Owlspotting

We’ve been going out a little more than six month and it’s time I looked back on our relationship. I still don’t know if IT is a SHE or a HE, but it’s not important in the long run — that is if we’re going to be in it for the long run.

In August The Washington Post started dropping daily on my eight floor doorstep promptly after 5:00 AM. It’s helped me build a routine of getting out of bed, opening the door, picking up the paper then carry it into the bathroom, dehydrate and scan headlines at the same time. Then, coffee in hand I drop on the couch and start reading.

The Post is smaller in size than the New York Times and it’s front page is easier to navigate. I was never subscribed to the Times, but I used to pick up a free copy everyday while I in college. Although I enjoyed it tremendously, the relationship was never as close and I believe that’s because I never paid for it. The Washington Post drops on my doorstep because I pay for it. That builds a different kind of relationship between us.

Jay Rosen, the prominent media, has argued the Washington Post is currently better than the Times. I have echoed that sentiment on few occasions, while on others I wondered whether subscribing to the Washington Times would be that much different.

Below are some memories — the random, the bad, and the awesome — of my six months with the Post, in no particular order.

The random:
– I don’t have opinions about the classifieds section or the car page except to say they make for great onion cutting boards and cooking oil-absorbers.

– The WashPost delivery person needs to work on the “THUMP” sound. Even the Saturday edition , which includes all the Sunday freebies, drops lightly. I can barely figure out it arrived. When the Sunday New York Times, to which we also subscribe, drops on the door step, it has authority and makes more noise than Chris Wallace.

– It’s been very hard to “baptize” this paper. We call the Times, “The Slimes,” but we haven’t found anything good for the Post. The Host? The Washington Most? The WC (instead of WP)? Ideas?

The bad:
– The Post sometimes displays the political cynicism that is a staple of big media organizations. Some political initiatives seem to be buried in the paper and dismissed without any analysis and at times political figures on both the left and the right look more like caricatures than real people.

– The same goes for master narratives, which are essential for politicos in the nation’s capital. Once Bush’s ratings begin falling that’ll be the story go run with. Once Gore is labeled a liar, it’ll be the reference point in any story from then on.

– It’s always disappointing to see such a big paper retreat into the comfort of “he said, she said” reporting without providing the crutch a reader could use to understand the truth about these facts. One of my favorite two examples (both of which I regard as metaphors for larger omissions) is a December news story that lead with President Bush’s estimate of the number of civilians killed in Iraq. Is the president really the best source for that information? The other is a debate over whether demonstrations have ever been held in the Capitol pool. The Post fails to offer the facts when confronted with a debate — one side says no protests were ever held there and another says that is not true.

– Related to the above — in a recent chat with readers, John Harris, the national political editor, said: “It is a very common criticism that journalistic conventions about objectivity and fairness require us to put truth and falsehood on an equal plane. (…) We should state the facts and truth as plainly as we can report it, not take refuge behind “he said/she said.” Is it raining, or not? But it is also true that we in the press are not a High Court of Truth.” It could be that Harris is right and the press is not a High Court of Truth. But a paper like the Washington Post certainly has more resources to devote to getting the truth, even if that doesn’t happen on the first story. I read that comment as dismissive of the idea that the press could get to the truth. Maybe that’s just the purist in me.

– The Post sometimes doesn’t offer the context of a particular report — like it did when Ira Glass spoke.

– I continue to believe the Post mishandled the Bob Woodward story (his involvement in the Valerie Plame case). I was especially saddened by Downie’s reaction in which I read that Woodward’s primary responsibility is to the editors. I always believed a journalist’s primary responsibility is to his or her readers.

– The Sunday magazine. It’s bad. And next to the Times’ Sunday magazine, it’s really really bad. I told this to a Post staffer once and he sheepishly agreed. Again, with the talent of their staff and the resources of the paper, can’t they produce something more exciting? I have read less than five magazine cover stories in six months. That’s about one out of every six. It’s more like one out of two with the Times.

– I have saved an issue of Wednesday’s Food section that had many many cookie recipes.Of course we haven’t gotten around to trying any of them. Why were there no actual cookies to go with the section? That would have satisfied my cravings.

The awesome:
– I’ll start with the paper’s website, which has been doing some great things since bringing in competent programmers with a journalistic mind like Adrian Holovaty. Check out the Campaign 2006 section or the photo and video galleries, not to mention all its blogs and live chats with editors and reporters. I also believe the Post was right when it shut its blog after it was peppered with crap. Jim Brady had a great explanation of that incident. Oh, and have you seen the votes database?

– Dana Milbank and his Washington sketches. Enough said.

– It’s on top of most happenings around the world. After an hour with the Washington Post every morning I feel I am prepared enough to walk to work and discuss the issues of the day — even if that’s an analysis of how the Redskins can suck and kick ass at the same time.

– The Post has some incredible series that are great not only because of their content, but because they give you a serendipitous feeling when you pick up the paper. You were not expecting this story and, as you read it, you can’t help feeling happy that the paper provided it. The best example — and the one I saved — was David Finkel piece on exporting democracy to Yemen.

– More than once the paper printed a story that made my day. There was the Style section piece on white tees, Anne Hull’s post-Katrina story on the Domino the sugar factory or the delicious story about immigrants and dishwashers — read my comments on the matter here.

– It breaks big stories such as the secret prisons revelation by Dana Priest and is great at raising the bar on stories other papers break (ahem, The Times NSA spying program piece).

– It’s always on my doorstep, punctual and clean.

– Howard Kurtz is a very good media critic and remains awesome despite Wikipedia’s claim that he has a tiny penis.

– It writes about or mentions my home country enough for me not to complain (1, 2).

– It gives me idea for stories, such as this one.

For all the bad, there is twice as much awesome. The awesomeness is hard to quantify, but it’s enough to say I love picking up the paper every morning. For every story I cringe at there will be two I am pleased with and maybe one that I will reference for the next couple of days.

There is always room to make it better and the Post probably doesn’t need me to make a list. For now I’m a devoted reader and like to critique it as a reader more than a journalist.

The conclusion, if there needs to be one, is that we’ve had a great run together for these past six months. I have no plan to break up with my paper yet.

Here we are as Simpsons. You can make make yourself into a Simpson, too. Go here.

I just realized a few days ago that I have not provided any update on my search for Coca-Cola C2 (or Coke C2). (1, 2).

The last time I tackled the subject, I was convinced C2 was being pulled off the market. A month after posting that my friend Sara, whom I was visiting in Florida, welcomed with a dozen cans of C2, which she said at the time she had no trouble finding.

I was happy and suddenly thirsty. I drank as much as many of them as I could (I had to leave a couple in the hotel) and took two back to Washington to have as reminders of a lost era (they are the cans in the picture above).

I still haven’t seen C2 in Washington and I don’t know is Sara can still find it in Florida. All I know is that the speculations have now gone “mainstream” as the Wikipedia entry for C2 speculates that its future is uncertain.

And here is this omnious graph from a November story on diet sodas in Marketing Week (scroll far enough down on this site and you’ll find it).

“C2 was launched less than a month after Pepsi announced the debut of mid-calorie Pepsi Edge in March 2004. Neither sold well, as marketers, who had found it easy to market regular and diet versions of drinks to specific consumers, struggled to repeat the trick with a third tier of “mid-calorie colas”. Pepsi announced in May 2005 that it will discontinue Pepsi Edge next year. Coca-Cola is persevering with C2, though its 1.2 per cent share of the diet market is disappointing.”

There are some good news (signs of hope) too. I found a blogger who says he found C2 a couple weeks back, bought three 12-packs and did a happy dance (can’t figure out which city this happened in).

It may well be that the beverage will go extinct in the United States, but flourish in other parts of the world. All I know is that my fridge is not stocked with this weird drink anymore. And sometimes — not often — that makes me kind of sad.

Technorati tag: Cola

A great story in New York Magazine by Clive Thompson proves that blogs, which at heart seem to be the ultimate meritocracy, are plagued by the same inequalities as any other media (or whatever other industry you can think of).

The story talks about how a blogging elite has already been established and, in turn, it has created an A-list of bloggers. No matter how hard newcomers work, they’ll get stuck being B and C list names. This is not a conspiracy or a failure of the blogging world, it’s plain and simple social physics, the article says:

“The A-list is teensy, the B-list is bigger, and the C-list is simply massive. In the blogosphere, the biggest audiences — and the advertising revenue they bring — go to a small, elite few. Most bloggers toil in total obscurity.”

Read the full story here.

Raluca convinced me I should participate in this chain letter-like experiment. Others in this chain mentioned tagging, but as long as none of the recent people filling this out actually seemed to join Tagged, I’ll just stick with the chain letter reference.

What were you doing 10 years ago?
I was coming out of some dark times of skipping high school, avoiding expulsion, falsifying doctor’s notes and lying to my family about it. Just a little before all of this came to a head, I had my first kiss (just a few days before actually).

What were you doing 1 year ago?
I was embarking on my most ambitious reporting project yet and working on my master’s project.

Five snacks I enjoy:
1) Bananas
2) Oatmeal raisin cookies
3) White chocolate
4) Brownies
5) Skittles

Four movies I really like:
I like movies way too much to rank them or single out a handful. Four that I’ve seen recently and liked: Cache, Match Point, Broken Flowers & Me and You and Everyone We Know.

Four TV shows I love:
Sex and the City
Six Feet Under
The Daily Show
WWE Raw

Four places I’Â’ve lived:
Bucharest, Romania
Columbia, MO
New York, NY
Washington, DC

Five bad habits:
1) I plan everything
2) I really plan everything
3) Addicted to e-mail
4) Get over-excited about meaningless things
5) Get depressed when the house gets messy

Five things I like doing:
1) Writing
2) Reading my daily newspapers
3) Analyzing the state of the media
4) Playing soccer
5) More analyzing the state of the media

Four places I would rather be right now:
1) Home.
2) Next to my mother.
3) Any place I haven’t yet been to.
4) Actually, my place is just cosy enough.

Five sites I visit daily:
RocketBoom
New York Times
Washington Post
Slate
This one.

Bloggers I’m tagging (a few will do):
Sara
Ben
Elle
Crystal K.

Razvan Amariei, a correspondent for Transitions Online in Romania, offers a wonderful and blunt portrait of the Romanian reaction to the news that the American soldier who killed a Romanian singer will go unpunished.

The story, “Friendship and Immunity” tackles the fine line the US must walk when dealing with an ally in times of war. While Romania supports the US campaign in Iraq with troops (and to an extent also supports America’s larger war on terrorism) it won’t stand by and watch its citizens be humiliated.

I particularly enjoyed the historical context Amariei offers at the end — Romania and America have had a love-hate relantionship for a decades and its important to view this latest episode through that prism.

This analysis can lead one either to conclude that an America in need of allies (and airforce bases close to the Middle East) will find a way to punish Christopher VanGoethem or that Romanians fed up with legalistic hypocrisy will enter a phase in which they’ll love Europe a little more.

In toamna lui 2004 eram intr-un curs de etica la University of Missouri si citeam “Lying” (de Sissela Bok) o carte excelenta despre prevalenta minciunilor de toate culorile in societatea contemporana. Printre randuri autoarea sugera ca minciuna — sau impopotonarea faptelor reale — a devenit o practica acceptabila din punct de vedere social.

Ideea autoarei nu era o banalitate de genul, “vai, mi-am dat seama ca exista oameni necinstiti in lumea asta”, ci mai degraba o sugestie de a analiza relatia oamenilor fata de conceptul de adevar, fata de fapte si intamplari verificabile si asa mai departe. Pentru un jurnalist, o discutie pe aceasta tema poate fi o experienta foarte intensa.

Atat de intensa incat m-a urmarit luni de zile, timp in care am tot mestecat moduri in care pot transforma idea unei lumi libere de constrangerile adevarului intr-un articol jurnalistic. Pana la urma am facut-o luna trecuta cand am scris un articol pentru Dilema Veche intitulat: “Bullshit: cand America o rupe cu realitatea.”

Am sa reproduc mai jos doar trei paragrafe (din motive de drepturi de autor pe care le detine Dilema). Ca sa cititi articolul in intregime, apasati aici.

(…) Am invatat in cei citiva ani de stat in America ca nu conteaza daca spui sau nu adevarul. Alcoolismul, dependenta si puscaria or sa-mi aduca un contract gras de drepturi de autor si vinzari de milioane de dolari. Figura a functionat minunat pentru James Frey, un autor american al carui volum autobiografic Un milion de bucatele, o cronica a tineretii “lui” infuzate cu vicii, violenta si droguri de toate culorile, s-a vindut in peste 3,5 milioane de exemplare. Cartea a fost comercializata ca volum memorialistic si abunda de momente scabroase, pe care autorul si le-a amintit cu o precizie posibila doar dupa o astfel de viata.

Pacat ca, dupa mai mult de un an, in topul celor mai bine vindute carti de non-fictiune, viata de rebel a lui Frey s-a dovedit a fi o minciuna. The Smoking Gun, o publicatie online preocupata de procesele-verbale ale starurilor care s-au intilnit cu legea, a luat seria de fapte groaznice, pe care le-ar fi comis Frey, si a pornit sa le cerceteze. A reiesit ca Frey s-a inventat ca personaj intr-un accident de tren care a omorit doua tinere (niciunde in documentele oficiale nu se vorbeste despre el), si a exagerat numarul de arestari si motivele arestarilor (nu a consumat cocaina si nu a atacat un politist, ci a condus pilit) si asa mai departe. Atit Frey, cit si editura care l-a publicat, au dat din umeri; pentru ei cartea reflecta un adevar mai mare decit micile “adevaruri” dintre coperte.

De peste un an vreau sa scriu un articol despre “era postadevar” de care sufera America – si poate intreaga lume. Nu e vorba aici de adevarul metafizic sau postmodern, ci de nivelul de mijloc care poate fi documentat si care, indiferent de interpretarea pe care i-o dai, ramine la fel de tangibil. Un prost prins beat la volan cu o sticla de bere ieftina sub brat nu e un cocainoman prins cu o mustata de praf alb – din orice unghi l-ai privi.

Cititi restul articolului in Dilema Veche.

Update (Feb. 6): I found this story online on Saturday, Feb 4. It was planned for A1 on Sunday, but breaking news made the Post hold it. It eventually ran inside on Monday so my enthusiasm about Romania making the front page of Washington’s daily was not warranted.

If you are a second- or third-tier country, there are few things that will get you on the front page of the Washington Post or the New York Times.

War is always a popular choice. Bloody internal strife is also a winner. Even a horrific natural disaster will do — although it’s always better if it includes Americans and/or kills scores of rich white people.

But Sunday’s Washington Post required none of that. Romania is on the front page of the popular Washington daily solely for its unconditional love and support of America and the American military. The story is called “Romania Prepares to Greet the Yanks”

The news that gave the motherland such prominence is the opening of an air force base in Mihail Kogalniceanu, a popular topic of the Romanian media for some time now. Here’s the Post’s second graph:

U.S. soldiers have been the talk of this poor little town since last month when U.S. and Romanian officials announced that the Romanian air force base here would soon host the first permanent U.S. military presence in a former Warsaw Pact country. From the presidential palace in Bucharest, 130 miles west of here, to the humble little pig-and-chicken farms of this Black Sea hamlet, the announcement has been greeted with undisguised delight.

It would be easy to say the Washington Post does nothing but stereotype Romania (soviet satellite, pig-and-chicken farms, undisguised delight etc.) but the author was probably just happy to have something to describe.

Let’s not forget that the Washington Post is writing for an American audience and of course they will play up the fact that Romanians love Americans — hey, people need a good reason to read on Sundays! After all, that’s what the man heard from some of the locals “If the Americans come, they will give us a better life,” one woman said. Unlike Romanians, she added (see image below).

And if you are wondering why this “Americans are coming” (Vin americanii!) stereotype is still around, just listen to Romania’s president:

“The dramatic wish of Romanians at the end of the Second World War was to be occupied by the Americans and not by the Russians,” President Traian Basescu, a cheerful former oil tanker captain, said in an interview.

I am by no means offended. I always considered the “Americans need to conquer us” one of the most amusing cultural staples (handicaps?) of my country. There are commentaries written about Americans coming (like this one in Jurnalul National or this one in Gardianul). Type “vin americanii” into Google and you get over 2,000 hits.

“Vin americanii” is catch phrase that has been OURS for decades: from the Russian-flavored “sovrom” companies that sprung aup after WWII to to the pathetic afternoon mid-nineties when a fat and balding TV host asked the country to look towards the West and hope that NATO will open its arms (NATO eventually did, in 2002).

Now, “Vin Americanii” leads the Washington Post and Romania’s desire to become the 52nd state (James Fallows already snatched Iraq as the 51st three years ago) has been made official. Beginning on Sunday, the good people of Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland will add something to their repertoire. Tomorrow, when I introduce myself to an American, he or she will leave Nadia and Ceausescu aside for one moment and ask, voice glowing with pride: “Aren’t you glad we’re finally there?”

Damn straight!

Mihail Kogalniceanu will be for one day the one place in the world where anti-Americanism is not rampant. There is only love in MK, a site that just month ago made news as one of the potential “black sites,” where the American army sends war prisoners for torture.

As Elle says, a country that loves America should always stand up and say: “We’ll torture, so you don’t have to.” Or as president Basescu said about the air force base: “Sometimes the United States needs your support, and this is what we are doing.”

>>> Read the Washington Post story here.
>>> View a video of the story complete with shots of Mihail Kogalniceanu here.

PS: Nobody likes to have foreigners write about their country. Sometimes we don’t like it when our own kind writes about it either (I know how that feels — scroll for “Remember the good of your homeland” subhead). But that’s everyone. Just read this NY Times disembowling of Bernard-Henry Levy, a french man who travelled America and wrote a book.

E dificil sa scrii un articol comprehensiv despre bloguri — fie el rezumat la o arie geografica — pentru ca nu stii niciodata ce risti sa uiti pe dinafara. Nu poti scrie despre toate blogurile, nu poti scrie despre toti bloggeri, si chiar apuci sa vorbesti cu o duzina, tot va fi greu sa generalizezi.

De multe ori, o comunitate de bloggeri e limitata de circuitul inchis al linkurilor — fiecare trimite catre fiecare. De multe ori, bloggeri care merita cititi sunt greu de gasit pentru ca nu au intrat inca in zona “mainstream” a blogosferei (sunteti liber sa inlocuiti acest cuvant cu altceva).

Acest post de asemenea e limitat de raza de acoperire pe care o are acest blog sau blogurile care v-au trimis aici. Dar daca ati ajuns, hai sa va spun pe scurt povestea acestui post. Incerc prin el sa adun o gama variata de raspunsuri la cateva intrebari generale pe subiecul “blogul in Romania” pentru un articol pe care il scriu pentru revista Vivid. Pe langa aceasta initiativa voi purta conversatii mai pe indelete cu o serie de bloggeri si oameni care au observat fenomenul in Romania.

E posibil sa folosesc o parte din raspunsurile voastre in articol — mi-ar placea de asemenea daca ati lasa deschisa posibilitatea de a va contacta personal (eventual puneti un e-mail in coada comentariului.

Dar sa trecem la intrebari — puteti raspunde facand un comentariu:

1. Unde se afla blogosfera romaneasca in 2006 si ce urmeaza pentru fenomenul blog in Romania in viitorul apropiat?

2. Cine e bloggerul roman si cum foloseste spatiul blogului pe care il scrie?

3. Spune-mi cate ceva despre blogul tau si motivele pentru care l-ai creat.

The Tim Russert issue bothered me enough to try and say more about it than I did on this blog. So I wrote a commentary piece which was published on Poynter, that Florida-based haven of journalistic debates and tools.

The Poynter piece is here.

UPDATE:

It’s ironic, but here’s an article published today in the Hartford Courant that, unfortunately, enforces the point I made in the Poynter essay. The story is about a journalist turned entrepeneur who is donating $1 million to Yale to teach some journalism (some is the key, because the men believe a journalism degree would be a waste of time).

What the program will do is help students get a real world experience and make potential opportunities affordable. My favorite graph is below:

Philip Rucker, a senior and former editor at the Yale Daily News, approached Brill after the talk. He has landed summer internships at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans and The Washington Post, but he said he could have saved time job hunting with the kind of guidance the new program will offer. “Logistically, it’s so hard to get a foot in the door,” he said.