Paper paid to print only good news

Posted on October 25, 2005 by Chris Heisel

Did I miss a day of [journalism school](http://journalism.missouri.edu)?

Because I don’t remember when Don Ranly said it was OK to [be paid by a city’s council to print only good news](http://www.ajc.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/National/BRF_Good_News_Only.html).

If I were the [Star-Ledger](http://www.nj.com/starledger/), the local daily, I’d start up a marketing campaign pronto. I don’t think it’s worth attacking this joke of a weekly, but a campaign along the lines of “Good news. Bad news. And everything in between.” might be just what the doctor ordered.

It’s bad enough that we’ve got [propaganda at the national level](http://slate.msn.com/id/2113052/), but to see this blatant pay-off at the local level is disturbing.

If the Newark Weekly News is publicly admitting to taking money for publishing good news, then how many other papers are doing the same thing, only we haven’t heard about it.

Local bloggers, start your engines!

Posted in Journalism | 2 Comments

Google’s RSS reader does one thing well

Posted on October 13, 2005 by Chris Heisel

[Google’s RSS/Atom reader](http://www.google.com/reader) might have a really weird interface.

But it is doing one thing well…

[Bloglines](http://www.bloglines.com) now has keyboard shortcuts!

Posted in Technology | Comments Off on Google’s RSS reader does one thing well

Google’s RSS reader

Posted on October 10, 2005 by Chris Heisel

Google’s RSS reader

An interesting approach, but I like the Bloglines/NetNewsWire interface(s) better.

Posted in Blogmarks | Comments Off on Google’s RSS reader

Georgia’s govenor is a moron

Posted on September 23, 2005 by Chris Heisel

It’s official, [our govenor is a moron](http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/0905/24perdue.html).

As gas prices climb, and another hurricane threatens off-shore oil rigs, what does the illustrious government of the state of Georgia do?

It shuts down its schools for two days so that school busses, faculty and staff won’t be on the road.

Schools!

Why, of all things, would you want to shut down schools!

You know, the places where we educate our young, so that they can become successfull members of society. In a state where [our SAT scores are dead last](http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0805/30sat.html), don’t you think we need **more** schooling, not less?

Can someone tell me what percentage of traffic in the state is made up of school busses. Because I’m going to guess, that the **vast majority** of cars gas-guzzling SUVs on the streets and highways are folks commuting to their jobs?

Maybe we should have the state government telecommute on Monday and Friday, and encourage businesses to have their employees do the same?

Or the state could offer a one-time tax break to any individual that takes public transportation to work next week rather than drive.

There are a million different things we could be doing to save gas, but am I the only one who thinks that **shutting down schools** is not the answer?

Posted in Politics | Comments Off on Georgia’s govenor is a moron

What Should I Read Next?

Posted on September 22, 2005 by Chris Heisel

What Should I Read Next?

Pretty neat service. You put in what you’ve read, or keep a reading list, and it makes recommendations based on other users. It might nice if it had some community options: a blog, forum, friend’s list, share your list, etc.

Posted in Blogmarks | Comments Off on What Should I Read Next?