An Open Letter to Les Moonves
Dear Mr. Moonves, With the announcement that Katic Couric will seek an early end to her contract with The CBS Evening News, and the equally dismal ratings for CBS This Morning, perhaps it is time to look for a...
Read moreCollateral Damage
During the Vietnam War it was called Collateral Damage. You called in air support and the next thing you knew, they were dropping explosives on your own position Bombing was not a precise science in those days. State of...
Read moreThe Canary in the Coalmine
still alive… but barely There is no question but that we have ‘dumbed down’ TV news. But has TV news ‘dumbed down’ society, or is TV news simply chasing a dumber public? For many years, I taught at New...
Read moreA Guy at a Desk with a Box Over His Shoulder
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz……… Same old… same old….. I travel all the time, and whenever I get to a new city, I go to the hotel and turn on the TV set. No matter what country I am in, I always know...
Read moreA Camera as the Pencil
[youtube=[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nhGl1VbAig&rel=1]] Sean Smith is a full time Videojournalist with The Guardian, the UK newspaper. He is one of a new breed of journalists who carry their own small digital camera and report on their own. Last week he won...
Read moreVJ and The Election
If the first place new technologies find their ‘home’ is pornography, the second is generally politics. (Not that the two are that closely related). An article in yesterday’s NY Times brought this point into sharp focus. The demands of...
Read moreWhat Local News Can Learn from Obama
He rates well in a good demo… Presidential primaries are a lot like television shows. You roll out your pilots, and the ones that rate get commissioned. The ones that don’t rate die. The Chris Dodd Show, for example,...
Read moreThe Write Stuff
Did ‘writing for broadcast’ start with him? I was in the back of a taxi this afternoon, and the taxi had a TV in it.
Read moreThe "Talent" Trap
What’s it worth? The notion of ‘on air talent’ represents an interesting dilema for local and network news, particularly as video heads for the non-linear web.
Read moreThe Ministry of Truth
“and that’s the way it is…” Yesterday and today we have been teaching a VJ course at CUNY’s new Graduate School of Journalism.
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