Jared W. Smith

WCBD, Charleston’s NBC affiliate, is launching a huge push into social media today by getting a majority of its news staff on Twitter. This is huge — I can’t say I’ve seen too many news agencies place a majority of their staff out into the wild amongst the Twitter-using public. Everybody from the anchors to the photogs is on and listening. Just today I was having a converation with morning anchor Brad Franko during the A-Rod (A-Roid?) press conference. WCBD’s had a presence on Twitter for a while, starting with producer Raymond Owens. Raymond was the first of the television journalists — and among the first of the journalists in Charleston in general — to make news a conversation over Twitter. That struck me. I was particularly pleased when chief meteorologist Rob Fowler joined up later, and gradually more and more folks at the channel started to tweet. I still think one of the marvels of Twitter is how it brings the people together with the media; with media listening in on what people are talking about over Twitter, it helps them serve our interests that much more effectively.

So, with that in mind, I’ve put together a few things that WCBD — and other news organizations tempted to take the social media plunge — should give a shot. read more »

The Weather Channel’s days as a privately owned cable network are numbered. There’s a lot of wondering why they’re up for sale for as much $5 billion. They certainly have prime-time Web real estate (weather.com), but I think people underestimate their IntelliStar platform. The IntelliStar, the latest iteration of the computer which serves up that Local on the 8s you’ve come to know and love over the years, is secretly one of the better advertising platforms out there on cable. Check out this Broadcasting & Cable piece from 2004, when IntelliStar was introduced. In short, the computer can serve up commercials based on weather conditions you may be experiencing. Now, imagine this technology licensed out. It’s amazing they haven’t done that yet…and one almost wonders if they’ve missed the boat. Cable isn’t exactly what it used to be on an excitement scale as far as a media delivery platform.

The big loser is O.J. What else do I need to say? On the very day his confession-to-murder book comes out, he decides to pull off an armed robbery. Does he want to go to jail? Seems like it.

– John Gibson, The Big Story (FOX News), Friday, Sept. 21

I know Juice isn’t a popular guy, but this is one of the most blatant examples of the media convicting someone before they’ve even been tried. Gibson plays judge, jury, and executioner here, and that is just irresponsible. This is a line I see in my broadcast news textbook that I would have to edit out for ethical reasons. Amazing.

I saw a note in the “RIP 96Wave” Facebook group that 96Wave’s website is back — it looks as if, at the very least, the Wave will return as a webcaster. There’s no sign, though, that it will hit FM again. Regardless, it looks like the people have been heard, and that’s such a cool thing.

So Tropical Storm Barry kicked off the season at about 5:00 last night, and I joked that now that the rain will have a name, The Weather Channel will send crews and stuff and cue up the hurricane themes and stuff.

Well, I’ll be damned if they don’t have the radar inset going (once reserved for really rough weather) and they have Mike Bettes on location at Punta Gorda, FL. Sigh. Folks, it’s rain. It’s named. The Southeast sure as hell needs it. There’s no need to send a crew to a rainstorm with a little wind that happens to have a name because it got itself together enough to spin up to 40 mph for a few hours.

The crying wolf factor is something that the media really has to guard against, and it looks like their lesson has not been learned…

CNN:

Rosie O’Donnell’s stormy tenure on “The View” will be a short one. The opinionated host was unable to agree on a contract with ABC, and she’ll leave the show in June.

“My needs for the future just didn’t dovetail with what ABC was able to offer me,” O’Donnell said in a statement Wednesday.

“This has been an amazing experience,” she said, “and one I wouldn’t have traded for the world.”

I get the feeling that, somehow, Bill O’Reilly will take credit for “forcing” her departure…

While the world is mourning the terrible tragedy at Virginia Tech, there are reckless xenophobic bigots in the blogosphere who automatically pinned it on a Muslim before knowing any of the facts of the case. Upon learning the facts, she called for a reduction in foreign student visas. Ridiculous. It’s folks like Ms. Schlussel who make the blogosphere look incredibly amateurish, extremist, and immature. People like her absolutely poison the public discourse of the country, and she and her followers should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. Maybe Tim O’Reilly was on to something…