Readers: "Is this book about my family? I must read on!" 

3. 1984 - "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
Readers: "Doesn't this Orwell arsehole know that clocks don't have a number 13? I must read on!"

4. Invisible Man - "I am an invisible man."
Readers: "We know. We saw the title of the book. Get to the damn point already. I must read on!"

5. My own example - "The PR professional walked into the room, sat down in his leather chair, pulled a pipe out of his smoking jacket - red, his favorite color - lit the pipe, put his feet up on his desk, flicked some dirt off his shoes, and confidently said, "It's a win-win situation with ample parking and refreshments."
Readers: "I love ample parking and refreshments. And reverse type. I must read on!"

Creme de la lede

In journalism, the intro is called "the lede" which is about as appealing to say and write as "creme" with an e on the end or saying "scrum" and "meat before attribution" in mixed company.

Here, the same principle applies.

Why write a boring, old lede like this?

"A 39-year-old man died yesterday after becoming impaled on a fence while running from police."

When you can write an exciting one like this?

"I'll bet that John Smith wishes he wouldn't have run from police yesterday, after the fucking bastard found himself impaled on a fence."

There are as many intros, ledes, and grabbers in the world as you can imagine. So start imagining them, and making up as many stories as you can think of - whether you're a creative writer, poet, or a journalist working for Rupert Murdoch. 

Is WikiLeaks the Napster of freedom of the press?

Is WikiLeaks the future of journalism?

I wrote yesterday about my childhood dream of becoming Woodward and Bernstein and how - even though that dream had "pipe" written all over it - that I still love great journalism.

I think. What is journalism anymore anyway?

If we define ourselves today by rejecting what came before, today's journalism shouldn't look like yesterday's journalism; and if the medium is the message, and the medium has changed, we can at least agree that journalism is definitely not waiting for a local weatherperson to tell us what the weather will be like tomorrow, "after these messages."

But if, as I said in yesterday's post, power is keeping information secret from someone who really wants it, maybe the new journalism is simply finding out what that information is, releasing it, and running for your life.

Enter WikiLeaks

I was personally delighted for the profession of journalism when WikiLeaks came along. How exciting: envelopes and emails delivered to WikiLeaks "editor-in-chief" Julian Assange, who released it and made the U.S. president angry without even working up a sweat. Take that Woodward and Bernstein!

Everyone can agree that there are some things that should be secret: security issues, criminal investigations, employees' privacy. That's not the problem.

The problem is that governments and organizations use "secrecy" in order to exert control, even when it isn't warranted. Take, for example, the boss who tells me that my teaching schedule for next semester is "privileged information." Yeah, imagine if that hot info were to fall into the wrong hands, eh? Scandal, scandal I tell you!

So far, WikiLeaks hasn't released anything that's put anyone in danger, as far as we know. The WikiLeaks revelations fall into two categories: important (U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan) and embarrassing (Putin is a manly man), which made the outrage with which they were met even more ridiculous. That WikiLeaks was dropped by Amazon, Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal for its sins is nothing short of scandalous.

But is it journalism?

Traditional press, new leaks

Strangely, in retrospect, it was the traditional press that gave WikiLeaks so much of its traction at first, including the New York Times, the Guardian, and Der Spiegel, which worked in conjunction with the site to help make sense of the reams of information it released.

While this is a departure from traditional ideas about who a journalist is or what he or she does, would-be journalists should take heart; at the very least, this points to the ongoing usefulness of journalists, whose job in this case was to condense and bring context to piles of documents where there was none.

What it isn't is "storytelling," which was an outdated idea anyway; as Global Anchor and CreComm grad Dawna Friesen asked in her recent visit to Red River College, "What ever happened to storytelling?"

What she was getting at was the traditional idea that "the storytellers" are the media, and the listeners, readers, and viewers are the poor schlubs at home without a media outlet at their disposal; the Internet exploded that idea by showing that the new media is a two-way dialogue in which we all tell stories to each other. As it turns out, we're all pretty damn good at it.

As we know, the Internet is the TV, radio, newspaper; what we sometimes forget is that it's also a phone.

Leaky journalism

What's unclear is whether - or how - the traditional media will work with WikiLeaks and other online leak sites in the future.

While the relationship with the New York Times made sense for WikiLeaks - more credibility, exposure, and website hits - it seemed pretty obvious that as the outcry reached a fever pitch, the Times became less comfortable with the relationship - the old, gray lady goosed by the silver-haired fox when she wasn't looking.

Nonetheless, I think that WikiLeaks is important. To me, it looks to be the Napster of the information set - the canary in the coalmine that gets shut down only to inspire something even better in its wake. All we need now is for someone to come along and perfect it by showing us what the iTunes of the freedom of the press looks like.

Any takers?

All the president's publicists - why Js jump to PR

Journalism is exciting - just ask Kenneth H. Dahlberg!


When I was a kid, I wanted to be Woodward and Bernstein.

That's right: I wanted to grow up to be not one, but two, Washington Post journalists.

After seeing All the President's Men, I knew that it was the only job for me; I couldn't wait to start meeting sources in parkades, trapping interviewees on the phone, and bringing down presidents on a daily basis, before I even ate lunch.

It was an exciting time for journalism, because the film's clear message is that you, young person, without any training or formal education whatsoever, can turn the world on its ass, and all you need is a shirt and tie, notepad, and gumption.

Hey, I've got gumption. And a tie. They're talking about me!

Delivering the news, old school

Don't let anyone tell you differently: delivering newspapers was, and still is, the fastest track to bringing down presidents.  

So, I showed up at the Winnipeg Tribune, a young kid with a dream, and signed up to be a substitute newspaper deliveryman for my friend, Darren Campbell, who did the gig full time.

The Winnipeg Tribune folded shortly thereafter - something to do with shitty home delivery - but my dream stayed alive when I saw my friend, now-famous CBC journalist Pat Kaniuga, get a byline on the front page of the Winnipeg Free Press.

To me, he was better than Woodward or Bernstein, because he was breaking stories on the cover of the city's biggest daily newspaper at the same time he handled a full course load - the equivalent of having one hand tied behind your back. 

With him as my success model, I enrolled in Creative Communications, majored in journalism, and promptly went to work for the local media as a "freelance journalist," where I wrote articles about how much it snowed yesterday (the editor wrote the headline, reaching deep inside himself to find the term, "The White Stuff" - ugh), the touring World Series trophy at Polo Park Mall, and an art exhibit in the Exchange District.

Maybe the only story I ever sniffed out was a secret rethinking of the Mental Health Act, but it withered before my very eyes when I got a key contact on the phone, and he yelled at me for "not asking the right questions." Where was Kenneth H. Dahlberg when I needed him?

Things perked up a bit when I started covering the Winnipeg Police news conferences for a local radio station, but I quickly realized that the cops owned the information, and I was just some poor schlub they had to deal with in order to get their message to the masses (these were the early days of the Internet, remember).

Me: "Why haven't you done an autopsy on the body you pulled from the river yesterday?"
Police spokesperson: "How long does it take you to defrost a turkey?!"

Information is power. But keeping that information secret from someone who really wants it? That's real power, as I learned each day anew.

Fort boredom

After awhile, I felt deflated and bored with the whole inverted-pyramid thing. I was also pretty broke, since the only real full-time entry-level J gigs at the time were in towns with exotic names, like Flin Flon, Slave Lake, and five or six places with the word "Fort" in their names; as stand-up  comedy taught me, where there's a "Fort," there's a chance that you won't live to see tomorrow.

So, I made the jump to the light side of the Force (see what I did there?) by applying for my first corporate gig in advertising and PR. Long story short: I got the job and surprised myself by enjoying it immensely, from a creative, professional, and - yes - financial perspective. 

Here, I not only owned the information, but I tripled my salary, was appreciated for being a good writer of creative (as opposed to "creative writer") and never again had to utter "scrum" or  "meat before attribution" in mixed company.

Better yet, I never had to chase a story, and my job had me home before 5 p.m. (I love you flex time!), watching Degrassi and drinking margaritas, when my journalist friends were just starting to write their articles, having spent another sleepless night next to their police scanner.

I am looking at it through rose-colored glasses, of course, because the proverbial "cushy" corporate gig gets more intense with each promotion and responsibility, and learning how to deal with management, the legal department, and red tape is a skill set unto itself.

And that's probably the biggest misconception about making the leap from J to PR: that "it's easier for a journalist to do it, because he or she understands how to get into a journalist's mind." The equivalent of that argument is "You'd better jog every day, so you can compete in the triathlon." Well, yeah, it won't hurt, but there's more to the triathlon than running. 

That wacky ol' Internet

I have to admit to feeling much smugness with my decision to work in PR when journalism slowly stopped being something that people wanted to pay for, and started becoming something that everyone could do as a hobby.

How was it that my 15-year-old nieces could post a concert video on YouTube and get more views then the Saskatchewan Leader-Post's coverage of the same event? Who was the real journalist anyway?

And I couldn't help but notice that each, new PR posting saw a flood of resumes from well-known local journalists, whose Woodward and Bernstein dreams had also been replaced with more practical considerations involving lifestyle and pay. 

In Public Speaking, HBO's recent documentary about writer Fran Lebowitz, she knocks the New York Times itself by making fun of its writers in general ("Writers need to know stuff") and delayed leads in particular.

"I thought the news was supposed to just be information," she says.

But here's the thing: I still love great journalism, the New York Times, and the Washington Post - even if they are shadows of their former selves.

So, like everyone, I've been waiting to see what would save these great institutions. With WikiLeaks, I think we may be seeing the first, real exciting journalism model we've seen in some time, even if a good chunk of the traditional news media doesn't get or like it.

Says Diane Francis in the Huffington Post:

"Julian Assange has created a model that will be replicated, as long as the Digital Commons demands transparency and as long as juicy secrets are left around unguarded. WikiLeaks is not a business. It is a volunteer organization, based on donations, and its site is fed from servers scattered around the world. Lacking assets to seize or sue, it falls through the jurisdictional cracks and legal attempts to curb its site, based on privacy concerns, have gone nowhere in the US and other democracies."

That's a pretty great place to start. True, you have to do time in prison and be ostracized by your peers, but - hey - even Woodward and Bernstein took some hits back in the day.

To be continued tomorrow!

One thing that even a non-sports fan can learn from sports

I've rarely been accused of being a sports fan and never been accused of being "athletic," despite my swimmer's build.

Wah, wah!

I attend one Bombers game a year (because I love having a beer outside on a sunny, Sunday afternoon), one Moose game (because the fights are pretty great) and only really watch the World Cup (because there are no commercials and I can commit to one sporting event every four years).

Apart from that, all I know is that hockey players "gotta get into da corners" and that football "is a game of inches."

Still, could it be that even I, a non-sports fan, can learn something from sports?

Crosby v. Chomsky

When my sports-fanatic friend flies to Pittsburgh for the Stanley Cup, gets his picture taken with Sidney Crosby, and updates his PlayStation to reflect real-life hockey trades, I can only shake my head and pat myself on the back for being so clearly superior (Ha!).

I like to pester him with questions like these:

• You do realize that no one who plays for the Phoenix Coyotes is from Phoenix, right?
• You know you're a broke guy cheering for a game played by millionaires, right?
• You know the outcome doesn't matter tomorrow, right?
• You know that if you spent an equal amount of time on making the world a better place, the world might actually be a better place, right?

Very elitist and unoriginal of me, I know. Like a true egghead, everything I learned about sports, I learned from Noam Chomsky:



Pretty harsh, eh?

Criticizing sports on this level would make anyone sound like a Debbie Downer - especially when everyone around you follows and loves them. And is following sports any different than, say, attending a Star Trek convention dressed up like a Vulcan?

In both cases, you're having good, clean, fun and blowing off steam by making life a little more exciting than it would be without the distraction, though you could argue that the Star Trek convention only wastes a day and a devotion to sports wastes a lifetime.

Compare being a regular sports viewer to being a video game addict, however, and...hmmm.

De-fense, de-fense

There is one aspect of sports I like and - shudder - even find myself admiring: "discipline." It might just be another way to say "irrational attitudes of submission to authority," but it does comes in handy in life if you want to earn a living.

I've always appreciated the discipline it takes to be a professional athlete earning millions of dollars, yet keeping it real enough to accept that you don't have all the answers and the coach does.

There's something to be said for the ability to "shut up and listen" - something I'm really bad at doing myself - and taking constructive criticism without going ballistic at the person giving it to you.



In fact, when we visited Critical Mass ad agency in Chicago this year, the good people there broke down the characteristics of the people they're interested in hiring. Number one: "the ability to take criticism" - probably because it seems to be in shorter supply every year.

That means knowing what you don't know, being open to filling the gaps when someone tells you something, and sucking it up, even when you know you're right. It beats, "My dad's a lawyer with a Harvard degree, and he's going to sue you. Nyeah, nyeah!"

One of the bits of advice we give our students before they go out on a work placement is, "Don't just say, "Yeah, yeah" when someone explains something. Actually listen to what they have to say, because if you don't, pretty soon they'll stop telling you anything."

The next time someone tries to teach me something I think I already know, I'll close my eyes, paste a smile on my face, and think of the words of Belle and Sebastian (a band that has clearly never played sports or even been outdoors): "The stars of track and field are beautiful people!"



Juicebox boy out!

James Brown's four rules for interviewers: Q Magazine

How do you like my new Levi's, James? Come back, Mr. Brown!

The latest issue of Q - my favorite music magazine - comes with a great bonus: the 164-page Music Bible, a "holy compendium of rock facts, quiz, & miscellany."

Among the pocketbook's cool facts and trivia is James Brown's rules for interviewers:

1. The wearing of blue jeans is not permitted.

2. Do not drink beforehand. Mr. Brown does not like the smell of alcohol.

3. Your interview will last 20 minutes if Mr. Brown likes you, two if he does not.

4. Addressing Mr. Brown as "James" will result in immediate termination of the interview.

Guess Mr. Brown fell off the wagon for this classic interview:

The balcony closes forever on At the Movies

A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips' publicity pic.

I remember the first time I ever had an inkling that there was a profession out there for me.

I was 10 years old. Star Wars and Annie Hall ruled the box office. And my favorite TV show was Sneak Previews on PBS - a commercial-free movie review show starring my heroes: Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert.

"Mom, dad...I want to be...a film critic!"

"Uh, we've never been more proud, son. Now run along: daddy needs a drink."

My desire was solidified some years later when the satirical Spy magazine compared the salaries of the over- and underpaid. According to the magazine, Siskel and Ebert made $1 million a year each compared to a paltry 10 cents per annum for Mother Teresa.

So "nun" was out, then.

Some 30 years later, At the Movies - the show that Sneak Previews became - is going off the air. The last episode is scheduled to run at 2 a.m. Monday morning on CTV Winnipeg (the start time is herky jerky: if you want to be sure see it, set your DVR to record from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m.).

I hate this film - and you, now that I think about it

Siskel and Ebert brought serious movie criticism to TV, but even more than that, they brought smart discussions and passionate arguments about all kinds of movies to the U.S. and Canada, blockbusters and art-house films alike.

Each week on Sneak Previews, they'd review four or five films, give them a thumbs up or down, and crown one "dog of the week" - the worst movie they'd seen in the last seven days.

The commercial-free format gave them time to show extended film clips and talk and (mostly) argue at length.

As the show went along, Siskel and Ebert's attacks on each other got more personal and hilarious, as shown in their review of Bachelor Party, where Siskel also calls Tom Hanks "The poor man's Bill Murray." Ha!



You always knew you'd seen a great show when the guys went off the cue cards and started making bald and fat jokes at each other's expense, like they do here on this classic Late Night with David Letterman clip:



Over the years, Siskel and Ebert proved the cliche, "the reviewers became as famous as the movies they reviewed." Their patented "two thumbs up" - praise from both critics! - is still used today as a way to describe something that's indisputably great.

"How ya doin'?"

"Two thumbs up!"

They achieved the highest form of praise (in Canada at least) by becoming the target of an SCTV parody with Dave Thomas and Joe Flaherty:



Siskel and Ebert also rescued many an art-house film from oblivion - most famously, My Dinner with Andre, a 1981 film depicting a dinner conversation between playwright Wallace Shawn and theatre director Andre Gregory.

Great film!

The departure of Siskel and Ebert

Sadly, Siskel passed away in 1999 after undergoing surgery for a brain tumor, and Ebert's battle with thyroid cancer has left him unable to speak, though he continues a vibrant online presence on his blog, the Chicago Sun-Times' website, and Twitter.

Even after Siskel and Ebert left Sneak Previews, I continued watching the show through all of its incarnations. Forgive me if I've missed any:

• Siskel and Ebert
• Siskel and Ebert and the Movies
• Ebert and the Movies with guest reviewers
• At the Movies with Ebert and (Richard) Roeper
• At the Movies with Roeper and guest reviewers
• The crappy year of At the Movies with the two Bens (Lyons and Mankiewicz)
• The latest version, At the Movies with A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips, who marked a return to the brainy discourse of the original show.

Why has the show been cancelled? Here's what Ebert says on his blog:

"Blame the fact that five-day-a-week syndicated shows like Wheel of Fortune went to six days. Blame the fact that cable TV and the Internet have fragmented the audience so much that stations are losing market share no matter what they do. Blame the economy, because many stations would rather sell a crappy half-hour infomercial than program a show they respect. Blame the fact that everything seems to be going to hell in a hand basket."

While it's true that a glut of online critics has made the necessity of a TV movie-review show questionable, I also appreciate that "the youngsters" today have an opportunity that I never had until later in life to watch films on a variety of media, post their personal thoughts about them on a blog, and then discuss them with the world.

CreComm student Jennifer Hanson, for instance, is watching and reviewing 200 movies this year on her website 200 Movies 1 Woman 1 Blog, as recommended by friends, family, teachers, and you and - in a neat twist of fate - recently had her Twitter-sized review re-tweeted by At the Movies. Nice!

For me, the show's move to commercial TV was the beginning of the end. Suddenly, the reviewers didn't have room to breathe: they had to review more films in less time, necessitating talking over the film clips and making one or two quick points before going to commercial.

***

Apart from writing some movie reviews for Red River College's the Projector, some quick-hit reviews for the Winnipeg Free Press on my internship, and the occasional review on Amazon.com and this blog, I never did pursue my film-review career with any degree of seriousness.

Now, I mostly watch movies that I download online and on Apple TV - I've got Kick Ass, Clash of the Titans, and A Million in the Morning cued up as we speak. Many more use video on demand, rent DVDs, or have Netflix memberships - coming to Canada soon!

More movies are available to more people all of the time, which means that film fandom will continue to thrive in the world with or without At the Movies. Good for the movies! But, I have to say, I'm really going to miss the show, Siskel, Ebert, Roeper, Scott, and Phillips all.

It's the end of an era. The balcony is indeed closed. I'm sad.

Slow news day: my friend gets married tomorrow!

Behind-the-scenes:
Not so much glamor and circumstance, but plenty of pomp.

Stop the presses!

The wedding I'm emceeing, ushering, and standing up front for tomorrow has warranted a half-page story in the Winnipeg Free Press, because - get this - my pal Jason Beck is a marriage- and commitment-phobic comedian!

Wait, come back!

I wasn't going to say a word about the wedding on my blog, but the story is much bigger than I expected it to be - are you watching, CNN? - so get ready for tweetapalooza tomorrow, where I breathlessly report on what the bride, the dogs, and Trevor Boris are wearing (not in that order - snap!).

As well, I'll be hosting the after show on MuchMusic with Dan Levy and Jessi Cruickshank, where our guests will be Spencer and Audrina.

CreComm grad goes Global

The Global forecast is for Friesen reign.

Dawna Friesen - CreComm grad (1984) and RRC distinguished alumna (2009) - has been named as Kevin Newman's replacement as the anchor of Global TV's national newscast.

The Toronto Star has all of the details here.

Friesen has worked at CBC, CTV, and, most recently, NBC with my pal Brian Williams. She won an Emmy in 2009 for her part of team coverage of Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

Update:

1. One day later, and I still think, departing from my usual humility, that this is the greatest lead the world has ever seen.

2. I feel creepy writing "lead" as "lede." I think it reminds me of "creme."

3. Global national's vice-president is named "Kenton Boston." My name is Kenton and I used to live in Boston. This guy stole my act.

Goodbye to the World Cup and the funny Brit with the runny nose

Goodbye World Cup.

Goodbye drinking beer in the morning because it's "late in South Africa."

Goodbye wry British commentator with the runny nose.

If today's World Cup final was a little anticlimactic in terms of goals scored, the beer and commentary were - as they say in England - spot on.

The dry and wry commentary from British sports commentator John Helm - the voice of the international World Cup broadcasts - was especially full of piss, vinegar, quips, and sniffles; never has a commentator with so many allergies worked so hard to inform and entertain so many.

(See yesterday's post about the Brits winning the World Cup of Sports Commentary.)

So, in tribute to Helm, I wrote down some of his best quips and comments from today's World Cup final in the order he called them.

For extra fun, read these out loud and take a great, big sniffle between each one:

First half:

• "Who needs Batman when you've got Robben?"

• "It's all very cagey, isn't it?"

• "If the Dutch score first, Spain will be in a bit of a bother."

• "A lot of dashing hither and thither."

• "Not a great deal of quality."

• "The word "scrappy" springs to mind at the moment."

• "The referee, I reckon, is the busiest man out there."

• "A feast of the best in football it is not."

• "Let's not blow this up into too big of a drama."

• "You do expect finer football."

• "He's been told to stay away. I don't think he will."

• "We're laden with free kicks and whistles."

• "Sort it out or you'll be next in my bad books."

• "The only person worried there was the photographer."

• "Wish they would have given us a little more to talk about in this first half."

• "One hopes that this final can only get better."

• "Let's take a breather and start again."

Second half:

• "Pushing like two people trying to get on the last Tube at night."

• "Wouldn't want to see that in a park on Sunday, let alone a World Cup."

• "For one of these teams, tonight will be the night of their lives. In the football sense, anyway."

• "It was a big dipper, which didn't dip enough."

• "Robben is a sinner instead of a saint."

• "Ooooh: hare's breath!"

• "The big boys are up for it!"

• "There was a five-man tangerine wall in the way."

• "Bewildering passing."

• "He needs a new lucky headband."

• "Can I have my ball, please?"

• "He's asked to resume his seat in Japanese."

• "It was not a telling ball, it was a wayward one."

• "No greyhound on Earth could get to that."

• "He took my shirt."

• "Have they got enough Dutch courage to save it?"

Overtime:

• "A little dink from him."

• "He's a big flamenco fan."

• "It's quite late, really. Past my bedtime."

• "That would've made headlines of biblical proportions."

• "Super little run from a super little player."

• "Crumpled bodies in a heap."

• "He may never play in a bigger match, no matter how long he lives."

• "Goodness knows how many cards for the Dutch. I need a computer."

• "Torres pulled a hamstring. He's got 30 seconds to survive."

• "Desolation for the Dutch."

• "Viva la Espana for the first time ever!"

Helm.

Brits win the World Cup of sports commentary

I like my British sports commentary the way I like my Beyoncé videos: cheeky!

And nowhere do you get more cheeky, direct, and blunt sports commentary than by the British play-by-play team at the 2010 World Cup, as broadcast on CBC: John Helm, David Woods, Steve Banyard, Gary Bloom and Kevin Keatings.

I can't tell one from the other - but for the guy with the runny nose - but their sports commentary is hilarious, pointed, and jarring to a Canadian raised on the tried-and-true unwritten rule of North-American sports journalism: always boost the product!

One of my least-favorite TV news broadcasts of all time remains the very-special episode of CBC News Winnipeg that kicked off with host Janet Stewart cheering, "Go, Canada, Go!"

Kind of hard to deliver the news item about the murder after that one, eh?

Sports Journalism is a class in the very program I teach - and a damn good one, I'm sure! - but I've always been of the mind that what we often call "sports journalism" isn't journalism, it's entertainment.

Easy for a non-sports fan to say!

But anyone who has ever watched a promo for an NFL Super Bowl - any Super Bowl - knows that it's going to be a battle for the ages: a world-changing grudge match of such gigantic proportions, it can only be expressed with Roman numerals and delivered in the voice of the monster truck/K-Tel Southern-Fried Rock announcer.

And what age-old rivals last took part in the Super Bowl battle for world domination? Er...Indianapolis and New Orleans. Ahem. Heh-heh. Cough.

Oh, sure, our commentators are critical of our sports teams from time to time, but British commentators rip into the teams with such panache; when I hear them refer to World Cup games, as they have this year, as "poor, poor play," "dreadful ball," and "a very dull game," I have to give them a standing ovation.

Equally, any commentator who responds to Germany's fourth goal against Argentina by shouting, "Ein, zwei, drei, vier!," refers to a player as "puffing his cheeks out like a petulant child!," or a particularly deft touch as "a bit of bravery" deserves the World Cup of commentary.

Say what you want about the games themselves, but I'll let CBC's cranky Brit (newly Canadian!) Nigel Reed do all the talking for me:



Oh, Nigel. Behave!

iPad blogs day two: magazines

Today I would like to talk about my habit.

It's not pretty. And it's hard to admit. But, Lord help me, I am a magazine junkie: I read hundreds of magazines a month - instead of buying formula for my babies!

OK, I have no babies, but I pretended I did for drama - did it work?

It started as a subscription to Rolling Stone when I was a lad, and it expanded into a love of British music mags Q and Uncut, then went completely bonkers: Vanity Fair, Esquire, New Yorker, NY Times Magazine, the Economist, Time, Newsweek (recommended by my first RRC instructor, Garry Moir!), NME, Details (short-lived; thanka Anka), Spin, Blender, and any number of design and video game pubs.

Hey, beats heroin. Am I right, people?

I love mags so much, I started dealing at WHERE Winnipeg and Twin Cities mags (in my handwriting, it looks remarkably like "Whore" - different magazine!), and even wrote for Games Informer under another name, since reviews mostly consisted of saying things like, "This is rad, dude!"

We also have a famous magazine project in CreComm, where we put students in groups and they produce a magazine in one semester. Legend has it that we instructors put students in groups designed to make them NOT get along, but I can hereby dispel that myth: we're not that smart!

So, there are lots of reasons why reading and publishing mags on the iPad is an appealing idea: applications for school, work, and just plain pleasure.

The cool thing is that there is no one way to read and buy magazines on the iPad: it's still the wild west out there! As a result, there is a variety of ways to enjoy a variety of mags, though Variety isn't one of em.

***
1. WIRED:

This is the Cadillac of iPad magazine experiences.

Available for $4.99, each month's mag is a separate app - and each is so big, you can't use Rogers 3G to download: nope, it's Starbucks Wi-Fi for you or nuthin', kiddo.

But here's the thing: WIRED has made something that's truly interactive, including the ads.

So, if you go to the article about Mars, you touch the screen and the planets fly around - at least that's what I think they are; I was so bedazzled by the animation.

The ads don't have quite the excitement, but there are a number - like Fidelity Investments - that allow you to click on things to make other stuff pop up. Hope I'm not getting too technical here. Ha!

I can't wait to see how these mags evolve: so far, so great.

Here goes with the video. Gulp.




2. Zinio:

This is a cool app that allows you to shop for, buy, and download a load of different magazines, from Esquire and National Geographic to the Economist and Smithsonian.

There's nothing here as exciting as WIRED, but it's a smooth app that has the jump on being the iPad's go-to destination for magazine shopping.

The app is free and comes prepackaged with five free magazines, but you've gotta pay for the rest. They range in price, but most offer year-long subscriptions.

I downloaded National Geographic, and I'm completely satisfied with the interface and photo quality: but - as I say - it's no WIRED.


3. CS and the whole slate of Blue Toad magazines:


I have no insider info here, but it seems that developer Blue Toad has created a magazine template for a suite of style magazines, including CS (Chicago Style).

If so, it's a great approach: design an app, and sell it to individual magazines - make your money back on volume. This is how we could quite possibly offer our students' mags in app form and actually afford it.

Again: very smooth app, and pristine picture quality - that Victoria's Secret ad in the May issue really - uh - pops. Let's move on!

I had to look for these magazines - there appears to be no online promo going on whatsoever. As well, there's no interactivity within the mag itself, other than Web links.

The price? Free! Like, totally.


4. Entertainment Weekly's Must List:

I like this approach a lot: EW gives you a free app featuring one part of its magazine, and - if you want more, you can buy the magazine, Chester.

EW's Must List is the mag's recommendations for what to do this week in the world of entertainment - books, movies, TV, DVD, downloads, video games - kinda like Letterman giving you his Top Ten list, but making you pay to see Brad Pitt.

Where is that app, by the way?

As well, you can create your own Must List out of EW's recommendations.

I love this app's interactivity - links to video and Amazon - and content approach: a free appetizer before the meal!


5. Time and Newsweek (separate apps):


Poor Time and Newsweek, struggling for weekly relevance in a minute-by-minute world.

You can download them for free, but when you open them up, ya gotta pay. TIme gives you a nice, free newsfeed but charges $4.99 per issue; Newsweek gives you the Politics of Obama for free, and charges $2.99 per issue.

Both of these apps are nice enough - they look good and the interface makes sense - but remind me: why do I need this content?


6. Vanity Fair:

Not available in Canada?! I hereby appeal to Graydon Carter to throw his countrymen a bone. And I don't care if that sounded dirty - I'm down to 20 per cent battery power on my iPad.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

iPad blogs day one: the post-modern BlogPress app review

Here beginneth the great iPad experiment, in which I attempt to get through one week of communicatin' using only the iPad, its apps, and my wits.

Since I'm rather dull-witted, the iPad and apps had better be good!

I thought I'd start the week in typically post-modern fashion with a review of the app I'm using right now: BlogPress.

I've used this app before on my iPhone and actually wrote and posted some blog posts in January using the iPhone's bitty touchscreen keypad. It wasn't pretty, but it worked.

The app costs $2.99 on iTunes, but I was shocked to find that, since I had already purchased it for the iPhone, it was available on the iPad for the low, low cost of "free." Sweet!

Like with most Apple products, you need to have an iTunes account before you can start "appdating" your iPad with BlogPress and all of the other cool software you need; once you do, you can start enjoying the (mostly) free apps.

Of course, one big exception is with the apps that originate with our friends in the media, who have finally figured out that they're going to have to charge us for stuff, but I'll talk more about it this week when I talk magazine apps.

***

Back to BlogPress:

What's great?:

1. Probably the best thing about the BlogPress app is the interface. Check it out:




I like the landscape view best, because it breaks the screen into halves: your list of blog posts and drafts on the left, and the current post on the right. The keyboard, of course, is the touchscreen that comes "onboard" the iPad.

It does seem odd at first to not feel the keys 'neath yer nimble fingertips, but the large keyboard feels unbelievably huge after using the iPhone for so long - kind of like driving in Winnipeg after doing it in New York.

As for not having a mouse: doesn't bother me. I've heard that others feel differently. Let's move on...


2. Inserting a photo is a snap, thanks to the icon on the top, right of the screen (that would be a little camera).

You can include as many pictures as you like and insert them anywhere in the post. Easy!

You can also sync BlogPress with Flickr and other photosharing sites, so that your photos automatically get uploaded to your account when the blog goes live.


3. Twitter and Facebook integration is nice - you enter your passwords on the BlogPress setup screen, and you're good to go forever. You can also shut off the service if you don't want to use it.


4. The app supports most blog platforms, including Blogger and WordPress. I saw a podcast recently, where a dude went nuts because the app doesn't support some little-known blog site, so be forewarned.


5. You have access to "tags" and "categories" in BlogPress by clicking on the little "i" next to your blog title, where you can also - finally! - control your publishing date and time.


What sucks?:

1. Did that heading, above, come out in bold? Near as I can figure, that's one of the biggest issues with BlogPress: where's the simple interface that allows me to make text bold or italicized?

As it stands, you've gotta go to old blogs to get your HTML coding, and who knows if that'll even work? But we can agree that you shouldn't have to be a computer programmer to write a blog, right?

Similarly, including a link is so painful, I dare not attempt it until the next section.


2. The second issue appears to be uploading and embedding a YouTube video. Even though I've synced BlogPress to my YouTube account, I haven't found a way to show a video here - and the iPad appears to hide the embed code on all videos, on the YouTube app and through the Web browser.

The BlogPress website - OK, let's try a link - here - says that, "You can also upload MORE THEN (sic) ONE video...and insert the player into the post directly."

For the love of God: How!?

Now, I could go get the code on my laptop, but that would be cheating.

Anyone know how to embed a YouTube video in BlogPress? Anyone? Bueller? I may have to check in with aforementioned disgruntled podcast dude.

3. Can I get a spellcheck in the house? Or is that haus? Or howse? We may never find out!

***

Despite my complaints, there's no denying the awesomeness of blogging on the bus. Casanovas and Casanovettes take note - the iPad is an even better way to meet people than the Kindle!

So, all things considered, I'm giving this app a recommendation. Once I figure out how to embed a YouTube video, I'll be unstoppable! The world will be mine! Mine, I tell you!!!

Gotta run. Lunch is ready.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad