Category Archives: Media

Jib Jab Does It Again

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JibJab has done it again and come up with a great cartoon parody.

This time they have done it with the news.  They have hit it right on.  The news has gone slowly down hill as they try to be profitable instead of reporting the news.

See What We Call The News by JibJab.

If you want to read up more on the news and what is happening, Frontline had a great documentary on it.  You can watch the whole thing online, News War.

For me, you can look at all the latest news regarding Anna Nicole Smith.  Why is that news?  I think that we have much more going on in this world that affects more people than what is happening with Anna Nicole Smith.

It would be nice to see better news presentation out there, but with the drive for money and to be profitable it won’t happen.

Bloggers and Online Users Need to Play Nice

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There has been a lot of discussion and posts lately on threats and bad references on the blogs.  Particularly threatening were posts and comments to one blogger that she can canceled a presentation.

This has got to stuff.  When someone who posts something that threatens someone else, it is not protected speech.  Treating people like that is stupid and wrong.

I don’t know if we need to have a code of conduct, but we need to treat others on the Internet with respect.  We don’t need to be threatening other people.

If people insist on doing this, they need to be delink and not taken seriously in the blogging world.  People should feel safe to blog and surf the Interent.

I had some problems when I first launched this blog.  I was complaining about the service I was getting from UPS and some idiot was trying to threaten me down for stuff that he didn’t know.  People like that need to go away and get a life.  He was such a coward that he wouldn’t give his email or his real name.

You can’t threaten people to get what you want. It only emboldens them more to talk about the issues.

Use your words to defend or state your position, don’t use your words to threaten people.

Viacom Is Barking Up the Wrong Tree

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I think that Viacom is barking up the wrong tree. YouTube and Google have done nothing wrong in how the operate.

They operate under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act where they remove infringing material when requested by the copyright holder. In fact, Viacom screwed up and screwed some posters when they requested a bunch of infringing material be removed and they requested that YouTube remove material that had nothing to do with Viacom.

The issue is that people are posting shows from various Viacom properties. In the suit, has Viacom been damaged from this posting by people who love these shows? I doubt it. In fact, I bet that Viacom is seeing an increase in their viewership because more people are watching their shows because they saw them on YouTube.

I hope this ends quickly in a settlement like YouTube has entered into agreements with other media companies, but I don’t think that is going to happen. YouTube/Google is ready to go to battle and in this copyright case they have a good chance of winning.

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C-SPAN Allows Video Use

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It is nice to see a media company allow the use of video that is produced by Congress or a Federal agency.  This is a liberal copyright policy and is only fair to the American taxpayer because the American Taxpayer helps pay or has paid for this video.  Read the news release…  It does not include any video that C-Span has produced themselves.

In a statement from C-Span Executive Committee Chairman William J. Bresnan, CEO of Bresnan Communications said that the network’s directors enthusiastically endorsed the copyright policy liberalization. Bresnan said, “The cable industry created this network to allow citizens greater access to their government and this enhancement appropriately reflects the rapid changes in the online information world.”

A controversy erupted because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi used video from C-Span on her website and bloggers accused her of stealing video from C-Span.

But in my opinion the use of video of Congress or a Federal agency that appears on C-Span should be free to use by the citizens since they have helped fun this station and the cameras that are used in Congress.  It is nice to see that C-Span agrees with that.

San Francisco Chronicle Out Sourcing Writing to India

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In a story covered by the East Bay Express, the San Francisco Chronicle last week included a special advertorial section that was written by freelance writers in India. I thought that I had heard it all.

First it began with companies off-shoring their customer service to India because the margins on their products got so bad here that they couldn’t afford to pay workers here. Now newspapers are off-shoring their writing to India.

We are truly in a global world, but you can’t tell me that the San Francisco Chronicle can’t find qualified writers here in the United States. Come on Chronicle, do some work and find some qualified writers here in this country. Only writers here can understand what your readers would be interested in reading and the correct way to reach those writers.

This is almost as bad as the Tribune Company reducing the size of the Los Angeles Times newsroom to raise profits for shareholders.

This is also discussed in The Goat, a blog for High Country News. Link….