THE BLOGGING JOURNALIST

I’m Eagerly Awaiting ‘What Would Google Do?’

I usually don’t eagerly await the publication of a new book. However, there is one I’m anxious to read, and that’s Blogger/Columnist/Author/Educator Jeff Jarvis’ book What Would Google Do?.  It becomes available on January 27, 2009, just nine-days after the other event I’m eagerly anticipating—the inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama.

Jarvis books is published by Collins Business, a division of HarperCollins.

I’ve followed Jarvis’ work for years, and I’ve learned at lot from him. One thing I really like about him is that he will admit when he is wrong. He was wrong about Iraq, and admitted it. See “The Iraq war and me.”  He’s what I consider a true Internet intellectual. His motives and success have been questioned and lauded, at times, but the criticism doesn’t diminish his contribution to new ways of thinking about media and business one bit. See “The Good Life of a New-Media Guru” and “The Web Guru.” Also see Howard Kurtz’s “Jeff Jarvis, On the Inside, Blogging Out.”

I encourage everyone to purchase What Should Google Do?, conduct on and off-line discussions and make the book a best seller.

If you’re inclined to, you can read Jarvis daily at BuzzMachine. He also writes for the Guardian, and is a consultant to several media companies.

By the way, Jarvis and I don’t know each other, personally. I never met him when he worked at the Chicago Tribune and I’ve never spoken to him. I wrote the above simply because I appreciate the work he’s done.

By the way, another blogger I hold in equal esteem is Robert Scoble, “co-author of Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers with Shel Israel”. See his blog Scobleizer and Fast Company.TV.

Finally, I read a lot of blogs, daily, especially tech and media blogs, but Jarvis and Scoble keep me returning regularly to their work.

Technorati Tags: Jeff Jarvis,What Would Google Do?,BuzzMachine.

Bloggers: The 'Literary Equivalent Of Outsourcing To Bangalore'

Recommended: Bookfraud's May 27, 2007, post headlined "Critics Vs. Bloggers Vs. Bookfraud Vs. Godzilla." Once I got past the introductory paragraph, I enjoyed it. I really like this paragraph:

"Critics are scared because newspapers dropping book editors means less work for them. Bloggers are the literary equivalent of outsourcing to Bangalore. Bloggers are the critics' worst nightmare. Not because critics are fungible, but because bloggers are essentially reviewing books for their own edification. In other words, we have an opinion of our own we think is worth sharing, if only to 15 others."

Media Matters: 'Jeff Gerth Can't Handle The Truth'

"Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton," co-author "Jeff Gerth can't handle the truth," contends Media Matters for America's Jamison Foster in a May 25, 2007, post.

"What happens to an investigative reporter best known for his role "breaking" three "scandals," each of which fell apart upon government investigation?" Foster asks.

"If he's Jeff Gerth, and the Clintons are the subjects of one of those stories, he gets to share a million-dollar book deal to recycle his own flawed reporting and rehash ages-old anecdotes," he said, answering his own question.

"And what did Jeff Gerth produce in exchange for his newfound riches?" Foster also asks, noting that, "In Her Story, Gerth and his co-author, Don Van Natta [Jr], compiled a laundry list of previously reported anecdotes -- some true, some almost certainly false, some "preposterous" -- and repackaged them for sale for $29.99."

I found Foster's piece worth reading. It's always good to know something about authors, journalists and bloggers who pass judgment on others. These days even those of us who hold ourselves out as critics should expect to go under a microscope at some point. It use to be something only sleazy politicians, crooked contractors  and misbehaving actors had to worry about.

Are New Books On Hillary Simply 'Cash for Rehash'?

Washington Post reporters Peter Baker and John Solomon reported May 25, 2007, that "The Clinton camp hopes to brush off "A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton," by Carl Bernstein, and "Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton," by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr. "as mainly rehashing old news.

"Is it possible to be quoted yawning?" asked Philippe Reines, her Senate spokesman, Baker and Johnson writes, adding: "If past books on [Hillary] Clinton were "cash for trash," he added, "these books are nothing more than cash for rehash."

The Post writers report that, "Howard Wolfson, a campaign spokesman, pointed to previous reports on some of the elements in the books to make the point that there was nothing new.

"The news here is that it took three reporters nearly a decade to find no news," he was quoted as saying "Two overwhelming Senate victories in the toughest media market in the country demonstrated that voters have put these issues behind them."

Running for a senate seat is far different than running for the presidency and New York is not the rest of the country, although some of the state resembles small town America where many people have a tendency to take a more moralistic approach, even if their own lives are scandalous. But Wolfson already knows that. It doesn't matter that there is nothing new. What matters is that the old was brought up at all.

Bloggers are going to dissect the books. And no one should be surprised or get upset if reporters and bloggers ask Clinton about old and new revelations during her campaign stops. With these two books, they have an excuse to do so. She'll just have to deal with it and move on.

On the other hand, Bloggers and media critics favorable to Clinton will make an effort to discredit the books and the authors, especially the book Jeff Gerth co-authored. The former Standard Oil employee has made some big blunders along the way. Anyone remember the Wen Ho Lee case? So-called mainstream Media (MSM) will be severely criticized for reporting on the books. But that's good. That's what the so-called Market Place of Ideas" is all about.

Also, anti-Hillary bloggers and critics will likely take a "see, I told you so" approach. "She's a liar and a schemer. It must be true, Carl Bernstein said so."

So, what politician isn't a liar and schemer on occasion? It's a rough game. Besides, it's not that simple folks. We all are complex beings with healthy and bruised egos, psychological needs, flaws and good points that make us seem irrational at times and lucid at other times. And many of us like gossip. It's called being human. 

As for the books, I intend to read them before I take a critic's approach to them.  

Technorati tags: "A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Carl Bernstein, "Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton, " Jeff Gerth, Don Van Natta Jr., Washington Post, Peter Baker, John Solomon, Media Matters for America

Changes Expected For LA Times' Sunday Book Review

The Los Angeles Times' 30-year old standalone Sunday Book Review "may soon be combined with the opinion section, Currents, and run in Saturday editions," the San Francisco Chronicle reported March 3, 2007..

According to the Chronicle, "the 12-page Book Review will lose four pages and merge with an eight-page opinion section, resulting in a new 16-page tabloid section."

To read more, please see Heidi Benson's "LA. Times expected to end freestanding book review."

What's A 'Blook'?

Nurul Halawati Mohamad Azhari over at the Malaysian National News Service's Bernama.com has an informative, December 28, 2006 post headlined "Blook: New Medium For Creative Writing."

What's a 'blook'?  According Azhari, it's "an acronym for 'blog book'. Specifically, blook is a published book whereby its content is derived from a blog," he added.

As much as I read, I'm surprised I hadn't heard of the term before today. Anyway, I learned a lot from the post.

TidBit's Tonya Engst Reviews 'Dispatches From Blogistan...'

Tonya Engst at TidBits opined in a December 11, 2006, post: "Out of the many linear feet of books that crossed my doorstep for possible review recently, one stands out: Suzanne Stefanac's "Dispatches from Blogistan: A travel guide for the modern blogger."

"The book is a great read for anyone wanting to keep up with Internet trends, read and use blogs more adeptly, start a blog, or run a blog more professionally," Engst wrote.

To read her entire review, see "'Dispatches from Blogistan' Puts Blogs in Context."

Technorati tags: TidBits, Tonya Engst, Dispatches Form Blogistan: A travel guide for the modern blogger, Suzanne Stefanac

The Australian's Genevieve Tucker: Online, Everyone's A Critic

Genevieve Tucker at The Australian has a post in the December 06, 2006, edition on literary blogging. She also offers a list of good lit blogs. To read about them, see "Online, everyone's a critic."

Did Reuters Fire Joe Maguire Over A Book About Ann Coulter?

Was Joe Maguire, described by The New York Times as "one of two editors in charge of markets coverage at Reuters," fired because he wrote “Brainless: The Lies and Lunacy of Ann Coulter.” Just asking.

See The Times article headlined "At Reuters, a New Book and a Lost Job. May require registration. Also see Gawker's Ann Coulter Dangerous To Your Sanity, Employment Status.

Nick Schou's 'Kill The Messenger'

Orange County (California) Weekly editor Nick Schou, author of Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb, has an excerpt from the book in the October 8, 2006, edition of The Village Voice online. See "Kill The Messenger."

Webb committed suicide on December 10, 2004. He holds the dubious distinction of being an investigative reporter whose reputation three of the nation's most powerful newspaper helped destroy after he wrote "Dark Alliance" in 1996." The San Jose Mercury News series suggested that the contras in Nicaragua had supplied Los Angeles drug dealer Freeway Ricky Ross with cocaine, to raise money to fund the Reagan Administration's attempt to overthrow the Sandinistas government in power in Nicaragua at the time.

Schou notes that the series "also strongly implied that this activity had been critical to the nationwide explosion of crack cocaine that had taken place in America during the 1980s." It also implied that the CIA knew about it.

According to Wikipedia, "On May 7, 1998, Rep. Maxine Waters, revealed a memorandum of understanding between the CIA and the Justice Department from 1982, which was entered into the Congressional Record. This letter had freed the CIA from legally reporting drug smuggling by CIA assets, a provision that covered the Nicaraguan contras and the Afghan rebels.[4]

Wikipedia also notes that, "Reports in the Washington Post (Oct 4, 1996), Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times (Oct 21, 1996), tried to debunk the link between the Contras and the crack epidemic." These papers also came to the defense of the CIA. On August 18, 2006, exactly ten years after the first installment of the Dark Alliance series was published, The LA Times published "The CIA-Contra-Crack Connection, 10 Years Later."

Webb defended himself in Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.

Ten years after it was written, Webb's Dark Alliance series is still worth reading. I read it in 1996 and intend to read it ain.

Technorati tags: Gary Webb, Dark Alliance, Nick Schou, Contras, CIA, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Freeway Ricky Ross

Some Publishing Firms In India Tracking Local Bloggers

"Some publishing companies in India are keenly tracking local bloggers," reports Radhika Agarwal of Mumbai, India-based Daily News & Analysis. "A few book projects involving bloggers are already on, although the money may not match up to Western book deals at all."

To read more, see Agarwal's October 8, 2006 headlined "Six-digit advance and a hardback...…just a blog away?

Technorati tags: Blogging Authors, Published Bloggers

Coming Next: Colin Powell's 'Soldier: The Life Of Colin Powell'

Former Secretary of State Colin's Powell's book "Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell" is scheduled to hit the book stores October 10, 2006. I can imagine Bush Administration officials waiting nervously to see how the public will react to any revelations he might make about the lead-up to, and prosecution of, the war on Iraq.

This week, the release of Bob Woodward's ‘State of Denial,’ put an unwanted focus on the war just as President George W. Bush sought to ensure Americans that it was going well, and that the sacrifice of U.S. troops is worth it.

For more, see the New York Daily News article headlined "Incoming! Bookstores lay am-Bush of war books."

Newsweek Offers 'Exclusive Excerpt' From 'State of Denial'

Newsweek online has put up what it calls an "exclusive excerpt" from Bob Woodward's ‘State of Denial,’ part three of his 'Bush at War' series. The tome is getting widespread attention in traditional media and the blogosphere.

Regarding the Iraq war, Woodward says, "It was Bush’s decision. But [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld drove the dynamic on Iraq." The excerpt purports to tell how Rumsfeld "blew it."

Henry Kisor, Books, Xboxes And Blogs

Henry Kisor, the legendary Chicago Sun-Times book editor, is retiring and will "become book editor emeritus of the Sun-Times" after 33-years of reviewing books. The following paragraph caught my attention while reading his May 28, 2006 column:

"As entertainment, books may be challenged by Xboxes and blogs, but text is still text, and print between covers remains the most important engine of the experience of reading. Books haven't yet been buried and may never be. A lot of life is left in the technology Johan Gutenberg invented more than 500 years ago."

What about it Jeff Jarvis, is Kisor right? Jarvis, who blogs at BuzzMachine, has written a series of posts this year about books. The latest is Humbug, in which he says "John Updike, old fart, is turning out to be no ally of modernity."

For more of Kisor's thoughts, see "After 33 years, I'm going back on the shelf."