journalism « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

journalism

Just a few quick things on history, and today

As I worked, I had this playing in the background. A movie you’ve seen a few dozen times is good for noise. And it was kind of fitting. I’ll talk about some World War II examples in class tomorrow.

I wonder what Patton would be like if they made that movie today.

And as I wondered that, I found this evening’s most interesting story, Longtime Opelika resident Bennie Adkins to receive Medal of Honor:

Retired Command Sgt. Major Bennie G. Adkins was recently named the latest recipient of the Medal of Honor, the highest military honor in the United States. He will be awarded by President Barack Obama Sept. 15 in Washington D.C.

“Mr. Adkins is a true American hero who served his country in Vietnam,” Congressman Mike Rogers said in a written statement. “His acts of heroism during his tour of duty earned him our nation’s highest honor, which he has long deserved. I congratulate Mr. Adkins on this honor and thank him for his bravery, sacrifice and service to our nation.”

He was in the Special Forces in Vietnam. After he retired he received three degrees from Troy, taught at Southern Union and Auburn University, ran an accounting firm for two decades and, with his wife, raised five children.

The three-day battle for which he is justly being honored is a rich read of heroism, pain and the best attitude we could ask for from service members.

During 38 hours of close-combat fighting he was frequently in and under enemy fire and manning a mortar position. That was when he wasn’t continually exposing himself to the enemy to treat and save wounded men and retrieve the bodies of the fallen. When the mortar was spent, he changed weapons. When he had exhausted his ammunition, he sought out more, again under fire. Ultimately, when he’d fired every weapon they had at Camp A Shau, he led the survivors out with just an M-16. They’d fought for a day-and-a-half. He would led men through another two days of evasion before they were picked up by the good guys.

From the battle narrative:

“Approximately 200 of the camp defenders were killed in action, with 100 wounded. The enemy suffered an estimated 500 to 800 casualties. It is estimated that Adkins killed between 135 and 175 of the enemy, while suffering 18 different wounds.”

You wonder why it took so long.

Things to read … And these won’t take too long.

Turner Broadcasting to offer voluntary buyouts, layoffs also expected

Here’s a rapidly evoloving topic. Why public relations and media relations don’t mean the same thing anymore

Harassment Charges for Student Who… Told Joke [Gasp!]

Student Activists Keep Pressure On Campus Sexual Assault

And that, I think, will do for one night.

errands / Friday / iPhone / journalism / links / photo / Pie Day / things to read / video — Comments Off
22
Aug 14

The barber, the check writer and the pie maker

I made the mistake of getting a haircut today. Going to my barber on a Friday afternoon is like going to most people’s DMV, or my local post office.

He’s a nice fellow, good, easy small talker. There are nice family photos to study as he cuts your hair. He does a fine enough job of it and he’s the cheapest guy in town — those his prices are going up, and we’ll have to talk about that.

Everyone in town has figured this out, I guess, and everyone goes there. And so you wait and wait, but it is a break from other things, one supposes, and the television is on an endless loop of some sporting thing or another. He’s the kind of guy that’s on a first name basis with people and sometimes he remembers me, but my strategy is to cut short and ride on that haircut for as long as possible. So I could be easy to forget in the blur of faces he sees every month.

We talked about the VA and pensions and the Bulge and Iraq today. Once, when his shop was slower and he remembered who I was, he picked my brain about various shenanigans going on in the journalism industry. Another time he almost carved a junk out of my ear and sent me on my way home bleeding and, I think, with the haircut incomplete. Scared him. It bled so well it scared me too.

Today he nicked my neck a little just below the hairline and applied some demon-infused, artisanally crafted pain juice on it, smeared a white powder on top of that and then smacked my neck. He was a combat medic. He knows what he’s doing, I told myself.

After that I visited various book stores about town, with this weird white caking powder on my neck. No one said anything about it.

We went out for dinner. It is Friday. Friday is Pie Day:

“Clinkies!” as we used to say while trying to not stab each other with forks.

The server gave us fist bumps for ordering pie. Surely he was thinking “I didn’t even have to upsell these people!” And then he let us choose the color of pen used to sign the receipt. I went with the hunter green.

Things to read … and, sadly, none of these are written in a hunter green font.

Security for journalists, part one: The basics:

Just as you can take steps to reduce the physical or legal risks of journalism, it’s possible to protect yourself in the digital realm. This two-part post will cover the basics of digital security for journalists. It’s impossible to learn everything you need to know from a couple of articles, but my hope is to give you enough of the basics that you understand what to study next.

Even if you’re not working on a sensitive story yourself, you need to understand digital security because an attacker can harm other people by going through you. This post contains generic security advice that everyone in journalism should heed, with specific advice about simple things you can do right now to improve your security.

Govt-blacklisted journalists and the growing info grip:

David Sirota reports on “How Government Blacklists Journalists From Accessing the Truth” stating that “The public is being systematically divorced from public policy, which is exactly what too many elected officials want.”

[…]

“In recent years, there have been signs that the federal government is reducing the flow of public information,” Sirota writes, agreeing with a growing consensus from many Washington D.C. journalists.

Sadly, there’s no surprise there.

This thoughtful essay from a student-journalist, I will not be returning to Ferguson:

There are now hundreds of journalists from all over the world coming to Ferguson to film what has become a spectacle. I get the sense that many feel this is their career-maker. In the early days of all this, I was warmly greeted and approached by Ferguson residents. They were glad that journalists were there. The past two days, they do not even look at me and blatantly ignore me. I recognize that I am now just another journalist to them, and their frustration with us is clear. In the beginning there was a recognizable need for media presence, but this is the other extreme. They need time to work through this as a community, without the cameras.

Gov. Bentley announces creation of Alabama Drone Task Force

I read aloud a bit of Willie Morris tonight. I’ve been searching for examples of excellent writing to share with students, so I had to raid one of the bookshelves in our library. This won’t be the one of Morris’ that I share, but it is worth a read. This is when he was writing from Oxford, Mississippi and remembering his time and a love on Long Island, New York. The complete essay isn’t online, so a brief excerpt:

She would say, “You’re not too old and I’m not too young.” But she was the marrying age, and she wanted a baby. The love we had was never destroyed; it was merely the dwindling of circumstance. How does one give up Annie? Only through loneliness and fear, fear of old loves lost and of love renewed – only those things, that’s all. The last departure came on a windswept October noon of the kind we had known. We stood on the porch of my house and embraced. “Oh — you!” she said. She lingered for the briefest moment. Then she was gone, a Tennessee girl with snow in her hair again. She married a local boy and now has two little daughters, I hear on good authority from Long Island. The years are passing, and don’t think I haven’t thought about it.

The man could write. But he was perhaps never better than when he’s writing about home (which is why whichever Willie Morris piece I hand out in class will have at least two references to jonquils). Happens to a lot of us, I suspect.

Do you ever get the feeling Patrick Stewart is just cooler at everything?

I do.

iPhone / journalism / links / photo / things to read / Thursday — Comments Off
21
Aug 14

Here’s something I’ve noticed

It occurred to me the other night — as I dumped the ashes and replaced it with charcoal, marveling at how the cheap grill we bought four years ago is simultaneously holding up and starting to deteriorate, pulling the aluminum foil and trying not to get dirty and strategizing how I could light the entire grill on a single match — that this was a good way to cheer one’s self up.

When your day gets you down, light the briquets.

It works. Give it a try.

Things to read … because you should always give reading a try.

This really needs a better title, The meltdown doesn’t explain the magazine’s position on where we are on foreign policy at the moment.

Meanwhile, you wonder if CNN has had enough. What Obama did after speech on ISIS is just 1:15 of the president playing golf.

That puts the New York Times in an awkward position in A Terrorist Horror, Then Golf: Incongruity Fuels Obama Critics, apologizing thusly: “Aides said the golf game did not reflect the depth of his grief over Mr. Foley.”

A sorry state of affairs indeed.

I would say sign me up! Immersive journalism: What if you could experience a news event in 3D by using an Oculus Rift?:

If you’ve heard of the Oculus Rift at all, you probably think of it as the off-the-charts geeky, facemask-style VR headset that’s designed for playing 3D video games. And that’s true — but virtual reality has other applications as well, including potentially journalistic ones: USC fellow and documentary filmmaker Nonny de la Peña, for example, is creating immersive experiences that give participants an inside look at a news story, such as the war in Syria, or the military prison in Guantanamo Bay.

What better way to see the president’s golf game?

Next for Virtual Reality: Video, Without the Games:

Nearly all the hype around virtual reality — much of it fanned by Facebook’s $2 billion acquisition of Oculus VR, the headset maker — is about how the technology can be used for games.

Another intriguing use for virtual reality, one that has received scant attention until recently, is video. Imagine the possibilities of being able to swivel your head around within a movie, a news broadcast or a football game to see everything around a camera, not just what is in front.

These aren’t the static 360-degree images anyone can see on the Street View function of Google Maps, but rather live-action motion pictures, rendered in immersive 3-D on a virtual reality headset.

We’re on the verge of an intriguing way to produce and consume stories.

The Media and the Mob:

Those of us who admit that we were not there, and do not know what happened when Michael Brown was shot by a policeman in Ferguson, Missouri, seem to be in the minority.

We all know what has happened since then — and it has been a complete disgrace by politicians, the media and mobs of rioters and looters. Despite all the people who act as if they know exactly what happened, nevertheless when the full facts come out, that can change everything.

[…]

Television people who show the home of the policeman involved, and give his name and address — knowing that he has already received death threats — are truly setting a new low. They seem to be trying to make themselves judge, jury and executioner.

Then there are the inevitable bullet counters asking, “Why did he shoot him six times?” This is the kind of thing people say when they are satisfied with talking points, and see no need to stop and think seriously about a life and death question. If you are not going to be serious about life and death, when will you be serious?

Meanwhile, here at home, Just 21 percent of Alabama high school graduates ready for college-level coursework in all subjects:

More of Alabama’s graduating high school seniors than ever before are taking the ACT college-entrance exam, according to a new report from ACT Inc.

But relatively few of the 37,895 class of 2014 graduates — from both public and private schools — who took the ACT are ready for college-level coursework in all subject areas, the report says.

The comments are about what you would expect, reasonably disappointing, so don’t bother. But the story is worth a read.

cycling / iPhone / journalism / links / photo / things to read / Wednesday — Comments Off
20
Aug 14

I would ride 5,000 more

I choose the routes for all manner of different reasons. Sometimes, admitting my deficiency on climbs, I’ll set out for the biggest “hills” we have around here. On another day, hoping to feel fast, I’ll find an easier route. Boredom, adventure, the name of a road, a fleeting thought or spontaneity can all decide the plan.

Last night, though, I knew today’s ride would be a special one, so I set out for what would be a nice photograph. I broke 5,000 miles on my odometer and I didn’t want to do that in a neighborhood. I planned, instead, to find a nice quiet, woody road.

And I still managed to wind up by this silly little carport:

That’s the way it goes sometimes, I guess. That’s the view ahead. This is the view from whence I just came:

And here’s my proof:

Did it all on this little guy:

I’ve had a lot of fun on that bike. I’ve suffered on it, too. It has hurt me and I don’t think I’ve ever made it flinch. Sometimes it carries me along, more frequently I’m having to convince it I can ride. Occasionally, I feel like I need a new bike. It is a little undersized and sometimes (or perhaps in the same vein) I can generate more power than others and it feels shaky. But that’s a fine ride. Shame the cyclist isn’t better.

I’m also a little embarrassed by how long it took to get to 5,000 miles. Must ride more.

Things to read … because we should also read more, too.

This is interesting, How a Copyright Dispute Helped Give America Rock ‘n’ Roll:

We associate iconic musicians and musical genres with places, stars, and cultural narratives. Less often we recognize the markets and economic forces shaping popular music’s trajectory. But in 1940-41, a dispute over music royalties brought music once relegated to local audiences to national radio, spurring the popularity of blues, country, and, ultimately, rock ‘n’ roll. Were it not for a battle over how much radio should pay for music royalties, performers like Ray Charles and Elvis Presley may have never become classic American musicians.

[…]

The boycott lasted for almost a year. In late 1941, ASCAP signed an agreement with radio stations at terms less generous than it had before the boycott. The Justice Department also sued ASCAP again on antitrust grounds. This time ASCAP lost, and it was forced to accept regulations that opened it up to other musicians and set blanket rates for licensing deemed fair by third parties.

With the gatekeeper gone, the new genres maintained their national audience and anointed new stars, including the first rock and roll icons in the following years, a development that grew out of the once neglected genres like blues.

There is a lot to process here, and it is worth your time. This is a fine collection of information from the New York Times. The Iraq-ISIS Conflict in Maps, Photos and Video

Here’s another informative piece with some good takeaways. How a Norwegian public radio station is using Snapchat to connect young listeners with news

I’ll be honest, this one — Journalism Digital News Archive — had me at the pull quote:

“We should have had a historian running around saying ‘I don’t care if you are ever going to use them — we are going to keep them.'”

Alabama biz taxes account for 47.5% of all state and local taxes:

That represented an 1.8 percent increase from the previous fiscal year, giving it the ninth lowest state and local business tax growth in the U.S.

It works out to $7.2 billion dollars last year.

Meanwhile, Baxter International adding 200 new jobs in Opelika by 2016, means a $300 million 230,000-square-foot expansion for the dialyzer manufacturing facility.

iPhone / journalism / links / photo / things to read / Tuesday — 1 Comment
19
Aug 14

The rotation of the earth teases at a metaphor

I was sent to the store last night. On the way home, a quick 1.5 mile trip up and down two hills, I was treated to this view:

Poetically, we could call it the waning days of summer. Except we have a series of triple-digit heat index days ahead. Summer finally showed up, he said for probably the second or third time this summer.

Things to read … which I say allll the time.

Ferguson is also a net neutrality issue:

Ferguson is about many things, starting first with race and policing in America.

But it’s also about internet, net neutrality and algorithmic filtering.

It’s a clear example of why “saving the Internet”, as it often phrased, is not an abstract issue of concern only to nerds, Silicon Valley bosses, and few NGOs. It’s why “algorithmic filtering” is not a vague concern.

It’s a clear example why net neutrality is a human rights issue; a free speech issue; and an issue of the voiceless being heard, on their own terms.

That’s the beginning of a good read that impacts us all. If you’d like to think of it theoretically, you have an interesting computational (algorithmic) vs humanistic (agenda setting) conversation. In reality, the author’s point is Facebook is lacking and self-limited, Twitter shouldn’t go down that path — they’re discussing it, to their ultimate detriment — and that “trending” function is limited.

I suppose you could see this as a hammer-nail issue, and we should all note that, in all things, what is happening in and because of the most recent events in Ferguson, Missouri shouldn’t be a Rorschach test for everything. But there are some good points in that piece.

Speaking of Ferguson, if you’re suddenly stunned by the militarization of the nation’s police forces, you haven’t been paying much attention at all in recent years, have you? That isn’t happening here, right now. AL law enforcement suspended from military equipment allocation program:

Alabama officials said the federal government suspended the program after “accountability issues” and “paperwork issues” with multiple Alabama law enforcement agencies were discovered.

Shane Bailey took over as the Alabama 1033 program state coordinator on May 5. He said a good number of departments across the state didn’t file or keep up with paperwork. Bailey said his office is now handling audits, but said no equipment is missing. Bailey said federal officials were in the state during the first week of August conducting an investigation. Bailey has not received a final report from that investigation.

So we would be, but folks have struggled with the responsibility of paperwork. When that gets under control, one supposes, the up-armoring will continue.

You can see what is going on with the procurement of military-grade equipment on a county-by-county basis, here. I have a special prize for the first person that can explain to me why the police force in Montgomery County, Alabama, has nine grenade launchers.

Also, speaking of Ferguson … For Journalists, A Temptation To Become The Story:

In today’s world — where journalists are, themselves, a “brand” commodity — where large Twitter followings amount to status and job security — and where “Gonzo” journalism — injecting yourself into the story — is more common than ever, what could be a better career move than getting arrested?

This is not to diminish the brave journalists who have been killed or harmed in the process of pursuing truly dangerous assignments — and I’m not suggesting this is the case with the reporters and photographers who have been hassled in Ferguson.

But, going forward, if you were an overly-ambitious, and perhaps quixotic, young reporter or blogger, wouldn’t it make sense to intentionally become part of this sort of story — especially if you thought the risk-reward ratio was favorable.

Yes, it would. And the example of Ferguson, so far, does nothing to dispel that. The odds are it would increase your stature, not to mention the number of people following you on Twitter. And — as an added benefit — you get to look like a courageous and bold journalist — a contrast to the stereotype about effete elites and “nattering nabobs of negativism” (why else are we talking about Chris Hayes today?)

This, of course, is not an entirely new phenomenon.

There is a delicate balance, and a tension in the balance, that one must strive to maintain. Sometimes that’s probably easier than others. Sometimes, I’ll grant you, it might be difficult to understand until after the fact. Yet, it should be a consideration.

Meanwhile, Samford Exceeds Campaign Goal More than Four Months Early:

Samford University celebrated Aug. 19 with the surprise announcement by President Andrew Westmoreland that the university had exceeded its goal for “A Campaign for Samford” more than four months early. Westmoreland made the announcement at the annual employee workshop preceding the start of the fall semester.

As of Aug. 15, gifts and pledges totaling $200,155,265 had been received from 17,381 donors, representing the largest fundraising effort in the university’s 173-year history. Gift amounts ranged from 36 cents to $13.4 million. The campaign launched in October 2009 with a goal of $200 million.

That’s surely some very nice work by the people tasked with asking for money during tough economic times, and splendid generosity by people who love a special place.

This is a clever new Gatorade campaign. Ad of the Day: Peyton Manning and Cam Newton Prank Store Customers for Gatorade. In the videos you learn a few things. It is somehow creepy when people don’t recognize Peyton Manning. And, if he didn’t have football, Manning might be America’s prototypical middle manager.

One more sunset shot, I’m always taking pictures of roads: