We have the right to remain silent

Respecting Hakkarainen's Law of Great Events, this may be a good time not to read too much of what other people are posting on the Intertubes. Lots of people, including people I like, are saying things for, against, and "I was for it before I was against" last week's events in Boston. Much of what I've seen has been disappointing, both in what's been said and by whom it was said.
I certainly don't need to add to that pool of unhelpful commentary. (Ref. the corollary to HLGE.)

Published on the Friday before the world of Boston went a-scramble, this Guardian (UK) article shows that reading news is toxic to our minds and bodies. Among other things,

News inhibits thinking. Thinking requires concentration. Concentration requires uninterrupted time. News pieces are specifically engineered to interrupt you. They are like viruses that steal attention for their own purposes. News makes us shallow thinkers.

An Elvis impersonator sends ricin-laden envelopes to the President and members of the Senate.

via Google Trends on 4/22/13

The lethal mail doesn't even outpace news queries about the Kardashians. We're dealing with a news wave that's too big to ride, let alone analyze with any coherence.

Gradations of graduation

We think that the headline writer meant Graduation.

Telegram & Gazette - 1-26-2013 9-25-05 AM

Nevertheless, The Google sez that gradation is kinda, sorta OK.

Predictions about the future of the news business

We just finished our WISE course on the future of the news business. For the last class, I made four predictions and told the class that we'd review them in April of next year.
Here they are:

• CNN is toast.


• One or more major magazines will cease print operations because of postal rate hikes. (Newsweek).


• One or more major daily newspapers in the Northeast will cease printing on one or more days per week.


• Worcester will have no local radio news and no one will notice.

Wither the funnies of Sunday

Most of the time, I favor the present and future over the past. I think that, overall, we are making things better for ourselves and for the next generations. You can call me naïve, but I won't answer. We've eradicated diseases, brought freedom to more people in more places, and even reduced the amount of violence in the world. In spite of what you might hear from political campaigns or from the pulpit, life is getting much better for many more.

So, why, for all of our great wisdom and talent, have the Sunday funny pages become a cruel mockery of past glories?

Here's what you get now:

[caption id="attachment_3368" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Boston Sunday Globe - 1 Apr 2012 (click to enbiggen)"][/caption]

Here's what you got in April 1970 (via Whirled of Kelly - Play Ball!)

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="220" caption="Pogo full-page Sunday comic - 5 Apr 1970 (click to enbiggen)"][/caption]

It wasn't just Walt Kelly's great talent for writing and drawing that made these strips so stunning. The newspapers published them, giving over a whole page to a single comic. The papers had to pay good money to do this. The papers of old made money by believing that the public were worthy of this rich nectar. The papers of new are surprised that modern readers don't savor comics made of high-fructose corn syrup.

Congress shall make no law ...

In the news, we learn that there are a bunch of laws managed by private firms, for which we'd have to pay to see because, well, that's what Boing-Boing is trying to figure out in Liberating America's secret, for-pay laws. These laws relate to areas as diverse as building codes, motor vehicle standards, and workplace safety. Because the laws are written by private, albeit nonprofit, organizations, the companies are asserting their copyright on the material. Courts have made it abundantly clear that the laws of the nation are in the public domain. Nonetheless, the companies are charging big bucks to have the documents printed and are still claiming their rights to restrict distribution.

Meanwhile, the Seattle Times is reporting that the Justice Department is trying to keep another category of information out of the reach of Freedom of Information Act requests.

Why are we reading about this in the Wall Street Journal

In Massachusetts Takes Aim at Red Tape, the WSJ tells us about Gov. Deval Patrick's plan to simplify the ways in which businesses do business. Under the cleanup project, announced to state workers on Friday, the state will eliminate 150 admittedly silly regulations that get in the way. Review of another 800 regulations is continuing. For example, if the owner of a hair salon wants to transfer ownership to an employee , the salon would have to close while the transfer paperwork was being processed. It's a good story about the state and the governor.

There is no story about this project  in the Worcester Telegram, Boston Globe, or Boston Herald. But, Saturday's Telegram had two (1,2)stories about Cee Lo Green set up shop in Las Vegas.

More on politics and news

[Editor's Note: This is the latest installment of the More On series.]

As of December 1, 2011, there were approximately 614,000 registered Republicans in Iowa. Of those, slightly more than 100,000 Republicans attended and voted at the caucuses. The Three Amigos are each getting about one-quarter of the total. The punditocracy is trying to decide which one won with differences measured in the 100s or less.

None of the Iowa Republican delegates selected tonight are bound by the election results. If they were, the state might lose half of their delegates because the Republican National Committee says that we're starting the election season too early.

There were 137M registered voters in 2010, including 1.5M in Iowa.

Every major television, radio, cable, and newspaper service has been running special coverage of the Iowa results. Countless bloggers and twitterers are cloggging the InterTubes with their thoughts about the meaning of this vote that doesn't even rise to the level of a rounding error.

We, for varying values of we, are idiots.

Online newspapers not ready for the web

The Boston Globe introduced its HTML5 paywalled edition in October. The paper works well on a variety of devices, including the iPad. It's easy to read and navigate. We have free access to the online version because we subscribe to the Sunday print edition. (Some papers, including the New York Times, are seeing a slight increase in the number of print subscriptions because of the online paywall.)

The content, however, hasn't made the jump. Two stories in today's paper illustrate the problem. Scott Kirsner's Is the price right? Mobile apps can help you find out story profiles several interesting mobile phone apps that let you make quick price comparisons while you're out shopping. The online version would be more useful if there were links to the app's website or to the iTunes Store and Android Market.
Similarly, On the Hot Seat with Martin Romitti by Megan Woodhouse mentions that Romitti, director of the UMass Donahue Institute's Economic and Public Policy Research, was editor of "the UMass journal on the economy" without naming the publication or providing a link. It took a while to locate MassBenchmarks.

A web-first editorial policy could mitigate these issues. Writers and editors would realize that the story isn't complete unless it's sourced with links.

[Full disclosure: I am a part-time correspondent and blogger for Telegram Towns, an online publication of the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. Both the T&G and Boston Globe are owned by the New York Times. ]

Tech news headline or Pogo dialog?

This morning's GigaOM (one of the very best tech news sites) included a story with this headline:

Card swipe dongle or NFC? Erply chooses both

The headline appears to be in English, but we might need some help.
For those of you who care about such things, Erply, an Estonian software company, is offering products that will allow businesses to collect payments on iPads. The company offers a somewhat traditional attachment (aka dongle) that allows the merchant to read the magnetic strip on credit cards and charge the customer for the purchase.
NFC stands for near-field communications (not the National Football Conference), a newer and sexier feature available on some mobile phones, that allows the customer to pay for products by holding their phone close to a receiver. Payments by mobile phone are more common in Europe and Asia than in the U.S.
But, back to the headline. Here's how reporting was done in the days of Pogo.

click for full-size

Primary election news in Massachusetts

Secretary of State William Galvin predicts light voter participation in today's primary election. Granted, there are few statewide contests to generate excitement. The top of the ticket is settled for Democrats, Republicans, and independents.  Some local folks are running for the down-ballot positions of treasurer and auditor. (See Elections: 2010 Democratic Primary Candidates and Elections: 2010 Republican Primary Candidates.)
Nonetheless,  with the election as a major civic event and with all else going on in the nation and the world, you might wonder why Fox 25 led last night's newscast with a 1:57 story about a Needham family dog that was shot and killed by a pellet gun.

via Family dog shot and killed

Boston's two dailies don't acquit themselves very well, either.

The Herald has one small story and an editorial

The Globe offers a small blurb many pixels from the top

It's a theme that we'll come back to often. The media doesn't tell us what to think, but they do tell us what to think about.

Hundreds killed in oil spill

BBC News - DR Congo oil tanker blaze 'kills 220'



Oh, it's in Africa?



Nevermind, ...


Nevermind ....

Future of News, Phillipston-style

While the print and broadcast news media wrestle flail in paroxysms of poverty as Google and Twitter steal their lunch money, the good folk of Phillipston bring the important information directly to the people.

(Editor's note: at this writing, I've not been able to confirm our news source, but I suspect that it's Claire.)

More on TV news

Every time someone watches a WHDH newscast, an angel pokes Walter Cronkite with a sharp stick.
With the typical TV newscast having about 17 minutes available in a 30-minutes show, the big story ought to be the big story.

There is an old joke producers scream when young reporters say they need more time for a story. "What do you think you’re covering?" they yell. "This story isn’t worth it. For the end of the world, you get two minutes. But only if you have good video."
via How TV Newscasts Work - from Winning with the News Media

 To their credit, WHDH (Channel 7) in Boston did mention the current snowstorm, the 94 people killed in a suicide bomb attack in Pakistan, terrorism.

So, of course, they used up two minutes and 17 seconds for a story from last Wednesday about a Tennessee knucklehead who stole a Coke machine by hooking a chain to it and driving away. The cops recorded the high-speed chase and finally put "a cap on a cola caper's crime".

via WHDH