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24 Jul 2010 23:46

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U.S.: Litmus test: The NYT compares your views to the Supreme Court’s

  • Liberal or conservative? The New York Times has this awesome feature about the Supreme Court and how your opinion compares to the American public at large. OK, so they didn’t give Iowa’s flooding big play, but this almost makes up for it. Almost. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

24 Jul 2010 19:57

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U.S.: Snaps: Iowa’s broken Lake Delhi dam – a major flyover state story

  • After the Tennessee flooding in may, the mainstream media was criticized. Why? Because they underplayed a major tragedy that affected a lot of people – but people in a smaller state not on the East or West Coast. So, with that in mind, here’s a quick comparison of the coverage the dam breakage in Iowa has been getting so far. As of 8:29 p.m. EST, it’s not on the Reuters or BBC front pages at all. The New York Times only just put it up moments ago, and they’ve buried it. How about other sites?
  • MSNBC: Main imageMSNBC: Main imageIt’s the lead story at MSNBC, complete with a very dramatic photo to top it all off – pretty much the kind of play you’d expect.
  • CNN: Lead story (Breaking news)CNN appears to be pulling out all the stops for this story, asking for reader reaction to go with the photos on the site.

 

  • Washington Post: Lead imageIt seems like it might initially easy to miss, but the story, complete with dramatic photos, is on the front of the site.
  • Google News: Lead itemGoogle’s algorithms put it right up top, with the oil spill and the Afghanistan story. Earlier today, the German festival stampede was up top.

 

  • AOL News: Secondary leadThe site we occasionally freelance for chose to go with stampede at the German festival instead of the flooding as lead, though it’s up there.
  • Fox News: Secondary leadFox News had it on their front page, but it was below the captured NATO soldiers story and tied to other rain-related stories.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

05 Jul 2010 21:28

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Politics: Paul Krugman: What’s the point of punishing the jobless?

  • As I and others have been arguing at length, penny-pinching in the midst of a severely depressed economy is no way to deal with our long-run budget problems. And penny-pinching at the expense of the unemployed is cruel as well as misguided.
  • New York Times columnist (and “Get Him To the Greek” co-star) Paul Krugman • Discussing the bizarre situation which led to the lack of unemployment extensions. He’s pushes hard on the issue, saying that the solution is worse than the problem. “Cutting off benefits to the unemployed,” he writes, “will make them even more desperate for work — but they can’t take jobs that aren’t there.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Jul 2010 11:37

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U.S.: Snaps: The Democratic Republic of Congo oil blast, underplayed?

  • We needed a new feature, and we think we have a pretty good one. Basically, we’re going to take a big story and see how it’s being covered on the front page of major news sites. Is it getting underplayed? Overplayed? This time around, We’re tackling the horrific oil tanker blast in Congo, which is new enough that a lot of people haven’t heard about it (it broke in the middle of the night in the U.S.). Otherwise, it’s a slow news day. On the downside, though, the story has no art, which might hurt its play. Let’s compare:
  • BBC: Top of the pageAs might be expected, considering the nature of the very deadly incident, BBC gave it top-of-the-front-page treatment.
  • CNN: Secondary lead storyWhile it was CNN’s top news story for a while (and worthy of an alert), it was replaced by a story about slain cops.

 

  • New York Times: BuriedThe New York Times, on the other hand, didn’t even bother to give it display play, instead putting it in their wire-stories-only slot.
  • Google News: right at the topGoogle News, which chooses its stories by computer algorithms, gave it much nicer coverage, just above Serena Williams.

 

  • MSNBC: Huge headlineMSNBC.com made the story their main news item with a huge headline, while giving Serena Williams art play off to the side.
  • Fox News: BuriedFox News buried the story even further than the New York Times did, preferring instead to lead with Joe Biden’s visit to Iraq.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Jun 2010 21:09

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Tech: Dear Phil Corbett: Shut up and let us tweet in peace. OK?

  • Some social-media fans may disagree, but outside of ornithological contexts, ‘tweet’ has not yet achieved the status of standard English. And standard English is what we should use in news articles.
  • New York Times standards editor Phil Corbett • For some reason fighting the flow of the English language, which has already decided to call Twitter posts “tweets” (lowercase). Corbett calls the word “inherently silly” and says it’s possible people may not even be using the site in a year. OK, this would be fine if he had any good recommendations. But what does he come up with? “But let’s look for deft, English alternatives: use Twitter, post to or on Twitter, write on Twitter, a Twitter message, a Twitter update. Or, once you’ve established that Twitter is the medium, simply use ‘say’ or ‘write.’ ” In other words, he has no good ideas for what to call this thing that he’s railing against. How about we call it “tweet,” Phil? Seems like a reasonable name. It also seems dumb for a guy who uses “ornithological” to complain about the clarity of language.  source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

09 Jun 2010 22:13

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Tech: More on the leaked 3G iPad leak thang: Gawker’s out for blood

  • Gawker’s upset with Apple. They want Apple to feel the pain. Problem is, they’re looking for blood that’s coming out of a different body. The gaffe is clearly AT&T’s, not Apple’s, fault. While it’s great that they exposed it, the portrayal is all wrong. Ryan Tate of Valleywag writes: “Although the security vulnerability was confined to AT&T servers, Apple bears responsibility for ensuring the privacy of its users, who must provide the company with their email addresses to activate their iPads.” We know they’re upset about the raid and the WWDC snub, but doesn’t it seem like they’re fishing with a statement like that? Personally, we have to admit to getting a kick out of the word “Goatse” running in a New York Times article. Best part of the whole story. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Jun 2010 00:28

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Tech: Limp Pulse: New York Times Company screws with awesome iPad app

  • The Pulse app is better than the NYT app. There, we said it. The New York Times didn’t put all of this money and time into an iPad app to see their hard work upstaged by a couple of upstarts. Which is why the Times’ lawyers sent Apple an angry letter asking them to pull the Pulse app – which Steve Jobs had big-upped just yesterday – because of the way it uses their RSS feeds. Apple took it down, and now it’s back up. But these guys have had a pretty miraculous ride. Some quick tidbits on that ride:
  • four number of weeks the app was developed by two Stanford students
  • #1 the app’s peak on the “paid apps” chart since its fairly recent release
  • yes the app has gotten a big wet kiss of a profile in the Times already source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

07 Jun 2010 21:04

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Tech: Apple should change its name to “Gaffle” after today

  • one During a demonstration of the new iPhone, the phone hangs on the loading of the New York Times.
  • two After telling everyone to get off the network (after getting ripped by a Verizon fan), FaceTime freezes up.
  • three Apple announces a new version of Safari before the browser itself is up. Then they retract. Oops. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 5 Comments • Permalink

27 May 2010 22:44

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Music: M.I.A. doesn’t handle long-form interviews very well

  • The messages have mostly been from people trying to hook up with M.I.A. If she wants to get together with John at Bard next week, I have his number.
  • New York Times staff writer Lynn Hirschberg • Regarding what happened to her after the pop star, angry about the very interesting, exhaustive piece Hirschberg wrote about her, posted a phone number on Twitter claiming it was hers, like so: “CALL ME IF YOU WANNA TALK TO ME ABOUT THE N Y T TRUTH ISSUE, ill b taking calls all day bitches ;)” In reality, it was Hirschberg’s, and her voicemail totally filled up as a result. Listen. M.I.A. is an awesome musician who deserves a lot of respect for her art, but this is pretty much the worst possible way to handle a situation like this. You’re 34, not 12. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 May 2010 10:28

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U.S.: Actual NYT headline: “Giant Container to Collect Leaking Oil”

  • So in other words, a grease trap, kinda like the one above. No need to get overcomplicated in your headline language, New York Times. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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