News

We know American media kind of sucks. In fact, it tends to be so right wing biased that even lies from the Republicans are reported as truth and true statements by Democrats are reported as being controversial.

I prefer getting my news from various sources. NPR, Salon.com and CurrentTV are good American sources of news. But I also like getting foreign news. BBC is excellent most of the time. But I also get email updates from Guysen International News, an Israeli news source that actually seems pretty right wing. I do not always agree with their editorial slant, but I do find their news enlightening.

On July 29th they had a series of headlines that pretty much contradicts American media on American news. I think this serves as something of an indication of how bad American reporting is.

First, American media and the Republican Party are telling us, in the imortal words of the first President Bush, "Don't Worry, Be Happy" about the economy. Bush and McCain keep telling us things aren't so bad, we aren't in a recession and it's all in our minds. Well, it seems Israel sees it differently:

NowPublic is one of the fastest growing participatory news networks in the world. Time Magazine voted it last year one of the top 50 websites and The Guardian UK declared it's one of the top 5 most resourceful news sites in the world.

They have come up with a way to measure "news influence" on the web. They insinuated that traffic to one's site and/or blog is not one of the lead indicators, but how the people listed are connected to others (especially other influencers) through social media like YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and others.

I honestly don't know what to make of this list. I am at the same time amused and disturbed.

I already published at The Daily Gotham how it's weird that Arianna Huffington comes in at #2 because I thought she lived in California, not New York City. Then there's the grand daddy of the New York blogeratti, Nick Denton, coming in at #34.

It is though rather refreshing to see friends and colleagues on that list : Anil Dash, Nancy Scola, Joshua Levy, Jay Rosen, Jeff Jarvis, Jake Dobkin and Jen Chung and one of my biggest inspirations as a web designer and developer, Jeffrey Zeldman.

Yet, and I repeat what I already said at our New York site, the most disturbing data point of this list is that I come in at #9.

Yup.

I am, as per NowPublic, one of the "top ten" news influencers in the New York new media market.

I will definitely have more to say about this new metrics system. Suffice it to say that I think it is not only thought provoking but vindicating.

It's cool that someone has been able to measure what I've been up to for the last two years : Building a sphere of influence through networked broadcasting and outside of the metrics of traffic volume or popularity.

As a former student of neo-baroque aesthetics and its network effect in arts, culture and communications, I felt inspired of the potential I saw on the web 12 years ago. It was a potential that I saw unfolding in the Net Art movement. And it was a potential that I saw come to a halt when Big Business, Big Media and Big Politics threw themselves on the net as a way to accelerate their hierarchical and teleological standards of growth and success.

Think of the 3 Bigs thwarting the growth of the net by imposing the growth of the walled web gardens a la Facebook, Daily Kos or The New York Times.

Yet networks are networks and old standards of influence and success will succumb to the net effect; not to the old measures as a result of the false scarcity and uniqueness created by popularity.

So, even though I truly believe this is a flawed index, it is by far the best attempt at measuring influence based on assumptions that are native to the technology and structure of community and communications on the web.

I just got an email from a fellow blogger saying that he saw NBC report that the newscaster died today of a heart attack.

Wow!

CONFIRMED!

Tim Russert, host of NBC's "Meet the Press" and a political analyst for "NBC Nightly News" and the "Today" program, has died.

Tom Brokaw, the former anchor of NBC Nightly News, came on air during a special report Friday afternoon and said Russert collapsed and died while at work in the NBC news bureau in Washington, D.C.

"This news division will not be the same without his strong, clear voice," Brokaw said. "He'll be missed as he was loved greatly."

Russert, 58, joined NBC News in 1984. He took over the helm of "Meet the Press" in December 1991, according to his biography on the show's Web site. Russert has interviewed every major figure on the American political scene, his biography said.

Earlier this year, Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Fox News had Michelle Malkin on yesterday discussing some thing or another having to do with the dark-skinned Filipina's attacks and demonization of presumptive First Lady Michelle Obama. So what does the Fox News editorial team do during the conservative racist baiter's time on TV? They put a banner right under the news bit that read : "Outraged Liberals : Stop Picking on Obama's Baby Mama".

As Oliver Willis says quite correctly, why not call her a N***r and get it over and done with it? Why not just turn Fox News into what it really is, a race-baiter's dream machine?

Kevin Hayden says' the channel should be fined by the FCC a minimum of $325,000 for publishing hate speech. Even though I agree with Stefania this proves the extreme right is scared shitless at the prospect of seeing the Obamas in the White House, it's still utterly wrong and those bastards should pay every time they pull this shit.

Yet what's most important about all this mess is the other Michelle. La Malkin. Why do you think Fox News has on their payroll a dark-skinned Filipina who is not only their quite giddy and willing cover for the racist rants you pass as news, but also something of a news maker herself?

Michelle Obama, Caroline Kennedy, Maria Shriver,Oprah Winfrey by LATimes

In a jaw-dropping last-minute endorsement, Maria Schriver endorses Barack Obama : Breaking News: Maria Shriver endorses Barack Obama.

Will.I.Am's endorsement of Barack Obama goes viral : Will.I.Am's remix of Barack Obama's "Yes We Can" speech.

La Opinion, the largest Spanish language newspaper in California (if not continental US) endorses Barack Obama. The tipping point? Immigration : The Democratic choice is Barack Obama y en español, La opción demócrata es Barack Obama.

In what looks like a direct response to Marcia Pappas' "Ultimate Betrayal" memo, 150+ Feminist women from New York State decide to endorse Barack Obama : New York Feminists for Peace and Barack Obama.

Susan Eisenhower, the granddaughter of Republican President Dwight Eisenhower and coiner of the phrase "military-industrial complex", comes out in support for Barack Obama : Why I'm Backing Obama

By far the best independent news site on the web. All they're missing is the edition printed on dead trees. Published by wunderkid, John Byrne.

So Scoble twitters a link to this little gem showing Americans' knowledge of current affairs. Of course, for every incompetent respondent they probably found two or three people who answered thoughtfully to their questions --but that wouldn't make for good TV, wouldn't it?

What caught my eye though was the logo on the clip. I had to find out what it was all about. Well, what do you know? CNNN is a news parody show straight out of Australia and financed by the Australian Broadcasting Company. Can you imagine PBS producing The Daily Show?

I. Think. Not.

Infothought: Google Transferable Stock Options (TSO's) or how Seth Finkelstein succeeds at redifining web 2.0 with Google's Transferable Stock Options tool as Citizen Lunchmeat.

Eat The Press | Craigslist Robs Food From the Mouths of Journalist's Babies | The Huffington Post or how media dinosaurs cry the money blues.

BetaNews | Yahoo: Lower Page Views Due to AJAX or, if it takes a giant like Yahoo! to discredit a site rankings based on pageviews, oh lord have mercy, that would be so fine by me indeed. AJAX is a thing of web wonder that more sites should have to do away with the non-contextual page refreshing that happens due to non-dynamic designs. BTW, if you don't understand what I am talking about, don't worry. This is a shout-out to the techies in the community.

TechCrunch UK » Blog Archive » Le Web3 the good, bad and ugly., or the seedy underbelly of Web 2.0 technology conferences.

SECOND LIFE: A story too good to check - Valleywag or how PR and marketing departments are selling the virtual lie that is Second Life. This is Clay Shirky at his best and I am definitely coming back to this article.