Kent Brownridge, general manager of Us Weekly parent company Wenner Media, on the breakup of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston:

For a celebrity weekly, this is our tsunami.

It's a good thing he didn't describe it as "our 9/11." That would be in poor taste.

Publishing · 2005/01/12 · 3 COMMENTS · Link

Remove the Blog from Thine Eye

In a letter to the media news site Romenesko, Rob Walsh pops the hype balloon of weblogs, describing them as "nothing more than the Web's version of talk radio."

If weblogs are talk radio, as Walsh derides, they are talk radio in which every caller has his own show. The global reach and lack of barriers set them apart.

Unlike every other mass medium, the Web doesn't let giant corporations hog the mike. A former CBS gift shop employee who never went to college has a bigger online audience than CBS News. An obscure reporter from Wisconsin is now a media institution.

Journalists should be paying attention to weblogs, if for no other reason than enlightened self-interest. A cloud of webloggers can descend upon questionable reporting like locusts, leaving nothing but devastation and droppings behind in their wake.

Last March, Tim Blair, a weblogger in Sydney, Australia, read a quote in a Chicago Tribune piece he thought was too good to be true:

"These people always complain," said Graham Thorn, a psychiatrist. "They want it both ways: their way and our way. They want to live in our society and be respected, yet they won't work. They steal, they rob and they get drunk. And they don't respect the laws."

As the Tribune later admitted, reporter Uli Schmetzer fabricated the name and occupation of the source. They ended his nearly 20-year association with the paper.

In announcing Schmetzer's fabrication, Tribune Public Editor Don Wycliff noted wryly that Blair "seems to have set himself up as a kind of independent monitor of the press."

The experience with Schmetzer convinced Wycliff that weblogs represent a new check on the media: "In the past, national and foreign correspondents could roam the country or the world writing stories about people who would never see their work. In the Internet age, there are fewer and fewer places where the Chicago Tribune -- or the Waxahachie Daily Light, for that matter -- cannot be accessed and read critically by people about whom we write."

Could "Tim in Sydney" call a talk radio show in Australia and get a reporter fired in Chicago?

Journalism · 2005/01/11 · 6 COMMENTS · Link

Weblog Update Notification in PHP

With help from Dave Sifry of Technorati, I have released Weblog_Pinger, a weblog notification class library for PHP that sends update pings over XML-RPC to services such as Weblogs.Com, Blo.gs, Ping-o-Matic and Technorati.

The code has been released as open source under the GNU General Public License.

Dave's going to be writing about this code on the Technorati Developers Wiki, which has an extensive section devoted to how to ping the site with weblogging software.

Xml-rpc · Wordzilla · Php · 2005/01/10 · 3 COMMENTS · Link

Democratic Podcast: Social Security Works

The first attempt at public affairs podcasting on Workbench appears to have been popular last week. The audio file of the Democratic response to the presidential radio address was requested 8,400 times.

I'm beginning to appreciate the bandwidth requirements of podcasting. One 2.38 megabyte podcast consumed more than 18 gigabytes of traffic. That's not an issue, because I have a great dedicated server on ServerMatrix that allows 1,200 gigabytes a month, but it could become one as listeners discover this weekly feature.

Saturday's Democratic response was delivered by New York Rep. Charles Rangel, and like last week the emphasis is on President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security.

A transcript of Rangel's remarks:

This is Congressman Charles Rangel of New York.

Terrible tragedies such as the tsunami in Southeast Asia and its aftermath remind us of how fragile life is. One week ago, we in the Congress lost one of our own, a Congressman named Robert Matsui, who was one of the greatest champions of Social Security in American history.

Bob Matsui was fiercely committed to protecting the guaranteed bedrock protection of Social Security. He believed in the program and fought to strengthen it for all Americans, because its promise of retirement security acknowledges that Americans are best off if we face the challenges of life together.

Bob Matsui cared more than just about making sure that Social Security is here for his generation or even the next one. He wanted to make certain that his year-old granddaughter Anna, and all of the generations to come, are blessed by Social Security as past generations have been. Bob was passionate about what he knew was right, while at the same time working to find common ground in order to get things done for the good of the nation. He knew that any significant change in Social Security must be done in a bipartisan way.

Last month, President Bush called Congressional leaders to the White House and asked us not to criticize his plan or to push alternatives until he had a chance to formulate it. That's fair enough. We must respect that. As President, he has the responsibility to come up with a plan. So far, he has not done so, but at the same time his staff has planned a public relations campaign aimed at undermining confidence in the Social Security system. The White House wants Americans to believe that Social Security is heading for an iceberg. They think by scaring people, they would help increase support for privatization.

But the facts prove that there is no imminent crisis with Social Security. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that Social Security can pay full benefits for nearly 50 years. So, there is no crisis. But there is a challenge, because people are living longer.

Unfortunately, the President's proposal for privatized accounts makes Social Security weaker and not stronger. It drains $2 trillion from the trust fund, leading to drastic cuts in benefits of more than 40 percent.

Those who support private accounts claim that a miracle will occur in the stock market and these benefit cuts will be made up. That's just not true. Even nonpartisan experts have determined that private accounts will never meet or surpass the currently proposed benefit, even under the most optimistic assumptions. In addition to these cuts, the Administration is talking about borrowing an additional $2 trillion just in the next 10 years to pay the transition costs to privatization. Running up the debt in this way will squeeze future programs and further pressure interest rates to rise and slow our economy.

I truly believe that Americans want Democrats and Republicans to work together, especially on matters as important as Social Security, and we want to work with the President, but to do so, we need his Administration to be open minded to the idea that Social Security works for millions of Americans and it needs to be strengthened, but not radically changed into something that is not social and not security.

Social Security is something we all paid into. Social Security is not about dependency on big government, it's about how we rely on each other. We believe it should not be 'every man for himself' but that America takes care of its own. With the memory of our dear friend Bob Matsui close to our hearts, we Democrats will continue to fight to keep the trust of Social Security, now and in the future.

This is Congressman Charles Rangel. Thank you so much for listening.

Politics · Podcasts · 2005/01/09 · 3 COMMENTS · Link

My Crash Course in Weblog Hosting

Buzzword.Com was offline yesterday for reasons that remain shrouded in mystery. Server uptime has been better than expected, considering the number of weblogs and my inexperience hosting a Manila server, but I am finding that UserLand's software runs itself well most of the time.

Because I host most of my own Web sites on another server (a Linux box running Apache, MySQL, and PHP), I don't always catch downtime as quickly as I should.

If you're publishing a weblog on Buzzword and can't reach it, or you experience problems posting entries and performing other tasks, don't hesitate to send an e-mail or post a message on UserLand's customer support forum. I tinker with the server like a gearhead puttering around on a car, so I'm always looking for user feedback on how well the engine is running and whether I've done anything that causes it to crash through the guard rails and go flying into a ravine.

Manila · 2005/01/08 · Comment · Link

I'm a big fan of Salon.Com, but I have to call out a tasteless metaphor by Publisher David Talbot in a story about the survival of his magazine and Slate:

I think once the Internet bust got into full swing, it was like being survivors of a tsunami. Everybody was glad they were still there, no matter how they felt about each other before it hit.

Salon Blogs · Publishing · 2005/01/07 · 4 COMMENTS · Link

I'm Joining the Pod People

One of my favorite presidential traditions is the weekly radio address, a practice revived by President Nixon and carried on today. Bush treats them like homework, but in the hands of a natural politician like Reagan or Clinton, the short speeches are an inspired throwback to the days when Americans hovered around the family Victrola to hear FDR's historic fireside chats.

Every Saturday afternoon, the president delivers a short address followed by a response from a member of the opposition party. Both can be heard on C-Span Radio beginning at around 2:50 p.m. Eastern time, and they're also carried by some radio stations around the country.

The president's speeches are archived on the White House site and often make news.

The Democrats occasionally grab headlines with their speech, such as when an Iraq War veteran in May criticized the government for the lack of body armor, but for the most part they're a missed opportunity. There's no archive on the Web, as far as I can tell, and no publicity aside from a press release on PR Newswire.

I'm going to offer the Democratic response as a regular podcast on Workbench, beginning with today's speech by U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina.

I've attached the audio to this weblog entry as an enclosure, which you can download automatically using a news aggregator that supports podcasts.

A transcript of his remarks:

Good morning. This is Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus.

Allow me to pause for a moment to speak on behalf of all Democrats in expressing our deep condolences for the terrible loss of life in South Asia due to the massive earthquakes and tsunami this week. Our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families, and all Americans stand ready to work quickly to provide the appropriate assistance to help with this enormous tragedy.

These events remind us as we embark on this New Year of what is most important to each of us. New Year's follows our nation's most reflective and redemptive season -- Christmas for many of us, Kwanzaa for some, and others, Hanukkah. Regardless of what we call it, it's a period of rededication to the principles and various faiths that make us who and what we are.

As a new Congress convenes this month and President Bush is inaugurated for a second term, we must remain steadfast in our support of those who have been placed in harm's way defending this nation's honor. And we must be resolved in our stewardship of the values that make us Americans. We can do this by making, and keeping, a few New Year's resolutions.

First, President Bush and this new Congress must resolve to adequately equip our fighting men and women. Our soldiers should never want for proper equipment and accurate intelligence. Their patriotism and sacrifice should never be doubted or compromised. And they and their families should always be treated with dignity, respect, and fairness. Our first responders, who are the frontline defenders of our homeland, should also receive proper support and due deference. That was not always the case last year, and we must do better by those who provide for our safety and security this year.

Second, this new Congress and President Bush should resolve to give renewed hope and confidence to our future generations. It violates the basic tenets of our nation's values to saddle our children with unparalleled debt and unprecedented deficits, while underfunding 'No Child Left Behind' -- shortchanging our children's education and leaving millions of them behind. And we need to make a college education more affordable, not cut student loans and Pell Grants.

It is unacceptable that nearly 13 million American children live in poverty and 8.4 million have no health insurance. We must do more to lift the poor into the middle class and to extend health insurance to parents and children.

Finally, the President and Congress should resolve to keep faith with those whose blood, sweat, and tears have provided us with a country worth fighting for. Our seniors and vulnerable neighbors deserve better than the politics of fear that is being heaped upon them.

A surprising number of people view Social Security as only a retirement benefit. In fact, Social Security pays more benefits to children than any other program. Social Security also pays survivors' benefits and helps the disabled. It is a safety net for many of our nation's most vulnerable citizens. To jeopardize the solvency of this resoundingly successful program by gambling Social Security benefits on the stock market is a risk that President Bush and this Congress should resolve to avoid.

Democrats are resolved to protect Social Security and we will continue to do so. Our New Partnership for America's Future reaffirms our commitment to a strong and well-funded national security force, prosperity at home, fairness to all and opportunity for everyone. We are resolute in our pursuit of safe and secure communities, and accountability in government.

We call upon President Bush and the Republican leadership in Congress to join us in this new covenant with the American people.

This has been Congressman Jim Clyburn, Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus. I wish you and yours a safe, secure, and prosperous New Year, and I thank you for listening.

As I said in the podcast, I have no idea how to properly encode audio, which I'm attempting in Cool Edit 2000. Technical advice from sound geeks would be appreciated.

Politics · Podcasts · 2005/01/02 · 10 COMMENTS · Link

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