ESPN is run by 13-year-old girls

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

News broke last night on ESPN.com that Dallas Cowboys Tony Romo and Terrell Owens may be having a spat. According to an anonymous source, Owens is “jealous of the quarterback’s relationship with tight end Jason Witten.” Two segments on the conflict ran at the top of Sportscenter.

Based on ESPN’s coverage of the story, Owens might as well have complained about Romo and Witten not calling him before they went to see High School Musical 3. The Cowboys are playing well, slated to make the playoffs despite losing Romo for three critical mid-season games, and both Romo and Owens have been productive.

I’m no Cowboys fan, but I can recognize an overblown story for what it is. It must have been a slow news day for ESPN.

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Open for Questions: Can you Digg it?

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

Change.gov’s “Open for Questions” feature has already attracted over 8,000 submissions. The site is designed to let users choose on which questions are put before the great and powerful President-elect much like Digg allows users to vote on which stories make the site’s front page.

As Mashable’s Mark Hopkins and Politico’s Ben Smith point out, the result is similar to Digg: left-leaning users are voting for questions with pointed criticisms of the current President. (One question urges the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration; another calls for the military to stop hiring “mercenary” contractors.) Questions about Obama’s relationship with Gov. Blagojevich are buried deep.

That’s not a bad thing: the past 220 years should have taught us that anytime there is some sort of election, Americans will organize in an attempt to win.

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Shooting themselves in the foot?

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter’s comments about the Plaxico Burress situation underscore the fact that every story has two sides. And fellow Giants wide receiver Steve Smith probably wished he had a gun when he was robbed at gunpoint a couple weeks ago outside his gated community in New Jersey.

Many gun rights groups would probably tell you they wish this story would go away, since it’s tough to make a black professional athlete into a hero. But this offers an opportunity for groups like the NRA and Gun Owners of America to get in front of the story – and with a new administration on the way in, it would smart to frame the story as positively as possible.

Given that Burress flaunted many values groups like the NRA hold dear – by all accounts, the gun was improperly licensed at best and he clearly didn’t have the safety on – they can still condemn his action, which they should. However, rather than issuing a hollow criticism of a public figure, they could follow it up by offering free gun safety courses at NFL training camps.

The NFL would likely turn them down, but gun rights groups could at least say they made an effort to help players handle firearms responsibly – and in the process, earn some much-needed positive press.

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The Dying Digital Divide

~ Jim Eltringham ~ 1 Comment

For years, poverty groups have bemoaned a “digital divide” in America and around the world: inequalities in wealth threatened to leave much of the population unwired and, for all intents and purposes, in the dark. Today, the Wall Street Journal covers how in the world’s poorest nations, web-enabled mobile phones are bridging that gap.

This has repercussions in America, as well, as mobile internet access becomes more and more widespread. Not only does it connect new users to the online world, it gives thsoe savvy enough to use it a direct link to those users.

In other words, if you have a story to tell in the next ten years, you will have to consider how to fit that story on the small screen of a cell phone.

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All the news that’s fit to click

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

I wouldn’t have even noticed a difference in the New York Times‘s online layout this morning if it hadn’t been for Mashable calling attention to the new “Extra” layout. In addition to publishing their own stories, the Times links to related stories published by other news outlets and blogs.

This isn’t groundbreaking – other news sites have used the “aggregator” strategy for years. But by listing other news outlets, the Times embraces its role as a true online news source, focusing more on providing relevant information than on feeding users an exclusive diet of Times-generated content. It’s another example of how, in the modern media environment, control and influence are not necessarily synonymous: by giving putting other news sources at your fingertips, the Times paradoxically makes its own site a more valuable news source.

With old-school newspaper circulation failing, America’s most iconic newspaper is showing that old dogs can learn new tricks.

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Dr. Daschle’s Video

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

There’s a lot to like about HHS Secretary-to-be Tom Daschle’s video about the Obama team’s response to comments on their early work on health care reform (released this week on Change.gov):

Granted, Daschle’s glasses make him look like he should be answering the phone for the Ghostbusters. But the video is excellent: apparently unscripted and very conversational. Professional touches like makeup and effective cuts and edits make the footage look good, but the banter between Dr. Daschle and Policy Team Member Lauren Aronson is easy and natural – right down to mentioning that a third team member is still out of the office on Thanksgiving break. They even read from the 3,500 comments they received and mentioned commenters by name – a nice touch.

This comment process is more than just an excuse to post a YouTube video. Consider this word cloud of the 100 term most used in those 3,500 comments:

This gives team Obama an idea of what buzzwords to use when building and pushing their health care plan – in other words, what words and phrases will most resonate with those commenters and inspire them to write their Congressman and Senators to encourage passage.

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Smile and grin at the "change" all around me

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

Every time Barack Obama announces a new cabinet appointment, I get The Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again running through my head. Obama’s picks seem to echo the song’s classic closing lines: “Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss.” Team Obama is largely made up of Clinton Administration and Democratic Party retreads.

Potential new Commerce Secretary Bill Richardson was President Clinton’s Secretary of Energy. Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder was a key official in the Clinton Justice Department. Clinton Tresury Secretary Lawrence Summers will head the National Economic Council. Reported Secretary of State Hilary Clinton… well, I suppose she didn’t technically serve in the Clinton Administration. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was a policy adviser in the Clinton White House.

Combined with Tom Daschle’s appointment to be Secretary of Health and Human Services and even dating to the selection of five-term Senator Joe Biden as his Vice President, Obama has demonstrated a consistent preference for surrounding himself with people who are very comfortable inside the beltway. Not that any of these people are unqualified for their positions, but their selections make the campaign mantra of “change” ring a little hollow now.

There’s nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-by.

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DTV: A Civil Rights Issue?

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

My Mom just pointed out a local news story about the District of Columbia sending people door-to-door to make sure people in the lower-income neighborhoods are ready for the Digital TV transition coming this February. While looking for the story online, I ran across a press release marking the 100-day countdown to the digital conversion date on CivilRights.org.

I’m glad we’ve come far enough in this country that “civil rights” means making sure everyone gets to watch TV.

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