Roger Ailes must have gotten to Megyn Kelly.
Ok, I can understand why any anchor would defend her station. But it’s still disheartening to see Kelly’s O’Reilly impression.
Meanwhile, the anchor story over at CNN is about Campbell Brown, who is going up against O’Reilly and Olbermann in prime time with “Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull” at eight. From her appearance on the Daily Show (which is where much of the serious, well-known media commentary occurs), it seems like she’s trying to navigate punditry-infested waters with less ideologially rigid soliloquies.
But interesting than the efforts to save traditional news organizations from themselves is the emergence of web-based media. Two telling stories:
- Today, the Boston Globe reports that the Christian Science Monitor is cutting off its dead tree edition and moving to an all-digital model. It’s an example of a the type of decision all of the high quality print sources will be forced to confront. The First Chuch of Christ, Scientist’s management of the paper seems much more similar to the Sulzbergers’ conscientious (if not always as progressive as possible) stewardship of The Times than the Bancroft’s direction at the The Wall Street Journal. Hopefully The Times will be able to maintain its quality and stop cutting newsroom positions even while adapting to the new information economy.
- The Chicago Tribune (legacy media) profiled Nate Silver, author of FiveThirtyEight.com (new media). 538 is certainly the biggest (new)media success of this election; the site is one of the best examples of citizen journalism. Though the anonymously authored statistical analysis was a humble beginning, his expertise and analysis have elevated his voice into one of the most respected on the internet (and beyond, I know that 538 practically legitmated the blog medium for my father, among others). Silver’s On the Road series, which is a landmark achievement in new media, visited North Carolina today. Sean Quinn and company have consistently covered the campaigns’ ground operations better than anyone else I’ve read, but today’s entry was notable for its ability to capture the groundswell of feeling behind the daily data.
We’re in trouble if traditional media shrivel away but there’s going to be a lot to think through after the media insanity of the election cools down (if it can).
Tags: blogging, campaign, campbell brown, criticism, election '08, fivethirtyeight, media, megyn kelly, new media, news and politics, newspapers