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“Radio. God, that’s going to break down a lot of walls.”

Just caugh at few minutes of Inherit the Wind — the version produced the same year I was. Here’s a little snippet near the end, a conversation between Spencer Tracy as Henry Drummond/Clarence Darrow and an announcer from WGN that’s relevant on so many levels I can’t resist:                                                                                                                                               Drummond: You’re going to broadcast?

Announcer: We’ve got a direct wire to WGN Chicago. As soon as the jury returns, we’ll broadcast the verdict.

Drummond: Radio. God, that’s going to break down a lot of walls.

Announcer: You’re not supposed to say “God” on the radio.

Drummond: Why the hell not?

Announcer (covering the mike): You’re not supposed to say “hell” either.

Drummond: This is going to be a barren source of amusment.

(I actually transcribed this before I found the job already done on IMDB. Next time, I check first.)

Rosa Parks: 1913-2005

I lit a memorial candle tonight for someone I never met, for a moment in time when one woman’s decision not to give in meshed with one man’s determination to change the world without violence. As the light flickers, I think of those who paved the way; of those who heeded the call; those who would not or could not then but learned to live in a different world; those who grew up never knowing a time when it was illegal to sit in the front of a bus, eat at a lunch counter, drink from the wrong water fountain; those who have yet to take a stand but will change the world for the better.

"Whenever you get out of Egypt, you always confront a little tension, you always confront a temporary setback. If you didn’t confront that you’d never get out." — Martin Luther King, Jr., 4/7/1957

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Testing Flock

It took less than 30 seconds to set up Flock as a blog editor. The edit tools are minimal — blod, ital, link, font size, indent, bullet lists — but there’s a tagging window,  a “drag stuff to blog it” window, a scrolling blog bar. So far, so good. Almost elegant. This is the first Flock feature I’ve tried. More as I explore.

Just looked at the posted version — the tags are Technorati. I’d rather have a choice to have the tags show up only in code and not be labled as Technorati.

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Hurricane Katrina: Link Blog

FYI, in addition to the links at the OJR Wiki, I’m keeping a running list of more diverse Hurricane Katrina links (in addition to the usual collection) at my OPML link blog. Some recent links:

  • Missing person/survivor sites’ listed
    at Yahoo: Thanks to Elizabeth Osder, I now have this. If anyone knows of any other sites collecting such information — formally
    or informally — that aren’t on this list, please let me know.
  • FCC is coordinating communications tech aid. Details at Boing-Boing.
  • This list at the central federal Hurricane Katrina site
    illustrates the difficulty of matching people with the missing and of
    tracking the missing. There are about a dozen different sites
    collecting info mentioned here and I know there are many more where
    people are posting. For instance, the list doesn’t include Craigslist
    or many smaller blogs and sites.
  • The remarkable Interdictor asks that anyone linking to his blog use
    http://mgno.com instead. The web cam feed from 650 Poydras is being
    mirrored at http://old.mises.org:88/NO2

Media moves

ESPN has hired Washington Post sports vet George Solomon as its  first ombudsman; Solomon retired from the Post in 2003. From the press release: "Solomon will critique decision-making, coverage
and presentation for studio and event production, including SportsCenter,
ESPN Radio and, occasionally, programming outside the news and information
genre." He’ll have a column on ESPN.com at least once a month and will continue to write a Sunday column for the Post sports section.  He’s signed on with ESPN for 18 months. It will take effort across the board to turn this into more than a press-release gesture. ESPN leads other Disney siblings in a lot of areas and this could be another one.

Meanwhile,  Mark Jurkowitz returns to the Boston Phoenix from the  Boston Globe, where I thought his work consistently ranked in the top group of newsnpaper-based media writers. He’ll have more space and more editorial freedom at the alternative weekly.  It’s a mixed blessing for those of us who treasured Dan Kennedy as the  Phoenix media critic; Kennedy is leaving for Northeastern University.  As you can tell, I admire the work of both men but part of me wishes for new voices, new observations. Maybe an op-media column rotating in every few weeks or produced as a sidebar would add some much-needed alternative perspective. (Thanks, Jim.)

Coda: If you haven’t seen it, check out Between The Lines, the 1977 film about the glories and woes of an alternative newspaper in Boston loosely based on the Phoenix. The cast alone (John Heard, Jeff Goldblum among them) is worth a look.  I’m fairly sure I saw it for the first time as a student journalist on The Red & Black at the University of Georgia, back when there really was a big difference between the alt-weeklies and the traditional press.