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Thursday, November 30, 2006
Progress reporting 
| | Back in April 2005, Travis Armstrong, then the edirotial page editor of the Santa Barbara News-Press, wrote this in his column: |
| | I think it would be great if blogs became a challenge to journalists in Santa Barbara. It's all the better to have more people interested in public life in Santa Barbara and civilly debating ideas through varying outlets. |
| | But in scanning the Internet last week, I grew disappointed that the blog phenomena hasn't really taken off in Santa Barbara. |
| | The county Democratic Central Committee has one that could become an interesting read if some of the party higher-ups, rather than the hangers-on, begin contributing. Right now, it's mostly postings by the News-Press-obsessed Dan Ancona, the committee's media guy. |
| | Did I miss some great Santa Barbara blogs during my Web surf? The ones I've seen so far are like Fox News, all opinion and reacting but no reporting. They just tell people what they want to hear. E-mail the Web addresses of other blogs to me... |
| | I responded with both an email to Travis (that he never responded to) and a long post that both quoted the above and provided ample evidence of what he missed in his scan. |
| | I'm sure Travis knows about blogs now. These days Craig Smith alone cuts far deeper, and far more often, into what's left of the News-Press than Dan Ancona ever did. Today Craig surfaces a News-Press want ad that basically recruits reporters to serve in the paper's jihad against City Hall. Don't bother responding unless you're ready to dig in, dig up and dig around this town's ivory tower, the ad says. |
| | Craig correctly points out that the "ivory tower" label sticks far better to the News-Press than to any local institution. Sez Craig, I agree, the front page of the News-Press is "begging for unbiased, hard-hitting journalism." The problem is, the owner has chased off or fired every editor or journalist who dared to try to achieve that goal. Exacta-mundo. |
Relating
| | Nick notes, Ultimately it all boils down to a market ecosystem where we the customers supply ourselves with the help of other customers who have the skills to fulfill our needs. |
| | I'd add that the ecosystem we build will reward vendors who take advantage of that. Tag: VRM. |
Thought full
| | Steve Hargadon goes deep. A couple months ago, he conducted the most in-depth interview I've ever been through — and I enjoyed it to boot. |
| | — Do we believe that companies operate only on the pursuit of selfish interests? That would obviously be too broad a generalization, but Stephen gives the impression that no for-profit companies can be trusted. |
| | — Do we think that a free market, even with the problems we see today, ultimately produces the best long-term result? |
| | — While many talk about "selfish interest" being the driving force behind a free-market economy, might we not argue that "choice" and the freedom to make choices is just as compelling a rationale for the free market, and a better framework for providing moral guidance? |
| | Read (and listen to) the whole things. |
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