Freezing Out Fox

According to senior White House advisor David Axelrod, Fox News has been blurring the line between "news and anti-Obama advocacy." Now, the White House is giving Fox News the cold shoulder.

Fox News Sunday was left out of Obama's round of appearances to talk about health care. And things really got heated when the Treasury Department tried to exclude the network from a round of interviews with executive-pay czar Kenneth Feinberg.

Of course, all presidents have their favorite (and least favorite) news outlets. What's new this time is the White House's openness in attacking Fox's credibility as a legitimate news source. White House communications director Anita Dunn told CNN that Fox is "widely viewed as...part of the Republican Party," and urged the media and the public "not [to] pretend they're a news network the way CNN is."

Surprisingly, other news outlets have lept to Fox's defense. One criticism is that the White House complains about right-wing bias while ignoring (inviting?) liberal bias (Campbell Brown made this argument comparing Fox and MSNBC). News organizations have also criticized themselves for not being quick enough to follow up on stories that Fox had been covering aggressively, such as the Acorn scandal, so perhaps their vehemence towards the White White House now is a sort of mea culpa for that.

Come on.

The Acorn story? Yes. Legit. But the Obama birth certificate brouhaha? The Michelle and Barack fist bump as a "terrorist fist jab"? Glenn Beck's accusation that Obama is a racist with "a deep-seated hatred for white people"? The stink over the guy's middle name? I have to agree with Anita Dunn: Let's not pretend that Fox worries itself with presenting any sort of "Fair and Balanced" view of the president, his policy, or his personal life.

It seems to me that what the media are really reacting to is the audacity of any outside party trying to force a news outlet to behave in a certain way. But if that "certain way" of behavior is simply the expectation that you'll at least try to live up to your own motto, and dispense with the outrageous and unfounded rumors, is that such a bad thing? Since when are the media the only ones allowed to criticize bad behavior? I say, if Fox won't play fair, the White House is in the right to take its ball and go home. I guess Obama's the ball in that metaphor?

A lesson in Usability from The Onion

An amazing article from The Onion about older folks and the Internet. Reminds me of trying to teach my dad how to use Microsoft Word last time I was home...

Good thing to keep in mind in terms of usability when designing a Web site: Make it for this woman!

Getting Mom Onto Internet A Sisyphean Ordeal

JUNE 12, 2002 | ISSUE 38•22

ROCHESTER, MN—Karen Widmar, 33, who for the past two months has been trying to teach her 60-year-old mother how to use the Internet, called the endeavor "a Sisyphean ordeal" Monday.

"Jesus Christ, you have no idea," said Widmar after yet another unsuccessful lesson. "Every single thing I show her, no matter how simple, totally freaks her out. She's still afraid to click on pictures because she doesn't know where it's going to take her."

Widmar said she introduced her mother Lillian to the Internet at her request.

"It's funny, I was always trying to get her interested so I could e-mail her," Widmar said. "Then, one day, she called me up and said she was watching Today, and they had a guest on who made potatoes, and the recipe was online, and was that the same as the Internet? When I told her it was, she got really excited. Maybe I should've lied."

According to Widmar, the troubles began immediately.

"Trying to show her how to use the mouse took almost a week," Widmar said. "For some reason, she got it in her head that you had to hold the button down to make it move. Then, when I explained that the computer communicates over the telephone via her built-in modem, she kept asking where you hold the receiver. And she wouldn't stop calling the keyboard 'the typewriter.'"

Read more...

My Space

I am thrilled to announce that I now have my very own Web site. It's a little sad right now (actually, I was just watching the movie Shattered Glass and it looks a bit like the site Stephen Glass created to back up his phony computer hacker story), but it'll get better as I learn more html code and figure out Dreamweaver.

My hope is to eventually have an amazing online portfolio for my published clips, resume, and professional blog. I've been trolling the Internet for inspiration. Here are some of my faves:

Meranda Writes
Pamela Ferdinand Journalist
Steven Gray
Nick Trost
Rachel Youens: Multimedia Journalist

Obviously, these are all pretty design-y and out of my reach right now, but something to think about...