Newspapers Don’t Get It – Harsh On Google Indexing

In an article that appeared on the weekend edition of CNet’s News.com website, newspaper publisher’s are harshing on Google wondering why they are getting a free ride.

Last month in a speech at Stanford University, the Tribune Co’s new owner wanted to know, “If all of the newspapers in America did not allow Google to steal their content, how profitable would Google be?”

But the problem is that newspapers get about 25% of their traffic from search engines. If they start trying to get compensated for this coverage, then they will lose viewership and revenue.

Basically, if someone can’t find you on Google, then you don’t exist on the web. Whether that is right or wrong, it is the truth.

When I search news stories on the Internet, I am searching for specific stories. If I can’t find them, then they don’t exist. It would be best for them to let Google index them and make them available so I can find them.

That increases views and that increases their ad revenue.

The newspaper business is changing from a paper based model to a mixed paper and electronic and will soon be all-electronic.

If they don’t adapt and move towards new ad revenues, then they won’t be around. And that would be a bad thing.

Now don’t get me started on subscription based newspaper websites. I think that they are stupid. More soon.

Read the entire CNET story: “Newspapers want Google News’ quarter

The hazards of an outside news conference

Well today the President had an unfortuanate incident today while answering questions on Iraq and Attorney General Gonzales.  A sparrow flew over and scored a direct hit on the President’s left sleeve.

Watch the video here.

The President brushed it off and kept on going.  Just another hazard of having an outdoor press conference.

You can read more on the ABC News blog, Political Radar.  “Bush in the Line of Fire

New York Times Reader

Well in my inspection of using an online reader for the New York Times, I stumbled upon the New York Times Reader.

This has been in Beta and is coming out of it soon. It may already be out of it.

This is really cool. It takes the paper and continuously updates it. If your device does not have internet access, you can read the latest version it downloaded. It is pretty simple.

It automatically scales to your screen size and it is quite easy to navigate between sections and pages. I think this will revolutionize newspapers and how they are read.

But there is one problem. The New York Times is charging $14.95 a month after 30 days. This is ridiculous. They sure know how to kill a good thing.

The New York Times is still living in the print world. If they want people to use it and make money, they need to charge a lot less. They would get a lot more subscribers.

Where Is Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip?

I am awaiting NBC‘s decision on when Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip will return.

For some reason, NBC has placed Studio 60 on hiatus because it hasn’t been getting the ratings. But if you add in the statistics of people who are recording it on their DVR and watching it later versus live, the numbers are a lot higher. That doesn’t even take into account the number of people who are buying it on iTunes.

In the meantime, NBC is running programming that is horrible and not even worth watching. Need I mention the show The Real Wedding Crashers airing tomorrow night?

For the most part I have stopped watching NBC except for a few shows. Here is the stu

Bring back Studio 60. According to a post in TV Squad, Studio 60 is still filming and will have 22 episodes in the can. If you don’t want to bring it back, put up the rest of the episodes on iTunes so I can purchase them.

It was one of the best shows on television and NBC’s ratings will only go lower if this is gone. TV Squad also had a good post on why Studio 60 won’t be brought back and 30 Rock will be.

New York Times Electronic Publication

Well I just signed up for the New York Times Electronic Edition. It was free for seven days and then is going to become a version that charges

In the process, it kept having page failures and it created two accounts for me. But in their account maintenance page, I must call a phone number in order to cancel. The New York Times uses a service called NewsStand. I would stay away from it if I were you.

This is ridiculous. I should be able to cancel my subscription/account online without having to call someone.

Finally, I am not impressed with the service that they. It allows me to download to my computer and browse offline, but I want it in PDF, not whatever weird form that they have.

Improve the service and I may come back.

The Imus Lynch Party Succeeds

This past week, the sharks have been circling Don Imus for the comments that he had of the Rutgers womens basketball team.

Let me say this again, what Imus said was completely wrong. You can see my earlier post, ” .”

There were two great posts this week in the blogosphere.

One of them was by Charles Karel Bouley on the Huffington Post. In his post, “Politically Correct Lynch Mobs“, he describes how

“…the Black Offensive Police, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson sprang in to action (is there like a Bat Phone for this sort of thing?) and began demanding for Imus to be fired. Yes, these two masters of media manipulation were calling for a fellow broadcaster to be fired for what he said on air. And of course, no one is talking about the real issues because they’re too busy screaming racist! Racist! Fire him! Remove his livelihood, drag him through the mud!”

Sharpton and Jackson are too worried what would happen if they don’t speak up, they will speak up without completely knowing the facts. Do I bring up the Duke lacrosse case here? But, they saw the blood in the water with Imus and went for the juggler and succeeded. But they were going after the person and not trying to tackle the bigger issue.

What Imus said was completely wrong, but it is not something said by people all the time. Specifically rappers and hip-hop artists. But because he was white, he paid the price. Bouley even calls it reverse racism.

How insulting all this is. If he had made homophobic remarks, this wouldn’t be news. If he were Black, say Chris Rock, Mo’Nique, Marsha Warfield, this wouldn’t be happening. In fact, he’s a victim of reverse racism. The very definition of racism is when one race believes it can do something that no other race can, when they feel they have the right to do something no one else can do. Well, saying that a Black person could make these remarks but not a White person is an inequality and is wrong no matter how you slice it. But no one ever looks at it that way. If something is so horrible that it hurts people, then no one should be able to say it, period. Selective censorship is stupid, and racial censorship is even worse.

Sharpton, Jackson, and many others have been after Imus for his comments, but they are not holding others accountable for these same comments. They are hanging out with them, they are friends with them, and they don’t criticize them for the degrading comments that they make towards women, especially black women.

I would bet CBS radio has many radio stations that play rap or hip-hop and those same words and some worse words are played several times a day each. Are they firing those DJ’s? Are they going to stop playing those artists? I don’t think so.

I want to finish up talking about Pat Buchanan’s post yesterday entitled, “The Imus Lynch Party.”

No one should judge Imus for what he said. It is wrong what he said, but he is being held to a different level because he was white and made comments about black women. Here is what Buchannan said,

The issue here is not the word Imus used. The issue is who Imus is — a white man, who used a term about black women only black folks are permitted to use with impunity and immunity.

Whatever Imus’ sins, no one deserves to have Al Sharpton — hero of the Tawana Brawley hoax, resolute defender of the fake rape charge against half a dozen innocent guys, which ruined lives — sit in moral judgment upon them.

Buchanan finished his article with a great quote.

Imus threw himself on the mercy of the court of elite opinion — and that court, pandering to the mob, lynched him. Yet, for all his sins, he was a better man than the lot of them rejoicing at the foot of the cottonwood tree.

I whole heartily agree.  Imus was truly sorry and remorseful for what he said.  He does a lot of good things in this world.  He was fired in the middle of a telethon for children with cancer and he takes sick and inner-city kids to his ranch in New Mexico.  He has done great in the world.

Imus will be back on air soon and he will have as many listeners, if not more, when he comes back.  He is a good person who made a bad mistake.  We should forgive, not forget and have a larger discussion on the whole issue.

CBS Radio also needs to look at itself and also get rid of all the music that is degrading women.  If not, they are two-face and hypocritical.  They have set the bar for behaving like a radio network.  Now they need to be equal in it across the board.

Imus Firing Wrong

Let me begin that I no way condone what Don Imus said. It is just plain wrong and insulting.

But, the backlash that has happened since those comments are plain wrong. He made a wrong, was suspended, and that should have been it.

The president of CBS had a meeting with Rev Al Sharpton and then promptly fired Imus. What I am wondering is what did Sharpton threaten him with?

This whole thing is so hypocritical. Black musicians who perform hip-hop and rap constantly say the same thing that Imus said and they are not critized, held responsible, or lose their job. They are raised up as heros doing something with their life. But Imus, a white baby boomer says the same thing and he is crucified.

They can’t have it both ways. If they are going after Imus this strong, they need to go after those musicians just as strong. But I doubt that will happen.

If Al Sharpton feels vindication, he should look himself in the mirro and step down from his position as a radio talkshow host. He tried and convicted the three Duke players who he felt were guilty. The problem is that there is no proof that this happened. In fact, it probably didn’t happened at all.

To me, Sharpton wants it both ways. As soon as someone attacks him and call him on his statements, he turns it into a race issue. It is not a race issue. It is an integrity issue.

There was a good discussion on Lou Dobbs show today on CNN. You can read more here.

Imus has done a lot of great things. CBS had the gall to fire him in the middle of a telethon for kids with cancer where he had raised almost half-a-million dollars. He also takes inner-city kids to his ranch. This is not a bad person. It is a person who made a mistake. Tell me one person here who hasn’t said the wrong thing?

Imus will work again. But CBS made a big mistake.