Four Monday

1. David Grann is a fascinating journalist. Slate makes the wise decision to profile him and his work. Slate

2. NPR has a digital strategy that supposed to help local stations. If you have the patience to read about it, click: Nieman Journalism Lab

3. If you "like" the New Yorker, they'll let you behind the paywall. Bloggasm

4. Privacy isn't all that it's cracked up to be ... online, anyway. Farhad Manjoo

What Mike Allen is reading

A link in Mike Allen's Playbook column on Politico.com has Simon Owens wondering what exactly it is that he's reading. Allen obviously copied the wrong link into the story, which takes you to this site. It's not as weird as it might first appear, though. Assuming he reads Japanese, Allen apparently is thinking about taking a trip to Japan.

Four in the morning

1. It's Earth Day: Buying green won't buy you absolution. Newsweek

2. How social pressure through social media closed the gap between "Web site" and "website". Bloggasm

3. The Journalism Shop is expanding its roster beyond former Los Angeles Times reporters and editors. Journalism Shop (via LA Observed)

4. Sometimes it takes an institution (the Boston Globe) to take on an institution (the Catholic Church). Nieman Journalism Lab

O'Keefe doesn't like being investigated

James O'Keefe, the conservative activist who embarrassed ACORN with his pimp videos and who was arrested last week for allegedly trying to tamper with Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu's phones, is pushing back against media reports that suggest he's got extremist views. Simon Owens at Bloggasm reports being on the receiving end when he linked to a Salon story that said he had a "race problem."

Four in the morning

1. Awkward.

2. FactCheck in overdrive.

3. Four in California.

4. "Everything that starts out as a cultural revolution ends up as capitalist routine."

Four today

1. Is George Will's wisdom really scoop-worthy? Opinionator

2. Bottoms up: Did Gawker trigger a State Department investigation? Bloggasm

3. Apparently it's so easy to dismiss criticism of Ariana Huffington as jealousy that Jon Friedman, in the second part of his glowing two-part series on the founder of Huffington Post, has decided to do just that:

When Huffington speaks, it is sometimes hard to know who is doing the talking. Is it Huffington the entrepreneur? Or the optimistic visionary who routinely triumphs over obstacles, grinning devilishly all the way?

Then again, some in the media who don't like, trust or believe her suspect she has a bit of the carnival barker in her persona. It's easy to chalk up the skepticism to simple jealousy.

4. The line between reinventing journalism and dissembling about journalism is a fine one. This story on Nieman Lab serves as a good example. Wrap your head around this:

Reporting ≠ journalism. Sure, Swart worries about the future of the media. But don’t wait for him to weep for the vanishing beat reporter. He’s been watching the local web, and he doesn’t see an information shortage on the horizon. Instead, there’ll be shortages of reliability, priority and presentation.

Tweet, tweet. Who's there? Advertising

Generally I try to avoid knowing what Perez Hilton is up to, but he appears to be on the vanguard of a new advertising scheme that sends readers to advertisers through the casual use of a hashtag. Instead of learning more about the Iranian election (i.e., #iranelection), Hilton wants readers to learn more about Gap.

Of course, there are questions of ethical questions when someone who's not portraying themselves as a spokesman for a product is actually a paid spokesman for a product. We'll see if there's any Twitter backlash to the hashtag ads.

The "in" crowd

Apparently the world of tech is controlled by a loose-knit cabal of about 2,000 people:

You see, there’s a gang of about 2,000 people who really control tech industry hype and play a major role in deciding which services get mainstream hype (this gang was all on Twitter by early 2007 — long before Oprah and Ashton and all the other mainstream celebrities, brands, and journalists showed up). I have not seen any startup succeed without getting most of these folks involved. Yes, Mike Arrington of TechCrunch is the parade leader, but he hardly controls this list.

(via Bloggasm)

Keeping the connected connected

The National Journal, which publishes National Journal, Hotline and CongressDaily, has launched a beta version of a new social-networking site for Capitol Hill staffers called 3121 (also the phone extension of the Capitol switchboard). The site is exclusively for Senate and House staffers and purports to give them a chance to talk and collaborate on a secure network. The full version of the site is set for launch in mid-September.

From the About page:

3121 is also a tool for collaboration: through our recommendation engine and with flexible, easy to navigate group pages, 3121 acts as a tool to help people better connect with relevant staffers to get their job done.

3121 puts you in control and allows for a customizable dashboard and customized news. The more you get to know the system and the more we get to know you, the more 3121 will rearrange and deliver you what you need, when and where you need it. From news on your issue and Member, to positioning your own profile and collaboration tools front and center, we give you what you need to make it your own.

(h/t Bloggasm)

The Twitter seal of approval

Since celebrity journalists want to be sure they're quoting the celebrity politicos they're following on Twitter, Twitter founder Biz Stone said he's introduced a "verified accounts" option for "public officials, public agencies, famous artists, athletes, and other well known individuals at risk of impersonation." fishbowlLA

How unoriginal

If the Huffington Post is the future of journalism, then it should be producing a great deal of original reporting with its stable of unpaid writers. Simon Owens at Bloggasm set out to find just how much, so he combed through a single day's work to find any stories that required some form of contact between the writer and a human source:

...if a blogger called a source, emailed a source, sat on a conference call, published a news tip, attended an event in person, or found any information that wasn’t easily available through a Google search, reading another news source, or watching television, I marked it as original reporting.

Owens looked at 77 front-page stories. He found four were links to news on other sites, 13 were wire copy stories, and 55 were opinion and/or summaries of someone else's work (as this post is).

Five stories met the definition of original reporting - that's six percent.

I Twitter, therefore I am

Someone created a fake Twitter account in the name of Republican pollster Frank Luntz and apparently fooled 2,000 people with it - including Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, assuming these accounts haven't been faked as well.

Kurtz even quoted from the feed in his column.

The faux-Luntz account was launched and maintained by Brian Devine of New Media Strategies, according to Simon Owens of Bloggasm:

The account likely remained unnoticed by Luntz until just recently, when he was apparently contacted by Heritage Foundation employee Robert Bluey

“I was surprised that so many people thought it was real for a ridiculous amount of time,” Devine told me in an interview. “I was really surprised that so many people would take it authoritatively without any verification whatsoever.”

Wait, now you're telling us we have to verify stuff? What a fucking drag.

Incidentally, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann today reported that someone had created a fake Twitter account in his name.

Four in the morning

Gearing up for the Cold War in the 21st century ... Losing our religion ... Stuck in Lodi again ... Song of the Laid-Off Copy Editor's Lament

Reporting on blogs' reporting

Just how much of the content on the top blog sites constitutes original reporting? Not much at all, according to a spot survey done by Simon Owens at Bloggasm.

TechCrunch tops the list at 37 percent; a few of the blogs, including Daily Kos, tie for bottom with zero percent. Huffington Post checks in at 18 percent.

Of course, no one said blogs need to provide original reporting, but the survey should give pause to those who think Huffington Post and the like will pick up where shuttered and shrunken newspapers leave off.

Also, some might dispute Owens' definition of original reporting, but it would have to be stretched pretty far to improve the numbers much.

Desk clearing

Dan Gillmor is overwrought; or, Why does journalism let bad things happen to good people?

Nothing builds confidence like watching the captain jump ship.

Measuring the political blogosophere blog by blog.

Have it your way, unless your paper folds first.

It pays to win

Ever wonder what the Obama campaign is going to do with all that money leftover from it's fund-raising? So did Simon Owens and here's what he found:

An Obama staffer I’ve spoken to just received this email:

"our contributor’s incredible outpouring of support has allowed us to offer all full time salaried staff hired on or before September 6th four additional weeks of severance pay."

Deep thoughts

Simon Owens, who blogs at Bloggasm and writes for PBS MediaShift, interviewed me and a few other writers a couple weeks ago about the challenges of publishing a private blog while working as a professional journalist. My answers were a bit rambling but the story turned out well.

I'd be interested to hear what my cadre of readers think on the subject. Comment section is thirsting for your wisdom.

Incidentally, I am not of the opinion that objective journalism is some false notion that we should do away with in the name of honesty.

Pierce's email

Simon Owens of Bloggasm talks to Los Angeles Times editor Tony Pierce about the email heard 'round the blogosophere, in which he admonishes Times' bloggers "not to blog" about allegations John Edwards had an affair that led to a love child "until further notified.”

Says Pierce, in part:

"What I should have said is that if you find information — because these are real reporters — if you find any more information, or if there’s something that’s out there that you come across put out by a more reputable source, write it up and let’s talk about it. That’s probably one thing that I wish I could have said."

The not-so-reputable source implied there is the National Enquirer.

Whether the Times' skepticism of the celebrity gossip mag's reporting is responsible journalism or proof of some deep liberal bias is for others to debate. For me, the dust up re-raises interesting questions about what it means to blog for an established newspaper - Are the bloggers beholden to the same ethics and standards as staff reporters?* Or are they somehow separate from the traditional newsroom? (Mickey Kaus finds it all an affront to Web 2.0 values - see "more layoffs, please - part xviii")

Also, this episode provides more evidence that newsroom deliberations are becoming more transparent, whether intentionally so or not. Already editors and managers are learning to tailor their emails and memos to dual audiences - the audience that's in the "To" line and the bloggers who will inevitably get hold of them.

*Blogs do seem to be beholden to page views, as another email from Pierce to his crew makes clear (via LA Observed).

To blog, or not to blog...

Simon Owens at Bloggasm surveyed newspapers across the country on whether their reporters should be allowed to blog on their personal time:

Of the 250 surveyed, 39 responded. Twenty-two — 56% — said they wouldn’t mind if writers blogged on non-beat issues without obtaining permission. The remaining 17 — 44% — either required disclosure of the blog, issued caveats over what subjects couldn’t be covered, or had outright bans on having personal blogs at all.

Surprisingly, most of the papers that responded to the survey had no written policy on blogs, Owens notes.

One of the more thoughtful survey responses came from Bill Doak, editor of the East Hartford Gazette:

“Blogs are really a Pandora’s Box for reporters,” he wrote. “On the one hand you have a reporter who, like anyone else, wants to be free to run home and say whatever he or she wants to say to friends, family, other reporters or on a blog. But the reporter risks his or her credibility and objectivity in so doing. Of course there is a place at every newspaper for those with opinions. But a reporter also squanders their objectivity by blogging, and that blog might also jeopardize the objectivity of the newspaper. So, to a degree the blogging reporter risks much more than he or she gains, not the least of which includes employment.”

I'd add that these same risks apply to blogs published by newspapers. Clearly this is a time for experimentation and, like it or not, blogs are becoming a common feature in many newsrooms. But most papers aren't large enough to hire a separate Web staff, so questions of whether reporters should share their opinions, write commentary, or divulge personal matters are landing right on the city desk.