'I hope Fox News viewers will understand the computer has to be on.'

May 12, 2004 4:55 PM

Blah Blah Blogging:: "The following is a meticulously detailed recap of a news segment that appeared on the Chicago FOX news affiliate on Wednesday, May 5th, 2004." -- Intelligent blogger agrees to appear in puff piece about blogging for FOX news. These are the results.
posted by anastasiav (43 comments total)

[via dashes]

this is comedy gold.
posted by keswick at 5:16 PM on May 12, 2004

"...It's like getting a squirrel confused with a mailbox because they're both on the sidewalk."

HA!
posted by arielmeadow at 5:22 PM on May 12, 2004

That does it. Where do I sign up for this Interweb thingy? I want to buh-log too.
posted by AstroGuy at 5:30 PM on May 12, 2004

If I had the chance to do a television report on weblogs, I'd talk to some willing blogger, and while they're talking I would show camera shots of the screen on that supposed weblog of an anonymous London prostitute, then cut to a suicidal livejournal post, and then mention, ominously, that it's likely that pedophiles and drug dealers use weblogs for hook-ups, and show a shot of a pornographic website with all the pictures blurred.

Then I'd mention the “dark net”.
posted by Gnatcho at 5:33 PM on May 12, 2004

What is this "Fox news" thingy I keep hearing so much about? Can I have a Fox news too?
posted by cbrody at 5:36 PM on May 12, 2004

Comedy aside, this tells us something. For all our self-importance about the goings-on in the blog world, the rest of humanity could give a shit.
posted by jonmc at 5:37 PM on May 12, 2004

what's this "rest of humanity" thingy?
posted by matteo at 5:44 PM on May 12, 2004

you know, those people who deliver the pizza and shit.
posted by jonmc at 5:46 PM on May 12, 2004

Is there anything more insipid than local television news? Anything? Could there be anything as vapid, self-obsessed, as haphazard as Your Local News Authority?

Wait, don't answer that.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 5:47 PM on May 12, 2004

Could there be anything as vapid, self-obsessed, as haphazard as Your Local News Authority?

We'll tell you what you need to know about this growing danger--tonight at 10!
posted by amberglow at 5:54 PM on May 12, 2004

Fox news viewers == rest of humanity, obviously.

Interestingly enough, there was a programme [RA] on BBC R3 tonight about newsmakers in the news, and how new types of journalism (including blogging) are affecting the landscape.
posted by cbrody at 5:59 PM on May 12, 2004

Back when I worked in newspapers -- and, hell, even now that I don't -- I always hated, hated the convention of the idiot-on-the-street interview. Over and over again, just to have "local faces" on the page, we would call on people with no reason to know anything about what we asked them to express some opinion of any kind -- and then publish the results. Because its value to the world was ... what, again? Yeeearrgh.
posted by argybarg at 6:04 PM on May 12, 2004

"[via dashes]"

Or maybe not. Nice of you to assume, though.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:13 PM on May 12, 2004

Comedy aside, this tells us something. For all our self-importance about the goings-on in the blog world, the rest of humanity could give a shit.

And we needed Fox to tell us that? shudder..
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 6:18 PM on May 12, 2004

Holy shit, how are you all reading this? All the text is appearing as the smallest possible font for me, and I can't make anything out even though I have good eyes.

On preview - FireFox is a LITTLE better, but damn this person needs to up their text size.
posted by TungstenChef at 6:44 PM on May 12, 2004

In Firefox, CTRL and + is your friend. Or CTRL and the mousewheel.
posted by yerfatma at 6:51 PM on May 12, 2004

Thanks, learn a new feature every day! The piece is funny, but dammit the bad design gets to me. Resizing it myself to a comfortable level for me is fine, but when you have to resize it to read it at all...
posted by TungstenChef at 6:57 PM on May 12, 2004

Is there anything more insipid than local television news?

I can't breathe!

It's all me, me, me with those local news folks*.


* This is about five years old and I hear she just knocked the wind out of herself and was fine moments llater. Apparently she's a weathercaster in NY now
posted by mathowie at 7:01 PM on May 12, 2004

I can't breathe!

THAT was fucking hilarious (in a sadistic, cruel sort of way). I laughed, I laughed so hard I cried, and then I continued to laugh some more.
posted by BlueTrain at 7:11 PM on May 12, 2004

I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe.

Sorry, couldn't resist!
posted by Gnatcho at 7:17 PM on May 12, 2004

Ooooo, ooo, ooo, ooowww, oooo, I can't breath!
posted by smackfu at 7:25 PM on May 12, 2004

What is going on in that video?

I have several questions:

Why the STOP and then the super fast jogging, as the woman on the right catches on?
What's with the delayed, then exaggerated reaction?
Why does the camera stay on for so long after the accident? Shouldn't they have realized before?

I thought the bit with it going back and forth interminably between their feet was a bit funnier than the fall. Local news, indeed!

(On the same note. )
posted by rafter at 7:31 PM on May 12, 2004

That woman had no business stomping grapes in a bucket on a raised platform.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 7:47 PM on May 12, 2004

That woman had no business stomping grapes in a bucket on a raised platform.

STOP STOP I CAN'T BREATHE
posted by rxrfrx at 7:52 PM on May 12, 2004

Is there anything more insipid than local television news? Anything? Could there be anything as vapid, self-obsessed, as haphazard as Your Local News Authority?

It's almost as if you're imply the answer is right here under our noses - maybe even connected with this story in some way - I can't quite put my finger on it, though.
posted by Ryvar at 7:54 PM on May 12, 2004

ahhhh, y'all MADE me pull out the bubb rubb links!

WOO-WOOOH!
posted by _sirmissalot_ at 8:13 PM on May 12, 2004

Our local news did a hidden camera story on whether stores were putting returned underwear on the shelf. This was the day right after the prisoner abuse scandel broke.
posted by drezdn at 8:57 PM on May 12, 2004

All the text is appearing as the smallest possible font for me

In both mozilla and firefox, you can set a minimum font size. Nothing smaller than 16 pixels for me. I'm sure this will really piss off multitudes of sharp-eyed graphic designers if the rest of humanity ever finds out about it.

...I have a blog, but I haven't yet figured out what it's useful for. If I want to type random junk to be published to the web, I can do it right here. For example: I really like wasabi. It's good stuff, yeah.
posted by sfenders at 9:15 PM on May 12, 2004

Ooooh. Too bad I missed this masterpiece of local TV news. I'm going to have to start watching more often. : )
posted by SisterHavana at 9:23 PM on May 12, 2004

Gah. I got interviewed by the local paper on blogging.

Not good. I run my own server and host my own blog, plus several others for friends and family, right?

I get two lines and misquoted to boot, with them only finding the worst entry ever.

The moron on Blogspot talking about missing a payment and getting his car repo'd led the article.

Thppppppt.
posted by Samizdata at 12:52 AM on May 13, 2004

What is it with Fox, local affiliates, and wacky bloggers? Honolulu's KHON [selflink]interviewed me[/selflink] last year. Note the anchor had similar difficulty getting the word "blog" out.
posted by pzarquon at 1:26 AM on May 13, 2004

"Our local news did a hidden camera story on whether stores were putting returned underwear on the shelf."

Well - don't leave me in suspense! Were they?
posted by Pericles at 2:43 AM on May 13, 2004

Sheesh. The Globe and Mail managed to summarize the concept more conclusively than this newscast in one sentence (third paragraph in the story). Of course, they had the use the word cognoscenti to do it, which is about three syllables too many for your average Fox viewer.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 6:02 AM on May 13, 2004

Note the anchor had similar difficulty getting the word "blog" out.

I sympathize; it's a silly word, and makes the whole enterprise seem vaguely ridiculous.
posted by Mars Saxman at 9:32 AM on May 13, 2004

makes the whole enterprise seem vaguely ridiculous.

Which is why the word, being completely appropriate, has caught on.
posted by oissubke at 10:25 AM on May 13, 2004

The race to suppress the blogging craze by trivializing it is on!

And - it's bipartisan : see George Packer's scathing attack on blogs in this month's Mother Jones, "The Revolution Will Not Be Blogged " in which packer demonstrates that he knows a bit more about blogs than the Fox crew which put together Fox's "Blogspose" (or whatever you'd call it ).....but that's still not much. Packer got to go on a highbrow public radio show (WBUR's "The Connection" to further display his opinions.

From that show's write-up :

"Blogs offer a constant rush of political opinion: the gloating, the jeering, and those knockout punches. But not everyone thinks bringing punditry to the people is a good thing. New Yorker writer George Packer argues that by blurring the line between journalism and pure rant, blogs may not be the best thing for democracy...so who writes for you?"
posted by troutfishing at 11:53 AM on May 13, 2004

...blogs may not be the best thing for democracy...so who writes for you?"

Who writes for you? That's stupid. The whole point is that you can do it yourself. Talk about missing the point. May not be the best thing for democracy? are you kidding? it isdemocratic.

the barbarians are at the gates, baby.
posted by Miles Long at 12:55 PM on May 13, 2004

good article. good post. good comments, too.

what's this "rest of humanity" thingy?
posted by matteo at 5:44 PM PST on May 12

you know, those people who deliver the pizza and shit.
posted by jonmc at 5:46 PM PST on May 12

mellow comedy gold
posted by Miles Long at 12:58 PM on May 13, 2004

"... But EXPERTS say this way of communicating isn't quite mainstream--not yet, at least."

How would they ever manage to end a new story if they were barred from using 'experts say' and that significant pause in the last sentence?

And it was only after the anchors tried to express their concern for the grape-stomping woman in their oh so dignified but compassionate way that I began to laugh, and couldn't stop.
posted by of strange foe at 2:51 PM on May 13, 2004

fox ran the exact same story, i mean EXACT, in dallas except they inserted someone else as the blogging expert and showed screen shots of dfwblogs.com instead of the chicago blogs site. even the man on street people were the same. it's a canned story lurking in various cities until a reporter can find a local blogging expert to insert into the holes.
posted by centrs at 8:30 PM on May 13, 2004

centrs, that piece of news makes me happy that the launch of burghstories.com is still a couple of weeks away. Infinitely happy.
posted by Dreama at 9:41 PM on May 13, 2004

fox ran the exact same story, i mean EXACT, in dallas except they inserted someone else as the blogging expert and showed screen shots of dfwblogs.com instead of the chicago blogs site. even the man on street people were the same.

Except if you look at the screen caps of those man-on-the-street scenes you see Chicago landmarks. I wouldn't be surprised if they patterned it after the DFW story, but they didn't just take footage or anything.
posted by CBoots at 5:25 AM on May 14, 2004

(Had I noticed this Wednesday, I would've chimed in sooner. )

I did the legwork for the Fox News Chicago reporter who did this story. (What can I say, my day job is PR.) The "special projects producer" that contacted me -- because I'm the editor of a prominent Chicago group blog/webzine thing -- knew nothing about blogs -- she first heard about them when given the assignment to localize another affiliate's story.

Yes, centrs, it was based on the Dallas article -- the DFWblogs.com site is briefly visible in the Chicago piece along with the Chicagobloggers.com site.

The producer wanted to get Mimi Smartypants and Wendy because they had been interviewed in the local weekly New City the week before, and they both have book deals based on their blogs. I tried to explain to her what a blog was, that there are many different kinds of blogs and she should consider having more than one type of blogger in the segment, instead of two diarists. She asked me to line up some interviews, including two bloggers and an "expert."

I called Wendy and she agreed (Mimi had already blown Fox off), and lined up a photo blogger and an expert (AKMA, who uses weblogs as a teaching tool at Seabury-Western Seminary). By the time I called back, the story had been scaled back to Wendy and Matt from ChicagoBloggers.

An hour and a half of coordination wasted on a pretty mediocre piece. Such is life.
posted by me3dia at 1:01 PM on May 14, 2004