79 Comments on thursday, july 12, 2007 : special report
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Excellent music.
I was wondering about the music too. Who\’s it by? Is this another Andrew Baron original?
http://www.florentijnhofman.nl/
Hmmm, I’ll speak to my Master and Venerable teacher Shri Rubbie Duckie and get back to you.
Wow B-man, that link sure showed pics of one ginormous duckie! You just have to hand it to the French people for their creative ingenuity; and their ability to keep unusual and wierd objects afloat.
Speaking of the French… :-)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=yKS0yISz6xQ
Yes Sylv. Pardon my ignorance, but I can\’t decide wether to address you as Mr. ain, or as Ms. ain, as my narrow American upbringing has not allowed me to understand the name \’Sylv\’. I have to say, though, that your YouTube recommendation was great. I saw Bill Marr (Maher) live, during the eighties sometime out in L.A. as a much younger man (him, not me), as he taped a show for some network, perhaps HBO–I can\’t remember (because I\’m pushing fifty, for Christ\’s sake). OOpps. Is the term \’Christ\’ appropriate here? Ah, what the Hell, I was raised a Catholic, and attended Catholicism during grade school where they taught us things like: it is a sin to use the word \’Hell\’, et cetera.
Anywho. I am also mostly a French heritage on both sides. Therefore this piece on France that you link to above is brilliant, in my eyes. It\’s the bomb. OOpss, I mean it is really cool. By the way, have you clicked on B-man\’s link (above) to the big, bigger, biggest beak-possessor duck around?
Hi Mike,
Sorry It’s a typo actually, my firstname is Sylvain (Mr.) I thought it would make some original nickame so I kept it :-)
I like this video, it helps forgetting all the teeth grinding between the US and France we had after 9/11
Yup I saw that yellow giant duck. Classic. (and I’m glad B-Man posted it, it reveals his true mood when he posts on RB :-P )
Some years ago, a happening in Montreal had a container full of those yellow ducks poured into the harbour. It thought it was hilarious but I didn’t have my camera with me.
How ironic to read that some other yellow ducks will soon reach UK after a 17.000 miles journey ! :
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1996553.ece
Mr. Sylv: I would like to quote, what I feel is a wonderful quote from the link that you have provided directly above:
\”A flotilla of plastic ducks is heading for Britain’s beaches, according to an American oceanographer.
For the past 15 years Curtis Ebbesmeyer has been tracking nearly 30,000 plastic bath toys that were released into the Pacific Ocean when a container was washed off a cargo ship.
Some of the ducks, known as Friendly Floatees, are expected to reach Britain after a journey of nearly 17,000 miles, having crossed the Arctic Ocean frozen into pack ice, bobbed the length of Greenland and been carried down the eastern seaboard of the United States. Mr Ebbesmeyer, who is based in…\”
This, my freind is brillant! I have adapted the term \’Friendly Floatees\’ as my own! Thank you.
Those 30,000 plastic duckies are disciples of Shri Rubber Duckie. Their devotion to the Venerable Master is unprecedented as their 15 year journey attests.
@ Sylv ain: es-tu à Montréal aussi?
The Montreal duck race was a hospital charity event held several years in a row (get it?!) A dump truck full of numbered little duckies was dumped into a lock at a local marina and the current would float them to the finish line.
That\’s it !! I was passing by and had no idea what was going on, all of a sudden zillions of duckies were poured into the marina. What a shock :-) It was flabber gasting (and the best definition of \”no-sense\” I could get).
(well, I was in Montreal. Actually I\’ve been living in Montreal from \’78 to \’82 and from \’97 to \’03 but I\’m now in Toulouse, France)
J\’adore Bill Maher. He\’s incredibly smart and funny. That was hilarious!
LOL!
B-man, that has to be the best link you’ve posted ever.
I’m printing that sucker out and putting it on my cubicle wall right now.
Hey B-man I hope you don\’t mind but I posted the duck over at http://www.headshaker.com
As long as they light incense and a candle, no problem.
I was writing this at 3am Friday morning my time, while the Wednesday episode was still up, but I see that RB has already addressed the issue with their Thursday episode, which was posted sometime in the past 20 minutes. Rather than waste what I wrote, I’ll post anyway.
As someone who has worked with Rocketboom as a friend and freelancer, I feel the need to finally speak up. I’m not speaking on behalf of anyone at RB. This is only my opinion, but I think that many of you are way off base with some of your comments and fears that were expressed this past week. The truth behind what happened is much more innocuous and boring than you’d imagine. Drew and Joanne went to a web conference, as they often do. This one happened to be in Israel. While there, they did their best to keep the show going by assembling field reports from the conference location (which is not an easy task!). In this case, I’m sure that they would have loved to have entered Palenstinian territory to provide a counterpoint, but I doubt it was feasible from a logistics standpoint. Alternatively, they could have done a much less interesting report from whatever conference they were attending, but we’ve all seen those before. My guess is that someone who had access to a helicopter offered them a tour, and they took it. No surprise that the tour guide was biased. But you are all smart enough to be able to sort propaganda and personal opinions from hard cold facts. Despite the bias, I still found it to be an interesting report. Bottom line is that RB doesn’t have huge budgets for each show, or large production teams. They work with the resources at hand. So please rest assured that there was no hidden agenda. No intentional Zionist spin. They were just trying to what they do best. Provide interesting 3 minute videos into worlds that some of us don’t often see. Also, as a side note, they left Israel about a week ago and the entire RB team has been on much needed vacation/retreat since then. I think they were traveling yesterday which probably explains the lack of a Thursday episode.
I just wanted to explain what (I think) is going on here, and defend the RB team a bit. You have no idea how difficult it is to keep a daily web show going, while allowing the team members to accomplish everything else in life that needs to be done both professionally and personally. While it is nice to see so many people commenting, my hope is that some of the more extreme rantings and the vitriol will stop - and for heavens sake, don’t give up on RB because of 2 or 3 episodes! In the meantime, I’m working on a fun episode that will knock your socks off. And there won’t be a fence or pipebomb within miles, I promise. :)
Hey, check out the ginormous duckie that B-man discovered (see above).
Mmh OK. I think I was so surprised by the change of format (no comment, no humour, no upfront irony, etc.) and content (what a contrast with the previous light and joyful subjects) that I thought that RB *endorsed* the blurb from the tour guy.
I apologize, I didn’t see that the RB team was asking us to make our own opinion and not consider that the report was theirs.
So, thanks for these 3 special reports :-)
Sylv: I whole-heartedly second that emotion! P.S.: there is a B-man quack-attack linked to above. You\’ll be glad you clicked it.
Hi,
I tink there is no need to explain or defend what RB has reported or the way how they have shown what the team saw. I get the impression that if a report does not fit with ready-made expectations - so what? They’ve seen what they’ve seen. It can help us to complete or challange our views (or ready-made stereotypes in our heads).
Am looking forward to the knock-my-socks-off-episode!
I think *maybe* you’ve underestimated the power of the medium you use.
Does it matter that you only showed one side? Well, if a TV news report did that would it matter? I think it would, perhaps the real question is does Rocketboom matter less than TV? Rocketboom has better reach than any TV news - perhaps Rocketboom matters more. (I think it does)
Is Rocketboom journalistic? This is tricky, clearly it uses an “evening news” style - though often in parady, does this make it journalistic? Here I think the answer is no. But paradoxically, I think the “on location” stuff is - people are retelling actual events, and showing footage from the scene - this is journalistic.
Do I think Rocketboom’s treatment of these events was “unfair”? No, I think it is wrong to expect every report to be balanced, I think if as a group they don’t address both sides then that is a valid concern. But also, who said it had to be “fair” anyway, and what is “fair”? Who decides what is or is not “fair”? Who is impartial enough to make that determination?
I think very little editorial bias was introduced, mostly the facts were shown. The guy talking even hinted that the controversial nature of some things he was talking about. Did it show Israel in a flattering light? Perhaps. But I’m sure for the people of Israel, this report would seem fair. Did it deny Israel’s actions? No, it just didn’t mention them. Is this fair? Perhaps this is something Rocketboom might address - maybe even should address, in episodes to come.
My biggest concern is this: Who is the man talking? Who or what does he represent? Knowing this will help me (the viewer) form an opinion about what he’s saying. If Rockeboom failed anywhere it is in not explaining who this person was and his relationship with the events.
I love the “show”, keep up the good work.
Jeremy: well stated! I vote/rate you a +1 ! Also, did you get a chance yet to check out the gargantuan duckie that B-man found (link above)?
The guy speaking into the mic in the opening shot, can anyone translate what he said for me please?
Kam, it was quite clear: he said something very important about Microsoft and blogging blah-blah, then added that there is a vital link (as a courtesy from B-man) to a massive duckie in comment #2!
Hey Mike, I have some pull with Shri Rubber Duckie. Do you want to study under the Venerable Master? He seems to have made a Great Impression upon you…One prerequisite though: You must B be able to float on your back with minimal movement and chant OM at the same time.
Kam: on another serious note you\’ll want to check out Ehrensenf today of all days ;) Cheers!
… and you may like this too. I think he was on RB way back when.
Thanks for the link CC. Never heard of BuzzTV. The host is luscious (sorry Cate, be there soon luv!!) Think I\’ll start tuning in…also the artist is right. I received an email of his work about 3 years ago, then another and another. Seems his stuff has been emailed around the world as people snap away and post it. By the way, if you look at him closely, he looks like a younger Keith Richards (before the latter became a scary monster)
What do I think? It believe that was the question. So. Well, Long live Rocketboom.
It, I mean ‘I’ (hic-cup (exuse me)) believe that, also, tycobrahe!
Hey, wanna see a super colossal web-footed freak? Click on the link from B-man’s comment above (near the top)! This thing is great, quack-quack!
Wow. Of all the things you’ve run in the past that could easily be considered one-sided (namely the shots at Bush, Stevens, and Alberto Gonzales, not to mention the stuff on Katrina, stuff on the Patriot Act, and various shots at the war) THIS is what got you guys flack?
Seriously, people need to re-evaluate what they turn on their selective outrage-o-meter about. Rocketboom has plenty of one-sided stuff. They have in the past. They will in the future.
So what? If you aren’t pleased with an episode, man up and skip it.
Frankly, I thought this was some of the best reporting I’ve ever seen.
Me, too, Vinny! And ‘Flack’ is a superb word, although I can only find the meaning for the noun, and not the verb in my dictionary (but hey: it’s the same dictionary that doesn’t list ‘ginormous’ yet, neither). Hey Vinny, have you taken a gander at the gigantically enormous duckie that B-man has linked to above?
That’s just a great duckie, B-man. It even came with it’s own promoter (i.e. Mike D)!
RB, I took your special reports as they were and for what they were, I think. I agree very much with the comments Jeremy C posted above. I agree that it might have helped if you had somehow been able to give a little more context/background info on the tours and/or the anonymous speakers. You usually have a link below which often provides this extra “depth”, but it was missing in these episodes.
Personally, it was not the episode contents that got to me, it was the way the comments “went south and sour”. But, maybe that is more related to me personally; After all, I could have stopped reading. Could any of you have “jumped in” with comments which might have helped? I doubt it. I appreciated cris coles comment defending RB this AM.
I love RB, and I hope we all have learned something from these “special” episodes and comments. Keep up the good work.
Long live Rocketboom.
Hey Mr. \’gentleman\’ what do you think you are doing…we have an unspoken 3 second rule here! Oh wait. I see that you made it before my next comment by only 2 seconds. Well, then. Well done. Anyway: yes, you are absolutely right, in my esteem: the recent comments have taken a slight detour to the south (although I\’m not 100 percent sure that if going \’south\’ is necessarily a bad thing). A big quack-quack to you for visiting B-man\’s link above! Thanks.
Hey B-man, how am I doing so far? I’m giving it my all to draw traffic to your comment and link (comment #2 above about some duckie artwork that some Euro hammer-headed artist(s) created), because I see beauty in it! Also: on that same duckie web-site–that you link to: once you go there, there is a sub-link, if I may, that reminds me a lot of Kam.
Welp, I think my point has been pulverized into oblivion. Thank God (oops, is it okay to mention ‘God’ here (after all: my God for me, as a narrow-minded, mono-linguistic, Catholic reared in ‘America’ is the same God witch (sp) they believe in over there, isn’t he/she?))?
So, B-man, did you check out the big fish; I mean: big duck up there…oh wait… I forgot: It was you, B-man who was the one to turn me on to the massive, rubberized, yellow creature in the first place! Thanks. I truely appreaciate it.
http://www.fayar.net/happyhollow/Duckwav.wav
Translation: I responded somewhere up top to your endorsement of my B-post.
Mastah Duckie will be happy to have an audience with you in the very near future. Just send a pic of a lake of your choosing and arrangements will be made.
I think you have done a great job. In Europe we generaly see the other side and it was good to be able to see the Israel side. Thank you
Uh-oh! I sense some quackery beginning to ripple across my pond, AMMS. Perhaps you should visit the link provided by B-man (above near the top) to see how a true ‘No Wake Zone’ official of the water’s surface operates.
Okay. Amen. This is it. Over n’ out, and ‘10-4′, the mic is hope-fully powered off now.
@ Mike: get some sleep dude but not before you go see the pic of a HUGE quacker that B-man posted above! What? It’s already got to you? Oh! I would never have guessed! Hope to see it in today’s mashup! PS: thanx again!
What do I think? As someone said above; that was the question. Nowhere has RB ever stated that it is a news reporting service or that it conforms to any journalistic reporting norms. Actually, to quite the contrary, RB has said, posted, written, and blogged that it chooses to show whatever it finds interesting and believes we, the viewers, MAY also find interesting.
When someone decides to start a blog or vblog they choose whatever format turns them on. There are no preset guidelines to conform to; you draw your own. You can go from black to white to grey and back again just as easily as you can go all black with a dash of white and a sprinkle of grey or go white all the way - the point is: YOU DECIDE.
When a viewer makes a habit of watching or reading the same vblog or blog it is generally because you enjoy the format and content. Just because YOU happen to like it doesn’t mean everyone does and more importantly, just because you enjoyed the last 27 episodes doesn’t mean the 28th has to be up to YOUR expectations (see paragraph above for a quick re-hash; sorry Kam not that kind).
If you don’t like what’s happening - move along. A blog run for business is usually administered based on viewership as those numbers make the $$ roll in. If the admin sees the numbers slide down then he should make adjustments based on feedback and logic to bring them up again. Those adjustments may be smooth, radical or even both. Again it is up to the show to test and decide. My guess is the RB crew has that figured out, not because I keep coming back, but because they keep cranking out shows day after day; somebody must like what’s being aired, or you’re really all just here to see Joanne every day! Sorry ladies, but I’m going based on published RB demographics. However, I seriously doubt we’ll see 3 day coverage of synchronized underwater basket weaving*, but if we do you can be sure the comments will tell a different story. *No offense intended to any athletes of this sport.
The last 3 episodes got a bunch of people’s knickers in a twist and that, IMHO, is a good thing; it shows them we’re watching. One sided or not, it doesn’t matter, that’s not what RB is about.
I hope this made sense. I haven’t been up all night chasing big ducks or tequilas like some of us, just petty thieves in the neighbors yard.
Rock on.
PS: new chat room is a cool idea - go check it out way up top.
And here’s one more comment!
What do we think? After the three days of comments you need to ask this? What a cop out from RB. Here’s what I think, FWIW. These comments are addressed to the RB creators/staff, and not to the many commentors this week.
(1) The episodes themselves show the lack of effort put into them by RB. They are mostly not interesting and border on (as some have pointed out) the patronizing. Basically all of the footage was shot on one single trip, so whatever other opportunities RB had and took, we didnt see them. Monday’s was the most interesting, and sufficient to elicit whatever reaction may have been desired. Dwelling on it for the entire week was a disservice to the audience, and may have lost you some regular viewers.
(2) The unmoderated comments are a disaster. In particular the bullying by two trolls whom I shall not name is completely out of hand. Evidence is that their ad hominem comments are actively alienating other commentors (if not viewers), and the rating system is doing nothing to discourage them from doing more of the same. If RB wants to keep its audience, it needs to find a way to regulate this behavior, rather than invite it.
(3) RB needs to figure out what it is really doing. Andrew Baron has expressed several different theories about what RB is/should be, but none of them really matches what is being done, which itself is not all that consistent. Does RB want us to take it seriously? Or does it want to present a parody view? Are we supposed to be edified or merely entertained? Is RB for a unified audience, or are there different audiences that it wants to reach and incite dialog among? Clarifying this sort of thing, or even signalling what is being done on a specific occasion would go a long way to preventing fiascos like the present one. It’s impossible to know for sure, but I have a feeling that the discussions about this sort of thing at RB seldom go deeper than the old media/new media trope. And it’s disingenuous to say “such and such rules don’t apply” or “RB is not that kind of thing” or to change your mind in mid-production that what you really want to do is to jerk your viewer in another direction. You, RB, don’t even have to agree on all of everything, but you owe it to yourselves and your audience to work this out a lot better than you have. The longer this is unresolved, the less the real value of RB, and the less it can realize its potential as an agent of change (for whatever it is you want to change).
(4) In terms of its productions schedules, RB needs to be more up front with its audience. A daily show, 5 days a week, every week is a seriously ambitious schedule for any small collective to undertake, and the stresses are understandable, as is the need for planned down-time, vacation for the staff, whatever. The audience understands this and will readily forgive it, but it has to be communicated with them (for example, Red vs Blue organizes their content into “seasons”, which allows them certain breaks in the production cycle). Don’t just show people filler, and expect them to take it as normal fare; it’s patronizing when you do that. That was also today’s episode, to be frank, and many other episodes at junctures such as this. Moreover, whenever you do it, it gets a similar reaction to what we’ve seen all week. So publish or flag your expected production schedule in advance — you could even take an episode every week or every month to do some of this — and then people will have a bit more context from which to make informed judgments about the content.
I do believe RB is a project that has value, and different kinds of potential that are often competing with one another for realization in some form. The audience understands that experimentation is desirable and sometimes necessary, in order to properly explore those possibilities, and that risk-taking is part of your venture. At the same time, it needs to be recognized that RB can’t be all those things, and/or continue to be a laboratory for experimentation. Perhaps what you need is something more like Eyebeam, where a number of more or less related experimental projects can go on in parallel. This would have the benefit of de-coupling some of those projects from your tight production schedules.
I hope these suggestions help you sort things out. All the best.
JP
Wow JP! Those ARE some deep and serious thoughts about RB. I think I generally agree with many of them. I do hope that they help the “creative team” sort all of this out. My only comment on your comments is that I hope RB can somehow integrate some of the changes you suggest in a balanced way; Specifically, I hope they can still remain “light hearted” (e.g. casual Friday) without resorting to “terminal seriousness”.
Thanks.
RB should take JP out for coff ee
I really appreciate these well considered comments, JP. Very clear and insightful and intellectually honest.
Absolutely, this old media/new media talk is tiresome, as is, “well, if you don’t get it, it’s your fault.” This is a cop out by those who really haven’t thought about what they want, or what they are doing, and seem to refuse to do it — out of some kind of vague fear.
If a vlog is about finding a voice, and we are expected to tune in everyday to experience that effort, with experimental and often naïve, but well intentioned efforts, well so be it. That mission is a bit narcissistic for my taste, and rather tiresome to tune into. It also requires a culture of viewers who are cheerleaders. You know, a culture saying, hey, whatever you do is just so great, because you’re finding your way, and I want to support that.
Which brings me to this point. I don’t mind “conflict” on these boards. And this is where I strongly disagree with you, JP. What’s wrong with conflict? I sense there is an implicit interdiction on these boards — be nice, cheerlead, or you’re unenlightened. That’s nonsense.
If we are not open and brave on these blogs, then how can it ever achieve what I assume it is trying to do — forge a new way to communicate, connect, and create meaning. Conflict is not supposed to be comfortable. If people don’t start arguing, we’ll all end up in a sea of complacency.
That was the most eye opening thing for me about this past week — the utter fear of conflict, and the utter fear to take a stand.
So, sorry, JP, RB would lose a substantial part of its value if it flamed or monitored comments. Christ, that’s the last thing I want to see.
What I would like to see is a commitment to a pro-active, clear editorial policy, one by which we can assess the show, output and outcomes. I don’t think this last week has anything to do with being fair or not fair. It has to do with taking a real risk — the risk of saying, this is what I am up to — what do you think? The 3 minute pieces seemed to avoid doing that with nearly hysterical ferocity.
For a “new wave” of media or whatever, this whole last week showed me how risk-adverse the culture surrounding RB is. I think that’s worth thinking about.
As an official geek, I must admit I rea http://www.slashdot.org and I like its forum monitoring. Everyone starts with X points of Karma, appreciated comments deserve new points and flaming/spamming/… remove those points. The audience is large enough to level personal attacks and trolls. The key feature is the “display only messages above X points” optional filter.
Conflict is good, only when both parties share the same will to exchange constructive arguments for the sake of the discussion. Maybe a moderated forum à la slashdot could take care of the mmmmmh.. chatterers ?
JP seems to think of herself as an authority of some sort, only why she does not mention. All that advise is given as if it usually would cost a fortune. That, in this context at least, seems very patronizing.
RB’s question: Who knows!
I totally agree with point 2) of the above ‘a certain JP’s’ comments.
-s
IMHO: This story on Israel was one of the best that I have ever seen on Rocketboom. I am not Israeli or a Jew, but I feel that far too little is spoken of with regard to the lives that Israelis have to live. They are but a few million Jews, on a tiny piece of land, surrounded by the chaos of tens of millions of people surrounding them. The argument always blames Israel for everything and it is refreshing to see just the country and hear the stories…Good Show! Beats all that esoteric, New Yorker stuff. The rest of us in fly over country can’t relate to such stuff.
FF
What do I think? I think I felt like I was wondering what jonanne was thinking the whole time. When I see stuff from a place so far away, that I know so little about, I like to hear what people I know had to think about all of it, especially when they’re right there the whole time, seeing everything in person and getting talking to all the people. It’s like getting a story to go with some pictures. I felt like from beginning to end, the whole week was lacking narration. Some of that could have to do with the fact that I get my RocketBoom via tivo, thus rarely frequenting the site any more. Maybe there was more intimate coverage going on online, and if there was, I’d say, for future reference, to go ahead and forward it along on to us tivo users. I RB bc it’s only news with any perspective I might care about that still finds its way all the way to my tv.
Ryan H
Thanks RB, today’s episode is shedding some light on what you want to do/transmit. We were used to your somehow partial positionnings on other subjects and found them interesting because you were each time on the so-called weak side ( would I say David’s side, against Goliath ? ) - MSM, republicans etc. On this occasion many of us felt like you went to the “powerful side”. One killed person is always to much, but the ratio currently is clearly favorable to Israël.
I understand that it might have been difficult/impossible to film on the other side. Though I would have loved some subtitles telling the other side point of vue, or a screen divided in two parts, or whatever ingenious layout you could have imagined.
I’ll be back on Monday to enjoy my regular RB, and see how tanned is Joanne.
“A Certain JP” sums it up quite well. If you want to be a lasting presence that can compete with, or substitute for, “the mainstream media,” you need to have some vision and pursue that vision responsibly. Unfortunately, the comments here often sink to a middle school level as well, and that isn’t going to help you win any adult adherents who otherwise might be able to gain some insight here.
If you’re shying away from doing real journalism, that would be fine, because you probably don’t have the resources or training to report political stories properly. But, if you really want to try and go further in that direction (and I would applaud the effort), you’re going to have to become more savvy at avoiding the PR tricks that governments and corporations use to abscond with a story and basically hijack it from under your noses. This is, I believe, what clearly happened over the last three episodes in Israel (and probably happens quite often when you’re invited into a corporate show to report). I imagine you were infatuated with the idea of going up in a military helicopter with cameras too much to really think through how you might balance the years of training your Israeli/American guide has in telling his side of the story. I don’t doubt for a minute he may have been in the employ of some NY PR Agency before, or during, his stint in Israel. You’d need to identify him first, do some of your own research on him and the border question in general, and then come up with questions for him, either from the center or the other point of view, or both. That might make these reports more than free PR messages from the state of Israel, which apparently, you’re paying for with bandwidth and your own time, the loss of a potentially important viewer base, and any credibility you may have built up with your NY-focused work.
Wow! I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve read all the comments and saw that some people do see the light! There are people who are outraged at RB because they are one-sided? Anyone watch ABC, NBC, etc… on a daily basis? Where is the outrage there? It is high time Israel got a fair shot and that the reality within Israel was presented just like it is. They saw it, put it on film, and showed it to us. Is that one-sided? Debatable.
So Rocketboom, you really want to know what I think? I think you did a good job and even though my heart was filled with sorrow at what I saw, I was grateful I was given the chance to see it.
& now for something completely…the same!
http://www.ucpahi.org/duckie.htm
btw, I\’ll be in St. Paul on Saturday, yep, I\’m venturing to the mainland for a dose of reality, yikes! please have the RB limo waiting. (I\’ll be the one wearing the lei & grass skirt) I wanna see the Mall of America, that should be a good dose, any Boomers like to join me?
later people
It bothers me that some of the people that comment here turn things into a political debate when that was never the intention (I hope). It not only happened this week but I’ve seen it happen before, for example, the Oklahoma City bombing memorial. In that episode it turned into a discussion about Iraq and I still don’t know how that happened.
What I’m going to start doing is simply ignore the people who insist on talking politics when that is not the topic of discussion. I suggest that others don’t take the bait either.
sounds like good old isolationist advice to me!
The reports from Israel this week were refreshing. Israelis are people just as Palestinians are people. Too much of the commentary from the elitist left-leaning media here in Canada would have us conclude that Israelis are somehow subhuman, or perhaps evil by definition. Thanks, Rocketboom, for offering us a little balance.
Why didn’t we hear anything about the conference?
The Israel-Palestinian story is old. It has been heard for over 60 years. I’m amazed that so many people here don’t understand what is happening in the middle east. There is nothing left to tell. There is no movement on these issues. Change will only come when people on both sides of that struggle realize no one really cares about them anymore — that they (and their violent tendencies) are irrelevant to the rest of the planet — STOP GIVING THESE PEOPLE AND THEIR ACTIONS OXYGEN.
The idea that somehow news coverage from the middle east is one-sided and anti-Israel is ludicrous — you’re only hearing one side if that’s all you want to hear — Israel insecurity about what the rest of the world thinks of their actions not withstanding. (Gee, you would figure that with the full force of the US allied with them, the Israelis would feel better….)
Again, I thought the last three episodes were stupid — a person who doesn’t know that Israel faces rocket attacks and suicide bombings or that the IDF routinely bulldozes homes of families with suicide bombers and is building a wall to stop this is a stoner listening to Britney Spears and getting his/her news from the Cartoon Network…And frankly, if you were that ignorant of this situation before you saw the last three episodes, you need to rethink where you get your information from.
This — the middle east — is an old, old story.
What happened (besides the tours) at the conference? What is the impact of blogging on other media in the region? What are the challenges bloggers face there? Why was that not mentioned?
You aren’t journalists. I’ve just come back from a seminar with BBC staff and they are quite rightly obsessed with journalistic integrity and presenting a balanced view.
From Rocketboom I want a view of the world through Drew and Joanne’s eyes. If you find something interesting, then I probably will too.
Don’t try and be old media.
Love the show!
Dene wrote : “You aren’t journalists. I’ve just come back from a seminar with BBC staff and they are quite rightly obsessed with journalistic integrity and presenting a balanced view.”
Oh really Steve, BBC journalistic integrity. I think the Queen thinks otherwise.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1274866,00.html
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4964088.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/newscomment.html?in_article_id=468097&in_page_id=1787
Yes - I saw that; had a good chuckle as I expect Bess did.
On the whole I love the Beeb though. It’s a public trust bound by a public service charter and the most stringent impartiality requirements. I pay my licence fee; I own it like everyone else. It’s open to public scrutiny; the director-general is accountable to Parliament. It has more journalists in more places around the world than anyone else (nurturing talent like our Joanne). But mostly, I grew up with Auntie and I love her. Plus she’s not owned by Rupert Murdoch, Time-Warner or any other corporate. She’s an institution. *cue fanfare* *cue fluttering union jack backdrop*
“FIGMO or OMGIF?” http://WWW.ILOVEPOETRY.COM/VIEWPOEM.ASP?ID=92804
So interesting. I like the thread of discussion on what a vlog should be. Although I supported RB’s “unframed” sharing of what they heard and saw on their tours, I appreciate the comments from Old Man and others regarding the value of framing and giving context. And I do understand that any material presented is always necessarily being “framed” for us by the editor. I agree with Gentleman that even an unframed vlog of the tour would have benefited greatly from identifying who was speaking (the tour guide).
I guess I’m in the minority in thinking that it works to present things without including framing or narration. To me, such pieces are always obviously contained in huge quotation marks and place great responsibility on the viewer to think critically – to NOT be innocent. But others are saying that the vloggers should take on more responsibility – either interpretive or “balancing” – themselves. I’m wondering now if perhaps with a larger and broader audience maybe it just won’t work to leave things unframed. Maybe it is TOO risky, in a way.
I think this is a really interesting issue though. If RB had narrated and given a point of view, or attempted to balance the material, would we have approached the material with more innocence (trusting RB’s interpretation) or less (thanking RB for giving us a starting point into our own interpretation)? In spite of the responsibilities of bloggers and vloggers that people have pointed out above, I do think audiences need to step up and acknowledge our role in creating meaning.
Erinne, I like this \”responsibility\” thing. One needs to work hard to stay \”awake\” though! For the record, that point about RB giving us more info about the tour and the guide was from \”Jeremy\”; not mine. I just agreed. I agree with YOU … we, the viewers need to step up a bit more often!
G-man
Be a gentleman\’s Gentleman and don\’t play with my nic –
B-Man™
Things that make you go Hmmmm…
…It\’s THAT important to you ?? Is any other letter of the alphabet acceptable, or is it the hyphen you own? Would an underscore be different enough? Hmmmm.
gee_man!
Gotta run, but here\’s an idea for you, how about
Gentle Giant
seems to fit your personna, and it\’s got a ring to it!
..and yes, my nic does mean something, it\’s been my personna here since RB began
Hmmm.
You\’re something else.
I\’m quite glad you restrained yourself today though.
~gman
I’ve commented enough already I think but basically RB is fine. You can say what you like; it’s your vlog. Just be upfront about it and make it clear and remove any pretence that you’re vetting your pieces by journalistic standards. The way the standard disclosure is wheeled out only in reaction to criticism is not the best way to deal with it; if you’re not ashamed of the fact just be frank about it from the off. Or does that throw up issues about what RB actually aspires to be?
The comments thing worries me when it gets out of control.
The best thing that marks RB out from other media? Your engagement with your audience. Just like this. That is why you are ‘new’ media. And it’s brilliant.
So nothing’s wrong with RB as such - you’re still the same. It’s just not noticeable most of the time when you tackle the light-hearted. Just be honest about what you are - then people don’t get surprised when you tackle a standpoint piece. Having said that though, I do think these pieces fell below the standard of your other excellent (phenomenally so) field reporters. I think its because you added nothing of your own - I would actually have been interested to hear you opinion but you simply relayed what some guy undoubtedly parrots off several times a day. If that’s your view say so, if it isn’t then why are you showing it?
And for the record, I would have been quite interested to hear something about that conference. Can’t be that boring can it? Or maybe it was. Hope it was good fun anyway.
B-man - great duck. Mike D - props to you; amused me greatly.
Excellent week of web casts. A view hidden by the political ambitions and limitations of our government and need to protect the special interests who profit from the areas resources.
Good job Jo Ann!
First off, I really agree with “a certain JP”
I also feel there are few answers in the Israel/Palestine area.
One of the few is that hyper-ethnocentrism & racism, from any side, truly fucking sucks.
In 1948, Truman, et al basically gave 100% of the land to 40% of the indigenous population, disenfranchising, displacing, robbing & killing not a few people, bolshevik-style in the shuffle.
That being said, suicide bombers targeting civilians are not a solution & neither is terrorism. Wired just put out a great opinion piece on this (correspondent inference theory): http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2007/07/securitymatters_0712
I feel like the only solution will come is when all the old people are dead and some sort of land and cash reparations can be paid to the children of people the Israelis displaced and etc.
-Though it’s almost criminal not to do both sides on the Israel/Palestine thing even if you don’t want to become war correspondents. Otherwise, you see what they want you to see and you just end up being someone’s political tool.
“Triple” by Ken Follett is a great suspense book that has a bit of Is/Pal wrapped up in it.
^ Notwithstanding, Israel is not my thing, I’m sick of hearing that stripe of frequently arrogant people Perpetually Whining About Everything (?thanks for saving our asses in WWII-anyone?), and I ended up watching less than a 15 second preview all week before bailing.
–
I too agree RB has a Very challenging schedule. -AND because of that, multi-sided reporting may be quite difficult to execute, even if it’s not in the style of Tom Brokaw.
And at times, “the boom†does come off as a Vapid Farce appealing to blue-balled jingoist fanboys.
Also, the perpetual “Ruud Elmendorp Wednesdays” (that I couldn’t care 8 bits less about) and Casual Fridays mean only 3 real RB shows per week.
-Understood that (like any good girlfriend) you have to mix it up a bit, but if I hear 1 more goddamned Dutch-tinged development piece on a Wednesday, I swear I will crap out a Mombasa.
Otherwise, RB doesn’t suck, it’s occasionally funny & smart. -But (keep) try(ing) to find a (new?) balance, esp. with the pseudo-journalism.
Hiding in the vagaries of perceptivist-relativism & supernova-size clouds of subatomic bullshit is laziness. Pick something & Be it, instead of the perpetual “Only you can decideâ€-crap.
It’s like a girl who only knows how to say “maybe†instead of “yes†or “noâ€.
-And Stop Answering Every Question With a Question! That’s not right! We know where that leads. -You only end up debating the meaning of the word “Isâ€.
Oh well, whatevs.
Your true colours showed!
\”I’m sick of hearing that stripe of frequently arrogant people Perpetually Whining About Everything (?thanks for saving our asses in WWII-anyone?)\” - just who are they if not the jews?
I would address your concerns about Truman actually not giving anything to anyone - there was a war and one side won against 5 other armies, while the other went under Jordanian and Egyptian occupation against which no one spoke a word until after Israel took over - but your racism precludes any semblance of logic.
I also think that for 60% of the time, “Sex Panther” works 100% of the time. :)
Now THIS is Rocketboom!!!!!!!!
ECLECTIC comments!!
G-man ;^)
What do I think? H-m-m-m…
Think = what I usually do after I watch RB.
Thank = what we should all do for the RB team’s efforts!
Thunk = the sound of a dud Qassam rocket.
Wow — I was stunned by the shows, and even more stunned by the comments. RB always, always presents a lunatic fringe left wing side of things, even when it is trying to portray something neutral. To see an arguably right of center view on RB is totally disorienting.
By the way, when on earth are you going to fix your website? All the formats contain links to comments, but if you actually want to see the comments you gotta go to the quicktime site and suffer through the unending download.
I suppose I shouldn’t bother with the comments anyway. The only reason I watch is because I have a crush on Joanne.
Actually, dssl, if you click ’stop’ on your browser while the video is downloading, it will stop the download. Hope this helps. (it will also save their bandwidth)
Also, I find it hard to believe RB could be considered ‘lunatic fringe’ in any manner. ‘Left leaning’ I could perhaps understand, but certainly not radical or extreme in the least. But I suppose it’s all in one’s perception of things.
You know what the best thing that came out of this entire week?
It was the fact that all you RBers came out of the woodwork and finally commented. I\’ve invited others to join in on comments board on several occasions without much success. If you like RB, the comments section is an important and contributive part of the sense of community.
I noticed there is chat room now. I haven\’t visited yet as I only know 3 or 4 regulars from their posts, so if more of you continue to post on a regular
or once-in-a-while basis, then the chat room could become a cool hangout for
times when you just want to hang out.
Another reason I dare not step into the chat room is I spend an extraordinary amount of time (way too much really) finding fun B-links to post. So maybe one day I\’ll have the time or urge to chat. Too bad we needed a tornado (Mike Dixon) and a venom slugfest to get you here…but as the saying goes: Out of the darkness, comes light. Out of the bad, goodness appears.
I hope all of you will continue to post, even on wacky days. As the regulars know, those are my favorite episodes. Right Drew. Joanne! Hope you guys have a tan.
b
it was a “tour” and was therefore packaged in a way to show only one side. RESPONSIBLE journalism is not allowing yourself to be co-opted. You should have gone to Gaza and the West Bank, and watch as Palestinians throw rocks against tanks, gases and guns.