Oregon Media Insiders

I didn't get a chance to follow everyone's coverage of the Gearhart story this morning, but I was impressed how quickly the Astorian got accurate info on their website, and KGW seemed to be only a step behind. (Others may have done well, too.)

OregonLive.com quoted the Astorian and linked to it on its website during the morning hours.

As I just said in a message to Lynn, my wife and I had a place in Gearhart until a year ago and know that house well. It is sobering to imagine how quickly a peaceful, post-weekend morning turned to tragedy without warning.

Is anyone other than the Oregonian following the story of what the Sherwood School District is doing to drama teacher Jennie Brown?

The O's story is here: http://www.oregonlive.com/education/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/12052...

There is probably more to this than we're seeing, but on the surface, it has the trappings of some of the attempts to muzzle editors of high school and university newspapers.

In a post yesterday on the O's call for commentators, I mentioned OPB's Public Insight Network, but notice this hasn't really been discussed here.

If you haven't heard their announcements or seen this on their website, it's something to pay attention to.

While this is OPB's project and isn't a copy of MPR's, it has similarities to a project Minnesota Public Radio has had for more than two years. People knowledgeable in various areas--in the thousands, not hundreds--feed into their news discussions.

Did anyone see the call for submissions in the Sunday Oregonian? They're looking for about a dozen people to contribute the occasional piece on a variety of topics. It's unpaid. It sounded a bit like OPB's new Public Insight Network.

The Oregonian has earned its second dart from Columbia Journalism Review in six months, this time for relying on (and sticking to) an inaccurate engineering analysis in a story involving the stability of ATV's. (September/October, 2007 issue, p. 13)

Two researchers have just given photo editors new ethical issues to deal with. This technique allows someone to alter the aspect ratio of an image without changing elements that are essential to the viewer's sense of perspective. As the video shows, it also allows important elements of the image to be removed, Soviet-style, with greater ease than before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIFCV2spKtg

April Baer made Round 4 of Public Radio Talent Quest. I hope you'll listen and vote for her. Access it here: http://www.publicradioquest.com/

If someone else has noticed this and posted it, I missed it.

[corrected. Congrats, April!--L]

This ought to be fun. Someone has compiled his choice for the fifty worst local commercials in America.

Sadly, my nominee, Mattress World, is not among them. (Some people have no sense of poor taste.)

I thought it might be fun to ask for other nominations for the worst in Oregon.

[edited for long URL.--L]

Not local, but of interest to those interested in the "new" media ...

A number of news websites post links to stories on other sites. One is CNN. On their site at this writing (and for the second time this week) is the story, "Facebook founder sued|Facebook's creator is being sued for stealing the idea. What do you think?"

The link, clearly sourced, is to The Onion, which bills itself as "America's Finest News Source" but is a parody site. As this sort of semi-automated electronic gathering grows, I suspect we'll see more and more of this.

Columbia Journalism Review's latest edition hurls a dart at the Big O for its fawning coverage of Macy's (http://www.oregonmediainsiders.com/node/755), particularly its 12/31 editorial praising it for keeping the downtown store open during the holidays despite the construction.