Politico, Newschannel 8, and WJLA TV Parent company, Allbritton Communications, has announced that it is jumping into local media here in the Washington DC metro area. Planned for launch next spring, the yet unnamed site hopes to leverage social web technology to lure audiences who have become disenchanted with traditional media. They also hope replicate the success of the reportedly profitable Politico.

GAME CHANGER

So is this a game changer for local media in the Washington area? The New Republic’s website, TNR.com, who originally broke the story, framed this as a direct challenge to the Washington Post. But as more local TV stations place greater emphasis on their web presence, this “local Politico” will pose a challenge to TV stations as well. So I asked Twitter the following:

HEY DC PEEPS!! what are your thoughts on Politico’s foray into the online local news space??

Predictably,  there was no shortage of opinion.  Here are just a few.

Faryna

@newmediajim Considering WP’s gestapo tact on the opinion of their own journalists, is Jim Brady prepared to get out of the box? We’ll see.

anamariecox

RT @newmediajim: HEY DC PEEPS!! what are your thoughts on Politico’s foray into the local news space? http://is.gd/4H4We // SUPER PSYCHED!

Audreyforshey

@newmediajim I would subscribe, listen to POLITICO interviews on WTOP and they appeal to me. Like my news on the go.

loudoun

@newmediajim Politico local news…they should read this…http://bit.ly/3kjwhf – and then curate/cultivate relationships with the locals

ScottEblin

@newmediajim Means that the future is here. If they do as good a job as they did with Politico, the WaPo should be worried.

chrisobrooks

Just got this WAPO email re: redesign of their local news site. 1 day aftr Politico scare, coincidence? http://twurl.nl/k80fr7

Jim Brady At The Helm

Courtesey Michael Schwarz - Politico

Jim Brady, former WashingtonPost.com editor, will oversee a staff of 50 at the operation. In his presentation this past week at an Online News Association confab, entitled – Mobile: The Future is Now – Brady may have betrayed the strategy of the new site. I suspect there will be a very strong emphasis on mobile apps and geolocation, which makes sense. Mobile strategy is timely.  ComScore data indicates daily mobile news consumption has more than doubled in the past year. And if he believes what he preaches, not only will he staff the newsroom well, but he’ll bring on a strong mobile app development team. I also suspect that these mobile apps will be bi-directional, meaning users will be able to consume stories and upload their own content to the site. Another interesting data point from a Universal McCann study shows that 53% of smartphone users are clicking on mobile ads.

Catalyst For Change

So now that the story is out, it will be interesting to see how other local media respond. Competition is good, and hopefully better multimedia/online journalism should result from this. This could be a catalyst for great change for local media in the DC metro area. Will this new site embrace social tools and encourage networked journalism, crowdsourcing, hyperlocal news? While all of that “webby goodness” appeals to the web 2.0 evangelists, it’s noteworthy and encouraging to this media worker that, according to this NY Times piece, Allbritton plans on paying competitive, large market newspaper salaries for seasoned pros.

Ultimately, a site like this will live or die on how it serves the needs of the local community. So assembled readers, what is it that will make a site like this work, for the publisher and the community. Why have so many other hyperlocal, local web plays failed? What would you like to see from a local web news provider? Please discuss in the comments below!

video blogging tools of the trade

So is this your idea of fun? Are you a political junkie? Are you good at multi-tasking? Do you work well with liltte or no sleep? If the answer to ALL of these questions is “yes”, I suggest you look into a once-in-a-lifetime (or once every four years at least) journalism opportunity.

NBC News, along with partner The National Journal, recently announced plans to embed video journalists in the campaigns of Presidential candidates. NBC News chief Steve Capus describes the benefits of this intimate access.

There is nothing like being there, up close and personal, when it comes to covering a presidential election, and this allows us to be there in a very big way. Our team of reporters on the road with the candidates will be in a unique position to report all aspects of this dynamic story for every single one of our platforms

- Steve Capus, President, NBC News

Candidates for these coveted positions should expect to sleep very little, work very hard, and keep up with a very demanding production schedule in terms of posting video, audio, photographs and text. Additionally these embeds will be expected to be the editorial eyes and ears of NBC News, providing extensive and accurate coverage of the campaign and the candidates. Make no mistake… this is VERY difficult work. I know, becuause i recently provided this type of coverage for the NBC Nightly News blog as we circumnavigated the globe covering the Secretary of Defense. It is grueling, punishing work, and I know from experience that Presidential campaigns are particularly draining.

Having said that, there is a unique opportunity for some great online storytelling here. While some have suggested that I have the specific qualifications to take on such an assignment, I suspect that they’re not as interested in someone who gets overtime for this job. If they’re smart, they will look at forward-thinking photographers not just, eager poli-sci majors who can find the on off switch on a DV camera. Technology is only as good as the artisans and storytellers it empowers.

Interestingly NBC News and the National Journal are entering a field already already alive with online journalists, bloggers, and vloggers, either positioned to give them a run for their money or, if nothing else, provide useful technical and editorial perspective.

When I first heard of these openings, I first thought of friend and colleague Amani Channel, not because I think he could do the job, but because he IS doing the job. Check him out!

Click To Play

Former ABC producer and Atlanta blogger Grayson Daughters has been covering Georgia politics on her blog, bringing her delightfully unique personality and rapier sharp wit to her video blogging efforts.

A-list blogger Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine is, is building a small political media empire, launching his Prezvid site having seen the revolutionary implications of a “YouTube” campgaign.

Video blogging pioneer Steve Garfield has been pushing the envelope of empowering video technology for years. Most recently, he’s been using bleeding edge live video tools to broadcast live video from his Nokia N95 from far-flung reaches of the globe using platforms such as Ustream, Kyte, Operator11, BlogTV, and Comvu. Hmmm, the press bus will never be the same again. I don’t have details of what technology NBC is empowering these emeds with, but I’m sure he’d be more than happy to share his vast knowledge.

Ultimately the technology is just a tool. It’s the stories, and the people who tell them that make the difference. What these video journalists will offer is access.

Having this team of reporters on the trail with the candidates and their top staff day in and day out will provide our audience of political junkies with the inside stories and interesting tidbits that they otherwise would not get.

- John Fox Sullivan, Publisher and Chief Executive, National Journal Group

It’s important to note that these embedded video journalists will be just part of a much larger effort by NBC News to cover this wide open Presidential race. Ultimately, the news is covered by people not technology. It’s the people of NBC News that are the formidibale force that Polticial Director Chuck Todd brings to bear on NBC’s coverage.

The sheer volume for one thing… The fact that we’ll [be] so transparent about what we’re reporting… Both in print and thru video is something that will be unprecedented for a major news organization. It is revolutionary as far as a network is concerned.

- Chuck Todd, NBC News Political Director

Part of me thinks i should still apply for the job, just for grins, then watch them laugh as I slide my salary requirements across the table. What do you think? Should I apply?

Hey if you know any good candidtates or you think you’re one yourself, leave a link in the comments section!

DC Media Maker and web 2.0 raconteur Jonny Goldstein files a report today from Capitol Hill, where House Subcommittee Chairman, Ed Markey, (D., MA) was holding a hearing on the “Future of Video”. Congressman Markey made “news” today by making media! Markey, accustomed to looking AT lenses, not THROUGH them, paid homage to the user generated content generation by hoisting a DV camera and shooting from the dais. His staff (presumably) posted the video on Youtube.

Based on the quality of the camerawork, lets just say that Markey maintaining his seat in the House, and I keeping my day job as a news cameraman are both good things.

What’s interesting, and very meta, is that Jonny Goldstein was there recording the event and gives us the reverse angle!

Testifying before Markey’s committee were a who’s who of media heavy-hitters including Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube, Thomas S. Rogers of TiVo, Benjamin N. Pyne from Disney and ESPN Networks, Blake Krikorian of Sling Media and Mark Cuban, co-founder of HDNet.

For my assembled readers here in the metro DC area, Jonny will be at a meeting of the DC Media Makers tonight, and will show a clip or two of the hearing.

Ann Broache of CNET has a complete report of the hearing with some interesting atmosperics.

How about just calling it MEDIA? Sure, labels are useful, but at the end of the day there will be media that people connect with, and the unwatched, unread remains. There seems to be a renewed slugfest between the “revolutionaries” storming the gates of traditional media, and the keepers of corporate status quo. As both sides trade barbs, it’s curious to this blogger why the loudest amongst both sides of this “debate” promote such zero-sum theocracy.

From bloggersblog today, a link to this rant against blogs from South Africa’s Sunday Times, calling blogs “the air guitars of journalism” And from my favorite contrarian Strumpette, some snarky satire on the introduction of MLB’s “Citizen Player Program”

Chris Brogan lends his typically keen insight and measured criticisms to discussions that took place at AlwaysOn, Hollywood. His concerns that “we” (people who create media independent of large corporate infrastructure) are living in a fishbowl. Brogan then takes the informations he’s gathered and builds a very smart roadmap for moving beyond amateur media. Chris “gets it”…big time.

In almost no time, “talking about nothing” shows are going to dry up. You have to deliver value. In video, audio, and even a blog, if you want to bring your message into a larger circle of people, you’re going to have to give value back for what you’re doing.

Most of this discussion seems to be framed in an either/or construct, which I believe to be a false pretext. Those who believe that Web 2.0, social media, and citizen content will completely evaporate are wrong, just as wrong as those who believe that the democratization of media spells the demise of large corporate media. What I see happening is that the “amateurs” are building relationships with their audience, and with corporate media. There, you’ll find the winners. Don’t believe me? Then why are guys like Jeff Jarvis having dinner with Rupert Murdoch and making deals with Washingtonpost.com?

For those of you who believe that bloggers don’t have juice, how do you reconcile CNN’s decision to release Presidential debate footage under a Creative Commons license? Clearly they were bowing to the outcrys of the “air guitar” players of the blogoshpere.

Much of what is taking place in social media space is all about buzz, and in-the-moment, viral types of content. This is the type of media that I believe will be the shortest-lived. They are also easy targets for critics as the sum-total of ALL new/social media. The below-the-radar people in this space are sometimes the most successful. At VON07 in San Jose, I met Nicholas Butterworth of Diversion Media. His firm has built two successful social media sites, Travelistic and Snowvision. Butterworth says that the key to social media success is community and relationship.

Coverage of VON07

Butterworth, and other micro media moguls like Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf of Jetset are defining a new class of crossover talent. Media makers who understand the community nature of social media/Web 2.0 and have the business savvy to grasp the value of that community. The fact that they’ve partnered with Next New Networks demonstrates that savvy and sets them apart from the “air guitar” set. Amani Channel of My Urban Report is another example of new media being courted by old. The Atlanta Journal Constitution has expressed interest publishing content from his blog. Again, the gates aren’t being stormed so much as being opened by smarter old media firms.

The bottom line is that the marketplace will decide the winners and losers of traditional vs. social media. I’d keep an eye on the ones creating value for their communites and the ones who build tools for participation.

Can’t we all just get along? As two of my favorite foils, Michael Rosenblum and Jeff Jarvis were storming the gates of traditional TV at the NAB conference in Vegas, many of the journalists who actually do the “boots on the ground” work of TV news were in Blacksburg, VA, covering the worst single shooting rampage in American history.

There is no doubt that citizen journalism and social media played absolutely vital roles in bringing context, community and diverse viewpoints to this tragic event. I pointed out that the first person photojournalism of Jamal Albarghouti itself was historic and provided a chilling account of the shooting. I spoke to Jamal today by phone and, interestingly, he disagrees with Michael Rosenblum’s assertions about the future of TV news. Firstly, he doesn’t consider himself a journalist. More importantly, he considers the role of professional media crucial.

As for the role of citizen journalism and if it will replace traditional media,
I personally think that citizen journalism will indeed change traditional
media in sense that it will improve it. I think we will be seeing more and more
people taking videos about future news incidents. I think we might even come to
a point where we get more than one video for only one story. However, I do not
think that citizen journalism will by any mean replace traditional media (it
will just improve it). I think that people covering the news now (traditional
media) are professionals who know what they are doing. they tend to give a
wider prospective than a citizen journalist. For example, when the media came
here to VT, they talked to VT officials, police, families of the victims,
students and last, they were able to somehow show what the shooter was
thinking. I do not think that a citizen journalist alone would be able to give
such a picture but he or she would definitely help in doing so.
-Jamal Albarghouti

Traditional media was the ones getting all the facts and representing it to everyone all over the world. The tradtional media had the big picture of covering all the stories. Citizen journalists will have a bigger role but it won’t replace traditional media. We wil see more people getting video.
-Jamal Albarghouti

Jamal, a Palestinian, says it was his exposure to professional journalism while living in the West Bank, that gave him the courage to record the terrifying events of April 16th 2007. It’s interesting that he has such pragmatic view of his role while others hold him up as the future model of TV News.

i’m not a journalist, i just did this. i was there and i took the video. Traditional media was important, seeing how professionals worked allowed me to do what i did. i would’ve never thought of doing that at Virginia Tech.
-Jamal Albarghouti

The scorched earth screeds of both Jarvis and Rosenblum begin to ring hollow a bit. In fact, in Jarvis’ post he inadvertantly (I suspect) points out the dogmatic nature of Rosnblum’s rants.

At an RTNDA panel, my pal, panel star Michael Rosenblum, lectured executives and stars of local TV news about this implosion.
-Jeff Jarvis

From what I heard, “lecturing” is precisely what Rosenblum was engaged in. Lecturing is what someone with ALL the answers does. Rosenblum and Jarvis are both men of big ideas, who often speak in absolute terms. I’m always suspicious of people who speak in absolutes and don’t leave room for dissenting points of view. Winning the argument becomes more important than exchange of ideas an I don’t think that’s terribly productive.

Unlike strumpette, who has a very clever take on the citizen/social media movement, I believe that there is a place for the amateur. Unlike Jeff and Michael, I still believe there is a place for infrastructure. Having said that, both of them have a great many ideas to share, and many are right on the money. Traditional TV is certainly bending under the weight of its infrastructure, but you can print this: It ain’t going anywere. Will it change, even dramatically? Absolutely. Will it be replaced entirely by VJ’s and citizen journos? Highly unlikely.

Ultimately smart media companies will create a complementary blend of professinal and citizen. Rosenblum raises an issue that has remained hidden in the back of my mind for some time. How long can anchors contine to be paid 50 to 100 times more than the average network worker bee in a time where audiences are shifting to non linear content on the web, and revenue streams continue to fragment. I’m hesitant to even publicly loft such a notion, particularly since I’ll be working with Brian Willams, who I respect and admire a great deal, this coming Monday. But as the pie continues to shrink, big media will not be well served to continue coming after the earning capacity of its best and brightets workers.

Once again it’s people placing far too much faith in technology. Jeremiah Owyang of Podtech posted a video produced for Podtech client Topix discussing the problems wiht local news. Many of the interviews spoke of aggregators and feedback loops, but it was Craigslist’s Craig Newmark, that hit the nail on the head. What’s missing is more investigative journalism. And that folks, translates to people and time, which equals infrastructure. Rosenblum’s mantra is small cameras, which as Stewart Pittman points out in his dispatch from Blacksburg, can prove an astonishly poor storytelling tool, in some circumstances.

I couldn’t help but realize this as I watched a muttonchopped dude with a tricked-out consumer-cam, working the pack of mourning kids like he was shooting a concert. Too cool for sticks, he cradled his lens awkwardly in his upturned palms, jamming the damn thing repeatedly in the faces of sobbing freshmen.

Jack-ass…
-Lenslinger

Journalism is ultimately about hard working, dedicated people (read infrastructure). It is often a thankless undertaking whose particpants are often looked upon with disdain. Journalists sacrifice time with their families and risk their lives to practice their craft. I frankly don’t care if they’re professional or amateur. I do care if they have to the courage to seek out and tell the truth, despite how unpopular that truth may be.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

DC Media Maker Andy Carvin, pointed me in the direction of a very interesting discussion about Jamal’s video and citizen journalism that took place at the DC Web Women’s web 2.0 panel. Andy provides some useful insights along with fellow DC Media Maker Jonny Goldstein. The video was shot and cut by Jill Foster (also DCMM)

As the largest collection of live trucks my colleagues and I had ever witnessed beamed images of the horrifying massacre at Virginia Tech, a live TV revolution was quietly happening on the internet.

Prompted by “always on” Justin.tv, suddednly everyone’s video had to be live. Tech evangelist Chris Pirillo was live streaming on Ustream, when news of an earthquake in Mexico fell in his lap. His live stream then became a source of information and communication about the quake. I managed to catch a bit of Robert Scoble driving to the Web 2.0 conference on his live Ustream feed. Jeff Pulver and Chris Brogan now have their own live show and Steve Garfield, on the cutting edge as always, has been going live via Comvu with his Nokia N95.

And now politicians have thrown their hats into the ring..so to speak. Ustream CEO Chris Yeh tells me that Senator Chris Dodd’s war room will be streamed live, using Ustream’s service, during the South Carolina Democratic Debates. So while Jeff Jarvis is miffed at NBC for “stealing” tonight’s debate, at least one of the candidates will provide a unique, behind-the scenes live view.

The current fascination with live video is very interesting to me. It is extremely empowering to be “live” in the “right now” of the moment. Live is a call to action. But what makes Ustream’s live video platform unique is the interactivity. It’s one to many and many to one. Here Chris Pirillo and Robert Scoble talk about how the audience interactivity is real value in live video. DISCLOSURE!!: I did NOT NOT shoot this video. It’s a wee bit shaky, but it’s the content that counts.

My first experience with transmitting live video was some 16 years ago, when I lofted the 60 foot aluminum mast of a WRC-TV live truck, while covering a grocery store shooting in Southeast DC. Flicking the switch on the 2Ghz transmitter from “standby” to “transmit” was enormously empowering…even magical. Since then I’ve transmitted live video, in the form of broadcast news, via microwave, satellite and fiber optics. I’m pretty jaded to being live at work (NBC News), and I grow restless being tied to a control room.

The notion of easy, live video, available to anyone with broadband and a camera, has really re-kindled that empowering feeling i first felt 16 years ago. I’ve been playing with Stickam for a few months now. It’s pretty cool but my “live” offerings are limited to video tours of my environs with an audience I’ve lured away from their Twittering.

I think the context of live is as important as the content. Frankly people sitting in front of webcams !!LIVE!! has a certain “so what” factor to it. Integrating the live video experience into real time events of significance is where this tecnhology will shine. Right now most of us are experimenting and doing it because we can (and that’s fun!). Where we’ll see growth and the real value of live is when it’s used in the proper context.

Earlier today I spoke with Ustream’s acting CEO, Chris Yeh, he agreed with me that the “always on” model of live internet TV would wain in favor of live in some type of context. Yeh believes Ustream wins, echoing the thoughts of Pirillo and Scoble, by its interactivity.

What’s special about Ustream is the interactivity. In traditional
broadcasting, even traditional live broadcasting, there is no interaction.
And in the end, people crave interaction. Just look how many telephone
votes are cast on American Idol each week. Ustream lets the viewers
interact with each other. Even more importantly, it lets them interact with
the broadcaster. This makes the viewers real participants in the broadcast,
and gives the broadcaster instant feedback to help improve the show.
-Chris Yeh

It will be interesting to see how the use of live web video evolves. It already has critics. Mathew Ingram asks: “how much is too much?” Brian Solis points out that, while on the surface it appears that “narcissism” is the driving factor of this technology, “live” has much more value beyond that. I believe we will see tremendous value from live streaming video. Imagine if Jamal Albarghouti had been able to stream live video from his phone during the Virginia Tech shootings. The potential for video journalism is huge, both for independant and mainstream media.

So fellow media makers, how does live video fit into your media toolkit?

On Monday, April 16th, Jamal Albarghouti made a consciously editorial decision that the chaos happening – right there – all around him on the Virginia Tech campus, was something that he should record on his video enabled camera. To fight the wise instinct to protect ones life – to set that aside and decide to pick up a camera, turn it on, and roll – can only be described as an act of journalism. I’ve been in situations where I’ve actively chosen to pick up my camera an roll, despite enormous risk to my life so I admire Albarghouti because of his actions. Albarghouti then posted this video to CNN’s I-Report (hello NBC!!)

Jamal Albarghouti being interviewed

So it was a very big moment for me to have the opportunity to meet Jamal Albarghouti yesterday. He was doing interviews with other TV, so I walked up and “cherry picked” (loosley defined as glomming off someone else’s already in-progress interview) with my Canon Powershot. Just as I was going to ask my own questions to Albarghouti, he was whisked away (literally grabbed by the arm), by an insistent Canadian TV producer. So I’ve hobbled together a very rough video of Albarghouti responding to reporter questions. I wish I’d had more time with him, but just as he rushed off, I had a live shot to attend to myself! On a technical note, Jamal’s tool of choice is the Nokia N70 (I suggested he may want to look at the N95).

Click To Play

New Tee Vee has a useful post on Albarghouti, with links for further discussion. Jonny Goldstein points out the value of big media teaming up with citizen media makers on his blog.

This again raises the issues of citizen jouralism. Is Jamal Albarghouti a “journalist” because he comitted an “act of journalism”? I certainly think he has the right instincts to be a fine photojournalist. There are those out there who would like to see enitre news operations built on solo journalists with video phones. I think that idea is gimmicky. I do believe that given no pictures, or the pictures of a courageous, resourceful individual with keen editorial instincts and a video enabled phone… I’ll take grainy, shaky cell phone video any day. This demonstrates that technology provides the means not the end, an option not the solution. Jamal provided a courageous first person point of view, and big media provided more in depth context and coverage. What do you think?

Todays terrifying shooting rampage at Virginia Tech is still developing as of this writing. This is how i found out:

NBC just called, I’m to hop on a charter out of Dulles. My next post will be from VA Tech. All of the most dramatic video thus far has come from cell phones

I’m a bit suspect of all the latest kerfuffle over a “Blogger Code of Ethics”.  In it, Tim O’Reilly and many other well-intentioned folk are trying to codify behavior on the internet.  It all seems a little too group-think for my tastes, and while I’m sure there are noble and useful ideas contained within such a code, I’ve yet to warm up to the idea. My mother and father instilled a fine code of ethics in me and I’m sure a tech savvy guy like me is well capable of applying them to my online presence.

Before we move forward… THIS BLOG IS NOT JOURNALISM. This blog and this blogger hope to create opportunities for discussion. Nuff said.

Some of the discussion spilled over into the Yahoo video bloggers group, where newly freed video blogger/activist/journalist?, (you decide in comments) Josh Wolf was riffing about the merits of the bloggers code.

I had been paying some attention to Josh’s situation, because it overlaps many of the different worlds I operate in.  One conversation about Josh that caught my attention was an interview by former NBC colleague Kevin Sites.  Kevin interviews Josh in a “In the Hot Zone” article entitled: “Journalist or Activist?” It’s an interesting read and I’d encourage you to listen to the audio of the interview becaus it gives added context.   I don’t care if Josh is or ever has been an anarchist and I don’t apply that as metric of his journalistic street creds.  What jumped off the screen at me was this exchange between Wolf and Sites. 

Kevin Sites: If there had been a situation where you saw a protestor beating up a police officer, or you saw them committing arson, would you have shot that?

Josh Wolf: I wasn’t there to shoot that.

Kevin Sites: No, but would you have shot that?

Josh Wolf: That’s a question I would have made in that moment…

Kevin Sites: Well, that’s what I want to ask you. If I asked you to take sides, if I asked you to take a side of journalism or activism, you know, which side are you taking here? Because you’re asking for the protection of journalism yet you’re also seeking to be an activist.

The words “I wasn’t there to shoot that.” had me gob smacked. So I encountered Josh talking about the bloggers code in the Yahoo video bloggers group, and challenged him on these conflicting points of view. Here are EXCERPTS from that discussion group that Wolf agreed to let me use in this post.

Long:

Josh if you’re a journalist you’re there to tell the
entire story the best you can.”I wasn’t there to shoot
that???” There have been plenty of my assignments
that have evolved into something that I wasn’t there
to shoot. Part of being a journalist is shedding
pre-conceived notions as best you can. If that means
shooting things that rock your world-view, than so be
it.

I was in Quebec City. I was in Genoa, Italy. I saw
that kid lying dead in the street, killed by Italian
paramilitary. I also saw the kid next to me pull a
Molotov cocktail out of his jacket and hurl it at
Italian police. In Quebec City, masked figures were
hurling rotary saw blade down on police from rooftops.
I’ve been gassed by police there and in my hometown
of Washington, DC. Maybe it’s because both the police
and the protesters have disdain for media, but I shot
everthing I felt was relevant.

Josh Wolf is clearly an honorable, brave young man, as
brave as any journalist, but I don’t believe he
deserves shield law protection simply because: “I
wasn’t there to shoot that.”

Wolf:

Jim, Taken out of context, the words, “I wasn’t there to shoot that.”
sound far different than the reality meant by the statement. When I
state, “I wasn’t there,” I don’t mean that wasn’t my mission or chosen
task, but that I literally wasn’t there to shoot it. Would a different
journalist have stopped filming the one cop who was choking the Gabe
Meyers and investigated what was happening with the other? Probably.
Should I have, maybe, but the fact of the matter was that I didn’t know
what was going on and felt that what I was filming was newsworthy and
there was no reason to walk away and turn off the camera.

So after some private email exchanges Josh Wolf agreed to answer some questions on the topic via email.

Long:

In light of your calls for a “bloggers code of ethics” Do you believe that people who identify themselves as journalists should adhere to a set of principles/ethics, such as the SPJ’s?

If yes/no explain your position.

I’m going to tee up a PURELY HYPOTHETICAL question here: let’s say that you’re at a protest and you’re not shooting something at that moment, and protesters engage in any type of unlawful acitivity, and that the shooting of such acitvity would NOT endanger you. Would you shoot it, or, more importantly, would you intentionally decide NOT to shoot the activity

I’m really focused on that one remark in your interview with Sites (as you may have gathered) I don’t care where you are politically. You’ve stated your position on THAT interview. I’ve tried to re-phrase the question so we both know the context.

Wolf:

I believe that people who do and do not identify as journalists already
adhere to their own principles and ethics. I think that codifying these
principles and making it accessible to visitors would possibly
strengthen the trust visitors put in their favorite sites

I would and have shot unlawful activity; all the unlawful activity (both
by protesters and police) I witnessed on July 8th was captured on my
video as best as I was humanly able, and all of the material captured
was put on the published video. I have never intentionally decided not
to shoot any activities due to the subjects involvement in unethical or
illegal activity. I can not fathom a situation where I would not shoot
such material, but I am hesitant to speak in absolutes about what I
would never do.

Wolf’s answers satisfied my concern about the “I wasn’t there to shoot that.” comment. There are for more criteria to consider when defining oneself as a journalist especially if you take on the role of acitvist/advocate. Josh Wolf was “embedded” with the protesters. Embedded journalism brings its own set of problems, I believe. While it is courageous to stand by your beliefs, it takes far more strength and courage to tell the truth when it flys in the face of what you believe.

Clearly this post only begins to scratch the surface of these discussions. You know what the comments are for!! Please use them. Visit Josh on his blog and pose more questions to him.

As I came up through the ranks of TV news photographer, I always found that any given station or market had it’s wise sage. This is the kind of guy who would always be in the right place at the right time to get the picture, command the respect of all of his peers, and would likely be telling the desk what the story was before the reporter had figured it out. Conversant in wide ranging bodies of knowledge, these guys were towering, formative figures early in my career as a TV news photographer. I’d like to introduce you to one of those heroes of TV news. Meet writer, blogger, photojournalist, Stewart Pittman, AKA Lenslinger.

Look, there’s much love and admiration here and I’d love to write more about him. Problem is the more I write, the more inadequate my writing seems. He hammers out prolific prose on his blog, sharing lyrically crafted stories or “Pithy Epistles from the Thinking Man’s Photog” as he calls them. I can’t hold a candle to this man’s writing, the same is probably true about his shooting. I look forward to every one of his “warmed-over angst casseroles”.