As of this writing, a visit to FoxNews.com’s home page reveals nothing about the kidnapping Monday of correspondent Steve Centanni (pictured) and freelance photographer Olaf Wiig. The story was there earlier — and I linked it from Lost Remote — but Fox swapped it out with a story about the kidnapping of an American and three oil workers in Nigeria. Writes TVNewser, “Since 2pm, when [we] started monitoring FNC coverage, the net has aired four brief updates about the kidnapping.” Clearly Fox News is taking a very cautious approach as it works tenaciously behind the scenes to bring Centanni and Wiig home.
As Chip suggested in comments earlier today, we should have a Lost Remote t-shirt. So let’s come up with a pithy slogan and I’ll sell ‘em at cost. Whoever comes up with the winning slogan gets two free t-shirts. I’ll start it out in comments…
Hang on to your Halo. There’s a new twist in the user-generated content revolution: video games. Microsoft is offering a new software development program so people with relatively basic skills can create their own games for Windows PCs and Xbox 360. Casual games are hugely popular in the XBox marketplace, this may be much more than creating a YouTube for gamers. The Movies has made machinima possible for anyone, this move could have major implications in the coming generation of game developers. Microsoft announced the XNA Express framework this morning, the free tools for PC development are due in about a month.
Well, it’s about time Geraldo Rivera and Bill O’Reilly put those ragamuffins at The Daily Show and The Colbert Report in their places! Geraldo: “Stewart and that Colbert guy… they make a living putting on video of old ladies slipping on ice and people laughing. That’s their life. They exist in this small little place where they count for nothing.” Jon and Stephen - take it…
This wouldn’t have anything to do with Jon and Stephen holding Geraldo and Bill accountable for what they say, would it? ALSO: Longer segment here.
With Sunday Night Football on NBC, the network is beefing up NBCSports.com with more content and a fantasy game powered by RotoWorld. Plus, NBC has created a partnership with participating NBC affiliates that uses the same model as Olympic Zone — a mix of content, marketing and sales shared across NBCSports.com and the affiliate sites. So far, 80 affiliates have signed up. (Full disclosure: KING5.com, where I work, is one of the 80.)
If you run a news operation, here is a ten question quiz. I’ll even give you the answers: they are all “yes.” You need to be able to answer “yes” to all 10 questions. If you can’t, you aren’t doing enough to push your newsroom ahead. I promise you have a competitor that can answer “yes” to any question you give a “no” to. Quiz after the jump.
Major League Baseball has already clamped down on the use of game highlights online. But it hasn’t ruled on video-on-demand. Yet. So look at what’s happening with the just-launched Dodgers on Demand channel as a sort of test case. The LA Dodgers started the channel in conjunction with Time Warner, and fans can access historic games there. Despite the MLB’s history of fighting its fans’ desires to see what they want when they want, LR encourages it to support the effort.
LR pal Terry Heaton deconstructs social networking for us and explains why it’s something newsies need to get. I’m with Terry - social networking is a complicated phenomenon, and one we may not immediately see as related to what we do. (I have a MySpace page, and even I don’t fully “get it.”) But social networking, like blogging, puts power in the hands of “the people formerly known as the audience,” forcing “people into the postmodern exercise of deconstruction.” Local social networks would help your community interact in new and meaningful ways, and if you are a part of that network it will help your cred as an overall information source.
On Fox News’s “The Beltway Boys,” old-schoolers Fred Barnes and Mort Kondracke continue to see trees where the giant forest is on the political blogger front. Discussing the Ned Lamont/Joe Lieberman race:
BARNES: Now, I think political bloggers are important. But on the other hand, they’re still about the most overrated phenomenon I’ve ever seen in politics… KONDRACKE: …more and more people are going to get computers all the time, and the bloggers figure that people have nothing better to do than to sit there and sound off with their political opinions.
Gentlemen, while the average voter does not read political blogs, politicians do, political activisits do, and the media - which chooses the stories - does. How do you think the tone of the election gets set? How do you think a grasroots political movement catches fire? You want an overrated phenomenon? I suggest bloviating “experts.”
Give it up for Cory, who rebuilt Lost Remote in an emergency, used the NowBreaking.com URL as a workaround, and then moved us back to the LostRemote.com URL over the weekend. (I hope this puts to rest the speculation of a rebranding effort. As much as I like “Now Breaking,” the massive staff at One LR Plaza didn’t want to change our T-shirts.) The whole effort was seamless to you guys, and that was his goal. You all know how passionate Cory is about sharing information about convergence and media. I hope you’ll take a moment to leave him a comment.
Broadcasting & Cable’s Allison Romano looks at newspapers’ increasing adoption of video online, and whether it poses any threat to traditional TV outlets. Allison kindly interviewed me for the piece. My opinion: adopting video does not threaten TV websites. If you want to win over your local market website war, have the best local information in town, period. The quality and depth of information will keep the folks coming back, not a platform here or there.
As of this writing, a visit to FoxNews.com’s home page reveals nothing about the kidnapping Monday of correspondent Steve Centanni (pictured) and freelance photographer Olaf Wiig. The story was there earlier — and I linked it from Lost Remote — but Fox swapped it out with a story about the kidnapping of an American and three oil workers in Nigeria. Writes TVNewser, “Since 2pm, when [we] started monitoring FNC coverage, the net has aired four brief updates about the kidnapping.” Clearly Fox News is taking a very cautious approach as it works tenaciously behind the scenes to bring Centanni and Wiig home.
Major League Baseball has already clamped down on the use of game highlights online. But it hasn’t ruled on video-on-demand. Yet. So 
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