There are many unwritten rules in the world of television news. One of them is to avoid coming off as a lightweight. Sure, you may be a lightweight with little journalistic experience or passion for storytelling, but do NOT under any circumstances let that slip out (LOL). In other words, do NOT put anything about […]
“It will be better in the new building…”
March 2, 2015 by
“It will be better in the new building.” For anybody who has gone through a move at a television station, that is a meme with an eternal life span. Every question or concern can always and forever be laughingly answered with, “It will be better in the new building.” Computer down? “It will be better in […]
Ones and Zeros
February 27, 2015 by
In the interest of clarifying the debate, here’s the argument in favor of net neutrality. Delivering broadband capacity is like delivering gravel. It doesn’t take a ton of talent or innovation. It’s been done for years. There’s typically a demand for more as we pave over the world, but the focus has shifted from the […]
Get Jesse
February 24, 2015 by
KIRO is running a cute little promotional campaign teasing the arrival of Jessie Jones. You know the ones, the non-descript hints at something that’s coming in April? Jones is the former KING reporter who wasn’t able to reach a deal with Gannett to keep his “Get Jessie” franchise on the air – so he’s making […]
Critics, Williams, Simon & Stewart
February 12, 2015 by
I’m not going to name names here, because I don’t want to promote their dreck – but there are a number of ink-stained numbskulls working overtime pounding-out the same anti-TV vitriol on their Underwoods regarding the Brian Williams debacle. Print-based TV columnists and critics are just about extinct. Newspapers used them for years trying to […]
Brian Williams
February 11, 2015 by
Nobody enjoyed playing the role of the top dog news anchor more than Brian Williams. Like Richard Sherman though, if a player’s annoying arrogance can be backed up by a glance at the scoreboard and a resume full of “been there, done that” – well, it is what it is. No matter what you thought […]
Jean Enersen with the Bronze
June 12, 2014 by
Back in September of 2010, a guy named Lloyd Robertson stepped down from the anchor desk at CTV after 42 years. But his retirement got me to thinking about the longest-tenured anchor in North America – and when Robertson left the first time I tried to figure this out – there were only three standing: […]
The End Has Come
May 6, 2014 by
I don’t watch three or four TVs at once any more. But I do graze, and what I have seen develop over the years with network TV news is amazing. Amazingly bad. CBS has a total of about five reporters I think. The other guys have issues too – but I don’t think anybody even […]
Feeling the Joy at the News Tribune
May 5, 2014 by
In media, the word “ascertainment” means figuring out what readers or viewers think is important and what they want to see on TV or read in your magazine or newspaper. It’s a fancy word for research, but it sounds less expensive and less threatening. It’s a fine idea in the world of entertainment, but when […]
Are Paywalls Killing Facebook?
April 11, 2014 by
There is a BIG problem with newspaper paywalls when it comes to social media. Let’s say you are a subscriber to your local newspaper, and you read a GREAT article you want to share with the world. Go ahead, link it through Facebook and Twitter – tell all your friends. Well, here’s the problem. Your […]
April Fools Losing Jobs
April 1, 2014 by
It’s a rite of spring: learning what knuckleheaded radio DJ or TV personality is going to bless us all with an April Fool’s joke run amok, and lose his or her job over it. First, let me do some good: if you are working in the media, pretend April 1 doesn’t exist. Don’t write anything, […]
Thoughts on the KOMO Tragedy
March 19, 2014 by
As I write this, part of me is conscious of the “meh” I have for people who work overtime to try to connect themselves to every public tragedy. So I write some of the thoughts I have on this issue with that in mind: That I didn’t know any of the people involved, and that […]
Can Cool Kids Dig Public Records?
March 10, 2014 by
This past weekend while the cool people were out skiing deep powder or wing-suiting off the summit of Mount Rainier, a certain collection of nerds was at the annual meeting of the Washington Coalition for Open Government (WACOG). This crowd cares about the availability of public records and open meetings – two of the major […]
Breaking the Cable Monopoly & Facebook Buys Drones!
March 4, 2014 by
Facebook is doing a deal to buy high-altitude drone manufacturer Titan Aerospace according to a source for CNBC. At first blush, it’s a plan to bring Internet connectivity to the unconnected portions of the third world, but that’s not where the revenue is. The revenue will come by overbuilding and overflying first world nations where […]
Fear and Loathing Over Comcast
February 14, 2014 by
So what difference does it make one monopoly buys another monopoly? I say, “Very little.” The purpose of this edition of Media Monkey is to provide some alternative thinking to the dominant narrative: that Comcast’s $45-billion purchase of Time Warner is bad for consumers and bad for society. My point is this: The “bad” part […]
Is it news, or “news?”
February 12, 2014 by
“News” is such an abused term these days. There is “news” about products and services, “news” about celebrities and industries, and in-house “news” about government entities. If it’s information, it must be news, right? Well, not so much. A striking example came to me the other day as I listened to an interview with City […]
