Streamin'
Thanks to the lovely Lelo in Nopo, whom I finally got to meet in person, for this photo.
I just got back to the home office after a fun night blogging about the election results at KGW. I knew I'd be pounding away at the keyboard through the evening, with a bird's-eye view of the news as it broke in the busy newsroom, but I wasn't ready to be on camera on and off throughout the night. Big lens staring me in the face, hot lights, the whole works.
Nowadays, KGW has so many video outlets -- broadcast Channel 8, Northwest Cable News, and kgw.com -- that I'm not sure where all the "footage" of me and fellow blogger Len Bergstein wound up. But there was a lot of it. And when you're talking off the cuff with those big lights on you, it's hard to tell how it came across. It's actually a little difficult to remain coherent under those conditions, until you get used to it. Did anybody see any of it? Candid reviews are welcome, because I honestly can't judge how any of it went.
In any event, it was a kick to be part of the continuing migration of the mainstream media toward the blogosphere. The coolest parts were when the station called the results in various races. I was glued to my screen and keyboard at the time, but you'd hear the name of the winning candidate float through the room as various staffers repeated it. A couple of times, I felt like Walter Cronkite.
And I must say, the KGW operation was extraordinarily professional -- and friendly! Bergstein and I were treated like royalty. What a blast.
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Comments (8)
I saw you a bit on the kgw.com streaming feed. I thought you did fine. I'd say all those years teaching to prospective tax attorneys served you well.
Posted by Nick | May 21, 2008 8:48 AM
I saw you on NWCN and thought you presented yourself very well. And I was happy to put a face to the blog.
Posted by Erin | May 21, 2008 9:10 AM
At the interface of internet foreview and broadcast net review, there is an interstitial instability. Talked about in a thoughty thorough going-over at Columbia Journalism Review.
Lost Media, Found Media - Snapshots from the future of writing, By Alissa Quart, Cover Story — May / June 2008.
If there were an ashram for people who worship contemplative long-form journalism, it would be the Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism. This March, at the Sheraton Boston Hotel, hundreds of journalists, authors, students, and aspirants came for the weekend event. Seated on metal chairs in large conference rooms, we learned about muscular storytelling (the Q-shaped narrative structure—who knew?). We sipped cups of coffee and ate bagels and heard about reporting history through letters and public documents and how to evoke empathy for our subjects, particularly our most marginal ones. As we listened to reporters discussing great feats—exposing Walter Reed’s fetid living quarters for wounded soldiers, for instance—we also renewed our pride in our profession. In short, the conference exemplified the best of the older media models, the ones that have so recently fallen into economic turmoil.
Yet even at the weekend’s strongest lectures on interview techniques or the long-form profile, we couldn’t ignore the digital elephant in the room. ... Right now, journalism is more or less divided into two camps, which I will call Lost Media and Found Media.
Posted by Tenskwatawa | May 21, 2008 9:11 AM
3 quick points from a suddenly hot-again comedy writer. Not that these points will be funny but I had 2 jokes on national TV last night including a comparison between Kentucky and Oregon as the Bluegrass State and the Primo Grass State. Loyalty to my beloved Oregon never stood in the way of commerce.
1. Jack I was very proud of you and impressed that you had scaled the walls of corporate media. What it represents in the big picture is profound just like seeing the Portland Tribune essentially become a blog. What we have to get to is a time when members of the public have streaming video on their blogs and the Ruppert Murdoch numbers crash. I want to see Amy Troy on your blog interviewing you because corporate media has been crushed by the People. What you did is an important step in that regard and it should not go unrecognized. Of course, the government could realize where this is heading and make it prohibitively expensive to challenge the PR firm formally known as the 4th Estate. We have to be ready to defend the Internet like it was one of our rights.
2. Politics is a brutal game. I understand why politicians get so nasty. They put themselves out there for months and it either ends great or very, very badly. When it's over, it must be a horrible feeling, and I see now why it takes them several years to get over a defeat. I got hurt by watching Steve Novick lose. I talk to him on Mt. Tabor and thought it would be so cool to get him in the Senate.
3. The Obama rally here has now become part of the history of the United States. It made an impression beyond delegates or votes or anything. I heard Imus and Bob Sheiffer talking about it yesterday, 48 hours after the fact. I see it in articles even this morning now grown to 80,000 by the way. It has become one of those must-refer-to points of this whole campaign. The rally was the single most stunning thing in years from Portland.
So once again, congratulations, Jack, for a heroic breach of the corporate walls. This was a righteous move. And in closing - I can't get out of political speech mode - I want to thank the fine People of Oregon. The rally blew my mind and the Primo Grass joke broke a long quiet stretch on the airwaves for me. Thank you and God Bless America.
Posted by Bill McDonald | May 21, 2008 9:44 AM
Jack, I saw you via NWNC, and I thought you came off really well (other than their technical difficulties when the camera blacked out in the middle of your commentary). While I frequently disagree with your position on this blog, I thought your TV cameo was articulate, well-reasoned, and balanced.
At last, relief that the first round of suspense is finally over. Obama and Adams will be two great leaders.
Posted by Unit | May 21, 2008 10:06 AM
Jack:
You are a credit to the professoriate and to the blogosphere. You came off very well and looked about 10 years younger. TV is a medium that suits you. Perhaps after you retire you can replace Jeff Gianola . You would be able to pass easily as a 40 year old even 10 years from now.
You rock.
mrf
P.S. Please offer my congratulations to your colleague John Kroger. I am elated at his victory and his margin over Mac. Even with all his union money, Mac still spent nearly 10% more than Kroger.
Mac is out of politics for at least two years, but I expect him to come back in 2010 to run for Governor. Ted could find some position for him that would keep him in the limelight.
Posted by mrfearless47 | May 21, 2008 10:19 AM
Missed it all.
I am simply overjoyed that the deluge of campaign porn and endless TV and radio commercials has once again come to an end.
Can we expect the political banner ads to disappear from the right hand side of the screen? I can't imagine any of these folks want to pay another dime to get their message out after the election is over.
(My favorite was the Charles Lewis banner with the money being blown aside by the leaf blower that was my mouse.)
Posted by none | May 21, 2008 12:56 PM
Everyone deserves 15 minutes of fame.
Posted by Gerry Van Zandt | May 21, 2008 12:57 PM