The Media Drop

You know, it’s a fantastic thing to have someone who works on your staff that pours over media the way that I do. Well, when I have the time. This morning, Chris Thilk IMed me this gem of a post from Jeff Jarvis, where he’s talking about having participated in an event with Rupert Murdoch present, even spending some time at his table for dinner. Now I like Jeff and enjoy his company, but I’m really surprised at what he had to say about a particular situation he found himself in.

The next morning at breakfast, one of the execs leaned over to me and pointed to Murdoch at a table across the room. ‘I’d love to have a picture of that,’ he said as Murdoch pored over the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal. Oh, I, too, was tempted: that craggly brow peeking out over that staid masthead might have been the media picture of the year. But I resisted. If I didn’t, I’d never get invited back to dinner.

Since when has Jeff Jarvis, who is one to speak out about anyone, anything, anytime, on his blog or elsewhere, worried about snapping an impromptu picture of something that staggering? Media picture of the year? A decent point-and-shoot would have been award-winning. Hell, I would have bought him a cup of joe or six for a look at that in his digital camera’s screen. This *really* surprised me to hear, and as Chris said to me this morning, I can’t help to think about “how Jarvis is just as afraid of losing the keys to the kingdom as any MSM reporter.”

Now there’s obviously a time for everything, but given the “buck the system” attitude that Jarvis espouses on a daily basis, this just really surprised me to hear. Clearly, Jeff needs to hone his cellphone camera skills a little bit, IMHO.