Citizen Brand

Horse Race Journalism

As the famous line goes - "We have seen the enemy and it is us."  We want to believe that we are paying attention to presidential candidates and their stands on issues so we can make informed and competent decisions in the voting booth.  But we can't help ourselves.  We get sucked into the "horse race."  Who is ahead in the Zogby Poll today; the New York Times poll tomorrow; and, the Nickelodeon/ESPN/O Magazine Poll due out tomorrow.....

As Super Duper Tuesday approaches, the latest national polling shows Barack Obama surging and closing the gap on Hillary Clinton.  It shows John McCain building a lead over Mitt Romney and it seems clear that Mike Huckabee is submarining Romney by splitting the "conservative" vote.

Polls are instructive.  They do give us a sense of where things stand at that moment in time.  But then we need a new poll right away to keep the buzz going....is Obama still surging?  Is McCain really starting to pull away from Romney or will the next poll tell us something different.

And so it goes.  The media serves as the drug dealer on the corner feeding the horse race frenzy.  Read this piece by Jay Rosen over at Pressthink to go a little deeper on this subject.  As you will see in Jay's piece, the media hasn't faired so well in their horse race predictions this year which has further contributed to this once or twice in a century electoral experience.  Of course the media's lack of success has also caused us no shortage of roller coaster rides as they attempt to fix their errors.  Jay points to one ray of sunshine in this exchange between Tom Brokaw and Chris Matthews on the night of the New Hampshire Primary:

"“BROKAW: You know what I think we’re going to have to do?

“MATTHEWS: Yes sir?

“BROKAW: Wait for the voters to make their judgment.

“MATTHEWS: Well what do we do then in the days before the ballot? We must stay home, I guess.”

Matthews was being the realist: Without who’s-going-to-win, “we” might as well stay home. Brokaw (now long retired as the face of the NBC brand) gave him an apt warning in response: “The people out there are going to begin to make judgments about us if we don’t begin to temper that temptation to constantly try to get ahead of what the voters are deciding.” But he was speaking as if the media had a mind and could shift course."

A novel concept indeed.....let the voters vote and then report on how they voted.

Whitlock on tour

Don Imus is off the air and Kansas City's Jason Whitlock seems to have taken his place.  He's everywhere but his message is a compelling one.

The Don Imus affair

Don Imus was wrong to say what he said.  The Rutger's womens basketball team is right to meet with him and start a conversation.  We need more of that around the issue of racism in America.  It still exists and we all know it.  We just don't want to talk about it.

As Michael Corleone said in "The Godfather" -- we are all part of the same hypocrisy.  Media pundit Jeff Greenfield hit the nail on the head when he appeared on The Don Imus Show on Tuesday morning.  Greenfield said he and everyone else who ever appeared on the Imus show never once stopped to say that perhaps the comedy on the program went over the edge.  Greenfield said his fellow pundits and the big time politicians love the Imus show because they have a chance to do long form interviews they can't do anywhere else.  Now, of course some of those same people are lashing out at Imus for what he said.

Regardless of our ethnicity, religion or any other label we can put on people, we all have been guilty of either making a bad comment about someone or sitting by quietly while others make comments.  That is the hypocrisy we all have to own up to.

There is another side to this whole incident.  And I will turn to Kansas City Star sports columnist Jason Whitlock to discuss it.  Please read this column.  It is worth the time.

Edward R. Murrow

I decided early in life I wanted to be in radio and television.  At first, I thought sports broadcasting was my calling.  But when I entered the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas in 1973, Watergate was in full swing and we all wanted to be the next Woodward and Bernstein.  At least I did.

That was until I began to learn about Edward R. Murrow.  I was just a bit too young to have seen Murrow in his prime on CBS News.  But as I learned about him and began to study his career as part of my journalism studies, it became clear to me that Murrow was the foundation on which great broadcast journalism was built.  He, of course was most remembered for his showdown with Senator Joseph McCarthy documented in last year's great film, Good Night and Good Luck.

I wrote one of my best papers in college on that fascinating period of history.  But what I found more interesting were his days on the radio during World War Two as he reported from London during the darkest days of the ceaseless bombing of that great city.

I'm moved to write about Murrow tonight because of a great PBS program airing this week as part of the American Masters series.  I hope you have a chance to see it.  His was a life that not only changed his profession, but led to changes in society as well.  There were few issues he did not take on over the years on his famous "See It Now" program or later in productions that redefined the television documentary.  His most famous documentary was Harvest of Shame which documented the horrible existence of America's migrant workers in 1960.

I end this post with a line from Murrow's closing comments in his program that brought down Joe McCarthy.  These are words we need to continue to think about even today:

"Let us not confuse dissent with disloyalty."

Edward R. Murrow was a true citizen of the world.  Take some time to read more about him.  It will be worth your time.

Immigration protest

There is a great back-story to Monday's protests in Los Angeles regarding the immigration debate raging away in the USA right now.  FastCompany.com tipped me off to it.  The story is how it is that 500,000 people knew where and when to go for the protest.  Half a million people learned primarily from two sources: radio and social networks.

I checked out Blogging.LA to learn more about the protest itself and the great thing about it was there were no arrests, no violence but lots of passion for this hot button issue.  The reason it is a hot button issue is because like so many other major issues of our day (social security; health care; poverty etc.), immigration has been ignored until it (and the other issues) reach some sort of crisis point and everyone rushes to judgment.  That is not the way good laws are made.  I believe we have a simple guidepost regarding the immigration issue in the US and that is the inscription on the Statue of Liberty.  "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free."  End of political comment.

I do want to return to the protest and how it was organized.  Half a million people in one city were mobilized via Spanish radio and via web based social networks.  In this election year, if I'm running a political campaign, I am paying a lot of attention to what happened in Los Angeles on Monday.  A candidate on the wrong side of a hot button issue might find themselves staring out at a half a million people who are not there to support him or her, but rather to remind the candidates who is their real boss.

And from a non-political communication point of view there are two take aways.  Radio still works and the new social networks are finding their voice.

Civility

A recurring theme here will be how we can bring more civility into our conversations, especially regarding difficult or controversial subjects.  I pointed you to the Red/Blue Project as an example of an effort underway to get us to take a hard look at how we view people who have points of view different than our own.

We have had a divisive little issue here in Kansas you might have heard a bit about.  It involves the teaching of evolution and/or intelligent design in our classrooms.  It stirs people up here for sure.  Just today, a state association of science teachers jumped into the debate with both feet.

I also found this great radio commentary from Kansas Public Radio I want to share with you.  (Scroll down to the headline - "Teachers and Classroom Controversy)  It's from a teacher who wants to make sure his students really listen to the hardcore believers of all subjects.  He is right in the middle of this debate and I wish his point of view would get some attention.

We all know what the basic problem is when it comes to controversy.  The hardcore believers are the most committed and usually the loudest.  The great majority of people who are perhaps no less passionate about issues but perhaps not as dedicated leave the debate to the others.  We need to all engage and become involved in issues that mean something to us.  We have to listen and we have to be willing to put ourselves out there a bit and share ideas.

That is what real citizenship is all about.

Vault Radio

I heard a great story on National Public Radio this morning about Vault Radio.  It's a unique musical offering that's part of a site called Wolfgang's Vault.  It consists of live recordings from the glory days of rock on the stages of the Fillmore venues, Winterland and others.  All live just as the bands played them without digital enhancement.  Yes, there was a time like that.  Check it out.

My musical selections tonight include Dylan, Citizen Cope, Gordon Lightfoot and the late Jimmie Spheeris.  Of course any song shuffle around here will always land on a tune or two from Sinatra.  What are you listening to this weekend?

Public Broadcasting cuts....again

This is not a partisan political statement, but please Mr. President, save us all some time and energy and rescind your recommended budget cuts of public broadcasting.  If other past attempts are any indication, the cuts will not be implemented the way you want and time and effort will be wasted - time and effort that could and should be spent on other issues.

Public broadcasting has been an incredibly important institution in this nation and has served us all very well.  From the best children's programming ever to groundbreaking programs and total support of the arts, we have all been positively impacted in some way by public broadcasting.

So let's all do our part and make sure that our own members of Congress know that we hope they restore the recommended cuts quickly and move on to more critical issues of the day.

I Love Radio

Music is important.  It provides the soundtrack to our lives.

Information is important.  And we can't seem to get enough of it today.

Even with all the ways we can access both music and information today, my favorite method is still radio.  I started my career in radio at one of the nation's best public radio stations.  It was known by different call letters then - KANU-FM.  We worked out of Broadcasting Hall right smack dab in the middle of the campus of the University of Kansas.  I have great memories of those years which may find their way into this space sometime.

Public radio is special and we all need to do what we can to support it.  It is the perfect blend of great art and information.

There is another great radio station I want to tell you about and it is in Boulder, Colorado.  KBCO is the best music station in America until someone tells me otherwise.  Take a listen to both of these stations online and renew your love for great radio.