Mike Maney

Author: Mike

  • A Tribute to George Carlin

    Somebody get Reuters and its reporter, Martha Graybow, a Pulitzer. Heck, pull an old Nobel out of the closet and give it to them. They deserve it.

    This morning, I was reading a story written by Graybow about the U.S. courts rejecting the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) broadcast decency limits. Basically, they said the FCC was “arbitrary and capricious” in defining (for all of us) what it thought was indecent. Well, no kidding.

    But, unlike every other mainstream media outlet, Reuters had the cajones to include the verbatim words in dispute. In print. In a major media outlet. Against the wind of the puritan way most would’ve handled it.

    And it’s a good thing, too. Because you only have to read the Republican FCC Chairman’s reaction to see the Crisco-lined slope this is headed:

    Republican FCC Chairman Kevin Martin angrily retorted that he found it “hard to believe that the New York court would tell American families that ‘shit’ and ‘fuck’ are fine to say on broadcast television during the hours when children are most likely to be in the audience.”

    “If we can’t restrict the use (of the two obscenities) during prime time, Hollywood will be able to say anything they want, whenever they want,” Martin said in a statement.

    Kudos to Reuters and Graybow.

  • Folliculay, Folliculah

    I love science. Genetics saddled me with a bad case of follicle deforestation. Rather than comb-over, I shave the dome down to the skin. However, it now looks like there may be hope on the horizon:

    “Hair loss in humans might not be irreversible, suggest scientists who have helped create new hair cells on the skin of mice.”

    Of course, I’ll probably be 115 years old by the time any of this science will bless me with a full head of hair.

  • Don’t Tell Me He’s Not Running for President

    A very thoughtful, calm and reasoned excerpt from Al Gore’s new book, The Assault of Reason. Read it. The content is important and the writing is superb.

  • Old Media vs New Media: A kick in the derriere

    I’ll admit I’m no Einstein when it comes to math. Heck, I work with words for a living. Give me letters over numbers any day.

    Which means there’s a better-than-good chance that what I’m about to say has no basis in reality: Richard Parsons, the head of old media establishment Time Warner, is quoted this morning saying “The notion that the new kids on the block have taken over is a false notion.” He’s, of course, referring to Google and YouTube.

    I can’t decide whether this is a quote of desperation or one of denial. Heck, it’s probably a bit of both.

    The reality is that, for the most part, old media really is on life support. By old media, I mean those that haven’t adapted to the evolution their customers have made toward interactivity, openness and community. The old media need only look so far as Redmond and the losing battle Microsoft is waging against open source software to see how this plays out.

    Which brings me back to my remedial math skills. Could Google/YouTube just make this whole old media vs new media issue a moot point by going all Gordon Gecko on Parsons’s derrière?

    Old media turns combative against new media | Technology | Internet | Reuters

  • The 4 Most Powerful Blog Posts on the Web

    Every once in awhile you come across a post on a blog that stops you dead in your tracks. In all of my years monitoring the news and blogs for clients, four posts have had that power over me. Two of them are heartbreaking. One is a “Field of Dreams” tribute. And one I saw today is just plain brilliant.

    1. Put ABA Back in HB1224
    2. The Best Hour of My Day
    3. Dear Dad: Happy Father’s Day
    4. First Evening at Microsoft’s SAS: Aha!

  • Luddites Be Damned!

    There are those who think the pervasiveness of technology in our lives is a bad thing. There are others — a camp which I freely admit to falling into — who believe that being always-on, always-connected is a good thing.

    This really hit home for me today while I was walking through the Moscone Center in San Francisco where the JavaOne conference is being held. The organizers had set up a quasi lounge area, complete with a big screen to watch the conference keynotes, as well as the requisite multi-colored bean bag chairs. Nearly 90% of those sitting and watching the keynotes had their laptops open (Note: a *vast* majority of the laptops at the show were Powerbooks.). Some were catching up on work, some were blogging what they heard in the keynotes, others were surfing Web sites or catching up on personal e-mail.

    And since when is producing, learning or communicating such a bad thing?

  • R.I.P.: Tom Poston

    A sad day in comedy: Emmy-award-winning actor and Bob Newhart sidekick Tom Poston died.

  • Psych 101

    I have to think they saw this coming:

    Philadelphia authorities have closed at least 16 storefront fortune-tellers.

  • The Press Release: Time Not Well Spent

    The fine folks over at the Marketing Profs Daily blog have an informative post today listing six telltale signs a company’s press release is full of BS (or, as Opie & Anthony would phrase it, “Bravo Sierra.” Look it up in the Brady Bunch encyclopedia if you need to).

    The list is spot-on. Too often, companies waste enormous amounts of energy and budget spinning their wheels to get a press release onto PR Newswire or BusinessWire. The press release — whether in its traditional form or its Web 2.x form — is a lazy pro’s PR tactic (although I think the ideas behind the new media releases have some merit, not as releases, but for story support). Press releases don’t drive coverage. I’d go so far as to claim that they hinder it. The time spent in approvals and re-writes is time better spent on the phone or in conversation with the media (and, yes, I count bloggers and other new media influencers in this bucket).

    So, what’s a company to do once it realizes the ineffectiveness of its releases? Some ideas:

    • Build out the story beyond the “Company x announced today…”
    • Interview one of the people behind the news. Capture the interview and post it as a podcast or videocast. Offer that person up to reporters. Personalize the news.
    • Uncover customers and other third-parties that can talk to the impact your news has on your industry (afterall, your news does have impact, correct?).
    • Find something provocative in the issues your announcement addresses and write an equally provocative blog post or byline on it.

    I’m sure there are others. Feel free to chime in with yours in the comment section.

  • Must-See Photography: James Nachtwey

    I love photography. I’ve had a couple of images published (many, many years ago). I’ve had some that were good enough to frame and display on the walls of my home. And, despite being an eternal optimist, I know I will never be able to be the photographer James Nachtwey is. His images are haunting and powerful. So powerful is his work, that he was recently awarded a prestigious TED Prize. Well-deserved…and well worth taking time to soak in his photography.