News on digital news

Thanks to Ted Gest of Criminal Justice Journalists for bringing the latest Chicago Tribune story on the firing of their crime-beat reporter Amy Jacobson to our attention. Jacobson is the reporter who was fired after a video surfaced showing her in a bathing suit near the pool at the home of Craig Stebic, whose wife Lisa The new report about Jacobson’s firing said that part of the reason she was dismissed was that she called police to share information that Stebic had told her.

The article cites journalism ethicists who criticize Jacobson for acting more like an undercover cop than a journalist. While I agree with them, the fact remains that it is difficult to persuade the general public that protecting journalistic integrity is more important than doing whatever we can to bring a potential murderer to justice.

To most people, it seems like common sense that reporters should help police when they can. The notion that journalists should “stay in their lane” and not cross over to become police informants seems callous, further proof that most journalists do not have a heart. Especially in this era, the profession must do a better job of explaining why journalists do what they do.

Part of the challenge is teaching young people what journalism is all about. Important as well is challenging the unrelenting spin that reporters are part of the problem. Craig Crawford’s book Attack the Messenger details the political campaign to undermine public confidence in journalism.

I was toodling around the Web this morning trolling for news, and this is what I saw:

	LSJ - The Lansing State Journal’s multimedia site offered video clips of last night’s Common Ground concert. But not for me. No video ever appeared.
	Boston Globe - I wanted to learn more about the epoxy problems with the Big Dig project. Hmmm. Where is that article?
	New York Times - Stanley Fish sometimes makes my blood boil, but not if I can’t read him.

Like many Web surfers, I ran into problems because I was using a non-standard Web browser or I didn’t have the latest version of a plug-in like Flash. But why don’t these sites do what they can to accommodate me? They should at least acknowledge that my browser won’t work (and offer me a chance to download and install one that will). Or send me to the place to download the newest plug-in.

Bill Gates may not want to hear this, but some of us use browsers other than MSIE (Microsoft Internet Explorer). I prefer Firefox or Mozilla, because fewer hackers and hijackers target them. Others love Opera, while many Applefans use Safari.

According to , the latest (June 2007) figures from Browser Statistics, six out of 10 Web surfers use MSIE, but one out of three uses Firefox. (Mozilla and Safari come in a 2% each.) In this era, can any news organization afford to irritate (or ignore) any visitors?

There are solutions, though it takes time and effort to make them work. So-called “sniffer” scripts are javascript coding that sniffs out whether you have the optimal browser or the latest plug-in required.

Web Reference and Dynamic Drive offer tutorials and scripts that work to detect different browsers. Adobe’s Dreamweaver offers help on including a Flash sniffer script when you add Flash video. Jim’s JavaScript also offers some Flash solutions.

Best bet is to try out your Web site in various browsers and install fixes for most if not all problems. In this competitive era, even the New York Times cannot afford to write off visitors like me.

Media Bistro offers an article called “Blog your way into writing work.” The piece doesn’t mention the success stories that gladden every blogger’s heart. Ana Marie Cox goes from being Wonkette to Time, where she will soon be joined by Brian Stelter who invented TV Newser.

While much of the advice seems obvious (post often, cross-link with other bloggers), Natalie Bovis-Nelsen tells us that one of her blogfans sent celebrity cook Rachel Ray’s folks a link to Natalie’s “The Liquid Muse” blog that resulted in a paid freelance piece on Thanksgiving cocktails. Not as good as a six-figure gig at Time perhaps, but progress nonetheless.

The Detroit Free Press has been nominated for three Emmy awards. Come again? Emmy nominations for a newspaper?

Ah, but yes, in this era where online news blurs the lines, the Freep may well win an Emmy in the broadband division. Michigan’s Band of Brothers, an online enterprise package about Michigan Marines in Iraq, has been nominated for broadband video in the (1) outstanding news coverage, (2) outstanding arts, lifestyles & culture programming and (3) regional news categories. In this jumbled new world, the Freep finds itself competing against news organizations ranging from Frontline to the National Geographic.

Blogs have been buzzing about the continuing confrontation between Michael Moore and Wolf Blitzer over CNN’s “Reality Check” segment on Michael Moore’s new movie “Sicko.”

Round One occurred yesterday when Moore appeared on CNN’s Situation Room, apparently the first time in three years he has done so. In addition to complaining about the CNN segment done by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, which Moore said amounted to an apologia for the insurance companies and Big Pharma, Moore castigated CNN for being part of the mainstream media that brought us the War in Iraq, among other sins.

Michigan Liberal offered up a YouTube clip of Round One. Moore is appearing on Blitzer’s show again today and later tonight with Gupta on Larry King. Among the questions inquiring minds want the answer to: Can the MSM ever do a “Reality Check” on anything without finding at least some fault? (Keith Olbermann proposed tonight on MSNBC that journalistic objectivity on TV often devolves into providing “scientific balance” from “the doctor in the tinfoil hat” who “doesn’t believe in gravity.”)