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journalism

They really are heavier

Mowed the lawn. Shivered during the first part of it. This is May in Alabama. So glad we licked that global warming thing.

Or maybe they were right in the 1970s and global cooling is upon us. Nah, probably not. Complex, multiple ecosystems moving with and against each other and al that. But it was another day of supposed rain that proved to be clouds that stayed a while, whispered on us and then never had the decency to melt away like a bad rumor would. When I started mowing the lawn I thought I would be rained out.

So I had a few minutes late in the evening to ride my bicycle. This is a silly thing, but I have new water bottles — because the old ones are a bit small and have a weird top I don’t like and they now have 3,200 miles on them — and I wanted to try these out. They are simple, basic, straightforward and inexpensive plastic that holds a lot of water. This, I thought, would be a good thing in the summer. If the season ever considers approaching.

The high today was a pleasant 63, with overcast skies throughout.

So I hopped on the bike, swung the headset through the sidewalk and down the short driveway and into the road. I had about three pedal strokes in and, you won’t believe this, I noticed the water bottles made the bike heavier.

I ride an aluminum bike with a carbon fork. Altogether it weighs somewhere around 18-20 pounds, probably. I’m not a $6,000, 14-grams of carbon guy. But I notice things. When I switched from Continental racing tires to kevlar training tires I noticed a drop off in my incredibly limited performance. When I put a Gatorskin on the back wheel when I was finally able to return to the bike at the beginning of the year I noticed there was a bit less resistance and, hence, more speed.

I notice things like this on my bike. It is a simple perception. (And my bike’s geometry isn’t even dialed in.) The Yankee says it is like the Princess and the Pea.

So I ride up to the next town. My shoulder hurts. My shoulder gets better. My water bottles are full and heavy. Not bad, heavy, but noticeable. They’re there. I ride back down through the rural backroads to get close to home. And there I got a runner’s stitch, which slowed me down a bit. That went away. So I pedaled on through our local time trial area and saw the sun for the first time today, just as it was retiring for the evening. Back past the state park I went, having a grand ol’ time and showing one on the computer, too. Raced up College, to the art museum, turned and headed home.

I was out for just under an hour. I went through two residential areas, a golf course, the big shopping district, past two country cemeteries, more suburbs, a state park, another commercial strip, an art museum and a city park. In all of that time I was never more than five linear miles from home. What a great town.

Also, my water bottles are heavier. That must account for my little boost in speed: more mass moving downhill.

Things to read: 14 tips for journalists on Facebook. Number six is share breaking news. Number seven is keep followers updated. Nevertheless, this list might still be useful to someone.

Trend watch: Digital marketing services:

When in doubt, do it all

In 2008, The Dallas Morning News began to experience what publisher and chief executive officer Jim Moroney called “a significant decline in print ad revenue for the second consecutive year.”

The paper approached the problem by diversifying from several angles. It “aggressively” sought more commercial printing and distribution, and now prints The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Investor’s Business Daily, along with USA Today, formerly its sole commercial printing client.

The Morning News also created CrowdSource, an event marketing division, as an addition to its portfolio. The purpose was to generate incremental revenue while engaging consumers with the brand. Last year, for example, CrowdSource created an event called Walk In The Park to bring residents out to a new downtown park in which the paper sponsors a reading and games room. Currently, CrowdSource is working with other organizations on a 50th anniversary commemoration of the JFK assassination in Dallas.

Another new part of the company is 508 Digital. This business — named for the address of the newspaper’s building — operates like an agency, offering digital, social media, and search engine optimization services for small- and medium-sized businesses. Speakeasy is another marketing and promotions division that provides social media strategy and execution for local businesses that offers “content marketing delivered via smart social media.”

Finally, the Dallas Morning News started two magazines, Texas Wedding Guide and Design Guide, as yet another way to expand the brand and increase revenue.

Based on results thus far, Moroney said, “We will continue to pursue a strategy that builds new sources of revenue off the foundation of our brand, our core competencies, and our infrastructure.”

That one is worth the long excerpt and worth the read.

New York Times launches web-only documentaries with Retro Report:

The New York Times is launching a series of short, web-only documentaries with Retro Report, a nonprofit news organization that aims to investigate “the most perplexing news stories of our past with the goal of encouraging the public to think more critically about current events and the media.”

The videos will air each Monday at the NYT’s baby boomer blog, “Booming,” and on Retro Report’s website. Each will be 10 to 15 minutes long and accompanied by a story by NYT reporter Michael Winerip. The first one, “The Voyage of the Mobro 4000,” looks at the garbage barge of 1987.

This one has a small Alabama hook. And is moderately interesting. But 12 minutes is a lot to ask of online audiences with only mildly interesting. Judge for yourself:

Fascinating video interview here. AP’s global video news chief: Sorting out contributors vs. activists in Syria:

With little access to the raging civil war in Syria, the Associated Press has been relying on a citizen journalists with smart phones with the Bambuser app to stream live coverage of the conflict, explains Sandy MacIntrye …

Not necessarily just observers, he notes that many of the contributors are activists and he explains how they and their associations are clearly identified and authenticated.

TV is the next model to be disrupted. It’ll persist, but they’re going to be hurt badly. You can already see it in YouTube’s numbers, in the ratings, in the financials and second-screen habits. If you are in television, or invested in TV marketing, and not already thinking down this path you should probably pick up your pace. This might help. 10 reasons to combine your TV And web video ad campaigns:

TV still makes up the vast majority of advertising media budgets, by far. But it’s no secret that today’s TV audience is also watching their favorite shows online. If you’re a marketer, you know that this is an important shift in viewer behavior that could impact the effectiveness of your TV campaigns. But you don’t know how it impacts your TV efforts or what you can do about it. There’s one way to find out: Manage and measure TV and online video together. When you do this, numerous new synergies and opportunities will arise along with the answers.

A reporter at the Toronto Star erred, significantly, and the newspaper is fixing the problem. Talk about a paper getting it right. Toronto Star will hold training sessions for reporters following front-page apology:

Star investigations editor Kevin Donovan will lead mandatory training sessions for reporters following an embarrassing incident last week, Star Public Editor Kathy English writes. The Star published a story accusing provincial parliament member Margarett Best of vacationing in Mexico while she was on medical leave; reporter Richard Brennan misunderstood a tag on a photo on Best’s Facebook page, English writes, and didn’t tell her that was the subject of his story when he tried to get comment.

Now all the reporters are getting a brush-up.

Finally, it pays to stick with a story. This one has been going on for three years.

“Another thing with neurological progression is that it’s five steps forward and three steps back,” she said. “It’s peaks and valleys. It’s not continual.”

[…]

After everything he’s been through, Kevin said he will keep trying to get back to being normal again.
“I’ve just been working so hard…and I’m getting better,” Kevin said.

Read that, meet one tough eight-year-old.

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1
May 13

Say enough things and something is bound to be correct

Twice today I’ve read things that I’ve earlier made predictions about. This would make a person insufferable, he said insufferably, if it wasn’t done in a charming way.

Netflix is cutting a bunch of movies in the midst of a licensing fight:

The titles belong to Warner Brothers, MGM and Universal, which are pulling them from Netflix and instead housing them in their own subscription-based “Instant Warner Archive” which you can access for $10 a month.

Two years ago I called this the HBO problem. Entities that own the content, having seen the success of Netflix, and having now verified that achievement by HBO’s own gated community, will pull their own material in favor of a branded digital platform, as we first discussed on the campus blog last March. That’s in addition to the Hulus and Amazons of the world, too. Netflix becomes just another layer in the stratification.

Of course, now, you have to have a paid membership to everything, which is expensive, learn new interfaces and have the proper smart TV and so on — or do without programming.

Eventually some format wins and all of these things come back together again, somehow.

Here’s the other thing I sort-of-somewhat-guessed-at. The New York Times launched their new mobile site today. It is something of a shame that this is a big deal — I would have thought we’d be beyond this point by now — but there is something important here. As Nieman Lab said:

In typography and story layout, it’s much closer to the Times’ iPhone app, edging closer toward cross-platform parity. (Headlines are still just Georgia, not the custom version of Cheltenham it uses in print, in apps, and on Skimmer. But they’re now black — no longer 1994-weblink blue.) Presentation of images, captions, and credits on article pages are also much closer to app styles.

[…]

Overall, the takeaways seem to be: a common visual experience across mobile platforms and a cleaner, more premium look.

Two months ago, after a sneak peak of the new version of the website, I wrote:

But look at the layout they are showing you in this prototype. That’s as indicative of mobile as a traditional news site has thus far been. They may be conceptually starting with the article, but they are designing for your phones and tablets.

As the Times goes on this design, so will many folks follow.

The last part still remains to be seen, but give it time.

Things to read: Just two items today, this one is worth bookmarking: 10 digital tools journalists can use to improve their reporting, storytelling:

Digital tools help produce quality content online, but it can be tough figuring out where to start. Here are 10 online tools that can help improve journalists’ reporting and storytelling, and engage readers in multimedia.

Reporting resources: These tools can help with research and sourcing.

[…]

Data compilation and resources: Datasets and social media backlogs can be intimidating for any reporter; these resources help share, gather and handle large shares of information.

[…]

Data presentation: These tools can help process and design otherwise-cumbersome data sets in a way that makes them easily accessible for stories.

The golden age of privacy Is over:

What the drone debates really tell us, then, is not so much about drones. What they do, unfortunately, tell us is how ill-prepared we are institutionally, and as a culture, to deal with the challenges and complexities of rapidly evolving technologies. In an age when emerging technologies become ever more integral to geopolitical positioning, and military and security competence, this is a weakness that any society can ill afford.

You can take out the word drone and put in the name Google Glass and have the same conversation.

One new thing on Tumblr today, this from Ted’s Montana Grill in Atlanta. I hear that Ted himself lives just upstairs. I’m told that this has provided many interesting stories to the people thereabouts.

There are, of course, always new things to see on Twitter.

And a video from yesterday. It was omelet day in the caf. Delicious:

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22
Apr 13

Catchy title here

I’d like to know where I was, a week ago today, when my phone told me about the bombs in Boston. I bet I wasn’t far away from where I was today when my phone buzzed to tell me that the remaining suspect had been formally charged. All of that in a week.

As I said to a classroom today, when an Elvis impersonator sending dangerous things in the mail to people in Washington is your fourth story, that’s a bizarre week.

Seems like a lot longer, doesn’t it?

So there’s something new here. I tweaked the sidebar to the right. Took out the Twitter box. (Follow me on Twitter!) Shifted the table that holds all of those buttons at the top of the page and compressed that side altogether.

I did that so I could expand this main content area. And after plugging away at several different stylesheets for a few minutes I had the new look. It is exactly like the old look — which is what is so nice about it — except for the size. The photographs can be bigger, now.

This will look nice on modern, larger, screens. Even looks nice on my phone, so I awesome that means everyone’s experience with the site is lovely, no?

I’m sure it is not. Some 0.08 of my visitors have been here with a 640×480 resolution. We need a rollout for them as well.

Here’s the solution: bigger screens, kids.

Auburn’s athletic director, who is presiding over a major sport 15-48 record against conference opponents since last season’s baseball tournament, is the only AD in the country who has “fisking poor news reports” as part of his job description. This is part of his second open letter in less than a month:

As Auburn’s Athletics Director, it’s my job – no matter how proud I am of Auburn – to carefully review charges made against our program when warranted.

As the facts demonstrate, the article is clearly flawed. I want you to know that I will always act on the basis of facts. I will continue to fight for Auburn University, and I will continue to defend this great institution against such attacks.

Here’s the first. All of this gives the guy a sympathetic ear from a lot of fans who are ready to see him go. It is a curious thing.

But there’s a real and interesting phenomenon at play as well. I’ve grown convinced in the last five years or so that there is a big shift coming in sports journalism. Beat reporters sometimes have to worry about being frozen out by the team they are supposed to cover. Alienate the wrong person, you don’t get interviews and all of that. This is made possible because the programs have figured out the true power of their brand and the tools they have at their disposal. Auburn didn’t go to the media with these letters, they simply published them on their site and let fans know it was there. Sports writers covered it — that is their job — but they weren’t an integral part of the process as a filter. Sports outlets have the tools, the audience and their message. They don’t need the media the same way they once did. (Well, the TV deals, naturally.)

I see this as a reality, rather than a good or bad thing. It just is. In some respects it is good. In other respects, and in particular in the long term, there are some negative worries.

The old saying was “never pick a fight with someone that buys ink by the barrel.” But if everyone buys pixels … well, that’s just even.

Things to read: The debt-ridden EU stares bankruptcy in the face:

Shouldn’t it be making more headlines than it has that the European Union is today insolvent – since its astronomic debt in unpaid bills is nearly twice as large as its annual income? Such is the crisis lately highlighted by its parliament’s budget committee, which finds that the EU now owes 217 billion euros, or £182 billion, as compared with its current year’s income of just £108 billion. Much of this represents “cohesion funding” relating to Eastern Europe, in contracts agreed under the EU’s current budgetary arrangements. But when, at the end of this year, those arrangements come to an end, the rules strictly prohibit the EU from rolling forward its debts from one period to the next. So, in eight months’ time, it will lurch into bankruptcy.

Wherever we now look at the EU, its affairs seem to be in an astonishing mess. There is the ongoing slow-motion train crash of the euro. There is rising panic over the policy of unrestricted immigration, which threatens at the year’s end to flood richer countries such as Britain with millions of Romanians and Bulgarians. As Europe’s economies stagnate or shrink, the EU’s environmental policies fall apart, with the growing refusal of many countries, led by Poland and Germany, to accept curbs on fossil fuels.

13 Worst Predictions Made on Earth Day, 1970:

In 1970, the first Earth Day was celebrated — okay, “celebrated” doesn’t capture the funereal tone of the event. The events predicted death, destruction and disease unless we did exactly as progressives commanded.

[…]

“Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions…. By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”

That’s one of my favorite, but there are plenty of gems in that list.

Mistakes in news reporting happen, but do they matter?

There’s no excuse for getting the facts wrong. It’s a basic rule of journalism, drummed into every rookie reporter’s head: Get the story right. In addition to potentially harming a news outlet’s credibility, erroneous reporting can have devastating consequences, from ruining a subject’s reputation to endangering public safety. Competitive pressure and the desire for scoops can increase the potential for errors.

But reporting mistakes may not be as consequential as they used to be, media observers say.

People are forgiving, to a point, if you acknowledge the problem. Those are errors that apply to the individual outlet. All of these things, however, become cumulative on the business as a whole, a function of trust, and so pieces like this become dangerous.

Here’s the top comment as of this writing: “The fact that this ‘journalist’ doesn’t seem to think mistakes/lies matter is an example of why the pubic doesn’t trust the media therefore they don’t buy newspapers or watch the news.”

Many of the people in the comments tend to disagree with the nature of this particular article. But mistakes don’t matter, we’re told.

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11
Apr 13

SSCA, Day Two

It rained today. That was fun, walking from my hotel a half-mile in a cold rain, dark as night rain, using a tiny little umbrella. Down there was the Seelbach Hotel, where the Southern States Communication Association’s annual conference will take place. I had to cross a street that allowed for two left lanes to turn, which meant I almost never made it across. I had to time an intersection where, somehow, passing cars had managed to drag the manhole cover out of its home. That seemed dangerous for drivers.

Somehow the side of my suit coat that I kept facing the buildings I walked past was the sleeve that got wet.

I was asked “Is it raining?”

No. I danced under a sprinkler on my way here. Gene Kelly has nothing on me.

We had our early morning Executive Council Meeting, Part II — This Time It’s Personal. Worked through the agenda in about 90 minutes or so, just long enough to dry out.

In the late morning I had the pleasure of taking part in a panel session titled “Tips, Tricks and Techniques: Teaching Media Writing to Today’s Students.” The program describes the panel:

Media writing is no longer a one-size-fits-all endeavor, as we are now training students to work in a variety of platforms, including online and social media. Panelists will share their experiences and adventures in teaching, complete with some tips for those just starting out.

I talked about media critiques and literacy and spelling tests and writing strengths and our upcoming curriculum offerings and all manner of things like that. I don’t think we got very deep into social media, which is a shame, there is a lot to talk about there.

We had lunch at a place called Potbelly Sandwiches. Here’s the stove they have in the middle of the store:

Philo D. Beckwith, by the way, was a stove maker, a philosopher and a mayor. His company, Round Oak, became the Estate of P.D. Beckwith Incorporated sometime after his death, but the company would thrive until just before World War I. The Depression hit them bad, and the company sold out after World War II. They tried to make a comeback in the ’50s, but it was short lived. And while I can’t confirm it because almost every site Wikipedia suggests is no longer live, this stove might be a century old, circa 1915. These days it is just waiting in line for a sandwich.

“Is it raining?”

No. This is just the style back home. We’re counterculture.

I listened in on a panel on the 2012 presidential debates. There were some impressive scholars sitting at that table. The thing that struck me the most was how similar the general ideas were to what we said in this same panel last year during the primaries. Also, there were a lot of references to thing said in the popular media.

Other panels came and went. This was the first day and they were a rush of a blur or, more appropriately, a hectic, moving kaleidoscope of rushing, blurred movement. Our really big blur of paper and panel sessions starts tomorrow, though.

Followed a small group of friends and fellow compatriot scholars to a place called Bluegrass Brewing Company for dinner. I think a concierge suggested it. I had the chicken milanese, mostly for the tomatoes and capers. This worked out well since the tomatoes and capers were the best part of the dish.

We sat in the hotel lobby and told stories for far too long, and so it was another late night, but it was a late night with charming, smart, talented and funny people. There was must hard laughter. We were fortunate to fall into this group three conferences ago now and are fast friends because they talk about the same kind of research, but we also have common schools in our backgrounds. Most importantly they are all just lovely people. There are four Smiths and three or four other people who come in and out of the group and they’re all getting Smith names, too. We plan on taking over things when the conference least expects it.

We imagined this over ice cream, so you can imagine how diabolical our plans are.

And, in addition to last night’s invisible Kenny jokes we also have the “Is it raining” commentary, because everyone else is seemingly staying in the Seelbach. It rained all day. (We’d hoped to sneak in a little bike ride, but no.) Three people asked me about the evidence of precipitation they’d noted on my suit.

My favorite one was the third version: “Is it raining outside?”

No. But in the basement there are cloud bursts and rainbows and thundershowers everywhere.

Things to read: Mobile journalism: It’s not “the web only smaller”:

Mobile media are an increasingly important tool for journalists. They can deliver a new audience if you learn to adapt your content for that audience. If you’re not sold, yet, on why journalists need unique mobile skills consider a few tidbits:

62% of U.S. respondents get news from their phone weekly (Pew Research Center’s, State of the Media 2013)

36% get news from their phone daily (Pew Research Center, State of the Media 2013)

88% of U.S. adults owned a cell phone of some kind as of April 2012, and 55% of these used their phone to go online (Pew Internet and American Life Survey, “Cell Internet Use 2012”)

People with less education and income (some college or less and household incomes less than $30,000) use their cell phones as their primary means of accessing the Internet (Pew Internet and American Life Survey, “Cell Internet Use 2012”)

17% of cell phone owners do most of their online browsing on their phone, rather than a computer or other device. For some, their phone is their only option for online access. (Pew Internet and American Life Survey, “Cell Internet Use 2012”)

No one be surprised this time.

J-Schools, Invest in CAR:

There is an economic argument for this. While journalism jobs are in a general decline, it was made abundantly clear at NICAR’s recent Computer Assisted Reporting conference that the demand for data and interactive journalists outweighs supply; it is essentially “raining jobs.”

Tomorrow: The conference really picks up.

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8
Apr 13

Ziggy’s not so sure

I watched one of the lesser Quantum Leaps late last night.

This is 8 1/2 Months, the one where Sam is about to deliver a baby with the help of a kindly old doctor. I don’t remember this episode. I’m trying to imagine the pitch at the creative table. “Let’s see what the imaging chamber does with vastly different biology. And spice it up with an Oklahoma dirt version of Steel Magnolias!”

There’s a poor man’s Susan Sarandon, a poor man’s Olympia Dukakis and more ’50s “I hear tell she ain’t got no horse sense” vernacular than you can shake a colorblind cat at. The best part is when Al, Sam’s faithful friend in the future who appears in the form of a hologram who serves as his guide, shows up. This is the actual dialog.

Sam: “I can’t have a baby!”

Al: “I know, but Ziggy’s not so sure.”

Computers.

Also, the baby, in utero in the 21st century, is bonding with Sam in 1955. Not everything in the third season was genius.

The great Anne Haney guest stars. Because this is the 1950s she is there trying to coax Sam into giving up the baby so that it can be sent off to some quiet home that is better suited for it than an 18-year-old girl, or a middle-aged, time-traveling, brilliant-scientist-with-an-amnesia problem. Haney’s character could not close the deal though, because Sam has been operating all this time that he’s leaping into these lives to put right what once went wrong. It wasn’t for a few more seasons that we realized he was dead. And these must just be really excitable neurons firing off at the end.

Imagine if there had been popular message boards around when this TV show was on the air. Or if JJ Abrams was involved.

If/when they re-launch this series, I’d watch this episode again. I’d sit through it, I’m saying, but only if JJ Abrams isn’t around to make the foggy mist from the trees turn into the evil alien that is ready to fell us all, and also, there is a massive conspiracy that only Al can uncover, if he doesn’t get unplugged.

I hate relaunches.

Anyway, Anne Haney would get her revenge. She showed up again eight months later (in realtime) as a different character set in Arkansas two years earlier (the drought episode). This made sense on Quantum Leap and quite possibly nowhere else.

And then, finally, after we’d met the father-to-be — he worked for Sam’s dad in the oil fields, but was going off to college in the fall, he was all “I’d want no baby!” — we have the moment of truth. At the pitch table with the writers this was great. “OK, then we’ll have Sam go through all seven stages of grief to acceptance. It’ll be a comical ride from the front door of the hospital into the delivery room. And we’ll show stirrups again! And then Sam, who is intent on keeping this baby, will finally be resistant about having the baby, because, you know, he’s got boy parts, except he’s a woman in this episode.”

And someone says “Wait. He — ”

And then the first guy again, says “They’re watching NBC. They’ll go along with it.

“Oh, yeah. Right.”

Now Al pops back into the delivery room to tell us that the baby has disappeared in the future. Sam is in stirrups in the past. Puuuuush!

The doctor, played by Parley Baer, who is a poor man’s Barnard Hughes, who played the curmudgeonly old doctor in Doc Hollywood, says “I see a head … ”

And Sam leaps.

I plugged Hughes, who has 101 titles on IMDB and Baer, who has 270 titles, into the Oracle of Bacon. They have at least five different one-step-removed connections from one another, including Coreys Haim and Feldman. Why either of them felt the need to work after that, I don’t know.

The gentleman that cuts my hair some times remembers me better than other times. He sees a lot of folks, of course. Today was one of those days where it all clicked. He remembered I taught journalism and wanted to know what I thought of “that Selena woman.” You know how you can change the subject when something like that comes up? “Fox News!”

So we talked about something going on in the Aurora shooting case, where a reporter is refusing a judge’s orders and may be going to jail. We did not have to talk about that Selena woman. Just as well.

(My answer would have been “I was never that strong of a creative writer, and so I am not really the best person to ask.” Because when everyone else is saying everything there is to say about a particular topic, what’s the point?)

So I left with a nice new hairstyle and we talked about photography in class this afternoon.

I have to pack a bag. Here, have some things to read.

How mobile has changed daily news consumption and why you need to understand it:

Mobile devices have extended the time frame during which publishers need to pay attention to the content they are putting in front of consumers, but it has also massively increased the complexity of news consumption throughout the day. That makes delivering the right content in the right way at the right time far more challenging.

If you are in the communication business and you aren’t by now paying attention to mobile growth I’m not sure what will convince you.

Journalism’s decline boosts j-schools

“There is something new to learn [at journalism schools] for the first time since the advent of broadcast journalism in the 1950s,” said Steve Shepard, founding dean of CUNY’s school, which enrolled its first class in 2006. “And it’s much harder to learn it on the job—if you can get a job—because there’s much less mentoring going on compared to my day.”

[…]

Professors acknowledge that they’re sending students out into a tough, unpredictable environment, but say that is part of their education.

Master a skill set, learn more about another one. Consider a double major. Redouble your best writing and editing efforts. Realize the first job probably isn’t going to be The Job. Show them what you have and demonstrate your potential. Work hard. Do good work. Build your portfolio.

That’s the way of it.

Press angry over Obama’s lack of access:

Newspapers and reporters are being left out of the equation, even such established publications like The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Reider reports that Obama “has turned to regional reporters and TV celebrities who are less likely to challenge him.” Obama’s go-to interviewer is Steve Kroft of “60 Minutes” who in January conducted an interview with Obama and Hilary Clinton. The interview was heavily criticized as being “soft.” This is the complaint of many of Obama’s interviews. He is effectively bypassing reporters who ask the tough questions.

First of all, that’s a poor headline. President Obama is accessing things just fine. He’s just not giving the press corps the time of day.

Second, not many people in that particular room are asking “tough questions” these days when they do have the opportunity.

You can look at that in one of two ways. You could scream “Libruhl meeeedia!” Or you might consider that these people are on edge because a.) they have a job to do and b.) when the time comes to talk to someone more important than poor Jay Carney they are chilled because they don’t want to be shut out in the future because c.) see part a.

Also, the president has his audience, he has an embarrassment of riches of media that aren’t in the White House press corps that are just thrilled to have him on the Morning Zoo. And the president also has a communication office that can these days speak directly to his constituency. He doesn’t need the media right now.

That’s the same thing I’ve been saying about athletic departments for four years now, by the way. If you have a devoted following and the tools to go directly to them, sans filter, you’re going to take advantage of that opportunity. The journalists tasked with covering that particular beat are going to be marginalized.

I don’t like it. (It is fraught with danger.) I just see it.

Peektures. Margaret Thatcher came to Samford during the university’s 150th anniversary. She’s here with then-president Thomas Corts.

A picture of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, visiting Samford in 1992 for our 150th Anniversary. twitter.com/SamfordU/statu…

— Samford University (@SamfordU) April 8, 2013

They are standing in front of the library and Dr. Corts appears to be point out some feature of the administration building, Samford Hall.

I wonder what she was thinking.

How did we get into space and the moon? Really big ladders, of course. And, also, a tall chalkboard.