Out of Focus
Can you have them shake hands instead? Since its inception, making television has been like reading tea leaves. You knew there was an audience out there, but you didn’t really know what they wanted. So you guessed, or dealt...
Read moreBrian Williams, اّبله, المعتوه, اّØمق, المغÙÙ„
دجل On Sunday, we did the opening session at RTNDA in Las Vegas. The RTNDA made a conscious decision to embrace the ‘New Journalism” and everyone on stage, in one way or another was a blogger.. or vlogger. The...
Read moreA Guide For the Perplexed
Francisco Aliwalas, videojournalist. There seems to be little question that the ‘VJ’ Revolution is going to happen. It is, of course, more than VJs. It is the entire move to a digtal platform, video online, on phones and all...
Read moreVJ Stations Here to Stay
It’s over! We win! …..and photo by PF Bentley When I started the whole VJ thing some 18 years ago, most people thought I was out of my mind. Technology has caught up with the concept. And now, so...
Read moreNothing Succeeds Like Failure
God’s number one programmer…. One of the reasons television has been so terrible until now is that no one could fail. Failure was too expensive. So we lived in fear. If you are writer, you fail all the time....
Read moreRTNDA Opening Session
Jeff Jarvis (thumb in foreground) takes the job…. Just finished the opening session at RTNDA here in Vegas. I gotta say this for RTNDA – they are grappling with digital, online and VJ issues up front. The entire opening...
Read moreVJ Academy Oversubscribed in 1 Day!
…sign me up!…. In 1937, Saudi Arabia was among the pooerst countries in the world. Think Somalia, but with nothing. Then, in 1937, an oil wildcatter named Frank Holmes, working for Standard Oil, without much evidence for anything, dropped...
Read moreThe Power of an Image
Do you ‘feel’ the power…… In the world of painting we have Picasso, Rembrandt or Jackson Pollack. In music we have Beethoven, Mozart or Bono. In literature, Shakespeare, Dickens or Melville. But in TV, whom do we have? Katie...
Read moreThe Ayatollah and Me
Thanks AK! The release of the British hostages from Iran brought back warm memories of how my TV career started. As it is Good Friday, I thought I would share them with you. I did not start off looking...
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