The Peabody Awards are out and my first thought is, "Why in the bloody hell are they giving an award to NBC for their Olympics coverage?" But then there's well deserved awards like the one to YouTube and two which I didn't comment (because I don't watch the shows): Lost and Entourage.

Other winners include :

NBC Coverage of 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony and Zhang Yimou (NBC)
I thought it was actually quite crappy the coverage with restricted web access and fucked up advertisement breaks.

This American Life: The Giant Pool of Money (Public Radio International/NPR)
Absolutely deserved. It is such an amazing documentary about the factors involved in the current economic crisis that I find myself referring to it constantly as background historical and theoretical information.

Coverage of 2008 Presidential Primary Campaigns and Debates (CNN)
CNN had indeed the best team covering the elections.

The New York Times Web site (www.nytimes.com)
Their's may be an example of the future of online newspapers but they still suck at attribution and linking back to bloggers (in the main newspaper articles, not the blogs. Their bloggers are actually quite cool.)

Saturday Night Live Political Satire, 2008 (NBC)
Sadly, the only funny stuff to happen on SNL in like 20 years ... maybe with the exception of "Dick-In-A-Box".

Avatar: The Last Airbender (NICK)
Best. Animation. Show. EVER! Ok, not the best ever because their ending actually sucked a little (am totally opposed to Aang and Katara getting it on. Still, it's really like nothing we've had in kids TV in this country. It is truly exceptional and brilliant.

Onion News Network (www.theonion.com)
This truly blew me away, but ONN is like extremely Daily Show. They really are pushing parody and satire to the limit.

YouTube (www.youtube.com)
Broadcasting and cablecasting will never be the same no thanks to YouTube. For that, they should get a Noble Prize in Computer Science as well.

From The Peabody Awards :: An International Competition for Electronic Media, honoring achievement in Television, Radio, Cable and the Web :: Administered by University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication:
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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
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