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Posted on 03.11.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 1:37 pm
In my new role as the editorial director of Digital Society, I’ve been focused like a laser on high-speed Internet the past few weeks. The FCC will be releasing its national broadband plan in six days, so leaders of the commission have been making the rounds on the speaking circuit to promote pieces of the plan. The central message of the plan is that all Americans need broadband access — Commissioner Michael Copps this week even joined the chorus of people proclaiming it as a “right” — so the government must take steps to ensure that the poor, minorities, the elderly and, yes, rednecks in rural areas are enlightened by the Internet. The FCC is so committed to selling its plan that Chairman Julius Genachowski spoke to the Country Music Association’s board of directors at its meeting in Washington yesterday. Of course, country bumpkins are way too backward to understand the high-tech lingo of the FCC, so Genachowski’s staff translated his speech into “Nashvillese” that features country music titles:
Don’t you feel so much more enlightened about broadband now? Filed under: Entertainment and Government and Music and News & Politics and Redneck Humor and Redneck Music and Rednecks and Technology Comments: None |
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Posted on 02.19.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 9:47 am
Hot Air has the proof in picture. By sheer luck, we happened to be chatting with James Joyner of Outside the Beltway when FreedomWorks honored Ed Morrissey of Hot Air as its “Blogger of the Year.” My hot wife, Kimberly, is in the hot pink blouse in the right of the photo, and I’m the dude next to her having a really bad hair night. (I really need a haircut!) Kudos to my friend Ed for the much-deserved honor. He also will be honored as CPAC’s “Blogger of the Year” today. Ed was one of the first bloggers I met after starting Beltway Blogroll for National Journal in 2005, and he is among the most thoughtful and fair-minded bloggers on the Web. If you don’t already read Hot Air, now under new management, then you should. I blog there occasionally myself in Hot Air’s Greenroom. I just posted an entry there this morning in my new role as the editorial director of the free-market think tank Digital Society. The topic is the left’s spooky vision for media reform. Here’s an excerpt:
Read the whole thing, and stay tuned to Digital Society for analysis of technology policy and how it can help or hurt America’s burgeoning digital culture and commerce. Filed under: Blogging and Family and Government and Media and News & Politics and People and Technology Comments: None |
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Posted on 01.12.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 12:35 pm
The battle for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in Florida also has become a battle for the soul of the GOP. It pits grassroots conservatives who support underdog former state House Speaker Marco Rubio against establishment Republicans, including the campaign arm of Senate Republicans, who are backing “Republican in name only” Gov. Charlie Crist. One of those grassroots conservatives literally shared his two cents with the National Republican Senatorial Committee when it asked him for money. The picture of his protest is priceless: Michelle Malkin regularly posts images of such “rejected solicitations.” Political activists surely have protested in similar fashion for decades, but their messages are reaching broader audiences thanks to the Internet. Instead of one secretary seeing the protest and tossing it in the trash, thousands of readers are hearing stories that the intended recipients don’t want told. Hopefully the bad press will awaken organizations to the reality that they had better represent the interests of their donors. Filed under: News & Politics and People and Photography and Technology Comments: None |
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Posted on 01.04.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 5:35 pm
It’s time for a bit of self-promotion: “Danny Glover is the new editor of the Capitol Hill Tweet Watch Report.” That’s the big announcement in today’s edition of the aforementioned daily newsletter, which tracks all things policy and politics on Twitter for the Beltway crowd. My friend and new media maven David All launched Capitol Hill Tweet Watch Report last month, and I eagerly accepted his invitation to start the new year as its editor. Here’s a snippet from the blurb about my new gig:
While the publication is geared toward people inside the Beltway who don’t necessarily use Twitter themselves, it’s also a useful publication for anyone who wants to keep tabs on the policy and political news in the Twitterverse. If that includes you, please subscribe to the daily e-mail, follow @tweetwatch on Twitter, and spread the word about the publication. Filed under: Blogging and Government and Media and News & Politics and Technology Comments: None |
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Posted on 12.24.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 9:44 pm
Save for the name, I used the headline above back in April for a post about actress Janeane Garofalo, but sometimes simplicity, and redundancy, make a point. And Chris Needham of NBC Washington — like Garofalo and others who arrogantly trash rednecks and hillbillies and West Virginians and people in “flyover country” — is a bigot, plain and simple. Needham typically covers sports but apparently thought it would be a fun journalistic change of pace to cover a completely foreign topic, e-government in West Virginia, and in the process insult an entire group of people — my people. “West Virginia Discovers the Internet,” he mocked in the headline. He then derided the Mountain State as “our yokel neighbors to the West” and told lies about her people living in “tar-paper shacks,” lacking electricity and “pooping in the backyard.” (Note to Needham: The word “West” isn’t capitalized when it’s a directional reference rather than a reference to the states in the West. We yokels learned that in journalism school at West Virginia University.) NBC quickly yanked the article, but thankfully, West Virginia native (born and raised just a few miles from my home town, Paden City) and fellow journalist Jacque Jo Bland posted the screen capture linked above on her blog, Girl of Words, for posterity. She also smacked down Needham quite effectively, and considering that Bland and I followed similar paths to where we are today, all I have to say is, “What she said!”:
Filed under: Culture and Hatin' On Rednecks and Media and People and Technology and West Virginia Comments: 2 Comments |
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Posted on 12.16.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 9:02 pm
I almost had my wife take me to the emergency room for fear of a heart attack, but the pain suddenly stopped after about three minutes. I decided to wait a day and call my cardiologist’s office for an opinion on what to do next. The nurse practitioner, who only a few weeks earlier had given me a thumbs-up at my annual check-up, didn’t seem worried because I didn’t have any shortness of breath or other symptoms, but she scheduled a precautionary nuclear stress test today. I had a stress test once before, so I was surprised to learn I couldn’t eat anything after midnight the night before. When I got to the office, I learned why — a nuclear stress test is different from the standard treadmill stress test. The doctor’s aide shot radioactive blood into my veins, which then traveled to my heart so they could get pictures of it. After the first set of pictures, I had to run on the treadmill until I felt like I was going to collapse (it didn’t take long for an out-of-shape, work-at-home journalist). Then I got to eat a snack before one more round of radioactive photography. That brings me to the Oreos I mentioned in the headline. When I returned to the waiting room to get the aforementioned snack, I was surprised to see snack-sized packages of Oreos as an option. I woke up Sunday morning thinking I was having a heart attack, and three days later, my cardiologist offered me fat- and sugar-laden cookies as a snack. Tell me how that makes sense. I ate Cheez-Its instead. They aren’t much healthier, but it just felt wrong to this enlightened redneck to eat Oreos at a heart-checking station. As for my heart, the aging kicker appears to be in good shape. I’ll have a follow-up appointment with my cardiologist next week, but I was told a doctor would be reviewing my heart snapshots today, and if anything required immediate attention, I would get a call. I never did. Filed under: Family and Food and Technology Comments: None |
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Posted on 12.14.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 2:33 pm
I see images almost daily that wow me with their ability to tell a story in a snapshot. I’m especially fond of graphical satire — and I love it when people find ways to use an image created for one purpose to illustrate a story that makes a competing point. If pictures have that impact on me, I figure all of you other enlightened rednecks might appreciate them as well. That’s why I started the feature Photoshop Stop, but it has been a while since I’ve posted any content there. The drought ends today, with the image at your right. Filed under: News & Politics and Photoshop Stop and Technology Comments: None |
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Posted on 12.05.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 4:18 pm
Only an enlightened man would think something so profound rather than acting impulsively. But only a redneck billionaire would accept an invitation to appear on World Wrestling Entertainment’s RAW after deep thought about the opportunity. Cuban has been a guest character in WWE events before. His lifetime resume also includes his own short-lived reality show, “The Benefactor,” and an appearance on the reality show “Dancing With The Stars.” (Hat tip to Outside the Beltway) Filed under: Business and Entertainment and People and Rednecks and Sports and Technology Comments: None |
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Posted on 12.05.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 12:00 pm
Outrage and insights in a 140 characters or less (most of the time). This is a weekly recap of topics that capture my fancy. To get your fill of my rants on a daily basis, follow The Enlightened Redneck on Twitter. Much to the chagrin of many fellow conservatives, I supported Mike Huckabee for president in the 2008 Republican presidential primary. The news this week that he granted clemency to a man who years killed four police officers in Washington state, and Huckabee’s comments after the news broke, made me change my tune. I still like Huckabee, but I don’t believe he has the judgment to be president. Here is what I had to say about the matter over a series of tweets: “Mike Huckabee freed a man now suspected of killing four cops. He no longer looks as presidential to me. … Huckabee dodges responsibility, blames “Arkansas” (and Washington) for freeing a man suspected of kiing four cops. What a cowardly statement from Huckabee. I expected better of him. He made a huge mistake and should own up to it. … ” And here are some redneck rants on other topics:
Filed under: Entertainment and Government and Human Interest and Hunting & Guns and Media and News & Politics and People and Redneck Rants and Sports and Technology and Wildlife Comments: None |
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Posted on 12.04.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 12:59 am
Newsrooms all across America are celebrating this holiday season just like they did last year’s — by handing pink slips to loyal employees. Layoff news has become so common that it’s a wonder there is anyone left to report the actual news. Sadly, the people who run the media show still seem clueless about how they arrived at this depressing point in journalism history. Given every opportunity to embrace emerging technologies to improve the news product, they not only resisted change but scoffed at bloggers and others who led the way. Now they are firing the very people within their own organizations who could help them right the media ship. Here is one telling report from Chris Gray Faust, a long-time journalist who had the foresight to learn new skills but was still shown the door:
I’d like to think her story is the exception to the rule, but it’s not. Looking for places to cut, The New York Times is rethinking its commitment to blogs, which is strong evidence that the Old Gray Lady was never all that committed to them from the start. Why would a struggling news organization lay off the innovators best prepared to help them transition into a technological world they clearly don’t understand? Or as MediaJobsDaily put it, “We don’t know why you’d take resources away from online, in the year 2009, but that’s the report.” Faust at least appears to have learned her lesson. She’s going to invest her energy and talents in herself rather than a news industry determined to fail and destined to make more foolish mistakes, like running to the government for a bailout or implementing “business/news integration” that puts sales managers in charge of editors. “These freelancers-slash-entrepreneurs are smart. They are nimble,” Faust said. “And now they are my role models, as I join their ranks. So to the managers who made this decision, in less than 140 characters I tell you: Good luck steering the Titanic. And thanks for the head start. Now I’m really going to run.’” CORRECTION: As Faust noted in the comments, she’s a she. My apologies for the gender error, which I have fixed in the entry. Filed under: Advertising and Blogging and Business and Media and Technology Comments: 3 Comments |
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Posted on 12.03.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 11:40 pm
If my wife and I were getting married today rather than 15 years ago come Jan. 15, I would so do this: We had a wacky redneck wedding anyway, with our friends wearing animal noses and all, so updating our Facebook status before the kiss to seal the deal would have been great fun. Filed under: Culture and Family and Human Interest and Just For Laughs and Redneck Humor and Technology and Video Comments: None |
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Posted on 11.27.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 6:28 pm
You whipper-snappers who jog with iPods in tow don’t know squat when it comes to “cumbersome” technology, so let comedian Tim Hawkins enlighten you to life during the era of the Walkman and portable CD players: Filed under: Entertainment and Just For Laughs and Music and Technology and Video Comments: None |
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Posted on 11.16.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 2:27 pm
Soon after taking office, President Obama successfully pushed a stimulus plan through Congress in part based on the promise that it would “save or create” 3.5 million jobs. The nation’s unemployment rate (at 10.2 percent in October) has continued to climb since then, but the Obama administration has repeatedly insisted that the stimulus plan is working. Last month, the government issued a report that showed the plan has saved or created 650,000 jobs, putting it on target to fulfill Obama’s lofty promise. But news reports about the actual funding have exposed the report as a series of exaggerations and flat-out lies. Many of the “jobs” are nothing of the sort. The claims are so lame that a press corps partial to the president no longer can resist the urge to report the truth. The stories about stimulus lies across America are so numerous that the Washington Examiner had the brilliant idea of creating an interactive map to track all of the money and the stories behind them. The lies include claims of saving or creating:
The Examiner puts the total number of bogus job claims at more than 75,000. Click on the image below to see the map and the complete recap of lies at Examiner.com. [Cross-posted at Accuracy In Media] Filed under: Government and Media and News & Politics and Technology Comments: None |
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Posted on 11.14.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 1:11 am
I love technology. It can give us such amazing perspectives on our world that were never available in previous eras. This high-tech video re-enactment of Flight 1549 crash-landing safely into the Hudson River back in February is a perfect example: See more videos and snapshots here. Filed under: Human Interest and Technology and Video Comments: None |
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Posted on 11.05.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 9:05 pm
That is especially true of blogs like this one. Most of us bloggers post our copy online without a second glance, in part because of our rush to be first with the news and in part because copy editing can be a tedious chore. The end result is copy that often is grammatically incorrect, stylistically weak and plagued by typos. We bloggers need good copy editors — or we need to be our own copy editors. Alas, the way of the blog appears to be the way of print media in the information age, too. From Editors Weblog:
That commentary came at the end of a piece about copy errors so abundant in a Washington Post sports story that some readers demanded a full refund for the day’s paper. “There is no excuse for such a shoddy product,” one reader wrote. “It’s completely unprofessional.” Indeed it is. The Internet has helped improve the quality of reporting in many cases and certainly has added perspective to today’s journalism that has been sorely lacking in news outlets dominated by liberals. But at the same time the Web has hurt the quality of writing. Readers, many of whom long ago stopped caring about good grammar in their personal communications, want the news now and care less whether the copy is clean. And reporters, long a grammatically challenged bunch, are happy to deliver substance inside a flawed package. Reader, writer and publisher alike seem to have decided that because you can’t judge a book by its cover, it’s OK to just slap a crappy cover on the book. That’s a shame. Copy editors are the unsung heroes of America’s newsrooms. They are master craftsmen of the written word, and they have saved many a writer (including this one) from embarrassing moments. Copy editing is one aspect of old media that needs to be a carryover in this new media era. Filed under: Grammar and Media and Technology Comments: None |
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