Daniel Drezner writes about blog influence on the media. Or, more specifically, blog readership by those in the media. The survey results that Drezner discusses also bring up one of the more amusing discussions for bloggers - media bias.

The elite responses are somewhat more liberal than the overall responses, but the difference is not terribly great. At a minimum, the media professionals than consume blogs seems to have far more centrist tastes in blogs than is often proclaimed by those on the right.

It is interesting to see the number of both right and left - leaning blogs on the lists. Probably tells us that the media who read blogs are looking for information, no matter the source, that could help them do their jobs. Definitely a good sign. Although the caveat that Drezner makes is quite valuable when discussing the "liberal bias" in media.

It's equally possible that liberal journalists are practicing The Godather, Part II dictum of, "keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer"

An fascinating ponderance. Left-leaning journalists scour the Newsmax-ish set, hoping to find a scoop. Not a bad idea, frankly. But what does it all mean, when you boil the potatoes for a few extra hours?

I have a few thoughts on the whole "liberal/conservative" theory about the media, and one of my own is that perhaps the people who come out as being conservative are stating their beliefs in such a way where they look very far away from the rest of the media. This "remainder" could still be blatantly liberal, I don't know - or, it could be a mixture of elephant and donkey supporters.

I bounced some of these ideas off of CableNewser's Brian Stelter tonight, and he brought something very interesting to mind. "Journalists tend to lean liberal," he said, "which makes sense -- journalists enter the biz hoping to change the world and make it better. That's a liberal notion, eh?" And now that I think about it, he could be on point there. And no, this doesn't mean that every newspaper reporter is a registered Democrat - it just means that many of them could be, just by design.

Tonight I came across this post over at J-Log, which talks about the newspaper habits of younger people - or, more specifically, lack of newspaper reading habits. What bothers me most about this is the ignorance of how the younger set has embraced the Internet as a channel to receive news and information.

Individuals aren't reading the newspaper's content less, they're just getting less ink on their fingers. Until someone starts utilizing the demographics harnessed by sites like nj.com and parent advance.net, studies like this will not be relevant, in my opinion. You can't just sit there and make a blanket statement about readership being down, circ is down, newspapers are dying, blah blah blah. Yes, print readership is down. Yes, circulation has dropped significantly over the last 10-14 years. But it's not like people have gained a stupidity level or something. If anything, I would venture to say that people are more informed than they were before. Not only the Internet as a whole, but sites like Google News and Topix make news from everywhere available to everyone. Blogs filter content for readers, and readers match themselves up with blogs they like. More and more people have obtained subscriber based television services like cable and satellite. Audio and Visual content has replaced a lot of print content for many people. While the loss of newspapers as the medium that provided so much news to so many people for so many years may seem harsh, it is reality in a sense. I don't think you'll see them going out of business or stopping all printing processes in the near future, but the declines will continue.

Australia's Daily Telegraph has an article by Christine Pouget that talks about where the newspaper industry stands from those present at the 57th annual World Newspaper Congress. The overall gist is that while circulation is declining for paid publications, advertising revenue is up. This could be for any number of factors, including some publications going out of business, causing a much more tight selection of outlets for people to read. Or, that the folks "still" reading the newspaper at this point can be more highly targeted by those wanting to advertise. The point is, companies are advertising and publications still exist. Most folks still like to have a little bit of print in their hands at some point - so don't expect your children to never hold a newspaper in their lifetimes.

Okay, I probably learned more than this, but...

This post over at Little Green Footballs is of interest like no other. Why? It confirms the existence of actual organization for those sometime known as "trolls".

For all intents and purposes, it's almost like some government or corporate structure whereby "trolls" decide who is going to watch over what site and post comments, typically against those of the blogger/commenters, on a regular basis. I don't think there is formal corporate backing behind this - at least not directly - but it's pretty much a crazy thing, don't you think? Well, that is, if it's true.

For no other reason that I was thinking of posting one and Rox already did so.

1. "Amber (Super Dups remix w/ Ward 21)" - 311
2. "Red Alert" - Basement Jaxx
3. "Monster Eye Land" - Mix Master Mike
4. "Whoa!" - Black Rob
5. "Cold World" - Genius
6. "Caribbean Queen" - Billy Ocean
7. "In It Together" - Atomic Hooligan
8. "Secret (Take You Home)" - Kylie Minogue
9. "U" - Pearl Jam
10. "Swallowed" - Bush

On Saturday, the American Journalism Review posted this article, entitled "The Expanding Blogosphere," by Rachel Smolkin. Smolkin gives details on a lot of the "A-List" bloggers, including Glenn Reynolds, Mickey Kaus, Andrew Sullivan, and Kevin Drum. Buzz Machine's Jeff Jarvis says "The people are now talking," when describing the growth of blogging as a way for people to share their opinions.

And the news media are gingerly following the people's lead. The line between pure political bloggers and "Big Journalism," as Reynolds calls it, is fading.

I think "the line" is definitely fading a little bit, but are the news media going the direction of what bloggers are looking for and looking into? If the news media *did* follow what bloggers were posting as the "important" stories of the day, then you would see vastly different things on MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN at the same time of day, except in cases of major news stories. What a concept! If this is the case, then do Glenn Reynolds, Josh Marshall, and others end up being the psuedo pre-producers of the news programs?

"Bloggers have very little power," says Reynolds. "What they have is influence. They have an ability to get ideas noticed that would otherwise be ignored and to shame people"--namely journalists--"into doing their jobs better."

While I respect Reynolds' statement on the issue, I don't think that's the right tact to take or state as what bloggers really want. While in some cases, "shaming" might be what makes people write about things they wouldn't have, why create an environment of "us and them." That's the last thing, that I, a blogger, want in this situation. I'd prefer symbiotic, if anything. If you're a blogger, perhaps you get "tips" from readers here and there about stories that they don't necessarily have the means/ability to research, and they think you might be interested in investigating them. Same deal as how mainstream reporting can work. In that case, reporters and bloggers can share ideas and tips in order to break stories. If bloggers are seen as folks who are only out to shame reporters into covering things differently, then they will have no credibility, and reporters won't want to have anything to do with them. I'd rather have newspeople be a resource to me, even though I cover them as fodder for this site.

In fact, I attempted to do just that a few weeks ago. I received a tip that that Associated Press was moving its entire Service Desk op out to Spokane. I finally got confirmation late in the day, but must have made fifteen phone calls to various sources who could assist me. I even left two messages with the city desk at the Spokesman-Review. Both calls were left unanswered. Was it not a newsworthy event? Maybe it's not front page news, but it's still news. I would have loved to get some help from the city desk or a local reporter in seeing if they'd heard anything specific. Heck, I'd have appreciated just a phone call back saying "We're not going to report on this. We don't think it's a big enough story." Will there be a day when a blogger make the same call and be taken more seriously?

Related: Steve Rubel posts about an eWeek article about how blogging is "killing journalism as we know it."

Diane de la Paz of the Tacoma News Tribune writes about how problems with the FCC have one radio station, KISW 99.9 FM out of Seattle seemingly "toeing the line" between what the FCC is allowing on the air and what is going to keep them from getting fined - while still keeping their audience interested. Another station, KRWM 106.9 FM out of Bellvue, Washington, takes a completely different tact - and has for years and years now. The article describes KRWM as the station "you won't be embarrassed to listen to while your kids are in the car" - and the station describes itself that way to listeners.

Two stations, two formats, two attitudes toward music and radio. Both seemingly successful in a market up to this point. They seem to be getting along just fine, probably having completely different target markets for listeners. There is a reason why KISW exists - it's for people who don't listen to what KRWM have to offer. And vice versa. Unfortunately, the way the FCC and many large media conglomerates are thinking, having a bunch of KRWMs out there is the "safe" bet. Unfortunately, alienating a lot of listeners comes with that decision, and I'm not sure that radio execs necessarily will fight the change, when it comes down to it.

In case you hadn't heard, Tom Mangan of Prints the Chaff has decided to retire from blogland, at least from his main site. Between moving, work, and other things Tom wants to do with himself, it just wasn't working out. Plus, he states he only has a dialup connection where he's living. Ugh. I don't know about you, but I might have to quit blogging if I had dialup too. So well wishes to Tom Mangan, and I hope to keep up with him at Banned For Life, which he will continue to maintain.

Thanks to Steve Rubel for pointing this out tonight.

Back in April, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, Instant Live LLC, announced a patent they had received which means they now "have exclusive rights to the recording and instantaneous distribution of media on-site at a show." Not just Clear Channel shows, but all live shows in the United States. If you record a show and distribute on-site, you're violating the patent unless you pay up.

It was only a matter of time before some dissent would come out from a label or media company, and that time is now. Two days ago, Santa Monica-based Kufala Recordings confirmed their dissent. Kufala's business is the distribution - within two weeks after a show - of a live concert, directly from the masters. The press release describes it as follows in a quote from president of Kufala, Brady Lahr:

“Unlike the Clear Channel model of recording and burning CDs at the venue, we simply record the music, take it back to our studio for a proper mix and master, then ship the live show recordings out to our artist’s fans. Fans place CD orders at the venue before, during and after the show. They know they will be getting a great recording and that the artist has approved the master. They also know that the band actually owns the recording and will be paid for sure. As artists and fans begin to figure out just how evil the Clear Channel patent is, our business will open up even faster.”

So the "loophole" described here is that fans don't get their recordings on site - but I'm sure that is built into the pricing, unfortunately. Not that Kufala is doing anything wrong in that fashion, because they are enabling the fans to acquire a recording. The item of concern I have is that, according to the press release, Clear Channel "barred Kufala from recording at one of their venues - a restrain which occurred regardless of the fact that the venue did not have recording capability, not to mention that the artist, their major label, and a non-Clear Channel affiliate radio station all requested Kufala's services." [ed: the "their" and "they" in the previous statement represent Clear Channel]

What do we think about this patent? While Clear Channel may have something to say about the recording on *their* site, I just don't get how this works. They're patenting an ability to record something with technology that Clear Channel didn't invent or own outright, and sell it on site in a method that has existed since man first sold goods to other individuals. If I'm following this correctly, I could actually patent the ability to record a business conference and offer it to attendees for a cost - or free. I could patent the ability to record a political speech and distribute it to a television station for viewing. I don't think I'm off base here with these ideas, do you?

[via eTeleases]

I just started laughing this morning at Rox's post that starts "I refused to stand in line all night to see a movie." I figured that was inspiration enough to put up this review that I was slacking off on since yesterday.

Taking Fridays off is a good thing - taking Fridays off and going to the movies at 4pm is a really good thing. And if the turnout at the 4pm showing of "The Day After Tomorrow" is saying anything, then it'll make some serious loot this weekend. This whole hype fest started six months or so ago. I've been talking about this flick ever since I came across its ultra-cool website. The reason I got a kick out of it? The funny (phony) weather ticker running at the top. Some of the photos were fantastic, and having a countdown to destruction of life as we know it - can't beat that.

Director Roland Emmerich did a great job of continuing to destroy major cities (both Godzilla and Independence Day seem to have it in for New York City, by the way), and some of the filming was downright amazing. The main characters are played by Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sela Ward (who make up a broken up family unit), and a group of younger actors including Emmy Rossum and Arjay Smith. [more details here at IMDb]

The gist of the film is that Quaid's character, climatologist Jack Hall, seems to be right on when predicting that a major climate shift is on the way for the world - but no one believes him, including the Vice President, played by Kenneth Welsh (who played "Doc" in the ice hockey film "Miracle" of late). So, the U.S. goes about doing nothing, and soon after, major storms start hitting stateside. Tornadoes devastate the city of Los Angeles. Huge rainstorms hit New York City, where Gyllenhaal's character, Sam Hall, happens to be at the moment with some other students. There were some excellent exchanges here, and I was happy to see that the film let everything happened in a decent amount of time, and tried to focus more on the personal side to the story. I'm sure some folks will complain and say there wasn't enough destruction in this film, but I think those folks have probably never read a book - where you have to imagine what is happening outside the narrator's point of view in order to get a "big picture" of the situation at hand.

Without giving up a lot of the plot, Quaid goes on the hunt from Washington, D.C. all the way to New York to find his son, while numerous weather fiascos show up in his path. Some decent foreshadowing is used, creating obstacles for any character who hasn't frozen, gotten hit with a bus, or had a hailstone the size of a brick land on their head just yet. Line of the film - Arjay Smith's character, Brian Parks: "There's a whole set of tax code books down here - I don't think we need them anymore."

This film had a decent amount of humor, considering the topic on display. The characters you were interested in knowing about, you learned a little bit about as the film progressed. All in all, I was pleased with the movie, and think it was definitely worth waiting months and months for. Science aside, it was fun to watch and interesting to hear how the characters explained away things that didn't seem feasible - but, in a way, I think that was the point. Folks in the media and scientists are spending so much time trying to say that the film isn't "scientifically proven" - I only have three things to say about that. 1. It's a movie. Relax and get some popcorn. 2. Just because *you* can't prove this doesn't mean it's not feasible. You sound just like most of the people in the flick. 3. Bumblebees can't fly - on paper - if I remember that correctly.

A lot of the criticism bloggers receive is because of their writing skills - or perceived lack of them. Last night, I found something just as bad as what a lot of people go after bloggers for - on a "mainstream" news outlet's site. Originally, I wanted to use it for a blog post about the topic discussed, but now it's going to do double duty.

Check out this story by Justin Ware at NewsChannel 7 WSAW (a CBS affiliate out of Wisconsin) that describes how some local people are moving to satellite television service from cable, and getting a comparable product for a lower price. I had wanted to post about it because it had an example of one user moving away from cable even though he was losing his local channels - which he thought he could get later, anyway

My problem with the article is the names of the companies being repeatedly reported incorrectly. "Direct TV" is "DirecTV," and EchoStar's product is called DISH Network, not "Dish Network", "dish", or "dish network". These are pretty easy things to straighten out and at least make consistent. Calling one company three things in one article is pretty unfortunate, don't you think? While I'm sure I could find a couple of these if I really started to look, just as I could find plenty in blogs - I thought this was a good example to show to everyone.

However - I will point out that it is very good reporting for the network itself, because they are in the "local stations" batch that is referred to by one of those quoted - so technically they've lost that person as a viewer for the time being. Impressive that they didn't "leave out" that fact.

Thanks to Rox for starting Friday off right with the ten random songs off the mp3 player/software player. I dedicate this one to being off for the weekend already and chilling out on the couch.

1. "Made You Look" - Nas
2. "One Good Reason (Hex Hector Remix)" - Nicole McCloud
3. "I Like" - Crispy
4. "Fuzz" - Joey Beltram
5. "Malchik Gay" - t.A.T.u.
6. "Who Dat" - JT Money
7. "Straight Outta Compton" - N.W.A.
8. "Run Fay Run" - Isaac Hayes
9. "Promise" - When In Rome
10. "Shut the F Up And Dance" - DJ Alligator vs. Gigi D'Agostino

Editor & Publisher's, Dave Astor writes today about columnist Cal Thomas' comments on Fox News a few days ago, where Thomas stated that the media censoring itself regarding the war might be something he'd agree with.

Thomas said voluntary censorship "might force some in the media who believe anything they know or can find out is deserving of publication to realize that not everything is -- and to focus on their responsibilities as citizens as well as their privileges as journalists, which in my view, are linked."

The first thing that comes to mind after reading this passage is the whole "flag pin" issue that came up in the journalism world shortly after 9/11. If you don't remember, many journalists were instructed to remove pins that a lot of Americans were wearing while they were on camera, because it was believed that wearing the pins took away objectivity as reporters and broadcasters.

As for the first part of the statement, about determining what is "deserving of publication," I have a little bit more agreement with it. A lot of people have complained about Fox News going bonkers with "news flash" items, with every single story deserving a headline at the bottom of the screen. That's probably a good example. Another would be the constant reporting of WMDs and other items all throughout the "major fighting" portion of the war - when none had actually been found. Fact checking wasn't exactly being done everywhere, was it....?

Just over a month ago, folks were talking about Sony and two other firms purchasing Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for some serious coin. According to AP's Gary Gentile, Sony still wants in, and is asking for two more weeks of "exclusive negotiating" to get a deal done. The number being floated is still about $5 billion, including $3 billion cash.

Today I received a message asking if I thought the whole Washingtonienne thing could be a made-up situation. A little bit later, I received two other messages and a comment on the same - the comment from The Commissar, who wrote about this theory earlier today.

The Commissar's skinny consists of a few things:

• a link between Washingtonienne (Jessica Cutler) and Wonkette (Ana Marie Cox), namely both of them working at National Geographic - not confirmed
• a similar penchant for anal sex - or at least talking about it.
• the strange deletion of the blog - and sudden rehashing in multiple places.
• dumping $20K, even from The National Enquirer, is a tough task.

I'm not sure we have enough for a case here, but I'm kind of fascinated by the number of people curious about this and posting about it already... What do we think?

Personally, I have no reason to doubt anyone's motives - I don't get that impression from Ms. Cox that she'd be anything but upfront on such matters. However, I don't know squat about Ms. Cutler at all, so I can't comment. The question that arises then is - could it just be a faked story written up by Ms. Cutler alone? I'm not so hot on that idea because I don't see the point and it doesn't seem to be such a "sure thing" as one's 15 minutes goes.

[update] Calico Cat points out that Wonkette & Washingtonienne didn't work *together* at National Geographic - but it looks like they both have the pub on their resumes.

I'm never quite sure what to think of this story, whether to be sad, amused, or confused. Needless to say, Wonkette posted this today, and I'm definitely a little put off by it.

And excerpt from Ms. Cutler's email is as follows:

From: Jessica Cutler
Subject: New posting
Date: May 26, 2004 8:27:31 PM EDT
To: Wonkette

Imagine if you dropped your diary on the sidewalk somewhere, and the next thing you know, it's national news.

WTF.

Except for the fact that you didn't "drop your diary" - you may as well have made photocopies and put them on the chairs of everyone coming to the lecture hall, briefing room, and newspaper stand - your statement is valid, Ms. Cutler. It is national news because you wrote it in plain sight - irrelevant of if we knew who you were or not, it would have been big - even if Keith Olbermann hadn't fit it into his "Countdown".

According to this article by Matthew Daneman at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the University of Rochester's radio station, WRUR-FM (88.5) will be pre-recording their shows. Everything from late night to mid-day (except the NPR audio they run in mornings, mostly) will be taped.

Why, you ask? Well, because they might get fined if something happens on air. So to pre-empt this from happening, all shows will now be pre-recorded and "screened" before going on the air, adding a bit of time lag to the content, but hey - who needs live content when you can play today's content tomorrow!

”The primary focus is the summer, when we don’t have a lot of people here” to monitor and supervise the radio station, said Dean of the College William Scott Green. “It’s basically a response to the heightened sensitivities and the broadcast climates. This is a way to make sure … we’re careful.”

The school may or may not continue this in the fall term, but in the meanwhile - that's the deal.

[via MetaFilter]

The Write News has a piece about Redmond Magazine, which some might recognize as Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine. Aside from losing the mouthful of a name, this change allows the mag's new tagline, "The Independent Voice of the Microsoft IT Community" to sound much more valid. This way, the publication can ensure they look "distanced" from the company itself while still ringing true by having "Redmond" in their title.

Radio World Online reports that XM's satellite radio service has brought its beach traffic reports to additional markets.

Beginning Memorial Day Weekend, XM Satellite Radio will expand its weekend beach traffic reports for Cape Cod; Long Island/North Jersey Shore; South Jersey Shore; Delaware Beaches - including Rehoboth and Bethany; Eastern Maryland Shore - including Ocean City and Orange County and Los Angeles County.

This is one of the best things I've heard - think about it this way - if you're on a vacation and not staying right on the beach - and you're not familiar with the area - you're not going to know the local stations to get this info - XM swoops in and creates a possibly huge time-saver. [ed: I think there needs to be a ";" after Ocean City]

Wired's, Steven Levy covers the ins and outs of the Gawker Media world, from Fleshbot to Wonkette! and everything in between. Some great items about Nick Denton's background as a "party promoter" of sorts all the way to his CEO-ship at Moreover.

Points of major ponderance: Denton feels his stays with Moreover and First Tuesday (the party company) weren't as great as they could have been, stating "More could have been done with them." IMHO, the fact that Moreoever still exists at all, and the First Tuesday company was sold for $50M in various tenders, I'd say he did okay. He's just as famous for flaming people, places, and things as his staffers are today. Bringing up his trashing of the Soho House is quite amusing and shows what he's made of. I kind of look at it has being brash - yet very confident, for good reason.

A great read for a Thursday morning. Check it out.

Hollinger International has fired Thomas Rose, who held the dual role of CEO and Publisher of the Jerusalem Post. According to Anat Balint at Haaretz, the Post is on the sales block, and this may be just the tip of the iceberg for changes at the daily.

For the last day and a half, I had heard that the mysterious man (yes, we knew the author was a man) behind CableNewser would be revealed this Thursday in the New York Times. Turns out that it was Thursday, just not in the Eastern Time Zone. Lisa Napoli at the Times has the skinny on CableNewser.

Why all the hiding and secrecy, you might ask? Well, for good reason - at least at first glance. As it turns out, CableNewser is actually Brian Stelter, 18-year old sophomore at Towson University. While juggling some jobs at newspapers (off and on campus), doing web design, and working on the Towson news television show, Stelter was able to follow enough cable television news to be a very serious contender in the cable news coverage world. Some might consider Stelter and his site the cable news source right now. You can read some more details, straight from the source, here in the post he put up this evening.

Think this is going to hurt the site's traffic and followers? I don't. While a few people might be staring at their screens tonight or at the newspaper tomorrow morning (though if they're reading this firsthand in the paper tomorrow, they're probably not reading CableNewser regularly) saying to themselves, "Whoa, what am I thinking?", I think the credibility is built and there is no reason it should go away. What do you think?

This isn't the first time someone has had some pretty good credibility and turned out to be a surprise. Back in February of this year, I did an email interview with Marisa Hoheb, who is a senior (actually, has probably just graduated in the last week or so) at the University of Virginia. Marisa is also known as "Rachel" - the person on the other end of the "Rachel Speaks" column at Media Life Magazine. It's an advice column for people in the media world.

What does this mean for the world of media? Well, not only are the web and business savvy continuing to get younger and younger, but those with some industrious abilities are making a mark on the world, in a big way. There are probably dozens of Brians and Marisas out there that we haven't realized yet - or maybe they haven't realized it yet, either.

[update] I've been corresponding with CableNewser off and on via instant message for a bit now, and was able to corner him this evening to ask him a few things. Details below:

TMD: Hypothetical - someone offers you a media column at a publication - do you think you would take it, and do school at the same time? You've pretty much shown you could do it.

CN: Absolutely. I can juggle 7 balls in the air at the same time -- why not 8?

TMD: So why cable news - where does the fascination come from?

CN: It's a lot more influential than most viewers realize. I was in a newsroom today when Ashcroft spoke. Everyone stopped and watched CNN. Last week, I noticed FOX on TVs in a health club, at the bookstore, and a Starbucks. It's everywhere! And it shapes the news we see on the networks and in the newspapers.

Stories like Kobe or Laci or Chandra would have never been covered by network TV (or even the morning shows) ten years ago. It's because of cable. It's more influential than we think.

TMD: Do you think the stories would have been "national" like they are now, outside of television, without cable news networks?

CN: Not to the extent they are today. Some nights, Peter Jennings will introduce a story by saying "as Americans watched on cable this afternoon,..."

TMD: So what do you bring to the table to differentiate yourself from the usual media following suspects?

CN: An outsider's view. I'm just a viewer -- albeit one who views quite a bit.

TMD: Great answer. So you intend to stay on "this side" of the fence, at least to the best of your ability. So what happens when news co's start sending you their press releases?

CN: Well, I get their press releases everyday. And I get tips from all the networks from time to time. Certainly, I aim the site toward insiders and outsiders. It's a balance between the two.

My dream job hasn't exactly been invented yet. I'd like a job where I can write a news story for the newspaper, put an advance version online, do a package about it for the evening news, stream that package online, record a radio spot about it... I don't think it should just be "broadcast journalist" or "newspaper reporter," it should be Journalist, for many platforms.

Don't be surprised to see that type of role appear in the next two or three years - because if someone else doesn't invent it, Brian Stelter just might do it himself.

The Magazine Design Weblog's Pariah S. Burke leads us to an interesting article about photography and what people are capable of doing when they set their mind to it. Why wait for a better resolution camera to come out from a manufacturer when you can build your own "110-pound, 6-foot film camera that produces what experts say are some of the highest-resolution landscape photographs ever made." That's what I call entrepreneurship.

According to this AP article (at Excite), it takes 2.6-gigabytes to have a digital copy of the 9" by 18" negatives. The photographer, Clifford Ross, is unfortunately "confined by the size of available paper, [meaning] the images will remain 5 feet-by-10 feet - at least for now." When was the last time you couldn't do something because you didn't have enough paper?

David Kronke at the Redlands Daily Facts covers the upcoming television season, which would normally be pluralized, but can't because Fox has gone to the full year, all original, schedule. Items of note: Fox's "The O.C." moves to 8pm on Thursdays, and "24" will run in its entirety starting in January. Earlier this year, ABC confirmed that its hit spy drama, "Alias" would return for a fourth season. TV Tome reports the next season won't start until January '05 either, which is an interesting strategy - but one that will likely keep viewers on board for a network for the full year.

At first glance, you get that "Sopranos" feel to the delay, but keep in mind it has nothing to do with production timelines - this is all about changing scheduling for the "betterment" of television. It'll suck take a bit of getting used to the first time around, but once everyone sees how it works out to two or three scheduled seasons within a given 12 months, everything will be okay.

[Props to PanFandom for some links]

Don't worry, it's a good thing. Tobi Elkin at MediaPost discusses next gen Digital/Personal Video Recorders, which will have broadband connectivity. This will lead to not only new functionality for the user, but completely different advertising tactics by interested parties.

According to research conducted by Forrester and the Association of National Advertisers, when asked "If large numbers of consumers could skip commercials while watching television, which of the following forms of advertising would you spend more on?," advertisers responded that they would spend more on interactive media and new TV formats. For example, 45 percent responded that they would spend more on interactive advertising during programs; 40 percent would embed ads within video-on-demand programming and ads within PVRs' main menu; and 35 percent would spend more on ads within video-on-demand menus.

Here, ladies and gentlemen, is the future of advertising and television watching as it might look in the next 1-2 years. Think it sounds intrusive? Well, many people are already participating in "interactive" marketing right now. Take, for instance, the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" program that ABC runs. While the show is on, you can log onto their website and answer trivia questions about the show, all the while seeing branding and advertising on one portion of the screen. The whole show itself is a bid advertisement, even though you might not notice it. In fact, Sears runs an ad campaign about 50 minutes in where they show text on the screen stating "x contractors, y new appliances, z pieces of furniture, etc." which looks just like the show itself. As a marketer, I think it's a coup of a campaign to build it into the program. My wife says she "loves" the commercial. So advertising isn't all bad, is it?

Think blogs haven't "arrived"? This morning, Don Imus has probably said the word "blog" 25 times, and has been discussing Jessica Cutler and her blog, Washingtonienne (this link is a reproduction by Wizbang). Imus has asked NBC's David Gregory and Norah O'Donnell to discuss the subject of Ms. Cutler and her site, and they both have feigned any idea about the details of the blog. They don't seem to want to be involved at all.

Imus continues with "this is why you hate the media, because they don't want to discuss things like this - when everyone else is talking about it." Enter the blogosphere - where you go when you don't get what you're looking for in the rest of the media world. Want to hear about Ms. Cutler's exploits? Check out her blog. Want to hear someone talk about the exploits and the repercussions of such - check out Wonkette or The National Debate. The folks on the show have discussed blogs on and off this morning, with sports guy Sid Rosenberg asking if it was just a "sex journal" and Charles McCord explaining that this wasn't the case - it could be about anything, and that there are "millions of them, you just have to know the address" in order to get to them. Of course, these were the more positive comments on the show, outside of Bernard McGuirk calling Ms. Cutler a "slut" numerous times, which led the topic of the show to discussing who at the radio station is sleeping with who, and Imus grilling some people on the show about what is going on.

While it is interesting that it took something so trystic to get blogging mentioned in this vein, it's the thought that counts. It's unfortunate that Ms. Cutler ended up losing her job out of this, but I'm sure she'll do just fine going forward.

[update] Last night, CableNewser pointed out that the duo of Cutler and Cox are definitely talk of the town.

Back in March, reports filtered around that Viacom was planning on launching a gay-themed network - finally, some more details have been announced.

The new channel will be entitled LOGO, and will be on basic cable as early as February 2005. The nets "have been reluctant to create a gay cable network because some executives fear that conservative viewers would be bothered by its programming," says the CNNMoney site. Interestingly enough, they calculated out the "high amount of disposable income controlled by gay consumers" and chose to create programming for everyone, not just the "conservative viewers" that might be offended by some content.

While we're Rubeling this evening, I thought it was worth pointing out that Steve Rubel will be all-you-can-eat diet of blogs for the whole week next week - no mainstream news sources, sans those he needs to look at for work-specific articles. He's looking for some good suggestions of sites to read feeds of or blogs to check out. Make sure you drop by with some suggestions and your thoughts.

I'll say Steve will make his self-imposed bet of getting 66% on any "test" someone gives him by week's end based on a diet of blogs only. And since we're eating blogs only, check out J-Log's Media Diet.

Earlier this week, I had posted about how journalists are concerned about financial pressures at their media companies can hinder the ability to do a great job. Steve Rubel goes one step further, suggesting that this and other trends "may soon drain popular columnists and even cartoonists nearing retirement age away from mainstream outlets to micro-media, such as Weblogs."

While this wouldn't be great news for the mainstream outlets, it would mean good things for the fans of writers and cartoonists who might "stick around" a little longer, now that they're not on formal deadline.

If you've been watching Fox television's "The Swan", then you'll be familiar with Lynn Ianni. She works as plays a doctor on the show, and is the one giving advice to the women who get plastic surgery as part of the episodes. According to this article by OC Weekly's Gustavo Arellano, Ms. Ianni's Ph.D. in clinical psychology comes from California Coast University, where she graduated in 1998. What's such a big deal about that? Well, it turns out that California Coast is not accredited by a nationally recognized body - unless you consider the Bureau for Private Post-Secondary and Vocational Education a nationally recognized body.

Upon first glance at the Bureau's website, you wouldn't see what the concern was. But after reading Arellano's item, you see that the U.S. Department of Education doesn't recognize the group - and, in turn, the school - as accredited. If you can't get government money to go to the school, your degree is technically not the same as if you had gone to a traditional private school - which, by the way, isn't a "for profit" institution. What tipped me off was reading "The Bureau responds to student complaints and oversees a fund designed to help reimburse a student's tuition if a school closes unexpectedly" on the front page of the BPPVE's website. According to Ms. Ianni, there isn't anything wrong with her degree - but that remains to be seen - although it doesn't look too good from this vantage point.

Who's to blame for such a situation? If you take Ms. Ianni at her word, then the school wasn't clear about their accredidation. Is California Coast yet another "diploma mill" school? More details here at The Smoking Gun.

Sirius continues to pull out the stops all over the place in their aim to move up in the market and come neck and neck with XM. According to Reuters, Sirius boss Joseph Clayton has big plans for the company, and I'm not even sure which of the latest developments is the biggest. From wearable receivers to shock jocks, they're continuing to make huge strides. I almost wish the fast forward machine were working so I could see what the books looked like in two quarters.

This satellite radio stuff is no passing fad - the original instance of Iridium was a fad, but it's a way to go in the future, especially for military/corporate communication. Sirius and XM have hit the timing just right, methinks, the way they are.

Newsday's Harry Berkowitz reports this afternoon that Cablevision wouldn't say no - to a good offer - if someone (read: Time Warner) wanted to purchase the cable company.

Obviously the Dolan family want the bucks, but I think more importanly, the Knick and Ranger fans should want new ownership - and push for this deal. Too bad they're both out of the post-season, or we could have some great signs in the stands - "Sell Our Team" or "Time Warner: First Columbus Circle, Now on Broadway!" And Ranger fans could fill in their favorite chants with "Dolan sucks!", giving Denis Potvin some time off.

Plus, this makes one less cable operator for TW to have to negotiate with to get their programming shown on.

CableNewser has a scoop about some interesting developments at CNN. Reportedly, the news network will unleash a broadband-only news channel, entitled (at this point) CNN NewsStream Live - in early 2005.

Is this the first real step towards Internet-based video subscriptions for our media monstrosities?

If you've ever been to the racetrack - heck, if you've ever been to the corner deli, you've probably seen some folks with their Daily Racing Form. For over one hundred years, the Form has been a helpful tool to horse racing fans to sink their eyeballs into to get their fix on who's going to be the big winner that day. Now, the Form has a new owner, the New York Post's Paul Tharp reports this morning.

The buyer, Carter Bales, is probably looking to double his money on this deal - so I'm curious to see what changes might come about with this move.

Radio Ink picks up an article from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle about a lawsuit filed against Clear Channel Communications. The suit states that "announcers called a minor girl derogatory and sexually explicit names after her name was spoken by a caller on the air." The station, 96.7 KISN FM, seems to be the Top 40-ish station in the Bozeman, Montana market.

Slander and invasion of privacy are going to be the least of the worries for this family as this lawsuit moves on. With the amount of interested parties closely following how radio stations and the FCC are making changes to how business gets done, I'm surprised this story hasn't been picked up as the "poster child" (I apologize for the pun) for getting rid of indecency on the airwaves.

Transperfect Translations, Inc. President and CEO