How to cover the death of a popular meteorologist

Here is Aaron Barnhart's take. I can assure you that although the decisions were most difficult at WDAF, we also struggled with how to tell and how much to tell about how Don Harman died.

Fox 4 struggles with death of meteorologist Don Harman - KansasCity.com

WCCO’s Chinatown Dog Meat Story

IRE and RTDNA need to do seminars on this incident at the next conventions.  Best case scenario is that the news director, reporter, producer (anyone who had their hands on it) participates in a panel discussion on what happened.  We can all learn from this.

Here’s WCCO’s Chinatown Dog Meat Story

48 years ago

I still remember the day when my president was killed. I was in the first grade. We were sent home early from school. I was wearing red boots and there were slippery patches of ice on the road. When I got home, both parents were watching TV.

They watched TV for three days.

We all did.

Modern Dallas coming to grips with Kennedy assassination

Powerful.

I hate it when this happens...watch all the way to the end.

This guy cracks me up.

Viewfinder BLUES: Some Kind of Monster: In an industry that keeps hiring younger and cheaper, it's almost impossible to age gracefully. And while I'm no longer the Velociphotog I ...

I love this.

A story of old-school entrepreneurial journalism:

When was the last time you received a personal letter in the mail? I received one recently from a woman I met at the Society of Professional Journalists conference in New Orleans in September and it totally made my day.

Becky Dickerson is the editor and publisher of The Community Current in tiny St. John, Wash. We “met” when Dickerson spoke up in the first of two sessions I did about entrepreneurial journalism at the conference and offered a quick version of her story: She started a community newspaper 17 years ago and serves 1,000 homes with a 24-page tabloid that prints every six weeks. (She was kind enough to include a copy of the paper with her letter.)

The town had been without a newspaper for 20 years when Dickerson decided to go into the business of news armed with a journalism degree and an affection for the town of St. John, which she calls “amazing.” (Her husband Todd runs the family farm.) She started the business with a simple letter to businesses asking them to advertise and a credit card to charge her printing expenses.

I spend most of my time talking about shiny new digital startups and the transformation of news in the digital age. But the basic principles that decide whether those businesses work or not are the same that Dickerson used. She met a need in the market and has been rewarded with a career as editor and publisher. While I’ve never visited St. John, I have to believe the community is stronger and much better informed because of her efforts. I wish I had met her in time to include her story in my new book.

Congratulations, Becky. And thanks for the letter.

Tip of the hat to the Pitch!

It's sweeps month. We give you a different reason to yell at your TV during the local news:

The days of KCTV Channel 5 busting dudes who have set out to bang underage kids? They’re likely over.…

[ Read more ]

This could be as close as we get to an NBA season.

Somebody has an NBA-themed washroom floor because it’s completely appropriate:
We don't know who built, uses or abuses this particular basketball court, but it is worth posting with the abject lack of basketball source material floating around the World Wide Web these days.

It's a bathroom floor painted like an NBA frontcourt. Complete with charge line under the, uh, rim.




As relayed to SB Matt Ryan earlier Wednesday, most of us would have Steve Kerr-type range for most of the day, but that dissipates into Joel Anthony-type range at certain points following a ride home from our local public house early on Sunday morning.

(Seriously, though ... a charge half-circle?)

(Via Midwest Sports Fans.)

Wow. Terrible timing or perfect orchestration by police?

Gil Scott-Heron Was Right:
The revolution is definitely not going to be televised












That ought to win them a local Emmy. The only thing it was missing was “A-bidi A-bidi A-bidi… That’s all folks!” and some Looney Tunes outro music…

Addictive website

Talk about short stories, here's a blog by a guy who wanted to write 101 words of fiction five days a week.  Read my one of my favorites and then click the random entry tab.

Again and again.

Excellent advice on protecting credibility

How to Manage Corrections, Clarifications & Retractions

One (correct) response to why the media should not turn over raw tape

I want!

Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera:

We present the Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera which captures a full spherical panorama when thrown into the air. At the peak of its flight, which is determined using an accelerometer, a full panoramic image is captured by 36 mobile phone camera modules.

[Via @Johl; Images courtesy of Jonas Pfeil, CC]

Here we go again

Kansas City Stations Refuse to Share Raw Footage with Investigators in Lisa Irwin Case - TVSpy

A Profound Workday

The 5 Principles of a Profound Workday:

‘Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.’ ~Laozi

Post written by Leo Babauta.

Let us toss out all we know for a moment.

Toss notions of productivity, time management, efficiency, and the bottom line.

Empty our workdays of all we’ve packed them with, and sit still with an empty room.

What should we put in this room? Do we want to spend our limited space on busy-ness, on making money, on quick transactions and calculated meetings?

What if we put into it only that which matters? What if we left everything else out?

We would be left with a workday that was poetry, profoundly beautiful.

(click the link above to read the rest!)

Parenthood

Parenthood.  Funny thing.  This morning on my walk, my iPod on "shuffle," this Enya song came on and I started thinking about a part of the lyrics:

One by one my leaves fall.
One by one my tales are told.

At 54, I'm staring mortality right in the face.  My children, at 29 and 24 years, respectively, no longer need me (except for cash, sometimes).

Jacquelyn Mitchard wrote a book entitled "Deep End of the Ocean" that I read even before it got onto Oprah's hit parade.  And because of that book, I bought another written by her.  "The Rest of Us" is a compilation of her columns and on our recent trip to New Orleans, I re-read it on the plane.

Her description of parenthood goes like this:

"...our sons and daughters are only passing through.  At first, they are of you, born to come to your arms.  Rapidly, they are with you, pausing only long enough for you to dab a few hurried strokes of paint on the canvas they are becoming--they are on their way to belonging to themselves, and then to the world.  If we are lucky, they always will consider our home their harbor, but they are headed out to the open sea, almost from the first."

I still consider the farm six miles north of Wagner, SD my harbor.  But which home, of the many we've had, will my children consider their harbor?  Germantown?  Kansas City?  Somewhere else?

I wonder.

More on the assault of a Milwaukee photojournalist

Your Right to Know: Photojournalist’s arrest is troubling incident

MICHELLE VETTERKIND | president and CEO of Wisconsin Broadcasters Association | Posted: Friday, October 7, 2011 6:00 am
On Sept. 19, Clinton Fillinger was arrested while doing his job — perhaps because he was doing it.
The 68-year-old veteran photojournalist, employed by Milwaukee’s WITI Fox6, was filming a house fire from behind yellow police tape.
A Milwaukee police sergeant approached and ordered Fillinger to move back, “all the way back.” Fillinger’s video appears to show him moving backward as he challenges the order: “If the public is out here, I’m allowed to be out here.”
Read more on Madison.com

This is getting ridiculous

Occupy Wall Street Arrests; Fox 5 Crew and Protesters Hit by Pepper Spray, Batons

Giant.

Steven Jobs on June 12, 2005

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."