Letters to the Editor
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Excellante!
As much as I love the written word, for current events, being able to see and hear the Salon staff is great. Hopefully, this would be in addition to and not in lieu of their articles. Besides, I'm sure they've got lots of time on their hands ; )
Hopefully, you can make them longer.
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Josh Marshall and Ezra Klein
have started doing these too, and I find the home-video ambiance slightly painful. They just don't look like newscasters. Usually I would consider that a compliment, but there are just certain basics that aren't working for me here - like constant eye contact with the camera. I don't need slick, overproduced TV news - there's a big reason I don't have a TV at all and avoid TV on YouTube as much as possible - but I would like to feel like the anchor is as smart and grounded as their writing suggests they are, and instead they look shifty and nervous. Maybe somebody should start offering basic video newscasting workshops at Yearly Kos.
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Wonderful!!
Two great allies!
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Diane Feinstein and Chuck Schumer too cosy with the republicans
There needs to be a major grassroots movement to not only throw the republicans out of Congress but also demrepublicans like Diane Feinstein and Chuck Schumer. They more often than not have voted lockstep with the republicans. Now they are going to confirm Mukasey. Who says we don't torture in America when we have outsourced this repugnant practice to countries who don't have laws to prevent the abomination. What is happening to this country? Where is the opposition? Where are lawmakers of conscience? Why are we sitting back and allowing the Third Reich to flourish in the US? Is anyone listening?
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What's the attraction?
I don't get this move to have "video blogs" or whatever you want to call it. The New Republic and National Review jumped on the bandwagon, then Slate, and now Salon. It annoys me - I want to read in my own time, not have to sit and watch and wait. There are some things video is great for - covering live events (a Salon election night streaming broadcast would be great, for example), showing video of specific events, interviews, etc. Video is silly for news and commentary, however. All the video blogger is doing is essentially reading off what he/she would have written. Odds are pretty good that I can read faster than this person can speak, and since this person isn't a trained newscaster, he/she probably doesn't have that impressive of a delivery in any case. The way video is used in The Machinist, Broadsheet, and How the World Works is great - but this move strikes me as over-reaching.
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Congratulations...and a suggestion
The Salon/Current TV partnership seems like a natural fit. I look forward to watching it evolve. Now... do something about those production values! Start by giving your video bloggers decent microphones, and a short lesson in mic technique.
Good luck. I'll be watching. And listening.
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Pod formats
So are the Salon videos going to be unlike the Current pods? The latter are shot mostly in a news type format, while the latter (from this video) is a writer talking into the camera. I hope Salon switches formats.
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Typo
I meant to say: The latter are shot mostly in a news type format, while the former...
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Salon and Current TV a great combo!
I've been a Salon addict for several years now, and I just discovered Current TV as of a few days ago when I was looking into the Draft Gore movement. So it feels really synchronistic to read of the Salon/Current TV partnership this morning. Joan, you are on MSNBC a lot, and I appreciate the way you try to cut through any habitual lapses back into that famous habitual MSM pundit laziness. Invite Keith Olbermann to guest over here, too, and do some even-more-indepth commentary on the really deep scary stuff! :)
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Joan -- "This week a waterboarding simulation sponsored by Current TV was by far the most popular item on my blog..."
And it's no wonder! Look what we learned! In one post, Joan answered a concerned reader's question by actually admitting she would have let 3,000 Americans die on 9/11 rather than ruining a terrorist's day with the threat of drowning.
READER MIKES PACE ASKED HER: "What if we could have tortured one individual and uncovered the 9/11 plot? Do you (Joan) believe it is ethically permissible to torture one person to save the lives of over 3000?
JOAN'S RESPONSE:"(blah, blah, blah)...there is no scenario in which I'd say it's justified...(blah, blah, blah)"
So deep-thinking Joan would have lept to the defense of an Islamofacist terrorist and let 3,000 fellow Americans perish in the most vicious attack on American soil in our history. My God, I am SO glad I don't live in Joan's bizarre little cocoon.
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What's the Attraction, by Grad Student
100% agree. Not just because I have slow internet, and any film clip is painful, but, right, I want to READ on my own time... And the irritating "cute" accompanying music, no, no, no. More and more I feel I'm losing out when bits of my Salon and Slate go to video...
EXCEPTION - some video'd letters to the editor might be (briefly) fun...
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I have a feeling I'm in the minority, but...
No. Please, no. I don't want to watch videos in my news articles. I want to read. Didn't Salon use to be a literary magazine? Why are you moving toward becoming more like YouTube?
This is not what I want from Salon. I don't care what print journalists look like, and most print journalists go into that medium for a reason. Being able to write well doesn't mean that you can speak well, and the subject matter should always be more important than the writer in any case. I detest this apparent desire to make journalists celebrities, even in the virtual world.
How-to illustrations are fine, but I don't care what Stephanie Zacharek or Andrew O'Hehir or Rebecca Traister or even you look like, Joan. In fact, in an odd way, knowing what you look and sound like subtracts from your authority in my mind. I just want to read what you write.
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What's this country coming to??
why do Feinstein and Shumer fold like a house of cards??
just one more tyrannical Bush has wrought on this country.
the latest assault on this country's allegedly tri-equal system of government.
George, the AWOL from the Alabama National Guard, Jack Daniel drinkin' coke snortin' piece of crap.
there is a tumultuous occurrence on the horizon, the end of this civilization as we know it.
shades of the French Revolution keep reverberating, and if Bush is allowed to continue, this society may have to start all over again.