Regardless of attitudes towards the editorial policies of the daily press, the fact remains that professional news organizations staffed by professional journalists are our best, most reliable, source of major news stories. For all their alleged faults they are the only game in town.

(And what about network news programs? For the most part they seem to deliver information derived elsewhere. The exception of course are video photo-op ‘late-breaking’ stories of car crashes and fires. But the nature of the medium seems to preclude thoughtful, long-form features and backgrounders that we get in the print press.)

Bloggers would be hard pressed for the news they comment on if it weren’t for the stories developed by their professional brethren. But at the same time bloggers have held the professionals’ feet to the fire for not picking up on important, but ignored, stories.

As aggregators bloggers need stories to ‘aggregate.’ Nothing wrong with that. That function is important for bringing to the blogger’s special audience stories that might have otherwise been missed.

As news gatherers and investigators reporters have decided advantages over bloggers. In what follows I understand that there are always exceptions that prove the rule.

One of the greatest is that they are employed. Bloggers often have other jobs or full time obligations. If they don’t feel like writing, or haven’t the time, or are writing incompetently, there is no editor or publisher threatening unemployment. You can’t lay off someone who doesn’t work for you.

Reporters (providing there’s a benevolent nod from some assignment editor) have time to pursue an investigation or write a long-form feature. If they are short of ideas someone will surely ‘suggest’ that they get busy.

I believe that in journalism schools novice reporters are taught how to use all the public sources of information, and what they are…city agencies, public records like property reports, police reports, corporate records and so forth. There are lots of them. My guess is that bloggers are far from knowing them all.

Perhaps a reporter’s biggest advantage is what I think of as an “Implied Authority to Ask Questions.”  The reporter can call someone, identify himself or herself as from The Daily Blatt and at least expect to be listened to. (No answers to questions guaranteed, of course.)

If he tells the interviewed source that the conversation is “off the record” or “on background” that source has at least a reasonable expectation of the conditions being honored. But call up a possible source and say, “Hello, I’m Joe Bloggs could you comment on….” click.

For the coverage of local events bloggers may have some advantages over reporters. For the most part they write about material they already know and are interested in. They probably have sources they trust and who trust them; general assignment reporters, coming new to a topic, may may not.

Carolyn’s Community, and One Can a Week do an excellent job, as do our sports guys, Zoom Zoom Tucson, Comic Matters, Tucson Tails, and Views From Baja Arizona… to name only a few. (In my judgement Hugh Holub has provided the best coverage of the border in Southern Arizona.)

To round out the offerings we have enough cranky columnists and their annoyed commentators to satisfy just about any reader.

On a final note, we bloggers are expected to credit the material from which we quote. At least “A NY Times report says” and so on. The expectation doesn’t always go both ways. Sometimes we’re granted no more than “A local blog reports.” Oh? And which blog is that, and what news source is it published in? Attribution should be a two way street.

The answer is a definite “Who knows for sure.”

Beginning next week unlimited access to the NY Times on line will cost you 15 dollars every four weeks…195 bucks a year. If you are only an occasional reader something will still be free: Twenty articles in each calendar month.

The Time’s “pay wall” has fascinated (and in some cases outraged) the digerati… not because of some belief that information just wants to be free but because the pay wall seems so extremely porous. In fact it took a Canadian hacker his lunch time to come up with about four lines of code that anyone could use to get around the little overlay that warns you that your twenty free visits are through.

The Neiman Journalism Lab on Tuesday reported on NYTClean, a bookmark app for Web browsers that “in one click, tears down the Times’ paywall” designed by David Hayes, a Canadian programmer.

NYTClean reportedly was able to skirt the paywall with just four lines of code, the Neiman Lab said.

On his website, Hayes said he built NYTClean after realizing the March 28 paywall was already in effect in Canada, where the paper is testing its new system before worldwide rollout.

“I’ve gotten thousands, tens of thousands of hits since this went up yesterday, especially considering this was a lunchtime project,” Hayes said of NYTClean on his site. “You just can’t see a wall like this without wondering how you can get around it. I love the New York Times, don’t say that I forced you to not pay for it.”  (via LA Times)

If fussing with four lines of code seems too complex, there are other holes in the pay wall. If an article is quoted by an aggregator like Huffpo it won’t count as one of your twenty freebies; if it is cited on Facebook account, or on a Twitter account it’s not counted.

An oddity about Twitter accounts is that the Times own Twitter account lists a directory of New York Times journalists and newsroom accounts on Twitter. Go to your favorite columnists or sections and there you find all their recent posts… Free.

The Times’s pay wall is an interesting test bed for the future of American journalism. Should a newspaper be expected to give away its product simply because it is not in a  dead tree edition?

Several years ago the Times charged 50 dollars a year for access to its opinion columnists and here at The Data Port we happily paid up. The practice was discontinued (I believe) when the columnists themselves complained they had lost readers because of the practice.

NY Times management clearly believes that 195 dollars a year will not be a deal breaker. It remains to be seen.

Back in the day, Gannett owned a piece of TNI under the “Joint Operating Agreement” and shared ad revenue with the Star. Even after the death of the Tucson Citizen newspaper, which they no longer jointly operated as part of Tucson Newspapers, Inc., Gannett continued to get a portion of the advertising revenues earned by TNI.

The notion that something could still be jointly owned after nothing was being jointly operated has always struck The Data Port as a flat out evasion of the intent of establishing joint operating agreements in the first place. The intent was to help maintain the existence of print journalism.

We’ve been told that former TNI employees (the same ones who are now working for the Star Publishing Co.) have turned in their ID cards and business cards to be replaced by ones that do not reference Gannett.

What exactly does this name charge mean? Does Gannett now own part of Tucson Newspapers, Inc? Did the fiction of a joint operating agreement finally seem to be skating too near a violation of the spirit and intent joint operating agreement legislation? Or has Gannett stopped “sharing” the Star’s revenue?

And where does the Star’s owner…Lee Enterprises…fit in this arrangement.

It’s a puzzlement.

Al Jazeera America has been trying for some time for inclusion in one of the major cable networks but with almost no success. American audiences who want to view it must look at the Al Jazeera English program on line.

Two articles appearing in Salon give a good overview of what kind of news service Al Jazeera is.

The first, “Why Can’t We All Watch Al Jazeera” was written by Julia Dahl and was first published, at Guernica, in 2008. It gives a good picture of AJ’s rocky road toward acceptance as a legitimate news agency. The piece is long, but well worth the effort. (click)

The second article, “Al Jazeera’s Egypt Coverage Embarrasses U.S. Cable News Coverage” is by Alex Pareene and also appears in Salon.

The piece is a good deal more snarky than Dahl’s…but it does give some idea of the differences in coverage during the onset of the uprising. (click)

The major disadvantage of working at home is that you are never out of the office. Twenty-four hours a day you could be working. You can’t say, “By golly, if I were at the office I’d re-write that character sketch,” because you are at the office, it’s just down the hall from you. Hence, your worry pendulum swings relentlessly back and forth between work, guilt at not working, and anxiety about unfinished assignments. This is not relaxing. Rats.

That’s the reason many writers are driven to find an office someplace else: anything to get out of the house. That’s what I’ve done, and it seems to me lots of foothills people have done the same thing. Unfortunately they have all chosen my office space, but I try to treat this as just another opportunity to get to know my neighbors.

From my office window I  watch  SUVs  and luxury cars as ponderous as elephants, gingerly swap parking places;  angling in and out of the lot. My motorcycle is there, because I’m working today. Writing this, as a matter of fact. It’s quite likely that the guy with the white K100 BMW will swoop down from Tierra Serenas, leave his helmet on the bike, and pop in to meet a friend. A Harley rider is an occasional visitor, too. A real rider and not just a weekend warrior, judging from the mileage on his odometer.

(Bike people tend to sneak a peek at the other guy’s odometer the way dogs sniff rumps.)

Friends and intimates criticize me for my office  choice. I am deaf to the criticism, which most often (and annoyingly) takes the form that I spend too much for a cup of coffee. But that’s absurd. I’m not buying coffee at all, I’m renting office space.

Starbucks rents me the space. I get a table, a chair, and an executive washroom. If I beat the guy  writing the novel to the corner table by the electric outlet, I get power for my laptop. Best of all the management throws in a cup of whatever is in the big urn behind the counter to say thanks for the business. Two bucks, change in the tip box. A deal.

We’re a varied group in my office complex. I see the two backgammon players are here today. The game is usually preceded by a discussion of what I assume are business documents, but now the papers have been stuffed into their purses, which are on the ground beside them, a cigarette is going and the game is on.

The novel writer is not here, but the distinguished older gentleman is. That’s the way I think of him, The Distinguished Older Gentleman. Always elegantly, if informally, dressed, razor-sharp crease in his slacks, polished shoes, shirt collar open but under a blue blazer with four gold buttons on each sleeve. Bent over papers, making a careful note or two with a pen and clearly thoughtful, he makes a fellow proud to be seen working here.

We do try to be reasonably discreet in our commercial activities so as not to disturb  the folks in the library… the man reading the biography of Churchill, the woman deep in a book of anatomical drawings, or the teacher tutoring a student for her SATs.

One day a young guy my grandpa would have called ‘a traveling man’ set up a complete office. He spread out over a table for four with cell phone, laptop, sample book, PDA, and calling list. Starbucks must have been very glad to see him because they gave him a super sized coffee-flavored beverage, a drink with a name six words long that ended in ‘latte’

Depending on the time of day we’ll see people who think this is just a place to buy coffee and visit, and that’s nice, too. It keeps you in touch with the community, rather like strolling around a busy village square: Three women planning  a gathering…geezers reading the newspapers… young people in hip huggers and  flip-flops…pretty much a fair sampling of who we are up here.

Now all I need is a time clock and a place to display my business cards. Need to write a proposal? The writer is in, but his coffee is cold.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

UPDATED August 7th to correct address blooper.

Millennium- The Story, a short film about Stieg Larsson, author of   The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, will be shown one time only at The Loft. Free.

Doors open at 10 am for the 11 am screening. There are no advance tickets and seating is strictly limited, so it’s first come first, first seated.

We’re big fans of Lisbeth Salander–she of the tattoo–and plan to get in line early, take our seats and settle back with a couple of “Millennium Mimosas” (not free) from the snack bar.

From The Loft’s announcement:

The MILLENNIUM trilogy by Swedish author Stieg Larsson is THE literary phenomenon of the last decade, with 15 million books sold worldwide, 25 translations in over 40 countries, and a movie (THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, based on the first novel in the trilogy) that has blasted box-office records all across the world. And now with the release of the movie version of THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, the second installment in the series, the Millennium saga continues …

This short (52 minute0 documentary portrait of Stieg Larsson reveals the story of an outstanding success – a worldwide phenomenon who, at the age of 50, died from a sudden heart attack before his first novel was even published. In the film, Larsson’s fascinating real-life story is analyzed by close friends and relatives; by his publisher, his journalist colleagues and by various professionals who have worked on the films, including Swedish producer Soren Staermose and leading actors Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist, who play Lizbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist.

The second film in the series, The Girl Who Played With Fire, opens at The Loft Friday, August 13th.

The Loft is located at 3233 East Speedway

Data Port: Open to All

It seems it’s time (again) to remind readers of  The Data Port’s policy on comments.

The Data Port does not censor, ban, or delete comments. The only exception might be if you chimed in with links to “genuine replica watches” or potions to renew my “vigah.”

If a post reveals a writer as some sort of troglodyte just emerging from a long winter’s nap…and surprised to find the world as it is… it will be evident to readers. On the other hand an opposition comment may be so illuminating as to change minds.

As regular readers must know I don’t intrude into the comment thread. I’ve had my say now you have yours.

I’ve been asked to post an occasional “open thread.” I have no objections in principle to open threads but I don’t think that’s the job of The Data Port. Perhaps you should take it up with our editor, Mark Evans.

In the meantime may I suggest starting your own column here?

Finally, everyone who has ever followed The Data Port knows that I oppose anonymous posting. I’ve always been proud to be a John Hancock sort of guy.  If what you have to say is worth posting it’s worth taking responsibility for. I’m through kicking at that particular net, though, since anonymous  posting, snarks and all, are accepted practice.

I’m Art Jacobson and I approve this message.

]]> http://tucsoncitizen.com/dataport/2010/04/09/data-port-comment-policy-and-open-threads/feed/ 25 http://tucsoncitizen.com/dataport/2009/07/14/chinese-wall-part-two/ http://tucsoncitizen.com/dataport/2009/07/14/chinese-wall-part-two/#comments Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:34:38 +0000 Art Jacobson http://tucsoncitizen.com/dataport/?p=75

Extra!

Some readers may have missed Andrew Alexander’s column in Sunday’s Washington Post. Alexander is the ombudsman at the Post and his column reported a major collapse of the Post’s Chinese Wall. Do take time to read it all.

The Post planned to sell access to a series of 11 off-the-record “salons,” intimate dinners at the home of publisher Katherine Weymouth. Alexander reports that the sponsorship fee would be up to $25,000.

Alexander’s lede: “The Washington Post’s ill-fated plan to sell sponsorships of off-the-record “salons” was an ethical lapse of monumental proportions.”

Might have been pointless, too. Pointless since the gatherings of Washington movers and shakers would be off the record.

Alexander again: “The Post’s internal stylebook equates “background” with “not for attribution,” meaning that statements and information can be reported and attributed to a confidential source.  But ‘off the record’ means ‘information cannot be used, either in the paper or in further reporting.’ So for newsroom personnel, any information gleaned at a salon dinner would be useless.”

Politico.com broke the story on July 2nd, disclosing a flyer soliciting sponsorship for an event scheduled for July 21st.

Alexander concludes: “The Post’s reputation now carries a lasting stain.”

Frankly, my dears, I don’t believe so; unless by “lasting” you mean no more than two weeks. Memories are short.

We need a new unit of measurement, a standard unit by which we measure and refer to the degree of annoyance, irritation, and aggravation caused by people, things or  states of affairs.

Let’s call this unit the Agro. Unlike the ohm or the watt its name is not derived from the name of a famous scientist. Trust me…there was no Ludovicus Agro or any such person.

According to the American Dictionary of Obscure Usage the term was first employed by professor Wilhelm Sackpfennig to express his annoyance with students who came to class unprepared.

“You have caused me much agro-vations,” he would declare. Later he shortened agro-vations to agros. “Mister Johnson, your translation has caused me two agros!”

His students thought this hilarious and for a semester or two undergraduates took up the term. With Sackpfennig’s retirement the expression fell out of use. Historians of slang assume it was replaced by expressions like “bummer,” “drag,” or “downer.”

Our individual levels of resistance to an agro attack are, of course, different. In my own case my teeth are set on edge to approximately the 2.75 agro level by folks who pronounce the words “restaurateur,” “entrepreneur,” and “liqueur” as if they rhymed with  the word “sewer”.

It is particularly annoying when these people are themselves restauratooers  or entreprenooers, but having identified the level and cause of my irritability I can simply relax  with a double shot of my favorite  liquoor.

Of course driving in traffic is an agro-enhanced experience nowadays. What are we to do with  Three-Agro-Arnie,  who refuses to get in line with the rest of us when the signs announce that traffic is funneling down to one lane?

While we honor the unwritten social compact that says things will go reasonably well if we stay cool and stay in line  ol’ Three-Agro-Arnie  rushes up to the spot where the lane narrows and then expects to nose in ahead of us. Someday we’ll all close up bumper to bumper  and make him sit there staring at the construction barriers until after rush hour.

I invite you, now, to add your own Agro.