Wolf Tracking

By now, everyone has heard of the on-air brouhaha between Rosie O’Donnell and Elizabeth Hasselbeck on The View last week. At first glance, there’s not much to talk about, right? Republicans and democrats debating politics again…

Beyond the questionable fact that this firestorm happened during May sweeps (hmmm), the interesting part of this story is Rosie O’Donnell’s online commentary.

Almost immediately after the show, Rosie started answering reader inquiries on her blog and called into question her return to the show before it was publicly announced that she would not be fulfilling the final three weeks of her contract.

In the days following, Rosie went on to post poems, research and commentary supporting her point of view, and two videos. The first video, set to the tune of Cyndi Lauper’s Sisters of Avalon and entitled “True Colors 2007,” featured a quasi-sentimental scrap book of Elizabeth, Barbara Walters and Rosie.

On Saturday, three days after the incident, Rosie openly discussed her “shock” at the show and its producers for “split screening” her and Elizabeth in the heat of the argument. She also responded to rumors on her trashing her dressing room, confirmed that a colleague drew a mustache on posters of Elizabeth when leaving the studio, and said that she’s never worked harder on being someone’s friend than with Elizabeth. Oh…and did I mention that she is openly drinking alcohol during this post?

Using her blog, not only did Rosie comment on industry speculation, she added fuel to the fire by making it personal. Rosie sensationalized the story further and continued to generate headlines. Media across the nation showed images from her blog and even excerpts of the videos picured above.

If she hadn’t continued to comment, especially in the unique manner that she did, the story would have been over by Thursday. It’s a situation that shows how new media can be used to anyone’s advantage…for any personal or professional gain.

Over the past week, baseball fans in all markets thrilled to Interleague matchups that are designed to bring teams together that would only play each other in the World Series under normal circumstances. It exposes up-and-coming players to a larger audience, and gives the fans more action to follow throughout the season. Earlier this year, it looked like Interleague series might be the only way a lot of fans could see their favorite teams, especially if they play in a different media market.

Just as Spring Training was drawing to a close in March, the nation’s cable operators, the office of the Commissioner of Baseball, and even Congress were all involved in a bitter standoff over which carriers could broadcast out-of-market games. In a nutshell, MLB would only allow operators to carry baseball’s complete games package, Extra Innings, if they agreed to deliver the year-round MLB Channel (a long-delayed project that could be described as a glimmer in Bud Selig’s eye, at best) to all of their subscribers.

To the dismay of many fans, DirecTV agreed to a 7-year, $700 million deal that would give them exclusive rights to Extra Innings, so any fans that follow an out-of-market team would be forced to get a dish and subscribe. At the 11^th hour, MLB went back to negotiations, and finally struck a deal with all the major cable providers. While I understand the league’s need to maintain the value of its property, the fans that they fought so hard to win back after the 1994 players’ strike might get fed up if squabbles over TV rights become the norm.

One factor that went surprisingly under the radar during the whole affair is the relative shelf life of the product – in this case, region-free live sports broadcasts. With a host of exciting new distribution technologies on the horizon, Major League Baseball and other content providers would be wise to pull down the walls surrounding their content, and concentrate on driving revenue by advertising to a much larger audience.

Affordable, novel hardware like the Slingbox and Apple’s iTV makes moving online content across multiple devices a snap. Convenient living room access to a world of entertainment, sports and news broadcasts means content disputes, like the one baseball fans got mired in, will go the way of the dodo.

It doesn’t end with hardware, either. The rapidly-evolving IPTV space will deliver an unprecedented amount of content to a global audience – so the national pastime can find new fans in South Korea, while viewers in South Dakota can check out this “cricket” they’ve heard so much about. Smarter ad models that match out-of-market program with local advertising, and incorporating sharper demographics targeting, will ensure that programming remains valuable in its appeal to a broader, global audience.

When content is free of bonds like subscriber-only access and territorial lockout, everybody wins. Play ball!

On a typical NBC airing of Fear Factor back in the heyday of snacking on roaches and swimming with eels, everyone had and knew their role. Contestants grossed us out, the host initiated a sense of competition and the audience was grossed out. It got me thinking that a stint on reality TV would have been a better fate for Katie and the Couric Factor because she’d have a clear role.

This week, New York Times reporter Bill Carter penned the article; “Is It the Woman Thing, or Is It Katie Couric?” that examined Couric’s contributions eight months on the job. The headline was no doubt a softer jab than others have taken because of Couric’s first-mover status as a female network anchor, but a jab nonetheless when splashed in a headline.

I don’t really know why it troubled me enough to write, as I’m not a big fan of Couric, but it did. For years, I’ve been disappointed (like many) by the quality and focus of network and cable news. Somehow over the past two decades, it became way too ok to blur the boundaries between news and entertainment, making it much more difficult to hear or tell relevant news stories.

It also felt like a much bigger deal in years past when a journalist or producer made factual errors. I’ll never forget watching the network and cable coverage of Richard Jewel, the security guard that aided victims of the Atlanta Olympic bombing. He was crucified on national television, as anchors and morning news hosts alike cited the National Enquirer in their reports of his involvement in the bombings. That was a sad week for people in the news business.

How about a more recent example, the 2000 election? Gore won Florida!…No Bush won Florida!…No wait, we don’t know who won! Jayson Blair beat the plagiarizing drum at the New York Times and Dan the Man would have rather not served as the reminder about verifying sources. Those incidents only left bruises that faded over time.

As media scrutiny continues to center on Couric and the CBS News team, its worth noting that there are a lot of reasons why people no longer choose network news that have very little to do with casting. I happened to have recorded Couric’s first couple of nights as anchor and it reminded me of those live episodes of NBC’s ER and The West Wing. Nothing about the broadcasts felt sure-footed. I don’t think it was a “woman thing” and as a viewer the impression I was left with was that a ton of effort and fanfare was put into a party neither Couric nor the audience could enjoy.

If CBS really wants to catapult to number two, or fight for the top spot, it is well within reach. Consumers have way too much choice these days to ever be more than fair-weather fans of network and cable news. Just like social media, it is content that is king. Why do you think we love those minute-by-minute reminders about when the weather report will begin during the local news? I like to catch all three network reports and compare them. As viewers, we want what we want, when we want it.

What CBS and newsies should do is focus more on being better journalists and telling richer stories, and less on touting an anchor’s star power. It would be incredibly refreshing to see CBS to take a team approach like the New England Patriots. No one really likes coach Belichick, but everyone knows where he stands — and that if you’re standing with him you’re part of a team with a common goal. If CBS deepened its lineup with talented journalists like Cynthia McFaddon, Brian Ross, John Seigenthaler or John Quiñones, there would be more reason to watch because better stories would be told. Lose the gimmicks, set aside the splashy sets. If sets mattered, YouTube would not be nearly as popular as it is today. They can also better leverage technology, content and talent to strengthen local news lead-ins. Look at how quickly PerezHilton took off; personality and content go a long way locally and globally.

Couric’s most memorable moments occur when she’s truly committed to the story. Ironically, when you’re anchor those high-touch interviews that create real, appealing moments are often reserved for arms-length guests. With so many stories to tell, all networks can do a better job of prioritizing stories that matter. It is an exciting time to be a journalist. It is also an incredibly difficult time to be a journalist! The biggest turn-on as a viewer is seeing reporters passionate about telling worthwhile stories and getting them right. It’s the biggest rush we as media professionals get working with journalists.

Good stories create moments that can live online and in offline conversations. There was some great reporting during the coverage of Hurricane Katrina and it brought people back to network news. There are plenty more stories left to tell and journalists like Couric have a responsibility to pursue and share them. CBS and other news sources can do better job regardless of if there is a man or women at the helm. An anchor can keep a team grounded, but it takes a whole crew working together to man or wo-man the ship.

Here’s an interesting perspective on the role of media watchdogs and the company they keep; http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itgic/0401/ijge/gj05.htm

When he’s not busy giving away piles of money, Bill Gates likes to pop his head into the technology press once in a while to make a few predictions and remind everyone that there’s someone out there even more loaded than Warren Buffet. The latest instance came at this week’s Strategic Account Summit, a gathering of Microsoft’s advertising partners.

In his keynote speech, Gates outlined a future in which digital media pervades every aspect of our lives - with music, video, news, phone calls and presumably eternal bliss being delivered to everyone through an all-in-one wireless device.

All this digital excitement won’t leave room for the printing press, Gates claims - all reading will be conducted “completely online” in the future, supported by targeted advertising. Sounds like a hoot - pretty soon we’ll be wondering how people ever read George Orwell’s 1984 without the iconic Apple ad to keep them company! Hey kids, this Civil War chapter in your history book is brought to you by Cap’n Crunch!

It’s no accident that the Strategic Account Summit was deemed worthy of an appearance by Microsoft’s patriarch. As Windows Live matures and Microsoft customers get more of their services for free on the Web instead of buying expensive software, advertisers will be responsible for keeping Microsoft’s $50 billion revenue stream from disappearing. That’s why Google is giving Steve Ballmer sleepless nights - in the world of online advertising, Google is Bill Clinton and MSN is Roger Clinton. Even adding Yahoo! to their stable wouldn’t change that fact.

So before you start throwing away your book collection and awaiting the inevitable, it’s worth noting that Bill Gates also predicted in 2004 that the email spam problem would be “solved” in two years. That hasn’t quite panned out.

Yes, Bill Gates is insanely rich. Yes, Bill Gates is insanely smart. And yes, Bill Gates is correct that digital media will change the way we live in years to come. But will Microsoft have the foresight to lead the charge?

Now might be a good time for Bill Gates to borrow the Oracle of Omaha’s crystal ball for a few years.

Have you ever wondered how high school students perceive the war in Iraq?

Or how pre-teens are impacted by national news headlines especially today with everything that is going on in the world?

Well, the Kid Witness News (KWN) education program, supported by Panasonic (I should probably mention that we do public relations for the company) in conjunction with more than 200 public schools in the U.S. and seventeen countries, does just that. The program provides economically disadvantaged students with the chance to show others the world through their eyes and in their voice.

Currently in its 17th year, KWN has touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of young students across the world affording them the opportunity to create and learn through the use of digital video technology. Each year hundreds of participating students write, produce, act in and edit videos on a variety of news or curriculum based topics. These children are extraordinary and could be the next Barbara Walters or Brian Williams!

This year six Spotlight Award winning videos will be honored at the annual KWN New Vision Awards on May 7 in Secaucus, NJ.

Here’s a list of the students/schools and their project descriptions:

Documentary

“We Will Not Fight: Draft Resistance in The Vietnam War”

School Without Walls, Washington, D.C. – Students in grades 9-12 ranging in age from 14-18.

Students take a look back during the era of The Vietnam War and learn that sometimes, if you don’t learn from the past, there is a chance of history repeating itself.

Health, Science & Technology

“The ABC’s of Smoke Detector Safety”

PS 41, Brooklyn, NY – Students in grades 3-8 ranging in age from 9-14.

With approximately 7 million Americans currently not equipped with a smoke alarm*, the students hope to raise awareness for these often ignored life and home savers.

*The 2006 Fire Safety Census - conducted by Liberty Mutual and the International Association of Fire Fighters

News

“Education-The Times is Now”

Gordon Parks Academy, East Orange, NJ – Students in grades 4-6 ranging in age from 9-13

Having improved since the standards of the No Child Left Behind Act, several sixth grade students highlight how their school’s “Each One, Teach One” program is getting everyone in on the initiative.

PSA

“At Risk Students”

Jere Baxter Middle School, Nashville, TN – Students in grades 5-8 ranging in age from 13-15.

This class is striving to be part of the nine percent of at risk students who will earn a college degree while knowing they WILL make it and encouraging others in the process.

Local Hero

“Chicago’s Finest Choklit”

Marcus Garvey School, Chicago, IL – Students in grades 5-8 ranging in age from 10-13.

An unlikely hero reaches students over the air waves and encourages them to be themselves, do their best and the value of education.

Fiction Comedy/Drama

“Standardized Testing With The Right Attitude”

Ernest Hemingway Elementary School, Ketchum, ID – Students in 5th grade ages 10-11.

A glimpse of how three very different students prepare for a major test – each ultimately learning how to ‘let it flow’.

With much of the news focus on technologies, environmental issues, war, peace, the global economy, its worth engaging those people that will be affected the most, our kids. As a mother of an 11 year-old daughter, I know from first-hand experience, kids are informed, they care about issues and they have a lot of interesting things to say, so we should start listening to them!

Here are some links to kid-run websites. You just might get a better read about your future customers…

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/kids

http://www.kidsnewsroom.org

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK

http://www.headlinespot.com/for/kids

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org

http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/index.asp

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/kidspost/orbit/kidspost.html