Radio Ad

This radio ad is now playing in seven states:

National Black Republican Association

Do you guys think it will have any affect on the mid-term elections?

Podcasting

Earlier this month Google purchased the video sharing website, YouTube, for 1.65 billion dollars in stock. The site allows visitors to view and post videos for free. The videos vary from congressional debates to concerts. As the high price tag might indicate the traffic to the site is growing exponentially each week. This week the traffic ranking website, Alexa, rated YouTube.com as the 6th most visited website on World Wide Web. The tremendous success of this website begs the question: Will podcasting overrun commercial media?

Podcasting as defined by Wikipedia is " multimedia file distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers." Thursday's panel, led by members of Colorado Public Radio, seemed to agree that podcasting will be the future of media. The panel declined to say that commercial media would be replaced by podcasting, but rather podcasting would become a larger part of commercial media. The panel argued that they see an increase of podcasting surfacing for two reasons. One, as the commercial media market news quality becomes further downgraded a disgruntled public might seek alternative sources of media including podcasting. The second reason they sighted was that the commercial media market might begin to integrate user's podcasts as a way to decease costs and increase variety.

Kristina Tabor cited the innovation and success of Al Gore's network "Current" as evidence that podcasting is beginning to weld greater influence in the media. The advantage of the system is it allows people from all over the world to bring news to others. Often times podcasting allows stories to surface that would not otherwise be covered. McChesney would argue that this is because the current media have a tendency to rely on their stories from people in power. If Clinton gives a speech - it must be news. If Rumsfeld gives a briefing - it must be news. However, with podcasting it allows individuals to submit stories that are often ignored like the increased rate of autism in children.

The panel also cited job cuts in struggling commercial media as evidence that stations can't afford to place a cameraman and a news anchor in every city of the world. In fact, NBC announced just last week that they will be laying off almost 700 employees. Those job cuts mean that the range of stories the media covers could see further shrinking. Podcasting would allow the media to save even more money by decreasing the amount of programming the networks had to produce. For example, panelist Andrea Dukakis said that it took her about 20 hours to produce a five minute story for Colorado Public Radio. We can assume that the time to create a story for television is even longer. The uses of podcasts for just a percentage of network news could cut costs by millions of dollars for struggling media outlets.

O'Reilly Update

Well...O'Reilly has still not read my letter. I must assume it is because he does not have a clever response. If O'Reilly insists on demonizing the "sps" (secular progressives), he better have the facts to back them up, because this blogger will not tolerate exaggerations.

Stay tuned for this evolving story....

O'Reilly Letter

I just finished emailing Bill O'Reilly. Here is a copy of the letter I sent:

Dear Bill,
On Thursday's program you referenced activist George Soros as "the single most dangerous individual in the United States of America." Do you really believe a 76-year old political activist is more dangerous than individuals in the KKK? Or the Earth Liberation Front? Or anyone on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List? Did you just get carried away?

Kyle Taylor
Denver, CO

Stay tuned to see if my letter is read on the air!

We Miss You Ann!

I stumbled across some old footage of former Gov. Ann Richards yesterday. The funniest woman in poltics sure knew how to work a crowd.

Sorting Hastert's Spin

It is alleged by some that there has been a deliberate attempt by members of the House leadership to cover up the allegation surrounding Congressman Mark Foley. Since the story broke a few days ago the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, has led the attempts to remain in front of a fast growing story. Hastert is claiming that he surprised, flabbergasted, and disgusted like the rest of the country. However, a close analysis of Hastert's statements reveals the congressman is spinning and framing the debate with the best of them.

Frame: I only new about the emails and not about the more explicit instant message communications

Reality: This sounds like an admission of guilt more than a defense. The original emails themselves are completely inappropriate for a 52-year old Congressman. They includes comments such as "I just emailed Will...hes such a nice guy...acts much older than his age...and hes in really great shape" and "How are you weathering the hurricane...are you safe...send me a pic of you as well....". Absolutely inappropriate! A congressman should not be asking a 16-yr. old to send a picture of himself. ABC reports that the "concerned page alerted congressional staffers to the e-mails. In one e-mail, the page writes to a staffer, "Maybe it is just me being paranoid, but seriously. This freaked me out." In another email the boy writes, "sick, sick, sick, (etc.)". These complaints were all forwarded to the Speaker of the House.

Furthermore, if the Republicans truly believed that this were just "overly friendly" emails, than why did they instruct pages to stay away from Congressman Foley?(Read Story Here)

Also, why were only the four Republican members of the Page board informed, and not the Democrat, Dale Kildee? (Read Story Here)

Frame: Speaker Dennis Hastert is seeking a full investigation

Reality: False. It is true that the House unanimously passed Nancy Pelosi's bill to refer the matter to the Ethics committee. However, Majority Leader John Boehner is committing himself to blocking calls for an investigative Subcommittee that must report within in ten days.
Pelosi is demanding this in a letter she sent to the House Ethics Committee. Here is an excerpt: "Since that resolution unanimously passed, Republican Leaders have admitted to knowing about Mr. Foley's outrageous behavior for six months to a year, and they chose to cover it up rather than to protect these children."

"As the author of the resolution that the House unanimously passed, I am writing to insist that the Ethics Committee act as directed and immediately form the investigative Subcommittee and begin work on the preliminary report in 10 days. Central to the investigation is immediately questioning, under oath, the House Republican Leadership." (Read the Letter Here)

Frame: Dennis Hastert is committed to finding the truth

Reality: It is now being reported that Tom Reynolds (R) Chief of Staff, Kirk Fordham tried to keep the story from being released. The report reads, "Reynolds' Chief of Staff tried to get ABC News to pull the plug on that part of the story in exchange for giving them the "exclusive" that Foley was about to resign. ABC's Brian Ross said no deal. Reynolds is the chair of the NRCC, and one of the people who confirmed that he knew about the Foley problem last year -- and confirmed he told Hastert. Now his Chief of Staff is confirmed to have tried to pull the story about the IM's." (Read Story Here)

In addition, Kirk Fordham resigned today citing that he did not want his role in the scandal to affect his bosses re-election campaign. ABC News is now reporting that "Fordham had repeatedly warned Hastert's staff about Foley's "problem" with pages, but little was done." (Read Story Here)


The media is following this fast moving story around the clock. Politicians and political parties have been issuing statements and press releases as fast as their printers will print. As a result the airwaves and newspapers are full of frames. I believe that as a watchdog, it is the media's job to sort through these frames in order to present the public with the most accurate information possible. Unfortunately, the media has again failed to reveal the frames being issued by Hastert and other politicians. It must be concluded that the only ones who can sort through the spin are the citizens themselves!