The Greater Fool - Why the newsroom is great!

The Reveal A New Radio Show from The Center for Investigative Reporting

Great new show called: 'The Reveal'

Public radio’s first investigative reporting series hits airwaves this weekend with the premiere of “Reveal.”This pilot is The Center for Investigative Reporting’s first foray into producing our own radio show, an effort made in collaboration with our partners at the Public Radio Exchange (PRX) – the digital and distribution powerhouse behind “The Moth Radio Hour,” “State of the Re:Union” and “WTF with Marc Maron.”

To learn more about the project, visit revealradio.org. Follow the show on Twitter at @Reveal and on Facebook at facebook.com/revealradio.

“Reveal” is a first-of-its-kind radio show that brings listeners deep into current investigations and captures the drama and high stakes of the reporting process. The show will break investigations from CIR and other news organizations from across the country and around the world. Impact will be a significant theme that will play into future episodes, as the broadcast reports to the audience what happened – or did not happen – as a result of the investigations.

See the review from the Columbia Journalism Review

Who What Why

This week in "What the media didn't warn you about", Russ Baker, a forensic journalist says:

We’re the products of our environment, and, in many respects, the media defines that environment. ... : the more you watch, the worse you perform on knowledge exams. 

Russ is defining the scope of the symptoms our corporate media monolith. But describing the disfunction  acknowledging the problem, is just the beginning. If we are to survive as a free nation, we need to deal with the hard realities, and dispense with easy answers. We must dispense with childish fantasy and become adults.

If vulnerability is the birthplace of change, innovation, and creativity, then America's sickness stems from its myth of invulnerability. We pretend to control things, we live in fear of change, and we use our media and our drugs to numb ourselves, but when you numb the pain you also numb the joy.

Glad to find another worthy journalistic effort at WHOWHATWHY.com

San Diego cop fears camera is weapon

At what point do we stop suppressing truth and force all police to wear recording devises all the time? Video Cameras are only dangerous to those who have something to hide.

Photography Is Not A Crime (PINAC) published a video of San Diego Police Officer, M. Reinhold, of the Western Division, 5215 Gaines Street, San Diego, CA 92110, Phone: (619) 692-4800

This is a direct result of the leadership of 

Chief William M. Lansdowne, and his Community Oriented Policing of Activists

Complaints

A citizen who is dissatisfied with police services or believes they have witnessed or been a victim of police misconduct can file a complaint using one or more of the following methods:

• By telephone to the San Diego Police Department Communications Division at (619) 531-2000. A supervisor will be dispatched to contact the reporting citizen as soon as possible.
• In person at any police facility.
• By telephone or in writing to the Chief of Police:
  1401 Broadway, MS 700, San Diego, CA 92101
  (619) 531-2777
  sdpdpolicechief@pd.sandiego.gov
• By telephone or in writing to the Internal Affairs Unit:
  1401 Broadway, MS 709, San Diego CA 92101
  (619) 531-2801
• To the Office of the Mayor, City of San Diego, 202 C Street, San Diego CA 92010
• In person, by telephone or by writing to the Citizen's Review Board on Police Practices:
  202 C Street, MS 9A, San Diego CA 92101
  (619) 236-6296
  citizensreviewboard@sandiego.gov
• By the Chief's Confidential Telephone Recorded Hotline at (619) 531-2672.

The Big Round Table

Following upon the heels of my ideas, this "Big Round Table" publisher has developed a KICKSTARTER campaign to rase money and start a web site. Marketplace Report

We seemed to have set off a bit of a journalistic firestorm yesterday by calling into question the sanctity of the editor’s role as sole arbiter of taste, especially in the new digital order in which we work, and read.

Twitter lit up with angry, and then angrier accusations that we were advocating “crowd-sourcing” that most sacred of roles, and, taking that logic a perilous step further, that without editors in the pilot’s seat, all manner of bad things would befall the state of stories. And writers, too!

The Big Roundtable is a storefront for longform journalism—pieces from 5,000 to 40,000 words—and a lab studying what and how readers read. The storefront will launch at the beginning of September 2013.

Mission

Stories that need to be told

Description

It is both an incubator and a launch pad: within the safe confines of a walled-off, password-protected site, the BRT becomes a place where writers can get feedback and gain an audience for their stories. Stories will be published in the Big Roundtable's store.

Nothing makes writers so happy as being read, being paid, and being in the company of other writers.

 http://twitter.com/brtable

Wealth Inequality in the USA

When 1% owns 40% of the wealth and the bottom 40% owns 1%, it may be time for the revolution.

Intelligence Vs. Journalism

"About Stratfor: Intelligence vs. Journalism is republished with permission of Stratfor."

Intelligence means three things to us. First, it is our method for gathering and processing information, which includes open-source publications in countries and languages all over the world and a large network of contacts.

Second, intelligence is how we critically examine and evaluate the context and predictive value of information, and it is how we connect our higher-level, strategic geopolitical framework to current events and breaking developments. We do not simply report what other articles or contacts say; rather, we evaluate their information for bias, agenda and context and only pass on what we find important and credible.

Third, we maintain a disciplined methodology and net assessments oriented toward forecasting -- explaining not only why something has happened but also what will happen next.

Empathetic Analysis

We seek to understand a country and its leaders in their own right, without bias or agenda. We maintain a fresh perspective and continually challenge preconceived notions. Because of this approach, we frequently depart from the conventional wisdom of the Western media. To reinforce this discipline, we have set up deliberate intellectual tensions to maintain a healthy level of interaction and rigorous debate among our entire team, so that no assumption or piece of information goes unchallenged.

Read more: Methodology | Stratfor 

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By their definition, STRATFOR GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE doesn't just collect the who, what, when, where, and how, of a story's past, but also analyze WHY, and infer "What's next?", to effectively predict the future.

I'm impressed with their model, and it may lead to a new form of business, to replace or perhaps supplement the traditional business model. Imagine, if a journalist can tell you the facts, but you will not pay for them, except by your attention and subject yourself to embedded advertising, but then that same reporter offers you an additional service, one that you must pay for, but is independent, expert, timely, and unique. Will you pay for their intelligence, analysis, and predictions? I believe that I would, and will.

With today's information technology, and the ability to collect revenue online, to bid and auction things of value, it may become possible to gain financially based upon your reputation for honest, accurate analysis and the educated forecast of upcoming events. Just as weathermen and stock-brokers were once trusted and valued moderators of information, in a world of increasing and accelerating uncertainty, having access to better intelligence focused minds, may increase the probability of success (survival), just as it always has.

The key will be to build a reputation worthy of trust.