Whither wikipedia? Two voices on the wikipedia side of the Seigenthaler issue that haven’t been heard fully are those of Dannah Boyd and Jimmy Wales. Linked to these two postings from the Association of Internet Researchers listserv archives (a list to which I subscribe and recommend).
Month: December 2005 (Page 4 of 4)
Brian Russell has been working away on Podcastercon. The conference site now has Room and Ride Share threads on the blog. Registration, sessions, hotel and airport info and more are on the conference wiki.
Where: 116 Murphey Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
When: Saturday, January 7, 2006 11am – 4pm
That’s a long post title by my standard, but it gets the lede out. The story of the story is that Michael Skube, now teaches at Elon, wrote an article on the badness of blogs for the Greensboro News and Record. In the course of the article–according to Cone–(the article is unposted), Skube admits not ever reading blogs (who has time? he asks. perhaps some one who writes about blogs should make time, says i), doesn’t differentiate between say an Ed Cone and a teenager on Xanga, and decries that bloggers aren’t professional (some are, Michael). All in all, it seems from the Cone report and the comments following that Skube rehearsed some common complaints without doing any personal research.
Cone called Skube and talked with him. Ed’s report on the conversation is even odder still. Well, not Ed’s report itself but the conversation that is reported by Ed. Skube confirmed that he didn’t know that the News and Record is nationally famous for the blogging there. He didn’t know of any bloggers by name save Andrew Sullivan. He hadn’t read any. All in all, pretty embarassing for a journalism prof at Elon and a Pulitizer Prize winner at that.
I’m hoping that the News and Record will post the article soon. In the meantime, the posts and comments at Ed’s blog will have to do.
In an interesting coincidence of timing, News and Record Editor John Robinson calls student interviewers to task for nearly the same crimes as are committed by Skube. One crucial section:
Most recently, I’ve been interviewed via e-mail and telephone by professional journalists and university students. The topic: blogging. Inexplicably, they hadn’t actually read my blog or our other blogs. It didn’t appear that they had even done the easiest research on Google.
Sue Polinsky of Sue’s Place also had a blog article in the same edition of the News and Record. Although she calls her writing a rant; it’s a good read and she knows of what she speaks.
When Napoleon Byars retired from a long career as a Public Affairs Officer in the military, he didn’t imagine that he be raked over the coals on TV for advocating that both the military and the press have important but different jobs and that we need to be well served by both. But last night this on air and on the O’Reilly site:
Talking Points Memo & Top Story
Mainstream media & the terror war
Guest: Journalism professor Napoleon Byars“Today The New York Times ran a story pinpointing countries in Europe that have allowed CIA planes to land on their soil in ongoing operations after 9/11. That story gives America’s enemies information and it could encourage Al Qaeda to attack the countries that helped the USA. That’s speculative, but there’s no question European countries are under pressure not to help the CIA. Does that help you and your family? If the world will not cooperate with the Central Intelligence Agency, doesn’t that make it easier for terrorists to operate? Of course it does. This never would have happened during World War II; Franklin Roosevelt created an office of censorship in 1941 and pressure was put on American news organizations not to publish information ‘that the enemy might be interested in.’ Today we’re fighting World War III, but every day the American press puts forth information the enemy might be interested in. Now this is very difficult territory. The American public has a right to know how the Bush administration is waging the war on terror. But there comes a point when the media has to decide if the information they are disseminating is going to damage the war effort. We are appealing to the American press to help fight the terrorists rather than to use the conflict to promote a political point of view. Let’s do what’s good for the country; is that too much to ask?”
UNC Journalism professor Napoleon Byars had a different perspective. “I think they both have a job, the media and the military. Let’s face it, the American public is better served, I think, when it gets information and it can make its own choices about how the war is going.” The Factor said that the media could certainly draw a line with its reporting. “CIA landings pinpointed by The New York Times? I don’t mind any exposition on policy, but on tactics and pinpointing what the CIA, where they’re going, I think that puts us all in grave danger.”
What a delight to hear local friend, Henry Copeland of Blogads on NPR last night. We’ll be over at his new offices in Carrboro this evening.
In a day of strange visitors to town, it was good to get down to University Mall and to Tyndall Galleries to see the monks mash their magnificent mandala. After the mashing, the mandala sand was swept into a vessel and carried across to Booker Creek. There was a nice collection of spirited kids kicking leaves and chasing each other as we walked along with the monks their cymbals clashing and the monks themselves chanting. Once at the bridge over the creek, we paused. The chanting continued for a while. Then the sand was dumped in the creek., returned to the earth. Sally took pictures.
Ruby’s pictures taken in 2003 at the Temple Ball in Carrboro are of the same monks that we saw today.
Sylvia and Erica took these great pictures of the monks visit to Tyndall Galleries in January 2004 on Jane’s Birthday.
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