Metro Pulse waxes interactive, talks about online commenting

Metro Pulse has a great article about online comments on news sites. It's a debate I've been involved in several times, both in my own newsroom and in public forums--real and virtual.

I thought I was going to be strung up earlier this year when I proclaimed to a filled room at the Baker Center that I think online comments should be unmoderated, because I feel it's wrong to abridge speech and expression. (By "unmoderated," I mean edited in anyway or otherwise pre-approved before being published.) This is not a Constitutional issue for me, because news organizations are private businesses, and there's nothing that says they must provide a forum for public discourse. For me, it's a matter of principal.

Allowing comments on news stories is a way to offer a venue for speech and expression. Moderating comments is subjective. Someone has to say what's appropriate and what isn't, and for me, as a journalist, I don't think news professionals should be in the business of deciding what constitutes appropriate speech, expression or point of view. It goes against that whole "objectivity" thing they teach you about in J-school. That, of course is just my opinion.

I don't think all news organizations have an obligation to offer the ability to comment on stories. I just think it should be all or nothing. Either you allow comments or you don't. Maintaining comments this way has the added benefit of limiting the liability of the news organization in question. Moderating comments increases liability, because responsibility for that comment moves from the poster to the host-er.

According to law firm Bullivant Houser Bailey PC:

"Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act shelters from liability a provider of an 'interactive computer service that merely publishes information provided by others. As such, if the interactive computer service is merely a passive repository and publisher of information, then it may not be liable under the act if the public posting is harmful or defamatory.

"On the other hand, if the interactive computer service itself posts the comment, the exemption from liability offered by the Communications Decency Act does not apply. There is no exemption under the act to the poster of a false or wrongful comment."

I'm a practitioner of free speech as a journalist. As such, I feel like I would be a hypocrite if I felt it was appropriate to deny someone that same free speech, even if it's my right to do so.

EDIT: The one exception to my "all or nothing" approach to online commenting is SPAM! Deleting SPAM is acceptable.

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Twitter, journalism and the late night "correction"

Knoxville City Council races were decided yesterday. There wasn't a lot of media coverage on TV beyond the 11:00 broadcasts, but the Internet--especially Twitter--was abuzz with election results. I was among the Tweeters frantically posting the latest returns.

Finally, when we got the last returns, I posted the following messages on my personal Twitter account, @radiomanmic:

"Final numbers are in... Della Volpe wins by 70 votes."

and

"Your official winners in Knoxville City Council races are: Dist 1 Pavlis; Dist 2 Grieve; Dist 3 Palmer; Dist 4 Della Volpe; Dist 6 Brown."

The only problem was that the numbers weren't "final" or "official," because the results haven't been certified by the Knox County Election Commission.

Soon after the posts, I got a message from Deputy Administrator of Election @ScottFrith saying, "call Mackay XXX-XXXX" -- That's odd. It was after 11 p.m.

I dialed Greg Mackay, Knox County Administrator of Elections, who pointed out my mistake. I promised him that I'd Tweet a correction, so I posted:

"Earlier, I said "Final" numbers are in for Council races. I Should have said "complete, unofficial returns" for the sake of clarity. Sorry."

It's interesting and encouraging that Mackay and Frith took the time to correct my personal Twitter feed.

I'm always intrigued by the journalism v. blogger v. social media debate that seems to be forever active. That said, I wonder if the Tweet would have been noticed were I not employed by a traditional news organization.

Frost backing Della Volpe to replace him on council

Current Knoxville City Councilman Rob Frost is backing Nick Della Volpe as his replacement on council, Frost said in an email to community members Tuesday.

Della Volpe is going up against Ray Abbas in the 4th district city council race.

Here's Frost's email to members of the 4th district:

First, I'd like to thank all of those who supported me through the years in serving you on Knoxville's City Council. I appreciate my colleagues on City Council that have been professional.

Second, in my opinion, Nick Della Volpe is the most qualified person to serve the 4th district on City Council.

Nick, for decades, has been involved as a citizen in fighting for good zoning, better City facilities and a better Knoxville. Like me, Nick is an attorney. Considering all the zoning issues, contracts and legal documents that City Council must consider, having a representative with an educational and professional background to be able to read, interpret, question and improve items on Council's agenda is a very good thing for all of us.

Over the years, Nick has also been a volunteer spokesman for his neighborhood organization at MPC as well as City Council. It is a huge benefit to citizens when their elected representatives knows what it feels like to pour their guts into a zoning dispute in front of these bodies because their representative has actually fought these same types of battles themselves. And because many zoning disputes are based on law, having a representative that has a background in the law is a great benefit.

Here's what the current edition of Metro Pulse is saying:

In the 4th District, which encompasses North Knoxville, Fountain City, and Holston Hills, you couldn't ask for a better candidate than Nick Della Volpe. Throughout the 36 years that he has practiced law in Knoxville, Della Volpe has also been civically engaged in a multiplicity of ways. He's served as president of Town Hall East, one of the city's most venerable neighborhood organizations; he's chaired the board that oversees the Civic Auditorium and Coliseum; he's been an ardent advocate of greenways; and 20 years ago he was in the forefront of efforts to forestall a costly, noxious garbage incinerator. Now that he's retiring from his law practice at age 61, he will have even more time to devote to being a worthy successor to outgoing Rob Frost and the district's illustrious predecessor Carlene Malone, both of whom support him.

(see http://tinyurl.com/mn78ul for full article on all races)

The very mass burn garbage incinerator mentioned above was considered by both City and County governments for nearby Baxter Avenue and Cement Plant Road, and it would have had very negative effects for the surrounding neighborhoods miles around it, so Nick's been out there helping neighborhoods, including ours, for decades.

Also on a City-wide basis, Nick led the charge eight years ago to ban new billboards inside the City. Nick also helped raise money to buy and plant new magnolia trees along Magnolia and to remove a dilapidated parking lot and tall chain link fences around Holston Middle School and add a gazebo to improve the school's appearance. A tireless advocate for greenways and a fundraiser for parks and libraries, Nick has been helping us out decades before running for City Council.

That's why I'm supporting Nick Della Volpe for City Council, 4th District.

Thanks,

Rob Frost

Knoxville City Council, 4th District

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They're serious about health care in Cali

So much for finger pointing when it comes to the health care debate in California...

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Did you hear that early voting in city primary elections started today?

Looks like none of us broadcast folks covered the fact that early voting started today in the Knoxville City Council primary races. To be honest, there's very little interest in city elections, especially city council races. The question, though, is whether that's because of a lack of news coverage. It boils down to a "chicken and egg" thing. Is there no interest because there's no coverage; or is there no coverage because there's no interest?

Is it our job, as journalists, to report what we think is important even when viewers might not be interested in it, or is it our job to report the news our viewers and readers want to see? On the one hand, the fourth estate has a duty to the public -- a duty so important that it is protected by the U.S. Constitution. On the other hand, however, the fourth estate is a business, and its stakeholders expect it to make money. If news media don't make money, they go away. The difficult task is making need-to-know-information and presenting in a way that turns it into want-to-know information. Can it be done? Not perfectly, but I think we could do better.

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Frozen custard, other treats at Rita's on Market Square

So I haven't tried Rita's Ice of Knoxville on Market Square yet, but I hope to soon. Rita apparently has frozen custard, which is a treat that I've only had at the KAMM's Frozen Custard Shop at the Grove Arcade shopping center in Asheville, NC.

If you've never had frozen custard, you're in for a treat, I'm sure.

I'll report back once I've given it a taste.



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2 Knoxville synagogues vandalized

Apparently two Knoxville synagogues were vandalized recently. The damage was discovered today. Details here.

The first question that comes to my mind is the obvious one... Is this a hate crime?

EDIT: Here are some videos.


Damage at Temple Beth-El




An interview with Temple Beth-El Rabbi Beth Schwarts




An interview with Heska Amuna Synagogue President Marty Iroff



Video of Heska Amuna Synagogue -- Heska Amuna suffered less damage than Temple Beth-El.



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Travolta's 16-year-old son is dead

John Travolta's 16-year-old son apparently died today after falling and hitting his head on a bathtub in the Bahamas.

Details here.

Tweeting Travolta.

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Tax time already?

2009 is barely underway and already tax terms are showing up on Google Hot Trends.

I ran into the West Knoxville Branch Library today to return my copy of Cormac McCarthy's Child of God and I saw a stack of tax forms... already.

Tweeting income taxes.

Aren't we a couple of months away from even getting W-2 forms from employers?

EDIT: @rlmartinex points out that W-2s are supposed to be issued by Jan. 31... I guess that just goes to show that I'm a procrastinator/ late filer.

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State bailouts?

So are we going to bailout states now? Some might argue that that makes more sense than bailing out companies.

Wonder what would happen if a state "went under?"

Just talked to Gov. Bredesen's Press Secretary, Lydia Lenker, and she says Tennessee is not asking for any budgetary money to cover any state shortfalls. However, she says, like most states, Tennessee is interested in getting stimulus money that could help Tennessee's economy (See below).

From "Economic Recovery: A Federal-State Partnership" on the National Governors Association Web site (Complete document):

The federal‐state programs with the greatest potential to assist with recovery efforts fall into three categories:

•
Benefit programs for individuals in need (e.g., Medicaid, food stamps, welfare and unemployment insurance);

•
Infrastructure programs with ready‐to‐go projects that will create new jobs; and
•
Countercyclical programs where the federal government can help offset proposed budget cuts by increasing the federal share of ky federal‐state programs such as Medicaid and special education.

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Is it ever wrong to do the right thing?

That's the question being asked at this year's Great American Think-off.

It's a tough one. Sounds like a bit of a logical trap to me.

I don't know what my answer would be, but off the cuff, I'd say the right thing can't be right if it's the wrong thing to do. If it were wrong to do the right thing, then the right thing would be the wrong thing. So, no, it is never wrong to do the right thing.

If you're doing the right thing, and your wrong in doing it, then that would make the wrong thing the right thing to do, right? Doesn't wrong always have an opposite? If it didn't have an opposite would it be wrong? You can't have wrong without right. Wrong is wrong because of its correlation to/ relationship with right.

If you're doing the wrong thing, then there is always a right thing that could have been done. By virtue of doing the wrong thing you are not doing the right thing.

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Sen. Pell, father of Pell Grants dies at 90

Rhode Island Sen. Claiborne Pell, the creator of the Pell Grant, has died. He was 90.

Thank you Sen. Pell for helping me get through college -- Never met you, but I'm indebted to you.

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More trouble for Goody's?

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Knoxville-based Goody's Family Clothing is apparently no longer issuing giftcards, accepting new tuxedo rental orders, or offering layaway services -- at least for the immediate future, according to a memo sent to Goody's stores and obtained by VolunteerTV.com. Calls placed to several Goody's stores in Tennessee and other states also confirm the changes. Full Story...

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Bi-racial couple surprised by 2nd set of black and white twins

A bi-racial couple in Hampshire, England is welcoming their second set of twins... http://tinyurl.com/7zvv7z

That's pretty rare in itself, but the kicker to this story is that the first set of twins were black and white, and so was the second set of twins. How cool is that?!

Snopes on a similar story: http://tinyurl.com/lhxhp

Dooh!!! -- E. TN sheriff cited for hunting violation

Once again, Claiborne County Sheriff David Ray is having some legal trouble -- it's not quite as serious this time around, though.

 

Looks like he was cited by TWRA for a hunting violation: http://tinyurl.com/a49ul6

First Knoxville baby of 2009

Lacey was born at 1:17 a.m. today. She weighed in at 6 pounds, 13 ounces.

Her mother is Casey Collins, of Blaine, Tenn.

I've got some video of mom and baby on the way into the newsroom. I'll embed it once I get it in-house and posted.

Isn't it interesting how how we are so intrigued by firsts? There's something about being first, I think, that plays to the pioneer spirit that I believe is inherent in people.

Here's the video shot by WVLT Video Journalist Daniel Beckner:

Tweeting 2009

It's interesting to see what folks on Twitter are saying this first day of 2009.

If you're on twitter, hit me up @radiomanmic.

Everybody's waiting for Frist...

I wish he'd let us know whether or not he's running, already!  Then again, maybe it's a good thing that he's not decided... I don't know if I could handle an year and a half to two year long Governor's race. 

 

Sort of like the potential Hutchison bid for Knox County mayor, the possibility of Haslam running for governor isn't exactly breaking news: http://tinyurl.com/6ugbhw

Happy New Year!

... and a prosperous 2009!



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