I precise

as politely as
I can
as
we recover from
the holidays
here
on my small island

with your phrasing
Taliban?
perhaps
a little
too broad sworded
for our times

The English learnt …

for their pains
and for their troubles
during our civil war

Cheap shirted
sans coulotte
our labouring
peasants
my ancestors
our poor

Chopsticks
as William Cobbett
my hero
would say

All those

unpressed
unread
unschooled
who went
against

to fight

a king’s divine right

To tell them
what to think

The English….

Soon
discovered
how…

Life liberty and the pursuit of happiness

a century before it was written down
in your land

depends on which part
of a larger battle field
you hold your weapons
and stand on

They
lost

the Diggers
the Levellers

that’s
all

Michael
you
have media barons
And a media monarch
King Rupert
the First
to cash
in
already

why swap that majesty
for the
BBC
or
a
USBBC
when
for £4.5 billion
a year
all you get
back
is a monastery

Keep the faith

‘cos your money
spent
on
your media king

will only bring
you
costume bonnets
sci-fi
some shock-less jocks
and dancing
and news
that moves to the centre
chasing Fox

every time
it matters

No my friend
and I say this sweetly
let the old die peacefully

Do what you do best

Make citizen
publishers

poets

of us all

with warmest regards
ever

competition
i agree that competition can be a bit of a double edged sword but let’s be honest here, bleeds it leads will always be with us. it always has been. it’s important to recognize the good that comes from competition. it provides incentive for journalists to go after stories that aren’t being told. it leads to innovative approaches to storytelling. most importantly competition provides consumers more choice, which is a GREAT thing. if you don’t like o’reilly and fox news, stick with npr and the times. or avoid the big guys altogether. go to rosenblumtv to get inside information from an industry expert who writes and distributes his thoughts outside of mainstream altogether.

government
this section is particularly troubling. “a haven for the best journalists in the nation (as Harvard tenure, for example… ), where they can work unthreatened by layoffs or cutbacks.”

who decides who the best journalists are anyway? the government? the same federal government that created the mess in iraq? the same federal government responsible for medicare, medicaid and social security? the same federal government that’s bailing out financial institutions and the auto industry? you want these people to be in a position to make decisions about which journalist i shoud listen to? no thanks, i can figure that out myself.

faster, lighter, quicker
consolidating resources in one quasi-government entity would be a contradiction to everything you’ve advocated for over the years. the lighter cameras, lights and other gear allow for one man crews to head out and tell stories. whether working as a VJ for a paper, for network news or just as concerned citizen x. that’s the BEST PART about what’s going on right now. any one with a knack for storytelling, a good eye and a couple thousand bucks can get out and make something. and now they can DISTRIBUTE it as well. how exciting! people can bring camera’s in places they’ve never been before (think of sadaam’s hanging etc.) we’re entering an amazing era of proliferation of choice for consumers. a move toward consolidation could work against that movement by de-legitimizing citizen and VJ docs that are posted online. the newspaper industry, the government, the major networks and all of the people helping to shape the media landscape should encourage this type of engagement to add legitimacy to web 2.0 and user generated content. it would promote all kinds of new ideas and important conversations that might be otherwise ignored.

obama
to his credit obama’s use of new media and video on the web was extraordinary. he continues to use it in his excellent transition to power series online. he’s already made the weekly radio address into a weekly web video. smart. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy6aBVdOCg8 114,000 people who might not have listened to the address on the radio watched online. that’s engagement. they also ask for letters from citizens on issues that are important to them. viewers then create short videos with ideas or send in letters and the obama team reads back some of the good suggestions and talks about how they are hoping to incorporate the citizens ideas into obama’s policies. at the end of the day are the viewers really making policy for obama, no, but they are engaged in way that they haven’t been in years and i think that’s an extremely valuable thing.

depth, layers and choice
i think the key to the new media landscape is providing more choices and more ways to engage the consumer. say you have one very good story that’s worthy of a good 5 minute documentary style video. you need to repackage your content in several ways so that consumers can decide how little or how much they care to engage your idea/story. this means a one sentence TWEET on twitter, a headline and sub head on a website, a blog post with a short summary, a 30 second promo video with some sexy/interesting soundbites, the full five minute doc and a couple longer interviews with subjects of the documentary to supplement the original piece for those who can’t get enough of the story.

as you can see i feel pretty strongly about this. anyhow, take it for what it’s worth and thanks for making me look at things in a different way. i really appreciate your blog and your work.

dan hayes…

I agree with Michael – a U.S. equivalent of the BBC would do this country some good from a broadcast TV standpoint. Nothing to speak of is worth watching these days that actually informs except what I’ve seen on PBS.

It has a certain ring to it…

This is America, not Britain, not Holland or whatever socialist country you care to name. There was a day when Americans didn’t want Government involved in much of anything. For me, thats the way I believe it should be but unfortunately I’m starting to feel kind of lonely these days in this regard.

The “media’s” customers are going away, why is that? Because thats what happens in a free society when you no longer provide goods or a service that people want.

Who the hell wants more of the dribble that PBS or NPR have to offer? Michael, you say they are “Under funded”- come on, most of what they produce is crap, Government subsidized CRAP.

The news papers and the media (in general) are in trouble because they have become infested with hard core, agenda driven liberals and people have had enough, simple as that.

This Country voted for “change” and we are sure going to get it. Let the “change” begin!

Avery

Hey Michael, I understand one of my segments will air on “What’s Your Trip” this Saturday on Travel Channel. That is very cool, hope my free market views wont disqualify for consideration for future broadcasts : )