Xblog: Category Journalism

Congratulations America, It Is No Longer Safe To Be Smart In This Country

Christopher Smith — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:16:00 +0000

Boing Boing finally got an interview with the “Boston Airport suicide bomber”. You know, I can almost forgive what happened at the airport (mistakes happen, people are stupid and twitchy, and sometimes this means people’s lives are put at risk for no good reason). What I frankly cannot accept is what happened afterwards. I’m sorry, but I cannot believe an honest and rational person would conclude that Star Simpson did anything worthy of being charged with a crime. Between Star Simpson going to the airport wearing her funky sweater and me speeding in my car, I am the greater threat to people’s safety, and I won’t get charged with a crime even if I’m caught.

Valleywag hasn't gone downhill, News has

Christopher Smith — Wed, 07 May 2008 08:30:00 +0000

I can’t believe anyone in the tech community is still covering the events at JavaOne, but sure enough, ~~we-troll-for-hits~~ValleyWag was there to capture Neil Young’s appearance yesterday. Now, I remember when Douglas Adams showed up for the Keynote on the last day of the conference, and that made sense. It was the last day of the conference and everyone was fried –if they hadn’t left town already. Douglas, true to form, provided some great entertainment and geek cred to start off the last day push. But Neil Young is to Java as the Smurfs are to the Iraq War. Could Sun make a more profound statement about how JavaOne jumped the shark long ago than to have an aging rocker whose seminal moments occurred before Java was ever invented keynote on the second day of the event? Best quote from the whole experience goes to Dan Farber’s blog entry, where after carefully promoting BluRay, Java, the PS3, and most importantly his Archive project, we read: “…As an artist I try to remove myself from the business,” Young said. “I steer myself away from that…”.

The previous article captures how Mark Kirk has skillfully managed to create controversy in order to get media attention during an election year. “Online porn” doesn’t quite drag voters attention away from all the other election year theatrics, and “online child predator” is so yesterday’s news, but “rape rooms” is a sure fire hit. Is there any trick from Hussein’s regime that politicians won’t copy and/or trivialize?

Was That George and Charlie, or Was That Barbara Wawa?

Christopher Smith — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:24:00 +0000

What can I say that Michael Grunwald hasn’t said? I think the silver lining on all this is that someone may lose their job, or at least their journalistic credibility over this. Sad yes, but perhaps that’ll start to shift where this boat is heading (and let’s face it, the American public has had a huge hand in steering it that way). Maybe, just for once, we’ll take our responsibilities seriously.

Two Articles, Same Story.... or Not

Christopher Smith — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:45:00 +0000

For those of you trapped in the US media bubble, I thought you might find it interesting to compare two articles, written on the same exact story. One from the AP, found in buried so deeply in the New York Times’s national section that I only found it by searching for “Haynes”. Meanwhile, the Ottawa Citizen, which tends to be more focused on local news, had this take on the story. In case you are thinking that some of the allegations of Haynes wanting convictions in all cases were too unfounded to end up in print in the US, it did make it in to even a short two paragraph story in the Jurist, not to mention the original source article from The Nation(who by the way were all too proud to trumpet getting their man.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the Aussie’s are focused on an entirely different aspect of the story, although they still have yet to wake up to Haynes’ resignation.

The Glory of the Daily Show Archive

Christopher Smith — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:41:00 +0000

You know the greatest thing about the Daily Show Archive? It means I can embed stuff like this to demonstrate just how far off the deep end cable news is:

and know that I’m helping to promote the show and I’m not going to get a DMCA cease and desist letter.

Evaluating the Press' Contribution to the Jena 6

Christopher Smith — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 23:44:00 +0000

A rather scathing write up on the whole Jena 6 fiasco. I’ve honestly reached the point that I feel I can no longer pay attention to these stories until the hubub has died down (well, at least for the 24-hour news channels to stop covering it). Sure enough, the bits that were shoved in to my ears appear to have little relation with reality. Has the Fourth Estate completely fallen apart or what (and for those of you who have been living in the US longer than me… is their an American equivalent to the fifth estate that one can turn to for quality reporting?).

Marc Cuban Talks Smack to the Factor

Christopher Smith — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:45:00 +0000

I seem to be in the mood for short blog articles today (perhaps I’m getting tired of the sound of my own voice). Anyway, I’m not a huge Mark Cuban fanboy, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching him give the smack down to the folks at Fox News.