ARTS & FARCES internet

Poynter’s Steve Outing covered the New York Times move to a hybrid paywall model in Editor & Publisher last week. I mostly agree with half of his analysis: it’s likely worth US$50 to access the Times’ archive (only from 1981 on) for some. But putting the columnists—Outing calls them the paper’s crown jewels—behind the paywall is a big mistake.

The Times is doing nothing short of abdicating it’s information authority.

Outing confirms his grasp of at least part of the information authority bit today in his E-Media Tidbits article, “NYT Op-ed Columnists Locked Down Tight”:

“I must say, it’s disturbing to see some of my favorite columnists vanish except for a single website. (I did purchase a TimesSelect subscription.) While I think that enough people will sign up for TimesSelect for the Times to make some decent money, I fear that the paper’s influence—led by its most known writers who have had worldwide reach—will wane.”

Let’s get the Hurricane Katrina evacuees all the aid they need as fast as we can and then let’s get to work on rebuilding our broken government. The hurricane’s aftermath is absolute proof that the small-minded, wrong-headed ideas of Grover Norquist, Newt Gingrich, George Bush, and their ilk have failed miserably. It’s time to drown those small-minded, wrong-headed ideas in Grover’s bathtub. It’s time for a New New Deal.

Google released its instant messaging client late last night, based on open standards, so everyone here has switched over all IM traffic to Google Talk.

The bad news is that it’s Windows-only for the time being.

The good news is that the Mac’s iChat is compatible (as are most Jabber clients).

Effective immediately, you can reach either Karen or myself via Google Talk at these addresses on Google’s Jabber server:

• mfraase at gmail dot com
• kfraase at gmail dot com

After laying dead at the side of the road for a full three years, there’s a glimmer of resurgence in the corporate national media—but just a glimmer. The function of a national media—both corporate and independent—is to focus the country’s attention on the main issues of the day. Untortunately, the independent media can serve as the canary in the cultural coal mine—pointing out the important trends and stories—but little more. It’s the corporate media that has to focus the nation’s attention with laser-like percision on the issues of the day. For three the independent media (disclosure: I’m an employee of a national independent magazine) has been serving their function, but the national corporate media have been asleep at the wheel, collectively dropping the editorial ball and looked the other way as it was kicked to the gutter.

Investigative journalism is hard and expensive. It’s going to be a while, if ever, before the blogosphere can support this kind of necessary endeavor. For the near term, at least, the national corporate media has to get back on its collective feet and get back in the game.

My neighbor, Sheryl Jean, has written an excellent investigative article for the Saint Paul Pioneer Press on the alleged improprieties of mortgage giant Ameriquest. Individual consumers are suing Ameriquest Mortgage Co., a subsidiary of ACC Capital Holdings, while the mortgage company is trying to cut settlement deals with the attorneys general or regulators in 30 states, including Minnesota. According to Jean’s report, Ameriquest set aside US$325 million late last month to settle outstanding investigations by the states. Meanwhile Minnesota customers are charging that Ameriquest “charged them exorbitant fees, failed to disclose loan terms and provide documents before closing, inflated home appraisals, forged documents, and used bait-and-switch sales tactics.”

My cynical side says the real estate bubble has finally popped when the corporate dailies are going after big mortgage companies like Ameriquest. My optimistic side says this is community journalism at its best and we need to do everything we can to encourage it.

Update: Sunday, 14 August 2005 04:45PM CDT: Add to this my pal Julio Ojeda-Zapata’s coverage of Verizon’s EV-DO rollout in the Twin Cities and the corporate media is clearly starting to feel its oats:

“But Verizon’s steep prices and tech headaches mean you must weigh your options carefully before committing to a wireless-data plan and the related hardware.”

Reporting on his trials of the highspeed wireless data service, Ojeda-Zapata writes that Verizon’s claims of 400Kbps - 700Kbps throughput is overstated by half:

“But in our trials on a newsroom laptop, we sometimes managed only 200 to 300 kilobits. Verizon said indoor use may mar performance. It added that our loaner card may have been partially incompatible with laptops other than the one it provided for testing.”