Two examples of how crappy our journalists are

by rabbleradio

Pillow talk
[Via Balloon Juice]

This phrase “fluff piece” doesn’t do this Times celebrity blowjob justice:

LAST week on the north lawn of the White House, the morning after the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski held court on the grass, presiding over a special Sunday edition of their MSNBC daily news program “Morning Joe.” As they sat beside one another in directors’ chairs — Mika in a black evening gown with a plunging neckline; Joe in a dinner jacket (sans tie), both of them wearing dark sunglasses — they exuded the reckless, easy glamour of old-style Hollywood stars: Rock Hudson and Doris Day (but Doris Day with a tan and killer abs).

A few hours before, at the MSNBC after-party, they’d hobnobbed with the actors Alec Baldwin and Bradley Cooper; and as they received guests for the dinner post-mortem (Jon Meacham of Newsweek, Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post, Rick Stengel of Time), Joe teased their younger co-host, Willie Geist, that his sunglasses looked like the BluBlockers from Mr. Cooper’s movie “The Hangover.”

It was hard, for a moment, to remember that these cinematic presences were established journalists and political wonks who spend three hours every morning debating the news of the day with an Elysium of commentators.

Make it stop.

(h/t Elisabelle)

[More]

First, journalists as media stars or media stars pretending to be journalists. Whatever they are, it is simply the culmination of a 30 year path of decline. They have no sense of decency not any distance from those they report on.

Which, of course, leads to this – journalists working to help a terrorist because they lack any sense of decency:

How the media almost screwed up the Times Square bomber arrest
[Via AMERICAblog]

It’s a shocking story, and brings to the fore all sorts of issues regarding freedom of the press, but also journalistic ethics. As a reporter, when do you not report something you know, something that’s newsworthy, because by reporting it you’ll actually be endangering people (or in this case, helping a terrorist slip away)? This is one of the topics I’ll be discussing on Howie Kurtz’s CNN show, Reliable Sources, Sunday morning at 11am Eastern.

From NPR:

TEMPLE-RASTON: Well, I was aware that they were surveilling the suspect. And I knew if I reported it, it could cause problems for the investigation. For example, on Monday afternoon, basically a day and a half after the attack, a news organization reported that law enforcement officials were looking for an American Pakistani of Pakistani descent from Shelton, Connecticut. And I saw that report and I was shocked when it came out. I mean I knew the information but I had decided not to report it since he hadn’t been arrested.

MONTAGNE: Is it possible that Shahzad himself saw that report?

TEMPLE-RASTON: It’s a great question. Yes, in fact, after he was in custody he told the arresting officers that was the moment, when he saw that report, that he knew it was only going to be a matter of time before they would all close in on him. He assumed after seeing that report that he was under surveillance. And thats a big deal because surveillance really is only effective if people don’t know they’re being watched.

Several law enforcement officials talked to me about this. And one in particular told me it was like watching an episode of “24′ in real time. And the only problem was that Shahzad was able to see it too.

And then it even got worse. You know, reporters actually started showing up at Shahzad’s house in Shelton, Connecticut, waiting for the arrest to happen. And in fact he was actually in Bridgeport, Connecticut, up the road where he’d rented a small apartment. But apparently at that location reporters started showing up because that was leaked too.

MONTAGNE: So what you’re saying is if Shahzad is seeing a reporter, then the police can’t be far behind and he must have known that.

TEMPLE-RASTON: Exactly. Exactly.

Yep, the media tipped off the terror suspect. Because of their inability to do the right thing, he was able to escape surveillance and almost made good his escape. They showed up at his house before he was even arrested! I guess we should be glad no one sent something to Twitter about all of that.

Sometimes I wonder how a free press is really helping us? I guess some parts are by showing the utter worthlessness of the other part.

Global Health Dialogues

The Dialogues are in Seattle and have been a lot of fun. If you are around and want to have some fun discussions with other researchers, drop on by. http://globalhealthdialogues.eventbrite.com/

What he said re: Microsoft

Engadget: Microsoft Kin review
[Via Marco.org]

Engadget: Microsoft Kin review:

A video demo shown on the Kin site offers a scenario where you might drag a concert venue, a band’s MySpace page, a few photos you’ve taken, and a friend’s status update to the Spot and then send an email about going to show… but no one really works like that, and the Kin UI doesn’t make it any more logical. It’s actually a really cumbersome way to communicate — dragging one abstract thing towards another abstract thing doesn’t make more sense than deciding to send an email, typing a few addresses, and throwing some pictures or links into the message… it just doesn’t.

[…]

But the obtuseness of this user experience doesn’t stop with the Spot — it permeates the entire interface as though decisions about how things should work were made almost arbitrarily, without anyone stopping to test them in the real world.

John Gruber’s response to the Kin phones:

Why do these products even exist?

Great question.

The Microsoft of today is a bureaucratic, inefficient behemoth throwing tons of cash around to do absolutely nothing remarkable or compelling. Their products are wasteful and underwhelming, and their marketing campaigns are puzzling at best.

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You see something very similar in the drug industry – get too big and the ability to create innovative products disappears. I think it happens when the company is really run by the sales/marketing types rather than the creative types – the doers rather than the innovators.

Apple is the best example of what happens when an innovator type runs the show. Look what happened to it when the sales guys took over.

Sam can be said of HP. When Hewlett or Packard was in charge, it was one of the most innovative companies. No longer.

Tim Cook is another guy who is really great at the business side but has not really had a history on the technical side. I’d prefer someone like Avie Tevanian to come back if Jobs is gone.