Listen Up, You Elitist Media Types

by: kelster

Thu Oct 02, 2008 at 07:36:04 AM EDT

The Columbia School of Journalism (formerly known as that hotbed of Prius-driving, hemp-wearing locavores) has seen the light.

Deeply penitent over their decades of journalistic excellence, the folks at CSJ are just sick about the behavior of their colleagues during this election season. To battle the menace of responsible reporting, CSJ has developed Gotchaware:

This behavior simply cannot continue. The audacity we’ve seen in our media of late—Katie Couric, as you may have heard, recently had the temerity to ask Palin about the economy—is becoming a disgrace to the profession, and an insult to all Americans. Those who care about journalism and its future must unite against such misbegotten attempts to inform the electorate.

Therefore, to patrol the situation—and, we hope, to remedy it—we’ve developed specialized software that will allow us to track the levels of gotcha-ism present in each and every one of the four interviews conducted between Sarah Palin and members of the media. Gotchaware™ uses a complex algorithm—accounting for, among other things, elapsed seconds of Awkward Pause between the interviewer’s questions and the interviewee’s answers, the degree of inquisitive head-cocking on the part of the interviewer, the centrifugal force of the interviewer’s professorial foot-circling, and the number of undergraduate institutions attended, in all, by both participants—to calibrate with remarkable precision the glib elitism and all-out maliciousness a journalist betrays in his or her interview.

For more details, as well as helpful examples of how GotchaWare works, visit CSJ

Hillary Clinton campaigns in Detroit to Michigan AFL-CIO

by: pwreid

Sat Jun 09, 2007 at 17:31:08 PM EDT

The AFL-CIO, as part of their initiative Working Families Vote 2008 offered Democratic candidates a town hall in their choice in one of 15 cities across the U.S. including Sacramento, CA, Seattle WA, Trenton, NJ, Miami FL, Phoenix AZ.  Senator Clinton picked Detroit, MI a key location for more than 600,000 Michigan AFL-CIO members.  Each town hall provides the opportunity for union members to ask unscreened questions and receive unscripted answers from the candidates. 

Thanks to an excellent crowd warm-up by "The Motown Diva" and AFT organizer Lynn Marie Smith(search for "The Motown Diva") and some brief remarks by Metro Detroit President Saundra Williams and Michigan AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney (recent interview), Senator Clinton covered several topics including the anti-labor policies of the Bush Administration, Globalization, Health Care, and  Energy Policy (Michigan's "perfect storm analogy"). 

Senator Clinton also discussed reforms to "No Child Left Behind", the War in Iraq, The Employee Free Choice Act, her opposition to free-trade agreements like the Korea-U.S. Free-Trade Agreement.

Quotes of interest:  "Michigan needs extra help right now."  "If you are in a union, you are invisible to this (Bush) administration."  "We need universal health care."  "We need Smart Trade (free and fair trade with aggressive enforcement)." "I've been to 82 countries, if I don't know the leaders there, then my husband does".

Hillary demonstrated a through understanding of all the topics in her talk and topics of interest to the union members who asked  questions.  Clinton was also very empathetic to the union member panel speakers, their individual issues and concerns, and responded to their actual questions versus a canned "talking point". 

After the event ended, I talked to one of the attendees heading out who said she saw John Edwards at the Michigan Democratic Party Jeff-Jack Dinner dinner and was all set for vote for him.  Having heard Senator Clinton, she was now undecided.  I asked her if her heart was with Edwards, but her head was with Clinton, she said "yes, you could say that".