CNN Camerawoman Fights Back

We Will Not Walk in Fear

We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men. 

- Edward R. Murrow

CNN Vs. Science

In a bizarre and disheartening move today, CNN announced they are lopping off their entire science department, including technology and environment staff and their chief technology and environment correspondent, Miles O'Brien. In an age where there's so much misinformation and ignorance around important scientific subjects, I can think of other areas , which could've been cut (or at least reduced in their scope) and brought greater integrity to CNN as a news-gathering enterprise, rather than just another channel for entertainment. Call me an idealist, but news should be more about what we need to know and less about that which we simply want to know.

(Via CJR )

Broadcast Yourself

The video ain't much to look at, but I just tried Qik, which allows you to live stream video from your mobile phone to the Qik Web site. That video is broadcast publicly (unless you choose otherwise), and automatically saved to your profile. Set up, as the name suggest, was very quick, and operating the installed application from my cell, astonishingly easy. I'd say the implications of this sort of technology for citizen journalism are huge.

Fashion Forward: The New WWD.com

I'm proud to announce the launch of the new WWD.com in Beta. Women's Wear Daily is the fashion industry paper sometimes referred to as "the fashion bible." It's been published in one form or another for almost 100 years.

Updates to the Web site include image search, improved slideshow functionality, the ability to clip and save images and articles, as well as an improved navigational structure for browsing and discovering great fashion journalism.

My role in this effort was as senior content strategist, and I had the pleasure of working with many of my fine colleagues from Avenue A | Razorfish, as well as the talented staff at Women's Wear Daily.

RIP Tim Russert

Big Tim Russert died today, way too young for such a talented and gregarious journalist and gentleman. Apparently, Russert paused mid-narration and died of a heart attack.

The most extraordinary thing about him was that he just had such unparalleled empathy for whoever he was talking with. You never had the feeling he was trying to get somebody, he just wanted to get them to talk and wanted to get the record straight and his emotional self was as strong as his intellect. As a journalist there was such a strength of his person who everyone who knew him knew. He was just beloved. - Doris Kearns Goodwin

Go Bills.

Russert's NYT obit

iReport: The Changing Village

Thought I'd try my hand at a report for CNN's citizen journalism site iReport. I simply took a couple of my photos from Flickr and coupled them to a brief update on the gentrification of the East Village. The result: The Changing Village.

The experience? Well, I was hoping to be able to go into the report and update it later, but that doesn't appear to be an option. I can understand why, given that people have the ability to comment on the stories, and some users might change their stories to an extent that they render the comments out-dated. Nonetheless, TV and print journalists often do get to update or repackage their stories, and I'd hope to see that experience replicated here. I suppose you could always create a 2nd story incorporating much of the same content.

Nonetheless, my story's currently on the homepage, so that's pretty darn cool.